Fourth Birth: The Oakmont Saga, Book 1

“Subject 32145, Melanie Brager, I’m Doctor Nerim Percoli. We’ve brought you here because there’s something unique in your brain that we need to try and understand. We’ll do a few tests, nothing that’ll hurt, I promise, and then you can return to your room. Okay?” he said. I nodded, acting timid and scared, which wasn’t really an act since I was terrified.

They had me climb onto a table with places for my arms and legs to go. The table was formed in the shape of the human body, it was metal, and was very cold to my exposed legs and arms. There were straps on the arm and leg places to hold someone down. Oddly, the back was completely exposed, I supposed so they could work on someone’s back if they needed to.

Once I was on the table, the doctor took my arm, which caused me to flinch. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you. All I’m going to do is give you an IV so we can administer a solution to get a better image of your brain. Once the solution is inside you, it’ll take about thirty minutes to permeate your system so we can take the images. When we’re done with that, we’ll bring you to a waiting room while we examine the images and see if there’s anything else we need before sending you back to your room,” he assured me, with a friendly smile.

I was afraid to use my telepathy to scan them, but at the same time I was worried about what they were really wanting to do with me. I decided to wait for now, since this guy was probably just here to do what he said. He wasn’t making the decisions. His voice was familiar, and I thought he was one of the voices from my visions, but not one of the meaner sounding ones.

He was very good at placing the IV, and it really didn’t hurt much, other than a small pinch when he set it in my arm. He then hooked me up to a bag with a cloudy fluid in it. As it was dripping and running into my veins, another doctor came in, examined the IV tube and then lifted it, injecting something into it. Two more men come in as he did this and strapped my arms and legs down, then put a strap over my forehead and some kind of a clamp to the sides of my head.

I got really nervous and reached into his mind. What I found totally terrified me. He had injected something to disable my telepathy. I didn’t even know they had something specifically for that. Desperate, not knowing how much time I had left, I sent a probe out to Aliyah hoping I’d make it in time.

When I found her, she opened herself to me immediately. Without any hesitation, or thought about hurting her, I sent everything I could about what was happening to me, everything about Mr. Ciansa and what he was doing for us. Feeling the connection beginning to get weak, I yelled, “Get out, now!” Before she could reply, or I could say anything else, my connection just faded away, like it dissolved into nothing. I felt Aliyah trying to grab it, but she couldn’t.

“Now, we can do things properly, without any concern about you looking into my mind. Yes, we know exactly how long it takes for this to work. We also believe that our telepathic blocks may not work with you. That’s just speculation right now, but we’ll take no chances,” he informed me.

“I know Dr. Percoli told you we were only going to take some images, but Dr. Trasker’s decided to accelerate things. You’re different than any other telepath we’ve produced and we want to know why. First, we need to know what you’re capable of, so we’re going to ask questions and you’re going to give us honest answers. Do you understand?”

I nodded, but knew I wasn’t going to tell him anything. He made no acknowledgement of my agreement. Instead, he reached down, and I felt the pressure as he touched my shirt, then the cool air as he began unbuttoning it. When he was done, he looked at it a moment, then picked up a pair of scissors. The cold metal touched my arm, as he cut the sleeves, rather than go through the trouble of removing it properly. Unfortunately, what he did brought up a lot of really bad memories, which began rampaging through my mind, and I started shaking uncontrollably.

He seemed completely unconcerned with my panicked state. Closing my eyes, hoping to block everything out, my terror was ratcheted up several degrees as I felt him unbutton and then remove my skirt, picking my bottom up to do so.

Still keeping my eyes closed, I felt small cold touches all over my body. Opening my eyes, and looking at what he was doing, I saw little metal disks stuck to me, in various places, all over my body. He didn’t leave much of my body untouched by these things. Waves of panic and terror shot through me in ever greater degrees as he began placing them inside my underwear, as well. I was shaking violently, by the time he seemed to be done with the little disks. After examining his work for a minute, he hooked wires to each of the disks.

“Now, I will give you my instructions again. You will answer my questions with an honest answer. Do you understand?” Again, I nodded.

He pressed a button and a very painful shock came into my right hand. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

He smiled at my answer. “That’s better. Now, your first question. When did you start hearing people’s thoughts, the voices?”

“On the way here, in the van with Mrs. Trulin,” I replied, remembering what I told her. He pressed a button and this time there was a shocking pain to my stomach area, much worse than the pain in my hand.

“You must tell me the truth.”

“I don’t hear voices!” He shocked me again, but this time, there were many different shocks at different times, moving over my entire body like a wave. The last one was in my cheek and it went on for a long time, at least it seemed to. When it finally stopped, my cheeks were twitching and I couldn’t stop them. I hurt all over from the shock and tears were running from my eyes.

What scared me the most was that he’d just started and I was already almost willing to tell him anything to stop this. As much as it hurt, I knew I needed to try and fight it, though. My fighting might help save Aliyah, maybe.

“Subject 32145, we’re aware of what these idiots at Oakmont think they know. We know better, but we want to hear it from you. You’ll tell us what we already know, or your suffering will only get worse”, he said, pressing the button and sending waves of pain over my body again. The headaches from the attacks were still much more severe, but this was spread all over me.

The torture went on for a long time, at least it felt like a long time, and I managed to resist giving him any real answers. I almost couldn’t tell where the pain was anymore, and he’d barely begun. It just hurt. As it went on, I began to wonder which was worse, the headaches, or this.

“You refuse to answer my questions, but that’s alright. We’ll get the answers. I think we’ll try something a little different,” he said, and picked up a syringe, placing it into the little place on the IV for doing that.

He pushed something blue in and within seconds I felt like my entire body was engulfed in flame. The pain was excruciating and there was nothing to relieve it. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought my skin was melting off. With this added pain, it now far exceeded the pain of the headaches, or the shocks.

Through my agony a voice came. “When did you first start hearing the voices?” it asked in a dreamy kind of way.

For some reason, I felt like I wanted to answer this voice and tell it what it wanted to know. It sounded nice and friendly, but there was something in me that wanted to fight it for some reason. Why wouldn’t I just give in to it and answer the stupid question? It really didn’t matter that much. I was sure Mrs. Wilde already knew, mostly.

“You need to tell me when you started hearing the voices,” the voice insisted. Oddly, that insistence hardened me to it and I started resisting the voice and the compulsion to answer it.

“When did you start hearing the voices?” it asked, yet again.

“When I was fourteen,” I replied, hating myself for being so sarcastic and disrespectful.

There was a new pain. It started at my chest, but moved down, and into my middle. The pain there was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It felt like I had to go to the bathroom, but it was liquid fire coming out. I screamed, my throat hurting from the harshness of it.

The voice asked more times, but it all became a blur. I didn’t think I gave the voice what it wanted, but I wasn’t sure. After what seemed like days, maybe even weeks, the feeling of the fire burning on my skin seemed to start dying out with no other questions having been asked. Why did that one question mean so much to them?

The doctor was still sitting there looking at me, with an odd quirk of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “You’re a challenge. I like a challenge.”

I wasn’t sure if he expected a response, because I was completely spent. There was no energy left in me and the lingering pain, both from the shock thing and the fire feeling, had me shaking so much my teeth were rattling. I thought there was even drool coming out of my mouth, but I wasn’t positive.

My throat hurt from the screaming, and the place where I went to the bathroom was still on fire, and stinging really bad.

“What’s your name?”

“Melanie Brager,” I managed to get out, through my shaking.

“That’s your old name. What’s your new name?”

“I only have that name,” I replied, confused, the shaking beginning to ease up a little.

“Hmm,” he mumbled and pressed a button, sending a wave of shocking pain through me. When it stopped, he stood up and looked down at me.

“Your name is subject 32145, do you understand?”

“Yes,” I mumbled.

“Very good.”

Sitting back down, he asked, “What is your name?” I knew what he wanted, but I still had at least a little fight left in me and I knew who I was. It surprised me that I still did, on both counts.

“Melanie—,” I started, but the shock pulsed across my body, stopping anything else.

“What’s your name?”

“Mel—,” and the shock stopped me again.

“What-is-your-name?” he asked, emphasizing each word.

The pain was too much. I hurt everywhere and there was an odd shake in my arms and legs that wouldn’t stop now. Knowing I couldn’t go on, I finally gave him what he wanted.

“Subject 32145,” I said, tears pouring from my eyes because I knew I’d broken, barely into my torture. I was weak, a failure, like I’d always been. “I’m subject 32145,” I wailed, the sobbing making my voice almost unintelligible.

“When did you start hearing the voices,” he asked, after a few minutes. Trying to build up my spirit, at least a little, I continued to fight though.

“In the van—,” and the shock stopped me from continuing. It went longer than it had before and hurt worse, including in my peepee spot.

He stood up and put some stuff in the IV again, and like last time, it was only a couple seconds before I felt like my skin had been lit on fire, but it seemed more intense than the last time. My concentration was gone and it was like I was seeing just the little spot right in front of my eyes.

“When did you start hearing the voices?” the voice asked. My world was getting very blurry, nothing making sense anymore.

“I think when I was ten years old,” I replied, very dreamily. The shock feeling started coming through the fire feeling, raising my pain level to an unimaginable height. I’d had headaches that were worse...or had I? I couldn’t remember anymore. I think this was worse, but I wasn’t sure. I knew though, this was spread out over my entire body and I couldn’t move to try and rub it or anything. There was no relief.

When the pain of the added shock ended, the voice asked again, “When did you start hearing the voices?”

That urge to answer the voice was stronger than it had been. Why didn’t I trust the voice? It sounded so nice and friendly.

As I was about to answer, the shock returned, worse than even the time before and longer. After a moment of that new level of pain, it got worse. It hit my lower areas again, but this time, so much worse. Again, I screamed. At that point, they could have asked anything and I’d tell them.

“When did you start hearing the voices?”

“First grade,” I replied, without any hesitation this time. As soon as the words left my mouth, the feeling of betrayal and complete failure hit me like a sledgehammer. I promised Daddy I wouldn’t tell them and I had broken my promise, my word. I screamed in frustration and anger, mostly at myself. My failure was absolute now.

The one good thing that came of this was that the pain stopped, other than the feeling on my skin of the constant fire. At least, I thought it had stopped.

“What skills have you learned since then?”

“I can hear thoughts and stop from hearing thoughts,” I replied, hoping that was enough for them. I was still trying to keep myself from giving them everything, although the urge was there to do just that to make the nightmare end. I knew it wouldn’t though.

“What else?”

“Nothing,” I replied, hoping the voice would believe me. The shock returned, yet again worse than before, and longer. I didn’t think it was possible, but the feeling that my skin was on fire intensified at the same time. I wanted to cut out the lower area of my body, it hurt so bad, and there was nothing I could do to make it stop. Actually, there was. I only had to tell them what they wanted to know, and it would all end.

“What else?”

“I can see probes and I’m trying to learn to block them. I can talk to people in their minds and send images to people,” I told it, giving them all of the telepathy skills I had, no longer willing to fight.

“What’s your name?”

Remembering my new name, I replied, “Subject 32145.” There was a pause, before the voice returned.

“You’re going to be released from this place now. When you wake up you’ll answer all questions truthfully. If you don’t, we’ll know and you’ll be returned here. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I replied, shaking and crying at the thought of coming back to this place. I wasn’t sure how long it was, but I started returning to the real world, at least I assumed it was real. There was a doctor beside the table looking at me. He lifted my eyelids and poked my body in places and did other things. None of it completely registered with me, the lingering pain still fresh in my mind, especially down below.

“What’s your name?” the doctor asked.

“Subject 32145,” I intoned without any hesitation. He looked at his clipboard and then wrote something down. I felt really little, and not physically, saying this new name. I was ashamed of myself, because I knew it was who I was now. There was nothing I could do to make it end. This was who I was, from then on. I just prayed that Aliyah got out.

“Until we can fit you with an inhibitor, you’ll have to remain on the IV to stop your abilities. We’ll continue this tomorrow,” he said, and walked toward the door.

When he got there, he turned the light off, leaving me in complete darkness and alone once the door closed behind him. After the initial terror of being left in a dark room, I noticed a beeping sound, but it wasn’t on a regular pattern. It was very intermittent and changed tone from one beep to the next.

The sounds wouldn’t let me sleep, changing in frequency, tone and volume every time I started to drift off, waking me back up. I screamed off and on through the night, terrified of being alone and in the dark and the beeping sound driving me crazy. I began seeing things in the darkness, and knew James was coming for me, probably with all of the high school boys, wanting to take their turns with me. By the morning, my throat was raw and I was almost delirious.

“What’s your name?” a voice asked, bringing me back to partial wakefulness.

“Subject 32145,” I responded automatically, thankful to finally not be alone.

“When did you start hearing the voices?”

“Fourth grade,” I responded, not sure why I gave a different answer. I didn’t want to go back to that place again and I didn’t want them to turn the lights off...or leave me alone.

The shock surged through me and I screamed. “When did you start hearing the voices?”

“Second grade, maybe,” I replied. Again, the shock surged through me, a little worse than before, which was a little worse than the last one yesterday, or whenever it was. I wasn’t really sure what time or what day it was.

“First grade, I think,” I yelled out, wanting it to end, and hoping that was the right answer. I was at the point where I’d do anything to make the pain end. My fight was gone and I knew it, and they knew it too. Nothing else happened immediately, so I must have gotten it right.

“Have you taken anything that increased your telepathic strength?”

“Yes...I think so.”

“What was it?”

“It had X6 written on it.”

“How was it given to you?”

“James poured it into me and forced me to drink it.”

“Do you know if anyone else has taken this serum?”

I wanted to say no, but I couldn’t. I nodded my head, ashamed of myself, whispering, “Aliyah.” My failure was complete. I had betrayed Daddy, and now my only friend.

There were no more questions, and finally, my vision started coming back. I hadn’t realized it was gone until light came into my eyes again. There were several different people moving around in the room. Some women and some men. All of them were wearing doctor type coats.

“We need fluid samples from the liver and kidneys. Maybe we can get some traces of the serum that was ingested. Scrape the stomach as well,” one of the people said.

“Yes, doctor,” I heard. I was scared of what he told them to do, but I was more scared of being shocked again, or even worse, the fire feeling.

The man that was standing on my right moved away, and was replaced by a woman holding a syringe with a very long and big needle. As soon as she was over me, she jabbed the needle into my stomach, moving it around a lot to find what she was looking for. I screamed with the pain before she started drawing fluid into the syringe. That hurt worse than the jab did, and I couldn’t even scream it hurt so much.

She pulled it out and picked up another one, leaving me whimpering on the table. This time, she lifted the table, like it was one of those adjustable beds and moved behind me, lifting it further. I felt like I was being flattened, she had pushed it so far forward. I then felt another jab in my back, almost as painful as the first one and then the pain when she started drawing the fluid into it.

She came back to my front side, leaving me angled up and pried my mouth open with a weird wedge thing. It hurt and I thought she was going to rip my lips apart. Finally happy with my position, she stuck a tool down my throat, not concerned with my breathing, which was badly restricted from what she was doing. It felt like she was scraping my throat all the way down to my stomach. The pain was bad, but not as bad as the fluid taken from my liver and kidneys. Done with her sample collecting, she took her tools and left me alone, whimpering on the table, still bent in half.

“Ah, here is my prize subject,” the doctor from yesterday said, coming into my view. “You really are an incredible test subject. We’ve never had one develop skills that early,” he told me and returned me to a flat position. Trying to think back to what I said, I knew I gave him too much, but I already knew I’d tell them anything they wanted, to avoid the pain. I’d already proven that by betraying Aliyah.

“What we’re going to do next is a series of exercises to see what you’re capable of. This might hurt a little, but it’ll help us see your full potential, even if you haven’t developed certain skills yet. Remember, this is for science, so don’t hold anything back. You’re going to be a big help in advancing our understanding of telepathic potential in the human species,” he said, excited with what he was doing.

A woman came over and started removing all of the little disks taped to me. She then used a pair of scissors to remove the last piece of clothing I had. None of the men left the room while she did this, which should have made me cringe, but I was too numb by then.

Once done with this latest humiliation, she picked me up and set me in a wheelchair and pushed me to another room with another table that had straps. She placed me on the table, then secured the straps.

Once I was secure, a man came in and started lifting my lips, looking at my gums. He then did the same with my eyelids and poked me in the ribs. He touched places on my neck and then all over my body, not leaving a single spot on my body untouched. Once done with that, he had me swallow and breath short and deep breaths every now and then.

“Everything seems normal, doctor,” he said.

“Alright, let’s begin. Subject 32145, we’re going to train you to get angry when we need you to. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Several people began putting different things on me, just like the metal disks. I was scared, or rather, I was terrified, and they had to know. I was shaking very bad. No one said a word, though.

“Good, first let’s try something simple. You’re a stupid little girl,” he said, when they finally finished. I almost laughed at him. I probably would have if my mind hadn’t been so numb.

“You’re ugly,” he said, still getting no response from me.

“Your mother is ugly and stupid,” he said after a moment of writing on some clipboard he was holding. “Your father is a useless idiot,” he said after a moment more.

He continued with many more insults for quite a while, usually insulting me, my beauty, or lack thereof and how stupid I was, but nothing made even the slightest difference to me. All he was doing was reinforcing what I generally thought about myself already, regardless of what Mrs. Renault and Mrs. Wilde had almost convinced me of.

“Simple insults are ineffective.” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or someone else. Other statements about my parents, my family, my home and many other things were said, almost randomly, it seemed. Although the ones about my family hurt and made me a little mad, they didn’t accomplish what they were looking for and I didn’t give any outward response to them.

“You know, we’re here to make you a better person. You need to work with us.” This time my anger was touched, although nowhere near enough for what they wanted, but there was a long pause after they said that, as if they were shocked they got a reaction.

“This program will make you a valuable asset for the security of your country.” My anger was beginning to rise, regardless of how much I wanted to fight it. “You can’t become a good person without our help.” That’s all it took. My vision became red and a moment later, I felt that click. The pain shot through my head and body, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d felt it in the past. I had thought I was done with these attacks, since I hadn’t had one in so long. Guess I was wrong.

Sometime later, I started waking up to voices around me. “The subject is recovering. Amazingly short recovery time. Try again and see if we can decrease the response time. Let’s also see if we can alter the wording and improve the response.”

They started saying things to me again, and as much as I tried to not get mad, they succeeded. I didn’t know how long it took them, but they caused me to have another attack and then another and another.

When they finally stopped pushing me to have attacks, I had them at a single command. They said, “The government makes you stronger” and I had another attack. It was really scary and I hurt so much I couldn’t really think. A woman wearing a doctor’s coat wiped the blood off of me with a wet cloth.

Just thinking the command, I had another attack. When I woke up, the woman was still standing over me. “Doctor, she’s having them spontaneously now,” the woman said.

“Administer Seropenamine,” he ordered.

“Yes, doctor,” she replied and a moment later she injected something bright red into my IV, which immediately caused me to feel very relaxed.

She put me back on the table I was on last night, strapping me down and left, turning the light off. I was left alone again. This time, I didn’t scream. My mind was too dead and I thought the drug had me too relaxed. I had several more attacks during the night, my mind remembering their command and triggering them. When morning came, I was awake and watched with only the slightest interest as she unstrapped me.

I had no concept of day or night anymore. I had decided that when they left me for long periods in the dark, it must be night and when they came back it must be morning.

That morning, they returned and injected something into the IV tube that looked a lot like orange soda. Within a few moments, there was a feeling that went from my head to my toes unlike anything I’d ever felt. It was a good feeling I couldn’t have imagined existed. The world felt good for the first time I could remember, ever.

“Now, tell us every skill you have,” a voice said.

“I can do a lot of math and science, including Physics. Maybe a little chemistry too. I like Physics though,” I said, wanting to tell them everything about me.

“No, tell us about your telepathic abilities,” the voice said.

“Oh, that,” I replied, dreamily.

“Well, I can hear your thoughts and I can put pictures in your mind. One time I made some people do what I wanted. I’m not sure how I did that, though. Hearing your thoughts is kind of like listening to the TV and I can turn off the TV if I want. Sometimes I can talk to you, if you listen really good,” I told the voice.

“You mean you can talk mind to mind?” the voice asked.

“Yep. I can also block you from coming into my mind. I want to dodge probes, but I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Have you read the mind of any of your teachers here at Oakmont,” the voice asked, sounding really curious.

“Yep, but not many times. I don’t like to do it and I’m scared they’ll get mad at me,” I told the voice.

Why had I told the voice all of this? I thought I wasn’t going to, but everything felt so good. The whole world was so beautiful and these people were so nice. I didn’t know when it happened, but I fell asleep. I think I answered more of the voices questions, but I really couldn’t remember.

“You’re telling us everything because we gave you SHD. It’s a derivative solution designed to get what we want, once you’ve begun to open up. It also allows you to fully open to your abilities. We’re not ready for that part yet, but we’ll get there. It takes some time for that side of its benefits to manifest. The effects are unfortunately somewhat addictive, but it’s worth the benefit,” someone told me. Why were they telling me this? I didn’t really care.

I woke up again to a woman removing me from the table. She unstrapped my hands and then my legs. I still felt really good, but I could tell it was going away and I was beginning to feel really bad, really fast. I wanted the good feeling back.

“Make me feel good again, please,” I asked the woman. She looked at me, but I couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Couldn’t even tell from her expression. Of course, I really didn’t care right then.

She injected more of the orange soda into my IV and the good feeling returned almost immediately. This happened several more times. I had no idea how long this went on. It could have been minutes, hours, days or even years for all I knew. All I cared about was the orange soda, which they injected in my IV whenever the good feeling started to go away. Unfortunately, the good feeling was beginning to not be there, even when they injected the stuff.

It seemed like forever since the last time she gave me the orange soda, but the woman came and injected more of the orange soda into my IV, making the good feeling come back a little. I looked at the bottle longingly as she pulled the stuff out of it. Why wouldn’t she give me more? That might make me feel better again.

“Give me more, please,” I asked. She looked at me for a moment and injected a tiny bit more, but not enough. Why were they being so stingy with it?

“More, please,” I begged, but this time, she just walked away.

I was getting worried because the good feeling had started to go away, already. After a short while, she returned and injected more of the orange soda into my IV and stood there watching me. Once the feeling came back, she lifted me into a wheelchair and pushed me to another room with weird looking machines and stuff.

What caught my attention, probably because she took me right to it, was an odd looking tank, like a big water tank. It was empty. She took my IV tube, unplugging it from the bag. It had an odd connector on it, which she plugged into the tank wall.

She then lifted me up, putting me in there. Having no fight in me, I complied with everything she did like a toy doll. Of course, I wouldn’t have fought anyway.

Getting me in the tank, she stuck a tube down my throat, which I almost gagged on, but managed not to somehow. She taped the tube down, and also put a pin over my nose, only letting me breathe through the tube. Once I was settled in to her satisfaction, she closed the tank, leaving me standing there alone. I wasn’t really standing as much as I was slumped against the walls of the thing.

A little surge of terror kind of hit me, even through the good feeling, when the tank started filling with liquid. Then I realized I had the tube in my throat, probably to provide me air, and I was happy again.

The liquid wasn’t water, like I expected. As it touched me, I started losing sensation in my body. I wasn’t able to hold myself up anymore by the time it was up to my knees, and I collapsed to the bottom of the tank, banging my head on the side.

It didn’t take long before I was suspended in the liquid, well over my head. My entire body was numb. Before the liquid got to the top of my head, I saw little red spots floating in the liquid. Thinking back to bumping my head, I thought that the red blobs were probably my blood.

As soon as the liquid stopped rising, the lights went out. I felt nothing. There was a complete lack of sensations. Nothingness, unlike anything I could have imagined being possible.

I wanted to scream not long after the light went out. I couldn’t move my limbs, I couldn’t feel anything on my body, I couldn’t hear anything and I couldn’t see anything. This complete lack of sensation reached through the good feeling, making it that much stronger to me.

Not long into this odd world, I started seeing things, at least I thought I was seeing things. Mr. Radnick was standing in front of me, with that kind smile of his. His hands began rubbing on me, very tenderly. He was being very gentle and kind, very deliberately trying not to hurt me. I wasn’t sure if this was real or not, but if it was real I was more than willing to take it over what had been happening to me. I actually welcomed it. The problem was, I couldn’t tell reality from my mind anymore. I blacked out.

When I woke up, James was on top of me and putting the bad images in my mind. I knew I wasn’t dressed, but I had no idea about him, although I could guess. My first thought was to send images to his mind, trying to put feeling into them, like Aliyah told me I could. It didn’t end though, no matter how hard I pushed the images or what images I made, some being really horrible, things I was really ashamed of. I threw up a shield, hoping that would work. It stopped for a little while.

Then it was as if my shields shattered, with excruciating pain. The attack began again, James on top of me, forcing images into my mind and he was about to do something really horrible to me. This time, I knew his pants were off, as I could feel the skin of his leg against mine. I was terrified of that feeling and what was about to happen. Like last time, I prayed to God to save me and even though I couldn’t hear it, I felt the thunderclap and I passed out.

I woke up again, not sure how long I was unconscious, but James was still there. Just as he was before. This time I got an idea, as wild as it was, but I was desperate.

Knowing I wanted this to end once and for all, I wondered if I could use my fire skill to stop him. Hoping this would work, I felt along his probe to where it seemed to originate in his mind. When I found that spot, I sent a burst of energy hoping to cauterize that spot and end his threat. When I felt that surge enter his mind, the images from him ended and the feeling of him on top of me went away.

There was another long pause when that attack was over, which was its own nightmare. The images of James were all in my mind, playing repeatedly again. Somehow, they could plant real feeling stuff in my head and make me believe it. I passed out again as that realization came to me.

When I finally woke up again, the doctors tried to attack me. I wasn’t sure how to stop them and I wasn’t even sure if it was real or not. They came at me with needles and syringes trying to inject me with fire and electricity. Some had little guns that they used to shoot shocking disks at me. As the disks started flying, I had this strange image of little purple spots flashing around me and the disks falling on the ground when they hit my force field.

The purple flashes took a lot of energy and my head started hurting really bad. A flash of pain surged through my head and I blacked out, knowing that the doctors would be able to get me now. My last thought was to get away, and using my mind, I imagined myself in a different place. More energy than I’d ever handled went through my mind. Blackness took me as I became aware that I really was somewhere else, but pain exploded in me removing any further thought of where I might be. I was used to pain though and I let myself go into the blackness.