667 Issue #10: "Old Wounds"
Subject:??? Claire Grant

I had finally been left alone long enough with myself to really think.

What were his reasons for having me steal these things? They seemed meaningless to me, even though I was sure they were of import to many people. He kept telling me that I was destined to fetch these items for him, that it was a calling for these special abilities that had been bestowed upon me. These items, these relics, weren’t meant to be owned by anyone that was going to use them to further their religious agenda. They were desperately seeking religious connection to things that had more historical value than anything.

While I agreed with that point and the fact that they should have been in a history museum instead of the confines of a religious institution, I didn’t know how I felt about stealing them.

They weren’t ours to own.

But he convinced me of all sorts of things without reasoning on my end.

“We’re so close.” I held the reliquary of St. Andrew’s shoulder bone in my hand, wrapped in a soft cloth.

It had been hard to obtain after my first flub with the surveillance cameras and my partner made me pay handsomely for that mistake.

According to him there was only one more item that he needed so that all the religious relics were in one place.

I didn’t know what the last relic was, but we already had so many: The Sudariam of Oviedo, the Image of Odessa, the Veil of Veronica, the Holy Chalice of Valencia, and even a piece of the Spear of Destiny.

But he seemed disappointed that we didn’t have everything yet.

I just couldn’t figure out what he wanted them for, but he told me I’d know in due time.

He was such a handsome man with the thickest dark hair and the most striking blue eyes. His full lips always made me weak in the knees and even when he was less than kind, I was still transfixed by his charisma. He was smart and I knew that there was a good reason for what we were doing, but I didn’t know what that reason was and it was starting to become exhausting.

He warned me not to go into the city without him, but I hated being cooped up and he didn’t like me going anywhere without him.

Though, it was he that left all the time without me by his side, that afforded me the time to sit down and read instead of using my mind to move things.

I still wasn’t sure where that ability came from as it had never manifested itself until a little less than a year ago, but it proved to be beneficial.

He and I started dating shortly after my psychic abilities revealed themselves and when I confessed to him what I could do, there was no judgement on his part. It made me feel better about the novel abilities that had come over me and he assured me that they were a gift to be used and that God had sent me to help him with his mission.

This statement seemed contradictory to his reasoning for stealing the relics, but I never questioned him; I just did as I was told and received his loving touch in return.

This time, he had left again without me and said that he was going into the city for business reasons, and this left me alone with the thought of the woman I had seen the day before.

I had been able to sneak away from him long enough to get a beer from the Tartan.

My appearance was something I had to cover due to whatever happened to me on my birthday the year prior and was part of the reason that he wanted me to stay hidden if I wasn’t with him.

I had just come into the pub when this woman at the bar turned to look at me as if she knew who I was. There was this strange air about her as she glanced at me over her shoulder and I tried to avert my gaze, but I couldn’t deny the connection. She left shortly after I got my beer, but her face was still haunting me.

I would probably never see her again as I assumed in a few days we would be jetting off to replace the last relic that my partner needed…and then what would we have?