gifted

by Charmaine Ross

  I dragged the memory of another experiment to us. This time I showed Victor what he looked like from my perspective. I showed him towering over me holding a needle. I imagined his face so close it was all around us.

  “See what you really look like, Victor. This is not the face you show just anyone. This is the real you. Take a good look. I can see into your black soul,” I screamed.

  Victor looked around. His features jolted into surprise, then terror. “I don’t look like that. Take it away.”

  “Look harder, Father. Look in your eyes. Remember what you did to me. Remember who you really are.”

  His hands dropped, and I stood panting. He spun around, watching the image from my mind pour around him. “You’re lying.” Insanity made his eyes dull and needy. He wasn’t human anymore. More a construction of what he’d made himself into rather than the man before he’d changed.

  “Do you remember this, Victor?” This was where the real torture had begun. Not just the experiments, the constant needles and drugs. This was when Victor had stepped over the line, where he separated scientific discovery from sadistic enjoyment. I flashed another memory around us.

  In my memory, he lifted his fist and slammed it into the side of my face. My lip broke and spattered blood over the white of his overcoat. Victor dabbed his finger in one the spatters. He lifted his finger and studied the blood as if it were the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, squishing my blood onto his fingertips until the ends of his fingers were a deep red. Then he looked at me, and there was a smile on his face. He’d enjoyed himself.

  I flashed memory after memory past him. One finished and another began. I didn’t let up. Fatigue washed through me, more noticeable now than before. I knew my body was weakening from loss of blood. That I only had limited time to somehow stop him.

  “If you cooperate, I won’t have to do that again,” the Victor in my memory said.

  “If you had cooperated, I wouldn’t have had to do that again,” Victor said at the same time. Their voices fused in the same flatline tone, devoid of emotion. The Victor standing next to and the Victor in my memory looked down on me with the same dead gaze. There was nothing moral in him at all, his insanity having wiped out any human virtue he once might have had. “You are not my father. A father would never do this to his child.”

  “My dear, in the name of science, volunteers are needed. After you escaped, I could have let you rot in the streets, but I needed you or, more specifically, your blood. Why do you think I tried so hard for so long to find you? We share the same DNA. In order for me to acquire your power, I had to make sure it worked with you first. Only I know how to use your abilities correctly. Only I can master it and become king of this world.”

  I refused to think that this husk of a man could be my flesh and blood. I couldn’t think that way. That was the one thing that could destroy me.

  “Is that what you really want? Power? What for?” I asked.

  “What more is there? I have mastered the ability to live for years beyond my time. I can outlive any soul on earth. I have made my fortune. I will be all there ever is, was, and will be.”

  “You want to be God!”

  “God on earth,” Victor said. “The power behind the powers. The military that owns the military. Imagine a soldier that doesn’t age. Doesn’t die. Who has supernatural powers of persuasion. Whose dependent on me for his very survival and who will do anything I wish him to do to live another day. Every country will come to me for protection, and I will give it to them. But I will also offer it to others. In the end, I will be the power. I will own everything. Can you imagine that, Katia. All the power of the world held by one man. Society will be mine.”

  “Now I know you are hopelessly insane. That will never happen.”

  “It will! I will start with this country, and once it falls, I will move to the next. It will fall like a stack of cards. When one falls, others will follows.”

  “It’s impossible. You would be a loveless, lonely God. People would live in fear of you. You would never know friendship or love. You’re sick, Victor. Finish this, live out the rest of your life. Let us all be free, and maybe you won’t spend the rest of eternity in hell.”

  “I have no need for an afterlife. I have all I need here and now. I can live forever.”

  “But can you live with yourself?”

  “Without a doubt,” he snarled.

  His hands ripped into my skull. My knees buckled. I tried to pull his hand away, but I had reached near empty. My body nearly drained. The last of the cells being ripped away. My body was shutting down.

  I punched with a surge of thought-energy. Victor’s head snapped backward. I lunged again with my thought, and he stumbled backward. I just needed to keep up the assault with my mind. But it was getting hard to concentrate. To think. Haze edged my vision. I lashed out again, but I couldn’t form the thought right, and nothing happened.

  “I know why you’re here. You thought you could match me here. With your power. But you can’t, Katia. You’re in my mind where I am in total control. You cannot win. Now it will end for you. You never had a chance,” Victor snarled. He lunged at me, and there was nothing I could do to fend him off. I was becoming disoriented. My vision spinning.

  I looked up into his eyes and saw only madness, the true Victor revealed. There was nothing to stop him. He had lost the ability to control himself against his baser, evil self. And in those eyes, I saw my death. My life, my struggle, my gift was going to end, here, in Victor’s head. In the ugliest of places I could conceive of dying in.

  Blackness edged around me as I crumpled onto the ground. I wouldn’t let Victor be the last thing I would see. He wouldn’t do that to me. I concentrated on the good things that had happened to me. The people who had come to matter. Heather. Julius.

  So few people. But that didn’t matter. They were the only ones who loved me for who I was. Not what I could do or how they could benefit from me. I imaged them in my mind. They were the last things I wanted to see.

  I opened my eyes to see their faces smiling down at me, breaking through the dark, shining light into each and every corner of Victor’s mind. All of them looking down at me with tenderness, sincerity, with love. I remembered the kind acts they had done for me. Relived the memories.

  Then there was only Julius. He had shown me love, made me believe there was more to life than running. If only I could tell him how he had made me feel while I was in his arms, how he had made me feel every moment he had come into my world. I knew without a doubt that this was what it was like to have fallen in love. At least I’d known that.

  “It’s interesting to see what your thoughts are in death, my dear.”

  I was lightheaded. Tired. So tired that death looked at me down the barrel of a gun. Julius’s face shone from above. I fell into his soft hazel eyes all over again. I knew this breath was my last. Drag it into my lungs. Then out.

  Then nothing.

  The world was so dim now that Victor was a vague shadow hovering over me. I saw a circle of intense light travel up his arms and ball in the middle of his forehead. My power. My gift.

  Now his.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Daddy!” A voice, soft and high. A ray of sunshine though the dark.

  Light.

  An image of Julius holding a baby, swathed in pink blankets. He held the tiny bundle to his lips and kissed her downy head. His mouth curled into a soft smile as he looked at her. “That’s me when I was just born,” Celia said.

  I blinked heavy eyelids open to see a little girl with dark hair and an upturned nose standing next to me, smiling. Her features so lovingly familiar, so full of life.

  “Celia?” I called, but my voice was too weak to carry much farther than my own ears. How on earth did she walk into Victor’s mind?

  “How did that little brat get here?” Victor demanded.

  Celia laughed. “It was easy peasy.”

 
Another memory flickered around us, so full of color and light it nearly blinded me. Celia must be doing this. She made it look easy. The power of her mind was staggering. Victor’s handiwork no doubt.

  The image shifted to Julius sitting at a table, eating and laughing with a beautiful woman. “That’s my mummy.”

  “She’s beautiful,” I whispered.

  Celia looked at me, her face so sad. “He killed her. He made Daddy do things. Daddy did them, but he killed Mummy anyway.”

  “I’m so sorry, Celia.” My heart poured with grief. I knew her pain. I knew what it was like not to have a mother. I wanted to reach out to her, bring her into my arms, and never let her go.

  Celia knelt next to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. She was so warm and soft, so sweet that I started to cry. I didn’t care. I just wanted to offer some comfort to this little girl. “Daddy said you were a nice lady.”

  I flashed an image of Julius looking down at us, as though he were beneath water or behind some sort of near-transparent glass. I realized it was Julius speaking to Celia through the capsule window. “Find her, Celia. Trust her. She will know what to do. Celia, I need you to remember this. Tell her you need her. Tell her I need her. Tell her I’m sorry it had to be this way ...Tell her I love her.”

  “That’s my Daddy,” Celia said. Fingers touched my shoulder, and a sudden jolt of energy surged through my body. I dragged a deep breath into my lungs so forcefully it lifted my back from the floor.

  “Oh my God! Celia! How did you do that?” I said, breathless and in awe.

  “I went through his blood. He put wires into me and took my blood, and he didn’t even ask! I went into his mind then, too, but I didn’t like it so I went back.”

  My gut twisted. Victor had done this to her, too! “How come he didn’t take your energy?”

  “I didn’t let him. He didn’t say please.” The simplicity of it astounded me. Victor didn’t ask. It took the manners of a five-year-old to stop him.

  “Little brat. Get away from her,” Victor screamed.

  I gritted my teeth. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

  The notes from Julius. A sentence snagged in my mind. The cells receiving cellular data need to have permission to access the original memories. This “permission” from one cell to the other has been the downfall of previous experimentation. It was not previously known that cells have a dialogue at this most basic of levels. If the original rejects the receiver, the data transfer can be halted and reversed.

  Julius had let me read his notes. Give them permission. This was the permission he’d told me about.

  “That’s right. You didn’t say please to me, either.” I dug deep within me, into the very core of my being, and lifted the last remnants of strength I had. I concentrated on the bright light shining on Victor’s forehead. The lights were shifting from orange to lilac, gold to white. My power. My gift.

  And I wanted it back. I clutched Celia’s hand and concentrated on taking the thought-energy back.

  Victor squeezed his eyes shut. He staggered, stumbling backward. The light on his forehead became dimmer, shrinking in size.

  “Stop this at once,” Victor screamed. “You little brat, get out of here now, or you’ll never see the light of day again.”

  The light dimmed around us before colors merged into another memory. A child’s giggle erupted into laughter. It was a bright, sunny day, and everywhere was a blur of blue and green. The hem of a flowery summer dress flapped in the breeze. Two feet encased in silver sandals with sparkling diamantes moved backward and forward. “Higher, Daddy!”

  Celia. On a swing. I heard Julius’s laughter filter through her joyful squeals. “Maybe Daddy can push you, too,” the Celia standing next to me whispered in my ear.

  “Stop thinking about him,” Victor cried. “Get out of here now.”

  Victor lashed out at the images of light and love around him. Celia squeezed my hand. Energy and love flowed through me, making me stronger. Giving me hope. I concentrated on reversing the flow of energy from Victor, feeling it seep back into my cells. Growing stronger.

  “You can’t understand what’s happening, can you?” I asked Victor. “You want to rule by fear and death. But you’ve got it all wrong. Terror won’t make you strong. Love is the most powerful emotion in the universe. It’s a simple secret, but one that seems to have escaped you all your long, loveless life.”

  “You know nothing about it,” Victor said.

  “I’ve felt more than you’ll ever have the capacity to.”

  I thought about Heather giving her life for me. Celia here at my side, holding my hand with such trust, sharing her happy memories. Julius taking care of me when I’d first woken, holding me, comforting me through my nightmares, risking everything to help me. The way he’d kissed me when he’d bundled me into the taxi, knowing Seth most probably would kill him.

  The light at Victor’s forehead dimmed into nothingness. It slid down his arms, his hands, and out through his fingertips, reversing back the way it came. Energy surged through my mind, and, with that, strength and blood in my body.

  “No. Stop!” Victor screamed.

  I gripped his wrists, brought my face close to his. I wanted to look right in his eyes and know he had been defeated.

  “Release me at once,” Victor said.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Celia placed her hand over mine. Our energies mingled. I smiled down at her, feeling her connection. In that instant, I fell in love with her as completely as I had with her father.

  “I’ll get you out of this.” I winked at her. She tried to wink back, but blinked with both eyes.

  “Time to give you a little taste of what you have given all of us,” I said to Victor.

  I imagined a capsule behind him. It appeared out of the shadows, solid and real in his mind. He backed away from it. He tried to twist his wrists from my grip, but I didn’t let go. I pushed, our combined energies too strong. The back of his leg caught on the capsule. He stumbled, tilting over the edge.

  “You can’t do this to me!” Victor said.

  “What’s the matter? Can’t take what you dish out?”

  I shoved him backward into the capsule. His face contorted, tight and enraged. “You will pay for this!”

  “You’re not in any position to threaten me.”

  “Please, you can’t,” Victor pleaded.

  “Too little too late, Victor. I’m giving you as much sympathy as you gave us.”

  I slammed the capsule lid down, locking it. Victor screamed silently through the window, banging on the clear glass. I didn’t waste my breath telling him it wouldn’t break. I smiled down at him. There was knowledge in his eyes. Realization he was going to live his own nightmare: trapped in his mind in an immortal body.

  The capsule slid silently into the blackness. I swept Celia into my arms. Hot tears slid down my face, and a relief like none that I’d ever known soared into my soul. It was peace, joy. Love.

  With Celia’s help, Victor was gone forever. His body would be nothing but a vegetable, his mind trapped inside the blackness of his head. The nightmare was finally over.

  “I’ll tell your daddy I saw you and that you helped me.” I put Celia back on her feet and knelt in front of her. I pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Can you get back into your body? We have to leave here, but when I get out, I’ll wake you up. Does that sound good?”

  Celia nodded, “Then can I have an ice cream?”

  I flashed a grin that couldn’t be stopped. “You bet.”

  Celia waved and faded from my sight. I closed my eyes, tilted my head back, and took a deep, cleansing breath. I was free.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Katia.” A whisper. Warm breath across my cheek. Julius.

  I slowly opened my eyes. His rich chestnut hair was in clumps, as though he’d run his hands through it too many times. He was at my side, his hand covering mine, forehead pressed against the back of my hand. My heart squ
eezed.

  “I’m here,” I breathed.

  He lifted his head, eyes widening. A half smile slipped onto his lips. “You’re alive.”

  “Sound ... surprised.”

  “I couldn’t hope to believe.”

  The absence of the bands around my limbs was Heaven. I tried to move my arm, but it was way too heavy. He gently took the stint from my hand and covered the wound. I was no longer connected to Victor. Utter relief cascaded through me.

  “Katia, you have to believe I didn’t want any of this for you. I tried to help you ...”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t deserve your understanding.”

  I tried to smile. “Victor had ... Celia. Know that. Get her ... out of the capsule. She ... helped me.”

  “I’ve tried, but I can’t do it. Victor ... He will kill her.”

  “She will wake this time.”

  He rubbed his palms over his eyes, took a shaking breath. He looked back at me, eyes glistening. “How...”

  “I saw her. Spoke to her.”

  Confusion clouded his eyes, but relief blew it away. He exhaled, laughing at the same time. He picked me up from the table, wrapping his arms around me. He held me tightly, breath shuddering, hands shaking. He rocked me back and forth.

  A shadow reared up behind Julius. “Seth!”

  A thick arm wound around Julius’s neck, the other hand at his forehead as though he were trying to twist his head off. Seth wrenched Julius away from me. I fell back on the table.

  Julius clawed at Seth’s forearm, struggling for breath. His mouth opened, gasping. Seth was a head taller than Julius, his shoulders twice his width. He was a trained soldier without morals. Julius didn’t stand a chance. I balled up my thought-energy and threw it at Seth.

  Nothing happened. Panic surged like a fist in my gut. I tried another hit. I wanted to use it, but my body was totally drained.

  “Julius!” It was no more than a strangulated cry.