Free The Weird Travels of Aimee Schmidt: The Curse of the Gifted by J.A. Schreckenbach Page A

wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
    “Yeah, I’m fine. I mean we’re fine. Sacha’s in class right now. I’m heading over to the bookstore to get the story so I don’t know much yet, but what I got from Joe is one of the workers was seriously hurt during a robbery.”
    “Hurt?” Aimee tried to keep her tone convincing so he would continue. “What happened?”
    “The details are sketchy. There weren’t any witnesses, and I understand the security camera wasn’t working on that floor at the time of the robbery.”
    “So they don’t know what happened? How about the girl? Is she… okay ?”
    “Joe wasn’t sure what happened. He tried talking to the manager, but they were in the middle of the cops’ investigation so they couldn’t really talk. The only thing he knew was that the girl was hurt really bad, but she’s alive. If I can get in to see her at the hospital I’ll know more.” He stopped abruptly. “Hey, how did you know it was a girl who was hurt?”
    Damn it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Think fast, Aimee . “I didn’t. I just guessed.”
    “Oh,” he said, again a few seconds of silence passed while Aimee assumed he was processing her reply. “Well,” he finally said, “you’ll probably hear more on the news tonight. Hey, I’ve gotta get going.”
    “Okay. Thanks for calling, James.”
    “Hey, Amos...” His voice lightened up a bit. “...how are you and Dad?”
    “We’re fine. We miss y'all already. You weren’t home very long at Christmas.”
    “I know. We miss you, too. Maybe we’ll be home in a couple weeks. I heard the powder’s good at Ashland.”
    “Yeah. I haven’t been since we went, but I think it’s decent. Take care. Tell Sach I said hi.”
    “Will do.”
    The call ended as the desktop finally brought up her browser. Aimee stared at the bright screen for a few moments, her mind spinning back to the journey earlier this morning. She shuddered thinking how close she had come to being a victim herself, the bullet sailing past her within inches. Thank God the girl was still alive, or at least that was the latest news. Aimee looked at her reflection in the mirror above the desk. The color in her face was pale, almost pallid. She must still be experiencing the effects from the travel. She pinched at her cheeks trying to pull some color back into her skin. At least she was safe and unscathed, and the pain in her head had died down to a dull throb. She grabbed the ibuprofen bottle, twisted off the lid and swallowed a couple without sipping any water. Her thoughts soared back to her conversation with James. A security camera, she suddenly recalled. A chill riveted through her when she thought about the consequences of the robbery being caught on camera. Of course the investigation might be more challenging to solve without the details being captured on film, but she was extremely relieved it wasn’t working at the time of the robbery. Somehow, Aimee knew it would get solved without the benefit of the camera.
    Suddenly the adrenaline completely drained from her body. She felt an overwhelming urge to sleep. The morning still had over an hour left, but it felt like she had been awake for days instead of hours. She needed time to shut down her brain to let her subconscious bathe over the events of the day and file them away where they needed to be. Aimee collapsed on her bed too exhausted to pull up the quilt around her limp body, and quickly drifted off into sleep.
    “Aimee…” Her dad sat perched on the edge of her bed, gently shaking her back to wake her. “…hey, are you okay?”
    Aimee lifted her face from the pillow. With only one eye barely open she noticed the room was dark, except for the soft light filtering in from the hall. Aimee peered up at the clock. Six twenty. It had to be night. She couldn’t have slept all the way through until morning. Aimee turned over swiftly and sat up against the headboard, rubbing her eyes trying to get the sleep out. “Yeah, I’m