Auracle by Gina Rosati Page A

can vouch for him.
    “Yeah, well, that’s the next topic up for discussion. How do you get her out?”
    I have no idea. I keep trying to push her out, but as you can see, I can’t travel through people. If I can’t get into her, I can’t push her out.
    “Well, how’d she get in there, then?”
    It must be because I wasn’t in there. Maybe she saw me at the falls with Seth and figured she could sneak in while I wasn’t there.
    Rei is quiet, thinking. “So you’re in some other dimension?” he finally asks.
    I think so. It’s the same place I always go.
    “And Taylor has taken possession of your body.”
    I nod solemnly. I don’t think you should tell her you know she isn’t me.
    “No, you’re right, I won’t.”
    I don’t know how she thinks she can pull this off. Do people with concussions really have such drastic memory issues? She didn’t even know my full name.
    “They can. And she knows your name now. I told her.”
    I have a feeling she’ll be pestering you.
    “That’s okay. You know,” he says quietly, “I thought there was something odd about you. Your eyes. They just looked … unfamiliar.”
    I wonder if my mother will notice a difference in my eyes, too, or if Rei is the one person in this world who knows me best.
    Rei presses the spot between his eyebrows hard for a minute, and the red and green layers surrounding him seem to roll into each other and become an indigo blue.
    “Okay, so let’s look at this logically. If she hadn’t come into you, what would she have done?”
    She should have gone into the light, but I didn’t see one. I don’t know if I wasn’t paying attention or if the sun was too bright. Or maybe there just wasn’t a light for her.
    “Okay, so for whatever reason, she didn’t go into the light. So she’s a spirit that’s taken possession of a living body.”
    Now that he puts it that way, it sounds so sinister. I nod.
    “So can you search ‘spirit possession’? See what the internet has to say.”
    I type in the magic words, hit the enter key, and voilà … nine million hits.
    I make a wow face at him, and he smiles for the first time in a while. Not a big smile, but enough to charge me up for a few more minutes.
    “So why don’t I look these over and see what I come up with while you go find Seth.”
    I flip back to the word processing screen. What do you want me to do with him once I find him? Surely he doesn’t want Seth to see me.
    “Just find him; make sure he’s safe. Let me know where he is.”
    Okay, I’ll be right back.
    Seth is a little farther south now. I trace him to a wooded area not more than twenty miles away, and he’s still moving at a steady pace. I would love to know where he’s going. What he’s doing for food and water. What thoughts are swimming around behind that blank expression on his face. As bad as he might think this is, he cannot imagine how bad it could get unless I get back into my body.
    I bounce back to Rei’s bedroom before he’s finished reading the first article on spirit possession. As soon as he sees me, he pushes his chair back so I can use the keyboard.
    He’s fine. He’s walking through some woods between St. Albans and Milton.
    “So he’s not too far away. Let’s go get him.”
    It takes me all of a second and a half to determine this is a dangerous idea for Rei.
    What are you going to do with him once you find him?
    “I’ll talk him into going to the police and they’ll straighten this whole thing out,” he says. “You said it yourself: he didn’t do anything wrong.”
    It doesn’t matter what I say—nobody can hear me. The police will be listening to the Anna Rogan who tells them Seth pushed Taylor.
    “Well, the law says he’s innocent until proven guilty.”
    The school already has him coded with behavior issues. And all of Taylor’s friends have told the police Seth was there with her, and they didn’t exactly portray Seth in a very positive manner.
    “How do you know that?”
    I