Maggie woke up screaming. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for something, anything to look at so she didn't have to see the pictures in her mind, playing over and over again; a familiar little black car, broadsided by a moving van, then seeing the shrouded body.... The light came on, blinding bright, then Tabitha captured her attention. Her friend was pale.
"Maggie, what's wrong?'
The pictures wouldn't end, there was nothing she could do. "I killed him!" she yelled. "I killed him! He died, and it was my fault, and there was nothing I could do!" Tears spilled down her cheeks, but she barely noticed them.
"Shh," Tabitha said gently, and sat down next to her. Feeling the weight, Margery struck out and knocked her friend away. There was a thud as she landed on the floor.
"You don't understand! It was my fault!" she screamed through her tears, and curled up into a ball. "I killed him, and I couldn't stop it!"
The next thing she knew, she was looking into the face of a rather irritated tiger with her ears pinned back. She stood on top of Maggie, pinning her down with quite a bit more weight than she really found comfortable. Distracted, she began to calm down, but she couldn't stop the tears. As soon as the cat determined she was calm enough, she climbed down off the bed. Maggie curled tighter, if possible, and sobbed into her blanket-filled hands.
"Maggie," Tabitha's voice penetrated her brain finally, and she looked up at her friend, who no longer looked irritated. She did look worried, though. Tabitha began stroking her hair, gently soothing her with the rhythmic motion. "What happened."
"I don't..." she gulped, trying to make her voice work. "I don't think it's happened yet, but he doesn't survive...." She could feel the hysteria rise again, and apparently, so could Tabitha. Her hand gripped Maggie's shoulder, distracting her again.
"Don't think about it. It hasn't happened yet." She started the gentle soothing again. "Go ahead and cry it out, and when you're done, I'll get you some tea, okay?"
Maggie nodded, miserable and wishing .... She didn't know what she wished. She didn't dare wish she'd never moved here, and she wouldn't wish away the last ten years for anything. Finally, the tears eased, and she loosened the grip on her comforter. "Okay," she whispered. "I'd like that tea now."
"Good." She pushed the blankets away from Maggie, and pulled her up. "Come on. I don't want to leave you alone." Maggie paused long enough to grab a blanket and wrap it around her, then followed Tabitha into the kitchen. She sank down on one of the kitchen chairs and watched her fill the teapot. "Do you feel like talking about it?" Tabitha's voice calmed her as much as her purring did.
Maggie hesitated. "It was..." She could feel the tears start up again. "No," she sobbed. "Not yet."
"It had to do with Adam," Tabitha said softly as she pulled honey, milk, and sugar out to set on the table. "He's the only one you would have such a violent reaction to. Not even your dad."
Maggie nodded. "He... It was a car accident."
"Were you there?"
She thought about it. "No."
"Then how was it your fault?"
"It was, it was, I don't know...." Tabitha took hold of her shoulders and shook her.
"I know. Your dreams are always specific, and if you feel it was your fault, it must have been. But why, Maggie. Think why."
The rational train of thought finally intruded on Maggie, and she found herself calming down. She tried to think of why she would be to blame for this accident that was going to happen. She continued to think back, going back in her memories, sipping absently at the tea Tabitha gave her. After a while, she sighed. "I can't. I'm going to have to try again, later."
Tabitha smiled at her. "You look a lot better, you know?"
Maggie chuckled. "So, what time did I wake you up this morning?"
"Not too early, it's only six." She turned the stove off. "I'm going back to bed." She looked tired.
Maggie made a face. "I think I'll stay up. I'm fairly sure that dream will come back..." She stopped. It hadn't been a dream, it had been a Foretelling, and a strong one. "I'm sure that will come back if I try to sleep. They'll just have to deal with me being tired at work. Sleep well."
Tabitha had reached the hallway back to the bedrooms when there was a knock on the door. She checked the peephole, and started laughing. "Oh, this is priceless. Maggie, you have company!" she called, and opened the door with a flourish. "Come on in. She's in the kitchen."
Maggie looked up to see Adam, looking as if he'd run the whole way to her apartment, dark hair curling riotously, as if he'd forgotten to brush it. He seemed to relax as soon as he saw her. "Are you okay?" He moved swiftly to her, laying an arm across her shoulders.
"I'm fine," she smiled.
"You're up early." He sat down next to her, keeping a hand on her arm.
"So are you, and I know for a fact that you don't have to be up for another three hours," she teased gently. He still didn't smile. "What's wrong, Adam?"
He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. Just... a feeling, mostly, that something wasn't right with you. And a dream about a tiger, who looked like it was about to eat you." He barked a laugh. "It made sense at the time."
Her eyes jerked to meet his. "A tiger?" she asked, trying not to show how panicked she was getting. Then Tabby jumped into her lap and began to purr lustily.
"Isn't that the cat from the park?" he asked, reaching to pet her. One hand still rested on Maggie's arm. She found the gesture comforting.
"Yes. She followed me home." Technically, she had come home in the jeep with Rocky and Adam, but Maggie wasn't going to tell him that.
"Huh. Must be nice." He thought a minute. "Wait. They don't allow pets here."
"She comes and goes," Maggie said.
"Has anyone reported you?"
"One man tried. They didn't find evidence of her, so they couldn't kick me out." Maggie shook her head.
"So... did you... I don't know, put a spell on him? or curse him?"
Maggie laughed. "No, it doesn't work that way."
"Why not?"
"It's the three fold law. What goes around...." She paused, a horrifying idea forming in her mind, but she forced herself to go on. "...comes around, only multiplied three times. If you send love, healing, stuff like that around, it will come back to you threefold. Same with hate, injury, and so on." She looked at him, and he blurred from the tears that suddenly filled in her eyes with the comprehension that filled her mind. "Oh, Lady, no," she whispered, and pushed the cat from her lap and stood up. "You have to go, Adam." She swallowed hard, barely able to talk. "Go far away and forget...." She couldn't talk anymore as his arms went around her and held her. She didn't have the strength to push him away, and found rather that she clung to him as she sobbed. His power, gently black, brushed on her shields and only served to make it worse.
"What happened?" Tabitha asked from the hallway. "I just got her calmed down." She sounded perturbed, but her touch on Maggie's shoulder was gentle.
"I don't know. I asked her about the cat, and she told me to go away." His soft voice echoed in his chest.
"What were you talking about?"
"The cat."
"Okay, what about it?" She sounded impatient.
"She said that someone tried to report her having the cat, and I asked her if she'd put a spell on him." He paused. "She said no, and said something about a threefold law, then told me to go away."
"Oh." She sounded as confused as Adam had, then sucked in her breath. "Oh. Oh, no. Okay, that makes sense."
"Good. Can you explain it to me?"
"No, not now." Maggie pulled away from him and wiped angrily at the tears that refused to stop. "I have to... I have to figure out how to fix it." 'I can risk me, but not him'. Her rather careless words to Kat from ten years ago echoed in her mind.
"Maggie, please. What is wrong?" He cupped her face in his hands, his thumbs gently stroking her cheeks.
She took hold of his wrists and sighed. She had to start trusting him sometime, had to tell him everything she could, if she wanted him in her life. And she did want him in her life; she just didn't know if he felt the same way. "Just... residual energy from some of the things I did. It has to go somewhere, and I asked the Lady to divert it for me, that I'd pay for it later. I forgot about it. That's why my kitten ended up dead in Eden, I think." She met his eyes. "I need you to... to stay away from me for a few days." She chuckled mirthlessly. "I can't concentrate when you're around, and I'm going to need to concentrate."
He finally smiled, and it warmed his eyes, although it didn't replace the worry she saw there. "Well, it's nice to know I have the same effect on you as you have on me. Rocky's been pulling his hair out."
"Hm, Rocky, bald. Interesting vision," Tabitha said, and Maggie giggled. It very quickly turned into hysterical laughter, and she collapsed back into the chair. "Oops. Sorry, Adam, I didn't mean to set her off like that."
"It sounds like she's tired."
"I'm sure she is; she woke up early.... well, duh, you knew that." Tabitha chuckled. "And she's been crying almost constantly since then. I'll get her back in bed."
"I can do that."
Maggie's giggles stopped abruptly as he lifted her, and she looked at him, startled, her arms looping almost instinctively around his neck. He grinned at her. "What are you doing?" Exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks.
"Putting you back to bed. You need sleep."
"Sleep is highly overrated," she mumbled, and lay her head on his shoulder. He was so sweet to do this for her.
He chuckled. "Yeah, I know." He lay her gently on her bed and pulled the sheets up around her. "Sleep well." His lips brushed her cheek.
"Night, Adam. Love you." She slipped off into sleep, barely aware of his response.
"Love you, too."
Maggie cut the circle, dismissing it, and sank down on her knees. She was exhausted, but at least all that negative stuff was aimed back at her, where it belonged, and no longer at Adam or any of her other friends.
"Done?" Tabitha's voice from the doorway was soft and inquiring. "I felt the energy go. Do you want something to eat?"
"Yes, please. I'll be in there in a minute." She began to slowly put the candles away, then everything else. Using the chest that had been her altar, she pulled herself to her feet. "Ugh. I'm totally wiped," she mumbled, and staggered out of the room and into the kitchen.
"Wow. Some kind of spell, I guess?" Tabitha asked, setting a thick sandwich in front of her.
"Yeah. It's the reverse of the original one, but there wasn't as much energy to direct when I did it the first time. Plus, I had to thank her for the warning." She eyed the sandwich, not sure if it was going to work out, but took a bite anyway.
Tabitha got some milk from the fridge and turned around. "Well. Want another one?"
Maggie looked down at the empty plate and blushed. Had she really just eaten that fast? "Yes, please. How long was I in there?"
"About... three and a half hours." She set the second sandwich down on the plate. "I figured you'd be starved. There's a couple more if you want them."
The second sandwich took her longer to eat, and when it was done, she leaned back in her chair, relaxed for the first time in days. Then sat bolt upright again as a memory surfaced. "Did he really say that?" she demanded, staring at her friend.
"Say what." Tabitha sat down across from her to eat her own sandwich.
"That he loved me?"
The look Tabitha gave her would have wilted a flower, except for the smirk Maggie could see twitching at her lips. "So you did hear that. Thing is, he said that in response, so you must have said it first. Boy did he looked shocked, too."
Maggie felt her face go red, and she covered her cheeks with her hands. "I didn't," she whispered. Tabitha laughed and nodded. "Oh, great. When did that happen?"
"When did what happen?"
"When did I fall in love with him?" She picked idly at the crumbs on her plate, more to give her hands something to do than anything else.
"It's been that way as long as I've been with you," Tabitha said. "So, I would guess it dates back to high school. I'm sure it didn't happen after you left."
"Why didn't I notice before?"
"Because, silly, you were wrapped up in doing Her work. You had other priorities. She knew it, and I knew it, and I think he knew it, too. There were parts of the readings that I saw that lead to this conclusion, but you seemed to ignore them." She chuckled. "It was almost as if you didn't see them."
"So, what do I do now?"
"You could do a reading and find out what is going on with him," Tabitha suggested, her eyes glinting mischievously. Maggie glared at her, and she sighed melodramatically. "Well, is that foretelling still there?"
Maggie closed her eyes and focused on the nightmare she'd had two days before. It was faded, fading as she tried to grasp it, and finally just gone, just a normal nightmare. She opened her eyes and sighed in relief. "No. It's gone. Now I just wait and see what happens."
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