Sing For Me by Trisha Grace

Rebecca talking.
    She looked over to Christopher when she felt his hand on her back.
    His brows were puckered as he stared at her with concern. He deepened his furrow, and she took a deep breath and smiled to let him know she was all right.
    “I didn’t see it.”
    Chloe immediately turned back to Rebecca as a dark green mist grew, but again, something seemed to cut away its life, and the mist fell away without making much headway.
    “I should go.” Rebecca gathered her things. “Don’t worry about your contract. When you’re ready, we can get back to work.”
    “I can’t … sing anymore,” Christopher said as he moved toward the door.
    Chloe licked her lips. She was tempted to pull Christopher back. Stop being irrational. The colors and images aren’t real; they don’t mean anything.
    “We’ll get it back. I’ll find a trainer. How about the speech therapist who worked with you on your stuttering? Maybe he can help. You’re a great singer.” Rebecca laid her hand on his arm. “I won’t let them ruin your future.” The red in her words were brighter, and they lasted slightly longer.
    “You don’t have to … help me.”
    Rebecca dropped her hand, gave Chloe a polite smile, and walked to the door. “I’ll see you soon.” The colors had disappeared again.
    She went over to the window as Christopher closed the door after Rebecca had left.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “She was your assistant?”
    He nodded.
    “Is she sick?”
    “What do you mean? Oh, you … heard me talking about her … hospitalization?”
    She looked back at him as Rebecca drove away. “What was she hospitalized for?”
    He shrugged as he walked toward her. “She took a two-week break from … work for personal reasons. I asked … if she was all right and … she assured me that she just needed … a break. Then I suddenly heard she was hospitalized. I’m not sure … for what.”
    “She seemed to have certain control over your contract,” she said.
    Christopher grinned and pressed his index finger against her forehead. “Stop frowning. Why do you look so worried?”
    “Do you find her strange?”
    “Did your superpower detect something?”
    She rolled her eyes. Only he called her condition a superpower. “I’m serious.”
    “So am I.”
    She sighed softly and continued, “Sometimes when she speaks, I don’t see any colors or words. Then when they do appear, they appear weak.”
    His brows drew closer.
    “She’s the first person I’ve ever met who doesn’t have a color when she speaks. As for the weak words, I’ve only seen this when my parents had me committed in the psychiatric hospital.” She cleared her throat. She never liked talking about her stay there.
    It was the first time she felt betrayed and abandoned by her parents.
    She shuddered as memory served her a snippet of her recent nightmare about waking up and finding herself in the hospital.
    Christopher reached over and gave her arm a squeeze.
    His touch brought her back to reality, and she smiled just because he was there with her.
    “Are you all right?” He took another step closer and wrapped his hand around her. “I won’t let anyone put you there again.”
    She put her arms around his waist and squeezed her eyes shut as they burnt. The security from his hug and words flooded her and calmed her down. “I know.” She let go of him and straightened.
    Christopher’s face was right in front of hers as he bent and looked at her.
    She sucked in a breath when she thought he was going to kiss her, but he suddenly straightened and moved away from her. She blinked and exhaled heavily through her nose.
    A moment of silence passed before he turned back to her.
    She rubbed her hand against her neck and struggled to remember what they were talking about before that. “And that pattern only appeared in heavily medicated patients.” She couldn’t be sure what condition those patients had; she was too afraid to ask. All she knew was that she should stay away