Inheritance

Ugh. My head pounded with pain. I reached behind my head tentatively to reach the knot I could feel throbbing there. Dazed I opened my eyes to too bright lights shining from my left. A shadow vaguely shaped like a head passed before me.

“Good, you’re awake” said a gentle masculine voice.

"She's awake!" said James' voice. The ground jerked around violently knocking my and painfully into my head.

"James! keep your eyes on the road!" yelled the first voice.

“You’ll be alright, can you sit up?” he asked.

“Yeah” I mumbled after a failed (and painful) attempt at nodding my head. A hand reached out and helped me into an upright position.

“Where am I?” I asked confused.

“You’re in the back seat of your brother’s car.” said the voice. As my vision cleared I saw that he was right. The light that had blinded me before was streaming through untinted windows of the car. And the jostle that had knocked my hand into my head must have been the jostling of the car when James turned to see me.

“And who are you?” I asked the guy that had helped me up. I was struck by his resemblance to me, we could almost be siblings. I couldn’t quite tell how I saw the resemblance but we both had almond shaped bottomless obsidian eyes. His black shaggy hair fell across his face. I noticed natural highlights of red and browns probably from being out in the sun. His skin had tanned to a light mocha. He was staring intensely into my eyes. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that I knew him, but the harder I tried to pin it down the more the answer eluded me.

“Call me Aaron.” he said. Nope, still not coming to me.

“Care to elaborate?” I asked.

“I’m one of James’ friends. We surf together. My mom works as a nurse.
We’re taking you to her.” he said haltingly, as if he was concentrating on something else. “Ok, now we can talk.” He said after a few moments of silence.

“What do you mean?” I asked mystified.

“There are a few things you need to know. Scratch that, there are a lot of things you need to know.”

“What are you talking about?” I said wondering what the heck this guy was talking about.

“I’m psychic, and so are you.” He said bluntly with a completely straight face.

“I don’t think I’m the only one that hit their head.” I said

“Don’t freak out.” said his voice projected to the inside of my head. Every one of his words sent bolts of pain shooting through my head.

“Why are you inside my head?!” I yelled out.

“I tried to tell you not to freak out” he said shaking his head.

“Plus it’s not like you didn’t know it was true. I mean, the way you
controlled that guy at the Blue Ballroom. It was messy, but you must have had some training to do that.” He said.

“So that’s where I know you from!” I said excitedly “You’re that guy I saw
outside the Blue Ballroom!”

“Yeah, that’s me. You left that body guard messed up. Didn’t they teach you to install alternate memories or at least fuzz things up whenever you control somebody? You demolished his mental walls too. If you had left him like that he wouldn’t have been able to form coherent sentences. You’re lucky I was there to clean up after you.” He said scolding

“What are you talking about ‘training’ aren’t psychics supposed to be
able to do everything by instinct? What’s ‘installing alternate memories’? And what are ‘mental walls’?”

“Ha, I wish I knew everything by instinct, but instinct generally only takes to you to vision level because there has to be some way for the pent up power to diffuse itself. The rest of that stuff my mom will teach you.” He said cynically.

“Wait, hold up. There are more of us?” I said confused. I was still trying to wrap my head around me being psychic, and now I have one sitting next to me, with another one as his mother.

“Are you seriously completely untrained? He asked astonished at my ignorance.

“Yeah, I guess.” I said unsure of myself.

“Dang, mom’s going to have a hard time with you.” He said.
The car began slowing down. I looked out the window to see where we were at. Out my window was a drop of the edge of a mountain. The ocean stretched out before e in an endless sheet of blue. Out the other window there was a tiny little house painted the colors of the ocean and forest. It seemed cozy and sweet. It appealed to me almost more than my home. Aaron stepped out the car and opened the door for me. What was I getting into? Were these people as crazy? And if they are, am I?