A Loner Mentalist Pt. 09

Jack wed those feelings of betrayal and isolation to new memories of everyone refusing to listen when she tried to speak out against the abuse. He lifted the curtain from how her first foster mother had made her feel that it had been Mia's fault that her foster father was leering at her. He made Mia's new horror stew in those feelings as she internalized the blame for every bad thing that had been done to her.

Jack now had her completely broken and malleable to anything that came along. But there was still no telekinesis. Her mind, her inner self, rebelled against what was being done, as it should to generate reality-altering powers, but it was too weak. Too faint. Its response to such visceral horror was almost exclusively intellectual. She knew this was injustice. She believed it to be wrong, but she didn't feel it deep in her foundations. She didn't have the spark needed to put the torch to physical reality.

Jack peeked through the heavy curtain and tried to see a spark. He was nearly blinded by what was slammed into his retinas. It burned like a welder's arc. It was the fresh memory of his mother's execution. More exactly, what it made Mia feel.

He felt tears run down his cheeks as he saw how much she had wished to stop that from happening. As dark and terrible as the torment of losing her parents had been, so bright was her desire to right this horrible wrong that was done to him. He realized he should not feel surprised by her empathy towards his suffering. She had gone through the exact same thing herself. It was only logical, he tried to tell himself, but the cool veneer that had frosted over his heart last night began to melt. He drew a shuddering breath as he tried to hold tight to his mental reins.

Before he could be overwhelmed by her compassion and the immense emotions it was bringing out in him, he wed those feelings to her inner revolt. Her desire to right the terrible wrong that had been done to him was turned into her desire to fight against the injustice that was done to her.

There was a moment of horrible stillness inside her soul. Everything was suspended as her will was passing its verdict over the new narrative of her life.

No, her inner voice stated,this can not be! This is wrong! This is injustice and I will not suffer it any longer!

She exploded with rage.

Mia trembled violently in the chair, her eyes still closed. He could feel the spark he had placed into the depths of her despair become a nuclear detonation which detonated other nukes and erased all concepts of time, space, causality and energy equivalency. In Mia's mind, those became plywood walls to be knocked into smithereens by the expanding shockwaves of thermonuclear rage.

The world seemed to quake at the emotions welling up inside Mia's very being and Jack was reminded of a short story by Brandon Sanderson.Only the mind itself is infinite. As he felt reality itself yield to Mia's mind, he knew for certain that the throwaway Sci-Fi line was the biggest truth in the universe. This was it. He opened his eyes and blinked them clear to witness the birth of a telekinetic. His doing.

Mia's body suddenly stilled and the room around her began to shake. Jack's mouth fell open.I did it! I really did it!

The furniture started to rattle and dust began to come off the wall behind her. He could feel the floor vibrate under the bed he was sitting on. His delight at his accomplishment was soon superseded by fear as the wall behind Mia began to ripple. Concentric fractures began spreading outwards from her and he realized she was going to literally bring the house down on both of them.

He slipped into her mind and was immediately struck bodily by the waves of kinetic energy she was generating. He realized with dread that she could rip him apart with ease, especially since she had no idea who he was. He instinctively grasped for the heavy curtain inside her mind and tugged it to cover up the abusive memories he had put inside her mind.

Mia went as still as a pond and the room stopped shaking. Jack let out a giant breath of relief. The youngest son of the family they were staying with rushed into the room, calling them to follow him out because there was an earthquake. Jack calmed the family with his power and made them forget about what had just happened. The kid smiled and left the room. He had to slam the door shut three times to finally close it behind himself, because the doorjamb was now warped.

Jack craned his neck this way and that and then regarded Mia sitting calmly in her chaise-lounge. Her eyes were still closed and she looked like nothing had happened.

He rallied his mental energies and looked back inside of her. The telekinetic power was there, a nclear-powered beast lurking behind the curtain, ready to lash out at any moment and break the world with righteous vengeance. He slowly began to remove the false memories of molestation from her mind. With each memory he removed, the beast seemed to shrink and grow weaker. He used his power to reaffirm the memory of the beast itself, but he couldn't stop the decay. If he removed all the implanted memories, the beast would be lost. If he left the memories in place, he wouldn't have Mia anymore. Instead of being shaped by the loss of her parents, she'd be shaped by a molestation that had never occurred.

He had no idea what kind of personality would be formed inside Mia's brain on that kind of a foundation and he didn't want to find out. Removing those memories and restoring her own was aconditio sine qua non. He proceeded carefully forward, but the beast kept shrinking.

It was still big and strong, it still looked like it could tentacle rape a nuclear submarine into submission, but he knew it'd be gone when he erased the last memory of the molestation. Like a castle in the air, it couldn't exist without its foundations. The beast had to be real inside her mind, for it to be able to alter reality.

Jack was exhausted by then. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open after the suffering of last night and the modification to Mia's mind. A big part of him wanted to just yank the false memories out, lift the curtain and tell Mia it didn't work.

But I've come so close to giving her what she wanted.

The beast needed to have roots inside her mind to be real, so he began to lift the curtain from the rest of the emotional memories he had used to create it. Now Mia's mind was utterly confused. Was she broken by the accident that killed her parents, or by repeated, horrific betrayal brought about by those that had been supposed to love her the most?

Jack resolved her dilemma for her by removing the false memories. At the same time, he kept the beast linked to the real fractures inside her mind. The beast lost a lot of its strength and size, but it didn't vanish. Jack barked out a laugh of relief. He could keep the beast inside her mind, albeit in a diminished form, so long as he managed to keep it rooted in the real suffering she had gone through.

He lifted the curtains from all of her memories and restored her mind, keeping a small version of the beast tethered to her suffering at all times. Memories of the terrific abyss that had been opened in her mind by the false experiences were now grafted onto the real painful memories she had grown up around.

When Jack finished the job, he knew he couldn't turn just about anyone into a telekinetic. Only pre-abused people could be turned into telekinetics. A person's mind would need to be fraught with actual misery and abuse casting a dark tint over their every memory, thought and emotion.

Mia's mind was restored and reconciled with the new additions. She opened her eyes. She gave him an inquisitive look. "Well? Did it work?"

He reached up and wiped the tears from his eyes. "You tell me."

She raised her hands in a shrug. "Well, how am I supposed to..." Her voice trailed away when she noticed the damage to the room. She gasped when she saw it had originated from her location. She flinched when she saw what was done to the wall behind her. "This is real, right? You're not just making me see things, right?"

"Try it."

She looked at him with boundless glee. "How? How do I..."

He cleared his throat. He was really tired. "It's a flash of anger. Wrath. Like turning into a beast with every thought and feeling you have and then directing that wrath at what you want moved."

Mia glared at the bedside lamp. Nothing happened for a few seconds and Jack began to feel strangely sad and empty.All that work, all that suffering I made her go through and it's all for nothing.

Then the lamp shuddered. It was the tiniest of shudders, but it made Mia squeal with joy. "I can feel it!" She immediately screwed up her face into an expression of intense concentration. Her eyes glared daggers at the lamp. After a few more seconds, the lamp began to shudder again. Only, this time, it didn't stop. It started to shake in place and rattled against the nightstand. The noise grew louder and the lamp started to skid in a small circle. Then it suddenly broke into several pieces that flew between Jack and Mia, touching neither one. The shards struck the window and shattered it in an outward explosion.

"Oh, wow," Mia exclaimed, even as she flinched away from what she had done. She looked at Jack with a facial expression she might have if she were impaled by a spear. "That was fuckin' awesome!"

Jack gave her a rueful grin. "Yes. Sadly, I don't think you'll ever be able to use it to assemble complicated machinery in mid-air, but it's better than nothing."

She barked a laugh as she said, "I'll say it is!"

He rubbed his temples. A headache was coming on that wasn't going to go away easily. He used his power against it, but knew he'd have to get some actual sleep soon. "It's a, it's a defensive reaction of a broken mind. That's what you need to understand about it. It's only meant as a destructive force. You can only use it in violent surges of energy, you can't use it with finely tuned control to...I don't know, unlock a locked door. You can use it to punch the lock out of the door, or break down the door itself, but not to operate the lock. Your telekinesis isn't a utility tool. It's a weapon."

Her smile was wide and her eyes sparkled as she said, "That's perfectly fine with me!"

He wiped his face. "I need to get some sleep and we need to get to Skinner."

"I'll break every bone in his body for you, babe!"

"You'll do no such thing. I can make him experience worse agony than that and I will. Also, we don't know how much juice you've got, so you'll be keeping back until your intervention is absolutely necessary."

"Aw, babe..."

"Don't worry, you'll open our meeting with him by removing his necklace." Jack tapped his temple. "I'm in range of D.C., but the only Walter Skinner I can find is a five year old kid in Annapolis, so Skinner is definitely wearing one. You'll need to practice removing a necklace without also removing the head. We don't know if Skinner is a slave of the thin man, or a willing accomplice. Either way, I don't want the man dead, I want him mine so I can get my hands on the thin man and end that cunt once and for all."

Mia considered his words and then said, "You got it, babe."

"Good," Jack said and yawned. "Oh, I need to get some sleep."

"Thank you so much for this, Jack." She looked to be on the brink of tears. "I can never repay you or this gift, but-"

"First try it out for size, then call it a gift. I'm falling asleep. You stand guard over me and this house and wake me up if anything happens. Our hosts won't make trouble. Go to the garage and try to get a feel for your power. Try to be quiet and discreet as you practice. No breaking down walls and such." He picked up his laptop and turned it on. "I'll give George an address down the street from us. He should be there by the time I wake up. If he comes early and is alone and not followed, collect him and bring him here."

Mia nodded. "I'll do everything you've just said."

"Good girl. Also, you're not to bother me with sex until after I've woken up."

She frowned and smiled. "That's still on?"

He nodded and turned on his Skype. "That's still on." He yawned and sent George the address. He shut off the laptop and stretched out on the bed. The last thing he felt was her tender kiss on his forehead.