someone in your arms.
“I assumed you slept because you were in shock since I didn’t find any injuries, so I didn’t call a doctor.”
Adam waited three days for me to wake up. On the second day he washed off the blood when something peculiar caught his eye. Adam described waves of movement beneath my skin and to the touch it burned, so he rushed to get a wet cloth from the bathroom. He admitted that he was very close to taking me to the hospital and I didn’t blame him. But after hearing the full story, I was relieved he didn’t, or else I might be in some government lab in Virginia being studied like a science monkey.
Adam stepped out of the room for no more than twenty seconds. When he returned, my hair had changed from fire to coal. Over the course of twenty-four hours, he observed my body undergoing a gradual transformation.
Now of course, this was a little game of share and tell. Adam gave information in hopes that I would shed some light on where I came from and what happened. Honestly? How the hell do you explain to someone you were murdered and yet, you aren’t dead? I couldn’t even explain it to myself. So instead, I said nothing. Adam was no idiot and while he wanted the full story, he saw my unease discussing it so he didn’t press. I went into the living room and sat down on the leather sofa.
“Do you want to call anyone?”
“Who?” I frowned. “My voice isn’t even the same.” I pushed up a brow in thought before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “You don’t decorate much,” I observed.
Outside of a chair, which Adam sat in on my right, the only other things in the room were a television, coffee table and a bag of birdseed in the adjacent sunroom.
“You know what I think? That you’re avoiding the topic.”
I straightened my back and peered at him through my lashes.
“Do you live alone?” I asked, ignoring his statement.
“Mm hmm.”
“How long have you been out here? It’s kind of…country.” My eyes focused on the woods only a few feet from the outside of the windows.
“Two years. And there’s nothing wrong with country.”
I snapped my head around. By the looks of things, I would have thought he moved in a few months ago. Talk about the basic necessities.
“I don’t need much. Do you want me to drive you home?” His eyes narrowed a fraction waiting for my answer.
I couldn’t go home. He might be there. Whoever he was. I didn’t have my keys and I couldn’t even go to Sunny for help because she would think I was some crazy lunatic pretending to be her friend.
A friend she thought was missing…or dead. I scratched my wrist nervously and bit my lip.
Adam disappeared into the bedroom for a few seconds before returning. “I’m afraid that’s all I’ve got that’ll fit.” A pair of sweats landed on my lap and Adam ran a distracted finger over the top of the leather chair. “What I’ll do is go pick up a few things for you and you’ll stay with me. I can’t have you wandering around in my trousers, people will talk.”
I smiled with gratitude at his humor.
“You would do that?”
“I’ll be back,” he said, twirling a seat of keys in his fingers as he went towards the door. I didn’t feel like going on a shopping spree, but I also didn’t feel like being left alone.
“Wait, I’ll go too!”
I shot up out of my seat and rushed forward when my legs wobbled. Adam cleared five feet of space between us in a heartbeat as he reached out and caught my fall. When I stood upright and backed away from him, something didn’t make sense. My legs felt strange and clumsy.
“How tall are you?”
“What?” Adam’s face crinkled.
“How tall are you?” I repeated.
“6’2”.
“Can’t be,” I whispered to myself. I remembered in the field how much taller than me he seemed, I might have measured up to his shoulders.
Adam stood motionless as I moved closer; our bodies were just fingertips apart. A smile crept across my face as I leaned