Oblivion

by Adrianne Lemke

  Something had changed. It wasn’t just that Jason refused to meet my eyes, or that he now seemed to fully trust a girl he had known for less than a day. No. There was more to it.

  He was more willing to have me around, yet it was obvious he accepted my presence only under protest. Finding Sam had become his priority. Not too much of a surprise, honestly, because the brothers shared a strong bond. Even without his memories, there would have been a connection.

  The big surprise was that, even without his memories, Jason seemed to know I was different. That the most dangerous part of me was closer to the surface than he had been in years. He had never looked at me as a true friend, but when I suppressed Kindred for so long, we had been close. While I masqueraded as Officer Nickels, it had taken time, but we began to build a friendship.

  “Jeremiah, what do you think?” Agent Jones brought me back into the conversation.

  Sifting through what had been said so far, I shook my head. “I don’t think we’ll be able to get in and out safely yet. They’ve had three of us break out in quick succession, and are unlikely to lower their guard around Sam at this point.”

  “So they’re on high alert, but they wouldn’t expect us to go rushing in. The Mastermind knows we’re smarter than that,” Alice said slyly. She raised her eyebrow and looked around at all of us.

  Surprising. One of my eyebrows raised in shock as the others considered what she said. I could honestly say I hadn’t expected the lady detective to be the one advocating a rushed rescue.

  “So what, detective, you want to run into the facility, guns blazing, and hope no one gets killed in the process?” I pushed, wondering if she had thought things through.

  She shook her head angrily. When she spoke, her voice was clipped, “No. I want to do this by the book. I want to report a kidnapped boy being held against his will in an abandoned building, and get all the backup we can.”

  Before anyone could protest, she held up a hand. “I know we can’t do that. Not without risking the people we bring as backup being controlled by that person. Or discovering the special abilities of some of our friends.”

  “It would be worth the risk,” Jason argued, eyeing me with distrust. “We can use all the help we can get, and—quite honestly—I don’t feel comfortable with a murderer as an ally.”

  Both the detective and the agent sighed, apparently familiar with his argument. At this point, they discounted it. Even if Jason couldn’t accept it, I was there to help him.

  I felt… strange. After everything I’d done to improve myself—to be good enough that I could become Jason’s friend—he would never accept me.

  It was a sudden revelation, and almost made me sad. Another part of me spoke. “If you can’t rise to his level, than bring him down to yours.”

  I shook off the thought with a frown. He wouldn’t sink to my level. He’d proven that on a number of occasions already. Even lacking his memories, he knew he was not the type of person who could murder someone in cold blood.

  “Always better than you. Always looking down on you. Make him like you, if you must be his friend.”

  I took a step back. What was happening?

  “Everything okay, Jeremiah?” Jones asked.

  I glanced up at the agent. Apparently, the others had wandered off while I was… well, having a mental break or something.

  “You seem… Jason only wants what’s best for his brother. He doesn’t remember that you are a better man now,” Jones assured me.

  And wasn’t that a kicker? An FBI agent—as straight-laced as they come—was trying to comfort a known killer. It was a strange turn of events, and one I had a hard time wrapping my head around.

  Even more surprising, part of me agrees with Jason. I am not a good person. “He’s right, agent. I killed those guards. If I had known then what I know now? That those men were mere puppets of a larger threat? I likely would have killed them more slowly in an attempt to gain information that would help stop him.”

  Agent Jones backed away from me, and I knew what he was seeing; a cold look in my eyes, a killer’s intent in the tightness of my jaw.

  “I won’t harm you,” I assured him. At Agent Jones’ backpedaling, the cop and Jason rejoined us. The next words were meant for all of them. “We are allies against a much more dangerous foe. I find myself… fond of you. Not friends, exactly, but I can respect you.”

  Jason eyed me with trepidation, and a hint of anxiety.

  “Tracker, you have no need to fear me.” I shoved the voice of Kindred to the back of my mind. Being gentle did not come naturally, but I spoke in a low calm voice. “I will not harm you, and I will do whatever it takes to help get your brother back.”

  It was becoming hard to ignore the voice in my head. The constant urging to go back to my old ways. To realize that even at my worst I was unwilling to harm Jason, and I could most likely help him more if I embraced my full power.

  Was it tempting to feel the surge of power I used to hold over people? I wanted to say no. The best part of me could hardly keep a hold over the desire to control people again. There was a strong possibility I would be unable to stop myself from sliding back into old habits.

  I turned toward Jason, surprised when he met my gaze without flinching.

  “You are exactly what you’ve shown me. Entirely too willing to hurt and kill people if they are in your way. You say you want to be my friend?” he paused.

  It took me a moment to realize he wanted a response. “Yes. I have tried to change in order to be your friend. Even before… I view you as a friend, even if you do not.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “I believe you. But I need you to curb your violent tendencies. You can’t just kill people who get in your way. I will not be friends with a man who looks to violence and murder as a first option. It should always be the last resort. Do you understand?”

  The last resort. “Always first. You strike first before they can hurt you.”

  Ignoring the voice, I answered, “I understand. I will make every effort to prevent a loss of control.”

  Eyeing me critically, Jason nodded once. “See that you do. You are here to help retrieve my brother. Attempting to stop the Puppet Master, or shut down this operation, is not the priority right now. Once we have Sam back… once he is able to retrieve my memories… then we can look into stopping this.”

  Stopping a powerful adversary. A predatory grin crossed my face. That was something all parts of me could get behind.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Sam

  From what I had heard from Jason and Jeremiah, I expected to be locked in a room with a guard or two standing watch.

  What I didn’t expect was to be led into what looked like a doctor’s exam room, and locked onto the bed. They had left me there for quite a while, and I entertained myself by attempting to reach into the minds of the guards and monitor their emotional levels.

  Mostly what I felt was a low level hum of repressed will, and a distinct lack of controllable emotion. The Mastermind knew my abilities, and was clearly taking no risk that I’d be able to manipulate one of his guards to help me escape.

  The Boss felt more familiar. Feelings lurked beneath the surface. I was not surprised to find a similar mix of emotions to those I’d felt with Hunter. All were muted in the same way, but his feeling of superiority and lack of compassion for other people definitely stood out.

  One thing I noticed about the puppets was that they all had identical thought patterns. How the person in charge could have enough power to control so many at the same time was an unknown. We knew from experience that everyone with abilities had limits of some sort, so what were his?

  I tried to follow the control path back to the person in charge, but hit a mental block even stronger than Jason’s. Nothing was getting through this guy’s control.

  “Your friends are looking for you,” the Boss’s voice broke through my concentration. “We won’t allow them to find you, but when they do breach, we will regain control of
your brother and the girl. We aren’t finished with them yet.”

  He seemed in a talkative mood, so I attempted to gain some intel on their goals. “What exactly do you want with us? I mean it’s obvious that we all have abilities, but what’s the endgame?”

  I felt a spike of annoyance, and his eyes flickered toward the door.

  “Our goals are beyond you. Just know you are helping to further them by our study of you.”

  I smirked. “You don’t know either, do you? What about the Doctor? Is he the head guy, or does he take orders from the Mastermind too?”

  He sneered, and the aggravation doubled. It was obvious I was right, and if I could push him hard enough it might do me some good.

  “Does your boss not trust you? Your name must feel like a slap in the face when you don’t even know what the plan is.”

  My words had almost as much effect as my emotional manipulation. I amped up his annoyance and pushed at his anger. I could only hope he kept it aimed at his boss, and didn’t redirect it toward me. Any sympathy I could find, I also pushed. Any little bit helps.

  “Keep it up, kid, and you won’t last long enough to see your brother captured,” he growled. “I’ve been given free reign over punishments for you, and we aren’t feeling too forgiving at the moment.”

  “Yeah, three escapees within a day. Must be hard on business,” I sniped back at him, keeping my smirk in place.

  He was on the edge of snapping. The man grabbed a vial and began drawing the liquid into a syringe.

  His hand was hovering over my arm when there was a knock on the door. The person outside didn’t wait for a response before entering.

  “Boss, you are needed elsewhere,” the new arrival said.

  The new man stood off to the side, staring at the Boss until the big man grumbled and stalked out of the room.

  “You’re good, kid. Although right now, it doesn’t take much to push his buttons.” The newly arrived man seemed genuinely amused. He didn’t seem to like his coworker much.

  “Figuring me out? I don’t think it took your brother long to do so. You can call me the Doctor. I am looking to study those with special powers and figure out how they work. The Boss doesn’t care so much about that. He mostly wants to prove that he can hurt those who are more powerful than himself.”

  “Yeah, I got that.” I glanced toward the loaded syringe. “What was he going to inject me with?”

  The Doctor checked the vial and tutted. “Something I would have been unhappy about. He’s authorized to punish, but not to seriously maim our patients.”

  A snort escaped. “Patients? More like prisoners. Patients have a say in treatment. What was he going to do to me?”

  “No guarantees, but this drug has the unfortunate side-effect of causing brain damage. It is not every time, but I am not willing to risk it. Quite honestly, it should have been disposed of long ago.”

  His anger was true, as was his feeling that his prisoners were under his care as a doctor. Had the Mastermind done that to him? Or was he honestly that delusional?

  “He wasn’t lying that your friends are outside. I doubt they’ll risk coming in yet, though. It’s a shame, because your brother was one of my most interesting subjects.”

  “From what he told me, you hadn’t gotten far in your testing. How could you determine how interesting he was?”

  The Doctor nodded. “True, he wasn’t here long. But his ability to destroy things on a large scale, and to delicately lead the smallest pieces of dirt to do what he wants, was definitely interesting. There is also his ability to block out the control of one of my other patients… he is truly remarkable.

  You are as well, young man. Your walls appear to be nearly as strong as Jason’s, and you just proved to be masterful at manipulating people. I can’t honestly say how much of it was your power at work and how much was your vocal ability to manipulate, but you have a gift.”

  This guy would not hurt us. I felt that almost as strongly as I felt that the Boss would willingly destroy anyone he saw as inferior. He was honestly impressed by our powers, and legitimately wanted to learn how they worked. However, he was still working for a person who would not hesitate to harm anyone he wanted.

  “What about your patient who controls people?” I asked, pushing at his willingness to share information. “What’s his name? How did you come to work f… with him?”

  He paused, his eyes going a little glassy as something nudged his mind. It took him a moment, but he shook his head and gave a weak smile. “Not important. What is important is that he is a willing subject. We have learned so much from him.”

  I pushed at his trust levels, attempting to force him into believing I could be an ally. “He controls everything here. You can’t do anything without his approval. Don’t you want your free will back?”

  A smile filled his face. “Thank you for your concern, Sam.” He was honest in his gratitude, but did not feel trapped by his situation.

  My senses were backed by his next words. “I am where I am meant to be. And now, so are you. Worry not. You and your brother will be reunited soon.”

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Jason

  We had to pull away to regroup. It wasn’t easy to leave the facility knowing my brother was being held captive, but we couldn’t count on a last minute plan to work. As a group we decided to head back to the house they’d been using, and we’d figure out what to do from there.

  “There are two other people there right now, Jason,” Hannah informed me.

  Her voice made me look away from the scenery flashing by my window, and I cocked my head in confusion.

  She smiled sadly. “I don’t want to have you frightened off by the fact there is movement in the house. One of them you have never met before, so you wouldn’t be able to recognize her. The other… well, you might recognize his steps. I think you should try.”

  “Why should I recognize his? I recognize yours now and the others here…” I paused.

  It was interesting when I realized memorizing the patterns of people’s footsteps came naturally. It took almost no effort to recognize the people around me. Sam’s had seemed familiar from the start. Once I actively searched them out, it was almost like a punch in the gut how familiar they were. Especially when seeing him didn’t cause a similar response.

  “It has to be someone I know well,” I inferred. “Who is it? Another brother?”

  “Sort of,” she acknowledged with an encouraging nod. “You and Sam were part of an unofficial family. He was the oldest besides you, and helped you watch out for Sam and the others.”

  What had my life been before the amnesia? A brother who caused the memory loss, a supposed friend who was a killer, two cop friends, no mention of parents… had Sam and I been orphans?

  I voiced the question, and Hannah and Alice exchanged an uncomfortable look. Jeremiah almost looked ashamed.

  “What?” I asked, looking between all of them. It was aggravating how little I knew, and how little they were telling me.

  Alice nodded to her sister. “Tell him, Hannah.”

  Still reticent, Hannah spoke haltingly. “You… Your father was abusive. When it got really bad you ran away. We met you shortly after you ended up on the streets, and you eventually started protecting other kids in similar situations. A few years after you ran, you went back for Sam, and rescued him from your father.”

  “And this person at the house is one of the kids?” I asked.

  “Yes. He was the first you took charge of,” Hannah answered. “So you know him very well.”

  I nodded slowly. “And my father?”

  “He was killed a couple years ago,” Jeremiah answered defiantly. He held his head high, and his gaze didn’t waver from mine. “By me.”

  I flinched, and broke eye contact. I couldn’t remember my father, but I could remember the feeling of the heartbeats fading… disappearing. Imagining one of my family being killed in the same way was difficult.

  “Why?” I asked.
“I mean, I know he was abusive,”—at least that’s what they said—“but why did you kill him?”

  Hannah opened her mouth, but Jeremiah stalled her.

  “He had come after you. Would have kept you prisoner and continued the abuse he’d started when you were a child. The thin scars on your arms are what you did to yourself when you were quite young. It was an attempt to get away. I owed you, so I took care of the threat.”

  The matter-of-fact way he spoke about killing a man had shivers running down my back. I eyed him warily. It was no different than I’d felt before, but now he reacted.

  Jeremiah recoiled slightly. A hurt look flashed over his face so quickly I almost didn’t recognize it before his mask of indifference slammed down.

  Lena patted my hand and I glanced up at her.

  “He’s not your enemy right now. You need to relax and use him as a resource,” her voice rang through my head. “Perhaps by allowing him to help you, you will also help him be a better person. You already know he can’t be kept in a jail.”

  I squeezed her hand and nodded in acknowledgment of what she told me.

  “I have no idea how to respond,” I admitted finally. “I only know that I need all of you to help get my brother away from those people. Jeremiah, in my mind you are the wild card. I don’t know if I can trust you to keep your word that you’ll avoid killing anyone.”

  “When I give my word, I keep it,” he replied solemnly.

  “I hope you do. When I first woke up in that place, you were my only contact who wasn’t trying to manipulate me or study me. I sincerely wanted to count you as a friend.

  But when you killed those men, it made me question everything. I can’t live my life in the shadow of a killer. I want you to understand that.”

  A flash of something unrecognizable crossed his face, but he jerked his head down in a quick nod. “Very well.”

  We pulled into the driveway of a two story gray house, and I felt my heart rate speed up. Inside the house was another link to my forgotten past, and I clenched my fist to hide the shaking from the people around me.