Time Will Tell

Preface

To be psychic- it can be a gift or a curse, depending on how you use the ability. Choosing how to use the ability was easy for me, but controlling it is much harder.

Sometimes I can control it; I can focus on something, and see what I need to do in order to make everything work out the way I need it to. Sometimes I can make a “vision” come to me.

Though most of the time, everything tends to come in a rush. Appearing in my mind at random times of the day, often showing me things that didn’t matter much in my life.

I had never been the superhero type, considering I was too short to wear a cape without tripping over the end of it. But I had to admit; I did look pretty good in a pair of tights. But over time, I had managed to play the superhero game thanks to the gifts I had been given.

Pulling people out of the way of a speeding car before they got hit, squishing a poisonous spider before it bit someone- these were all things I had done before. I was no superman, not by any means, but the amount of gratitude that always came from the person I had supposedly saved was always enough to make me feel like there was at least a handful of people out there that actually needed me… even though half of them didn’t even know it themselves.

Life flashes past you so fast you barley have time to watch it for yourself. With one eye in the future, and one eye in the present walking down the street can be dangerous for me. It made it hard to watch my own life, since half the time I was seeing it in fast-forward. It was similar to recording a show on a video camera- you don’t really get to enjoy it, because you’re either watching it on the tiny screen of a camera, or not at all.

When I wasn’t trying to control the visions, or ignore them, I got a constant stream of the futures of people’s lives.

For example, sitting in a restaurant, I could clearly see the husbands who would be cheating on their wives at their “late night meeting” later that night. The waiter who was serving the table next to mine would quit his job in two weeks to pursue a career in singing. He would eventually make it big. All this I knew just by turning around to ask for a glass of water.

It was this same kind of situation that had gotten me into trouble in the first place. I had been at a simple corner café, admiring the scenery. I turn back around to take a bite of my apple fritter to see a man sitting in the seat across from me. Blonde hair, brown eyes, tan, freckles across his nose- typical spoiled type.

I rolled my eyes and picked up my fritter, taking a bite and hoping he didn’t notice how blank my eyes looked.

“Do you mind?”

“I was actually just going to ask you that.”

“Wow, handsome and good with words.”

“I try.” I saw him grin. “Are you okay, you look like you’re having a stroke?”

“I’m fine.” I murmured. His future had flashed by so quickly, it was amazing I had seen any of it, but yet I had still caught it all. His future was frightening, to say the least. He definitely had a rude awakening coming for him within the next few weeks. What he had done to deserve such a punishment, I had no idea. But I had seen it nonetheless. But I wanted to help him either way; I felt like I needed to.

“If you don’t want to look like an idiot I suggest you put a napkin in your lap.” I threw him a napkin, he stared at me as if I were crazy, and unfolded the napkin and placed it on his lap. As soon as he brought his hands back up to the table, a ditzy redheaded waitress dropped a plate of strawberry pastries onto his lap. The heavy cotton napkin prevented anything from getting on his pants. I smiled wryly. Right again.

“That was amazing… how did you know that would happen?” he asked after the waitress had apologized a half-dozen times.

“Maybe you should tell me your name.”

“Cole. Cole Escue.”

“Well Mr. Cole Escue… you’re in for a pretty rude awakening in the next few weeks, maybe it would be best if you just stayed home.”

“Maybe you should tell me your name.”

“Gracelyn Fallows.”

“That’s a pretty unforgettable name.”

“Well, I’m a pretty unforgettable person.”

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rachel Irene ♥ on May 27, 2011 at 6:46pm

Thanks for all the comments guys! I'll be posting as often as I can... I'm officially on summer break now, so I'll have A LOT of free time to write... We'll see If i can get this story finished by the end of the summer(:

Permalink Reply by Vasilia~*Daughter of the moon*~ on May 29, 2011 at 10:10pm

lol. I can see this going wrong......

I loved it!

Post soon!

Permalink Reply by Anita Newbill on May 25, 2011 at 12:23am

Off to an intreguing[sp?] start!!! Keep me updated, please!

Permalink Reply by ♡ ραтιєη¢є.єℓιzαвєтн.ιяιѕ♡ on May 25, 2011 at 3:38pm

I love it update soon !

Permalink Reply by F*** YOU ALL on May 26, 2011 at 3:08am

Really interesting Rachel! Keep up the good work! :)

Permalink Reply by ♥Rachel♥ [ PainfullyShy ] on May 26, 2011 at 1:22pm

Loved it!!

I want to know how this plays out.

Keep me updated!!

Permalink Reply by Rachel Irene ♥ on May 31, 2011 at 6:22pm

The party was extremely lavish… too much so for a semi-normal New York family. This party belonged in a different setting, and a different time period. There was upbeat jazz music that people could both relax and dance to. Champagne, ball gowns, tiny appetizers that looked like play-dough on a stick… the full package.

Men and women danced and spoke loudly, laughed even louder, and silently competed against the others around them by sizing each other up and telling war stories from the stock market.

I had never been so annoyed in my life. I couldn’t talk to anyone without making myself seem like an idiot. My best bet was sitting on a love seat in the far corner of the massive room, near the kitchen door. I dodged the door, as it swung open every time another server walked through it.

The constant opening and closing of the doors, combined with the hum of voices coming from across the room started to lull me to sleep. I dozed off for a little while, before a large hand gripped my shoulder and shook me awake.

“You made this too easy.” I mumbled after forcing my eyes to open.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered, trying to make it seem as though we were just having a conversation to the rest of the guests in the room.

“Coming to get you.” I stood up and smiled, leaning in to give him a hug. He hugged me back, confused. I used the proximity to try to get him to understand. “Cole, I know you haven’t known me for that long… but you and I both know that I’m always right, right?” I murmured in his ear. He pulled away from me, but I clung to him, smiling and laughing as if we had been old friends, that hadn’t seen each other in a while. “You have to trust me.” I whispered again. There was an old grandfather clock somewhere in the house, because I heard its chimes as soon as I took my first steps towards the stairs. Ten chimes meant ten o’clock- the kidnappers were supposed to arrive at the party at 10:37 exactly.

We were out of time.

“I have exactly thirty-seven minutes to get you out of here before all hell breaks loose, I don’t care if you don’t believe me, you’re at least going to sit in the car with me!” I grabbed his arm and wrenched him up the stairs. I pushed him in front of me when I reached the top and ordered him to grab the biggest suitcase his family had and take it to his room. He turned around to face me; a look of question plastered on his face, yet he turned around shaking his head and did what I had asked him to do.

I didn’t look around as I followed him into his room; I simply unzipped the suitcase and starting throwing things into it.

“Get all the clothes that fit you and throw them in. Don’t worry about folding, we don’t have time!”

“What if it won’t all fit?” he shouted at me, clearly beginning to doubt the reason behind the madness.

“Make it fit!” I shouted back. I ran into his bathroom, and grabbed what I could find that he would need; toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, deodorant… I had no clue how long we would be gone, and if he were anything like me, he’d miss he normalcy of things. So I started grabbing soap and shampoo out of the drawers and cabinets.

Even something as simple as your favorite soap could make a difference when you where in the middle of chaos.

“Will you explain to me what’s going on?” I ran in and started throwing the stuff from the bathroom into the front pocket on the suitcase. “And what is all of that?”

“You’ll thank me later.” I mumbled. He had stopped throwing things into the suitcase, so I took over. He pulled the top of the suitcase up and let it fall on my hands while I was trying to shove all of his clothes into the bag, the thick protective plastic on the inside dug into my skin.

“Explain. Now.” He glared at me until I removed my hands from the inside of the bag and started to zip up the suitcase. I looked at the digital clock on his bedside table before I started talking; the clock read 10:26.

“In eleven minutes, a group of men will be here to find you. They’re planning on kidnapping you and using you as ransom for your father’s money. They’ll kill you, if they have to.” I pulled his massive suitcase off of his bed and over to the window.

“Pank?” I whispered into the dark to make sure Pankrati was under the window to catch the suitcase as well as the two of us.

“I’m here.” He whispered back.

“Ready?”

“Yes.” I lugged the suitcase up and over the window ledge, and let it fall. I heard Pankrati catch it with a thud.

“Do you trust me?” I asked Cole, looking him straight in the eyes and hoping with all my heart that he said yes, because we were running out of time. He looked around his room one last time before turning to me and nodding. I helped him step up to the ledge and slip out the window, I laughed humorlessly as Pankrati caught him with a grumble. “Go, I can land on my own!” I whispered loudly, leaping out of the window in one fluid movement. I positioned myself to land on my feet, knees bent, but someone was there to catch me. The only indicator that it was Cole was the fabric of the tuxedo he had on. He held me for one awkward second too long, then dropped me quickly and began to run in the same direction that Pankrati had run.

We had just barely made it to the car when the screaming inside the house started.

✸

“Gracie…Gracelyn!” Rolan whispered harshly in my ear. I groaned and tried to roll over in bed and cover my head with the sheets… until I realized I wasn’t in bed, and there were no sheets. I let my eyes flutter open and adjust to the faulty lighting in… wherever we were. I briefly remembered getting in the car earlier, and reached over to unbuckle my seat belt; the click of the belt releasing echoed like a gunshot through the silent room, and I jumped from the noise, before getting out of the car.

I finally realized where we were. We were in the giant parking garage at J.F.K. The airport was one of the biggest in the United States, I used to come here often as a kid. In middle school, when my friends and I had grown tired of the usual shopping trip at one of the many malls, or going to see a movie we would come here and watch the planes take off and people watch. But I hadn’t been here in years.

Everything was way too loud in here, it made me extremely uneasy. The trunk popped open behind me as I stepped out of the car and onto the tiled pavement, I heard my heels click on the floor. I looked down to realize I was still wearing the heels I had worn to the party… but not the same outfit.

“Who changed me?”

“We took you into the bathroom of a Carl’s Jr. and changed you on the diaper station.”

“Jackass…” I mumbled taking a clumsy step in the direction of the trunk to grab my suitcase.

“What’s your problem?” Cole asked quietly as he watched me stumble around.

“I can’t see.” I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed them, hoping my contacts would shift back into place. They didn’t. I grumbled as I continued to stumble around waiting for everyone else to be ready to walk into the airport. “Didn’t anyone think to remove my contacts so they wouldn’t stick to my eyelids?” I grumbled sarcastically.

“It was bad enough we had to undress you… taking your contacts out is a little personal, don’t you think?”

“I would’ve thought it’d be the other way around…” Cole mumbled. I couldn’t help but laugh, and then breathe a sigh of relief, as the laughing seemed to shift my contacts back into place.

“So, I think it’d be best if we knew where we were going before we went inside.” Rolan practically shouted; he was never afraid to voice his opinion. We all looked around at each other, waiting for someone to name a place.

“Someone name the most random city you can think of…” I could tell from Cole’s tone that he was out of place… he didn’t know what to do, or who to talk to. I felt bad, but then again, being with people who could keep you safe… people that you could get to know, had to be better than being kidnapped.

“Minneapolis, Minnesota…” I walked over to Cole and rested my arm on his shoulder. “That’s random right?” I looked up at him, raising my eyebrows and trying to smile. He made a terrible attempt at smiling back.

“Minneapolis it is.” Aunt Sal shouted, pointing her way towards the exit of the parking garage. We followed behind her quietly; I grabbed Cole’s arm, and held him back until we were behind everyone else.

“I know it’s hard, since you don’t know me that well… I mean, you don’t know anyone that well, but if you talk, it’ll be a little easier.”

✸

It took over an hour just to get through the baggage check area, and then another hour to get through security. All though which Cole failed to say a single word. It wasn’t until we sat down near our gate that he finally began to talk.

“So why Minneapolis?”

“You said to pick a random city… so I did.” He sighed and looked away.

“I also wish I knew why you were doing this…”

“Because it’s the right thing to do. Isn’t it?”

“I suppose… but I don’t think I would just help out a random stranger this way… I mean this is dangerous.”

“I know.”

“I couldn’t just stand there and watch on the news while they searched for you. If I hadn’t stepped in… they would have never found you…”

“They still might not…”

“You don’t have very much faith in me, do you?”

“The only thing you’ve proven to me so far, is that you’re fast, and have good timing.”

“That’s more than can be said for them…”

“They have guns.”

“We have skill… and me.”

“That’s not very convincing.”

“Believe it or not, I was the one who came up with the plan to get you out.”

“Forcing me to pack all of my clothes, and then jump out of my second story window shouldn’t have taken a lot of planning.”

“I would have thought you’d be grateful, since if I hadn’t been there to force you to leave, you be god knows where with a group of men out for your family’s money… a group of men that would kill you in a moments notice if they had to. But maybe I should have just left you there.” I spat; I could feel my face getting hot, and turning bright red. I had just risked my life and the life’s of the only family I had ever had since I was six for someone who didn’t appreciate the gesture.

“It’s not that I’m not grateful, I just still don’t understand why you’re doing this… I’ve watched too many episodes of CSI to believe that you have no reason to help me… just that you want to.”

“So… what, you think I’m taking you to them, is that it?”

“It would make more sense than you just helping some random guy you met on the street.”

“I guess I’ll just have to prove to you that I’m on your side.” I didn’t mention that the only way I could do that would be by keeping him alive, not just for a little while but forever. And that, no matter how hard I tried, would be difficult.

The woman at the desk came over the loud speakers at our gate to let us know that the plane would begin boarding in about 5 minutes. I sighed and exasperated sigh and took my place in line a few people back from my little group. The doors opened to let the passengers that had arrived leave the plane, and the woman at the counter began instructing all passengers with children and seniors to move to the front of the line. I watched as Aunt Sal stepped forward with a grin plastered on her face, Rolan grabbed her arm and pulled her back shaking his head. I stifled a chuckle, and realized that Cole was standing behind me.

“What?” he asked as I glared at him.

“Why do you want to sit by me?”

“You said it yourself, I don’t know you that well… I figure you’re the only one I know even the slightest bit-”

“I said that to try and get you to talk to me. And when you finally did talk to me, you accused me of helping the people who were trying to kidnap you.”

“Can you blame me?”

“Can you trust me?”

“Can I trust anyone at this point.”

“You can trust me.”

“Trust includes friendship…”

“If you shut up, you can sit by me. Does that count as friendship?”

“It’s a start.”

“Whatever.”

The plane seemed to take hours to finally lift off of the runway, but in reality it’d probably only been twenty minutes. I was just so anxious to finally be off the ground, to know for a fact that no one was following us, that no one could follow us until we landed. Once the plane finally did take off the sigh of relief I breathed echoed back from Cole, and I felt the pang of guilt I had felt earlier echo back with it.

“I’m going to do everything I can… I promise.”

“What about my family how can you protect them?”

“That’s for the cops to do… they’ll be fine.”

“I hope so…” he yawned a massive yawn, and sank down into his chair.

“Go to sleep, no one’s going to get you up here.” I twisted around in my seat until I could get my jacket off, and balled it up for him to use as a pillow. He rolled his eyes at me, took the jacket, and wedged it between his head and the side of my seat.

I watched them out of the corner of my eye, as he closed his eyes and shifted around a little in his seat. I figured he was pretending to sleep, and I was just about to tell him it would be more comfortable to sleep with the arm of the chair up when he started to snore. It was one of those comforting snores that put the people around to hear it into a peaceful sleep, not like an old mans, but like a child’s. I laughed quietly and moved the arm that separated our two seats up, letting Cole slide until his head rested in my lap.

I checked the tiny watch I had on; it read 1:42. I sighed and sank down in my own seat and began to unconsciously run my fingers through Cole’s hair.

I fell asleep almost instantly; my dreams were full of visions of the future. Visions that allowed me to sleep easily because they showed that we would be just fine in Minneapolis.

✸

The moon shining through the dark rain clouds and casting an eerie shadow on everything in the plane woke me up. The flashing and pinging light above me signaled for the passengers to put on their seatbelts again. I looked down at my watch again, and realized I had slept through almost the entire flight, and apparently so had Cole, since he still snored quietly with his head in my lap.

By the time we touched down in Minneapolis, Cole still hadn’t woken up. I looked out the window to see that the only light outside came from the airport itself, or the cars on the highway in the distance. I wondered what kinds of monsters hid out in the dark, waiting for us to leave so they could get their hands on us.

Suddenly, all I wanted to do was get off the plane and into the safety of the brightly lit airport.

“Cole…” I whispered, shaking his shoulder. He didn’t move at all. “Cole!” I leaned down and whispered harshly in his ear. He stirred, but still didn’t open his eyes.

“Hmm…”

“Cole, we’re in Minneapolis, we need to get off of the plane.”

“We’re here already?” he opened his eyes, and sat up quickly after realizing he had been using my lap as a pillow.

“Yeah. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I think I’m jet lagged though…”

“There’s only an hours difference in time between New York and Minneapolis, stop making excuses and get up.” he laughed sleepily and stood up slowly letting me hold onto his arm so he wouldn’t fall.

“Thank you for flying with us.” The flight attendant at the door said cheerily, handing me two decks of cards, one for Cole and one for myself, out of a big basket she held in her other hand.

It was these two decks of cards that I would become reliant on for entertainment for then next month and a half.