Forbidden. Part 10

"It's Thursday, people," Claire announced as she smashed the Ping-Pong ball across the table toward Brian. "Do you know what that means?"

"That tomorrow's Friday?" Brian returned the ball with a swing of his good arm.

"Oh!" Erica gasped from her spot on the sidelines, clearly getting Claire's meaning. "Thursday! Did you get your Spanish quiz back?"

"Yep." The three of them were relaxing in the Student Life Center after school. Aside from them, the place was deserted.

"So how did Neil do?" Erica prodded.

Claire smiled proudly. "B minus."

"Wow," Erica noted. "That's a huge improvement from what you saw."

"When he gets here for your little study session," Brian asked, "we don't have to be all after-school-special, do we? With the thumbs-up and the encouraging grins?"

"Please, no. Just keep a low profile. I think Neil already feels self-conscious enough about the tutoring."

As Brian nodded, Erica held up a Ping-Pong paddle like a microphone and quipped in her announcer voice, "Congratulations, Claire Brennan! You have proved, without a doubt, that the future is not set. And that the voices in your head are clearly aligned with the forces of good. Now, which man are you going to choose: Neil, your long-time crush, or Alec, an even more handsome and brilliant guy, who has a crush on you?"

Claire blushed. "I don't want to choose anyone. At least not yet, until I get to know them both better."

"Ah, a menage a trois," Erica mused. "That's an interesting approach."

"Erica!" Claire protested, her blush deepening in dismay.

Just then, Brian slammed the ball to the right corner. "Success! Yao beats Brennan, twenty-one to fifteen. One-handed, no less!"

"Oh, that was fair," Claire grumbled, extending her hand for a conciliatory shake.

Brian stowed his paddle in his sling and reached out to accept, but then recoiled. "Whoa, CB, are you crazy? I'm not gonna have you spelunking through my psyche and foretelling my future. No touching! "

Claire sighed, retrieved the ball, and propped her paddle on it atop the table. "Great, now I'm a leper."

"You're not a leper," Erica said, trying to be rea.s.suring. "But I know what Brian means. I'd love to know what my future holds, if I could be sure it'd be good. But what if it isn't? And the idea of you touching me and maybe seeing something through my perspective-that's creepy. What if it's something I'd rather keep secret?"

"Fine," Claire muttered, tugging at the sleeves of her hoodie until they reached down to her fingertips. "I'll keep my hands to myself from now on."

"Good plan." Brian turned to Erica and said in a humorous accent, "So, Miss Fischer, do you dare to challenge the Ping-Pong Master?"

Erica grinned c.o.c.kily and took Claire's place at the foot of the table. As the two began to play, Claire crossed to the activities bulletin board, which was littered with brightly colored sign-up sheets. Her attention was drawn to one ent.i.tled "Homecoming a.s.sembly Entertainment Auditions." She scanned the list of student names scrawled on it. There were some solo acts, some duets, and even some trios. Claire suddenly remembered Erica's suggestion that Alec should try out, but his name wasn't listed. She'd have to remind him about that. He had a great voice and deserved a chance to show it off.

That was when the vision hit.

Heat infused Claire's body, and she began to tremble, her knees giving way beneath her. She fumbled dizzily onto the nearby couch and closed her eyes. Why is this happening to me now? she wondered, alarmed.

She heard Erica cry, "Oh my G.o.d, she's having another one."

Then Claire's mind emptied of thought, replaced by an image-the same image she'd seen in that weird episode a week ago.

A shadowy figure stood surrounded by inky darkness, lit from behind by a bright yellow light. The face was indistinguishable, but an arm was stretched out toward Claire, beckoning, accompanied by a whispering voice.

"Claire! Claire!" The voice was weathered and raspy, as if it required great effort to speak. The ensuing words were distorted and filled with gaps, like a radio transmitting on a bad frequency. But this time, Claire recognized a decidedly feminine timbre in the speaker's voice, and a British accent, and she could understand more of the warning than before: "You're in danger ... because of your special gift. Only ... can protect and help you... Come to Twin Palms... Helena."

It finished with the same eerie p.r.o.nouncement: "Don't tell anyone."

Claire gasped aloud, her eyes blinking open as the voice and image disappeared from her mind. Her heart pounded with anxiety as she struggled to ground herself in reality once again. Brian and Erica stood over her with confounded expressions.

"Wow. Was that what I think it was?" Brian asked.

"What did you see?" Erica cried, excited.

Claire mopped the sweat from her brow with a s.h.i.+rt-sleeve. Should she answer? It was the second time she'd been told not to tell anyone. But they both already knew! And she desperately needed their help to figure this out. "It was that same weird vision again with the raspy voice, the one I got last week in the bathroom."

"Yeah, the one that told you to help Neil," Erica said.

"I think I was wrong about that." Claire shook her head slowly. "I heard more words this time-it was definitely a woman, and I think she was trying to tell me that I'm the one who needs help."

"You? Why do you think that?" Brian asked.

"She started off saying, 'You're in danger ... because of your special gift.' Then it cut out again, but I caught: 'can protect and help you.'"

"Wait a minute. I thought this gift of yours was all about touch," Erica said. "What did you touch?"

"Nothing. I was just standing here."

Brian pursed his lips, thinking. "When you had this vision before, were you touching anything or anyone?"

"No."

"So it was a female voice that said the exact same thing as before, only more clearly?" Brian asked.

Claire nodded.

"Maybe it's Claire's own subconscious that's warning her," Erica suggested.

"I doubt it," Claire replied. "The voice had a British accent."

"Interesting," Brian mused. "Claire, I think you've got two different psychic phenomena going on here."

"What do you mean?"

"I think the visions you get when you touch people or things are one type. But this one's not a vision at all. It's a message."

"A message?" Claire repeated, intrigued.

"Yeah, like that alien signal in Contact," Brian continued. "A repeated warning, sent from somewhere else, by someone else."

"He could be right," Erica exclaimed. "You're seeing a figure talking to you, instead of being inside someone's body."

"Oh-that's true." Claire shook her head, puzzled. "But who is it? Why is she sending the message? Why does she want to help me, of all people?"

"Good question." Brian scratched his head.

"And what is she warning me about? What could I possibly be in danger from? Death by meteor? Am I going to be hit by a bus? Do I have a brain tumor?"

"You're joking, but I'm deadly serious, Claire," Brian said. "If you're really in danger because you're psychic and there's someone who can help or protect you, we'd better find out who it is."

"And fast," Erica added, frowning with newfound worry.

Fear sparked through Claire's veins. "You're right. But how are we going to do that?"

"Did the voice say anything else?" Brian asked.

"Yeah. It said, 'Don't tell anyone.'"

They all laughed nervously. "Too late for that," observed Erica.

"It also said two other things. 'Come to Twin Palms.' And 'Helena.'"

"Twin Palms?" Brian asked. "You mean like the mall in the Valley?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Do you think her name is Helena?"

"Could be." Erica whipped out her phone and browsed the mall's website. "Maybe Helena is a psychic, and she's waiting to talk to you at the Twin Palms Mall."

"Let's go check it out," Brian suggested.

"I'm all for being proactive," Claire intoned dubiously, "but how would we find one particular person named Helena at a mall?"

"Maybe she'll find you," offered Brian.

Erica, focused on her phone, added, "We can come up with a plan in the car. I say we head up to the Valley right now and check this out."

"Who's checking out what now in the Valley?" Neil had popped into the room and was looking at them all questioningly.

The three of them froze.

"Um ... ," Claire stammered, embarra.s.sed that in all the excitement, she'd completely forgotten her study date with Neil. "We're checking out ..."

"... whether or not they still have this awesome pair of boots on sale at Twin Palms!" Erica finished for her, flas.h.i.+ng an advertis.e.m.e.nt on her phone.

Neil's face fell. He glanced at Claire. "Wait. You guys are going to a mall? In the Valley? I thought we were gonna study Spanish."

Claire was flattered by the look of disappointment on Neil's face. She hesitated. She didn't want to cancel on him so last minute, but she couldn't tell him the truth, either. "You did so well on your quiz, Neil. I think we should postpone this till tomorrow, take a day off, and celebrate. Come with us."

"I didn't do that well, Claire," Neil responded.

"It's a matter of perspective, amigo," Brian said with an overenthusiastic smile and a thumbs-up. "You could have failed that quiz, but you didn't!"

"Yeah!" Erica said brightly, flas.h.i.+ng a covert, reluctant look at Claire. "Join us. It'll be a field trip. We can speak Spanish in the car."

"Don't you take French?" Neil asked, as they herded him out the door.

"Whatever," Erica replied. "Vamanos!"

Claire and Erica pretended to browse in the Boot Shack for ten minutes, then left the guys at a video game store and strolled out into the crowded shopping center.

"What were you thinking?" Erica said in a low, exasperated voice. "Why did you invite Neil? It makes this all so complicated!"

"It would have been rude to just ditch him. We can do this, even with him here. Let's just make a plan."

"It was your vision. You make the plan."

"You're the one who said we should come to the mall and look for someone named Helena!" Claire hissed.

"It sounded easier in theory, I admit. G.o.d. There are hundreds of people here, and three stories of shops. Where are we supposed to start?"

"Maybe Brian was right. Maybe we don't need to do anything. Maybe whoever sent the signal can sense that I'm here and will come to me."

Erica popped a piece of gum into her mouth. "I'm always a fan of doing nothing."

They stood there, eagerly watching for any glimmer of interest from the stream of female shoppers pa.s.sing by, but no one in particular glanced their way. After a few minutes of that, Erica said, "This is weird. I feel like a hooker. A lesbian hooker."

Claire's eyes were suddenly drawn to a large fixture on the mall floor six feet ahead of them. Oh my G.o.d, she thought. How could we have missed it?

"What?" Erica said, noticing Claire's stunned expression.

Claire strode forward and pointed to the mall directory and map. Under Specialty Stores, it listed a shop on the second floor called Helena's.

"Holy c.r.a.p," Erica said. "We've been so short-bus about this."

"So where are we going next, amigos?" Neil asked, carrying a bag from the video game store as he and Brian caught up to them.

Claire gestured toward a spot on the map. "Helena's."

"Helena's?" Brian repeated. "Why do we need to go there?"

Claire and Erica shot him a silent glare of death.

"Oh! Oh! " Brian cried, his eyes widening with comprehension. "I've ... heard about that place. I've always wanted to go there!"

"Why? What do they sell?" Neil asked.

Brian stared at him blankly, like a deer in headlights. "Uh ..."

"We don't want to spoil the surprise," Claire said, boldly taking Neil by the arm. "You'll see when we get there."

Five minutes later they stood outside the shop, its name emblazoned in metallic purple script: HELENA'S. The shop windows were stuffed with New Age and occult trinkets, from crystal b.a.l.l.s and pentagrams to Ouija boards and funky-looking candles in every shade of the rainbow.