Mind Echoes (Book 2 in the Body Shifters Trilogy)

by Leslie O'Kane

  Body Shifters Trilogy

  Mind Echoes

  by

  Leslie O’Kane

  Novel Two in the Trilogy

  Copyright 2013 by Leslie O’Kane

  Digital edition published in 2013 by O’Kane Ink

  Current print edition published in 2014 by O’Kane Ink

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  Dedication

  For Elizabeth Wrenn, a wonderful friend and writer.

  Chapter 1

  Allie Bixby’s heart filled with joy when, while changing classes, she saw the text message from Jake Greyland that read:

  Be there by 3:30. LOVE YOU!

  She couldn’t resist giving a small, happy hop, which caused her backpack to swing awkwardly on her shoulder. It was so rare for Jake to make an unplanned trip to Albany to see her. As she rounded the corner toward her history class, she answered:

  Cant wait! LOVE YOU TOO JAKE!

  An instant before she could hit “send,” someone bumped her elbow, sending her cellphone flying.

  “Oops!” a cheery voice said. While other students in the hallway stepped out of the way, Gayla pushed past her and snatched up Allie’s phone. “I’m so sorry, Alexis,” Gayla said.

  “My fault,” Allie said, standing against a locker to avoid blocking the flow of the crowd. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

  “I hope it didn’t break,” Gayla said as she, too, pressed against the locker next to Allie. “The screen looks fine.” Gayla’s eyes widened in surprise as she read Allie’s text. She blushed a little as she handed Allie her phone.

  “It’s to my boyfriend, Jake,” Allie said as she sent her reply.

  “Oh, geez,” Gayla said brightly. “I thought someone said you were going to the prom with Mike! I assumed that was Mike Burns.”

  “I am going to the prom with Mike. As friends. Jake lives in Washington, DC.” Happy at the thought of Jake’s impending visit, she blurted out, “He just now told me that he’s coming to see me this afternoon.”

  “Well...that’s good news for you, then.” Gayla, a cheerleader at heart if there ever was one, beamed at her. Allie half expected Gayla to compliment her initiative for having two guys interested in her at the same time. “Is this someone’s anniversary or birthday?”

  It was bound to be somebody’s birthday or anniversary, Allie thought, but kept the comment to herself. “No, but his visit makes this a much happier Monday than usual for Jake and me.”

  Gayla’s smile faded and her eyebrows furrowed. Allie felt her cheeks warm as she read in Gayla’s eyes: But this makes a miserable Monday for Mike Burns. How can you do this to him?

  The answer was: After barely escaping from a maniacal narcissist who was trying to kill us, Jake and I both deserve every minute of happiness we can get. Gayla was merely an acquaintance, and Allie didn’t have to justify her choice of prom dates. Even so, she heard herself reply: “Jake’s busy this weekend, is all, and Mike didn’t want to go solo.”

  “Oh. Sure.”

  The class bell rang.

  There was something about seeing Gayla’s characteristic perkiness wane that made Allie feel as if she was personally letting her down. “Mike knows all about Jake.”

  “I’m sure he does.” She brightened so noticeably without reason that Allie could almost literally visualize her notching up her internal perk-o-meter. Clearly, Gayla was determined to part company on a happy note. “You would never deliberately hurt anyone. You’re a good person.” Gayla headed down the hall, with an airy: “See ya later,” over her shoulder.

  Allie felt deflated as she walked into her classroom. Mike was also a good person, and she would be unintentionally hurt his feelings. She’d met him six months ago on her first day at Albany Central. That had been Allie’s first actual day in this school as “Alexis Bixby.” Back then, she hadn’t begun to adjust to her new body and her new life. She’d barely noticed Mike, but apparently, he’d had a crush on the original Alexis for at least two years. Last month, when he’d asked her to the prom, she’d initially declined, reminding him about her boyfriend in Washington. He’d replied, “Yeah, but you said that he isn’t taking you to prom, so I will. It’s a win-win for all of us.” He strengthened his case by promising that he would also enlist his friend Keith to ask her best friend, Fiona, to the prom. Next thing Allie knew, it was common knowledge that she and Mike were an item.

  Allie sank into her seat, enduring the teacher’s cocked eyebrow at her being a little late. She mouthed the word “sorry.” This AP history class was interesting; Allie wanted to be prompt. She’d been a freshman at Stanford University in her previous life. It had been a slice of hell to suddenly awaken from a coma in the body of a high school student. Four months ago, in February, she’d tested out of several low-level junior classes that the real Alexis Bixby was supposedly taking. As a second-semester junior, “Allie,” as she’d since learned to call herself, had precious little time to raise Alexis’s grades enough to get accepted at Stanford again.

  She swiveled in her chair and glanced at Fiona, who gave her a big smile. Allie mouthed the words: “Jake’s coming,” but Fiona responded with a silent: “What?”

  Just then, the teacher said, “What do you think is the most important Constitutional Amendment, Alexis?”

  Allie rolled her eyes and turned around. She briefly considered citing the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, but decided otherwise. “The First Amendment. Freedom of Speech.”

  “Why?”

  “That’s the cornerstone of all freedoms. Without the right to express dissent, we can’t assert ourselves as individuals.”

  The teacher, a short pudgy man who looked a little like the character on Monopoly cards, rocked on his heels, which was always a good sign. That meant he was going to engage the class in a good discussion. “Let’s see what your peers have to say.” He scanned the classroom. “Fiona, when I tell you not to talk in my classroom unless I call on you, am I depriving you of a Constitutional right to free speech?”

  “Yes, but only for fifty-three minutes, if I don’t raise my hand.”

  “Classes last fifty-five minutes.”

  “Yeah, but it’s a big class, and it takes a while to get started.” Fiona shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a realist.”

  Everyone laughed, and Allie felt a pang. Her friendship with Fiona was the best thing about being at Albany Central. She didn’t want to let Fiona down by backing out of the prom. Lately, Fiona had been hinting that she had serious doubts about Jake being the right guy for Allie. Allie had the feeling that, with Jake coming to town out of the blue, the whole thing was coming to a head.

  “Well, then,” the teacher continued, “as a realist myself, I’d better multitask and return last week’s exam while taking attendance.” He picked up a stack of papers from the desk. “This test was extra challenging, but someone broke the curve, big-time. Ergo, you had to get 80 or above for an A.”

  Several kids groaned, and two turned and glared at Allie. “Thanks a lot, Alexis!” Stephanie grumbled. “I wish you’d go back to being a spacy artist.”

  Sometimes I wish I could, too, Allie thought.

  As the final bell rang, Allie bent down to retrieve her backpack from undernea
th her desk. A magenta sticky-pad sheet was attached to the side compartment. Startled, she stared in shock at the neat, all-caps lettering:

  I AM YOU.

  ELONY M.

  For a moment, Allie was too stunned to move. The din of classmates rising from their desks and the teacher calling out last-minute instructions ceased to matter. Allie tried to get a grip on the note’s threatening ramifications.

  Who wrote this? Who knows that I’m actually Elony Montgomery? All of my enemies are dead or in jail except Jennifer McGavin. She must be coming after me!

  Chapter 2

  “Allie?” Fiona said. “Is something wrong?”

  Allie turned and stared dumbfounded at her friend. Fiona was the only person in Albany Central High who knew the truth about Alexis’s true identity. Fiona alone knew that six months ago she, Elony Montgomery, had been murdered and then awakened to find herself in the comatose body of a girl named “Alexis Bixby.” Since then, “Ellie” had vowed to think of herself as “Allie.” She’d forced herself to move forward and let go of the nineteen-year old college student who had graduated from a high school in Philadelphia, and, instead, assume the identity of seventeen-year-old Allie in Albany, New York.

  She struggled to focus.

  Is someone playing a practical joke on me? Did Fiona tell somebody my story?

  No, Fiona would never do that. She knows that my life is at stake.

  “I’m fine,” Allie said. She crumpled the note and stuffed it into her backpack. Her mind was sill racing. Someone had stuck the note on her pack while she was in the hallway before class. Whoever did this must have a connection to Jennifer McGavin; there was simply no other explanation; only Jennifer could possibly know who and where she was.

  Allie’s fear increased with each passing second. She stood up, feeling unsteady. The sensation reminded her how it felt when she first had to reteach her mind to move in this new-to-her body—how to walk with such long legs and how to avoid knocking things over as she tried to grab them with longer arms.

  Maybe the note writer is trying to tell me that she’s another victim of the doctors’ experiment; that she, too, awoke in a stranger’s body with all of my memories intact—up to the moment when I was fatally shot.

  Fiona was studying her expression. Allie forced a smile. She’d have to wait until they were partway home so that she could fill Fiona in without risking being overheard. “I’m just in a summer daze, I guess.”

  “Yeah, you and me both.” Fiona sounded as if she was completely unaware of Allie’s inner turmoil. She led the way as they left the room. She was eight inches shorter than Allie, but possessed such a strong personality that she projected herself as larger than that. Half Irish, half Korean, she was currently growing out her hair from a failed experiment at giving it a jagged look, as if it had been trimmed with gigantic pinking shears. “We’ve just got to hang on for two more weeks. Nine more days of school. Sixty-three classes.”

  Fiona glanced back at her. Allie gave her a wan smile and nodded. So many lives had been lost since Ethan and Jennifer McGavin had hired a gunman to shoot her in the heart and steal her brain functions. Thanks to Jake Greyland—who was so brilliant that the McGavins had stopped at nothing until they’d lured him onto their neurology-research staff—she was alive today. Ellie’s parents had been innocent casualties. Dr. Ethan McGavin, on the other hand, had been a guilty casualty.

  The girls stopped at Fiona’s locker. Fiona was saying something about a textbook she needed to study that night, but Allie wasn’t listening and didn’t reply.

  They left the brick building and wove their way along the sidewalk, which, as usual, was filled with students going in opposite directions as they exited the north and south wings. Backpacks stuffed with books made for narrow pathways for those trying to walk shoulder to shoulder.

  The weather was hot, muggy, and sticky. Fiona and Allie had gone three blocks before either of them spoke. “I can tell Keith is totally not into the prom,” Fiona said. “Or into me. He shows the same enthusiasm for prom as if the cafeteria is serving Jell-O once again.”

  Fiona just wanted to go to the prom and liked Keith well enough. Keith, in turn, had a hopeless, unrequited crush on Savannah—the female half of the Itcouple at Albany Central. Whereas Mike had a huge crush on Allie. Meanwhile, Allie was in love with Jake Greyland, who loved her, too. When he wasn’t struggling with the memories and rash impulses that his new body possessed. And now it appeared that there was a second “Ellie Montgomery” in her school. How was that possible?!

  Allie realized that Fiona was waiting for her response. She muttered, “Yeah, I’ve got to talk to Mike.”

  “About Keith?” Fiona asked, her eyebrow furrowed. “Please don’t rock the boat. It was nice of Mike to twist his arm.”

  “I mean I’m having second thoughts about going to the prom.”

  “No, you aren’t,” Fiona stated. “You’ve already got your dress. I’ve already got my dress. In a complementary color. So that our moms can rave about the photos that they take of us in the front yard of your house. When we’re all dressed up for the prom. And we’re standing next to Mike and Keith.”

  “Jake texted me today. He’s coming into town.”

  “Wow!” Fiona said. “He’s coming here for the prom after all?”

  “No, he’s coming today. Any minute now. He was already on his way when he sent me the text.” As Allie listened to herself, her stomach did a flip-flop. Was it just a coincidence that her boyfriend decided to suddenly visit the same day she got the note that read: I’m you? A coincidence of this magnitude seemed unlikely.

  “So, is he staying through the week?” Fiona asked. “He’s not being such a jerk as to expect you to cancel your date with Mike, is he?”

  “He’s not being a jerk. He’s been completely open and honest with me. He just doesn’t like going to proms. I’m the one who never should have agreed to go with Mike in the first place.”

  “Jake hasn’t ever been to a prom with you, though,” Fiona persisted. “He doesn’t really know whether he likes them or not. It doesn’t count if he wasn’t with you before. And he shouldn’t wreck your first prom experience. Not to mention my first prom and our first double date.” She grinned at Allie. “And our first chance to wear complementary dresses.”

  Allie tried not to get frustrated at Fiona’s obsession with the prom. Fiona didn’t get that Allie and Jake were kindred souls. She had no idea what it was like to have your mind shifted into another person’s body. And to gradually have that person’s memories and emotions return to you. To have your brain be the battleground in a war between your physical self and the self that you believed and remembered yourself to be.

  In a halfhearted attempt to josh with Fiona, Allie made a little Rockette kick, letting her skirt swish. “Our skirts look nice together, at least. We’re both wearing attractive shades of blue.”

  “Hardly the same as taffeta. Lace. Updos. Corsages. Guys in rented tuxedos.” Undaunted, Fiona grabbed Allie’s arm. “And a ride in a limo. Puh-leeze don’t make me miss out on my first and possibly last chance to ride in a limo, Allie.”

  “But Mike is just a friend, and he likes me too much.” Allie was well aware that Fiona knew precisely what Allie was talking about and sympathized with her. At least when she wasn’t being blinded by the glittery image of attending the prom, that is.

  She heard a noise behind her, and they both turned around. Fiona groaned at the sight of the girl a half a block away. Allie had seen her on the school bus and knew that she lived in the opposite direction. “There she is again,” Fiona muttered to Allie, pointing with her chin. “That new girl. Melissa Cooper. She’s always staring at you.”

  Allie looked back a second time. Maybe Melissa wrote that note! That was a logical hypothesis; the note writer could only be someone who’d arrived recently enough to have followed Allie to Albany. Melissa could have caused Gayla and Allie to bump into each other in the congested hallway, then put t
he note on her backpack. “Does she have History right before we do?” Allie asked.

  “Beats me.” Fiona continued to glance back at Melissa. “Doesn’t it creep you out, having her shadow you?”

  “A little,” Allie answered, not wanting to admit that she was much more than “a little” creeped out. What if Melissa was a second mind-clone of her true identity—Elony Montgomery? Would Fiona still want to be her friend if there were two “Ellies” in her social circles? With Fiona alone aware that two girls possessed identical brains? How could Allie and Fiona possibly continue to keep a secret like that? Someone would slip up eventually, then everyone would realize Allie was a freak.

  Nobody in the entire world could relate to her predicament! Even Jake would be repulsed by this!

  She’d barely even met Melissa and knew next to nothing about her. Melissa had apparently transferred into Albany Central a month or so ago. Allie had said hi to her several times, but she never responded.

  “Oh, Jeez,” Fiona said, glancing back again. “She’s following us.”

  Ellie was battling the urge to break into a run. She can’t be me! For one thing, I would never refuse to even say hello to myself, then start following me! Furthermore, I would never have written a sticky-pad note saying: I’m you!

  “Reminds me of how you met Jake,” Fiona continued. “You told me how he’d followed you through the park near my house.”

  Allie’s heart was racing. She might be hyperventilating. “Yeah, but I’m not about to whack Melissa in the head with my backpack like I did to Jake.”

  “Maybe you should. It’d get her to stop following us. And, here’s a lousy segue: What’s up with Jake suddenly coming to town? You told me he’d been acting really strange lately,” Fiona said, lowering her voice to a near whisper.