by Lisa Lace
We hadn't been in this town long. My hometown was the little community of Core Rock, a charming mining settlement. There were exactly two hundred sixteen inhabitants - actually, two hundred fifteen now that Abigail had gone away to school.
I lived a happy childhood there. My family consisted of my father, who was also my best friend. I did well in school, and my life was perfectly normal until I was fourteen.
That was when the visions started.
At first, I thought I was lucid dreaming until they began to happen during the day. I managed to hide everything until I had one at school. They thought I was having a seizure. My father had me tested for epilepsy, but the tests came back negative.
I almost wish I had been suffering from some unfortunate disease, but that wasn't my fate. As it turned out, I was a psychic and could see into the future.
It's a rare ability on Earth, but I have learned that aliens on other planets exhibit these powers all the time. Unfortunately for me, I didn't live on these other planets. My harassment by my fellow humans began almost immediately. Earthers, in general, have not caught up to other interstellar cultures in regards to peace, harmony, understanding, and tolerance.
At first, people started teasing me at school. It escalated quickly to bullying. I got beat up a couple times. "Why didn't you see that punch was coming, you freak!"
I couldn't control when I had the visions, or what I saw.
My father didn't know what to do. He went to the police, but they couldn't do anything. He tried to protect me by dropping me off and picking me up at school. Someone always found a way to get to me when there wasn't anyone else looking.
Things became complicated when I foresaw someone's death. A kid at school was planning to commit suicide, and I knew it was going to happen. I tried to do something about it. My plans didn't work, and he died. Despite my best intentions, I drew suspicion upon myself. An investigator suspected me, and they nearly charged me with murder.
That's when my dad and I decided to move. I started hiding my ability. I ignored the next death I saw in my visions. If I knew someone was going to be hurt, I watched movies until the early morning hours so I could fall asleep.
If I was exhausted, sometimes I could avoid the nightmares.
My father was distraught and tried to help me. We went to see everyone we could — doctors, healers, a shaman. Someone who claimed to be able to exorcise demons. Nothing worked. In fact, my visions became more intense and more accurate. As I got older, I wanted to change the future. I wanted to prevent bad things from occurring, especially the deaths that I saw. Every time I started, I remembered what happened in Core Rock and didn't do anything.
Now they had found me again in our new town. I didn't know how the Sons of the Heavenly Father kept tracking us down. News agencies have linked them to murders all over Earth, but they only target a specific minority - people who are different, like me. If the eggs were the best weapons they had, they'd find they would need to do a hell of a lot more than that to scare me away.
I pivoted on my right foot, turning in a circle. On a whim, I raised my hands like claws.
"Stand back," one man yelled.
I heard a few of them muttering. They all held up crossed index fingers. I heard the word 'witch' multiple times. If they wanted me to be a witch, I supposed I could play the part. I knew it was a bad idea, but something in me was so angry and so sick and tired of running away that I couldn't seem to stop myself.
I pushed my hands away from myself, palms facing away, and I screamed. As loud as I could, like a banshee.
I saw the crazy men's faces turn white. They stumbled backward as if they'd been knocked down by the simple act of me raising my hands. For a moment, as they ran away, I got a false sense of power. I felt like a witch. I could make the bad guys cower.
But I was just an ordinary girl.
I began walking as fast as I could back to the apartment I shared with my father. I knew young women should be out on their own to learn independence. But I wasn't a typical girl. My dad needed me and helped me with my visions. If I had an unexpected seizure, he was there to protect me. Since I couldn't work, he supported us. I avoided people and typically ventured out at dusk.
Today had been such a beautiful day I couldn't stay inside any longer. I went for a walk. The men found me, pelting me with eggs and calling me rude names. I was lucky they didn't beat me up, but I was still anxious.
"They knew that you have a gift? They said so?" my father said. His brown eyes looked calm, but I didn't need powers to know he was terrified. His hands were shaking.
"They called me a witch, Dad. That says it all, I think."
"We've worked so hard to escape from the Sons of the Heavenly Father. It's discouraging to know they've found us again. We may need to run."
"They're not going to stop. We know what they do to witches. We've seen it on the news." My father shuddered, probably remembering the images of charred remains in his mind. The Sons of the Heavenly Father were on a quest to burn anyone they accused of being a witch - all in the name of their savior, of course. History was repeating itself. They thought the ends justified the means. They believed their salvation was worth murdering innocent lives. I wondered what their god thought about that.
I felt the need to confess.
"I might have made it worse, Dad. I'm sorry."
He sighed, closing his eyes wearily. "What did you do, Quinn?"
"It's possible I lifted my hands and screamed like an animal," I said, apologetically, demonstrating my pose.
My father shook his head. "Oh, Quinn. If they didn't think you were a witch before, they'll know you are now."
"I know," I said sadly. "I know. We have to go right away, Dad. We can't bring anything." We hadn't accumulated much. It had only been six months since we moved here. I had a feeling it wouldn't be the last time.
I felt a sense of longing for home that was so strong it almost overpowered me for a moment. I didn't have a place to call home anymore. I could no longer go back to Core Rock. Not even for a visit. I didn't think my life wasn't in danger here, but I still felt afraid.
Dad said we had to wait until nightfall to leave. "We'll be less conspicuous if we leave in the evening," he said. "In the meantime, you should pack and rest. We may be up all night, Quinn."
"Okay, Dad," I said, going quietly to my room.
This vision was clearer than any I had ever experienced before. Every detail was vivid, even the smell of the snow. Who knew snow even had a smell? Not me. We didn't get snow where I lived on Earth.
The air was crystal clear. My breath came out of my mouth like smoke. The cold stung my cheeks as I walked through the forest.
Sometimes the visions I had felt like watching a movie. I was never in the movie. I was always an observer.
Until now.
This time, I was one of the people in the story, and I was playing myself.
I was walking alone through the snow. I needed to get away from something. The storm drove into my face at one moment and into my back the next. Huge trees whipped back and forth in the wind. Since I had arrived on this planet, I had never seen the trees moving like this. I had seen severe winds before, but they barely moved the branches. Now enormous tree trunks were swaying back and forth and groaning. I started to feel afraid. What if one of them fell on me?
I tripped suddenly. Not only my boot, but my entire foot was caught under a root. I hadn't seen it under the deep snow. I was stuck. I struggled, trying to free it, but it wouldn't come out. What was I going to do now?
Without warning, I heard a crack and a big tree began to fall on top of me. I stared up in fear, holding up my arms uselessly in a futile attempt to protect me. I was saved when the trunk caught on another tree and stopped falling.
A voice yelled my name behind me. I had never heard it before, but it seemed familiar.
"Quinn!" I turned to look and saw a man yelling and beckoning to me. I knew he was good looking, but somehow his
face remained out of focus. I couldn't see his features. "Come on!"
He came up to me and pulled on my arm.
"My foot's stuck. Get out of here," I said, pushing at him, feeling afraid and desperate. "We don't both have to die."
The man smiled at me, then glanced up at the fallen trunk. It was beginning to creak. The tree could start falling again at any time.
He took my hands in his and leaned towards me. His eyes were full of emotion. "We do both have to die. I love you. And I can't live without you."
"What?" I said.
"I love you," he said again. This time, he leaned in and kissed me.
When the tree hit us, it was over so quickly I barely felt a thing.
When I emerged from a vision, I saw two worlds at the same time. The forest scene began to dissolve. Simultaneously, the ceiling of my bedroom came into focus. My father sat at the foot of my bed.
"Was it a bad one, Quinn?" he said. His voice sounded worried. "You were tossing and turning a fair bit."
I sat up, trying to remember everything. The images of the forest began to slip away like a dream.
"I don't know."
"Tell me, Quinn. You know you remember better when you tell someone."
My body felt shocked by grief, but I wasn't sure why.
"Quinn?" My dad put his hand on top of mine. "Are you all right?"
"No," I said. "I just watched myself get crushed with a man I'm going to love."
"What?"
"I was in my vision," I said, turning my eyes to him at last.
"You were in the vision?"
"Yes, it was a vision about me."
"Has that ever happened before?" he asked.
"Not that I can remember," I said.
"Hm." He looked troubled for a moment. Then he stood up. "Time to go, I think."
"Yes," I said, trying to calm down and come back to reality. Sometimes after a vision, it was difficult for me to return to real life. I stood up and grabbed my emergency bag. "I'm ready."
I followed my father down to the main floor and into the attached garage. We got in the car and drove away. We weren't coming back.
Chapter Two
QUINN
Blackness surrounded us and kept us safe as we drove down the dark highway. We sped away from a place that had never felt like home. I drove while my father slept. He would take the second shift. I wondered where we would go. It didn't matter as long as we remained hidden.
When I noticed the car behind me, I initially dismissed it. As it crept closer yet never passed us, I felt terror creeping up on me. Had the Sons of the Heavenly Father followed us? I hadn't imagined that possibility. What if someone had been watching our house? Would they do that?
I had the impression that the Sons of the Heavenly Father, although murderous, were a bunch of dumb, unsophisticated hicks with poor organization. In my mind, only a bunch of rednecks and bullies would go around burning people in this day and age.
If they had followed us, it meant there were some people in their organization that had brains and were able to use them. They were more than typical bullies. They were intelligent, coordinated bullies.
I hoped the car was an elderly grandma that didn't want to pass us at night, but my idealistic dream didn't ring true. I knew it was them. Sometimes I have hunches that seem like something more, and they're usually right. I've learned to listen to my gut. Dad calls it my 'sick sense'. He has an odd sense of humor.
If it was them, I needed to decide where to go immediately. I shouldn't go to an isolated location. I should drive us to a mall or some other place with lots of people. That should keep me safe. They were known to get their victims alone to hurt or kill them. None of the reported attacks had any witnesses — at least, none left alive to tell their tale.
I sped up and frowned at my rear-view mirror when the car behind us kept pace. Damn. My father snoozed on, and I debated whether to wake him or not. I decided to wait a little longer. When I turned off the road, I would know if the car was following us. I didn't need Dad's advice for that. I also didn't want to say my fear out loud because that would make my terror real.
I passed a sign that said the next town was ten miles away, and I drove on. My hands gripped the wheel so tightly my fingers started to ache. When we drove through the town, I realized it was too small a place to turn or stop because the sleepy village was already closed for the night. It was only eight o'clock, but nothing was open.
I needed to continue until I hit a big city, and find a place where people were awake and businesses were open. The next half hour passed slowly. Our pursuers remained behind us. I still nursed a faint hope. Any number of people could be going to the city. It was the only one in the area, and all the communities shopped there for items they couldn't get at home. It wasn't unreasonable to think someone else was going there and not pursuing me.
The problem was the dreadful feeling in my guts. It told me that something was very wrong.
When we arrived at the city, Dad finally woke up. "Quinn?" he said, yawning and stretching his arms. "Where are we?"
"We're in the city already. I'm afraid that someone might be following us."
He turned around. "It's the black car," I said, praying that I was wrong.
"What do you think we should do?"
"I thought that we should go somewhere to hide in a crowd."
"Quinn, if that's the Sons of the Heavenly Father, why do you think they're following us?"
"To kill me," I whispered.
"We need to go to the police immediately. There's no need to risk your life."
I glanced over at him and then back at the road. "You're right."
He found the nearest police station and sent the coordinates to the car. I put it on autopilot, and it proceeded to get us there in a few minutes. There was nowhere to park on the front side of the building, where civilians were allowed to enter. Maybe there was a staff entrance in the rear next to the parking lot.
"I'll drop you off. You run into the building," Dad said. "They're not that close to us. You'll have time to get in. Don't stop until you're safely inside."
"Okay," I said, pulling over. As soon as the car stopped, I jumped out and moved towards the door of the police station. It had no windows — probably to keep them from being broken all the time in a seedy neighborhood like this one. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the black car pulling up behind us. The window opened, and I raced for the door. I reached the steps and scrambled up as quickly as I could.
As I reached for the handle of the door, I felt something sting my neck. I put my hand up to feel a dart embedded in my skin. Pain shot through my neck, and it started swelling immediately. I looked around and saw shadowy figures running toward me. I tried to move. My legs weren't responding to my brain. Then my legs collapsed, and I felt myself falling. Before I hit the ground, I was out.
AIRIK
I sat up in bed. Sweat rolled down my face. My eyes were open, but I didn't see the world around me. I was having a Precog.
As soon as I realized what was happening, my training kicked in automatically.
"Precog," I said. My computer beeped and began recording my speech, as well as my brainwaves and other vital signs. Saying the keyword also alerted the ground crew back at headquarters. The team worked continuously to record and interpret our visions.
I began to describe what I was seeing. It took Precogs a lot of training before we could speak while having a vision. After ten years of working for the Precog Division and recording over a thousand visions, I had the hang of it.
"Someone's following me," I said. "I'm in a vehicle."
"Which planet are you on?" came the familiar voice of Miroll, my regular Recorder.
"I don't know. The car is driving itself. Does that help?"
"Did you say car?"
"Yes, it's a car," I said, feeling mildly annoyed.
"Continue to monitor your surroundings for signs of the location," Miroll's calm voice instructed me t
hrough the communications unit I wore behind my ear. "What else do you see?"
"It's night. I'm scared."
"Are you male or female?"
I glanced down at my hands and clothes. I had breasts. There were some things about being a Precog I would never think were normal.
"Female," I said.
"Why are they following you?" she asked gently.
"I don't know. I think someone wants to hurt me."
"Hurt you how?"
"I'm not sure. This sounds ridiculous, but I think they want to burn me."
Miroll continued with her quiet questions. She asked me what I could see and what was happening. She wanted to know the colors, sights, smells, and sounds. Recorders were trained to get as many pertinent details out of Precogs as possible before the vision ended.
"She's important, Miroll."
"Please estimate on a scale of one to ten." We were taught to give the importance of the person in a vision a number.
"Eleven," I said immediately. I could sense Miroll's surprise. "Wait. There's a road sign coming up," I said. As it got closer, I inspected it. The writing was in an unfamiliar language to me. Fortunately, the words were not unfamiliar to this woman's body, and I could understand them in the vision. "Or-land-oh? Ten miles," I said, repeating it aloud.
"Spelling please," Miroll's gentle voice requested.
"O-r-l-a-n-d-o. It's sweltering here, Miroll."
"Yes, you've said that..." There was a pause as she counted under her breath. "Five times, sir."
They were going to a police station. She was traveling with a man, and she was afraid of the people in the car behind her.
I felt the woman jump out of the car and sprint for the doors of the police station. Something pinched her neck, and I felt her pass out.
"She's unconscious," I said.
"How did that happen?" Miroll asked, sounding surprised.
In real life, I heard a noise. I crashed back into reality as my girlfriend, Sornalee, walked into my room.
"Hey babe, why are you still awake?" Her voice trailed off when I glared at her. "Were you working?"
