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

Garrett. They were some of the people Alice had me erase the memories of. They don’t remember Dave at all. I didn’t know it at the time, but I guess she was using me to get Dave to work for her.”

“Does he remember them?” I ask.

Maverick shakes his head. “I had to make him forget them, too.”

I look at the photo for a long moment, a sadness creeping into my throat. A beautiful family, torn apart. And they don’t even know it.

I fold the photo up and slide it into my back pocket, then go back to the filing cabinet. In the third drawer, I finally find what I’m looking for: patient records. These are in alphabetical order, too, and I pull one out at random. The name on the tab of the folder says “Veronica Starnes.”

The top page has basic information: she’s nineteen, from Garysburg—a City about twenty minutes away from Shorewick—and has been a patient for four years. There’s even a photo of the slender, dark-haired girl. She’s beautiful.

I flip the page, taking in the words typed across the second paper in the file:

Veronica Starnes

Anomaly ID#: 52

Status: Contained

Danger: 3

Classification: Involuntary, sporadic

Description: Displays an ability to manipulate emotions. Those in the subject’s vicinity are compelled to assume whatever emotional state the subject is in at the time. If the subject is in an emotionally heightened state, the decisions of bystanders can be severely impacted. Ability is unpredictable and uncontrollable.

I flick my eyes across the page, trying to absorb as much information as I can. This is one of the anomalies Maverick had mentioned. But what do all the terms mean? Status? Classification? It seems like Alice has come up with a way of labeling us.

I close the file, then reach into the bin, pulling out another.

This one is of a sixteen-year-old boy named Gabe, from Shorewick.

Gabe Jackson

Anomaly ID#: 41

Status: Contained

Danger: 2

Classification: Involuntary, constant

Description: Subject hears the constant thoughts of everyone around him. This ability causes immense stress to the subject himself because he cannot stop it, though it has no impact on those around him. May be able to use the ability to gather secret information and hurt others with it.

With hungry eyes, I open another.

Gregory Black

Anomaly ID#: 27

Status: Controlled

Danger: 1

Classification: Voluntary

Description: Subject can move small objects without touching them. Can’t create high enough velocity or large enough distance to harm another person.

I run my fingers across the edges of the folders. There must be over a hundred of them. One of them catches my eye.

“Maverick, you have to see this.” He appears next to me as I open the folder with his name on it. “There are patient files on the anomalies she’s dealt with. This one’s yours.” We both stare at the page intently.

Maverick Schall

Anomaly ID#: 36

Status: Unresolved

Danger: 5

Classification: Voluntary

Description: Subject can permanently erase memories through skin contact with the victim. Victims show no sign of amnesia, but some experience a period of confusion or extreme fatigue after the subject has erased their memories. We cannot detect when this power has been used on someone.

When I finish reading, Maverick is reaching into the cabinet. “There’s one on you, too,” he says, surprised.

I snatch it out of his hand. “What? How? I thought she didn’t know about my ability?”

“I didn’t think so, either.”

Laura Jones

Anomaly ID#: 124

Status: Unresolved

Danger: 1

Classification: Involuntary, constant

Description: Subject hears sounds from the past.

“Mine is so short,” I say.

“She probably doesn’t know much. I wonder how she even found out?” Maverick replies.

“I don’t know.” I scan the folders again, and just as I’m about to look away, I spot one that grabs my interest. “Look,” I say, snatching it and sliding it out.

At the top, the name “Alice Wight” is typed in bold script. The folder is darker and worn at the edges more than the rest. I open it.

Alice Wight

Anomaly ID#: 1

 

I only have time to read the first two lines before the sound of the lock sliding out of place grabs our attention.

We both watch in horror as the door swings open.

Maverick has me under the desk before the light from the hallway touches us. He crouches low next to me, our bodies pressed together from shoulder to hip.

The door swings open and from under the desk, I can see a pair of feet in the doorway. The light flips on and a deep, gruff voice says, “Show yourself.”

Maverick’s eyes meet mine. “Stay down,” he mouths to me, and then he stands up from behind the desk.

“Put your hands where I can see them,” the voice says.

Next to me, Maverick’s palms go up in front of him. He steps forward, past the desk, and then I can only see his feet, too. Silently, I start to slide the pepper spray out of my pocket.

“Now isn’t it convenient that I find you here? Alice will be pleased.”

Maverick doesn’t respond, but a beat later he moves, rushing at the guy.

Then there’s a click: the sound of a gun being loaded. “Stop,” the voice says, but Maverick is already frozen. “You come out too.”

I wait.

“Right. Now.”

Shakily, I stand up, sliding the pepper spray back into my pocket and facing the guy. He’s big. Burly. He’s wearing long, dark clothes and a pair of black leather gloves. And he has a gun pointed directly at me.

“Two birds, right in the palm of my hand. What a nice surprise,” his lips curl into a snarl.

I glance to Maverick, who’s staring at the guy, sizing him up.

“I’m going to tell you how this is going to go. You”—he flicks the gun towards Maverick—“are going to walk in