Read Online Flashback by Simon Rose - Free Book Online

was,” Deanna explained. “I’d sometimes had odd, often impossible, experiences for most of my life up to that point, but I hadn’t really thought that deeply about them. I was too busy being a child. Then one day, when I was waiting for a bus on my way home from school, an old woman dressed in old-fashioned clothes sat down on the opposite end of the bench and smiled at me. She seemed strangely familiar, although I was certain we’d never met before. Then
    she spoke to me and knew my name. She asked me not to be afraid and told me that I had a special gift. She assured me that she and many others were watching over me and would always be there to guide me. When I asked her who she was, she smiled again. I’ll never forget that wonderful smile.”
    “So who was she?” asked Max, intrigued.
    “She told me that she was my great-grand-mother,” Deanna explained, “and she reached out and touched my hand. Just then, I heard someone shout my name and turned my head to see my friend Nicole approaching the bus stop. When I looked away again, the old woman had vanished. I asked Nicole if she’d seen where the woman had gone, but Nicole simply looked confused. She told me that she hadn’t seen anyone and that I’d been sitting alone, looking as if I was talking to myself. Nicole was quite concerned about me, but I told her not to worry and made an excuse about being very tired or something. However, I cried myself to sleep that night. I wasn’t scared. In fact, I was remarkably at ease with what I’d learned. It finally made sense of all the strange experiences that been with me since my early childhood. Although I knew that I wasn’t the only one possessing such a wonderful gift, I was always careful to hide it from my parents, who I was certain would never understand. When I was older, however, I discovered that some unscrupulous people had less than noble intentions for someone with my kind of talent.”
    “What sort of people?” said Max, although he suspected that he already knew the answer.
    “Twenty years ago,” Deanna continued, “I was a young university student. I was something of a wild child back then. I cut my hair really short and dyed it green, just before my nineteenth birthday. At college, I used to do the occasional psychic reading for my friends. My readings were just for fun, but they came to the attention of people involved in secret experiments on individuals displaying paranormal abilities. One evening on my way home, I was kidnapped. Tests were performed on me, to determine the level of my psychic capability. The scientists wanted to use people like me for military purposes. Doctor Aleksandar Kovac came here from Yugoslavia in the early nineties. Officially, he worked at the university, but was really working on projects for the military.”
    She paused for a moment.
    “Are you okay, Max? You look as white as a sheet.”
    “In my visions of a laboratory,” Max told her, composing himself, “I saw a girl with green hair. That was you, wasn’t it? But how could I have such a memory?”
    “Because it’s not your memory,” explained Deanna. “It’s David Dexter’s. I always thought that he was in that facility and witnessed what was going on, so they killed him.”
    “So what happened to you?” Max asked.
    “After they’d finished,” Deanna continued, “they injected me with something and dumped me in Castlegate Park, not far from where I lived back then. Eventually I recalled many of the details, despite their efforts to make me forget everything, but I was too traumatized to go back to university. I never finished my degree. I worked in a number of odd jobs all over the country and never settled. I later returned here and established myself as a psychic medium, but kept a very low profile. At that time, I’d heard of the David Dexter case, of course. With his father being a prominent politician, it was quite famous. One morning, I unexpectedly sensed the location of