Chapter 2

Petra closed her eyes as though she were listening to something. Her lips parted slightly, her face half-tilted toward the bear outside the window. She held the pose for about five seconds.

Then, she opened her eyes and spoke in a voice that was barely above a whisper but left no room for doubt. "It won't hurt anyone."

She sounded like a fortune teller giving a reading.

The back seat erupted.

"What did I say? Petra can hear its thoughts!"

"Let's go, let's go. What are we waiting for?"

"The bear already said yes. If we don't get out now, that's just rude."

Everyone started unbuckling their seatbelts. I did not move.

Petra turned to look at me, and the patience in her eyes was gone. "What now, Owen?"

She pulled her hand off the door handle and faced me. "I've been able to hear animals since I was a child. I've rescued more than I can count. This Greyridge bear's body is on the verge of shutting down. If we don't help it now, it'll die.

"Do you know how many Greyridge bears are left? Around 5,000. They're nearly extinct. Even if there's some risk, we have an obligation to act."

The car fell silent. Everyone looked at Petra with open admiration.

"God, Petra really is something else. So beautiful and so kind to every living thing."

"Seriously, she's an angel."

The chatter went on.

I was the only one unmoved, because I knew the truth about how the bear had died in my last life. It had not starved. It had been killed in the natural order of things, taken down by another predator.

Petra sighed, turned away from me, and addressed the rest of the car. "He doesn't want to go, and I'm not going to force him. Maybe he has his own reasons that he can't talk about."

Her tone was the kind you would use when humoring someone who was not well.

She turned back, pulled out her phone, and pointed the camera at me. "Since you don't want to go, you'll forfeit your share of every research finding from this trip. Do you agree?"

I had spent three months getting the funding approved for this expedition. I had plotted every route by hand and revised the field sampling plan four times.

She had closed her eyes for five seconds, and now, she was pointing a phone at me, demanding I give up everything.

I looked calmly into the lens. "I agree. But I'd like to get a few things on record first."

I pulled my phone from my jacket pocket, opened the voice recorder, and set it sideways on the dashboard.

"You said that you can hear that bear's thoughts. You said the bear told you it won't hurt anyone. Say it again."

She stared at the waveform pulsing on the screen. The back seat went quiet.

"What's that supposed to mean? You don't believe me?" Petra's eyes were turning red.

"I do believe you. That's why I'm recording it, so everyone back at the institute can hear it too. Petra Winslow, on location in the Greyridge bear zone, successfully completed a telepathic dialogue with a wild Greyridge bear and confirmed zero aggressive intent. That's a research finding. You should want it on the record."

Her lips pressed into a thin line. The waveform kept pulsing.

"You think I'm lying." Her voice had changed. It was not anger. It was hurt. Her eyes grew redder. "I've been able to communicate with animals since I was a kid. If you don't believe me, fine, but do you really have to humiliate me like this?"

"I'm not humiliating you. I'm giving you the chance to put your ability on record as evidence. If the bear doesn't end up hurting anyone, this recording is the strongest proof you'll ever have. What are you afraid of?"

She said nothing. Her eyes grew redder still, but the tears did not fall. They just sat there, pooling along the rim.

Then, she turned away and would not look at me.

Curt suddenly shoved his face in front of the phone. He yelled straight into the microphone, spit practically hitting the receiver.

"I'll say it for her. Petra talked to the bear. The bear said it won't hurt anyone. The bear said it. Go ahead and record this. Get my face too."

He laughed loudly.

Danny Lawson snickered beside him.

"I, Curt Brennan, am voluntarily getting out of this car to feed a wild Greyridge bear. The bear won't bite. Petra confirmed it. If anything happens, it's on me. Got that? Want me to do another take for backup?"

I turned my phone sideways to frame both him and Petra in the shot after pulling up the camera app. She was in the background, lips pressed into a thin line and her expression rigid.

"That'll do." I pocketed the phone, satisfied.

The moment Petra was out of the car, she opened the live stream on her phone and aimed the camera at the bear across the open terrain.

"Can you guys see it? This is the one. This Greyridge bear just told me telepathically that it's starving. I'm going to save it now."

She had been running her account, 'Petra and the Animals', for two years. It had 8,000 followers.

She was not a major influencer, but she had made a small name for herself in the animal welfare community. Her usual content was videos of herself closing her eyes and 'communicating' with stray cats, with the occasional sponsored pet food post mixed in.

She had been waiting for her breakout moment.

This Greyridge bear was it.