by Sarah Noffke
I stalked past her, unable to stomach the smell of rat piss any longer.
“Vhere are you going?” she said, catching up with me.
“To the Ritz Carlton.” I made my way for the main room. I felt Allouette on my heels the entire way. I turned suddenly and she ran into me. “Why are you following me?”
“I’m going vith you,” she said simply, like we’d already discussed it.
“Why?” I growled.
“Because you’re my pet now,” she said.
“But you’re the one following me around. Doesn’t that make you my pet?”
“I’ll be vhatever you vant,” she said, taking a step closer to me.
“But they have electricity at the hotel.”
“I’ll get over it,” she said with a shrug.
I turned and walked off. “Whatever,” I said over my shoulder.
And that was the day I met the devil. I wish I could say I met the devil and conquered the beast. That’s not what happened. I fell for the devil. People think the devil isn’t real. Oh, she’s real, and she’s a tiny French girl who will make you sorry you didn’t die at birth. She wears a mask, not to hide her heart but to hide the fact that she doesn’t have one. No one would approach a heartless beast, much less trust their heart with them. But she wears a mask that deceives. And it’s persuasive and I only know that because I stole that mask and wear it to this day. I didn’t fall in love with the devil. One can’t love a soulless monster. I became infatuated with the devil and it was only later that the spell was broken and I awoke in a daze. But it was too late then. The devil had done enough damage to tear a dozen lives apart. And I had been her puppet.
Chapter Eighteen
“Here’s vhat I need you to do,” Allouette said, perched on top of the desk in the penthouse suite I had reserved. Her legs were crossed and her hands pinned behind her. She had her neck draped back and was staring at the elaborate chandelier on the ceiling with contempt. “You’re going to bore into a voman’s brain and make her believe she’s in danger. Zat zomeone is going to kill her. You’ll do zis over zee next few months, also planting in her mind a strategy to escape zis almost certain death. You vill make her believe zat going to a specific place at a specific time will keep her zafe.” She said all this in a breathy rehearsed speech.
“And this place you’ll have me plant in her head, it’s where you plan to actually kill her, right?” I said from my place propped up on the oversized bed.
“You are zo very smart,” she said, bringing her heart-shaped face down to gaze at me.
“Well, this sounds too easy. I could have her go there now if you want,” I said.
“Oh, it vill prove much harder zan you zink,” she said, wagging a long fingernail at me. “Zhe’s a powerful Dream Traveler and vill feel your presence in her head if you aren’t careful. You need to be extra stealthy vith zis one, using multiple techniques to lay zee groundwork. Get into her dreams. Vhisper zreats to her consciousness.”
“Who’s this girl?” I asked.
“Zhe’s a powerful and a well-protected Lucidite,” Allouette said, switching the cross of her legs in an awfully unladylike way. I pretended not to be eyeing her.
“A who?” I said.
“Zee Lucidites are a society of Dream Travelers in the South Pacific. Zey are zee most repulsive of people and zey currently have zee girl under zeir protection. Zat is another reason you can’t just slip into her head and make her do vhat ve vant. Zey suspect Chase vill try somezing, but zey do not know about you. Zo over zee next six monzs you’re going to plant a false reality in her mind. Ve only have one chance to lure her away from her protector.”
“Who is?” I said, growing a little bored with all these details.
“His name is Trey Underwood. He’s zee Associate Head of zee Lucidite Institute and also her husband.”
“Oh, come on, really?” I said with a frustrated sigh. “You have me going after some politician’s wife?”
Allouette ignored me. “Trey is an extremely powerful man who vill spy if his vife suddenly shows signs of mind control. Zo you’re going to follow my instructions to zee letter, and if you do, zen vhen zee time comes she vill valk straight into our trap.”
“And now you must realize I’m going to want to know why Chase wants this woman dead,” I said.
“To satisfy zat curiosity of yours you’ll have to ask him. I’m not at liberty to zay.” Allouette then levitated herself off the desk, through the expansive room, and straight over to the bed where I was lying. She laid herself down like a hovercraft landing.
My pops was telekinetic and as a pure blood he was exceptionally talented, although he rarely used his gift. But he didn’t stand close to Allouette’s skill. She could telekinetically move herself. That took a level of skill I could hardly fathom.
Upon landing, Allouette had turned herself over so she was perched on all fours in front of me, a hungry look in her eyes. I’d never been afraid of a girl, especially one sitting on my bed, but she actually terrified me. And as a person with few thrills left in life I found that I actually enjoyed the feeling of fear. I didn’t know if she was about to come at me with a passionate kiss or an assault. I reached out and ran my finger along her jawline and then I smiled inside. According to her thoughts, this time I was safe, but that wouldn’t always be my experience with Allouette.
After that first night, Allouette was by my side most of the time. She had a strange charm about her that my instincts told me to resist, but my body decided not to. Allouette didn’t have mind control over me, but she knew how to play a mind game and I’d lost it without even knowing I was playing.
***
A fortnight after the day I met Chase, he began training me. He was pleased with the progress I’d made with the girl I was assigned to brainwash. So far I’d inserted many messages into her head and according to his investigations, none of the Lucidites were suspicious. I had done as much research as I could on this society. In comparison to the Voyageurs, the Lucidites were bloody saints. Whereas the Voyageurs were corrupted by their powers and abused them at every turn, the Lucidites used their gifts to help the world at large. They stuck their noses into Middlings’ and Dream Travelers’ affairs, trying to find solutions to things that weren’t their bloody business. They were the superheroes of the Dream Traveler world.
I was completely ambivalent about the idea of a society like theirs. And although I didn’t condone what the Voyageurs did, I also didn’t care much. Usually I ignored it and solely focused on the task assigned to me. It was better that way. What did it matter to me what the Voyageurs did to unknowing Middlings? How was I in a position to judge? And I felt the same about the Lucidites. If they left me alone, then I had no reason to hate them. But it did irk me that Chase was intent on destroying a girl who was aligned with a society that as far as I could tell was harmless.
“This girl you’re making me brainwash,” I said to Chase during one of our training sessions. “What does she matter to you? Why are you going after her?” We’d been practicing in the main cave room. It was open and provided enough space and light.
Chase had his hands clasped behind his back. He strolled around me, making a complete circle. When he stopped directly in front of me, he leaned slightly over me and said, “Because she betrayed me. I will go to any length to torture and kill those who betray me.”
I made a silent, mental note. Don’t mess with this guy. Few people have ever intimidated me. Actually, only ever one. And it was the man who stood before me, Chase Bane.
Chase stepped back a few paces so there were several feet between us. I made a note that he rarely ever put his back to anyone. “We were supposed to be married and she ran off with another man. Married him,” he said, anger flaring on the last word.
“You must have really loved her to be going after her like this,” I said.
“Don’t patronize me, Ren,” Chase said, with a bite to his words. “Yo
u know as well as I that life isn’t about love. It’s about conquering and her little stunt cost me greatly. She thought she could ruin my future and I wouldn’t ruin hers, and that’s where she went wrong. That’s where she underestimated me. And she made me look like a fool. I want to be the bigger person in this situation, but she’s left me no choice.”
Unlike most people, Chase wasn’t motivated by hurt or fear. He was motivated by anger, which was a thousand times worse. And his hostility simmered under the surface, marking his every movement and word. This bird had deceived him. And although most don’t deserve to die, she had known Chase well enough to know what he was capable of when motivated. I made up my mind that she was dumb and therefore deserving of the fate Allouette would deliver to her.
“Are you ready to continue?” Chase asked, his gaze on me. It was like a beam of sun and burned at times.
I wasn’t ready to continue our training session, but I couldn’t say that. My brain felt like bread pudding, but I pushed past it and nodded. “Yes,” I said. I’d been trying to create the illusion of a cup of coffee. Something common was apparently easier than a specific projection, like a duplicate of yourself.
“You will find that when you stop trying to create something that doesn’t yet exist and instead pull from the energy already present, projections happen effortlessly,” he said evenly. “Everything is energy.”
I couldn’t stop the discouraged grunt that burst out of my mouth. “Will you speak bloody English?”
“You keep trying to create the illusion from nothing by just focusing on it,” Chase said. “You don’t have to do that. You know how your mind control works, how you go scavenging a mind first and use the tools already present in it to make things happen? You use the mind of a person to manipulate itself. The same theory applies to creating illusions. Try searching this space in the same way and then use the elemental energy here to create the projection.”
Now the chap was making sense. “Right-o,” I said, closing my eyes and sensing the large cave room around me. Chase was right. I could sense things about it the same way I could with a mind. I actually found that I instantly understood more about the space than I ever thought was possible. I connected with the air and knew it was a steady sixty-five degrees. I felt the life in the room. Mine, Chase’s, and some cave-dwelling bugs. The water in the ponds registered in my mind. The energy of the fire burning in the torches on the wall took shape in my mind on a whole new level. And the cave itself gave me its secrets. I then understood the significance of living in a place like this, which was so simplistic. I was never going to live in a cave, but I still had a new level of knowledge on it.
I snapped my eyes open. Pulling the energy from these elements I had just explored, I then focused it into a single thought supported by a firm visual. Only briefly a single ceramic cup with saucer and black coffee materialized on the rock in front of me. As soon as I allowed a moment of victory to enter my mind the coffee cup disappeared. I shot my eyes to Chase, waiting for his praise, strangely excited to get his approval.
“Next time, we will discuss shutting out the ego and desensitizing your emotions. Those two things will squash your ability to focus every time. We are done for today,” Chase said and stalked out of the main room.
Three months later I successfully created a twin illusion of myself. Unsurprisingly, it was easy for me to shut down my emotions. My ego was a different story.
Chapter Nineteen
July 1997
For six long months I followed Allouette’s every instruction, lacing an extremely real reality in this woman’s mind, Chase’s ex-fiancée. I wondered at times if I even had the choice anymore not to do everything Allouette ordered. I was in my body and then not. My mind was mine, and yet my free choice almost seemed absent at times. Somehow, the influence of the Voyageurs had numbed me more than ever. Dahlia wouldn’t have even recognized me, although I looked the same. I didn’t laugh. I didn’t joke. I was a hollow man. A tool to the mind. I’d never quite felt human, but all of a sudden I was something completely new.
I hadn’t given myself many opportunities to think about Dahlia since I left her. Because her face was plastered on billboards all over the world, I knew that after our breakup she entered a dark period with her music. It didn’t matter though. She was a star no matter what she did. There was no way she’d ever lose that. She was bigger than the Pope. Dahlia’s dark period didn’t last too long. She was a fighter and would always rally. On a trip to Stockholm, Sweden, to complete the last part of my job with Allouette, I caught sight of a picture of Dahlia on a tabloid. She was signing autographs after a show and looked back to her old self. She’d moved on.
I stood in my hotel room, enjoying a rare break from Allouette, who was as demanding of my attention as a toddler. For months I didn’t have any real desires. Actually, I was hardly ever hungry or thirsty. But seeing Dahlia’s image had stroked a part of my emotional center I thought had been blotted out. With a keen focus I created a projection of the girl I deserted over six months prior. Dahlia’s form flickered at first and then solidified. The illusion looked exactly as I remembered her to be: strong, beautiful, and full of life. Her dark brown hair was pulled to the side and hung over one shoulder.
“You’re so perfect,” I said to the girl who was there and also not at all.
She smiled, as I intended her to do. I didn’t make her speak, because I couldn’t bear to hear her voice.
“Dahlia,” I said, realizing I was losing my mind as I was speaking to an illusion I created. “I’m not a man. You thought I was, but I fooled you. Real men don’t do the things I do. Real men aren’t cowards.”
She blinked back at me. I had thought that somehow this moment of closure would awaken the life inside of me that had drained out, but it just made me weaker.
“I’m not sorry for leaving you. And I don’t want you back,” I said, hearing a new strain in my voice. “But I’m sorry that I hurt you.”
The door behind Dahlia’s illusion opened and I tore the projection down at once. Allouette stood, staring back at me with a devilish glare.
“Who vas zat?” she said, her hands on her hips.
“My mum,” I said, turning and focusing my attention out the bank of windows at my back. Our hotel room overlooked the Baltic Sea, which was where I’d finish Chase’s mission. The girl I’d been brainwashing was close and my proximity to her made my controls on her more powerful.
“You’re lying,” Allouette sang, her voice light. “Zat girl vas too young to be your mummy.”
I was grateful that Dahlia’s back had been to Allouette or she would have recognized her right away. “It was just a girl,” I said in a tired voice.
Allouette slid in front of me, partially blocking my view of the sea. “Did you love her?”
“Of course not,” I said, letting my eyes close for a half beat.
“But you vere together, veren’t you?” Her eyes tapered into thin lines and I dropped my head with shame. It was ridiculous and yet, Allouette had this effect on me. She could shame me.
“Yes,” I finally said, my head low.
She grabbed my chin, her pointy nails piercing my skin. “I’m your girl now, isn’t zat right?”
I nodded, my face still in her grasp. Throwing my chin to the side, Allouette cackled loudly. “No more illusions of other girlz.”
I turned away from her, wondering where I’d gone. Where was Ren? Who was this guy? How had I lost myself?
“Now, it’s party time,” Allouette said. She walked over to her suitcase on the bed and withdrew a case of knives. They were sheathed in a leather satchel. She rolled them out and her eyes dazzled as they ran over the polished hilts. “Zis is going to be zo much fun,” she said, running her fingertips over various knives. Having catalogued her options, she withdrew a serrated blade with a rosewood handle. Yanking up her knee-high skirt, she slipped the knife into a holster strapped around her mid-thigh. I thought that
would be it, but then she grabbed two more knives and fitted them into sheaths in her knee-high boots.
“You don’t need that many knives. It’s only one girl,” I said, and instantly flinched when she whipped around, giving me a punishing stare.
“I know vhat I’m doing,” she said, a vicious arrogance in her voice. “Send her to zee boat, Ren. Ve’re ready to end zis.”
***
Allouette and I waited in the hold of a ship. It was scheduled to sail out to sea, dispose of its “cargo,” and then return us to Stockholm. As instructed, I’d lured the girl to the ship. She actually thought she’d chartered it for a journey that would save her life. She was, as Allouette warned, fairly difficult to control. That’s why I had to be on the ship to ensure she didn’t change her mind and make the ship return prematurely.
“It’s time,” Allouette said, gripping my arm and pulling me toward the main cabin where the girl was stationed for the trip.
“I don’t need to go,” I said, realizing I’d never seen someone killed before.
“Don’t be such a coward,” Allouette said, probably having read the fear in my eyes. “If zomething goes vrong I vant you zere to help. Ve shouldn’t underestimate zis one.”
Dutifully I followed Allouette. When we arrived at the cabin door she pressed her ear to it, a curious look on her face. “Oh, merde,” Allouette said in a harsh whisper.
“What?” I said.
She didn’t answer but instead busted through the door. My eyes widened. Not because the woman wasn’t alone, but rather because she was in child labor. The first mate swiveled in our direction. His brow was dripping with sweat and in his hands he held a bloody baby covered in a towel. The girl was propped in a chair, her legs up, a blanket partially obscuring her bottom half.
