The Empath: 4

To catch up, here are the links to the following chapters:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

THE EMPATH

FOUR

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Mary hasn't had a wink of sleep yet.  She had a fabulous time last night, watching a movie with Jeremiah.  Once the night ended, her mind felt wound up a bit.  She needed to know more about her family tree.  She especially wanted to know more on the history of the women in her family.  Surely there had to have been old family journals lying around somewhere.

This house that Mary resides in has been passed down through generations.  The house was the first house built in this town.  It was built sometime in the nineteenth century.  People wouldn't come to discover this town until at least a century later.

Of course with old houses, comes fixing up the house, as well as many old secret hiding places.  The basement is big enough to keep a washer and dryer there; to have a couch and a television down there; and there is a hole in the wall where the boiler room is.  Mary is bound to find something one way or another.

Entering into the hole of the basement before the boiler room, Mary turns on the light.  Why am I doing this?  Mary asks herself in thought.  Then she recalled what happened just as the movie ended and Jeremiah left.  She felt a strange sensation.

The sensation she felt was so strong, it practically overpowered her.  There's a feeling nagging at her to find something.  She doesn't know what she's looking for, but she will know once she sees it.  Hours have passed, and she's still digging through shelves and books to see if something will appear.  Something.  Anything.  It has to be here somewhere, she thinks.  As she puts the last book back on the shelf, she hears a hollow sound against the wall.

She gasps in hopes this is a secret passage of some sort.  She carefully pulls all the books off the shelf, and starts knocking on the wall to see if she can find that hollow spot again.  Surely there has to be an opening somewhere.  She is so tired and dizzy she loses her composure a bit, and accidentally pushes into the wall.  Suddenly the wall opens up.

She notices it's a hidden shelf, as wide as the opening space the shelves leave on the wall.  She starts digging through and pulls out a book.  It reads:

The Women of History

That is so strange, she thinks.  Mary is wondering if she can conjure things, but she knows it's impossible, or is it?  She's never really known much about her family being able to conjure.  Telekinesis, empathy, and casting spells are the only thing she's pretty much sure runs in her family.  She casts this out of her mind, and decides to look inside the book.

Inside the book, she finds names of her ancestors.  She notices they don't have last names, but rather faked their last names.  Usually only royalty or rock stars don't use a last name.  One name in the book is said to be her great-grandmother.  Her name was Mabel Sunshine.  What a funny name, she thought considering a name like Sunshine was more of a nineteen-sixties hippie name.  She continues looking and turns the page.

As she turns the page, a photo falls out of the book.  She bends down to pick it up, and suddenly she is singing the Time Warp song.

"This can't be!"  She exclaims to no one.  Suddenly she feels hot and sweaty.  She feels almost as if she's walking a tightrope, but instead of a tightrope, it's a worn out clothesline.  She decides to call Jeremiah and have him come over.

When he arrives, he sees what is inside her head.  Feeling disbelief, he follows her down to the basement where they look at the picture together.

She's staring at a young girl, seventeen years of age, with light blonde hair set in curls, and big brown eyes.  She's happy in this picture, and it looks like she's at a dance of some sort.  Mary is very much into fashion and recognizes the dress and hair-sprayed hair is definitely a look from the late nineteen-eighties, to possibly the early nineteen-nineties.  The girl in the picture is Mary.

She would recognize her own face, and perhaps she can understand if she was there to take the picture, but she knows she wasn't there.  And then there was the guy standing next to her in the picture.  She feels like she's been thrown into the wolves den or something.  The guy in the picture is definitely Jeremiah.

"That's me," he says.  "But it can't be.  I was somewhere else during that prom."

Mary is taken aback.  She stares at him with wide eyes.  "You went to prom twenty years ago?"

"Surely you must have known," he replies.  "I know you thought I was Jonathan for a brief moment.  I don't know how you knew, but I am Jonathan Thompson."

"Wait," Mary interrupts.  "You've been reading my mind?"

"At times," he admits.  "But sometimes your shield is up and I can't always read your mind."

Mary shakes her head in disbelief.  "So you're telling me you're like me?  You're magical too?  Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

Jeremiah is in thinking mode.  He is trying to find a way to carefully explain to Mary what he wants to say.  Mary waits patiently for him to speak.

"I was once like you," he finally speaks.  "But then an accident happened, and now I'm," he pauses.  "Different."

"What do you mean by 'different'?  She raises an eyebrow.

"I think you already know," he answers.

She doesn't say anything more about it.  She changes the subject.  "And what about that girl in the picture?  Was there another girl that looked like me out there?  Is that why you've taken an interest in me?"

"I really don't know anything about that picture," he answers candidly.  "I have never seen another face like yours until a few months ago when I first saw you."

"A few months ago," she whispers.  "That's when you were new to school."

"Yes," he answers.

"How come you never spoke to me before then?"

"The opportunity never came up until assignment day," he confesses.

"How did you even know I would be paired up with you?"

"I set it up that way."

"How?"

"I think you know how," he replies.

She shakes her head.  "Why do you keep saying that?"

Mary rapidly opens her eyes, and she realizes she's in her bed.  Her headphones are in her ears, and she is now aware the song What Is And What Should Never Be by Led Zeppelin is playing.  She removes the headphones, and knows she was just dreaming.

There's no way Jeremiah could be the dead back to life, could it?  All these thoughts swirl around Mary's head as she gets out of bed, and heads to the shower.

****

The Empath, Chapter Four