2 Mists of the Past Read Free Page B

had really rattled her.
    Smudge rubbed up against her leg as soon as the door closed and she bent to pat him. “I’m fine old fellow. Just a bit shaken up.” She headed upstairs, with her cat following her, and got changed out of her nice new dress and into her bathrobe. She was still jittery, still on edge.
    She went into the bathroom to scrub at her makeup. Staring at her reflection in the mirror she was alarmed at how pale she looked. Her green eyes were almost luminous and her dark hair stood stark against the white of her skin. She looked deeply into her own eyes and asked herself for the hundredth time why she saw these things when no one else did. Was it hereditary? Something passed down from her mother or her father? No. Grace didn’t have this issue. Darcy was the only one in her family blessed, or cursed, with it.
    Loud knocking brought her out of her reverie. She knew it would be Jon. She grimaced and shook her head. “Oh for Pete’s sake,” she muttered. She should have just faced him at the restaurant.
    She heard the door open and Jon called out, “Darcy? Darcy are you here?” She took a deep breath and went downstairs to find Jon hovering, very agitated.
    “Oh, thank God,” he said. She had expected him to yell at her or call her names or something. Instead she only heard concern in his voice. “I didn’t know what had happened to you. What’s wrong? Why did you leave the restaurant without telling me you were going?”
    She knew she’d have to lie to him. At least for now. “While I was in the bathroom I started to feel really sick. I was feeling so nauseous that I didn’t think, I just ran out and took a cab home.”
    She could tell that he didn’t completely believe her. “All right. Well, I hope you feel better soon. I wish you would have just come and got me. I would have brought you home, you know.” He tried to draw her into a hug but at the last moment Smudge jumped at him, growling. Jon quickly stepped back looking puzzled at the cat. Smudge had always gotten along well with him.
    But he was loyal to Darcy.
    “I guess he doesn’t want you to catch whatever I’ve got. It’s probably best not to get too close.” Darcy figured it was as good an explanation as any. She felt her fingers fiddling with her aunt’s ring, twirling it madly around and around, a mix of emotions burning a hole in the pit of her stomach. Jon’s eyes drifted downwards and he frowned a little. He knew what it meant when she fiddled with the ring.
    He didn’t speak for the longest time. And then when he did, there was a distance in his voice that she could hear. “I’ll call you in the morning to see how you are.” He gave her one last intense look, and then left without another word.
    After the door closed Darcy turned to Smudge and said, “Thank you. At least you and I understand each other.” He blinked at her as if to say, of course we do.
    She headed upstairs once again intending to go to bed. But after several minutes of tossing and turning she realized that she was too restless to go to sleep. She needed to figure out what her vision meant. She decided that she would go and find her sister, Grace.  Like Grace had said, she understood a lot more about Jon than Darcy did. Maybe there were answers there. She threw back the covers and got out of bed.
    ***
    Darcy raced to Grace’s house as quickly as she could. The good thing about living in Misty Hollow was that almost everything and everyone was within walking distance. Darcy didn’t even own a car. Of course, that meant that when you wanted to be somewhere right now, you had to wait until your feet got you there.
    When she finally made it to Grace’s apartment, she banged on the front door until it was opened by a sleepy Aaron wearing light blue pajamas.
    “Darcy. Is something wrong?” His voice was sluggish and disinterested as he rubbed his eyes. His brown hair was a tousled mess. She knew that he’d forgiven her for the whole thing about