Fourth Birth: The Oakmont Saga, Book 1

The rest of that week and the next fell into a routine, my classes always boring, with Physics being a constant thorn in my side. At least Mrs. Wilde did manage to get me out of the tutoring with Mrs. Trulin. To make up for it, I started doing more exercise in the afternoon, trying to tone my body and increase my flexibility and endurance, especially my endurance. It also built my strength a little, helping me in Martial Arts. Since I was doing all of the extra exercise, I increased my protein a little to help the muscle growth.

“You’re doing really good work, Melanie,” Coach Hammond said one afternoon, as I was doing my workout.

“I would guess that you’re striving for endurance and maybe flexibility, looking at your workout,” he observed.

“Yes, sir.”

“I think you have a good routine, but if you have any questions or need any help, let me know. It looks like you took my lessons to heart, though,” he said with a smile, then walked off.

He didn’t comment to me again, although he would periodically stop and watch me while I did my exercises. He never even tried to direct my morning exercise again, after that afternoon.

The martial arts class, on the other hand, went against everything I’d ever been taught, and I was beginning to think like they wanted me to. I had begun attacking downed opponents, which I never would’ve done before going there. Of course, I rarely had a downed opponent. The thing that bothered me was, I might need all of that when I was finally ready to escape.

Although it was hard, I started roaming the building, looking to see what there was outside of the normal areas. They didn’t like us going into the old sections of the building, even though they didn’t lock the doors separating us from them, and they’d never actually told me not to.

On one of those walks, a man in military looking clothes stopped me. “What are you doing in this part of the building, young lady?”

“Just walking to pass the time, sir.”

“Well, you really shouldn’t be in this area of the building, but be careful while you are.”

“Thank you sir. I will.”

I headed back to the main area after that, but I did continue my walks into the older areas. I was a lot more careful to see if there were others around, though.

I also started roaming the building at night, after Aliyah was asleep, always being careful to send probes ahead to make sure no one was there. Sending those probes was kind of dangerous, knowing I didn’t want another telepath to find me, so I tried to be as sneaky with them as possible. My hope was that if a telepath was around, they wouldn’t see them, although I was actually pretty sure they’d see them immediately. I wasn’t stupid enough to think I couldn’t be found.

What I began doing was sending them through walls and other things. Oddly, all of the telepaths, including the adults I’d seen use it, seemed to limit themselves to the walls and other objects around them. The probes went through those things, though, as if they weren’t there. That was very odd to me, considering this was a school to teach telepaths how to improve their skill. You’d think they’d know that walls didn’t stop the probes. That was just another advantage I appeared to have, if and when I needed it.

During all of that time, I hadn’t had another seizure, or psychic burst as they called them. That was a wonderful thing, even though my anger had not gone away and my hatred for this place and the people running it had not lessened. They just seemed to have stopped trying to convince me how good it was. For the most part, I was being left alone, which suited me just fine.

Ballet was one of the bright spots for me. I absolutely loved it and was really doing good at it. Even I couldn’t deny how well I had picked it up. I was spending extra time with Mrs. Renault before classes, trying to get smoother at my dance steps and learn the basic things I’d missed. She was eager to help me, which made it a great match.

Another week passed after the meeting with the security man before there was anything different in my life. Unfortunately, the change was not what I would have wanted, which went along with everything else that had ever happened to me in my life.

It was October 6th, and I just finished my Monday ballet class. Since I had gone even earlier than normal and worked a bit harder that day, I didn’t bother changing after class, instead deciding to go to my room and get my stuff for a quick shower before dinner.

I was kind of daydreaming, thinking about the ballet performance again. I knew Mrs. Renault was going to ask me soon if I wanted to do it and I’d pretty much decided that I would, even though I thought she was being too generous to me.

I couldn’t help but see myself as a beautiful ballerina on the stage and I knew I was doing pretty good at the routine, especially since she was spending so much extra time with me. After my afternoon exercise, she’d even been giving me some extra lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, since I didn’t have my tutoring sessions with Mrs. Trulin anymore.

The other girls knew she was paying extra attention to me, and I was pretty sure they knew why. If they didn’t, they were completely oblivious.

Dreaming of the performance, doing it on a big stage in front of lots of people, I was unprepared to suddenly go flying through the air, landing on my chest and face. The punch in the lower back that sent me flying inflicted its own pain, before the landing. The landing was hard, and jarred my head, but the slide on the floor skinned my face up really bad.

Starting to get up, a bit dazed, I felt an incredible explosion of pain in my chest as a foot lifted me off the floor. Slamming back down, unable to breath, my face smashed into the floor, again. As I was trying to get my breath back, I felt someone grab my ponytail and start dragging me down the hall by it.

Drug inside a classroom, with the door closing behind us, I was lifted up by my hair and thrown against the wall. My head hitting the wall so hard brought a short time of blackness as I collapsed on the floor in a heap. When the blackness finally went away, I felt myself lifted up again and turned to face my attacker. In front of me was James, with Chelsea and Richard behind him.

“Little Miss Perfect. You look very pretty in your tutu,” he said, leering at me in a very scary way. Normally, the compliment would’ve made me blush, but from him, it frightened me.

He leaned into me, putting his mouth on my ear. “This is how it’s going to be. You need to learn how things work here, and I’m going to teach you. The older kids rule and you younger kids obey. Understand?”

I knew there was only one answer he expected, and for once, my tongue didn’t run away from me, getting me in more trouble. He put his tongue on my ear when he was done, which sent a shiver of fear through me.

“Yes,” I replied, hearing the trembling of my own voice.

“That’s a good start. Now that you understand how things are, we’re going to let you become a big kid. Would you like that?” he asked, an odd and scary smile on his face.

I was unable to form any response at all, having a pretty good idea what his intention was, although I was still hoping I was wrong.

“Let’s get on with it,” Richard said.

“We will. Don’t get your panties in a wad!” James exclaimed.

“They want us to get the initiation over quickly, but I want us to have fun with it first. So here’s what we’re going to do, just for you. I’m gonna let you see what it’s like, in your mind. I’ll bet you didn’t know I could do that,” he said, grinning at me. His grin made me very uncomfortable. “Of course, you won’t actually feel anything, but we’ll take care of that. Once we’ve gotten you all worked up, we’ll do the real thing.”

With fear gripping my mind, I began trying to squirm out of his grip. “Be still,” he said, and his arm pulled back, then came forward, his fist slamming into my stomach. It was like a hammer in my gut, making me cough and my stomach wanted to heave.

Before I could recover from that, he put his fist into my ribs, the impact knocking the wind out of me and pain exploding in my chest. He then punched me in the chest and stomach several more times. It was all I could do to even stand up when he was done, and I’d probably have fallen if he wasn’t holding me up. He punched my face a couple of times, but not as hard as the ones to my body.

“That’s better,” he said, putting his mouth to my ear again. When his words were done, I felt his tongue go in my ear and he nibbled on the outside of it. He then started working onto my neck, making a sickening feeling develop in my stomach, images from the past parading through my mind.

“Put her on the table, and hold her,” James told the other two, pulling away from me. As he let go of me, I crumpled to the floor. They picked me up very roughly and drug me to a table, throwing me on it very hard, the back of my head slamming down, again making me see black for a moment. Richard held my arms and Chelsea held my legs.

James walked over to me with a pair of scissors in his hand, holding them like a knife. He was about to kill me, and I knew it. Looking at me, he began to laugh. I felt the cold metal of the tip of the scissors touch my skin, then I felt the ripping of my leotard, and the cool air in the room hitting my unexpectedly exposed skin. As the cold air touched lower and lower on my body, the sensation of the ripping material preceding it, I saw a weird smile on his face, and knew real terror. That smile was something I’d probably always remember, till the day I died.

More than anything I’d ever dreamed of, I wanted to get away, get out of the situation I’d found myself in. I started wiggling, trying my best to get away. It was like Mr. Radnick all over again, but I wouldn’t be able to stop James.

Being honest with myself, it wasn’t anything like Mr. Radnick. He’d always been nice, and I knew he didn’t want to hurt me. James definitely wanted to hurt me.

“It’s time for your initiation,” he said, leering at me. “This can be a lot of fun if you let it. Of course, it’ll be more fun for me if you don’t.”

The sudden impact of his probe on my mind was incredible, pain like a molten poker piercing into me. I tried to resist, but he was too strong and I didn’t even know how. Images started imposing themselves into my consciousness as soon as it entered, along with yet more intense pain. They drowned out the nightmares I’d already been seeing. I knew I screamed, though I wasn’t sure if it was from the pain or the images.

I had no idea how long this went on, but by the time the images ended, I was out of breath and felt like my mind had been soaked with filthy water and wrung out, over and over again. I was shaking really badly, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of what he’d done or how much sweat covered me. My head was also killing me, a constant burning pain there. I could feel that thing growing in my head, too. It hurt even more than the rest of my head.

“She’s getting hot,” James said, looking at the other two with that scary smile. “Get on each side and hold her tight,” he said, with a serious look. They moved to my sides, and it felt like my arms and legs were both held in a vice. They were actually pulling my limbs down, in an unnatural position, and it hurt. Although I tried to fight, I couldn’t move. They were too strong.

My attention was focused on Richard and Chelsea, so I was surprised as I felt my underwear ripped and yanked out of my tattered leotard. James held them up a moment, as if he was studying them, then dropped them onto my chest.

“They’ll punish you,” I weakly pleaded, in desperation. It was stupid, but I couldn’t come up with anything better.

“No they won’t. We were ordered to do it,” he said, his words shocking me more than anything else could have.

“Oh God, please help me,” I desperately prayed, tears rolling out of my eyes. In spite of my plea, I had to fight. I couldn’t let this happen to me, not this time, and not with him.

“Look, she’s crying,” he said to his accomplices. Then, “He can’t help you,” James snickered as he lowered his pants.

Oddly, his words had a different effect than he intended. Anger began welling up in me, or maybe boiling up, and it was incredibly fast. It encompassed my being, completely taking over. Not sure if it was in my mind, or if it was real, there was a loud clap of thunder that I felt deep inside. In that same moment, I felt that click I’d become familiar with. The pain exploded in my head worse than any of my previous attacks and the blackness came almost instantly, along with a sensation of something tearing inside my head. That tearing sensation brought more pain than any of the previous attacks, and compounded with the pain already inflicted by James.

I wasn’t sure how long I was unconscious, but I woke up with James laying on top of me and Richard and Chelsea unconscious on the floor. Frantically, I scrambled out from under James, falling off the table in a painful heap. Knowing I might not have long, I got to my feet, struggling to stay upright.

The act of standing sent pain shooting through my body, particularly my ribs, but I forced myself to ignore it. Grabbing my ripped panties and holding my leotard closed the best I could, I ran to my room in spite of all the pain. My sluggish brain and the constant jarring of my chest made each step a challenge, but my body knew what to do and did what my mind couldn’t. I fell several times before I got to my room, slamming to my knees and occasionally to my chest and face. The last fall on my chest almost caused me to pass out, but I managed to stay awake and finished the run to my room. I had no idea if there were other people in the halls as I ran, and I didn’t care.

When I got to my room, I ran to my bed cowering in the corner against the small headboard. I held the tattered pieces of my leotard together in a death grip with my torn underwear balled in my closed fist, not wanting to let them go for any reason. Although my emotions were absolutely confused and in an uproar, I would not allow myself to cry. The innocent act was over. I would not cry ever again! NEVER!

“Melanie, are you okay?” I heard Aliyah ask, and I started shaking really bad at her voice. I didn’t even hear her come in and I didn’t want anyone near me.

“Yeah,” I actually managed to get out, although I knew I wasn’t, and wouldn’t be again for a long time, if ever. She probably knew as well, since I was shaking so bad and balled up, cowering in the corner.

“No you’re not,” she replied, letting me know I was right. “What happened? Did James beat you up again.”

“I’m okay,” I tried to convince her, doing my best to steady my voice, but wasn’t sure I succeeded. My teeth seemed to be rattling when I spoke.

“I’m going to get Mrs. Wilde.”

“No!” I tried to yell, but the door was closing as the word left my lips. My voice was pathetic and it barely came out anyway. I was too slow thanks to my sluggish mind, and now Mrs. Wilde was going to come and ask me lots of questions, which I wouldn’t answer.

“Melanie, what happened?” I heard her ask a while later, confirming what I expected.

“Nothing.” I felt like a robot.

“This doesn’t look like nothing. Sit normal and let me look at you,” she commanded.

“No,” I said, anger flaring up in me, despite the terror and humiliation I was feeling.

“Melanie, sit normal, now!”

“Beat me, I don’t care anymore!” I screamed at her.

Although I had refused with my words, I still attempted to do as she ordered, all the while keeping my grip on my ripped leotard, but it slipped out of my hand a little and my chest felt like every rib was broken. I managed to maintain my fist hold on my ripped panties, though. “Oh my,” she said, as she saw some of it. “Who did this?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I told her, my brow furrowing as my anger was building.

“Yes it does. We can’t punish them if we don’t know who did it.”

“You won’t punish them,” I said, curling back into the corner and putting my head back on my knees.

“Of course we will.”

“No you won’t!” I yelled, uncoiling enough to look her in the eyes, all of my anger and hatred raw in my vision and my voice. “They were told to do it,” I said more calmly, which very obviously shocked her.

“Who told them?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I stated, hearing the resolve in my own voice at my fate. I knew what was going to happen, or continue to happen as long as I was here. One of these times, he was going to finish his job.

“Melanie, tell me what happened.”

“Or what, you’ll have someone rape my mind again,” I countered, my anger and hatred making me careless, also knowing my mind had already been raped. The look on her face as I said that was actually interesting to me. She looked shocked, and maybe horrified, although I wasn’t sure.

“Go ahead, I’ll fight them if they try. I’m stronger than I was before,” I said, my voice getting loud.

“I want to help, Melanie.” There was sympathy in her voice, but it was a lie, and I knew it.

“No you don’t. You want to control me. That’s all any of you want. I’ll never be a part of your stupid program so you might as well kill me now because it’s never going to happen. Your initiation didn’t work!” I finished, yelling at her. As my words ended, I opened my fist, letting the ripped underwear fall onto the bed. “I wish I’d just stayed with Gary,” I whispered.

“Melanie, this is not what this school is about, regardless of what he told you.”

“Nothing happened,” I said, my voice back to completely normal volume, a calmness settling over me. I curled back up, laying my head back on my knees and started shaking again.

“Melanie, please talk to me. I want to help you.”

“You can’t help me. I’m lost,” I whispered, looking up for a moment, feeling a fog settle over my emotions, other than my hate and anger. My thoughts were getting very slow and muddy. I could feel heat in my eyes though as I looked at her. The hate in me right then was overpowering.

“I want to go to sleep now,” I told her, sliding down and drawing my covers over my body as I did. As I laid there, I could feel myself shaking like a leaf.

“Melanie, please tell me who did this to you.”

“No one did anything to me. I fell down the stairs or something.” I knew I sounded sassy and completely stupid, considering my torn leotard and ripped underwear. I didn’t care. Let them figure it out on their own if they really wanted to.

“Please tell Mrs. Renault that I’m not doing ballet anymore, and you can punish me for it too. I don’t care,” I added more calmly, knowing that I wasn’t good enough anymore, if I ever had been.

“You’ll have to tell her yourself.” Mrs. Wilde said that as if it was a threat.

“I’ll just stop going.”

“You won’t do that, because you’re a nice person and wouldn’t hurt someone that way,” she said, throwing my kindness in my face.

“Not anymore,” I whispered. “You’ve trained that out of me,” I added a moment later, still whispering.

“Melanie, I know you’re hurting, but I wish you’d talk to me. I want to help you more than anything, but I can’t because I don’t know what happened.”

“Nothing happened and nothing will happen!” I yelled, looking at her with that intensity in my eyes, even I could feel.

“Did you have another psychic burst?” she asked, a question I wasn’t prepared for.

“I don’t know.”

“You’d know if you had one.”

“All I know was, James was on top of me and my head exploded and it felt like something ripped in my mind and I woke up with him still on top of me and the other two on the floor.” I regretted my stupidity as soon as the words were out of my mouth. Why couldn’t I control myself better?

“So there were three that attacked you?”

“Nobody attacked me,” I replied, confused at what I’d said or might have said. My brain was a bit foggy.

“You just described three people.”

“I’m a stupid, upset little girl that doesn’t know anything. Nothing happened and I wasn’t attacked. Maybe we were playing a game, I guess.”

“Alright, but if you feel like you want to talk, you can come to me anytime, day or night. You need to clean the blood off your nose and eyes, probably your ears too,” she said, very gently placing a hand on my head, which I tried to move away from and failed.

“I’ll never talk to you,” I replied, not able to stop myself. She paused for a moment, then removed her hand and left the room.

“What the hell happened?” Rebecca almost yelled, as everyone was assembled for another unscheduled meeting in the Headmaster’s conference room.

“What are you talking about?” he asked, looking confused.

“Melanie was sexually assaulted this afternoon and said the assailants were instructed to do so.”

“If she was assaulted, as you say, then she is a distraught child and is speaking nonsense.”

“Of all the people I have ever met, that child speaks less nonsense than most of them. If she said she heard that, then I believe her.”

“That still doesn’t make it true. Her attackers could have said that to make her think there would be no punishment for them, which would discourage her from talking about it. Do we even know who the attackers are?”

“I’m only certain of James Boyle, but I could make a pretty good guess as to the other two,” she answered, sitting back in her chair, knowing she was already losing the discussion.

“That girl has it out for him,” he replied.

“She has it out for him!?” she exclaimed, incredulous at his statement.

Before anything else could be said, Mr. Stone walked in. “Three students have been found in an unused classroom. All three are unconscious and bleeding fairly badly from the usual spots.”

“Who are the students?” the Headmaster asked.

“James Boyle, Chelsea Firth and Richard Blake,” Stone replied.

“Well, there’s your three suspects, I presume,” the Headmaster said, looking over at Rebecca.

“Three suspects?” Stone asked, raising his eyebrows in obvious curiosity.

“Melanie Brager was assaulted today,” she told him.

“What manner of assault are we talking about?”

“It does not matter,” the Headmaster said, trying to stop that discussion.

“It was physical and sexual,” she answered, in spite of the Headmaster’s interruption.

“What is the condition of the three students?” the Headmaster asked.

“All three are unconscious, with a fair amount of blood coming from eyes, ears and nose, more than usual for an episode like this. We have no idea how long they’ve been unconscious or why they are, other than the obvious assumption.”

“This meeting is adjourned,” the Headmaster declared, not allowing Rebecca to continue. She stood up, disgusted. As she got away from the conference room, Mr. Stone caught up with her.

“Mrs. Wilde, would you provide me with some more detail of the assault?”

“Unfortunately, not much. Melanie wouldn’t talk about it. What I got was done by tricking information out of her. She clearly named James, and said there were two others. I’m fairly certain those two would be Chelsea and Richard.”

“I know many women and girls are unwilling to talk when that happens,” he said.

“She’s closed with everything, though. I think it’s part of who she is, but there’s more to it and I can’t put my finger on it. I’m beginning to suspect there may have been some previous form of abuse by a Mr. Radnick, but I have no idea who he is or if there’s any truth to this belief. However, with this particular incident, she told me that they were told to do it to her. Why would she talk about it? She believes that they won’t be punished, and it looks like she’s right.”

“There’s nothing I can do about that, but I can watch her if you want.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s quite common for victims of sexual assault to do things that are harmful to themselves. There’s also the possibility of her becoming a victim again, especially if she’s right.”

“I hadn’t thought of either of those possibilities. Yes, please watch her and keep her safe,” she said, as she stopped and looked up into his eyes, tears almost forming in hers.

“I’ll keep an eye on her and do everything in my power to keep her safe.” He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you, Stone.” They both turned and walked away in opposite directions, Rebecca headed for Mike’s apartment.

“Mike, there’s been a new development with Melanie. She had a psychic burst today, triggered by a sexual assault. What intrigues me, and also worries me, is that the attackers are still unconscious and it has been a good while since it happened. Also, and I can’t be certain of this, but it doesn’t appear to have been triggered by anger.”

“Who were the attackers and how’s Melanie?”

“She’s traumatized, but functioning.”

“So, she recovered from the psychic burst, but those in proximity have not. If I didn’t know better, I would almost call that a psychic attack, although I assume she suffered as well.”

“Yes, she had the usual signs. Of course, it’s hard to tell how much she actually suffers as a result of the attacks, considering how quickly she recovers, but she didn’t appear to be thinking as well as she usually does.”

“Even if unintentional, I would still call that an attack by her on the others.”

“But she was attacked.”

“Rebecca, she attacked, even if it was in self-defense and even if she didn’t have conscious control of it.”

She thought about what he said for a little while, then nodded. “You’re right.”

“That’s the first time I’ve ever known of a telepath to attack with their mind in that manner,” he said, his brow furrowing in thought.

“Although she tried to not tell me anything, there was something she said that was very interesting and has me worried. She said when the psychic burst happened, it felt like something ripped in her head.”

“That’s new,” he replied, obviously thinking about it.

“Well, there’s nothing else to be done for now. Try and see what you can find out through her friends and classmates.”

“She only has one friend and she doesn’t seem to be very forthcoming with her either.”

“She isn’t even confiding in Aliyah,” she asked, surprise clear in her voice.

“She’s smart. I’d bet she knows we’ll watch her through others, so she’s keeping everything to herself. However, I’ll see what I can find out about the attack.”

“Thanks, Mike.”

“Have a good night, Rebecca.”

“Good night, Mike,” she said over her shoulder as she was leaving.