by Kat Stiles
“What are you talking about?” Tommy said.
“Her last vision,” I explained, releasing her. “I’m the next victim.”
All the color drained from his face. “Please tell me this is your idea of a sick joke, Roz.”
“No, I saw it,” she said. “We were all at your house, Em. There was someone else, too, a woman, but she wasn’t clear. You tried to stop the doctor, but he was too powerful. He got inside your head, and then you collapsed. I…I couldn’t revive you.”
“What the hell, Roz!” Tommy yelled. “You could’ve said something to me.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t,” she said so quietly it was more like a whisper. “I…I hoped it was only a nightmare. But then seeing it twice…”
Learning about the vision, I understood why she wanted to spend time with me. After all, her track record spoke for itself. I didn’t have a chance. She began to sob into my shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
“No,” Tommy said as he straightened his shoulders. “It’s not going to happen. We can stop this. We will stop this.” Roz wiped her tears, nodding in agreement.
Tommy gripped my hand. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, Em.” His eyes pleaded with mine, as if he were trying to convince me he could prevent my death by sheer will.
They both tried to appear confident. But I knew what they really felt inside, it was the same as what I felt.
Fear.
* * * *
I couldn’t concentrate. I guess impending doom can throw you off like that. The only class I cared about was English because I got to see Tommy.
At class, he was already in his seat. He met me at mine and immediately enclosed me in his arms. The warmth of his embrace comforted me like always, but even more so today. I rested my head against his chest and sighed while he stroked my hair. I had started to feel relaxed when that familiar demonic shrill pierced through the air from across the room.
“Ew, are you two at it again?”
“Piss off,” Tommy said in an exhausted tone.
“Why do you always have to make out around me?” Angel made her way over to us. “It’s like some kind of torture.”
“Must I school you again…” Tommy leaned in to kiss me.
I pulled away from him and glared at Angel. I’m not sure what came over me. Maybe it was the fact I was on the verge of death and didn’t care, but I found I couldn’t hold back anymore.
“I am sick and tired of your mouth. You’re always such a bitch to me, and why? Because I don’t look like you or act like you? I’m done with it.”
Her mouth fell open, but no words came out. The scene was exactly like I envisioned it, a perfect silence.
“Don’t even look at me anymore,” I continued. “Or I’ll give you a reason to hate me.”
She closed her mouth and sat in the chair at her desk, remaining silent. Tommy stared at me, utterly shocked. Other students had entered the classroom, and I’m sure they were all confused when he began a slow clap for me.
I couldn’t help but smile at the gesture. I’d never had a slow clap initiated in my honor.
“I knew you could do it.” He gave me a quick kiss before he went to his seat.
“Had a good teacher,” I whispered as I sat, knowing he would hear me.
Behind me Angel muttered, “You think you’re so cool—”
I slammed my book on my desk, turned around, and looked into her eyes. “Don’t try me.”
She looked away, speechless once more.
I faced front, feeling a strange sense of accomplishment somehow. Tommy cleared his throat a few seconds later, and I glanced back at him. He held up a note that read in large letters, ‘You ARE So Cool!’
I flashed a grin before turning back around. Class was nice afterwards—I’d never been so relaxed in English before. Once class ended, Tommy came to my desk and hugged me in triumph.
Angel left without saying a word.
* * * *
At lunch, Tommy couldn’t stop talking about the incident in English class. Roz was totally stunned, speechless herself at first. Then she hugged me excitedly.
“Em, I’m so proud of you.” She smiled. “I knew it. What did I tell you?”
I laughed. “Glad you both approve.”
Angel entered the lunchroom and picked up speed when she passed our table. We all got a good laugh before the uncomfortable silence set in. I wasn’t the only one who could feel the tension. Tommy reached across the table to hold my hands, smiling nervously.
“What do we do now?” he asked.
The million dollar question. My fate hung in the balance, and I didn’t know the answer. None of us did.
* * * *
After school, I was nearly late making it to the bus—Tommy wouldn’t let go of me. He had to work that night and felt bad about leaving me. Roz finally pried him off in time for us to catch the bus, but she was just as bad once we made it to my house. She insisted on coming in with me, even though there were no cars in sight. I tried to tell her my sister and mother were at work, but of course she wouldn’t listen.
The place was deserted. “See? It’s fine,” I said.
“Wanted to be sure.” She sat on the couch. “What are you doing tonight?”
“No plans. You want to hang out after dinner?”
“Okay. I’ll stick around until someone else gets home.”
I smirked. “Roz, I’m a big girl, I’ve been home alone before. I’ll be all right.”
“We can’t take any chances now.”
“And how exactly does your being here change anything?”
“I can call the police if he tries to come in here,” she explained slowly, like I was an idiot.
“If it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen. In fact, if you consider what you saw in the vision, you’d have to be here, right? So while you are here, there’s a greater probability of it happening than if you weren’t here.”
Her brow furrowed. I thought she was about to say something, but then she stopped, and her bewildered expression reappeared.
“Go home, Roz. I’ll be fine. Besides, Lauren is going to be home any minute now. You know she won’t let any men into the house.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Go.”
“I love—” she started.
“I know. I love you, too.”
* * * *
Dinner was a series of conversations I tried not to be involved in. It was only when directly addressed, that I responded.
“Emily, you have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” my mother said.
Finally, I thought. “I can’t go.”
“Why not?”
Because the doctor is a homicidal maniac, planning to kill me, I thought. I was so close to actually saying it. But instead I said something a bit more believable. “I have a paper due.” It was technically true, though I was almost finished with it.
“Well, you better work on it tonight because tomorrow night you’re going to your appointment,” she said.
“I planned to work on it tonight. I’m not sure I’ll be done.”
“No excuses. You’re going.”
After I finished my paper, I cracked open the doctor’s journal. All of the entries on me were towards the end, and almost all of them had to do with my father. He wrote about how I was on the verge of a major breakthrough, if he could only access deeper into the recesses of my memory without killing me. I shuddered. Even reading the words creeped me out. The passages about the murders amazed me—the level of detail he went into, in describing his ability. The deepest, darkest secrets of his victims were systematically unlocked as his mind penetrated further into theirs.
My heart sank. How in the world are we going to stop a power like that?
* * * *
The following morning I considered ditching school. I figured, if I was going to die, why was I wasting my last few days learning about the Spanish Inquisition? But then I considered what I would do if I didn’t go to s
chool. And while watching Scream for the seventeenth time was tempting, I would miss Tommy and Roz too much. With a tremendous burst of will power, I pushed myself out of bed and prepared for school.
Roz was at the bus stop, doting as ever, hugging me, and telling me yet again I was her best friend. It was like she was permanently intoxicated.
“Roz, if I actually live through this, I’m going to be totally offended when you don’t treat me this way anymore.”
She laughed. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll be so happy I won’t care.”
“Did you see anything new last night?” I said, afraid of the answer.
She looked down. “No. Nothing new.”
“It’s all right. Maybe we can do a healing tonight and recall the vision.”
“Okay.”
The bus arrived and we boarded. Neither of us spoke for a long time, but I could feel her anxiety, and coupled with my own, it was almost unbearable.
“Everything will be all right,” I finally said, more to convince myself than her.
* * * *
The school day was brief, but in my state of mind I hardly noticed anything anyway, muddling through the day as if I were sleepwalking. I reflected on my life and realized I didn’t do so bad. Especially lately. I’d experienced love and knew what it meant to actually be happy. I’m not saying I was ready to die, but at least I was more comfortable with the idea. And having my best friend and boyfriend go out of their way to be nice to me was pretty cool. If I have to die, I reasoned, at least I’ll die happy.
I passed by Judy’s office after my last class and noticed she was beaming. She motioned to come inside.
“It’s good to be in love, isn’t it?”
I smiled. “Heard you were breaking up with the doctor.”
“Keith and I are officially history,” she said, her joyous expression not fading in the slightest. “It’s crazy I was even with him in the first place.”
“I was wondering about that. I mean, you seem like a good person.”
“I like to think so.” She laughed. “But it’s not like I was in control.”
“Huh?”
“He has an ability—like us, but worse. I didn’t realize it until after I broke it off with him,” she said. “He didn’t take the news well. Thank God Adam was with me.”
I gulped. “What happened?”
“He tried to use his power on me. It’s some kind of telepathy, or mind control—I think he was using it when we were dating, to keep me with him.”
The awards. That’s how he helped all those people, by controlling them, programming them. And why I felt so compelled to answer him at the sessions.
“I always got the worst headaches around him,” Judy said.
Been there, done that. “So what happened?”
“Adam protected me by projecting Keith’s own anger back at him,” she said.
“Wow, sounds like you had a pretty eventful night.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, and then blushed. Her reaction made me wonder if she left out the best part.
She let out a long, happy sigh. “Adam planned a getaway for the two of us. We’re leaving tonight, taking the rest of the week off.”
My mind wandered off down a strange path, jumping from Tommy to Lauren, and then finally arriving at the doctor and Roz’s vision. How was I going to stop him?
Judy’s forehead wrinkled. “You’re not still seeing Keith, are you?”
“No,” I lied. She was so happy—I couldn’t tell her the man she broke up with was really a psycho killer. Who’s now coming after me. I smiled instead. “I hope you have a good time.”
She came out from her desk to hug me. “Thank you, Emily. Be careful, okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her, but I was glad she couldn’t see my face. What if I couldn’t stop the doctor?
* * * *
As Roz and I got off the bus after school, I noticed my mother’s car in the driveway. Roz took it as a sign she didn’t have to walk me in and left to go to her house. But I knew it was unusual for my mother to be home so early. I wonder if… the woman from Roz’s vision, what if it was my mother? My heart pounded in my chest as my thoughts turned to the worst. Is he here? Is it happening already?
I took the porch stairs two at a time and burst through the door.
“Mom?” I called out. She wasn’t in the living room or kitchen. I dashed through the house frantically searching for her. Not in her study, either. I stormed into her bedroom and heard the water running from the shower in her bathroom. “Mom?”
“I’m taking a shower. Can you wait a minute?” she said.
I exhaled, so relieved to hear her voice. “Yeah. I wondered where you were.”
A few minutes later, she joined me in the living room, toweling off her hair.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“Nothing. Your car was here, but I couldn’t find you.”
“Oh.” She draped the towel on the back of the couch. “Are you ready to go?”
She meant the doctor’s appointment, of course. But no part of me even cared to humor her. “I’m not going.”
“Of course you’re going. It’s too late to cancel now,” she said, as if the issue were merely a scheduling concern. As if my very life wasn’t in danger with that man. “You’re not going to try to tell me you didn’t finish your paper?” That disappointed frown she was so adept at surfaced.
“No, the paper’s done. I just don’t need him.”
She looked at me blankly, apparently too stunned to respond.
“Had you ever considered that?” I said. “That there’s nothing wrong with me? That I’m fine the way I am?”
I found her raised eyebrow offensive. “What about all your nightmares?” she said, folding her arms. “And you’re nervous all the time, what with your hands sweating and—”
“You don’t know me anymore. I’ve changed.”
“Oh really? How have you changed?”
“My hands are under control. And I’m not nervous.”
Her eyes studied me. For a minute there, I thought she believed me. But then she said, “Still, I think he’s helping.”
“I’m not going.”
“You are if I take you there.”
My heart started pounding. What do I do? Should I tell her about the murders? It would be futile. She wouldn’t believe me in a million years.
Then I remembered what Tommy said to me at my locker when I dreaded the last appointment with the doctor. Don’t go. And I realized it was my decision. I was in control. “Okay.”
She glanced at me sideways. “Okay?”
“Sure, drop me off. That’ll work.”
A heavy sigh escaped her lips, and it was clear she’d figured out my plan to ditch. Had I thought it all through, I would’ve resisted longer to make it seem more convincing.
“You’re going to force me to go with you, aren’t you?”
“He hurts me at the sessions. Why won’t you believe me?”
“Fine,” she exclaimed. “I’ll go with you. Maybe you’ll stop lying about him then.”
“Maybe you’ll finally believe me,” I said, but I was fairly certain the doctor would behave with her there. Still, at least it meant I would be safe.
* * * *
We arrived on time and waited the customary ten minutes for the doctor to decide to enter the treatment room. My heart raced at the very sight of him, and the seemingly benevolent smile on his lips. He walked over to my mother.
“Mrs. Milford?”
“Please, call me Anne,” she said, shaking his hand.
“Dr. Hayes. Nice to meet you, Anne. I must say you’ve caught me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting you.”
My mother shot me a dirty look. “It’s the only way she would come.”
“Is that so?” A curious expression appeared on his face. “Why is that, Emily?”
“I think you know why,” I said, avoiding his eyes.
“I wouldn’t ask if I knew,” h
e said. I finally looked at him, but he wasn’t the least bit nervous. Instead he was confident, downright smug. “Why do you need your mother to attend your sessions with you?”
I didn’t answer, but looked down instead. There was no possible way to explain it without sounding insane.
“Do you believe you’re in danger with me, Emily?” His eyes had suddenly become serious, and the raw determination I felt from him scared me. He broke his gaze from me to address my mother.
“I’ve seen this before. Right when the patient begins to make real progress, she suffers from a delusional fear her doctor is harming her. In Emily’s case, it has to do with her inherent fear of change, stemming back from her father and the kidnapping—”
“I’m not afraid of change,” I interrupted. “And this is not about my father.”
“Of course it’s about him,” my mother said. “It’s always about him.”
The doctor smiled, apparently delighted at my mother’s assessment. “It’s funny you should say that, Anne. Emily was quite reluctant to discuss her father at our previous sessions.” His cold eyes pierced through me, but it wasn’t painful. More critical, curious. I shuddered at his desire.
“I believe her father is the key,” he said, still staring at me, and my mother nodded in agreement.
The two of them are tag-teaming me. I can’t let this happen. There’s got to be something I can do… I panicked, trying desperately to think of anything that would reveal the doctor’s true intentions. If I can goad him into focusing on her, then maybe she’ll get one of the headaches and believe me.
I turned to the doctor. “You don’t think she has anything to do with it? I’ve only lived with her my entire life.”
“I’m not the reason you’re having nightmares,” my mother said.
“Yes, but if you think for one second you’ve got nothing to do with me being screwed up, you are seriously deluding yourself.”
Her lips parted, letting out a whimper of shock. She stared at me, looking more surprised than anything else. I returned her gaze, refusing to back down. I guessed the doctor simply watched, but I didn’t dare look away to find out for sure.