Zoe awoke and abruptly sat up and looked around. She was in a dark room that she didn't know, but she detected the faint smell of barbecue. Ugh... what happened? Where am I? Am I still at Steve's Delicatessen? She panicked and her heart began pounding anew. Once she had her bearings she could tell that she was in a small office and she had been laying down on a sofa that sat at the back end of the room. How long have I been out? She listened and heard some talking coming from outside the room.

"Where's the patient?" a woman's voice said.

"In my office. According to my cashier, here, she just suddenly fell over while in line and began bleeding from her nose. After that she just passed out. We didn't really know what to do so we called 911. She wasn't carrying any ID or a wallet and her phone has a pass code, so we weren't able to find out who she is and were unable to contact her parents," Steve's voice explained.

Zoe groaned a little and put her hands to the side of her head. She had a headache but felt a lot better than she had before she passed out. A second later, two EMTs wheeled a gurney into the room and flipped on the light switch. Zoe winced at the sudden bright light and she blinked a few times before noting that the woman in front had a surprised look on her face. They probably thought I would still be passed out. The woman rushed over to her and knelt down.

"Hey, there. We're going to make sure you're all right. Can you tell me your name?" she shined a small flashlight into her eyes one by one. 

"Zoe." she croaked out. She felt really thirsty and her throat was a bit scratchy.

"Okay. Zoe, can you tell us your parent's number? Has anything like this ever happened to you before?" She took out a stethoscope and listened to Zoe's heartbeat.

"458-555-6789. No, nothing like this." She squeezed her eyes shut. Her head was throbbing. I must've over used my ability. I need to be careful. I wonder if it'll get easier with practice. I don't want to give myself brain damage or something. It's too useful to stop using it all together, I need to be able to control it better.

The EMT turned her head and addressed her companion, "John, can you call the parents for me?" She turned her attention back to Zoe. "All right, Zoe, we're going to take you with us just to make sure you're okay. We'll have your parents meet us at the hospital. Do you think you can stand?"

Zoe suddenly remembered that Thor was tied up out front. He must be freaking out! "My dog... he's tied up out front. Is he okay? Can he come too?"

The EMT hesitated for a moment before replying. "Sorry, sweetie, but we can't take him with us. Tell you what, though, we'll make sure your parents know that he's here and they can come pick him up." she looked over to Steve.

"Don't worry. We'll take good care of your dog for you. I just gave him a half-rack of ribs that he is excitedly gnawing at out front while we were waiting for the ambulance to get here," The middle-aged man gave her a reassuring smile.

Zoe didn't want to go to the hospital and definitely wasn't looking forward to leaving her dog with strangers, but it wasn't like she had any choice. The EMT repeated her question. "Are you able to stand? Do you need help getting up onto the gurney?"

"I-I... think I can stand." She stammered a little in her reply. She then slowly stood up and other than feeling a little wobbly at first, she was okay. The EMT gave her a hand and helped her onto the gurney. 

"My name is Melissa, and this is John. Just lay back and relax. We'll be at the hospital in no time, and I'm sure your parents will be there shortly as well," she gestured to the man who was apparently on the phone with her parents. "Don't worry. We're going to take good care of you."

John had gotten a hold of her mother and was updating her on the situation. The man told her that they would be going to St. Mary's hospital and that her mom could meet them there before ending the call. With that done, they wheeled her out of the deli and over to the ambulance which was parked right out front. Thor was still tied to the mailbox and let out a whimper when they rolled her past. 

"It's okay, Thor. I'll see you soon." Zoe said right before they put her into the ambulance. This is awful. Superpowers aren't supposed to send you to the hospital. They stuck a blood pressure cuff over her forearm and took her blood pressure. Melissa spouted out numbers to John who wrote them down on a clipboard. They then attached something to her finger which showed her oxygen levels and heart rate on a monitor. While they were doing all this, the ambulance sped off toward the hospital.

My parents are probably freaking out right now. I can't believe that I was so dumb as to just keep using my power over and over like that without knowing what I was doing. Of course something that requires so much brainpower, would have consequences. Zoe closed her eyes and tried to relax. Soon I'll be at the hospital and then they'll check me out. I hope I get to go home soon and they don't find anything wrong with me like a huge tumor that is somehow causing these powers that will kill me or something like that. Even worse, I don't want to be found out and sent off to some lab to be experimented on like a rat. It was hard not to worry about the possibility that somehow her newfound power would be discovered and that she would be carted off somewhere.

In no time at all the ambulance came to a stop and they wheeled her out of the vehicle and into the local hospital. She could feel her stress level rise the instant she entered the building. Zoe had always hated hospitals. She had only had to go on a few occasions but each time had been awful. The last time she had gone was because she had been severely ill. She was throwing up everywhere and had a very high temperature. Zoe had sat in the waiting room of the ER waiting to be seen for what felt like forever before they took her to another room to wait even longer for a doctor that had come in for like 3 minutes to look at her, prescribe some medication, and then leave. It had somehow felt like a waste of time. Her family had been worried the whole time and she felt like garbage. Sitting there for all those hours, just for that had been really annoying. Zoe was not looking forward to another experience like that one.

This time, however, the experience was way different. She was taken directly into the bowels of the hospital and once they got to the ER wing, she was placed into a room and hooked up to the monitors that were in the back of the room. She was given a hospital gown and told to change into it. After that it took only about a minute before a doctor came in and looked her over, poking and prodding. He repeated several of the same questions the EMTs had asked her and she replied as best she could.

The doctor turned to the nurse. "She looks to be okay and her vitals are within the normal levels. I'm ordering a CT Scan and I'd like to hold her over night for observations. Did the parents arrive yet? Things will go smoother if we can get written consent."

"They just arrived a minute ago, doctor. I believe they're headed back here now," one of the two nurses in the room replied. 

Almost at the same time as the nurse had replied both of her parents burst into the room and rushed over to her. "Are you okay?" her mom asked her with a super worried expression on her face.

Zoe nodded. "I'm okay. I just want to go home."

Her mom gave her a hug. Meanwhile her dad addressed the doctor, "So is she okay? Any idea what happened to her?"

"We aren't sure yet. She appears to be okay, but I want to run a CT Scan to make sure that her brain is normal. We take situations like this one very seriously. It could be nothing, but there is also a chance that this could be something more serious. Do you give us consent to run the scan on her?"

"Yeah. Do what you need to do, doc. We just want to make sure she's okay." her dad answered.

"Okay. I'll have my nurse get you the necessary forms. I'd like to keep her overnight for observations just to be on the safe side as well."

Her dad hesitated for a moment but nodded his assent. One of the nurses scurried off. God... I hope I'm okay. she was seriously starting to worry. What if I have some kind of tumor or blood clot in my brain or something? I'm not going to die, am I? 

Zoe's dad came over to the bedside and sat down. "You're going to be fine, kiddo. You'll see." he gave her a weak smile. Zoe could tell that he was really forcing himself to stay calm. He reached over and mussed her hair with his hand the way he always had when she was little. 

"Thor... he's still at the deli." Zoe said feeling worried about her dog.

"Don't worry, honey, we had one of our friends pick him up and take him home. Adam and Lily will be at Aunt Sarah's for the night. We weren't sure if you'd be able to come home right away or how long this would take. I'm going to step out and give her a call." her mom stood up and went outside the room.

A few moments later the nurse who had left came back in with a clipboard and a pen. She had Zoe's dad fill out some forms and then the nurse instructed Zoe to lay back on the bed. She pushed some levers on the side of the bed and the whole thing was rolled out of the room. Her dad stayed with her as she was wheeled into the depths of the hospital.

After a couple minutes of walking they arrived in a room that had a monstrosity of a machine. It looked like an upright donut that had a sliding bed attached to it. The nurse had her lay down on the bed and then slid her into the machine while instructing her dad to stay back. "Make sure to stay still, okay?" the nurse said.

"Okay." Zoe replied with a quaver in her voice. I'm so freaking nervous right now. The machine whirred and after a couple minutes she was pulled out and wheeled back to the room.

"You did a good job, kiddo." her dad said reassuringly.

Zoe was glad that her dad put up a strong front for her. She wanted to know what he was thinking, though and so she decided to risk using her power again. I haven't done it for hours, so I should be okay right? 

Jeez... I hope my little girl is going to be all right. I'm such a nervous wreck right now. Stay positive! She seems to be okay so far at least.

I need to try to stay positive myself. Dad is trying so hard for me right now. She made herself relax and they found her mom waiting when they got back to the room. It had been hours since she had arrived at the hospital and there wasn't really anything to do there. She checked her phone, but didn't have any messages. Oh, right... Kim is out on a date or something right now. She had other causal friends at school, but Kim was really her only close friend. They had been best friends since 4th grade when Kim had moved to Oregon from Nevada. She decided to kill some time looking through Twitter and Facebook while they waited for the doctor to come back. Her parents talked quietly in the chairs to the side of the room and she zoned out for a while. 

The doctor knocked on the door and then entered. "Well, I just had a look at the results of the CT Scan and everything looks normal for the most part. I don't see any lesions or tumors. So as far as we can tell, she's in the clear. I still want to keep her overnight just in case anything happens, but I don't foresee any more problems. Do you have any questions for me?"

Her parents said that they didn't have anything further to ask and the doctor left to attend other patients. At least I'm gonna be okay.

"Thank god she's okay!" her mom exclaimed and jumped up to give her a hug.

"See, kiddo, everything worked out. We'll be able to go home in the morning and we can put this whole mess behind us." 

Zoe couldn't help but smile now that she knew she would for sure get to go home in the morning. Her parents decided that they would take shifts at the hospital so that they could get some sleep. The room didn't have a second bed or anything else comfortable to sleep in anyway. Her dad was going to take the late night shift so he was going to go home and get some sleep. He gave her a hug and left.

"You should get some sleep, honey," her mom suggested. It was only around 7:30 and even though it felt like she had been in the hospital for ages already, time seemed to crawl there. Sleep sounded like a good way to fast-forward to tomorrow, so she lay down and did her best to fall asleep. It took a while to get comfortable on the hospital bed, but she finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning she awoke to her dad shaking her shoulder. "Good morning, kiddo, it's time for us to get out of here. You're being discharged!" he exclaimed in his chipper morning dad voice.

Even morning Zoe couldn't be grumpy this morning. She was so happy to be getting out of the hospital that she couldn't hardly stand it. She climbed out of the hospital bed and her dad left the room so she could change back into her normal clothes. Minutes later they were in the car and on the way home. "You've had a hard night, kiddo, how about we stop and grab some breakfast at Pete's Pancake Shack? What do you say?" 

"Sounds great!" she was in such a great mood now. Morning Zoe had been banished to her dark place almost immediately after she had awoke this morning. 

They pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and it was as busy as expected for a Sunday morning, but that was okay. They were seated after a few minutes and she ordered strawberry pancakes with a cup of hot chocolate. Her dad ordered his customary spinach and mushroom omelette with a side of two buttermilk pancakes. Zoe wasn't sure what it was about this place, but their pancakes were so good that she suspected they were created by magic. 

Only one thing dampened her mood, and that was that Bridgette was sitting in the table next to them. Ugh... she's picked on me for like no reason at all since I was in second grade. The girl was there with a couple of her friends and when they saw her she heard Bridgette make a snide comment under her breath. 

I wonder what would happen if I⁠— she focused her power on her hated enemy and instead of stopping when she could hear thought she focused her willpower and pushed harder to see what would happen. She felt what could be best described as a wall that resisted for the briefest of moments before she was able to strong-arm her way way though. Time seemed to slow to a crawl and suddenly she was in a different place. The world had gone black and there were blue orbs that sparkled around her. 

Somehow she knew what they were; they were memories. She tentatively reached out to touch one. A vision exploded into her of Bridgette's dad screaming into her face about leaving a mess in the bathroom. He yelled and raged and then slapped her. Zoe could actually feel the force of the blow somehow and raised her hand to her mental avatar's cheek in response. She forced herself out of the vision. Jeez... her dad is an abusive asshole. No wonder she is so mean. 

Once again she stood in darkness amid the floating blue orbs. After a little experimentation, she found that she could mentally search through them. It didn't take long to find what she was looking for. She entered the memory and saw things from Bridgette's point of view. She saw a vision of second grade Zoe playing with several kids in the school playground. One of the girls saw Bridgette and suggested that they ask her play with them too, but Zoe loudly said, "No! Bridgette is stinky! She can't play with us!" the other girls giggled and then they ran off playing again. Zoe could feel the hurt that Bridgette had felt and realized that this is when the girl had decided to not only change, but to get even with Zoe for saying such a mean thing. The vision ended there and she was back in the dark plane. She was starting to feel mentally fatigued again. It was clear that this took a lot more of her willpower than just listening in on someone's thoughts.

It's my own fault she acts like this toward me. Can I really blame her? She wondered if she could manipulate things here. Instinctively she knew what to do. She forced her will upon that particular memory and forced it to change. She made it so that she hadn't said something so mean and that she had actually invited her over to play. The kids all had gone off to play tag together and no one was left out. It was exhaustive work but she actually did it.

There was one more task to do and she wasn't sure if it was possible, but she tried anyway. She pulled up every memory involving her negative interactions with Bridgette and then somehow erased them. It took forever, but time didn't work like normal here. I did it! I wonder if it worked? She felt completely drained and a second later the dark void around her disappeared and she was back in the diner. It seemed like only a couple seconds had passed even though she had spent what felt like forever inside the other girl's memories. Amazing! Now to test it. Tentatively, she waved to Bridgette. The other girls at the table gave Zoe a weird look, but Bridgette smiled and waved back in a friendly way.

I think it worked! This is awesome! Even better than reading minds! I can literally change people's memories and even erase things! I just need to be careful to not overexert myself and everything will be fine. She was tired, but also extremely excited. She and her dad engaged in small talk and before long, a delicious stack of three pancakes covered with sliced strawberries and whipped cream sat before her. She dove into the food excitedly while her mind raced with all the possibilities that now lay before her.