by KT Belt
“What? What is it?” the man she was with muttered as he also turned. He saw the two Clairvoyants and shrieked as well before grabbing the woman and pulling her away. “Excuse me, excuse me. You can go ahead,” he said nervously. “Let’s get out of here,” he said to his companion.
Kali gave them a reassuring smile but said nothing. Carmen said nothing either as their thoughts rang in her skull like church bells. I’m not going to set you on fire. I’m not going to rip off your arms and legs. I haven’t done anything to you. I’m just following my crazy handler to get something to eat, she reflected.
Kali glanced at her charge. “Looks like we’re next.”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” Carmen remarked under her breath.
If her handler heard her, she gave no response, and the two approached the hostess Her face was white with terror.
“All right, go ahead,” Kali said.
It took Carmen a few seconds to realize she was talking to her. “What?”
Kali rolled her eyes. “Tell the greeter how big our party is. It’s normal etiquette.”
Etiquette!
“Two!” Carmen barked.
Her handler pursed her lips but didn’t seem especially annoyed. Carmen felt two inches tall again nevertheless.
“Please excuse my charge,” Kali said. “This is her first time out. Anyway, that table, right?” she asked, pointing.
The hostess swallowed hard. “Clairvoyants?” Kali nodded, and the hostess gave a disbelieving nod in turn.
“Thank you,” Kali said as she started toward the open table. “Edge, say thank you.”
“Thank you,” Carmen muttered as she tried to forget the horrific ways the hostess was sure she was going to kill her and everyone else in the restaurant.
She took hesitant glances at everyone as they walked to the table. Those she glanced at moved as far away from her as they could while clutching belongings or loved ones. A waiter dropped his food tray but was so frozen in place by the sight of the Clairvoyants that he didn’t seem to notice. His thoughts wafted toward Carmen like a bad smell as he wished he’d gotten up early enough to see the sunrise if this was his last day. He had always wanted to see a sunrise.
When they sat down, Kali busied herself with the menu. Carmen wrapped her arms around herself and rested a weary forehead on the glass. She didn’t need to sense the people rushing out of the restaurant—she could hear them. For those who made it outside, she’d never sensed such relief. For them, the experience seemed akin to waking from a nightmare.
“Edge, what’s wrong with you? You were rude,” Kali said, and Carmen looked at her. Her handler glanced at her over the menu but seemed otherwise unconcerned.
“Rude? Everyone hates us. They’re terrified of us,” Carmen said as if it was obvious.
“Of course they’re terrified of us,” Kali said, now looking at the asset fully.
“Why?” the girl snapped.
Then she shuddered as their waiter approached. She’d fully sensed him before he even entered the room, such was his state.
“May I take your order?” he asked, quaking horribly between each word.
“Edge,” Kali offered.
“I don’t want anything.”
The woman shrugged and then made her order. The waiter more ran than walked away.
“Why shouldn’t they be terrified of us?” Kali asked, turning her attention back to her charge.
“We haven’t done anything to them,” Carmen pointed out.
Her handler nodded a few times. “No, we haven’t. But, if you wanted to, you could kill every single man, woman, and child in this town, and no one could stop you—not even me. They don’t know that last part, but it doesn’t matter much to them, as I could also kill every man, woman, and child, and they couldn’t stop me.” She took a deep breath before she spoke again. “It is a bit of a risk to take you here.”
Carmen looked out the window, now understanding why they’d come to such a remote town. If she went berserk or tried to escape, there were less people in the way here. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She’d thought Kali trusted her. It had been nice to have someone to talk to who wasn’t keen on the most effective way to beat someone to death. She missed Mikayla.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“They don’t know that,” Kali said, and Carmen looked at her sidelong. “Edge, you may know what everyone is thinking and feeling, but no one can read you. I can’t even read you. Put yourself in their position,” she began. “How comfortable would you feel around someone who knows everything about you at all times when you know nothing about them? Someone who knows you better than you know yourself—who could kill you or hurt you whenever they pleased, for whatever reason. How would you consider such a person?”
Carmen stared at her handler defiantly. She didn’t know why she was so mad at Kali all of a sudden. She didn’t really care about these people or their feelings. She was constantly bombarded by them. Why was that so hard for Kali to understand? Yeah, she could kill them all, but so what? What about her? Did they care about her at all? Did anybody? Did they care that, by the end of the day, she’d be locked in some room deep underground? Did they care that no one was able to read her thoughts or feelings on anything and that it would never change?
Then, everything hit her like an anvil. A tear rolled down her cheek. We really are monsters, she realized. She covered that side of her face so Kali couldn’t see. If it was true that her handler couldn’t read her, she was especially thankful for it in this instance.
“There have been several incidents,” Kali continued. “They’re not frequent, but they aren’t rare either.”
Carmen stealthy rubbed her cheek of the wayward tears and took a deep breath. “How does everyone know we’re Clairvoyants?” she asked.
“How do you know someone’s a Clairvoyant?” Kali asked back.
She looked out the window and saw several townspeople giving the building a wide berth. They spoke to each other, advising any passerby against entering. She glanced at her handler just as the food arrived.
“I can sense it,” Carmen said. “But…normal people can’t do that.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Kali said with a shrug. “Anyone can become a Clairvoyant. As I said to you yesterday, it’s all a matter of volume. Perhaps, on some level, they can sense subconsciously what we are. I can’t really say.”
Carmen’s eyes dropped as the thoughts of an older couple came to her attention. “You can’t say?” she asked, trying to distract herself.
Kali cocked her head to the side. “Edge, I’m not a normal person. I can know what they are thinking, but I don’t think like them. Neither I nor you ever can. Our perspective is too different. If you really want to know, you can just ask. In fact, it would be good if you started talking to people. We’ll work on that next.”
Carmen shuddered just from considering the prospect. They’ll run away from me first, she thought.
“Why does what they’re thinking not bother you?”
“It bothers you?” Kali asked, and Carmen nodded several times. “I mostly ignore it.”
“How?” she asked, longing and pain evident in her voice.
Her handler sat back in her chair and thought. She looked out the window for some time. “It’s been so long that it’s hard to say how I consciously do it. I don’t really think about it most of the time. That’s part of the reason we are here: so you can learn how to block out the thoughts or feelings of others, if you wish to.”
“But how?” Carmen begged. She groaned out loud when the waiter returned to drop off the bill. “Please.”
“Edge, it honestly pains me to see you like this, but there is really nothing I can do. I can tell you what worked for me, but you are not me. You’ll have to suffer through it until you figure it out.” Carmen looked at her handler with pleading eyes. Kali sighed softly. “For me, I guess it was a change in my mentality.”
“What do you mean?”
>
Kali looked down for a second and took a deep breath. “Eventually, I accepted that everyone hates me—everyone is terrified of me. They always will be. They have reason to be. I largely filter it out, though. It’s unimportant. There are things worse than people hating you.”
Carmen’s mouth hung open as she stared at her. “That it? Just accept that everyone hates me? But there are other things worse than that!”
“Essentially, yes,” she remarked. “As I said, that’s what worked for me. Personally, I think it’s an act of compassion.”
“An act of compassion?”
“Yes, compassion,” Kali said firmly, annoyed by her charge’s raised voice. Carmen reined herself in but only just, and Kali continued. “Remember what I told you earlier. You are one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy. You should act like it. Yes, almost everyone is terrified of us, and that terror drives some to hate us. Yet, you’ve seen me. I could crush them to fit in the palm of my hand,” she said, holding her hand out for effect, “but I smile at them. I’m polite. If that is not compassion, what would you call it?”
Carmen said nothing. She looked away from her handler and brought her arms around herself again in a hug. Kali stood when it was obvious nothing else was forthcoming, and then she looked down at her charge, who couldn’t return her gaze.
“Enough of that. Let’s continue. Maybe we can try talking to some of the people outside. I also think I saw an ice cream shop.”
“What’s the point?” Carmen muttered.
“You can’t stay at the facility all your life. Come on,” her handler said, looking around for where to pay. “It’s time.”
A shiver reverberated through Carmen’s body upon hearing those words. She stooped over as her gaze welded itself to the table before her. Her mind was blank as the thoughts of the town echoed throughout her. None were comforting.
Kali paid and began walking toward the door. Carmen hadn’t moved.
“Edge? Come on.” She still didn’t move, so Kali walked back toward her. “Edge? What’s wrong with you?”
Carmen stood reluctantly. Her handler eyed her up and down but said nothing as Carmen actively avoided looking her in the eye. Kali eventually sighed and then made her way toward the exit. Her charge followed slowly. When they exited the building, it felt like Carmen was hit by a tidal wave. Even Kali grimaced slightly. Everyone looked at them when they came outside. A few people were already running down the street to get away.
Kali surveyed the area. “What about them?” she said, motioning toward a group of girls about Carmen’s age. “They might be a good start.”
She knew why Kali picked them. They were about her age and surely had something in common with her. But Carmen looked at their bright, colorful clothes compared to her drab, functional attire and their well-kept and styled hair compared to her ponytail, and she concluded something entirely different from her handler. Carmen took a subconscious step away from them and Kali while slowly shaking her head.
“I…I can’t,” she said softly as she looked at them.
“Edge?”
Carmen looked at her handler with a start, seemingly having forgotten that she was there. She took another step back. “I can’t,” she barely eked out while taking another step back. She shook her head again. “I’m sorry. I just can’t. I can’t take any more.”
“Edge?”
Carmen backed farther away, words failing her. Her face contorted in a hopeless attempt at holding back tears. “I’m sorry,” she said.
Then she started running. She heard Kali call to her, angry and disappointed, but her handler made no pursuit. Carmen’s emotions were such that all coordination was sapped from her movements. She tripped over herself several times until she took to the air and skimmed along the ground. Everyone watched and cowered as the young Clairvoyant streaked through the town. Carmen nearly drowned in their mass panic.
She didn’t know what she was doing; she just felt an overwhelming urge to get away. The only thing she was certain of was that she didn’t belong in the town she flew to yesterday, she certainly didn’t belong here, and the facility was becoming disturbingly comfortable. She was almost at her destination now. It was crazy and stupid, but it seemed the most logical choice. It was the one place that felt just as alone as she did every day—the only place that seemed appropriate for someone like her.
Without a moment’s hesitation or doubting thought, the Clairvoyant, Edge, flew into the forest and disappeared. No one followed her.
11
Alone in The Dark
Carmen didn’t venture far from the edge of the forest. There was no reason to tire herself out in a futile attempt to get away. She was quite sure, for the past few hours, that a suppression team would come for her at any moment. They never came, though. By now, the sun was setting.
She could see the town through the trees and could run to it in a breath, yet it seemed a sea away. She could sense it just as distantly. It was refreshing, considering her ordeal earlier in the day, but it was also strange. The townspeople had no care or concern for the marauding Clairvoyant now. She seemed completely forgotten. She could somewhat sense Kali, so she had to be somewhere in the town, but no one seemed too concerned about her either, as far as Carmen could tell.
She rested her hand against a tree as she looked at the town, taking a step forward before she realized it. Then she retreated deeper into the forest. She couldn’t go back—she couldn’t face Kali. The thought of it was worse than enduring the town and even worse than killing Mikayla. She hardly knew her handler at all, but one thing was certain: Kali, unlike Janus, had expectations for how she was to conduct herself. As Carmen thought about it more, she had to admit that Janus had expectations too. The difference, however, was that his were about what she did. Kali had expectations about what she was, and she had failed them all. It was hard to say why that meant so much to her.
The sun was quite beyond the horizon now and its light was receding with it. Kali’s not coming, she thought. She might be a rebellious asset, but frustratingly she was still a dutiful one. If not a suppression team, surely Kali herself would come to collect her. It didn’t make sense to further infuriate her handler by being elusive.
Carmen waited a while longer as her surroundings grew darker. Eventually, she was in total darkness, but her company remained the animals and insects of the forest. She swallowed hard but was able to keep herself from taking another step toward the town. Instead, she turned, fell to the ground, and began pulling her hair.
“What should I do? What should I do?” she muttered to herself over and over again.
She pursed her lips, annoyed that she hadn’t eaten anything when she had the chance. She was quite hungry now. Carmen turned to look at the town again, now dimly lit by the street lights. She also sensed Kali. She turned back around and was no longer tempted.
When she looked forward, the long dark of the forest lay before her. It wasn’t the most welcoming sight and, if anything, made her shiver, but in her current situation, it would do. She stood and began walking slowly. Her feelings and mind—almost everything about her—was numb. The only thing Carmen was certain of was that, with every crunch of her feet trampling the undergrowth, she was another step farther away.
The forest was wild and untended in its growth, even this close to the town. There were no paths that she could see, though she was walking in the dark. Nevertheless, it seemed like no one in the town ever journeyed to the forest. Indeed, she’d been at its edge all afternoon and sensed no one come close.
Ultimately, the lack of any path was of little consequence. She maneuvered around trees, thorns, and other hazards of the wild with all the grace and poise of her kin. She never once stumbled or tripped. She had no idea where she was going, but she didn’t really care. She didn’t walk in a straight line, but she didn’t meander either. As she went, she never came to a branch she had to stoop under to clear or a thicket that blocked her way, and the serendipity of thi
s never crossed her mind. Clairvoyant through and through, each decision was no decision. Hesitation only came through conscious thought, and she wasn’t thinking. Annoying leaves and small branches parted in her path seemingly by magic. Only when the undergrowth occasionally caught her pants did she notice the semiconscious telekinetic impulse that freed her. Even then, she was aware of it only on the same level that she was aware of her calm and steady breath.
Deeper she went until Kali could no longer be sensed. She couldn’t sense anyone from the town either. She could sense but not see animals all around her, but they were no great concern to Carmen. For whatever reason, she had never been able to discern the consciousness of animals, not even with Mikayla. She could tell they were alive but nothing much beyond that. They were too raw. All the same, the animals hurried out of her way much like the townspeople had earlier. Perhaps they also knew she was a Clairvoyant.
As she glided nimbly down a ravine, she felt something at the edge of her perception. She walked toward it for no real reason at all. Whatever it was, it was more interesting than the endless sea of trees all around her, and there was no reason to worry about it. As Kali said, she was one of the most powerful beings in the galaxy.
The forest canopy gradually opened as she went. It was a star-filled night—New Earth had no moon. She’d never been good at astronomy, and it held no interest for her, but Carmen was pretty sure she could see New Saturn. It wasn’t a very bright planet, so it was hard to know for sure. Fog parted around her and swirled in her wake. With her eyes prompted by no conscious direction, Carmen looked until, at last, her gaze came to rest on what looked like a fire in the distance. There was a figure next to it.
Carmen stood still as she considered what to do. The person had no idea she was here and could be bypassed with little difficulty. That, however, was not her first instinct, and she began walking toward them, curious. The irony that she’d come here to get away from everyone only to find someone was not lost on her. As she reflected on her kindred spirit, however, she was well aware that no one would be out here if they wanted to be around people.