Sky's Conflict

Skye’s Conflict





On a night years ago, Skye came into the world. Her full name is Skye Olivia Star. A brilliant young woman she had not become, but always had been. From the moment of her birth, her intelligence amazed everyone. When she took her first step, she walked ten more. Instead of crying when she needed to be fed, she’d reach into her diaper bag for a bottle.
When she turned three, ABC’s and 123’s were small potatoes. Give her a pencil and she would put three, four, and five-letter words together. By the time she turned five, she knew every capital of every state and every president, along with what party they belonged to. At the age of seven, she began reading novels. She could read a book and understand every single detail and remember every single character. When she reached the age of ten, she began entering spelling bees. One spelling bee after another, she won.
At the age of fifteen, she learned her first lesson in loss. Both of her parents died. Murdered, killed in cold blood in the middle of the night. Even as a teenager, the girl was strong against the cruelty and corruption of the world, but when it came to her parent's death, it tore her apart. She read about death in books but didn’t truly understand it until their deaths. Her parents worked for the U.S. government. One day they both came across a flash drive containing sensitive information. An underground operation had them taken out before they could turn it into their superiors.
The reason Skye knew this was because she possessed a special gift. Many special gifts actually. She can touch a corpse and witness their death, moment by moment. She can also touch a live person and see parts of their future and their past. This gift began at the age of fourteen.
This gift proved useful at times. Especially witnessing past events. One evening she was making out with her boyfriend and when she caressed his cheek, she had a vision of him kissing another girl. A later boyfriend, she was popping a zit on his forehead and when her fingers were pressed on that zit, she saw an image of him kissing not one, but three other girls earlier that week.
After kicking that one to the curb, she swore off boys for a while. A month after her parents death, she went to live with her Aunt Mable, who lived on the other side of town. Every afternoon, Mable got together with her two friends, Polly and Freda, to play gin-rummy. One evening, Mable asked Skye to play cards with them.
“I’m glad you decided to play, Skye” said Mable.
“Are you sure it’s OK?” asked Skye. “I was just bored to be honest, and I didn’t really have anything else to do.”
“Homework done?” asked Polly.
“Yes.”
“Chores?” asked Freda.
“Yes.”
“Your room clean?” asked Polly.
“Of course.”
Mable’s friends were nice at times but asked more questions than a final exam.
“So, no Books all over the room?” asked Freda.
“On the shelf,” said Skye.
“No dirty socks on the floor?” asked Polly.
“In the hamper.”
“No dust on the shelves?” asked Freda.
“I dusted today-”
“Alright, ladies!” Mable interrupted. “You heard her! Her books are on the shelf waiting to be read another day, her dirty socks are in the hamper making the other clothes suffer, and the dust is on the feather duster where it belongs!”
“We’re just looking out for her,” said Freda.
“Yeah, she’s like a daughter to us,” said Polly.
Skye grew accustomed to these two friends of hers being nosy, asking a lot of questions, and their gossip, and when those two gossiped, they made tabloid magazines look as if their information was a hundred percent truth. Even though this is how they were, they still treated her like a daughter.
“Gin!” Skye said, with a bright smile, setting her cards down.
“Skye!” Polly called out. “You’re not using your powers, are you???”
This question offended her. She thought they should have known by now how the powers worked. This just proved that they butted into people’s lives more than they listened to them.
“Polly, I have to be touching you to see into your future or past,” she said. “Besides, I’m not a mind reader. Well, I’m turning in, Aunt Mable,” she said before placing a small kiss on her cheek.
She walked toward the steps when Polly yelled out, “Skye, I’m sorry I accused you of cheating.”
“No, you mean to say ‘I’m sorry I don’t listen to you when you tell me how your gifts work’,” she laughed. “And besides, Polly, even I would have touched you during the game, chances are I would have seen something else instead of what your cards said.”
“I know,” said Polly, looking down at the discard pile, feeling guilty.
“It’s OK, Polly!” she laughed. “I know you mean well. Goodnight, everyone!” she said, walking up the steps.
When she walked into her bedroom, she kicked her slippers off and slid under the covers. The cool sensation of the covers hit the bottoms of her feet and the cool sensation of the pillow hit the back of her head. She stared out her window, smiling at the almost full moon before she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, when she arrived at school, she noticed her friend, Andrea, acting peculiarly. Their lockers stood next to each other. Kayla walked up to the lockers, also noticing her being peculiar.
“Hey, Andrea,” she said, opening her locker.
“Hi, Skye,” Andrea smiled, handing her a daisy. “It’s a lovely day. Wouldn’t you say so?”
“Uh, sure,” she nodded her head.
“Mother and father are proud of me. I got an A on my history test.”
“Mother and father?” she asked, looking confused. “Are you feeling OK?”
“I feel fantastically and ecstatically wonderful!”
“OK, now that we’ve established your overuse of adverbs to describe your good, but someone questionable disturbing mood, what did you get for number seven on the science homework?”
“Hmm,” said Andrea, pulling out her notebook and opening it. “Oxygen!”
“Wait, are you sure?” she asked, flipping through her textbook and re-reading the question. “Earth’s atmosphere is made up of mostly (blank)?” she read. “I know for sure it’s not oxygen. It’s oh, wait,” she laughed. “That’s right! Nitrogen.”
“Soon that’ll be wrong,” Andrea grinned and slammed her locker shut, walking away.
“You knew the answer,” said Kayla. “You never get stumped on homework. Why’d you still ask?”
“Because she’s been acting weird and I don't know,” Skye said, shrugging her shoulders. “It’s like she’s from-”
“Another planet?” Kayla said. “Maybe aliens invaded her body,” she laughed.
“Yeah,” Skye laughed. “If I were an alien and I invaded her body, I’d make sure to bathe myself thoroughly after I left that body,” she laughed.
The two of them had a good laugh. The day grew weirder though. The fifth-period gym coach was strict. He would make students run laps until the cows came home, but today, the same thing as Andrea. Peculiar. Everyone stood in a line waiting for him to explain what physical activity they’d be doing that day.
“Hello, my perfect students,” said Coach Doyle. “Instead of breaking a sweat today, we’re going to hold hands and say groovy positive words to each other. You’ll be in partners of two. Jay, you're with Luke. Bobby, you're with Alec. Skye, you're with Siera.
After he finished calling off the names, in twos, they each faced one another and joined hands. She didn’t like this idea already, mostly because if she held someone’s hand, she’d be seeing into their future and past.
“I don’t get what this has to do with physical fitness,” said Siera.
“Maybe it’s to exercise our minds,” Skye laughed.
“People have been acting weird all day around here, Skye,” she pointed out, looking into her eyes.
“Yeah, tell me about it!”
When they joined hands, Skye had a vision of Siera standing in a bedroom with a look of fear on her face. A pounding sound came from the door. The door was locked but began coming apart from the hinges.
“Go away!” Siera yelled. “Go away!”
With every pound, the door came off the hinges slightly more. The pounding grew louder, and the door was now almost off the hinges. The look of terror on Siera’s face stayed frozen there as one of the hinges flew off and glided across the floor. She backed up to the window, attempting to open it, but the window was locked.
The second hinge flew off the door and bounced across the floor twice when the door slammed to the floor. A man wearing a black mask stood there. The mask covered his entire face. His eyes were a dark brown and he was bald. No one hair lay on his head.
A kitchen knife was in his right hand. His heavy breathing sounded like a dog growling.
“Please, no!” Siera screamed as the man charged at her with the knife.
“Whoa!” Skye let go of her hands, causing the vision to leave her site.
“What’s wrong?”
“Siera, I, I, I have to go!” she panicked and ran out of the gym.
Running into the hallway, she ran out of breath and had to stop. She had never had a vision of a person that was going to be murdered in the future. Something didn’t just feel wrong, but out of place.
Later that evening, she walked into the dining room where Mable played cards with Freda and Polly. Mable could see the worried look on her face.
“What’s wrong, Skye?” she asked.
“It’s, never mind,” said Skye.
“Yeah, you don’t look well,” said Polly.
“Polly, you never look well,” said Freda.
“Yeah, well, hang around with you long enough, you’re like that one apple that spoils the whole bunch.”
“And you’re like the nasty-tasting worm that ruins the whole apple.”
“Why don’t you-!”
“Ladies!” Mable yelled. “My niece has a problem and doesn’t want to hear about how your old bodies are falling apart! Skye, you can talk to me. What’s wrong? Do you miss your parents?”
Normally, the answer would have been yes, but her parents were far from her mind this evening.
“I-” she paused. She wasn’t sure how to put it or if she should say anything at all.
“Please tell me what’s wrong?”
With her aunt’s persistence making her feel pressured, she caved.
“We had to do an exercise today that consisted of holding hands with a partner. To make a long story short, I saw a man wearing a black mask come into my partner’s bedroom. He attacked her with a sharp knife.”
“Holding hands?” said Freda. “What are they teaching you at that school?”
“Apparently, the proper way to hold someone’s hand,” Polly laughed.
“Ladies!” Mable yelled. “Skye, I know this gift of yours is sometimes scary and can even make you question your integrity. If you saw her being attacked or murdered, or whatever, you need to at least tell her to be careful. Maybe tell her to lock her doors or keep a weapon on her to protect herself. You’d be doing the right thing.”
“Yeah, but Aunt Mable, people were acting weird today,” said Skye. “Something felt, um, off.”
Mable set her cards face-down on the table and signaled her to follow her upstairs and into her bedroom. She walked to her closet and took out a shoe box, opening the box to pictures of her parents. She took out one particular picture of her mother holding her as an infant.
“I took this picture when you were just a week old,” Mable smiled, handing her the picture.
In the picture, her mother was looking down into her eyes and smiling. She held a yellow rubber ducky with both her tiny hands.
“How come you never showed me these before?”
“Honey, I never saw you cry at their funeral,” said Mable. “Afterward, you still didn’t cry. When you came to live with me, still, no tears.”
“I, I don’t understand,” she stuttered.
“I thought if I showed you these, it would make you sad, and I didn’t want to cause you any pain. You’re an intelligent young lady and I figured maybe you were keeping your sadness locked away to forget about it, but honey, I can’t say I agree with that, if that’s why you did it. It’s not healthy.”
A sorrowful feeling entered her stomach. She felt a desire coming on to shed tears. She thought that maybe Aunt Mable was right. Staying strong, she handed her the photo back and said, “Maybe you’re right, but I have more important things to think about right now.”
She walked toward the door and felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around, she noticed Mable standing there with the Photo out for her to take.
“Take the photo,” said Mable. “Your mother loved you. Both of your parents did.”
With hesitation, she took the photo, even though she knew it would be a reminder of the painful memories of the loss of her parents.
The next day, Skye was directed to go to her homeroom instead of her regularly scheduled morning class. She knew right then that something was wrong. The students were dressed like they were attending a private school. The males were wearing black blazers, white dress shirts, red ties, black dress shorts, black knee-high socks, and shiny black dress shoes. The females were wearing a black blazer, white dress shirt, red tie, black shirt, black knee-high tights, and shiny black dress shoes.
“Skye, report to the office to get your uniform,” said Mr. Jenkins, her homeroom teacher. “Your attire is improper.”
“Uh, I wasn’t aware I had to dress like an exotic dancer to attend high school,” she said, with a look of confusion.
“It’s a new policy. Your uniform is waiting in the office. If you don’t go, I’ll be forced to take you there myself and report you for insubordination.”
“OK, fine,” she said turning around and walking out the door.
Not wanting to stand there and argue over the confusing matter, she headed toward the office. When she arrived, Principal Crinkle was standing next to a clothes rack that contained dozens of uniforms.
“Here you go,” he said, handing her a uniform. “You need to change now. You can use my office, No one’s in there.”
“I don’t understand this,” she said. “Why do-”
“If you DON’T change, I’ll be forced to send you home, young lady!” he yelled. “Now, change!”
“Alright, jeez!” she said and walked into the office.
The uniform she was given looked like the one the other females were wearing. A black blazer, white shirt, red tie, black skirt, Black knee-high tights, and shiny black dress shoes. When she finished changing, she felt weird.
When she arrived back in the classroom, she felt more out of place dressed as everyone else than she would not dressed like them.
“We have a new teacher that will be joining our staff,” said Mr. Jenkins, “Please welcome, Father Frank.”
The door opened and Father Frank walked into the classroom. Nervous sweat formed and dripped down Skye’s armpits, in her palms, and down her legs. The feeling she had wasn’t only a bad one, but one that something was about to happen.
“I am Father Frank,” he said, with a corny smile.
“Hello, Father Frank,” a majority of the students said. “The following people haven’t done their assessments yet,” he said, looking at a clipboard. “Riser, Smith, Owens, Baxter, and Star. Please report to the auditorium.”
With hesitation, she followed the other four students to the auditorium. They were told to wait in the hallway and they would be called in one by one. She was called in first, wanting nothing more than this horrible day to end.
When she walked inside, three others were standing at a table, a doctor wearing a white coat, a nurse wearing a nurses uniform and a nurses hat, and a security guard. Next to that table was an examination table with a white sheet covering it. A television monitor sat in front of the table and a machine with graph paper stood beside it.
“I am Doctor Lambert,” said the doctor. Lay down on the examination table.”
“I’d rather stand,” said Skye, looking at the table as if it were diseased.
“If you don’t lie down, I’ll force you,” said the security guard, holding up a syringe containing a green substance.
“Oy vey!” she said, staring at the table while she walked over. The nurse strapped electrodes onto her fingers and forehead. Everything was happening so fast. First, people were acting weird. Then a uniform policy came into effect, and now this. The beginning of a nervous breakdown began to arise. “What is all of this???”
“Good girls don’t ask questions,” said the nurse, staring into her eyes like a mother scolding a child.
“Soon, you will become the perfect young lady,” said Doctor Lambert. “You will do as you are told, respect your elders, and your manners will be proper. Isn’t that what you want?”
“Huh?” she said, looking at him as if he just explained Latin for the first time. “Wait, this is some mind control device!” she panicked, getting up from the table.
“Stay,” said the security guard, strapping her to the table.
“You will do your country proud,” said Doctor Lambert. “We must keep our military thriving. Our soldiers are strong, but we’ve discovered over the years, growing bodies are stronger bodies, and stronger bodies take less time to heal when they catch a bullet.”
“Should you be explaining this to her?” asked the nurse.
“Relax, she won’t remember this conversation after the procedure,” he said.
She couldn’t believe her ears. She thought, “This guy is dangerous, but a moron. Does he even hear himself talking?”
“Sir, you couldn’t be more wrong,” she said, looking at him as if he were stupid. “Growing bodies need plenty of nutrition, plenty of sleep, and time to heal if injured. You throw a growing body into the battlefield and that body is going to break. All you’re going to do is traumatize that body and cause PTSD brought on by psychosomatic behaviors and maybe even violent episodes.”
“Who are you to tell me, a doctor with a MD, Ph.D., and a degree in specialized medicines, what the human body can endure, huh?” he said, giving her an angry look.
She thought to herself that she might have been younger than him and might not have a college degree, but obviously knew more than he did.
“Apparently I’m someone who is smarter than you,” she said. “So, to answer your question, ‘Who are you to tell me, a doctor with an MD, Ph.D., and blah, blah, blah’, I’m Skye Star, a girl who is smarter than you, a doctor, who obviously knows nothing.”
“Oh, yeah?” he grinned. “OK, let’s see if we can prove that!” he said, cranking the black knob to ten.
“I just did-” she paused, with her mind going blank and her eyes staring at the television monitor in front of her.
The needles danced back and forth on the graph paper and lines danced across a black screen on the television monitor in front of her. White lines, blue lines, orange lines, and purple lines danced in a sequence, followed by a ticking sound similar to the ticking of an alarm clock. Her eyes bulged out and her body quivered as she stared at the screen in a trance.
“Listen carefully,” said a deep voice. “Your mind is a pinwheel. A pinwheel blowing in the wind. You stand tall. Taller than an antenna. Gravity does not exist. You will fly when asked. You will not fear the ground. What smells awful will smell pleasant and what smells pleasant will have no scent at all. What tastes flavorful will have no flavor at all and what has no flavor will activate your taste buds. At the count of three, you will abide by all rules and follow all instructions read by your eyes and spoken into your ears. One, two, three.”
Doctor Lambert, the nurse, and the security guard had their eyes on her when she snapped out of the trance, becoming attentive.
“Touch your nose with your index finger,” said Doctor Lambert. She did as he requested and touched her nose. “Bend down and touch your toes.” Reaching down, she grabbed the tips of her shoes with her fingers. “Bark like a dog.”
“Ruff, ruff!” she barked.
“Good, now go back to your classroom.”
Walking toward the door, her eyes were glued to the handle. She opened the door and walked halfway down the hallway when she saw a familiar face that snapped her out of the trance.
“Skye, these men are using you as test subjects. Once the experiment is over, they’re going to eliminate all of you and make it look like an accident.”
“Mom?” she asked, with a look of shock before tears formed in her eyes. “How is this-?”
“Honey, you’re seeing me because your mind conjured me up as a defense mechanism. You think of me whenever you are scared. My little girl is growing up to be a strong young lady. These men want to take your strength away from you. Your mind is different from others. Your mind is unbreakable.”
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, with tears rolling down her cheeks.
“It’s OK, honey,” her mother smiled. “Please listen. In the nineteen fifties, the CIA formed the MK project. The project consisted of mind control. A year before I died, the project was restored and used on everyday citizens without their knowledge. That’s what is happening now.”
“Is there a way to stop it?” she asked, quivering from her fear as tears continued rolling down her cheeks.
“Start with the mind,” she answered. “Use your gifts. They are the key. I know you can do it. I’m proud of you, honey. Your father and I both,” she smiled before vanishing into a cloud of smoke.
She remembered being strapped to the table and what the doctor said to her, now realizing that the mind control device had no effect on her. Looking around, she put her right hand up to her forehead and began thinking and repeating, “Start with the mind?”
“That Andrea is something else,” said Kayla, approaching her. “I brought up the time we ate all that ice cream at that sleepover, and she says, ‘I’m a good little girl. I would never devour large amounts of dairy. Then five minutes into another conversation, she remembers. How could she not remember that? We spent half the night running in and out of the bathroom. That girl needs a string wrapped around her brain instead of her finger!”
“Well, Kayla,” she laughed. “I wouldn’t want to remember that-” she paused with her eyes growing big and a bright smile forming on her face. “Memory! Her memory needs to be triggered. Their memories need to be triggered. I can touch everyone and see a memory from their past. Just because they can’t see their memories, that doesn’t mean I can’t!”
“I don’t get it.”
“If I trigger their memories, they’ll remember who they are and hopefully come back to normal.”
“Gotta go!” she said, running down the hallway.
“Skye, are you-?”
Now the only trick was to figure out how to pull it off. She peeped her head through the window of each door to each classroom to get an estimate of how many people she’d be dealing with. Pacing back and forth, she thought long and hard about how to trigger their memories.
She estimated one hundred and fifty. Sweating and struggling to catch her breath from excitement, she walked from one wall to the other working on the next part of the plan. The one problem she had with seeing into other people’s memories was she felt as if she invaded their privacy. She thought though that this counted as an emergency.
After pacing back and forth for five more minutes, the idea came to her when she remembered Polly accusing her of cheating at the card game. She decided to stand in the hallway between classes and touch every person that passed. This would pose as a challenge, but she figured anyone she missed, she could get them next time.
The bell rang and the classroom doors opened. One by one, she touched who she could. Weird faces were made at her as she grabbed her shoulders. Others, she put her arms around them, pretending to give them hugs. For some people, she gave high-fives too.
The plan worked like a charm. Whenever she would finish seeing into their past, she would start by saying something like, “Remember the time?” or “I remember the one time.”
Many of them were giving her confusing faces, wondering how she knew this information. She knew she couldn’t just come out and tell them she had a gift. Some people might believe her, but others wouldn’t, which would just cause more harm than good. Person after person, she tried her best to restore their memories. A majority got their memories back that day.
While in the process of getting the rest of them, she was in the hallway working on Siera when she felt a tap on the shoulder. Turning around, she jumped with a frightened look when she saw Doctor Lambert standing behind her. He looked far from happy. More like angry with a side of disappointment.
“Come with me,” he said, with his bulging out and grabbing her.
He dragged her into the auditorium and slammed the door shut. The nurse stood next to the mind control machine, holding an enormous pair of headphones. There was no sign of the security guard from earlier. The first thought that ran through Skye’s mind was, “Whatever they’re up to, I’m not going to survive.”
Usually, her thoughts consisted of positive ones, but part of having her psychic abilities included developing bad feelings from time to time.
“You’ve caused us a bit of trouble, young lady,” said the nurse.
“Sit down,” said Doctor Lambert, dragging her into the chair and strapping her down.
“I only did what was right,” she said. “You can’t control people! Taking away their free will and their ability to think for themselves is not just ignorant, but morally wrong!”
“And who are you? The moral officer?” he asked, directly staring into her eyes, looking at her as if he wanted to kill her. “By the time we’re done with you, you won’t even remember your own name.”
“Go for it!” she yelled. “It’s all about control. You don’t feel powerful without control. People like you invite yourselves into people’s lives, think everyone owes you something, and when you realize they owe you nothing, you still take, take, take until there’s nothing more to take!”
“You have me all figured out, do ya???” he laughed. “You know nothing! How were you not affected by this machine? Huh?”
“Because I have something you don’t!” she yelled. “Courage and control over my own mind.”
“Not this time!” he said, turning the black knob to the max and activating the machine.
On the machine to the right, needles moved back and forth on along the graph paper and colorful lines danced across the screen. This time the screen was white and the lines dancing across were black.
“Listen carefully,” said an unknown voice. “Your mind is water. Water flowing down a stream. A stream full of answers. Answers, you will be provided. Your fingers will point where they are directed to point. Your feet will walk in the direction your fingers point. Your-”
A vision of her mother interrupted the voice. She could still see the lines dancing across the screen, but the voice was tuned out.
“Protect your mind,” said her mother, looking into her eyes with seriousness.
“How?”
“Control the controller,” she smiled and winked. “Your ability to read events from others past and future aren’t your only gifts,” she said before vanishing.
“Your body will obey our direction,” the unknown voice continued.
She wondered what her mother had meant. This was when she realized if she could think like this, she had control of her mind. Struggling for a moment, she squirmed, breaking free from the straps holding her down.
Jumping off the table, she stared over at the doc. The priceless look of defeat on his face said it all. The nurse didn’t look so happy herself.
“Young lady, I-”
Doc Lambert stopped talking when she gazed into his eyes and began taking control over his mind.
“Listen carefully,” her mind spoke into his. “If you ever set foot within ten miles of this school or me ever again, your brain will explode and your body will take the deep six. Nod if you understand.”
“Sir?” said the nurse, staring at him.
He nodded his head repeatedly with a look of fright on his face. She turned to look at the nurse and gazed into her eyes.
“You will leave with the doctor and never return. If you ever come back here, you will swim with the fishes. Nod if you understand.”
Nodding her head, the nurse had a frightened look on her face as well. They both turned and walked out of the fire exit. Skye ran to the door and watched them get into the car and drive away. She felt ecstatic about this new gift of hers.
Walking back into the hallway, she hummed in happiness. Siera walked by and she remembered the vision she had of the man attacking her. It was still unclear to her if this man had anything to do with the doctor. To be sure, she caught up with her and grabbed her arm.
The vision she had of her was one where she lived to be ninety and died surrounded by cats. She figured not the best way to die, but better than being attacked by a manic.
“Why are you grabbing my arm?” Siera asked.
“Oh, uh, just checking something,” she laughed.
“Why are we wearing these ridiculous uniforms?”
Siera looked herself up and down.
“I have a feeling everything will return to the way it was,” she smiled, patting her head like a dog. “Wanna get some ice cream after school?”
“Uh, sure, I guess,” said Siera, with a look of confusion. “We’ve never hung out before.”
“First time for everything,” she laughed.
No one else remembered any of the events from those past couple of days. None of them remembered putting the uniforms on. That was the last day they wore them. Most

Sitting on her bed that night, she stared at the picture of her mother holding her in her arms and the rubber ducky she held in her tiny infant hands. She walked over to the shelf and glanced at that same rubber ducky she kept all these years. Feeling nostalgic and smiling, she picked it up and planted a kiss on the beak.