By Crystal L. Kirkham

This book is dedicated to my friends and family who have always believed in me, even when I didn’t have the courage to believe in myself.

And to Mark – a bird in the hand is worth two trucks in the mud.

Paige searched the depths of her coffee cup, looking for any sign in the foamed milk that would tell her how to get away from this boring date without offending anyone. She smiled and nodded, realizing that the guy across from her, Troy, had said something that required a response. He seemed satisfied and carried on talking. She cast her eyes around the coffee shop, looking for a distraction, anything more interesting than Mr. Boring going on and on about – well whatever it was he was talking about.

She only just saw him out of the corner of her eye and she turned her head slightly to get a better look. He was just sitting quietly in the corner, sipping a latté and reading the paper. He didn’t look like anything special, but there was something about him. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Paige found herself staring at him. She knew it was rude to stare for a number of reasons, namely, she was supposed to be paying attention to her blind date.

“Um, excuse me?” Troy’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Oh, sorry.” Paige tried to smile at Troy, but her eyes remained focused on the other man across the café.

“Maybe I should just go then.”

She could see a flash of movement in the corner of her eye as Troy’s chair scraped across the tile floor. She didn’t really care about him leaving, but she did care about what Tina would think of her blowing off her blind date like that. He had been boring, but she hadn’t meant to be so rude about it.

She continued to study the man across the room, trying to discover what it was about him that drew her attention so strongly. Normally, she could know at a glance why someone pinged on her radar, but he remained stubbornly ordinary. She narrowed her eyes and tried to focusing harder.

Her attention was drawn away from him by the sound of a woman screaming and the screeching of metal on metal. Paige turned to see as an SUV slamming into a newspaper box and heading straight for the far side of the coffee shop. Paige threw herself under the table and raised her arm over her face as the SUV came crashing through the window, sending glass flying in every direction. Her eyes darted back up to the man sitting in the booth. He appeared to have hardly moved at all.

Glass flew around him as he flipped the page of his paper and placed his cup back down, his hand covering the top. As the vehicle came to a rest inside the store he lifted the cup to his lips and drained the last few drops. Paige could already hear the sound of sirens as she watched the man neatly fold his newspaper, place it on the table and walk out the back door. His total lack of a reaction had been too much for her to ignore. She had no choice, but to find out more. Scrambling out from under the table and over the broken glass, she ran after him.

She searched the busy sidewalk, her eyes frantically scanning over the people. She caught a brief glimpse of his jacket just before the crowd swallowed him. It was enough. Trying her best not to slip on the icy sidewalk, Paige ran after him. She was only a few feet from him when she slowed down, no longer sure if she really wanted to find out exactly what kind of interesting he was. The longer she spent in proximity to him the more she began to get a sense of darkness about him. It was a feeling that reminded her that in her world interesting was synonymous with danger. Something she had forgotten a time or two to her detriment. For nearly a block she walked blindly behind him trying to decide the best way to approach him when she bumped into someone.

“Oh my gosh. So sorry, I wasn’t…” her voice trailed off as she realized just who it was that she had walked into. He didn’t seem angry with her, but he didn’t look impressed either.

“Why are you following me?” He had the slightest accent that she couldn’t quite place.

Paige remained silent as she took in every detail that she hadn’t been able to notice before. At this distance she could read him better than ever. There was so much going on with him, strong emotions and a sense of distance that befuddled her. He was more than what he appeared, but in what way she still wasn’t sure. He lifted a cigarette to his lips that she hadn’t noticed before and blew smoke at her face.

It was enough to bring her back into herself. Paige coughed and took a step back. “I don’t know.”

“You were following me. You must have a reason.” He glared at her, his eyes narrowing in a way that made him look as though he had murder on his mind. Paige wanted to turn away from that glare, but she forced herself to stay still.

“You seem interesting.” Paige said as she shrugged her shoulders and then smiled. “I’m interested in interesting people.”

He leaned in close, his nose only an inch from hers. “Stay away from me.”

"How did you know?" She couldn’t stop herself from blurting out the question. She could feel her chance to ask quickly disappearing.

"Know what?" He took a small step back and glanced past Paige towards the coffee shop that was now out of view and frowned. "You were there."

Paige nodded. It wasn't a question, but she didn't want the conversation to end now that it had started. "You acted like you had known it was going to happen. No surprise, no shock”.

"You're bleeding." Paige looked down at her hands: they were covered in cuts, a couple of which looked deep. It had probably happened when she had crawled out from under the table. Paige frowned and then looked back up.

"So how did you know?" She was too interested to let herself be distracted by a little bit of blood. It wasn't that bad anyway.

"Go away." He seemed angry now, or maybe he was just annoyed. He leaned in close again, but this time he whispered in her ear. “The best place to be is somewhere far, far away from me if you value your life at all.”

A wave of deep fear washed over Paige as he turned and walked away. She couldn't make herself follow him even though she longed to find out more. She watched as the crowd stole him from her view and the fear that had frozen her in her place faded away. She ran down the block trying to find him, but he had truly disappeared this time. Cursing under her breath, she turned her attention to her hands which were starting to hurt. There was enough blood now to draw attention from some people. She headed towards the nearest corner store to clean herself up.

"I'm telling you, it was the strangest thing. This guy-"

"I don't care Paige. How could you have been so rude to Troy?”

Paige sighed and rolled her eyes at the phone. "He was a tool Tina. Haven’t you heard a word I've said?"

“Yeah, you haven’t stopped talking about the mysterious and angry stranger who isn’t scared of sudden events and loud noises. He’s probably some sort of serial killer and you’d be better off to stay far away from him.”

“At least he’d be more interesting than the guys you keep trying to set me up with. Seriously, where do you find these fools?”

“Most of them work with Matt.” The line went silent for a moment and then Tina laughed. “And you’re right, a lot of them are tools, but at least they’re single and decent looking and they are not potential serial killers.”

“I really doubt he’s a serial killer. He may have looked murderous for a second, but I don’t think he would have hurt me. He’s not that kind of guy.”

“Earth to Paige: You don’t know him from Adam!” Tina’s voice went up an octave and Paige grinned.

“Sure do. Adam is that delicious barista at that coffee shop beside the office.” Paige stared out the window of her loft at the old church across the street and she gave a little shudder. “Anyway, there are far worse things to worry about in this city than ordinary old serial killers.”

“Do not get started on that. I don’t want to hear about it. It’s nothing, but a load of superstitious bullshit combined with your overactive imagination.”

“I don’t care if you don’t believe any of it, but I know it’s true. I’ve seen.” Paige turned her back on the window.

“Paige…” It was a warning. One Paige knew only too well. This was not a topic that was open for discussion.

“Okay, okay. Fine, I’ll stop talking about it.”

“And…?”

“And I’ll try to be more interested in the guys you set me up with,” Paige threw herself on to the couch and stared up at her ceiling, “If you promise to set me up with someone more interesting.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that.” Tina sighed. “And maybe, just maybe, you’ll think about moving out of that drafty old loft?”

“Are you going to bring that up again?” Paige groaned.

“Yes. You can move in with me and Matt. We have a spare room and–”

“And I’m not moving in to the new part of town. I keep telling you that I feel safer here in the shadow of the church.”

“Safer how? There’s no one around except for the ancient priest and that crazy ex-cop.” Tina sounded exasperated with her.

“Not talking about it. Your orders.”

“Whatever, I need to go make dinner. I’ll talk to you tomorrow okay?”

“Sure. Remember, more interesting.” Paige ended the call and tossed her phone on to the table behind her head. She stared intently at the shadows on the ceiling as she ran through the entire encounter with the mysterious stranger. Most people passed beneath her notice, barely even blips on her mental radar and that man should have qualified as ‘not interesting’ even before his indifferent reaction to the accident, but something had drawn her attention to him. There were only a few other instances where a similar situation had occurred, none of which she had ever or could ever talk to Tina about. Paige could think of only one person that she could talk about it with.She got up to look out her window at the church. She paid closer attention to two of the windows on the second floor, looking for the dim hint of candlelight from inside. It didn’t take her long to see it and she turned to leave her apartment. She stopped for a moment outside her building and took a deep breath before crossing the street to the church.

Paige didn’t bother with the heavy main doors. Instead she went to a smaller door that was hidden in the shadows of the overhanging archway. Only a small handful of people knew about this entrance. Opening the door, she listened carefully for the sound of footsteps. Feeling confident that no one else was using this entrance at the moment she stepped into the small passage way that paralleled the congregation hall.

She followed the hallway as it curved behind the congregation hall and towards the stairs heading to the second floor. Her pace quickened as she neared the entrances for the bell tower and the basement. By the time she was even with she was running. Paige dashed up the stairs before stopping to try and catch her breath.

“You’re being stupid Paige.” She mumbled to herself as she shook her head and continued down the hallway at a more reasonable pace.

Father Brannigan opened the door as soon as she knocked. “Hello my dear child, come in.”

“Hi Father. I hope I’m not bothering you. I know it’s late.” Paige waited for him to invite her in.

“Of course not, you are always welcome here. Come in, sit down.” A steaming pot of tea sat on the little table beside the candle whose light was probably the one she had seen. The church had electricity, but Father Brannigan seemed to prefer candlelight. She had asked him about it once and his only response was that old habits die hard. Paige took a seat and waited while Father Brannigan poured her a mug of the perfectly brewed tea. She took a deep whiff and smiled. It was one of her favourites, Dublin Cream. He had been expecting her to show up tonight, she was almost sure of it.

He poured his own tea and took the seat across from her. His smile was serene as he waited for her to break the ice. Paige sipped at her tea as she gathered her thoughts.

“There was this guy.” Paige hesitated for a second before continuing. “At the coffee shop today there was this guy that caught my attention. He wasn’t just an ordinary person, but I don’t know how he wasn’t ordinary.”

She took another moment to consider her words, glad that Father Brannigan was a patient man. “He had this feeling about him as though he was very angry with the world, but very sad at the same time. I’m not sure if I can explain it right at all. I’m sorry. I do know that he wasn’t being directly influenced by anything supernatural that I could tell so he should have been below my radar.”

“It’s alright. You’re doing fine.” He patted her hand and gave her an encouraging smile. “Tell me more.”

“There was an accident in the coffee shop. That wasn’t odd, but what was strange was that it never even phased him. The glass was flying right by his head. None of it hit him and all he did was finish his coffee, calmly fold his newspaper and walk away. Like it was any old day, like nothing horrible had just happened right in front of him.”

When she finished her explanation she took another sip of her tea and swirled the cup, watching the few tea leaves that had escaped the sieve make pictures at the bottom. “I felt unusually drawn to him. I didn’t even know why, but unlike most of the people that I notice, there was something about him that made me want to know more.”

Father Brannigan scratched at his chin and then finished his own cup of tea. “That is a very interesting tale indeed.”

“That’s all you have to say?” Paige asked, disappointed. She wasn’t sure exactly what she had been hoping for, but that was definitely not it

“Don’t get ahead of yourself or ahead of me for that matter.” Father Brannigan said as he poured another cup of tea for both them. “Sometimes these things require a bit more thought than what first comes to mind.”

“What comes to mind first?” Paige asked, wanting to know everything he knew.

“That maybe he is someone who in many ways is a lot like you. Perhaps even someone that could use your help.” Father Brannigan sipped his tea. “However, that is only my initial reaction. There is a significant amount of subtext to this that I would need some time to be able to process it properly.”

Father Brannigan gazed out the window into the night and sipped at his tea. Paige toyed with her mug as she waited for him to say something else. She knew that there was no reason to be so impatient. Chances were, she would never see the man again, but still she felt as though time was essential.

“I think,” Father Brannigan said after both had finished their second cup of tea. “This man is very dangerous. Not intentionally so, but dangerous all the same. I would advise you to keep your distance.”

“You sound like my friend Tina.”

“She has your best interests at heart, but it’s your heart you need to follow in the end.” Father Brannigan said as he stood up and stretched, but Paige remained seated.

“You’ll see him again, but I do believe that you ought to tread carefully in this matter until you know more. I don’t know anything about this man and I cannot even begin to guess at what his story is.”

“You’re sure I’ll see him again?” Paige said as she stood up.

Father Brannigan opened the door to the hallway and smiled. “Just be sure to find out his story when you do. Our future is written in our history. If you know the past, you’ll know the future too.”

“Thank you Father, good night.” Paige said as she walked out the door. There was no response from Father Brannigan as the door closed softly behind her. Paige was used to that. She had known him for nearly ten years now and she still could not quite figure him out.

She left the building, encountering no one along the way. It was a relief to be back in her own place where everything was safe and familiar. Yet, she didn’t feel safe. A shiver ran down her back as she thought about Father Brannigan’s warning. She fell into bed with her mind spinning from everything that happened during the day.