Foreshadowing

Death. Death reached out to a number of passengers on the plane from Somalia to Seychelles. After having to make a slight adjustment to their flight path due to some weather, alarm bells screamed at them and the fuselage began to tear apart. Starla saw several passengers being pulled into the sky and zipping out of view.  Yenifer was about to lose her grip of the nearby cargo net when Máire grabbed her hand. “I’ll protect you.” A bright orange-yellow light came out of her, overtook Yenifer, and pulled her in. Máire had merged Yenifer’s body with her own. Starla now watched from Máire’s perspective as she struggled throughout the remaining part of the plane, merging those who happened to be strapped into their seats when the crisis struck, and were also lucky enough to be against a wall that had not yet been torn off. Though Máire seemed to feel stronger each time she merged with someone, she eventually started to feel pain once she had saved only a dozen or so others. She had just saved everyone in the fuselage, and was about to head for the cockpit when Starla’s mind was again pulled away, just like it had when she first met Don.

She found herself on the ground, in the body of a stranger. He had his arms raised upwards where the plane was headed right for him, and was expending a great deal of energy in an effort to stop it. His face felt hot and his whole body was shaking. As he concentrated, the plane slowed its descent, but it wasn’t enough. He managed to redirect the plane far enough away to keep himself from being crushed under it, but this only got him so far. It still crashed down with enough power to tremble the ground and knock him to his back. He was not there for very long, for an unseen force lifted him into the air and sent him flying towards the wreckage. He concentrated once more, and was able to slow his movement, but he still collided with a wing and remained stuck there. He was distraught, but also relieved.

Um...what just happened? Starla asked, awkwardly.

“Mon dieu!” The man turned his head as much as he could and called out, “Un survivant! I can’t move to help! Are you okay? Is anyone else in there with you?”

I’m not in the plane, Starla explained. I’m in your head. I can possess you.

He paused for a time. “I do not believe that I am in a position to doubt such a possibilité.”

What happened here?

“This plane was not supposed to be here. I stay far from the flight paths. I’m very careful! Je ne sais pas why it was so close.”

We had to redirect for weather.

“So you were on l’avion?”

No, but my mind was at the time. Did you do this?

“I can’t help it. I can’t stop it. I either attract or repel magnetic objects, but I don’t always get to choose which one, and I never get to choose to not do it at all. Jamais!”

Oh my God. There were more than two dozen people on that plane!

“Désolé, I’m so sorry!” the man cried. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. We’re in the jungle. There is not supposed to be any metal!”

I had friends on that plane! They’re all dead! You killed them!

“I can’t believe this!”

“Hello?” the voice of Máire came from below, but they could not lift the man’s head high enough to see.

Starla took control of the man’s body. “Máire? Is that you?”

“Is that, uh...oh, wait. Starla?”

“Yes! How did you survive?”

“When I merge with other people, I become stronger, remember?”

“Yeah, but...I mean...it was a plane crash.”

“Well, I’ve felt better before, but I jumped out before it crashed, and the people I managed to save are all fine. We lost four refugees, two of my men, the pilot, and co-pilot. That is, unless the cockpit survived.” She directed her words elsewhere, “Meriden and Duvall, go check.” She returned to Starla. “What are you...I mean, what is this man doing lying down on the wing?”

“He’s magnetic. He pulled the plane out of the sky.

Pause.

“Máire?”

“Yeah, sorry, just--he did what?”

“Je ne le peux pas contrôler!” the man said for himself.

“Voilà pourquoi vous êtes coincé là.”

“Oui!” Then he switched to Standard C so that others could understand him, “the only time I don’t either attract or repel metal is when I’m asleep.”

Starla felt a sharp but rather mild sting in the man’s leg. “Did you just shoot me?” he asked in a hazy voice.

“Oui,” was the last thing she heard Máire say before losing the psychic connection.

Starla’s mind was sent back to Canada where her body had been sleeping next to Alec. Startled by the ordeal, she jumped out of bed and let out a tight scream.

Alec jumped as well, “what? What is it?” He reached over and turned on the light. “Are you okay?”

She rambled, and it felt like she was screaming, but she was subconsciously trying to remain rather quiet. “There was a plane crash! People died, Alec! And I was in the mind of the killer. Well, he wasn’t really the killer, but he killed people. Accidentally. You see, he can control magnets. Well, he can’t. That’s the problem. Apparently metal just sticks to his body...or it flies away from him. I don’t really understand how it works, but he pulled an entire plane from the sky, and it nearly crashed into him. And people died!”

“Starla.”

“What?” she hissed back at him.

“You’re standing.”

“What are you talking about? Of--” She stopped herself. He was right. She was standing on her own two legs, in her own body. She hadn’t been able to do that for months. “I’m standing. Holy s**t!”

He smiled with shock. “You’re standing, Starla.”

She opened her mouth, wanting to cry out and alert the world of the development. She could stand. She could probably walk. She could probably even run! But she couldn’t. That was impossible, to everyone else, at least.

Alec was on the same wavelength. “You’re right. We can’t tell anyone. And we have to get the hell out of here. Now.”

Fortunately, the guest room was on the first floor of the house, and fairly separate from the rest of the bedrooms, otherwise someone would have heard her scream, and maybe even her rant. They quickly grabbed their belongings and haphazardly stuffed them into their bags. She took them out to the car while Alec was stuffing her now former wheelchair in the boot.

“Alec, is this temporary?”

“Starla, you know that I would never lie to you.”

She shook her head, indicating that she had no idea what he meant by that.

“No,” he clarified. “As long as you stay in your own body from here on out.”

“Promise.”

“Bullshit.”