Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart Read online

  Suz was also accepted at the same university and we planned to room together.

  Chapter 5 - Do Over

  The month of May was chock full of activities and adventures for the senior class. One particular trip was to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky. We left the school early in the morning and most everyone slept on the bus-ride there until about an hour out. As each individual awoke the level of excited chatter picked up.

  Suz sat next to me and once she awakened she turned to me with a concerned look. “Calli, will it be alright with you if I hang out with my other friends for some of the day?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “Well, you know, I don’t want to leave you all alone.”

  “I can take care of myself, Suz. I don’t care who you hang out with.”

  That’s all it took for her to cheer up; my permission to abandon me. I really don’t like looking for Suz’s future and I certainly don’t make a habit of it, but I took a peek to see if she’d hang out with me at all. Through her eyes, I saw myself from a distance hugging Brand and I felt her anger at my betrayal. She would not be hanging out with me today. In fact, this day would mark the end of our friendship!

  This is why I don’t like looking into her future.

  Why would I be hugging Brand? Was he going to deliver a pickup line that finally melts my stone-cold heart and have me falling into his arms? Not a chance. Was he going to have an emotional breakdown in which I would feel sorry for him and give a ‘there, there’ hug? I could try to look into Brand’s mind and find out, but I decided not to. I’d rather be caught off guard by the spontaneity of life, like the fact that my only friend was about to dump me before the day was done.

  Cedar Point was located on an island in Lake Erie and was breathtaking to behold. Rollercoaster heaven! This was going to be fun. We exited the bus with the instructions of being back on the bus at six o’clock sharp for the return trip home. Other buses were already parked with their seniors in line to enter the park. The girls behind me squealed with delight at the sight of fresh meat. I just rolled my eyes.

  Inside the park and already abandoned by Suz, I searched out the location of the nearest restroom. It was quite a long walk away; good thing I hadn’t been struggling to hold my bladder for the last two hours. Alright, so I shouldn’t have drank so much soda on the way here. Now I’d be doing the scissor-walk the whole way to the bathroom. A thought occurred to me that perhaps I could use my healing ability to ease my discomfort a bit. Sometimes I forget just what I can do.

  As I exited the restroom, I saw a large board with a map of the amusement park and the ‘you are here’ red star. Wow, this place was huge!

  “What are you going to ride first?” I heard a voice behind me and I turned to find Maetha.

  “Maetha, you startled me. You should get a cell phone or something and let me know when you’re going to pop into my life.”

  “When you’ve been alive as long as me, you’re not quick to jump on the latest gadget bandwagon.”

  “Cell phones aren’t something that’s going to go away, Maetha.”

  “Are you so sure about that? At some point, people will return to their quiet lives tossing away the conveniences that both bind them to society and allows society to keep tabs on them. Cell phones are still rather new and the novelty is still fun. It will get old when the wrong people overstep their bounds causing the general population to scramble ‘off grid’.”

  “You sound like one of those talk radio alarmists. Did you look into the future for that one?”

  “No, it’s the nature of the beast. Anyway, I apologize for my delay in getting back with you. We’ve been busy with a new development that has us perplexed. A new power has emerged; one not contained in the Sanguine Diamond. Three of us have been investigating two individuals trying to figure out what the power is. I wanted to come here and let you know that I’ll be bringing Beth with me after school is finished to teach you how to see auras.”

  “That will be fun. Tell me about this new power, Maetha.”

  “Let’s get some refreshment first. I would love one of your lemonades but we’ll have to suffice with an artificial one.”

  We walked to the nearest food vendor and ordered lemon Icys and found a shaded area to sit. Maetha didn’t seem impressed at all with the frozen lemonade.

  “I remember the first time I had lemon drink. It was in Egypt, 1037AD. The sugar back then tasted much better, but so did the lemons. I’d been out of the country for awhile and I guess they’d been making this drink for some time before I sampled it.” She took another sip of her slush and squeezed her eyes shut. “The new ability I spoke of is a confusing one. It seems to have roots in the Seer’s and Reader’s powers, almost like a mixture of the two.”

  “Let me guess, when you look into their mind all you see is a jumbled mess?”

  Maetha had genuine surprise lighting up her face. “Yes! You know someone with this power?”

  “Yes, I think so. He has Demons around his house, so it’s some kind of cosmic power.” I chugged a large amount of the awful lemon drink. It tasted like all-purpose lemon cleaner. “His name is Brand Safferson and he’s a pervert.”

  “A what?”

  “Well, he’s always trying to hook up with new girls; he’s a player, a scammer, a pervert.”

  “I hardly think a young man wishing to mate qualifies him as a degenerate.”

  “Mate?” I laughed. “If he was looking for marriage, that’d be one thing. He’s just after the ‘one thing’, not a relationship.”

  “The all-consuming drive for a male to ‘hook up’ is what keeps the population growing. It’s nature at its most basic level.”

  “Yeah, but last time we spoke, you talked about the many deaths of the black plague and if they hadn’t died our population would be overrun in today’s day and age. Now you’re saying it’s nature’s way to want to procreate?”

  “Touché, Calli. When I come back with Beth, perhaps you can arrange a time I could meet this over-zealous young man.”

  “He’s here today; do you have time to meet him?”

  She stood immediately and threw her mostly full drink into the nearby garbage can. That was answer enough. I joined her and we started walking.

  “Maetha, I don’t know how long it will take to find him; this park is huge.”

  “Imagine his face in your mind for me.”

  I did as she ordered and felt her access my mind. She stopped suddenly and stared straight ahead. I followed her line of vision but couldn’t tell what or who she was looking at.

  “Calli, I’m looking into the minds of others for his face. Once I locate him I can delve deeper for a location.”

  “Wow, move over Homeland Security.”

  “There, that boy with his breeches hanging down to his testicles has seen him recently at the Corkscrew ride. Let’s go.”

  We weren’t far away and as we neared the ride another teen’s mind revealed to Maetha he’d left with a girl and headed to a grassy area nearby. I found it amusing how everyone approaching us scratched their heads as they went by. The sensation of having their minds read must be the same for regular people.

  We walked around a large hedge bush and found a group of boys who had circled around Brand. He’d clearly stepped over his bounds with his choice of girls, once again, and now a gang was about to beat him up; or so they thought.

  “Maetha, have you ever seen one of these new people of powers in a fight?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “Let’s get a better viewing spot because you’re going to like this.”

  We repositioned ourselves behind a nearby vendor’s shack and watched the scene unfold. Brand had apparently ticked off a guy who had juvenile delinquent friends and they were all about to violate their probations. If I was an opportunist, I’d have gone around and taken bets on Brand, but Maetha wouldn’t have approved.

  The situation escalated and the offended boy rushed at Brand re
ady to punch him in the face. Brand moved slightly and the boy’s hand made contact with a post directly behind Brand with an audible crunching-crack sound. The wailing was deafening and the crowd let out a sympathetic ‘ooooh’. The buddies all jumped forward at the same time and a glimmer of silver caught my eye. Maetha grabbed my arm and looked at me with concern.

  “Calli I can’t see his future well enough to know if he’ll be alright. I don’t want him killed.”

  “Look into the future of the knife bearer to see if he’ll be successful.”

  “What? Whose side are you on? Oh, wait… I see. It will be alright.”

  Sure enough, the fight played out just like the one in the high school parking lot. It was over in a matter of thirty seconds with each of the hoodlums curled up in agony on the grass holding their private parts. The six inch blade poked up out of the grass with the handle still waving back and forth.

  Maetha pulled me out of sight and said, “Calli, I’ll be out of sight observing, but I want you to take him somewhere more private and reveal to him that you have the healing power. He will then reveal his power to you.”

  “You’ve seen it? Then why don’t you just tell me what his power is.”

  “Future sight will not reveal a paradox. If I could see what he will reveal there would be no need to have him reveal it.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your future reveals you will learn his power and help him understand it better. It does not show me what his power is.”

  “Ugh, too confusing, alright what should I say to him to get him to talk?”

  “Whatever you feel you should.”

  I watched as Brand picked up the fancy knife and closed it. He wagged it in front of the owner and said, “Thanks.” He pocketed it and walked away. The girl the fight began because of rushed to one of the downed boys. I used that opportunity to approach Brand.

  “I see you’re busy keeping the peace, Brand.” I fell in step with him and noted his tired expression.

  “Oh, you saw that?”

  “Yeah, I did. You’ve got quite a skill there. You should go into Ultimate Fighting or something.”

  “I’ve been hit enough times, thank you very much.” He didn’t look at me; he simply kept walking at a brisk pace.

  “What? You never get hit.”

  “That’s what you know. Why are you even talking to me, Calli?” He glanced over at me with that question.

  “I think you and I have a lot in common.”

  “So are you going to change your mind about me, about us?” His emotion and voice inflection changed on a dime and I could tell he was weighing his options with me. What is it with male hormones?

  “No, Brand.”

  “I don’t know why you won’t change your mind about me; I don’t know why I can’t change your mind.”

  “What makes you think you can change my mind?”

  “I can change everyone else’s minds. But you aren’t affected.”

  “Do you really think it’s appropriate to control people like that?”

  “Who cares? It’s what I do. My time here lasts so much longer than anyone else, at least I can score with the girls while I’m at it.”

  “Yeah, you’ve succeeded with all the girls except Suz. Why have you passed her up?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” His tone had finality and anger in it. He walked up to a beverage vending machine and fed a couple bills into the slot and made his selection for water. He struggled to get the bottle out of the machine and then twisted the cap off. As he lifted it to his lips he looked at me and paused. “Do you want a drink?” He extended his clutched bottle toward me.

  “No, thank you. Why do you feel your time lasts longer, Brand? Are you talking about length of minutes?”

  It took him a minute to respond because he was busy guzzling the water like he’d been traveling over miles and miles of hot desert. He wiped his mouth and let out a slight belch. “No, literally. My day lasts so much longer than anyone else’s, of course it’s my own fault, but I can’t help myself. I like things to go my way, I like to win the fights, and I like to get the girl. You just saw me in action.” He paused and stared at me for a couple of seconds and then answered the question at the front of my mind that I was about to ask. “Because I’ve had a lot of practice.”

  “How did you…?” My amazement was hard to hold back. Had he just read my mind? No, it wasn’t possible because I’m an Unaltered.

  “Calli, I can tell you all about yourself. For instance, you like the color red, you’ve always wanted to be a doctor, you don’t want to go to college but have to in order to please your parents, your favorite food is Chinese and you used to have a cat named Fluffle-up-a-gus.”

  I laughed out of pure shock. I wasn’t even sure Suz could spout that much information about me. “What? Can you read minds or something?”

  “Or something.”

  “Brand, can we go somewhere more private? I have something to tell you.”

  “Wow, are you finally going to jump my bones?”

  “Dream on.”

  We walked through the crowds until we found a maintenance shack with a small area behind it protected by a fence. Once we were safely behind and I was sure no one was following us, I said, “Brand, I know why you wouldn’t meet me in the park after dark that time.”

  He exhaled and glanced around nervously. “No, I don’t think you do.”

  “I’ve seen them, Brand. They’re called Shadow Demons and they only attack people with special abilities. You have a special ability and I have one.”

  His shock was evident in his eyes. Undoubtedly he was wondering how I knew about the Demons and what my special ability was.

  “You can actually see the… whatever they are? Why can’t I see them? How many times have you been attacked by them?”

  “Never; they’re not interested in my ability.”

  “So, what is your ability?”

  “I’m a Healer. I can heal most any ailment or injury with my mind.”

  “Really?” he laughed. “With your mind?” He pulled the knife out of his pocket and opened the blade. “So, you’re saying if I stabbed myself, you could heal my injury? How fast?”

  “Fairly fast.”

  “Faster than two minutes?”

  “Yes.” Before I could even brace myself, he thrust the blade deep into his thigh.

  With blood gushing, he looked at me and said, “The clock is ticking, Calli, show me what you can do.”

  I focused on his injury and felt the cold steel inside his flesh. I began repairing the sliced muscle from the inside out, pushing the blade out in the process. The knife dropped to the ground and the skin on his thigh was the last to close. All he was left with was a hole in his blood-covered jeans, but his leg was perfect. He stared slack-jawed at the knife on the ground and pushed his fingers inside the slit in his jeans to feel his leg.

  “Calli, what did you do?” His voice cracked with his amazed discovery.

  I smiled at him.

  “I’m impressed, but can’t you fix my jeans also? These are my favorites.”

  “Get a needle and thread, Brand. I only fix humans.”

  “Well, what good is your power if you can’t fix my jeans too?”

  I couldn’t believe he wasn’t shocked out of his mind with my healing ability and that he was throwing such a fit over worn-out jeans.

  “You showed me yours, now I’ll show you mine.” He winked at me and took my hand. “You want to see something cool?”

  Excited, I nodded.

  “Come with me and watch.” He took my hand and everything around me began spinning by in a blur and instantly we were back to where he asked, “Faster than two minutes?”

  I instinctually answered yes. I looked at the knife in his hand and then down at his unharmed pants. He hadn’t stabbed his leg yet and I kept waiting for him to do so.

  He looked at me and said, “See, I fixed my pants.”

  Sure enough, his jea
ns were unharmed and clean because he hadn’t stabbed his leg yet. “Did we time travel, Brand?”

  “No.”

  I shook my head trying to pull my thoughts together. Had I only imagined him stabbing his leg? The memory of it was etched in my brain, and yet he hasn’t done it yet. Am I going crazy or is this some sort of déjà vu? Maybe Brand has the power to make me think an event has happened when in fact it never did.

  Brand hadn’t taken his eyes off me. “Are you alright, Calli?”

  “What did you do, Brand?” Another echo of a memory etched in my brain was of Brand asking the same question to me after I healed his self-inflicted stab wound. But he hadn’t stabbed and I hadn’t healed.

  “We repeated the same stretch of time and I didn’t stab myself this time.”

  “So, you remember stabbing yourself?”

  “Yes, and you remember also?”

  “Yes.”

  “See, now you know how I was able to fight that gang.”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “I just keep repeating segments of time until I get it figured out how to avoid getting hit. The gang fight took around two hours to perfect. I took many hits and they broke my nose repeatedly but once I finally made it through the fight and successfully landed my groin kicks, I didn’t need to repeat any further, and that’s the version you saw. I spouted all that stuff about you but only because you gave me every one of those answers moments before. You didn’t remember giving me the answers because I repeated the time back to where you hadn’t said it yet; but the memory was now in my head. There were plenty of questions you wouldn’t answer like if you’re a virgin or who your dream guy is.”

  I blushed.

  “I stabbed myself knowing that if you were full of shit I could simply repeat and everything would be just fine. In fact, if you’d been fooling me, I’d have repeated back without you and you’d never know exactly what it is I do.”

  “Well, why don’t you repeat back to the moment right before the gang tried to beat you up? You could avoid all that mess and wasted time.”

  “It doesn’t work like that. I can only repeat the last two minutes, no further.”