Psychic

“Liv, honey, we noticed that your birthday is coming up soon, and we wanted to know if there was anything you wanted to do?”

“Really?”

I was in shock. Usually there was never a big fuss around my birthday. Sometimes we would have a small celebration at some of my old foster homes, a cake and maybe a present or two from any friends I’d made. But they never usually asked about parties or presents that I might want. I’d never had a family ask something like that.

“Yeah, we noticed you would be turning sixteen. Isn’t that sort of a big deal nowadays?” Rick questioned.

I nodded, still a bit shocked.

Amy, always the planner, said, “I already thought of a couple places we could go, if you wanted.”

My birthday was in one week, almost exactly. My birthday was on a Sunday, the 20th of March. I had tried to put the date in the back of my mind, especially since I was supposed to do something horrible when I turned sixteen that would rock the world off its kilter and change the magical community forever.

As you could tell, I was not looking forward to my sixteenth birthday as much as I would’ve liked to be.

“You know, we don’t really have to do anything. I’ll be fine without a party this year.” I told Amy and Rick, smiling gratefully.

Amy’s smiled faltered just a bit. “Are you sure, honey? It’ll be your sixteenth, and it definitely won’t be a problem with money. Rick and I have more than we know what to do with.”

“No, it’s not the money.” I assured her.

“Then what is it?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped myself before any noise came out. I couldn’t really tell them about the real reason why I was reluctant to celebrate. Chanced were, if I didn’t fulfill this insane prophecy, then I would most likely be executed by my father. And if I did? Well, there’s no telling what would happen next. I doubted that I’d even be around after my birthday, let alone be able to have a party to celebrate it. “Um . . . maybe we can just have a small affair? Like, we don’t have to go all out.”

Amy visibly relaxed. “Yes, of course.”

I was happy that I’d been able to calm her, but I was still a bit wary about having any party at all. Who was to say I’d even be able to have one? I didn’t want them to plan something and then find out that I wouldn’t make it.

The last thing I wanted was to upset the people closest to me when I knew I might not be around them forever.

The ride to school was much less tense. Amy discussed party ideas like it was the most mundane thing while I just smiled and nodded along. She seemed partial to a bigger party, but I convinced her that it would be better to keep it smaller, like I mentioned before.

I arrived to school ten minutes before school was set to start, which meant that Bella had enough time to corner me by my locker before first period with Ms. Lu. “We have to talk.”

I sighed and closed my locker, a bit irritated. I knew what she was going to say, even without having to read her mind. “Look, can we talk about it later? I’m really not in the mood for it. I doubt he’d even agree-“

“But Liv!” she practically screamed. “It would be a perfect birthday date!”

I took a deep breath to remind myself that Bella Barnes wasn’t meaning to be so annoying about the topic. “A double date is not a good idea, Bella.”

“Oh, c’mon!” Bella droned on, slumping her shoulders and exclaiming the phrase as if it was the best argument in the world.

I narrowed my eyes at her, “Look, Amy and Rick said that they wanted to have a small party, which means no double date. And, besides, even if I wanted to go, Magnus would never ever agree to such a-”

“Hey, Liv.”

Speaking of the devil . . .

“Hey, Magnus.”

Bella barged in before I could stop her, “Do you want to come with us to the diner on Fifth Street to celebrate Liv’s birthday this weekend?”

Magnus knew that something major was happening on my birthday as well, even if he didn’t know that I was currently being trained by Victoria to find a way to stop it. He knew that we couldn’t do anything on my birthday in fear of it turning catastrophic, so it was obvious why he was on my side. “Ahh, sorry, Bella. I kind of have a very important family thing to get to on Sunday, so I can’t make it.”

I smiled internally. Bella knew that there was no other boy I was even remotely close enough with to ask on a double date, she was stuck.

“Yeah, and I have a small birthday celebration with Amy and Rick on Sunday too, so it looks like we both can’t make it.” I apologized, false sincerity practically dripping from my voice. Magnus gave me a weird look, most likely confused to as why I had plans on Sunday, but I told myself I would explain it later.

Bella was sad for a moment before her smile brightened. We’re all free Saturday, aren’t we?

“Bella-” I rushed in, but she was too quick for me.

“What if we have it on Saturday?” She suggested all too cheery. “You can’t both have plans yet, and we all need to have a celebration at some point. I know you don’t normally have big celebrations, Liv, but it’ll be your sixteenth this weekend, you have to do something with your best friend, right?”

I sighed in defeat. There was no way I could decline the offer now. If I lied and said I had plans on Saturday, Bella would be able to tell, plus I didn’t want to lie to her any more than I already was. That lead to reason number two, Bella didn’t really know about everything that had been going on lately. I hadn’t told her anything at all, which meant that certainly couldn’t tell her the real reason I was on edge for this weekend. I was the one who was stuck now.

I forced a smile. “That would be fine.”

Bella gushed and turned to Magnus, her bubbly exterior somehow leeching onto Magnus. “Umm . . . I guess?”

Bella exploded, “Oh my god! This will be so perfect! You and Bryce will get along so well, Magnus, I just know it! This’ll be amazing! Let’s go to Ms. Lu’s now, before she gets too excited about our absence.”

Magnus was left as shocked as I was. “Bryce will be there?” I nodded.

I noticed that Magnus himself also didn’t think highly of Bryce, which made me like Magnus even more. If we had the same preposition about him, I knew he could be trusted.

Magnus put on perhaps the biggest, fakest smile he could muster and looked sideways at me, “I just can’t wait until Saturday.”

“Me too.”

It was afterschool on Monday when I had the sudden urge to go visit Bella. I wanted to solidify some things about Saturday, and assure her that she didn’t have to get me anything big for a present. She wasn’t answering her phone and since she only lived a street down, it was no strain on me to walk.

To be able to sneak out of the house, I had to get past the living room, where Amy and Rick were watching a rerun of Dancing with the Stars. I had never really snuck out before, and I didn’t really want to climb out the window, so my only choice was the front door, right past them.

I decided to use the mind tricks that Victoria had taught me. If I really was a creature of legends, a psychic, then I should be able to use my mind control powers on normal people like my foster parents with no harm to them.

I took a deep breath and entered the living room, where they were sitting. I got two feet from the front door before Amy noticed me. “Honey, we are you going at this time of night?”

Well, time for my super awesome mind powers to kick in, right?

“Umm, I’m going to Bella’s house.”

I started to dig into her mind. I found the right chord and pulled, inserting my own command in place of what she was about to think. I had only tried this particular move with strangers, so I had no idea what the effect would be on Amy.

“Oh . . . well, I guess it would be okay for you to go. Just be back by ten.” Amy said in a very unlike-Amy voice.

I cautiously walked back out the door, but she went back to watching the television like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Once I was out of the sight of the house, I release my breath and bent over my knees. I had actually done it, hadn’t I? I actually controlled someone else’s mind. It was unbelievable.

I made it all the way to Bella’s house before I truly let that sink in. I was truly a psychic now. I had controlled someone I knew, and it had worked. I mean – I hadn’t truly changed her as a person, but I altered her thought train, which was enough for me.

I was knocked out of my thoughts by glass smashing inside the Barnes household and furious yelling. I was stumped. Never had I ever even heard of a fight between them, or any disagreements. I pressed myself against the wall and searched for thoughts coming from inside the house, just in case there was a robber or something, which would explain the smashing glass noise I heard.

What was inside was much less expected.

It seemed that I had focused in on Bella’s thoughts and what she was currently seeing. It was like I was there, seeing the scene from Bella’s eyes, and it wasn’t very pretty.

She was in her father’s study, but her father wasn’t there. Instead, her mother was there, her face full of malice that I was sure couldn’t have existed on the face of a Barnes. Bella’s thoughts were all angry and all directed at her mother.

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Bella screamed. “I had a right to know!”

“To know what? There’s nothing to know.” Her mother’s voice was eerily calm, even if her features denied her voice’s suggestion.

“I heard you on the phone! You were talking about Liv! You were talking to Uncle Gary about capturing her. I mean – she’s my best friend! What kind of parents talk about kidnapping their daughter’s best friend? I know Uncle Mendes can be a bit redneck at times, but kidnapping a teenage girl? What kind of people are you?”

Mrs. Barnes looked down and then looked back up at her daughter, her face full of a new determination. “There’s something I haven’t told you about my side of the family, Bella.”

“Yeah, that you’re maniacs!”

She ignored Bella, “For generations, the Mendes’ have been a bit more than the owners of a hunting lodge. I swore to myself that I would abandon the family business when I had you . . . but certain events have stopped me from keeping that promise. We are Hunters. We hunt things a little bit more exotic than your average bear or deer. We hunt the supernatural. Things that you might believe even exist. We protect the general population from certain . . . creatures. Unfortunately, some new information came to my brother while he was hunting. It seems that your best friend is probably not as normal as she seems.”

“Besides the fact that you just exploded my mind,” Bella started, “I already knew about Liv. She tells me everything.”

Mrs. Barnes shook her head. “No, honey, you don’t understand. She’s more than just different, she’s . . .”

“Not human?”

Mrs. Barnes looked puzzled. “How’d you know that?”

I could only imagine the blank stare Bella was giving her mother. “I figured as much. What she can do isn’t exactly normal per se, but how did you find out?”

“Well, we only know that the Warlocks are after her. They seemed to have lost a very important prisoner of theirs and she’s somehow connected. And Liv’s no hunter, so it was safe to assume that she is something powerful, powerful enough that we don’t even know what she is. Uncle Mendes doesn’t want to eliminate her so much as interrogate her.”

Bella was so shocked that even her thoughts were a bit blank.

“Wait, can you explain the whole hunting strange and unnatural creatures for no reason first?”

Her mom went through almost the same talk I had been given when I asked Magnus almost the same question. At the end of it, she had also explained a bit of the whole liv-is-a-magical-creature-and-therefore-is-dangerous talk.

“So, you’re basically like a real life Sam and Dean?”

“Who?”

Bella sighed as a flash image of two characters from her favorite TV show flashed through her mind. She’d made me watch it more than a couple times, and I still barely understood it.

“Never mind. Can we get back to the whole eliminate/interrogate Liv thing?” I was grateful for the change of topic, mostly because it concerned me.

Mrs. Barnes didn’t look happy to share her information.

“Look, Liv is something powerful, something that even the most experienced hunters have never come across. Even those secretive Warlocks won’t tell us what she is. Our source says that, until now, she wasn’t the only suspect. But if it is her, then you have the upper hand. You’re friends with her, you can get her to come with us. If we have someone the Warlocks really want, we can negotiate some kind of deal. Of course, if she’s too powerful, we’ll have to keep her locked up for ourselves.”

“You mean kill her.” Bella interpreted.

“Look,” she started again, “I know she’s your friend, and she’s nice and all, but a monster is a monster.”

Bella backed away from her mother and shook her head. “You don’t even know what she can do and you’re already making assumptions like she’s going to destroy the whole goddamn world! Well, let me tell you something, Liv didn’t want to have her freaking ‘gift’! And, trust me, there’s no way she could destroy the world with it.”

I had to correct Bella there. A certain prophecy declared that I would and I just might. But now I had more than just Hawthorne’s thugs looking for Victoria on my mind. Bella’s mom was a hunter, and she was looking for me. They somehow knew that I was being sought after by the Warlocks and they wanted to use me as leverage for something. But if I turned out to be more dangerous than expected, they would eliminate me anyways.

Oh, what fun it was to be me nowadays.