My stomach was churning. It felt like someone was tying my intestines in dozens of knots. The pain was so intense that I doubled over, one arm hugging my knees and the other pinching the bridge of my nose.
“A vision?” Chay’s voice was so far away.
I nodded and moaned at the pain that ricocheted through my head at the slight movement.
“She’s in pain,” Xavier said.
“She’s always in pain during a vision. Sometimes, it’s worse than others.” Muriel’s voice.
“Can you make it down the stairs? Shit. Mil? Can you make it downstairs?” Chay’s voice sounded even farther away, as though it were drifting away on the breeze.
“No,” I breathed.
The images were starting to scroll through my mind. I could see the crowd cheering, which was odd. Usually, the visions were like watching a television show. I saw the actions play out in front of my eyes. This time, I saw the vision through my own eyes.
Fans. Cheering. The noise is deafening.
Doubled over, I put my elbows on my knees and covered my ears with my hands, squeezing my head.
Screaming. Vibrating. It feels like we’re moving.
I opened my eyes and looked around. Everything was normal. The people were cheering, and the players were running back and forth across the court. There was no screaming and no vibrations other than the normal stomping that made the rickety, wooden bleachers shimmy back and forth.
Another stabbing pain shot through my temple. It was like someone was hammering dozens of nails into my skull. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out. Groaning, I rubbed the sides of my head and squeezed my eyes closed.
“Milayna, what can I do?” I heard Xavier ask. His voice was slow and garbled.
“Nothing, you idiot. She has to let the vision play out. Until then, she’s in pain. Leave her alone so it can pass,” Chay snapped.
“Stop,” I choked out.
“Stop what?” Chay’s face was in front of mine, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Whoever is touching me, please stop. It hurts.”
I felt the hands fall away and heard a muttered curse. The sounds were becoming muffled. The cheers of the crowd sounded slow and deep. I opened my eyes, and the sights of the game were replaced by new images.
People screaming. The front seats of the bleachers moving. The Evils walking calmly down the steps.
Pain screamed through my body. Adrenaline shot through my veins.
The bleacher seats falling. One by one, like dominoes, they fell to the ground. People trapped. Screaming for help. Screaming in pain.
My head shot up, and I quickly scanned the faces around me. The Evils were gone.
“Where’d they go?” I whispered
“Who?” I had to struggle to hear Chay. His voice still so far away and muffled.
“Jake and Lily and the rest, where’d they go?”
Chay scanned the crowd. “I don’t know.”
My stomach twisted painfully, and I let out a small scream of pain. I tried to relax my body, to push through the pain and let the vision wash over me. I focused on each muscle, tightening it and then forcing it to relax. I repeated the process down my body, visualizing the pain squeezing out of my body each time I tightened my muscles. When I relaxed, I’d have a pain-free muscle. Yeah, well, that was what was supposed to happen. But something was about to happen, something big, and a lot of people were going to get hurt. No amount of stress-relieving exercise was going to get rid of that vision.
The bleachers vibrating and shaking. Falling.
I looked down at my feet and saw the image of the bleacher in front of me falling. The edge caught the front of Xavier’s foot and pulled it down at a painfully awkward angle. I heard bones crack and saw them protrude through his skin. The bleacher continued to fall to the gym floor below, the people screaming as they fell. Their bodies hit the floor with sickening thuds. Then I felt it. I was falling. Down… down… down…
I shot off my seat. “We have to get down. Now!”
I ran down the steps as fast as I could manage, dodging people, weaving in and out. I heard Chay and the others behind me, calling my name, but I didn’t stop. I ran until I reached the gym floor.
“What is going on?” Chay asked when he caught up with me. He grabbed my hand and swung me around to look at him. “What did you see?”
“The bleachers are going to fall. We have to get the people out of here.”
“I’ll go make an announcement,” Xavier said.
“And say what? Milayna had a psychic vision that the bleachers are going to go tumbling down? You’ll either cause mass hysteria or people will ignore you like you’re an idiot,” Chay snapped. “We need to think of something that would get everyone out without drawing attention to Milayna.”
“Hurry,” I whispered. I bent at the waist and braced my hands on my knees. The pain was getting worse. The vision was coming to its peak. When that happened… it’d be too late. “Hurry. It’s almost time. The bleachers are… in my vision… just hurry.”
“Fire alarm!” Drew said, starting to run down the hall.
“Good, go!” Chay yelled after him. He ran and told his uncle to get out of the building while Muriel and Xavier guided me outside.
“Has the vision changed?” Muriel asked.