look for that strange fluttering in my mind, she was able to influence me.
I smiled widely, relief flowing through me. Maybe we could still fix everything since it
wasn’t really either of us that had caused the whole mess. It was completely Sandra. Maybe
Amy wasn’t even as angry as she’d been because of Sandra’s influence. There was a chance
we could undo of all this.
“You look like you just got the best news in the world,” Billy observed, breaking into my
thoughts. “Care to share?”
“I just remembered that Sandra was probably the one behind Amy breaking up with me,”
I replied happily. “Maybe, if I just talk to her, we can work this out.”
“Good luck,” Dr. Carnesby said heartily. “Not just for you both being together but if you
can keepAmy away from Sandra, all the better for us.” I nodded and started to stand up. I couldn’t wait to talk to Amy and explain to her what
Sandra had been doing. Billy’s hand on my arm stopped me and I looked down at him, half
upright and half-sitting.
“What?” I asked curiously, sitting back down.
“Are you really sure you want to talk to her today?” Billy asked, concern threading his
voice. “Sandra’s influence is rather long-reaching. Amy is still feeling angry and I doubt she’d
listen to you right now. All the time Sandra spent with her in the past week just reinforced the
idea that Sandra is the only one on Amy’s side.”
“Is that why Sandra was trying to keep Amy away from me?” I exclaimed, my mouth
dropping open in surprise. “I thought Amy was just busy making new friends and learning her
ability.”
Billy nodded, grimacing. I sat frozen, my mouth still open. This whole time, Sandra had
been working to create allies and I hadn’t even noticed my girlfriend was being pulled in?
Granted, I had been busy trying to understand my own ability but I should have seen what was
going on with Amy. I should have stopped it.
“It’s not your fault,” Billy said suddenly, breaking into my increasingly despairing
thoughts. “None of us noticed what Sandra was doing. Not even me, the mind reader. Do you
believe now that Sandra is not going to just go back to living quietly with her power?”
“Yeah, I do,” I breathed, holding back the tears that glimmered in my eyes. Even though
I knew in my head that it wasn’t my fault Amy had been pulled in, my heart was telling me I
could have done something. We were so close, I should have seen something. “So what do we
do now?”
“We wait and we watch,” Dr. Carnesby stated decisively. “I want you two to learn as
much as you can about Sandra and Michael without them realizing what you are doing. The
more we know about them - weaknesses, vices, hopes, dreams, goals, and fears - the more of
a chance we have to win if it comes to a fight.” I nodded and moved to get up again. Billy didn’t stop me this time and I walked slowly
down the hallway to my room. Deciding that sleep was probably what I needed right now, I
opened my door and then closed it quietly behind me. I changed quickly, my mind still working
over the points of our conversation. I couldn’t quite believe where we’d come in the last couple
weeks, what we’d all become. My plans for the future before this trial seemed so far out of reach
right now and I couldn’t think of any of the others following their plans either.
Amy had wanted the fame and recognition of working for a huge company. Of having the
fate of millions of dollars and thousands of workers resting on her shoulders and whatever
decision she made. That was part of why she’d gone into economics; she’d be the one the
heads of the business would come to for advice. Would she still want that same kind of life with
her ability to control the elements? Or would she choose something completely different,
something that depended on her new ability? I chuckled quietly to myself as I thought she’d
make a hell of a storm chaser or meteorologist.
I didn’t really know all that much about Michael, even now. The class clown act that he
pulled covered up information about him. One didn’t look past the funny guy who made
scientist for NASA. Though, that told me he had a sense of adventure. Perhaps Michael felt too
small or too confined, stuck here on Earth. Perhaps he wanted to discover others out in the
universe or other habitable planets to explore. His new ability seemed uniquely perfect for
working with NASA. If he was ever sent out into space or to other planets, he’d be able to
manipulate the force of gravity wherever he went. I thought it very likely Michael would have
followed his original plans if Sandra hadn’t intervened.
Which brought my thoughts around to the one disturbing element in the group. Sandra
had a lust for power that was obvious, though cleverly hidden behind an altruistic exterior. Now,
with her ability to manipulate emotions, she’d be able to gather the power she wanted and make
people uncaring of how she did it. Sandra would probably make them happy to do whatever she wanted. It’s easier to control someone if they’re happy about it rather than if they are angry and
afraid.
I sighed as I dropped down onto my bed, overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of what I
could imagine Sandra doing. I would bet that most people didn’t have the natural block against
her empathy that Billy had or the resistance that I had. With that depressing thought and others
floating through my mind, I dropped into an uneasy sleep. Chapter 10
Running again, just running through darkness slightly tinged a neon blue but there was
no fear this time. Anticipation, hope, and a worry that I wouldn’t make it in time. That was what
kept me going, kept me running and searching and praying. I could hear something behind me
but I felt no fear of it; I just knew that whatever it was was on my side. As I continued to run,
frantically searching the blue-lit darkness, I started recognizing bits and pieces from the last
dream I’d had like this.
Soon, buildings materialized out of the gloom but I ran past them. None of them were the
place I needed to be; they were just distractions. The being behind me kept pace, never
faltering and never catching up to me. I wondered momentarily why but was distracted by the
dark, yawning mouth of an open doorway. There. That was where I needed to be.
I hurtled through the doorway, barely slowing as I turned down a hallway. About halfway
down, I heard the being behind me make it through the door and then there was a resounding,
echoing slam as the door whipped closed. I stopped until the sound died away, suddenly fearful
that what I was running towards had heard. When no other sounds infiltrated the blue-lit gloom, I
heaved a silent sigh and continued down the hallway, though at a much slower pace.
There were doors on either side of me, leading I knew not where because they were all
closed. The nigglingsense of familiarity was back but I didn’t let it distract me. I needed to be
focused right now and the small mystery of where Iwas wasn’t important. As I moved down the
hallway, the blue light got brighter until I could clearly see. At that point, I made it to a large
room filled with armchairs arranged in a circle.
Only one of the chairs ha
d someone in it. As I moved closer, I recognized the body we’d
all imagined for Jane the last time we’d dreamwalked. I sat down across from her, silently
scanning the room and wondering who else was going to be here. A few seconds later, Billy entered the room from the hallway and sat down in the armchair to my right. He nodded to me
silently and I felt heartened that I wasn’t the only one here.
“Hello,” Jane greeted us once we’d settled into our chairs. “I’m rather surprised you
summoned me again during a dreamwalking. What is going on, gentlemen?”
“I have no idea,” I replied. “I was just dreaming about running again though I wasn’t
afraid. I recognized this building and came in. But where are the others?”
“They won’t be coming,” Billy stated, his voice quiet but resonant. “I’m keeping them
awaybecause there are a few things we need to discuss that Sandra can’t know.”
“Going a little overboard there, Billy?” I asked wryly, glancing over at him. “What could
possibly be so big as to have to be discussed in ourdreams?”
“The full extent of our abilities,” Billy replied as Jane watched with wide, interested eyes.
“You’ve only just scratched the surface of what you can do and I’ve never explained everything I
can do with my telepathy.”
“What do you mean, everything you can do?” Jane asked before I could. She had leaned
forward in her chair, her eyes locked on Billy.
“I mean, I can do more than just listen in on a person’s thoughts,” Billy explained, shifting
uncomfortably in his chair. “If I know someone, I can pinpoint wherever they are. I have a friend
who was a foreign-exchange student from India and I can tell where he is right now. I can also
feel people who have similar abilities to mine already. I’ve... well touched is the only word I can
think of to describe it... touched others who are curious about me. They sensed me as well.”
I was silent as I tried to think through the implications of that. It was definitely interesting
that Billy could tell where people were, apparently pretty much anywhere on the planet. The fact
that there were other peopleout there with telepathic abilities like Billy’s was rather alarming.
What was to stop them from hurting others?
“Adam thought there might be more to your ability, Billy, than you’ve shared,” Jane
muttered meditatively, steepling her hands underneath herchin. “And he knew that there were people who were natural telepaths. They were actually partially the inspiration for Gnotret. The
group Adam works with wanted to create more people with extra abilities or powers. Like I told
you before, you five were thefirst successes.”
“That’s not all,” Billy warned, looking up and meeting Jane’s eyes. “If I choose to, I can
burrow down deep into someone’s mind and learn everything there is to know about them. I can
speak directly into their mind or just influence their subconscious, pulling out the images I want
to use. I can also implant suggestions in their mind and they will carry them out, never
suspecting that what they were doing was something they didn’t actually plan on doing or
normally would.”
“How do you know this?” I asked suspiciously, turning in my chair to stare at Billy.
“These sound like rather dangerous and cruel things to do. What were you practicing on? Who
were you practicing on?”
Billy dropped his head again, a look of remorse and resignation crossing his face. My
stomach flipped as I remembered a few times I’d gone into a room expecting to do something
only to completely forget as I got there. Was that Billy implanting a suggestion, as he’d
explained? Anger bubbled through my chest the longer Billy stayed silent. Was he just using us
as Sandra was using Michael? As I was about to burst into yelling, Billy looked up and met my
eyes.
“I did practice on all of you,” he admitted, his voice barely audible. “But I swear, I never
hurt any of you or suggested you do something that would hurt you or others. I had to find out
what I could do and there was no one else. I’m sorry.”
“And whose mind did you delve into and learn everything about?” I bit out, my voice
rising. “Who did you practice on, whose privacy did you invade without their knowledge or
permission?”
“George, calm down,” Jane said, raising her hands and making shushing gestures at
me. “You all had to practice. Why are you getting so angry?” “No, it’s all right, Jane. I can explain myself,” Billy said tiredly. He looked at me again, his
eyes dark with sadness. “I don’t like to admit that I practiced my telepathy mostly on you,
George. You were the one that I spent most of my time around and you were the easiest to deal
with. I’m sure you noticed when we first met that I’m fairly shy and don’t relate well with people
on a personal level. What I do is get them to talk while I listen. You made an effort to be my
friend and it was just the easy way out to practice on you. Again, I’m sorry.”
I couldn’t just sit still anymore and jumped up out of my chair to pace. I felt personally
betrayed; Billy had said he wouldn’t go past surface thoughts before. I didn’t like feeling like
every little thing about me, every fear and insecurity, every hope and happiness and dream
were all known by him. As I stomped around the room, the anger gradually faded and I realized
that even though Billy did know everything, he was still hanging around me. He was still willing
to be a friend and he never actually had hurt me. That cooled the last of my anger and I dropped
down into my chair again, sending him a hesitant smile.
“All right, I forgive you,” I said, nodding. “But I wish you had told me what you were
doing.”
“I know but I couldn’t think of a way to word it,” Billy sighed wryly, smiling in relief. “I
mean, if I came up to you and said ‘Hey can I go into your mind and learn what makes you tick?
Oh and that means everything in there’ would you really have agreed?”
“Probably not,” I agreed. “Ok so your telepathy is a lot more inclusive than we originally
thought. You know you’re going to have to do the same kind of experimentation with your
telekinesis since you just learned about it today.”
“I know and that is what I’m going to spend the next week or so working on,” Billy told us.
“But there is a facet to your shapeshifting that we need to discuss. Especially before Sandra
decides to do anything.”
“I thought I’d discovered everything about it,” I offered, shrugging. “I mean, I can turn into
animate and inanimate objects and Ican turn my hands into things as well. What else is there?” “Your size, mostly,” Billy explained, a touch of smugness in his tone. “Whenever you’ve
changed, you’ve always changed into something about your size, a little smaller, or bigger. But
your ability is far more encompassing: you should be able to change into literally anything.”
“Anything?” I repeated incredulously. “You mean I could turn into a key or a bug or a
napkin or something?”
Billy nodded eagerly, a smile crossing his face. I noticed that Jane was still silent but she
had an extremely interested look on her face. She waved at Billy to continue and sat back, her
eyes unblinking. That was something that I’d never noticed before; as a computer program, th
e
body we’d created for her didn’t need to blink or even breathe.
“Yes, pretty much,” Billy agreed. “Size is not a factor for your shape shifting. You could
probably turn into a microbe without a problem. Or a blue whale for that matter. But this is
something that you need to practice because Ihave a feeling it’s going to come in handy. You
make the perfect spy because you can literally be anything.”
“And you needed to bring me into a dream world to explain this?” I asked dryly. “Sandra
already knows I can shapeshift. This feels like a small addition to that ability. Why is this so
important?”
“Because she believes you have limits,” Jane said suddenly, interrupting Billy before he
could speak. “And if Sandra ever goes rogue, she will only be guarding against what she thinks
you can do.”
“Exactly,” Billy added on. “If she believes you can only turn into larger animals or guys
who are about your size and shape, she won’t be looking for other things. She won’t be
watching for the birds flying in the sky or the woman walking down the street. You could be any
or all of those, or even something we haven’t mentioned yet, and Sandra would never know.
Hell, you could be a dinner plate for all she would know.”
“This is really strange,” I muttered, turning the idea over in my mind. It was true that I’d
never turned into a woman, feeling rather uncomfortable at the idea. I didn’t even know if I could. I’d also tried nothing smaller than a large dog and I wondered what it would feel like to
change into a tiny animal.
“I know but it’s something you needed to know. I think I’ve also discovered the reason
why Sandra has issues influencing you. Your shapeshifting makes your mind slippery and she
can’t get a hold in there,” Billy said. “I’ve been working on getting into the other’s minds to try
and understand the fullextent of their powers but it’s very slow going. I’m sure you noticed but
whenever I search someone’s mind, they get a tickling sensation. I have to be very careful
about what I’m doing and I can’t go too quickly or I will be found out.”
“And I believe that’s enough for now,” Jane said decisively as the blue light illuminating
the room suddenly dimmed. “It’s nearly morning. You both have been here most of the night. If