Psy Touch

by A. D. McLain

  Sorrow overtook Lexy and all she could think about was Jared, their future together, and the overwhelming certainty that she would never see him again.

  10

  The only thing Jared could think about was Lexy. They covered his eyes and ears with a sensory deprivation helmet and moved him on some kind of stretcher. If he didn’t know where they were, he couldn’t pulse at them. A blindfold would be sufficient ninety percent of the time. Nearly everyone needed to see who they were influencing, but there were a few infamous Forcers in the early days who were able to locate a person by sound and hurt them. Since he still hadn’t reacted to any of their interrogations, they had no idea how strong he was.

  The helmet also kept him from knowing where they were taking him. Time warped with no outward cues. Jared focused on his sense of touch and smell. He could smell the deodorant and shampoo of the people around him. He could feel the movement of the fabric when they touched his bed. The way his body swayed and shook, he knew they were moving him by vehicle, but he couldn’t tell how far. When they talked, sometimes he felt the vibrations through the stretcher’s metal rungs. He imagined what they were saying about him. What’ll they do next?

  The men in suits weren’t happy when he didn’t react as they’d expected. He managed to keep his powers under control even when the electric shocks and beatings left him weak and disoriented. He felt like vomiting. He wanted to sleep, but the pounding of his heart and blood rushing through his ears was distracting.

  The stretcher stopped and the smells disappeared. He was alone, but where? They left him tied to the bed. With the helmet, fatigue, and hunger pains, he probably would’ve fallen and hurt himself if he had tried to move around. He kept opening his eyes, wishing for a speck of light. His eyes played tricks on him, seeing light where there was none. As he examined the darkness, he wondered why he’d never noticed the complexity of it? It wasn’t a solid color, but a nebula of black and dark gray. At times, he could see colors hidden in the blackness.

  Then he noticed a speck of light. He thought it was another trick of his eyes. He blinked, but the light remained. His eyes and mind focused on it, and it grew brighter in response. His mind drifted again to thoughts of Lexy and the light flared. His heart sped up. Was this the light Lexy saw in people? Was he seeing her? He pictured her face and thought of touching her cheek, and the light flared again. He put his fingers through hers and squeezed them. The contact felt real, but with his mind on the verge of breaking, he couldn’t be sure. It could’ve been a hallucination borne out of madness and fear. Even if he could reach her from however far apart they were, he had no idea if she could sense him without removing the band. But the contact felt real, and that was all he had.

  Taking comfort in the feel of her hand in his, he called out to her, told her he loved her. He prayed she would be safe and warned her to be careful. Then he pulled away.

  She said she could see a person’s pulse. There could be others like her who could follow his contact back to Lexy. He couldn’t take the chance of leading anyone to her. He saw the speck of light dim again, and his heart ached, but it had to be done. He had to protect her. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore the one spot of light in all the darkness.

  Time lost all meaning again. He focused on the pulse in his head and flexed his fingers, putting small amounts of pressure against his bonds. He could feel the strength returning to his muscles. He thought out various plans, but none seemed good enough. If he fought, which would reveal his Psy strength, and managed to escape, they would go after his father and friends. If by some miracle he could wait them out, maybe they’d give up and believe he’d told the truth about not being a Forcer. Of course, they would kill him then. They couldn’t allow him to tell the world how he’d been treated. It would be a scandal that would threaten their control over the people.

  Escaping without using any Psy powers was the best option. But he had no idea where he was being held or what kind of defenses the building had. There was still a chance his father would find him and come after him, but that could get them all killed. The best thing he could do was wait and be ready to act when the time was right.

  He smelled vanilla perfume. Cold fingers and long nails touched his face. There was a click and the helmet was released. Jared blinked at the sudden light and tried to look at his surroundings. He felt lightheaded. A man dressed in scrubs leaned over and unhooked his arms. Jared was helped down from the stretcher and allowed to sit in a chair beside a square white table. A woman in a black mini-skirt and business jacket buttoned at the waist, revealing a silk camisole top, stood by a chair on the other side of the table. She stared at Jared. Her nails were painted dark red, matching her lips. Her eyes were painted with dramatic brown and black lines. Black hair was pulled back into a bun at the base of her neck. Gold studs in her ears. Nowhere on her was any hint of crystal jewelry. The only protection she’d worn was her inhibitor headband. She removed it and put it between them on the table before taking her seat. The man in scrubs moved back to the door, behind the woman, and Jared felt his mind clear. The man was a Shield. Jared could work through a Shield, but they did leave him feeling a dizzy afterwards. Thankfully, Brian could extend or retract his nullification field, or Jared wouldn’t have been able to spend much time with him.

  “So no crystals?” Jared said. “Does that mean you guys have finally figured out that you were wrong about me?”

  The woman sat back, still watching him with piercing eyes, and crossed her legs. “Here’s what we know. You were wearing a non-functioning inhibitor band in public, which is against the law. In addition, you were observed using Psy ability on banded individuals.”

  “I don’t know what those people saw, but it must’ve been someone else.”

  She removed a silver watch phone from her coat pocket and turned it on. He recognized the scuff marks on the screen and worn-off paint on the side buttons.

  With a few clicks, she pulled up his contact list and scrolled through it. “Perhaps one of your friends will be more knowledgeable.”

  She called out names of people he worked with, old high school contacts, the person who tailored his pants, vendors who supplied items for the Den, and random people. Some of them he didn’t even recognize anymore.

  “Lexy Smith,” she said.

  Jared kept his face expressionless.

  She glared at him again with her piercing eyes. “Lexy Smith. Who is that woman to you?’

  “That’s just some girl I met last week. We went out to a club together. I hardly know her.”

  “That’s not what your energy is telling me.”

  His chest constricted.

  “That’s right. I’m a Reader. So why don’t we start over. You are a Forcer. How far can you pulse?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never measured it.”

  “Guess.”

  “Thirty feet maybe.”

  That was about how far away he was from the car. If he’d said any less than that, she’d know it was a lie.

  “Prove it. In the next room, to your right, there are five people. I want you to touch them. Nothing fancy, just enough that they feel it.”

  “I can’t see them.”

  “Humor me. There’s one at each of the four corners and one in the center of the room. The dimensions of the room are the same as this one. Now pulse.”

  Jared contemplated pretending to pulse, but Lexy had said she could see when a person pulsed and who it was directed to. So he focused on the places the woman had indicated and imagined touching the five people on the shoulder. The woman smiled.

  There was a knock at the door and another man in scrubs looked in. “They each reported feeling a hand brush across their shoulder.”

  “Thank you,” the woman said.

  The man closed the door and disappeared.

  “Now I want you to kill one. Your choice.”

  “What? You’re crazy.”

  “If you’re worried about killing an innocent person,
I assure you, they’re all criminals.”

  “According to you people, so am I.” Jared shook his head. “I’m not a killer.”

  “We’ll see.” The woman put her on band and left.

  Once the door was closed, the Shield approached Jared and held up the helmet. “If you struggle, I’ll put you back on the stretcher and strap you down. If you put this on without a problem, you can keep your arms and legs free.”

  After glancing around to memorize his surroundings, Jared allowed the man to put the helmet back on.

  “Should we do something?” Curtis whispered.

  “Like what?” Kara furrowed her brow and splayed her hands. “She hasn’t said a word in over an hour.”

  “Well, I’ve already checked his apartment and his father’s club. No one’s there. If she won’t let me call him, I don’t know what to do.”

  “Oh, don’t even mention calling him again. I could barely get her to stop shaking and crying the last time we suggested it.”

  Lexy heard them talking but didn’t remained motionless on her bed. She squeezed her pillow into her chest and pressed her chin into it. She was cold from the air conditioner but didn’t pull the covers up. They’d led her into her room shortly after Curtis arrived, and now her friends stood just inside the doorway. She didn’t look at them, but she could see their energy all the same. His body gave off a warm glow as he tried to calm and comfort Kara.

  Lexy closed her eyes when she felt a touch on her cheek. She opened them again. Her mind searched for Jared, but the feeling was faint. She felt his hand on hers and let the tears pour out. Kara rushed to her side. Lexy clung to the transparent ribbon of Psy energy connecting her to Jared. She followed it back to him, but he was far away. She felt his desperation and love for her. He was afraid and worried for her safety. She could feel that he was hurt or had been recently, but he was holding back thoughts of the pain. Even now, he was maintaining his control, trying to protect her. Tears streamed down her face. She tried to tell him she was coming for him, that she would find a way to help him, but she didn’t know if he could hear her or what she would even do.

  Then the contact was gone. He pulled back, afraid of revealing her to the people who held him. She sat up and tore off her inhibitor band, focusing in on the speck of his light with all her willpower. She wouldn’t lose him again. Upon expanding her awareness around him, she saw other people nearby and mentally noted everything. Any detail could tell her where he was. Pulling back again, she looked for concentrations of people and areas where there weren’t many lights. A picture gradually formed in her mind. She dashed to the living room to grab the sheets of loose paper left over from the previous night, and sketched what she saw, including notes about how far apart things might be and how many people she sensed in each area. She drew out every detail she sensed from the place he was being held. She couldn’t see buildings or other structures, but she could got a sense of how tall a building was by how people were spaced above and below each other.

  By the time Lexy finished, she was shaking again. As she moved her focus away from her work, she became aware of all the Psy energy around her. Light flooded her vision. She swayed in her seat and would’ve fallen, but someone caught her and put her inhibitor band in her hand. She pulled it on and leaned back against the sofa, with a sigh of relief. With all the other lights dimmed, she could close her eyes and once again focus on the tiny bead she knew to be Jared.

  Kara sat beside her.

  Curtis looked over her drawings. “This looks like a map of the county. This empty strip is the same shape as the river, and everywhere you have a lot of people is about where the cities would be in relation to the river. But what’s that up near the top?”

  The afterglow of light was still too bright to see well, but she didn’t need to open her eyes to know what Curtis was referring to.

  “That’s the building where Jared is.”

  “Did he show this to you?”

  “How could he show it to her?” Kara scrunched her face.

  Lexy opened her eyes to meet her friend’s gaze. “Jared is a Forcer.”

  Kara looked over at Curtis, who nodded while looking down and away. She opened her mouth and closed it again. There was a fear at knowing the band didn’t work against him and he could touch her whenever he wanted. Lexy knew that fear. She’d felt it, too, when Curtis told her the truth. But Jared hadn’t abused his power. And if Kara really did want to live in a world without bands, as she’d claimed last night, whether or not someone was a Forcer should be a non-issue.

  Kara relaxed and nodded.

  Lexy turned back to Curtis. “And no, he didn’t show this to me. He didn’t have to. I’m a Reader.”

  “Is that why you can’t stand to take your band off? Never mind. That’s not important right now. Does this mean you know where he is?”

  “From what I could see when he contacted me, there were people on at least ten floors around him.”

  “Ten floors?” Curtis said. “There’s only one building in a hundred miles that tall.”

  The Fixton building in Marks was the tallest building in the area. On paper, it was a research facility. But everyone knew it was more than that. There were rumors that it was a political prison. No one spoke of that in polite circles, but they all knew about it.

  “He’s been arrested,” Lexy said.

  “What do we do?” Kara asked.

  Lexy looked at her friends. She knew she would go after Jared, but it was almost a certainty that she would get arrested or killed in the process. Why didn’t I tell him how I felt about him when I had the chance? He could die now. We both could die, and I never said I loved him.

  She looked down at her reflection in the glass coffee table. The silver of her inhibitor band reflected light from the window, and she remembered the day her father brought home the bands. Her mother was relieved. They would be safe. Lexy would be able to hide her abilities, unlike her father. They pretended this would fix everything, but it was already too late for him by that point. Her parents never spoke of it in front of her, but she heard the hushed conversations and half-sentences they were too afraid to complete. She felt when they lied to her or each other. They were trying to protect her. She understood that, even as young as she was. Her father hated the band. His senses had saved his life multiple times. He didn’t see the logic in dulling them. “It gets easier and it’s worth it,” he’d told Lexy. “It’s who we are.” Her father would be ashamed of her.

  She snatched off her band. Ignoring the protests of concern from Kara, she let the light surround her. Lexy clenched her head while doubled-over in her seat, taking slow even breaths. Her father had learned to live with the light at a time when no one wore the bands. How much brighter and more confusing must it have been for him?

  “Kara, please go to my mother. Bring her somewhere safe.”

  “Where can we go?”

  “I know a place,” Curtis said. “What about you? Are you planning to go after him alone?”

  Lexy lazily opened her eyes, still holding her head. “I’ll go in after nightfall. That should give me enough time to watch their security patterns, I hope. When the Den opens, tell Jared’s father what happened and take him these.” She picked up the box of data cards from under the table, at her feet. “I have a few more in my closet. Hopefully he can figure out some way to distribute this information.”

  “What’s in here?”

  “The truth.” Lexy stood, finally feeling steady. “Kara can explain more. I have to go.”

  “Wait.” Kara rushed to her bedroom and came back with a fashion hat.

  It was bowled and had a hard rim, like something that might’ve been worn a hundred years before.

  “If you’re going out unchained, you’ll need something to hide your head.”

  Lexy turned the hat over, but there was no band on the inside. Most hats were either made with enough room to wear above the bands or had inhibitor bands built in.

  “It�
�s old,” Kara said. “Used to be my grandmother’s.”

  “Thank you.” Lexy looked up at her and was struck by the swirls of pinkish purple and royal blue swimming through her light.

  Her eyes had a lavender glow, and even though Kara’s band was also off, the vibrations of her energy didn’t overwhelm Lexy. Instead, a soothing warmth radiated from her. Lexy hugged her and the warmth spread through her body. She felt encouraged and hopeful. There was no way she should be able to succeed, yet she had faith that she would. Somehow, by the grace of God, she would be with Jared again.

  11

  Jared stared into darkness and began to lose hope. He shuffled around, feeling everything within reach. Several times, he felt he was being watched. The temperature in the room repeatedly changed from warm to cold and back. He counted the seconds and found that the cold air would blow for five minutes, followed by ten minutes off. The pattern repeated four times and he decided it must be on a set cycle. Now he could track how much time passed, which was a huge elevation to his state of mind.

  He sat on his bed and went over what he knew of his room. Thirty steps to the door and thirty two steps wide. From his bed, five steps right and two forward to the sink and toilet. The table and chairs were twenty steps to the left of the sink and five steps across. From there, it was five steps back and ten to the side to return to the bed.

  After he’d walked the floor a hundred times, counted several hours by the change of the air conditioner, and drove himself into mental exhaustion from repeating how many steps it took to get to every spot in the room from any spot in the room, Jared rested on his bed and tried not to think about the dark silence. On the periphery of his senses he saw Lexy’s light. It took great force of will not to reach out to her. Their brief contact earlier was the one thing keeping him going. He knew she could still sense him, and he knew she would sense it if he died. He had to stay alive for her.