Hypersubjects

by Ainsley Komper

  “Just tell me the truth, no bullshit.”

  “I want to get my boyfriend back. I know she is forcing him to stay with her.”

  “There is nothing you can do about.”

  “I need to try. I cannot just leave him with her.”

  Despite his vision getting clearer, Thiago knew there was more to it. However, he felt sorry for Ciana who seemed lost, scared and confused. Whatever her abilities were, they seemed no match to Mercy’s. Once at his apartment, she went online to do some research while Thiago made dinner and got her ready the spare bedroom. Once she went to bed, he checked the computer history to find out she was looking online for news about a couple who were actually her parents. They were in deep legal troubles as a law firm exposed them as part of a scamming scheme designed to cheat the government into receiving ten times as much the amount of the benefits they were entitled to. Facing several years of jail, the police arrested them a few days ago when they were trying to leave the country. Also, Ciana was researching the calendar of bullfights and looking for news about them as well. It seemed that the incident at Plaza de Las Ventas, the main one in Madrid, was not an isolated one and the local press was picking on a trail. At several bullfights in small towns and big cities alike, many strange incidents had taken place. In some of them, members of the audience had thrown themselves to the arena and attacked the matador with knives or daggers. In others, the bullfighters themselves had inflicted wounds to their own bodies instead of doing them to the bulls in front of them. The incidents had happened in every other event in the official calendar and the authorities were starting to show signs of concern. Although it seemed to be a pattern, every case was different. Some people confessed to being drunk or under the effects of drugs, either taken voluntarily or inadvertently. In other incidents, the bullfighters argued depression, bipolar disorders, stress or a political stand against animal cruelty. Both Ciana and Thiago knew who was behind all of those cases, even if they could not prove it. However, among all the pages Ciana had opened, it was one listing screenshots of social media with comments about what a bullfighter was saying just before he was taken to the hospital. That was actually the first case in a small town celebrating its anniversary and according to the comments, the bullfighter kept mentioning how happy she must be. He referred to a woman who made him do it but the theory had evolved into something different as if the man committed self-harm in front of a bull to impress a lover. The morning after, Ciana asked Thiago to drive her around the streets of Madrid until he asked him to stop by a middle-class neighbourhood. She proceeded to make a phone call.

  “It’s me. Don’t hang up. You are in danger. You need to get away from her.”

  Thiago knew immediately she was talking to Taran.

  “I had to ditch my previous phone because they contacted me. They know we are in Spain so I am getting out of here but that’s not why I am calling.”

  Taran started shouting over the phone but Thiago could not make up anything in particular.

  “Listen to me! They can track her! They know how to do it. I don’t know how but they are very close. I am leaving the country soon and I just wanted to tell you to be careful. They can track her but they cannot track you. If you stay with her, you are going to get caught. No, no, no, do not put her on the phone!”

  Immediately, Ciana threw her mobile through the window and picked up another from her bag where she texted a long message before ditching the SIM card in this case.

  “Jesus, how many of those do you have?”

  In that moment, a storm of snow started to cloud Thiago’s vision so he reduced the speed and parked by a forest.

  “What are you doing?”

  He left the car.

  “I can’t drive.”

  “Why? We need to keep going.”

  “You need to keep going.”

  “Well, I am staying here with you then.”

  “No, you can’t!”

  “Tell me why!”

  “I have this thing within me, inside my eyes. It is like a white dust, I had it my whole life but since I was with you guys at the forest, it is different, it… behaves.”

  “How?”

  “It tells me when I am in danger by blocking or blurring my vision.”

  “Are you in danger now?”

  “I am in danger with you at all times but now it has intensified.”

  “Well, you are not the only one with something inside giving you an extra help. I can feel where Mercy is and right now she needs all the help she can get, including you.”

  “Can she track you too? Can she track me?”

  “Maybe but she is still learning how to do that. I couldn’t teach her properly. We need to run away before she gets to us and before the authorities get to her.”

  “Then you drive just in case my eyes get temperamental.”

  They got inside the car and Ciana started driving.

  “Is that how you find me? With your gift?”

  She nodded.

  “How far can you track someone?”

  “Since I am running with Mercy, pretty far. Maybe within the radius of a big city.”

  “I need you to find someone for me.”

  “It doesn’t work like that. I need to have met beforehand the person to track.”

  In that moment, a snowstorm started inside Thiago’s eyes.

  “We are in trouble.”

  “Maybe if we take another route.”

  Ciana deviated to another road away from the highway but Thiago’s storm kept happening.

  “Just leave me here and you keep going. Maybe what is bad for me is actually good for you.”

  “I am not staying alone.”

  “If we split, one of us has a better chance to get away than the other.”

  “That is easy for you to say. You have an automatic alarm bell.”

  “And you can track people.”

  Thiago took the chance of jumping out the car when she had to slow down in order to sort a difficult terrain. He felt sorry for Ciana but there was no other way and despite her screams in the background, he ran without stopping until he was deep inside the forest. Of course, she would be able to find him if she wanted to but at least he would be out of danger. The sound of helicopter blades cutting the sky invaded the peace of the forest. Several choppers were canvassing the area while a coming motorcade could be seen from the distance, approaching fast. Ciana shouted his name a few times without getting any response from him. Thiago ran under the guidance of a snow he has learnt to trust until reaching a point where everything started to blur with no choice for him but to stay put, hiding in the bushes with his eyes closed. Ciana was getting closer again, shouting desperately for him until what he thought was a group of several men caught her. After the eternity of a few minutes, he remained blind, even after Ciana and her captors have gone. There was no point in advancing further as he ignored which direction to take, especially now when the snow was behaving differently. The type of blindness he was experiencing scared him more than the prospect of getting involved in the whole situation with Mercy and Ciana. This time, the snow, instead of floating intensely, was cluttering deep inside his eyes like never before, thus ceasing to be a storm and making an all a dark grey night. Suddenly, he was pulled out of hiding and caught by an agent or a policeman. Despite trying to run desperately, his blindness did not allow him to go that far or fast. While confused about the persistence of his condition, he was arrested and taken back to a facility in Madrid which was not a police station. The place turned out to be a division of Interpol dedicated to terrorism, bio-threats and another bunch of stuff he couldn’t catch. It was pointless denying any of what happened because Ciana had told them a great deal of it, including how he met Mercy, the days he spent with them and the further encounter she had with him. Doctors examined his eyes and for many days he was studied by different specialists until one day, he recovered his vision in one eye. Thiago never revealed that the snow had been able to help him durin
g several situations of peril and that he was suspecting all his blindness was a charade of it, in order to make him look like a victim, instead of a fugitive or a partner in crime of those weirdos. Finally, he was allowed to leave under the condition of reporting every week to the police in person and every other day by phone. Also, he couldn’t leave the country and had to inform if he was to leave the city. His case would be considered again in six months and also, he had to attend all of the medical check-ups scheduled. Breaching any of the aforementioned rules will cause him to lose his freedom, if he could call that. Back to his routine, trapped in a life which was not his anymore, one day a woman abruptly approached him at a supermarket.

  “Hey, I know you.”

  “Do you?”

  “You were the guy with something on your eyes. I was in the facility where you were… you know.”

  “I do, no worries.”.

  “I was mostly taking care of the girl. She is really special and truly gifted.”

  “I am aware of what she can do.”

  “My husband worked at the facility too.”

  “That’s cool.”

  “He went missing. It turned out he was beaten up by some thugs and left for dead in a ditch.”

  “That’s awful.”

  “He was almost killed, all because of that flashy car he bought.”

  “But at least he is alive now.”

  “Not because of the police or the authorities.”

  “How come?”

  “She found him. She told me at the cell what she could do.”

  “Listen, I don’t want to be involved in any of her business.”

  “She wanted me to give you a message and I couldn’t refuse. Not after what she did for my husband.”

  “You should have started from there.”

  “She says you have changed, Mercy changed you in the forest, your body, your brain is different, not only your eyes.”

  “Please, leave me alone.”

  “She said you need to be careful with that. Nobody can know, otherwise, you will be in great danger. Don’t let anyone know under any circumstances.”

  The woman left him as quick as she could while Thiago kept wondering if Ciana was referring to his snow although she specially said otherwise. For days, the message was on his mind until it faded out in his daily routine. Thiago took solace in going back to photography by enrolling in a few classes. The variety of assignments made him forget he was on a short leash from big brother, awakening the artist within him. In one of them, he had to do a series about a stranger. The idea was almost to stalk the chosen stranger and present at least three photographs of him or her in different environments. After trying several random people, Thiago decided to focus on a middle age lady who he frequently crossed paths jogging at the park. The little forest across the street was one of the perfect spots to see her adjusting her gear, have a sip of water and continue jogging. He had already caught her in camera at the local supermarket and the small coffee house by the neighbourhood. Thiago already knew her routine and times, just needed to capture her in the right light. He focused on her, the way she moved and ran, just waiting there in that perfect spot until that day it happened when she was a bit distracted, more agitated than normal. Through the lens of the camera, he could feel her nervousness as if something was affecting her, perhaps some bad news she has just received or maybe an important event about to take place very soon. Whatever the circumstances, she was so distracted that forgot to check the street before crossing and when a car hit her, Thiago felt the biggest pain he had experienced in his entire life. Hidden among those trees, he laid there, unable to scream, feeling the overwhelming sensation of having several broken bones. Strangely, he could see his healthy body and could not understand what was happening. Slowly, the growing pain took over every thought and sensation, forcing him to shut down into a peaceful sleep.

  IKER

  Epilepsy had been part of his life since he could remember. The episodes, the drugs, the special measures, the visits to the hospital, the treatments. Some years have been better than others and being the only child of a single mum added more to his family drama. One doctor gave them a referral for an experimental treatment from an international organisation based in London, dedicated to improving the conditions of people like him. However, being part of that program would have implied a relocation to England which was inconceivable to his mother, grandmother and aunties. Born in a small town, he had learnt to break free from the overprotective family ties and live independently in Madrid with the limitations that his condition implied. Of course, that was not entirely possible as all the spider web of relatives were checking on him continuously. Due to the nature of his condition, Iker preferred jobs he could do from home, reducing daily human interaction to a minimum. Some of them included web design, programming and online research. The people from the experimental program contacted him twice a year to insist about moving to London and enrolling in the program. As tempting as that sounded, he could not do that to his mother, who was constantly worrying about his well-being. A Spanish Doctor, Manuel Rivas, approached him outside his building to make him an offer. The deal basically included taking a medication in the shape of pills for a year which would award him 500 euros per month. The money was tempting, the commitment low because it just obliged him a monthly visit to the practice and he could suspend the treatment at any time. Dr Rivas used to work with the institute in London but decided to go back to Spain and work independently. Iker took the offer and went through a whole year without any seizure, thanks to this wonderful medicine. Sometimes he felt uncomfortable with Dr Rivas because there was something clearly dodgy with his business as he attended him from home most of the times, there were not many patients and the tests on Iker’s health were made by cheap independent third parties. However, the results spoke for Dr Rivas and it would have been foolish to be picky about. The future seemed promising as well because the small side effects of dizziness, headaches and nausea were disappearing. The fears of socialising more and taking upon a daring approach to life were fading out with the lack of seizures. Nowadays with all the technology and dedicated thought into disabilities, he knew that all of those barriers were mostly created by himself but there was no excuse now. He was feeling a surge of happiness growing inside of him, just about to burst. He was marking every day without symptoms or seizures in a big calendar. As the streak got bigger, he couldn’t avoid laughing of joy every time he looked at it. Maybe he could go climbing and take long trips of kayaking alone as he always wanted. Unfortunately for him, the doctor died in a car crash, limiting his supply of the drug. Shortly after, he was contacted by an insurance company claiming to follow an investigation into the doctor’s professional misconduct, including the distribution of unauthorised pharmaceutical products. Afraid of losing the remaining supply, Iker decided to lie and then try to replicate the drug somehow, taking samples to small labs and seeking help online. However, making that was not an easy process and, in a matter of months, he ran out of pills. Nevertheless, the seizures stopped but there was a price to pay. He had suffered from that peculiar side effect a few times when he was a teenager, in fact, it happened around once every two years after that, but now it increased considerably to the point of having to report it. It was basically about his hand. This condition was called Alien Hand Syndrome and it was not just a side effect but a bigger problem on its own, at least in the way it was manifesting. He almost preferred the seizures to what this was becoming. Iker’s left hand felt as it did not belong to his body. Sometimes it performed erratic movements, others were calmer and coordinated, but still, it was as if it had its own mind and did not belong to him. There was little they could do at the hospital and as tempting as it seemed, he was not ready to confess that he took the pills he denied before. When reading about the subject online, he found cases about people suffering from this condition that were so affected by it, they actually tried to cut their own hands or arms off. In some cases, patients
had to restrain their own hands by wearing a device which attached the hand to the body and neutralised its movement. Instead of a restraint jacket, it was some sort of restraint glove. Iker felt angry, frustrated and out of himself. After a few drinks in Madrid’s bars by the centre, he was even more depressed. With practically no friends, he was contemplating going back to his village, being protected by the matriarchy where he belonged. His hand was actually an excuse. Had his life be more fulfilling, had he had something valuable to lose, everything would have been different. This was not the case and filling his normal emptiness was this strange presence gravitating around his body. A hand, sometimes with the arm, moving in weird directions, like a witch trying to put a spell on him, a stranger attempting to break through. Slightly tipsy, he was going home, determined to buy online the restrain glove when, out of the blue, a guy attacked him with a knife. Narrowly missing, the aggressor demanded the wallet but, as unexpected as the first one, a second stranger jumped into the situation, knocking the potential thieve with a bone-cracking single blow. Iker did not know what to do, perhaps thanking the stranger would have been a good choice.

  “He wasn’t trying to mug you.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “Look at him.”

  The stranger went through the unconscious thief in an almost forensic matter, pointing out that he was better dressed than them. In his belongings, he found several credit cards, an expensive smartphone and a hotel key card.

  “You don’t know me but it is very important that you come with me right now. Your life may be in danger and if you let me, I could prove it to you.”

  Iker felt strange, immerse in a surreal situation, being tested on his nerves. The guy was tall and stronger than him. If he wanted to hurt him, he would have done it already. After tying up the thief hands and feet, they went to wherever he was staying. After a short walk, they entered the hotel through a backdoor easily forced by the tall guy, who always managed to know which corridors to take and when, because they were all empty. Once inside the thief’s room, they found a tablet, a USB drive and some photos, including one of Thiago.