Glimpse (12 page)

“Mom!  Mom! Wake up, can you hear me?”  I pulled with all my might against the door.  It was no use.  I ran around the back of the van to Dad’s side.  The door opened. Thank you, God. I reached in and pushed him back off of the steering wheel, silencing the horn.

The sound was replaced by screaming.  I looked through the smoke to the sidewalk. Claire was lying on the ground passed out. It wasn’t her that was screaming.  The phone in her slack hand glittered in the bright fluorescent street lights. 

Mrs. Adams was the one that was screaming. She stood, static, over Avery with a gun in her hand. He was sprawled out across the threshold of the door, blood erupting from his chest. 

I froze, my hand still pressed against Dad’s body. My eyes burned like hell, but the tears would not come. I freakin’ needed those tears to wash the sight of Avery dying from my eyes. My nostrils stung with pine. Avery. Damn it.  Get a hold of yourself, Zellie.  Oh, Jesus, Avery! My legs were lead. Where were the police?  Someone had to help me!

Staggering into the doorway, Mr. Adams bent down and removed the gun from his wife’s hand. Then, absolutely expressionless, he raised it to her head and pulled the trigger.

I wanted to pass out.  Wanted to let the pressure of my brain beating against my skull overtake me. I wanted to give up. The pain of losing all of these people at once was too overwhelming.

My body wouldn’t give in.  I felt my instincts claw their way to the surface, take control. It was like what I felt when I was with Avery, only even more animal, filled with more adrenaline.

I moved forward to the sidewalk. Everything blurred in my periphery, my focus pulled in tight.  Hyperaware.  Claire’s phone lay there glittery, pulsing.  I didn’t know where Claire had gone.  I concentrated on my actions, picked up the phone.  Dialed 9-1-1.

“
9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

The words were out of my mouth before I thought them. “There’s been a really bad car wreck in front of Adams insurance.  Cascade Ave. and 2nd St.” I hung up.  That was all they needed to know. I threw the phone down. 

I made eye contact with Mr. Adams. His eyes grew wide as he dropped the gun. I went to him and put my hands on his chest. I could feel his heart surging, overworking itself. I said what I knew was the truth. “It’s your day to die.”

The gun rose from the sidewalk. It floated in the space between me and Mr. Adams for an instant and then snapped into his hand.  The bullet popped out of Mrs. Adams’ head and returned to the gun. She sat up, stood and turned towards her husband. He handed her the gun and backed into his office.  She followed in the same manner.

I went to Dad in the van, pushed him onto the steering wheel. The horn blaring again.  I made my way around to mom, I untried the door. The fire under the hood came to a halt. The pressure in my head was subsiding. I looked around, feeling like I was almost done…

Avery hopped up.  The bullet from his chest spun before him and then was whisked into the office.  The door closed.  He fumbled with his keys.

I ran to him and put my hand on his. It was over now. My mouth was almost too dry to speak, “Stop.”

I awoke with a series of sounds ricocheting off the inside of my skull.  Cow bell, crash, car horn. Scream, shot, sirens.  Over and over again.  I opened my eyes, looking to my right and left. There were long white curtains surrounding me.  I was in a hospital bed.  I had no idea how I had gotten there or what time of day it was.

“Zellie, you awake?”

Melody’s face appeared above me, her eyes swollen and red.

“Melody?” I said.  My mouth was so dry. “Are Mom and Dad okay?”

“Everyone’s…they’re all down the hall getting checked out. Mom, Dad, Avery, Claire.”

“Avery?” It wasn’t a dream.  I didn’t get knocked on the head or something.  He was alive.  Oh my God, thank you, thank you.  I couldn’t catch my breath.

Melody reached down and took my hand.  “You saved his life.  Don’t you remember?”

“What?  No, I…” How much did Melody know? I wasn’t copping to any memories until I could be sure of what really happened. “Avery’s mom accidentally shot him and then his dad shot her, that’s the last thing I remember.”

“Oh, Zellie,” Melody said, tears streaming down her face, pooling at the corners of her upturned mouth.  “The visions you have…”

“You know about those?”  Claire, damn it, I loved that big-mouthed girl.

She laughed.  “Yeah, I do.  I always knew you were a freak.  But the visions, Zel, they’re not the only thing you can do.”

I dug my elbows into the hospital bed and pushed myself up to a sitting position. What
had
I done? I tried to summon that feeling again. Raw instinct. It wouldn’t come. “Start at the beginning, why were Mom and Dad even there?”

“Well, I was painting my toenails, y’know that one sorta neon green color I got from Britney for my birthday?”

“Melody.” I gave her my best exasperated big sister look.

“Jeez.  All right!  I was painting my toenails in our room and Mom came running down the hall and out the front door screaming after Dad to wait for her.  So, I went to the front window to see what the hell was going on and Dad had locked Mom out of the minivan, and she’s like, practically ripping the door off and they’re yelling at each other, so mad, madder than I’ve ever seen Dad.  He finally lets her in the car and takes off, driving all crazy.”

“He must have heard me talking on the phone with Mom and tried to come get me from Claire’s.”

Melody snorted.  “Ya, think?”

“Hey!” I pointed to myself. “Lying in a hospital bed, cut me a break on my slowness.”

“Sorry.”  She shrugged her shoulders. “Everything else I know is all according to Claire, but I have to say that I believe her because a lot of people are alive that shouldn’t be.  She says that she came to when she heard the gunshot, Mr. Adams shooting Mrs. Adams.  She sat up when she realized what had happened and crawled around the corner to take cover.”

“Thanks, Melody, I’ll take it from here. No need to make me sound like more of a tool than you already were.”  Claire came to my side, leaned over and kissed me on the forehead.  “Welcome back.”  She had a large white bandage wrapped around her head. She looked like crap.

“Hey.  Are you okay?” I asked.

Claire took my hand.  “I’m totally fine.  You know what they say about short people and their center of gravity being closer to the ground? I’m pretty sure that anyone who breaks their fall with their head gets one of these nifty gauze dealies.” She tapped herself on the forehead and then flinched. “I have a wee concussion, some cuts, nothing to worry about.  You on the other hand…well, of course you look hot despite your major psychic meltdown, you bitch.”

I tested the waters. “You saw everything?”

“If you’re referring to how you stopped time and rewound it, then yeah, I saw everything.” Claire gave me an exaggerated wink.

Well, forget testing, I guess I was in cannonball territory now. “So what happened after…the rewind?  That’s the last thing I remember.”

“After you passed out?” Claire asked.

I nodded and brought my hand to my head.  I was wearing a bandage too. It didn’t even hurt.  I must be on some serious ibuprofen.

Claire continued. “Your parents got out of the car and ran over to you, and Avery and I, we were all around you. Then Mrs. Adams opened the door of the office and said ‘Mike is dead and I didn’t kill him.’”

“Avery’s dad is dead?”  I sat up. I was going to puke. I remembered the feeling of his heart beating against my palm; I thought it was going to explode out of his chest.  “Did I?  Oh my God. What did I do to him?”

Claire put a cup of water to my lips and made me take a drink before she answered me. “We don’t know, Zel.  Your mom, she ran past Mrs. Adams and checked his pulse and looked him over for signs of injury…but there was nothing. His heart just stopped. 

“The ambulance and the police showed up soon after that and tried to revive him, but I guess…your mom’s not handling it too well. Avery either.  His mom has totally lost it. The cops took her to the psychiatric hospital over in Bend.”

“What? He’s going to hate me! I ruined his life!”  I couldn’t catch my breath. Claire thrust the cup of water into my face again, I pushed her hand away. I threw back the covers on the bed.  “I’ve got to see him.”

Claire and Melody both put their hands on my chest and pushed me back down onto the bed.  I was too weak to fight them.  My breathing started to return to normal.

“You’re not going anywhere. You need to rest.” Claire pulled the curtain shut.  She leaned down over me and looked me straight in the eye. “I don’t know how else to put this, but there’s a force inside of you that brought two people back to life and healed your parents to the point that all they have are a couple of scrapes and bruises. That, my friend, can take a lot out of a girl.”

I sunk back into my pillow.  “Yes, but I also had to kill someone to make that happen.”

Claire slumped into a chair. The day’s events had taken a lot out of her too. “Zellie, you said it yourself, it was his day to die. I don’t think it was you that did anything to him.  I think it was meant to be.”

Avery was meant to have both of his parents taken away from him in an instant?  In what world, to what God was that meant to be? “What does that even mean? How come I didn’t heal you, how come you didn’t get caught in the rewind?  None of this makes sense!”

She grabbed my hand. “I think you knew I wasn’t that hurt.  I’m glad that I wasn’t caught up in it, because I could watch it and tell you what happened.  No one else knew what went on until I filled in the details and I’m so glad that I could do that for them and for you.” Claire grinned.  “I’m like your supernatural sidekick.”

Normally, that would have made me smile, but not right now. The weight of the situation suddenly hit me very hard. “Who all knows about this?  What did you tell the police?”  My actions were going to have consequences.  I had possibly killed someone. I could go to jail.

“I told the police that your dad found out that I was driving underage and he’d followed us because he didn’t want you in the car with me. Then when he pulled us over, so to speak, I mixed up which was the accelerator and which was the brake. Then I accidentally put the car into reverse instead of drive and I backed up into them pretty hard.”

I gave her a “really?” look. She shrugged.  “I said I thought that all of us had a nasty case of whiplash, and that I would take full responsibility.” Claire sucked in a deep breath. “Then I said that Avery had keys to his dad’s office so we all thought that we would go in there and wait for the police. 

“But when we went in there, his parents were arguing and his mom had a gun pointed at his dad who proceeded to have a heart attack and that caused extra shock to your system, making you pass out.”  Claire paused and took another deep breath.  “That’s my convoluted story and I’m stickin’ to it.”

“Jesus, Claire.  They believed that?”  I felt a little more at ease.

“I know!” Melody chimed in. “I could’ve come up with a more believable cover than that.”

Claire shrugged again.  “It’s a small town. I’m sure our law enforcement is much better equipped to deal with a stupid car accident and a heart attack than the newly revealed powers of Zellie Wells.”

“You’re probably right.” I wasn’t even equipped to deal with my…powers. How was any of this real?  Visions were one thing, but rewinding time?  That was some crazy-ass-super-freakazoid stuff.  I looked at Claire; I wasn’t the only one who had protected someone’s life today. “Thanks for being such a good friend and skilled liar.”  I reached over to hug her.

As Claire hugged me back she whispered into my ear, “Don’t forget, sidekick.” She fluffed the pillows around my head.  “Now get some sleep and let that IV do its job. Word on the street is you’re way dehydrated. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She pulled the curtain back from around my bed and left the room. Melody followed her with promises to come back in the morning.

I noticed, for the first time, that there was another patient in the room with me.  She was about Mom’s age. I don’t know how I didn’t hear her before. She lay flat on her back snoring with her mouth open. Had she heard what we’d been talking about? She’d have me transferred to the psych ward for sure. I really looked at her and concentrated on her face.

A super bright light shone into her eyes as doctors leaned over her.  I could hear metal clinking in the background.  One of the doctors adjusted an IV hanging next to her head and then put a mask up to her mouth.  “Sarah, I need you to count backwards with me from ten and then we’ll get that pesky appendix out and you’ll be feeling much better. 10,9,8,7…” She drifted off.

Sarah wasn’t waking up for a while and probably didn’t hear anything we’d said.  Of course, if she had she would most likely chalk it up to a trippy drug induced dream.

I lay back onto my pillows and tried to relax, but my mind was buzzing with questions.  What was new about that?

I pictured Avery’s face when he’d heard me talking about my visions to Mom and again when I rewound the bullet from his chest. It was the same look, fear and disgust and betrayal.

Now I’d really done it.

And Mom?  She probably hated my guts at this moment. Why couldn’t I have just listened to her and kept out of the way? I’d only made everything worse by trying to help.  Sure, she was alive.  Alive to experience the feeling of having her heart and soul ripped from her body.

I didn’t want to think about what Dad thought of me.  An abomination? A witch? This force inside me went against all of his beliefs. 

Which brought me to my other Father.  “God,” I quietly prayed, “please forgive me.  I lost control.  I went astray.  I know how to do the right thing.  I haven’t been myself, but I will try.  I will try harder than you thought I was capable of.”

I wanted to cry.  I needed to sob, but I had no tears.