“Are you okay, Mom?”
Judy squeezed Laura and then stepped back to wipe her tears away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I was going to cry.”
“It’s okay.” Laura gave Cassie a pointed look that got her off the couch, too. “What’s wrong?”
“The poor boy’s mother, the senator’s wife? She volunteers at the hospital with me.”
“Are you close?”
“No, not really. But we’re friendly. Whenever we work the same shifts, we talk a lot. We work pretty well together. I don’t love her husband’s policies, but he seems like a good man. Mary’s a wonderful woman. Really kind. Cares a lot about helping people. She found out she had cancer last year. It’s in remission now, but it’ll keep coming back. And now this? It’s terrible.”
“Is it true what they said about him?” Cassie asked. “Getting into trouble and all of that.”
Judy nodded her head and retreated to the couch. The girls followed her.
“She hasn’t talked about it a lot, but she’s mentioned there being trouble at home. I told her I understood.” Her gaze flicked to Cassie, then back to her hands, which were folded in her lap. “But you never stop loving your kids, you know? No matter what they do. And he wasn’t a bad kid. Connor is smart. Maybe too smart. And he and his father butt heads a lot.”
“Do you think he did it?”
“God, no.” Her mom looked disgusted, and Cassie was ashamed the thought ever came out of her mouth. “Besides, he’s just missing. For Mary’s sake, I hope he shows up soon.”
Cassie placed a reassuring hand on her mother’s shoulder but immediately regretted the contact. A rush of sadness and pain entered through her palm like she’d touched a stovetop burner. The heat traveled up her arm, around her neck, and buried itself into the base of her skull. The force of the vision pinned her to the back of the couch. Her face went slack as the world around her disappeared.
Cassie landed in the body of a man. His feelings were like whispers on the wind, foreign and cold. Satisfaction mingled with delight before they were whisked away, replaced with her own confusion and fear. She was seeing through his eyes, and the vertigo that came with being in a stranger’s body made her stomach churn.
She wasn’t sure if this was the past, present or future, but it hardly mattered. When she looked down at a figure in front of her, she wasn’t the one controlling the body. Whoever was in the driver’s seat had complete autonomy.
When the man at her feet looked up, she recognized the senator’s son, and even though he was nineteen—an adult in the eyes of the law—he looked like a child. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he begged for his life in a high, panicked voice.
It had no effect on the other man.
Where her heart would have broken, it remained intact. Where she would have kneeled down to help someone, the man in control of their shared body did nothing to offer his assistance. He stood there, lording over this child, feeling nothing.
He lifted their collective arm. It was heavy with the weight of a gun against her palm. The ice-cold metal pierced her skin as she pointed it directly at the kid’s face. No matter how much she fought and screamed and tried to close her eyes, she couldn’t stop her finger closing around the trigger. She couldn’t look away as she squeezed the shot off.
As soon as she heard the bang, Cassie was flung back to reality.
It took an immense amount of effort not to react to the vision, but she kept her breath even despite the pounding of her heart. Relief washed over her when she realized her mother hadn’t noticed her momentary absence. Laura, however, shot her a questioning look.
“Should I call her?” Judy asked. “We’re not close. But I have her phone number. I don’t want to bother her. She’s going through so much right now.”
“But you understand exactly how she’s feeling.” Laura rubbed their mom’s back. “That’s helpful in a situation like this. You’ll be able to comfort her in a way no one else can.”
“What if she doesn’t want to talk to me?” Cassie had never heard her mom sound this unsure of herself. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“She’ll pick up if she wants to answer you. And if she doesn’t pick up, it just means she’s too busy or too sad to talk. But no matter what happens, I think she’ll be happy to see a friend reach out to her.”
“No matter what happens.” Judy sounded exhausted. “I hope that poor boy is okay.”
“I’m sure he is.” Laura helped their mom to her feet. “If you stay positive, maybe she will, too.”
“Not too positive.” Cassie regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, and she stumbled over the correction. “I mean, you don’t want to give her false hope, you know? Something bad could’ve happened to him.”
“I’d rather not think about that. Mary’s gone through enough. She needs hope more than she needs reality right now.”
Cassie looked down at her feet as her mother walked away and only looked up again when Laura punched her in the shoulder. “Ow.”
“What the hell?” Laura hissed. “Why would you say that?”
“Because I had a vision.” Cassie rubbed the pain out of her shoulder. “You didn’t have to hit me so hard.”
“You were being a jerk to Mom.”
“I was being realistic.”
“Right.” Laura sat on the couch. “What did you see?”
“I saw someone hold him at gunpoint.” Cassie shivered at the memory. “And then I saw him pull the trigger.”
Laura leaned forward to whisper. “You saw him die? Connor, I mean?”
“I’m not sure. I heard the gunshot go off, and then I was back here. But the gun was pointing directly at his head. It’d be a miracle
