Out Of Control

My favorite part of the Hulk movie is when Bruce Banner says “But you know what scares me the most? It’s when I can’t fight it anymore, when it takes over, when I totally lose control. I like it.” Like him, I know what it’s like to lose control. So does Allison.
The week after my return to school, was strangely enough like the day I left. There was physics first. And there were lab reports to be done. I sat down at the back of the lab and looked around the class. My eyes met Erica’s. She gave me a shy smile and a little wave. I could feel my cheeks burning as I smiled back. “Wow. You must really like her.” A voice said beside me. I turned to see Allison staring at me with her grey eyes wide open. Since Allison had learnt she wasn’t crazy, she started taking better care of herself, but she still had the crazy look on her face. Coupled with the fact that she could read thoughts, it was actually pretty spooky. “How do you figure that?’ I asked.

“Because, when you think of her, your thoughts are all sappy and muddled.” she replied
I gave her a stern look. “Stay out of my mind please.”

She shook her head. “I didn’t need to read your mind to know that you two have chemistry. I just needed to read hers.”

My eyes opened large “Allison, how dare you…”

“And I also know that she’s dying for you to ask her to the dance two weeks from now.” I opened my mouth to say something but I stopped. Now there was a useful bit of information.

“See, now I bet you’re happy that I read her mind.”

“No, I’m not. You’ve seen enough Saturday morning cartoons to know that you shouldn’t use your powers for evil.”

“I’m not using it for evil.” She replied, somewhat ruefully. “I’m just practicing to use my power. I bet you practiced a lot when you found out you could make snow cones.”

I smirked. “Yes I did, but this is different.”

“How so?”

“Because making snow cones doesn’t violate someone’s fundamental right to privacy.”
She was about to reply, but just then Miss Havelock, walked in and called the class to order. “Well now,” she said, “I hope that you all have finished doing on your laboratory practicals, because there’ll all due for tomorrow.” A collective moan rippled through the class. “Yes, I know, I’m excited too.” A chill ran down my spine. I raised my hand slowly. “Um, Miss Havelock, I wasn’t here for all of these labs.”“I’m aware of that Mr. Peterson, but when you came back from your little excursion, I do remember asking Ms. Dagger to take them to you. You did do them, did you not Mr. Peterson?”

“Yes…yes, I did” I stammered.

“Well you shouldn’t have a problem tomorrow.” She turned to address the rest of the class. “The lab would be open after school for a few hours after school for all those who haven’t finished. Failure to submit them would result in a loss of 50% in your term grade, as well as your partner’s. Now then let’s get on with today’s class.” I turned and looked at Allison. She mouthed the words “Did you do them?” I shook my head my head, slowly from side to side. I didn’t need her ability to know what she was thinking. It was something along the lines of “I’m going to kill you!”

Allison caught my hand in the rush of leaving the classroom and pulled me aside. “You had a month of doing nothing. You mean you didn't come to school a couple of afternoons and do them?”
“I spent most of my afternoons practicing to use my power.” I thought.
“You spent your time playing with your powers? Is that it?” she said angrily. “What about last week?”

“I forgot.” I replied, shamefacedly. “But here’s how I figure it. You’ve done them right. You can give me your reports and I’ll copy them over. I’ll change it up a little so that it won’t look like I copied.” She didn’t answer. “You didn’t do it either, did you?”

“No, I thought you’d do it so I could copy them from you.” She said, wincing.

“You still have those headaches?’ I asked

“No,” she replied, “They went away when I learnt to control my power. More importantly,” she said, “what do we do about these reports?’

“Well I guess we have a late afternoon later.” I answered. I shouldered my satchel and walked out of the lab.
W
e spent a grand total of three hours that afternoon, setting up apparatus and taking measurements. We didn’t even realize when the janitor came to lock up and told us along with the other kids to leave. “You see,” I said on my way out, “we had absolutely nothing to worry about.”
Allison shook her head, “We still have 8 experiments to do. That’s about a third of our grade.” She flinched and shook her head. “We are going to fail.”
I looked back at the lab. An idea began to form in my mind. “We could always go back.”

“When? The reports are all due for tomorrow.”
I looked at her and smiled. “Oh no.” she said in a matter-of- fact voice. “We are not going to break into the lab. That my friend is a crime.”

“Failing physics,” I replied, “that’s a crime as well.” I turned and walked towards to school’s main circuit breaker.

“You think we’re gonna get away with this? There’re security cameras and alarms. How are you going to get past all that?” I put my hand up in front of the circuit breaker and froze it. Power went out throughout the school. She looked at me frowned. “And you were telling me about using my power for evil.” As she said that the power came back on. “Oh well, we tried.” I turned and walked back towards the lab. “What, are you crazy? We’ll get caught for sure now. They’ve put on the generator.”

“When they put on the generators, they take off the security system.” I responded

“How do you that?”

“Last time I got put in detention, they made me work with the janitor. Now do you, have any other questions?”

I froze the lock on the lab and opened the door. “You are digging yourself into such a deep hole.” Allison said, following me into the lab, “Do you know how this would look in your permanent record?” she stopped and held her head, shaking it. “Are you ok?” I asked concerned. “You know I could do this and e-mail, the results to you.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t worry about me if I were in your position.”
We walked into the lab and took out the apparatus. “Let’s hurry up and do this.” Allison moaned “I don’t feel that great.”
“Well it would go a lot faster if you would help me.” I said, placing beakers on the table. I placed my hand on her forehead. “You have a temperature. You sure that you don’t want to go home?” She shook her head again. “I’m already committed. Let’s get this over with.”
“Well then,” I said, taking out my scripts, “here we go.” I looked at my sheet. “Ok, pass me the burette Allison.” She didn’t respond. “Allison?” I turned to see what was keeping her. Allison was holding her head, and shaking. “Allison?” She collapsed on the floor and began to convulse. “Allison?” I called out, my voice close to hysterics. Suddenly, Allison let loose a bloodcurdling scream and began to trash wildly on the floor “Allison!!!” I screamed. I heard the equipment fall. I looked around the lab to see objects flying around the room, crashing and breaking on their on accord. I reached to grab her, but I felt myself being lifted up and flung across the room. “Allison, stop it, stop it now!!!!” I yelled. She continued screaming and trash on the ground. The windows shattered and glass flew everywhere. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the door open and close. It wasn’t part of the general chaos. It was as if someone had done it on purpose. I looked back to see shards of equipment soaring towards me. I threw up my hands in a futile effort to protect myself. What happened next happened as if in slow motion. I saw thin wisps of something silver form between me and the shards. Slowly more and more formed, building a wall in front of me. The shards hit it and bounced off. I reached out and felt it. It wasn’t ice. It felt more like some kind of metal. Like steel. As quickly as it formed it disappeared. I sat stunned for a moment. A beaker crashing right next to me brought me back to reality. I ducked and crawled across the room and placed my hand on Allison’s forehead. Her skin was burning up. “Cold.” I thought instinctively. “Make her head cold.” Slowly, her temperature began to drop. I controlled my power so that her whole head didn’t freeze. Gradually, she stopped moving and the objects in the room settled back. I breathed heavily. Allison sluggishly opened her eyes. She looked around disoriented. “Well,” I said to her, “guess we’re not doing any work tonight.” I turned around and began packing up our stuff. A sudden knock on the door surprised me. “Security, open up!” a boisterous voice yelled. I froze. Security! They must have heard the commotion I grabbed my stuff and looked for away out. The lab was on the second floor. There was no way out. “We’re coming in!!” the voice shouted. I cringed. The door opened and… I was in my room. I looked around in confusion. Wasn’t I just in the physics lab at school? My satchel and papers lay at my feet. How? I remembered Allison. Did she do this? More importantly, was she still in the lab. I whipped out my cell phone and called her number. Her phone rang a few times before I got her voicemail. I hung up and called again. On the fourth ring, someone answered. All I could hear was heavy breathing. “Allison?” I asked

“Yeah, I’m here.” She answered shakily.
I
breathed in relief. “Where are you?”

“I’m home,” she said, bewildered, “In my room.”

“How did you get there?”

“I don’t know. I was lying in the lab and I felt someone grab me. Next thing I know, I’m here. What about you?”

“Same thing.” I answered. “Get some rest. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”

“Ok,” she replied weakly. “Good night.”

“Good night.” I replied and hung up. I stared at the phone. Someone grabbed her? I took off my shirt. The security? I held the shirt in my hand. Something caught my attention. I looked closer and stopped in shock. Right on my shoulder, there was a handprint. No one had touched me there today. Somehow, someone in that lab had grabbed my shoulder and brought me here. I thought about the door opening and closing. What was going on here? And what about the slab of steel in front of me. Did they do that too? Who exactly was ‘they’? I shook my head. So many questions, all with no foreseeable answers. For now, a bad physics grade was the least of my worries.

Voices

I once heard of an author that said, “Some people hear their own inner voices with great clarity and live by what they hear. Such people become crazy. Or they become legends.” That’s all well and good until you start hearing other people’s inner voices. Then the whole legends part goes down the drain.

One month after my supposed resurrection, I decided that I had enough of home and wanted to go back to school. Yeah, I know, it’s pretty stupid, but that’s how I felt. A lot of things happened over that month. My therapy sessions were an apparent waste as I never remembered anything about where I was even under hypnosis. My parents always left downtrodden, trying to encourage me, saying that I’d remember next time. As if. What I did remember, I wasn’t going to say, and what I didn’t remember, I just couldn’t say. My powers had developed greatly over that time as well. Since I learnt that my power was reducing kinetic energy, I realized that I could cool things to varying degrees instead of fully freezing them. I practiced every chance that I got, and soon, I was able to freeze things without even touching them. But every time I got excited, I would remember the ghastly painting. It was still under my bed. Part of me wanted to take it out and burn it, and part of me was too scared to even touch or look at it again. For the time being it would remain where it was. I actually couldn’t wait to get back to school. I had a new life now. Maybe school would be much better than it was in the past. There was definitely Erica now to look forward to. That alone was a big improvement.

I have always had a habit of going to school early. Hardly anyone was there yet, and it was a good time to get a few moments of stability before the general insanity of the day set in. Walking down the empty hallway, gave me a weird nostalgic joy. I stopped and opened my locker and started packing out all my stuff that had been there for the past month and a half. That’s when the whispers started. Softly at first, the growing in intensity, stronger then they’ve ever been. I covered my ears and scanned my surroundings. Where was it coming from? And why did it sound so familiar? Not a familiarity that comes from hearing something over and over, but it was as if I could recognize the voice that was whispering. The whispers stopped. I removed my hands from my ears and shook my head. The weirdness had started all over again. I slung my satchel over one shoulder and walked to my classroom.

On opening the door, I noticed someone sitting at the back of the class. The figure raised its head. It was Allison. She stared blankly at me for a second and then resumed staring at her desk. I blinked in disbelief. I hadn’t seen Allison in close to two months. I was expecting some kind of sassy greeting, not a blank stare. I walked slowly towards her. “Morning Allison.” I said hesitantly. She didn’t respond, and that’s when I noticed something more disturbing than her absence of energy. Her appearance. Allison had a reputation for being a neat freak. Now, she was completely different. There were dark circles around her eyes and her black hair was disheveled. The shirt of her uniform was ruffled and her tie askew. Her head rested in the palm of her hands. “Hey,” I said slowly, “you might want to fix that tie.” She looked down at her tie and slowly adjusted it, before resuming her former stance. I sat down directly in front of her, waving my hand before her face. “Hey Allison, is everything okay?” I asked.
She looked at me and said, “It’s quiet here, isn’t it?”

I was taken aback. That’s not exactly what I expected her to say. “Yeah,” I replied. “It is pretty quiet here.”

“When I’m here, I don’t hear them.” she said.

“Hear what?”

“The voices.” she replied, her eyes wide. “The voices in my head.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So it wasn’t aspirin in that bottle after all.” I thought.

She looked up suddenly. “Do you hear that? It’s one of them. It’s saying something about painkillers.”


“Well,” I thought “I think Allison has finally lost it.”

“There it goes again. It just said that I lost it.”
I
froze. I just thought that. Suddenly it struck me. While we were at the hospital, she kept on replying to everything I thought. I had meant to ask her about that, but apparently I didn’t need to. I thought for a second and decided to try something that I had seen in an old movie. “Allison,” I thought, “if you can hear this, look directly at Alex.” Slowly, Allison raised her head and looked directly me. “Now I want you to raise your right hand.” She hesitated for a second. “Come on Allison. You can do it.” She raised her hand. “Now, put it down and raise the other one.” She complied. “Allison,” I thought, “It’s me, Alex.” Her reaction was instant. Her gaze focused on my face, her mouth made a slight ‘o’. “Allison, you’re not hearing voices. You’re hearing my thoughts.” She stared for a moment and then suddenly broke down in tears. Her head dropped and her body shook with sobs. I let her cry for a while. She eventually stopped and dried her eyes. “You have no idea how good I feel to know that I’m not crazy” she said, sniffling.

“I can only imagine.” I replied, a bit sarcastically.

“Everyone in school thinks I am.” she said. Then she stopped. “How did you know that I was hearing thoughts? Why didn’t you think that I was crazy like everyone else did?”

“I didn’t.” I replied honestly. “I just guessed.”

“Why would you guess something so incredibly far-fetched?” she questioned, showing a bit of the old Allison.

“Because, I had quite a few incredibly far-fetched things happen to me over the past two months.” I said. I removed a bottle of water from my satchel. “Look at this.” I poured the water over my hand. It froze before it hit the ground. Allison’s eyes opened wide. “I’m actually quite incredibly far-fetched myself.” I replaced the bottle. “We have special abilities Allison.”

“Why?” she asked.
“
I really don’t know,” I answered, “but you have no idea how good I feel knowing that I’m not alone.” She gave me a small smile, which coming from Allison was as incredible as her power. “I’m going to the café. Do you want to come along?”She nodded and we got up to leave.

“You know, you’re being awfully trusting of me.” She said, back to her former self. “What if I go and tell everyone what I just saw?”

I smiled, “It doesn’t matter. They already think you’re crazy.”

She was about to say something when she stopped abruptly. “Two of what?” she asked.

“Huh?”

“You just said, I mean, thought ‘Two of them’. Two of what?”

“I didn’t think anything.” Without warning, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I glanced around the room. No one else was there. Why was I getting this feeling?

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Nothing.” I replied. “Let’s go.” We walked out the classroom. Yup, I thought, school had definitely changed. Whether or not it was better, only time would tell.

The Painting

One of the best things about being dead for a few days is the fact that you get to stay home from school. A lot.

Being an only child means that when your parents aren’t there, you get to be king for the day. After raiding the fridge for breakfast, I sat in front of the television set aimlessly channel surfing. Turns out I had made a big splash in local news, being found after 20 days without knowing where I was. My honest opinion was that it wasn’t any of their business where I was. I mean, I don’t ask them where they go. The one good thing was that I got to see the video that Erica Simmons made. Drake was right. She was crying profusely, her hair matted to here face. Her voice was broken as she spoke. It was either that she really, really liked me or she was a hell of an actress. I think it was a healthy mix of the two. After three hours of mindless channel surfing, I went online got, into a chat about music, and ended up calling everyone idiots before logging off. Still craving mental stimulation, I browsed YouTube for anime music videos. I got up and went to the fridge and to look for something cold to drink. As I opened the door the first thing that hit me was how cold it was. Cold. For some strange reason, my feet began to feel cold too. I looked down and gasped. Ice was spreading across the floor from the soles of my feet. Thoughts flashed through my mind. The cup of water on the door. The breaker and thermometer. The rain. The pool. It was me, I remembered thinking at the bottom of the pool. It was me who was causing thing to freeze.

I walked over to the kitchen sink and turned on the water. I placed my hand under the water, letting it run freely. If I could indeed freeze things, I had to make sure something like the pool incident never happened again. I could end up killing myself for real or worse, someone else. I looked at the water. Every time I had frozen something, I had felt a cold rush. I cleared my mind and concentrated on the water. “Cold” I thought, “I want to make the water cold. Freeze it.” Nothing happened. I tried again. This time I tried to picture the beaker and thermometer in the Physics lab. I closed my eyes and tried to remember the cold draft I had felt. The sound of the flowing water stopped. Slowly, I opened my eyes. The stream of water had frozen, straight up to the faucet head. I breathed heavily. I had done it! I had intentionally frozen something! I stumbled back from the sink. Out of all the people in the world, I, boring old Alex Peterson, had a power that has been the focus of untold human fantasies. I had what every human secretly desired: power that would place him way above his peers. I picked up a cup that was half filled with water. I looked at it and thought about the cold draft. The water froze. Again! I had done it! If I could control my ability, there was no telling what I was capable of.

Rushing back to the computer, I sat and googled ‘ice ability’. Instantly, a load of links to X-men and Justice League fan sites appeared. Sifting through, my eyes lighted on one particular link. It was an article named ‘Cryokinesis ’. I had no idea what it meant, but it sounded cool so I gave it a try. The article read:

“Cryokinesis: The supposed ability, where one is able to reduce the kinetic energy of molecules in a substance, thereby freezing it. Though sometimes confused with the ability to create ice, cryokinesis users can freeze already solid objects, causing them to become brittle and shatter”

I stared at the screen for a while. What if this was the ability that I had? What if I could freeze anything? The thought excited me greatly. There was only one way to find out. I opened one of the drawers in my room and took out an old tennis ball. I held it in the palm of my hand and concentrated on feeling the cold draft. The ball began turning an odd blue color, making a crackling sound while doing so. It gave off a kind of heavy steam, which fell to the ground. I took a deep breath and squeezed it. The ball shattered like an egg. A smile spread slowly across my face. Cryokinesis. Not the ability to create ice, but the ability to freeze anything. There was no limit to what I could do! My body trembled with excitement as wild thoughts about my power raced through my mind.

My euphoric moment was broken by the ill-timed ringing of the door bell. I opened it to see a Fed Ex delivery man standing on my doorstep. “Um, I have a package here for a Mr. Alex Peterson.” He said looking down at his clipboard. “Is there anyone here by that name?”

“I’m Alex Peterson.” I replied.

“Well, could you sign here please?” he asked, handing me the clipboard and a pen. I signed and he handed me square package, hurriedly wrapped in brown paper and left. I went inside and placed the package on the kitchen table. It was about two feet wide and relatively light. My name and address was scrawled across it. I ripped off the paper, and stared in confusion. Was this some kind of sick joke? Who would do something like this?

The package contained one of the most morbid paintings I had ever seen. It was a picture of a young man in a suit, sitting on a patch of grass, holding what appeared to be a young woman in an elegant dress across his lap, her body limp. Blood stained her dress in various places. The young man sat, tears running down his face. I stared at his face. It looked so familiar. It was black, topped of by curly black hair. That face. Suddenly it struck me. Goosebumps grew up my hand, across my body. That face… was my face! It was a painting of me! My hands trembled violently. If it was me in the picture, then who was the girl? I stared at her face. It was obscured by her black hair falling across it. Her body was well shaped despite the horror of the picture. Blood ran from her slightly parted lips. Her face looked pale, but her olive colored complexion was still recognizable… my body went rigid. The girl in the picture …was Erica! Her beautiful brown eyes were wide open, staring at nothing. Dead. I dropped the picture, backing away from it. A piece of paper dropped from behind the picture. I bent over and picked it up, my hands still trembling. It was a note, written in the same scrawled handwriting that was on the package. It read ‘Only you can stop this! Don’t let her die!’ I looked at the picture. This was a picture of what was going to happen. I shook my head. This wasn’t real. Somebody couldn’t possibly paint the future. This was just probably a sick joke from one of those kids at school. I picked up the painting. “Someone can’t paint the future.” I thought to myself again. “Someone can’t freeze a pool of water either.” The thought unnerved me. I held the picture I my hand trying to decide what to do with it. Just then I heard the front door open and my mom call out for me. I ran upstairs and threw the picture under my bed. I would deal with it later. Right now, I had a life to live. I had people to love, and people to protect. With my new power that would be easy. Or would it.

20 Days Later

Looking back on everything, I’m sometimes tempted to say that my life began the day I died. That would be a lie. It began 20 days later.
The first thing that I was aware of was the fact that I was floating. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were sluggish, as if I were moving in a dream. My eyes wouldn’t open, but I could feel the sun beating down on my face. I tried to move again. This time, my right arm flailed, and it hit water. “Water?” I thought, “Where did water come from? Where am I?” My arm flailed again, hitting something hard this time. Instinctively, I grabbed hold of it. I struggled to open my eyes. Light streamed through my partially opened eye lids, giving an ethereal glow. “Where am I?” I asked myself again. “Am I… am I dead?” I panicked for a second, but my whole body seemed to move in slow motion, as if it didn’t care to move anymore. I forced my eyes open. Little by little, they opened, the light becoming brighter and brighter each time. My eyes burned, as if I had been I a dark room and someone shoved me into the light. At first, all I could see was the sun, bright and bold in my face. As my eyes adjusted, could see the blue of the sky, and small feathery clouds skittering past in the wind. I was lying on by back looking up at the sky. So I wasn’t dead. But what was I lying on, and why did I have the sensation that I was floating? Slowly I turned my head to the right. My hand was wrapped tightly around something, as if it were the Holy Grail itself. My vision was still blurry, but I could make out the shape of an outcropping rock in my fist. I rotated my head slowly to the left. My left arm was floating in what seemed to be water. “Water?” my mind said, as if struggling to remember something. “Water? Wasn’t there water before? Where was there water before?” I struggled to remember. “Wasn’t there water in the pool? What pool? I was in the pool. I fell in the pool. And there was ice…” A bright flash of light went off in my head, causing my entire body to jerk. The pool. I had fallen in the pool. I couldn’t get out. The water was freezing around me. These thoughts came to my sluggish mind as fast as I could process them. If I was in the pool, then why wasn’t I sinking? My body panicked again, this time causing me to splash. I still remained afloat. I turned to my right hand and focused my strength on pulling myself out. Grasping with my now free left hand, I got up onto the grass surrounding the little pool. My legs still wouldn’t move. I looked down at them and gasped. Ice. My legs were covered in thawing ice. I reached by hand backwards and felt my back. It was covered in some places with chunks of ice. “That’s why I didn’t sink.” I thought. “The ice helped me float.” I looked around. Nothing had changed. My satchel was still there, soiled but intact. It was the same as that day, the day I came up here and fell in the pool. The day I froze the beaker, the water in my hair, and the entire pool. I remembered all these things, but the memories seemed all faded and far away, as if they had happened so very long ago. As if they happened in another life. I tried to remember what had happened while I was frozen. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember. I had the distinct feeling that I had been somewhere, but I had no idea where. I looked at my feet. The ice had thawed off considerably. Surprisingly, I could sense feeling returning to them, even though they had been frozen for God knows how long. I forced my self to my feet, my body still sluggish as if awakening from a drugged slumber. I grasped my satchel and dragged it behind my, moving in the direction of what my mind said was a road.

I made it to the street and walked a little way till I saw a pay phone. I patted my pockets. No spare change there. I opened my satchel and dug into a little side compartment. I pulled out some coins that I kept for exactly this purpose. I inserted them and dialed a number. It rang twice, and a woman answered. “Hello?” the voice asked. It was the sweetest, most wonderful voice I had ever heard. It made my feel warm all over despite my obviously frosty demeanor. “Mom?” I responded. The voice cracked. “O God, Alex!! Alex sweetheart, where are you?” I tried to remember. After a moment’s hesitation, I said, “About a mile away from the school.”“Ok. Alex? Alex, just stay where you are, ok?” she said, her voice in hysterics. I hung up the phone and waited. About 20 minutes later, the family car pulled up. My mom jumped out and ran over to me, hugging me and kissing me, repeating over and over again that everything was going to be alright. I already knew that, but my mom, being the drama queen that she is, totally ignored that fact. My dad just stood from afar, tears watering his eyes.
They drove me to the hospital, amid a barrage of questions ranging from where I was to if I knew how worried they were. I tried hard to remember but nothing came to me. “…and we called everywhere, all your cousins, friends from your old school, your friends Drake and that Allison girl.” My mom was saying. I laughed to myself. I had never had Allison classified as one of my friends. “Twenty days, Alex” she said. “It’s been twenty days since you disappeared.” I sat up straight. 20 days!!?? I had been frozen at the bottom of a pool for 20 days? My mom looked at me sharply, “Where were you all that time?” she questioned. I stared at my feet and tried to remember what happened, but all I drew was a blank. All I had was the feeling of being somewhere, when I know I had been frozen at the bottom of the pool.
The hospital checkup was a quick one. Aside from being slightly malnourished, the doctor said that I was pretty much fine, but that I would have to see a therapist over the next few weeks if I had no recollection of where I was. I sat staring at the ceiling in the hospital room. Till this day I have no idea why I survived so long at the bottom of the pool, nor did I ever remember where I had been. I would probably say that God saved me, but back then I didn’t believe in God or Jesus or any of the stuff I believe now. But for that while, I just lay on my bed staring at the ceiling, flipping these thoughts over in my head. My train of thought was broken by a knock on the door. Drake pushed the door slightly and came through.

“Hey man, how are you doing?”

“Not bad,” I replied, “if you don’t count selective amnesia.” His eyebrows rose slightly. I told him about not being able to remember anything.

He gave a low whistle, “Well I guess that does suck.” The then he smiled “But enough of the bad stuff he said. “ I have something that’ll have you up and about in no time.”

“Really?” I asked. “What could top memory loss?”

“Well, while you were missing, your parents put this big alert out on the news, and they wanted some kids from school to come on TV and ask people to look for you. Guess who went besides me?”
I thought for a second, “Allison?” I asked.

Drake shook his head slowly, “No, not Allison. Why would Allison do that?”

“No reason,” I replied, “My mom just said something about her while we were in the car. So who was this other generous person?”

“Erica Simmons.”

I sat up straight. “Erica Simmons? You’re serious right?” I gave Drake a sharp look. “You sure you’re not pulling my leg?”
Drake raised both hands. “Honest.”

From the day I walked into Valley Private High School, I knew I was in love with Erica Simmons. Everything about her just made my heart go into acrobatics. Her straight black hair flowed down her back, encasing the most enchanting face ever conceptualized. Her soft brown eyes laughed every time she was amused, along with the little dimples in her perfect olive brown skin. Her body was shaped and chiseled with a geometry that defied the human mind. I was crazy about her. But all I could do was stare resignedly at this wingless seraph. Erica’s parents owned an international chain on luxury restaurants and kept a very tight leash on their only daughter. Besides, with money and looks like her, she was at the top of the food chain. There was no way a bottom feeder like me could get to her. Until now.

“It was amazing.” Drake was saying. “You should have seen it. She was all sobbing and pleading for your safe return and stuff. She put me completely out of the spotlight.”

I smiled.“Maybe I should go fall in a pool more often.” I said before I could stop myself.
Drake raised an eyebrow. “What did you say?”
“
I was a fool waiting for this to happen.” I cringed, hoping that Drake would take the bait.

He smiled.“Okay then.” He said. He looked down at his watch. “Shoot. I need to be home in 5 minutes or I am toast.” He looked at me and smiled. “Since you disappeared, all our parents have been a bit antsy. That’s why Erica isn’t here with me.” He got up and walked towards the door. “Take care man. Hope you get better soon.” I lay on the bed thinking over these new developments. Maybe having a new life could be exactly what I was looking for. Oddly enough, I felt something smothering my thoughts. Something like… whispers! I bolted up. Whispers again! Just like the pool. What the heck were they? As suddenly as they began, they stopped. The room door creaked, causing me to jump. It opened fully, to reveal Allison standing there.

“Twenty days of perfect lab work.” She said, shaking her head. “I knew that it was too good to last.”

I sighed. “Thank you Allison, for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and offer me your sympathy. It’s heart wrenching.”

“I didn’t come here to pity you,” she replied, rubbing her temples, her face wrinkled in discomfort.

“I left you twenty days ago with a headache, and you still have one?” I asked.

“I don’t see how that concerns you.” she growled. I looked at her stunned. “Aren’t we a ray of sunshine today?” I thought.

“Please,” Allison said, “refrain from comparing me to sunshine. It’s really sappy.”“Sorry,” I answered.

“I was thinking aloud,” even though I was sure that I didn’t.

“Anyway, as your lab partner, Miss Havelock wanted me to come give you the stuff you missed.” she said, placing a stack of papers on the table next to me. She sat down on the chair and opened a bottle of aspirin.

“She’s probably an addict by now.” I thought, smiling to myself. She gave me a sharp look.

“Very funny. Do I look like a junkie to you?”

“What?” I asked.

“You just called me an addict. Do I look like an addict?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Alex, don’t lie. It doesn’t suit you."

I looked at her confused. “Maybe it’s not aspirin in that bottle.” I thought.

“Alex, keep this up and I’ll make you disappear for another 20 days.” I was completely perplexed now. Why didn’t I know I was saying these things aloud? And what if I wasn’t?“Anyhow,” she said getting up, “I’ve got to go. I actually have a curfew now. I have you to thank for that.” She walked out the door.

“Good riddance.” I thought.

She stuck her head back into the room. “I was saying the same thing about you a few days ago.” Then she left.I lay bewildered. What exactly just happened? Suddenly, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I had the distinct feeling that someone was staring at me. I glanced around the empty room, making sure I was the only one there. This day kept getting weirder and weirder. Maybe this new life wasn’t all that much better than the last one.