Page 13 of Alan

It was the strangest thing. Like she was sucking the panic right out of my head. I could feel it going away, draining out. It didn’t happen all at once, but as it did my chest opened up, and my pulse slowed, and I could move my head without lightning bolts of pain zigzagging through.

It couldn’t have taken more than ten seconds.

When it was over, and she removed her hands, I was slow in straightening up. Not sure I believed what just happened. Like any quick, sudden movement would start the whole thing up again.

It didn’t. I felt better than I had in ages.

She was watching me intently with those strange eyes.

“Thank you,” I whispered, a little weak but at least able to speak clearly.

“Does this happen often?” she asked, still crouched in front of me.

“Only when witches hold me captive in their cave,” I replied, and I was immediately sorry for it.

She had helped me, and she didn’t have to.

“It used to happen a lot more when I was young. I would feel like I was having a heart attack—I thought I was the first few times. Went to the ER and everything. It took three trips and a lot of tests for them to finally decide I was only having panic attacks.”

“That seemed like quite a lot to go through.”

If my little passive aggressive snippiness had offended her, she didn’t show it. I guessed it I was a witch with the ability to touch a person and put an end to a massive panic attack, little things like that wouldn’t bother me, either.

“It was. Is.” I looked at her hands. “How did you do that? I mean, you touched me, and it was gone. You made it go away.”

She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she set the chair right, then helped me to my feet. I sat down, still a little shaky but more with relief than anything else.

“I did not take away the panic attack. Merely the panic which caused it. I can… alter the states of those around me using touch,” she explained, hands at her sides.

“So you made it so I wasn’t panicking anymore.”

“Correct. I pulled it out of you.”

“What happened to it? I mean, you pulled it out. I felt you pulling it out.” And it was the weirdest thing I ever felt. “Where did it go, if it’s a thing you can manipulate that way?”

“It simply goes elsewhere,” she shrugged. “It’s something I’ve always been able to do. Many of us can. Some are better than others, just as some are better at manipulating other things. Energy, the elements.”

“I see.” I didn’t see. I didn’t see a single damn thing. It was all too bonkers to be believed. Witches?

She smiled. “You do not believe me. You do not believe any of this.”

“No. No! No, no, no.”

“Come, now. I am not as skilled in reading the energies and thought patterns of others as Selene is, but I can manage a bit. And I sense the fact that you do not believe me. It is all right. You do not need to, I suppose.”

I sat back in the hard chair. “I mean, you did take away my panic.”

“That I did.”

“So I guess there’s something to be said for all of this…” I waved my hands around. “All of it. I’m in a cell with invisible walls, for God’s sake. I know that I need to believe what’s happening here, but it goes against literally everything I ever thought I knew.”

“It must be difficult for you.” She folded those magic hands of hers, sighing. “I suppose we are not well-known in the outside world. Or known at all.”

“Who are you? Wait—what is your name? I asked before, but you wouldn’t tell me.”

She hesitated for a second, like there might be a problem with her sharing something like that with me but relaxed like she knew it was pointless. “Calliope. You can call me Callie. I prefer it, really.”

“Callie. Who are you? I mean, all of you. Why do you live in a cave? If I were you and I had your powers, I would live in a mansion someplace. On a yacht. Something fancy.”

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