Colours In Blackness - A New Life

by Tammy Dunning

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

   

   

  After dinner, we all pile into Todd's room in our pajamas, so we can discuss the extent of each other’s talents where no prying ears can hear. We all sit on the floor in a circle, with a heaping pile of junk food and pop in the center of us.

  Sherri starts it all off. “The staff here all know that if I touch someone, I can see what they see, and feel what they feeling, right? Well, there's more to it than that.” She looks over at me. “Everyone here, in this room, knows that there's more to our talents than just what everyone else knows, so tonight, we'll fill you in on everything.”

  “You're going to love this.” Jessy's smiling at me.

  “I don't actually have to touch you to read you. I can read you from across the room. It's really hard and energy draining. I have to really concentrate on it, but I can do it. I'm getting better at it, and it's tiring me out less each time I do it. However, if I do touch you, I automatically read you. I still can't stop that. I can also see some of the things you've seen and done recently. If I am touching you, then I see it so much clearer, and with more detail. So like I can tell you what colour of underwear that you put on this morning without touching you, because I can see what you've seen. As of yet, when not touching you, I can only go back a few hours in your memory, but it's still really cool. I'm looking back farther and farther, every time I practice. I can sift through your brain, and pick out information that you know. Let me tell you, people do some freaky shit when they are alone.” Sherri's giggling, probably remembering a reading where she saw someone do something weird.

  “What’s so funny? Fill us in.” Todd questions Sherri but she just waves her hand and shakes her head, no.

  Sherri continues, “Most of the staff are too afraid to let me touch them. They don't want me to read them. It's like they all have a big secret... strange. Weird part is that I can't pluck it out of their minds. So, whatever they’re hiding… they’re hiding very well.”

  “We all think there's something going on around here. We can feel it.” Jessy takes a big drink of pop, and shuffles closer, to tell his abilities. “Ok Laura, you are the only one who doesn't know the extent of my gift, and I would love it if you would take a ride with me.” He winks at me, and jogs his eyebrows.

  I can't stop staring at him. What does he mean about take a ride with him? Please don't let there be another guy that likes me… I'm having a really hard time saying no lately.

  “Don't look so worried, I'm not hitting on you.” Jessy and the others all giggle, except for Todd who also let out a sigh of relief, right along with me. “You already know that I can hold time, or speed myself up, however you want to look at it. Well, I've been learning so much more lately. I can now take people along with me. If I hold your hand, the world will slow down or stop around us. Or maybe we'll just speed up, and the rest of the world goes super slow. I'm not really sure yet. Oh, I can also hold time for up to fifteen minutes now, and getting lengthier every day. So, I will have to take you for a ride-along. Are you busy for about a half of a second... literally?” Everyone giggles including me.

  “Nope, not busy at all. Besides, we're running low on pop. Can we make it to the mess hall and back before you're ability stops, or exhaust you?” I'm really looking forward to trying this out. After all, isn't it everyone's dream to at least once in their life, to stop time?

  Jessy and I stand up. “Ok, peeps, see you in a second.” We both laugh, and he reaches out and takes my hand.

  I feel a slight suction in the air, and then, just like he said, the world stops. I look down at Todd, who was tossing peanuts up into the air to catch them in his mouth, and the peanut is actually stuck in the air… just hanging out there defying gravity.

  Meanwhile, Jessy is watching my every reaction and smiling like a proud peacock. “Cool huh?! Come on, let's start walking. Oh, and we are definitely going to change that peanut to a gummy bear; Todd hates gummy bears. If we can't mess with our friends, who can we mess with?”

  After passing unmoving people in the corridors, we make it to the mess hall, and load up with pop and gummy bears. Jessy takes a chocolate cupcake with lots of icing on it, and smiles at me wickedly. He's up to something.

  I roll the pops up in my shirt, because we can't let go of each other’s hand. We are on our way back, when Jessy starts talking again, more seriously this time. “Laura, if you ever need to talk, about anything, just call me, and I'll be there in a flash, ha-ha. Seriously though, I'm here for you."

  We walk up to one of the frozen people in the hallway, and he dips his finger into the cupcake, making sure he gets a good wad of chocolate, and rubs the icing on the person’s cheek. It looks like they didn't aim very well when they were eating chocolate. He does it to three other people; it's mean but hilarious.

  "There are not too many people you should trust around here, even some people that you think are trustworthy, but you can trust me. I know how hard it is to adjust to being here, and being kind of a freak; like we all are, in our own way. You seem like a nice girl… the kind of girl that one should respect.”

  I know there is some hidden meaning behind what he just said, but I don't want to assume anything. “What do you mean by respect? Don't be shy. Just say what you want to say.”

  Jessy holds his breath for a second before he speaks. “Ok, look… I know that you and Todd have something going on, and I think you should know that he's not the nicest guy around. I think you deserve someone who'll respect you more, and not just want to... use you. You know what I mean. He has been a real sleazy guy to some girls. He can be really nice sometimes, but not all the time, if you know what I mean.”

  How can he possibly know about Todd and me? “I don't know what you mean… me and Todd?”

  “You left your full water bottle in the mess hall today, so I figured with my speediness, that I would run it to you before you got to your class. I ran the normal route, and couldn't find you, so I went another way. When I was walking down that corridor, I saw the two of you locked in a rather intimate embrace, so I hid and unfroze time. I don't know why I did that, it was wrong. I shouldn't spy. I'm sorry. I saw the two of you go into the closet together, hot and heavy. I, um, just want to make sure you know that Todd uses his ability on girls all the time. You are not the first, and you won't be the last. When he gets what he wants, he'll move on.” Jessy looks very apologetic, and sincere. I’m honored that he feels the need to protect me.

  We arrive at Todd's door, and I still haven't said anything to ease his worry, until now. “We didn't do anything but kissing; I stopped it. He said that he didn't really use much of his ability. I don't know why I...” I stop talking. What else is there to say? Thankfully, he doesn't know about Laden too!

  Jessy gives me a shy little smile, “I just thought you should know. Oh and I didn't tell anybody. It's not their business.”

  With that said, he opens the door, and we walk back through. He swaps out the peanut for a gummy bear, rubs a little chocolate on Todd's face, and unfreezes time. Todd's face when he bites into that candy is priceless. He whips the half chewed gummy at Jessy, who can't stop laughing. Everyone else is laughing so hard at the chocolate smeared on Todd’s face; and he hasn't realized is even there yet. Jessy is just sitting back, eating the cupcake, and laughing, trying to look innocent.

  Tara laughs at Todd too. “So Laura, how was it? Pretty wild, huh?” I nod frantically. She continues, “So you know about Sherri and Jessy; Reilly, you want to go next?”

  Reilly sits up from his lounging position, and takes a long chug of a Sprite, then belches out a five second burp. “Oops, pardon me. Well I can do mind control, as you already know. What you don't know, is that with the mind control, I can also make people forget things. Not only the things that I've made them do, but regular things like whether they put underwear on this morning or not. I can also make a whole room of people forget if they put their underwear on this morning, not only just one person anymore. I’m
so much more powerful now. I never use my abilities on any of you guys. Of course, you wouldn't know it if I did… but I don't.” He does an evil laugh, jogs his eyebrows, and lounges back against the bed.

  Todd looks at me and says, “You already know what I can do, but I can also kill someone if I want to, without ever touching them. I can control their body energy so well, that I can send them so much anxiety that they have a heart attack. I can also physically heat them up so they actually boil their own body from the inside out. I haven't killed anyone, if that's what you're thinking. But I do have that ability, if I ever had to.”

  “Ok, so that just leaves me.” Tara is all giddy, so anxious to tell her talents. “Laura, you already know that I can leave my body and go places, but what you don't know yet, is that I can touch things like you can during your visions. I can move things around, but I haven't been able to master taking things back with me yet. But I'm working on it. Oh, the best thing is that I'm starting to be able to travel hundreds of miles. I don't like the being sucked back into my body part of it, but I do love the getting out part. I can go and see what your parents are up to if you want, maybe leave them a message.”

  “No, that'll just make me miss them more, and scare the crap out of them.” I have to change the subject before I cry. I miss my parents so much. “Does everyone know everything that I can do?”

  “Everybody knows. What we were thinking, is now that you can see visions in your sleep, then maybe you could try to just close your eyes, and have a vision, if you want to.”  Tara is the one to speak on everyone’s behalf, but all stare at me and nod from time to time. “Maybe you can bring it on at will, and you just don't know that you have that ability yet. You are still very new to all this, and it took us a while to get to where we are.”

  What Tara is saying makes sense. Since they have all been able to extend their abilities, then I should be able to do it to. Why not… it can't hurt; well it could make my eyes worse, but it's still worth finding out. “I'll try. The worse that happens is that I fail, but then I can try it again, then again. Maybe one day… who knows? Tomorrow though, ‘cause I'm exhausted still.”

  Once everyone is finished talking, the majority of the junk food is gone, and my belly is swooshing full of pop, Tara and I decide to head back to our rooms so we can try to get some school work done before class in the morning.

  Instead of heading to her door, Tara follows me to mine. “Can I come in for a minute? I have to ask you if you can help me with something.”

  “Of course, come on in. I'll help if I can.” I'll help Tara with anything. She's so good to me. She's been a better friend to me than Andrea ever was.

  We walk into my room, and I almost jump out of my skin. Laden is standing in my room, waiting for me. The look on his face is probably the same expression I have... Oh-Oh!

  “Hi Laura, Tara, sorry I'm in your room without your permission, but I wasn't sure if you were sleeping, and I wanted to bring you those clean towels that you mentioned yesterday that you needed. If you were awake, then I was going to go get my clipboard and get started with the nightly taking of vitals. I'll need to take yours as well Tara, so don't run away. By being here, you can save me the trip. Unless you'd rather me just come to your room later on, and do it there.” I thought Laden came up with a pretty good excuse. Better than what I would have thought up, but I suck at coming up with a lie when I'm under pressure.

  “Well, I'll be heading back to my room in about half hour, if you want to wait until then, but you are more than welcome to check me over here, and get it over with.” Tara doesn't even seem to think anything of Laden being in my room. She isn't even shocked or anything. Maybe he lets himself into everyone's rooms whenever he wants. I wonder.

   

  Note to self: Ask Tara if the staff let themselves into our rooms often, when we're not in them.

   

  “Ok, I'll go get both clipboards. Back in a minute.” Laden walks past us both and out the door.

  “Is it ok if I use your bathroom?” Tara's already walking towards the bathroom, so of course I nod; what am I going to say, 'No, you can't, because if you do you'll realize that Laden didn't actually bring me clean towels!' Well, I have to think of something to tell her when she questions. Oh I'm so bad at this.

  Laden comes strolling back into my room, and wraps the blue squeezy thing around my arm and begins pumping it up. He leans in and gives me a nice, soft, kiss. I swear that my heart skips a beat. He says, “I was hoping you'd come back alone. I was going to tuck you in.”

  The bathroom door pops open, and out bounces Tara. She sits on the edge of my bed waiting for Laden to take her vitals. “So Laden where have you been hiding lately? Usually you're always hanging around.”

  Laden's eyes leave mine, but he doesn't look at Tara, instead his eyes seem to be shifty, like he's trying to come up with an answer. “I've been needed to help out in another area. We're short staffed right now.”

  “What area?” Tara's really being nosey

  “Um, in the… in another section. I'm just not needed here as much, so I'm helping out on other floors and stuff. More hours, more money.” Laden seems a little nervous. My stomach is telling me something is wrong. Either that, or I might puke from all the junk food I ate.

  While Laden is taking Tara's vitals, I go to the bathroom, and thankfully, Laden actually had brought clean towels. That man sure does think ahead.

  When I come out of the bathroom, Laden doesn't say a whole lot, he just finishes taking Tara's vitals, and leaves.

  She throws herself back on my bed, and says, “OhmyGod, that man is so damn hot! One night with him, and I’d be ruined for any other man. How can one guy be that nice, that smart, and frickin’ gorgeous beyond belief?”

  “Oh yeah, he’s definitely got the whole package. Have you ever tried to… you know... with Laden?” Oh, if she only knew about him and me. I really want to tell her, but not just yet. “Has any girl that you know of?” Yeah, I’m being sneaky but I’m curious.

  “No, I never have. He’s way out of my league! I don’t think there’s been any other girl either.” Tara looks at me straight-faced and says, “Laura, I really like you. I know I can trust you, because my stomach doesn't get all yucky when I think about telling you secrets. So, I want to try something, but you have to help me do it.”

  “Yeah, of course. No problem. What would you like me to do?”

  Tara is so happy, that I agree to go along with whatever it is she’s planning. “Well, at first, nothing, just watch me, make sure I'm ok. Let me explain, I'm going to lie down on your bed, and I'm going to travel. Do you remember the room that says ‘Restricted’ on the door?”

  I nod my head in complete understanding. “The one that I suggested you travel into… of course. You want to go in there. I am so in. Just tell me my role, and we can get started whenever you’re ready.” I can't wait to find out what's behind that door.

  Tara laughs, “Woo-hoo! I knew you were the right choice for this! Ok, so when I travel, my eyes open and roll around and flicker sometimes. Please don't be afraid of that. Second, I'll talk to you, telling you what I see. Your task is to write down anything I say that sounds relevant. And the most important part is that I'd like to try and take something out with me. You know, bring something back. So, when I wave both my hands at you, like I'm saying 'Hi' or if I yell at you, then sit me up and I'll come back to you. Or at least, I should come back to you.”

  I'm so scared, and excited at the same time. I pick up the paper and a pen, and sit down on my computer chair that I pull up to the bed. It reminds me of when Laden sat like this with me, and how it was so intense when we started making out. Focus!

  Tara lies down on my bed and stretches her arms out by her sides, and starts breathing really deep, long breaths. After a few minutes, her body shakes a little, and then her breathing goes back to normal but her eyes start shifting and blinking. It's kind of creepy.

  That's when she start
s talking in a really low whisper. “I'm out. I'm almost at the ‘Restricted’ area... start writing. I see books, shelves with folders, hundreds of folders. There's a nurses station with one nurse. I’m passing the desk now. I see rooms; hospital rooms, glass walls lining the hallway. There are people in the beds. There are breathing tubes and IV's in the first person; a man, I think. The second room, across the hall, is a girl, long hair; blonde, no tubes, sleeping maybe, coma perhaps. She's not moving. In the third room is a girl; short brown hair, OhmyGod! It can't be. I'm going in to make sure. It's... it's Mabel Whitson! She's here! They said she was someplace else! They lied! Why?!”

  Mabel Whitson is the girl that Reilly was sort of dating for a while. But she didn't take the medicine, and she went into a coma because of the pain. She has my talents. Dr. Turner had said that they moved her to another hospital.

  Tara is so upset. She must have been close to Mabel. She's right though, why did they lie about her not being in this hospital? Why would they not let anyone visit her? What are they hiding?

  Tara spoke again, “She just said my name! I wish I could talk to her. I think she knows I'm here. Dr. Turner is coming into the room. He's looking at her chart; now her eyes with a light. He's watching the computers that are hooked up to her. He looks confused. He's talking to her. He's saying, 'Mabel what do you see right now?' Mabel says, 'I miss Tara'. Doc says, 'Do you see Tara?' Mabel says, 'In my dreams.' The Doc is writing something down in the chart, and shaking his head. He looks sad. Doc is saying, 'I wish you'd have just taken your medicine, Mabel. I waited a long time to get a Seer like you. Even with all that work, I was never able to get one to turn out like you. But just between me and you, I do have another girl. She's a brand new resident. She's a little older than you, but her gift is still in its infancy stage. I must have patience. All in due time. She will have so much power, because she is a natural. She is very special. If she only knew what she was capable of. I wish I could stow her away. Now don't tell anybody our little secret.' Doc is leaving the room. I am alone with Mabel. A nurse is coming! I have her file, pull me out. Hurry up!” Tara waves her hands frantically.

  I grab Tara by the shoulders and sit her up really fast, and start shaking her. She gasps loudly, “Ok, I'm back, I'm back, stop!” She runs to my bathroom and hurls, rather loudly I might add.

  I look down in amazement to see that she brought the folder back with her. “Tara, you did it! You actually did it!” I smile and laugh. I truly didn't think it was possible, but here it is.

  “Holy Shit!!” Tara's face is lit up with excitement. She starts flipping through the pages. She stops about two pages in and asks me, “Was Doc Turner your pediatrician from birth?”

  “Yeah, from the day I was born. Why?”

  Tara looks angry, “Because, he was Mabel's pediatrician from birth too. And he was mine. And he was Todd's. I need to ask Sherri, Jessy and Reilly if he was theirs also. There must be a reason why all of us had the same doctor all of our lives. It can't be just a coincidence. I bet he has something to do with all this!”

  I say, "Maybe that's why Doc always tells me that I am really special and very unique. He always says that I'm one of a kind. Now I know why he says that. How could he have known back then that I'd develop an ability?"