Soulmates
34
Command Voice
Everybody
“EMERSON!” Keira breathed as she hugged her friend. She caught the door just before it closed behind her.
“You brought her!” Trayce screamed. “You didn’t want me at all!”
“That’s not true, hon,” Keira protested.
Emerson stalked across the floor to Trayce as Keira shoved pillows to block the door open.
“Listen here, you little bitch!” Emerson growled. “You have no idea what these two have gone through to find and rescue you. If they had to call in a friend to help them, you should be thankful they had a friend to call. Did you have a friend? Or are you only bitching about what they did?”
“Emerson, please. Not now,” Keira said. “Where’s Jaime?”
Just then they heard the repeated squeaky call from the hall.
“I don’t know if that’s him or not,” Emerson said. “I’ve only ever heard his voice on the computer.”
“Schwartz has some kind of brain-wave dampening mesh surrounding all the surfaces in here. None of us can use our head voice,” Keira said.
“Either that or head voice doesn’t really exist,” Trayce declared. “It was a figment of my imagination. None of you are real. They were just characters in a story I’m writing.”
“Are all creative types this stupid?” Emerson asked.
“Jaime! We’re here. You’re getting closer,” Keira yelled out the door.
Jaime came running to the door and into the room.
“Keira! Trayce! I found you,” he squeaked in his out-loud voice. “Emerson! What are you doing in here?”
“I came looking for you after you’d been out of touch for forty-five minutes. We need to get out of here. Schwartz and his two cronies are searching outside for you. They don’t know I’m in here.”
“Let’s go, Trayce. Bring your manuscript. You’ll want to finish it later. But we are taking you out of this dungeon,” Keira said.
“I don’t believe you. I’ll go outside just to prove you are a test the doctor set up for me to show it’s all imaginary,” Trayce said, gathering her notebooks.
“We’ve been trying to find you ever since you screamed for help yesterday morning,” Jaime said. “This way will get us up the back stairs and out of the annex. I marked the walls.”
They followed Jaime with Emerson bringing up the rear as Keira wrapped her arm around Trayce and guided her through the hall. Soon, they reached the stairs and Jaime went ahead to check that the coast was clear.
«Let’s move to the car,» Jaime said in their heads as soon as they were outside.
«Right,» Keira answered.
“No! I didn’t hear that. It’s just what I think you’d say,” Trayce said. “You didn’t hear anything, did you?” she demanded of Emerson.
“I never hear anything unless it’s spoken out loud or one of them has a hand on me. I can’t head talk. If you think you just heard something, you probably did.”
“It’s ridiculous,” Trayce said.
“Guys, head downhill,” Emerson said. “I’ll go up to get the car and meet you at the bottom of the hill where there’s a park with trees. Phones should work again now, so I’ll text you when I’m on the way. They won’t be looking for me and I have to go the other direction to get to the car. They know all three of you.”
Emerson went to the front of the annex and crossed the street. Jaime led Keira and Trayce down the alley.
«I don’t think they’ve seen me,» Jaime said.
«But they’re looking for you,» Keira said.
I need to spice up the dialog a bit. These guys are boring, Trayce grumbled in her mind.
«You can spice things up when we get you home,» Jaime growled. Trayce gasped. They crossed behind the guesthouse and the next street, heading for the trees in the park.
“Perfect!” Schwartz yelled as he jerked the passenger door of Emerson’s Kia open. He plopped in the seat and grinned at Emerson. “Now, you will take me to the pickup point. Are you one, too? It’s quite a bonus to get a fourth.”
“You don’t have any!” Emerson growled, opening her door to get out. A gun faced her.
“Get in and drive,” the thug growled. “Your friends don’t have a ride if you don’t go to pick them up.”
Emerson closed the door and started the car. The thug got in the back seat, making sure she knew he still had the gun on her.
“I don’t need to take you to find them. All I need to do is drive around a while and they’ll be gone. You’ll never get to them.”
“Don’t try it,” Schwartz said. “You’re too young to die. Besides, Shirley is on their tail and she won’t let them get far.”
Emerson floored the Kia and squealed out of the parking lot, but soon let up on the accelerator when she felt the gun barrel against her neck.
Jaime, Keira, and Trayce came to a stop beneath the trees near the road. They were panting as much from the adrenaline rush as from exertion.
«Is it true?» Trayce said when Jaime and Keira wrapped their arms around her. «Are we really talking to each other in our heads?»
«Yes,» Jaime answered. «Trayce, we won’t let him try to drug and block you.»
«He’ll use me to hurt you. I tried to resist. He gave me something in my food that made me sleepy and then hypnotized me. I tried to resist. But I know he told me I had to obey,» Trayce said.
«You know the keys of what he’ll try to do. You can resist with us to help you. Hold our hands, honey. You’ll see how much stronger we are than when we’re alone,» Keira said.
«We’ve got a problem,» Jaime said. «Schwartz carjacked Emerson. He and one of his thugs are arriving with her. The woman is coming up behind us.»
Emerson’s blue Kia skidded to a stop a few feet away. She jumped out of the car and ran to Jaime. He took her hand and felt the gestalt forming among the four of them. It was almost enough to knock him out. He could feel power flowing, even from Emerson.
Schwartz and the thug got out of the car to face them.
“So, I finally have you all! This is wonderful,” Schwartz said.
“You don’t have us,” Keira growled, feeling the support from Trayce, Jaime, and Emerson. “And there are enough of us that we can make a pretty big stink before you can kidnap anyone again.”
“I don’t want to kidnap anyone. I want to save you!”
“From what? So far, you are the only threat,” Emerson said. “You and your goon held me until I drove here. That’s carjacking.”
“Let’s not be picky,” Schwartz said good-naturedly. “It’s the government we need to worry about. Why do you think I went to so much trouble to dampen audio and psychic waves and microwaves? Whoever found the control room and shut down the ANC system was very clever. Of course, we knew as soon as we saw this one run that you’d reached the honey in our trap.”
“Trayce is not honey in a trap,” Keira said. “Step aside and we’ll be gone.”
“No, no, no! If the government finds out about you, they’ll want to experiment on you, just as they did on me,” Schwartz said.
“The government didn’t find anything of interest in you, Kenton,” Rose said, stepping past the thug. Angus stepped up from the other side with his sword drawn and pressed it against Schwartz’s side. “They tossed you aside and you haven’t been able to stand it. You wanted so desperately to be a cool kid and talk in people’s heads. Nothing you can do can make it better. You’re a fake and a charlatan.”
“Rose! My dear sweet girl. How I’ve missed you. I haven’t missed you, Angus. Still running around with a sword? We have guns, you know,” Schwartz said, seemingly unfazed. “Now, Trayce, tell your friends about Kalliope.”
«We’re supposed to go back in the building. I’m sorry. I have to take you back,» Trayce said, exerting mental force on the other three. Jaime gathered the reins of the gestalt and cut her off.
«DROP YOUR GUNS!» Jaime sent to the group.
Four guns hit the ground.
“What the fuck?” Thursday yelled. Schwartz’s two guards spun on Kate and Thursday, who had slipped up behind them. Fists began flying, showing that both the strippers were as skilled at martial arts as Schwartz’s guards seemed to be.
«STOP IT!» Jaime commanded. The four combatants froze. «YOU TWO. GO HOME!» he directed at the two goons. The girls joined their out-loud voices to his mental voice. The two thugs started backing away.
“This is wonderful! It’s wonderful! It’s just like I said it would be. You commanded with your mind and people obeyed!” Schwartz nearly jumped for joy. “With me to guide you we’ll be unstoppable! How I wish I’d had you when we were experimenting at the university. Of course, you weren’t yet born, were you? And when I first spotted you, you were much too young. But now, look at you. All grown up and testing your power. I’ll show you how to use it.”
The two goons were now running flat out toward the guest house. Kate and Thursday bent to scoop up all four guns, now being free from the command.
“You’re paranoid,” Rose said. “You don’t have anything to offer them. Even your inn is a detriment to them. You’ve been feeding Trayce drugs, haven’t you? And attempting to hypnotize her. You can see it didn’t work.”
Jaime sent some hints to Keira, still holding the force of their gestalt.
“Here’s what you need to do,” Keira said. “You need to retire from counseling. Forever! Do not ever attempt to investigate head talk or head talkers again. Make a happy business for yourself with your inn and never bother us again.”
“You can’t imagine that I’m just going to give up my life work,” Schwartz said. “I’ll…”
“GO AWAY AND LEAVE US ALONE!” the four said in unison, three with out-loud voices and Jaime in his head.
«OBEY!» Jaime commanded.
Schwartz straightened as if he’d been struck. He looked around at the eight others still in the park.
“I’m getting too old for this,” he muttered. “I was going to retire anyway. I’m going to live up there in my apartment at the top of the world and watch the ships come sailing in. You kids don’t need me. I don’t need you. It’s all a bunch of nonsense anyway. Talk in people’s heads. That’s pretty stupid when you stop to think about it. Have a nice life.”
Schwartz turned and wandered back toward his guesthouse as Jaime increased the pressure on him to forget all about the kids from Portland.
Then Jaime collapsed in a heap on the ground.
Emerson and Kate and Thursday
“What the fuck just happened?” Thursday fumed. She, Kate, and Emerson had been left in the living room of the B&B while Rose and Keira carried Jaime to their bedroom, trailed by Angus and Trayce.
“We were just mentally hijacked,” Emerson said. “Fuck. I’d experienced Keira and Jaime talking in my head before, but never anything like that. It was him. He was issuing commands and we were just sucked up into it.”
“You know Angus did it, too,” Kate said.
“What?” Thursday asked.
“I suspected it a long time ago. He’s always been half a step ahead of the crooks, even when he was drugged half out of his mind up in the Idaho. He’s a mind reader,” Kate said.
“Unreal,” Thursday said.
“I didn’t think it was real. It can’t be scientifically proven. You can’t run repeatable experiments with different subjects. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. You just got a command to drop your guns,” Emerson said. “I felt what it was like to issue the command. It made me rethink my life.”
“Hmm. You’re pretty cute. No tattoos? No unusual piercings? You could make a bundle on the stage,” Kate said.
“What stage?”
“Sassy’s,” Thursday said. “I might retire from the detective business myself. Except I promised Angus I’d drive him around after dark. My degree’s almost finished.”
“I don’t understand,” Emerson sighed.
“Become a stripper, like us,” Kate said. “Thursday and I can show you the ropes and make sure no one takes unfair advantage of you when you’re starting out.”
“You mean take my clothes off on stage?” Emerson asked in disbelief. “I don’t think so.”
“We won’t pressure you,” Thursday said. “But if you decide you’d like to try it—even on a lark—let us know. We’ll help.”
“Thanks. I just need to figure out what I’m going to do about Jaime and Keira. And Trayce, I guess. Can’t have one without the others.”
Jaime and Keira and Trayce and Rose and Angus
«Oh, geez, my head hurts,» Jaime moaned to himself.
“For good reason,” Angus said aloud. “You’re dangerous. I’ve told you before that you need to control your volume.”
“Angus, honey. That might not be the best way to handle this,” Rose said.
“I can’t believe you really exist, too!” Trayce said touching Angus on the shoulder again. “Is every character I write about someone who is a real person?”
“Probably not. Some might be inspired by real people, but I know the stories are all yours,” Keira said. She held Jaime’s hand. Trayce hadn’t decided yet if she should join them.
“The thing is that you used a command voice, Jaime,” Rose said. “You used it on me when it was just the two of you and I found it compelling. Not quite a command I had to follow, but something I needed to consider. But I’m a head talker, like you suspected all along, Keira. What worries us is that you commanded everyone around you and they all obeyed. First, the four who were armed with guns. They didn’t even consider what was demanded! They dropped them.”
“I’m thankful you didn’t command weapons down. I don’t like to drop the sword,” Angus said.
«I’m sorry. It was… he was trying to hurt us,» Jaime said.
«I’m not saying you didn’t have a right to defend yourselves,» Rose answered. «But you need to decide what kind of person you are going to be. What you did was what Kenton always wanted to do. He was convinced that he could control other people with the right number of head talkers. Is that what you’re going to do?»
«No.»
“Are we really holding a conversation in our heads as well as with our mouths?” Trayce asked. “Unreal!”
“I know you are newer to this than the rest of us,” Rose said. “You haven’t had time to get used to it like Jaime and Keira have.”
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to it.”
“We can teach you ways to block it. It’s been eighteen years and Keira never got a signal from me,” Rose said.
«We’d like you to give us a chance to know you first,» Keira said. «We’d be pretty devastated if now that you know it’s true, you decided you didn’t want anything to do with us.»
«Yeah, I guess. You… already made love.»
«I guess that’s how we managed to find you. It was strong enough that you heard us and answered,» Keira said.
«What kind of person are you going to be, Jaime?» Angus asked, not letting go of the real issue in the room.
«I wanted… At one time, I wanted to help other people hear thoughts. I believed it would have saved my mother. I would never have spoken with my out-loud voice. Then Keira told me how there were people who would misuse that and she used the example of giving someone driving a car an instruction to run a stop light. I thought that was horrid. I didn’t want to ever force anyone to hear my thoughts again. I didn’t know how potent that could be, though, until today. Did he really… Are we safe from him?»
“Based on what I read, we’re all safe. That doesn’t mean there aren’t others who will want the same thing. Mind control has been on the government’s list of things to use in battle for a hundred years,” Angus said. “If they’d understood what they were doing to my brain back in the sixties, you can bet they’d have had me locked up in a laboratory kennel deep underground.”
“You experienced the worst of the awakening experiences,” Rose said. “Most of us progress to it naturally—often with the onset of menses. Jaime was born with the gift.”
«Gift? Ha! If I’d been normal and not all confused as hell, my mother would still be alive!» Jaime shouted at them.
«But think of what we have, love,» Keira said. «It’s not a fair trade, but it would be terrible to live without my soulmate.»
Both Jaime and Keira looked at Trayce.
«Can you have two soulmates?» she asked. «Can I?»
«We think so,» Jaime said.
“There is a lot you need to work out among yourselves,” Rose said. “But you should have some counseling, too. I’m not promoting my business. And I don’t want to control you like Kenton did. But you need a safe space where you can examine your feelings and talk about the difficulties.”
“I need that,” Trayce said. “Um… can we go home now? I’m worried about my mother.”
“I agree,” Keira said. “Do you feel fit enough to travel, Jaime?”
Jaime nodded his right fist up and down rather than try to send any lengthy messages.
Rose and Angus and Kate and Thursday
“So, are you two going to hook up and start controlling the universe like those kids did?” Kate asked over dinner that evening. They’d booked the B&B for one more night and didn’t feel like abandoning the lovely room to follow the teens back to Portland. Besides, they still wanted to keep an eye on the guesthouse across the back yard, just to make sure people stayed put.
“No.” Rose answered promptly. Angus sighed. “Angus and I are old friends and sometimes lovers. We have a talent. But we don’t have what those kids have.”
“Soulmates,” Angus said softly. “I never even believed in that before. Bunch of new age hooey. But it was obvious with them. It isn’t just that they are strong telepaths. They are unique in the world.”
“Well, they spooked the hell out of me,” Thursday said. “I think I’ll move back to Texas.”
“Don’t forget to take your passport,” Angus said. “You might want to come back to the United States one day.”
“Ha ha,” Thursday said disgustedly.
“You guys have been able to do that mental telepathy stuff for a long time, though, right?” Kate asked.
“All telepathy is mental,” Rose said. “Yeah. I started as a pre-teen and made the connection between acquiring the ability and menses.”
“I went through a period back then,” Thursday said. “I kind of went crazy. Didn’t understand what was happening. Tried sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The craziness eventually abated some, but at least the sex and rock live on.”
“We can talk if you want to,” Rose said. “I don’t exclude women just because they’ve survived. Sometimes it helps to understand what happened.”
“Uh… Yeah, maybe,” Thursday said cautiously. “We’ll see.”
“I’m going to want to keep an eye on those kids,” Angus said.
“You don’t trust them?” Kate asked.
“Not that so much. They’re good kids and they’ll always try to do what’s right. I just want to be sure there aren’t any other Kentons around. Until they learn to corral their broadcasts, they might still be a target.”
“That’s what I’ll work on with them most,” Rose said. She turned to the two strippers. “What we’ve known since Angus and I met during Kenton’s college research is that telepathy is limited to hearing with the brain. We’re huge signal receptors. It’s what drives people crazy. They hear people, but they can’t respond to them. On the other hand, everyone broadcasts their thoughts. Some are really loud and some are timid. Some are verbal, some are pictorial, and some are strictly emotional. But for almost everyone, there is some leakage of what they are thinking. It’s always been up to the head talkers to limit what they hear, respect others’ privacy, and block out all the mental noise around them.”
“What we’ve never seen before… the holy grail for assholes like Schwartz… is the ability to force someone to hear who doesn’t have the gift.” Angus said. “The girl who drove the three gifted teens is head deaf. She doesn’t normally hear others’ thoughts. But let Jaime and Keira touch her and she’s an open receiver, able to hear whatever they think to her. Still, that’s nothing compared to the command voice the kid used on everyone this afternoon. You didn’t even comprehend you’d received a command, but you immediately dropped your guns.”
“Yeah. I’m not happy about that. Dropping it scratched the pink powder coating on mine,” Thursday said.
“And by the time the two goons were a hundred feet from us, they were running back to the guesthouse as fast as they could go. And Kenton completely accepted the command to retire and leave all his research behind. That’s power I never speculated about. In fact, when Angus and I read Kenton during his study and discovered what he wanted to do, we resigned from the study because it was just one more fraud,” Rose said.
“So, are we done with this shit?” Kate asked.
“You are,” Rose said. “I’ll counsel the kids and Angus will keep an eye out for other baddies.”
“Ass I always say, my droogies, I’ll let you know when the game’s afoot,” Angus said.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
