that she realized her bracelet was gone
she told
him, he must not worry.
It was dark when she opened her eyes. The pain in her head had woken her
up. The digital clock on the dresser said ten thirty. Thirst, terrible
thirst, and the glass by the bed was empty. Someone else was in the
room.
She turned over on her back. Light through the thin white curtains. Yes,
there. A child, a little girl. She was sitting in the chair against the
wall.
Jesse could just see the outline clearly-the long yellow hair, the puff-
sleeved dress, the dangling legs that didn't touch the floor. She tried
to focus. Child . . . not possible. Apparition. No. Something occupying
space. Something malevolent. Menace- And the child was looking at her.
Claudia.
She scrambled out of the bed, half falling, the bag in her arms still as
she backed up against キャンパス スニーカー the wall. The little girl got up. There was the
clear sound of her feet on the carpet. The sense of menace seemed to
grow stronger. The child moved into the light from the window as she
came towards Jesse, and the light struck her blue eyes, her rounded
cheeks, her soft naked little arms.
Jesse screamed. Clutching the bag against her, she rushed blindly in the
direction of the door. She clawed at the lock and chain, afraid to look
over her shoulder. The screams were coming out of her uncontrollably.
Someone was calling from the other side, and finally she had the door
open and she was stumbling out into the hallway.
People surrounded her; but they couldn't stop her from getting away from
the room. But then someone was helping her up because apparently she'd
fallen again. Someone else had gotten a chair. She cried, trying to be
quiet, yet unable to stop it, and she held the bag with the doll and the
diary in both hands.
When the ambulance arrived, she refused to let them take the bag away
from her. In the hospital they gave her antibiotics, sedatives, enough
dope to drive anyone to insanity. She lay curled up like a child in the
bed with the bag beside her under the covers. If the nurse so much as
touched it, Jesse woke at once.
When Aaron Lightner arrived two days later, she gave it to him. She was
still sick when she got on the plane for London. The bag was in his lap,
and he was so good to her, calming her, caring for her, as she slept on
and off on the long flight home. It was only just before they landed
that she realized her bracelet was gone, her beautiful silver bracelet.
She'd cried softly with her eyes closed. Mael's bracelet gone.
They pulled her off the assignment.
She knew even before they told her. She was too young for this work,
they said, too inexperienced. It had been their mistake, sending her. It
was simply too dangerous for her to continue. Of course what she had
done was of "immense value." And the haunting, it had been one of
unusual power. The spirit of a dead vampire? Entirely possible. And the
ringing phone, well, there were many reports of such things-entities
used various means to "communicate" or frighten. Best to rest now, put
it out of her mind. Others would continue the investigation.
As for the diary, it included only a few more entries, nothing more
significant than what she herself had read. The psychometrics who had
examined the rosary and the doll learned nothing. These things would be
stored with utmost care. But バッグ レディース 激安 Jesse really must remove her mind from all
this immediately.
Jesse argued. She begged to go back. She threw a scene of sorts,
finally. But it was like talking to the Vatican. Some day, ten バスケットシューズ years
from now, maybe twenty, she could enter this particular field again. No
one was ruling out such a possibility, but for the present the answer
was no. Jesse was to rest, get better, forget what had taken place.
Forget what had taken place. . . .
She was sick for weeks. She wore white flannel gowns all day long and
drank endless cups of hot tea. She sat in the window seat of her room.
She looked out on the soft deep greenery of the park, at the heavy old
oak trees. She watched the cars come and go, tiny bits of soundless
color moving on the distant gravel road. Lovely here, such stillness.
They brought her delicious things to eat, to drink. David came and
talked softly to her of anything but the vampires. Aaron filled her room
with flowers. Others came.
She talked little, or not at all. She could not explain to them how
deeply this hurt her, how it reminded her of the long ago summer when
she'd been pushed away from other secrets, other mysteries, other
documents in vaults. It was the same old story. She'd glimpsed something
of inestimable importance, only to have it locked away.
And now she would never understand what she'd seen or experienced. She
must remain here in silence with her regrets. Why hadn't she picked up
that phone, spoken into it, listened to the voice on the other end?
And the child, what had the spirit of the child wanted! Was it the diary
or the doll! No, Jesse had been meant to find them and remove them! And
yet she had turned away from the spirit of the child! She who had
addressed so many nameless entities, who had stood bravely in darkened
rooms talking 人気スニーカー 激安 to weak flickering スニーカー 通販 things when others fled in panic. She
who comforted others with the old assurance: these beings, whatever they
are, cannot do us harm!
One more chance, she pleaded. She went over everything that had
happened. She must return to that New Orleans flat. David and Aaron were
silent. Then David came to her and put his arm around her.
"Jesse, my darling," he said. "We love you. But in this area above all
others, one simply does not break the rules."
At night she dreamed of Claudia. Once she woke at four o'clock and went
to the window and looked out over the park straining to see past the dim
lights from the lower windows. There was a child out there, a tiny
figure beneath the trees, in a red cloak and hood, a child looking up at
her. She had run down the stairs, only to find herself stranded finally
on the empty wet grass with the cold gray morning coming.
In the spring they sent her to New Delhi
