Free Mind Games: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 6) by J.A. Cipriano Page B

how could I do that if she wasn’t real? “Lillim, I know we haven’t brought it up, but you can’t just wander off. It’s not safe. You could get hurt.”
    I looked down at my hands cradled in my lap. “I didn’t mean to wander off,” I said, swallowing back the dirty, traitorous tears threatening to spill out of my eyes and run down my cheeks like a river. “I was waiting for you, and the next thing I knew, I was here.” I gestured lamely outside.
    “You wandered off without realizing it?” my father asked, concern evident in his features.
    “Yes,” I squeaked, but I wasn’t sure how audible it was.
    “I knew this was too soon,” my father said, turning to look at my mother. “I said this might happen.”
    Instead of replying, my mother stared straight at me for so long, the silence in the car nearly became a living, breathing thing. It made me feel like the worst person in the world, not just for ruining everything, but disappointing them too.
    “Maybe we should go see Dr. Emile tomorrow,” she said, turning back around and putting the car into gear before pulling away from the curb.
    “Do you have the sick time for that?” I asked, suddenly feeling horrible because I was going to make her miss work again. I still wasn’t quite sure what she did for a living, but even still, she’d been back, what, a couple days? What kind of daughter does that? Not a good one, that’s for sure.
    “No, but I’ll figure something out,” my mother replied, and my dad put his hand on her knee.
    “I’ll take her,” he said, glancing at me. “I’ll just go in afterward.”
    “Will that be okay?” my mother asked. “Don’t you have that big presentation every Wednesday?”
    “I’ll make do,” he replied with a shrug. “Some things are more important than work.” And with those words, he made me feel lower than slime for thinking he wasn’t real. How could he not be after all? They had found me sitting in the street all by myself in a place I didn’t remember walking to. Sure, there had been the milk white man and the car accident, but where were the cars? As much as I wished it wasn’t true, there wasn’t any evidence that it wasn’t just a hallucination.
    No, I needed to try way harder to ignore the delusions encroaching on my reality. It was the only way. If I didn’t, well, I didn’t want to think about that.
     

Chapter 10
    “Lillim, are you hungry?” my mom asked. She stood in my doorway with a plate in one hand. She’d already changed for bed and was wearing an oversized white t-shirt with a kitten on it. The shirt hung down to mid-thigh, nearly concealing the pair of blue shorts beneath.
    “No,” I replied, not even bothering to get up from my bed. I looked back at the ceiling, staring at the glow in the dark stars stuck up there. They weren’t glowing because the light was on, but that didn’t matter. I was still too embarrassed about getting myself lost all night. I’d caused everyone to miss dinner, which was sad because even though it was just going to be us sitting at home making pizza, I was upset I’d missed it.
    Real or not, I’d never actually done something like that with my parents, or at least, I had no memory of the event if it had occurred. Nearly all of my memories centered on training to fight monsters, fighting monsters, and killing said monsters. It would be a lie to say I missed all the horror and blood, but at the same time, it had been my life. If someone had stolen that from me, I wanted it back, darkness and all.
    “Are you sure?” she asked, sidling into my room uninvited and sitting down next to me on the bed, but the mattress was so firm, I barely even felt it.
    “Yes,” I replied, looking away from her even though it was a bratty thing to do.
    “Even if it is for chocolate peanut butter cookies?” she asked, setting the white plate down on the bed next to my head.
    I glanced at her, taking in her devious smirk, before fixing my eyes upon the plate.