For Marquita her ability had always been a one-way street. She could enter others minds, but she had never met someone who could enter hers. She didn’t know that she could protect her mind from others or that she would even need to. The control Mechteld exhibited in her abilities is both astonishing and enticing for Marquita. Her ability had become more sensitive in the last year. Recently, she was even able hear her neighbors thoughts through the walls. Crowded rooms were now unbearable for Marquita and school was torture. Five hundred students attended her school and each day she had to listen to each idle thought that filled their minds. With all the noise she was hardly able to have her own thoughts anymore.
Furthermore, she wasn’t able to keep friends. They wanted to know how she knew certain things about them. Usually, they assumed that Marquita had been gossiping behind their backs and now most of the girls in her grade no longer talked to her.
Marquita knows she needs to learn the type of control Mechteld possesses. As each day passes her ability grows stronger and she sees herself succumbing to the madness that has inflicted others in her family. It’s why the surgery was vital to Marquita. Removing the tumor would not only save her physical life, but also finally give her mind relief from the now insufferable voices around her. Marquita now wonders, did the doctors remove the tumor? She remembers them starting the surgery. If they had, then it was now clear that the tumor wasn’t the cause of her ability.
“How long have you been watching me?” Marquita asks.
“I encountered your father about two years ago. I was able to read from him that he had a daughter who’s psychic and also in bad health. I’ve kept an eye on you since.”
Marquita feels complete disbelief. For two years this person has been able to watch her without her knowledge. Questions spring into Marquita head: Is this true? How is it possible? Why did she just watch? Why did she keep herself a secret? What has she seen?
Mechteld continues, “When I learned that you’d be having a risky surgery I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”
Confused, Marquita asks, “Opportunity for what?”
“To change you before you died.” Mechteld’s voice is serious, but the answer is mysterious to Marquita. Again she hears the word “change” and it confuses her. Besides her legs being weak and the new scar on her head, she looks and feels the same.
“To change me? Into what? I’m the same.”
“You’re not.” Mechteld says, her voice becoming edgier and more excited. “Everyone thinks you died Marquita, but you never did. You didn’t die then and you won’t die now.” Mechteld pauses and watches Marquita for any reaction. After receiving none Mechteld continues, “You never will because I changed you.”
There’s a silence as Marquita thinks. As they sit, cars and people can be heard outside, but neither Marquita nor Mechteld move or make a sound. Mechteld doesn’t breath as she waits nervously for recognition from Marquita. Finally Marquita asks, “What does that mean, ‘You never will’?”
“You will never die.” Mechteld emphasizes each word. “Your heart will continue beating forever.”
Marquita sits below the window trying to piece together the information, but then finally looks up and says, “I don’t get it.”
Mechteld shrugs her shoulders a little and says, “There’s not a lot to it. You can’t die and you’ll never grow older. That’s about it.”
Marquita furrows her brow and tries to guess if there’s a hidden meaning. Not knowing what to say, Marquita says what she knows to be true. “Everyone dies.”
“I haven’t.” Mechteld states plainly and then continues, “Millions of others haven’t and you won’t either.”
Mechtled looks down and meets Marquita’s gaze. Marquita knows what Mechteld is saying is impossible. Despite being sixteen, nothing about life is a secret to Marquita. For over ten years she has read the minds of almost every person she’s come in contact with. She knows what is real and what is a delusion from a sick mind. As she looks into Mechteld eyes, she concludes that Mechteld must be insane.
It doesn’t surprise Marquita that Mechteld is crazy. For her, keeping so many secrets and knowing the darkest thoughts of her friends and loved ones is a great burden to her mind. Perhaps her mind has degraded under the same stress and created a fantasy that she could live forever and save people from death. If she has been following her for two years, this delusion has been slowly growing over time. Perhaps after two years of obsession, she tried to make her fantasy a reality on the day of the surgery.
But some thoughts about Mechteld invade Marquita’s mind and cast a small shadows of doubt. The paper said she was stolen from a morgue. How could she fool doctors into thinking she was dead? But the biggest question for Marquita is, how could someone with such strong psychic control be losing her mind?
Despite the lingering questions, Marquita now knows what she must do.
“She’ll have to leave to this room eventually,” Marquita tells herself. “She’ll have to eat, she’ll have to sleep, she’ll have to go to the bathroom, when she does I’ll make my move.”
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