Chapter 12

Before anyone could begin, a nurse burst in.

“They’re not allowed to see anyone yet!” she cried, her red hair flying upward in the sudden excursion of muscles.

“So?” Jackie asked innocently, pulling herself even closer to Bella.

“So,” the infuriated nurse mimicked. “The doctor will not only be mad YOU but also at ME!”

“So?” Jackie asked again.

“So…UGH!” Instantly, the angry nurse practically dragged Bella out of the florescent lighted room.

“So much for that.” Scott hung his head in a disappointed manner. Did he really like Bella that much, Jackie wondered.

“I’m going to follow her…”Dennis muttered.

“No!!!” Jackie shrieked, not caring who heard her. Ever since he had discovered his new ability, Dennis had been searching for people, looking into others’ minds, looking into business that was not his own. Jackie didn’t like his persistence to do what was noisy instead of what was right.

Her efforts to stop her newfound friend and accomplice was useless. Dennis was already floating away from the now-familiar hospital room, away from Jackie and Scott, away from the very hospital building…

Dennis Payr strained to reach out with his mind. This time, because he was focusing on one, particular person, it hurt to connect with her telepathically. He needed more strength than before, when he was just mindlessly eavesdropping. His mind was working hard to keep up with Bella as she walked diagonally across the street. She swept through the parking lot quickly, as if she was in a great hurry to get to wherever she was going. Perhaps she was, Dennis thought. If his bodiless soul could think.

 

 

 

A young man approached Bella from the shadows. She wasn’t scared, for she didn’t freeze or back away. Almost sporadically, she lunged into his arms. The impact shattered their connection. Dennis began struggling to keep his connection with her. The boy cradled her, smiling softly. When Bella looked up, Dennis noticed it was the goth boy from Scott and his visions. Eric. Eric Shawn.

Dennis’s soul became cold, or however close it could come to his conscious mind becoming anxious and disgusted with Bella’s sudden and supposedly “secret” life. So this mysterious goth boy, Eric Shawn, was questionably and arguably Bella’s lover?

So she was connected to this SNM? Could she tell him what SNM was? Or could he search her thoughts? Angrily, Dennis discovered a roadblock; he could not read his target’s mind while he was inhabiting her body.     

Bella pulled away from Eric quite suddenly, and Eric Shawn simultaneously cleared his throat. The sound interrupted the silence, sending an irritating ripple through the darkness. What little light that shone through the broken window was unbothered by the sudden new noise.

“I’ve been to see them,” she murmured, lovingly leaning back against Eric Shawn’s broad chest. “Just like you asked.”

“How are they?”

“The weird one said his name with Mo’s last name,” her tone almost matched one whom was complaining.

“Mortimer Leary?”

“He said, ‘I’m Dennis Leary’ at first, like it was nothing. He was kind of spacey, though, as though he had just come back from consciousness. You saw him, though, you said. Right? You said he was awake, right? How could he have been spacey? And how’d he know Mo’s last name?”

 

 

 

 

 

Dennis then realized another ability he had; he could go into his target’s body. See through her eyes. Smell what she smelled. Hear what she heard. Touch what she touched. It was all so very imaginary, but all so very real. Everything seemed almost as though he was her. His conscious mind had inhabited her body, two souls in one vessel. Bella strode happily and excitedly across from her previous destination. She reached her supposedly current destination, an, of course, abandoned building, and stopped at the front. She looked both ways to see if someone was following her, then entered. Someone is following you, Dennis though cheerily. I am. At least in some…form. A thousand questions circled Dennis’s conscious mind and nearly filled what was left of him up. What was she doing? What was this building? What is this building, anyway? Was it SNM, whatever that was? Was Bella part of SNM? Did she know that goth boy Eric Shawn. It hurt his head thinking of all the questions. Additionally, it damaged his telepathic connection with Bella. Fortunately, he was able to keep it. Besides, he needed all his strength to watch where she goes, what she did. He needed to know if he should be suspicious of Bella or not.