“Do you mind if I come in?”
Bonbon barked and ran in a little circle around Ava’s feet.
“By all means. I…” Roman swallowed hard. “I can move the dolls.”
“That won’t be necessary. I won’t be sitting.”
“Sure,” Roman said as he opened the door wide, allowing Ava and her dog to step inside.
His teacher took a look around the space, and her lips started to purse. “Are you holding up okay?” she asked, her emotions slipping out.
“I’m fine,” Roman said softly. “I just…”
“You just what?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t,” she said firmly, sensing what he was about to say. “They want to interrogate you again. That’s why I’m here, to get you.”
“I understand.”
“There is a gap in your memory regarding a trip you made to the Eastern Province. This is the timeline they’re interested in. Do you recall having a portion of your memory erased?”
“I’ve already told you, I don’t. I know why I went to the East, but I don’t remember what happened there. I went to help reunite the, um, spiritual and physical body of a Type IV, Class C&F exemplar from the Southern Alliance who could use the Soul Speed ability. That’s really all I know.”
“Then they are going to be disappointed. Are you ready?”
“Ava…”
She turned away from him.
“Ava, I’m serious. I have…”
“Please, Roman, not now.”
“No, I’ve never been able to say these things to you. I just want you to know that…”
A flash followed by a percussive bang signaled that a teleporter had arrived. The woman had dreadlocks in a ponytail and a pierced nose.
“Not now, Roman,” Ava said as she turned to the teleporter.
The three of them and Bonbon appeared in the hallway of what Roman recognized as the government building. Everything was white, and there were gold-framed pictures on the wall of exemplars. The place was well maintained yet stark in a very bureaucratic way.
Bonbon barked.
“Is she supposed to be here?” Roman asked.
“No one will say anything.” A wry smile spread across Ava’s face. “If they know what’s good for them.”
“Great…” Roman said, taking a look around.
“Please sit here. They will call you when they are ready.”
Ava motioned to a bench against the wall, one Roman hadn’t seen when he’d initially scanned the area. And for a split second, he thought about animating the bench, making it a little bit more comfortable, only to remember he no longer had that power.
Shaking his head, Roman took a seat and waited for Ava to sit next to him.
She never did.
The fire user stood before him, the look on her face alternating between disappointment and apprehension. She paced for a moment, and Bonbon followed her back and forth.
“You can sit,” Roman started to tell her.
“I’m fine.”
“About what I was trying to say back at my flat…”
“Roman, please, not here.”
A man stepped out of a room wearing a dark outfit with gold trim. He was clean shaven with his long brown hair combed back, a crispness to his look.
Roman blinked twice, trying to recall where he’d seen the man.
It dawned on him at that moment that he had been part of the Centralian Intelligence Agency group that had come to check out his powers, one of the people who had planned to recruit Roman before he’d gone after Margo.
“Roman,” the man said, nodding him into the room. Rather than reply, Roman simply followed the man, trying to recall if he’d ever told Roman his name.
They came to a room with a round table and a large window on one side. Two women in similar outfits were seated on the other side along with an additional man. Everyone wore similar gear, black with a bit of gold trim, all aside from a curvy woman standing in the corner who had a long curl of blue hair in her face.
Roman felt the tendrils of a telepath immediately.
It was as if a delicate hand had softly grazed against the back of his skull. Roman immediately clenched his jaw, silencing his thoughts.
The woman in the corner looked at him, tilting her head. The curl of hair in her face fell to the side as he sat, Ava taking a seat near him.
Four members of Centralia’s most elite intelligence agency, plus a telepath?
Roman had a feeling this was going to be a long session.
“So, we’ll start from the beginning,” the man who had greeted him said. “By the way, I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Rafner. This is Scott, Jess, and Naomi. Miranda, whom you have already clearly recognized as a telepath, is here to aid us in getting to the truth.”
Roman lifted his hand and offered a subtle wave to the five people. “I’m Roman.”
“We are aware, Mr. Martin,” Rafner said. “I suppose you know why you are here, yes?”
“He does,” Miranda the telepath said.
“You’re going to ask me questions about what happened in the Eastern Province, and I’m going to tell you that I don’t remember. To make it easier: all I know is that I went there to help someone, I returned, and…”
Roman took a deep breath in, recalling everything that had happened after he’d returned from the East, from Harper’s death to his inevitable fight against Margo.
“And the reason you don’t recall any of this,” Rafner continued, “is because you had your mind wiped. Plain and simple. It was wiped by someone with true skill, someone who really knew how to blur mental imagery and disrupt the memory process. This leads us to believe that the wiping was done by someone from the Eastern Province, perhaps one of the spies living in our country, perhaps someone associated with Nadine Under.”
“I do not recall who did it, or if it was done to me,” Roman said honestly.
Rafner looked at the telepath, who nodded. The woman came forward, swaying her hips as she approached Roman. She lightly placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled down at him. “This may hurt.”
Roman screamed.
He slammed his hands on the table, his head down, his brain on fire, his thoughts radioactive.
He dug his fingers into the table as a telepathic scalpel slipped through his mind, triggering a migraine the likes of which he had never experienced before.
He tried to bring his eyes open, tried to will away the pain, but he couldn’t. His face hurt, his teeth ground, his heart rate increased.
The telepath let up.
“Fuck you,” Roman managed to whisper, still squinting, spit dribbling from his lips to the table.
The telepath smiled at Roman as he hit the table again, his brain boiling inside his skull, his thoughts eviscerated, his memory starting to unravel.
Roman could see Celia reaching out to him, Coma on the periphery, Margo coming for him, steel spiraling up her arms as she formed a giant blade.
“Noooo!”
Roman slammed his hand against the table. The table came to life, its legs splaying and melting into the floor, the chairs uprooted.
Roman started to press off the table, his face red. The telepath took a step back, not paying attention to the fact that Roman’s clothing had formed a long tendril, seconds away from wrapping around her throat.
All Roman could see now was Celia, all he could hear were her screams, all he knew was that he had to fight for his life—that he had to get out of here.
Barely able to focus, Roman threw his arms forward.
The floor lifted into a wave, slamming the four spies into the sidewall. The floor instantly liquefied and then solidified again, trapping them.
Roman stood, his hands trembling at his side, energy swelling through him.
He turned to the telepath, his eyes narrowing on her as the tendril of his clothing started to choke the woman.
She tried to knock hi
m over with a telekinetic wave. A shield lifted from the ground just in time, shattering her attack.
“Roman,” a voice said to his right, and Roman instantly recognized that it belonged Ava.
He turned to look at her, everything coming back to him at once.
Roman lowered his hand. “It’s… back?”
The tendril of his clothing dropped from the telepath’s neck, the woman gasping as the floor on the other side of the room slowly trickled away from the spy team.
“How?” Ava said, coming forward.
“I…” He ran his hand through his hair and turned to the man named Rafner, who was now aiming his wrist guard at Roman.
“You weren’t supposed to do that,” he said, and the tone of his voice indicated he had no idea how he was supposed to handle this.
It was theoretically impossible; Roman had never heard of a case of a non-exemplar gaining their power after puberty.
Even as he looked at his hands and then glanced back to the man standing in front of him on the other side of collapsed table, he still didn’t accept it was possible.
But rather than call for guards, rather than shoot Roman or have a telepath do something to his mind that would knock him out, Rafner grinned.
“Again.”
“Excuse me?” Roman asked.
“Try to use your power again.”
Roman glanced from the four people standing in front of him to the telepath and finally stopped at Ava. Bonbon ran into the room barking, and Roman started to slowly lift the ground beneath her.
He formed a ramp. The dog stopped and turned back around, trying to go the other way only so Roman could form an incline again.
The dog tried to jump off the structure Roman had created. Roman merely lifted another piece of the floor, preventing Bonbon from ever making it to the ground.
“Your powers are back…” Ava said, a flash behind her eyes as a fire ignited and settled.
Roman closed his eyes for a moment, clenching his fist at his side. Finally, he opened them and looked across the room at Rafner. “If you try to take my power away from me again, I will kill you,” he said, instantly aware of the fact that it wasn’t Rafner who had taken his power.
“Come again?” the man started to ask, his hand coming to his chest.
“I’m holding your heart right now—all of your hearts,” Roman said, a dark expression crossing his face. “You’re all exemplars; you know what it’s like to have power, but you don’t know what it’s like to have your powers taken from you. I know both worlds. You will not take this power from me.”
“What makes you think that was what we were planning to do?” Rafner said, his throat quivering. He took in a slow breath to regain his composure.
“I don’t know anything about what happened in the East. Stop interrogating me about it. Now, if you don’t mind, I have somewhere to be.”
Rather than walk out the door, Roman turned to his left. A doorway formed in the wall and pressed through each of the rooms until he saw the light of the setting sun.
He knew it was a dramatic way to go, but he felt more empowered than he had ever felt before. In a way, he was daring them to try to do something.
Roman stepped into the next room. With a flick of his wrist, his ankle bracelet fell to the floor, melting into a puddle of plastic and metal.
Just as he was making his way into the following room, Ava called after him.
“Where are you going?”
“To the bodega.” He paused, turning back to her. “I’m supposed to come in early tonight to cover part of someone’s shift.”
She shook her head. “Are you serious right now?”
Roman bit his lip. “I don’t want to be interrogated anymore. I just want to be left alone.”
“You have your power back,” she started to say, looking over her shoulder at Rafner, whom Roman could no longer see.
“Aware,” Roman said, “but…”
“You don’t have to go back.”
“I just need some time to think. You know how to get in touch with me.”
And with that, Roman turned away again, walking through every room until he came to an exit point of the facility.
From there, he made it to a tall fence, where he formed a hole large enough for him to walk through. He came to a street, not yet able to recognize which part of Centralia he was in.
It didn’t matter.
The teleporter came as soon as he called for her and took Roman back to his apartment.
Chapter Three: Return
Roman stood before his dolls, his hands twitching.
“Coma.” As her name left his lips, the masked doll in the black dress came alive, a smile forming on her face.
“You did it,” she said, running to Roman and jumping into his arms. She wrapped her legs around him and Roman took a step back, surprised at her reaction.
“I’m so happy to see you,” she said, hugging him, resting her head between his neck and his shoulder.
“I’m so happy to see you as well,” he told her in a trembling voice. He swallowed hard, eventually letting Coma down and turning his attention to Celia.
“How do you think she will react?” he asked.
Coma shrugged, a smile still on her face.
“Celia.”
The redheaded doll came alive and immediately brought her hand to her face. She started to breathe heavily as if she were going to cry, and Roman went to her instead of Celia coming to him.
He helped her stand, the doll wobbly at first, her knees shaking.
They strengthened relatively quickly. Celia lifted her arms around Roman’s shoulders and pulled him in, kissing him.
“You did it,” she said. “You brought us back.”
“I still can’t believe it…” Roman felt like he was viewing all of this from the outside. He started to feel lightheaded and then sucked in a deep breath, realizing he hadn’t been breathing.
“How did you do it?” Celia asked.
“I’ll explain it to all three of you,” Roman said, looking at his final doll. “Casper.”
“It is about damn time,” Casper said mere seconds after blinking her eyes open. She stood, placing both hands on her sides. She was in a black outfit, her cat-ear headband squarely on her head. “Ewww… Don’t tell me we’ve been on this couch in this creepy apartment this entire time?”
“You have.”
Still feeling lightheaded, Roman moved to the green sofa. Casper made way for him and Celia immediately sat in his lap.
“How long have we been out?” Casper asked.
“A month.”
“Wow,” said Coma, who now stood by the side of the couch. Her hand naturally fell on Roman’s arm and squeezed it.
He shook his head, still not able to process that he actually had his power back, that he was his true self again.
And literally.
This time he didn’t need someone else’s power to enact his own. It had still taken being tortured by a telepath to spur his ability, but at least it was his now, something that couldn’t be taken away from him.
“And you didn’t even change our clothing?” Casper asked.
“He changed my dress,” Celia said in her happy voice.
“And that’s how we know he’s a pervert,” Casper said, laughing.
“How is it that you have only been alive for a minute and I’m already ready to deactivate you?”
Casper blew raspberries at Roman. “You know you missed me.”
“I did,” he said, extending his hand to her.
Casper ran up his hand to his shoulder. She took a few steps over to his cheek and kissed him.
“Don’t get used to it. And how did you do it anyway? Did your shitty government finally give you your power back?” the tiny doll asked.
Roman explained what had happened, how his power had just come to him and how he had nearly leveled the room.
Celia gasped. “And they let you go?”
“I t
hink they knew better than to force me to stay,” Roman told her. “If anyone had tried to do anything in that room, I would have exploded all their hearts and brains.”
“I love it when you talk dirty,” Casper said, now sitting on Roman’s shoulder.
“You know what I mean. They were attempting to extract information from me, information I do not have.”
“What do they want to know?” Celia asked, moving even closer to Roman.
“They want to know what happened in the East, and to be honest, I don’t know.”
“You don’t remember?” Coma asked.
“You hardly gave me life over there, and even I can remember what happened,” Casper commented.
“Is that so?”
Roman squinted for a minute, trying to recall what could have possibly happened.
The days he had spent in the Eastern Province were a complete blur, as if he had been intoxicated the entire time. He had a strange feeling that knowing the information wouldn’t help very much, which was odd.
His normal instinct would have been to ask Casper to tell him what had happened. But instead, he suppressed this urge.
“So, you got your powers back and you immediately came back here to get your plastic posse, not to be confused with your plastic pussy…”
“Plastic pussy?” Coma asked, shaking her head.
“You never did appreciate my humor!”
“I’m going to work now,” Roman told them, “and you three can come with me.”
“Where do you work?” Celia asked, a sparkle in her eyes as she looked at Roman.
“At a bodega.”
“Ha! You went from being a relatively well-paid administrator to a guy who works at a bodega?” Casper clucked.
“Unfortunately, yes. And tonight will be my last night. But I told them I would come in to help out, and I’m going to actually stick to my word this time. Besides, with my powers, most of the tasks I have to do will be relatively easy. Also, I need to get some money from the register so I can replicate it.”
“Figures. I knew there was something in it for you.” Casper walked down his shoulder and slid into the palm of his hand. From there, she walked across Celia’s lap and then Roman’s, making her way to the armrest.
House of Dolls 4 Page 3