As I Fade (One Breath at a Time: Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her tone turned serious. “You should be glad it wasn’t your name.”
    “ Huh?” I murmured. Where did that come from?
    “ See, Brielle , what you did years ago changed the lives of many little girls.” Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I knew what she was talking about.
    “ What?” I shook my head as chills tingled over my flesh. “How do you know my name? I never told you—and—”
    “ Sure you did. Don’t you remember?” She pushed up from the seat.
    “ No, I didn’t,” I protested firmly because if anything I knew I hadn’t told her my birth name. I wasn’t going to let her escape without a worthy explanation.
    She shrugged. “Hmmm, I thought you did. By the way, my name is Mary,” she said coyly, trying to change the subject. She reached out her hand to shake mine. Unwillingly, I offered her a lame handshake, only grazing the edge of her fingertips. A tinge of electricity entered into my body. “Did you feel that?” she asked and laughed. “Osmosis! Wow, we’re connected, huh?”
    “Osmosis???” I thought, blinking up at her. Was this woman cracked, or what? “I don’t know what’s going on here. To be honest I don’t think—” I paused.
    Mary stuck out her bottom lip and tilted her head, slightly. “I got the third eye,” she piped out, touching her index finger to the middle of her creased forehead. “I’m for real. Not one of those fakes who’ll make you pay big dollars for a bunch of nonsense. Real insight, valuable insight should be free. If someone really knows something worth telling they should tell it. I’ll tell you profound things for free,” she boasted, totally convinced by the definition of her words. She wagged her head from side to side, saying, “No, sir! Won’t see me charging good folks money for honest insight.”
    I sighed, pondering her words—her homeless, poor little old lady gambit seemed a little sketchy to me. Hell, I gifted her 50 euros and got nothing in return except an embarrassing moment. The only “valuable insight” she had given me was to not trust anyone. She’d just blurted out a bunch of obscure, convoluted bullshit that held no truth—proof—to back up her empty words. So what, she knew my name. Insight my ass!
    The train jerked. Her arms dramatically waved into the air, then grabbed onto the back of the seat, catching her balance. “Wheee...that was fun!” she said with a gleeful grin. “See, you should lighten up and have some fun, like me. Enjoy the ride!”
    Bullshit though it was, I couldn’t help myself; I wanted proof of her self-professed abilities. “Yeah...but Ma’am—wait, please, just a minute,” I stuttered, swallowing against the hoarseness in my throat. “What did you mean by what I did years ago changed many lives?”
    Her body stiffened for just a moment, but her jovial mien returned almost immediately. “Gods, to go,” she chortled. “I mean gots to go. Things to do, ya know.” She turned on her heels and exited into the connecting train so quickly it seemed she vanished right before my eyes. As if she had just... Faded!
    What the fuck was that all about?
    Flabbergasted, I sank into my seat, trying to make sense of what had just happened. My heart raced, my chest tightened and my eyes watered from the pain. I felt feverish, flushed and encased in ice all at once. The old woman, and how she knew my name, the newspaper article, none of it made sense. Surely it was all just a strange act of coincidence—the kind that sends you into a feverish delirium—and a crazy old lady who thought she possessed the Third Eye, she must have seen me somewhere before. That had to be the case. It was the only rational explanation my brain would accept for what had just happened. It was either that or the unthinkable: I—myself, was going nuts.
    Attempting to pull my thoughts together, I diverted my attention to my fingers. Yuck. They were ink-stained from the newspaper, and God only knew whatever else had been on it.