Prophecy Girl Read online

  She grimaced. “This isn’t the sex talk, is it?”

  He shook his head, blushing. “No, no! That’s the last thing I want to talk to you about.”

  “Well, why are you here?”

  “Eva, I’ve heard from Dr. Lang that you’ve been having visions…seeing people die? And that you cry for hours? Is this true?”

  She nodded, noticing there was an acceptance in his words. He wasn’t perplexed as Dr. Lang seemed to be.

  “What’s wrong with me?!” she pleaded.

  He shook his head. “Nothing! My dear, nothing is wrong with you! You just have to learn to control it.”

  “Control it?” she asked, confused. “I don’t want to control it. I want it to go away.”

  He shook his head again. “I’m sorry, but that is impossible. What you’re experiencing…well, it’s who you are.”

  Eva was confused and terrified, looking up and down at her thin body. “What? What am I?”

  Before he could answer, the door creaked open. It was Dr. Lang. “Everything all right in here?”

  The stranger rolled his eyes for only Eva to see. “Fine, thank you.”

  Dr. Lang hesitated, but then nodded, and left.

  “I don’t like him either,” she said.

  “Eva, this isn’t the place for you. I know of a better place.”

  “Not another hospital?”

  “No!” He shook his head. “A school—a home—a place where you can study and live with others just like you.”

  She raised her eyebrow. “A school?”

  “My name is Seamus Quinn, and I’m the headmaster of Green Clover Academy in Boston.” He tapped the green shamrock pin attached to his tie.

  “Boston? Isn’t it cold up there?”

  Eva didn’t care for the cold, born and raised in sunny Miami.

  The headmaster bobbed his head from side to side, thinking. “It’s cold when it needs to be, but otherwise it’s fine.” He smiled. “Don’t worry. We don’t have classes in the snow,” he joked.

  “I’ll go to school to learn what?”

  “Regular subjects…math, science, et cetera.”

  “And how will geometry help me from seeing people die?” she asked in a noticeably sarcastic tone.

  “It won’t. At least, I don’t think it will,” he answered, smiling, seemingly not offended at her tone. “At Green Clover, you’ll attend classes as if in a regular school, but you’ll live there.”

  “Like a university?”

  “Sort of…but I’m sure at Green Clover there are more parties,” he said with a slight smile.

  “Sounds cool. When can I go?”

  “When and if your parents approve, but I believe I can persuade them. They must see that”—he waved his hand at the room—“this place isn’t for you. I hate to see you here when what you’re going through is absolutely real.”

  “You believe me? When others don’t? Why?”

  “The girls at my school are experiencing exactly what you’re going through.”

  She scrunched her nose. “It’s an all girls’ school?”

  “Half girls, half boys. A hundred in all.”

  “Only a hundred?”

  She was used to her old school of so many that foot traffic in the hallways between classes was more congested than a highway full of holiday travelers.

  He smiled. “Believe me, that’s enough.”

  “And they’re all like me?”

  “All the girls.”

  “Oh. What about the boys?”

  “They’re…special too.”

  Eva didn’t know why he was being so cryptic, especially if he wanted her to just pack and leave for Boston with him.

  She crossed her arms against her chest. “I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on with me.”

  He smiled patiently, leaned forward, and whispered, “You’re a Banshee.”

  Eva furrowed her brow. “A what?”

  “It’s a long story,” he resumed in a normal voice, leaning back in his seat. “One that I’ll tell you on the plane ride over.” He smiled. “It’s a long flight.’

  “Why can’t you tell me now?” she prodded.

  “If I started the very long tale of why you are what you are, we’d be here for hours, and I have some errands to run…like convincing your parents you should come to my school.”

  “Okay,” she moaned, but knew better than to push him.

  This was her chance to leave and she didn’t want to mess it up.

  “Great!” He exclaimed with a clap. “I’ll just go and contact your parents. I’m sure they’ll see that Boston is much better for you than here. And when that’s settled, we’ll take the return flight tomorrow afternoon.”

  “You have a ticket for me?” she asked, doubtful that he had planned out everything so perfectly.

  He pulled a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. She didn’t touch it, just staring at her name, and a two-thirty flight to Boston.

  “I can’t believe it! I’m actually going to leave?!”

  “You are, pending your parent’s approval, of course.” He placed the ticket back in his pocket. “But as I said, I’m sure they’ll see the benefits of my school. It really is the best place for you.”

  “Will you tell my parents what I am?” she asked, fearing their reaction.

  He shook his head. “No, they’re not ready to know, to believe, but some parents of the other students know. In time, you can tell them if you wish, but that’s up to you. My school’s not that secretive, but we don’t like to go around advertising the…abilities of the students.”

  “Will I get better there?”

  He reached his hand up, to her shoulder, and when she didn’t pull away, he gently squeezed it. “You will,” he said, nodding.

  She wanted to cry, but didn’t want to attract the attention of Dr. Lang, who had come back to the door, peeking inside.

  “Thank you, Mr. Quinn,” she said.

  “Till tomorrow, Eva,” he said, placing his gray cap back on his head.

  He walked to the door, not-so-politely pushed it open, and almost knocked Dr. Lang’s clipboard into his twitchy face.

  “And?” Dr. Lang asked him.

  Mr. Quinn smiled at Eva, and then turned to the doctor. “She’s fine. More than fine, actually. Nothing’s wrong with her.”

  She was glad that he was speaking up for her, but he wasn’t being truthful. There was something wrong with her, but apparently she could control it. Like a power. A superhero power. A useless power. She didn’t know what good she could do, if she saw people die, and couldn’t save them, not even knowing who they were, or where they lived. But she did know her visions were omens.

  When she saw the man being stabbed forty-seven times, she caught a glance at his cell phone when it dropped to the ground, and the date read October thirty-first. After the vision ended, and two hours of crying, she looked at her cell phone. The date read October twenty-fifth. She saw six days into the future. What she was going through wasn’t a gift. It was a curse.

  “What?!” Dr. Lang exclaimed, shaking his head, his facial twitch jumping. “What about the hallucinations? What about the depression?” He threw his hands up in the air, as if that would further demonstrate his confusion.

  Mr. Quinn simply tipped his gray cap. “See you tomorrow, Doctor Lang.” He waved to Eva and she waved back, trying to hold in her laughter.

  Finally, it was just her and Dr. Lang. She was nervous that he would barrel in her room, and demand to know what she and the headmaster had discussed, but he didn’t even take a step past her doorframe. With his jumpy facial tick, he turned on his heels, and left her there, thankfully alone.

  She twirled on the floor, giggling, until she finally collapsed on her bed that she always hated, but now it didn’t seem so bad. She would be gone soon.

  If her parents approved…

  She hoped they would. They had to. If not, and she had another vision, she was sure her skull would crack o
pen from banging it against the hospital walls.

  3

  Goodbyes

  At breakfast, when Dr. Lang had told Eva that her parents would be arriving that afternoon to see her off with Mr. Quinn, she had been so excited that she leapt up from the table, and gave him a hug. The doctor had been so startled, his facial tick froze.

  Now in her bedroom, she happily discarded her bland hospital uniform, and changed into the outfit that she had arrived in one year ago: a lavender tee, blue jeans, and white sneakers. The clothes were a bit baggy from her weight loss, but not too bad. She was told that her mom had packed her a travel bag. Finally, she’d be wearing jeans again! After she had changed, she went to her desk, and organized her collections: eight books, a hairbrush, and a tube of mauve lipstick that the friendly nurse, Kate, had given her.

  Eva used to wear makeup all the time, but at the hospital it was forbidden, except during visitation hours. She got so used to it that she didn’t even waste time with cosmetics anymore. But now? Well, the thought of going to a new school, with boys, made her so nervous that she ventured down the hall to the nurses’ station, where there was a full length mirror.

  Residents weren’t allowed to have mirrors in their rooms—suicidal teens and sharp objects didn’t mix. Eva had thought of ending her life from time to time, to finally get away from her nightmarish visions, but there was always this hope inside her that one day someone would come and rescue her. Well, that day was here, thanks to Seamus Quinn.

  As she looked in the mirror, she noticed that her pale skin seemed a bit more colorful today, and her black hair was glossy and full. She didn’t really need makeup, but the mauve color on her lips made her look like she attempted to show a presentable side.

  “You look so beautiful,” Kate said, sitting on a roll-around chair at her desk. Her normally bland white uniform top was offset by a blue butterfly clip-on attached to her front pocket, next to her name tag.

  Yekaterina was her birth name, descended from Ukrainian immigrants, but she was American as apple pie...whatever that means. She had recently graduated from nursing school, very nice, but she was just like the others, and didn’t believe Eva was having visions. But Kate never treated her like a freak or someone to be studied.

  Eva turned to the nurse. “No way! You’re the beautiful one, not me.”

  Kate had glossy chestnut hair that fell to her shoulders. Her green eyes weren’t as electric as Eva’s, but a mossy green, like the color of a not-so-scary bog.

  The nurse shook her head. “Please! I have to wear clown paint to not look like a zombie! Look at these bags,” she said, pointing to the slightly puffy sacs below her eyes.

  “You just need to get more sleep and stop worrying about men!”

  Eva and Kate would talk for hours about men: what they really wanted in a relationship, why they never called when they said they would, why they never held doors open for women anymore, why they thought gift cards were a suitable present for Valentine’s Day.

  In the end, Eva and Kate decided they still didn’t understand men. But Eva had never had a boyfriend. That was gorgeous Soledad who had a boyfriend every week it seemed. Eva tried not to think of her, saddened at their broken friendship, and the fact that she may never see her again, now that she was to leave Miami. But it was hard to forget about a decade long friendship.

  “I know! Do you remember Jake?” Kate asked.

  Eva left the mirror and sat down on the other available roll-around chair with a wobbly wheel, placing her well-worn brush and tube of lipstick on the desk surface.

  “You mean that guy who looks like a hobo?”

  “He does not look like a hobo,” Kate argued, unconvincingly.

  “Well, from that picture you showed me, yeah, he kinda does.”

  Kate raised her hands. “Okay, I’ll admit…he sorta looks like a hobo.”

  “It’s the beard.” Eva slapped her hands to her cheeks. “It’s way too long.”

  “I know! He said that by not shaving it, he’s thumbing his nose up at society.”

  Eva furrowed her brow. “You’re losing sleep? Over this guy?”

  Kate groaned. “He’s really nice though.”

  “I’m sure you can find a nice guy that actually shaves. Hey, maybe you shouldn’t shave either!”

  Kate furrowed her brow, thinking. “Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.” She nodded. “Yeah, I’ll tell him, ‘If you’re not gonna shave, then I’m not gonna shave, buddy,’ and see how he likes that!”

  “He won’t ’cause guys don’t like gals with hairy legs,” Eva pointed out.

  “That’s true,” Kate agreed, nodding.

  “Ahem!” Someone bellowed near them.

  Eva and Kate turned in their roll-around chairs to see Dr. Lang, reeking of mint-flavored coffee. He looked down at them from their lowly position behind the nurses’ station desk.

  His facial tick jumped. “It’s lunch time,” he said gruffly. “Eva needs to eat before she…leaves us.”

  Eva didn’t detect one hint of sadness. Dr. Lang looked as if he had failed. She imagined a large group of lab coat-wearing psychiatrists, sitting around a table, laughing their asses off about poor old Dr. Quincy Lang, who after a year, still couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Eva Nolan.

  Kate jumped right up. “Yes, Doctor.” She turned to Eva with wide, desperate eyes. “Let’s eat lunch.”

  Eva smiled. This was her last day. Dr. Lang didn’t worry her.

  In the cafeteria, which looked like a slightly cleaner version of a prison mess hall, she could only take one bite of her egg salad sandwich, and it wasn’t for the fact that the cafeteria staff put way too much mayo in it—she was just too excited.

  “Dr. Lang will fuss at me if you don’t eat the whole sandwich,” Kate warned her.

  Eva waved her off. “Tell him I did. What? Is he spying on us?”

  They both furrowed their brows at the possibility, and then looked towards the entrance doors. Nope. No lurking, twitchy-faced, whisky-sipping psychiatrist.

  “Still, you should eat.”

  “I can’t! I’m so happy!”

  A few tears escaped from Kate’s eyes. “I’m going to miss you, you know?” Eva clenched Kate’s hand, crying too. “You know the address of where I’m going, right?”

  Kate nodded. “I got it from Dr. Lang so I could mail your books after you arrived.”

  “You can write to me, if you want. Or you could email. I’m going to a school so I’m sure they’ll have computers there.”

  It had been over a year since Eva had accessed a computer. She wasn’t certain if she would even remember how to turn it on.

  “Thanks, I’d like that,” Kate said.

  They hugged for what seemed like the longest time and cried some more.

  When they finally parted, Eva noticed that Kate’s face looked like she had smeared covert special-ops black paint all down her cheeks.

  “Oh! I made your mascara run!”

  Kate shook her head and smiled. “Don’t worry.”

  When they went back to Eva’s room, Kate used a tissue to clean the black gunk from around her eyes and off her cheeks.

  “What about things like soap and deodorant?” Eva asked, standing in her small, plain white bathroom, gathering up her transparent bottles of soap.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Kate said, taking the bottles from her. “I heard Mr. Quinn over the phone with Dr. Lang. He said everything you needed would be there.”

  “That’s nice. I hated this soap anyway,” she said, pointing in disgust at the slimy yellow liquid that Kate had put back on the counter.

  The nurse laughed. “Yeah, I’ve seen better soap at a roach motel.”

  Eva was about to jokingly ask Kate who she had gone with to a low-budget motel, but she was interrupted by a knock on her door. She ran excitedly with Kate in tow, thinking it was Mr. Quinn, but it was only Isaac Dodd. He was accompanied by an African-American nurse nicknamed “Bull,” but not for his t
owering height and broad shoulders that filled her door frame, but for the fact that he used to be a bull rider out west.

  “Hey, Bull,” Eva greeted.

  “Hey, Eva. Hey, Kate. Isaac here has something he needs to say to you,” he said with a deep voice that could cause a dormant volcano to erupt.

  Isaac held his head down, clenching and unclenching his fists. Eva wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but she didn’t count out a fist slam to her face.

  Finally, Isaac lifted his head, and Eva noticed that he had been crying. “I’m sorry,” he said, drying his cheek with the back of his hand. “I’m sorry I got angry at you.”

  Eva wanted to cry too, but held back. She had done enough of that with Kate.

  “It’s okay. I probably said something I shouldn’t have.”

  Isaac shook his head wildly. “No, no! It wasn’t you. I’m…I’m the one with the problem. I…have problems.”

  But Eva couldn’t hold back any further, and let her tears fall. She embraced Isaac in a tight hug, and as she placed her head against his chest, she could hear his wildly thumping heartbeat. Isaac lightly pressed his hands against her back. He didn’t hug her, but he didn’t push her away.

  She looked up at his sad face. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you have problems. You’ve been through a lot, and they just don’t understand.”

  To Eva’s surprise, he fully embraced her, burying his face in the crook of her neck, sobbing. She soothingly rubbed his back, and after awhile, he pulled away, wiping the tears from his eyes.

  “I want you to stay,” he confessed, sniffing.

  She gently held his hand. “This isn’t the place for me, and it’s not for you, but it’s better than where you used to be, right? And Bull and Kate will keep you company.”

  “That’s right, Isaac.” Kate timidly placed her hand on Isaac’s shoulder. When he didn’t push her away, she continued, “I’ll be right here if you need me.”

  Next, Bull lightly squeezed both of Isaac’s shoulders, and said in his deep voice, “Yeah and I need someone to play chess with. Can’t play by myself, now can I?”

  Isaac laughed. “All right, I get it. I’m loved!”