He snapped, “Yes! Now just shut up and lemme drive!” She drew back while I glared at him. And I thought he was okay, what a jerk! “Look I’m sorry. I-I’m just worried about us getting caught. It’s little pressuring. I’m really sorry I yelled at you, um, what is your name?” Mariella Gillespie and I’m Leona Bolt. The car slowed down and halted, we were in traffic. She started to say, “I’m-” He interrupted her, “Oh, Mariella. I’m sorry about yelling at you.”
“Wait, she didn’t say her name!” I burst out, “So how did you know what it was if you didn’t a few seconds ago?” I gasped. Can he read thoughts? Well Merrick, I thought looking directly at him, can you? He turned to me and I heard him say ‘yes’, although his lips didn’t move.
How long have you been reading my thoughts? I didn’t like the idea of someone intruding on my personal thoughts, my memories, my opinions. Well, how long? I hurtled that thought towards him.
He turned to drive and was silent. “How come no one is talking?” Mariella said loudly, to break the silence. “Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t-” She cut off with a gasp then started up again, “Do you have mind powers or something? Please say you do cuz if you don’t then I’m hearing stuff.” A pause of silence ensued. “That’s creepy but astounding at the same time. She can see auras and you can mentally communicate with whoever you want. I feel so plain over here.” Her voice trailed off. She looked down, slowly and sighed. “I’m sorry that you two are a part of this mess.”
I just looked at her, no emotion showing on my face. I spoke up, “It’s alright Mariella; we all got ourselves into it, now we just have to get out.” Merrick you didn’t answer my question.
...Silence from him. Merrick, I know you heard me so please, just answer the question. I pleaded. He finally replied to me, I’ve been listening since you woke up.
I was confused. So you KNEW that I was ripping the tape off Mariella’s mouth? Why didn’t you tell Arnold? Did you hear or picture the memory I was having? Wait, did you hear me when I thought that you were cute? I turned red. Mariella asked, “Leona are you ok?” I stammered in response, “Yeah, I-I-I just remembered something. That’s all.”
Yes, I knew that you were ripping the tape off. I didn’t tell him because he would question me since I was driving and not facing you two. I only heard parts of the memory. He hesitated before continuing. I’m sorry about your father. And yes, I heard that too. Then again, you also found me creepy and funny at that moment.
“Hey, Mariella. Why are you here? Why did they kidnap you?” Merrick, do you know why you were sent to kidnap her?
Nope. The van started to gain some more speed once we got past the traffic. Merrick piped up, “Yeah, why were Arnold and I sent to kidnap you? We weren’t told.”
She was quiet for a moment. “I am here because I was betrayed by someone I considered a friend. A friendly enemy I did something treacherous for. And in the end, she turned me over and used me for her benefit. I considered her family until then.”
“What did you do for her?”
She sighed. “Ca-can we not talk about that?” She looked pained. “Let’s just say it was something stupid on my part.”
“Hmm...no....” I started thinking. She suddenly turned to me. Her eyes narrowed and gazed into mine, piercingly, as she said, “No what? No, you have to know what I did?!”
Ah, I meant that no, it wasn’t stupid.” Her eyebrows raised and her eyes widened, full of surprise. Definitely not the response she was expecting. “You did whatever out of loyalty to her, not stupidity. Don’t put yourself down because she decided to be a bitch and turn you in. You were loyal to someone you considered family and she was the disloyal, stupid one. She lost a good friend because of what she did.”
Merrick used the rearview mirror to stare at me. “Wow.” He said softly. “That was....” His voice trailed off. Mariella opened her mouth, maybe to thank me, maybe to ask what I had said was, but whatever she was going to say, she never got the chance. Because Merrick was staring at me, he wasn’t focusing on the road while he was driving. Because he wasn’t focusing, he didn’t see the light change. And because of this, he didn’t see the car pulling out to cross in front of us. All I remember was a squeal of tires as the other car realized we weren’t going to stop, a crash, a crunch, and hitting my head. For the second time that day, I had blacked out.
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