The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

The days began blurring together for me, everything settling into a somewhat rigid routine. It was almost too rigid, as if they wanted everything to go a certain way. They had definitely gotten harder on me, but harder wasn’t a big deal to me. As for them wanting things to go a certain way, I knew they did, but what was the intent? Why such a rigid pattern for me?

The daily torture was the worst part, of course. Every day, including the weekends, I’d be taken to the old section of the school and injected with the nightmare drug, as I’d begun to think of it. They’d ask me questions for a very long time and then I’d wake up in my bed, with no idea how much time had passed.

My mind was beginning to become unhinged. I was seeing things at random times, even during classes. It wasn’t unusual for me to scream out in the middle of class, seeing some nightmare that no one else could see. This further isolated me, as everyone knew I was crazy.

The only break to the rigid schedule and routine were the weekends. I was actually getting surprised that they hadn’t done something about all of that free time as well, but I definitely wasn’t going to complain. Chelsea and I needed that time, so we could train on our own. Mr. Miller’s training was showing us amazing new levels to our abilities, but we had so much more. Not only that, I needed it to recover from the daily nightmares they were giving me, along with my normal ones.

The more I worked with Chelsea, the more tempted I became to try and get some of the serum I left at Oakmont, when I escaped. It’d make her so much more powerful. Although she was strong, there were stronger telepaths in the school. Then there was me, the prodigy...the monster.

In my work with Mr. Miller, I’d mastered the ability to attack while also defending, but I still hadn’t made my shields perfectly seamless. At least, to him I hadn’t. I could close the holes, but not fast enough to effectively block him. He’d even figured out how to get through my many layers as if it was still the single one.

My efforts to penetrate his shields met success sometimes, and failure others. It was a roll of the dice for me, and I couldn’t figure out what the differences were between my successes and my failures. What I had learned though, was I could see his probes work through the little pores in my shield. It was kind of odd to watch, and I sometimes wondered if I could use that, somehow.

Mr. Miller, for all of his assurances that he wanted to help me, was incredibly stern and almost mean when I didn’t succeed like he wanted me to. He was driving me harder than I’d ever seen him drive any other student. I truly hoped his intentions were what he said, but how could they not be? If they weren’t, then he was training someone that was stronger than him to be as trained as him.

What worried me with that thought was that I was beginning to fit into the school. It was as if I’d always been one of them, my previous time here having been forgotten. I had stopped having the dream visions over the several weeks I’d been back at Oakmont. The few I had right after my arrival were the last ones.

Although they always left me shaking and scared, they did give me some insight into what was going on. For that, I actually wanted them back, but that was a power that I had no idea how to tap into when I wanted.

“Melanie,” I heard, bringing me back to the present. Chelsea was looking at me, a worried expression on her face.

Sorry. I drifted off. Guess I’m tired and started daydreaming again, I explained, hoping that it worked. I still wasn’t speaking with my mouth, and had become almost too casual with my mind speech. I’d almost done it with my other teachers, more than once.

“Alright, but we need to do this,” she coaxed, seeming to accept my reply. She had an odd and worried look, though.

We continued training, with her trying to see where she could improve on it. She had proven to be incredibly good at taking his lessons and making them better. It was difficult for me to hide that progress from him, and I tried to hide it because I still didn’t trust him.

I hoped...no, I prayed, that she wasn’t one of them. I hadn’t found anything in her mind, when she let me in, but I wouldn’t necessarily know what to look for either. Not only that, I was very hesitant to go in someone’s mind anyway and they knew it. They could use that to their advantage.

“Melanie, you’re dreaming again,” I heard, again bringing me back to the present.

I’m sorry, I apologized, for the umpteenth time.

“Alright, let’s call it a night. You’re somewhere else, anyway,” she urged, which I readily agreed to, with an emphatic nod. “Are you okay,” she asked, concern clear in her voice, and her eyes.

Yeah. I’m good, I replied, automatically.

I really was tired, which might have explained my inability to focus, but there was something else. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It was kind of like an itch, in a place you couldn’t pinpoint and couldn’t scratch as a result.

I went through dinner and a little mind numbing video game time with my three roommates in a daze. Maddie and Emily returned a few days after their attack, completely blanked from that time period. Not only did they not remember the attack, they had no idea why they had attacked, or so Mr. Miller told us.

Finally returning to my room, I was asleep shortly after laying down. My sleep was some of the poorest I’d had in a long time, interrupted by dreams of my Mom calling out to me, as if she was in trouble...or hurting.

A thought suddenly came to me that made my heart sink. What if she was dying and she was desperately wishing she could see me?

As I drifted back to sleep, I finally had another vision. This was one I wished I’d never had. I was in a hospital room, kind of like an operating room. Dad was standing beside a hospital bed, holding Mom’s hand. There were doctors working on her and tears were on Dad’s cheeks. He never cried...ever.

“Randy, tell my Mel-angel that I love her and she is always my treasure,” she very quietly told Dad. I hadn’t heard her use that nickname in a long time. I’d decided at some point that I was too big for it and she’d honored my feelings. At that moment, I wished more than anything that I could be with her and hear her call me that.

“I promise,” he replied, his voice choking.

“I wish I could have seen her one last time,” she said.

Dad wasn’t able to say anything, but he looked deep into Mom’s eyes, as she seemed to grip his hand very strongly. I could see pain in his eyes, her grip seemed so strong.

“Randy Brager, protect our children, and the others like them. Don’t let those monsters have them or kill our children, like they’ve done me.” As she said that, I felt something break inside my mind. I wanted to scream to her.

“I will protect them with my life, my dearest love,” he promised.

Her hand went limp and fell from his, gently landing on her side. The medical machines began a high pitched, steady tone. I knew what that meant. I’d seen it too many times in TV shows and movies. The doctors and nurses went into hyperactive mode, all of them scrambling around doing things that didn’t register with me.

Then, I did scream, “Momma!” No one could hear me, but I couldn’t stop myself. Dad actually looked towards me, and then the vision was gone. Did he actually hear me?

Unable to stop it, I woke up. Emily was shaking me, trying to wake me up, which she’d managed to do. Tears were running down my face, and I was balling like a baby.

My Mom was dead. That was all I could think about. Nothing else was able to penetrate my mind. It was as if the entire world had ceased to exist.

“Melanie, what’s wrong?” she begged. I couldn’t stop crying enough to say anything, but I didn’t want to anyway. My world had just burst into a million pieces.

“What’s wrong?” I heard Maddie ask. Although Chelsea didn’t say anything, I could sense her hovering in the background. We’d been working together too much for me not to. It was kind of like with Aliyah. I knew her so well, I could tell when she was near, and almost what she was doing.

“I don’t know. She screamed Momma in her sleep and now she’s crying and won’t stop,” Emily replied.

“She spoke?” Maddie asked, Emily nodding that I had.

“Melanie, what happened?” I heard Chelsea finally say, lightly putting a hand on me. She apparently thought my emotional distress was more important than me speaking out loud again.

“She’s dead,” I told her, finally getting enough control to be able to reply. My words were very broken by my sobs, but I got it out.

“It was just a dream,” Emily assured me. She was looking at me oddly.

“I have visions sometimes and they’re always true. This was one of them. Someone killed her. They did it for the program,” I told them and I knew I was right. As those words left my mouth, something snapped inside of me. It was like a light switch being flipped and I regained complete control in that moment. Anger began bubbling up in me at that same instant. Bubbling wasn’t right. It was like a creature that had been woken up and was about to be unleashed.

“Melanie, what’s wrong?” Maddie asked, and I could see the intense worry on her face. She was scared, and I was glad she was scared. I wanted them all to be scared. They were going to pay, and I was the one that was going to collect the debt.

I sat up, moving slowly, very deliberately. Putting my feet on the floor in front of me, my eyes focused on a spot where the floor tiles met, near my desk. It was as if my eyes were a laser and that tiny juncture of several tiles coming together was my target. There was smoke coming from that spot in a matter of a few seconds.

I stopped what I was about to do and looked at Emily, then at Maddie. You two are spying on us. Who told you to do it? I was speaking to both of 5em at the same time, and letting Chelsea hear, as well.

“We aren’t spying on you,” they both said as one.

In the time it took for the thought to form, I slapped them in the face with my mind. The look of shock and horror on their faces almost made me laugh. It would’ve been one of those insane laughs, though. There wouldn’t have been any humor in it, because there was no humor in me.

I’m done being nice. Answer my question or you’ll suffer, I said, very calmly, and in an icy tone.

I’d never seen a look of horror like I saw on their faces, as I looked directly into their eyes, one then the other. Maddie burst into tears and Emily looked like she was about to wet herself.

Answer me! I exclaimed, not yelling but having the force of having done so. My words were almost like a slap, as they both flinched.

“The Headmaster commanded us to,” Emily said. I had expected Maddie to be the one to break, but I didn’t really care.

“Emily, shut up!” Maddie commanded. Now, that was intriguing. Maddie seemed to be the commander, although she acted like she was the weaker willed of the two.

Bind her, and put something in her mouth to shut her up, I commanded Chelsea. I hadn’t said which of the girls I meant, but she seemed to understand, and in only a few minutes, Maddie was trussed and gagged.

Talk, now, I commanded Emily.

“We were supposed to watch Chelsea, because she wouldn’t join the program. When they captured you again, they told us we had a more important task added onto what we were already doing. They wanted us to be your friends and get you to talk to us. We thought we had screwed up a few days ago, but everything seemed to get better, but I guess they didn’t. They think you know where some kind of serum is,” she told me. She almost devolved into rambling, but managed to tell me some interesting things.

Who do you report to?

“We report to Mr. Miller.” That was very interesting. Why was he training me, if he was trying to get information from me?

“Melanie, that doesn’t make sense,” Chelsea said, voicing my thoughts.

Chelsea, do you want to be a lot stronger, I asked.

“I guess,” she tentatively replied, not sure what I was leading up to.

The serum they’re looking for does exist and I know where the last of it is. It might make you incredibly stronger and give you some new abilities. It could also cause you a lot of pain. Decide now if you want it or not, because you’re going to take it or I’m going to destroy it. One way or the other, they will never get it, I declared.

She didn’t respond, and after a few minutes I added, Think very hard about it. If you don’t want to take it, I’ll understand, but I promise it won’t exist after today. They will never get it. I knew I was repeating myself, but I wanted to make sure she understood my intention.

“I’ll do it,” she finally said, after a very long time.

Alright, tie her up and let’s go, I again commanded her. She made as if she wanted to resist, but I held her still while Chelsea tied her up.

“Will I be able to do that?” Chelsea asked, as she realized I’d been holding Emily with my mind.

I don’t know. Maybe. Different people get different things, just like our telepathy. Some won’t get anything from it.

“Will it hurt?” she asked.

Probably, I admitted. She looked a little scared, but she didn’t seem to want to change her mind. I was glad, since I needed an ally. I’d obviously decided I was going to trust her, not that I had a choice.

Walking through the corridors, we didn’t encounter anyone until we were very close to the old lab, the one I thought of as my lab. “Melanie, there’s someone around the corner and someone else a little further,” Chelsea told me.

Although I heard what she said, I didn’t acknowledge her warning, instead pushing on toward my goal. When we rounded the corner, we saw the first person, which was one of the school security guards.

“You girls need to return to your room,” he said. I didn’t stop walking forward, my mind wrapping him up and shoving him hard against the wall on the far side. He crumpled in a heap when I released him. I knew I’d done that a little harder than I’d meant, but I didn’t think I’d really damaged him. At that moment, I didn’t really care, though. He was the enemy. I was at a point where, anyone that wasn’t with me was against me. There was no middle ground.

The second person was a surprise though. It was Richard, one of the faces of my earlier torment, but he’d shown remorse for what he’d done and a good deal of compassion since I’d returned. Although we hadn’t spoken since that first day, other than to do our labs together, I could tell he had been wanting to. I could feel it.

“Melanie, what are you doing here?” he asked, just before I wrapped him up with my mind. I likely wouldn’t have been very nice to him, no matter how remorseful he had been.

Richard, don’t try and stop us, I said, my mental voice feeling like I was talking in a low and menacing way. There was an initial look of shock, but he got over it very fast.

“I won’t. I couldn’t hurt you, even if I was strong enough to,” he told me. That comment brought me up short, and I cocked my head, looking at him with curiosity.

“Like I tried to tell you, what we did was wrong and I knew it then. I’ll never do anything like that again, no matter what they tell me to do, or what they do to me,” he said.

You’d be amazed at what you would do if they really decided to break you, I told him. He looked at me oddly, then.

“They’ve tortured you, again?” he kind of asked, but there was understanding in his question, as if he knew. There was no response from me. It wasn’t needed, or maybe I didn’t care to give one. Whatever the case, he seemed to understand.

“God, I’m so sorry,” he said, and tears sprouted in his eyes. “Are you about to escape again?” he asked, not showing any doubt that I would.

I’m going to hurt them.

He stood there for a few moments, and it was obvious he was thinking over something. I was about to walk past him, but he put up a hand to stop me. He wasn’t being forceful, but wanted me to wait for a moment. I almost continued anyway, but for some reason, I stopped. My face was turned down slightly, my eyes looking straight ahead, and past him. I knew I looked maniacal.

“Can I go with you?”

The insane look dissipated for the moment and I looked over at Chelsea, not asking anything. She simply nodded to me, letting me know his intentions were true.

I will offer you something. Your answer will be my answer, I replied, and waited for him to acknowledge, which he did with a nod. I know where a serum is that might make you stronger, but it could hurt you. It could even kill you. Are you willing to take it? I kind of hoped he’d refuse.

Again, he waited for a long time before he answered. In that time, he stared very hard at the floor. Finally, he lifted his head and I could see determination in his eyes. I knew his answer and didn’t wait for him to voice it. I walked on, with Chelsea and Richard following.

When we arrived at the old lab, I walked in without checking to see if it was empty. I could almost feel Chelsea trying to get my attention, but as I had earlier, I ignored her.

Inside were five people in lab coats, all looking through microscopes. There was a guard to my right, who reacted without any hesitation. As one, the scientists all looked up as I barged in.

“What are you doing here? You kids need to leave,” the guard said, as his hands grabbed Richard’s shoulder. I’d already moved past his reach.

With almost no effort, or energy use, I forced his hands to release Richard and then slammed him against the wall, even harder than the last guard. My anger was building and I couldn’t control it. The truth was, I didn’t want to control it.

The scientists all reacted at this new development, moving to the far corner of the room, the one opposite where I was clearly headed. Before I reached the door, I heard a voice.

“Subject 32145, you can’t enter that room. It’s been locked and the lock has been changed,” I heard from behind me. I turned to see Mrs. Trulin just inside the door.

With the barest of effort, I sent my mind into the lock and quickly unlocked it, also opening the door. I glanced knowingly over my shoulder at her. The look on her face was priceless.

Mrs. Trulin, you should leave, I suggested. When she didn’t immediately move, I said a bit more forcefully, Now!

She all but ran out of the room. I had no idea where she was going, and I really didn’t care.

“Subject 32145, the government will make you stronger,” I heard from the far corner of the room. I fell to my knees, feeling the rage building in me, at a rapid pace. The red that was already coloring my vision deepened.

“Melanie, what’s wrong?” I heard Richard ask, putting a hand on my shoulder, concern in his voice. His hand and his calm, steady voice gave me strength.

With an incredible effort, combined with what Richard had unwittingly done for me, I struggled against the rage, and just managed to gain some control over it. It was still blazing like an inferno, but it wasn’t controlling me, not yet. I stood up and looked back at the doctors, who looked very worried, knowing their trick had failed.

I lifted every one of them up and slammed them, as a group, into the wall they were standing by. None of them stood back up, or even moved, as I turned my attention back to my original task. As I turned around, back to my destination, I forgot they had even existed.

Walking into the office, I went straight to the little safe and slid it off of the compartment, lifting the little trap door as I bent over. Reaching in, I grabbed the remaining four test tubes, handing one of each to Chelsea and Richard.

There are two different formulas. One will pass this to your children, if you have any. The other will only work on you. I’ve taken both, but I think I needed to because the original serum that gave me my power had a defect in it, which caused me to have all of those psychic bursts and was going to kill me. I think it would have passed to my children. You don’t have that defect, so you may only want the one with the I on it. You decide.

They both removed the corks from both tubes and poured them into their mouths. Knowing that we hadn’t thought this through, I grabbed the test tubes and put them in a sink in the lab. There, I washed them in a fire that caused the glass to shatter. Done with that, I returned to the small office and closed and locked the door. They’d need time to go through the change.

Just like with Aliyah, it was obvious when it hit them. They both became rigid, and then fell to the floor. I didn’t bother trying to catch them, though. I didn’t have enough compassion in me at that moment, and I didn’t have the friendship with them that I did with Aliyah.

I sat in the large desk chair and waited. During my wait, I heard people outside. I had no idea what they were doing, but they weren’t being quiet about it. There was one attempt to open the door, but thanks to my will, the door knob wouldn’t budge so they gave up.

After a couple of hours, I knew we needed to move. I gently started prodding both of them with my mind. I was surprised when there was a green flash as I tried to poke Richard. At least he gained some kind of power.

It was enough to wake him up, though. He slowly got up, looking a bit rough, but functional.

How do you feel? I asked.

“I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck...several times,” he replied. I smiled at him. It wasn’t a friendly smile, but it conveyed my understanding.

“You’ve been through this, so you know,” he stated, understanding coming to him.

When I went through this, my situation was different and I didn’t notice the after effects of it. I had other things to deal with.

“How could you not notice this?” he asked, incredulous.

Because it was minor compared to the other things I was dealing with.

“This was minor? Good God, what have you gone through?”

An anger surged up that actually scared me, and he seemed to notice it. He actually flinched, just from the look that apparently came across my face.

“I’m sorry. I know you’ve been through a lot,” he said, before I could reply.

At the time, I was dying from being kicked in the ribs and my lung punctured, along with being raped, I told him, not being nice, at all. His face looked like I had just punched him, very hard. He looked for a moment like he was about to say something.

I’m done being a victim, I said, talking before he could. He didn’t reply to that. He was spared needing to, as Chelsea began to wake up. She grabbed her head in her hands and moaned.

“How could you live through this? I want to cut off my head,” she said.

I’ve been through worse,” I replied, knowing that it sounded like boasting. It was the simple truth, though.

Now that you are both awake, I need to give you some quick lessons. I think they’re waiting for us outside, and I’d bet they have guns and plan on shooting us. They’ll probably try and use tranquilizers, but I wouldn’t bet on it, I informed them.

“How can…,” Richard began, but I cut him off with a small mental poke.

I sent a probe into them both, bypassing the shields they both had in place. The shock from both of them was impressive, but didn’t phase me. I had a task to do, and I was going to do it.

With the precision of a master sculptor, I began placing the lessons into their minds. I showed them the basics of force fields, and the barest amount I could teach them on manipulating them. I showed them how to use telekinesis at a basic level. I even showed them the fire starting ability. I gave them a touch of every skill I knew of, although some I had no experience with. Everything was basic, since we didn’t have time to perfect them and you could only get so much from ‘book’ learning.

When I was done, I not so gently removed my probe. Both of them almost fell when I removed myself from their minds.

“First, how did you get past our shields so easy? Second, can we really do all of that?” Chelsea asked.

We’ve been working together for a while, so you know what Mr. Miller’s been teaching me. You’ve helped me make it better, but right now, I’m so angry, my anger is fueling my ability. These are the skills that I know of. Just like with telepathy, different people seem to get different abilities and at different power levels. Of course, I only have me and Aliyah to judge by, so I might be wrong, I replied and waited to let them think that over.

Are you ready to get revenge for what they’ve done to us, I asked, not waiting as long as they probably needed. It was time to go, though, and I also wasn’t very sympathetic right then.

Both of them nodded and I threw open the door, nearly ripping it off the hinges. It was clear very quickly that Chelsea didn’t have shields, but Richard seemed to have an ability at least as good as Aliyah and quickly erected a shield around her, just before she was hit by a dart.

What surprised me though was that Chelsea seemed to be a born master of fire. She sent out a cone of flame ahead of us, and she hadn’t even practiced this before. The lab was very quickly engulfed in flame, with little explosions happening as chemicals combusted. I had no idea if the soldiers in there were killed by her flames, and I didn’t care.

With Richard manning the force field around the three of us, quickly figuring out the mechanics of it, we walked through the flames as if they weren’t there. All three of us stopped as a group of soldiers stepped into the corridor ahead.

I sent a wall of force through the corridor, slamming all of the soldiers in different directions. It was like a giant bowling ball, as it went down the hall. I was certain I heard some bones break, as the soldiers slammed into walls, poles and the ceiling in a couple of cases.

We moved forward, like a tidal wave. There were no more people in front of us as we moved back into the school area of the building, but there were alarms blaring everywhere.

“Melanie, stop where you are,” I heard Mr. Miller command.

I turned to look at him, anger dancing in my eyes, like flames. Just like Emily and Maddie before, he flinched as he looked at me.

“It’s not what you think,” he began.

What do I think, and how do I know it’s not? I asked, my incredible anger dripping from my words.

“I drove you so you’d do exactly what you’ve done. You need to stop this unnecessary destruction and chaos and leave,” he said.

If I just leave, they’ll just come after me again. They won’t ‘just’ let me live my life, I replied.

“No they won’t, but you can force them to leave you alone,” he said.

That’s exactly what I’m doing, I stated.

“Not this way,” he said.

You’re with me, or you’re against me, I declared.

His probes came at me in a rush, which was very unlike him. The assault almost staggered me, not from his strength, which was much less than mine, but the sheer ferocity of it. Just like in our training, he found the little holes in my shield. He began making his way through the many layers of it. I had many layers, a fact he’d commented on many times, but I had many more at that particular moment.

This time, I decided to try something different, something that’d been bouncing around in my mind as I thought about his probes going through the little pores in my shields. As his probes worked through the holes, I closed one of them on his probe. The other probes were still working, but I could see the one struggling, and I actually saw a look of pain on his face.

I knew I had finally found my answer to this puzzle. Now pretty sure of my path to possible victory, I began closing each of the holes, one after the other. Finally, it got too much for him. He fell to his knees, pain written on his face, as his entire body shook with it. He was struggling to get his probes free, but I was too strong for him, and he knew it.

“You finally figured it out,” he struggled to say.

Figured what out? I asked.

“You could never close many of the holes. Some can, some can’t. You had to learn to use them to your advantage, in whatever way works for you. I never had impervious shields, but I was able to see where you were going and close the holes just before you targeted them. That’s my defense. Yours is more offensive, as everything with you seems to be,” he admitted.

Why are you telling me this? I asked. Why was I allowing him to draw this out? Was he trying to stall me?

“Because you need to know it, if you have a chance of truly escaping. I’m very proud of you, Melanie. You have done what very few telepaths are able to do,” he said.

It’s time for us to go, I stated, knowing it was true.

“Melanie, there’s only one telepath in this building that might be able to challenge you, but I think he’s gone, right now. However, there are many already in the field that will come for you now. Always be ready,” he said.

Why are you telling me this? I asked, yet again.

“Because I want you to succeed, just like I told you. Read me, and see that what I’m telling you is true,” he challenged me. I almost did it, but I stopped myself.

“Good. You exercise good judgement, in spite of your anger. Now, go, before they overwhelm you. You do have limits, and you’re probably approaching them,” he advised.

We turned from him and began walking away. You should leave the building, I said, over my shoulder as we walked away. I could tell Chelsea and Richard looked at me with concern, as those words left my mind, broadcast for them all to hear.

“By the way, your parents are near Seattle. Go to them,” he said to our backs. He didn’t see the tears that I couldn’t stop from pouring out of my eyes.

Once we were around the next corner, Richard gently grabbed my shoulder and stopped me. “Melanie, what’s wrong?” When I didn’t say anything, he pushed some more. “I saw your reaction when he told you to go to your parents.” That was all I could take, and the tears started pouring out. I was unable to contain them. My anger evaporated in that instant.

As I began to slide down the wall behind me, Richard grabbed me and held me up. He actually hugged me, and I gave into it completely. I couldn’t resist, my emotions too raw and mixed up.

“She had some kind of vision where her Mom was killed by someone from the program,” Chelsea told him.

“I’m so sorry, Melanie,” he said, holding me a little tighter.

“We need to get out of here,” Chelsea urged us. She was right, and I knew it. I needed to be strong, but my strength had evaporated. It was fed from my anger, and with that gone, I was weak.

Exercising every bit of will I had left, I pulled myself together. I withdrew from Richard’s sheltering embrace, gratitude in my glance at him. He simply gave me a very slight nod, and we resumed our walk through the corridors.

As we got to the hospital area, Mrs. Trulin and a dozen kids stood in a group ahead of us. With the slightest nod to Chelsea and Richard, I stopped them from immediately attacking. Instead, I sent a probe into each of them, including Mrs. Trulin. Even though my anger was gone, I was still skilled and powerful enough to have little resistance, even from Mrs. Trulin.

This is what they do if you don’t conform, I told them, just before I sent the entire story of my recruitment, my time at Oakmont and everything afterward. I left nothing out. I even allowed them to see images of me doing stuff they didn’t know I could do. I didn’t give them any details of my abilities, and didn’t add anything that wasn’t able to be seen, but they saw plenty.

What probably had the most impact though, was my torture. They saw the electric shock, combined with the fire. I showed them my time in the tank, where they did something to my mind to make me use my ability. I showed them what they’d been doing to me most recently, with the nightmares. Then, I showed them what had happened with Mrs. Molly, Mr. Hern, and Mr. John, followed by my surgery. I spared them nothing.

When I was done, several of them threw up. Most of them dropped to their knees, some of them weeping openly. Mrs. Trulin just stood there, a blank expression on her face.

That’s what this program is. That’s what they’ve done to me, I said, my anger suddenly erupting in a flash, the beast back in full form. Showing them this soft version of my nightmare, my life, had revived my anger like throwing gasoline on the embers of a nearly dead fire.

I began walking forward, not caring if they tried to stop me. They couldn’t, and I was ready to destroy them if they tried. The ones able to move, parted for me as I came toward them. Most weren’t able to acknowledge me at all, though.

Just as I thought I was through, a hand grabbed my shoulder, and not very gently. Already knowing who it was, I didn’t even turn my head to look at her.

“Subject...Melanie, is all of that true?” Mrs. Trulin asked. I didn’t bother answering her and still didn’t look at her. I began walking forward again, her hand sliding off of me, offering no more resistance.