Bloodstone Heart Read Free Page B

pretty understandable, given your situation."
    "My situation?"
    "Your gift."
    "What gift?"
    "Reading people's thoughts."
    "What makes you think...how could you know?"
    "I knew the first time we met, when you touched me. I'm surprised you didn't know."
    "I... well... I knew something happened, but I didn't know what. So what are you saying? Do you have the same ability?"
    "Oh no, let's just say I have my own gift/curse." As she said this she raised one of her gloved hands, looked at it with remorse, then took another sip of her beer and looked at him with her big, beautiful blue eyes.
    "I definitely understand the 'gift/curse' thing. My parents had always told me what a great gift I had, but I hated it. I just wanted to be normal. If I could just control the volume, or mute it, I know I'd be happier."
    "It can be done, you know.   There are books on controlling what you let in and what you let out."
    "Really?"
    "Well, did you think you were the only person who ever had the ability?"
    "I don't know...I hadn't really...how do you know all this?"
    "I have a lot of free time to read. It's amazing what you can find in books or on the Internet.   You just have to know what you want to find."
    "I guess I was so busy trying to turn off the world around me, that it never dawned on me there might be others."
    "You're not alone, Josh. You never were. You can be as normal as you like, if you wish to be. It'll just take a little educating, and some practice. So…what's troubling you?"
    "Oh yeah. Well it happened the night I walked you home... I was passing this...wait a minute. You totally changed the subject as we were headed towards your gift/curse.   Are you going to tell me why I can't read you or your thoughts and why you always have gloves on?"
    "Maybe, but that's not why we are here.   I invited you here to talk about what was bothering you, not what my problems are."
    "Yeah...true...but well, if I knew you had some curse, maybe I'd be more comfortable about telling you about my bizarre encounter."
    "Maybe, maybe not. I don't like to think of it as a curse, per se, but I don't feel it to be a gift either. Unlike your ability, mine doesn't have a remedy. That being said, we are here because of you, Josh."
    "You're pretty good at talking in circles, or maybe I'm just out of practice," he said and Melanie laughed. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you that it's crazy."
    "I won't."
    Josh took a big breath and then let it out slowly and noisily. "The night I walked you home I came across an alleyway.   Something caught my eye and I took a couple steps into it. I heard the thoughts of something sinister in the alley under the cloak of the shadows.   It was looking for something or someone and was incredibly anxious and livid. As I had sensed him, he also sensed me. I'm pretty sure he was listening to my thoughts. I kept my head down in hopes that he wouldn't consider me a threat. I tried to back up and out of the alley when he was instantly in front of me.   In one fell swoop and with only one hand, he threw me hard against the brick wall.   As I tried to recover, he was there again and threw me in the air into a pallet at the back of the alley and it broke into pieces. He came towards me and, well, his eyes were bright red and glowing. He stepped into to a shaft of moonlight and I saw very sharp, very big fangs.
    "He lunged towards me in a sprint and I grabbed the first thing that my hand found on the ground and shoved it towards him, and I stabbed him in the chest.   His eyes changed from red to green and his fangs disappeared and then he disappeared in a puff of smoke and ash before my very eyes.
    "I ran most of the way home. I was freaked.   I didn't leave the house for days and barely slept at all. I kept hearing noises, and well, I was pretty jumpy, as you know.   Having used up everything in the house, I had to go and hit the store. I thought if I went by the alleyway in the daylight, maybe I would find something that