Mind Games (Mind Games 1)

She’s sitting on her bed. Her face is blank.

“Are you okay? Annie?”

“I saw myself.” Her voice is as blank as her face.

“You—what?”

“I saw myself. In a vision. At first I thought it was you, but the hair was too short.” She lifts a hand to her hair that hits at her shoulders. “And the eyes were different. But it looked so much like you. Then I realized. It was me. I finally saw what I look like.”

I sit down, still dizzy with panic. “Told you you’re beautiful.” What is wrong? Nothing is wrong here. Why isn’t my body calming down?

She doesn’t react. “I was dead.”

I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe. “What?”

“I was dead. There was a hole in my head. A perfect red hole. And my hair, it’s darker than I thought it was, it was all tangled up in the blood on the floor. There wasn’t as much blood as you’d think there would be. I was d

ead. They killed me.” She closes her eyes. “I’m going to die.”

“How would that happen? How would that even—”

I said no.

I told them no.

I thought I was in control.

They are always in control.

“What else? Any other details? Any other details at all? Do you know when it happens? Where? Anything!” She doesn’t react, so I grab her shoulders, shake her. “TELL ME ANYTHING. GIVE ME SOMETHING.”

“How can I tell you where it happens? I’ve never seen the room before. I’ve never seen any rooms before.” She laughs drily. “The only other detail was Clarice. She was standing next to my body, talking to someone on the phone.”

“Did she shoot you?”

“I don’t know.”

My heart picks up. Races. Don’t plan. Don’t plan. “But she was there? In the room?”

“Yes.”

I run out. Back down the stairs. I don’t think. I don’t plan. I just run. Back to the classroom. Clarice is still there. She looks up at me, a single eyebrow raised. “Have you changed your mind then?”

I pick up the chair on the ground, still against the wall where I kicked it. I lift it and spin and smash it into Clarice’s head.

She doesn’t even have time to look surprised.

I smash it on her again and again and again.

And then I stop and drop the chair and sink to the floor. Clarice’s lifeless eyes stare at me from her bloodied and ruined head.

If Clarice is dead, she can’t be there when Annie gets shot. That can’t happen now.

It won’t happen now.

Annie is safe.

Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe. Annie is safe.