Speak No Evil

met Serena and the other people.

‘I’m going to count back from ten,’ Dr Paley said. ‘Close your eyes. You will feel yourself getting sleepy. When I reach the number one, you will be in a deep sleep, but you will continue to hear my voice. Ten. . nine. . eight. . seven. .’

Carter searched his mind. It was empty — every thought had been packed up and taken out. There hadn’t been that much there in the first place. But was he getting sleepy? He didn’t think so.

‘. . three. . two. . one. You are now in a deep sleep and you will do as I say.’

Carter knew he wasn’t asleep, but it was easy to follow Dr Paley’s commands.

‘Raise your right hand. Put your right hand down. Raise your left hand. Put your left hand down. Very good. The subject appears to be in a trance. Now, Carter, let’s bring up a memory.’

This wouldn’t be so easy. Memories were thoughts, and all his thoughts had been removed. But he continued to listen.

‘Let’s go back to the day you were discovered, on Carter Street. It’s night, and you’re huddled in a doorway. A policeman finds you. He asks you questions. You don’t answer him. You’re feeling something, Carter. What are you feeling? Maybe you’re lonely. Maybe you’re sad.’

Lonely. . sad. . He couldn’t connect to those words.

‘Cold. .’ Dr Paley suggested.

Yes. . yes! He knew that sensation. The chill of the night crept over him, and he was very uncomfortable.

‘The subject appears to be shivering,’ Dr Paley murmured. ‘Carter. . perhaps you haven’t eaten in a while. So you are hungry. Are you hungry, Carter?’ After a moment, he said, ‘The subject is licking his lips.’

Cold, hungry, cold, hungry. . This was bad. Carter didn’t want to be there.

‘And something else too, Carter. You’re feeling something else. Are you afraid?’

Afraid, afraid, afraid. . The words rang in his ears, and suddenly all those thoughts he’d pushed out of his head came rushing back in, and more, more thoughts, thoughts he didn’t know he had, horrible thoughts. . Yes, that was the sensation he couldn’t remember. He was afraid, and it was horrible, terrible, he had to shut it out, turn it off, go away, go far, far away, to a place where he wouldn’t be cold or hungry or frightened. .

Images, sounds, they flashed across his mind so rapidly he couldn’t identify anything. . Lights and noises, lights and noises, they went on and on and on, louder and brighter, and the sensation grew stronger. . Hunger, cold, fear — he had to make them stop! But he couldn’t make them stop, so he had to escape. There was a way, he did it before, he could do it again. .

‘Carter. Carter! I’m going to count to ten, and when I reach ten, you will wake up. One, two, three. .’

With the doctor’s voice, the lights and the noises began to change. Colours faded, and the sounds were softer. Slowly, all became silent and grey again. Safe.

Carter opened his eyes. He didn’t understand what had just happened to him, and he looked at Dr Paley in bewilderment.

Dr Paley was looking at him with an odd expression too. As if he’d just seen something he’d never seen before.

‘Carter. How do you feel?’

Pain. . There was pain. . Carter put his hands to his head in an effort to squeeze out the pain.

‘You’d better go back to your room and lie down for a while,’ Dr Paley said.

Carter rose and went to the door.

‘But I want to see you again later today,’ Dr Paley told him. ‘After I’ve had a chance to study the videotape and talk to some colleagues. This is very important, Carter. Do you understand me?’

Carter turned his head and looked back at the doctor. Dr Paley smiled.

‘You see, Carter. . You too have a gift.’

CHAPTER FOUR

AS AMANDA APPROACHED ROOM 209, she spotted Nina lingering just outside the door of the class.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked her ‘frenemy’.

Nina fluttered a thin strip of paper in the air. ‘You left this in my mother’s car yesterday. It must have fallen out of your bag.’

Amanda took the paper and examined it. It was the receipt for a pair of shoes she’d bought at the mall the day before.

‘You need this if you want to return the shoes,’ Nina pointed out.

‘I love those sandals, I’m not going to take them back,’ Amanda replied. Then she frowned. ‘Why are you giving me this now? Why didn’t you give it to me at lunch today?’

Nina smiled sweetly. ‘I forgot.’

Amanda doubted that. Nina knew that Ken was in this class with Amanda. She was just looking for an excuse to hang out in front of the room and ‘accidentally’ run into him.

‘Thanks,’ she said, tossing the receipt in her bag. ‘Bye.’

But just as she suspected, Nina remained by the door. From her seat in class, Amanda could see Ken arrive and Nina stopping him. They weren’t able to talk long — the bell was about to ring — but Amanda fumed anyway.

She knew she shouldn’t be surprised. Ken was a highly desirable guy, popular and good-looking. And Nina had always competed with Amanda for everything from leadership of their clique to being the first with the current ‘It’ handbag, so why not with boys? It was only natural that Nina would go after the same one Amanda wanted.

Nina knew that Amanda was interested in Ken. Ever since he’d kissed her underwater at a pool party last summer, she’d had feelings for him. (OK, the kiss was the result of a dare from some other guys, but even so, it was a kiss.) In her efforts to get a relationship going, she’d had ups and downs, but right now, things seemed to be going well. There was no way she’d let Nina intrude.

She flashed her most brilliant smile at Ken as he took his seat, but there was no opportunity to talk. Madame called for everyone’s attention.

‘Yesterday, I asked you to think about how you could use your gifts in positive ways. Does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?’

Charles spoke. ‘I’ve done that. I got the gun away from that woman Clare, when she had Emily in her car.’

‘Yes, I remember,’ Madame said. ‘But I’m interested in discussing how you can help others — not just the people in this class, but society in general.’

Martin piped up. ‘You mean, like a superhero? If I could get a handle on my power whenever I wanted, I could run around saving people from bullies.’

‘Let’s not jump that far ahead,’ Madame cautioned. ‘I’m not telling you to become superheroes, we’re just trying to explore the potential of your gifts. If you did have control, you might have opportunities to benefit mankind.’

Emily had a question. ‘But how? Like, what if I had a vision of a plane crashing and I called the airline to warn them? They’d want to know how I knew about it.’

‘What good would it do anyway?’ Jenna asked. ‘They wouldn’t believe you.’

‘And if they did believe you,’ Tracey chimed in, ‘you’d be revealing your gift. Which we’re not supposed to do.’ She looked at Madame. ‘Right?’

Amanda was mildly surprised that Madame didn’t make her usual quick response to that question. The teacher actually seemed uncertain. Finally, she spoke.

‘There may be situations where you will be able to safely reveal yourselves,’ she said slowly, ‘to certain people, and under certain conditions. But that’s not what I want us to discuss now. At this point in time, I want you to think about ways in which you could use your gifts discreetly. To help people without calling attention to