by Candy Crum
“Mia? What the fuck kinda name is that?” she asked, wiping at her nose with the back of her hand.
Sigh.
“Algonquin,” I said, my smartass mouth getting away with me. I had no idea “what the fuck kinda name” Mia was, but her rudeness spoke deeply to my inner asshole. That sounded terrible… My inner sarcasm. There’s a winner. Much better.
“What? Is that like – in Africa?” she asked, a deeply confused look on her face. “Did your parents not know you’re white?”
My left brow rose. I was about to lose all patience.
“You stupid ho,” one of the guys said. “That’s Native American or some shit. It’s not a place, dumbass.”
Holy Jesus. Well, he was half right.
“Oh! Okay. And Ricki, you don’t have to be so mean,” she said. She turned back to me then. Joy. “I’m Shaw-nee. Not Shawn. Not Shawna. Shaw… nee.”
That damn brow of mine again.
“So, you’re Native American, too, then?” I asked, chastising myself for my rude sense of humor. However, she brought it on herself, and it was absolutely hilarious because she had no clue. Ah, that’s when it’s the best!
“What? Why would you think that? I’m white. Whiter than you are. I’m Irish.” She laughed. “Me. Native American. This bitch,” she said as she shook her head and laughed at me.
Apparently, she didn’t know about the Shawnee Indians either. Shocker.
It was then that I heard some yelling coming from another room, the same direction Will and Big Guy went in.
“Is everything okay?” I asked, staring in the direction of the room.
Homegirl Shaw… nee rolled her eyes. “Yeah. They’re fine. Will owes Jay some money. He was supposed to pay it by now.”
“Really?” I asked. If it was that much of an issue, why didn’t he ask me? I’d have loaned it to him. “How much does he owe him?”
She laughed. “Last I heard – around twenty.”
Twenty? That’s it?
“Thousand,” she said, having seen the clear confusion on my face.
I nearly choked. “Twenty THOUSAND?” I asked. “How in the hell does he owe him that much money?”
“Will said that ‘sales have been slow.’ Around here, sales don’t get slow. He can move just about anything we give him if he tried.”
My gut tightened and I nearly puked. My best friend. The best friend I’d had my entire life, grew up with, had sleepovers with, graduated with, then fell in love with… He was a – drug dealer?
“You didn’t know?” Shawnee asked. She laughed. “Apparently, you ain’t as cool as he said you are. He doesn’t tell you shit.”
For once, good ol’ Shawnee had something right. He hadn’t told me shit. I had no idea he was mixed up in anything like that. He never acted like he was stoned, high, fucked up, or any other combination of words there were for it. Hell, I didn’t even think he smoked pot!
The shouting got louder then. It wasn’t calming down. It was escalating quickly. There was a loud crash, and I jumped up from my seat, heading for the door across the room.
“Don’t go in there!” Shawnee yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me backward.
“I have to make sure he’s okay!” I said, pulling away and bolting for the door.
Opening the door, I saw something I never in a million years thought I’d see on that particular day. It was supposed to be a great day. I woke up, had a cup of coffee, said cup of coffee was a bit too much that early and made me sick, felt better and later had breakfast, called my friend, planned for paintball… See where I’m going with this? It was a normal fucking day!
I stared across the room at Big Guy – AKA Jay. He was standing no more than five feet away from barrel to Will. The gun pointed directly at Will’s head.
“Please,” Will said. “I’ll get the money. I’ll sell all of it.”
Jay looked over and saw me standing there, probably as pale as Irish out there and my eyes the size of flapjacks. Flapjacks. I should have told Not-Shawna my name was that. If she’d asked me then “what the fuck kinda name is Flapjacks?” I then could have looked at her and excitedly said, “I know, right? Where did that even come from? Who is Jack? And why is he flappy?”
My damn thoughts again… Never too far away, even in danger.
“I don’t think you will,” Jay said, still staring me down.
“I’ll help him,” I blurted out without thinking.
“Mia, no!” Will called out.
Jay smiled. “Actually, I think she’s onto something here. You aren’t nearly motivated enough.”
“I’m very motivated. I swear. I’ll get the money,” Will said. “I still have all of it. It’s not like I’ve been using it or giving out freebies. I just haven’t sold it. I can give it back to you if you have someone that would do better. Please just keep her out of it.”
“I don’t want the product,” Jay said. “I want productivity.”
Oh. Big word. I wasn’t sure anyone around here spoke with those.
“I can! I will!” Will exclaimed.
Jay smiled again, looking from Will to me. “I think you’re right. I think you’ll be much more motivated.”
And with those short few words, the gun was fired. Directly into my chest. At first, I didn’t feel anything. I just looked down at the blood soaking the front of my shirt, shocked beyond all reason that the day had taken such a sharp turn. Then I collapsed to the floor.
~ ~ ~
My eyes opened wide, another sharp intake of breath threatening to kill me. I stared in the mirror, unable to look away.
Impossible…
My eyes…
They were glowing. They were turning from blue to red, but the red seemed to glow. The outermost part of my iris jet black, as black as my pupils. My breathing picked up as I felt a sharp pop in my chest. Had my heart exploded? What the hell was that?
I wanted to scream, but the pain was so terrible that I couldn’t even manage a sound. It was taking all I had just to breathe. Looking at my chest in the mirror, I saw the unbelievable taking place. My ribs and my sternum were moving by themselves. Each side of the sternum coming together, the bone grinding against bone. The sound was horrible, but the stabbing agony was worse.
How did it happen? Within seconds, the bones were fused back together. I watched as new bone grew, melting each side in place as it should have been all along, not even a scar to show for it. Next, the skin began to pull. This time, I did cry out.
I heard something hit the floor from behind me. How I hadn’t seen their reflections in the mirror, I didn’t know. I must have been totally focused on the unnatural thing happening before me. Two women, nurses or medical students, stood in the room, staring at me. I could sense their fear and it seemed to radiate off of them. One started to run.
“Stop!” I shouted.
She did as I asked. Her compliance was immediate. Absolutely no hesitation made. She didn’t speak, nor did she scream. She simply stood exactly where I’d told her to.
“You can’t leave,” I said. “I need help!”
The woman that had never moved spoke then. “What do you need help with?” Her voice was calm, smooth.
I didn’t know what to say. They were following my every direction.
“Something’s wrong. The doctor pronounced me dead, didn’t he?” I asked.
The runner turned to me then. “He did. At 13:17.”
“That is a time I’ll never forget,” I said.
“What can we help you with?” Runner asked.
“My chest,” I said. Even as I looked down the skin was healing. The incision had already closed and the scarring was growing smaller and smaller. “What’s happening to me?”
“We don’t know,” the other woman said. “We’re only medical students. We’ve never seen anything like this.”
I had to come up with a plan. Even if it had only been momentarily, I had died from a gunshot wound. I needed to get out of there before I was cut
into again and experimented on.
“I need both of you to help me out of here. Um…” I was thinking on my feet then. I had no idea what I was doing.
Looking down, I saw the things they’d dropped. There was a stack of towels and some sheets.
“I suppose that you’re here to clean me up and take me to the morgue. Is that right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Runner said.
“Okay. Well, that’s what we’re going to do. Give me some wet cloths, so I can start cleaning myself up. Then you’re going to cover me with a sheet and take me to the morgue. I’ll figure things out from there.”
“But if we do that, then everyone will continue to think you’re dead. That means you can’t go back to your old life when you leave here,” the other woman said. “Your family hasn’t yet been notified, but they will be once you reach the morgue and the paperwork has been filed.”
She had a point.
“True dat. Okay. Ideas? Ladies, we need to get moving here before someone comes in here and sees a zombie moving around,” I said.
“Are you? A zombie, I mean,” Runner asked.
“I have no idea what the hell is going on right now,” I said. “I could be, for all I know, but I’m walking and talking for right now, so let’s just go with it.”
“We could stitch you up,” the other woman said.
“What?” I asked. “I think it’s a little late for that.”
“We could stitch you up. We could say that when we came in here you’d managed to free yourself and were pulling the tube out. We can say that we immediately closed you up and have moved you to post-op. You’ll have to endure a physical, though. So, just act like you’re in a lot of pain,” she said.
“That’s not going to work. Her chest is completely closed. It’s perfect. There is no incision,” the runner said. “Putting sutures along the incision line isn’t going to do anything.”
She had a good point, but if I was able to telepathically control people then the stitches, pointless as they were, might go a long way in making it easier for me to force a doctor see a real wound there. If there were no stitches, I’d have to make him to see an incision and stitches. That was honestly the craziest problem that I’d ever had to find a solution for. I was grateful for the help.
They were very quick, though they were going around in circles. They didn’t seem be the least bit concerned with the situation, minus their desire to come up with a solution for me. They didn’t act as if they questioned what was happening at all. I looked at them, needing to know if I had full control over them. I needed to know if they stopped out of fear, curiosity, or if it was something greater than both.
“If I told you to kill yourself, what would you say to me?” I asked. I felt sick for even asking, but I had to see the reaction.
“Is that what you want? If that’s what you want from me then it would be my pleasure to make you happy,” Runner said.
My eyes widened.
“Absolutely,” the other said.
What… the…
“Okay. Good to know. No one is killing themselves today. I want both of you to live long happy lives. That is what would make me happy,” I said quickly. “As for the issue with the doctor, I think I can manage. I’ll give it a shot. I just have to figure out how to trigger this mind-controlly thingy. Telepathy?”
“Actually, I think it’s called compulsion,” Runner said. “Seems to me that fear did it. You saw me running and assumed that I’d run and tell everyone what I’d seen.”
I nodded. “I suppose that could be true. There is only one way to find out.”
“Do you really want to risk it?” the other woman asked.
“We don’t have time for a plan B. I need to be able to go back to my old life. I can’t just sit around and watch everyone I love from a distance. Family comes first for me. Just fading away and watching my mother and father suffer is not an answer.”
“Then tell us what you need us to do. We’ll help all we can,” Runner said.
I nodded once again. “First thing’s first… I’m going to need you to stitch me up.”
