I blinked once, twice, a few more times, and then the room slowly came into focus. I was in my bedroom, and it was exactly the way I had left it before I became a fugitive. Like a bomb went off, my clothes were scattered everywhere—closet, floor, the end of my bed. And my shoes were the same way. I’d be lucky to find a matching pair.
I also noticed the little things I previously took for granted. Things like earrings, necklaces, and bracelets on top of my single nightstand. Or my CDs stacked in the corner. The posters on my wall. Everything was so common previously, but having not seen any of it in awhile, I think that made me appreciate it even more.
Sitting up, a shooting pain throbbed in my head, and I immediately massaged the area. Oh, yeah. I nearly forgot my skull was bashed in.
“Wait…” I frowned, slinging my legs off the bed and standing up. If I still had my memory intact, that meant Julian didn’t go near my mind. So, did that mean the Ministry was confident Dom erased my imagination? Did they think it was enough, and they didn’t need to bother with Julian’s ability?
A soft knock on my door startled me. Tabitha opened it before I could respond.
“Hey,” she said. “How are you feeling?”
She was gauging my reaction, testing to see if I remembered anything. Tabitha never gave a damn about how I felt.
Pretending to be suspicious, I said, “I’m fine. Why?”
She nodded, and her features relaxed. “Just checking. You had a bad headache.”
Yeah, right.
What if Tabitha didn’t remember anything at all? I could recall everything, but maybe they wiped her mind. Again.
“You know,” she said, crossing the room and sitting at the edge of my bed, “sometimes I still have brief flickers of my former self. I thought it was just the alcohol talking, but now I know I was wrong. If…” She stopped herself, like she wasn’t sure how to proceed. Her fingers intertwined, fumbling with each other. Staring down at her lap, she added, “If you just happen to believe you might’ve existed in a different lifetime…” Her eyes searched mine, but I wasn’t positive I could trust her. The old Tabitha didn’t care about previous lifetimes, or my emotions. This could be an experiment from the Ministry. They could’ve created a room just like mine in Goose Pond. They could’ve told my mom what to say, how to add that extra torrent of feelings, making her act realistically.
But I wouldn’t fall for any of it.
“A different lifetime?” I snorted. “What the hell have you been drinking? Jeez, Mom, lay off the booze, why don’t ya?”
Leaving her behind in my room, I entered the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I leaned over the sink and attempted to steady my breaths. Lifting one hand, I watched it tremble. What if I was being spied on everywhere I went? Hidden cameras. Bugs. Ministry agents. Even if there wasn’t some top-secret surveillance going on, I had to be careful. One wrong word, or action, and I’d be finished. I couldn’t behave differently than before. I had to be the Kearly Ashling who never had an imagination.
I flushed the toilet, so Tabitha wouldn’t develop suspicion, and exited the bathroom. An aroma drifted to my nostrils, and I inhaled a whiff of bacon, eggs, and coffee. Briefly, the food sparked a memory of Dom and me at the cabin, but I shook my head, ridding myself of the thought.
“What are you doing?” I asked Tabitha, who was busy cooking. Or trying to, at least.
She glanced over her shoulder, then resumed preparing breakfast. “Well, I was going to make us pancakes, but we didn’t have the mix, so I settled for eggs and bacon instead.” Lifting the pan off the eye, she divided the eggs and slid them onto two separate plates. The bacon was cooked and ready to be eaten, but I was still leery. This was my mom, for crying out loud. She never, ever cooked.
“I’m not that hungry,” I lied. I hadn’t eaten since Dom and I devoured fast food. It was like someone had jammed a knife in my stomach. “I think I’ll try to sleep off this headache, then head to Liz’s for awhile.” Pivoting on my heel, I didn’t have time to return to my bedroom before Tabitha said my name. I halted, slowly turning around. “Yeah?”
“It’s Monday. Liz and Deandra are in school, which is where you should be.” She slightly tilted her head and waited for my response.
She knew. She remembered. They didn’t wipe her mind.
Tabitha began nodding and added, “I wasn’t sure if you were you, but this confirms it.”
Shit.
“So, Dom didn’t actually do anything?”
I shook my head.
She narrowed her eyes. “How’d you know he wouldn’t hurt you?”
“Rafe told me,” I replied. “He’s one of Dom’s friends, who can speak telepathically. I thought the Ministry might’ve killed him, but I guess I was wrong.” When Tabitha raised her eyebrows questioningly, I said, “It’s a long story.”
She brought both plates to the makeshift coffee table and sat down on our tattered couch. “I have time. Don’t have to be at work until tonight, so…”
I motioned toward the front door. “What about school?”
She waved me off. “You’ve already missed several days. What’s a few more? They think you’re sick, anyway.”
“Is that what you told them?”
“Yes. And if anyone asks, you are bedridden with the flu.”
It was strange having my mom cover for me. I wasn’t used to the idea of her being a motherly figure; she was always off doing her own thing, not worrying about my life. Which was exactly why her attitude struck me as bizarre. After experiencing a cold, metal barrel pointed at her temple, did she suddenly obtain a new outlook on our existence?
“So, what now?” I asked.
“Breakfast,” she said, nodding toward my plate. “Then we’ll talk.”
A grin tugged at the corner of my lips. Was this the start of a new beginning for my mom and me? I liked the direction this was headed. We could finally be a mother-daughter duo. She could be that cool mom from when I was a kid, the one who would give me money to buy a popsicle from the ice-cream truck. The one who would take time to bandage my scrapes and cuts when I played outdoors. The one who acted like nothing in the world was wrong, like nothing would ever come between us. It’d take a lot of convincing, and a lot of work, but maybe it’d all be worth the time and effort in the end.
But the more I ate, the more my eyelids barely stayed open. It was a physical struggle for me to focus on Tabitha, or anything else in the living room. Fork dropping out of my hand and onto the floor, I flexed my fingers, which were slow to voluntarily respond to my mental commands.
“What,” I huffed out, “did you do to me?”
“It’s for the best, sweetie,” said Tabitha.
I’d never forgive her if she was working with the Ministry. Why would she, though? What did she have to gain?
Gritting my teeth as I fought loss of strength throughout my body, I asked, “What did they promise you?”
“Everything,” she said. “And then some.”
“No. You’re my mother.”
Tabitha didn’t respond. She hung her head, refusing to look me in the eyes. I should’ve known better, especially since she wasn’t acting like her usual self. I should’ve gone to Liz’s when I had the chance, even if I had to wait hours until school was out.
I stood up from the couch, and the room blurred. Grabbing my head, I squeezed my eyelids shut, then opened them again, hoping the action would help ease the wave of dizziness. It didn’t. If anything, my eyesight became worse. There wasn’t a single object in the room I could center on. Nothing was clear. Only outlines and colors were obvious, but even those were muddled.
Staggering to what I believed to be the front door, I grabbed the handle and twisted. Sunlight flooded the room, birds chirped in the trees around the trailer park, and there were three figures standing at the end of our driveway. I blinked several times. Please, please, please be hallucinations. They weren’t getting closer, were they? That was my imagination, right? Oh, no. They were coming toward
s me. Their dark outlines were growing in size the closer they got.
I attempted to backtrack, but I bumped into Tabitha, who stood in the doorway. She blocked my path, snubbing my shot at passing.
“What are you doing?” I screamed. “Let me through!”
I shoved her, and she shoved me back. It was no use; the agents stood behind me. Waiting for their next move, the inhales and exhales emanating from their noses were the only noises I heard. Even the birds stopped chirping, like they knew this wouldn’t end well.
“You must be Kearly,” a female agent stated.
I turned around and faced her. From what few colors I could see, she had milky skin and jet-black hair, like mine. “Maybe,” I retorted, slightly out of breath. “Who the hell are you?”
Her lips peeled back, bright-white teeth replacing them. She extended her hand for me to shake, but I didn’t offer mine. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said. “My name is Cassandra.”
Keep reading for a sneak peek of Mindful, the sequel to Mind’s Eye…
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