Kinetics (13 page)

He knocked on the door, but didn’t wait
before coming in, “Oh good, you’re up.”

“Yup, just picking my brain for
something to keep my mind occupied for a while.” I pointed to the dishes that I
had hand washed even though there was a dishwasher. 

“Well, the doctor would like to see you
immediately.”

“Let’s go then.” I pulled on my shoes
and we left. 

~//~

When we arrived at the clinic Doctor Z
was waiting outside.  He was almost bouncing on his heels in excitement yet Sam
was somber as we got out of the truck.  I couldn't help but to wonder what was
wrong with this strange man.

“Ah, Grace I have wonderful news, please
come into my lab.” He directed me with his arm outstretched.  I followed Sam
who led the way through the clinic to Doctor Z’s lab. 

“Have a seat, please.” Sam sat on the
doctor stool.

Doctor Z shut the door, “I have been
going over your test results from the other day coupled with scans that we took
while you were at level six within the Aurora facility.”

"Alright." I wasn’t following
as the small man zipped all over the room showing me different images.

"These are, I must say, nothing
short of magnificent." Dr. Z rambled, “Anyway, I have been working on a
drug that can remove your mental block.”

“Completely?”

“It could, or only slightly.” He sighed,
"It could also do nothing at all."

“Alright,” I thought for a moment, “I’m
in.”

“Grace I want you to know I’m against
this, I think you should work through this, on your own.” Sam voiced his
opinion.

“There is one other thing.” Doctor Z
Said, “If it works as designed it won’t just get rid of the mental block that
prevents your powers; it will remove all mental blocks.”

“Really, I don’t think that I have any
other mental blocks.” I joked. 

“This is serious Grace, you could unlock
horrible memories that you don’t want to remember, you were an orphan."
Sam paced around the room running his fingers through his hair.  He was
determined to talk me out of using the drug. 

"I remember every bit of that.” I
growled. 

"You may have to spend more time
putting the blocks back up, then it would take to just work through this one.” He
continued to pace.

“Sam, look, I’m ok with this.” I stopped
him and looked into his eyes.

“Alright, Alright.  Let’s do it.” He finally
let up.

I laid down on the table.  Doctor Z rolled
up my sleeve and sterilized a spot on my arm.  He opened a small plastic case
where he removed a small syringe full of glowing purple liquid. 

“This will hurt, at first.” Dr. Z was
sure to inform me.

He pushed the needle into my vein and
emptied the chemical into my blood.  He pulled the needle back out and replaced
it in the case.    

I felt burning as the chemical coursed
through my body.  My legs began to shake. Slowly, the movement shook up my
arms. My whole body began to shake.  I tried to keep my eyes open but my eye
lids became more and more heavy.

I fainted.

~//~

I was knee high.  I couldn’t see over
any counters, or anything for that matter.  Beside me stood a man and a woman,
who seemed familiar, but that’s all.

“My name is Joseph Madison and this is
my wife Abby.  We spoke on the phone.” The man spoke to a woman behind the
counter.

“How may I help you today?” the woman
asked.

“We had an appointment.” Mr. Madison
said.

The woman looked down at the book in
front of her, “Right this way.” We were led into a back room.

I was placed in a small play area where
there were several toys but I just sat there.  I could hear everything that was
going on.

“Mr. Madison, the first question that I
am forced to ask is, did you bring the required compensation?  Obviously you
are a wealthy man.” The woman asked.

“We have the requested amount, along
with instructions for an account that will be injected with one million dollars
when she reaches eighteen, safely.  My work is getting increasingly dangerous
and I don’t want my daughter to be a part of it.”  My father explained.

“Alright, the child’s name?”

“Her name is Grace.  I want her to
disappear.  I do not want her to seek us out.  I want her to think that we are
both dead.”  He slid an elaborate wooden case across the table to the woman. 
“Inside this box is a tracking system that will lead you to the girl when she
is eighteen years old.  It will not activate until then.  When she is of age I
want her restored to her place as the inheritor of my estate.  I will be dead
by the time she is of age I am afraid, and if by some chance I am not, all the
better.” 

“I hope to have her in a family rather
quickly; she is such a cute child.  We have a back story and fake records
prepared already.”

Everything got very fuzzy and the room
dissolved into thin air.

~//~

I woke in Doctor Z’s lab covered in
sweat and shot bolt upright, “What do you know about Joseph Madison?”

“He used to own all of this; he died a
few years back.” Sam said, “Why?”

“I just had a hell of a dream.” I rubbed
my head.

“What happened?” Doctor Z asked.

“My parents were getting rid of me.” I
closed my eyes trying to remember all the details. “My father was Joseph
Madison.”

“I will look into it.” Sam said.

“Can you use your abilities?” Doctor Z was
irritated with the detour that we had taken away from the reason he gave me the
treatment.

I held out my hand and concentrated on a
powerful flame.  Foot high flames burst out of my palm. 

Doctor Z clapped his hands and whelped
for joy.  Sam smiled but still looked disturbed.

I got off of the bed, my legs a little
weak as I stood up, and ignited my other hand with flames.

“I’m going to take another scan, keep
the flames active.” Doctor Z brought out the electronic crown and placed it
once again on my head. 

“Could you dial them back a bit though?”
Sam worried that I might burn the place down.

I lowered the flames down to a two inch
height while the good doctor took his readings.  As the results began to appear,
he frowned.

“This is interesting.” He projected the
picture to the big screen.

The lines were similar to the earlier
scan.  The blackness that they thought was a mental block was still there, but
it was much smaller and only the extreme ends of the graphs were blocked. 

“It was only partially successful.  You
may only be able to use your powers in the tier three ranges.  And that may be
only with extreme concentration.” Doctor Z zoomed into the blocked areas.

“I’ll work on it; I mean at least I can
use my powers some.” I smiled and took the scanner off of my head, “Thank you
doctor.”

He took the scanner and put it back in its
case, “Please keep me updated on any changes.”

I lay on the ground in the middle of
that desert again looking up at the sky.  I couldn’t remember how I had gotten
there, but I wasn’t worried about it.  I was content to just lay there in the
warm sand.

Clouds began to fill the sky, threatening
to dump rain down on top of me.  I decided that I could do one of two things;
lay there and get rained on, or I could try and find some shelter.  I turned my
head either way, and couldn’t see anything until the horizon. 

So I just laid there. 

Lightening struck behind where I was
laying inches from my head.  It scared the crap out of me, and when the light
from the flash finally went away I was somewhere else altogether. 

It was an old Victorian era house, white
with peeling paint.  I recognized the house but I couldn’t remember from where
or when.  Since I was somehow now standing, I decided to walk inside and take a
look around.

As I walked through the front door I was
hit by a massive cold chill that shook my whole body.  I rubbed my shoulders,
and started to look around the house.

“Hello.” I said aloud.

There was nothing but silence.  I
checked the rooms on the first floor.  Every single one was either empty or the
door was locked.  I became frustrated with one door, and melted the handle, but
before I could actually open the door the handle had reappeared. 

The memory of this house scratched at
the back of my head.  I knew that I had been in it before.  The kitchen was
empty and so was the living room.

I decided to finally stop wondering
around on the bottom floor, and go upstairs.  Each step creaked under my
footsteps.  When I reached the landing at the top of the stairs the memory hit
me like a ton of bricks. 

The house came back and even the night. 
I remembered what was happening now.

And it was too late to turn back.

I walked down the hallway where my room
had been.  This house was one of the orphanages that I had lived in as a young
child before I was sent to Hillside.

I looked into the doorway and there I
stood.  Eleven years old against the back wall.  I was crying and holding a
stuffed animal.  My hair was a mess and there was a smashed table next to my
bed. 

He stood on the other side of the room. 
Furious, but crying as well.  The man’s name was George Halaway.  He was one of
the caretakers along with his wife and one other woman for this orphanage. 

“I don’t understand it!” He yelled, spit
flying everywhere.

“What are you talking about?” the other
me sobbed from across the room.

“Whenever I am near you, your thoughts
get inside my head.” He pounded on his own skull trying to understand the
emotions inside of his head, “Why must you torture me?”

Looking at it from this angle, it looked
so pathetic.  This grown man yelling at a young girl because he felt sad when
he was around her. 

He walked over to the younger me and
knelt down in front of me.  He grabbed my shoulders and shook me, “What are you
doing to me?”

“I’m not doing anything.” the young me
cried.

I rubbed my neck because I knew what was
going to happen next. 

He wrapped both hands around the young
me’s neck and squeezed, “Make it stop! Make it stop!”

I rushed over and tried to grab the man
as my younger self’s body began to go limp from oxygen deprivation.  My hands
went through the man.  I remembered that I was in a dream, or a memory, or
something.  I forced myself to remember that this was all in the past. 

My younger self gasped the words,
“please stop.”

“Stop!  Stop!  Stop!” he yelled like a
maniac.

A woman rushed into the room.  Her name
was Rebecca.  She was not George’s wife, but the other woman that managed the
orphanage.

She grabbed George and pulled him off of
the other me.

“Get off of her!” she yelled.

He let go of the younger me’s neck
sending me crumbling into the ground gasping for air.  Rebecca ran over and
scooped me up into her arms.  She left the room and rushed down stairs where
all of the other children were waiting and listening to what was going on.

She put the young me into the back seat
of a car and then got into the driver’s seat.  I climbed into the passenger
seat so that I could listen to what happened next.

She started to drive in a hurry.  She
took her cell phone from the seat where I was sitting.  It felt strange to see
someone put their hand through me.  She held the phone to her ear and said,
“Call James.”

After a few seconds she said, “I have a
natural.  I don’t know how she got past the screenings, but she should be a
good candidate for the C-series.”

I could hear a man on the other end of
the phone but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. 

“She was able to project her emotions
onto another person.  Best emotional projection that I have ever seen, even
from some of the people that have focused on learning to control it most of
their lives.  It was extremely effective.”

More that I couldn’t understand.

“But sir I think that she should be
brought in for at least observation.” She pleaded with the man on the phone.

She waited, “No, the Hillside location
is not ready yet.  If I put her back in the system I am going to lose her. 
Like I said, she has gotten through screenings before.  She may be able to hide
her ability completely.  It almost got her killed.”