Patterns
663 Words
The campus moved on.
Just as it always did.
By the following week, conversations about Noah Bennett's accident had begun to fade.
Students returned to worrying about exams.
Lecturers resumed piling on assignments.
Life continued.
But Emma couldn't move on quite so easily.
The image of Noah lying on the pavement lingered in her mind.
Because this time had been different.
This time she had tried to stop it.
And she had failed.
Not completely.
The fracture had happened.
The accident had happened.
Yet according to the rumors spreading around campus, Noah's injuries could have been much worse.
Some students claimed he had originally planned to cycle down the steep wooded trail.
Others said he changed his route at the last minute.
Nobody knew why.
Emma did.
Because she had warned him.
The thought should have comforted her.
Instead, it left her with more questions.
Could the future be changed?
Or only altered?
Was fate fixed?
Or flexible?
She didn't know.
And that frightened her.
---
A week later, Emma was studying in the library when Sophie dropped into the chair opposite her.
"You look terrible."
Emma didn't look up from her notes.
"Thank you."
"I'm serious."
"I know."
Sophie frowned.
"You need sleep."
"I need to pass physiology."
"You need both."
Emma smiled faintly.
For a moment, everything felt normal.
Then someone approached their table.
A familiar voice spoke.
"Mind if I sit?"
Emma looked up.
Liam.
For some reason, her stomach tightened.
"There's literally twenty empty tables," Sophie said.
"Yet here you are."
"Thank you for noticing."
Sophie rolled her eyes.
Liam sat down anyway.
Emma returned her attention to her textbook.
Or at least she tried to.
Because every few minutes she found herself glancing at him.
At his hands.
At his face.
At the perfectly healthy person sitting across from her.
The person carrying a future diagnosis only she knew about.
It was exhausting.
Carrying knowledge nobody else had.
Especially when that knowledge involved someone she was beginning to like.
---
"Emma."
She blinked.
Liam was looking at her.
"What?"
"You've read the same sentence five times."
"What?"
He pointed to her textbook.
"You haven't turned the page in twenty minutes."
Sophie's laughter echoed through the library.
Emma groaned.
"Mind your business."
"I am. Your studying is painful to watch."
For the first time in days, she laughed.
A genuine laugh.
And for a moment, she forgot about visions.
About diagnoses.
About fate.
Just for a moment.
---
The moment ended when her shoulder brushed against someone passing by.
A nursing student.
Probably twenty years old.
The vision struck instantly.
Emma inhaled sharply.
The library vanished.
She stood in a crowded emergency department.
Doctors rushed through hallways.
Monitors beeped.
A young woman cried quietly in a hospital bed.
The nursing student.
Emma recognized her immediately.
A chart sat beside the bed.
A diagnosis appeared.
ACUTE APPENDICITIS
The date flashed briefly.
4 weeks
Then the vision ended.
---
Emma jerked back into reality.
Her chair scraped against the floor.
Several students looked up.
Including Liam.
"You okay?" he asked.
Emma forced a smile.
"Fine."
But Liam noticed something.
It wasn't the first time.
Whenever Emma became distracted, it wasn't normal distraction.
It was as if she disappeared somewhere else entirely.
For a second.
Maybe two.
Then she came back.
Paler than before.
More anxious than before.
More distant than before.
He didn't know why.
And honestly, it wasn't really his business.
Still...
He had started noticing.
---
That evening, Emma sat alone in her dorm room.
Another vision.
Another future patient.
Another secret.
The list was growing.
Professor Hayes.
The accident victim.
The hospital porter.
Noah Bennett.
The nursing student.
How many more would come?
How many futures was she supposed to carry?
As she stared out the window, a realization slowly settled over her.
The visions were happening more often.
Much more often.
And if that trend continued...
Soon she might not be able to hide them at all.
- Writer
