Mind Games

Chapter Fourteen: Salvation and Damnation

"How have you been sleeping?"

The question is asked almost at random. Succeeding, only just, in pulling Kanas out of his thoughts and back to reality, which he supposed was Constance's intention.

"Brokenly," he responded, almost sounding ashamed. Like admitting so was a weakness. So, he cleared his throat. "The same," he amended.

Which unfortunately meant that the hours in which he managed to sleep heavily and restfully was somewhere categorised between few and little.

In truth, the concept of sleep had eluded him for years. The consequence of working within a grey part of your own subconscious. He'd discovered that physical exhaustion mixed with mental fatigue was often the only thing to send him over the edge into a peaceful, dreamless slumber. It was often why he went over patient notes before inviting Irene over for a couple of hours. By the time his night with her would end, he would be able to succumb to sleep.

In recent weeks, with his move to Seattle and his term at the university, the hours he'd managed to sleep without further aid had expanded. But since Ezra's revelation in regard to Lucca's involvement in Whitley's death, his old sleeping habits had returned with a vengeance.

Lack of sleep was contributing to him being easily distracted by stay thoughts and a severe lack of the energy needed to make it through his day. The result of which had ended in a high caffeine intake, which had, in turn, resulted in a noticeable tremor in his hands.

Which Lucca had noticed, of course. The last time their eyes had met in the over-crowded school corridor. She had raised her eyebrows in silent question, but hadn't showed any further concern.

Perhaps she had been holding back how much she seemed to care? Which pleased him.

"You are once again not yourself, Oliver," Constance cooed at him, eyeing Kanas with equal amounts scepticism and worry, and maybe a little amusement. Leading Kanas to wonder if he had missed her saying something. "Twice in as many sessions. For a man of your nature, I find that rather disconcerting."

"Mm," Kanas hummed distractedly.

His thoughts once more somewhere else. On someone else. On Lucca. Ezra. He wanted so strongly to disagree with Ezra's theory. To openly say that Lucca was innocent of all charges, but he had to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He had to remain unbiased. Had to assess the facts that he was aware of.

And the facts that he knew was that Lucca had slept with Ezra. Lucca had probably planned on sleeping with Whitley, and someone had gotten in the way of that plan when they'd killed him. The facts were that someone had approached Ezra, trying to get to Lucca. That someone was willing to kill in order to send a message. That Lucca's life was possibly in danger.

Those were the facts. The theories.

And he wanted to say that they were all wrong. That Ezra had Lucca had never been intimate. That Whitley's death was nothing more than an unfortunate event that had lead Kanas to be in Lucca's life. But he knew better than to blame fate. Or coincidence.

Which meant that Lucca's life was in danger. Someone was trying to kill her. To get a message to her, that involved a dead body, which meant ever more danger.

Or Lucca had felt her life was in danger and had acted on her own needs of self-preservation. She'd gone to somebody, and had asked them to remove a threat from her life. To kill Whitley. To place the blame onto Ezra.

It seemed too petty, too vindictive of the Lucca he had come to know and he'd love nothing more than to claim Ezra's theories on nothing more than a delusion of grandeur. But there had almost been too much emotion behind Ezra's conviction for him to lay the matter to rest so easily.