Oblivion (16 page)

THIRTY-NINE

Jeremiah

It would be so
simple to betray them. To take their rescue plan and turn it on its side so
they would definitely fail. Kindred wouldn’t hesitate. And I was beginning to
feel the temptation to let him do as he wanted.

Jason’s continued
animosity was becoming more difficult to deal with, and it was making me angry.
So much of what I’d done over the last few years was for him. I had bettered
myself—and even pushed a part of myself away—in an attempt to be worthy of his
friendship. Part of me wondered if he would act the same toward me if he
remembered what I’d done. Another part didn’t care to give him the chance.

There was one last
opportunity to help him learn to trust me: rescue Sam. The bigger part of me
still wanted to make the effort.

A successful
retrieval of his brother might help the other man believe I was truly
attempting to change, despite my actions as I escaped. The thought helped me
push Kindred away once more. The action of shoving the alter-ego to the back of
my mind was more challenging than it had been even a few hours earlier.

Something was
happening to me, and it had happened once before. Before it had been due to
pain… endless torment. Now it was sneaking up on me. Talking to me and making
me disappear a little at a time. It also made me wonder how much was myself
losing ground to Kindred, and how much was the Mastermind whispering in his
ear. Part of me wanted to grasp the power he promised.

For the first time,
I wished Sam would help in some way. That he would push whatever emotional
buttons were necessary to strengthen Jeremiah, and help me to keep Kindred at
bay.

“You okay,
Jeremiah?”

Strangely it was
the new girl, Lena, who asked the question.

“I am well. Why do
you ask?” I questioned calmly.

She gazed at me
serenely. “You aren’t fine.”

Her calm look
switched to one of curiosity. “What is happening? There’s something… something
off, but I can’t get a good read…”

“Stay out of my
head!” I snapped. “I said I am fine, and you have no right to dig.”

Jason eyed me
warily at my outburst, and took a step closer as if to protect his new friend
from me. He trusted her so easily in such a short time. What could I do to earn
the same trust?

My glare faded and
I took a step back. Fighting his friend would not help my case. “Forgive my
outburst. I am not fond of having my head messed with.”

She nodded, and
Jason seemed to relax. I heard a quiet thud on the table behind me but only saw
a small amount of dirt when I turned toward the sound.

“I can understand
that,” Lena answered. “I apologize for intruding.”

Outwardly
accepting her apology I forced myself to think over the current problem. The
plan to get Sam was… well, not very good. Could it work? Sure—if we were very
lucky and if I could tap into my stronger abilities without allowing Kindred
out to play.

If he came out,
and they had no warning, he could destroy each of them with minimal effort. The
dark part of me smiled coldly at the thought.

Perhaps it wouldn’t
be difficult to tap into my full abilities, but would I be willing to allow the
darkness back in to do it? Was rescuing the Tracker’s brother worth the risk of
once again losing myself to what my cousin had done to me? This time, I would
have no one to blame but myself. If I allowed the killer in me to once again
have free reign, it would be on me. I had a choice to make.

“What are you
thinking?” Jason asked suddenly, his head tilted slightly and eyes narrowed. He
crossed his arms over his chest while he waited for my response.

Eyeing him
critically, I wondered if he would be up to the challenge of using his newly
remembered powers to pull off the distraction necessary for myself and the
detective to sneak in and grab Sam. As if sensing my doubt, he smirked and
pointed behind me.

When I turned to
look, the tiny pile of dirt I had noticed earlier was floating in the air. As I
watched, it gathered together into a hardened projectile.

“Dirt bullets. An
interesting addition to your abilities. I believe that is a new use,” I told
him.

He shrugged.
“Wouldn’t know. What I do know is I can throw this with enough force to punch a
hole in a wall.”

“Ok, you’re good
on stealth. Can you handle a large distraction?”

His confident look
wavered. “Not sure. I’ve only used it once, and I honestly don’t know how I did
it.”

“You’ll be fine,
Jason. Once you’re out there and are tapping into your ability to read the
footsteps, you’ll have an open doorway into the rest of your power,” Hannah
assured him.

“You can’t know that,”
Lena argued mildly. “The power to read footsteps and the power to cause
earthquakes are not reached in the same way.”

Everyone turned
their attention to the girl and she shifted slightly. “Reading footprints comes
automatically to him, as does feeling the heartbeats and breathing of those
around him.”

She paused and
Jason nodded. “That seems right. I don’t have to concentrate to know Paul’s
heartbeat is elevated, Jeremiah keeps fluctuating between fast and slow, and
every time the detective and Agent Jones’ eyes meet their heart rates go up.”

He put his finger
on his lip thoughtfully; a small smile crossed his face. “It’s actually rather
adorable how much the two of you care for each other.”

The two cops
looked away, a slight blush on each of their cheeks at having their feelings
put in the open.

I smirked at his
omission of how Hannah’s heart rate must feel each time she looked in his
direction. Her devotion to the man was obvious, but he wasn’t ready to admit
it.

“Sorry, Lena. If
you want, you can continue,” Jason waved a hand in her direction.

“Ok, so the
tracking is automatic. His destructive power is more of an instinctual thing.
It can be tapped into on purpose, but quite often it responds almost
automatically when he perceives a threat.”

“Like it did at
the facility,” Jason mused.

“Sensing me as the
threat,” I added. “Forgive me, Jason. I had no idea it would affect you so
badly. If it is any consolation, at the time I saw no other way out. The guards
were heavily armed and unlikely to simply allow me to leave.”

Hannah stared at
Lena. “You met Jason what… about a day ago? How do you know so much about how
his powers work?”

Lena tapped her
fingers on her leg, her gaze bouncing around the room but not landing on
anything.

“Relax, Lena,”
Jason said. “It’s okay.”

Her eyes locked
onto his, and he grabbed her hand before speaking again. “Lena was in my head.
She went in to help me fortify against the Puppet Master. Without her, he might
have won.”

“And being in
there gave you that much insight? So why doesn’t Jason know how to access his
ability if he knows already how it works?” the lady detective wondered.

“He can’t access
the part of his mind I was able to see. I couldn’t see all of it, but there is
a scar in his mind. It is blocking everything he needs to know about himself. I
attempted to push past it, and was able to figure out a few things,” the girl
answered defensively.

Jason gave a sad
half-smile. “So now, even someone I just met knows more about me than me.”

She turned to him,
holding his hand tightly. “I was going to share everything I found. So much
happened so quickly, I haven’t found the chance to yet.”

“Very well,” I
broke in. “Lena, you must work with Jason so he can relearn how to use his
power. Try to do it quickly. We may only have a narrow window in which to get
Sam.”

FORTY

Sam

It surprised me
how quickly I grew bored with captivity this time. With Hunter there had been a
longer period of fear. Now, I was just annoyed. The Mastermind prevented me
from messing with the minds of the people he controlled, but I could still
access the Doctor and the Boss. They had to be the key to escaping this
particular prison.

My thoughts
drifted toward Jason, and I knew he was growing more frantic by the moment.
Apparently, something had happened, and being in the dark was driving me
insane.

What would cause
my amnesiac brother to be so worried? He didn’t know any of us well enough to
feel that level of concern. Even the knowledge that I am his brother didn’t
raise his emotional level this way, so what was it?

Pushing past the
strong waves of Jason’s distress, I felt for our other friends. Alice and Mark
had a quick burst of embarrassment followed by loving acceptance. They weren’t
fooling any of us at this point. Why they continued the charade was anyone’s
guess.

Hannah was
hurting. I could deduce that Jason was the cause. His trust in the new girl had
to hurt. Despite everything they’d been through, Hannah was on the outside.
Somehow, Lena had gained the inside track with Jason, and there was nothing
Hannah could do to stop it.

Lena was a bit
hard to read. She was secretive, but I sensed no malice. There was definitely
something she wasn’t telling Jason, but since I could only read her emotions,
and not her thoughts, trying to figure it out was a dead end.

The door creaked
open, and I forced my thoughts back to my current predicament.

“You need to stop
reaching out, Sam,” the Doctor scolded.

I smirked. “Right;
like you wouldn’t try to reach out if you were being held against your will.
Nice try, doc.”

He moved around
the room without responding, and I tried to sit up to see what he was doing.
The restraints stopped me, and I pushed my anger toward the Doctor.

A loud yell of
pain suddenly escaped my throat as agony ripped through my skull. The sharp pain
lasted only a few moments, but left me weak and shaky. Sweat gathered on my
forehead and I stared at the Doctor in shock.

“Wha…?
what
was that?”

He raised an
eyebrow. “Apparently, you were attempting to harm me. Thankfully, I have a
friend looking out for me.”

Some sort of
reverberation? I send my power at my enemy, and they make it bounce back to me,
only ten times worse?

“I wouldn’t
recommend doing that again.” His mild tone held a note of warning.

To test the
beginning of my theory, I pushed toward Jason. I chose to adjust his confidence
level, because I knew he needed all the help he could get while figuring out
his life without memories.

There was no
violent reaction. No pain.

“He only wants me
using my powers on my friends?” I asked.

It seemed like a
risk. The Mastermind knew I could help them find him, so why allow me access?

“He is allowing
you to at the moment, yes. But don’t expect his generosity to last. He has very
specific plans for you, and I wouldn’t push him.”

His fear was
obvious. As was his idol worship.

“He’s not a god,
you know,” I stated. “None of us are. We’re just random people who somehow
ended up with special abilities.”

A gentle nudge at
his belief went either unnoticed, or the Mastermind was simply not concerned.
His follower was obviously brainwashed into thinking he could do no wrong.

“I have been
granted the opportunity to study you, and figure out if your abilities can
benefit humanity. Surely you can understand that?”

I instilled a hint
of doubt at the middle of his trust. If I could push the Doctor into turning
against the Mastermind, it might be possible to convince him to help me escape.

“Sure, I get the
motivation,” I answered. “What I don’t understand is how you plan to achieve
your goals while holding us against our will.”

The seed of doubt
began to grow, and I began to glimpse some hope that my plan could work.

To help the growth
I continued, “Don’t you think it would be better to study your subjects if they
participated willingly? I think you would stand more of a chance of succeeding
in your goals without having to struggle against those you’re trying to study.”

A sharp knock on
the door broke the spell, and the Doctor blinked.

“You found a hole
in our defenses, didn’t you?” His wonder was obvious. “You are an impressive
specimen.”

“He’s not
infallible. None of us are,” I answered. “Keep believing it and you will lose.
Just like Hunter. I’ll find a way to get to you too.”

I kept my eyes
trained on him and was pleased to sense his mild trepidation blossom into a
more healthy fear.

He slowly backed
toward the door, and accepted a small item.

“You’re proving to
be more manipulative than I imagined,” he told me. “It’s time to return the
favor.” He approached me, and held up a filled syringe.

I could feel
myself pushing back against the bed in an attempt to get away. “What is that?”

“Just a little
cocktail I had our pharmacy whip up. It will help make you a little more
receptive to our plans.”

He removed the cap
and tapped the syringe to remove any bubbles. Then he reached for my arm, a
satisfied smile on his face. I squirmed, wanting nothing more than to get away.

“Don’t worry.
You’ll only feel a slight pinch.”

FORTY-ONE

Jason

“Try again!” Lena
shouted.

She stood against
the fence at the far end of Tessa’s second home. Despite her shout, she
appeared at ease leaning lightly against the wooden fence and holding her arms
loosely crossed over her chest.

“Slave driver,” I
muttered.

“What was that?”
she called. Her stance became more aggressive and she stepped forward. The
smile on her face belied her angry attitude.

“Nothing,” I
yelled back innocently.

I knelt again, a
smirk still on my face, and pushed my power through the ground. The footsteps
of my friends distracted me, but I was able to nudge the ground as I had with
the small amounts of dirt in the hallway. Movement was evident, but not at a
large enough scale.

Lena shook her
head. “That’s not distracting. You nearly destroyed their courtyard, right?”

“Yeah. But I
didn’t do it on purpose,” I answered defensively.

She nodded. “I
know. But you accessed the power regardless. Try to think back to how you felt
when you lost control. And then try to replicate that feeling.”

The memory of the
heartbeats pounding faster before disappearing made me gasp. The helpless
feeling caused me to recoil. I pulled my thoughts away from the guards’ deaths,
my breath coming in quick pants. She wanted me to remember that?

“Don’t fight it.
You need to learn to access your power in order to save your brother,” she
urged.

Lena had forced
the others to remain in the house, which hadn’t made her any friends among the
group. All of them seemed overly invested in… well… me, I guess. It was strange
having so many people I didn’t know who worried so much about me.

“Stop thinking so much,”
Lena’s mental
voice interrupted my thoughts.

I glared at her.
“Stop eavesdropping.”

Her mouth twitched,
and the hard look in her eyes softened. “Sorry. But you’re getting in your own
way right now. You need to concentrate.”

I opened my mouth
to respond, but clapped it shut and nodded sharply instead. After all, she was
probably right. If I was too scared to figure this out, I never would. For my
brother I would delve into the darkest part of my limited memory, and relearn
my destructive powers.

My hand dug into
the tilled soil of Tessa’s garden and I pushed every thought of fear and
frustration into the ground. I kept my eyes closed, and prayed this attempt
would work. We were running out of time.

Lena’s heart rate
sped up and her breaths came in a rush. “Keep pushing, Jason. It’s working!”

The more power I
pushed through the ground, the more I could feel. I could feel a massive amount
of earth and rock swirling around me like a tornado! Every movement, every heartbeat,
and every breath of the twenty people in the houses around me were now coming
through clearly. It was amazing! So much power flowed through me, and it was
the most exhilarating thing I’d ever felt. If this was how it felt to use my
powers, I couldn’t imagine
not
using
them.

“Keep the dirt
below the fence line,” Lena warned. She sounded nervous, and her hitched breath
and faster than normal heartbeat verified my guess.

“No one is
watching,” I assured her.

I kept my eyes
closed as I concentrated and pushed harder. The earth twister grew larger and I
pushed it toward the edge of the fence where Lena stood. It paused directly in
front of her. The use of power made it feel like all the tension in my body was
releasing. This is the most relaxed I could remember feeling. I suddenly opened
my eyes, and allowed all the dirt that had been flying around to suddenly drop.

“Distracting
enough for you?”

I smiled at her
wide-eyed expression. It was easy to forget that Lena was only seventeen. She
acted much older. But her stunned look definitely made her look more like a
child.

“That should do,”
she agreed breathlessly.

Not a spot of dirt
appeared on her or me, and I smiled at the feeling of power and control.

“That could get
addictive,” I informed her. “Allowing the release of emotion and power feels
amazing.”

She smiled. “I’m
glad it helps you. Now it can also help your brother. You’re sure nobody saw
you?”

I nodded, but
knelt again to double check. “No one in any of the houses was watching, except
the people who already know what’s going on.”

“So how did you
access it?” she asked.

I shrugged. “It’s
a bit hard to explain, but I basically allowed myself to feel every emotion,
and then pushed it into the ground. I’m not sure if that’s how I always do it,
but it is how I have to do it for now.”

“Nicely done.
Let’s get the others. You’ll need to eat something before we go. Using that
kind of power must wear you out a bit.”

I stood and swayed
a little. Apparently she was correct.

“Yeah, food would
be good.”

We went into the
house and were immediately mobbed by the others. The detective seemed
impressed, Paul appeared a bit nervous, and Hannah stood toward the back of the
group. The first to say something was the FBI agent.

“We saw. Well
done, Jason,” Agent Jones congratulated me.

Paul nodded and
added, “Those guys won’t know what hit them. Sammy’s as good as rescued.”

His positivity
didn’t fit with the pinched, worried look on his face. Before I could ask what
was wrong Hannah pushed her way to me. She put a supportive hand on my shoulder
and herded me toward the kitchen. “You’re doing great, Jason. You need to
refuel before you guys attempt the rescue, and I got some food ready. It’s not
much, just some turkey sandwiches.”

“That sounds
amazing right now,” I told her gratefully. “I’ll be right back in, just have to
stop in the bathroom first.”

Once I was done, I
took a moment to throw some water on my face. I stared at myself in the mirror
for a moment, and noted the circles under my eyes. I searched the unfamiliar
face for any recognition, but found nothing.

A heavy sigh
escaped, and I grabbed a towel to dry my face. My answers wouldn’t be found in
a bathroom mirror. The people in the house with me—and my brother—held the key
to the mystery that was my past.

All I had to do
was trust them.

Easy, right? After
all, I was able to let Lena in. How much more difficult would it be to allow
the others into my small circle? Especially knowing they were being honest
about their connection to me.

Yet I hesitated. I
could tell it hurt them that I didn’t allow them into my small circle of trust,
and for their pain I was sorry. However, I couldn’t get past them trusting a
known murderer. Reformed though he may be, Jeremiah was still a dangerous man.
Every one of my instincts screamed to stay away from him.

“You all right in
there?” a male voice called.

Most likely Agent
Jones, but through the door it could have also been Paul. Their voices sounded
similar, so it was hard to say for sure. The pacing footsteps told me it was
Jones, and I opened the door.

“Is there a
problem?” I asked, my eyes searching his. Was I not allowed a few moments of
peace?

To his benefit,
the other man shifted under my gaze and dropped his eyes a little. “Sorry. I
didn’t mean to interrupt you, but the girls were wondering if you were coming
out. You’ve been in there a while, and they were concerned.”

I let him off the
hook with a shrug. “I’m good. Just needed a bit of alone time.”

We entered the
kitchen and all sat together to eat a silent meal. After everything that had
happened, it seemed that no one knew what to say anymore.

Once the meal was
over, I rose from my seat and slapped my hands on the table.

All eyes were on
me as I announced, “No more delays. It’s time to get my brother.”