Prophecy Girl Read Free

gray flat cap. He was wearing black pants, a white shirt, and a black tie that had a green shamrock pin stuck in the middle. He smelled of cigarette smoke, but it wasn’t overwhelming.
    Despite the fact that he was a stranger, she felt very safe around him. The way he looked at her…it wasn’t like Dr. Lang. This man wasn’t studying her—he already knew her and understood her. At least, that’s what she thought. He signified change…hope…a sign. But she didn’t know why she felt this way towards a complete stranger.
    “Eva, what’s wrong?” Dr. Lang asked, scrambling to find a blank piece of paper on his clipboard.
    She shook her head. “Nothing…uh…it was Isaac.”
    Dr. Lang almost dropped his clipboard. “What’d he do?”
    “He shouted at me, but I didn’t do anything. I swear! We were just playing cards in the Rec Room.”
    “I see.” Dr. Lang turned to the stranger, who had been fiddling with his shamrock tie pin. “I need to see to this. Will you excuse me?”
    “By all means,” said the stranger, extending his hand towards the exit door.
    Eva noticed that he seemed happy to be rid of the twitchy doctor. She liked him even more.
    After Dr. Lang left, Eva asked, “Who are you? You’re not another doctor, are you?”
    She had had her share of visiting psychiatrists that Dr. Lang brought in for a “fresh look” at his problem. 
    “No, Eva, I’m not.”
    She somehow knew that, but needed to hear it.
    “Who are you then?”
    He gestured inside her room. “Shall we?”
    She went in first, and he followed behind, leaving the door slightly open. He sat down on her wobbly chair, and she sat on her bed. 
    He glanced at her birthday present. “So how does it feel to be fifteen?”
    She didn’t question how this man knew her age. It seemed that everyone knew everything about her, except why she kept seeing people die.
    She shrugged. “Okay, I guess.” 
    He smiled. “I remember when I was around your age. I was going through…changes…and I didn’t know how to handle them.”
    She grimaced. “This isn’t the sex talk, is it?”
    He shook his head, blushing. “No, no! That’s the last thing I want to talk to you about.”
    “Well, why are you here?”
“Eva, I’ve heard from Dr. Lang that you’ve been having visions…seeing people die? And that you cry for hours? Is this true?”
    She nodded, noticing there was an acceptance in his words. He wasn’t perplexed as Dr. Lang seemed to be. 
    “What’s wrong with me?!” she pleaded.
    He shook his head. “Nothing! My dear, nothing is wrong with you! You just have to learn to control it.”
    “Control it?” she asked, confused. “I don’t want to control it. I want it to go away.”
    He shook his head again. “I’m sorry, but that is impossible. What you’re experiencing…well, it’s who you are.”
    Eva was confused and terrified, looking up and down at her thin body. “What? What am I?”
    Before he could answer, the door creaked open. It was Dr. Lang. “Everything all right in here?”
    The stranger rolled his eyes for only Eva to see. “Fine, thank you.”
    Dr. Lang hesitated, but then nodded, and left.
    “I don’t like him either,” she said.
    “Eva, this isn’t the place for you. I know of a better place.”
    “Not another hospital?”
    “No!” He shook his head. “A school—a home—a place where you can study and live with others just like you.”
    She raised her eyebrow. “A school?”
    “My name is Seamus Quinn, and I’m the headmaster of Green Clover Academy in Boston.” He tapped the green shamrock pin attached to his tie.
    “Boston? Isn’t it cold up there?”
    Eva didn’t care for the cold, born and raised in sunny Miami.
    The headmaster bobbed his head from side to side, thinking. “It’s cold when it needs to be, but otherwise it’s fine.” He smiled. “Don’t worry. We don’t have classes in the snow,” he joked.
    “I’ll go to school to learn what?”
    “Regular