by Shelly Crane
“Ok, Ecstasy, I’ll take you up your offer to practice if you still want to.”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
“Me too,” Jen chimed.
Bish looked at her and put a hand out in front of her to stop her but didn’t touch her.
“Whoa, what? Practice what?”
“My ability.”
“You’re not practicing anything on Jenna.”
Jenna? Even I didn’t know her real name was Jenna. I bit my lip to stop the smile. Bish had it bad. I looked at Caleb who had turned red in the face. Oh boy, I didn’t think we could stop them anymore. It was only a matter of time.
Caleb shot me a look to say he wasn’t thrilled with my thought. I just shrugged at him.
They don’t want to be told how to live their lives anymore than we do, Caleb. I shook my head and took his hand. How hypocritical have we been?
He sighed and nodded, pulling me to him. He kissed my forehead.
My family is going to be so pissed.
His words rang a harsh truth but he laughed. I looked up at him and smiled. When I looked back to Bish he was watching us.
“So, all those times you two were being weird you were talking to each other…in your minds?” Bish asked with a fascinated look on his face.
“Yep,” I said with a smirk.
“Ok,” Ecstasy sang and stood from the table. “This is accommodatingly awkward. Can we move on to my being target practice, please?”
“Let’s take it to the garage so we don’t wake anyone up,” Caleb suggested and towed me behind him without waiting for someone else to say anything.
I heard them following us. Bella followed too and I heard Jen tell her to stay as she closed the door.
We had to walk by the chest freezer…the one Caleb sat me on when Bish found us with my shirt open. I gnawed my lip as my cheeks flushed at the memory. I looked up to see Caleb grinning at me in standard male satisfaction.
He touched my cheek, tracing the crimson pattern.
I think it’s been too long since I’ve made you blush.
I felt the flush burn hotter and blaze down my neck.
Enough you.
He laughed as we made our way to the center.
Bish wasn’t as intrigued by his memory of this garage as we were with ours. He glared at the freezer and then at Caleb.
“We were practicing that night too,” I told Bish.
He had the good graces to look a little embarrassed.
“Yeah…Jenna told me told more about what goes on after you…imprint. I still don’t understand but, I know that things are really different. And…I’m sorry. I overreacted. I always overreact, but Maggie you don’t know what it was like for me. My parents…as a kid-”
“Actually, I do.”
“What?”
“One of my abilities is to see the past, remember? I saw more than I wanted to see of yours,” I told him quietly.
He blanched and shoved his hands in his pockets. He rocked on his heels and his shame blazed like a fire through me. It was almost as if I could feel the heat from it. I was confused as to why he felt so responsible for everything that happened.
“It wasn’t your fault. I saw everything.”
“I’m not going to talk about that right now. Now,” he said back to business and crossed his arms over his big chest. “What exactly do you think you are you going to do to Jenna?”
I caught her small smile at his protectiveness beside me. I glanced at her and she glanced at me. Her smile melted and she begged me with her eyes.
“Please don’t read my mind right now, Maggie,” she whispered.
I nodded.
“I’m not trying to,” I told her gently. “Let’s just do this, I guess.”
“Hello, Mags!” Bish said exasperated.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Bish. Try to focus and see what I get from them. We had an issue at the club tonight.”
“Issue?”
“Yeah,” Ecstasy chimed in too happily, “she saw me die.”
She smiled cruelly but I saw what was in her mind. She was scared.
“Ok,” he dragged out. “Well, you’re still kicking so I assume that’s why she brought you here?” She tipped her head to him in answer. “So you’re just going to look into her mind, that’s it. You’re not going to use any magic on Jenna?”
It didn’t escape my notice how he kept saying her name and talking about her instead of to her.
“Oh, don’t worry about little old me over here,” Ecstasy said sarcastically and put her green polished nail hands on her hips.
It was scary how much she reminded me of Kyle and his snarkyness.
“No, I’m not gonna use magic on her,” I said and rolled my eyes. “I don’t possess any magic that I know of.”
“You know what I mean. Ok. I mean, if she’s ok with it,” he conceded.
“I am,” Jen or should I say Jenna confirmed.
“Me first,” Ecstasy said.
I swallowed. I had no idea what to do or how to start. Caleb pulled two chairs into the middle of our circle and sat me down in one. Ecstasy sat in the other.
“Every other person I’ve had visions for, I touched.”
She held out her hand eagerly. I noticed her eyes were also eager and bright, lit with the hopes that I would tell her something awesome and life changing. I hoped I didn’t disappoint.
I touched her hand and it was surprisingly soft as I tried to focus. I felt Caleb’s hands on my shoulders as he tried not to worry behind me.
“I’ve already seen your future for tonight and the next few days. I’m going to try to see your future after that.”
She just stared at me expectantly. And I stared back. I focused on her face, her pulse beating under my fingers in her wrist, her eyes barely blinking.
Nothing happened.
I cleared my throat in annoyance and focused again. Her mind was so focused on me and waiting that I saw nothing else in her mind. I breathed slowly and deeply, nothing, dang it. I huffed and slammed back in my chair and the lights flickered. The light bulb above us glowed brighter then dimmer. Ecstasy eyed it speculatively and then looked back to me.
“I don’t think I can just will it like the other things-” I explained but Ecstasy cut me off.
“What other things? What do you mean ‘will it’?”
I decided to show her. I sent my thought to turn the light out above us. I also thought about how it felt when Bish pushed Caleb. The light went out with a low keening hum and we were submerged in darkness. All I could hear was her breathing.
“Um…ok, I get it,” she said and I heard her annoyance.
“You asked.”
“I hate the dark, please turn it back on,” she said evenly but she was serious. The dark scared her.
So I repeated my process and turned it back on. Bish was looking at me a little wild eyed. I sighed and gave him a look.
“Are you really surprised?” I asked.
“Yes. You just keep coming up with all these things you can do.”
“I don’t come up with them,” I muttered but he was still going.
“Why do Peter and Rachel-“
“No, Bish, stop.” He looked at me funny. “Ecstasy doesn’t know everything.”
“What do you...oh. Well, you kinda just let the cat out of the bag, sister.”
“No I didn’t! She doesn’t know-”
“Ok, ok,” Caleb crooned and rubbed my neck. “She knows something is up but she doesn’t know what. Let’s keep it that way.”
“Yeah,” I reiterated. “That’s what I was getting at.”
Bish rolled his eyes at me but smiled in tolerance.
“Anyway,” I accentuated. “I’m different apparently.”
“She’s special,” Caleb said and ran his fingers down the mark on my neck that Bish couldn’t see. “She’s pretty much royalty for us.”
“Really,” Bish said in awe as I fought to not roll my eyes, “Hmm.”
“Ok. Let’s get back to this and get it over with. I’m ready for bed,” I insisted.
“Ok.”
We tried again and again for the next half hour and nothing happened still. I’d had it. I was tired and in a foul mood from too much channeling of bad thoughts and feelings, trying to force a reaction. I no longer wanted to try anymore.
“That’s it. I’m done. I’m going to bed.”
I started to get up and go, without waiting for anyone but Caleb grabbed my arm to halt me. I had a seconds thought, a moment of weakness, where I thought about zapping him in my annoyance but stopped it immediately and felt guilty. Caleb heard my thought and released my arm quickly.
“I’m sorry,” I told him. “It’s just thinking about all these bad things…”
“I know,” he said but didn’t make a move to touch me again. “Let’s go, Ecstasy, you can sleep on the couch. Come inside and I’ll get you set up in the living room.”
I turned back to leave but Jen was there. She grabbed my hand to say something about trying another day but that was it. That was all it took for some reason. I was smacked with another vision but this time in was Jen’s. It was her future not her past, and there was blood everywhere.
~ Twenty Two ~
I gasped and pulled my hand away in reflex but the vision kept coming. I vaguely felt Caleb’s arm around me from behind. He was shaking as he watched the vision with me. Jen and Bish were standing together later on in the future, not tonight. It was dark. I couldn’t see their surroundings but they were…touching, murmuring into each other’s ear and in their minds in an embrace. Jen laughed and as she leaned her head back in her glee, Bish took that opportunity to kiss her neck. Then there were gunshots, Bish and Jen both looked around and suddenly Jen bent over in with an agonizing scream. Bish followed her but when he took his hand away, it was red with her blood. Then he too, was hit in the shoulder with a bullet…then the stomach. They fell in a heap on the ground and writhed in pain together until they stopped writhing. They were both dead.
I screamed as I watched the so very life like scene play out. Their blood was so red, their eyes so wide and white against the dark, their hands entwined as they knew death was coming. I fell to the floor and Caleb caught me in his arms. We both sank down. When it was over, I turned and sobbed into his shoulder as he tried to keep his emotions in check.
“No, no, no, no,” I heard myself say.
Then I realized I wasn’t the only one chanting those words. I looked over to see Jen on the floor too. She had her arms wrapped around her stomach and she was rocking and chanting, tears running down her face. She had seen the vision too. Then Bish’s voice boomed above everything else going on and called all of our attention.
“What the hell was that?”
“What…you saw that?” I squeaked.
“Yes, I saw it.”
“Did you see it?” I asked Ecstasy and she just shook her head and looked at us.
“What was it?” he asked and balled up his fist to stop the shaking.
“A vision, I…Bish…”
“A vision. You’re saying that what we saw is going to happen... to us?”
“Yes, I guess. I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know!” he bellowed and Ecstasy flinched.
“I don’t know!” I yelled back. “I’m new at this, the visions just come and I can’t control them.”
Bish looked down at Jen and she looked up at him. For a split second I saw their look of longing. They were going to imprint. Bish’s breathing was ragged as he bent down and started to touch her hand. She jerked back and slid backwards on the floor in a hasty frightful attempt to escape him. He looked shocked.
“Don’t touch me,” she begged, “I have a daughter and I have to think of her. Please, don’t touch me.”
In her mind she was sorrowful. Finally, she had confirmation that she was going to imprint and now, that was all taken away. She couldn’t let him touch her because then she’d imprint and the vision would come true. She’d leave Maria motherless. Otherwise, she thought the trade off was worth it. To have your significant, to know real love and be completely happy, even if for a short time, was so worth it to her. But that dream was shattered now in her thoughts. She was going to die…just old and alone.
“Jen,” I soothed and scooted to her, pulling her into a rough hug. “I’m so sorry.”
“Wait,” I heard Bish mutter behind us. “You’re saying that Jenna and I…we’re going to…imprint?”
“In the vision you were imprinted,” I said softly.
“Bish,” Jen said softly looking at him unabashedly. Her tears ran down her face but her eyes spelled her feelings for him. “I’m sorry. I can’t. I want it, like nothing I’ve ever wanted before but I can’t leave my daughter without a mother. If I never touch you, then we won’t imprint, and if we don’t imprint, then the vision won’t come true, right, Maggie?”
“I don’t know, Jen. I’ve been able to stop them before so I guess so.”
“How did you stop them?” Bish asked.
“Well…there was a girl at the club we went to. I told her not to go home because her apartment was going to be broken into. She was going to beaten almost to death.”
“But how do you know that she didn’t go home?” Jen reasoned. “Or that she wasn’t hurt in some other way that night? Maybe you see what’s supposed to happen and you can’t stop it.”
“Well, I can’t be sure. I never saw her again.”
“How do you now that I’m not going to be kidnapped tonight,” Ecstasy asked. “Maybe that’s why you couldn’t see my future. Because I don’t have one. Maybe I’m supposed to die and even though you told me about it, something’s still going to happen, like that movie ‘Final Destination’.”
“This isn’t a movie,” Bish growled.
“I’m just saying.”
“Well, don’t. Jenna-“
“Bish, please don’t. I’m going to bed.”
Caleb helped her up and then me. She and Caleb hugged each other fiercely, almost like they were saying goodbye but neither of their minds wanted to voice it. She sniffed and smiled sadly at me. We stood and watched her go. Bish started to follow but I stopped him.
“Bish no, she’ll freak. She needs some time to think.”
“I won’t touch her. I just want to make sure she’s ok.”
“It’s hard on her, Bish. She’s wanted to imprint every since she was a little girl. She’s known about it her whole life and thought she never would. Now she found out that she could, but she’ll die. Just don’t, not tonight.”
He exhaled and I felt the pain from it through him to me.
“It’s probably just as well. She’s too good for me.” His mind reeled past a lot of stuff I’d seen before, of his childhood, how he thought he was worthless, but he spoke again before I could protest. “Is that why I’ve felt so weird around her?” He looked at us. He looked at Caleb’s hand locked in mine as he spoke. “Why I felt so protective and fuzzy around her?”
“You feel some of that stuff before the imprint,” Caleb explained. “You always feel something for the person.”
Bish nodded and slumped into the chair Jen had vacated in defeat.
I turned to Ecstasy.
“OK, let’s get you situated on the couch.”
“It’s not like I can sleep anyway. I’m just going to stay awake and wait to see if you stopped the vision or not. See if someone’s going to sneak in and grab me.”
“We’ll keep a watch out,” Caleb assured her. “I’ll make sure the alarm is set before we go to bed.”
“Well, I’m not thrilled to be the guinea pig to see if you can stop a vision but I guess I don’t have much choice. You got any booze to lighten the mood?”
“How old are you?” Bish asked, leaning his elbows on his knees.
“Eighteen.”
“Then, no, we don’t have any booze.”
“Nark,” she muttered a
s she made her way through the door to the kitchen.
We followed her but I turned to look at Bish.
“Are you coming?”
