We are arguing over something absurd - candies - when I sense her.
How did I know it was a her? I don't know. How did I know she was there? No clue.
I just knew she was there.
I must have frozen in place and had a weird look on my face, because Thomas stares at me and asks, 'Jill? Everything okay?"
<Voices!>
I gasp at the voice in my head. I've been long overdue for craziness. But this isn't it. Someone's out there, and I can hear her thoughts.
<Man, now I'm hearing things.>
"Who's there?" I cry.
<Shit, there really is someone else!>
"I know you're out there. I can hear you."
Thomas and Mathias both rip around to stare at me. They exchange glances. I can't hear them in my head, but I'm pretty sure they're saying Shit, man, she's finally lost it.
"Show yourself," I say, as I step out into the main aisle. I am throwing caution to the wind, but it's mainly because I know I can trust her. It seems like a lot to base it off her presence and her voice in my head, but I feel a strange connection to this girl. Like I know her. Like we're the same.
Her thoughts race through my head, unintelligible. They are a mesh of sentences, words, and feelings. Yes, I can sense her feelings too.
Oh god this is creepy.
She steps out into the main aisle. She is willowy, with straight black hair, and wide almond-shaped eyes. Her face is flushed, like all the blood in her body just rushed into her face. Then from behind her steps someone I wasn't expecting: a large, burly male. He is holding a club.
Why could I sense her and not him? What is going on?
"Who are you?" the male says gruffly.
<I really wish he wouldn't be so rude.>
"Who are you?" Thomas asks. His voice falters a little. While the male is burly and wide, Thomas and Mathias are both lean and lanky. We may outnumber them, but size is on his side.
"I'm Yuki," the girl says quietly. "And this is Max." Her voice sounds exactly the same as it does in my head. Weird.
"I'm Jill. Thomas, Mathias. Are you alone?"
"Y-yes. You?"
"It's just the three of us." I see Mathias edging away from the group, and I'm guessing he's going to look for a weapon. Maybe a frying pan or something. "We mean no harm. You're just as much as a surprise to us as we are to you."
Yuki nods. "Max, please put that club away."
Max grunts, and to my surprise, he listens. Are they siblings? Lovers? I watch as he tosses the club away. It makes a loud clunk, clunk, and rolls on the linoleum floor before coming to a stop.
From the tone of her voice, and the emotions I'm picking up from her, they are not lovers. There is tension there, but I'm not sure what to make of it. I am new to this mind-reading thing, after all.
"We need to talk," I say.
The big male named Max scoffs. "Ya think?"
YOU ARE READING
Empty City
Science FictionA girl awakens in an empty city devoid of people or any semblance of life. She cannot remember her past, or why she is here. Then she meets a boy whom she so badly wants to trust - because there's no one else. But is he who he seems to be? Why is...
