Unhappy Medium Read Online Free Page B

who or what I was dealing with?
    Still leaning on the wall, I looked down at my feet. I was standing on something. Seeping into the wooden floor was a large
     pool of red paint.
    No.
    Blood.

Chapter 6
    I yelled and jumped into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. I crumpled to the floor and pulled my shoes off.
    But there was no red sticky substance anywhere on them — not even the soles.
    The silence was deafening.
    But the feelings of terror, and the sharp pain in my chest, were subsiding. I took deep belly breaths, the way my mother’s
     healer friend, Orin, had taught me. I heard the door to the room open.
    “Katherine?”
    “I’ll be right out,” I called.
    I got to my feet a little shakily, and looked at my reflection. My face was pale. I flushed the toilet and ran the water in
     the sink to buy myself another minute to recover. I smoothed my hair back, pinched my cheeks to bring a little color into
     them, and put my shoes back on. Then I unlocked the door and went back into the room.
    “Here you are,” Mrs. Gray said, handing me a glass of water.
    I gratefully took a long sip, secretly registering surprise that the water with the fancy name
did
taste better than tap water. I snuck a glance over my shoulder at the floor outside the bathroom. The planks looked just
     like the rest of the floor — polished and honey colored — no blood stain.
    I was walking back to my chair when my toe connected with something. I leaned down and picked it up — it was Mrs. Gray’s earring.
    “I think this is yours,” I said, handing it to her.
    Her hands flew up to her ears.
    “I didn’t even know I’d lost it!” she exclaimed. “Thank you, Katherine. I’m feeling a little odd this afternoon; perhaps it
     was the drive. And the thermostat isn’t working properly in this room — one minute, it’s warm, and the next it’s like an icebox.”
    I stared at the glass of water in my hand and chewed on my lip.
    “And there’s something … I don’t know, a noise maybe? Like a very high-pitched electronic signal or something? Do you
     hear it?”
    I shook my head.
    “Maybe I’m imagining it. But something in this room is setting my teeth on edge.”
    The door opened, and Jac walked in.
    “Kat! What are you doing in
here
?” Jac asked. “With
her
” was the unspoken remainder of her question.
    “Looking for you. You said we’d meet before dinner.”
    It seemed weird to me that Jac hadn’t even acknowledged her mother. I knew they really didn’t get along and everything, but
     still. You say hello.
    “Hello, Jackie. Katherine said you went to the welcome reception!”
    “I stopped in for a minute,” Jac replied, not looking at her mother. “Kat and I don’t want to go to the fancy sit-down dining
     hall — can we just go by ourselves to the buffet thingy?”
    Again, it seemed kind of rude for us to not eat with Jac’s mom — I mean, she was footing the bill for the trip. But Mrs. Gray
     just nodded, and pressed a hand to her temple.
    “That’s fine, Jackie. I think I’m actually going to have a bit of a lie down — my head is really starting to ache.”
    “Bye,” Jac said.
    She already had the door open.
    “I hope you feel better, Mrs. Gray,” I said. “Can I get you anything before we go? An aspirin?”
    She sat down on the edge of her bed.
    “No thank you, Katherine. I just want to close my eyes for a while.”
    I closed the door quietly. Jac was waiting impatiently in the hall.
    “What’s with the sucking up?” she asked.
    “I wasn’t sucking up!” I retorted. “I was just being polite, which is more than I can say for you. Didn’t you notice she kind
     of looked worn out?”
    “I’m starting to think my mother has you on the payroll,” Jac said, striding down the hall toward the elevator.
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    The whole turn the conversation had taken was making me uncomfortable. I decided to change the subject.
    “So? Are you going to tell me about this Colin