“So the case goes like this. One night, a junior from our neighbor city’s high school named Preston Cold decided to meet with an unidentified girl he often chat with through an online paranormal community. According to left behind notes, they were to visit Hearts Out, which is an asylum that was shut down about nine years ago. The two were never seen again. Gone. Preston’s camera was found on the lobby’s floor, useless evidence though. It has about twelve photos on it, all pure white except the last one which looks like an outline of someone eyes deep within the white but that’s it. The asylum was searched by authorities, records were searched—Preston’s laptop browsing history and emails, chat traffic, and online accounts. There is no lead to the missing students, not even the slightest hint. This case is only less than two years old and cold but Dad gave me enough unclassified information to give it a shot. I’m struggling so far but that’s why you guys are going to offer your expertise.”
I put my pen away after writing notes and thoughts pertaining to the mystery. I caught the gazes of Gemini and Brandon. We nodded. This was not only a professional-level case but one that sounded impossible for normal people and normal methods. We spent a lot of time with Iyan artifacts. Something like this sat in the line of all of that. Cases were divided among the entire club, everyone split into groups. The most difficult cases ever went to one particular group that was never present. Solve-Ops. Too bad they weren’t here to help. They probably wouldn’t lend the hand anyway, stuck-up douchebags. Before Gemini and I were promoted to officers, we belonged to that group. Good times, I guess. Maybe.
“This sounds like it’s going to be a pain in the ass,” Brandon said, voicing all of our thoughts. He looked at Kate. “How long is it going to take for the archaeology club to finish editing the documentary?”
Kate sighed. “Let’s stay relevant please. They filmed several sights, museums, interviews, and even got a professional animator to do special scenes. It may take them another month or two to perfect the film.”
Before Brandon could speak, Kate’s phone rang. She gasped at the caller ID, raised an index finger at Brandon and then scurried outside the classroom.
“So, do you want to lead this case, Mr. Pain-in-the-Ass?” Rachael said to Brandon.
“Not really,” Brandon said. “This case sounds like some over-told urban legend at best.”
“Could you imagine being the team to solve it,” Gemini said as she stood up. “We’d be famous.” I sighed—could see the stars flashing in her eyes already. She continued. “We’ll go to that asylum tonight! No objections.”
That woke me up—felt my body stand before I could get out the words. “I don’t think so,” I said.
“Why? Are you scared?” she pinched my cheek. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you while you rest your crying face in my bosom.”
I shot her a blank glare. Brandon and Rachael laughed.
“I’m not scared,” I said, “but I’m not cancelling my own plans just to—”
“Oh please,” Gemini interrupted, “besides watching Unsolved Mysteries, the only thing you’ve got going on is tutoring test failures.”
“I…forgot about that—screw it, the asylum it is—”
“I don’t think so,” Rachael intervened. “Teaching first, asylum some other time. Last time you bailed, we got stuck with some senior who not only made us feel stupid but mocked us at every opportunity he got. He also released us super-late, ELEVEN at night!”
“Oh Rachael.” Grinning evilly, Gemini walked over and placed her arms around the obviously scared girl. “You know we’re going as a group, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
I shook my head slightly as Rachael paled. She tried a ‘but’ anyway. “But—”
“As a club officer, I now designate this as an official task benefiting the school. That means I can write your substitute tutor an excuse to why you were absent and policies say you get up to three no-questions-asked excuses from club authorities.”
Rachael looked as if she deflated. Brandon simply shook his head, his lack of comments protecting him from judgment.
“If you’re all done crying, let’s meet at Matt’s house at ten tonight,” Gemini said. “And bring your flashlights.”
Later that night, everyone met up at my front door.
“Shhh,” I hissed, “If you wake Uncle up, I’m screwed.” I quietly locked the door and off we went into the cab. Yes, Gemini got us a cab. One moment, the drive was a normal scroll through the city. The next transformed into a stride through creepy woods that surrounded us like shadowy snakes. We stopped in front of a building that resembled an old hospital with its busted windows, vines surrounding it like a Boa constrictor squeezing life out of its prey. All of our gazes shot to Gemini. Rachael beat us to the verbally spoken thought.
“Are you serious?” She folded her arms and glared.
Gemini smirked. “It’s all for the case.”
The taxi driver, some creepy old man, slowly turned to look at us. Surprisingly, his voice was completely normal. “You kids are brave, stupid, and crazy. I’ll wait for you but I need half of the payment now just in case you don’t come out.” He grinned. Gemini handed over the cash. “Because I’m the unfortunate adult here, you’ve got one hour in there then come back out. Gemini, I know your father and trust me, he’d be very displeased to hear about this.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gemini said. “We’ll be right out. Later.”
Everyone reluctantly got out of the cab. Well, Gemini wasn’t reluctant. The driver shut off his engine but not before we took out our flashlights and turned them on.
“Do we really have to do this?” Rachael whined.
“Of course,” Gemini said with glee. “My cab fee wouldn’t appreciate being wasted. Now come on.”
We walked to the front doors of the asylum, pushed them open with surprisingly little effort, and like that, we were in the anti-hospital environment. It really did look like a regular hospital minus the dust, darkness that not even our flashlights could penetrate, roaches, and all other unseen creeping things. You know, minus those things. Gemini, who led five minutes in, turned to us.
“Here’s the deal,” she said. “Have a look around and take notes without touching anything. I’m sure the police had raided this place up and down like a million times but that doesn’t mean they found everything. Look for anything that’s out of place.”
“I really hope we’re not splitting up,” Rachael whined. Gemini grinned. “No! Absolutely not! Do you not watch the movies, Gemini?”
“Two teams,” Gemini said. “Matt and I, Brandon and you. Take notes and we’re done. Be back at this spot in fifteen.”
Before Rachael could object any further, Brandon cut her off. “Let’s just get it over with. All of the bad stuff usually happens around Matt, so be grateful you’re not his partner.”
I shot him a blank glare though he did have a point—way to throw me under the bus, douche-friend.
When Brandon and Rachael walked off, I turned to Gemini. “Shall we go, Indiana Jones?” I said with a tiny bit of sourness in my voice.
“Sure am, grumpy pants,” she replied, kissing me before we started walking.
You know, I didn’t expect to find much through the maze of dusty hallways, broken windows, and suspicious puddles. And we didn’t. Not a damn thing. No good notes to be taken, just darkness, eerie silence, and stale air. That is until someone laughed. Gemini and I spun to see, wait for it, nothing.
“Okay, if we both heard that, I’m not crazy,” I said. For the first time since we’ve been at this crap hole, there was worry on her face. “Ready to go, ghost buster?”
A voice that wasn’t hers answered from nowhere and everywhere. “Go? I’m pretty sure you and your girlfriend there are snooping.” The voice sounded male, not even creepy, just the generic conversationalist.
“Alright, enough of this. Who are you?” I said. Gemini seemed to melt into my display of braveness, hiding a little behind me. Someone wearing a blac
k hoodie appeared a few yards ahead of us. He matched my height of six feet but due to the darkness, I couldn’t see any details. Well …there was a huge detail. His eyes were glowing red like lava lamps. The irises that is—something right out of a Japanese anime. The flashlight did no justice at revealing him but I wasn’t going to let this be a wasted trip. I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick-flash photo and shoved it back in my pocket without looking at it. The boy laughed as if I cracked humor in a dull conversation.
“You’re clueless, aren’t you?” he said. “You have no idea how much power you’re radiating. You feel like a volcano or maybe like the ever-present sun. But she knows, doesn’t she? Right, Gemini?”
My head snapped to look at my paling girlfriend. “Gemini, do you know this guy?”
I felt myself pale too when she whispered, “Black Star.”
“Seriously?” I said softly.
“They’re…here,” she said softly, her voice shaky. “Nobody has seen their current leader…except us.”
I turned back to those red, shining lightbulb eyes. They were like endless lava, maybe blood flow.
“Come back to our group, former leader,” the boy said. “No need to be taking crap from ordinary people. And bring your nuclear power source rookie with you.”
“You can piss off, buddy,” I said.
“Matt.” There was real warning in her voice. The boy simply chuckled, his amusement refusing to decline.
“We’re here in town and I think we’ve found someone of interest. What a find indeed. I’ll see you around, former leader, future member.” He simply vanished. Not that teleporting was anything new to me. I’ve dealt with plenty of Iyan magic in my days.
“You’ve got some explaining to do,” I said to my tired-eyed girlfriend.
“Let’s just get out of here,” Gemini said softly. She sent a text to Rachael and we were off. Rachael was only ecstatic to get the hell out of the asylum.
“Did you find anything good?” Brandon said eight minutes into the drive back, “besides noises, doors shutting by themselves, or dusty books with blank pages.”
I sighed. “Sounds like you two had a great time.”
“Screw you,” Rachael said.
“So what did you find?” Brandon made damn sure my subject change didn’t come to be.
“You don’t want to know,” I said.
“I’ll tell them,” Gemini surprisingly said from minutes of gloomy silence. “Tomorrow. I’ll start from the beginning. Who they are and why he knows me.”
“Gemini,” I started to say but she cut me off, determination in her eyes.
“It’s only fair. It sounds like all of you may be getting involved with them now whether you want to or not and it’s all my fault. The least I could do is pull you out of the dark about them.”
“Who are you talking about?” Rachael asked. “Gemini, what happened in there?”
“The Black Star group,” I answered. The bad feeling I got about that group made me want to find a corner to hide in.
They finally shown themselves. At least their leader did—personally greeting us. Somehow, he knew we’d be there. He knew where Gemini and I would be….He knew about the trip. Just what is going on here?
MIND CONTROL 13:
A Vicious Assault
A short story by Alvin Atwater
Continued directly after story 12…
Demand, Love, Kindness, and Hate. These are the four legal Iyan crests of mind control. The illegals of course are Hero, Seduction (or Lust), Colorless, and Evil. God, I hated the gemstones—each contributed to my misery yet brightened Gemini’s day. Well except for Colorless. You couldn’t pay that girl to so much as think of colorless. Let’s put that aside for now because we were on the run.
Right as Gemini began to explain to us about her connection to the Black Star group—a cult with strong Iyan powers—something slammed into the side of our cab. The driver cursed as he stomped the brakes, desperately trying to gain control of the car but it was useless. The car bucked and skid—and the sad thing is, that whatever lurked out there wasn’t done. The invisible entity bashed with the force of a wrecking ball onto the hood of the engine. Everyone rushed out of the cab as it ignited. It didn’t explode—this isn’t Hollywood, but I wished it did. At least that would take my mind off the terror I felt when I looked into the void of blackness that was the woods. Whispers echoed as we ran. I could’ve sworn some of them spoke directly to my mind.
“You….you….belong to us. You belong to our kind. You will be our power source. You will be one of us. One of us.”
I wasn’t sure if the others heard any of that—but there was no mistaking of who they were aimed at. They claimed I had stored power. Well, I think they’re nuts.
“Gemini, please tell me you brought something that can get us out of this,” Rachael said between breaths.
“Useless if I can’t see our attacker, just keep moving,” she replied.
“I can’t get signal on this damn phone,” the cab driver snarled. “One of you try your phones—call the police.”
Rachael complied but by the look on her face, I could tell she didn’t succeed.
“Nothing—what do we do—I don’t want to die,” she whined. At this moment, something within me broke and I just knew I had to make sure they got to safety. There was only one way I could make that happen. Taking one look at each of their miserable faces, I cleared away any lingering doubts. For once in my life, I’d cast aside my selfishness and my own self-preservation. Yeah, yeah, very uncharacteristic of me—sue me.
“Brandon,” I said but stopped my sentence as a loud echo of laughter from nowhere and everywhere, paled our faces.
“Wh…what, Matt?” Brandon answered.
“I need you to make sure everyone gets to safety. I know who’s behind this and they’re interested in just me.”
“You’re not possibly—”
“Don’t argue, now is not the time for that if you want everyone to get home alive,” I barked. “Call the cops as soon as you’re able. I’ll be fine—just let me lead them away.”
“Matt, have you lost your mind,” Brandon said. “We will not leave you out here.” At this point, everyone’s attentions were snapped on us.
“I’m luring them off,” I said. “Don’t question this, just do it man, for them if anything. I have a plan but I need you to trust me.”
He glared for a few seconds until resign set on his face which eventually rolled into resolve.
“Matt, what are you talking about?” Rachael said. We stopped running.
“I’m going with you,” Gemini said. Normally, I’d be more than happy to bring her along as it would guarantee my safety but not this time. I needed her to protect the others just in case my gut feeling was wrong.
“No,” I said to her. “Protect the others just in case. Trust me. I have a plan.”
She looked at me, eyes pleading but I didn’t waver.
“You better come back to us.” Gemini reached into her pocket, pulled something out, grabbed my hand and placed said object into my palm. A gold ring glistened against the moonlight, etched with red symbols. “I haven’t finished the research on this but if you want a miracle, will it.” I placed it on my finger, wished for a miracle right then but nothing happened. To be quite honest, I secretly expected some kind of Lord of the Rings teleportation. Real life isn’t that exciting.
“Do you have anything that’s useful,” is what I wanted to say but we had little time to waste. The echoing laughter returned from the darkness of the woods. I made a run for it in the opposite direction of my friends, heart pounding. When they were out of sight, I stopped.
“I’m right here, douchebag,” I yelled. “Come out. Enough of this crap, what do you want?”
One second, nothing happened. When I blinked, there were five of them. HE stood in the center, ahead of his friends, lava-red eyes seeming to gaze right through me. A weird light shined above us from an unidentifiable source,
revealing his features. My height, maybe a tad taller with hair red enough to be mistaken for fire. He still wore the black hoodie which quite frankly felt off-putting for an attempt at intimidation. He had a runner’s build like me and well that was pretty much it. If it weren’t for the creepy red irises, this guy wouldn’t appear to be anything special.
“Have you made up your mind, nuclear storm?” he said.
“Who are you?” I said. “You’ve come out of nowhere and started attacking us. What do you want?”
All five of them had smug looks on their faces, as if they’ve already won whatever game they were playing. I just wanted to pull pies out of nowhere like the cartoons and smack the smirks away.
“Slow down my friend,” Red-eyes said. “You already know who we are. And we want you to swear allegiance to us. Join the Black Star.”
Yeah, no. But I had questions, so I’d ask them before they go all Agent Smith on me. Okay, so that’s a bad reference, but you know what I mean. Mr. Anderson.
“You want me to throw away my life to follow you around,” I said then laughed bitterly. “Why? What’s in it for me?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” Red-eyes said. “Kinsey, do you want to give him the brief?”
A girl with freakishly long blonde hair, which somehow didn’t touch the ground, stepped up beside him. “You do know that as soon as we tell him anything, he’s going to take off running and this will be all for naught.”
“Like the movies?” Red-eyes said. “Do you think I didn’t consider this? I can kill his friends with a single thought but he willingly decided he’s ready to talk, calling us to him.”
I sighed. “It’s about time someone told me what’s going on.”
“Matt, to be blunt, you have the power of a god,” Kinsley said.
“Yeah, heard that one before, what’s new?” I said as I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“I’m getting to that,” Kinsley continued. “Can we assume you know at least the bare minimum of the Iyans, right?”
Mind Control- Episodes 8-13 Page 5