Death Whispers (Death Series, Book 1) (14 page)

The microwave timer beeped. Mom put an oven mitt
on, scooping the dish out and transferring it to the table. She
flicked a pat of butter inside, mixing it in through the cut corn.
Dad and I watched.

Mount Rainier sat before him on the plate. Mom
laughed. “Too much?” she asked with a grin.

“I think... yes,” Dad said with a smile of his
own.

I heaped my plate full of mashed potatoes, then
put some corn on top and mixed the whole mess up with my spoon. Next
came two pieces of the best fried chicken in the world. No gross skin
to give it that squishy feeling in my mouth. Mom watched the whole
event with that look on her face she had every time I ate.

“What?” my parents asked at the same time.
Jinx, I thought.

“Just thinking about the justice that the Js
could do to this meal, Mom.”

“Hmp! That's an understatement,” she grunted.

Mom
knew what the Js could do to a meal.

We cleared our dishes and I got the Homework
Question, a ritual I could do without.

I jogged over to the stairs to ascend into what
the Js called the “bat cave.” My room was nothing more than a
hole under the eaves of the half story of our house. It was dark and
had a separate place where the Js and I could game and hang.

I jerked the door open, making that pleasant
sucking air sound and flung myself on my bed, whipping it shut as I
was in the air. I flopped over on my back and read some more from
where I left off about Parker:

...we
were unaware, of the ramifications of this particular ability.
Parker's abilities were the first true, full-scale five-point AFTD
abilities we've seen since the inception of the inoculations in 2015
and even into the present day. Now, we
have
seen many AFTD children manifest one of the five commonly known
characteristics or “points” for this category.

“Dr. Daniels, please explain to this readership
exactly what Affinity for the Dead means? I have to assume, that like
myself, there are many people out there that assume teens which
manifest this ability are mainly able to communicate with the dead.
But, if what you're saying is true, there may be quite a bit more to
it than just communication.”

“
You're
right, Tim. The five, main sub-categories for AFTD are as follows:
Cadaver-manipulation, Hauntings, Medium/communication,
Cadaver-control, Murder/traumatic victim location, and Death
Impressions. Now the first and third abilities are obviously linked,
with the last being the most common manifestation of this ability.
The
Parker
child manifested all five categories. I cannot overemphasize the
rarity of all five points of a little understood ability such as this
being a part of one person's skill set. We didn't realize just how
rare that was until ten years later; there has not been another case
that encompassed all five.”

“Beside having all five categories, is there
anything else that makes Parker special?” Anderson asked.

Laughs
“Yes,
Parker is an extraordinarily rare case. Most importantly, since his
assimilation into our military, we have not been able to study his
abilities further, which is a national tragedy. I
am
at liberty to say that. He works in a capacity that has not been
explained and is under a top secret umbrella that even the scientific
community cannot breach.”

“
Why
can't we
all
know what Parker is up to? Don't we have a right to know?” Anderson
queried.

“
I am not at liberty to answer that. However,
I can say that if there were another 'Parker', his or her outlook
would not be broad. He or she would almost certainly, in theory, be a
very interesting commodity for certain groups.”

“
Which groups?” Anderson asked.

“
Any group in which raising cadavers was
politically advantageous.”

I put the papers down on my chest and rubbed my
eyes. I felt the full flesh crawl march up my body and settle
uncomfortably at the base of my neck, where the short hairs like to
stand on end. Mom called that “getting the creeps.”

Yeah... those.

I was afraid of this. My parents were afraid of
this. Dad putting me on meds, going against the rule-follower I knew
him to be, scared the crap out of me. Making a fist with my hand
under my chin I rolled over on my stomach. I thought about Jade and
the dog. Sighing, I got up, swinging my legs onto the floor. I stood
up and walked over to my pulse-top. Plunking down on my chair, I
pressed my thumb onto the pad.

Hello, Caleb Hart... accessing...

I
thought
:
subject;
murder, AFTD-related.

The display lit up with news and one article
struck as soon as I saw it; although it was older:

Twenty-year old AFTD Policewoman Bobbi Gale
“Discovers” Murder Victim Leading to the Arrest of Pierce Dickson

by Tim
Anderson

Boy, that Anderson guy gets around, I thought. I
read on:

Another police deterrent slash victory in what
can only be classified as a paranormal ability, which is labeled as
the most misunderstood of all, is now taking a foothold as
post-inoculation children come-of-age and enter the workforce in
occupations that showcase these unique skills. In this instance, Ms.
Gale, after testing as a two-point in the AFTD category (in the
nationwide Aptitude Tests given eighth graders), excelled in the
subsequent, specialized school she attended and upon graduation was
given a coveted role in the police department of her choice.

This trend of using people in important
capacities such as law-enforcement cannot be a bad one. Considering
that paranormal ability is not just given to people driven to do the
right thing. There are criminals out there, as Ms. Gale, when asked
to speak for this article, is quoted as saying, '...Are now our most
powerful criminals, using all their talents for evil...'”

Wow...I
hadn't considered what it would be like if, say, a
Carson
showed up with paranormal skills. I shuddered thinking about the
trouble that dickhead could make. Of course, it was possible. I threw
that errant thought aside and bent to do more reading.

Ms. Gale was quoted as saying, when asked how
she was able to find these criminals, she responded with,“It's a
difficult ability to quantify.”

No
kidding, I thought,
duh
.

“
But,
I'd have to say it's the dead...
they
speak to me. It seems that when someone dies violently, there is a
'footprint' they leave, an impression of who they were. I follow
that trail and sometimes, I get lucky and can put it all together.”

When Gale was asked if she was satisfied with
her work, she responded with an emphatic, “yes,” but added that
she was very, “... glad that she didn't have all the categories of
AFTD.”

When asked why, she responded simply that it
was, “..more than she wanted to deal with.”

I
depressed my thumb on the pad and
thought
:
writing.

A
blank page asserted itself in the middle of my monitor which hung
suspended above my desk. I tapped my fingers on the desk, struggling
to write. This was my least favorite homework; writing. I guess one
paragraph I could manage. History was second period and I needed to
do a paragraph per day synopsis.
Thought
and
pulsed
to the school before second period Monday through Friday. Mr.
Peterson was cool but current event stuff sucked. Who cared what was
happening, seriously? I had to care more than I wanted and was pissed
about it.

I
sat thinking about what to write in my paragraph, struggling with the
spelling, as usual. My desk had a built in thumb pad so I just laid
my thumb on it and
thought
:
this
sucks ass
guffaws

The
phrase lit up on the screen and I howled, slapping my knee, comic
relief.
I
finally got a grip and thought:
erase phrase.
It
disappeared. That last phrase
may
have affected my grade. I felt giddy at the prospect. I tapped my
fingers again and thought:

Copy & Paste
header. The article header lit up.

I
amended:
and include author.

Anderson's
name glowed on the screen.

I
thought
:
This
past event is about a girl cop that has the paranormal ability, AFTD
(Affinity for the Dead). This ability usually means that somebody can
communicate with the dead. She uses her ability to find criminals
that have murdered people.

I
paused,
taking my thumb off the pad a second, then laid it
on
the pad again, and
resumed
thought
:
She says that she can hear impressions from people who've died, that
if they were murdered she can feel a trail of their emotions. Sounds
like this is damn handy.

Huh...
thought
:
erase profanity. “
Damn,”
disappeared.

Thought
:
Pulse
to Mr. William “Billy” Peterson, History teacher at Kent Middle
School.

That
done, I glanced at the illuminated numbers on the bottom of the
computer screen. I depressed my thumb, very lightly. Mom would kill
me, literally, if I put my thumb through another pad and
thought
:
sleep.

The screen became dark, only the green clock
numbers continued to glow in the lower right corner.

Nine-thirty already, time to pulse John. Weird
that I hadn't heard from Jonesy today, he was always pulsing.

My
pulse was stuffed in my back pocket and digging into my ass. I
whipped it out and pressed the pad. The pads for the pulse-cells were
a lot tougher to wreck I thought with satisfaction, and
thought
:
John Terran.

Green
letters appeared:
Initializing.

Then:
Hey butt-wipe, finally got around to pulsing. Busy with Jade?
Laughs
John
Terran

No,
numb-nuts, if you must know, I just finished my PE!
CH

Past
Event?
Yeah,
I figured you'd finally get your butt kicked and do homework-
John
Terran

Are
you ever gonna edit your name to initials like everybody else does so
I don't have to see your whole, stinkin' name?
Smirks
CH

I
like it this way, it irritates everyone
sarcasm-much-
John
Terran

Off-topic-
CH

K-
John
Terran

I
was talking with Jade and we may do better to rein Jonesy in with
doing the thing at the cemetery with the ass-clowns-
CH

Why?
John Terran

She
knows Brett, or did, and says she thinks he'd never let it go, be
bent on big-time payback, baby-
CH

How
does she know Brett? Besides, ya know Jonesy, he's got this thing
buzzing around in his head and he'll want to see it through-
John
Terran