Page 83 of Gifted

“Daniel? It’s Rebecca.”

His gaze flickers to me, confusion spreading over his face—and then horror.

“No. No!” He pounds his fist into the bed, and I jump back. “I’m not dead! Why am I not dead?”

Medical staff rush into the room as Daniel continues his outburst. “Let me go! No!” He twists and flails against the nurses while they work to restrain him.

“We have to sedate him!”

“We can’t. He just overdosed on narcotics!”

“Get Dr. Flores!”

Daniel pulls away from one of them and rips the IV from his hand. Blood leaks from the wound while they fight to regain their hold.

“Let me go! I’m supposed to be dead! What have you done? You don’t know what you’ve done!”

What had I done? I don’t know, but I don’t regret it. How can I? I will never apologize for saving his life. Never.

“Get her out of here!” a nurse shouts.

Hands grasp my arms, supporting me as much as leading me away. Tears burn down my cheeks and my limbs feel stiff as I stumble toward the exit to the soundtrack of Daniel’s cries.

“That must have been very confusing for you,” Clausen says once we’re in his office.

I barely hear him. “It’s not true. It can’t be.”

I’m still shaking. Still fighting for air.

“What can’t be true, my dear?”

“I can affect the future? How can you even think that’s possible?”

Clausen sighs. “I’m sorry it happened this way, but we didn’t have a choice. We don’t know for sure, of course, but your mother believes it’s true. That’s the main reason you’re here. We’d like to explore that possibility and make an empirical observation. Wouldn’t you like to know?”

I cover my face and shake my head. No wonder she always hated my imagination. “How could you even tell the difference between me seeing something and causing something?”

“Daniel’s alive, isn’t he? He should be dead. The doctors said he had almost no chance.”

My eyes meet his. “That doesn’t prove anything. My visions aren’t daydreams. I know the difference between a fantasy and a vision. They look nothing alike.”

Clausen folds his hands on his lap. “It’s a fantastic mystery we’d like to explore, if you let us. Your future visions clearly aren’t simply your wishes. I don’t believe you control them right now. They’re coming from deep within your subconscious.” He clears his throat. “Look, think objectively about your visions of the future. You saw Instructor Chambers and me together in a scandalous affair that immediately ruined her, didn’t you?”

I stare at my hands. “Yes, but I was hoping for something innocuous from her past.”

“Were you? Weren’t you irritated with her, furious even?”

My pulse picks up.

“It’s okay, Rebecca. I’m not upset. I only want to help you. She pushed your buttons and backed you into a corner. I believe subconsciously you pushed back.”

“But it hasn’t happened yet, so maybe it’s not the future after all.”

Clausen shrugs. “Do you know that? Besides, you said yourself that you don’t always understand what you see. Youmake assumptions but perhaps they’re wrong. Have you ever lived a future vision and realized you’d seen it incorrectly?”

My stomach rolls in a violent lurch. The knife. The nightmare vision that became reality hadn’t registered until now. How many hours had I agonized over the scene of me standing in front of Daniel with a weapon in my hand? How many times had I tried to convince myself it was wrong? A mistake. It would never happen. Wasn’t possible!

And then I drew blood.

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