Random Clips of Stories

Part 10

This is the last thing I did for my class. I started the story before the class. So this is the beginning of a novel. 

 Sighing, I glanced at the clock standing on the small table in the corner. Three hours left till I can close up shop and leave this city. The people here are not the nicest and I am ready to leave. I leaned back in my chair, waiting for someone to walk through the tent flap and waste my time away.

It was hot in the tent. I sat in one those tents you would see at a carnival. It was about the size of an average room so, it is easy to move around in the back of my truck, but since it is a tent there is no heating or cooling system.

The tent flap that opened the tent to the outside world started to move as if quivering under my gaze. It must have been the wind, but from what I could see outside there was no wind, the trees were standing still. Then it hit me. I jumped up out of my chair and tore my eyes away. The flaps were quivering under my gaze.

I can't let them show. No, not when I was so close to leaving this city. I couldn't be exposed. I took a deep breath to calm myself down before I got too out of hand. I didn't want to explode. I was still in public and if I were to do that here, another manhunt would commence. I reeled the power back in and pushed it down.

Maybe I could afford to close early today. After all, I have done somewhat ok here. I started towards the tent opening so I could grab the sign out front saying I was open and take it inside. I was about to take a step outside when a lady burst in, talking loudly on her phone.

The woman looked around the small tent. She paused when her eyes fell on me. She looked me up and down before her frown grew bigger on her face. You could see the look of disgust in her eyes. In her hand, she had an obvious faux Louis Vuitton, and she was wearing a crop top and shorts that looked a size too small. Her hair was bleached and her eyes were so blue they had to be fake. Just another Malibu customer.

"I have to go. I will talk to you later. I am... at the place," The woman said into the phone.

I put on a fake smile, "How may I help you?" I asked her.

She looked at me expectantly. As if I was supposed to bow down at her feet, "Why do you think I am here? I want to know my future. So, tell me, so I can leave this place," she remarked while looking around.

"Okay, 10 dollars then. You pay before the session," I told to her.

"Whatever." She pushed past me and sat down at the table in the center of the tent.

On the table, a crystal ball was displayed. Of course, it was just for show. I have never actually used one in my life, but people have expectations. I have to satisfy them, anyways the more generic I am the less people will remember me.

I sat down across from her. She slid the money towards me. I grabbed it and bent down to place it in a box that I kept under my chair for the money I collect throughout the day. As I was bent over I flipped on a switch that turned on the crystal ball. It was on a minute timer, so I had time to get the session started. Even though it was all just part of the show.

I sat back up and looked at the woman in front of me. Her bleached blond hair sat in curls on her shoulders and her piercing blue eyes stared at me as if I had killed her family. Her face looked as though it was stuck in a permanent frown.

"What do you want to know about your future?" I asked her.

"I don't care. I just need to know how amazing I turn out," she snapped at me.

I rolled my eyes. Her cockiness of the response was physically killing, but I had to be nice to her. None the less I held the fake smile on my face.

"Okay. Can you please give me your hand?"

"I thought you were going to use that thing. There was nothing about you touching me," she remarked.

"I need to make a physical connection between you and the crystal ball and me," I explained.

"Fine."

"Thank you," I said as she set her hand in mine. I laid her hand upon the crystal ball. Truthfully she didn't need to touch that thing, but I need an excuse so I could touch her. I did need to make physical contact to be able to see her future.

Images started to flash across my vision. Blinding lights of different colors played like a slideshow in my head. They were hard to make out. I focussed harder on the woman and where she would be in a year. The blurred images started to clear until I could see a distinct picture. I saw the woman. She was sitting in a house, no, a mansion, a man was sitting next to her on a chair. He was almost double her age.

The vision ended and I looked at the woman. She was sitting there watching me. I looked into the crystal ball and acted like I saw something. The smoke from the switch I flipped earlier had clouded it.

"I see you. You are married to a rich man," I confessed to her. She looked pleased. I left out the part about the man being twice her age. I only told the customers what they wanted to hear.

"Good," she jumped up from her chair and walked out.

I sat there staring at the tent opening. The people of Malibu are so rude. I rolled my eyes and stood up. I walked outside and grabbed the sign to close up for the night.

The moment I walked back into the tent a sharp pain went through my head. I dropped the sign I was holding and crumpled to the ground. I saw flashes of sirens and a tsunami, bigger than any tsunami I have heard of coming towards a city. The sound of rushing water filled my ears. I saw the streets filling with rushing water taking everything with it in its path. The screams of people as they are washed away. The buildings were shredded by the water slamming against them. Then a news tape played. Tens of thousands people had died in this freak accident. A light flashed. All was calm and standing on the water watching everything happen was a man. Something must have been holding him up, but the only thing under his feet was crystal clear water. I couldn't see his face only his mouth in a devilish smirk.

As fast as it appeared, it disappeared. I have only had something like this happen to me one other time. It was when I was back the orphanage. I had a vision of someone taking me away. Later a man came to the orphanage and said something about how "I needed to be moved to another orphanage."

I don't remember his reason why but, I do remember it changed my life. At that time of the move, I discovered my powers. I can recall running off into the nearby forest and the power in me would explode. I would get hit with visions and things around me would fly through the air. I had no control back then. I still struggle to keep it locked away.

Gasping in a few breathes, I stood and cleaned up the sign I had dropped. I started to clean up around my tent too. Putting things away in the trunks they go in. It wasn't long before everything was packed and ready to be put in the back of my truck. I got in the front and started the engine. I was ready to leave this town, not just the people but the visions I had seen.