Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 138274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138274 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Still, no matter how big the footprint got, the place still smelled like Toll House cookies every night, and the people were kind, and though the stories were hard to hear, the work made a difference.
“What else can I do for you,” Rahvyn asked as she folded up the parka.
Nalla could only shake her head. The other female, who was Lassiter’s shellan, was their very best volunteer, clocking in as a house mahmen on the weekends. She saw too much, though. When those silver eyes looked into your own? You had the sense she could read your whole life’s story.
“Nothing?” the female prompted.
“I don’t… really know what to ask for,” Nalla whispered.
“Then do not even try. Come on, let us get you upstairs. I will bring you some clothes and something to eat—”
“No food, please.” Every time she breathed in through her nose, she smelled blood. “My stomach’s off.”
“Fair enough.”
The next thing Nalla knew, she was up in one of the bedrooms that were no longer used by the male and female residents, but instead kept as quiet spaces for reading and meditation. The beds were still in place, though, and man, that duvet looked like heaven.
“Any particular requests for clothing?”
Glancing back at the doorway, Nalla shook her head, and then went into the bathroom, flipping the light switch by the door. Even though she didn’t want to see her own face, she stood over the sink and stared at herself in the mirror. There was a speckled pattern of black dots up her neck and on her cheeks and forehead. There was also slayer blood in her hair, and Rahvyn was right about her clothes. They were a mess, and she probably stank to high heaven.
What had she been thinking, coming here like this?
“I should have gone somewhere else,” she said as she looked down at her jeans. “This is a tremendous trigger for some of our residents.”
“Everyone is at group right now. And I will make sure your clothes are laundered in the annex.”
“I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Yes, you were. You knew you needed safety.”
“You’re not going to ask why I didn’t go home?”
“No.”
Meet your client where they are, Nalla thought. Excellent approach.
Then she frowned. “It’s not a weekend, and yet you’re here?”
Unless she was wrong and had lost an entire night between when she’d left downtown to come out here? Anything seemed possible right now.
Rahvyn smiled in that way she did, so compassionately. “I am going to have more time during the week now. And like you, I want to be where I can make a difference.”
With shaking hands, Nalla cranked the water and started rinsing the blood off—and as it ran into the drain, she hated to see the black mix with the red.
Flexing her fingers under the cold rush, she felt… too little of the chill. She was probably in shock.
As she glanced up into the mirror again and focused on Rahvyn over her shoulder, she thought back to doing the same with Bitty, when the female had been sitting on her own bed back at home. Things felt like they had changed irrevocably, and she wished lives were like clothes… that you could put them into a Maytag with some OxiClean and have everything come out fresh-smelling, warm, and ready to wear out of the dryer.
“You really aren’t going to ask me what happened?” she said roughly.
Rahvyn shook her head and spoke in that formal way of hers. “You will tell me if and when you are ready. All I know is that you are alive, and we can work with that. I would like to know if there is anyone else who needs something, however.”
Between one blink and the next, Nalla returned to that alley. “After what I saw tonight, that’s another thing I’m not sure how to answer.”
“Was medical support contacted?”
“Yes, but they weren’t needed. As it turned out.”
“Okay. I am glad whoever was with you did not need treatment.”
Nalla turned the water off and reached for a hand towel that was looped, plump and fragrant, through a chrome circle.
“Yeah, that’s not the half of it. But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the whole story.”
“Try me.” Rahvyn put her palm forward. “But no pressure.”
“I saw a male get shot first in the stomach, and then in the heart—and he died in front of me.” As there was a gasp, Nalla pivoted and dried things off. “Except then he sat up. Stood up. And was perfectly fine. So no, he didn’t need any help, although I sure as hell need some time to try to put that into perspective.”
Rahvyn stared down at the floor for a long moment. Then she rubbed her eyes like her head hurt. “Hop in the shower. I will get you what you need.”
“See? I knew you wouldn’t believe me. But it’s the truth.”