Krysta's Curse

by West, Tara

  Was her total transformation really over a guy? I mean, my boyfriend and I decided to split this summer. Actually, he dumped me because he said he was tired of competing with my softball habit for attention. Whatever that meant. But Bob and I were still sort of friends, and it wasn’t like I was going to let a guy ruin my life, anyway.

  I let out a slow breath as I struggled for the right words to say. I was no good at this stuff. I only wished our other BFF, Krysta, was there to help. “There’s no reason to be nervous. If anyone gives you any shit, just give them ‘the look.’”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “Sadly, I don’t have ‘the look’ perfected like you do. I’d probably just get my ass kicked.”

  All I had to do was flash my signature glare and kids knew not to mess with me. Though I couldn’t read minds, I could read the fear in their eyes. Everyone at our old school knew me as the tough jock. And at the high school, the upperclassmen were already whispering I was Mike’s badass little sister.

  “Tell me who’s giving you trouble,” I said, “and I’ll kick their asses.” I popped another salty, warm french fry into my mouth. I was already starting to like Greenwood High School, mostly because their cafeteria food tasted more like food and less like processed food substitutes.

  “Nobody is giving me trouble.” Sophie shifted her gaze, quickly scanning the cafeteria before tucking a loose strand of auburn hair behind her ear. “I just need time to adjust to all these people and their crazy freaking thoughts.”

  I shook my head, snickering. “You really need to work on tuning people out.”

  “I know,” Sophie sighed. “It sucks that Krysta isn’t with us.”

  “What lunch did she get?” I asked before crunching into a fry.

  “C lunch.”

  “School’s almost over by then. She’s going to be hungry.”

  Sophie’s eyes widened. “And alone.”

  “Yeah.” I swallowed my last fry. I hated thinking about Krysta alone for lunch. Sure, she had other friends at Greenwood, but not others like us.

  Sophie wasn’t the only one who was gifted with powers. My dreams weren’t really dreams. My mom said they were premonitions. Basically, my dreams predicted the future.

  Krysta, Sophie, and I met in elementary school, back when Krysta had first started talking to ghosts. I think our gifts brought us together. We just sensed that we were each special, and we’d vowed to keep our gifts secret. That was, until my mom and grandma exposed their powers to us. Although neither of them had ever explained much about my family origins, it turned out I came from a long line of ‘gifted’ women. My mom, grandma and step-dad, plus Krysta’s dad, were the only adults who knew about my friends’ and my powers.

  With each passing day, it felt like our powers were growing. I think my mom and grandma were expecting me to change because lately they’d been looking at me differently. It kinda weirded me out. I mean, if I was going to start shooting laser beams out of my eyes, I would have appreciated a warning.

  Somehow, I suspected the way they were watching me had something to do with the crazy dreams I’d been having lately about a woman running through a cornfield. I had no idea who she was or who was chasing her, because every time she’d make it to the edge of the field, someone would grab her.

  I was trying not to panic, but I’d been waking up from the same exact dream for the past three days. My dreams usually had a way of sorting themselves out and revealing more to me over time. I just hoped that whoever was being chased wasn’t me or one of my friends. I also hoped she would make it out alive.

  “Earth to AJ!”

  I looked up to see Sophie waving her arms at me.

  I grimaced. “You been listening?” I asked, though I knew Sophie had been good about asking permission before she invaded my mind.

  “Duh, AJ, you know I won’t go into your head without an invite, but it’s kinda hard to talk to you when you’re busy daydreaming.”

  “Sorry. I’ve been having this bad dream.”

  “Oh, crap. Your brother is going to kill us, isn’t he?”

  I shook my head before narrowing my eyes at Sophie. “What are you talking about?”

  “What am I talking about?” The pitch in Sophie’s voice rose several octaves.

  “Your brother is a freaking maniac. He almost got in like ten crashes on the way here.”

  I covered my mouth to hide my smile. I couldn’t help it. Sophie looked so funny when she got all dramatic. “You’re exaggerating.”

  Sophie clenched her empty soda can until her knuckles whitened. If she hadn’t been a wuss, she would have crushed it.

  “No, I’m not,” she said. “He’s a terrible driver. I’m going to start taking the bus.”

  I jerked my head back. “Only losers ride the bus. My brother is captain of the football team. Do you know how cool you look getting out of his truck every morning?” Last year, I’d put so much effort into helping Sophie look cool. I wasn’t about to let her blow it.

  She threw up her hands while rolling her eyes. “Let’s see, would I rather look like a loser or die a horrific and splattering death?”

  It took me a few moments to control my laugher. By the time I’d finished, my eyes were watering with tears. “Omigod! We are so not going to get killed.” Then I leaned closer to her and whispered, “I would have dreamed it.”

  “So we don’t die in your bad dream? Okay, so maybe we’ll end up with a few broken legs.”

  The animated look in her wide eyes was almost comical. Almost.

  “Sophie, would you listen to me?” I hissed while tapping my forehead. This was our universal signal to Sophie when Krysta or I wanted her to pop into our heads. Normally, our brains were off limits. And there was no way she could ever fool me and read my brain without me knowing. I knew the telltale signs when Sophie was mind-reading, like the way she chewed on her lower lip or how she ever so slightly squinted her eyes.

  Sophie was looking at me that way now, so I passed her a mental message.

  If Mike is going to crash, I will see it coming. I am not letting you ride the bus.

  Sophie arched back and shook her head. “AJ, he was texting and checking his Facebook page. He swerved into the other lane more than once, and he almost rear-ended someone.”

  I arched a brow and leveled her with a challenging glare. So you don’t trust my dreams? Are you the only gifted one?

  “I didn’t say that. I just…” Sophie’s voice trailed off before she angled her head and leaned back, looking ready to fall off the cafeteria bench. She gasped and then her eyes widened to saucers.

  I grabbed onto the table and leaned forward, a nervous jolt shooting up my spine. I’d never seen her look so frightened. “What? What is it?”

  She slowly turned her head until her gaze was level with mine. “That guy over there.” She nodded behind her.

  My gaze traveled toward the kid with brooding eyes and dark, messy hair sitting with a bunch of drama freaks in the corner.

  “His thoughts,” Sophie hissed through frozen features. “They just jumped into my head. He was…omigod!” Sophie jumped in her seat and covered her mouth with her hands.

  “What? What’s he thinking?”

  Sophie’s jaw dropped, and it took her a long while to find her voice. “ ‘Stay out of my head.’ ” Her eyes widened as her hands visibly shook on the table. “Do you think he knows?” she hissed.

  Jerking my head back, I cast a quick glance in his direction. He was looking straight at us! Did he know Sophie was a mind reader? If so, how?

  ***

  Krysta

  “Hey, girlies, what’s up?” I was ready to bubble over with excitement when I finally got to see my two BFFs sitting in the back of history class. This high school was too big, and I hadn’t seen them all day.

  But when I looked into Sophie’s pouty face and then back to AJ’s twisted scowl, I knew I’d just stepped into a pile of crap.

  Oh, great.

  “Uh, oh.” Plan
ting my hands on my hips, I eyed both of them. “What happened?”

  Sophie slouched in her seat. “I don’t want to talk about it here.”

  “Can we text it?” I groaned. After a stressful first day of school, I was about to come undone, and now this.

  “No.” Sophie’s pout turned into a frown as she sunk even lower. “I don’t want this in a text.”

  I quickly scanned the room before sliding into the vacant seat across from Sophie and AJ. “Nobody is even paying attention to us.”

  AJ leaned forward and thumbed at Sophie. “We’re having trust issues.”

  “Trust?” Sophie turned around and glared at AJ. “This has nothing to do with trust.”

  AJ rolled her eyes. “I will see it before it happens.”

  Sophie shook her head. “We still need to tell your mom.”

  I could see the tension bubbling beneath the surface of AJ’s skin. AJ clenched the binder on her desk until her knuckles whitened.

  “She’ll freak,” AJ hissed. “She’ll take away my brother’s driver’s license, and my life will suck.”

  Sophie squared her shoulders. “This isn’t just about you, AJ. What if he kills someone?”

  I watched the exchange with a mixture of fascination and frustration. Obviously something big had happened. I suspected Sophie had read someone’s mind and was harboring a major secret. Whatever the juicy details were, I really wanted to know. “Can someone clue me in?”

  Sophie quickly scanned the room before leaning toward me. “AJ’s brother is a reckless driver. We need to tell.”

  AJ narrowed her eyes and arched forward, coming within a few inches of Sophie’s face. “If I see something bad will happen, I’ll tell her. I swear.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “By then it may be too late, AJ.”

  AJ turned ten shades of red. Oh, so not good. AJ was known for having a short fuse, and I didn’t want to see my BFF making a scene here.

  “I saved my parents,” AJ spat.

  “With only a few seconds to spare.” Sophie’s hushed voice turned shrill. “Do you want to take that risk?”

  Last year, AJ’s premonition helped save her parents moments before they would have been involved in a deadly car accident.

  AJ heaved a sigh. Finally, she leveled Sophie with pleading eyes. “Let me talk to Mike first. I can get him to pay more attention to the road.”

  But Sophie was no longer paying attention to AJ. Sophie’s gaze was focused on the back door. Her jaw dropped, and she looked ready to pass out. “Omigod!” she blurted before hastily turning around.

  I turned toward the entrance. A kid with messy dark hair had just walked through the door.

  I looked back toward Sophie. “Who is he?”

  Sophie kept her back and shoulders ramrod straight as she whispered through clenched teeth. “Just don’t look at him.”

  But AJ was still gawking at the back of the room. “I think he does know. He looks upset.”

  Whoever this guy was, I suspected he was bad news. I could tell by the way Sophie’s flushed skin had turned as pale as a ghost. And considering I had seen plenty of ghosts in my lifetime, Sophie was practically glowing.

  “Please don’t let him sit by me,” Sophie whispered through frozen features.

  And then the boy sat in the vacant seat in front of her desk.

  Chapter Two

  AJ

  I sat in the passenger’s seat of my brother’s truck, fuming. In fact, if I’d been a cartoon, steam would be shooting out of my ears. Sophie had sent me a text this morning that she didn’t like Mike’s driving and she was taking the bus.

  The bus.

  Only losers and freaks took the bus to school. The cool kids drove. And if they didn’t have their drivers’ licenses, they rode in a friend’s car. Sophie had the opportunity to ride in the truck of one of the coolest jocks in school. Instead, she’d thrown away the chance to actually look cool, and not like a moping freak, all because she didn’t feel safe.

  Sure, I had to admit my brother’s driving sucked. I had already yelled at him a few times when he was checking his text messages instead of focusing on the road. But Mike wasn’t going to crash. Because if he was, I would have seen it, just like I’d saved my parents from a car crash last year.

  So basically, Sophie refused to ride with us because she not only lacked faith in Mike’s driving, she lacked faith in me.

  And that cut hard.

  Really hard.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and swore. I was just so angry. So angry, I almost didn’t see my brother speed through that red light.

  I pressed against the dirt, my palms gathering dust in the cold darkness. A thin sliver of flickering light fell to my left from between the floorboards above me—his shadow passed, blocking it momentarily. Through the crack, I watched as he moved over my hiding place.

  “She is not here,” an unfamiliar voice said.

  Breath held and heart racing, I listened to their boot falls above me. A rat tittered somewhere behind my head, and I closed my eyes, fighting the panic that rose.

  Finally, his voice. The voice of the man who would kill me given the slightest chance. “She is here.”

  “We have searched the cottage,” the stranger argued.

  “Not hard enough!” my tormentor barked, his deep voice booming off the walls of my home.

  I whimpered, turning away from the light. Caught between the earth and the floorboards that held my enemy, I had nowhere to run. The sliding sound of a rat’s tail on the dirt moved closer.

  “Come to me, my little witch,” he murmured. His heavy steps stopped over me once more, as if he could sense my presence. I could see his handsome face through that infernal crack, illuminated by my cheerfully burning fireplace: the strong curve of his chin, the dimple in one cheek. The face of an angel, the heart of the devil. “God has judged you and deemed you unworthy in His eyes. I am charged with doing my spiritual duty. You cannot hide forever….”

  No. I couldn’t. But I could very well run until he decided to give up the chase.

  He would not have me alive.

  His face tilted down, and his brilliant blue eyes rested on me.

  ***

  AJ

  I woke with a start, and though my first instinct was to jump out of bed screaming, I couldn’t find the strength to move. My vision was blurred. The lights and walls around me blended into one big white blob. Something was beeping beside me. Was it my cell phone? It had never made that noise before. My heart pounded out a wild staccato as I recalled the dream. It had felt so real. Who was this woman and how could I keep her from being murdered?

  Slowly, the room came into focus. I was sitting up in a bed. In front of me was a blank television screen set against a white wall. As I began to register my surroundings, the wild racing in my heart was replaced by a dull throbbing in my head and a burning ache in my side.

  “Ugh,” I moaned. The pain all around me was worsening. I tried to lift my arm, but it seemed stuck in place. Muscles ached all over my body. What had happened?

  I was vaguely aware of a warm hand clutching mine —of my mother hovering above me with red-rimmed eyes and a furrowed brow. I twitched as strands of her blonde hair tickled my nose.

  “W-what happened?” I moaned, though the act of uttering those words sent a new wave of pain to my side.

  Mother’s lips quivered as she spoke. “You were in an accident.”

  Accident? I didn’t remember an accident. When? How? I ran a tongue over my teeth, wishing I had something to drink to quench my thirst. I tried to ask my mom more questions, but my mouth was so parched, I only managed to cough, which sent a new wave of dizzying pain across my side. The pain raced up my chest and through my extremities. I cried out.

  My mother released my hand and then quickly returned with a glass of water. I slowly drank from the straw. Slowly because even the act of drinking made my side ache. But at least my mouth and throat were no longer sore.

 
; After I’d finished nearly the entire glass, I laid my head against the pillow. My mother continued to hold my hand, as I tried to piece together my thoughts. I tried to move my fingers on my stiff, right arm, but even the simple act of twitching a thumb sent shards of pain through my wrist.

  Okay, so right arm broken. No biggie. I pitch with my left.

  Judging by the way it hurt to speak, cough, drink and even breathe, I realized at least one or more ribs were broken.

  So with a broken arm and broken ribs, I’m definitely missing basketball practice, maybe even the first few games.

  But what worried me most was the dull ache in my head. This pain wasn’t like a normal headache. It was much deeper. The nauseating throbbing left me dizzy and disoriented, but not disoriented enough I couldn’t feel the pain all over my body, like I’d been beaten to a pulp.

  “My body hurts,” I groaned.

  “You have broken bones,” my mother answered as she squeezed my hand tighter.

  Though I ached, something about the warmth of my mother’s touch made me feel better.

  I nodded before closing my eyes. The lights overhead seemed to worsen this overwhelming nausea.

  “Basketball season?” I asked weakly, even though that thread of hope was quickly unraveling with each new throbbing pain on my body.

  My mother heaved a heavy sigh. “I think that’s the least of your worries.”

  Again, I asked myself the questions. An accident? How? Why?

  I was struck with a flash of understanding. One memory. Me screaming as my brother ran a red light.

  We were hit by another car. My brother!

  “Is Mike okay?” I asked on a rush of air as my eyes flew open and I shot up. The movement sent shards of blinding pain through me.

  Mother gently pushed me back against the pillow. “He’s got a broken collarbone but he’ll live if I don’t kill him first.”

  “Football?” I asked, knowing my brother would be devastated if he, too, had to sit on the bench.