Curse of the Fallen - 12. Chapter Twelve: Psycho Boy and Ghost Girl

Chapter Twelve: Psycho Boy and Ghost Girl

Though Aaron hadn’t been looking forward to it he knew he had to scan Jake. His only saving grace was that the lunatic was still heavily sedated.

Sitting down in a black leather high-backed chair by the lighten fireplace he let Jon wheel Jake within arms’ reach.

Aaron nervously poked Mr. Peters. It seemed childish but he wanted to make sure Jake was really out of it. When he was as sure as he could be that Jake wasn’t about to attack him, Aaron took Jake’s hands in his and gazed into the man’s past.

Just as he guessed what he saw wasn’t pleasant.

He had heard rumors of the prison hospital known as the Reformatory. It was a mental institution which served as a prison for those with the Talent who were deemed too dangerous to be let loose on the general public.

At least that had been its original function.

These days the Reformatory was home to Talented and Untalented whose present state of mind was considered inconvenient. Though Aaron didn’t know it, Grandma Mays had died there under troubling circumstances.

By probing inside Jake’s mind Aaron relived every nightmarish psychic violation with his sanity his only protection. The memories were so jumbled together trying to create a timeline was near impossible. What Aaron needed to do was track down the memories of Jake’s life before he was put into the institution.

After thirty minutes had passed, which inside Jake’s mind seemed like days Aaron gave up. There was too much chaos, too much flotsam and jetsam to recreate Jake’s past.

As he withdrew his hands they were grabbed by Jake. “Welcome to my nightmare.” He whispered. “Welcome to my nightmare!” He said again this time with a shouted as he exploded into manic laughter. “Welcome to my nightmare!” He said again this time sobbing. “Welcome to my nightmare.” He whispered as the Graft gave him another shot.

“Sorry about that. Should’ve stopped you,” the Graft apologized.

“It was bad but not that bad. I take it you know his past,” Aaron asked.

“Yes.” Gordon sat down before the fire. “He is what you call an Illusionist. A sort of mental Talent that can make you see things that aren’t real.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to be around an insane man who can make you see things?” Blair asked.

“He wasn’t always insane,” the Graft replied. “Don’t get me wrong he was never what you would call a nice man. He was, and still is a wanted criminal.”

“You mean he is a Blipper?” Jon asked.

Aaron’s brow furrowed “A Blipper?” He had never heard the term before.

“Street-slang. A Blipper is a blip who cons members of the Elected. Sam and I would often pretend we were a pair of rascally Blippers when we were kids. Sort of like cops and robbers. Some are also true rebels wanting to bring down the Houses.”

Gordon shook his head. “Jake isn’t either of those. Blippers don’t kill unless their cornered and have no other choice. Jake here did otherwise… he killed most his victims because it was the easiest thing for him to do. The bastard also got a kick out of scaring people into jumping off the roofs of build or shooting themselves in the head.”

“If that’s the case why is he here when we don’t want his kind on our side?” Aaron asked.

“But you do.” Gordon took a poker from the nearby stand and poked it in the fire, creating a cloud of sparks. “The Order and the Coven will do whatever it takes to win. They have hundreds of Talents just as immoral and blood thirsty as Jake but we need only one.”

“So we have to stoop to their level to win?” Aaron didn’t like the sound of that.

“We need them to think we will or they won’t take us seriously.” Gordon replied. “Yes I know all you think I’m insane expecting you to work with him but once the man was a genius, an amoral one, yes, but he used to be the head of the Blip Underground. With us he could do so again.”

“And kill innocent people to help him do that?” Aaron felt his temper rising.

Dane raised a hand to draw their attention. “Now look here… I might not be the brightest blub in the room but from what I know bad men tend not to associate themselves with good honest folk. What I mean to say is we are most likely to be shooting bad guys than the local sheriff.”

“That would be the case.” The Graft agreed.

“That may be the case but given his present state of mind the most he can do for us is be used as dead weight.” Jon kick one of the chair’s wheels. When Jake didn’t respond Jon felt he had proved his point.

“That’s where you come in Aaron. With your mixed Talent you might be able to piece his sanity back together.” The Graft gave Aaron one of his award winning grins.

“We will discuss this later.” Aaron said sternly making it clear the conversation was over.

Halley, the only one Aaron hadn’t done a reading tapped Blair on the shoulder making it clear it was her turn. Once she was seated she held out her hands. “Promise you will be gentle.”

“If anything Aaron is too gentle.” Jon said reassuringly.

Aaron took her hands in his and began. He had barely let his thoughts probe her mind when it lashed out at him. If he had not been in physical contact with her he would have felt nothing. With his hands in hers however he had no defense. It attacked his mind like the striking of a barbed whip. He let out a mental scream of pain as whatever was attacking him burned into his skull.

When they saw the blood dripping from Aaron’s eyes everyone jumped back. Everyone but Jon that is. Like a wide tackle he charged into Aaron and knocked him to the floor. As he rightly guessed whatever Halley had been doing to his lover could be stopped by breaking physical contact.

Holding Aaron was like embracing a shaking wooden beam. His skin had developed a bluish tint. With his clothes soaked with cold sweat his body trembled. Jon knew he had to warm Aaron up.

While everyone watched he tore off Aaron’s clothes and wrapped him around his body. Using his physical Talent Jon heated his body up by a dozen degrees. When he felt the pressure of Aaron tighten his body around him Jon looked down. Aaron had his face buried against his chest. When Jon tried to check his eyes to see if the bleeding had stopped Aaron buried his head deeper against his body.

Jon was enraged. If he hadn’t heated himself up to warm Aaron his desire to kill Halley would already been burning in his veins. He wanted to kill her but he could not leave Aaron so helpless.

It didn’t matter really. The Graft, seeing his prized employee hurt had forced him to act. He grabbed Halley by the throat. “What, by god’s name, did you do to him?”

“I…” Clawing at the fingers wrapped around her throat she choked on her words. Seeing she meant to speak Gordon grudgingly let go. Falling hard to the ground she had the wind knocked out of her before she could take a breath. When she tried to gasp for air she choked to breathe in. It was as if the fall had cut off two-thirds of her lungs from her body. Forced to take shallow breaths. “I…I didn’t do it.”

“The hell you didn’t.” The Graft was about to attack when he felt a weak hand grab him by the wrist.

The person holding it was Aaron. “Not…” He stammered. “Not her fault.” His face was red with blood with his free arm wrapped around his eyes.

“What the hell? Did she brainwash you? I saw what happened.” Jon went over to Aaron and let him burying his face against him.

“Not inside my head.” Aaron whispered. The mental attack had left him in a state he had never had the misfortune of experiencing before. “I need to sit down.”

Jon quickly pushed a chair beside Aaron. “Here.” He helped Aaron to sit down.

“Can you get my spare goggles from my bag?” Aaron asked John.

“Of course.”

Once Jon was back and Aaron had his goggles over his blood stained eyes he faced Halley and whispered; “How long has that thing been inside you.”

Halley brushed her fingers where the Graft had grabbed her. “I don’t know.”

“Yes you do.” While the contact had been terrible, Aaron sensed how terrified Halley had been when the thing inside her lashed out.

“I was four. My father took me to where he grew up to see my grandmother. I’d never met her before. Mom had died a little while back so I had looked forward to the trip. If I had known… Jesus. I don’t like talking about this shit.”

“I must insist.” Aaron, usually the gentle sort was being very stern with Halley.

“It happened the first night we arrived. People grabbed and tied me up. They put a potato sack or something over my face so I don’t know where they took me. Wherever it was it was by a well. I remember that because once they took off the hood they threw me down it.

I remember screaming for my father but he either wasn’t there or didn’t care. They all looked down at me waiting for something to happen. There was something in that well and it attacked me. It forced itself into me through my belly button and it’s been with me ever since. I don’t know what it is or what it is doing to me but it’s killed before… a few of them were among my best friends. It doesn’t always attack and sometimes I forget it’s even there. It hasn’t done anything like what just happened in years. I was beginning to think I could try to live a normal life but now I don’t think it will ever go away. It will keep on killing and there is nothing I can do about it.

“I can think of a few things that might help.” Jon began to reach for the gun he always kept on him. He was going to shoot first and not bother asking any more questions later.

Aaron however waved him back. “Does it control you?” He asked.

“No… yes… It’s not that simple. It is the one who hurts others. I mean to say it attacks on its own so doesn’t need to force me to. It can… it can force me to do other things like keep its existence secret. I am only able to talk this freely because it just attack you. Whenever it does attacks it weakens it and I can say what I want and it can’t stop me. I won’t be able to do so after a week or so. It will grow strong again and will try again to force me to do what it wants.”

“And you brought this thing to us?” Jon asked Gordon.

“She comes from a very powerful family. Her father…”

“Her father probably was the one who did this to her. Ever think of that?” Jon had his gun now aimed at the Graft.

“Believe what you want Jon but I didn’t know. Hell… have any of you heard of a mind controlling parasite that can do what it did to Aaron.”

Dane suggested they kill her. There’s no telling which one of them might be next. Aaron was against it. Now that he knew the danger he won’t let the thing get past his defenses a second time. Jon for his part was iffy about what to do. If Aaron said it wouldn’t happen again then Jon would like to believe him. Then again this was Aaron he was talking about, a young man who makes a habit of putting himself in danger. The twins were against killing her. Blair didn’t care one way or another.

The Graft didn’t know what should be done. Talent or no Halley did come from a very powerful family. Her father might be a monster for what he did to his girl which made Gordon more worried as to what would happened if they were to kill her. “We mustn’t do anything rash. If she can keep that thing under control then it would be suicide for us to kill her. I say we give Aaron the responsibility of keeping her in check.”

Blair agreed. “Fine by me.”

“I guess so.” Dane said grudgingly. He went over to Aaron. Placing a hand on a shoulder he noticed how stiff he was. Dang you’re as hard as a corpse.”

“No need reminding me.” When Aaron tried to roll his shoulders everyone heard an audible creak.

The Graft stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. “You’re in need of a full body massage my friend.”

“Not by you.” Aaron hadn’t forgotten how Gordon had sold his contract to Calvin.

“What he needs is a good rubdown from an honest southern gent.” Dane took off his hat and placed it over his chest. “I would be greatly honored if you were to let yours truly see to you needs.”

Jon arched an eyebrow. He was certain Dane was more interested in seeing to his own needs in regards to his lover. It was Aaron’s decision however.

Still not certain who or what the cowboy was Aaron nodded and took the offered hand. Some time alone with each other might shine new light into the mystery known as Dane Winship.

The rest of the group soon broke up. The twins went to the room they shared to talk among themselves while Blair, Gordon, and Calvin went back to the library to discuss future plans. Jon was tempted to follow. Knowing they wouldn’t care for his two-cents he didn’t bother. That left only Jake and Halley. With Jake still sedated he went over to Halley and offered her his hand. “Don’t worry I don’t bite.”

Halley didn’t take it. “But my unwanted guest does.”

“But as you said he’s all tuckered out for the night, right?”

“It is.” Halley didn’t like the idea that the thing was a he or she. To her it would always be an ‘IT’ a cold, unfeeling thing that was the bane of her existence. To give it a sexual identity would humanize in a way she didn’t want to think about.

“Good, because I have tons of questions I want to ask and don’t want to worry about it stopping you from answering them.

The two went outside to talk under the stars.