Free The Keeper's Curse by Diana Harrison Page A

interesting as it would be
to talk about her reckless streak, or why her body liked to roam
for hours in search of something nonexistent:
    “ That’s actually not why I’m here,” Emmy finally said.
“Something happened yesterday. Twice. I heard a voice in my head.
It was only for a few seconds, both times, but it was definitely
inside my head.”
    Willow
narrowed her eyes, not writing any notes down. She was trying not
to look too concerned, but instead curious. “Has this ever happened
before?”
    “ No.”
    “ Never? You’ve never heard voices in your head
before?”
    Emmy
shook her head for a moment when suddenly it hit her. There was one
other time, a very long time ago. An incident she hadn’t thought
about in ages.
    “ Actually,” she said slowly. “Yes. There was this one time ...
it was on my birthday, when I turned eleven.”
    Willow
began sketching notes. “Did you ever find out why this happened to
you?”
    “ No. I was with my friends, and everyone insisted it wasn’t
real.” She leaned back in her chair. “But this is different. I
could clearly hear the voice. That other time was unclear. Plus, it
was incredibly painful and ...” she closed her eyes, knowing she
would regret saying this. “... That time there was visions,
too.”
    Willow
had no choice but to appear concerned now.
    Emmy was
stupefied. Why had she not thought of this before? That day had
always been a brief, weird memory she hardly thought about anymore.
She had never been able to explain it, but learning that magic
existed was an explanation. It had to be related to this world,
with these powers she had.
    “ It’s not what you think,” Emmy blurted out. “It wasn’t a
hallucination. It happened one time, and hasn’t happened since.
Schizophrenia usually develops in early adulthood and it happened
when I was eleven. Plus, I’m pretty sure my dopamine and serotonin
levels are normal, and I have no history of psychosis in my family
–”
    “ Calm down, calm down,” Willow said. “I wasn’t suggesting you
are mentally ill. My goodness, I don’t know what dopamine and
serotonin levels are, but I’m interested in this memory of
yours.”
    “ I don’t remember it at all. I don’t think I ever
did.”
    The
counsellor chewed on her pen thoughtfully. “Do you ever dream about
this experience?”
    This
caught her off guard; she had never considered it before. “I have
no idea.” She tapped her foot, trying to remember. She kept a dream
journal, finding amusement in trying to interpret her dreams but
never finding much logic in the discipline. “I might’ve written it
down somewhere. You want me to try and remember my
dream?”
    “ If the dream exists, I may be able to find it for
you.”
    “ Like hypnosis?”
    “ Not quite.” She smiled and took the pen out of her mouth.
“There is a method we use that I don’t believe humans utilize. We
call it dream downloading.”
    Emmy
raised her eyebrows. “No, we definitely don’t have that
yet.”
    “ With your permission, I’ll try to find this moment in your
life for you and we can watch it together. This may help clear up
some of this confusion. It must be in a dream, somewhere. We
haven’t perfected thought downloading yet, unfortunately – there is
such a vast amount of information there.”
    “ I have dream journals, but my things were confiscated when I
got here. I’ll do my best to try and get them back.”
    “ Wonderful,” she said. “I will have to check you for mental
disorders, but don’t fret yet. I believe these two instances are
connected, although I haven’t the slightest idea what could have
caused it.”
    “ But why do you need proof?”
    “ I need something to look for in your head. You dream every
night, and I hardly have time to sift through thousands of dreams.
If you have even a fragment of what had happened however, it
narrows the search down significantly. If something unusual did
happen to you that day, I would be willing to bet