Read Blemished, The for Free Online Page B

intentions. “No. Don’t go yet. Look I know this is weird.” She hesitated. “Have you ever thought that things happen for a reason? That people are brought together for a purpose?”
    I pulled away, fearful. Daniel burst through the door holding a leather bound notebook which he slammed down on the table. The binding creaked as he opened it.
    “Look at these,” he commanded.
    I moved towards the notebook and watched as he flipped the pages. Each one had been filled with intricate pencil diagrams of a girl. First she was young, often sat very primly, serious expressions in her eyes. I saw my mum in her face.
    “These are the pictures I drew years ago,” Daniel said. He kept on flicking the pages over and the girl grew up. Her hair grew and her features developed into a young woman. I gasped. My fingers trembled and I felt hot all over.
    “If this is some kind of joke it isn’t funny,” I said. The kitchen door rattled and my body flushed with heat. “Why do you have drawings of me? What are you? A stalker?” The table began to shake and the tea-cups shivered in their saucers. Stacks of plates trembled.
    “Mina, calm down,” said Angela.
    “Is that your name?” Daniel stared at me with fascination. “I’ve known your face for so long. But I never knew your name.”
    His voice was breathy and excited but with an intense undertone. I didn’t want to admit it but he grabbed my attention instantly. Our eyes met. His were a darker shade of blue than I’d ever seen. Like the sky before a thunder storm. They made me feel strange, as though I somehow knew him. It was all too much. 
    “No,” I said, hot tears threatening. This had to be some sort of sick joke. It didn’t make any sense. “This is all wrong. I don’t understand.”
    The kitchen door slammed shut. It flapped open. I was out of control. Daniel and Angela glanced at each other nervously.
    “Mina, you need to calm down or you’re going to break something,” Angela begged. “Look, just sit down and we’ll tell you everything.”
    “It’s a really long story,” Daniel added. “I promise you that it isn’t creepy. I’m not a stalker. I know that we’ve never met.”
    I looked at the two of them in turn, disconcerted by their sincerity. They seemed prepared , as though they had been waiting for this moment.
    “You know what it’s like to experience something difficult to explain,” said Angela. “Listen to what Daniel has to say. Please.”
    I sighed and the table stopped shaking. “All right. Explain.”
    I sat down in one of the four kitchen chairs and Angela and Daniel did the same. He drummed his fingers on the table and looked at Angela as though for inspiration and she smiled with encouragement. He had worker’s fingers – blisters and cracks in his skin.
    “It started when I was just a kid. Mum didn’t know what the hell to do with me.” He laughed. “Think I must’ve driven her mad. That’s why she left.”
    “Don’t say that,” Angela interrupted.
    Daniel raked his fingers through his hair and leaned back on the chair. He was probably older than me by maybe a year but his eyes seemed older still, as though they had seen too much. He found it difficult to sit still and I wasn’t sure if it was the shock at seeing me or a constant nervous energy rattling around him. It made me want to grab his hand and tell him to calm down.
    “I get these headaches. Searing migraines that feel like something hot just got poked through my brain.” He pushed his fingers into his eye sockets and over his temples. “Sometimes I pass out. But when I come to I have this picture in my head and I draw it.” He pointed at the notebook. “I see you a lot. I don’t know why, but I see your face. Sometimes I see stuff that’s going to happen, bad things.”
    “You mean you see the future?” I asked, incredulously.
    “He gets a snapshot image,” Angela said. I noticed how she sat close to him, her arms leaning on the table top like a