Division

by Desy Smith

  I run after him, getting ready to take him down when I realize that my weight won’t move him alone. Compared to him, I’m merely winded. He continues walking, oblivious to me advancing toward him. I change tactic, instead of pushing him, even though he deserves that. I go to kick him in the back of his knee, hoping to bring him down that way. He turns around suddenly, almost like he knew I was going to do that and holds up his hand. My body raises in the air.

  “For you women claiming to be smarter than us men, that was definitely dumb,” he states, as I’m still suspended mid-air. I smile, letting him think he bested me.

  If he only knew, Cher says mentally. Yeah, if only. I raise my hand as I look to the bandana around his head. I bring it toward my body and the bandana quickly unravels itself and flies toward me. I catch it with my other hand, now waving it in the air, mocking him. His eyes widen for the second time.

  I later found out this was the reason Grand Dame took me that day. Apparently, it was unheard of for any woman to have the power of telepathy and telekinesis, and yet I did. I realized years later that my ability is the reason why she erased everyone’s memory that night. If the women of Diara were only meant to have one power and I had two, wouldn’t that make me a target, as well as anyone who knew? I recall back to a few years ago when I asked Grand Dame this question. Her reply was simple— no loose ends mean no targets. Since then, I’ve kept my mouth closed about it. I eventually told Cher, but I had to, she’s my best friend.

  That’s right, Cher replies, letting me know she is reading my mind. Now deal with that clown and come back.

  Put me down, I command him. He blinks, like he has a tick, as he lowers his hand until my body is safely on the ground. I turn around, knowing I’ve won this battle, but I stop when he speaks to me telepathically.

  I wouldn’t say you’ve won yet. We’ve just begun. I turn back around, ignoring the Disturbed who are still slowly advancing toward us, he now has a big smile on his face. Oh my God.

  What? What? Cher questions. Again, I don’t think. Instead, I gawk at him, not knowing what else to do or say. He extends his hand as he keeps his attention on me before bringing that hand toward his body. I suddenly fly toward him. He holds out his hand to stop my body from colliding into his. We’re close now, only millimeters apart.

  Seems like I’m not the only one who can do both, he says. I nod my head in agreement without thinking. Too bad you won’t remember knowing I can do it.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” I reply out loud now coming back to my senses. He opens his mouth and I knew the words he was going to say because Grand Dame had said them once before. I should stop him, or the very least attempt to stop him.

  Stop what? Cher questions, but I continue to ignore her. I don’t want to be responsible for his secret, too. What secret? I look to him, waiting for the words to leave his lips. Instead, the mental screeching begins. The sound resembles that of a fly.

  Ahhh! Cher cries out, hearing in through our telepathic link.

  I grab hold of my aching head, eyes now rolling to the back of my head as my body drops to the floor. I ignore the pain from the fall, as goosebumps appear on my arms and the urge to vomit appears suddenly. Now clutching my achine head, and keeping my mouth shut, I realize the man no longer has control of me by way of his telekinesis since he, too, is on the ground clutching his head.

  I remember then the bandana I took from the man which I’m still holding in my hand. I fight through the pain to wrap it around my forehead. The screeching stops. I take several deep breaths, letting the lavender calm me down, making the nauseous feeling and the goosebumps go away. I turn my attention to the man still laying on the ground writhing in pain. I smile at the sight. I don’t turn arount to check to see if the Disturbed are still advancing toward me, knowing I can’t pass up this opportunity.

  I walk in the man’s direction with a smile on my face.

  You look pathetic. I tell him mentally knowing he can hear my voice through the screeching. Even with both his hand grabbing ahold of his head, and his body curled into a ball. He still gives me the finger. I suppose a man is going to be a man, this is why we women separated ourselves from them. I kick him for good measure, which he either doesn’t feel or ignores. Loser! I think. Wait until the women in Diara hear about this. I head in the opposite direction of the warehouse, not wanting to run into the Disturbed, when my body is picked up and flung to the side of the room, slamming into the group of Disturbed. I cry out.

  My child, my child.

  The puppy I always wanted.

  Summer days.

  The testing,

  What happened to me?

  I ignore the mental ramblings of the Disturbed as I push their grabbing hands, off of me, hoping like hell none of them will infect me.

  My child, my child.

  The puppy I always wanted.

  Summer days.

  The testing,

  What happened to me?

  When I am unable to rid myself of their diseased fingers, I reach out to them mentally.

  Sleep, I tell them.

  My child, my child.

  The puppy I always . . .

  The mental ramblings stop suddenly followed by light snoring, letting me know they’re sleeping. I push a few of thier bodies off of me, regretting now forcing them to fall asleep, as I lay vulnerable and open to infection on the floor. I’m careful, not wanting their shirts to rise, preventing their open sores to infect me. Once I clear their bodies from on top of mine, I get up and access for damages. I notice no blood, spit or anything that would let me know I was infected. That was super close.

  It dawns on me then that the mental screeching, my body flying toward the Disturbed, had to come from someone. Could the man from Scipio have done this? I look to him then, still on the floor in the fetal position, holding onto his head. Naw, dummy couldn’t have done it, not in his current position.

  I look around the room then, wondering if someone else is in here with us. I’m startled to see not one but three people, one female and two males in white scientific coats, to be exact. I recall seeing the same coat on my Science instructors. I take note that they do not resemble the Disturbed at all. Also, I didn’t - or maybe couldn’t - hear any of their thoughts, which I contribute to their headbands without the Diara or Scipio sigil. Who are these people? Why did it appear that they were living here with the Disturbed?

  One of the men take notice of me, now alerting the others, I use my telekinesis ability to rip the bandanas off their heads. I know you can hear me now, I tell them each individually. I take note of their shock, somewhat frightened faces. Why are they afraid of me? The Disturbed were far more dangerous. What's up with them?

  Sleep, I tell them each and they fall to the ground. I look to the man, who was now catching his breath, no longer laying in the fetal position or holding his head.

  “Leave me alone,” he begs weakly, sounding like the big baby that all men are. “We are not babies!” he retorts. I walk toward him, wanting to mess with him up close. “Leave me alone, woman,” he warns again.

  “Aren’t you cranky,” I tease back. “You know what would solve that?” I ask him.

  “You under me,” he replies cheeky. I shake my head, annoyed that even in his position, he could make jokes. Just like a man.

  I was thinking of something much better. I tell him mentally as I blow a kiss at him. He smiles but begins to frown, catching on, I suppose.

  “Don’t you do it,” he warns, knowing where I’m heading with this.

  Sleep, I tell him mentally.

  “You skinny . . . ” his voice trails off as he succumbs to my command, now snoring loudly.

  Chapter Four – Horatio

  My child, my child.

  The puppy I always wanted.

  Summer days.

  The testing.

  What happened to me?

  The mental murmurs awaken me from my forced slumber. I loath
e this God-forsaken telepathy ability. I didn’t care to know what others were thinking, even if their thoughts are about me. Feelings and emotions should be kept private.

  My child, my child.

  The puppy I always wanted.

  Summer days.

  The testing.

  What happened to me?

  Quiet! I reply back mentally and they stop. Eyes still closed, I rub my head, hoping like hell the touch will undo this migraine I feel approaching fast. Damn that woman and her forcing me to sleep. I’d never admit this out loud, but I couldn’t control this damn telepathy power. I think there’s a specific reason why the women could read minds while us men could move objects— men didn’t have the same mental compacity that women did. The men would say otherwise, but I knew without a doubt it was the truth. I realized long ago that men and women are not built the same.

  My child, my child.

  The puppy I always wanted.

  Summer days.

  The testing.

  What happened to me?

  The Disturbed mentally start back up, ignoring my command, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. Sometimes the command worked, sometimes it didn’t. I regret now not trying to hone my telepathy skills when Knighthood urged me to. I open my eyes, taken aback as I observe the Disturbed. A dozen or so of them have formed a circle around my body, almost protectively, staring down at me unblinking. Not wanting to alarm them, I quickly look over my body and assess for damages. When I see none, I look back up at them. What’s up, I wonder. They had the opportunity to infect me and they chose not to.

  “Horatio! Horatio!” Anders panics, screaming my name through my two-way earpiece. I flinch at the screams and curse, my head throbbing from the now full-blown migraine. I press the button to silence him as I turn my attention back to the Disturbed. What if they aren’t as far gone as we believe them to be? Knighthood had posed this question to me several times before, and as always, I ignored him. I had a problem believing anything that came out his mouth, which was his doing. He was aware of course.

  I roll my eyes, the memory of him setting me up, surfacing in my mind. I didn’t mind the setup, coming to accept it as a gift as I got older. I realized about five years ago that if I continued to be Emperor’s son - or whatever the hell he referred to me as - I would have remained an entitled, cowardly, sissy boy piece of shit, which wouldn’t have helped me when Emperor eventually kicked my ass to the curb.

  You see, Emperor had a nasty habit of picking up boys, homeless boys, mostly, and giving them a place to live, acclimating them to the life of a royal before tossing them. I didn’t know who he was looking for back then, I didn’t figure it out until later, five years ago. But the whole time it was me since I’m the only male who possessed both the telekinetic and telepathic abilities. I had still to figure out what purpose he had with me.

  When I went to tell Knighthood about my discovery, he didn’t seem surprised by the revelation or gift, he later told me, he knew, which is why I was wary of Knighthood, I thought him to be honest, so him lying about his knowledge of my ability angered me. Although, more recently, I keep reminding myself, I’ve moved past my anger in regards to Knighthood, deciding I needed him in my corner, whenever Emperor did discover what I could do because he would eventually.

  The bigger question which I couldn’t figure out is how did Emperor not know yet? I’ve always been under the impression that Emperor and Knighthood worked together. Yet, it didn’t seem that way, especially since Emperor was looking for me and Knighthood found me but Knighthood didn’t share that with him.

  Emperor,

  Emperor,

  Emperor,

  Emperor,

  The Disturbed call out his name, surprising me again. They never had the same thoughts before. Their thoughts are always separate.

  Do you know Emperor? I ask them, ignoring the throbbing of my migraine, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

  We . . .

  Gunshots sound in the room. I don’t have time to question it nor look where it came from. The Disturbed’s eyes roll to the back of their heads as blood stains the front of their shirts before they collapse to the ground.

  “No!” I scream. I hear footsteps followed by my name being called and I sit up, now ignoring my headache while fighting the urge to use my gift to throw Noah against the wall repeatedly.

  “You okay?” he questions as he catches his breath. I suppose it serves me right for ignoring Anders, the tech support on our recon mission.

  “Yes,” I reply, looking at the Disturbed who lay still on the floor, now dead. I suppose it makes no sense to dwell on them being dead now because we men don’t do that. Instead, I accept it for what it is. The Disturbed may not have given me much, but they did give me another clue, another piece of information to add to my file bank. I turn my attention back to Noah, who’s no longer catching his breath but laughing and snorting.

  “What?” I ask, not knowing what he’s laughing at.

  “What the fuck is on your forehead?” he asks as his laughter turns into coughing. I touch it but don’t feel anything.

  “What is it?” I ask as I bend over, reaching for my bag but realizing it’s not there. What the fuck? I pat myself for the glasses I stole and my pocketknife, coming up empty. Realization dawns on me, that damn woman.

  “It says ‘Dickwad’,” Noah says as he continues laughing.

  “The woman, she did that,” I tell Noah angrily.

  “A woman from Gaia?” Noah questions. I nod my head in response. “That’s surprising. Knighthood makes sure to never plan these trips when the women plan their’s.” I didn’t know that.

  “Well, someone made a mistake,” I tell him. Noah looks behind me and then at my forehead again.

  “Where are your bandana and backpack?” he asks.

  “She took them,” I whisper.

  “What?” Noah questions with a grin, letting me know he heard me before he falls over laughing again. “Is she the reason you were unresponsive for over an hour?” I say nothing and he starts laughing again.

  “Shut it,” I tell him, turning around and heading toward the door.

  “I have to meet her,” he says behind me.

  The men and women on the planet of Gaia did not dwell together. The women lived on one side of the planet, Diara, and the men lived on the other side, Scipio. It’s always been like this, according to both Emperor and Knighthood, ever since we - well, they - left Earth in 2100. Three hours of land, one hundred eighty minutes, separated us from each other— that’s it. We weren't supposed to cross into each other’s lands. The last time a man crossed into the women’s land, Highness cut off his dick and hung it on the outskirts of Diara— that’s the rumor anyway. The last time a woman was caught in Scipio, she was used and abused, and when she returned back to her land, Highness cut off her head..

  However, we men, even knowing the consequences, still snuck onto the women’s land for the sole purpose of sex. The women desired it as well, even though they would never admit it to any of us. To stop the men from entering into Diara, Emperor and Highness created a city that sat in the middle of Gaia, an hour and thirty minutes away from both Diara and Scipio. Lust, as the city is called, is the only place on Gaia where the men and women came together for the sole purpose of pleasing.

  If you wanted to fuck, you would go there and seek out whatever woman or men caught your fancy. Noah, like a few other men on Scipio, didn’t care for Lust. They didn’t like having sex with the same women, referring to them as ‘used women’. Instead he goes into Diara, seducing the women there. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did run into her there since he frequented the place so often.

  “She’s nothing to meet,” I reply. I wait for Noah’s retort, and when he doesn’t reply, I turn around to find his attention elsewhere. There, on the second-floor perimeter around the warehouse, one woman and two men lay in white coats. I knew the screeching was coming from somewh
ere, but I never got the chance to identify it. I take note of the three of them, faces not pale.

  I use my telekinesis power to raise the woman’s lab coat, taking note of her bare legs and seeing no sores there. She isn’t one of the Disturbed.

  “What are you doing?” Noah asks before raising his hand.

  “Making sure they aren’t The Disturbed,” I tell him. He nods as he begins walking in her direction.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him.

  “About to shake the woman awake,” he tells me.

  “No, she has the telepathic power like the women from Diara do.” He nods his head but stops, turning to look at me, with a questioning look.

  “What?” Noah questions. “But how . . . ” He clears his throat. “We were told everyone down here is The Disturbed.” My thoughts exactly.

  “Maybe they can shed some light on it,” I tell him. “Be careful, they . . . ”

  “Have our ability,” Noah finishes. “I’m catching up.” I follow behind and begin shaking the other guy. I could have mentally woken them, but my head was now throbbing, using it would only cause me more pain. My guy finally stirs. He slowly opens his eyes, groggy and takes one look at us. His eyes travel down my body, taking in my shirt, stopping at the sigil there. He turns to Noah and does the same thing, before shutting them close, now whimpering.

  “Are you worried at all that he knows who we are?” Noah questions sounding concerned.

  “You sound like a conspiracy theorist,” I reply mocking him. He said this exact thing to me, two years ago, when I was trying to convince him The Disturbed aren’t really contagious.

  “You still do, but this,” he looks to the guy who still has his eyes close. “Doesn’t make sense.” He did have a point. I grip my guy by the shirt, shaking him roughly, forcing him to awake or reawake, since he’s pretending to be asleep.

  “How do you know about us?” Noah question, not beating around the bush.

  “I don’t,” he replies, looking down.

  Why did I have to run into them? Why didn’t he leave, like the girl from Diara left? I read his mind.