“Stay still. You’re going to experience some pain, but it will hurt less if you relax your muscles.” I bit my lip to keep from whimpering as a pair of hands shoved my trembling body into a hard backed chair. Cold beads of sweat broke out between my shoulder blades as rough skinned fingers grazed my neck and shifted the mane of dark hair to one side. I felt the tip of a needle prick the sensitive skin there.

“Please,” I gasped. “Don’t…”

His cold voice answered, “I am doing you a favor. You don’t really want those memories anyway. You are not going to remember a thing. It will be like starting your life over.” He paused. “Your…abilities will not be affected.” Then he pushed the needle into my skin.

Oh, the pain. It was beyond pain. Fire coursed through my body, ripping and tearing and clawing; every nerve was on end and suddenly I was screaming, screaming so loudly I was sure that someone would hear me…but no one came. The agony intensified. Tears, hot and desperate, spilled from my eyes and burned my cheeks like acid, and I found myself praying to every god I knew of or had heard about to please, please let me die. And then I was slipping…


One Year Later

I had never really understood the undying obsession people my age had with those of the opposite sex. I pondered this and watched, slightly amused, as a girl named Rhiannon tossed her long blonde hair to one side. She was perched on the edge of some guy’s desk and had just rolled her eyes at something he’d said, feigning annoyance. She fluttered her eyelashes and swatted his arm. How ironic. The pheromones were definitely in the air, and all this was taking place in AP Biology.

Poor girl. No, he wasn’t interested in her. In fact, he was planning to ask someone else out. Then he would break it to Rhiannon and leave her humiliated. He had it all mapped out.

Seeing the future really was something.

At seventeen, I suppose “people watching” was not an acceptable pastime, but it was just another one of my many quirks. I shamelessly used my abilities and I can’t say I felt bad about it. Because of them, I knew exactly what would happen next. I knew what people were going to do right before they did it. I knew about pop quizzes and surprise parties. But then, I also knew when someone was going to be murdered. Or when there was going to be a car crash. My ability had taught me that people could be horrible and that society was sickeningly twisted. And there was nothing I could ever do about it because there would be questions. Questions were my biggest enemy.
No. I was not going to think about that. Restlessly, I glanced at the board, then at the clock, and then at the homework that was due today, waiting for the bell to ring. Dr. Stefanski was going to be late again.

As I gazed around the classroom, staring at nothing in particular, I noticed a boy sitting in the far corner of the room, peering intently at a book. That was odd. I had never seen him before and I hadn’t heard anything about a new student starting.

Suddenly, he looked up from his novel and met my gaze. The most peculiar feeling shot through me -- a sense of foreboding, almost. His eyes bore into mine, and I tensed. Heat rose to my cheeks and I quickly turned way. Who was he? I wracked my brain and tried to think of where I had seen him before because there was something disturbingly familiar about him. I just couldn’t place it. He looked quite ordinary. Cute, even. Dark haired, fair skinned, with a slight smattering of freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. His eyes were brown, framed with thick lashes.

And then I realized something. I couldn’t See his future. Okay, Natalie. Calm down. Count to ten.
Innocently, I shook out my hair and settled it over my right shoulder, forming a curtain between us. Carefully, I chanced another look at him through my hair. He was still staring. I didn’t like the expression on his face; it was as if he was smirking. Just then, Dr. Stefanski hurried through the door, looking irritated. I turned to the front of the room, grateful for the distraction.
“Alright, alright, everybody shut it,” he snapped. Thirty teenagers walked reluctantly to their seats and the chatter quieted to a low hum. He scribbled the lesson plan on the board.
“As you all know, you have a lab today,” he said. “You and your partner will take turns identifying the slides, and you’ll write down your observations on your lab sheet. Everyone grab a microscope and get started.”
As everybody shuffled toward the supply cabinet, the boy sitting in the back of the room got up and made his way over to Dr. Stefanski. He murmured something as he handed him a slip of paper.
“That’s right, you’re the new guy,” said Dr. Stefanski, shaking his hand. “What’s your name?”
“Spencer Hale,” the boy answered.
“Nice to meet you. You can work with Anna,” Dr. Stefanski pointed to a redheaded girl across the room.
The boy named Spencer walked past me and then looked back at me over his shoulder. I flushed again and shifted uncomfortably in my seat.
Beth, my lab partner, tapped my shoulder. “Hello?” she said. “We’re starting.”
By the end of the period, the total damage was several broken slides, and kids whining about how all of the specimens had looked exactly the same. Mercifully, the bell rang. I wrestled my books into my bag, grabbed my jacket, and headed out the door.
In the parking lot, the cold winter air stung my hands, the wind slashing across my face like an icy knife. The bare branches of the surrounding oak trees trembled. I gripped my keys and made my way toward my car. I stopped dead in my tracks. Leaning against my ancient car door was Spencer, the boy from biology.
“Hello, Natalie,” he said, smirking a little. I felt a pang of something. Annoyance, maybe. I decided to be polite and play along, even though I had just realized that he should not know my name.
“Hello, Spencer,” I said a little sarcastically. Huh. So much for being polite. He was quiet for a moment. “Never thought I’d actually meet one,” he said under his breath.
“Excuse me?” I said sharply.
“So you’re not going to ask me how I know your name?”, he said, smiling and displaying two rows of straight, white teeth.
“Don’t change the subject,” I snapped. “What do you mean, ‘meet one’?
“I never thought I’d actually meet a living, breathing Seer,” he replied. He sounded as if he were simply commenting on the weather.
My throat went dry. Alright, time to throw him off his trail. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said firmly. I had always been a good liar, so I was confident in my ability to convince him that he was being an idiot.
“Actually, I think you do,” he said. The cocky smile was gone. “You had better come with me, Natalie.”
I balled my hands into fists to keep them from shaking. “Why?”
“Because if you don’t, you might as well start digging your own grave.”