Echoes by Marissa Lete (best books for students to read txt) 📕

“Not completely, I just thought—” he stops short, closing his eyes tight. “I’m sorry,” he finally finishes. I stare at him as he runs a hand through his dark hair awkwardly, then something dawns on me.

“Wait, were you going to erase my memories too?”

Maverick grimaces.

“Oh my gosh. You were! So what, you were just going to make me forget everything that happened this weekend? Getting kidnapped, meeting you, all of it?”

“I… that was the plan until I found out about your ability.” He waits for my response, but I simply glare at him. Then, finally, he adds, “I just wanted to keep you out of this.”

“I’m sure you did,” I spit, then shove past him. I’m not sure where I’m going, but the last place I want to be right now is standing here with Maverick. He was going to erase my memory. Make me forget meeting him, all of it. If he had, I’d have been stuck in the same endless cycle as before, hearing echoes of him and questioning my sanity because I couldn’t remember any of it.

Instead, I’m here, and I understand what has happened. Maverick erased my memory, and he thought he was protecting me by doing it. But now I’m not sure if I can even trust him.

I’m not sure which situation feels better.

“Laura, please,” I hear Maverick call from behind me. He’s following me down the hallway, which I quickly realize comes to a dead-end, and suddenly I feel trapped.

I stop in my tracks and spin around, facing him. “How can I trust you?” I ask, trying to make my shaky voice sound brave. “How can I trust anything that you say or do, when you can just wipe the memory from my mind if it doesn’t go well for you? How do I know you haven’t tried this conversation before and just hit the reset button when things went wrong? How can I trust that you won’t do something like that to me again?”

I watch his chest moving up and down a few times. I can tell he doesn’t know how to respond, but I wait anyway. We stare at each other, and I can almost feel the sun rising a few inches in the sky as we do.

Then, finally, I can taste one last question on my lips, less bitter than the previous ones. “How do you even do it?”

Maverick’s eyes burn into mine, questioning.

“Take away people’s memories,” I add.

He looks down, and I think I see his hands shaking the tiniest bit, but I can’t be sure. He inhales and exhales slowly. When he speaks, darkness clouds his eyes. “I have to touch them,” he tells me, and his hands curl into fists. “If I make contact with them, and I focus hard enough, I can reach through their skin, all the way into their mind. It’s like snipping the little strings that hold their memories together.” His face contorts in disgust, and he lowers his head solemnly. “It only takes a moment.”

Immediately, I become aware of the distance between us—maybe ten feet. I take another step back for good measure. “So then there’s just empty holes in the person’s memories?” I ask. I hadn’t noticed any weird gaps in my memory—the only thing that taught me about Maverick’s existence was the echoes, which any normal person wouldn’t have been able to hear.

“Technically, yes. But the mind is powerful. It’s good at filling in the gaps when it needs to. Most people don’t even notice at all. Sometimes—like with your parents yesterday—all I have to do is take away one small detail, and they come up with the rest themselves. I simply took away their worry when they couldn’t find you yesterday morning, so they assumed you were at Grace’s.”

I listen to his words, my own swirling through my mind. This ability that Maverick has is completely different than mine. It affects other people, while mine only affects me. It’s useful, while mine is nothing but a burden. It makes sense that someone like Alice would want to abuse his power and use it for her own gain. It makes him powerful. Dangerous.

My thoughts are interrupted when I see movement: Maverick, taking a small step towards me. I throw my hands up in front of me. “Stop!” I blurt, my eyes wide.

He does, his hands going up defensively. “I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know if I can trust you,” I tell him, “but if I’m going to try, I need to know that you won’t use your ability on me. Ever. Again.”

“I promise—”

“And the only way to be sure is to make sure you don’t touch me. So I don’t want you getting too close.”

A sadness glows in his eyes, but he nods, backing away and lowering his hands. “I won’t,” he says.

“Good.” I sigh, calm acceptance flowing through me. I know the truth now. I know I’m not crazy. That’s what matters, right? That’s all I’ve wanted for weeks now. But now that I have it, I’m not sure I can handle it anymore. “I would like to go home now,” I tell Maverick.

He nods. Then, without saying anything, he turns around and gestures for me to follow. So I do.

In the entranceway, he disappears into a side room. Then he emerges, Jacob trailing behind. Maverick stops several feet away from me, but Jacob closes the distance, holding out a couple of items to me. The first: my car keys. The second: my phone. I realize I must have left them in the alley when I tried to run. My car must be pretty beat up, too, after scraping against the Suburban. I recall a faint memory of the side mirror getting knocked off. I wonder how I’m going to explain that one to my parents.

“Your car’s out front,” Maverick tells me.