19 comments/ 25696 views/ 39 favorites A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 By: sycksycko Many thanks to Over_Red for his invaluable input on this part of the story! Hope you enjoy it! **************************** Jack Watts was startled awake by a noise in the bushes. He looked over and blinked his eyes repeatedly to clear his vision. A deer was grazing nearby and it stalked off as soon as it saw him looking at it. Jack sat up and propped himself up with one arm behind his back. He looked all around. He was in a clearing that had bare dirt, without any grass. A small, wooden cabin, more of a shack really, stood in the lee of some trees not ten yards to his left. A small footpath was worn into the forest floor between the clearing he was in and the front door of the cabin. The trees swayed gently in the breeze and the late afternoon Sun was starting to turn the horizon pink. As he looked down at his backpack next to him, it all came back to him. Mia and her flunkies had kidnapped him and stuffed him in the trunk of a car. They had driven him here and he had managed to read their minds and find out their greatest fears. When they had stopped, he had managed to utilize all of his fear to take over their minds and make them believe their worst fears had come to life. Unfortunately, exerting his power like that had left him as incapacitated as if he had suffered a stroke and they had probably left him for dead. He stood up and stretched with a groan. He cast his gaze all around again, but found no sign of the guys, Mia, or any cars. He shouldered his backpack and walked over to the cabin. The windows were covered with a sheen of dust and the door was locked. Seeing no sign of a key, Jack lifted his foot to kick the door open. The door refused cooperation at first, but by the third kick, Jack convinced it to let him in. Jack searched the cabin for anything that could be of any help. There was nothing but some shoddy furniture and a wood-burning stove. There were some basic tools on a table and a thick layer of dust was over everything. There were no supplies and no phone. He sighed and left, slamming the door shut behind himself. The cabin belonged to one of the guys that wanted to do him harm, for no other reason than to please Mia, and Jack didn't care if it burned to the ground. He checked himself for his phone and even looked into his backpack. He didn't have it. Mia probably did. "The bitch," he swore. He looked up at the sky and judged that he had, at most, two hours of daylight left. There was only one road, consisting of two parallel wheel tracks, leading to and from the clearing. He hurried down the road, eager to exit the woods before he ran out of light. In about fifteen minutes, he found himself at the spot where the cabin access road met with the main forest road. He stood at the intersection and huffed in frustration. He had no idea which direction they had been going when they drove him there. He closed his eyes and strove to remember what the turn off had felt like. He remembered that he had been pushed towards his feet when they took the turn. He lay down on the dirt road, on his side like he had been lying inside the trunk, and tried to figure out how he would be jostled if the car was coming from either direction. He figured out that the car had made a left turn to get onto the cabin access road so he took a right turn onto the main road and walked on. He also mentally worked out that he needed to take a left when he got back to the paved road. The Sun had just about touched the horizon when he exited the trees and got within sight of the road. A car was driving down the road, going in the direction away from town. Jack didn't care. He jumped up and waved his arms overhead, yelling for attention. The road and the car were too far away for him to be noticed, so the car drove past. A truck was coming in the opposite direction and it, too, missed Jack. Jack huffed in anger as he ran towards the road, but he soon eased up on the frustration. This much traffic means that someone else will come along soon, he told himself. When he got to the road and looked down it in either direction, he could see cars coming. He smiled hopefully, crossed to the other side of the road and stuck his thumb out. The fifth car that passed him stopped a short distance away and he hitched a ride with an elderly couple that asked him a million questions during the ten minute ride back into town. They were traveling from afar and didn't know the town, so he had them just drop him off in the center of town. He thanked them several times for the ride and the couple insisted they exchange phone numbers before parting ways. He gave them his home phone number and then walked towards the school and his car. When he finally got home, it was well after nine o'clock. He unlocked the door and tossed his backpack on the floor next to it. He sat down on the floor and groaned in relief as he took off his shoes. He was used to walking a lot with his dogs, but not in the dress shoes that he had been wearing that day. "Shit," he softly swore and went outside to tend to the dogs. When he came back in with Spot, his mother came out of the living room. "If you wanted dinner, you should have called." "Lost my phone," he said. She gave him a look. "Are you alright?" "Peachy," he said. He walked up the stairs to take off his dirt-covered clothes. He took a long shower before heading off to bed. Now that he was safe at home, he considered calling the cops and reporting Mia and her three flunkies. He already knew their names, from his online search of the flagpole photos, but Jack found the whole thing a bit too impersonal for his liking. He wanted to be the one that punished Mia. Especially as he realized he had inadvertently saved her from getting gang raped in the woods. He decided to keep the cops out of things, for the time being. When he came to school the next morning, he nearly laughed out loud at the irony that greeted him. Standing alongside the vice principal was a sheriff's deputy holding the leash of a German shepherd. "Mister Watts," the vice principal said, "we need you to open your locker, please!" Jack couldn't help but smile at the request. It became instantly obvious to him that Mia, or her flunkies, had managed to break into his locker and plant something to get him into trouble and thus discredit his claims of kidnapping. He could only hope it was drugs as he looked at the dog. He hadn't been the one to train the sheriff's dogs, he only trained dogs for Alpha, but he also trained scent dogs for them and he knew how it was done. The three men and one dog walked over to his locker, while half the school watched and whispered. Dog Boy seemed to be in trouble. Jack smoothly slid into the pooch's mind and instilled it with the overwhelming thought that she was supposed to indicate the presence of drugs by being docile and quiet. He opened his locker and the dog sat still on the ground. Shit, Jack thought. There are drugs in my locker. The deputy rummaged through the locker and pulled out a really big bag of weed. "What's this," the vice principal asked in a stern voice. "Spice mix for pizza," Jack said. "Spice mix," the vice principal repeated in a voice that made it clear he wasn't accepting such an explanation. He nodded at the deputy who opened the Ziploc bag and brought it closer to the dog's nose. The dog took a few deep sniffs and then looked calmly up at her handler's face. She made no sound whatsoever. "Well, it's not weed," the deputy said. "Gimme that," the vice principal said and grabbed the baggy. He took a sniff and shot the deputy a sardonic look. "This is weed." "And how would you know that," Jack asked. "Don't you get fresh with me, young man! Deputy Clary, this is clearly marihuana." The deputy took a whiff and seemed to agree with him. "Dog says it isn't, though. Can't confiscate it if the dog gives it the all clear." He shrugged apologetically. Jack liked seeing the vice principal seething, so he decided to push it. "Mix it with ketchup and it tastes like basil and oregano," he said, indicating the bag. "If that's all," the deputy said and trailed off. The vice principal reluctantly nodded and the man left, leading his dog with him. Jack held out his hand. The vice principal stared at him with open hostility. "I don't know how that dog missed it, but this is clearly weed and I'm not letting you have it!" Jack watched the dog leaving and focused on replacing her original training in her canine mind. If she failed to react to another batch of drugs, the deputy could wind up suspecting him. Focused on his task, he lowered his hand and mumbled, "I guess we'll leave it to the lawyers, then." He finished with the dog and had to consciously keep himself from flinching and cowering as he realized what he had just said. If the vice principal decided to send the weed to a lab, or have a dog sniff it without him nearby, he was fucked. Having no real choice in the matter anymore, Jack stared into the vice principal's glaring eyes. The man brought his best authority figure stare down on Jack, but Jack had been inoculated against any respect for the man by his tolerance of iniquity and rampant bullying that happened on his watch. The vice principal raised the baggy and sealed it before holding it out for Jack to take. Jack took it and kept staring into the man's eyes. "I'll need to meet with your parents to discuss your recent behavior. You have a mother, I think?" "I have a father, too, Mister Vice-man. I'm an adult. All complaints go to me and all disciplinary action will be reviewed by my lawyer." The vice principal stared at him with open contempt. At length, he licked his tongue out between his teeth and then turned around without a word. As he walked away, he became aware of all the spying eyes and scattered them with a glare and an admonishment at one student for his pants riding too low on his hips. Jack put the weed into his bag and examined his locker. There was nothing else planted there and none of his books were missing. He had no idea where Mia had managed to get so much pot, but it told him that she needed to be dealt with immediately. He didn't have any classes with her that day and he didn't know her schedule by heart, so he didn't know where to find her. The bell rang and he went to his first class. He had an exam to take. An exam he hadn't studied for because he had been abducted and driven off into the woods. By the time the bell rang, he had done what he could, which wasn't all that much, and ran out to search the halls for Mia. He looked into every classroom he passed, but didn't see her anywhere. He was late for his second class, but his mood improved when he saw one of the football jocks in it. He took a seat next to the jock's and asked him about Mia.. The jock told him Mia had ditched school for the day after first period. It was right around the time the news broke that Jack's locker had been searched, but that nothing had been taken and he hadn't gotten arrested. The jock then asked him about drugs, intent on buying some, but Jack ignored him and asked him where Mia lived. "Dunno," he said, shrugging. "She's always shacked up with one dude, or another." "Which dudes," Jack asked. None of the trio he had read yesterday ever had Mia stay with them. "Dunno," the jock said. "Older dudes. To date Mia, you have to have your own ride, your own place and lots of cash. That girl wants her things, ya know what I mean? Huh?" Jack tuned him out and faced front to think. He spent the rest of the school day asking everyone about where he could find Mia. Most refused to speak with him, but the rest had simply no idea where to find her, once the final bell rang. All they knew was that Mia hung out with older guys that bought her stuff. No one could offer him anything more to go on but her phone number. He drove home that day with a sense of profound unease in his gut. Mia could be anywhere and she could be plotting anything to get at him. She already demonstrated her ability to seduce grown men into doing him harm and her ability to obtain and plant vast quantities of drugs. He released his dogs from the back yard and had them patrol all around his house. He searched Spot's memory of the day and learned no one had been to the house in his absence. His mother returned soon after him and announced she was going out with some friends from work. While she was showering and getting ready, Jack was sitting at his desk, thinking about Mia. His mind was running in circles and he forced himself to quit it. Whatever she was going to do, she was going to do it and he could accomplish nothing by endlessly fretting over it. He needed to relax. He considered the big bag of weed and came to a decision. He made four big batches of regular brownies and one small batch of special ones. Then he hid the weed where no one would ever find it. John, Rob and Steve still didn't answer their phones, so he went online and found them playing their favorite shooter game. He invited them over to his house and kept on insisting that they come until they gave in and logged out, one after the other. He didn't tell them what he had in store for them, just that they would have fun at his place. Jack's mother left and he watched TV while he waited for his friends to arrive. They rode their bikes over and arrived within five minutes of each other. As soon as they were all together, Jack had them take a seat in his living room and presented them with the batch of special brownies. "Guys, you've been through a lot lately," he said, "so I thought you might like to get high and get all that shit out of your systems." The guys eyed the brownies with suspicion. "What's in them," Steve asked. His shiner was still visible, but his lip was back to normal size. "Pot," Jack said. "Bullshit," Rob said. "Where the fuck would you get pot?" Jack smiled. "I have my ways." Rob smirked and gave a dismissive chuckle. "Don't think that I believe you for one second that these brownies actually have pot in them." Jack shrugged. "Suit yourself. But, I'll tell you one thing. Whether these brownies have pot in them, or not, they're delicious and I'm gonna eat at least three of them." He took a brownie and bit into it, moaning at the creamy richness of the taste. The guys slowly followed his lead and ate the entire batch. They didn't feel any different, so Rob said, "See? I told you there wasn't any pot in them." He punched Jack in the shoulder. "Faker!" "I," Jack said and stumbled for words as his mouth worked. "I thought it was pot. I honestly did!" "Well, it wasn't," Rob said in disappointment. Then he frowned. "Wait! You thought it was pot? So, you did put something in the brownies? What did you just feed us?" "Never mind," John said. "Let's, uh, let's... I dunno, let's see what's new on YouPorn!" The guys agreed and relocated to Jack's bedroom. They were watching a video of a girl getting mounted by a mastiff, which was making Jack uncomfortable, when the pot finally hit them. At first, they all giggled together and just felt generally high. Rob asked him again where he had gotten the pot and Jack thought of Mia. Before Jack could answer Rob, he saw a cartoon dog waving to him from the hall. He got up and left his friends behind to go follow the dog. The dog led him down to the living room where a big section of the wall was glowing, as if illuminated by an unseen projector. The dog, now standing on hind legs and sporting a red usher's uniform, complete with the cutest little cap, indicated Jack should sit on the couch and stare at the wall. Seeing nothing wrong with the suggestion, Jack relaxed in the seat. The bright screen on the wall counted down from ten and a cartoon started playing. Jack immediately understood it was a cartoon of Mia's life. "Wow," he gasped in astonishment. The cartoon was drawn in bright and cheerful colors, but it began with a woman being kidnapped and repeatedly raped. By the time she was rescued, she was pregnant and later had a baby that she immediately gave up for adoption. That baby was Mia. Jack blinked away his tears and cooed at the tiny angel that was Mia as a baby. Other people cooed over her crib and she was quickly adopted by the Newmans. Jack sighed in relief as Mia played with toys and had two loving parents doting on her. For years, she played and laughed as she learned and grew. He cried out in alarm when their car was hit by a texting trucker. She was trapped in the wreckage with her dying parents until the fire department rescued her. Her parents didn't make it and Jack felt as much anguish as she did. He gasped for air and blinked through his tears to be able to see what happened next. Mia learned the hard way that she had been adopted and that the rest of her adopted family didn't consider her to be a real relative when her grandparents and aunt refused to take her in. With no one willing to take care of her, she was put in the system and shuffled from one foster home to another. In one of the homes, she was locked in the basement and had to work all day long until the people from the social services came to see why she wasn't in school. The foster parents claimed she was a bad child that refused to go to school and she screamed in frustration at their lies. The people took her away and labeled her a problematic child. She had hated them for taking her jailors' word over hers and refused to speak with them. She then found herself in a fundamentalist home, where she had to pray day in and day out to keep the devil at bay. She stayed with them until she started to grow boobies and the father began to look at her strangely. She ran away and found herself placed in a series of homes where children were only kept for the monthly paycheck. All the foster parents that she came to be with were drunks and junkies. She ran away often and was either put into group homes, or returned to the foster parents for a beating. For most of her childhood, she didn't have a safe place to call home, or the care of a loving parent. This slowly, but surely, started leaving a mark on her psyche. Since the people in her life belittled and bullied her every day, she started seeing that as normal behavior and soon adopted it for her own. As she did that, she began to realize that the more she bullied others, the less she got bullied herself. In the space of a few years, she went from being a crying, innocent child to being Mia the Menace. No one bullied her now and she liked it that way. Jack sighed bitterly. Mia's upbringing had left her with a false dichotomy in mind. Namely the one that said she was either to bully others, or be bullied herself. He shook his head and flexed his fists in outrage. This had to be stopped. It was no way for a person to go through life. He could now understand that Mia was afraid of everyone around herself and that constant fear is what made her act out at the slightest provocation. Another way, a better way, had to be shown to her. He looked back up at the cartoon on the wall. The cartoon story of her life had progressed to the point where she was fifteen and looked all grown up. She was uncomfortable with the attention she was getting from everybody, so she deliberately made a ruckus that got her landed in a group home for troubled girls. It was in the next county over so she was enrolled into the high school here, in town. It had been a fresh start for her and she had resolved to make herself untouchable by everyone around her. She quickly figured out what would get her the top seat in the hierarchy. Older boyfriends. The cartoon then showed a bunch of men in their early twenties driving her around and paying for all her expenses. None of them made any moves on Mia, because she had convinced them that even touching a girl under the age of eighteen would land them in jail for being pedophiles. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 Jack shook his head, as if to clear it. He twirled his finger in a rewind gesture and the cartoon dog replayed the last bit of the film. The guys in their early twenties happily chauffeured Mia around, buying her dinner, clothes and other stuff, all the while waiting for her to turn eighteen so they could finally touch her. Jack frowned and made disbelieving sounds. He had the distinct impression that this part of the cartoon shouldn't make any sense at all. He twirled his finger once more in the rewind gesture and the cartoon dog angrily yipped instead of showing it again. "Ok, ok," Jack said and raised his hands in a calming gesture. He understood the dog's yip to mean that Mia really did manage to find eight guys that were dumb enough to fall for her spiel. "Wow, she's got game." The cartoon resumed, showing Jack more of the guys squiring Mia around and he amended his opinion of her powers of persuasion. Those guys were dumber than a box of bolts. A five year old could get them to send money to the prince of Nigeria. After Mia turned eighteen, she went back on all her promises to the guys. They dropped her, angry at the years of her mooching and their futile efforts. Only the three knuckledraggers that had kidnapped Jack had stuck around. He guessed that even those three dumbasses would stay away from her after their little trip to the woods, yesterday. Despite being over eighteen, Mia was still staying at the group home for troubled teens in the next county. Though she was staying there at the benevolence of the staff, she hated it and its utter lack of privacy. Half the girls there were unfit for civilized society and dancing around their many berserk buttons was exhausting. She wasn't going to stay there for much longer. As soon as the home ran out of room and the next underage girl was placed with them, she will be kicked out. Jack wiped the tears from his eyes, but couldn't stop crying at the sad cartoon he had just seen. He didn't doubt its veracity for one instant. Mia had had him kidnapped, but he found himself forgiving her for it, after seeing all the shit she had gone through. He even wondered if he should be thanking her for it. He had never before managed to use his power like he had done in the woods the other day. He didn't hate her for planting weed in his locker, either. Using it had opened up his mind to a whole new dimension and he felt sure that if she hadn't done it, he would have spent his entire life without knowing about his true potential. Yes, she had done those things with harmful intent and out of spite, but she literally hadn't been raised to know any better. Besides, he had wound up benefiting from them. He wished with all his heart that he could take care of the broken, little girl and he saw another film on the wall screen. It was of a young man that was called to do his duty for his country. He buried his collection of baseball cards in the back yard of a house on the other side of town. He didn't tell anyone about them, not even his parents. The boy then went off to war and his parents later received a telegram saying he had died on the beaches of France. Jack wept for them and their boy, as well. He heard his friends laughing raucously upstairs and his tears dried up all of a sudden. He wondered if helping Mia would be the right thing to do. He had forgiven her for the shit she had done to him, but she had hurt and humiliated his friends. The screen showed a South Park-esque cartoon in which Mia made a science project at the group home. Mean girls were fighting loudly in the background, distracting her from her studies. A girl came over to her and demanded cigarettes, which Mia didn't have. She said it was ok, but then destroyed Mia's project as soon as she left it to go to dinner. Mia had to stay up all night to make another and she didn't even have all the materials needed. She presented it in class and it went over badly. Steve, Rob and John were in her class and mocked the inaccuracies of her project. They angered her and she defended her work, but in doing so she exposed how limited her knowledge of the subject was. His friends kept asking questions of her and they wound up exposing her misunderstandings of some very basic scientific concepts, which had most of the class laughing at her. While his friends had been learning these things, she had spent the time cleaning up the puke of her foster parents. Most of the foster parents that had her would beat her for even bringing schoolbooks home, let alone if she studied, or did her homework. The situation at the group home had been only marginally better in that regard. Jack didn't think what the guys did to her warranted any retribution, particularly not having them forcibly stripped naked, duct taped to the flagpole and photographed for all the internet to see. He was tempted to leave Mia stewing in her own mess over it, but the baseball cards told him not to. If he wasn't meant to help her, then why was he shown the cartoon of the young man that had died on D-Day? He sat back and wondered how he could best honor Jack White's sacrifice. His stomach growled and he went to the kitchen, where he stuffed himself with brownies, glad for a respite from his moral dilemma. His friends came down the stairs, also starving, and giggled and laughed as they ate the normal brownies. The four of them lay down in his living room and dozed off. When Janice came home late at night, she tiptoed past them, making no comment. The dawn light stabbed into their eyes and the four boys slowly woke. They groaned and rubbed their eyes as they stretched to work out the kinks in their shoulders and backs they got from spending the night on the carpet. "That was some night," Steve said. The guys murmured their agreements and began recounting their weed-infused night. Jack searched his memory and wondered if the information in the cartoons he had seen was real. He had taken it all in a pot-fueled stride last night, but the sober light of morning brought doubts. He had the name and address of the group home Mia was staying in, as well as the exact location where the baseball card collection was buried. He decided to put the cartoons to the test. He checked the clock on the wall. He had more than two hours until he had to be in school that day. Plenty of time for what he had in mind, provided he could get his friends to leave soon. "Do you guys think you'll come back to school," he asked them, interrupting their conversation. They were silent for a few moments and then John said, "Yeah, why not? After last night, I don't give a crap about that shit anymore." "I know what you mean," Rob said. "It's all just bullshit, you know? What they think, what they say... Nothing but hot air being blown out of their pie holes." "Are you sure the weed's worn off for you," John asked him in bemusement. "How many brownies did you have, man?" Jack suddenly remembered his mother. "Guys! Ix-nay the eed-way alk-tay!" He got up and whispered, "My mom's probably upstairs sleeping." He walked over to the hallway and craned his neck to look for any sign of her. "We better go," John said, standing up. "Yeah," Rob said and stood up. He straightened out his clothes and then gave Steve a hand up. The guys snuck past Jack on their way to the front door, patting him on the back and thanking him for a memorable night. Jack saw them out and then went online to check if there was a group home in the next county, like the Mia cartoon had shown him. The yellow pages website confirmed it and Jack could only say, "Huh." It looked like eating weed gave him clairvoyant abilities. He had been too stoned last night to think about it, but a million questions about the true extent of his mental abilities now came to him. He shelved the questions, for the time being, and decided to dig up the baseball cards. The second cartoon had given him the distinct impression that they were still in place, buried and untouched for over seventy years. It had also suggested that there was no one alive who could claim them as an inheritance. He went out and selected Spot and four other dogs and had them get in his car. He drove to the house he knew the cards were buried behind and parked just down the street from it. The morning was still young and there was hardly any activity on the street. The house was silent and he could see no motion in its windows. There was a tall, solid wood fence separating the back yard from the street. A gate right next to the garage provided a point of entry. Jack drew a deep breath and huffed it out. He got out of the car and let the dogs out. He acted as cool as he could, crossing the street. He walked his dogs regularly and half the town was used to the sight, even though hardly anyone knew him by name. He walked right up to the gate and stood on tiptoes to look over it. The house prevented him from seeing more than half the back yard, but he could see that it was empty, save for a kids-size trampoline in the far corner. The sound of a door opening startled him and he backed away from the gate. His dogs followed him soundlessly as he backed up to the sidewalk. A woman was exiting her house down the street and getting into her car. Jack sighed and looked around. He couldn't go climbing over the fence and risk being seen. He sent Spot around to check for any gaps in the fence that he and the rest of the dogs could go through. Spot quickly found a place where he could dig under the fence and reported back. Jack slid into the minds of the trained dogs and instructed them to go into the yard. He told them where to dig for the tin box and to bring it to him. The dogs trotted off happily and he returned to his car. He sat in it and turned on the radio. It played a Taylor Swift tune and he changed the station until he came across one playing "Dopeman" by Less Than Jake. He shook his head and laughed as he sang along with the song. By the time it ended, the dogs ran across the street. All of them had dirty front paws, with specks of mud flying off them as they ran, and Spot had the tin box in his mouth. "Fuck," Jack whispered as he saw that the box was exactly the same as in the cartoon. A part of him had been hoping it had just been a hallucination of his and that he had somehow already known about that group home in the next county and had used it to build a backstory for Mia. The true extent of his powers was starting to get a bit daunting for him. He opened the rear door and the dogs jumped in to track dirt all over the back seat of his car. Spot deposited the tin on the front seat and Jack closed the door behind him. He turned the engine over and drove off, taking care to not draw attention to himself by driving too fast. He came home and sent the dogs back to their pen. He barely had the time to feed them and scarf down some food of his own, before he had to go to school. He met John and Rob for lunch in the cafeteria. "Where's Steve," he asked. "At home," John said. "He'll be back next week, when his black eye isn't so visible anymore." "But, guess who is in school today," Rob said. "Mia. Fucking. Newman. Can you believe it? That fucking cunt gets to walk around like nothing's happened and like she hadn't..." He shook his head in frustration. "It's not fucking fair!" "Look, guys," Jack said, "she's had a tough life and, uh..." "Are you fucking kidding me," John asked in shock. "Are you going to actually sit there and defend that rabid cunt? After what she did to us?" "Yeah," Rob said. "We're the ones that have a tough life. Do you know why we have a tough life? Because of people like her! That's why!" "It's not as simple as all that," Jack said. "Yes, it fucking is," John said, harshly. "She's evil, man. End of story. No redeeming qualities, no extenuating circumstances." "I thought you were cool, Jack," Rob said. "I thought you had your head on straight and could tell right from wrong." "What is it, Jack," John asked, in a mock concerned tone of voice. "Did the peer pressure get to you? Did you join the sheeple that look at her and see a hot piece of ass in a cheerleader uniform and forget all about the evil that lurks underneath? Do we need to hire some cult deprogrammers to save you?" Jack made an unhappy face and said, "Guys! All I'm saying is that there are two sides to everything and-" John tossed his fork down on his tray noisily and said, "What?! What could possibly be the other side to her getting those three goons to... assault us? Huh? What?" "Look," Jack said and glanced around at the nearby tables. Their little argument was drawing attention and he didn't want that. "Mia's had a tough childhood, ok? Her foster parents used to beat her up and-" Rob interrupted him by leaning in and saying, "Steve! Steve had a difficult childhood. Steve has a difficult adolescence. Steve gets beaten up every time his loser dad is frustrated with anything at all and how many people has Steve had stripped naked and duct taped to a flagpole so far? Hm? Need to think about the answer to that one, do you?" "This school ignores me and calls me Dog Boy because it envies me," Jack said. Rob and John shut up and he was grateful for the chance to talk. "They mistreat me to make themselves feel better. That's what all bullies do. They take out their frustrations with others. Now, imagine, for just an instant, what kind of shit that girl had to go through to think that what she did to you was ok! Go on, try and imagine it!" John and Rob looked guilty and turned their faces to their trays. "I'll bet you the truth is far worse than anything you can picture. I'll bet she had worse done to her than what she has done to you. "Hell, I'm even starting to think that she's nowhere near as bad as her rep says. I think half the things that she supposedly arranged to happen in this school really had nothing to do with her. I think that these petty souls that begrudge me my noble work have been making stuff up and pinning things on her that she had nothing to do with." "She was the one that," Rob said and trailed off. "We all know it." "You were all gung ho about setting your dogs on whoever it was," John said, "back when you first saw the photos. What changed?" "I calmed down and looked at the situation from every possible angle," Jack said. "Shame you had to disregard our angle," John said, glaring at Jack. Rob quickly stepped in and smoothed things over and diverted the conversation to a first person shooter online battle that was scheduled for that evening. Jack declined the invitation to join their team and the conversation slowly wound down. The boys got up as soon as they finished their food and left with a curt, "Bye!" Jack sighed unhappily and wondered if he had just alienated his only friends in the whole, wide world. He would feel bad if their break came over Mia Newman, of all things. She had committed several felonies and should be in jail because of them, along with her three flunkies, yet Jack just couldn't shake the profound pity he felt for her. The girl had gone through so much and he had felt her pain last night. He simply couldn't see her as the epitome of evil. To him, she was a lost, little lamb that needed protection and guidance, so that she might find her way back into the light. He believed that honor and duty could hold a place in her heart and that it was his job to put them there, as soon as she was ready to receive them. He felt good about that idea. Passing Jack White's teachings on would be the best way of honoring them. He decided that he wasn't going to go begging for the guys' forgiveness any time soon. Perhaps even never. He resolved to help Mia rise above all the suffering she had gone through and find the strength to be a good person. He was going to need money for that. After school, he drove to a car wash and had them detail his car, inside and out. While they were busy with that, he sat in the nearby coffee shop and opened the tin box. Inside it were vintage baseball card, all in mint condition and a few of them were signed. He guessed that they might be worth a whole hell of a lot of money. As soon as his car was done, he went to the local pawn shop to see if they would buy the baseball cards. The guy at the counter offered him a few hundred dollars, claiming that the cards had no real value, but that his little nephew might like them. Jack was astonished and rendered temporarily mute by the revelation. He couldn't believe that his vision had been a phony. He stared at the worthless cards in shock. As he looked up into the beady eyes of the guy behind the counter, he found himself literally disbelieving his offer. He glared at the man as he gathered the cards and put them back into the box. He didn't have to read his mind to know he was trying to hoodwink him. The man called after him as he was leaving, offering a thousand dollars if he threw in the tin box as well, but Jack just walked out. He was angry at the man for trying to rip him off, but he was pissed off at himself over nearly falling for it. Doubting his vision, even for a moment, was stupid. "Geez, Jack," he muttered into his chin as he started the car and headed home, "you ever hear about the internet?" He had a late lunch and spent the rest of the day training his dogs. He retired for the evening and went online to research the true value of the cards. It took him a while to find sites that dealt with vintage baseball cards and had cards like his on display. He identified his cards and tallied the average prices offered. He came up with a sum in the low six-figures. He whistled in appreciation and went on e-Bay to put his cards up for auction. He was putting them up one at a time and the offers started pouring in even before he finished. He smiled as things quickly progressed to a full-blown bidding war. Pretty soon, he got bored and started yawning. It was late, so he left the bidding to continue and went to bed. When he woke up on Friday, he went to check on the bids first thing. All his cards were sold and the tally was pretty big. He had more than enough to pay for any college he wanted and then some. He didn't have to train guard dogs for money anymore. He could afford a brand new car, instead of his used one. There were so many possibilities before him, but he reminded himself that he had only seen the cards when he had felt the desire to take care of Mia. He felt like he had to share the money with her. He had no idea what, if any, would be the karmic consequences of not doing so and he preferred not finding out. It was time to get in touch with her. He whistled a happy tune as he showered, then ate and got dressed. He guessed that her flunkies were no longer at her beck and call and that she would be taking the bus to town. She had to take the very early one to be able to make it here before school started. He left the house early and drove to where the bus from the next county made its stop. He parked across the street and waited for it to arrive. True to his expectations, Mia got off the bus when it came. She walked to the gas station on the next block and Jack got out of his car to follow her on foot. She walked into the ladies' room and he looked around himself. There was no one nearby and the station attendant was sweeping the convenience store, paying him no mind. Jack opened the door to the ladies' room and stood in the doorway. Mia was inside, bent over the sink. He took the chance to admire her perfect ass, encased in black, skintight leggings. His gaze fell down her shapely legs all on its own, but was quickly drawn back up to her ass. He had to admit, she was really hot and, being bent over with her legs slightly spread as she was at the moment, she was sex incarnate. As he looked at her, he realized the sink was full of water and her face was completely submerged in it, preventing her from breathing. He realized she probably hadn't even heard the door open. A sudden thought made him wonder if she was trying to kill herself. Perhaps her recent escalation of wrongful acts had finally gotten to her and her conscience was haunting her. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 Before he could make a move, she raised her head and gasped air. "Fuck," she whispered in a shuddering voice. She reached blindly for a paper towel next to her and used it to dry her face. She leaned forward and peered at herself in the mirror above the sink. She seemed to be checking out her face for traces of puffiness and paid special attention to the area under her eyes. "Waking up at six to ride a fucking bus," she grumbled to herself. "Fucking losers abandoning me." She sighed and straightened up, looking somewhat happy with the results of submerging her face in a cold bath. She pulled the plug and let the water drain from the sink. When she looked back up at the mirror, she noticed the increased light coming in from the doorway and finally saw Jack watching her. She screamed in fright and spun around. "The fuck are you doing here, pervert," she hollered. "This is the fucking ladies' room, Dog Boy!" Jack raised his hands in a peaceful gesture and said, "I just wanted to thank you for the weed." She wiped the last of the water from her face and looked at him like he was stupid. "I don't know what the fuck you're on about," she slowly and deliberately said, "but I suggest you get the fuck away from me. If you don't, I'll cry for help. You'll get beaten up by men that don't look kindly on pervy, little fuckers who, who stoop to invading women's bathrooms to get their jollies." "You're scared of me." He hadn't meant to say that aloud, but he saw her terror on her face as plain as day and it almost startled him. Mia had always seemed so cool and collected in school. No matter what anyone ever did, or said, she'd just roll with it and flip it to her benefit. Until he had recounted her Bozo makeup disaster, that is. That was the only time anyone had managed to make her run. When she had abducted him in return, he had taken it as a sign that she was definitely not afraid of him. She masked her fear and adopted an expression of anger as she spat out, "Oh, what? Should I be glad you're ogling me on the toilet? Buzz off, Dog Boy!" "How many beds are still open in the group home? A few? More than a few? What if the cops decide to go bust up one of the Latina girl gangs? You'll be out on your ass, then." Mia's indignant wrath evaporated and she turned sickly pale. He could tell she was scared shitless that he knew the truth about where she lived and what her circumstances were. With no makeup on, her face was easy to read. She affected an insincere smile and said, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Dog Boy, but you need to get your shit together and get the fuck away from me already!" Jack put all his sincerity in his voice as he said, "You don't have to pick a fight with everyone that comes along, Mia. I know you've been hurt all your life, but not everyone is like the people the government stuck you with. Not everyone is evil." She backed even further away from him, though he had yet to set foot inside the bathroom, and shrieked, "The fuck are you on about, perv?! Get the fuck out of here!" "You're not the little girl her foster fathers leered at and her foster mothers berated in a jealous rage. You're a grown-up, now. And adults ask for help when they need it and they accept it when it's offered. Because adults aren't little children anymore and they understand they deserve all the help they can get. Adults know they'll need all the help they can get in life." Mia looked to be deathly afraid and on the verge of panicking. She was breathing quickly, but not deeply, and her unblinking eyes stared at him. "You're not worthless," he gently said. "None of the shit that had been done to you had been your fault. You deserve better." She licked her lips and swallowed several times before affecting a shy smile. "Maybe you're right," she said, hesitantly. "Maybe I should... have better. You might have a point there." She stood up straight and tugged on the hem of her green shirt. She squared her shoulders and her breasts tented her shirt, drawing his gaze to them. A small grin flashed over her face at seeing where his attention went. "But, do you really mean what you're saying," she said, her tone of voice smooth and sexy. Jack raised his eyes to meet hers. She raised an eyebrow and smiled as she took slow, small, swaying steps towards him, one after another. "Too often, guys just talk, but don't do anything they say. Are you just like the other guys, Jack? Or are you a man of your word?" Jack cleared his throat. "Yes. Yes, I am a man of my word." He was dismayed to feel a sudden rush of blood to his nether regions. He hoped she wouldn't look down and spot a bulge forming in the front of his pants. He could feel his face blush. She was a step away from him. She folded her hands behind her back, adopted an innocent pose and looked up into his brown eyes, pleading. "Did you mean it when you said that I deserve help?" Jack nodded, not trusting his dry throat enough to speak right now. "You'll help me if I ask you to?" Jack nodded earnestly. She was so close to him that he could smell her shampoo. He thought he could feel the heat radiating off her body, but that was probably just his own flushed flesh. "So, as one adult to another, you'll do me a favor?" "Yes," he said. "Just ask!" Her voice was small and her brow scrunched up in worry as she said, "Please, Jack, please, do me the favor of not telling anyone about where I live and how!" Jack was entranced by her wide, blue eyes and he had to blink a few times to remind himself that he was being asked something. "Uh, yeah. Sure. You got it. I, uh, I won't tell anyone anything about it." He didn't mind acquiescing, since he had had no intention of blabbing about it, anyway. Humiliating her wasn't his intention. Her wide smile was so radiant that it made him smile, too. When she let out a sigh of relief, he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, too. "Thank you so much, Jack! That means more than the world to me. Now, if I could ask you for one more favor?" "Yeah, sure." "Would you mind leaving me alone and shutting the door so I could do my makeup?" Her tone of voice was so polite that he didn't even think for one second her request could be construed as a dismissal. He shook his head and stepped back, allowing the door to shut. As he stood there, he took a long look around. There was still no one nearby. He reached up and pressed his hand to his face. His cheeks and forehead were burning up. He knew he was as red as a tomato. His boner was raging. How nice of you to show up like that, all of a sudden, he thought as he looked down at it. In the space of ten seconds, she had inspired his mind to fill up with images of her pliant body being his, if he were just ready to do that one, little thing for her. Damn, she's good. Up until then, he had considered all the boys at school dupes for falling for her charms but, now that he finally felt the power of her charm on his own skin, he amended his opinion. Her sexuality was so raw, primal and powerful and yet so captivating in the shy way she applied it. He drew a deep breath and recalled some meditative practices to clear his mind and make his boner go down. He stood in place and finally succeeded with just moments to spare. When she opened the door, she flinched, clearly not having been expecting him to stick around. "Want a ride to school," he asked. "My car's right over there." He pointed to his Ford. She floundered for a few moments, but then gathered her composure and said, "No thanks. I, uh, I've got someplace to be, so..." She pointed to the side and quickly walked away from him, hefting her bag on her shoulder. He could tell she was scared of him. He scratched his chin in confusion. She must have guessed by now that he wasn't going to call the cops on her. He had her dead to rights on the kidnapping, and he had shown her he knew about the weed coming from her. He had, basically, just assured her of having no intention of sending her to jail. Yet the girl trotted away from him, sneaking scared, little peeks behind herself as she did. He screwed up his face and nearly slapped his forehead as he finally figured it out. It was the Bozo thing. She had probably never, ever told anyone about that. The fact that he knew something he couldn't possibly have known must be the thing that scared her so much about him. Him knowing about her stay in the group home could be explained by him making some calls, but there was no way he should know about the Bozo thing. Even the kids that had done the mocking probably couldn't remember it anymore. He guessed that it might have even been what had driven her to have him abducted in the first place. "Shit," he muttered and turned to go to his car. The school day passed in the usual Friday manner. The teachers doled out extra assignments for the weekend and the students huffed and rolled their eyes. Little actual learning was done as most students spent the time in class staring at the clocks on their phones, eagerly awaiting the ring that would set them free. When school ended, Jack calmly walked out at the back of the pack. As he walked through the parking lot, he saw Mia sitting on the hood of a car, holding court. Girls and boys alike stood around her, eagerly awaiting to hear from her what is cool and what isn't, or just wanting to get a little of her attention. His car was parked beyond them, so he walked past. Mia's eyes looked up, between the teens surrounding her, and their gazes met. They were both startled by the contact. Without even consciously meaning to, Jack pictured his own face and availed himself of his power. Jack sat on the hood of the car, hoping Jack wouldn't join the group and share any more of his secrets with everyone. He didn't know how Dog Boy knew those things and he didn't care. He just wanted him to move on quietly. He didn't have any guys he could call to come pick him up and take him out for a ride, so he was pretending to be waiting for a guy until everyone left, so they wouldn't see him walking to the bus stop all alone. He had no idea what he was going to do with his day until he had to be back at the home, but going there before he absolutely had to was out of the question. Jack snapped back into himself. Mia looked back at the girl that was talking, unaware of his visit to her thoughts. Jack finished his step and kept on walking towards his beat up, old Ford. The link had only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it had illuminated him quite a bit. With Mia's former beaus out of the picture, her plan for the day was to roam around town until the evening. She would go to the library and do some schoolwork, but she knew the nerds did that on Friday afternoons to free up their weekends and she didn't want to be seen by them. The mall and all the other hip gathering places were similarly out of the question. Mia's rep in school was the only thing she had going in her life and she couldn't afford to be seen out without a guy. That would put a crack in the foundations of her social standing. Jack got in his car and drove off. He had intended to go to the library himself, but the glimpse into Mia gave him a different idea. He drove to a coffee shop and got himself a cup of coffee to go. Then he went to the boutique next door and bought a crisp, white, dress shirt. He put it on and drove to a car dealership. He parked his Ford across the street and repeatedly squealed for a few minutes. After that, he exited the car and found a salesman. He told the salesman he wanted to buy a new car, no loans or payment plans, just cash on the barrel, and asked how much of the price could be knocked off if he traded in his old Ford. Just before the salesman began his spiel, Jack "accidentally" spilled the cold coffee all down the front of his pristine, white shirt, letting out his practiced squeal at the same time. The funny sound gave him a path into the man's mind and he channeled all of his embarrassment into mimicking the man's amusement at seeing his clumsiness. Jack bit the inside of his lip to keep from laughing at the clumsy kid. He was obviously green around the gills and he had cash on hand, the perfect customer for Jack's taste. It simply wouldn't do to chase him off with a laugh, when there were piles of his money to take. Jack thought about all the ways he could squeeze the kid for all he could. Jack looked up into the salesman's eyes and grinned, despite being soaked with coffee. He was about to get the deal of the century. Half an hour after he changed out of his ruined shirt, he drove a brand new SUV, complete with all the trimmings, off the lot and he had paid the lowest possible price for it. The salesman glared after the departing car. He couldn't believe how the kid just breezed through all his tricks and knew what the price really was and which extras came included. "Fucking kids these days with their goddamned googling and Edwards and shit," he grumbled into his chin. Jack did a circuit of the town, avoiding all the known hangouts. He did his best to recollect his brief, earlier excursion into Mia's mind so he could figure out which way she had gone. After a few tries that didn't pan out, he spotted her walking through a park, admiring the trees in bloom. He parked at the end of the park and watched her walk towards him. She seemed to glide through the grass, as if she was walking on air. Her eyes seemed sad as she looked at the pretty flowers everywhere. Something about her being surrounded by blooming nature made him think of her as a forest nymph, or sprite. He imagined himself being lured by her charms to vanish inside her forest and never be seen by the outside world, ever again. His daydream was interrupted when she sharply turned her head to the side and then began hurrying his way with her face turned downwards. Jack looked over to where she had and immediately saw the school cheerleader uniforms. Apparently, a few of her colleagues from the squad decided to spend a beautiful Friday afternoon in the park with their fellas. Of course, she didn't want anyone to see her wandering around all alone, so she sped up to go elsewhere. Jack smiled and pressed a button. His window lowered all the way down. She looked up and was startled to see him there. He smiled at her and said, "Get in," while nodding his head towards the front seat. She shot him a dark glare and moved to walk past him. "Get in, or I start honking my horn to show off my new car to the girls from the squad!" She froze in place with her mouth open. Her face was such a picture of shock and terror that Jack could barely keep from laughing out loud. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder and then ran around his car to get in it. He wasted no time in pulling out and driving down the road. He was feeling very happy. He didn't know if it was that new car smell, or the fact that the hottest girl for dozens of miles around was sitting next to him. When he looked at her, his joy was a bit tempered. She was definitely not happy. "You can pull over now," she quietly said. Her voice was lifeless, defeated. Jack's buzz evaporated at hearing her. "You can let me out now and go tell everyone the truth about me, for all I care. I'm sure you'll all have yourselves a good laugh about it." "No," Jack said. "No, I'm not going to tell anyone anything you don't want me to and no, I won't be laughing at you. I thought I made that clear earlier today. Also no, I'm not gonna let you out of my car right now." He turned onto the freeway. She looked surprised for a second, but then her face fell. She adopted a bitter grin and nodded to herself. "So, this is how you'll try to get even," she said. "You forgot one thing, Dog Boy! I took your cellphone when we took you." She pulled her phone out of her pocket and held it up. "I've still got mine with me. Now, pull over and let me out, or I'll call the cops!" "And tell them what, exactly? Never mind. Whatever you tell them, they won't believe you. I work for Alpha Security Solutions and I have many friends there. Many friends who used to be cops, either here, or in the neighboring counties. After they speak up for me, who do you think their former colleagues will believe? Me, or you?" "You think you can get away with kidnapping and, and rape?" She pulled her finger across the screen, unlocking the phone. "Whoa," he exclaimed. "Rape? What rape? Who said anything about rape?" "Why the fuck else would you be driving me around? You're going to drive me out of town somewhere and fucking try to rape me! Fucking asshole!" She punched him in the shoulder. It was a soft jab with her left and she didn't like its lack of effect, so she put her phone in her left and drove a right hook into his shoulder. "Stop it," he yelled. "I'm driving here, you idiot! And we're on the freeway, doing ninety! Stay cool, or we'll both crash!" "I'd rather die than get raped by you!" She punched him again. When she drew her arm back for a third punch, he caught it and held it still. "I'm not going to rape you!" He took his eyes off the road for a second to look her right in the eye. He activated his turn signal and checked his mirrors. "I'm pulling over!" He changed lanes and then pulled over to stop. He engaged the handbrake and said, "If you want to leave, go on, leave!" She opened her door and stepped out of the car. "I won't tell anyone anything about your real situation. I promise you that." His words made her stop. "You want me to leave you alone, I'll leave you alone. I'd just like to know what you're going to do with your life without so much as a high school diploma? You've never even worked a McJob! Are you going to strip? Walk the streets? Do porn?" She was still standing by his car with the door open, facing away from him. "Mia, I'm not here to judge you. If you want to know what else is out there for you, then come with me and I'll show you a better way!" After a few moments, she bent lower and faced him. Her eyes were watery. They gazed into each other's eyes for a long moment. "Have you eaten since lunch" he softly asked. She seemed to consider the question before shaking her head no. "Neither have I. I'm going for an early dinner. Want some? My treat!" She sniffed and wiped her eyes before composing herself and sitting back down. She put her seatbelt on and then flashed him a small smile. "I promise I won't punch," she sweetly said. "You better not," he said and put the car in gear. After checking his mirrors, he rejoined the traffic headed towards the city. She looked around to get her bearings and then said, "Turn us around!" He spared her a look before saying, "No, I have something to show you." "Look, you don't have to go to all this trouble. It's sweet, you borrowing a new car and... Wait! You did borrow this car, right? You didn't steal it, or anything?" "I just bought it today, after school." Her brow drew down as she gave him a look. "Anyway," she said, "you don't need to jump through hoops. I'll let you fuck me." "What," he said. "You don't have to flash a new car and take me to a fancy dinner. Just take me for a burger and then pull over someplace private and... I'll let you do me. I guess I owe you after everything that happened this week." "Jesus Christ," he mumbled. "It's no big deal, I do it all the time," she said and laughed. "I may be a cheap date, but no one can say I'm not worth it!" Jack propped his elbow against his door and rubbed his forehead and temples. He knew she didn't do anything more than kiss a guy and was still a virgin. He wondered why she claimed otherwise, but he knew there was no way he would take her up on her offer, even if it was sincere. "Look, I just want to stay in town, ok? I have to be back at the home by six in the evening." He knew her real curfew was at seven p.m. and wondered why she lied to him. "Come on, man! Turn the car around! Take the next exit and drive back to town! There's this really nice burger joint not far from where we met this morning. You'll really like it. Just... turn the car around, please!" A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 Jack shifted into higher gear and gave it more gas. The SUV responded and they were barreling down the freeway towards the city. "Dude! Don't be a jackass, Jack! Turn the fucking car around! If I'm not back by six, I'm out on my ass! Take me back!" "Your curfew is seven p.m.," Jack wearily said, "and I promise you you'll be there long before it comes around. I'll drive you all the way to the front door, ok? Just relax. I want to show you some things, buy you dinner, and then I'll drive you back there." She settled in her seat and the next twenty minutes passed in silence. He drove them into the city and turned off the main roads to began navigating the wide, but empty streets. "See this residential area we're driving through," he asked her. She looked out her window and said, "Yeah? What about it?" "I'm going to rent a house here this fall, when I start college here, in the city." Her face fell for a moment and then she leaned back in her seat and huffed. "Bully for you," she sarcastically said. "Is this what you wanted me to show me? Your bright and lovely future? Was I kidnapped so you could tell me how all this could be mine, if I just applied myself some more in school?" Jack smiled bitterly and said, "First of all, stop saying that I've kidnapped you! You kidnapped me the other day and you don't get to complain, even if I really do kidnap you some day. Secondly, no, this is definitely not what I brought you here to show you. We're just coming up on those things. Also, we both know no college worth attending would even dream of accepting you as their student." She shot him a venomous look that he failed to notice while he was taking a turn and leaving the residential area behind them. They drove in silence for five minutes. "This is the first thing that I wanted to show you," he said and pointed at a large complex of buildings to his left. "That's City College, a community college that offers educational opportunities for a wide variety of careers. They educate paralegals, administrators, web designers, stylists... I don't even know what else, but they have over eighty programs available and they cater to an already employed demographic. Their students want to change careers, or start them in the first place, so they're pretty flexible as far as hours are concerned." "Are they also flexible as far as money is concerned," she bitterly asked him. "Or is that what you mean when you say 'already employed'? That I should work my way, not through college, but through community college?" "You don't have to worry about money," he said. She barked out a disbelieving laugh. "I'll pay for your education." When he stopped at the next red light, he looked at her. She was glaring at him with a murderous scowl. "Is this your idea of getting even, Dog Boy? Dangle some opportunities in front of me and then yank them away when I reach for them? Is that it? Cause you kinda failed, fuckface! How could you think that I would fall for this drivel? Why on Earth would your parents pay for me to attend community college?" "My parents aren't paying for anyone's education," he said. "I'm paying my own tuition with my own money and I'm offering to pay yours, too." "Oh, wow," she sarcastically said, "I had no idea you were rich." "I am, actually," he said. "I've gotten a very big inheritance this week and that's how I'm going to pay for my education. As well as yours, if you'll have it." She stared at him mutely, not knowing what to make of his words, until a car honked behind them to indicate the light had changed. Jack put the car in gear and drove on. She frowned and shook her head, as if to clear it. "Are you serious," she asked in a small voice. "Yes." "And what would you want in return?" "Your best effort," he said. "And your word that you would not waste your opportunity." "Listen, Jack, seriously," she quietly said, "if you're just trying to get in my pants and then brag about it to enhance your status, you just gotta pay me. That's all. I don't get why you're going through all this... hoopla." "You deserve a break, Mia," he said. "The universe owes you one. The people of the United States of America owe you a fucking chance. They abandoned you in the hands of monsters who robbed you of a childhood and for that they owe you big time. Since I'm an American, I've decided to take it upon myself to give you your chance." They drove in silence for a few more seconds and then she said, "Up until now, I didn't really believe all the rumors about you, Jack." She barked out a brief laugh. "I mean, yes, you go through school without a care in the world, totally ignoring the hierarchy and social standings, which is the behavior of, like, serial killers and stuff... but, this is too loony tunes to not be true! You're dead serious, aren't you?" "Yes, I am," he said, sparing her an earnest look. He briefly considered correcting her claim of him going through school without a care in the world, but thought better of it. She looked away from him and shook her head to herself. He pulled up in front of a restaurant. "What's this," she asked in confusion. "I said I'd buy you dinner," he said as he got out of the driver's seat to be replaced by the valet attendant wearing an orange jacket with a logo she couldn't quite make out. She got over her confusion and got out of the car to follow Jack into the restaurant. The place was done up like a fifties' diner, all shiny chrome fixtures and powder blue plastic surfaces. The booths had orange seats and ran along every wall, as well as in two additional rows that ran down the middle of the space. Half the booths were full and waitresses glided to and from the booths, ferrying loaded plates one way and relaying orders the other. All the waitresses were attractive, young women. Their uniforms caught Mia's eyes. They consisted of tube tops and hot pants in the diner's colors. Jack led them towards an empty booth in the center and she noticed the waitresses were on roller skates. She shook her head as she admired their skill. They didn't look to be on the verge of dropping anything. Jack stood next to the empty booth and held his arm out to indicate she should take her seat first. She sat down and said, "Well, this is different." "Oh, it doesn't look like much," Jack said, "but it's got the best steaks for a hundred miles in every direction, hands down." "Well, they must have," she said and swept her hands over the empty table, "since they don't even bother to leave menus for their customers." He smiled and pointed above the very long bar. "There's your menu! You've got a burger dinner, cheeseburger optional, a steak dinner and a fish sticks dinner for kids. There's a selection of pies for dessert and that's it." She stared at the very large, lighted signs proclaiming what he just said to be true. "Wow," she deadpanned, "so many options." Jack chuckled. "You might be suitably impressed after I tell you that it's impossible to get a reservation here." She looked back at him and quirked an eyebrow. After a long look around at the half-full eatery, she said, "But you managed to get one?" Jack adopted a serious expression. "No. Haven't you been listening? That's impossible!" He laughed softly and said, "They don't take reservations. It's first come, first served." "Ah," she said and nodded, not really in the mood to laugh at his joke. A waitress rolled over to them. "Good afternoon, folks! What're ya havin'?" "We'll have a pair of steak dinners," Jack said. "The lady will enjoy a New York strip and I'll have mine au poivre." "What'll you drink?" "I'll have a blueberry milkshake," he said. "What flavor milkshake do you want?" "Um, chocolate," Mia said. "Gotcha," the waitress said. "Be right back with your shakes!" Mia watched her skate away and twirl around a colleague that was delivering food to a booth nearby. As the girl twirled, Mia admired her grace and technique. She shook herself mentally and faced front. Jack's eyes were on her and he wore a slight smirk, as if he had just caught her checking out the waitress' ass. She gave him an indignant look and said, "So, about this community college?" Jack got serious and said, "Yeah?" "Are you for real?" "Yes." "Why," she asked. "Why on Earth would you spend your inheritance on me?" Jack sighed and relaxed in his seat before saying, "Because I want to." "That's not good enough!" Jack shrugged and said, "My money, my reasons. I'm free to do what I want with it and I want to give you a shot at a life." "That's not good enough for me. I'm not getting in bed with you, figuratively, or literally, until you give me a satisfactory explanation for why you would choose to spend your money on me. And exactly what you expect from me in return." "I already told you what I want from you in return." "Yeah," she curtly said, "and I already said that I'm not buying that crap. Nobody ever gives anyone anything without wanting something in return. While I do believe that you'll pay for my education, I don't believe you won't ask for anything in return. Now, spill! What is it?" Jack tapped a finger against the table and considered his situation. He hadn't really put a lot of thought into this part of his plan. He had honestly expected her to jump at the chance without too many questions. He couldn't tell her the truth for fear of being locked up inside Area 51 for study. She wouldn't believe him anyway. He briefly considered telling her a story about how his inheritance was contingent on him using part of it for charity, or something, but he didn't like the thought of playing her like that. He wanted them to be honest with each other. At the very least, he needed to be honest with her, if he was to help her. "I'm not saying I won't agree to whatever it is that you want from me," she said. "I just want to know, up front, exactly what I'm getting into." The waitress rolled over and deposited two tall glasses on their table with a cheerful, "Here ya go!" She also left them two sets of cutlery, wrapped up in serviettes. The two of them stared into each other's eyes as they drew their glasses closer and put the straws in their mouths. Mia was the first to break contact as she moaned in appreciation of the taste of the milkshake. "Goddamn, this is a good milkshake!" "I have already told you my reasons and what I expect from you in return," he said. "I'm not saying anything else on the matter. It's up to you to choose if you're going to pass on this opportunity because you're afraid I'll screw you over like everyone else did, or if you'll find the strength inside of you to trust me and seize this chance. We both know that you'll never get another. Not from anyone else. Not ever." Her face fell during his little speech and she was staring at the floor. "Look," she quietly said, "I'm not... You can't just..." She cleared her throat and blinked back her tears. She took a few moments to compose herself and then looked him in the eye. He could see fire in her beautiful, blue peepers. "Why me?" He leaned forward and put both elbows on the table. In a serious and deliberate tone of voice, he asked, "Why not you?" She stared at him for a few seconds, her emotions struggling to get out onto her face and then she gasped in a big breath. She looked around, grabbed her purse, got up and ran. Her reaction surprised Jack, so he barely managed to get out of his seat before he realized she wasn't running away. She was running towards the restrooms. He looked at the seat on her side of the booth and saw that she had left her schoolbag. That told him she probably wouldn't try to escape through a window, so he sat back down and waited. He passed the time watching the waitresses skate around and hummed along with the soft swing music that was piped in through speakers bolted to the ceiling. He lost track of time as he waited. When the waitress skated towards his booth with the stakes, he guessed it had been over twenty minutes since Mia had run off to the washroom and he started to get worried. He twisted in his seat and looked at the door to the ladies' room. He watched a woman exit and then another after her and tried to see in their faces if they had seen anything unusual in there. He was just about to flag down a waitress and ask her to go check on Mia, when he finally saw her emerge from the restroom. She calmly walked over and took her seat. "Smells good," she commented on the food. She unwrapped her cutlery and sliced off a piece of her steak. She put it in her mouth and moaned as she chewed. "Tastes good, too." Jack was tempted to ask her what she had been doing in the restroom for so long, but he decided to play it cool and let it go. "I'm glad you approve," he said and dug into his own plate. They ate slowly, partly to savor each tasty bite and partly so they'd have an excuse to not talk. They glanced all around themselves, at the decor, the other customers, the waitresses and even the traffic outside the huge windows; everywhere but at each other. They exchanged polite, little smiles whenever their eyes did meet, though. "Who's Jamie Jacobs," Mia asked at one point, unable to endure the silence. "Who?" Mia pointed at the huge billboard across the street with a smiling, square jawed face adorned by a full head of blonde hair. The name Jamie Jacobs was printed in huge letters, along with venue locations where he was going to be in the summer. "I heard the name someplace before, but I don't know where. Is he a singer, or something?" "Oh, uh, no," Jack said. "He's some kind of faith healer. He's been on TV a lot lately, cause a bunch of doctors think he's the real deal." "Really? Do you think this guy can actually heal people with his touch?" Jack snorted. "Of course not. He merely came up with a new gimmick that people are falling for." "You sound awful sure of that." "My dad taught me that the one thing that never changed in the whole of human history was people bullshitting each other. People have always bullshitted each other and they always will. The only cure for bullshit, he used to say, was joining the Service and getting the bullshit removed from you with some good, old PT and discipline." Jack smiled and looked into Mia's eyes, but she was looking down. He realized his happy talk of his dad was probably bringing her down, so he shut up. It wasn't like he had a stellar relationship with his own dad anymore. When they finished their meal, they sat looking at one another. Mia smiled warmly. "That was very tasty. Thank you." "My pleasure," he said. "So, have you decided?" She shrugged. "What's there to decide? I can't do what you want me to." "Why not?" She snorted. "Where do I even being? First of all, I don't have the grades to graduate, so-" "I'll tutor you," he said. She looked at him for a few seconds, as if trying to tell if he was mocking her, or if he was on the level. "Even if you did tutor me, I don't have the time or place to study, since I'm either at the home, where I can't study without some jacked up bitch interrupting me and starting some shit, or I'm on the fucking bus." "You'll study at my place. I'll drive you wherever you need to go." Her face fell as she looked at him and saw that he was, in fact, not kidding in the slightest. "You would do that for me?" "Again, why not you?" "Because I had you fucking kidnapped," she yelled and then caught herself. She glanced around guiltily and then continued in a normal tone of voice. "Because I planted enough weed in your locker for you to be arrested for possession with the intent to distribute and then called it in to the vice principal. You could have gone to jail for that. Serious jail! For a long time! How the fuck did you manage to get out of that mess? Ah, don't tell me, I don't even wanna know." She wiped her face with her hands in frustration. "Look, Jack! I get it. I really do. I was a cunt and I did you wrong. I'm really sorry for all that I did. I truly am. It was stupid, it was evil, it was thoughtless. I deserve to be punished for it. I don't know what your plan with me is, but I'm guessing it's both illegal and immoral. I want you to give it up and go on with your life. You have a life. A future ahead of you. I'm... I'm a nobody. Nothing at all." She shrugged and smiled a sad smile. Her eyes were misting up again. "You can go on to become anyone and then you'll just have to pay my pimp and you'll be able to fuck me all you want, whenever you want. Whatever this revenge plan of yours is, please, give it up and just call the cops on me! Don't ruin your life! I'll fess up and go to jail and you won't have to do anything illegal yourself." The waitress rolled over and collected their empty plates. "Did you enjoy it?" "Yes, very much," Jack said. "Thank you." "What can I get you folks for dessert?" "I'll have a slice of the apple and pear," he said. "And you, Miss?" Mia cleared her throat and said, "Banana cream, a la Mode." "What flavor ice cream?" "Chocolate," Mia said. "Gotcha," the waitress said with a smile and rolled away. They looked into each other's eyes for a while and then Jack said, "Are you done insulting me?" "What?" "It's insulting. Suggesting that I'm putting together some kind of nefarious plot against you and all that. I'd like you to stop it, please, especially since you know it's not true!" He leaned forward in his seat. "You can tell that I mean you no harm, can't you?" She swallowed and looked away for a moment. Then she looked back into his eyes. "I've been wrong before. Plenty of times." He sat back and sighed. "It's up to you. My offer is on the level. If you let your fear stop you from taking it, then so be it. I'll be genuinely sad, but..." Mia looked away and seemed to be considering things. The waitress skated over and delivered their pies and fresh cutlery. Jack thanked her and she skated away with a smile. He took a big bite of the tasty pie and watched Mia pick at hers. After a while, she raised her head and said, "I mean, even if I were to accept your offer and..." She sighed. "It's not that simple, Jack. Where would I live while I went to community college? What would I live off? They don't have student housing at City College, do they?" "I can find you a place to live and help with the rent." Mia barked out a quiet, bitter laugh and shook her head. "I knew it. You want to be my sugar daddy. Put me up somewhere so you can stumble in whenever and fuck me." "Didn't I already ask you to stop insulting me?" Jack calmly said. She shut up and ate her pie. "Look, I'll help you find a job. There's plenty of work for a hot, charming, young woman like yourself here, in the city." "I thought the whole point of you helping me is so I didn't have to strip," she curtly said. Jack rolled his eyes. "Good grief, Mia! We are going to have to work on your self-esteem! I meant jobs like this." He gestured at a nearby waitress. "You could skate here, no sweat." She snorted in derision. "I'd fall flat on my nose five times in my first five minutes here and then I'd wash dishes in the back to pay for the meals I dropped before they'd toss me out on my rear at the end of the night." "If this isn't your speed, there are other options," Jack said. Mia let out a small, offended gasp. "Like what? What could I possibly be qualified to do?" "Event promotion," he said. "What?" "Yeah," Jack said. "There are plenty of clubs here in the city and they all hire pretty girls to promote their events." "The fuck do I know about promoting events and shit?" "Calm down! It's a simple gig and it pays well. You go around and you meet people that the club wants to attract and you talk to them for a few minutes about the event in question and you give them a flier that gets them, I don't know, a free drink at the bar, or something. For every flier that someone uses at the bar, you get a few bucks for bringing in the customer." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 Mia looked to be considering his words carefully. He could feel the cogs turning in her head, even without using his power. "Where would I find these people, anyway," she asked. Jack shrugged. "At the community college? At my college? I'll bring you over to every party I get invited to." He paused and wondered if his utter lack of popularity in middle school and high school would somehow translate into college, as well. "Uh, scratch that last, I'll tell you about every party I hear about and you can crash them and do your job. And there's also... I don't know, the mall, or wherever hot, young people with money to burn hang out. You'll figure it out. The club manager will tell you what kind of crowd they want for what event." She poked at her slice of pie. "Sounds great, but how would I even get a job like that?" "The guys at Alpha work security for every club in this city," he said with a smile. "I can get you an interview at any time." She rolled her eyes and sagged in her seat. "What is it?" "I can't do this. I can't make it past an interview." "Of course you can," he said. "You've got the looks. You can work the charm. You're going to get hired. It'll be exactly the same as school, you say what's cool and people agree. And the interview is a cinch, let me tell you. First of all, you'll come highly recommended, and secondly, they won't care at all about your history and education. They won't even ask about where you come from and such. All that matters to them is that their club is full with people who spend money there. "They'll hand you a bunch of fliers and leave you to it. If you bring them customers, they'll keep you on. If you don't, you don't and they let you go, but it's no skin off their noses to give you a chance first. All you have to do to get the job is not act like a psycho during the interview." Mia looked to be carefully considering his words. "Or pass out in fear, or shart from nerves when you meet the manager." She laughed at his sharting comment. Her fear seemed to be going away. "I'm telling you, you can do it," he earnestly said. "I'll even practice job interviews with you. Now, eat your dessert! Your ice cream is melting." After they finished their desserts, he settled the check, leaving a big tip for the waitress. He also tipped the attendant when he brought his car around. He drove Mia around the city for an hour more, showing her where everything was, before turning towards the freeway. "It's almost six," she said, somewhat nervously. "Will we make it to the home before curfew?" "Don't worry, we're there in less than forty minutes," he said. When he drove close to the home, Mia insisted he park a few blocks away, so none of the other girls see her dropped off. "It would draw a target on my back," she said when he insisted on driving her up to the front door. He acquiesced and dropped her off where she indicated. She rummaged through her school bag and then pulled out his phone. She gave it to him. "I spent almost all the minutes on it. Sorry." "It's ok," he said and put the phone in his pocket. "Do you want to study tomorrow?" "Uh, yeah, but later in the afternoon, ok? I've got cheerleading practice in the morning." "Ok," Jack said. "I'll be here bright and early to pick you up for breakfast and drive you to school." He drove off, leaving her staring after him. Every single piece of her life experience suggested that this was an elaborate setup and that he would drop her to fall flat on her ass as soon as she leaned on him. What choice do I have, she asked herself. What's my alternative? Prostitution? She shuddered and decided to commit to Jack's plan of action. If it worked, it worked. If it didn't... well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it. She sighed and walked to the home. If nothing else, at least I got a great dinner out of it. Jack drove home and all but skipped as he went inside. He now knew that his pot-fueled visions were true. He set events in motion to fulfill the obligation he had felt since being shown the buried treasure. He was free and eager to explore the limits of his power. He made more brownies and squirreled away a batch of special ones in his room. Ever since he had started to train Spot with his power, questions came to him. They were serious questions about the nature and provenance of his power and he had had no way of answering them, so he had just ignored them. Now that he had clairvoyant abilities at will, he was going to finally get some answers. While he waited for his mother to go to sleep, he was nervous with anticipation, but he managed to decide in which order he would seek the answers he needed. After she finally fell asleep, Jack ate the brownies and began his meditations. He took his time, slowly working out the nervous energy he had been accumulating over the past two days. His relaxed and calm state came at the same time as his high, so he jumped into the matter at hand. He thought about the source of his visions. As he concentrated on that question, he received a vision. In the corner of his room was a cartoon dog, dressed in paint-covered overalls. It had a paintbrush taped to its tail. It drew the brush over a canvas on an easel with rapid flicks of its tail and then sat down to bark twice. Jack understood the barks to be an invitation to walk to the front of the easel and see the finished image, so he did. He could only giggle as he saw a caricature of himself looking into a crystal ball. "How can I be the source of my visions, when I didn't know any of those things before I saw them in the visions?" The cartoon dog gave three soft yips which Jack understood to mean to look deeper into the crystal ball. He bent down to put his nose next to the drawing of the ball and stared into the circle on the canvas. As he looked into the empty circle, he started to see the weave of the canvas itself. He felt like he was falling into the canvas and he didn't feel any fear. His consciousness kept accelerating towards the canvas and the fibers it was made of started to be visible. Jack understood them to represent the connections that linked all minds into the collective subconscious. The spaces between the fibers were starting to resemble TV screens. Lots and lots of TV screens. Jack was lost in the sudden multitude of screens facing him. On each of them a memory was being replayed on a loop. Some of the memories were pleasant, some scary, some were faded, some vivid, but they were all significant and unique. There were no endless repeats of a daily commute to work, or school, with only tiny alterations between each version. Almost none of those memories were his, he realized. There were some, scattered here and there, but the overwhelming majority of the memories he was being shown belonged to other people. All the images he was seeing were echoes of memories that people's minds had made. As he pulled back and tried to make sense of them all, he could see that for all of their specificity, they still had some commonality. The cartoon dog gave an explanatory whine and Jack understood. He was seeing only the recent, important memories of people who were living close to him. "Wow," Jack whispered. The dog softly growled, telling Jack that the mental energies of all the people on the Earth combined to create the aether, a veil that covered the planet and reflected their memories and thoughts back down at them. A very sensitive person, like Jack, could pick up on these nervous discharges and read them for what they were. Another soft growl informed Jack that there were limits to what he could do. Memories echoed in the place they were originally made. The more meaningful they had been to their original owner, the longer they echoed through the aether and the greater the distance at which they could be picked up by a person like Jack. He was a little surprised to learn that his ability was limited by distance, but he nodded to himself in understanding. The memory of the boy that buried the baseball cards was still lingering in the aether over his home town because they had meant the world to him back then. He had been called up to do his duty and he had been scared like never before. The cards were a vivid reminder of simpler times, when manliness was proved by owning the right set of them, not by picking up a rifle and fighting Nazis. The dog couldn't give him an exact range for his power because it was dependent on how meaningful the memory was to its owner. Still, he informed Jack that if he had been in the next town over, he would not have been able to pick up on the memory and find the cards. Jack decided to view this limitation as a blessing in disguise. If he had been exposed to all the memories of everyone in the world at the same time, he'd find himself unable to view a single one of them. That is, if they didn't somehow burn out his mind. He shuddered at that thought, but quickly brought his emotions under control. He didn't want to have a bad trip. Another growl from the dog informed Jack that he couldn't learn any skills from the aether. Skills were based on procedural memory and as such weren't broadcast into the aether by the mind that possessed them. He could learn particular facts about any vocation, but he could not gain proficiency in it. Not by just having visions of it. Jack stood up straight. He understood the limits of his clairvoyant ability, even if he still wasn't a hundred percent convinced of this explanation of their source. He couldn't gain knowledge possessed and accessed by people who lived very far away from him, or who had died a long time ago. He could get around the distance limitation, however, by moving closer to them, or by visiting a place that they had also visited and in which they had thought deeply about what he wanted to know. A faint echo of the revisited memory would linger in the aether for a short time after they did that. Gaining the knowledge of people who had died over a century ago was well beyond his abilities, he now knew. With the source and nature of his divinations addressed, Jack turned to the next most important question. Were there other mentalist in the world? The dog wagged its tail and happily barked, informing Jack that there were thousands of mentalists in the world today, though they kept their existence and identities secret. Jack's spirits soared at the news. He wasn't alone! Guidance and fellowship was available to him, even in this matter. The dog's growl informed him that he couldn't learn a person's name from just accessing their memories. The name was such a basic part of a person's identity that it didn't get broadcast into the aether. After Jack thought if he could learn a person's name from the memories of other people that knew them, the dog wagged its tail, indicating that he could. The names of other people were information that was broadcast into the aether, but a person only broadcast the names of people that they spent a lot of time interacting with. Jack would probably only be broadcasting the names of his three friends, Janice, Bert and maybe Mia. Everyone else was little more than background noise. He checked his hypothesis. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that his mind was also broadcasting the deceased lieutenant's name into the aether. Jack White was long dead, but his sacrifice and teachings were always on Jack's mind, so he guessed it made sense. The revelation made him feel proud, like he was honoring the man's sacrifice by keeping his memory alive and resonating through the aether. Jack thought about the identities and information of some benevolent mentalists in his area. He didn't expect the cartoon pooch to begin barking in fear. Jack was being warned against looking for the identities of nearby mentalists by the cartoon dog, but he had spent too long muddling through on his own. He wanted to meet another mentalist. He needed to meet another mentalist. Jack persisted and the cartoon dog growled. Jack understood the instruction and sat on his bed, in the lotus position. He closed his eyes and concentrated. He soon found himself in a dark theatre, all alone. A sense of dread began to creep up on him, but he disregarded it. He had explicitly said "benevolent mentalists" and he didn't think that they would turn out to be scary. There were over a dozen people lined up on the stage, though they, too, were shrouded in darkness. Suddenly, a stage light shone upon the man on the far right of the stage. He was a middle aged guy in a tweed suit. He had a fancy, old-timey moustache and soul patch. He was bald with a comb-over of dark brown hair. He smiled warmly at Jack and said, "Hello! I am a mentalist. Who are you?" Before Jack could respond to the vision in any way, a cloaked figure separated itself from the shadows it had been hiding in. It moved a loose sleeve over the smiling face of the mustachioed man, completely obscuring it for a moment. As soon as it was lifted from the man, Jack knew something had been stolen from the man. He could feel the loss resonate in the pit of his own stomach, as if it had been taken from him, as well. He stared at the man's face, but everything seemed to be in place, down to the last hair of his moustache. The cloaked figure blended back into the shadows on the stage, becoming utterly indistinguishable from them, once again. "I am no longer a mentalist," said the middle-aged man in a flat voice. His eyes became lifeless and his face fell. Jack's flesh erupted in goose bumps and his insides knotted as he realized that the man's power had been taken from him. The despondent man's head lowered until his chin touched his chest and the spotlight moved off him. It illuminated the next person in line, a vivacious, young blonde, who was quite easy on the eyes. "Hello," she cheerfully said, looking right at Jack. "I am a mentalist. Who are you?" Jack wanted to shout out a warning, he wanted to tell her to beware, but he had no voice. The cloaked figure again seemed to materialize from the very shadows around the blonde as it lifted an arm, encased in a midnight blue sleeve, over her face. After the arm passed over her features, they changed into anguish and utter desperation. She cried a little as she said, "I am no longer a mentalist." Her face fell, her head lowered, and the spotlight moved to the next person in line. Jack was hyperventilating and telling himself that this was just a bad trip, nothing else, but he knew, as surely as he knew anything, that this had truly happened. Someone, or something, had taken those mentalists' powers. Those people had been just like him, but now they no longer were. The memory of having that power and then losing it threatened to crush their spirits. He could feel it. "Hello! I am a mentalist. Who are you?" Jack tried to warn the elderly black woman on the stage of the shadow, but he just couldn't. What he was being shown was over and done with, some time ago. The arm covered her face and transformed her from a kindly, wise grandma to a bitter, lost, old hag. Jack kept chanting to himself that this was just a bad trip, but his denial was feeble. A Hispanic woman was next in line and he watched in horror as the midnight cloak's sleeve passed over her face. Just like with the first three, Jack could feel her loss and it was damaging his cool. He didn't know how much more of this horror show he could take. He could feel a massive freak out coming on. He grit his teeth and focused on the culprit of this atrocity, even as it continued to rob his fellow mentalists of their powers. The cloaked figure resisted his every attempt to be identified. The cloak it was wearing was the color of darkness, a midnight blue that made it blend with the shadows perfectly. It couldn't be illuminated by the spotlight, or picked out against its background as it moved wherever it wished. The cloaked figure was the perfect predator. It was indomitable. It struck as it wished. It couldn't be seen, or discovered. It had the perfect element of surprise on its side. It couldn't be tracked. It couldn't even be perceived by any means. All it would take for Jack's power to be taken from him was for the cloaked figure to notice him. The method of the theft of power was also completely imperceptible for Jack, which made him start to panic in earnest. He had no idea how his power could be taken and this cloaked figure was taking it from experienced mentalists left and right. All Jack could see was that the process left the former mentalist physically intact, which wasn't much of a comfort to him at that moment. The cloaked figure had almost reached the middle of the lineup. Jack was running out of breath as his chest tightened from witnessing the horror on the stage. He stopped chanting his useless denial of the tableau and tried desperately to think of something, anything at all. No matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't penetrate the shadowy cloak with his power, not even with pot in his system. His fear was paralyzing him. It seemed to him that his own power could be taken from him at any moment. Out of pure desperation, an idea was born in Jack's mind. What if he, too, was imperceptible? He focused all his attention on the cloaked figure, but this time, he didn't try to look past the shadowy cloak to see what was beneath. He focused on the cloak itself, desperate to perceive it and it alone. As he looked at the cloak, he began to see the individual strands it was made out of. They reminded him of the fibers that had made up the canvas with his caricature at the start of this vision quest. Only these fibers were the opposite of those. Whereas those had shed light on events, these cast obscuring shadows over memories and thoughts, protecting the wearer. Jack thought about how to weave a cloak for himself. The image of a keyhole formed in Jack's mind. The cartoon dog wailed long and loud and Jack could hear him inside the theatre. Jack immediately understood the keyhole was a representation of the aether's entry point into his own mind. He instinctively tried to cover it up, or block it, but the dog yipped, admonishing his efforts. When Jack stopped, the dog emitted another long, sad wail and Jack heard his instructions loud and clear. He positioned himself on the other side of the keyhole and peeked into his own mind. He felt the keyhole transform into the face opening of the shadow cloak's hood. The cloak then flowed down his mental body to cover him from head to toe. Jack sighed in relief and the spotlight flickered until it switched off, plunging him into darkness. He blinked his eyes open and cast his gaze all about. He was on his bed and the cartoon dog was nowhere to be seen. Jack heaved great, big breaths as his body caught up with the adrenaline rush from the vision. He didn't seem to be able to catch his breath, so he stumbled over to the window and threw it open, launching the upper half of his body over the sill. He desperately gulped the cooler, outside air. His heartbeat pounded loudly in his ears. He shook and wept. He didn't know how long he hung there, but his heart kept refusing to settle down. Only the realization that he had lost track of his power snapped him out of his misery. He quickly retraced his mental steps and wrapped himself back up in the shadowy cloak. He was relieved to feel that keeping himself hidden wasn't all that difficult. As long as he kept his power focused on his own mind, he was like an engaged phone line, no one could get through. It was much easier than reading a mind, since his was the only mind involved. Aside from the fact that he didn't need to establish common sensory inputs, or sympathetic emotions, there was no sliding into another mind, which was the most exhausting part of the whole thing. It also took far less of his mental energy and willpower to keep himself hidden than it did to direct and influence another's mind. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 Despite these facts, Jack didn't feel much safer. He doubted he could keep himself cloaked for long stretches of time and he didn't know if he could protect himself under duress, or while he was distracted, or asleep. He still had no idea who the power thief was, except that it was another mentalist. Their powers were vastly greater than his, or those of all the mentalists Jack had seen in the theatre vision. On top of that, the cloaked figure had a superior control of its power. While Jack felt like he could cloak his own mind, he couldn't possibly use his powers to affect other minds at the same time. His vision quest came to an end as soon as he had cloaked himself. The cloaked figure had been able to cloak and steal powers at the same time effortlessly. Jack felt like he was David, learning for the first time of Goliath's existence. Only if he were to go into this battle, he wouldn't be armed with a sling and a million-to-one chance of success. This was to be a quick dial battle and the first to dial Jack's brain modem would win. The problem was that Jack was operating a rotary phone, while Goliath was sitting at a digital switchboard, complete with call waiting and all the other trappings of modern technology. Some day, with a lot of practice and luck, Jack might have a million-to-one chance of protecting himself against the cloaked figure in a battle, but right now, his chances were exactly zero. He knew that as sure as he had known where to find those baseball cards. His only chance of staying intact was to avoid any kind of confrontation. He needed to stay unsuspected and undetected. He slowly straightened up and dusted himself off. He shut the window and latched it. He turned back to his bed, resumed his lotus position and meditated, practicing maintaining his cloak wrapped tightly around his mind. When dawn came, Jack was exhausted. The horrible revelations of the night, the lack of sleep and the sheer mental exhaustion of maintaining a cloak over his mind were almost enough to tempt him into bed. In light of his vision, his promise to give Mia a lift and some tutoring seemed utterly insignificant, yet he decided to do it. He wanted to do something to combat the feelings of being hopelessly impotent in the face of this new danger, but that was only part of the reason. The real reason was that he was afraid of falling asleep during the day and waking up without his powers. In the vision, the cloaked figure had hid in darkness, but Jack knew it to be metaphorical. It probably didn't operate at night. It operated when it was awake and he surmised that he should be safe to sleep at night. With that feeble premise in mind, Jack changed clothes, splashed some cold water on his face, and went out to the car. He got to the next county in time to intercept Mia on her walk from the group home to the bus stop. He parked where he had dropped her off the night before and waited. He took deep and even breaths as he maintained his cloak around his mind. After a few minutes, he spotted her turn the corner and walk towards him. She was moving at a brisk pace, keeping her face turned downwards, and frequently checking behind herself, as if she feared being followed. He grunted in sympathy. He had spent the whole ride over checking his mirrors, as if that would help him spot the cloaked figure in time to do something. As she got closer to him, he realized she hadn't seen him yet. He honked his car horn and she froze in place. Only her head snapped upwards, revealing her face. Jack saw fear on her features. It was quickly replaced by relief and joy, but then anxiety crept onto it, as well. He didn't have time to analyze her feelings as she dashed towards him and hopped into the car. He checked the clock on the dashboard. "Uh, we've still got plenty of time for breakfast before you have cheerleader practice." "I know," she absently said as she scanned the street in the direction she had just come from. "Let's just go, ok? Let's get going!" "Ok." He started the car and drove off. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. As soon as he turned the corner and put the street the group home was on behind them, she seemed to let go of a lot of tension and sagged in her seat. "Problems?" "No, no," she said, unconvincingly. "It's ok. Everything's ok." He didn't want to press her for more information so early in the morning, so he just drove them towards the truck stop, off the interstate. It was halfway back to town and there was a diner there with some pretty colorful staff that might get Mia out of her morning funk. He was definitely desperate for a distraction, himself. Mia sat in the passenger seat and worriedly nibbled on her lower lip. After a few minutes, she mumbled, "Jack, I, uh, I'm gonna need the pot back." "What?" Mia cleared her throat. "I need you to give me back the pot I... put in your locker." "Why?" Mia opened her mouth and then closed it. She wiped her face in frustration. "I just need it back, ok? Just... give it back to me." As scary as the vision he had last night was, he didn't think it would be wise of him to relinquish the marihuana. It had expanded his horizons and let him access knowledge. Last night's vision had left him nearly crazed with fear, but he would much rather know about the terrible danger and try to fight it than be blindsided. Just because he hadn't known about the cloaked figure, that didn't mean that it hadn't been out there all this time, doing its terrible business. He was now equipped with a cloaking device and stood a chance, all because of the pot she had stuffed in his locker. While he knew it would take him a big, long while to gather up the courage to go on another vision quest, he also knew that he would have to do it sooner, or later. "No," he said to Mia. "Why not?!" "Well," he said, "I used some of it." "You what?!" Jack shrugged and smiled. "Yeah. Had me some pot. What of it?" "Oh, fuck me," Mia whispered and sunk lower in her seat. She buried her face in her hands. "What's the matter?" Mia chuckled bitterly and then let out a drawn out, miserable sigh. "What's the matter? I need to give that weed back to the girl I stole it from. She was holding it for her boyfriend and he's coming for it today. She went to check on the dope and somehow figured out it was me who stole it. If I don't give it back, all of it, then her boyfriend and his friends are going to find me and take it out of me in trade." She put her hands together in a pleading gesture. "So, please, Jack, pretty please, give it back to me!" Jack frowned. He wanted to ask her a hundred questions about what her plan had originally been, but he decided this wasn't the time or the place for a lesson in proper planning. "This boyfriend... he's a dealer?" "Yes. And he's dangerous." "But he was going to sell the weed?" "Well, duh," she snipped at him. "But now he can't, cause you wanted to get high!" He spared her a reproachful glance and then said, "I'm not giving him back the weed." "Jesus fucking Christ, Jack! These guys are-" Jack interrupted her with, "I'm buying it from him! Ok? I'll give the guy cash for it." "Wait, wait, wait! Let me get this straight! You want to buy the weed I planted in your locker to get you arrested?" Jack spared her a glance and nodded. "Yup." "Are you for real?" "I'm not giving the pot back," he said, "not even at gunpoint. You find out how much it costs, that is, how much they want for it and I'll give them the cash, instead." "Two thousand dollars," Mia said. That sounded like a lot of money to Jack, maybe even too much. But, there is a lot of weed in the bag, he told himself. He still had enough left for at least two dozen vision quests. Gaining knowledge was his only weapon against the cloaked figure and he might need even more pot than what he already had. That was the real reason he was going to pay for it. He wanted to meet the dealer so he could buy more in the future. Otherwise, Jack would just pay the dealer a visit with his dogs to make sure he never so much as threatened another girl with "taking a debt out in trade". "Ok," he said. "I'll go to the bank and get the cash after I drop you off at school." Mia sat quietly in her seat and considered Jack behind the wheel. She guessed that he had probably flushed the pot as soon as he had first seen it and was now willing to part with some of his inheritance, rather than see her get hurt. Her insides fluttered nervously, like they had been doing for most of last night. They had kept her from getting any proper rest. It was anxiety, she knew. She hadn't felt it for a few years. She had used to be anxious about everything and everyone in her life. It had consumed her every waking day and every sleeping hour with fears of people hurting her, or letting her down. As they did bad things to her, over and over again, she had slowly become accustomed to the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach until it had just faded into the background noise. She couldn't remember exactly when she had last felt it, but she guessed it must have been even before she had assumed rule of their school. If she had been a little ball of nerves, she wouldn't have been able to assert herself there in the first place. Now, she felt like engaging in a steady diet of her lips and fingernails. And the reason was the guy sitting next to her. His offer, the genuine feeling she got from it, from him... It made her fret like she hadn't since she was little. It made her worry over whether, or not, she was worthy of it. It made her fear it would be rescinded at any moment. With one dinner engagement, he had regressed her back into a scared, little girl and she hated him for it. Jack parked in front of the diner and said, "Now, this place doesn't look like much, I know, but every meal comes with a show. Breakfast, for instance-" "Comes complete with an ancient waitress that limps around with a cane and doesn't write down anyone's orders," Mia said, interrupting him. "She just turns towards the kitchen and hollers out what people want." Jack gave her a surprised look. She shrugged. "One of my foster fathers was a trucker from Seraphim Falls. He took me here a few times." Jack nodded. There was no judgment in his eyes, like she feared there would be. She was suddenly angry with herself for fearing his reaction. On impulse, she decided to test the mettle of his offer. She needed to know where the limits were. She needed to show him where she truly came from. If he was going to balk at her history, then she would rather he do it right away. She looked away from Jack and casually said, "He tried to get into my bed one night." She closed her eyes, imagining his reaction. Was he going to be horrified? Shocked? She tried to guess what he would say, or do. Would he cry and insist he pay for a therapist to fix her? Would he see her as tainted goods? A hundred different reactions went through her mind in the next second and she was still surprised when he simply said, "But you were never one to stand for that kind of shit, so he hadn't succeeded." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "You're tougher than you give yourself credit, Mia. Way tougher." His eyes were understanding and he even looked to her like he was admiring her. Her insides fluttered again. He removed his seatbelt and opened his door. "Come on! I'm buying!" When he got out of the car, she took advantage of his turned back to wipe some moisture from her eyes. She sniffed her nostrils clear and got out herself. As she followed him into the diner, she resolved to keep her treacherous emotions in check. The waitress was as loud as she remembered her and the breakfast was tasty, if a little more greasy than she was used to. He drove her towards school and she found the courage to insist he drop her off a few blocks away. She had expected him to object and insist on delivering her to the front door, for the entire cheerleading squad and half the varsity teams to see. He surprised her by simply pulling over where she indicated. "When and where do you want me to pick you up?" Mia mulled it over in her head and said, "Pick me up here, around half past noon." "Ok," he said and drove off to the bank. He withdrew the money needed for the weed and then went to the library. He spent the rest of the morning doing his homework and studying. Or, at least he tried to. The images of his vision from last night were still vivid in his mind. His schoolwork simply couldn't scrimp up any relevance in light of those revelations. In the quiet of the library, he focused on meditating and maintaining his cloak. When he drove to the meeting place, Mia was pacing nervously and wearing her cheerleader outfit. She jumped and waved as soon as she spotted him coming. Jack frowned as he pulled over. She never wore the uniform outside of school and she never jumped and waved. "What's the matter," he asked her as soon as she opened the door. "Weed girl texted me while I was running drills," she angrily said. "Her boyfriend already came by for the weed. He was pissed off to hear it was gone and he made a scene at the home. Security had to intervene, so I'm out of the fucking home. I'm homeless. They called me just now to let me know." Her tone turned miserable. "I have nowhere to stay. I, I, I didn't even shower after practice. I stink. I'm homeless, I stink and the dealer boyfriend is on his way over here with some friends." Jack put a comforting hand on her shoulder and softly said, "Where exactly is he coming?" Mia blinked back some tears as she shook her head. Jack guessed the guy was coming to the school. He wouldn't know where else to find her. "That's ok. Everything's going to be alright. Do you know what kind of car he's driving?" She shook her head again. He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "When exactly did he leave the home?" Mia shrugged and wiped the tears from her face. "It's going to be ok." He knew the guy could make the drive over in about thirty-five minutes, if he was angry enough and gunned it. He drove to his house and parked in front. "Ok, Mia, you're going to wait for me in there," he said and nodded towards his house. "What is this place?" "This is my house and I think you're going to live here, too." Mia turned her teary eyes towards him and her mouth fell as she gaped in disbelief. He flashed a reassuring smile at her. "Try not to worry about it. We'll talk some more after I come back. Now, I really have to go to school to catch this guy and settle matters with him, ok?" She looked unsure about everything, but she nodded. He got her out of the car and signaled his dogs that she was a friend. He unlocked the door and pushed her inside, along with both their schoolbags. "Bathroom's there, kitchen's through there, make yourself at home!" He ran around back and called for Spot, his captain amongst canines. Along with Spot, he selected four dogs he was training for Alpha and had them march into the SUV. He drove off and was at the school in record time. He worried over how he was going to recognize the dealer, until he turned into the school's parking lot. A black Golf with red and orange flames painted on its sides was there, parked in the middle of the lot and drawing his eye. Standing next to the car were three guys and they were calling out towards a couple of girls in cheerleader outfits. The girls were being led away from the trio by guys in letterman jackets. There were dark glares exchanged back and forth, but the trio retired to their car without picking a fight. Jack reluctantly dropped his cloak for a moment to issue complex orders to his dogs. He opened the rear door and let them out. He put the car in gear and gunned it towards the Golf, head on. The two cars came to a screeching halt with just a foot of space between them. The driver of the Golf, a short, white guy with a short, spiky hairdo and ten tons of bulging muscles on his bare arms, jumped out of his car. "What the fuck, man?! Are you fucking crazy!? Get the fuck outta here!" Jack calmly stepped out of his car and came face to face with the second guy from the Golf. He was an older, black man that was nearly as tall as Jack. He wore a drab shirt that was tight over his muscles. He appraised Jack with a cool, calculated gaze. The driver sidestepped through the gap between the vehicles to come face to chest with Jack. "Hey," he yelled and raised his hand at Jack's face, "you nuts, or what?" "Are you looking for Mia," Jack calmly asked. The black guy raised his eyebrows at the driver, while the driver stopped halfway through his rant to say, "Yeah. You know where she at?" "I do," Jack said. "I understand this is about some pot." "I don't think you understand nothing, son," the driver said. "Bitch owes me." The third man clambered out of the Golf and Jack gave him a look. He was a skinny, pasty, white dude that looked like he was eighty pounds soaking wet. "I'm here to make payment for the pot," Jack said, looking down into the driver's eyes. "Oh, yeah," the driver said. "You got two large, son?" Jack reached behind himself and took the envelope with the cash out of his back pocket. His move made the two muscle-bound men flinch. The driver stepped away from Jack and the black man reached into the back of his own pants. Jack guessed that the man had a gun tucked in there. Jack handed the envelope to the driver. "Here it is." The driver glared at him and then shot a glance at the black man, who shrugged at him. He snatched the envelope out of Jack's hand. He opened it and quickly counted the cash within. Jack looked around. There was no one in sight. "It's all here," the driver said. The black man returned his empty hand to the front and visibly relaxed. The driver looked to be thinking for a moment and then he put the envelope in his back pocket. "Now, the cash makes us square about the pot. But there's also the matter of respect. We need to be square on that, too." Jack spared a glance to the other two men. They both grinned happily, which Jack took as a bad sign. "Mia stole the pot from us," the driver said. "You paid for it, so that makes us square on the pot. But there's still the matter of thieving. Of respect. She disrespected us when she stole from us. You tell us where we can find Mia and we'll be square on that, too." "And what do you intend to do with Mia," Jack asked. The black man and the scrawny guy smiled ugly, leering smiles in response. The driver stepped towards Jack and raised a hand to put it on his shoulder. "We're gonna teach that girl some respect. Don't you worry about that! You should worry about telling us where she's at." Jack knew they meant to rape Mia. He could see it in their eyes. He snapped his fingers and the dogs revealed themselves, growling low at the trio. Two dogs were covering each of the muscle guys and the fifth was on the pasty one. The men jumped up in surprise and shouted in fear. The black man reached for his gun, but Spot jumped up behind him and took a gentle nibble on his hand, making him scream and stick his hands straight up in the air. "Easy," the driver said to the German shepherd that was growling at his groin, "easy now!" "Shut up," Jack said. "I had hoped that we could come to a peaceful solution for this situation and reach an amicable arrangement which would allow me to purchase more product from you this coming summer, but that's not likely anymore, is it?" "What," the driver said, uncomprehending. Jack huffed and rolled his eyes. "Look, dickhead," he said, standing over the driver menacingly, "you will no longer go looking for Mia. In fact, you will avoid her from now on. Are we clear about that? If you don't avoid her and you come anywhere near her, ever again, you're going to get mauled by dogs. I won't be anywhere near you when it happens. There will be no warning at all. A dog, or two, will just sneak up on you when you're alone and maul you." He grinned at their pale faces. "Don't worry, they won't kill you. They'll just bite off the parts of you that you like the most. Is that understood?" A Loner Mentalist Pt. 02 The trio stood stock still during Jack's little speech. They didn't even nod to answer his question. "I said," Jack yelled, "is that understood?!" The three of them nodded and whispered, "Yes." Jack cursed inwardly as he could plainly see that the men were just telling him whatever he wanted to hear. They would continue their search for Mia as soon as the dogs were called off. The choices before Jack seemed to be very bad. He struggled to operate his sleep deprived mind and properly enumerate them. He could let them go and risk serious hurt for himself and Mia. He could let his dogs maul them and run the risk of getting locked up for it. He could drop his cloak for a few seconds and use his power on them to resolve the situation. Before he had learned about the cloaked figure, he would have gone with option three in a heartbeat. Now, all three seemed like disasters waiting to strike. He told himself that he had already used his power in a similar situation and that the cloaked figure hadn't found him by it. He guessed a brief, second use of his power might not be enough for the cloaked figure to detect him, but he still feared running that risk. For all he knew, the cloaked figure could already be somewhere near, just waiting for another psychic emanation from Jack to zero in on his location and pounce. Jack's dithering inspired the black man to again try and slowly reach for his gun. Jack's options dwindled to just the one and he dropped his cloak. He drew on his angry emotions to simulate the fear the trio was feeling to slide into their minds. Jack was scared shitless of the dogs snarling at him. His uncle had been chewed up by a police dog when he was young and this was a total nightmare for him. He told himself it was best if he stayed away from this town, this guy and especially Mia. Jack was scared shitless of the dog that was growling at him. He decided hanging out with his cousin wasn't fun, after all. The money wasn't good enough, either, and he looked ridiculous compared to the two beefcakes that were his cousin and his friend. He told himself it was best if he stayed away from this town, this guy and especially Mia. Jack was scared shitless of the dog in front of him, but he was even more scared of the black and white dog that had nibbled on his hand behind him. He wanted to reach for his gun and blast the fucking dogs and their owner away, but he knew he couldn't get it out of his pants with the dog snarling and waiting for his hand to be within biting reach. He told himself it was best if he stayed away from this town, this guy and especially Mia. "Good," Jack said, returning to himself. His head was dizzy and he felt nauseated. He most wanted to go home and curl up in bed to sleep, but there was a pressing matter to attend to. He pushed through the mental fatigue and focused on the life and death task at hand. He reached behind the black man and withdrew his gun from his belt. "Now, fuck off, the three of you, and don't ever show your faces around here again!" The trio nodded their heads a little and stiffly shuffled over to the doors of the Golf. They only started moving normally after they were inside the car with the doors closed. The driver put it in reverse and backed the car away from Jack. Jack waved goodbye with the black man's gun. They turned around at the far end of the lot and drove out the side exit. As soon as the car drove out of sight, Jack nearly collapsed. Just like in the forest, his mind was utterly drained. He wasn't sure where he was, or what he was doing. His mind was fractured and unable to connect the seemingly random thoughts that were floating around in it. His dogs moaned pitifully as they looked up at him in worry. He felt their fear that there was something wrong with him. He also felt their love for him and their willingness to aid him, any way they could. The clarity of their canine minds lent some focus to his own brain. He leaned against his car and managed to open the door. He slid into the driver's seat and put the gun in the glove compartment. There was a great fear in his heart and a desperate need to do something specific, but he couldn't figure out what it was he needed to do. Maybe he needed to put on some clothes? A jacket, perhaps? As insistent as the need was, he simply couldn't fulfill it. As he lay stretched over the front seats, he gave in to the sleepy feelings in his head and dozed off. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 Edited by Over_Red, whom I cannot thank enough for turning my plot-holed scribbles into the text below. I also warmly recommend his Dream Drive series to everyone. You can read it right here on Literotica. ********************** Jack Watts' sleep was light but restful. At one point, he dreamed that Mia was kissing him and squealing loudly into his mouth. He frowned and a flash of light stabbed into his eyes. He tried to blink them open, but a wet, raspy thing was sliding all over his face. He moved his head away from the wet thing and saw the fuzzy image of Spot standing over him. "Spot! Get off me, buddy!" Spot stepped down into the passenger side foot well to let his master up. Jack spat out the dog's spit, groaned and slowly sat up. He wiped his face and took stock of his surroundings. He was sitting at the wheel of his car, which was parked in the middle of the school parking lot. The rest of his dogs were in the back seat and his door was open. There was no one else around. He checked the clock on the dash and saw that he had been out for almost half an hour. He was still feeling sleepy, but he was no longer feeling mentally exhausted. His stomach tied itself in knots as he realized he wasn't cloaked. He drew a couple of deep, calming breaths and concentrated on cloaking his mind. It took all of his focus to establish it and he suspected he'd be drained of the mental energy required to maintain it long before sunset. Despite that ominous prospect, he breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door. He started his car and drove home. When he got there, he let his dogs out and put them back in the pen. He walked into the house and went into the bathroom to wash his face and hands. As soon as he opened the door, he was startled by a high-pitched, feminine shriek. He looked up and saw a naked Mia Newman. She was bent over and facing away from him, struggling to cover herself up with a small towel. Her dark hair was plastered to her upper back and all of her visible skin was covered in droplets of moisture. His eyes locked on to her smooth butt, which was completely exposed to his gaze. "Jack," she yelled. Jack snapped out of his surprise, blushed profusely and looked into her angry, blue eyes. "Sorry!" "Get out and shut the door!" "Sorry," he said again and backed out of the bathroom. His eyes fell down her smooth back to her buttocks one more time, before he closed the door. He stood in front of the door, shocked still, and tried to process what had just happened. He heard the lock on the door be operated and that snapped him out of his stunned state. He stepped back into the hallway. He had used his power on the pot dealing trio to get them to leave Mia and him alone and that had left him completely exhausted. Coupled with the sleepless night and the haunting fear of the cloaked figure, it made him pass out on the front seat of his SUV. He had taken a half hour nap in the school parking lot and Spot had woken him up from it. "Fuckity fuck," he grumbled as he realized he had dropped his cloak, yet again. He focused and managed to draw it around his mind, but only barely. As exhausted as he was, he doubted he could keep it up for more than a few hours longer. He huffed and rubbed his face. He could still smell some of Spot's saliva on his face and hands and he went to the kitchen sink to wash it off. He should have done that in the first place, instead of walking in on Mia, but his wakeup hadn't been as complete as it should have. He had completely forgotten she was here, waiting for him. He guessed that she might yet choose homelessness over staying with him, particularly in light of his blunder. After he washed up, he heard the hair dryer hum away in the bathroom and figured that she would be out shortly. He sighed. The smell of dog hit his nose again. He looked down and saw that his shirt and pants were both dirty from the dogs' paws and smelled of their saliva. "Ah, damn it!" He rushed up the stairs and went to his room to change. As he left his room wearing fresh clothes, he cast a look at the spare bedroom next to the upstairs toilet. If Mia accepted his offer, if he hadn't scared her off, then she would be spending every night in it. His pants were very tight, all of a sudden. He wasn't sure if it was at the thought of lying in bed at night, just yards away from her in her bed, or if it was at the memory of her naked ass, but he was sporting wood. The hair dryer stopped downstairs. He whispered, "Fuck!" After walking in on her naked in the bathroom, facing her with a discernible chubby was completely out of the question. He stood in his doorway unsure of what to do. He looked at his mother's bedroom across the hall from his and tried to think unsexy thoughts, but his boner refused to cooperate. When he heard the bathroom lock downstairs, he panicked and ran into the upstairs toilet as quietly as he could. "Jack," Mia called out. Jack stood in the doorway and cursed silently at his dick. "Yeah, I'm in the upstairs toilet," he said aloud. "I'll be right with you! Uh, sorry about earlier! There's, uh, there's milk and cookies in the kitchen. Help yourself! I won't be but a minute!" He closed the door behind himself and worked the latch. "Milk and cookies," he asked himself in a harsh whisper. "What is this, Christmas? Dumbass..." He turned his attention to the bulge in the front of his pants and growled softly at it. No matter how much he wanted it to go away, his boner kept getting harder and harder. The entire bulge was throbbing visibly and painfully, so he undid his zipper and fished his hard dick out of his underwear. "Now what," he asked himself in a whisper. He was standing there with his cock out and it was as engorged as he had ever seen it. It was worse than when he fantasized about making his own harem. There was no way he was going to lose it on his own. At least not any time soon. "Fuck." The upstairs toilet consisted of the porcelain queen against the back wall and a small sink against the side wall. There was a medicine cabinet above the sink and Jack opened it. He took the hand lotion and squeezed a few generous dollops of it into the palm of his hand. He spread it all over his boner and grasped it. He beat off thinking about the hottie that was downstairs, right now. The image of her naked ass was seared into the backs of his eyelids, so he closed his eyes and imagined groping it. His breath quickened as he approached release. He put one hand on the wall for balance and aimed for the toilet. He groaned out loud as his whole body clenched up when he shot his load. He used a few pieces of toilet paper to clean himself up. His dick softened and he managed to put it away safely. He felt relieved that he had managed to keep his cloak up during his self-abuse session. He washed his hands in the sink and checked himself for any signs of what he had been doing. He was good to go, except for his face, which was still flushed. He splashed some cold water on it before drying off and going downstairs. Mia was sitting at the kitchen table, absentmindedly munching on a cookie. There was a glass of milk on the table. She sat up straight when he entered the kitchen. Jack held his hands up. "I'm so sorry for barging in on you like that. I-" "No, no," she said, "it's my fault, I should've locked the door." "I just forgot you were here and I needed to, uh, to use the bathroom." "I usually lock the bathroom door," she said, "whenever I'm in it, I just didn't want to do that here, cause-" "I didn't know you were in there, you gotta believe me!" "-I didn't know if I was allowed to." They both paused with their simultaneous apologies and blushed. They looked away from each other and grinned in embarrassment. Mia was the first to raise her eyes as she said, "Did you mean it when you said I could stay here?" "Yes," he said, looking into her eyes. "If I didn't just..." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the bathroom. "Scare you away." She smiled. "No, you didn't." She shrugged. "It was an honest mistake. I'll keep the door locked from now on. That is, if you're still down with having me stay here?" Jack nodded earnestly. "Of course I am." "Who else lives here?" "My mom." "Ah," Mia said. Her apprehension was plainly visible on her face. "Don't worry," Jack said. "She won't object." Mia's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Uh," she said and paused. "I don't know about that. What kind of mother wouldn't object to a teenaged girl moving in with her teenaged son?" "Well, there's a third bedroom upstairs, so technically, you'll be moving in with both of us. Don't worry about it, I call the shots around here." Mia's eyebrows rose even higher. She sincerely doubted his claim, but she was literally homeless, so she decided to keep her mouth shut and see where this was going to lead. She suspected his mother was going to chew him out big time when she came home, and she worried things would become really heated if his mom got wind of his plan to share his inheritance with her. She didn't want to see Jack get into trouble, but she had exactly no option except to stay the course. She was at rock bottom and things could only improve. For her, at least. She resolved to plead with his mother to let her stay. Try to tug on her heartstrings. She would need props for her plea, particularly her cute and proper attire. "My things are still at the group home. Could-" "Yeah, yeah, sure," Jack said, interrupting her. "I'll just drive over there and pick them up real quick." "I'll need to come with you," she said. "They won't just give them to the first person to show up and ask." They got in the car and he drove them to the home. He was squinting at the brightness of the sun and trying to rub away a splitting headache the whole ride over. He kept himself awake and his cloak on through sheer stubbornness. When they got to the group home, Jack was surprised to see a familiar face sitting in the security booth by the front door. He got out of the car at the same time as Mia. "Jack, stay in the car! I got this." "Yeah, but," he said and pointed at the bulky, but tough-looking woman coming out of the security booth. "Seriously, Jack! Get back in the car!" "No, Mia, I'm-" "Jack," she admonished him and then saw the security guard coming their way. "Damn it! Just keep quiet and let me do all the talking, alright?" Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. Mia turned around and smiled at the security guard. Before she could say anything, Jack said, "Hey, Chrissie! How are the kids?" Chrissie, the stern security guard, cracked a wide smile at Jack and Mia was shocked to see that the two of them knew each other. "They're great, Jack. Little Luke stopped licking Marky's balls." Jack had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning as he saw Mia's flabbergasted expression at hearing Chrissie's words. "Marky's no longer chewing on my slippers. Neither of them goes to the bathroom in the dining room anymore and I have you to thank for all of that and more. Let me show you their pictures! I snapped a really darling one of them and their poop in the park last week." Mia looked shocked and her eyes darted from Jack, who could barely keep from grinning at her, to Chrissie, who was beaming with motherly pride. She was doubting her own ears and she couldn't resist leaning forward to look at Chrissie's smartphone. When she saw photos of a pair of Chihuahuas, she huffed in relief. She shot a look of disapproval at Jack's smirk. "Hey, uh, Chrissie, I've-" "Come for your things, dear? They're inside. Go talk to Luther!" "Ok, thanks!" As soon as Mia was out of earshot, Jack leaned in and quietly said, "Since when is Alpha doing security for this place?" "Oh, it's been years now. Why do you ask?" "Well, you don't seem to be doing a great job of it, that's all." Chrissie shot him a stern look. "And what, prey tell, do you mean by that, young man?" "I mean that the girls are stashing drugs in there, wrecking each other's homework, being disruptive and all that." Chrissie's insulted demeanor faded and she tiredly said, "Look, Jack, we are not contracted to do internal security unless there's a physical altercation. We don't strip search the girls and the like. They're free to bring stuff in and out as they wish. We're just here to make sure no one interferes with the girls from the outside. Well, that's not really true. We're here so the home can pass as a secure facility and qualify for state funding." "So, when the home gets state funding, they'll improve the conditions?" Chrissie laughed. "Good heavens, no! Weren't you listening to me, Jack? They qualified years ago and they've been collecting the money ever since." "But," Jack said and faltered. "Why aren't the girls, you know, given the right conditions to study in and a psychologist to work through their issues? Maybe some computers and such?" "You're awful smart when it comes to dogs, Jack, but when it comes to people, your real age starts showing. Why would the people that run the home spend money on the girls when they can just pay themselves bigger bonuses?" Jack looked at her incredulously. His brain's performance wasn't peeking at the moment, but he felt sure that what she just said shouldn't make sense. He offered a confused, "Because that's what the money is for?" "Oh, Jack, you're so naive," Chrissie said with a chuckle. "The money is for whatever the bosses say it's for." "That can't be right!" "It is what it is, Jack. This is a bottom-line economy. Is the home coming in under budget? Yes. Are the girls being killed or raped in there? No. With those two boxes checked off, no one gives a damn about the details. No sense in trying to fix what no one wants fixed." Jack stared at her, speechless at her blaze attitude. "Don't you look at me like that, young man. If you had seen half the shit I saw in my days on the force... you'd know the only thing in this life that's worth sticking your neck out for is your own family." Jack opened his mouth to retort, but he spotted Mia coming out of the home, dragging two huge nylon bags full of clothes and sundry after herself. "Oh, here," Jack exclaimed and effortlessly took one off her hands to load into the car. Chrissie helped Mia with the other one and Jack exchanged goodbyes with her. He drove off and headed back to town. He frowned and shot the bags a critical look. "Are those all your belongings?" "Yes. Why?" He had seen her Neanderthal boyfriends buy her heaps and heaps of stuff. More than two large bags' worth, for sure. "Nothing. It's just that I seem to remember you wearing lots and lots of different outfits and I'm wondering how all of them could possibly fit in just those two bags." "Well," she said and cleared her throat, somewhat nervously. "I've, uh, outgrown things... from year to year. You know?" He glanced at her and saw her gesturing to her bust. He blushed and nodded in understanding. Mia always wore tops that were tight aross her tits. He focused on driving to avoid any more embarrassing conversations. He had just turned onto the interstate when Mia said, "I need to change." "Um, okay," Jack said and turned on his indicator. "I'll just pull over here and-" "No need," she said, interrupting him. She undid her seatbelt and slid into the back seat. Jack could barely keep his bulging eyes on the road as she writhed out of her cheerleader outfit in the back seat of his car. Mia rummaged through the bags, looking for something, so he took the chance to move into the slow lane and engage the cruise control. He adjusted his rear view mirror and saw her black underwear. His dick responded to the second sight of her nearly bare body by getting hard, yet again. His cloak faded away and he simply didn't have the mental energy to reestablish it. He did get a sudden burst of adrenaline rushing through his veins at the sight in his mirror, so his sleepiness went away. His fear of getting caught by the bogeyman also took a break as he admired her firm, young body. Mia noticed him looking. He blushed and faced forward, his hands firmly gripping the wheel in the ten and two positions. When she stopped rummaging through the bags, he dared sneak another peek at the back seat. She was writhing with her hips elevated to squeeze herself into a pair of white nylons. A car horn brought his attention back to the road and he adjusted his speed and resolved to pay more attention to the road. When he looked back at her, she was lying down on the seat and sticking her legs straight up in the air. A pink skirt was wrapped around her feet and it slid down her legs to her hips as she wiggled her feet. Another honk from the side made Jack look there. A car with three guys in it was driving right next to him. They were looking into his back seat and smiling. He gave them the finger and sped up until he was tail gaiting a pickup truck. They kept pace, but then he gently slowed down. The honking traffic behind them forced them to keep moving faster and drive on, while he lagged behind. The pickup truck stopped them from changing lanes. He sighed in relief, glad to be rid of the peeping Toms and looked back into the mirror. Much to his disappointment, Mia was buttoning up a plain, white, long-sleeved blouse and with each button, her tight, smooth midriff and the black bra were disappearing from view. After she buttoned all the way up, she tossed a pair of lacquered shoes into the front seat foot well and slid into the passenger seat to step into them. She sat back and lifted her feet, one by one, to fasten the thin straps over her ankles and then turned to Jack. She brushed out her hair with her hands, smiled and said, "How do I look?" Jack spared her another look. "You look fine." He winced at his words and hoped she wouldn't take them the wrong way. With her sexy smile, her bright, blue eyes and perfect skin, she would look great even if she put on one of the bags her things were stuffed in, let alone the nice outfit she was in, but he didn't know how to say that to her, without scaring her off. It was bad enough that he had walked in on her naked in the bathroom and spied on her changing clothes just now. "Thank you," she said, stopping him from panicking about it. The rest of the drive was uneventful and Jack was soon parking in front of his house. "My mom's home from work. That's her car." "Where does she work?" "At the supermarket, over on Third Avenue. She's a cashier. She used to work at Alpha Security, but she was only covering for a girl on maternity leave." Mia nodded. It was more information than she had asked for, but he was a bit nervous, so he had rattled it out. Keep it together, he told himself. You're the one who's in charge. He yawned as he exited the car. He smiled at Mia and waved her out of the car. "Come on! Let's get you moved in!" He took her bags and carried them into the house. His heart was beating fast and his palms were sweaty, so he nearly dropped them and had to adjust his grip a few times. He told himself it was because he was afraid of the cloaked figure finding him somehow, but when he saw his mother at the top of the stairs, he finally understood the source of this lesser, but more immediate apprehension. He was bringing a girl home to meet his mother for the first time ever. Mia was to live there and he didn't expect to have any kind of romantic engagement with her, but that didn't make him any less nervous. He cleared his throat and said, in as cool a voice as he could manage it, "Hey, Janice! Come meet our new roommate!" "Our what," Janice said. She rushed down the stairs and glared at Mia standing in the hallway. Mia smiled and waved politely. Janice pulled up the sleeves of her tracksuit top. "Who are you?" A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 "She's Mia Newman and she goes to school with me," Jack said. "I asked her," Janice pointedly said. Mia held out her hand to shake. "I'm Mia Newman, Mrs. Watts. I go to school with-" "Miss Rugel," Janice corrected Mia. "I'm divorced." "Miss Rugel," Mia said. "I, uh..." "What's your relationship with my son?" Mia floundered for words, shaken by Janice's ferocious tone of voice. She had hoped her prim and proper outfit would make her look like an innocent princess and deflect any such questions. It always worked on teachers and the people from social services. Jack rolled his eyes at Janice's stern, motherly tone of voice. She hadn't acted like his mother for years and he found it infuriating that she would suddenly try to do so. "Give it a rest, Janice! She needs a place to stay and she's staying here." Janice gave a small, insulted gasp. "I don't think so! You can't just pick up strays off the street and bring them into my house to-" "Our house," Jack said in a forceful tone of voice. He didn't like the way Mia seemed to shrink at Janice calling her a stray. "Both our names are on the lease." Janice gave him a look and then took him by the elbow. "You'll excuse us," she said to Mia, "while we talk this through." She tried to pull Jack aside, but he didn't budge. "There's nothing to talk about," he said. "Mia's staying in the spare bedroom and that's that." Janice shot Mia a hateful look. "Like hell it is! I'm not having this in my house!" "This being," Jack said and trailed off. Janice blushed and folded her arms across her chest, refusing to finish his sentence. "Here's the deal, Janice! You can either agree to let Mia stay here until the start of fall semester and have me pay two thirds of the rent and utilities, or I can move out and stick you with a hundred percent of the rent and utilities, right now. Your choice." Janice did not look pleased in the least. She glared at Mia, who looked like she wanted to fade into the floral wallpaper of the hallway. At length, Janice said, "We might as well split up now, Jack. You're leaving me in the fall, anyway. You'll be off to your college in the city, but let me tell you something, Jack! It won't be all milk and honey for you there. Oh, no, sir! There's a Chlamydia epidemic going on in the city, right now, and I bet you that college you've got your eye on is ground zero. Mark my words, young man! You're intent on moving to a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah!" Jack sighed heavily and rolled his eyes at her. "Don't you roll your eyes at me, young man! I saw it on the news. Do you know what those diseases do? They make you unable to give me grandchildren, that's what. And since you're so dead-set on going there and becoming sterile and denying me of my grandkids, then we might as well part ways right here and now!" Jack shrugged and said, "Fine. I'll pack my stuff and we'll be out of your hair as soon as I find a new place." "What do you mean, we," Janice asked. She pointed an accusatory finger at Mia. "She's not staying here!" "Yes she is," Jack said and hefted her bags. "And since you won't have her in the spare bedroom, she'll just have to stay in my room, as my guest." He started carrying the bags up the stairs towards his room. Janice's mouth dropped in surprise and she folded within seconds. She agreed to let Mia stay with them for as long as Jack was staying there, too. She then tried to lay down some house rules, which were mostly aimed at turning Janice into their chaperone, but Jack kept shooting her rules down and informing Mia of how things really worked in the house. Finally, Mia went into her room to unpack and Janice pulled Jack aside. After checking that Mia was out of earshot, she whispered, "And there will be no sexual activity under this roof!" Jack barked a derisive laugh right at her face and went into Mia's room to help her unpack. "Listen, Jack," she said, "I'm really grateful to you for doing all of this, but... Can I ask you one more favor? I'll totally understand if you refuse, though." "What is it?" Mia swallowed and took a deep breath before asking, "Could you, uh, pretend that I wasn't staying with you while we're in school. Just then! Just... in front of the people from school." She looked at him with her big, blue, pleading eyes. Her luscious lower lip was caught between her teeth. He guessed her social status was all she had going for her, even if it was set to expire in a little less than two months, when school ended. He was a bit insulted by her request, but he decided to grant it, all the same. "Fine," he said, making her sigh and smile in grateful relief. "I won't tell anyone about it, but I won't be going through any kind of shenanigans to keep it a secret. Keeping it a secret falls on your head." She rushed at him and drew him into a tight hug. He could feel her firm tits pressing themselves flat against his chest. He thought he could feel her nipples burrow into his skin. "Thank you! Thank you so much, Jack!" "Yeah, you're welcome," he said, angling his lower body away from her and to the side, so she wouldn't feel his growing stiffy. He then realized that having a hot girl in his house was going to be different than anything he could ever have imagined. She gave him a firmer squeeze and said, "You'll drive me to and from school, won't you?" "Uh-huh," he said, still focused on keeping his erection from touching her. "And you'll drop me off and pick me up someplace where no one will see us, right?" "Yeah, sure." "Thank you!" She gave him a kiss on the jaw and let him go. He turned around and left her room to let her unpack in peace. Only after he closed her door, did he realize that he did indeed commit to shenanigans to keep her school rep. He wanted to barge right back in and set the record straight, but the memory of her scent was still fresh in his nose and his boner wasn't going to go away any time soon. He sighed and went into the upstairs toilet, again. After he beat off, he stumbled to his bed and slept for twelve hours straight. The next day, there was a brief dustup with Janice about the bathroom schedule, washing the dishes and sorting the laundry, before things settled into a quiet routine. Janice spent the first few nights of the cohabitation trying to catch the two teenagers in flagrante, but she gave up when she saw that it wasn't going to happen. Jack certainly wouldn't mind something evolving between Mia and him, but he had far more pressing matters that required his attention. He felt like a coward for hiding from the cloaked figure. While it would be pointlessly stupid to go pick a fight with it at the time, it would never stop being so, unless he armed himself with knowledge. He needed to investigate the cloaked figure with everything he had at his disposal. Jack stared at the small batch of special brownies he had made and sighed. He found himself wondering at what point he would stop being a mentalist in search of answers and become a pothead in search of the next high. He dismissed such thoughts with a shake of his head. He had bigger concerns to address. He wondered if it was safe to go on another vision quest, but he told himself it must be. He had stared right at the vision of the cloaked figure with all his supernatural might and he had not been found out. He reasoned that meant that it was safe to go on vision quests. Well, it could just be too busy depowering other mentalists to get to me at the moment, he thought and grinned bitterly. He wiped his face and chose to disregard such a scary thought. He told himself that his only real risk was actively using his power to read and influence the minds of others. He had no doubt that the cloaked figure was doing that on a regular basis. If the two of them happened to be doing the same thing at the same time and weren't too far away from one another, their minds might establish a resonant link and then Jack would be fucked. So long as he didn't mess with the minds of others, he was safe. Or so he kept telling himself. In truth, he was sick and tired of dreading the cloaked figure. He had asked himself what the difference was between never using his power out of fear of the cloaked figure taking it and actually losing it. After not being able to come up with any satisfactory answer, he had decided to risk another vision quest. The last one had warned him of the danger and taught him how to hide himself. Perhaps this one would teach him something else. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," he said and ate the special brownies. He undertook another vision quest, only this time, he strove to find out the names of the mentalists from his earlier vision. Much to his dismay, his freakout during that vision had prevented him from forming detailed enough memories of most of the depowered mentalists to track them down with. He didn't have the guts to go through it again, so he focused on the first two that he had seen in that vision. The bald man with the fancy moustache and the pretty blonde. Jack then saw the blonde slitting her own wrists open with a razor blade and her family rushing to save her. Jack learned her name as she was being committed into a mental health facility. Next, he saw the bald man, his fancy moustache neglected and ragged. He was pacing and muttering. Jack learned his name, too, when his family had him committed with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Jack was thoroughly bummed out by the vision so he cloaked himself to end it. He checked the identities of the two mentalists online and verified their names as real. He had felt the despair and loss that gnawed at the two of them until it drove them into the loony bin. It made him put his investigation into the cloaked figure on hold. There were limits to how much he could handle in one sitting. He would work on his cloak and resume his efforts to stop the cloaked figure as soon as he got strong enough. One morning, Janice was sitting at the breakfast table with Jack, while Mia was in the bathroom. She leaned over to her son and quietly asked, "Jack, if you're not going to make it with the girl, then why are you keeping her around?" Jack sighed. "You wouldn't understand it, Janice, so don't even try! You might hurt your head." Janice snorted. "You think you're so smart, mister smartypants. You're too dumb to see that she's just playing you. Mark my words! That girl is just out to use you as her meal ticket." Jack shot her a look. "Don't believe me? Why, what's this?" She held up the third bowl of oatmeal. "It's her oatmeal. Meal. Get it? She's literally getting meal from you. You're her meal ticket!" Jack glared at her. "Shut up, Janice!" The bathroom door opened and Mia came to the kitchen, stopping their argument. Janice didn't bring it up again when Mia was around to overhear her, but she made it quite known to Jack in private that she wasn't going to change her mind about the girl. Fortunately for Jack's patience, Mia spent a lot of time indoors, keeping Janice's opinions to herself. Jack tutored Mia so she would graduate with the rest of the class. He was delighted to find that she was actually quite bright and intelligent, she just hadn't had the chance to learn, or the time to study, so her knowledge was full of gaps. Once he filled those in, she learned new things easily. It also helped that she really applied herself to the task. Even after Jack was done tutoring her, she would spend a few hours studying all on her own. Jack was keeping a lid on his power, but the one thing he didn't feel exposed doing with it was using it to augment his dog training. He had been doing it for over six years and if the cloaked figure could find him that way, it would have done so long ago. He decided to keep on with it. On top of training the dogs and tutoring Mia, he had to practice his cloak and his time became a precious commodity. He knew of no way to extend his ability to keep himself cloaked, except to meditate on it for very long stretches of time. His days were so full that he could only take some time for himself on the weekends. The relaxation and fun breaks would be short, since he would triple his tutoring sessions with Mia on the weekends, as the girl became dead-set on graduating with their class. Even so, he found a little time to try and set things right at the group home. Jack contacted his lawyer. He asked her about which parts of the government were in charge of overseeing animal shelters. It was a cover for what he really wanted to know. He made a humorous remark about the similarities of teenagers and rabid animals and asked who would be in charge of teenager pounds. The lawyer told him who and he returned to speaking with her about the possibility of starting his own dog pound. He talked with the woman about the topic until he guessed he had spoken long enough to mask his interest in group homes for teenagers. He thanked her for her time and she told him how much the consultation cost him. He sent her a check at the same time as he sent the responsible government offices an anonymous letter about the conditions at the group home Mia had been staying in. Training his cloaking ability took top priority and it required more and more of his time each day. The length of time he could spend cloaked grew with each day, but so did the time he needed to spend meditating to lengthen it even more. As Jack's time became shorter and shorter with each passing day, he realized he had to cut back on his dog training. He had a contract with Alpha that was valid until the end of summer, so he couldn't just stop training their dogs. He stopped training assistance dogs for the charities and fobbed off the six he had in the process of training to other trainers. The charities couldn't exactly berate him for no longer donating his time and effort to the cause, so they resorted to bombarding him with pictures and videos of people his dogs were assisting, along with reminders that he was more than welcome to rejoin the effort at any time. They were completely superfluous, as Jack got cards from all those people on every major holiday. The last few months of training any assistance dog were spent teaching the dog and the new owner to work together. Jack called it "training the owners". He used his power to cut that time down to just long enough for the owner to become comfortable with the dog, but he still had to spend a lot of time with each person who received his dogs. They were all so desperately grateful that Jack was always a little uncomfortable around them. Despite all of them considering him a member of their family, Jack never made fast friends with any of them. Those that were his age had completely different interests from him and those that loved comic books were middle-aged, so they never connected. Jack kept their cards and letters under his bed in a great, big bundle that was held together with twine. One day, after adding the latest missives to it, he left the bundle out on the living room table and stepped out to see to Alpha's dogs. When he came back in, Mia was sitting on the living room couch, reading a thank you letter. She looked up at him with tears glistening in her eyes. "You, you did this? You trained the dog that puts on his socks and, and fetches stuff?" Jack didn't even bother looking at which letter that was. All his dogs were capable of that and so much more. Back when he had first started, he had misunderstood the people that taught him about assistance dogs. Dogs were supposed to be trained for a single, specific purpose, so a seeing eye dog wasn't supposed to be capable of detecting a drop in blood sugar by the smell of its owner etc. He had thought that an assistance dog was supposed to be able to do all of that and more, so he had trained them accordingly. With his powers, that had been easy. In answer to Mia's question, he simply said, "Yes." "Oh my god, Jack," she said, astounded. "This... he... this man writes that... if you hadn't trained Sparky for him, he would have ended it all." Jack shrugged. "When people get struck down like that and they can't use their bodies anymore, they lose their will to live. It doesn't matter if it was an accident, or a disease, or whatever. They just feel like they've been robbed of all their worth in an instant and that's a pretty big lump to swallow. That's the point of the dogs. They're there to assist, yes, but they're also there to give the person someone that needs them. Someone that they need to take care of." Mia's jaw dropped as she stared at him incredulously. He guessed she might be struck by how unaffected by the topic his tone of voice seemed to be. He had seen his dogs alleviate so much suffering that it stopped affecting him the way it would a first-timer. "And this woman?" She held up a photo of an old woman, a young man, and a weird-looking dog. "She says you trained a dog for her autistic son and... she says that she finally feels hope that he could have a normal life some day because people keep engaging him in conversation about his dog. How does that help him?" Jack nodded and smiled as he thought back to that particular dog. "This guy is unable to read people's faces and emotions. He's also extremely prone to seeing any humans interacting with him as threats. He gets panic attacks whenever someone tries to tell him something. Princess is a cross between a Bouvier des Flandres and a Bosnian sheepdog. "She's ideal for autists like him because she's big enough to give him a cooldown hug when he collapses in a panic and she looks just weird enough to elicit questions about herself. She's a neutral topic for people to broach when talking with him. He has learned to answer questions about her and to trust her to keep him safe, so he doesn't panic when people ask about her. Once her presence gets the conversation ball rolling, he sometimes manages to tell people what he needs from them. Otherwise, he'd still be holed up in his home, afraid to go out and see a doctor when he needed to. Or to the store to buy food when he was hungry, for that matter." Tears slid out of her eyes to run down her cheeks. "Holy fuck, Jack! You're doing this for people in need and all this time, everyone thought that... I mean, you're an outcast!" "Eh, don't worry about it," he said with a shrug. "I don't anymore. The people at school resent me because I make a difference and they don't. It's just the way it goes. Tall poppy syndrome and all that." Her mouth dropped open and she shook her head. "No, Jack," she said through her stuffed nose, "they think you're nuts!" "What?" "The kids at school think you're just a weirdo that hangs out with dogs because there's something wrong with you. Like you're afraid of people, or something. They don't know about this. No one knows about all that you've done." Jack's brow drew down. "What?! How could they possibly not know? It was all over the school!" Mia shook her head. "The photos! The photos that everyone mocked when I first started this school? The photos that gave me the name 'Dog Boy'? I was doing seeing eye dog training in those photos! How could they possibly not know?! I was wearing a blindfold and tapping a white cane on the sidewalk!" "They didn't know, Jack," Mia squeaked through her tears. "They thought that you were pretending to be blind for kicks, or something. They still don't know. No one has a clue about this." Jack was too shocked to react. He practically stumbled over to the window to gaze out at the pens in the backyard. Could it truly be that the entire student body mocked him for something that had nothing to do with him? And that they had done so for years? He couldn't quite bring himself to believe her. He wanted to drop his cloak and use his power to see if her words were true, but the fear of the cloaked figure stopped him. He tried to reason things out for himself. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 Yes, he did spend a couple of hours each afternoon training dogs, but the first thing he taught them was to spend time on their own, without needing him, precisely so he wouldn't wind up spending more time with dogs than with people. The second thing he usually taught them was to stop eating poop. While Jack had a deep and abiding love of dogs and would forever treasure their potential to serve mankind, he certainly didn't prefer their company to that of humans. Not even in the light of the fact that his peers have so far always turned out to be bastards. The only dog he actually loved more than most humans was Spot. For Jack, training dogs was a job, a way of fulfilling his duty to his fellow man, not a symptom of an illness. After six years of training assistance dogs, he had even gotten a little tired and jaded with it all. If it weren't for the constant cloaking training, he would actually enjoy his recent respite from the work. Mia wiped the tears from her face and sniffed her nose clear. "I'll tell them," she said, with a quiet resolve. "I'll tell them all." She picked up the letter and gestured at the others. "I'll show them these and they'll see-" "You'll do no such thing," Jack yelled, rounding on her suddenly. He caught himself and lowered the volume of his voice. "You'll tell no one about this." "What? Are you kidding me? If people knew, then-" "You will tell no one at the school," Jack said. He wanted to figure things out first. He wanted to first figure out why they had jumped to the wrong conclusions about him. If they had done that out of pure malice, then he wasn't going to share the truth with them. What would be the point, really? If they were evil, then the more they knew about who he truly was, the bigger the risk they could hurt him one day. "Jack," she exclaimed. "People know you change dogs every few months! They think you kill them for kicks! Everyone at school thinks you're, like, a serial killer of dogs! And that email didn't help you in the least!" Jack's fists tightened and his jaw clenched, grinding his teeth together. If that was really what they thought about him, then he was definitely done with the lot of them. He couldn't even imagine what kind of collective brain fart was needed for them to think up of such a terrible story and stick to it. He gathered up the letters and cards. Mia's words finally penetrated through the fog in his brain and he frowned. "Wait a minute. What email?" "The email. The one you sent to the entire school?" Jack shook his head at her. "The one with the link?" Jack spread his arms impatiently. "The email with the link to the video... of a girl getting... mounted by a dog?" "The fuck are you on about, Mia? I've never sent anyone any such email, let alone the entire school! I've never even watched any kind of..." He trailed off as he hazily remembered seeing a video like that. His friends had shown it to him on the night he had had them over for pot brownies. The night that he had left them alone in his room, on his computer, while he had his first vision downstairs. He shook his head in denial. John, Rob and Steve were his friends. The three of them were the ones that were working to smooth over the rift between him and the entire rest of the school. He trusted them. They wouldn't be the ones that would ever do something like that to him. "No," he whispered out loud. "I mean, you can ask all over the school," Mia said. "I think everyone got it. But, that's ok. I can spin it as a joke when I tell people that you-" "Tell no one," he spat out through clenched teeth. He ran out the door and got in his car, tossing the bundle he was carrying on the passenger seat. He needed to see his friends. He needed to find out if what she was saying was true. A small part of him didn't want to believe Mia's claims, but all the kids at school moved out of his way in the hallways. No one dared gossip about him if they even suspected he was near. Could it be that they really thought he was a dangerous maniac? No one dared touch his three friends, either. He told himself it was because of their long, patient campaign of one on one conversations, like the one they were conducting on his behalf, but the more he thought about it, the more began to doubt it. Their campaign had come to fruition very suddenly and it was around the time he had had his "talk" with the quarterback and his teammates. He felt like the butt of a big joke that he didn't even know about. He felt like he was being duped by everyone around him all the time. His whole stomach was knotted up and his heart skipped random beats as he struggled to get air into his lungs. His chest felt like an elephant was stomping all over it. He blinked back tears and barely managed to keep his bearings. He drove up to Steve's house and marched up to the door. His knocks were closer to the impacts of battering rams than the polite knocks of a teenaged boy, but he didn't care. He needed to know. He needed to know if he had been a patsy for the last two years of his life, suffering in pretty much the same ways as innocent convicts do. Steve's father opened the door, looking confused. Jack immediately said, "Hi! Is Steven home?" "Yes, he's in his room," the man said and Jack squeezed past him to go up to Steve's room. "Hey, Steve," Jack quickly said, entering the room. Steve hurriedly minimized something on his computer screen. "You know how the whole school knows I train dogs, right?" Steve looked at him in confusion. "Yeah?" "And you know how they all hate me for that and think that I've got my nose up in the air because of it?" Jack asked. "Yeah?" "Well, I just happened to talk to some people from school and not a single one of them had any idea about that," Jack said. Steve swallowed nervously and Jack saw it. The look of guilt. Jack wanted to slip into Steve's mind with his power to witness the depths of this betrayal, but he was simply feeling too sick to his stomach to be able to control his emotions. "You did do a campaign about my reputation, didn't you?" Jack growled. "But it wasn't the one you said you'd do. No, this was one where you convinced everyone that I was a dangerous lunatic. You, and John, and Rob, all three of you spread rumors about me being crazy all over the school, didn't you? All three of you pretended to be my friends to my face and painted me as a psycho behind my back." Steve raised his hands in a reconciliatory gesture and licked his lips repeatedly. "You don't know what it was like for us, Jack. We suffered for years! Ever since the start of middle school, the three of us were the lowest in the pecking order. And then you came along and people made fun of you. And you scared the jocks with your dogs, but you were nice and you looked like you could become our friend, so..." "So you painted me out to look like a serial killer so no one else would want to be my friend," Jack yelled. "So people would stop picking on you because you hung out with me!" "I'm sorry, Jack," Steve said. "We'll make it up to you." Those words were a red cape before his eyes. Jack's very skin burned. His ears throbbed with a staccato beat as his vision shrank into a tiny dot, dead ahead. He didn't know if his cloak was on or off and he didn't care at that moment. He had spent years as an outcast because of his so-called friends. "How!? How could you possibly make it up to me, you little shit!?" Steve's dad burst into the room and yelled at Jack's back, "I don't know how you behave in your home, young man, but this is my house and I..." He grabbed Jack by the shoulders and spun him around. He poked Jack in the chest repeatedly and painfully. "You will turn around and face me when I am talking to you!" Jack stepped back and lost control. He flung all his rage into his power and imagined his own face. The visual let him into Steve's dad's mind and he had a field day. Jack took stock of his feelings of inadequacy and the myriad of fears that were hounding him day in and day out. He told himself that he was too weak to run from them anymore and that he should just give up. Jack slid back into his mind and watched Steve's dad flounder uncertainly. He smiled as the man lowered his beefy hand and his eyes started to get misty. "Uh, Dad, are you ok?" Steve asked. Jack smiled grimly. He converted some of his anger into the anguish he had been feeling on the drive over and slid into the man's mind again. Jack told himself that it was perfectly okay to take all his frustrations out on his son, but only on his son. He also told himself that he would be wise to run from Jack Watts from now on. Jack blinked his own vision clear and laughed as Steve's dad cowered from him. "What's going on?" Steve asked in a small voice. Jack spun to face the little shit and picked him up out of his chair by the collar. "And then the three of you had the gall to get pissy with me after I tried to defend Mia Newman," was what he wanted to say to the boy. He couldn't do that without revealing her secret and exposing her to the entire school. Instead, he sneered contemptuously at Steve and dropped him back down into his chair. "The three of you are dead to me," he said and walked away. He paused at the door of Steve's room and shot him one last glare. "Beware of dog!" Steve let out a pathetic whimper and his eyes bugged out. Jack walked down the stairs. Behind and above him, the roar of Steve's dad's voice was heard as the man began to rip into his own son. Jack set his jaw and walked out the front door. He got into his car. The adrenaline rush was subsiding and the guilt was welling up. That was for honor, he told himself. A good man honors his own worth and fights for it. And when a good man is devalued as underhandedly as the three of them did to me, then all bets are off. Despite his rationalization, Jack was feeling distinctly bad. With the guilt came a myriad of other negative emotions, doubt being chief among them. He was suddenly feeling too many emotions to be able to process them properly. He drove off and toured the town to clear his head. The town itself seemed to be laughing at him as he drove through the streets. He felt like he couldn't catch a breath of clean, cool air, no matter how hard he tried, so he made his way to the freeway and drove off towards the city. As soon as the town was in his rearview mirror, growing smaller in the distance, he could breathe again. He cloaked his mind. He lazily toured the city streets until the sun set and they started to get clogged up with traffic. He pulled over and went into a bar. He sat at the bar and ordered a boilermaker. The balding bartender smirked in response. "Not without some ID, kid." Jack's emotions were still consuming him, but they were a little dull around the edges from the long drive. He dropped his cloak and began to whistle "The Farmer in the Dell". "Hey, cut that out," the bartender told him. Jack tapped into a small part of his rage and converted it into a shadow of itself, namely annoyance. He focused on his whistled tune and used his power to gain access to the bartender. Jack was annoyed with the pissy kid that was whistling indoors. Kids these days have no respect for anything, he thought. Jack told himself that the kid was over twenty one and needed no ID. Jack snapped back into himself and was surprised to see that he was still whistling. He hadn't stopped whistling even during the split second he was inside the bartender's mind. He stopped now and signaled for a drink. The drink burned going down, but the bubbles were soothing. Jack soon decided that he liked the taste of alcohol, particularly the combination of bourbon and beer. It warmed his veins and the chilling fear of the cloaked figure started looking like something laughable. He sat on his stool and ordered round after round, until he drank himself into a stupor. He woke up on the back seat of his car, a little after dawn broke. He sat up and rubbed his head to make the pounding headache go away. He wished he could use his powers to fight the pain and was surprised to feel it lessen in short order. His head still hurt, but it was more of a discreet reminder of the pain that was supposed to be going on, rather than the jackhammer that had been chipping away at his skull until moments ago. With the headache all but gone, he focused on his surroundings. He was parked in front of the bar. The memories of the previous night came crawling back to him. He was glad to see that he hadn't tried to drive last night. In the state he had been in, that would have probably wound up fatal for someone. Just as he was relieved that he hadn't killed anyone with the car, he suddenly felt a stab of agony hit his guts. He still had a gun in the glove compartment. He swallowed nervously as he looked all around himself. The sun was barely up and the streets were empty. He leaned over slowly and popped the glove box open. He sighed in audible relief when he saw the hunk of metal still in its place. He slammed the glove box shut and told himself to hide the gun someplace else, or get rid of it entirely. His throat was drier than the Sahara, so he retrieved the canister of distilled water he kept in the trunk in case he ever needed to refill his radiator. He drank his fill and then felt the sudden, overwhelming urge to pee. The bar was locked shut and he looked around for a toilet. Seeing none, he got into the car and drove around until he spotted a gas station. He used their toilets to relieve himself and freshen up a bit. He meditated for a bit and cloaked his mind, feeling stupid for having dropped it in the first place. "You dropped it to get even and then to get drunk," he said to his reflection. He screwed up his face into an expression of displeasure and shook his head. "You're just lucky God takes care of fools, Jack." He tossed the used paper towel at his reflection and left the dirty restroom. When he came back into the car, he checked the dashboard clock and saw that he still had enough time to drive back home, pick up Mia, and get to school in time for first period. He sighed and turned the engine over. He sniffed at his shirt. It smelled funny. He told himself to not forget to change clothes at home. He also moved the bundle of thank you notes to the back seat. Mia was packed and ready to go when he got home. Janice greeted him at the door with an angry, "Where were you? I was worried sick!" "Out," he brusquely replied. "Out? Out?! That's all you have to say for yourself, young man?" "Shut up," Jack quietly said as he squeezed past her and went upstairs to change clothes. He remembered to pack his book bag and bring it along before going downstairs. Mia followed him wordlessly into the car. He nearly took the direct route to school, but remembered to take the circuitous route at the last moment. "I'm sorry," she said. "Sorry about what?" "Everything. I'm sorry, Jack." "Not your fault," he mumbled. "I'll make it right, Jack! I'll tell everyone about-" "No! Tell no one! I don't care about them. I don't want them to know the truth. They can fucking rot in hell, for all I care!" He gave her a hard look. "I mean it, Mia! You tell anyone about my assistance dogs and we're done! Through! You'll be out of my house and out of my life. Got it?" She nodded and remained quiet for the rest of the ride as Jack drove around the edge of town, avoiding the school and the routes people routinely took to school. For once, he was glad for the long way around, as it gave him time to rebuild his cool. He was feeling like the dumbest cunt in all of existence for not having seen the plain truth that had been staring him in the face for the past two years. He had questioned Mia how his school mates could not see that he had been training a seeing eye dog, but he had not seen a ton of evidence his friends had been lying to him. In hindsight, things were so obvious. He could hardly stomach the fact that three serpents had been able to completely sever all his links to his peers. He had put all his trust in them and they had stabbed him in the back. He simply didn't know how to handle the situation he found himself in. When he came up on the cannery, he turned back into town and drove up Lincoln Boulevard until he came to within two blocks of the school. The boulevard was the only street no one from their school ever took, either coming, or going. It was the place where he routinely dropped Mia off and later picked her up from school in order to keep her living arrangement a secret. After dropping Mia off, he drove in a two block radius semicircle to come around to the front of the school and park. Only after he parked the car and got out did he finally think about the fact that Mia had also been surprised to learn about his charitable work. He stood absolutely floored as he realized the girl had agreed to live with him back when she had thought that he was a serial killer in the making. "Shitfuck," he whispered to himself in astonishment. I really need to take better care of that girl from now on. He realized his cloak had slipped, so he hastily gathered it around himself again and went inside the school. Before he left school that day, he went to the computer lab and printed out an anonymous letter to the police, telling them where to find a buried gun. After taking Mia home and tutoring her on trigonometry, a subject for which she showed an aptitude that surprised them both, he spent a half hour training dogs for Alpha and then took Spot to the car. He drove to the park he had mentioned in the letter and had Spot dig a hole in the place he had picked. He wiped the gun and lowered it in before ordering Spot to cover it up. Just like he had done in the computer lab, he wore disposable latex gloves when he put the letter into the envelope and dropped it into the mailbox. He even made sure to wet the envelope's seal and stamp with a brush and tap water, lest he be found out by any forensic evidence. With the gun's safe disposal arranged, he stayed in the park to just relax in the quiet and play some fetch with Spot. His free time was so scarce lately that he had to think hard to remember the last time he just played with Spot. A pair of familiar Chihuahuas came running towards Spot. Jack looked the way they came from. Chrissie was waving at him. Her short, graying, blonde hair was disheveled, a clear sign of her being "off the clock". Her tracksuit was still clean, meaning that she had just arrived at the park. "Hi, Jack," she called out. "Hey, Chrissie." Jack gave Spot the order to play nice with the tiny dogs and the trio got along fabulously as Chrissie walked over to him. "How have you been?" "Great," she said and launched into a twenty minute recap of every single thing her babies had done since the beginning of time. At the first pause in her monologue, Jack managed to get a word in, saying, "How's work?" "Oh, it's ok. Everything's the same as always. At my age, you begin to appreciate the days when nothing happens. Although, we did have a surprise inspection the other day." "Is that so," Jack said, noncommittally. "Yeah, they came by to see if government funds were being put to good use." "And were they," Jack said, desperately trying to sound uninterested. "Yeah," Chrissie said, smiling at her dogs running around with Spot. "Oh, aren't they cute? Look at them!" Jack looked at Chrissie in confusion. Was she trying to get him to fess up to sending the inspection? If she was, she was doing a tremendous job of hiding it. He wavered for a few seconds and then said, "So, the inspection went well? There were no problems?" "Of course not. There never are." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 "There never are," he repeated her sentence back at her as a question. "Yes. The home hasn't had a bad report since... well, since for at least as long as they hired us, I suppose." He stared at her incredulously. "Are you trying to tell me that the government is ok with the home providing those girls with zero chances of gaining an education, or becoming useful members of society? Are the authorities really content with the home denying the psychological assistance those girls desperately need and for which they are already budgeted?" Chrissie responded to his incredulous look with one of her own. "Yes." "I don't believe you." "Oh come on, Jack," she said and reached up to muss his hair. Jack brushed her hand away. "You can't really be that naive, can you? I mean, who's going to care about these girls? The inspectors? They answer to their bosses who are most likely getting kickbacks from the guy running the home. If they dare to report even the smallest irregularity, let alone the racket that's really going on, they'll be fired and unable to ever find another job that doesn't include the phrase 'would you like fries with that'." "That is wrong," Jack adamantly said. "It's the way it is, Jack. And there's nothing you can do about it." "And you're ok with that?" She looked at him with a profound sadness in her eyes. For a moment, he thought she was going to agree with him, but then she blinked the sadness away and just shrugged. He shook his head at her and stalked off in disgust. Spot ran after him. They went to the car and Spot knocked the bundle of thank you notes off the seat. Jack picked it up and briefly considered the testimonials of gratitude on the palm of his hand. He had always felt pleased to have helped people with his work. He had never wanted, nor asked for any reward. He had considered it a way to honor White's sacrifice. A duty that he had discharged happily. He drove up to a garbage can, lowered his window, and held out the bundle to drop it in. He couldn't quite reach, so he sighed in annoyance, undid his seat belt, and got out to toss the bundle. A flash of light caught his eye. He pulled a glitter-covered card from the bundle and inspected it. He ran his fingers along its edge, feeling the many cuts made by a very small pair of scissors. It was obviously hand-made. He could make out smudges along the edges of the glitter glue that spelled out Thank You, Jack! along the front of the card. He opened it. It was from a nine year old girl named Andrea who wanted to thank him for training Rover for her daddy. She wrote of how much she loved the dog and how he's better than her brother, cause he finds the toys her brother takes from her room and brings them back to her. Jack hung his head. He had spent time with her family as part of Rover's training. Andrea was a bright girl, wise beyond her years, but also full of exuberant energy. She wasn't quiet, like most kids who are called "old souls". If she had an opinion about something, she shared it with all who would listen. Jack had been treated to her lectures on style and grammar during his time with her family. Andrea's father had been blinded in an industrial accident and her mother had left them, unable to deal with the disability. The insurance firm welshing on their obligations didn't help with matters. Jack had convinced his lawyer to consult on the case pro bono, but the contract had been carefully drafted to legally steal from those too poor to consult a lawyer before signing and there was nothing she could do to help them. Andrea's father provided for his family by tuning instruments and gathering donations online. Jack made a mental note to donate again. He huffed and wiped the tear running down his cheek. He replaced the card in the bundle and put the bundle in a plastic bag. He stowed it in the trunk of his car, unable to look at it for the moment. He shot a glare at the garbage can before driving off. Jack's early admission to college went through the next day and he was distracted from his many worries by settling all the formalities. The day after that, he found himself sitting in class, wondering what he was doing there. He had no friends in the school. He belonged to no clubs. He had no obligations to anyone. The things he was tutoring Mia on, he had already learned some time ago. With the school year so close to ending and early admissions over and done with, even the most dedicated of teachers had given up on trying to teach the seniors. Jack still took a few AP classes, but he didn't need to complete them. He had been informed by all the students he had asked, back when he had taken tours of prospective colleges, that the first few semesters of college were repeats of AP classes. It was meant to refresh everyone's memory and give the kids who hadn't taken any a chance to catch up. The only good thing about this terrible school was that they consistently ignored any truancy of the seniors that had gotten into college. Once a student's admission was settled, their only obligation to the school was to show up at graduation and receive their diploma. A few dozen others were already absent. Senior homeroom didn't even take attendance anymore. He had the grades to graduate. His presence at the school was no longer required. The time would be much better spent training himself to maintain his cloak. John, Rob and Steve were wait-listed by the Ivy League schools they applied to as their first choices, so they were still attending school. Neither Jack, nor they, had blown the lid on the fact that he wouldn't lift a finger if anyone was to hurt them, so they were still safe on school grounds. He was tempted to announce to everyone that he wasn't their friend and protector, but he had already lashed out at Steve and felt bad about it. Especially as Steve's face bore witness to his revenge. Jack decided to pack up his locker and go home, never to return to the school, except to pick up his diploma. He'd stop by Steve's place on his way home and undo what he had done to his dad. Despite coming to a firm decision, he stayed seated in Ms. Abramowitz's class. He didn't want to insult a decent teacher by leaving halfway through a lecture. Before the bell could ring and announce his freedom, the PA system was activated. "Jack Watts, please report to the principal's office," said the school's secretary. "Jack Watts, please report to the principal's office." Jack rolled his eyes and grinned bitterly, but didn't move a muscle. He detested the timing of the summons. Not twenty minutes after he had made his mind up about quitting school, it came to make it look like he was being tossed out. Ultimately, he didn't care about what anyone thought. He had bigger fish to fry and he was definitely leaving. He was even tempted to do something outrageous in the principal's office before he left, just to mess with the old bastard. Ms. Abramowitz said, "Well, Mr. Watts? You've been called to the principal's office." Jack gave a dismissive wave. "He can wait. I'm much more interested in what you're saying about Coelho." Ms. Abramowitz smiled. "Thank you for saying that, Mr. Watts, but I'm afraid you really should be going." Jack sighed unhappily, gathered his things, and left the class. He went to the principal's office, curious as to what the old man could possibly want with him. "I'm Watts," he said to the principal's secretary. He went to sit down and wait to be called in. "Please go inside, Mr. Watts," she said, making him freeze in mid stride. "They're waiting for you." Jack frowned and gave her a questioning look. Students were rarely summoned to the office and for one to come here of their own volition was practically unheard of, but the thing that always happened was that the principal made the student sit and wait for ten minutes, or so, before calling them in. It didn't matter if the meeting had been prearranged, or if the principal had called someone over the PA system, like Jack just now. Always, the student had to cool their heels. The secretary nodded at the door and Jack went to it. Whatever was going on right now, it wasn't the usual nonsense. The first thing that drew Jack's full attention was the man sitting on the corner of the principal's desk. He was in his late twenties, wearing a leather jacket and had an air of intensity about him. He was chewing gum with an open mouth, emitting loud, wet smacks. The principal was sitting calmly behind his desk and ignoring the man's behavior, making Jack truly confused as to what was going on. The vice principal was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the desk and he indicated the other one, saying, "Please, come and sit down, Mr. Watts!" Jack walked over and sat. He now found himself looking up at the man on the desk. The man smiled at him and Jack didn't like the smile. "So, you're Jack Watts," he said. Jack looked at the principal and vice principal, who made no comment. "Yes." The man on the desk nodded knowingly. The principal said, "Mr. Watts, we pride ourselves on teaching our students not only the prescribed curriculum, but also the things that truly matter in life. Things like upstanding behavior and truthfulness." Jack raised an eyebrow at hearing such brazen lies. "We have no doubt that you will extend your full cooperation in this matter." "What matter? What's going on?" "Jack," the vice principal said and gestured at the smiling man on the desk, "this is detective Fuller. He's with the Sheriff's department. He's here to ask you some questions." "Questions? What questions?" Fuller stood up and paused in his chewing long enough to softly say, "We know, Jack." Jack raised both eyebrows at the statement. He couldn't believe that the cop was trying to pull such a blatant bluff on him. "And we understand. We've been there before, you know." He gestured at the principal and vice principal. "We've all gone through what you're going through, right now. Those same issues you're dealing with... we've been through them, too. You're not alone, Jack. You've got people you can talk to." He spread his hands. "We're right here. And we're listening, Jack. You can talk to us." Jack looked from one face to the next in confusion and then flatly said, "Talk about what?" Fuller rubbed his jaw. "You're a smart kid, Jack. We can all see that. There's no need for this kind of thing to ruin your life. You can still make the right choice here, pal. You already made the right choice, I just need you to make another one so you can put this whole thing behind you." Jack relaxed in his seat and adopted his most bored expression. Whatever this cop was trying to bluff out of him, he wasn't going to get it. "I still have no idea what this is all about," he said. Fuller bent down and softly said, "I traced the letter back to you, Jack. We found the piece, right where you said it would be. You've done the right thing, Jack. You had a... a crisis and you thought that shooting some people would fix things for you. But that's the loser way and you're not a loser. You're smarter than that. You thought it through and you gave it up. You hid the gun in that house and sent us a letter telling us where to find it." Jack made no reaction that the deliberate falsehood was meant to elicit. He was very grateful for all the years of meditation and practicing manipulating his own emotions. He couldn't believe that the letter had been traced back to him. He just couldn't. He had done everything possible to make sure there was no forensic evidence tying him to it. He wanted to drop his cloak and look into the man's mind for the truth, but he quickly decided against it. He was glad to finally know what the talk was all about, even if he was a little dismayed that the cops thought he had intended to pull a Columbine, for some reason. Fuller seemed briefly disappointed at a lack of Jack's reaction. "That was smart thinking. It was well done. Now, I just need you to tell me where you got the gun from and we can put this whole matter to rest, ok?" "I have no idea what you're talking about," Jack said. Fuller straightened up. "Look, Jack, no one's against you. You did the right thing. We want to congratulate you for what you did, we just need to know where you got the gun in the first place, ok? That's all I'm here to find out." Jack spread his arms. "Seriously, you've got the wrong guy. I have no idea about this gun you're talking about. Or any letter, for that matter. Who sends letters anymore?" Fuller crossed his arms in front of his chest and chewed loudly, while staring at Jack. Jack looked at the principal and vice principal and then made to get up. He said, "If that's all-" "Sit down, Mr. Watts," the vice principal said. "If you wanna do this the hard way, Jack," Fuller said. "The stupid way? We can arrange that. I read the micro tag on your letter and it led me straight to the printer you used here in school." Jack wasn't sure if he managed to keep his shock from showing up on his face. He had heard about all printers made since 9/11 being programmed to leave tiny marks on every paper that went through them, but he had thought it an urban legend, up until now. If there was anything that could lead back to him, it would be that. "I've got a witness that says you were the one that printed it," Fuller said. Jack now knew Fuller was full of it. There had been no one to see him going in or out of the computer lab, let alone to see him printing. He had made absolutely sure of that. He had used administrator access to the computer when he had typed up the letter. Rob had shown him how and half the school knew how to do it, as it bypassed all the safe search settings on the school's computers. If anyone was to be suspected of printing up that letter, it would be the school staff. Jack glanced at the principal and vice principal. He could hardly believe that they would admit to having half the kids in their school be able to pull off such a feat, right under their noses, but he guessed it was much better than having their staff interrogated. "Well, whoever's your witness is your guilty party," Jack calmly said, "cause I never printed a letter on any of the school's printers. Case closed, Sherlock!" He stood up, but Fuller put a hand on his shoulder. "Where do you think you're going," the detective said, menacingly. "Wherever I want," Jack firmly said. "Just ask my lawyer!" "Sit down, Mr. Watts," the principal said. "No," Jack replied. "I'm not gonna sit here while you try to frame me for something I didn't do. If you want to talk to me again, you go through my lawyer." "Shame," Fuller said, his tone of voice condescending. "I had hoped we could settle this in a friendly manner. All I want is the name of the guy you bought the gun from. Now I gotta give the gun and letter over to the forensics guys and that means a paper trail. That means that I'm going to get DNA and fingerprint results that prove you had that gun and sent that letter. And with that kind of paperwork on file, the DA is going to have to prosecute you." Fuller's tone of voice became friendly again. "This isn't some kind of lark, Jack. This is serious business. You could lose your place in college over this. You could even go to jail, Jack." "I would strongly urge you to get those forensic tests done, detective Filler," Jack said. "Fuller." "Because the results will prove that I had nothing to do with what you're talking about. Now, any further discussion on this matter will have to be made with my attorney. Good day, gentlemen!" Jack stepped around his chair and made for the door. "We haven't allowed you to leave, Mr. Watts," the vice principal said. "Don't make me call my lawyer," Jack said. He focused on the image of the office door, before opening it and stepping through. He immediately dropped his cloak and availed himself of his power. The image of the door gave him an in into the detective's mind and he converted some of the fear the interrogation had managed to instill him with into the kind of frustration he must be feeling at not getting his man. Jack slid into the detective's mind. Jack was angry with Watts' impertinence and frustrated that he wasn't the culprit. The bosses were terrified of a school shooting taking place and they demanded he find out who sold guns to high-schoolers, ASAP. His first step was to identify who had given up the piece and the principal and vice principal had painted this Watts kid as the prime candidate. He was a loner reputed to torture animals and be obnoxious in general. Jack had deferred to their assessment and Watts was called in as the first one to be questioned on the matter. Unfortunately, he turned out not to be the guy. Jack calmed down and consulted his list to see who was next in line. Jack snapped back into his own mind and quickly reestablished his cloak. A weight fell from his shoulders at learning that the cop dismissed him as a suspect. He gave the secretary a jaunty wave before going to his locker and packing up his things. Leaving the school that day, he felt like singing out loud. He was finally free of the institution of oppression. He stopped by Steve's house on his way home. No one answered his knocks, despite Steve's dad's car being parked in the driveway, so he walked around to the side to look in the windows. Steve's dad was sitting on the sofa in the living room, staring at the carpet. Jack knocked and the man looked up. His eyes went wide and he jumped up to stumble out of the room. Oh, yeah, Jack remembered, I made him fear me. Jack walked around the side of the house and climbed the drainpipe to get to Steve's room, just like Steve usually did when he was grounded. Once inside, he tiptoed down the stairs and across the hallway where he had seen Steve's dad run. He heard him sobbing before he saw him huddled in the corner. Jack bit his lip. If I get sensed by the cloaked figure for trying to undo what I did to this piece of garbage, I will fucking kill myself. He crouched and mimicked the man's hug around his knees to slide into his mind by the shared sensations. Once inside, he quickly undid his work, except for the part where the man was scared senseless of him. He straightened up and paused, listening to the man's sobs slowly subside. He snuck out of the house the same way he came in and went home. His days weren't made up of lazing and loafing around the house, though, no matter how much Janice berated him for it. He would have moved out of the house and away from Janice, but he had made a promise to Mia and he intended to keep it. He didn't want to risk sabotaging her efforts at school by putting her through a move, though it would probably be only a small hassle. Besides, he preferred to spend all his free time meditating and working on his cloak. He was making great progress and could now spend the majority of the day cloaked. He didn't have the time to go house-hunting around town, especially in light of the fact that he was going to go house-hunting in the city as soon as Mia graduated. Janice kept her tirades away from Mia's ears, so he just ignored Janice and worked with Mia. He got up every morning to drive Mia to school and he had to go and get her after each school day. There was less than a month of school to go and Mia had yet to secure her own graduation, so he would spend a few hours of each afternoon tutoring her. His assistance was gradually becoming less and less needed in that regard. Her grades were definitely improving and she was growing in intellectual ability and confidence with each passing day. He felt proud of her accomplishments since he had made them possible. While she was at school and Janice was off at work, Jack would enjoy the peace and quiet before working on his meditation exercises. He was tempted to explore his newfound ability to shut off pain, but all his efforts were firmly rooted to the cloak. He let the pain-manipulation aspect of his power slide to the back burner and solemnly promised himself to return to it, as soon as he mastered maintaining his cloak on at all times. While he was working on that, he saw no reason not to tackle the group home issue. He contacted every paper that could possibly be interested in writing about the situation. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 To Jack's utter dismay, they all passed on the story. The only thing they were interested in writing about was how teenaged girls were sociopathic, hormonal monsters. Institutionalized corruption seemed to be an unfamiliar term to the journalists he spoke with. All they asked of him was if he had any reason to believe that there was a prostitution ring active inside the home. The only other thing that could peak their interest was if there were any kinds of deadly hazings going on. Jack was disgusted. Instead of reporting the truth, these so-called reporters wanted to spout sensationalistic nonsense. When Jack tried to explain to them that the young women in question were actually good souls, deep down, and just needed a fair shake, the reporters would hang up on him. Jack could scarcely believe the level of cynicism and unprofessionalism the reporters exhibited. He was at a loss for what else he could do to try and help those other girls. He didn't know a single one of them well enough to risk setting out and using his power on the people responsible to fix things. Not with the cloaked figure looming over his every waking hour. Then it occurred to him. He should make all the girls more familiar to the general public. He called up Chrissie and floated the idea of starting up web pages for the girls that were in the home, but she transferred him to the home's boss and the man made it very clear that he would call the police on him and have him charged as a sex offender if he so much as looked at the home ever again. He explicitly forbade Jack from talking to any of the girls and threatened him with legal action. The threat wasn't empty since he was, technically, their legal guardian. After the man was done with his tirade, he hung up on Jack, not allowing him the chance to reply. The threatening tone the man had taken with him told Jack that he had struck a nerve and that gave him hope. He was getting close to something. He reviewed his options and decided that he could only anonymously publish all that he knew online and let the world take action. He needed people to come together to make a difference. After quite a bit of wrangling to get his computer to do what he wanted, Jack managed to put up the website and waited to see what would happen. Pretty soon, Jack's website elicited a response, it just wasn't the one he had hoped for. He didn't know if his phonecall had incriminated him, or if they had hired a hacker, but they knew it was him behind the website. The email with the link to a bestiality porn video that his former friends had sent from his email account was published and used to utterly discredit him. No one bothered to read the truth of his website and the corruption he was trying to expose. Everyone just got on the Dog Boy bandwagon and derided him for his alleged perversions. Worse than that, with his personal information suddenly published online in such a context, he started receiving many disturbing emails and late night calls. The furries offering to let him fuck them in their costumes were almost funny. The righteous who called him to condemn him for his sickness were annoying beyond belief, but he had to change his email and phone number to stop the flow of sick crap he was sent by the actual sickos who regularly fucked animals. The ones with a particularly tenuous connection to reality would try to stop by his house. Spot could smell their intentions from a hundred yards away and he kept them all at bay, using his toothy smile. Jack turned to the charities for help in clearing his name, but they chose to go back on their six years of cooperation and disavowed any affiliation with him. The coordinators told him that if they associated with him anymore, their donations would dry up. When Jack told them he'd be willing to resume training dogs, they still refused to stick up for him. Some of the coordinators told him that it had been strongly hinted to them that the state would deny them tax exempt status, which would end the good work they were trying to do. Alpha Security Solutions called soon after and announced they were ending their collaboration. Two of their dog handlers drove over and collected the seven dogs he was training at the time. They handed him his severance package, along with a letter that formalized the dissolution of their contract. The reason stated in the letter was the fact that his reputation for animal abuse was incompatible with the company's image, which was meant to inspire trust and confidence in both the general public and their clientele. The handlers left with hardly a goodbye. Jack watched them drive off with dismay. Without their recommendation, how was he supposed to get Mia a job promoting events? For all he knew, they were likely going to actively work to prevent her from getting such a job, so even if they tried to get it on their own, they'd get nowhere. This thought bummed him out. He really wanted to give Mia the satisfaction of working and earning her own way in the world. He wanted her to stand tall and take pride in herself. Now that seemed like a pipe dream. With both his charitable and his profitable work taken from him, Jack felt lost. He could scarcely believe that the world could turn on him like that, when all he did was try to do the right thing. He was lacking in guidance and he didn't know what to do. He wondered if he should use his powers to set things right. He found himself wondering where he would draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable use of them. Ultimately, his quandary was quashed by the fear of the cloaked figure somehow detecting him in action. He called his father, breaking their usual pattern of just exchanging perfunctory emails, and tried to ask him for advice on how to weather this shitstorm that had been raised around him. His father was of no help, as he was in a quandary himself. He was offered an executive officer's posting on a destroyer, complete with promotion to commander, and that tempted him because it was potentially a fast track towards a flag rank. His alternative was to stay on the carrier and continue to work towards becoming deputy operations officer. That would allow him to participate in operational trials of new technologies and ensure that he would have a say in the future of the Navy. Jack soundlessly laughed at the irony. He asked his father what the late Jack White would have wanted him to do. His father fell silent for a moment and then they exchanged pleasantries until Jack hung up. Jack started having nightmares about the cloaked figure, which would wake him up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. They would quickly fade from his memory, but the dread they induced in him would linger on. Out of boredom and fear for his safety, he went to the pound and got himself three big dogs he would train as his own security force. It wasn't much, but it was better than just sitting around and stewing in his own fear. Besides, he told himself, if the sickos that like to fuck dogs start showing up in greater numbers, Spot's going to need some backup. ****** It had hurt Mia's heart to learn of the injustice that had been done to Jack by the rest of the school. When his dogs were taken away from him, those feelings came to a boil. He had gotten himself some replacements and was training them, but there was no one who would benefit from the dogs and the whole situation was starting to look heartbreakingly pathetic to her. Jack had done so much good in his young life so far and yet he had gotten nothing but abuse for it. She knew that even his own mother berated him each and every day. They didn't think she did, but she caught snippets of her rants, here and there. They hurt her to hear, especially since she knew the woman was as wrong as she could be. Mia could tell that Janice was basically just venting her frustrations with her own life at Jack and she could also see that Jack knew this to be true. She wanted to step in and intervene and make the older woman see the light, but she never did. Her lifetime of growing up in terrible homes had conditioned her to keep her head down and ignore huge injustices. She would bury her nose in the books and do the work and memorize the lessons and prepare for the next make-up exam she had. Jack deserved her help, she knew. She was grateful to him for the chance he was selflessly giving her, out of the goodness of his own heart, yet it was that very chance that stopped her from speaking up on his behalf in front of his own mother. For the first time in many, many years, she had something she was afraid of losing. A future. She feared that if she were to stand up to Janice, the resulting fracas might cause Jack to lash out at her and deny her the huge chance he was giving her. She hated herself for the inaction, but keeping the peace at the house was of the paramount importance to her and it was something she felt she had to do. Besides, she knew Jack was more than capable of standing up for himself and fighting his own battles. It was his refusal to do so that prompted her worry. Finally, she could no longer stand seeing him lost. She decided to do something about it and, since interfering with his home life was out of the question, she decided to fix his social life and undo the terrible injustice that had been done to him, all in one swoop. She quickly came up with a plan. She would get Jack to take her to the prom, as her date, and get the school to present him with a humanitarian award for his charitable work. It would be a sort of group apology for treating him like a leper for the two years he had spent there. The more she thought about her plan, the more she liked it. Especially in light of the fact that only the most clueless of jocks had asked her to the prom. Even if Jack wasn't in the picture, she would never go out with the likes of them. Particularly not on prom night. She had to tell them no many times over for their tiny brains to finally register the refusal over the sound of their humungous egos deflating. All the other girls in the cheerleading squad would talk about turning down this cute guy, or that one, and delight in the choice of dates they had for the prom. Mia found herself hating them since a combination of her spectacular looks and reputation for dating only older men scared off all the dateable boys in school. She felt sure that she could get any one of them to take her to prom if she asked them, but she wanted Jack to take her and she wanted to be asked, just like any other girl. She found herself getting excited at the very thought of Jack taking her to prom and eagerly imagined which dress she would wear. Whenever the girls asked her who was taking her to the prom, she would just smile and tell them it was a surprise. There was, of course, one hitch to the whole thing. In order to get anyone to believe the truth about Jack, she would have to find the letters and video testimonials from the people who had received his dogs. Those would also make for a terrific montage to play on the video wall at the prom before Jack would be called up to the stage to receive his award. Jack had taken the letters and videos when she had first found them and he had hidden them somewhere, but she had no idea where. She guessed she'd find them in his room, but to search it, she would need him to finally leave the house while she was there. Jack only left the house for any kind of significant amount of time while she was at school. What she needed was a distraction. She needed someone, or something, to get Jack to leave the house long enough for her to search his room. She sat down to have lunch when she saw them. Jack's three friends, whose names escaped her, were sitting on the other side of the school's cafeteria. She briefly hesitated to approach them for their help in getting Jack out of the house, what with the flagpole incident and all, but she figured that enough time had passed since then and that they would be interested in helping their friend. She felt bad about having done that to them, but she told herself that it had only been a practical joke that had gone a little too far. If all else failed, she could always just charm them to help her. She'd done that to geeks time and again to keep herself from flunking a year. She was wearing her cheerleading uniform and it was the ultimate prop for twirling boys around her little finger. She took a deep breath, checked her hair and makeup in her small, handheld mirror, and then put on a smile as she walked over to them. "Hey, guys," she said to them, pleasantly. The three boys froze in place and looked at her in terror. She put a hand over her chest, hoping to draw their eyes to her bust. "I'm Mia and I'd like to talk to you about-" "Are you fucking kidding me," one of them said, sounding shocked. Another chuckled bitterly. Mia didn't know if the chuckle was aimed at her, or at his friend's remark. "Um, no," she said, trying to sound more confident that she felt, "I'm serious, you guys. I-" "You, y-you think that we wouldn't know your name," the third one spoke up. She smiled and discreetly gestured down at her brief outfit. "Well, I am the head of the squad, so-" "You're also the rabid cunt that had us stripped naked and taped to the flagpole," the third said, interrupting her. "We're not likely to forget that any time soon." Mia laughed politely, despite feeling bad, and said, "Yes, true, we did play some jokes and have some fun-" "Fun," the boy exclaimed as he stood up. His chair clattered behind him loudly before toppling over. The noise drew every eye in the cafeteria towards them. "Fun!? Are you fucking shitting me!? Fun!? We most certainly did not have fun, you crazy bitch!" A teacher ran over, drawn by the sounds of the commotion. "Mister Cooper," he shouted, "report to the vice principal's office, right now! This is going to go on your record!" "You're a fucking joke, Kaczinsky," one of the seated boys yelled at the teacher. "You too, Mister Barnes," Kaczinsky said. Steve Cooper marched off towards the door, followed by John Barnes. Mia winced as she finally remembered their names. The situation had not turned out the way she had hoped it would and she was definitely feeling bad for what she had done to them in the past. She turned towards Rob Torrance. "I'm so sorry for what I did to you guys! You gotta believe me! I-" "Fuck you, you fucking cunt," Rob said, standing up. "Mister Torrance," Kaczinsky said and pointed after his friends. Rob ignored the teacher as he sneered at Mia and said, "If you think a simple, fucking 'sorry' is gonna cut it, then you're even dumber than you look, bitch!" "That's enough, Mister Torrance," Kaczinsky bellowed. "No, it's not, you fucking cunt," Rob yelled right back at the teacher. Mia cupped her hands over her mouth and whispered, "I'm really sorry, Rob!" "Go choke on a fucking dick and die, you goddamned cunt," Rob yelled at her. "That's it," Kaczinsky yelled. "This school has a zero tolerance policy regarding death threats, Mister Torrance!" "And yet the school has an ample tolerance policy for humiliating and violating students," Rob said. "To the vice principal's office," Kaczinsky yelled and pointed to the door, where John and Steve waited for Rob. "Fuck you," Rob said, flipping a bird right at Kaczinsky's face. The middle aged teacher seemed to be struggling with his composure as he balled up his fists. To Mia, it looked like they might come to blows at any moment. She flinched when Rob rounded on her and flipped her the bird, too. "Fuck you, too!" He turned to the rest of the cafeteria and flipped them off with both fingers. "And fuck all you faggot motherfuckers!" A smattering of applause was heard throughout the cafeteria as Rob stomped off to follow his friends out the door. Kaczinsky glared at the applauders and then ran off to follow the trio. The entire cafeteria turned back to their meals and seemed to forget all about the incident in a matter of seconds. Mia walked back to the cheerleader table while her stomach tied itself into knots. As loathe as she was to admit it, she had wronged those boys and she had wronged them terribly. Her ruminations were interrupted as soon as she sat down at the cheerleading table and the rest of the squad present started to ask her about why she had gone over to the losers' table in the first place. She waved them off and tried to deflect their questions, but she only succeeded to quench their suspicions when she said she was planning to lure them somewhere and play a practical joke on them. Lisa, Mia's second-in-command of the squad, laughed and brushed out her long, wavy, blonde hair. "There's nothing you can do to those boys you hadn't already done," she said and held up her smartphone. The photos of the boys, naked and taped to the flagpole, were on its screen. "As long as these are still online, those losers will spend each and every day of their lives knowing just how pathetic they are." Mia excused herself to go to the bathroom and left the table. Lisa had a point. As long as those pictures were still online, she had no business even trying to apologize for them. She hesitated only briefly before making up her mind. She dialed the number of one of the guys that had put the pics up on his website. "Ramon? Hi! It's me, Mia. We need to meet." ****** Jack was contacted by some people from Alpha Security Solutions who wanted to offer their support. Apparently, everyone except for the upper echelons of management thought that he had been given a raw deal. A small group of employees was so disgusted by how the company treated him that there was even talk of going on strike and demanding the company re-hire him, sever their contract with the group home and expose the shenanigans and neglect that went on in there. Jack was touched by the news, but he put a stopper on their efforts. He couldn't find the time to train Alpha's dogs, even if they wanted to pay him more money than they had. Training his cloak was priority number one. He thanked his former colleagues for their support and they repeatedly made him promise to take them up on their offers of free admission to any club, or event, they were doing security for. Jack had been avoiding going on another vision quest ever since he had felt how hard the mentalists had been hit by the loss of their powers. The unexpected support he was given, the knowledge that people he hardly knew would be willing to risk their jobs and livelihoods to right a wrong that was done to him made him feel ashamed for sitting on his ass. He sacked up, made some pot brownies and ate them. While he waited for the pot to take effect, he began his meditative practices. He kept his mind open and asked no question, wanting to see what would come up on its own. Pretty soon, his meditative state deepened and he found himself inside a dark movie theatre. He was all alone and the only light was that of the projector. He feared seeing a movie about the evil, power-stealing mentalist. The mood and setting were similar. On the screen before him was a black and white picture of a car weaving through the streets. It was accompanied by suspenseful and thrilling music, which reminded Jack of Hitchcock's classics. As he watched the movie, he realized it was all very familiar. The streets looked exactly like the streets of his town, despite being in black and white. There were two passengers inside the car, but he couldn't quite make out who they were from behind. Neither of them was wearing a dark cloak. Soon, the car drove out of town and started to drive down a nature road. Jack would normally be bored to tears by a movie that detailed a car drive, but the music was very suspenseful and it made him feel like something horrible was about to happen. He didn't know what exactly about the music it was, perhaps it was just the sense of imminent urgency, but it seemed to hint to him that what he was seeing had not yet happened. He focused on the route the car was taking and paid special attention to the landmarks it passed. If he got lucky, he might be able to ride out there real quick and find the cloaked figure in time to unmask him, or her, and save a fellow mentalist. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 By the time the car parked in the middle of the woods, the music swelled into a nerve-wracking crescendo and Jack barely managed to keep his mental picture of the car's location straight. The thumping music was completely in tune with his beating heart and a deep feeling of dread was washing all over him. It was punctuated by shrill notes. It sounded like the strings' section of the orchestra playing the score was screaming at him to go before it was too late. Jack's adrenaline peaked and he was ready for action, but he sat still and watched the screen in the darkness until the car doors opened. A black and white Mia jumped out of the passenger side door, wearing her cheerleading uniform. The bright blue of her eyes was the only color on the screen, but Jack couldn't admire them as they were open wide in utter terror. She ran from the car and the driver got out to run after her. Jack finally recognized the driver. He had seen his face before. He was one of the guys that used to drive Mia around. He had also posted the flagpole photos online and was one of the three assholes Mia had persuaded to kidnap Jack and take him to the forest. The music suddenly stopped and the silence echoed throughout Jack's mind, as if it was the loudest cannon ever fired. A single voice was heard. It was full of malice as it said, "I'm gonna fuck yo' ass, cunt!" Mia's shriek of terror snapped Jack out of his vision and he bolted to the door, not bothering to put his cloak up. He grabbed his car key and ran to the SUV. He gunned it like crazy and drove towards where he had seen the car go in his vision. His heart pounded in his chest as he ran several red lights in a row. Cars swerved and honked, but he paid them no mind as he rushed across town, hoping against hope that he wasn't going to be too late. He dialed her number, but got the standard message that the user was unavailable, or out of range. ****** Mia looked out the window and realized Ramon was driving them out of town and not towards his own place. "Hey, Ramon," she said, confused, "where are we going?" He gestured nonchalantly out the windscreen. "Just over there a bit. Wanna show you something." "Ok, but then we'll go back to your place and you'll take down those pictures, right?" "Yeah, sure." Mia swallowed and suddenly felt nervous. There was something in his voice. Ramon had sounded amicable and cool when she had called him earlier and asked him to meet her. He agreed, right off the bat, to take down the pics and that made her heart swell with relief. She had gotten into his car when he asked and felt very happy that her atonement towards Jack's friends was going to start in earnest. Now, though, she was feeling anything but happiness. "So, where are we going?" "You'll see when we get there." Mia looked out at the dwindling signs of civilization they were leaving behind them. She slowly lifted her leg and put her foot on the seat. Her phone was in her sock and she rubbed her sweaty palms over her short skirt as she prepared to reach for it. Her nervousness graduated into full-blown fear when she caught the look in Ramon's eyes. He was ogling her, sitting next to him in a semi-obscene position while wearing her cheerleader uniform. She bit her lip and regretted not changing out of it before he had picked her up. When Ramon faced forward, she carefully and very slowly managed to slip her hand into her sock and pull out the phone. She could only see that she had no signal on it before he grabbed it out of her hand. "Hey, that's mine!" "Actually, bitch, it's mine! I bought it, I paid for it, it's mine!" "You gave it to me! Now give it back!" "Yeah, I gave it to you," he said and bunched up his brow, as if he was contemplating a deep, philosophical issue, "and what did I get in return for it? Nada! I think it's time you start giving something back, chica!" Mia's heart skipped a beat when their eyes met. She could see the malice in his eyes. He was going to hurt her. He was going to rape her. She hyperventilated in her seat and looked around for any sign of anyone that might be around to help her. She found none. She was all alone with him. "Ramon, come on, man! We're friends. Friends don't treat each other like this." Ramon laughed like she had just told him the funniest joke in the world. "We're not friends, chica. Friends don't act like cock teases to their friends. You've been flirting with me for over a year and I got nothing from you. I'm done with that shit! I bought you your phone! I bought you your clothes! I took you out to eat, whenever you wanted to go! It's time for you to pay up, bitch! It's time for that sweet ass to be mine!" Mia blinked back her tears. "It's ok, Ramon. Everything is going to be ok! I can make it good for you. We can-" "Weren't you listening, bitch!? I'm done with the junior prom shit! It's time for some grown-up shit, right now!" He looked around. There was nothing around them but trees. "This place is as good as any." He stepped on the brakes. Mia opened her door and jumped out of the car before it even came to a full stop. Ramon reached over to stop her, but he only grabbed half a fistful of skirt that slipped out of his fingers. He growled and then went out his own door to go chase after her, screaming, "I'm gonna fuck yo' ass, cunt!" Mia ran as fast as she ever had, but she soon found herself surrounded by low hanging tree branches on all sides. She didn't know which way was which and she had lost track of Ramon. She floundered uncertainly until she heard him roar, "You're mine, bitch!" She turned towards the sound of his voice and saw him bearing straight down on her. She tried to dash to the side and avoid his grasping arms, but he caught her by the hand. His grip on her wrist was like a vice and he had her on her knees with just one tug. He twined a hand in her hair and pulled her back towards his car. She cried and begged and pleaded with him to stop, but he paid her no mind and kept dragging her along. When she managed to brace her feet against a stump and put up some resistance, he snarled, "Do you want me to bend you over that stump and fuck yo' ass right here, or are we going to the back seat of my car?!" She screamed for help, but he shook her by the hair and yelled, "Stop that! What's it gonna be?! Here, or in the car?" She relaxed her legs and let him drag her to the car, grateful for even a second's reprieve from the imminent rape. She wished Jack was there. She wished someone would come along and save her. Anyone would do. She sobbed quietly and pleaded with Ramon through her tears. Suddenly, Ramon stopped dead in his tracks. "What the fuck...?" Mia looked up and saw Jack standing by Ramon's car. His own was parked right behind it. Before she could even react, Jack dashed at Ramon, holding up a piece of paper with a squiggly line on it and hissing loudly and ferociously. To Mia's shock, Ramon squealed in pants-shitting terror and ran away, letting go of her. Her legs gave out in relief and Jack caught her right before she managed to fall flat on her face. He gently lifted her upright, looked into her teary eyes and then hugged her tight. She wailed her lungs out in his embrace. All the emotion of the day was pouring out of her at once. She couldn't stop herself even if she wanted to. It just felt so good to be in his arms. ****** Jack was very uncomfortable with her emotional outburst. He had come just in the nick of time to save her from getting raped, he had seen that much when he had taken over Ramon's mind, and yet, she was utterly hysterical. He had hoped she would show more restraint that this. "You're ok," he whispered softly into her ear, but those tender words only made her sound even more miserable. "You're safe now." Mia refused to let go of him, or be moved, and kept emitting the most heartrending sounds of misery that he had ever heard. As he stood there unsuccessfully comforting her, he realized the reason her crying was disturbing him so much was because he was still under the effects of hallucinogens. He was starting to feel a huge freakout coming his way and it was being beckoned ever closer by her cries. He decided he needed to calm her with his power, for both their sakes. If he had some kind of freakout, he might wind up broadcasting his position to the cloaked figure, somehow. It sounded a bit preposterous, even inside his own head, but he didn't want to risk anything of the kind. He began to softly chant, "You're ok." Jack dropped his cloak. He converted his worry and rage into panic and slipped into Mia's mind, guided by his soft chanting. Jack quickly calmed himself down and allowed himself to enjoy some peace and quiet. He told himself that he was safe and that all the bad things were behind him now. There was no need for tears. He snapped back into his own mind to hear Mia stop bawling. She sobbed a little more and sniffed her nose repeatedly. When he let go of her, she gave him a squeeze. "Thank you so much," she said with a broken voice. "You got it," he earnestly said. "C'mon, I'll take you home!" Before they got into the car, Mia said, "Do you have a knife, or something?" "Yeah, sure," Jack said and retrieved his toolbox from the trunk. He handed her the knife and she used it to slash all four tires on Ramon's car. He nodded in approval and they drove away. After he navigated his car back into town, he asked her, "Why did you meet up with that guy?" "I wanted to get him to take down the photos of your friends. You know, the ones with the flagpole and duct tape?" Jack nodded. He certainly didn't mind what she had done to them. A big part of him was tempted to do even worse to the two-timing backstabbers, but a single image of Steve's dad curled up in the corner was enough to defuse his anger. "Why? Why would you want to do that?" Mia swallowed nervously. "Well... because they're your friends and I... I hurt them. I did them wrong and I want to make amends." Her voice hitched a little. "I want to stop being the kind of girl that I was... before. Before I... before you took me in and showed me that..." She cleared her throat and looked out the side window. She was quiet for a minute. "I was raised to lash out at anyone that even looks like they might look at me wrong someday. Everyone I ever stayed with made it clear to me. Either I was top dog, or I was nothing. I'm not... I don't want to be that kind of person anymore, Jack. I really don't." Their eyes met for a moment. Hers were watery, but there was fire in them, as well. "I had a mother and father, once," she said. Her voice was calm and full of conviction. "I know they would be ashamed of what I've become. I'm going to change. I'm going to be a better person. For them, for me, for everyone's sake, I'm going to do it!" "I'm glad, Mia. I really am. I'll help you in any way that I can." "Thank you, Jack! You're already giving me everything I could possibly need." "Just one thing, don't ever try to take down those photos again, ok?" "But..." "I mean it! That guy is dangerous and removing them from his website is useless, since half the kids at school have them on their phones. They're all over the internet, too, not just the websites of the other two dudes. There are even demotivational posters made with them." He smiled. "Those are actually pretty funny, I'll show them to you, sometime. But, seriously, John, Rob and Steve aren't my friends. They never were. I just thought they were." "What do you mean?" "Those three fuckers had spread lies about me for years to make everyone think what they do about me and the work I did with dogs. They're dead to me. In fact, if you ever feel like you're losing your way and get the temptation to slide back into the bad habits of old, I'd really like it if you took it out on the three of them." Mia raised her eyebrows at him. "Seriously. Those fuckers deserve everything they get." "Ok," Mia said, sounding unconvinced. Jack's fearsome reputation sprung up again in her mind, scaring her with the many tales of mayhem that circulated about him. She told herself she was being silly. She had never really believed them in the first place and she definitely didn't believe them now, not after seeing who he really was. Still, the casual way he dismissed and wished harm on his friends, or ex-friends, gave her pause and made her think. For one thing, it was clear to her that her plan to get him out of the house was going to need some serious retooling. By the time they arrived back at the house, Mia was completely calm and collected. Looking at her, one wouldn't believe that she had just had a close call with rape. Quite the contrary, her face was serene and her demeanor cheerful. She spent the rest of the day studying, while Jack spent it thinking. For the first time in a while, the cloaked figure wasn't first and foremost on his mind. It seemed to him that he had seen the future. The very near future, but the future, nonetheless. It had taken him almost twelve minutes to get to Ramon's car, but he had seen in the man's mind that it had taken him no more than a few minutes to catch Mia and drag her back to the car. As near as Jack could tell, he had received a warning of what was going to happen a full ten minutes in advance. He was beset with questions beyond count about the full extent of his power and he knew he could find no easy answers anywhere. He would have to get to the truth of the matter on his own, essentially by experimenting and using marihuana. He didn't want to turn into The Dude from "The Big Lebowski", especially with the cloaked figure lurking out there, somewhere. He wondered if the lack of mental fatigue after taking Ramon's mind was due to him taking on just one mind, or if it had been the pot somehow empowering him. His head hurt from thinking about his power, the cloaked figure, predestination, temporal paradoxes and fate, so he turned in early. Thankfully, he didn't have another nightmare about the cloaked figure that night. He woke up in the morning, cloaked his mind and cheerfully did his morning ablutions. He sauntered down the stairs and sat down for breakfast. Janice was her usual, taciturn self, but Mia was a little off. She didn't look as pretty as she always did. Her hair was a little messy and her face was a bit blotchy. Her eyes were the worst part of her. There were bags under them and they stared off into space as she listlessly picked at her food. When Jack asked her if anything was wrong, they darted around wildly and she mumbled some excuse to try and get him to stop paying attention to her. After breakfast, he walked her to his car and started driving around town to drop her off near school. "So, what is it," Mia said, apropos of nothing. "Sorry? What was that? What is what?" He spared her a glance. She was looking away from him. After a few long moments of silence, she said, "What did you do?" "I'm going to need a little more information than that." "Don't play dumb with me! What did you do to Ramon in the woods yesterday?" "I didn't do anything," Jack said. He kept his eyes on the road. He now realized he had completely screwed the pooch when he had used his power right in front of her, in the heat of the moment. She had, seemingly, completely missed it when he had done it the first time in the woods and he had half-expected her to ignore it this time, as well. "Don't you lie to me, Jack Watts! You did something." "Like what? What do you mean?" He spared her another quick glance. She was glaring at him. "One minute, Ramon was all set to rape me and the next he was squealing like a little bitch and running off into the woods. And the thing that sent him running was you hissing at him with a piece of paper in your hand. What the fuck was that all about?!" "I don't know," Jack said and shrugged. "Maybe you should ask him." "You did the same thing at Brian's cabin in the woods, didn't you? I was in the car then, so I didn't see what you did, but you had some papers then, too. You did something to them when they opened the trunk and they went running, like scared, little bitches." He shook his head. "I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you should ask your friends about all that." "And Bozo? How the hell did you know about that?" Her voice was angry and Jack didn't know what to do, so he decided to just keep feigning ignorance until she gave up. "Bozo? What are you on about?" "I hadn't thought about that in years and then you looked me in the eye and I thought about it and then you knew! You knew what no one could know! You're a witch!" "Witch? Bozo? Mia, you're not making any sense at all. What has gotten into you?" She punched his shoulder and screamed, "You have! You've gotten into my mind! You're a witch and you're inside my head!" She growled with anger and started punching him repeatedly over the head and side. "Quit it! I'm driving! Stop!" She wasn't letting up, so Jack pulled the car over. They were on the edge of the town, close to the cannery, and the only people around them were the few that were driving past them. "Mia, calm down!" "How can I be calm, when you're in my mind!?" She kept punching him and finally landed a hit square on his nose. His eyes watered and his nose went numb from the impact. She showed no signs of stopping, so he undid his belt and got out. She reached for his door to close and lock it after him, but her seatbelt stopped her. Jack reached in and got his keys. He walked away from the car, pressing his hand gingerly to his nose, and looked around to make sure there weren't any people in earshot. Mia got out of the car and ran after him, screaming and growling unintelligibly. She resumed her flurry of punches and Jack evaded them by stepping backwards. It wasn't like there was much force behind her punches. "Mia! Stop! Stop it!" She swept her leg around and kicked him in the hip. Unlike the punches of her thin arms, the kicks of her toned legs were powerful and Jack saw stars for an instant. He caught her leg by the ankle when she tried to land another kick and held it up in the air. "Stop it," he urged her. Mia's gymnastic prowess showed when she responded to his request by hopping her other foot atop one of his, landing with her full weight on it. Jack yelped and let go of her. Before he could raise his foot to nurse it, she changed her footing and delivered a sweeping kick to his middle. The wind exploded out of Jack's lungs and his vision grew instantly dim. He dropped his cloak and the realization sent a new rush of adrenaline through his veins. Mia pulled her arm back and leaned in to land a haymaker on his jaw. He caught her fist and sent a quick, low jab her way. He connected with her stomach and made her double over. She placed both hands over her navel and slowly sank to her knees, groaning all the way. Jack pinched the base of his nose and tried to fill his lungs with air. His solar plexus was throbbing with pain, preventing him from using all of his diaphragm. He stood bent over and she knelt in front of him until they caught their breaths and stood up straight. Jack used the break to come up with a convincing lie and he put up his cloak as soon as he could. "I'm not in your mind, Mia," he said. "I'm not in anyone's mind. This is real life, not a sci-fi movie. I scared your friends in the woods, that's true. I'm not proud of how I did it, but I did it without the use of any supernatural powers." She rolled her eyes in disbelief. "I can tell you how, but you've got to promise me you'll keep it a secret!" She nodded her head. "I had a gun, ok? You can ask around in school. I turned it in to the cops anonymously and they came to ask about where I got it in the first place. They still don't know it was me and I'd prefer it if they never found out. As for yesterday, Ramon must have ran cause he thought that I still had the gun and was going to shoot him." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03 "What about the drawings," she asked. "I was trying to write notes asking for help and somehow push them out of the trunk to leave a trail of breadcrumbs the cops could follow to come rescue me." She looked unconvinced. "I was being bumped around in the dark, scared out of my mind, so they didn't come out right. Yesterday, I just used one to mess with Ramon's head." "And Bozo?" "I chatted with someone online, ages ago, and they told me all about it. I only mentioned it after you went after Rivers, cause she's a nice girl and she didn't deserve to get picked on like that." "Who? Who did you chat with?" "I didn't know their name, just their screen name. And I forgot it since then." Mia considered his words for a moment and then shook her head. "No," she firmly said. "I'm not buying that. If you're not a witch, then how come you came to save me in the woods? How did you know I was in trouble? How did you know where to go and when to get there?" "I'm not a witch, Mia! I was driving through town when I saw you drive past me while I was waiting at a red light. I wanted to know why you weren't in school and I followed you as best I could. You were lucky I did. You should be grateful I did." "Bullshit! I looked around all the time, but there were no cars around when we got off the paved roads!" Jack spread his arms wide. "So I suck at following cars! Sue me! I'm not a trained spy! Seriously, what has gotten into you, Mia?" "You did!" She marched over to the car and retrieved her book bag. She then started walking down Lincoln Boulevard towards the high school. "Where are you going? Mia, come back! It's half an hour's walk to school from here. You'll be late for class!" "Stay away from me, Jack Watts!" He started following her and yelled, "What's going on, Mia!?" "Don't you play innocent with me! You know damn well what you're doing to me!" He caught up with her and grabbed her by the elbow to make her stop. "What? What am I doing to you?" She pulled her elbow out of his grasp and tapped her temple repeatedly. "You've cast spells on me. Don't deny it! We both know it's true." "Mia, are you ok? You sound crazy." "Fuck you!" She turned around and resumed marching to school. "Mia, talk to me!" She ignored him and sped up to a light jog. "Mia, let's go back to the car! I'll take you to school, I promise! Just, talk to me!" He ran until he overtook her. She was crying silently and heaving big gulps of air. She stopped and started hyperventilating. She pointed an accusatory finger at his face and made to speak for a long time before saying, "You've spelled me, somehow. You've changed me. Look at me!" She took her schoolbag off her shoulder and held it up. "Look at me! I'm studying! I haven't studied for years and now I've been studying for a month straight! I'm spending several hours, each and every day, on math and science and literature and shit." She dropped her bag and lowered her arms. "What did you do to me, Jack? What did you do to me? This isn't me." "I didn't do anything to you. I just gave you a chance and you took it. This is all you. You want to finish high school. You want to do better." "How am I supposed to know that? You're a witch! You could have cast a spell to make me believe all that! You could change my mind about everything. You probably already did!" "Mia, come on!" She raised her hands and said, "No! Get away from me! And I'm not going back to your house, ever again! I'm done with being your little plaything! Stay away from me!" "Where will you go? What will you do?" "I'm going to the police to report you!" She moved around him and started walking away. "Do you realize how crazy you sound? They'll lock you up in an asylum somewhere." "Let them! Maybe I'll be safe from you and your powers on the right medication." He caught up with her again. "Look, Mia! Wait! Calm down! You're just having a panic attack, ok? You're stressed about your future and overworked in school and you had a shock in the woods yesterday and it's all piling up for you. You just need to blow off some steam and you'll be ok! Come on! You can blow off one day of school and I'll take you someplace nice and you can relax and-" "And have my mind altered again by you and your magic potions, or whatever?" "Where are you coming up with this crap?" "Swear to me! Swear to me that you're not a witch!" He stood firm and stared her right in the eye as he said, "I swear to you that I am not a witch. Nor am I a warlock, a summoner, a necromancer, a sorcerer, or any kind of magician. I swear it!" Fresh tears ran down Mia's cheeks and she shook her head. "See? You're lying to my face." She sobbed and tried to get past him. He grabbed her by the shoulders and said, "Mia, I'm not lying to you about not being a witch. You need to-" "No! No! Shut up! I'm not listening to any more lies! You're gonna let me go now and I'm gonna walk to school! If you are ready to tell me the truth, then you can come pick me up from school this afternoon. If you're not, then I guess we'll never see each other again." She broke free of his grasp and ran off. He watched her go and sighed in frustration. He didn't know what to do, but telling her the truth seemed like a very bad idea. He was cloaking his mind to keep the cloaked figure from sensing him and telling her would be defeating that purpose. It would be like painting a sign over her head that read, "Your next victim is this guy over here," and it would be pointed right at him. "Don't go telling people about this," he called after her. "They might think you're crazy!" He didn't know how to make her forget something. He had only used his power to read minds and slightly influence them. He guessed he could have her disregard the idea that he had any supernatural powers from now on, but he was hesitant to try it. The cloaked figure must be doing such things fairly often and the risk of the two of them doing it on a similar person at the same time was not to be ignored, as far as Jack was concerned. He had to come up with something, however, and he had to do it quick. From the sheer number of mentalists the cloaked figure had depowered, Jack surmised it must be actively looking for its victims. Mia's assumptions about him being a witch would be just the kind of clue he'd use if he was the cloaked figure. "Fuck me," he whispered bitterly as he watched her go. "What am I gonna do?" A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 Over_Red has found some free time this month and he's edited this installment of the series. Yay! I've already sent him part five and he'll edit it as soon as he's done writing chapter ten of Dream Drive, so that'll be up soon, too. Enjoy! ******* Jack Watts drove to the spot where he picked up Mia after school each day. He was too nervous to sit behind the wheel, so he got out. He paced the sidewalk as he looked off into the distance, hoping she'd come soon. He honestly didn't know if she was going to show up this time. He had no clue what he would do if she didn't, just as he had no clue what to do if she did. He had mulled over his options the whole morning long, even while he had been training his three new guard dogs and meditating to prolong his cloaking ability. He had rescued her from getting raped by Ramon yesterday in the woods. He had used his powers on Ramon in a wooded area once before, but she had not seen it for what it was back then. This time, she had, even though she had jumped to the assumption that Jack was a witch. The ridiculousness of the accusation gave him hope that she would not repeat it to anyone else. Even if she did, people would probably not take her seriously. He had no idea how to disabuse her of the notion without using his power on her mind and he was terrified of somehow making a resonant connection with the cloaked figure if he did that. His best chance of dealing with her suspicions would be to just blatantly deny them until she gave up. He still had doubts over whether it would work. She had been so fervent this morning. So zealous. He checked the time as he paced. She was the queen bee of the school and she would take some time to chat with her fellow cheerleaders after last period ended, or she'd preside over a gathering in the parking lot, making her arrival time to this spot vary by as much as ten minutes from day to day. He again checked the time on his phone. She should arrive there in three to thirteen minutes. Usually, he played some music while he waited, but he was too nervous for that now. He kept pacing the sidewalk and lifting his gaze towards the corner, expecting her to pop out from behind it at any moment. He dreaded it at the same time. When she finally came around the corner, she hesitated for a moment and then walked right up to him. Before he could say anything, she said, "I'm so sorry, Jack. Please, forgive me! I didn't mean to blow up on you like that this morning. I don't know what came over me." He nearly collapsed with relief. "It's ok, Mia," he softly said. "You had a terrible shock yesterday and you needed to vent some steam. I get it. It's to be expected. You're under a lot of pressure, what with school and graduation and everything. I've been thinking, maybe we ought to find someone for you to talk with about what happened yesterday." "What do you mean?" She frowned and put her fists on her hips. "You think I've gone crazy?" He gulped at her harsh tone of voice. "No! No, I don't! That's not what I think." "Then what?!" He held his hands up in a reconciliatory gesture. "I just think that... attempted sexual assault is a terrible thing and that anyone that goes through such an experience should be given every chance to work through it. That's all." She glared at him for a few seconds and then firmly said, "I don't need to have my head shrinked!" "Shrunk," he corrected. Off her glare, he quickly added, "I didn't mean a psychiatrist, I meant a psychologist. You know, just someone whom you can go see and talk with, whenever you liked. No pills, no... anything. Just talking." She mulled over his words and then sighed and nodded. "Can we go home now? I need your help with chemistry." "Yeah, sure." He opened the car door for her and then got behind the wheel. "I'm sorry for kicking you in the gut," she said as he pulled away from the curb. "That's ok. I'm really sorry for punching you in the gut." She smiled. "It's ok, I'll live." He returned her smile and felt a tremendous sense of relief flood over him. "So, I asked some people," she said. "Turns out, the cops really are sniffing around to see who sent them a gun that was stolen, like, ages ago." "You didn't say anything, did you?" He looked at her. He was surprised to see her impish grin. For an instant, he thought he could see an admiring glint in her eye. He quickly faced forward to see where he was driving. He ignored the urge to go reading her mind. "No," she said. "I didn't say anything. Did you carry that piece with you everywhere you went?" He squirmed in his seat and floundered for words. "Never mind! I don't wanna know. You're not carrying now, right?" "No, of course not," he emphatically said. "I don't screw around with guns. Uh, I mean... I don't do that anymore." "Good." All talk of the topic ended with that word. He drove them home, where they had some lunch and then worked on making her ready for her chemistry exam. Janice avoided them, as usual, and the day brought no new surprises. That night, Jack sat in his room, going over Mia's words and mood swings from earlier in the day. He didn't know what was going on inside her head. He feared that she might lead the cloaked figure straight to him, if she still believed him to have supernatural powers of any kind. He needed to know which way her thinking was headed. He retrieved his stash of marihuana. Smoking it was out of the question, as the smell might alert Janice to it, so he chose to eat it. He grimaced at the taste and swallowed it down as fast as he could. He decided he'd never eat it again, unless it was baked into something tasty. He washed the taste down with some water and then began his meditative exercises. Fairly quickly, he achieved a state of mental clarity and the high kicked in, activating his clairvoyant abilities. Despite wanting to know what Mia was thinking, he first focused on the aspects of his power that he had recently discovered. The cartoon dog showed up in his room with a soft bark of greeting. Jack smiled at it and thought about seeing the future. The dog gave a series of soft barks, crushing Jack's timid hopes of winning the lottery. The dog told him he wasn't precognitive. Instead of reading the future, he had been able to foresee the behavior of two people whose minds he had previously read. Mia and Ramon had made decisions that would have lasting, emotional consequences for Jack. Since he had been open yesterday and willing to allow anything to come into his mind, he had subconsciously picked up on those decisions. Once Mia agreed to get in Ramon's car, their actions had already been determined by their personalities and agendas. Jack's subconscious had enough knowledge of both their minds to correctly predict their every action and reaction, enabling him to see how it would all play ahead of time, since the two of them were the only agents in the vision. Jack was disappointed to learn that, instead of having precognitive abilities, he could only see what people whose minds he had visited would do when they were alone together. He bit back his disappointment and focused on the second new aspect of his powers. His ability to shut off pain. The dog's barks happily informed him that he had used his power on himself to make himself think his pain had lessened. It was just another application of his mind control powers. He could order his mind to ignore the stimulus, but the pain and its cause were unaffected. This is bullshit! I can't see the future, I can't heal myself... He thought about using his pain management power on others. The dog's soft barks clarified that he could make anyone think they were receiving any kind of stimuli. With his power, he could make people think they were on fire, when they weren't, or make them experience anything else he wanted to make them feel. He could project powerful illusions into the minds of others, but they were only illusions in the end. "You are such a buzzkill," he dejectedly said to the cartoon dog. The dog's yip sounded like a flippant, if wordless, retort. Jack thought of what was going on in Mia's mind, lately. The dog gave a growl and Jack understood the instruction. He closed his eyes and began a meditative exercise. He found himself in a darkened movie theatre. Mia's voice came through the surround sound speakers, saying, "Yes, Master." Jack looked up at the screen and saw her stripping. Her blue eyes were vacant. He frowned in confusion, at first, but then Mia's naked figure was displayed before his eyes, in IMAX quality. His eyes eagerly devoured the sight of her body. "Kneel before me!" Jack frowned. The commanding voice coming from the speakers sounded just like his. "Yes, Master." Mia knelt down before a dressed man and the camera zoomed out to reveal Jack standing before her. "What the..." Jack muttered in his seat. On the screen, Jack commanded Mia to take his cock out of his pants and suck it. Mia's eyes were still vacant, but she wore a slight smile as she obeyed his order with a, "Yes, Master." Jack watched in confusion as the cock of the Jack on the screen was revealed to be a bit bigger than his, and also circumcised, unlike his own. "What is this?" Jack asked. "Like what you see?" Mia's voice came from behind his left ear, making him jump in his seat. He spun and saw Mia sitting in the seat behind his and to the left. A faint, red glow illuminated her figure in the dark of the theater. She was wearing a red and black corset from which hung suspenders that were holding up her sheer, red stockings. Red, silky gloves covered her hands. Red, high-heeled shoes were on her feet. She crossed her legs and put an elbow on her knee to rest her chin in her hand. "Who are you? What's going on?" Mia grinned. "I am Mia's libido. You wanted to know what was going on inside her head right now?" She nodded at the screen. "That's what." Jack spun around to glance at Mia obediently sucking his cock on the screen. He turned back around and gave her libido a shake of his head. "She's imagining that you have cast a spell on her and turned her into your sex slave." "Why would she do that?" The red version of Mia looked at him like he was daft. "A girl needs a fantasy. How else is she supposed to masturbate?" Jack's eyebrows rose and his mouth fell open. "She... she's masturbating? Right now?" Red Mia nodded and smiled like the cat that got the canary. "Lying under your roof, not ten feet away from you, on the other side of a thin wall, her fingers are gliding over her bare skin. And her mind is embroiled in this scenario." She turned her attention to the screen once again. Jack faced forward and watched himself on the screen give Mia the order to keep his cum in her mouth. Screen Jack came inside her face and then pulled out. He ordered her to stick her tongue out and show it to him. He said, "Good girl," to her, sounding like he was praising a dog. He then ordered her to swallow it down and enjoy the taste. "Yes, Master," was her reply after she swallowed his load. Screen Jack ordered her to undress him while rubbing herself up against his body. After she finished, he ordered her to lie down on a big, four-poster bed that suddenly appeared behind them. With her customary reply, she obeyed. Screen Jack ordered her to spread her legs and masturbate, but not cum. "Yes, Master." Jack watched Mia's hands slide down her abdomen towards the juncture of her thighs. She caressed the insides of her thighs before running her fingers up and down her slit. Gently, she spread her outer lips and began to slowly penetrate herself with a finger. Her whole body was writhing on the pristine, white sheets as she added a second finger inside of herself and began to run the fingertips of her other hand in tight circles around her clit. Jack couldn't help but be aroused at the sight of her self-abuse. His dick was rock hard and he adjusted in his seat to better accommodate it. He watched her masturbate and took note of how she touched herself and where. "That's enough," Screen Jack said. "Yes, Master." "Spread your legs!" The Mia on the screen spread her legs wide and Screen Jack loomed over her. He guided his dick into her with one hand and then began to hammer away at her hips. He fucked her with a frenzied pace, but her blank expression didn't change one bit. Jack didn't like that. "Cum when I do," Screen Jack ordered her. "Yes, Master." When the Jack on the screen came, Mia did, too. She was something else. Her bronzed skin turned red and muscles coiled and uncoiled repeatedly under it, making her body shudder from head to toe. She screamed in ecstasy. Screen Jack grabbed Screen Mia's chin and pulled her face up, so he could look into her vacant eyes. "From now on, you are my sex slave and I will use you for my pleasure as I see fit. Understand?" "Yes, Master." The movie ended with that and Jack sat there, contemplating it with a raging hardon. "No," he said at length. "That's one of my subconscious calculations, or something. There's no way she'd actually be frigging herself whilst indulging in a fantasy like that." "Really," Mia's libido drawled. "Well, let's take a look at the kind of fantasy she's been indulging in the last few weeks, shall we?" The screen came alive once again, only this time the movie was of him and Mia arriving from school. As soon as they went in, he locked the door behind them. Mia turned around and gave him a questioning look. "I can't do this anymore," Screen Jack said, melodramatically. "What do you mean, Jack?" Screen Mia asked. "I mean that you're too hot for me to resist anymore. I need to touch that tight bod. It's driving me crazy!" "Okay," Jack said, "now that is something I would never, ever say." Mia's libido shushed him and the movie on the screen continued. Jack tuned out the terrible dialogue, but still got the gist of the fantasy. His version on the screen used his position of power over Mia to make her have sex with him. After that he made her agree to an arrangement where she paid him back for having a place to stay and getting tutored with sexual favors. Jack enjoyed the part where he got to see and hear Mia cum on his imaginary dick again, but he was shaking his head at the screen after the movie clip finished. "Setting aside the atrocious dialogue, that still came off like something I'd dream up and then project onto her. Hell, I dreamed up stuff that was way worse than this back when I first learned about her flagpole stunt. Not to mention my harem fantasies." He sighed. "I'm just not convinced she'd ever fantasize about me enslaving her like that." "Fine," Mia's libido said with a huff. "Then let's go further back in time!" A montage of clips came alive on the screen. In each clip, Mia was either a Hollywood actor's assistant, or a pop singer's groupie, and they'd all treat her like a sex object. She'd be used for their gratification and then told she was hot enough to keep around. They'd have her sign a contract that made her their sex slave. Always, she'd resist signing it at first, but they'd coerce her into it. Sometimes, they threatened to have her arrested on trumped up charges by corrupt cops. Other times, they'd reveal a hidden camera and threaten her with releasing the sex tape. She'd wind up in their power, no matter what she did - a sex slave to a celebrity. "Ok," Jack said, "I'm starting to spot the pattern, here. I guess I believe that those are all her sexual fantasies, not mine. But, what's with the contracts? That's just weird." "She read Fifty Shades of Grey," Red Mia said. "What's that got to do with it?" "The guy in the book tries to get the girl to sign a contract that would make her his sex slave and Mia really liked the idea." Red Mia then talked some more about the book, but Jack tuned her out. He kept watching the Mia on the screen, getting taken and enslaved by celebrities. He could hardly believe what he was learning about the girl's sexual fantasies. A clip broke the pattern, taking place in the locker rooms at school and starring Lisa, a blonde from the cheerleading squad. Jack's cock instantly regained what hardness it had lost from seeing Justin Bieber pawing at Mia. He devoured the scene of the blonde spanking Mia. The clip ended and he raised both hands. "Wait! Can you bring back that last clip? Play the fantasy in full?" "Of course," Red Mia whispered in his ear. Her hot breath sent a small shudder down his spine. The fantasy was replayed in full. Mia and Lisa entered the locker room and sat down heavily on a bench between rows of lockers. They both groaned in pain and rubbed at their bruised skin and the sore muscles underneath. Cheerleading practice was, apparently, very physical. Lisa offered to rub Mia's shoulders and Mia accepted. Jack's throat went dry from the sight of the blonde taking off Mia's top and sports bra before rubbing her shoulders. Her hands rubbed down Mia's sides and slowly began to venture to her front. Mia reacted when the blonde's hands brushed up against the sides of her breasts and seemed to hesitate for an instant. "Wait! Lisa, stop!" Lisa responded by kissing Mia's ear. Mia gasped and stood up. Lisa stood up, too, and pinned Mia against the lockers. "What are you doing? Let go!" Just as Mia started to struggle to break loose, a door opened and indistinct female voices entered the locker room to talk in the background. Lisa leaned in and whispered in Mia's ear. "Keep still and quiet, or they'll come and investigate the noise." Her hands ran all over Mia's body with impunity. Mia seemed frozen in place, desperately watching the end of the row of lockers, praying no one would turn the corner and see what was going on. Lisa slid a hand under Mia's skirt, kissed the side of her neck, and whispered, "Cover your mouth, or they'll hear you." Mia obeyed her and Lisa raised her skirt to slip her fingers into her panties. Mia struggled to keep still as Lisa fingered her pussy. "Did you think I would never see you looking at me? Did you really think you were discreet?" She giggled quietly. "Silly little dyke. You like this, don't you?" Lisa pinched Mia's nipple and bit into her shoulder. Mia stifled a scream as she came. Lisa held her close while she shuddered with aftershocks. When Mia caught her breath and the other girly voices vanished from the locker room, Lisa smiled a wicked smile. She sat on the bench. "Take off your skirt and panties and put your ass over my lap!" Mia shook her head no, but Lisa glared at her darkly. "Put your ass over my lap, or I'll tell the whole school you're a dirty dyke!" Mia obeyed, sniffing back tears. Lisa ran her hand over Mia's firm, tanned buttocks, caressing and gently groping them, before suddenly starting to spank her. Mia yelped in pain at each stroke, but her yelps slowly lost in intensity and volume. Pretty soon, they turned into moans of pleasure and Lisa adjusted her aim, spanking Mia's pussy, instead of her ass. Mia screamed as she came again and Lisa had to pin her down to keep her from falling off her lap. Jack adjusted his rock hard cock in his lap. "Well, that was something else. I never would have guessed Mia to have such fantasies. One thing I don't get about it is the dyke threat. Why would that be enough to make her meekly submit to a spanking?" "Because it is a terrible sin in God's eyes," Mia hissed in his right ear. He turned towards her and said, "But Lisa would also-" He stopped and stared at Mia's hair, pulled up into a severe-looking bun. She was wearing a white summer dress that was just sheer enough to allow her perfect figure to be glimpsed through it. White opera gloves and pumps completed her ensemble. A faint, pale blue light illuminated her form in the darkness of the theatre. She was seated in the seat behind his and to the right. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 "You're wasting your time if you try to use logic with this one," Red Mia said from her seat to Jack's left. Jack did a double take at seeing her and then stared at White Mia. He pointed a finger at her. "Who are you?" "I am Mia's conscience," White Mia said. Red Mia snorted. "She is the whacked out shit the fundamentalists put in Mia's head back when they had her. You might call her Mia's Overwhelming Inhibitions." "Yeah, ok, nice to meet you," Jack said to White Mia before turning to Red Mia. "Are there any more fantasies with Lisa?" Red Mia nodded. "Can I see them, please?" Another fantasy played on the screen. In it, Mia and Lisa were in the showers at school and innocently washed each other's backs. Red and White Mia moved to the seats flanking Jack's and talked at him, but he hardly heard what they were saying as he watched delicate hands glide over glistening skin on the screen. "Does Lisa really look like that?" he asked. "Yes," Red Mia said. "Unlike you, Mia had seen Lisa naked many times." Jack made a small noise in the back of his throat and tuned out the rest of what Red Mia was saying. He ate up the high-def fantasy on the big screen. He found himself admiring the blonde's trim body. She wasn't as endowed as Mia, but her abs and legs were toned in a very sexy way. Her muscles rippled as she seized Mia's arm in an elbow lock and forced her to submit to her sexy ministrations. He shook himself mentally and remembered he was there to see what was going on in Mia's head. He looked back at the gorgeous brunette. He paid special attention to how Mia reacted to featherlight touches and noted when and where she wanted some firm grasping. As Lisa and Mia sank to the floor of the showers in a writhing mess of trembling limbs, Jack constructed a mental map of Mia's erogenous zones. The fantasy ended and another started. In it, Lisa was a leather-clad dominatrix and Mia was her bound slave. Lisa teased Mia with gentle strokes of a riding crop and Mia begged her to stop because what they were doing was wrong. Lisa just laughed at her pleas and did what she wanted with the brunette. She mostly wanted her friend to cum against her will. Jack let out a wolf whistle of appreciation. "This is the hottest thing I've ever seen. One thing I don't get, though. Why is Mia so reluctant in all the fantasies? They're her own, aren't they?" "You have this one to thank for that," Red Mia said, indicating White Mia. "Me? You're the one that drives Mia to such debasements! Don't listen to the harlot, Mister Watts! She's grown fat with the flattery of vile men." Red Mia gasped. "Who are you calling fat, you frigid cunt!?" Jack's eyes pinballed between the two versions of Mia that were leaning over him. He half-expected them to start fighting, tear each other's clothes off, and have a rough three-way with him. Instead, they just glared at one another in silence for a few tense seconds. White Mia sat back first. "Mister Watts, you must save Mia from the dire fate that looms over her." Red Mia rolled her eyes and sat back. "Here we go again," she muttered. White Mia pointed across Jack at Red Mia. "This harlot is pushing Mia into sexual activity." "That's not Mia's problem," Red Mia said. "The problem is that my opponent has a death grip on Mia's sense of right and wrong and will do everything in her power to keep Mia from accepting and exploring her sexuality. She is the one that keeps convincing Mia that she has to be unwilling to have sex." "Mia has sinned enough," White Mia hissed venomously. "She has led men astray with foul promises of the flesh. The weight of sin upon her immortal soul is already tremendous. Any more and she will be damned for all eternity. Please, Mister Watts, you must help her!" "Help Mia? How?" "You must relieve the pressure this one puts on her," White Mia said, indicating Red Mia. "If you do not, she will drive Mia to madness." Jack frowned. "Are you asking me to have sex with Mia? Aren't you of the 'sex is sin' persuasion?" "Mia is going to have sex, Mister Watts. That is unavoidable. With every leering glance Mia's body attracts, this one grows stronger. Her urgings become more and more forceful. Soon, she will be too strong for me to fight off and Mia will be turned into a harlot." Red Mia chuckled. "A bit melodramatic, but true. I will see to it that Mia gets her fuck on. Sooner, or later, I'll get my way." White Mia shook her head. Her face bore an expression of fear. "She will turn Mia into a common streetwalker, exposed to all sorts of illnesses and vile men. You must save her from that fate, Mister Watts! Only you can save her immortal soul from all that sin! You must intervene, or all the good you're trying to do for her will amount to nothing!" "Drama queen," Red Mia muttered. "How?" Jack asked. "How do I save her soul?" "By taking command of her body and using it to relieve your baser urges without giving her any choice in the matter." Jack gaped at the angelic version of Mia. "Are you asking me to rape Mia?!" "Ravish, Mister Watts. The proper term is to ravish." "What the actual fuck?! Aren't you supposed to be her guardian angel!? I'm not going to rape Mia!" "Ravish, Mister Watts. You must ravish her, or her soul will be damned." "Are you nuts?!" He turned to Red Mia. "She's nuts, right?" "Now, now, Jack," Red Mia said with a wink, "hang on and hear her out." She moved to sit behind White Mia, across from Jack. "If you take Mia without giving her any choice in the matter, then the weight of the sin of such a vile act rests solely upon your shoulders. She would be blameless in the matter." Red Mia undid White Mia's bun and winked at Jack. "My, my, my, sister. You've grown up some." She brushed out White Mia's long hair. "Instead of being dead-set on keeping Mia a virgin until her dying day, you're now just against Mia doing it of her own free will." She kissed the side of White Mia's neck and pulled up her dress, revealing sheer, white stocking underneath. "I knew you'd come around eventually. Welcome to the fun side." "Please, ignore the harlot, Mister Watts. I need you to listen to what I am saying." Jack shook his head. "No. No way. There is no way on Earth that Mia Newman would want me to fuck her." "Of course there is," Red Mia said, nibbling on White Mia's earlobe. "You're tall, lean and handsome. There's passion inside you and it shows through your work. You're changing the world, one trained dog at a time. You're also dangerous. A gun-toting badass with such an unsavory reputation among his peers that it got him questioned by the police." Red Mia smiled and winked at him. "Jack, you're a Grade A panty-peeler, through and through." "Mia fears that there is a darkness brewing inside you," White Mia said, surprising Jack. "You've been isolated from your peers. She knows the dangers that lurk in solitude. The dark thoughts that come in that sad quiet. She has heard them herself. She fears that you might yet turn to evil. She dreams of being your salvation. If you were to vent your darkness upon her, if her martyrdom could bring about your salvation, reconnect you to the world at large, then the sins of her temptress past would be washed away from her immortal soul." "For all your dangerous ways," Red Mia said, groping White Mia's tits, "you're safe. Mia trusts you to not hurt her. Just as she would trust you to protect her from all the bad things that are in this world." "There is nobility in your soul, Mister Watts. It shines through your actions and it would inspire the people around you, if only they could see it for themselves." "I am not going to rape Mia." Red Mia slid one hand between White Mia's thighs and slid a strap of her dress down her shoulder with the other, revealing one of her tits. Jack's eyes were glued to Red Mia's hand as it fondled the firm globe. "Please, Jack! Please, take Mia! It's the first thing the two of us have ever agreed on. She wants you, Jack. She needs you. Fuck her!" White Mia gasped in pleasure. "Ravish her, Mister Watts! She loves your inner light. Release your demons into her! Martyr her and both of you shall be saved!" "I am not going to do anything to her without her explicit permission." Red Mia slid a hand into White Mia's panties. As her fingers worked, White Mia tensed up and arched her back with a cry. Red Mia's eyes fixed on Jack's. The heat in them was unmistakable. "Don't be a stupid virgin all your life, Jack! People don't have sex because of permissions or mandates from pulpits! People have sex because they are consumed with desire. Because they feel passion and must express it! Take Mia and do with her what you like! Take her because you want her, not because she gave you a permission slip. She wants you, too." "It is better to," White Mia gasped out in pleasure and then cried out as Red Mia bent her head low and bit her nipple. "It's better to ask forgiveness than permission. It is divine to forgive. Mia will forgive you if you take her. She will thank you, in her heart of hearts." Red Mia grabbed White Mia's hair and turned her head for a kiss. Jack eagerly watched Mia's libido molest her conscience and was glad they stopped arguing with him and concentrated on each other. His high slowly faded and the theater disappeared, leaving him alone in his room. As soon as he returned to his body, he groaned in pain. His dick was as hard as it had been in the vision, but in the real world it was constricted by his pants. He doubled over, ripped his zipper open and gingerly fished his erection out of his underwear. He sighed in relief and lay prostrate on his bed. As he lay there with his dick sticking straight up out of his pants, he took the time to process what he had just seen. A part of him found Mia's fantasy of being his mind-controlled sex slave very appealing. He had had fantasies of a harem of mind controlled sex slaves and Mia Newman always had a place in it. He undid his pants and took them off, along with his T-shirt. He grasped his unyielding erection and began to stroke it. As tempting as seeing her being his slave on the big screen had been, he knew he would never actually do it. Even if he wasn't afraid of the cloaked figure finding him, he would never stoop so low as to take another's free will from them. His hand on his dick sped up. Mia's cum face was plastered across his eyelids as he came. When he caught his breath, he reached over to his nightstand for a tissue. His dick was still rock hard, making it easier for him to clean himself up. The orgasm seemed to settle the question of enslavement and he moved on to the next one. Mia was obviously attracted to him. He didn't even try to deny it to himself. She fantasized about him and her libido and conscience both stated he was attractive. The hottest chick he had ever seen in person was living under his roof and the mere thought of him was enough to make her rev her engines. Why should he not date her? He hadn't even been tempted to ask her out before now. He used to tell himself that it was because he had all but promised her there would be no hanky-panky while she was under his roof, or that she needed to focus on her schoolwork, but those were just excuses. The real reason he hadn't given into his daily temptation was because he had thought she would say no. He had thought it would have resulted in nothing but embarrassment and awkwardness for the both of them. Now that he knew she would say yes, everything was different. Aside from the possibility of hearing a "no" being off the table, the alternative was also changed. If she said yes, then he wouldn't ask himself the whole time if she had only said yes because she had feared he would have otherwise thrown her out on her ass. He wouldn't feel like an exploitative ass, lording his leverage over her to get her where he wanted her. There was only one thing that would be uneven in their eventual relationship. Only one thing that gave him pause at the thought of asking her out. She didn't know him. He had, twice now, spied deep under her skin and seen who she really was. His visions made him want her even more. She had no such insight into him. Her personality fragments in his vision had painted a picture of him that wasn't entirely accurate. For one thing, he certainly wasn't a "gun-toting badass", as they had called him. Whenever Jack tried to get together with a girl, a little voice would suddenly speak up from a dark corner of his mind, listing all the things that could go wrong. It didn't speak up under any other circumstances, like trying out for the basketball team, being kidnapped, or taking an exam. It only sounded off when Jack was trying to drum up the courage to ask a girl out. It made itself known now and urged him not to risk it. It whispered that Mia would run away from him if she knew the real him. It counseled caution and restraint. Keep back, Jack! Don't risk it! She'll reject you and it'll hurt! "I'm eighteen," Jack whispered to the room and the tiny voice. "If I don't take a risk now, when will I?" I can't believe I'm actually thinking this. I've just seen inside her mind. She won't say no. She'll say yes. She'll scream it at the top of her lungs. The tiny voice offered a retort, based on Mia's fantasies of Lisa. She'll choose the blonde over you. That girl is so much prettier and she knows how to touch a woman. Jack shook his head. I know exactly how Mia likes to be touched. I just saw it. She fantasized about me more often in the last month than she had about Lisa in the three years they've known each other. Shut the fuck up, little voice! I'm done with your nonsense. Jack grinned and grasped his dick again. The memory of the two hottest girls in the school touching one another was vivid in his mind and he stroked himself slowly. He imagined he was there in the locker room with them. He imagined that he was invisible, standing naked in front of the showers as they lathered up each other's firm bodies. He came with a groan, shooting cum all over himself. "Fuck." He caught his breath and used another tissue to clean up. His dick was still hard. He put his hands under his head and breathed deep to relax. He went through his first vision of Mia, the one in which he had learned of the older guys that squired her around, and tried to pick out what her ideal first date would look like. Some fragments of this night's vision also helped. By the time he made a plan, his dick was still hard. He yawned and reached down to stroke himself again. After the third orgasm, he cleaned up and finally managed to put his softening dick back into his boxers. He rolled over and fell asleep. On Saturday morning, Jack got up early and had cereal and fruit for breakfast. Janice got up soon after him and just had a cup of coffee before going to work. As soon as she drove off, Jack got to work readying a breakfast feast to serve Mia in bed. He sent Spot up to listen at her door for the first signs of wakefulness. Soon, Spot ran down to skip and spin in place. "Thanks, buddy." Jack took the loaded tray and carried it upstairs. He knocked on her door. "Come in!" He carefully balanced the tray on the palm of one hand and opened the door with the other. Mia sat up in bed. "What's this?" He set the tray down on top of her sheet across her lap. "Oh, just a little something to start your special day." "What's so special about today?" "Well, it is the first Saturday since you kicked wholesale ass on your chemistry final," Jack said. "That's pretty special, you know." He nodded earnestly at her. "A milestone in any young woman's life." She chuckled politely and looked over the tray. "Smells good, even if it's premature." "How can it be premature, it's almost ten a.m.," Jack said. "I mean, I've still got two finals before I graduate." "Oh, please," Jack said. "You'll wipe the floor with English lit and we both know it." She nodded in reluctant assent. "Yeah, your notes on it are awesome. Better than the textbook. It's geography that bothers me." She shook her head and huffed. "I can't keep it straight in my head. I memorize it and then I mix it up." "I know. That's why we are going to take a break from studying today and have some fun. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Same goes for Mia." "No, Jack, I need to study," she feebly protested. "Nonsense. You need to celebrate what you've already achieved so you can be inspired to achieve even more." "I don't know, Jack. I need at least a B- on the geography final to pass the class." "And you'll get it," he said, leaning over her and patting her on the hand. "You'll ace that test, I'm sure of it." She picked at her food with a fork. "I wish I had your confidence." "You will. Today, you'll be distracted all day long and before the day ends, you will realize your worries are too big for the problems you face. I promise." She put a forkful of her omelet in her mouth and chewed slowly. She moaned at the taste. "Wow, this is good," she said around her mouthful. "Thank you. After you've had your breakfast, get up, get dressed and come down as soon as you're ready to go." He got up to leave. "Go where?" "That's a surprise. The dress code is casual." He winked and left the room. He waited downstairs for a while, before it sank in that he was waiting for a girl to get ready to go out. He went upstairs and surfed the web for a little over an hour, while she had her breakfast, washed up and got ready. When he heard her go downstairs, he hurriedly closed all tabs and got up to follow her. "I'm ready! Jack, where are you?" "Right behind you!" She turned around at the bottom of the stairs and looked up at him. She was wearing skintight blue jeans and a salmon-colored tank top. From his high perspective, Jack could see down her cleavage and he had to force himself to look away. He blushed as he thought he could see her grin at where his eyes had been pointed. He hurried down the stairs. "So, where are we going?" "It's a surprise. Come on!" He drove them into the city and parked at the largest mall. "This is your surprise? The mall?" Jack laughed. "No. The surprise comes later. First, we'll be doing some retail therapy to allow you to decompress from all the incessant studying you've been doing. That way, you'll be able to enjoy your surprise when the time comes." "Can I get a hint what the surprise is?" "Nope." He let her lead the way inside the mall. She knew the good clothing stores by heart. She insisted he sit in front of the dressing rooms and give her his opinion on the various outfits she tried on. He did and it made him feel like a sultan choosing which outfits his harem slave would use to tease him best with, even though they were all decent. He noted that she wasn't the least bit shy about accepting him paying for everything. She tried to get him to reveal more about her surprise, but he only advised her to buy herself something she'd look really hot in and could also move comfortably while wearing it. She guessed her surprise had something to do with dancing, but he didn't tell her anything more than that. Instead, he told her about himself, trying to give her a better picture of who he really was. He wasn't going to tell her about his power, but that was pretty much the only secret he'd keep from her. They took a lunch break when they got hungry and their conversation picked up in earnest. He told her about his childhood and she cooed sadly at hearing how lonely he had been. She smiled as he spoke of the marine sergeant that first introduced him to training assistance dogs. He told her about the bitter war between the townies and the Navy brats and she laughed at some of the shenanigans he described. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 After lunch, she went to a salon to get her hair and nails done, while he moseyed on over to the comics store. They did some more shopping after they met back up. In light of her fantasies, Jack had half expected her to take him shopping for lingerie and to model some lacy nothings for him, but she didn't do more than look at the windows of the many lingerie stores they passed. Instead, she bought some utilitarian underwear that came in packs of a dozen. By mid afternoon, she declared all her shopping done. They stowed her things in the car and then he took her to the movies. They saw "Ant Man" and later went bowling. "Is this the surprise? Bowling?" "Of course not. This is just something to pass the time until the surprise. Why would you think bowling was the surprise?" "Well, I thought you found out that I liked bowling from someone." She smiled sweetly at him. "I hope you don't mind getting beaten by a girl, cause I did win a few trophies in the pee-wee bowling league way back when. I'm pretty good at this." He just smirked at her. He bowled a turkey, followed by a spare, while she only had one spare in the first four. She put her fists on her hips and tapped her foot in annoyance. "You're totally hustling me, aren't you?" "What? Of course not. Why would you say that?" "Well, when we came in, you acted like you didn't know where anything was, like you were a complete amateur, and here you are rolling the exact same curving ball in every try and getting strike after strike. Dude, you're like a semi-pro!" He smiled and shrugged. "Where did you learn how to bowl like that?" His smile faded. "The guys and I used to meet up behind the bowling alley back home. Sometimes we went in." He shook himself and picked up a fifteen-pounder. "I've never been to this bowling alley before. My unfamiliarity with it must have given you the wrong idea." "Yeah, right." He rolled the ball down the lane with hardly any run-up. It went diagonally towards the pins on the left, like all his balls, and then curved to the right. Instead of hitting between the one and the two, it smacked only into the one and left him with a split. "Damn it," he muttered into his chin. "Finally," she exclaimed, glad to see his streak ending. He took down half the split pins with his next ball and they played on. He beat her soundly in each round, with a margin of more than sixty points. She gave up after the third round, when his lead climbed to two hundred points. He checked his watch. "Just in time. You need to get changed for your surprise." "I still don't get a clue what it is?" He just shook his head no. "Fine." They went to the car and she retrieved a few of the shopping bags. She went into the toilets to change. She came out in a pair of denim shorts over black leggings. Her taut midriff was bare and above it, her big tits were barely contained by a sheer, dark gray, sleeveless top that was very tight over them. Her lack of bra was blatantly obvious. "Will this do?" He gaped at her appearance and then nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment. She wore black shoes with short wedges that barely made any noise as they walked back to the car. He drove them towards the local sports arena, where a big banner proclaimed that a punk rock band was in concert tonight. She sighed and smacked her lips in disappointment as she looked up at it. "Wish that was the surprise," she muttered. Jack smiled and shook his head to himself, but made no comment as he drove up to the entrance to the arena's parking lot. Mia's eyes went as wide as saucers. "No way! No fucking way! They were sold out months ago! You got tickets? No fucking way you got us tickets to see them! No fucking way!" She bounced up and down in her seat and then threw her arms around him in a hug. She squealed with excitement. He had seen the frontman of this particular band crop up repeatedly in her sexual fantasies. Since the band wasn't a Billboard fixture and the lead singer didn't seem like a teenage heartthrob to Jack, he had guessed that Mia noticed the middle-aged man because she liked the band's music. Her exuberance proved his guess correct. He drove around to the VIP area and rolled the window down. The security guard, a beefy-looking black man with long dreadlocks and an intimidating scowl marched right over to him. "Watts! How you doin', man?" Jack held out his hand. They low-fived, backhand low-fived and then bumped fists. "Hey, Tyrone! It's good to see you." "Man, I'm so glad to see ya! I wanted to say that that was some fucked up shit that got done to you. Me and the boys nearly went ballistic over it. I mean, back in the Corps, none of that shit would fly! Ya know what I'm sayin'?" "Yes. Thanks, Tyrone. The support you and the guys gave me really meant a lot." "You got it, Jack! You one of us, man! Every man in the platoon considers you a brotha, my brotha!" A car honked behind Jack's. "We ain't got time to talk right now. What can I do you for?" "Well, we'd like to go in, but we don't have tickets." "Pfft," Tyrone said, waving his hand, "tickets are for pussies. You practically a Marine, Jack. Go park by the tour bus over there." Mia bit back an excited squeal, but Jack ignored her and looked where Tyrone pointed. "Jonesy is working the VIP entrance." "Thanks, Tyrone!" "You got it, Jack! Semper Fi!" Another impatient honk was heard behind Jack. "Now please move so I can have words with that honkin' fool!" Jack parked his SUV next to the band's tour bus. Mia was out of the car before he even stopped it. She ran around the bus with an excited squeal. Jack followed her with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The little voice spoke up again. She's treating you like she did all those other men. You're nothing but a wallet to her. She's going to go off with the band and leave you, stupid! Shut up, little voice! I'm not listening! He walked around the tour bus himself and saw a security guard he didn't know holding Mia back as she craned her neck to see inside. She turned to Jack and excitedly said, "They're already inside! Come on!" She grabbed his hand and started dragging him towards the VIP entrance. He offered some resistance as he wasn't sure this was such a good idea anymore. He had brought her there to enjoy a concert and raise his standing in her eyes, not to see her run off with the band to be a groupie, just like in her fantasies. He begrudgingly let her drag him, guessing that she'd hate him if he turned around now and left before she could get in to see the show. "Hey, what was with that guy at the gate?" Mia asked. "What do you mean?" "Well, he called you a Marine. When did you have time to join the Marines?" "I didn't. I trained an assistance dog for the lieutenant that led Tyrone and his platoon safely home." Jack looked away from her sparkling eyes. He was never comfortable talking about others' pain. "The man saved the entire platoon from a suicide bomber just weeks before they got shipped home. The proximity to the blast cost him his sight and the use of one leg. When he was finally sent home, he just shut himself in and didn't do anything but wallow. "All the guys in the platoon felt really bad. They owed him their lives, literally, and they couldn't do anything to help him. So, when my dog got the man to leave his house and try and see his options, you know, make the best of his situation, well... the guys started thinking I walk on water." Jack cleared his throat. "It's kind of embarrassing, really." Jack looked into Mia's eyes and was almost relieved when he saw that she hadn't been very affected by the story. Yes, there was a definite sadness to her compassionate gaze, but it quickly faded when she caught sight of the VIP entrance. She immediately forgot all about Tyrone, his former platoon and the disabled officer. All that mattered to her was seeing her favorite band play live. They soon found themselves walking up to Jonesy. The huge mountain of a man turned his shaved head their way with a heart-stopping glare in his eyes. As soon as he saw Jack, a wide smile broke across his face, softening his gaze. "Watts." He held his hand out. "Jonesy." Jack shook the man's hand and winced slightly at the force of the grip. Jonesy immediately looked Mia up and down. "Well, well, well. Little Jack Watts finally got himself a date, huh?" Jack shot him a shut-the-fuck-up look, but Jonesy just laughed. Jack spared a glance at Mia and saw that she was beet red, just like him. "Ah, young love. So cute." Jack bit back a scream of frustration and deliberately said, "If you're done chewing on your size fourteen boot, we'd like to go in." "Sure, sure, Jack. Where's your ticket?" "I don't have a ticket." "Oh." Jonesy looked surprised. "Well.. no ticket, no admission, Jack." Off Jack's incredulous look, he said, "What? Did you think you could just waltz in without paying? Rules are rules, Jack." Jack stood there shocked and didn't dare turn to look at Mia. He didn't want to see the disappointment in her eyes. He glared at the giant man as he found himself imagining setting his dogs on him. Jonesy burst out in loud laughter. "Gotcha! Ah, man, you shoulda seen your faces. Heh, for a moment there, you both looked like your dog had died." He laughed some more as they both glared at him disapprovingly. "So, where would you like to see the band from?" Jack turned and gave Mia a questioning look. She was barely contained glee as she said, "Right in front of the stage! Dead center!" Jack turned back around and nodded at Jonesy. "Done," Jonesy said. He waved another guard over to take his post and led them inside the arena. "Do you want backstage passes?" Mia's hands grasped Jack's forearm in a death grip. He glanced at her face. She was about to explode with excitement. The little voice in the corner of his mind spoke up. There she goes! Off to have sex with the singer and become his sex slave and you made it all possible, Jack. Well done! Shut up! "Cause you can't go back there without 'em," Jonesy said. "The road manager is very strict about who goes back to see the band." He stopped and gave Jack a friendly pat on the chest with the back of his hand. Jack's heart nearly stopped beating from the force of the impact. "Tell you what! I'll go see if someone maybe dropped theirs, ok?" Jonesy faced forward and led on, without waiting for an answer from them. He led them through restricted, staff-only areas until they came to the space between the stage and the security fence. Mia's eyes were glued to the stage, where a band was warming up the crowd before the main attraction came on. Jonesy led them to the middle of the stage and a single glare from him cleared a space on the other side of the fence. Mia looked like she wanted to climb up on stage and await the band there, but Jonesy picked her up by the waist and effortlessly set her down on the other side of the fence. Jack climbed over on his own and Jonesy gave him a friendly clap on the shoulder as a goodbye. Jack was nearly toppled over by the force of the clap. With Jonesy gone, the crowd pressed right back in and Jack found himself squeezed uncomfortably between a bunch of strangers that were working up a sweat by skipping in place. The band on the stage seemed to be doing a good job. The crowd responded to their solos with gusto, but Jack didn't. He didn't know them and the only thing he was getting an appreciation for at that time was personal space. When the band played a slower tune with the singer crooning about losing a girl, Mia leaned back into Jack's arms and practically rubbed her ass against the front of his groin as she swayed to the tune. She hugged herself and he wrapped his arms around hers. Anything to say now, little voice? The little voice was silent and Jack swayed along to the music. The song ended much too soon for Jack's liking and they raised the roof with another fast tune. Mia untangled herself from his arms and jumped up and down in place, waving her arms in the air. The crowd responded in kind and Jack found himself jostled from all sides. He realized he was the only thing that stood between Mia and the undulating sea of flesh behind them. She could wind up getting pinned against the security barrier. As the mosh pit started forming behind Jack, he planted his feet and set up a basketball picket to screen Mia from the crowd. People slammed into him and stopped dead in their tracks, just like they had done on the basketball courts. The mosh pit slowly adjusted and moved away from him, leaving a few feet behind him that were free of tugging and shoving. A bunch of girls trickled into that space, looking for a respite from the pushing. When the mosh pit reclaimed that space, Jack was distracted from watching Mia skipping by the high-pitched sounds of female discomfort. He slowly moved back and allowed half a dozen girls to step in front of him. Each shot him a brief, but grateful smile as he set up his picket behind them. Pretty soon, the warm-up band finished their set and the lead singer announced the stars of the show. Mia exploded in joy and started jumping up and down, flailing her limbs like a lunatic. Her hairdo was ruined as her dark locks began flowing wildly in each and every direction. Jack could plainly make out her screams over those of the crowd. The band took to the stage and Jack found himself hating them with all his heart as they made Mia jump and holler non stop. She kept trying to draw the singer's eye. You know she'd pick him over you, right? the little voice asked him. The only way you can wind up with her is if he doesn't see her at all. And even then, you'll only be her second choice. Nothing more than a placeholder until someone worthy comes along. Jack grit his teeth and kept watching Mia's hair bounce wildly as she danced and jumped a few feet ahead of him. He spotted Jonesy a few yards off to the side, between the stage and the security barrier, coming towards them. Jonesy spotted him in turn, as he was surrounded by women that were almost a head shorter than him. Jonesy smiled and held up a pair of laminated backstage passes. He pointed at Jack and Mia, after he picked her out. That's it, the little voice said, game over. She'll let the singer into her panties as soon as she's allowed backstage. Jack shook his head at Jonesy and drew his fingers across his throat. Jonesy frowned and held up the passes again, pointing at Jack and Mia. Jack glanced at Mia. She was so focused on the lead singer right in front of her that she didn't spot Jonesy, just a few yards to her left. Jack grimaced at the man and shook his head. He waved him off with one arm and repeatedly drew the other across his throat in a kill gesture. Jonesy looked confused, but then shrugged with a have-it-your-way gesture and went back the way he had come from. The lead singer seemed unable to spot the hottie jumping up and down right under his nose until the moment he suddenly did. He winked and nodded at her and Mia shrieked, "I love you," at the very top of her voice. She lifted her top and flashed her boobs at the man. Jack's heart sank. The singer smiled and then went on with his performance, as if nothing had happened. The girls around the front of the stage also flashed him, emboldened by Mia's move. The frontman smiled at them all, but played on. Jack didn't need to hear the little voice to tell him he lost his shot with Mia before he even took it. He slowly shoved his way through the crowd and made it to the bar. The girl behind it didn't ask him for any ID, she just poured him a tall, cold one. He sipped at it slowly, regretting bringing Mia there in the first place. There are so many ways of fucking up a first date, but bringing the girl to within a few feet of the man of her sexual dreams? That's one for the anthologies, Jack. Well done. The concert went on for an hour and a half, before the crowd called them back for two encores. Jack spent the time perched on a stool he found in the corner and sipping on his beer. When the second encore started, he went to the toilets and splashed some cold water in his face so he could drive. He took some comfort in the fact that his cloak had stayed on, despite all the heartache he had just gone through. He left the arena and waited for Mia by the car. You'll never be worthy, Jack, the little voice said. There will always be someone else, someone better. No woman will ever love you. Give it a rest, little voice, you're preaching to the choir. She showed up fifteen minutes later, all flushed and wearing a wide smile. Her hair was plastered to her forehead and neck by sweat. Her top was nearly transparent, it was so wet. "Phew! That was awesome!" She laughed and fanned her face with her hands. "I'm all wet." Jack bit back a wince at the comment. "I need to change." He unlocked the car and she dug around her shopping bags until she found some pants and a blouse. She used a scarf to dry herself and changed clothes lying down in the back seat of Jack's SUV. Even before she was done, Tyrone showed up and told Jack that he had to clear out as the band would be leaving for the tour bus in a matter of minutes and he'd be in big trouble if Jack's SUV was still parked next to it when the road manager came out. As soon as Mia was done pulling up her pants, Jack got behind the wheel and drove them home. During the forty minute drive on the freeway, she kept going on and on about how much fun she had just had. "Oh, God! I actually flashed him my boobs at one point!" She broke out in laughter as Jack gripped the steering wheel hard enough to hurt his fingers. She kept talking when they left the freeway and drove through town. By the time he turned onto his street, he was feeling calm again. Mia had been babbling on and on about the songs and how the band members performed them, praising one solo and deriding another as being less than perfect, but she trailed off as they drove nearer to his house. When he pulled up in front of it, she seemed to notice that he hadn't spoken a single word to her since they met up after the show. "Hey. You okay, Jack?" "Peachy." He got out of the car and she followed. "You know what I'm thinking," she asked. "I'm thinking we should see some more of these comic book movies tomorrow. Maybe you can show me some of them? You said you have them on Blu-Ray." "Sounds like a swell idea, Mia," he deadpanned, "but I think you've had enough fun for one weekend. I think you should study for your geography final." "Hey," she put a hand over his, "are you ok?" "Yes," he lied. "Why do you ask? Don't I look ok?" "No, no, you, uh, you look ok. It's just that..." "I am tired." He unlocked the door and went in. "Good night!" He climbed the stairs two at a time and went into his room. "Good night," she lamely called up after him. He closed his door before she could thank him for a wonderful time. "I guess I'll say 'thank you' tomorrow." He spent Sunday finishing training his three new guard and attack dogs. Mia spent the day studying geography. She tried to engage him in conversation when he came inside for lunch and dinner, but Janice was at the table with them. She felt awkward in the presence of the stern woman, so she delayed thanking him for showing her a great time yesterday. When Janice took a long, relaxing bath, Mia seized the chance to discreetly search his room, but she couldn't find the big bundle of thank you notes and letters. She made extra sure to put everything back the way it was before leaving. In the evening, he let the dogs rest and retired to his room to read some of the comics he had bought the day before. Mia lingered at his door, wanting to knock and go in to thank him for yesterday. She held back, feeling awkward that she hadn't done that already. She felt that he might think her thanks insincere since they came almost a full day after the fact. She was also worried that he might spot the fact that she had been in his room. She dithered until Janice started climbing the stairs, at which point she dashed into her own room and stayed there. I'll just thank him when he drives me to school in the morning. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 He was silent at breakfast and as he started driving them to school. Mia was feeling awkward, trying to figure out how to broach the subject. He was so quiet and reserved as he took the usual, roundabout way. "Hey, uh, we don't need to go this way anymore. We could just, you know, go straight to school." "I'm fine with driving you the long way around." "Yeah, but... I mean, thanks. Thanks for driving me to school. Thanks for tutoring me, thanks for letting me stay at your house and thanks for taking me to the concert on Saturday." It all poured out of her in one breath and she looked at Jack expectantly. He kept his eyes on the road, only briefly flicking them across his mirrors. She cleared her throat. "Like I said, we should be taking the straight route to school. You know, so we could get up later and not have to leave so early in the morning." "The streets in the center of town are so congested right now that we'd hardly save any time at all if we went the direct route." "Yeah, but... I don't want you to feel like I'm being ungrateful." "Ungrateful," he asked with no real interest in his voice. "How so?" "Well, it's just... you know?" He didn't even spare her a glance, so she kept on talking. "You shelter me, you clothe me, you feed me, you tutor me, you drive me all around and... I make you hide it all. I mean, I should at least let you drive me to school." Jack felt a flash of anger coming on and tried to bite it back. "There's only a week of school left. Hardly the time to go instituting major changes." "What's wrong?" Mia asked, concerned at his strange tone of voice. He snorted to himself and shook his head as he turned onto Lincoln Boulevard. "What's wrong? You're insulting me, that's what's wrong." "Insulting?" "Am I really just like those mouthbreathers that used to chauffer you around? Is that all I am to you? Do you think that I'm doing all of this for you so I could have the sublime honor of escorting Your Exaltedness to the school doors?" "What?" "Nothing," Jack said as he managed to put down his anger. "The arrangement is fine the way it is." "No. No, it's not fine. You're obviously not fine with it." "I said I'm fine with it." "No, you're not," Mia insisted. Jack chuckled as he parked at their usual spot. "I didn't tell you this about myself yesterday, but I just loooove it when people put words in my mouth." He dropped his sarcastic tone and looked her dead in the eye. "Don't put words in my mouth. Would you put words in the mouths of people you passed on the street? No? Then, please, extend me the same courtesy as you would to complete strangers. Ok?" "Why are you acting so weird, all of a sudden?" "I am not acting weird. I am acting normal." Mia shook her head at him. "No, you're not. You're acting all... petulant and stuff!" "Petulant? Wow, you really are going to kick ass on your English lit final today." Mia let out a growl of frustration before opening the door and getting out of the car. She leaned back into the cabin. "You know what? If you don't want to talk to me, fine! But don't just sit there and pretend like everything's great when it clearly isn't!" Jack didn't even look at her as he said, "Whatever." "Ugh! That's it! If you're not willing to talk to me, then don't bother coming back to pick me up today!" She slammed the door shut. Jack drove off without a word. She threw her hands up in exasperation as she watched him go. He drove straight home and spent a little time playing with his dogs, before retreating to his room to meditate. He tried to practice his cloak, but his concentration was failing him. He was closing in on being able to keep it up for the whole time he was awake. He also felt like keeping it on during sleep was definitely possible. It would just take a whole hell of a lot more training for his mind to be able to keep the cloak up while asleep. He took the time to clear his mind and confront all the junk that had cluttered it up of late. He confronted his feelings of shame over taking Mia out on Saturday. He told himself that he wasn't being used by her, he had been the one that had dragged her out shopping. He had gladly paid for it all and she had deserved it. It wasn't natural to keep her chained to a book like she had been for the last six weeks. Even if she had been doing that to herself. He then confronted his feelings of jealousy over Mia flashing the lead singer. He told himself that she was just playing around, just having some harmless fun, but those reassurances rang hollow in his heart. She prefers that guy over you, the little voice said. She always had and she always will. You're just not worthy. He confronted his feelings of inadequacy over being probably the only guy in town that was over eighteen and had not yet had a single kiss. The small voice in the back of his mind tried to build on these and make Jack feel like he was defective. It tried to make him believe that he would die a lonely virgin, unwanted and unloved by each and every woman he would ever meet in his life. He confronted those fears and beat them back by pointing out that he had hardly even begun his life yet. In college, he was going to meet nice girls that shared his interests and values. And they will always pick someone else, anyone else, over you. Jack couldn't come up with a convincing retort to that statement, so he finished with his self-therapy session. He checked his phone and saw a few missed calls from Mia. She had also sent him five text messages in which she tried to get him to come pick her up in front of the school later today. He sent her one in return, stating he would pick her up at the usual place, after her cheerleading practice finished. He charged his three new dogs with guarding the house, while he took Spot to the park. They played fetch for a while. While Spot ran to fetch the ball, again and again, Jack asked himself what he was doing. Mia has two sexual fantasies about me and I immediately start seeing us as soulmates, fated to be with each other forever? That was so dumb of me. We hardly have anything in common, anyway. I'm only after her because she's so damn hot. There's no other reason. When he had first taken pot and had his vision of Mia's past, he had decided to help her make a life for herself. He reaffirmed his decision to do that for her, but he amended it, at the same time. I'll find an apartment for her when I find a house for me and my dogs. Separate households and separate educations seemed like the way to go. Minimal contact between them. Absolutely no more than was required. Mia's libido was destined to overcome her inhibitions sooner or later and he definitely didn't feel like he could stand watching her with another guy, day in and day out. Particularly not if they fucked like they did in her fantasies. With his decision firmly made, he put Spot through some agility training. When the time came, he called Spot into the car and drove to the place where he usually picked Mia up. She showed up on time and got in the car without a word, but Jack could see it on her face; she was dying to get something out. He didn't prod. He had given up on the possibility of them being a romantic couple, so it wasn't up to him to pry anthing out of her. They were just friends from now on. She kept it to herself, whatever it was, and they got home without incident. For the next three days, the two of them hardly spoke to one another. He even stopped tutoring her. She was studying geography all on her own. The situation felt weird to Jack. Despite not aiming for her hot pants anymore, he still wanted to help her in any way he could. She didn't seem interested, so he gave her her space and kept up with his meditations. On Thursday, he went to pick her up from school at the usual place and she was waiting for him with a smile on her face. She got in the car and leaned over to hug him and plant a kiss on his cheek. "I did it! I nailed it! B+! I'm done! I'm getting a diploma next week, along with everyone else!" Jack smiled warmly. "Congratulations, Mia! Well done! I'm so proud of you." "Thanks." She blushed and looked down for a moment. "I couldn't have done it without you." "We should celebrate!" Mia's face slowly fell and she shook her head. "Why not? You did a great thing. We should have a party!" She sat up straight in her seat. "I'm not in the mood." "Mia, what's wrong?" She seemed reluctant to tell him, so he didn't press her. After a little more hesitation, she finally said, "It's the prom." Jack nodded. When she didn't say anything else, he said, "What about the prom, specifically?" "I'm... I'm not going." Jack frowned. "Why not?" She shrugged and looked down. "No one asked me." Jack was almost stunned by the news. He knew everyone in the school thought Mia was hot. She looked like Megan Fox, but with bigger tits. He simply couldn't believe no one would ask her. Even if her beauty was too intimidating to the average student, the empty-headed jocks would definitely barrel through any feelings of inadequacy and ask away. He was tempted to read her mind and confirm her claim, but he held back. Not only was that an unnecessary risk with the cloaked figure out there, but he had already spent too much time rooting around inside her head. It's high time I started respecting her mental privacy. "Well, uh... I'm sure if you were to ask any of the guys, then-" Mia's gasp interrupted him. "And come off as desperate? If the school heard I had to ask a guy to the prom, then I'd lose my chance." Jack squinted. "Lose your chance at what?" "At winning prom queen," she said. "Oh," Jack said and put the car in drive. He pulled out and drove home. "Oh," she said, mimicking his tone of voice. "It's not an 'oh' to me, Jack. You've got a big, bright future ahead of you. You're gonna go places and do things. Rack up some accomplishments. Me? Not so much. What am I gonna do with my life? I'll have an ok job, probably get married and have kids. No bells, no whistles. This is my one chance, my one shot at taking the prize. If I never do anything in my life again, I can have that photo of me wearing that tiara. I'd look at it when I'm old and say to myself that I mattered, once. People cared about me. I could show it to my grandkids, someday." She put her head down in her hand and sniffled. Jack shifted his weight uncomfortably in his seat. She seemed to cry the entire drive home. When he parked in front of the house, she raised her head. Her eyes were puffy and red. Jack stared into her eyes for a long moment and then said, "How can I help?" "You want to help me?" she asked, tearfully. He sighed. "Yes. If I can." "Really?" He nodded. She sniffed her nose clear. "If you really want to help me, then you can take me to the prom." Jack's brow drew down. "No. Go stag." She clasped her hands at him. "Oh, please! Please, Jack! I can't go stag! It'd ruin my chances of winning. Please, I need a date." "We'll find someone else." "There is no one else." "Oh, come on! There's got to be someone that-" "Jack! Everyone that's anyone has already got a date to the prom. It's two days away. It's too late. Please, Jack! Please, take me to the prom!" "No. If you want to take prom queen, then we have to find you someone else. Someone acceptable. With my reputation-" "I'd win!" Jack shot her a confused look. "Winning prom queen is all about getting people to talk about you. I've been spending so much time hitting the books lately, that I didn't run a proper campaign. Lisa did. She's going to win prom queen over me. Unless! If I were to show up with a guy that everyone talks about. Then, they'd think of me and cast their votes for me. Please, Jack, please, take me to prom! I need you to win the title." Jack chuckled and shook his head. "There's no such thing as bad publicity?" "Yes," she said and smiled. "That's exactly it! If I'm on your arm, I get talked about and I get votes. If I'm stag, I get ignored, or pitied, and no votes. I need you to take me to prom." Jack sighed. "No." "Why not?" "Look, Mia, I don't care about these things. I don't care about those people, I don't care about prom... I just don't." "Do you care about me?" she asked in a small voice. Jack frowned. "Well, of course I care about you." Her face lit up with a smile. "Cool! Then it's settled! You're taking me to prom!" She opened the door and got out of the car. Jack followed. "Wait a minute! I didn't agree to-" "You don't care about prom, right?" "Yes." "So, it's all the same to you if you go or don't go. However, you said you cared about me. And I care about prom. A lot. By the transitive property, you do care about prom and you're going to take me." She smiled, winked and sauntered into the house. Jack watched her go with a frown. "Curse her sudden, but inevitable application of logic." He followed her inside and tried to argue the matter some more, but she looked to be on the verge of tears when he did, so he resigned himself to taking her to prom. He sent Spot into her room early on Friday morning to wake her up. Pulling the sheets off her bed didn't wake her, so Spot resorted to licking her feet. She woke with a start and a yelp. She tried to get back to sleep, but Spot kept jumping on the bed and licking her. "Jack! Get your monster off me!" Jack just smiled and sent Spot the signal to go all the way. The dog bit the leg of her pajama bottoms and pulled her off the bed. She crashed onto the floor with a loud thud and roared in anger as she chased the retreating dog. She nearly ran into Jack, who was standing right outside her bedroom door. Spot sat behind him, wagging his tail happily. "What the... argh! Your stupid mutt just pulled me off my bed!" Jack smiled. "Nice to see you're up. Now, make yourself presentable in a hurry, please. We only have a short amount of time for breakfast and then we must be off!" Mia gaped at him like he had grown a second head and another one on top of that. "It's Friday morning! It's the first Friday that I don't have to be in school anymore and you wake me up this early!?" Jack shook his head. "No. It's Friday morning on the last day before the prom and you are already late." "Late? Late for what?" Jack spread his arms. "For everything! We have to go dress shopping and have your pick altered to your measurements. The same for my tux. Then we have dancing lessons in the city. I booked those last night, we were lucky that another couple dropped out at the last moment." Mia just gaped at him. "What?" Jack flashed her a patient grin. "Mia. Just because I was very reluctant to agree to take you to the prom, that doesn't mean that I'm happy to half-ass it. We are going shopping for proper attire and then we are taking dancing lessons. We will look and move our best in that gym tomorrow night. Don't worry," he winked, "I've booked you several hours in a beauty salon right before the prom, but after we have our second lesson. Now! You must wash your face and come down for breakfast!" Mia shook her head in bewilderment and allowed him to guide her into the upstairs toilet. She yawned. "Breakfast is served in fifteen minutes," Jack said. "If you're not downstairs by then, I'm sending Spot up to fetch you." Mia glared at the Border Collie. "And I'll send Porthos, Athos and Aramis with him." Her eyes grew comically large at the thought of the three big dogs that were in the yard. He grinned. "See you in fifteen." He closed the door behind her and went downstairs to finish getting breakfast ready. Dress shopping took a lot of time and Jack thought they'd never find anything she liked. They went through store after store, but she just dismissed every dress she was shown. Their dance class was coming up and he was going to call to cancel it until she suddenly gasped and ran at the window of a small boutique. She went in and tried on a strapless, pale lavender dress. Its top half hugged her figure tightly. Below the waist, the dress flared out wonderfully until it ended at mid-calf. Jack grinned as he admitted to himself that she did look gorgeous in it. She would probably look even better when she danced in it. The seamstress took some measurements and assured them the dress would be finished by noon tomorrow. Jack paid her the money, took the receipt, and they left the store to go find him a tuxedo. He stood patiently for the measurements to be taken and it, too, was going to be altered by noon on Saturday. They hurried and made it to the dance class in time. For several hours, they practiced their moves and synched up their rhythms, until they really glided together on the dance floor. They adjourned for a late lunch and chatted over some risotto. Jack marveled at how easy it was for him to be relaxed around her, once the possibility of them dating was off the table. The little voice didn't make a single peep. She said she had to meet with some classmates and do some last minute lobbying for votes, so he dropped her off at the school. He went home to meditate, as always. On Saturday, they picked up their outfits for the prom and then had another dance class. This time, they practiced less formal and more modern dancing. In the afternoon, he drove her to the beauty salon and went to see a movie while she was being treated with all sorts of things. Just before sunset, a friend from Alpha drove their armored Hummer stretch limo over to Jack's house. The company invested in it because they had many rapper clients that hired them for personal security, but it went unused most of the time. Janice excitedly took pictures of Jack in his tuxedo and of the limo, much to Jack's annoyance. "Give it a rest, Janice!" "I want pictures! My baby boy is going off to prom!" Jack shut the door on her and rolled his eyes as she yelled, "And get me photos of Mia and her dress! And of the two of you together!" "Could we go, please," Jack said to the driver. Tyrone lowered the partition and said, "You got it, Jack!" They pulled out and Jack spotted the very large bowl of condoms on top of the minibar. He examined them and saw that they were all in the same size: extra small. He picked up the bowl. "Ha, ha, ha. Very funny." "No glove, no love, Jack! We're just lookin' out for ya!" Jack pressed the button to lower the window and tossed the bowl into a roadside dumpster as they passed it. "Hey! Those cost us a hundred bucks, man! Everybody chipped in for them!" Jack put a hand to his ear. "What was that? Sorry, couldn't hear you over the noise of my extremely large dick settling down one of my pant legs." Tyrone laughed and drove them to the spa. Jack got out of the limo and his jaw dropped at the sight of Mia in her dress. Her hair was wavy and had chestnut highlights in it. It was swept to cascade down one side of her face, making her look like a Hollywood's golden age leading lady. Her makeup was perfect and yet unnoticeable at the same time. Her blue eyes sparkled under perfectly shaped eyebrows and her lips bore peach-colored lipstick as they spread into a smile. The bodice of the dress was modified to lift her tits and push them together, giving her a prodigious cleavage. She also looked like she might spill out of it at any moment. "How do I look?" She gave a twirl and her dress fanned out to show off her thin calves. Jack shook his head to stop staring. "Perfect." "Oh, thank you!" She rushed into his arms and gave him a peck on the cheek. She smelled wonderful, even if Jack couldn't identify the flowery scent. She stepped back and looked Jack up and down. "Wow! You look good, Jack! Really." He shrugged, self-consciously. "Thanks." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 She bit her lower lip excitedly. "So, is this our ride?" "What, this?" Jack pointed a thumb over his shoulder. "Nah. This is just some random guy that pulled over when I stuck my thumb out. We're taking a cab to the prom." She giggled and smacked him on the chest with the back of her hand. "Come on! We're fashionably late as it is." They got in and Mia's eyes went wide as she took in all the things that were installed in the back. "Yeah," Jack said, agreeing with her unspoken sentiment, "the only thing we're missing right now is a hot tub." They were almost to the school when Tyrone lowered the partition. "Jack, I'm so, so sorry, man! I just got a call. There's a high roller gonna land at the airport in a little over an hour and I gotta go there and pick him up to take him to the Indian casino." "Oh, well, that's ok," Jack said. Mia looked tense with worry. "I'll take you guys to prom, we're just a few minutes out, but you'll have to get home on your own. With high rollers that come in unannounced, it's all hands on deck, all night long, ya know?" Mia wilted with relief. Jack said, "No worries, Tyrone, I get it." "Hey, listen! I gotta go pick up Henley before I go to the airport. We could swing by your house and drive your car to the school parking lot." "I'd appreciate that," Jack said and dug his car keys out of his pocket. He had a habit of taking his car keys with him everywhere and he felt glad he had taken them tonight, as well. "Just leave the key on the front driver's side tire for me!" He scooted all the way forward and gave Tyrone the key. "Front driver's side tire," Tyrone said. "You got it! Now, sit back and put on your best smiles. We're here. Wait for me to open the doors for you." Tyrone lifted the partition and Jack settled down to sit next to Mia. She grabbed his hand and gave it a nervous squeeze. He gave her a reassuring smile. Tyrone pulled the stretch Hummer up to the end of the red carpet the organizing committee had put out. It was lit with spotlights to give the impression of arriving at a movie premiere. Everyone's eyes were drawn to the vehicle as Tyrone came out. His jacket was unbuttoned and some picked up on the glint of chrome coming off his concealed carry in a shoulder holster. He buttoned his jacket and donned a driver's cap over his dreadlocks. He walked to the back door and opened it. Jack got out first and was surprised to see a sea of faces turned his way. It seemed that half the school was gathered around the entrance and off to the sides of the red carpet. Many a smartphone was held aloft, with cameras pointed his way. Jack cleared his throat nervously and adjusted his tux. He held out a hand and Mia took it. When she stepped out, Jack could hear the oohs and aahs coming from the girly part of the crowd. He faced them again, with Mia on his arm, and they started walking down the red carpet. His heart beat wildly from all the eyes that were on him. He had been the object of attention for a crowd before, but those times had been different. Back in his old school, he had played on the basketball team, but they hardly ever had more than a hundred spectators per game and he was usually on the bench. Even when he was on the court, he'd be just one of ten guys playing. None of that could prepare him for the terrifying sensation of walking towards a crowd of over a hundred people, with all eyes locked onto him. Well, they're mostly looking at Mia, he tried to comfort himself. It didn't work. He could see he was drawing almost as much interest as the gorgeous girl on his arm. Worse still, he could see that they were looking at him one moment and then leaning in to whisper with the person next to them in the very next instant. He swallowed against his dry throat and felt sweat trickle down the small of his back. He wanted to break into a run and get away from them all. Only the sight of Mia stopped him. She was smiling blissfully and enjoying all the attention. He drew a deep breath, squared his shoulders and walked down the red carpet with her. They paused in the arch to get their official picture taken. He didn't want to ever see the picture, or the expression his face bore in it. Once past the double doors to the gymnasium, the pressure abated only slightly. All eyes were still on them. Girls would come over and chat with Mia, expressing their admiration at the way she looked. While the womenfolk did their jabbering, their dates would stand to the side and exchange a few glances with Jack. Jack thought he could see envy in their eyes, mixed with the obvious bewilderment that he had wound up being the one to take her to prom. Mia drew him to the dance floor and Jack was very glad he had taken them to a dance class as he was far too nervous to make moves up on the spot. They danced the way they had practiced and he managed at last to ignore all the people staring at him. When a song Mia deemed uncool came on, she led them to the punch bowl and they had a few cups each. Jack could tell it was spiked. He didn't mind. "Isn't this a surprise," Lisa said as she walked up to them. She was dressed in a slinky, burgundy, off the shoulder dress that hugged her trim body tightly. Jack's eyes ran up and down her body and he blushed realizing that he knew exactly what she looked like underneath that thin fabric. "Bitch, you look hawt." "Thanks, Lisa. You look good, too." The two cheerleaders exchanged air kisses and smiles that seemed phony to Jack. Lisa pointedly gave Jack a once over. "Oh. I can see why you kept your date a secret." Jack's brow drew down. He didn't like her tone of voice. "You're very brave to show up on Dog Boy's arm." "Jack was my first choice of dates," Mia said, in the same, sickly sweet tone of voice Lisa used. "And is this your first choice?" Lisa's smug smile faded. "Daniel couldn't be here tonight." "Yes," Mia drawled. "I'm sure he couldn't." She turned to the football player next to Lisa. "Shawn, how does it feel to be second string?" The brawny, beefy guy looked confused by the question. Lisa's brow drew down and she grabbed Shawn's hand. "Come on, Shawn!" Shawn looked to be on the verge of formulating an answer, but Lisa tugged insistently on his arm and he followed her instead. "What was that all about? I thought you two were besties?" Mia looked at Jack with mild confusion. "We are." Jack stared at her for a moment and then shook it off. He poured himself another cup of punch. The DJ played "Who Let the Dogs Out". Jack looked over to the DJ's table and saw Lisa leaving it to make her way back across the dance floor. She was still leading Shawn by the arm. They stopped right in front of Mia and Jack and started dancing. Shawn was mostly just standing there like a statue, while Lisa danced lewdly, bending over and rubbing her ass up against him. She was doing all that she could to draw attention to herself. Jack could feel the eyes landing on him. With the song reminding everyone of his nickname, he wanted to get away from the gyrating blonde. Mia grabbed him by the crook of the arm and smiled. "Stay," she mouthed up at him. He wanted to go, but something about her smile made him think she had a rejoinder to Lisa's provocation. He held his ground and did his best to ignore the stares and the smiles of derision. If they start to point and laugh at me, I will fuck somebody up! The song ended none too soon for Jack's taste and Lisa stood before them, grinning happily. "Oh, yeah, I meant to ask earlier. Why did you give up on running for prom queen? I thought you were dead set on that, and then you just up and studied your ass off instead of campaigning? What's up with that?" Mia smiled another phony smile. "It's a little something called personal growth, Lisa." Mia glanced up at the stage and her smile turned sincere. "Stay right here and you'll learn a thing or two about that!" Kevin Mitchell, the class president, went to the microphone and greeted the class. He urged everyone to give themselves a hand for making it to the prom and they did. He thanked the organizing committee for throwing together this bash and everyone applauded again. A spotlight shone on a small group of girls and boys and they awkwardly basked in the attention. "There's someone else here tonight that deserves our most heartfelt thanks and admiration! I'll let those who know him better do the introduction." The lights dimmed and the video wall came alive. Jack hardly noticed, pouring himself another cup of punch. "Jack Watts is the finest young man I've ever had the privilege of knowing," said the marine sergeant who had first turned Jack onto training assistance dogs. Jack spun around, dropping his cup and ladle into the bowl. The sergeant was on the video screen, talking about Jack's work. Jack's legs threatened to give out. He looked at Mia, who was beaming a radiant smile at him. "As soon as I called the base you told me he was serving at, they connected me to him and he was so glad to help me with this." "What is this?" Jack asked. "I told Kevin about your work and he immediately agreed to give you a special award on behalf of the class. You know, as a sorry-for-ignoring-you kind of thing. He has a disabled cousin, did you know that?" A steady stream of some of the recipients of Jack's dogs played on the screen. Each person identified themselves and then briefly, but emotionally, told of how the dog Jack trained for them had changed their lives for the better. Mia bumped Jack's shoulder with her own and said, "I charmed the AV nerds into making the video tribute. It was all very last minute. Do you like it?" Jack was at a loss for words. He saw Lisa staring at him in bewilderment. Her big, brown eyes were flicking between the screen and him. She looked like she was doubting her own sanity. He looked around and saw amazement on everyone else's faces. Some of the girls held handkerchiefs to their eyes as they started crying. A few of the people that were near him looked over with expressions of disbelief. Some looked down in shame, doubtlessly remembering the times when it had been funny to bark at him. His fists clenched up as he grit his teeth when he saw that some were shooting admiring glances his way. Every time they stared at him, shocked to learn of his selfless work, he felt a punch to the gut. He could have been a role model for the other kids. He could see it in their eyes, in the frank admiration, hidden beneath a thick layer of shocked surprise. If only he had not trusted Steve, John and Rob, he would not have practically wasted two years of his life in solitude. The video finally ended, but Jack hardly noticed. He was trembling from head to toe. "Where is the man of the hour?" Kevin asked from the stage. A spotlight swept across the crowd until it settled on Jack, nearly blinding him and snapping him out of his bout of self-hatred. "There he is! Jack Watts, please come up on stage and accept The Special Humanitarian Award that the class of 2015 wants to give you!" A roar of applause slammed into him like a tidal wave. His breath came up short and his hearing all but failed. Mia stood up on tiptoes, yelled something in his ear and kissed his cheek. He let himself be blindly led by Mia's hand on his elbow. A few hands reached out as he passed and gave him a clap on the back. Mia pulled him up the stairs to the stage and he nearly stumbled. She led him over to Kevin, who grabbed his hand with both of his and pumped it repeatedly before sticking something into it. Jack looked at the award. It was a pedestal with a piece of crystal on top of it. Engraved into the crystal were the words: "Springfield High Class of 2015 Special Humanitarian Award". Mia and Kevin turned him to face the crowd and he nearly choked on his own tongue. Literally everyone in the gym was staring up at him as they applauded. He froze, even though his heart beat faster than ever before in his life. Mia stood next to him and waved to the crowd. Jack could barely make out Kevin speaking again. He looked over at the man on reflex when he noted something in the inflection of his voice. Did he just ask me a question? Kevin thrust the microphone into Jack's free hand and gestured at the crowd before them. Jack didn't know how he managed to stay upright as he looked out at the sea of upturned faces staring at him. No applause was heard. There was no music in the room. Not a sound except for Jack's heart thundering in his ears. He was about to keel over when his drooping eyes fell on Lisa. She was standing right in front of the stage, dead center. Her brow was drawn down in a scowl and her full lips were pressed tight in displeasure. Screw you, bitch! He straightened up and raised the microphone to his mouth. "Uh, hi there. Um, should I be given this award?" He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't feel like a hero, or anything." He cleared his throat. "Right now, I feel like someone that stumbled into unknown territory. Everything around me is new and strange. I feel hope that things will turn out for the best, but I feel fear at the same time. Fear that things will turn out badly." He looked out at the crowd. "I see some of you nodding along. You're seniors, you know the feeling. You're feeling the exact same way about the future that awaits you beyond these walls, don't you?" He heard some exclamations of agreement come from the crowd. "You know, I'm reminded of the last time I felt like that. It was during my first week here. I was the new kid in school, surrounded by people I didn't know and I had such hopes for the future." He looked down and shook his head. "What a naive jackass I was back then. But, look at me now! I'm on stage with an award in my hand and a gorgeous girl on my arm. And I'm giving a speech. "I would like to give some thanks, right now. I'd like to thank all of you." He held out his hand over the crowd, which began cheering. He continued when they stopped. "I'd like to thank you, one and all, for taking the time and effort, way back when, to approach me and to get to know me. I'd also like to thank the girls that mocked my efforts in training a seeing eye dog during my first week in this town." He put his hand with the award across his chest. "You touched me right here with your mockery." "I'd also like to thank all of you, once again, for laughing at those photos and calling me Dog Boy, both behind my back and to my face. That was really swell of you." Mia and Kevin awkwardly tried to intervene, but he stepped forward, out of the reach of their hands. He glared at the crowd. "I bet half of you had no clue who this Jack Watts character was until you saw me climb the stage just now. Did you? All I ever was to you was 'Dog Boy', nothing more. "Special thanks go out to John Barnes, Steve Cooper and Rob Torrance for maligning my good name behind my back and acting like they were doing the exact opposite when they were with me. The three of them are rotten serpents and I'd like to go on record to say that the shitty way you treated them for years is, in hindsight, completely justified. Or, maybe, they acted the way they did because you lot treated them like piles of garbage for most of their lives. Who knows? All I know is that I would like to thank you all, yet again, for never doing anything about all those things they told you about me. Give yourselves a hand." He put the award under his armpit and snapped the fingers of his free hand to simulate the sound of clapping. "No, really, give yourselves a hand. You all believed I was a dangerous lunatic and not a single one of you lifted a finger about it for two years. You folks deserve an award, not I." Mia tried to take him by the arm and lead him off the stage, but he took a resolute step away from her. "Uh-oh, they're signaling me to get off the stage, so I'll wrap this up real quick. I'll admit that I'm not without fault in all this. I should have done things differently. I should have stood up for myself. I should have tried harder to overcome the mockery and make friends, but you know what? It does take two to tango. I'm rightly angry with all of you, because you assholes should have met me half way. But not a single one of you did." He stared out at the silent crowd. He looked down at Lisa. Her pretty face was inscrutable, but he thought she looked uncomfortable. "In conclusion, I'd like to say fuck you." He raised the award. "Fuck you for this. Fuck you all very much." He let the award drop from his hand and shatter on the stage. He dropped the microphone and stormed off. Kevin picked up the microphone and ordered music to be played, but the DJ was slow to respond. As Jack left the gym, he could hear the crowd begin to murmur and talk. He couldn't care less. He threw the double doors open and strode through them. "Jack! Jack, wait!" Mia ran after him and managed to catch up to him in the hallway. "What the hell was that?!" He didn't stop as he said, "Funny, I might ask you the same question." "Why on Earth would you make that speech?! I went to all that trouble to arrange all this for you and you just ruined it! Why are you so happy with being an outcast?" "Did I sound happy just now?" He barged out of the main doors and into the sultry night. Mia followed him. "No, you sounded like a pissy little shit that can't thank anyone for anything. I-" Jack suddenly stopped and rounded on her with a glare. "Thank?! You seriously expect me to thank you for that?! Are you kidding me?!" Mia looked uncertain. "You just put me on the spot. Did you honestly think I'd like being glared at by a spotlight? That I'd enjoy everyone staring at me? Do you honestly think it's a good thing to stick a microphone into someone's hand and shove them out in front of a crowd with no warning?" Mia opened her mouth to retort, but blushed instead. "Oh, and let's not pretend you did any of that for me! You did it for yourself, plain and simple. You did all that, sent the AV geeks to bother all those people in their homes, just so you could stand on stage and get prom queen votes!" "No!" Mia sounded half horrified and half insulted by his accusation. "Oh, give me a break, Mia! At least have the decency to own up to what you did!" "I did it for you!" "Like hell you did! You did it to win a stupid crown!" Mia teared up and shook her head. "No! That's not true!" "Yes it is! The more you deny it, the more you insult me! You did all that because you wanted to show up Lisa, for some reason, and you didn't care in the slightest about how I'd feel. Or how anyone else would feel, for that matter." "No! I did it for you! I did it because I love you!" They both froze at hearing her words. She blushed even redder as she looked down at the ground. "I, I didn't say love, I said owe. I owe you. I owe you for... everything and that's why I did all that." Jack didn't know what came over him at that moment, but he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a hug. She didn't resist as he lowered his lips towards her. Her face turned slightly upwards, as if to meet him half way. Stop, the little voice yelled out. You're making an ass out of yourself! You're committing sexual assault! She'll report you to the police! Stop! Pull up! You'll crash and burn! Pull up! He paused an inch above her upturned lips and stared into her wide eyes. His heart was throbbing in his ears again. She stared right back into his eyes. He thought he could feel her heart beating wildly against his hands on her back. Her breasts were pressed against his chest. Her breath was warm against his chin. She closed the distance between their lips and they kissed. Their eyes shut as they gave in to the kiss. Her lips were soft against his and they tasted like bubblegum. He drew her breath into himself and felt his knees grow weak, even as his arms suddenly seemed to gain strength. No one could pull her out of his embrace at that moment. She was his. His tongue slid out of his lips to penetrate hers. She gave a small gasp of surprise, but parted her lips to let it in. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 He had seen how she liked to be touched and where, and that extended to kissing as well, but he was stymied in his attempts to take her breath away by the strange sensations he now felt for the first time ever. He pulled his tongue slightly back when he first touched hers and then timidly touched it again. He decided he liked the touch, so he put a hand on the back of her head and deepened the kiss. He ran his tongue over her teeth and gums, tickling her just the way she wanted, right where he knew she was ticklish. She moaned into his mouth. His hands ran all over her skin, touching and feeling a woman's body for the first time ever. He enjoyed the sensation of soft skin over firm muscles and yielding breasts. She was hot to the touch and he loved the way she squirmed in his embrace. As he felt her up, her kiss became less passionate. She stopped squirming so much and her general demeanor was becoming less amorous with each heartbeat. See? the little voice asked. I told you this would never work. You're fucking things up! She doesn't really want you! He checked himself. He was pawing at her like the eager virgin that he was. He knew better. Using his insights into her body, he started stroking her most sensitive spots. A hand caressed her between the shoulder blades. He bent down to lay a line of kisses on the exposed skin of her shoulders. He used his free hand to pull her arms around himself. Then he tickled the insides of her elbows, making her gasp and giggle. He could feel every tiny droplet of perspiration that was glistening on her skin. She was soon squirming in his arms again. Her heaving breaths were cooling his damp temples. Her hands started to caress him in return and one grabbed the back of his head and pressed him forward when he kissed a particularly ticklish spot on her neck. A bunch of their classmates came out of the gym, making the two of them break their hug on reflex and jump out of each other's embrace. They watched the oblivious teens stumble away from them, drunkenly mumbling amongst themselves. Jack wanted to make love to Mia like he had never wanted anything in his life before. When their company rounded a corner, he stepped back towards Mia. She shook her head. "Not here!" Jack barely managed to hold back and not bend her over right then and there. He nodded and held out his hand. Mia took it and he led her to his car. He retrieved the key from the tire and they got in the front seats. They made out some more, until they heard more people coming out of the gym. They broke their hug and Jack started the engine. He drove them out of town by the quickest route and they found themselves in the woods in a little over five minutes. Mia looked out the windows, trying to make anything out in the gloom. The lights of the town were behind them. There was some moonlight, but with the headlights off, the woods were largely dark. Jack reached over and caressed the inside of her wrist with the tips of his fingers. She shuddered and turned all her attention towards him. He twined his other hand in her hair and pulled her in for a kiss. Their lips crashed together, driven by passion, and their breaths mingled as their tongues wrestled for control. As the kiss went on, he could feel her arousal mounting to match his. She was squirming in her seat and her hands were roaming all over his body. His dick was rock hard and he couldn't find a position to sit in that wasn't distractingly uncomfortable. He didn't want to break contact with her, but it was inevitable. "Outside," he gasped when he pulled back from her. She nodded and they got out of the car. He ran around to her side and took her up in his arms. Her tits pressed into his chest, driving him wild. Her thighs rubbed across the tip of his erection as he lifted her up. She kissed him with wild abandon and he walked backwards with her in his arms until he made it to the front of the SUV. He gently lowered her on top of the hood of his car. His hands reached around her and blindly undid her dress. He pulled her dress down and she lifted her hips to help him. She was left in a black, strapless bra with matching panties and suspenders that were holding up her sheer stockings. She gasped at the feel of warm metal against her bare skin. He lifted her up in his arms and laid her dress down over the hood. He lowered her back down, but she leaned forward and began to undress him. She pushed his tux off his shoulders and they both worked at the buttons of his shirt with fumbling fingers. Jack growled in frustration and ripped his shirt off, eager to be naked as soon as possible. She pulled his T-shirt up and he took it off to toss it behind her with the rest of the clothes. She lay back on the improvised bed and he bent down to kiss her. He licked up the salt from her bare skin as he worked his way down her body. He knew he could slip into her mind and just make her feel incredible arousal and pleasure, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to make love to her the old fashioned way, at least the first time. He needed to lay claim to her body without supernatural assistance. It would forever silence that little voice in the back of his mind that nipped at his confidence whenever a girl was involved. He lifted her up again and undid the clasp of her bra. She gasped. "Stop." She tried to cross her arms over her breasts, but he spread them at the same time as he tossed her bra aside. Her breasts were every bit as lovely as they had been in his vision. They were capped with big, dark aureoles that puffed out with a thin nipple sticking out from the middle. He bent his head lower and softly kissed them. She arched her back and squealed in pleasure, even as she again said, "Stop." He focused on her swollen nipples and wrapped his lips around one of them. He applied suction and she gasped in pleasure. His tongue flicked out and licked at the tip of the swelling, where the little nub was protruding. Her hands tangled themselves in his hair as she moaned and writhed beneath him. He changed breasts and repeated the kiss, making her moan and squirm some more. His fingers glided over the smooth skin of her stomach, feeling the taut muscles rippling underneath it with her arousal. He reached lower and undid her suspenders. He laid down a line of kisses heading towards her navel and hooked his fingers into the waistband of her panties. She lifted her hips to allow him to slide her panties off her, even as she quietly said, "No, please, don't." He slid her panties down her hips and looked hungrily at the treasure they had been concealing. She blushed and lowered her ass back down. She tried to keep her legs closed and obscure his view of her shaved nethers. He lifted her legs up and pulled the panties off them. Then he grabbed each leg with one hand and spread them wide. Mia gasped out loud. She raised her head and looked at him with wild eyes. He had a pretty good idea of what kind of conflict must be going on inside her mind at that moment. The thought of being the external force that barreled through all of her misgivings and starting her sex life made him feel proud. He gave her a predatory grin and then lowered his face to her pussy. He took a whiff of her. He could smell her juices, even if he couldn't see them in the gloom. He looked up and smiled in satisfaction. She let out another loud gasp and lay back down. He reached out with his tongue and confirmed that what he was smelling were, in fact, her juices. He moaned at the taste, even as Mia tried to moan in protest. She put a hand on his head, but didn't try to push it away. He drew his tongue slowly across her pussy, starting at the bottom of her slit and ending with the nub that was protruding at the top. She shuddered and gasped. He smiled and shed all his inhibitions and reserves. He was going to make her cum. He used his knowledge of her intimate parts from the vision to quickly drive her to madness. He used his fingers, lips and tongue to stimulate all of her. He alternated soft kisses of her outer lips with quick penetrations of her channel or featherlight nibbles on her clit. He loved the power he had over her at that moment. He never wanted to lose it. He only wanted it to grow and last forever. Her hand in his hair clenched up as she writhed and moaned atop the hood of his SUV. When his hands reached up to grasp her firm, round tits and he sucked her clit out from where it retracted under its hood, she shrieked in ecstasy. Her whole body shuddered violently under him and he could feel heat and goose bumps spread across her skin where his hands were touching her. He felt a strange combination of pride and joy as he witnessed the orgasm he gave her. This went on for a short while and ended with her head lolling from side to side as she babbled unintelligibly. He undid his pants and took them off, along with his boxer shorts. He grasped himself with one hand and aligned his dick with her sopping wet pussy. She seemed to be revived by the touch. She lifted her head and looked him in the eye. He stood over her, poised to penetrate her, for a timeless moment. He didn't want to stop, or even pause. Nothing could stop him from taking her now, not even if she changed her mind, somehow. He just couldn't stop savoring the moment. He could just make out the furious flush of her features in the gloom. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was open as she gasped for breath. He gently pushed himself into her, feeling the soft flesh yield before him. She bit back a strangled, incoherent cry and let her head fall back down. He drove slowly, but steadily into her, enjoying the feeling of that perfect, wet heat engulfing him from all sides at once. With every millimeter of penetration, he could feel that little voice in the back of his mind dying. He lost all track of time as he slid deeper and deeper into her. Her flesh yielding to him stoked a fire in the pit of his belly. Her body squirming in his grasp enhanced it. He pushed on until he felt her juices on his groin. He gasped in delight as he realized he was balls deep in her. He smiled and nearly started shouting. He stifled his desire to announce their mating to the whole countryside and began to pull out. He was barely halfway there, before the need to drive back into her consumed him. He slammed his hips into her ass with the soft slap of flesh against flesh. She squealed at the penetration and Jack realized he was going to cum very soon. The heat was building in his belly and her pussy was just too perfect as it snugly sheathed his dick. He didn't want to cum so quickly, he wanted to utterly dominate his mate's body, so he bent down and worshipped her tits with his mouth again. During that time, he mentally worked through a meditation technique that was meant to relax him. She was writhing with his dick inside her, all but counteracting his efforts. When he straightened up and resumed his slow penetrations, the heat was re-ignited and it threatened to make him spill at once. His body took over, acting on the basest of instincts, and kept sliding his dick out of her with smooth movements of his hips. He grit his teeth and tried to think unsexy thoughts to keep from cumming so soon, but his orgasm was coming on strong. With a supreme effort of will, he stopped with his dick fully sheathed inside of her and used his fingers to rub her clit at the juncture of their crotches. She yelped and squealed at the stimulation. Her thighs thrashed against his sides. He used his free hand to pinch one of her nipples. Her pussy squeezed his dick harder as she arched her back. While his touch drove her mad, the pause allowed him to cool down a little. He resumed his slow strokes in and out of her and she squealed each time he bottomed out inside of her. The fire in the pit of his stomach was again threatening to consume his sanity and make him cum. At the last possible instant, he pulled out of her, making her whimper at the loss. He grabbed her hips and rolled her over. He slid a hand around her hips to rub her clit again. She squirmed wildly in his arms. He drew a few deep breaths to cool himself down and then held her ass still while he aimed at her pussy. He slid back into her and achieved an even deeper penetration than a few moments ago. He slid a hand along her flank and grasped her hanging tit. She growled at the firm touch and drove her ass back into him in time with his penetrations. With one hand pinching a nipple and another twirling her clit, he was driving her closer to orgasm. He grit his teeth and used all of his strength to not cum just yet. She screamed out into the night and slammed her ass back into him as her pussy clenched down on his cock with rapid contractions. She was cumming again. He let go and slammed his hips into her, driving his cock as deep as it could go. The heat in his belly flashed over and burned up his spine, making his whole body convulse to drive his dick every last possible millimeter into her shuddering pussy. With his fingers clenching into the supple flesh of her hips, he growled as he shot his load into her. Fireworks exploded across the back of his eyelids. When he was spent, she was still shuddering on his dick, making him nearly double over from the intense sensations. He lowered his forehead to the back of her neck and gently kissed between her shoulder blades. She squealed and shuddered all over again. He hugged her under him as he felt his dick slowly soften inside of her. He let himself relax atop her and they both heaved big gulps of air. He had never felt so relaxed and fulfilled as he did at that moment. With her limp body in his embrace, the world seemed to make sense at long last. He knew, with utter certainty, that his purpose in this life was to be with Mia and make her happy. And screw her brains out, over and over again. Fuck! I need to get back into training. He used to be a varsity basketball player who could run a four minute mile. In the past two years the only exercise he routinely got was going jogging with his dogs to rid them of excess energy and make them more compliant, as well as get them used to traffic and being taken into unfamiliar territory. Lying atop Mia, he was thoroughly out of breath and some of his muscles felt like they were close to cramping up. He definitely needed to get back into shape. Her scent was invading his nostrils with each gasp of air. He nuzzled the back of her ear and kissed her there, making her giggle feebly. Her body just felt so perfect in his embrace. He kissed her again, tasting the fresh sweat on her skin. She writhed under him, rubbing her ass against his dick. He felt it start to stir again and he smiled as he nibbled at her earlobe. He took a long lick up the side of her face, making her laugh and try to push his head away. "Ew, stop!" "Oh, God," she gasped and tapped his forehead gently. "Jack! Stop! Car coming!" He looked up sharply and saw a pair of headlights coming their way, bouncing along the dirt road. "Shit!" He jumped off her and picked up his boxers and pants. In one smooth motion, he pulled them up and fastened his zipper. Mia was feeling around for her panties, but he grabbed her and pulled her upright. He held out her dress for her. She held on to his shoulder for balance as she stepped into it. They pulled it up and he fastened it. The car's headlights reached them and red and blue lights suddenly flashed on its roof as a police siren briefly sounded. "Fuck," Jack exclaimed. He grabbed his T-shirt and quickly donned it as the police cruiser parked right in front of them. They both raised their hands to block the blinding light from their eyes. He spotted Mia's panties on the ground and quickly grabbed them to stuff them into his back pocket. The cruiser's doors opened and another light shone at them from the side. "Well, well, well," A gruff, male voice said. "There just might be some truth to those nasty rumors that are going around about you, Jack." Jack cocked his head. "Drew?" The Sheriff's deputy stepped into the light and they both looked him up and down. He was a middle-aged man of stocky build and his face was dominated by his blonde, bushy moustache which seemed to grow as he smiled. "What're you doing here, Jack?" He pointed his flashlight at Mia's face. "And who's this?" Jack relaxed with a sigh. "Drew, this is Mia Newman, she used to be a ward of the home where your sister is posted. Mia, this is deputy Drew Maynard. He's Chrissie's baby brother." Mia hardly raised her eyes off the ground before her as she quietly said, "Nice to meet you." "What are you doing here, Drew?" "Some folks that live nearby heard some screaming, thought there might be trouble brewing, so they called it in-and why am I telling you this? I'm the law and you two kids are the ones that are in trouble. What were you doing out here, anyway?" Mia and Jack shifted their weight uncomfortably as Drew shone his flashlight in their faces. "This looks like a public indecency charge to me." "It's not," Jack said. "I can have my lawyer explain that to you." "Don't you get fresh with me, young man," Drew snapped as he advanced on Jack and shone his light right into his eyes. Jack had to turn his head away and squint. Drew sighed and backed off. "I guess it would be too much, anyway. Chrissie told me how bad she feels about standing aside while the assholes shafted you. And nobody needs the paperwork. I'm not gonna take you in, provided you go home, right now. Understand?" Jack and Mia nodded. "Can you find your way back to the main road?" Mia looked at Jack, who nodded with confidence. "Well, I'm gonna follow you, just to make sure you don't get lost." He turned around and got back into his cruiser. Jack gathered his shirt and tux and tossed them into the back seat of the car. Mia and he got in and he started the car to drive back into town. Drew followed them until they got onto the pavement, at which point he flashed his lights at them and drove off towards downtown. Jack drove them back to the house. He felt a great sense of relief and was surprised to notice that his cloak had been up the whole time. He felt a bit bad about that, as he wouldn't have minded having the memory of his first time with Mia resonate throughout the aether for decades to come. Never mind, I can simply enjoy it from her perspective, whenever I feel like it. He looked at Mia and saw her slumped down in her seat. She was staring at her upturned hands in her lap and a tear was sliding down her cheek. "Hey," he softly said, "are you ok?" She didn't respond. "Buck up, Mia! It all worked out." He tried to put a comforting hand on hers, but she pulled it away violently. He watched her curl up into a ball on the seat next to his and heard her sniff. "Mia, what's wrong?" She kept staring down without seeing and ignoring his concerned questions. She flinched away from any of his attempts to touch her and he was starting to get really worried. He parked in front of the house and turned to face her. "Mia? Mia, talk to me! What's wrong?" She buried her head in her hands and started to bawl hysterically. Jack didn't know what to do. When she hugged her knees and began to rock in her seat, he knew he had to do something and he had to do it right away. He decided to risk taking another peek inside her mind. He dropped his cloak, put on some music and tried to mimic her emotional state. Only when he imagined himself feeling guilty, did he finally slip into her mind. Jack's guilt over leading a man astray and indulging in sin was overwhelming. He found himself imagining one punishment after another, but they all felt too soft. He felt the need to atone. He also felt the need to stop himself from ever committing such a sin again. He felt the driving need to make himself unable to tempt anyone ever again. He felt the idea of mutilating himself start to take hold in his mind. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 04 Jack snapped back into his own mind and gaped at her in horror. She was seriously considering cutting her face so no one would consider her pretty, ever again. He felt the earnestness of her need and it blew his mind. She's going to do it. Sooner, or later, she's actually going to do it. After staring for a few seconds, he shook his head. This can't happen. I'm not going to let this happen. He came up with a solution, based upon her sexual fantasies. It wasn't the most moral of actions to take, but he didn't see another way to stop her from going mad with guilt. Especially not one that didn't involve an even bigger intervention into her mind. Mia was gasping for breath in-between her sobs. He closed his eyes and focused on the music. It took him a few seconds to imagine himself feeling such crippling guilt as she did. When he finally succeeded, he slipped inside her mind. Jack told himself the guilt that was consuming his sanity was baseless. He finally remembered that Jack had been using hypnosis on him for weeks as part of making him study more easily. He realized now that Jack had slipped some other stuff into his mind during those sessions and that all his sexual actions of the night had been under the effects of the sly bastard's post-hypnotic suggestions, not a result of his own, free will. His actions of the night were not those of a sinner, but those of a mind-controlled sex slave. There was no sin on his soul. Jack snapped back into his own mind and looked over at Mia. Her sobs were starting to lessen in volume and her breathing was becoming steadier with every passing moment. His little suggestion was working. He breathed a sigh of relief. He put his head in his hand and bit his lip. He had undone her bout of madness. Did he have the right to go further? Not without her permission. He closed his eyes, focused on the music and slid back inside her mind. Jack asked himself if he was ok with Jack using hypnosis to make him his real life sex slave. The answer was definitely yes. Now that he had experienced the mind-numbing pleasure sex could bring, he would love to be able to have it without the guilt and sin. Particularly if it was with Jack. Jack snapped back into himself and felt a grin spread across his features. Mia wanted it. She really wanted it. He only hesitated for a few moments and then ran inside the house. He retrieved a small, violet crystal he had in a drawer. His dad had given it to him ages ago. He had never been one for crystals and such, but he had kept it because it had been a gift from his father. He came back out and got in the car again. Mia was almost completely calm by now. She raised her red, puffy eyes and blinked them to look at him. He smiled right back at her and focused on the music. He slid back inside her mind again. Jack told himself that he had been repeatedly hypnotized by Jack Watts to react to the sight of the violet crystal in his hand. Whenever he saw the crystal, he would forget all his inhibitions, worries and troubles and become extremely aroused. He would then follow all his urges and Jack's commands until released, or he grew tired. He would never feel shame, or guilt for anything done while under the effects of Jack's crystal. He would only ignore the crystal's effects if there was a pressing matter that needed to be attended to, or if he was indisposed for sex. He also told himself he was completely incapable of telling anyone about what Jack had done to him with the hypnosis. Jack told himself he wanted to fuck this man in front of him like he wanted nothing before in his whole life. Jack snapped back into himself with a start. He had felt someone else's mind. For the briefest of instants, he had been inside the mind of a woman that was being invaded by the mind of another mentalist. He pulled his cloak about himself. He was too stunned by what had just happened to feel the gargantuan regret of dropping it in the first place. The cloaked figure! His heart rate went through the roof and his mouth turned dry in an instant. The cloaked figure was raping a woman's mind, using his powers to make her willing for sex, right at the same time Jack was making Mia believe she was his sex slave. His hands trembled and his skin turned deathly cold as he realized he had felt the invading mind of the cloaked figure and that he must have felt him, too. All four minds, Mia's, the woman's, the cloaked figure's and his had been resonating as one for the briefest of instants. I'm fucked! I'm so fucked! Mia's moan startled him and he turned his gaze towards her. She was rubbing one hand across her chest and the other along the inside of her thigh. Her legs were lewdly spread and her eyes were on the violet crystal in the palm of his clammy, shaking hand. She looked up into his eyes and smiled a predatory smile. He shook his head, unable to find his voice. He was going to be found and his power was going to be removed from him. He had barely managed to master it and it was going to be taken away from him. Mia leaned forward and kissed him. She licked his lips and probed his mouth with her tongue. He was in too much shock to respond. His sightless eyes stared far off into the distance. She pulled up his T-shirt. He could hardly feel the touch of her hands as they roamed across his chest. When she scraped her nails across his chest, he barely even noticed. She reached over and lowered his seat all the way back. Her hands slid down into his lap and worked his zipper. She kissed him ferociously as she gently squeezed his dick inside his underwear. The parts of his body that she was stimulating felt like they belonged to someone else. She sucked and massaged his tongue as she fondled his dick and balls. His body soon responded, entirely of its own accord. His rapid breath deepened and his cock started to swell. She giggled huskily into his mouth as she redoubled her efforts. Soon, he was sticking straight out of his zipper, as hard as ever. She broke their kiss and looked down at his dick. She smiled, looking like she had done something to feel proud about, and lowered her face to his lap. She winked at a senseless Jack before she opened her mouth and engulfed the head of his cock. Jack shivered at the feel of her agile tongue gliding across his most delicate flesh. When she clamped her lips closed just beneath the flared head of his cock and started probing his pisshole with the tip of her tongue, Jack finally became fully aware of her actions. He looked down at her head in his lap and groaned at the wonderful sensations she was giving him. She began to work her face up and down his shaft, using one delicate hand to stroke his shaft and the other to tickle the undersides of his balls. Jack's shock started to yield to the pleasure. He relaxed in his seat and sighed. Mia's ministrations on his dick were spectacular, but he was just starting to get into the groove when she stopped. She pulled her dress up and sat in his lap. He slid his hands up her thighs to keep her dress raised. She reached down between them and aligned his hard dick with her wet opening. Their eyes met. He was completely blown away by the strength of the lust he could feel in her look. She lowered herself and impaled her pussy on his cock. They groaned in unison as they enjoyed the feeling of their bodies joined so intimately. She smiled a wicked smile and started to grind atop him. He gasped at the sensations her gyrating pussy was producing upon his shaft. She began to add a little bounce to her movements and she was soon fucking herself atop his dick. Jack was now in enough control of his faculties to reach up and grab her tits with his hands. She arched her back and her breasts spilled out of her bodice. Jack ran his fingers over her smooth globes, using his thumbs to flick her erect nipples. Her orgasm was drawing nearer with each second. Her squeals of pleasure were threatening to wake up the whole neighborhood. The SUV was rocking with the force of her gyrations. Jack could only watch her in amazement as she drew her pleasure from his body. The wild look in her eyes was arresting. Without warning, she shoved his hands off her tits and leaned forward. She bit into the side of his neck as she sped up her writhing on his shaft. He could feel her face scrunch up against the side of his neck. Her shriek of ecstasy was muffled against his skin. Her body stiffened and her grasping pussy clamped down on Jack's dick. He growled at the intense sensations. The heat jumped from the pit of his belly, where he hadn't even noticed it before, and shot up his spine. His balls drew up as he found himself shooting his load into her. She collapsed atop him and his arms went around her of their own accord. He could feel the aftershocks go through her body in his embrace. They both gasped for air as the sweat made their clothes cling to their bodies. He loved the feeling of her hot body lying atop his. He closed his eyes and wished for that moment to go on forever. "Phew! That was awesome." She sat up and slid off his lap into the passenger's seat. She smoothed her dress down and then reached over to put his spent dick back into his underwear. She zipped him back up. "I'm tired." She smiled wickedly. "And kinda sore." She winked. "Thanks for a great night!" She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She opened her door and got out of the car to go inside the house. Jack watched the sway of her skirt as she walked up the front steps. He sighed. He felt glad that he had used his power on her. Now, all he had to do to keep getting laid after the cloaked figure takes his power was to not lose his violet crystal. Which is where, precisely? He raised his seat and turned on the cabin light. He found the crystal in his lap and quickly put it in his pocket. He sat up in his seat and wiped his face. The cloaked figure was going to come and take his power from him. He held his cloak firmly around his mind and rued the decision to take it off earlier. Why did I fucking do it? I'm going to lose my powers and over what? Ridding Mia of a religious guilt trip by making her a sex slave. He buried his face in his hands and growled in frustration and anger. No! I am not going down so easily! I'm going to hop on a plane and go to Europe, or somewhere, and he won't be able to track me because I'll be out of range and I'll be holding on to my cloak... Jack gasped as he finally realized he had also felt the rapist mentalist's mind when he had felt the victimized woman's mind. He couldn't have done that if the mentalist had had his cloak on at the time. The cloaked figure never lowered its cloak, since it could use its powers on others at the same time. Jack shouldn't have been able to feel the cloaked figure raping anyone's mind. I didn't! Jack nearly wept with joy as he realized he hadn't felt his mind resonate with the cloaked figure in action. He had felt his mind resonate with the mind of some other asshole mentalist. The relief was a tangible force that struck him bodily. His hands shook all over again as he cackled and laughed. Jack realized that he had never went on a vision quest in search of malevolent mentalists. He had only gone searching for benevolent mentalists, which had shown him the lurking monster of the cloaked figure. After that, he had completely abandoned all attempts to find other mentalists, fearing the cloaked figure finding him. He shook his head to himself, feeling stupid for not having thought of this earlier. I have to go searching for a vision of malevolent mentalists. Not only will I identify this rapist fuck, but it might also show me who the cloaked figure really is. The memories their mind made before they learned how to cloak it are still in the aether, somewhere. I just have to find them. To the kitchen! One batch of special brownies, a quick vision quest, and I'm off to kick ass! He yawned as he got out of the car. His limbs had all the strength of wet noodles as he made his way to the front door. He yawned again. All the exertion and excitement of the day was catching up to him and threatening to make him pass out. Once inside the house, he hesitated, looking at the kitchen door. He yawned again. White spots danced along the edges of his vision. He realized the poor woman whose mind he had felt was probably already raped or would certainly be by the time he got some pot in his system. He hadn't felt any lethal intent coming towards her from the rapist mentalist, so he decided to not rush into things. He was in no shape to go anywhere or do anything. How does one even stop a rapist mentalist? Call the cops to arrest him? Sooner, or later, he sneakes into one of their minds and gets himself released. He rubbed his brow. I need to think this through. He yawned. I really need to get some sleep. First bed, then the brownies, the vision and coming up with a way to do some serious asskicking. He slowly climbed the stairs with a wolfish grin on his face. No matter what tomorrow brought, he knew his days of fearing the cloaked figure were over. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 Edited by Over_Red ******** Jack woke up feeling like a million bucks. He stretched out on his bed and took a deep breath. The sheets were softer, the sun was brighter. Even the humidity seemed to be absent from the atmosphere. A smile came on his face unbidden as he realized he hadn't dreamed the day before. He was no longer a virgin. He had eaten Mia out and fucked her before she rode him like a woman possessed. And all he had to do to get a repeat performance was to flash a small, violet crystal at her. He got up and put on a fresh pair of boxers, slacks and a clean T-shirt. Everything smelled of fabric softener and felt good against his skin. He practically skipped and whistled as he went downstairs to wash up and brush his teeth. Even the knowledge that there was a mentalist out there, somewhere, using his power to rape women didn't lower his spirits. He was going to get to him soon enough. It was almost ten a.m., but he was in the mood for breakfast. He went into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator and considered its contents. He felt like eating something quite substantial today and he wanted to serve breakfast in bed to Mia, too. He hardly noticed Janice saying, "I didn't hear you come in last night. When did you get home?" "Oh...late, I guess." He rubbed his chin and took out the bottle of yoghurt and some fruit. A nice smoothie felt like the ideal starter. "What's that?" Jack held up the peaches in his hand and gave Janice a look. "Peaches." She pointed at his neck. "No, I meant, what's that? There's something on your neck." Jack frowned and rubbed over the spot on his neck she was pointing at. She gasped and walked up to him. "Jack Watts! You have a hickey!" He blushed in embarrassment. Mia had bitten him on the neck to muffle her orgasmic cries last night. He couldn't help but grin goofily at the memory. "Shame on you!" "What?" "Shame on you! You had sex with a girl last night, didn't you?" "Oh, we are so not having this conversation, Janice." "That's right! This isn't going to be a conversation! This is going to be me talking and you listening, for once, Jack! What were you thinking?" "Settle down, Janice!" "No, I will not settle down! I know what happened last night. I will not be quiet while you, you throw away your future." "What?" Janice pointed upwards and lowered her voice. "That girl is trying to get pregnant with your child, so you'd-" Jack rounded on Janice with a menacing glare. "Finish that sentence, Janice," he deliberately said, "and we will have ourselves an argument." Spot emitted a dangerous, low growl from the hallway, reacting to the speed of his master's mood swing. Jack almost instantly cooled off. He sent the dog the order to go outside and stay there. Janice watched the dog go away and then looked up at Jack with an insulted expression on her face. She was quiet, so Jack just sighed and went back to loading the blender with fruit. Hardly a minute passed before Janice said, "Such a cliché. Doing it on prom night. I mean, if you're going to risk eternal damnation for a piece of tail, you should at least do it under your own terms, and not...on prom night, like all the other sheep." Jack closed his eyes and sighed. There used to be a time when Janice's lectures on right and wrong were eagerly accepted by him. They were all the wisdom he would ever need in his life. They were the truth, the gospel according to Mom, and he had listened in awe and even enjoyment. Janice and he never had an affectionate relationship, but he had respected her, back before she turned out to be a hypocrite that was repeatedly cheating on her husband with a married man. When she started with her lecture on sin, he slammed the lid of the blender shut and turned it on to tune out her voice. She shook her finger at him and gave her sermon, trying to be louder than the blender. She cared not for his glare, or the deep breaths he was drawing to try and stay cool. The blender was done with liquefying his breakfast and Jack stared at it, unwilling to turn it off and have to hear her words. He looked up and saw Mia come into the kitchen. He sighed and reluctantly flipped the switch on the blender. "-a sinner and not the boy I raised," Janice said. "The devil may as well have gotten into you, for all I know!" Jack shot Mia a glance, fearing he would see some of the religious guilt from last night reappear on her features. Instead, she was wearing a grin and raised an eyebrow at what Janice was saying. She was a vision of beauty, standing in a slanted ray of light, wearing a faded pink T-shirt that was tight across her ample bosom and lime green hot pants. Even with bed-hair, she was a vision. "And you," Janice said, turning to the girl. "You did this to him. You led him on. Teased and tempted him. This is all your fault!" Mia smiled in response and looked over at Jack. "Whatever happened last night was Jack's doing, not mine." Janice gasped. "You don't even have the decency to deny it!" "Decency?" Jack grabbed his mother's shoulder and spun her around. "Is that what you think that word means? To lie and hide one's sin? Was fucking Mark behind Dad's back the decent thing to do? Would it have been indecent only if you had done it right in front of him, or out in public, for all the world to see?" Janice looked shocked at his words and her mouth worked without letting a single sound out. Jack had deliberately avoided talking to her about the affair and the divorce, ever since it had been finalized. It wasn't a topic he ever wanted to get into, but her sanctimony had drawn it out of him. "You're the only sinner in this room, Janice, so do us all a favor and keep your trap shut!" After a few tense moments, a tear slid out of the corner of Janice's eye and she left the kitchen. "I'm late for work." Jack blinked. "It's Sunday!" "I have to go meet some friends for coffee," Janice said from the hall. She slammed the front door shut as she left the house. Jack looked at Mia. "Are you ok?" She smiled. "I'm great, Jack. Last night was amazing!" "Yeah, it was." He shared her wide smile. It was like sharing a kiss. He blushed as he realized he knew what her arousal smelled and tasted like. What her bare skin felt like under his fingertips. She was his girl and he was allowed to touch and pleasure her whenever they both felt like it. The world might as well have turned on its axis, for how strange that felt to Jack after years of pining in solitude. He saw Janice's car pull away outside the window. Oh, right, he remembered, I need to find us a place of our own in the city, so we can hump like jackrabbits whenever the mood strikes. Janice had already tossed a wet blanket on his mood that morning. He didn't want to have to endure her doing that over and over again. On top of not wanting to listen to Janice judging his relationship with Mia all the time, he was all but certain his room had been discreetly searched the other day. Everything was in its place, but just a little off, almost unnoticeably so. He didn't want to risk Janice finding his stash of pot. He stood there wondering what he should do next. His sense of duty demanded he take immediate action to find and stop the rapist mentalist and the cloaked figure. His sense of self-preservation told him he should think things through before going off and picking a fight half-cocked. It told him to go house-hunting with Mia and move out before Janice drove him nuts. He needed a place of his own, where he could think in peace and plan a proper course of action. An image of Jack White's tombstone was all it took for his sense of duty to prevail in a landslide. Still, he hesitated. I'll make some pot brownies, get a vision of the bad guys, and then I'll decide on the best course of action. He poured the smoothie into two tall glasses and set one on the counter in front of Mia. "So, Mia, I, uh, I was thinking that you and I should go into the city sometime and, uh... and go look at some houses where we could live. You know, together?" Mia's eyes went wide and her smile grew a little. Her blue eyes sparkled as she said, "Yes! Yes, I'd love to move in with you!" She jumped into his arms and hugged him tight. Oh, right, he thought, it would behoove me to first ask her permission, or opinion on such things and not just place her in front of a fait accompli. He hugged her back and felt her big, firm tits squishing themselves against his chest. He took a deep breath, both to squish her firm tits against himself some more, and to smell her soft hair. "Ugh! I stink! I need a shower!" They broke their hug and she picked up her glass of the smoothie. She took a sip. "Thanks for this!" She left the kitchen carrying her glass and went into the bathroom across the hall. Jack sighed as he watched her go. Her ass looked great in the hot pants. She gave him a wink and a smile as she closed the bathroom door. He stood there wondering if that had been an invitation for him to come wash her back. He certainly could do that, all he had to do was flash her with the violet crystal. Before he could second-guess the orders he had put in Mia's head last night to keep her from feeling too guilty about having sex with him, he remembered he had important work to do. He ran upstairs and retrieved his stash of pot as soon as he heard the water start running. He ran back downstairs, taking care not to stomp like an elephant and provoke Mia into sticking her head out of the bathroom. In the kitchen, he found out that they were out of brownie mix. "Fuckity fuck," he muttered into his chin. Instead, all they had was chocolate chip cookie dough. After consulting the recipe on the package, he decided to bake the pot into those. He also decided to make several vision quests' worth of pot cookies, as well as a bunch of ordinary ones. Unlike brownies, the cookies would keep and he would have the ability to go on vision quests whenever he wanted. He knew he could hide them in his room, right next to the pot. Besides, I'll only be hiding them for as long as it takes me to find a house and move. He heard Mia humming under the shower. Us, he corrected himself. For as long as it takes us to find a new place and move. He rolled the raw dough out with a rolling pin. He then sprinkled some pot over it and folded the dough in half. He pressed it down and cut it up into individual cookies he then put in the oven to bake. The water in the bathroom stopped running and he quickly set about making another batch of cookies ready to be put in the oven. By the time the pot cookies were ready, Mia still hadn't left the bathroom. Jack collected the cookies, put the fresh batch into the oven, and took the pot laced ones upstairs to cool in the relative safety of his room. He came back down and watched the normal cookies bake until Mia came out of the bathroom. She was wearing a towel, even though her hair was dry and he could see her skin glistening with moisturizing oils and whatnots. "It smells nice out here. What are you making?" "Chocolate chip cookies." "Oh. Cool. I forgot to bring clean clothes in there with me." She smiled awkwardly as she hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the bathroom. She bit her lip, turned, and went upstairs. Jack blinked in surprise. Is she flirting with me? Is she breaking through her sexual inhibitions? He stood in the kitchen, wondering, until he felt himself grow in his pants at the image of her glistening skin. Fuck it. He took the stairs two at a time and went into her room. She was standing naked in front of her wardrobe. She gasped in surprise and tried to cover herself up with her hands. "Jack! I'm not decent!" "I don't mind," he said, smiling. She pulled a blouse out her wardrobe and held it up to her chest. He went over to her, even as she kept trying to cover herself up. He took her by the hands and tried to pull them away from her body. "No. Jack, I'm not decent." "I want to see you. We're boyfriend and girlfriend, aren't we?" She blushed and almost smiled at his words. "Yes, but-" "And boyfriends and girlfriends see each other naked all the time, don't they?" She blushed some more and whined out a pleading, "Jack." Jack frowned. He guessed it would take a little more time for Mia to really overcome her obstacles. He turned around and went into his room to get his violet crystal. He returned with it in the palm of his hand. Mia was wearing panties and pulling on a T-shirt when she saw it. Her lips parted open as she gasped. Jack could see a flush spread rapidly across her cheeks and neck. She smiled and shot him a smoldering look before pulling her T-shirt off. It was his turn to drop his jaw as he watched her ample tits sway slightly once they were out of their confinement. Her dark areolas puffed up and the nipples at their center stood out a bit more. She stepped to him and put her arms around his neck. She pulled him in and their lips met in a passionate embrace. She pushed her tongue through their joined lips and massaged his before drawing it out to play. Her kiss was so distracting, he barely managed to put the crystal into his pocket. Their hands roamed across the other's back as she pressed her bare tits into his chest. Jack dropped his hands down low and squeezed her firm ass, making her moan into his mouth. She took one step away from him, without breaking their liplock, and reached down to undo his zipper. He took the chance to reach between them and feel the front of her panties. They were wet with her juices. Overcome by desire, he growled into her mouth and pushed her away from him. He turned her around before she could complain and pushed at her back until she was bent over. She moaned in appreciation of his forcefulness and wiggled her ass at him. He grabbed her hips to hold her still and then wrapped his fingers into the waistband of her panties to pull them down her hips. She hissed, "Yes, Jack." He ran a finger gently over her labia and felt them part easily. She was already dripping wet. He took his cock out of his pants and aimed at her center, using one hand to keep her hips from squirming again. He plunged himself into her with one quick thrust of his hips. They both gasped and groaned at the feel of his hard meat parting her velvety flesh. He kept pressing into her and soon found himself bottoming out. He wanted to remain like that forever, feeling her pussy gently squeeze his hard cock while his fingernails threatened to break the skin of her hips. Mia had other plans. With a soft growl she began to slide her hips forwards and backwards, fucking herself on his shaft. Jack's body matched her rhythm without even trying and their hips were soon slapping together with wet noises. Her pussy was transmitting heat through his cock and it was settling into the pit of his stomach. He couldn't stop his hips from speeding up, even if he wanted to. She was gasping and yelping with each and every thrust, stoking his arousal more. In short order, his cock began to twitch as the heat shot up from his belly. He slammed all the way into her and shouted unintelligibly as his whole body clenched up to drive his cum into her willing pussy. He leaned on her as he tried to catch his breath. His limbs threatened to give out. His dick grew soft until it slipped out of her, making them both shudder. He sat down on her bed, heavily, and then lay back to rest. His plans were immediately interrupted by Mia kneeling beside him and fondling his limp dick. He sucked in air through clenched teeth as she fondled his most sensitive flesh. He lifted his hips to let her slide his pants and boxers off him. Her blue eyes sparkled as she shot him a wicked smile. She lowered her head to his groin and sucked his dick into her mouth in one go. Jack gasped and grabbed fistfuls of the sheets as she ran her tongue across his shriveled organ, particularly its very tip. She formed a tight seal at the base of his dick with her lips and applied suction, making him arc his back and lift his hips off the bed. One of her hands grabbed his balls. "Ow! Gentle! Gently! Easy does it!" She immediately complied and tickled his ballsack with just the tips of her fingers. He sighed. "That's better." Despite his exhaustion, he felt another erection coming on. She kept sucking on it as it grew longer and straighter in her mouth. Pretty soon, it began to bump against the back of her throat, so she had to lift her head. Her lips slid up his shaft, making him shudder from head to toe. She liked that reaction. He could feel the smile on her lips. She pulled her lips all the way up to his glans and then pushed them back down a few inches. He gasped and one of his hands went to the back of her head on reflex. "Yeah. That's it! Like that! Keep going!" She worked her face up and down his cock, making him gasp and writhe from the pleasure. "Use your...use your tongue!" When her tongue began to lick up and down the underside of his dick, he started to feel another fire in his belly. He had expected to last much longer so soon after an orgasm, but her mouth had other plans for him. "Oh, fuck, I'm gonna cum!" She laughed with his cock in her mouth, making him groan at the vibrations going through his dick. She pulled her face up until her lips were sliding across the edges of his glans. She paused there and looked up into his eyes. She slid her lips across the very edge of his glans a few times, watching his eyes roll back. She finally pulled her face off his dick with an audible pop and straightened up. "I love the taste of myself on your dick." Jack giggled feebly in response. She grasped his slick shaft and held it upwards as she stepped over his lap. She aimed his dick at her pussy and lowered herself down onto it. Jack groaned and hissed as her treasure box sheathed him again. She was as wet, hot and tight as she had been a few minutes ago. Her hips started grinding around on his lap, using his cock inside her to get herself off. He could only lie there and enjoy the sight of her tight body writhing atop him. She reached down and grabbed his arms. She guided them to her tits as she leaned forward to change the angle of the dick inside herself. Jack kneaded her tits, playing with her thin nipples and puffy areolas, while she ground her pussy against the hard meat within it. Jack lost all concept of time as the gorgeous girl rode him for their mutual pleasure. She bucked and grinded, squealed and yelped while her just groped away at her firm tits. When she came and started squeezing his dick, he began to feel the urge to cum again. He enjoyed the sight and sound of her orgasm as the flush spread under his hands on her tits and she screamed out her pleasure. Once the fluttering of her pussy ended, she resumed her gyrations in his lap. Jack didn't feel like the circular motions were going to be enough to get him off and he was losing patience rapidly. He reluctantly let go of her tits and rolled them both over so he was on top. He braced himself and began pumping his dick in and out of her with quick thrusts of his hips. She yelped continuously and the heat in his belly ignited. When he came, he thrust himself all the way inside her, as far as he could go, and shouted in triumph. The twitching of his cock set her off and she came, too, writhing under him as much as his bulk could allow her. Her voice turned slightly hoarse from all the screaming in ecstasy. He collapsed atop her and she hugged him tight as they both gasped for breath. He was as relaxed as ever, just enjoying the afterglow of orgasm in the arms of the girl that he loved and who loved him right back. He couldn't imagine ever feeling happier than then. His cock softened and slipped out of her pussy, making them both shudder in delight. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 Mia suddenly gasped, "The cookies!" She worked to roll him over with all her might. He rolled over and let her get up. He sighed happily, looking at her ass while she ran out of the room naked. He stretched out across her bed. It felt oddly intimate for him to be in her bed. Soon, we will have an "our" bed. He sighed and enjoyed the faint aroma of coconut coming off her sheets. He dozed off. When he came to, Mia still hadn't returned. He lifted his head and was about to call out if she needed him to come downstairs and help her, when he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye. There was a note on her bedstand and it was addressed to him. He wiped the sleep from his eyes and looked out the window. The shadows were short and facing north, meaning that it was around noon already. He unfolded the note. It read: Dear Jack, I caught the cookies in time. They're downstairs on the kitchen table and they're perfect. You looked so cute on my bed, so I let you sleep in. I'm off to see some people and talk to them about the things they're posting about you and your prom speech online. Don't worry, I'll be back in a few hours! Love, Mia He had conflicting feelings about prom night. The prom itself was anything but pleasant. However, what followed was the best night of his life. Even with Drew Maynard showing up out of the blue like that. He got up and got dressed. With no one in the house, he had the perfect chance to go on a vision quest. He checked that the doors were locked and ordered his dogs to make sure no one interrupted him. He went back into his room and ate a bunch of cookies. He hid the rest with his stash of pot and meditated to clear his mind of thoughts of Mia's smile. He felt the high coming on, so he dropped his cloak. The cartoon dog showed up and barked a happy greeting. Jack smiled and thought of malevolent mentalists. The dog gave a few soft growls and Jack closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was in a darkened theatre. He could barely make out three people on the stage, standing in the darkness. A spotlight suddenly illuminated the one on the far right. She was a tall, beautiful brunette, wearing an expensive dress and lots of jewelry. She smiled right at him. He felt goose bumps go down his sides. "All shall bow before me. All shall worship me. I am perfect and I am a mentalist." The cloaked figure's sleeve passed over her face, startling Jack. As soon as it did, her face scrunched up into an expression of pure rage. The cloaked figure melded back into the shadows. Jack could feel his heart pounding. The woman fell to the floor and thrashed wildly as she screamed in incoherent rage. Jack was shocked by what he saw. He had assumed that in the world of mentalists, there were good guys and there were bad guys and that the cloaked figure was the leader of the bad guys, or at least their toughest member. He now saw that the cloaked figure was a solo operator, like him, and that it preyed on the good and the bad with equal zeal. It had an agenda of its own and Jack had no idea what it could be. It wasn't some stereotypical good vs. evil thing. All he knew about it was that it included taking mentalists' powers. That actually made it scarier in Jack's mind. The spotlight left the shrieking woman and moved on to a big, elderly, black man. He smiled happily at Jack and said, "The Barbary pirates of old had it right! Take what you want and have it! I'm a mentalist and I'm gonna use my powers to make for myself a harem of slaves, just like they used to! I'm gonna have a redhead, a blonde, an Asian, a Latina-" The cloaked figure's sleeve passed over the man's face and his expression fell. "I'm no longer a mentalist. Where's my shotgun? Somebody give me my shotgun, I need to go blow my useless head off." Jack's heart nearly gave out as he began to suspect that the suicidal thoughts he had seen in all the mentalists the cloaked figure had depowered hadn't been just the result of the sudden loss of so much power. He began to suspect that the cloaked figure had done that as well. He felt short of breath as the spotlight moved to the third figure on the stage. A young, Latino man stood there, wearing a shirt and slacks. He grinned cockily. As soon as he did, Jack got a read on his personality and realized this was the rapist mentalist whose mind he had briefly touched. This was the guy he was looking for. "I do perfect crimes, ese. I read the minds of fools that think they can play poker with me. I make pussies jump my bones and not remember later. I lead a charmed life, ese. I do what I want." A bunch of women appeared on the stage behind the rapist fuck. They were all naked and crying miserably. Jack counted that there were more than forty of them. He was startled to see them urinate and then bend over in pain. He learned that they had all gotten Chlamydia from the rapist. As many of them fell to the floor and began to bawl in misery, he realized that a lot of them were left infertile by the infection because it had been caught too late. Most of the ones that were married had their marriages end over the unexplained introduction of an STD. Shit, is this what Janice meant when she had claimed there was an STD epidemic at the University? He took a better look at the rape victims. Most of them did look to be about college age. He noticed that quite a few of them were of Latin descent and looked very similar to one another. The only middle-aged women in the group were also Latinas that shared some facial traits with the rest of them. "There's this hot bitch, ese. She went to school with me and always turned her nose up at me. I tried to make her mine, but she got her family to beat on me, ese." He smiled an ugly smile. "But that was before I came into my powers. Now, I'm goin' 'round, fucking all her aunts and cousins right in front of their men and there ain't nuthin' no-one can do about that. I'm gonna end it with her and I'm gonna fuckin' take her as my bitch, yo! She gonna be lickin' my ass clean every time I take a dump and she gonna be happy for it!" Jack glared at the entitled, mysoginistic asshole on stage and tuned out his tirade. He focused on learning where to find him. A curtain lifted from the back of the stage to reveal a casino backdrop. Jack learned that the Latino man mostly hung out in casinos, fleecing people at the poker tables. He was doing it more for the fun of rubbing a win into their faces than for the money, which he already had more than enough of. Jack's face scrunched up. He wasn't sure if he wanted to go pick a fight in a crowded casino. He thought about the man some more and was soon rewarded by the image of an old, fat, Latino man sitting in the front row, looking up at the stage. The old man said, "I worry about my Sébastian so much. Ever since my Lupita died, I just can't seem to reach him." Jack leaned forward and called out to the old man, "Where can I find your son?" The old man shook his head and looked down. "I don't know where he is. I don't know who he sees or what he does. All I know is what my Lupita told me. The devil is in that boy." The man sat up and turned around to face Jack with tears streaming down his face. "Please, help my Sébe! Please! He's all the family I have left!" Jack's face scrunched up in disappointment. The dad wasn't going to be much of a lead on this guy. Jack sat back and looked at the asshole on the stage. He thought about the girl Sébastian was going to rape next. The asshole rapist smiled a wide smile. The rape victims on the stage faded away, except for one. A statue of another girl, very similar to that one, showed up next to her. "Her favorite cousin, Maria." He turned around and started groping the statue. "She's up tonight." He glanced at the crying girl. "I felt something scary when I fucked her sister yesterday, but I don't care. It's not gonna stop me from doing Maria as well. And the rest of her family, too." Jack thought about Maria and the backdrop presented him with an image of her apartment building. He read the address on the front and nodded to himself. It was in Seraphim Falls and he knew how to get to it. He glared at Sébastian. You're going down, asshole. Jack focused on the sister, whose name was Carmen, and the backdrop changed into a picture of her house in the city. Jack learned her address and made a mental note to go over there and make her get tested and treated for Chlamydia. So, tonight I will fuck this piece of shit up. Now, on to the next target! He drew a deep, calming breath and slowly let it out before thinking about the cloaked figure. Nothing happened. He bit back a growl of frustration and thought about all the malevolent mentalist whose memories he could read. All the stage was illuminated. The brunette was to the right, still screeching in fury and clawing at the floor. The big, black man was in the center, looking off despondently into the distance. Sébastian was to the left, leering at the statue of his intended victim. Behind them, three rows of eight graves each showed up. Jack read the dates of death on the tombstones. They all died in the last eighty years, but half of them had died in the last ten months. Jack shuddered at the thought of the cloaked figure causing so much death. Causing at least a dozen suicides. Try as he might, Jack just couldn't find a single memory of the cloaked figure from before it had learned how to cloak its mind. I guess that means it's not from around here. Well, great. I narrowed the suspect pool down to mere billions. He looked up at the rows of tombstones and idly wondered how many good mentalists the cloaked figure must have attacked by now. The curtain fell on the stage and immediately rose back up. Jack's jaw fell as he saw the familiar line-up of benevolent mentalists from his earlier vision. He gulped as he saw the multitude of gravestones behind them. A quick count revealed that two of the mentalists were missing. Instead, there were two gravestones with last week's dates inscribed on them. Holy fuck! Jack jumped in his seat as he read the dates of death on the rest of the gravestones. There were almost thirty of them and they were all from the last ten months. The horror of the cloaked figure causing so many suicides of good, honorable people made Jack want to run for the hills and hide. He thought about all the benevolent mentalists in the area and more tombstones showed up behind the ones that were already on the stage. The dates of death inscribed on them were randomly distributed across the last eighty years. There were no new living people appearing on the stage. Jack realized that he and Sébastian were the only two remaining mentalists within range of Jack's aether clairvoyance, which was at least a couple of hundred miles. All the rest had been depowered and driven to suicide by the cloaked figure. All his confidence evaporated as panic welled up. "Make it stop," he called out to the cartoon dog. The cartoon dog appeared in the seat next to his and tilted its head at him in uncomprehension. "End this! I don't want to see any more! Make it stop!" The dog snorted at him. Jack understood the meaning of the snort to be, "You're the one that's in control of the vision, dumbass." Jack quickly pulled his cloak up and found himself in his room, breathing heavily. He was still high and that made it hard for him to beat down his panic. He realized he had eaten too much pot. His visions usually used it up like fuel. The high should have been expended on his vision, leaving him all but sober when he ended it. I should dump the cookies I made and bake a new batch with less pot in it. He nodded sagely to himself as the floor hugged him. He looked up at the poster of planet Earth taped to his wall. The planet on the poster smiled and asked him, "Do you honestly think that's the best use of such a precious resource? Dump it and start over again?" Jack shook his head sadly. Throwing away the cookies would be wasteful. He didn't want to be wasteful. His mood brightened when he realized something that would allow him to keep the cookies. I can just eat fewer cookies next time! He smiled and praised himself for his great idea. His brow drew down as he remembered that he usually thought up of such things much quicker than just now. I'm dumb when I'm high. This is a waste of time. I should be doing stuff and learning about shit, not lying on the floor being as high as a kite. Despite his best efforts to enjoy being high, his panic still wasn't going anywhere. Oh, shit! I'm gonna have a bad trip. He did his best to keep his cool, but the panic and anxiety were starting to get to him. He wanted to run away from it, but the house was rocking from side to side as it slid down a giant waterslide. Wait! I can run away inside my mind! He lowered his cloak and the cartoon dog showed up on the floor next to him. It barked in greeting and Jack sighed. "Fine, I guess I'll have more visions." Once the pot connected him to the aether, his loopiness faded quickly and he found himself to again be in possession of the vast majority of his faculties. With nothing better to do, he thought of Mia and their first time. His own memory of the night hadn't been recorded by the aether, because of his cloak, but Mia's had. He found himself in the darkened movie theatre. On the screen was a dark forest. Mia sat in his car, next to him, feeling completely at his mercy. Jack gasped as he realized he could feel what she was feeling. This is better than 4D! Jack watched as Mia's memory of him made her misgivings go away with a simple caress. He enjoyed the way his fierce kiss stoked her passion until it overwhelmed her. On the screen, the recording jumped ahead to when they were outside the car. Jack could feel Mia's joy as she surrendered to his arms and he picked her up to set her down on the hood of his car. He could feel Mia's desire as they undressed on the screen. When he saw himself bend his head down and begin to lick the sweat from her body, he could feel her losing all control. As he watched Mia's memory of him undressing her, he could feel how much she had wished for him to do just that at the time. She feebly protested his actions, more pro forma than out of any real desire to stop him. When he saw himself kissing and sucking on her nipples, he felt her body be overwhelmed with pleasure. She was losing control, ceding it to his caressing hands, and she loved it. She had managed to put up one, last vestige of resistance and hesitation when he took off her panties and left her bare, but that was more out of fear that he might not find her all that pleasing from his new perspective. She feared the sight of her pussy might turn him off. Jack chuckled in the audience. Good grief, do chicks actually think crap like this? When he saw himself lower his face and take a whiff and taste of her pussy, he felt her trepidation suddenly peak. Out of a desperate desire to keep him close, she grabbed his head. When he saw himself begin to eat her out in earnest on the screen, he felt her immense relief. She was overwhelmed by a sense of acceptance and her mind was suffused with pure bliss. Jack watched himself eat her out on the hood of his SUV. With all the emotions but bliss evacuating her mind, her arousal took over and she rocketed off towards a release of pleasure she had never experienced before in her life. Jack felt the orgasm he had given her wipe all thought from her mind and make her feel pure ecstasy. She lost all sense of reality. There was nothing but pleasure in her mind and Jack felt envy at how powerful and overwhelming it was. His own orgasm with her had been the best he ever had, but it hadn't lasted as long as this, nor did it take over his mind with such brute, all-encompassing force. On the screen, he saw himself poised to penetrate her. His touch brought her back to the there and then, but she was still wide open from all the pleasure. She was his to do with as he wished. Her mind was too pleasure-addled to fear her first ever penetration. When he saw himself penetrate her, he felt her utter surrender and joy at being his. She couldn't keep still as he pleasured her with his very being inside of her. As Jack watched himself fuck her and use his hands and mouth on her body, he could feel a staggering amount of pleasure building up in her core and he could feel Screen Jack's actions chipping away at the flimsy dam that was keeping it at bay. She was a squirming piece of putty in his hands and she loved it. When he had pulled out of her, she instantly became afraid of him stopping because she had done something wrong, but he had spun her around and mounted her doggy style. Her fear evaporated to be replaced by a small amount of shame at being taken like a dog. That shame only served to stoke her mounting pleasure as he plowed her from behind and stroked her body like it was his property. She came again on the screen and Jack could feel her whole mind be overwhelmed along with her body as she became a writhing mass of pure pleasure. She had hardly noticed him shooting his load inside her, but when she did, she felt a bit of pride at having managed to make him spill his seed inside her, marking her as his own. As he watched the two of them hug and try to regain their breath, he felt a deep sense of belonging take over Mia's mind. She was his and that was all that mattered to her at that moment. He felt her fears of not being sophisticated or pretty enough vanish from her mind. The memory ended and the screen went dark. Jack was left sitting in the audience with a hardon and a wide smile. He noted, with some envy, just how much pleasure Mia experienced and made himself a promise to make her feel that as often as possible. He sighed in bliss as he felt how profound and sincere her feelings for him were. Yes, we're really meant to be together. He thought of cheap houses in the city. The projector played a black and white movie. The movie was narrated by a voiceover reminiscent of commercials from the fifties. In the movie, a realtor gave a young couple the tour of a big house with a large yard. Jack liked the look of the house. The couple asked all sorts of questions about the state and history of the house. As the realtor lied, the narrator told Jack the truth about the repairs that would still be needed to bring the old house up to code. When the realtor finished the tour, he led the couple outside and the narrator began to sound like he was from an episode of The Twilight Zone. "Dear viewers, let us take a look at the history of this house. At its true history. Back in the fifties, this house was a boarding house, offering rooms to single ladies that had professional careers in the city." The camera roamed the empty house while he narrated. "On December the eleventh of 1954, a young woman that was staying in this house committed suicide in the upstairs communal bathroom." The camera climbed the stairs. "Her name was Dorothy Bainbridge and she had been led to believe her married lover was going to leave his wife and children for her. This had been going on for years." The camera walked down the hall to the bathroom. "When she went and confronted his wife over the matter, she realized she was a homewrecker and the guilt forced her hand. She returned to this house, ran herself a warm bath, got in and slashed the insides of her groin." Jack squinted in fright when the camera stopped in front of the upstairs bathroom door. The door opened to reveal a modern bathroom with a large shower stall and marble sinks. Jack huffed in relief. He didn't want to see a suicide in a bath of blood. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 "Yes, in this very bathroom, twice since remodeled, young Dorothy Bainbridge ended her unhappy life. Her story ended that night, but this room is about to bring doom to someone else." The screen showed the realtor sitting in his office, scribbling obliviously at some papers. "This man, Martin Lehaine, is both the house's new owner and the realtor trying to sell, or rent the property. He is legally obligated to reveal the fate of Miss Bainbridge to all prospective buyers and renters, but he is not doing this. His reason is strictly greed. He had gotten the house for peanuts at auction so he could lease it out at a reduced price and still cover the costs of his investment, but he wanted far more than just that. "The knowledge of a suicide having happened there would drive some of the prospective buyers and renters away, so he is denying that information, taking a reasonable gamble that no one would ever go to the bother of looking it up. What manner of misfortune shall the fates deign to have befall Mister Lehaine for his transgression? Join us on the next episode of Jack's visions to find out!" The movie faded from the screen and Jack blinked. "Whoa." He was faced with a tough choice. He could have this beautiful house for peanuts if he was willing to record the realtor denying the suicide. Since that was grounds for losing his license, and thus his livelihood, Jack would be able to blackmail him with the recording and dictate the terms of the lease. He drew a deep breath and slowly let it out. That was certainly not the honorable thing to do. Two wrongs don't make a right. At the same time, he couldn't help imagining himself bending Mia over each and every piece of furniture inside the house. He imagined filling her mind with pure pleasure as she willingly surrendered her body to him. The thought of being able to do that at his leisure and not have to worry about anyone interrupting them was very enticing. Deputy Drew had already come across them when they were intimate and Jack didn't think he could handle Janice walking in on them, too. As he thought of Drew Maynard, he saw another movie start to play on the screen. When he thought of Janice, the movie abruptly changed to show her flirting with an elderly orthodontist from town. "Gah! Change film! Change film! Back to Drew! Back to Drew!" The film changed to one of Drew Maynard, looking strange and wearing a Sheriff's uniform from the next county. The picture was in color, but of poor quality, looking like it had been shot on video in the early nineties. When Drew entered his office and took off his hat, Jack realized he wasn't seeing Drew, but his father. The two looked so much alike in their hats and uniforms, especially with their identical, blonde, bushy moustaches. Sheriff Maynard sat at his desk and his two children came into his office. Jack smiled at the sight of a young, svelte Chrissie and moustacheless Drew. They were both deputies and they presented their father and boss with cellphone records that suggested the local biker gang was running drugs and a prostitution ring in their jurisdiction. The old sheriff didn't "rightly understand" all this new technology, but he decided to trust in Chrissie's analysis. He turned to the local judge and asked for warrants to be issued. Unfortunately for the Maynard family, the bikers had been around the block a few times by then. They had already bought the judge's election and he had warned them of what the Maynards were planning. At the same time, he delayed issuing the warrants under the pretense of needing to look up the regulations of the law enforcement's use of this new cellphone technology. While the Maynards went fishing on a lake up in the mountains to relax and discreetly plan how to take down a major criminal organization, the biker gang moved fast. They concocted a plan to frame the Maynards for any and all of their own crimes that could be proven. They had enough cash and girls on hand to buy the deputies they could and offered Maynard's second in command the coveted Sheriff's post. The deputies that tried to reach the Maynards and stand by them and the rule of law were quickly brought to heel with threats aimed at their loved ones. By the time the Maynards came back down the mountain, the whole department was either against them, or keeping out of the matter. With planted evidence and intimidated or paid witnesses, the Maynards were prosecuted for crimes the bikers had done. Sheriff Maynard took the brunt of the charges and, seeing he was not going to get out, tried to take the heat for all the stuff they were pinning on his kids. Drew walked, but Chrissie got to serve five years in prison. Old Sheriff Maynard didn't last that long. He was shanked to death at the new sheriff's orders two weeks into his sentence. Drew had grabbed every gun and piece of ammo he could find and tried to go on a bloody rampage throughout the county, but the deputies that felt shame managed to stop him. They talked him into moving to Springfield, where the local sheriff took him on as deputy and tasked him with making absolutely sure the bikers didn't so much as spit across the town limits. The traitor remained sheriff to this day, basking in his authority and getting freebies from every desperate young woman the bikers could get their hands on. The bikers were getting fat on running drugs and pimping girls. Every now and then, a girl would get offered a second chance at life and try to take it. The bikers didn't let girls go until they judged they had made them enough money. Some would be easily cowed to keep being used as a piece of meat by callous fuckers. Those that tried to run away would be beaten to death and left by the side of the road, next to a broken down bike. The sheriff that used to fuck them for free would declare their deaths bike accidents. Seven young women met their brutal end in the last twenty years that way. Four orphans were left behind those innocent, young women. Those weren't the only bodies the bikers dropped. Anyone that threatened to expose their operation, or turn state's evidence, was buried deep in the woods. Jack saw nine graves scattered over the mountainside. He felt Drew's impotent rage and frustration and shared it. If it weren't for Alpha guarding the group home, Mia and quite a few other girls in it would have been forcibly recruited by the bikers to be their hookers. He quickly came to a decision to destroy this evil. Honor demanded it. His fists flexed and his teeth grit as he thought about the gang and the traitor sheriff. He saw a movie that detailed how they operated and laundered their money. He saw how they rotated their gathering places and changed their communications. He learned everything there was to know about them. The pot finally ran out and he found himself back in his room. He drew his cloak around his mind and sat at his desk. He grabbed a piece of paper and began to write down all he had seen to keep it straight. He was so angry at all the evil that was out in the world that he even wrote down all the repairs the house he had seen would need done. Once he got it all down on paper, including a map of the gravesites, he realized his stomach was growling. The pot had hung around his system long enough to give him a wicked case of the munchies. He went downstairs and collected all the cookies that were there. He brought them to his room and slowly ate every last one as he carefully thought of how to take down the biker gang and Sheriff Sonuvabitch Traitor. By the time he heard his dogs try to stop Mia from coming into the house, he had a plan. It wasn't the best of plans, but he was happy with it. He would need help with a few crucial steps, however. He sent his dogs the order to chill out. He checked the clock on his desk and saw that it was almost four in the afternoon. He was still feeling a bit hungry. He put his notes into a drawer of his desk and got up to put on a dress shirt. "Hey, Mia," he called out, "you wanna go out for lunch?" She rushed up the stairs with a smile. "I could eat. Where are we going?" "I heard nice things about a place in the city." "Who would you hear anything from?" He gasped in mock offense. "Is that a dig at my popularity?" "Yes." "Well, egg's on your face. Back when I toured the University, some very amiable juniors told me about it." Mia gave him a sour smile, but quickly dropped it. She squinted at him. "Were these juniors male or female?" Jack channeled a politician at a Senate hearing as he said, "I am unable to clearly recall that information at this particular moment." "Ha, ha, very funny." He took a long look at her pretty face. She gave him a questioning look in response. "Mia, would you like to go on an adventure?" She smiled wide. "Sure! What kind of adventure?" "Fighting crime." She stared at him in surprise. "Taking down a vicious biker gang, to be more exact." She stammered for a few moments and then said, "I'd love to do something exciting, but that sounds dangerous. I don't want to die for the sake of a quick thrill." "That's not really a risk. Your part in my plan is short and sweet. More glamour and sophistication that any actual danger. But, yeah, if things go horribly, horribly wrong at every single step of the way, then we're going to have to run away, really fast and really far." Mia bit her lip and considered his words. "But there will be no shootout, or anything like that?" "No. None whatsoever." He held up two fingers. "Scout's honor!" "What's the plan?" "I'll tell you over lunch, when I tell the others." "Others?" "Yeah, we're not doing this all alone. I'm inviting some professionals to join our mission. Listen, have you got any photos that are document sized, like for an ID?" She frowned in concentration. "Uh, yeah." She looked at her bedroom door and nodded. "Yes, I think I do. Why?" "I'll tell you when I lay out the plan. Could you go get them?" "Sure." "Great! Thanks, babe! She into her room to search for photos. He took out his cellphone and dialed a number as he walked downstairs. "Hey, Chrissie, it's your favorite dog trainer." She sighed audibly. "Jack, I can't tell you how sorry I am for-" "Yeah, I'm not calling you about that. How would you like a fancy lunch, on me?" "Um...what?" "Well, it's not a hundred percent free. You need to bring your old deputy's uniform. Back when you were your dad's favorite deputy, you were about my size, right?" "What?" "I'll explain it all to you when we meet. Come to the Leaky Ladle on Madison. It's in the city. Bring Drew with you. But, seriously, you should take that uniform out of mothballs right now." "Jack, you're not making any sense. What's this all about?" "Oh, didn't I tell you? I'm bringing down the fucker that had your dad murdered and you sent upstate for a nickel. I'm also gonna take down the biker shits, once and for all, and make them answer for all the blood that's on their hands. Provided, that is, that you bring me Drew and your old uniform." There was only silence on the other end of the line. "Be there at five, ok?" "Uh...yes?" He hung up and saw Mia coming down the stairs. She was holding a small envelope. "Are those the photos?" Jack asked. She nodded. "Cool. Let's go to lunch! As he drove them to the city, Mia pressed him for information on this gang they were after. He told her about the lives they've taken and she fell silent. For the rest of the drive to the city, she seemed lost in thought. Jack grimaced, thinking that he had lost her. A crucial part of his plan hinged on her participation. When he parked with the restaurant's valet, Mia suddenly grabbed his forearm. She looked him straight in the eye as she said, "I'm in. Whatever it takes to bring down these bastards, I'll do it!" He smiled and patted her hand. "Thanks, Mia. I promise you won't have to demean yourself, or anything. Let's go inside and I'll tell you all about it." He got out and let the valet park his car. They went in and only had time to place their orders before the Maynards showed up. Jack waved them over to their table. Chrissie practically stomped over. "What the hell is the matter with you, young man?!" Jack rose from his seat and put his hands up in a mollifying gesture. "Hey. Keep it down." Chrissie scowled at him and he felt very uncomfortable under her glare. Drew joined them. "Tell him," Chrissie said, pointing at her brother. "Tell him what you said to me, right before you hung up! Go on! Tell him!" "Let's everyone just be seated so we can discuss this calmly," Jack said. "You need to be put over my knee and spanked until your brain starts working, Jack. That's what you need!" Jack pulled out a chair. "Chrissie, please." She glared at him with tightly pursed lips, but then conceded and sat down. Once Drew and Jack sat, Drew spoke up. "So you honestly think you got a handle on these guys?" Chrissie shot her brother a surprised look. "I can't believe you're going to pander to this suicidal, teenage fantasy. For God's sake, Drew! You of all people should know better!" Drew kept his steely gaze on Jack as he told his sister, "I'm just here to listen." Chrissie seemed to finally notice the fourth person seated at the table. "Mia, what are you doing here?" "I'm helping Jack put those bastards down." Chrissie made a quiet noise of exasperation and buried her face in her hands. "You can trust Mia," Jack said. "She's with me on this, one hundred percent. Her participation is actually crucial for this plan to work." Drew nodded at Jack. "I'm listening." Jack cleared his throat. "The Sheriff's department is just getting kickbacks for protecting the bikers. They're all getting freebies from the girls and a few of the deputies are occasionally using some meth. There's no meat for a case there. We can't nail them all if we go after the department." Drew nodded with a somber expression. Jack continued. "The gang, however, has a weak spot. They're not as homogenous and unified as they like everyone to think. The next generation is trying to supplant the elders, who don't want to be taken out of the business they built. If a big shipment of product went missing, they'd be at each other's throats in a heartbeat. And if one of the Sheriff's deputies were to take it, then all hell would break loose and they'd have to summon everyone in one place to have it all out, or risk a war that would leave most of them dead within a week." Chrissie raised her head. "Oh, for the love of...Jack, no one knows how they move their product, or launder their money!" She looked at Drew's firm face and then at Jack's mischievous expression. "And even if we did somehow learn about those things, we couldn't do a goddamn thing. We are not sheriff's deputies in that jurisdiction and the Hoover boys won't lift a finger without hard evidence. Hard evidence we can't get without legal warrants." She put a hand over her brother's. "Come on, Drew. This is stupid. Let's just go home and-" "And what?!" Drew said, shooting her a look. "Sit on my ass and grow older and fatter while the piece of shit that ruined our lives, that murdered our father, lives free and acts like he's The Almighty himself?" He took a big breath and seemed to bite back the rest of what he was about to say. He looked back into Jack's eyes. "I'm listening." Chrissie looked down and shook her head. "Why did I even mention this to you?" Jack cleared his throat. "They steal the identities of dead people and use them to set up businesses throughout the county. They launder their money through those businesses and move the drugs in the official delivery vehicles." Chrissie and Drew both looked shocked at Jack's words. He gave them a sour grin. "I bet you thought they just hauled them around on their bikes, huh? You probably tried to steal the books for their bike shops and the bar they openly own." He shook his head. "It's the wealthy, stand up citizens you have to look at to find the money. In particular, the ones whom no one around here had ever seen in person cause they supposedly live out on the coast." Chrissie and Drew looked into each other's eyes, clearly considering his claim to be likely. "Why do you think that?" Drew asked him. Jack leaned back in his seat. "I've cultivated a CI." Chrissie's brow shot up as her jaw dropped. "You? You cultivated a CI? Do you even know what those letters mean, Jack?" "Who is it?" Drew asked him. "C as in confidential. I as in, I'm not telling." Chrissie opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when the waiter brought Jack and Mia's appetizers. He took the Maynards' orders and left. Chrissie leaned in towards Jack and quietly said, "Look, Jack, I don't know how you got mixed up in all this business, but you need to put a lot of distance between yourself and this gang. These people are not stupid. They probably saw you coming a mile away. Whoever's been talking to you is feeding you a line of bull to draw you into a trap, or set you up to take the fall for something. Trust us, we know what that's like." "I've already verified the information I was given. There are nine graves in the foothills of the mountain." Jack recited the names of the nine victims and Chrissie and Drew exchanged a look. He could tell from their expressions that he had managed to convince them of the veracity of his intel. "There are two million laundered dollars in a bank account and there will be about thirty pounds of assorted drugs in the back of a florist's shop tomorrow. If you give me your old uniform, Chrissie, I can swoop in and take the drugs. If we make a fake ID for Mia, she can waltz into the bank and take their money. They'll call an emergency meeting with all hands on deck, including the Sheriff's people, and then all we have to do is record it. They'll freely admit enough stuff to have the State Police come in and sort this mess out." "How would we know when and where they'd hold this meeting?" Chrissie asked. "They'll hold it in the lumberyard. That's one of their holdings and, this week, that's the place where everything happens. As for the when?" Jack shrugged. "I'm guessing an hour after we hit them." They shut up when the waiter brought the Maynards' starters. "We should go over there, right now, and hide some recording devices in the mill." Drew got a faraway look in his eyes which Chrissie found unsettling. "Please tell me you're not considering this, Drew! Let's just go to one of these alleged graves with a cadaver dog and verify the source. We can have them exhumed and have an investigation opened and-" "And have that piece of shit Sheriff bury it, like always," Drew finished her sentence. "He'll probably try to pin it on you, no matter what the forensics say. You know they can simply rig a jury, if all else fails." Drew took a long breath and nodded to himself. "No. Jack's got a point. We need to hit them all at once and have the investigation taken out of that scumsucker's hands. Put it in the hands of the State Police. Or the Bureau. Once they're all in custody, we can have those corpses dug up and play pin the murder on the scumbag." Drew dramatically bit into his forkful of amuse-bouche. "So, you're going along with this hare-brained scheme?" Chrissie asked him. "Look, Drew, I want to take down these fuckers as much as you do, but we can't do that if we get ourselves killed, or imprisoned. Which is what will happen to us if we go to that lumberyard to plant bugs and shit." Drew said, "Agreed." Chrissie stopped and stared at him, shocked that he was listening to reason. He stared Jack right in the eye. "Are you completely sure about your intel?" Jack solemnly nodded. "Drew," Chrissie exclaimed. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 "Then I'll have that lumberyard staked out." Chrissie rolled her eyes. "Are you nuts? You don't have the authority to-" "No, but the Feds do," Drew said, prompting Chrissie to gape at him. "I've been cultivating a relationship with a contact inside the Bureau. I can give them a tip-off about a lone wolf domestic terrorist trying to buy sawdust to make a fuel-air bomb and have my contact label it as a credible threat. They can mobilize a go team and covertly set up surveillance within hours of my call." His moustache reared up as he smiled. "They only do terrorism and law enforcement corruption nowadays. They'll come for one, stay for the other." Drew's smile faded as he stared hard into Jack's eyes. "If you're ten million percent sure about this..." Jack returned an unwavering stare. Drew nodded. "Then we'll do it your way. You said you need an ID?" "Yes. The gang's liquid assets are held in an account owned by a Rachel Ransfeld. Miss Ransfeld is a twenty-five year old business owner who has been making money and paying taxes despite having died of cystic fibrosis ten years ago in Boston." He took out a piece of paper and wrote down the woman's name, address, date of birth and other info that needed to be on the ID. "Mia will be portraying her, since she's the only one of us that can pass for a twenty-five year old girl. Mia, honey, give Drew the photos you brought." "Oh! Right!" She dug into her purse and gave Drew a small envelope containing the photos. Drew took it and slid Jack's paper inside it. Jack looked at a disbelieving Chrissie. "This whole plan hinges on you giving me your old uniform so I can pass for one of the deputies and take their stash." She stared at him. "Jack! You need to think, boy! They are bound to be guarding the stash. You'll get killed if you try to take it." "Chrissie, don't worry! I got it covered. All I need is the uniform and the stash gets taken." "This is madness! Suicide!" She shook her head. "I'll not be party to it." She shook a reproachful finger at Drew. "And you should know better, brother. Since when are you ok with allowing kids to go running headlong into trouble?" Drew stared at Jack for a long moment. Finally, he said, "The boy's got it." Chrissie spread her arms wide and rolled her eyes. "Oh, my God! Now you're channeling Dad and his famous gut feelings, aren't you?" The hairs on Drew's moustache raised and Jack realized the man was grinning at his sister. Chrissie muttered a resigned, "Oh, fuck my luck." "So, this is going down tomorrow?" Drew asked of Jack. Jack nodded. "We're taking the cash right before the bank closes. Least chance of tired bank managers questioning Mia, or trying to persuade her to invest with them. I'll hit the stash house as soon as the sun is low enough on the horizon to glare into the lens of their door camera. They'll be meeting at the lumberyard by ten p.m. at the latest." "Well, if that's the plan, then I'd better run along and get started with my part." Drew held up the envelope. He got up and smiled at Mia. "Sorry to ditch such pleasant dining company, but I really must dash." He took Mia's hand, gave it a kiss and left the restaurant. Chrissie shot Jack a baleful look as she followed. Jack mouthed the word "uniform" at her and she rolled her eyes before nodding her head once. Jack grinned. The plan was coming into place and, if Drew's tip brought the full might of the FBI on the scene, it was already way ahead than he could have hoped it would be. Mia and he enjoyed a hearty meal, thoroughly sampling the dishes the Maynards left them, and then he drove her home. He told Mia he had to go meet his informant for one last talk before the big day and she nodded in understanding. He left her with Janice and called his dogs to the car. Spot, Porthos, Athos and Aramis climbed into the back seat as he drove towards Seraphim Falls and the rapist mentalist that had given him a terrible fright the other night. Jack grinned. He had seen in his vision that the asshole had also been frightened by touching Jack's mind, but he had decided to ignore the incident. Big mistake, buddy boy. Big mistake. Jack parked down the street from cousin Maria's house, in the darkness under a tall ash tree. He let his dogs out quietly and they snuck off to surround the house and discreetly scout the situation. Spot returned quickly and Jack read in the dog's mind that a woman and a man had very recently entered Maria's house and that there was another man standing at a window, looking in. Jack ordered Spot to remain hidden and ready to intervene, just like the other three dogs, as he went to go see who this peeping Tom was. Jack clambered over the low fence with ease and snuck around a corner. Standing in front of a big window, illuminated by the light that was coming from within, was a short man with immaculately coiffed blonde hair, dressed in a gray suit. He was standing on tiptoes and staring intently through the window. Jack checked the positions of his dogs. They were hidden nearby, ready to rush at any target Jack felt threatened by. Jack held on tightly to his mental cloak. He still had no idea what to do with the rapist mentalist. He didn't want to kill the man, but that seemed like the only thing that would stop him from hurting more people. Regular law enforcement and the justice system were simply no match for a mentalist. Jack had briefly considered somehow luring the cloaked figure to come and deal with Sébastian, but, if the cloaked figure's track record was anything to go by, that would also turn out to be fatal for the man. The only difference between that and having Sébastian mauled by his dogs was risking exposing himself to the cloaked figure. Jack's jaw locked down tight. He was going to talk to the man and give him one last chance to stop and repent. If he didn't take it with all his heart, then Jack was going to end him. It was not the best course of action, not by a long shot, but Jack didn't see any viable alternative. This guy was going to keep hurting people. First thing's first, Jack thought, glaring at the peeping Tom. The man seemed familiar to him, like he had seen him somewhere before, but he just couldn't place his face. Time is ticking away. Jack took one last deep breath and left his hiding place to face the blond man. The man sensed his approach and turned to face him. His jaw was square and his mouth was spread into a superior sneer. His blue eyes seemed to twinkle with intent and energy. As Jack looked closer at the gelled hair, he knew he had definitely seem this man somewhere before. Jack kept his cloak up and stopped when he was right next to the man he was now dwarfing. The blonde's arrogance faded quickly and he gulped in fear. "Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing here?" Jack growled low. The man nearly flinched away as he swallowed repeatedly. He looked to be on the verge of running away. Jack grabbed the man by the shoulder and easily kept him in place. His mouth worked with no sound coming out, so Jack shook him hard. "Well?" The blonde gasped. "Ok! Alright!" "Keep your voice low." "Yes. Yes, ok. I, uh, I'm, uh, I'm Jamie Jacobs and I, uh...I'm a healer." Jack nearly nodded as he finally placed where he had seen this man before. He was the fraud spiritual healer that was touring the country. Huge billboards with his smiling face and tour dates were everywhere. Jack looked into the window. Maria was naked. She was staring blankly at Sébastian and then she began to kneel in front of him. Jack realized he didn't have much time left to intervene. He gave Jacobs another forceful shake. "My question had two parts, pipsqueak." Jacobs flinched and his hands shot up to try and defend him. "Ah! I, uh, I was...I'm, uh..." Jack glanced inside again. Maria was undoing Sébastian's zipper. "I've lost patience with you, little man." Jacobs' hands shot up in a gesture of supplication. "No! No. I'm a healer. There's this family, see? They're all women, all related, and they came to me cause they had these, uh, these nightmares, you know? They have nightmares of being raped and they're all so similar...and some of them confided in me...and they're all family, these women...and I came here to check on one of the remaining few that hadn't had the nightmares yet, just to see what was going on." Jack looked back inside and saw Maria swallowing Sébastian's dick. Goddamnit, I'm too late! He glared through the window in frustration. Jacobs got up on tiptoes again and looked in with an expression of intense concentration. Jack's lips pressed tight. He needed to get rid of this peeping Tom and then go inside and have his dogs maul this asshole rapist. Just as Jack was about to send Porthos, his Great Dane, the order to drag Jacobs away, Sébastian screamed like a little girl. Maria's slack face was suddenly bathed with strong spurts of a rich, creamy, red fluid. Jack blinked when Sébastian started spinning around. His dick was missing and a geyser was spurting blood from his groin. Maria opened her mouth and a piece of flesh fell out of it. Blood dripped from her mouth down her chest. Sébastian kept screaming. He bent over and picked up the shriveling piece of flesh that was dripping blood. Jack winced as he recognized the remains of a dick. When Sébastian stood back up, he began to wobble on his feet. His groin was no longer spurting. Blood was now oozing down the front of his pants. He blinked his eyes repeatedly as his screaming voice lost its strength. His face was drained of all color. His jaw went slack and he swayed on his feet, even as his groin stopped bleeding altogether. Sébastian fell over and audibly cracked his skull on the corner of Maria'a dresser. Jack flinched and felt Jacobs flinch in his grasp as well. It was immediately obvious to both of them that that was a fatal blow to the head. Jack stood there, staring through the window, unsure of what he had seen or what he should do, until Maria blinked and looked around herself, as if rousing herself from sleep. Her face adopted an expression of pure horror. She drew a gargantuan breath and began to scream at the top of her lungs as she tried to wipe the blood from her face. Jack and Jacobs looked at one another and then ran off in opposite directions. Jack barely had the presence of mind to signal his dogs to quietly circle around to his car. He got in it and started the engine. He rolled down the street, picking up his dogs as they caught up to him, and then drove off as quickly as he could. His dogs sensed his freakout and offered him their unconditional support. He drew strength from it and it helped him clear his mind. He slowed down so he wouldn't make his tires screech on the pavement and draw attention to him. He wiped his sweaty brow and tried to unsee what he had just seen. He began to berate himself for losing his nerve like that. You see one little dick get bitten off and you panic like a little girl. And you'd like to be a badass that brings down evil. As he drove down the freeway towards Springfield, he criticized himself for not having made up his mind about what he was going to do beforehand. Seriously, Jack, if the girl hadn't bitten off his dick and he hadn't keeled over to smash his skull on the corner of her dresser, what would you have done? He gripped the steering wheel tightly and told himself that it didn't matter. It was over and done with. Sébastian was dead, Maria was going to wind up in a hospital and no one knew he had even been there. That Jacobs character certainly wasn't going to appreciate the kind of press he'd get if anyone ever found out he was a peeping Tom, so he wasn't going to say anything to anyone. Even if he did, he had no clue as to who Jack was, so he was safe from that quarter. By the time he parked at his house, he reaffirmed his decision to go through with his plan for bringing down the gang. Unlike the situation with Sébastian, he had a clear vision of what he had to do and how. He felt confident it would work. Even though it was only ten p.m., the house was dark. He let his dogs out and the three musketeers took up position in the back yard. Jack had Spot come inside with him and tell him if he sensed anything off. The dog confirmed that Janice and Mia were each in their own room and that no one else had been there that night. Jack sighed in relief and climbed the stairs. He stood in front of his bedroom door and looked at Mia's door. He wondered if mind controlled slaves could turn on their masters. He shuddered at the thought of Mia biting his dick off someday. He told himself the guy had simply fucked up. It had been nothing more than that. The guy was probably very hungry when he gave her the order to suck on his dick and he subconsciously gave her the urge to eat something. Jack decided to make extra sure both he and Mia were always well fed before they had sex. He imagined the nightstand by their shared bed having huge bowls of snacks on it. He smiled and told himself Mia would look even better with some ten to fifteen extra pounds on her. More for me to grab on to. He wasn't in an amorous mood after what he had seen, so he didn't pay Mia a visit. It would have been awkward to make her scream in orgasm when his mother was down the hall, anyway. He took a shower, spent some time online and then went to bed. When he woke up the next morning, Mia was sitting on his chair, in front of his desk and looking at him with an angry expression. He froze and his hand shot down to feel up his dick. He nearly sighed with relief as he confirmed everything was still attached at the right place. "Your mother," she dramatically said, "is impossible. I am not going to spend another minute under the same roof as her." Jack glanced at his door. "Is she here?" "No, she's gone to work, thank God, or I would have throttled her to death with my own two hands. As soon as you drove me home last night, she started to badger me." Mia's eyes watered as she paused. "I don't even want to tell you what..." She began sobbing. Jack got up and gave her a hug. "Hush, baby. It's all over now. She's gone and we'll be gone in no time at all." Mia let herself cry as she hugged him back. "It wasn't my fault!" Jack kept shushing her. "Of course it wasn't." He frowned. "What was she blaming you for?" "For you no longer being...for us...oh, God, that woman is nuts!" "I know. I know, baby. She can get crazy sometime." Mia let herself relax as she cried in his arms. After a few minutes, she began to calm down. "Ugh, I nearly stuffed the rolling pin in her big mouth to keep her from yapping. I swear, Jack, if I have to listen to her judging me for just one more second, I'll claw her eyes out!" Jack guessed that the old Mia would have completely agreed with the sanctimonious judgement Janice was heaping her way. Since he had tweaked her mind on prom night, Mia was unable to feel guilt for having had sex with him. Even if she firmly believed Jack had taken control of her, a small part of her was obviously receptive to Janice's religious judgment, or it would not have affected her so. He rubbed her back and gently said, "Everything's going to be all right, Mia. We're going house shopping as soon as we've had some breakfast and we'll be moving out of here in no time!" She sniffed her tears. "Promise?" He raised two fingers. "Scout's honor. Now, what do you say you go whip us up some breakfast while I send my lawyer an email about renting a house in the city?" "I already ate." She cheered up and smiled. "But I could fix you something." "I'd like that." She gave him a peck on the cheek and went down to the kitchen to make him something to eat. He got on his computer and composed an email to his lawyer. Even if he had any misgivings about blackmailing the realtor earlier, they were gone in light of seeing Mia suffer at Janice's hands. This is better than making a severe intervention into my mother's head. In the email, he enumerated the many repairs the house needed and instructed his lawyer to draw up an ironclad five year lease agreement and to include a bunch of conditions that favored him greatly. He told her he would come by her office with the owner later that day to sign it. He sent the email and then got dressed. After a quick breakfast, he drove Mia into the city. He stopped by Carmen's house first and told Mia to wait for him in the car as he went searching for the young Latina. Her neighbor told him she was at the hospital, visiting her cousin. Jack drove there next and again asked Mia to wait for him in the car as he had to meet with his CI and make final preparations for that afternoon. Mia nodded in understanding and played some music to pass the time. He found a haggard-looking Carmen sitting outside her cousin's room and clutching a cup of coffee that had long ago gone cold in her hand. Jack sat next to her and followed her eyes to look at Maria lying in her bed. He dropped his cloak, imagined himself filled with worry and used the mutual visual to slip inside the woman's mind. Jack told himself he should get tested for STDs, particularly Chlamydia. He snapped back into himself and sat next to the woman who wasn't moving. Carmen just kept staring at Maria. Jack was about to try again when a nurse walked passed them. "Excuse me," Carmen said, addressing the nurse, "does this hospital do STD testing?" "Yes," the nurse said. "They've already run a complete panel on your cousin and the doctor will discuss the results with her parents, when they arrive." "I meant for myself." "Oh!" The nurse shot Jack a look and then leaned in to take Carmen by the arm. "If you'd like to come with me, please?" The two women walked down the hall as Jack kept looking at Maria. As soon as no one was looking, he got up and went into her room. He quietly closed the door behind himself. Maria was lying on the bed and staring straight at the ceiling. She didn't react in any way to his presence. Jack pulled a chair over to the bed and sat in it. He leaned back and focused his attention on the same spot she was staring at. He imagined himself going too numb to allow himself to feel anything in a desperate effort to keep his mind in one piece. He dropped his cloak and slid into her mind. Jack took stock of his feelings and was overwhelmed with guilt and disgust over what he had done last night. He told himself nothing that happened yesterday night was his fault. He convinced himself he wasn't a victim because he had taken action and fought back. He told himself he wasn't a bad person for having done what he had done, he had merely been defending himself. Jack slid back into his mind as Maria sniffled. He drew his cloak around his mind. She reached up to rub her watering eyes and Jack quietly left her room. He made his way to the parking lot and got in the SUV. "Everything go ok?" Mia asked him. "Perfect!" He smiled. "Ready to go find our dream home?" "Ready!" At Lehaine's office, Jack and Mia met with the realtor. He was as slick and charming as Jack had seen him be in his vision. The man took care to pay Mia many compliments, but also to not pay her any compliment that might make Jack angry or jealous. Mia smiled in genuine delight at his words, but Jack just bided his time until he got to drop the hammer on the liar. Jack described their ideal home, which the house he had seen in his vision actually fit quite well, and Lehaine offered to show it to them right away. Jack and Mia accepted and they took the short drive over to it. Jack got out and surveyed the neighborhood, the one thing he had not seen in the vision. It was a quiet, residential area on hills that overlooked the city center, to which it had superb connections. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 Jack could be at the University in ten to fifteen minutes, depending on traffic. The city center, where all the interesting things were located, was also ten minutes away, but by a different route. Mia would have to schlep almost halfway around the city to get to City College, but it was still less than a twenty minute drive. All in all, Jack approved of the location. As Lehaine held out his hand to lead Mia inside, Jack stuck his phone out of his shirt pocket so it would record the man's face and words. Lehaine gave the grand tour, lying about everything that was wrong with the place and denying any history of violence at the location, even when Jack asked him about it, point blank. Jack liked the look of the house, as he knew he would, while Mia practically fell in love with it. She was keeping her cool, but it didn't take much to see that she was already picking out the decor for each room. Her eyes were gobbling up every square inch of the place. The tour ended and Jack asked about the price. While Lehaine was rattling off a bunch of nonsense that was meant to justify the big price, Jack stopped his phone from recording and emailed himself a copy of the film. He asked Mia to go look at the kitchen again. As soon as she was out of earshot, he replayed the part of his recording where Lehaine denied the suicide. Lehaine frowned and stepped to Jack. "What was that? Did you record me? Young man, I must warn you that any and all presentation a realtor makes while giving a tour is, uh, it falls under the legal protection of, uh, work product and I can sue you if you post it on the internet." Jack again replayed the part where the man denied the suicide and smiled. "Nope. That's a bunch of bull. Unlike a realtor lying about a history of violence present in a home. Doing something like that in this state means you lose your license. Doesn't it? Even opens you up to be sued for attempted fraud." The man cleared his throat nervously. "Look here-" "I know about Dorothy Bainbridge." Lehaine's jaw dropped and his face lost all color. "Now, I can email this recording to the relevant authorities, or we can swing by my lawyer's office, she'll put a lease contract in front of you and you'll sign it right away." Jack put a friendly hand on the man's shoulder. "I should warn you, though. By signing that lease you'll agree to make some repairs and upgrades to this place. Well, a lot of repairs and upgrades, actually. The work will be done by licensed contractors, you'll pay for it out of your own pocket and you will pay me extra if it's not all done properly within a week from tomorrow." Jack patted the man on the shoulder and smiled a friendly smile. "Don't worry! I'll pay you five hundred bucks rent a month. It's not fair market price, I'll grant you that. It's not even half of it, but it ought to keep the IRS from thinking there's anything fishy going on here. So, what do you say? Shall we visit my lawyer, or should I send an email? Know that if you choose to visit my lawyer, her secretary will pour you a cup of very tasty coffee, free of charge." Jack winked at him. Lehaine regained some color in his cheeks and nodded as he held out his hand to shake. Jack grabbed it. "Oh, just so you know, you'll be waiving the security deposit, too." Jack pumped the man's clammy hand with a wide smile. "It's great doing business with you!" Jack collected Mia and drove them to his lawyer's office. Lehaine's car was right on their tail the whole drive over. His lawyer was waiting for them with the lease agreement he had instructed her to draw up ready to go. Lehaine signed it without even looking and was given a complete list of repairs to do. He took it and left, ignoring the secretary's offer of coffee. Jack introduced Mia to his lawyer, Edwina, and was surprised to notice Mia looking the older woman over with a critical gaze. Something about her expression was the same as when she had complained about Janice earlier that morning. The three of them sat down over some tasty coffee. Edwina was an attractive woman in her early thirties. She was tastefully dressed in a pastel green dress suit which didn't overtly display her attractive figure. Her toned legs were on display, encased in white hose, but her ample bosom was all but concealed. She was beautiful, without looking unprofessional, and sexy, without being crude. She hooked her long, brown hair behind an ear as she brought her cup to her ruby lips to blow on the hot beverage. Before she sipped it, she asked, "How on Earth did you get that man to sign that contract?" Jack just smiled. "I'm serious, Jack. I nearly didn't even draft it when I read your instructions. No sane person would ever commit to that. The rent you'll pay him, should you choose to stay there the whole five years, will barely even cover the costs of the repairs he has to make this week." "You did put in the clause that I can end the lease at any moment without any repercussions?" "Of course! But why he signed it?" She shook her head and looked incredulously at Jack. She folded her long, manicured hands over her lap and crossed her legs. She smiled knowingly. "It's better if I don't know. Isn't it?" Jack just nodded with a laid-back grin. "It's better all-around if you keep your distance from Jack from now on," Mia said, surprising everyone, including herself. Jack realized Mia was jealous. He nearly laughed at the thought. Edwina was an attractive woman, sure, but she was a decade and a half older than them and married with two kids. On top of that, Jack was not some horn dog that would go chasing after every skirt in sight. Particularly not when he had already caught Mia. He ended the awkward silence by asking Edwina about her kids. She smiled and talked about her family, including her husband, and Mia visibly relaxed in her seat. She even blushed a little as she stared into her cup of coffee. With Mia's inept words glossed over, they chatted for a few more minutes and then Edwina did the one thing Jack always hated about her; she charged him. He paid her for drafting the contract, exchanged goodbyes and led Mia out to the car. He drove them to a restaurant to get some lunch and teased her about being jealous of Edwina. Mia blushed furiously and didn't respond at first, focusing instead on her crepes, but she finally relented and admitted she was both intimidated and jealous of the woman being an accomplished professional. Jack smiled at her. "You'll have a career, too, Mia. You just have to pick one and put in the hours." She smiled a radiant smile at him and they made small talk as they shared their dessert. Drew called and informed him that the FBI was staking out the lumberyard. Jack asked about the uniform and Drew confirmed it was ready. Jack thanked him for the call and said to Mia, "We're on!" She nodded. He drove them back to Springfield and they swung by Chrissie's place. Drew was there and he handed Mia her "fake" ID. It was an actual ID, made last night, and it identified her as the rightful holder of the bank account where the bikers kept most of their loot. Jack stripped into boxers and T-shirt to try on the uniform. The Chihuahuas sat in front of the mirror and looked up at him in quiet adoration. Mia elbowed Chrissie in the ribs and nodded at him. "That's my man." Chrissie glared at the girl, angry at the elbowing as much as at the familiarity and impropriety of the comment, but made no reply. Jack blushed and put on the uniform. Once he fastened the belt, he posed in front of the mirror. "You look hot, babe," was Mia's comment. Chrissie grunted noncommittally and approached him. She modified the way he wore the uniform and gave him a few pointers on how to carry himself to pass for a cop. He practiced walking across her living room a few times and she finally gave him a grunt of approval. Drew, who was sitting silently on the couch, also gave him the Maynard grunt of approval. Mia jumped up and clapped her hands. "Woo-hoo!" She gave him a hug and kissed the side of his neck. "You look so freaking hot in that uniform, I wanna-" "Finish that sentence," Chrissie said, "and I'll shoot you in the ass." Mia let go of Jack with a blush and a smile. "As a matter of fact, I will be checking the uniform with a blacklight when you give it back to me and if I find anything on it, I'll shoot you both in the kneecap. Got it?" They both nodded. Drew finally spoke up. "The Feds are in place. Have been since morning. It's not too late to give up, Jack. You don't have to do this." Jack smiled. "Yes, I do. You can't expect me to sleep at night knowing that these bastards are out there, getting away with murder." Chrissie stared at him for a long moment. He thought he saw a tear form in the corner of her eye. She looked at Mia. "You guy is either very stupid, or very brave. Probably both at the same time. Have as much fun with him as you can. I suspect he won't last you very long." Mia smiled up at Jack. "I intend to." "No smooching," Chrissie said. "Take your clothes off!" Off their bemused looks, she rolled her eyes and clarified. "Take that uniform off! Can't be seen in it before you're up!" As Jack changed into his civvies, Drew said, "Are you sure you don't want us to back you up?" "Absolutely. The only way this plan can go wrong is if they suspect you two have anything to do with it. These guys are watching you almost as much as you are watching them. They're not stupid, they know you'd love to roast their corpses. They don't come here to spy on your homes, but they watch Chrissie come into work every day and they look for you crossing the county line, as well. If you both showed up there on the same day their cash and drugs went missing..." Jack shook his head. "They'd assume it was your doing and not turn on each other like we need them to. It's best if you both stay here." "And twiddle our thumbs," Drew bitterly said. "It'll all work out," Jack said. As Mia and he were leaving, Chrissie called out, "Just don't get yourself killed, Jack!" Jack gave her a wink and a wave. He drove over to the next county with Mia. They parked down the street from the bank. "You ready?" Mia, who was studying her new ID intently until then, looked up and nodded. She gave him a peck on the cheek and went inside. He stayed seated in his car and fretted as he waited for her to emerge from the bank. He told himself he was nervous for no reason, that she was perfectly safe in there, but he couldn't keep from chewing on his lower lip. A minute before closing, Mia came out. She immediately gave him a small wave and a big smile. She ran over and opened the passenger side door. Before he could say anything, she jumped into his arms. Her hands clasped around the back of his neck and she pulled herself into a hug. She planted a big kiss on his lips. Jack was shocked. Even with his conditioning, she had never done anything so sexual with him before now. All her kisses had been on the cheek and now her tongue was trying to wrestle with his of her own, free will. He decided to forgo the many questions that were cropping up in his mind and hugged her back, drawing her body closer to his. He deepened their kiss and she squirmed in his arms. He let his arms freely roam across her back. As soon as he tried to reach to the front, however, she seemed to snap out of her trance and broke their kiss. She pushed herself off him and sat up in her seat. She closed the door and wiped his saliva off her lips. She looked down at her lap and Jack thought he could see her feeling guilty. "I'm sorry," she said in a small voice. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Mia. Nothing at all." She rubbed her sides and looked away from him with tears in her eyes. "Can we just go, please?" He pulled out his violet crystal and held it up in the palm of his hand. "Mia. Mia, look at me!" She shook her head no and kept looking out the window. He leaned over and stuck his hand with the crystal into the corner of her vision. As soon as she noticed it, she gasped. He could see a tremor go through her body. She spun in her seat and locked lips with him faster than he could react. He put his crystal away and glanced around them. There were people on the sidewalk, right outside the window. He fought to free his mouth and finally succeeded to push her head down to nibble at his sensitive throat. He giggled and fought for breath, but finally managed to say, "Stop! Stop!" She let go of him and sat back in her seat. Her lust was plain to see on her face and he buckled under her sultry gaze. "Wait until we get someplace private!" She nodded and kept fucking him with her blue eyes, like the rest of the world didn't exist. He cleared his throat nervously and started the engine. He handed her his smartphone. "Find us a motel, or a hotel. Anything that rents rooms and is really close to us." She went online and found a motel nearby. She guided him there with a breathless, raspy voice. By the time he parked there, her face was flushed and her skin covered with droplets of perspiration. He issued her strict orders to follow him inside and not jump his bones. She obeyed, but her true desire was plain to see. The clerk smiled a knowing smile, took Jack's money and handed him a key. There was no checking in for them. Jack led Mia to the room and unlocked the door. He pushed her in, spared the room a single, appraising glance and said, "Ok. You may now fuck me." She jumped into his arms and stuffed her tongue down his throat. The five minute wait between seeing the crystal and being given permission to finally act on her extreme arousal, made her go wild with lust. He didn't even notice how their clothes vanished before she shoved him to fall back on the bed. He didn't try to fight back, he just lay there and endured her riding him. He reached up to knead her tits a few times, setting off her orgasms. When he finally came and shot his load up her pussy, he started to go limp and slip out of her. She wasn't done with him. She got up to kneel by his hips and suck him to hardness again. He groaned and moaned as she stimulated his shriveled cock. She was relentless and she got him hard again to begin another round of riding cowgirl. She rode him to at least eight more orgasms, piled close together, before he finally came again and nearly passed out in exhaustion. His shriveling dick slipped out of her again and she knelt down to try and bring it to life yet again. "Stop!" She obeyed his order reluctantly and let go of his limp dick. "Just snuggle with me." She obeyed and lay next to him as they both breathed hard. The sweat threatened to glue them together permanently as her tits crushed themselves against his arm. "What...possessed you?" She was panting as hard as him, but managed to gasp out, "You...showed me the...crystal." "No...before...that. When you...came out...of the bank?" "Oh...that! I was really excited...to have taken all that money...and I was just carried away. That's all." She nuzzled the spot where his shoulder and neck met. "We should have taken some of that money for ourselves." "And risk them tracing it to us? Or the Feds, later on? No, thanks!" "I could have carried it out in cash. You could have helped me lug it out." "It's better this way. It's where it's needed the most." He had had her transfer the money to a few regional charities that focused on helping single, young mothers. He found it fitting, since those kinds of girls were routinely preyed on by the bikers. After he caught his breath, he found himself all but dozing off. "Pinch me." She pinched his nipple and he was instantly roused as he sat up and yelped in pain. "Stop! Session over!"She relaxed and her bedroom eyes turned slightly ashamed. She rolled over and tried to cover her nudity. "Let's get dressed. There's still work to be done." She nodded and they got up to get dressed. He frowned when he saw that his zipper was torn and his T-shirt had a big rip in its side. He got dressed in those clothes all the same. No one would spot the damage at first glance. They drove home and he went in to change into Chrissie's uniform, as well as bring a change of unripped clothes with him. Mia kissed him on the cheek. "Good luck! Don't get hurt! And come back soon, or I will not be held responsible for what I do to your mother." He nodded. "I promise." He called out to his dogs and they jumped into the back seat. He gave her a wave before driving off to the neighboring county. He parked down the alley from the florist's back door. He tried to fight back the trepidation which had been steadily rising as he had driven there. He looked over to the back entrance of the florist's shop. The door was armored and controlled by an electronic lock. There was a camera mounted in the spyhole so the people inside could see who was in front of the door without risking getting shot in the eye. Jack turned his head and looked away from the shop. The setting sun was low on the horizon, painting it with thirty shades of red and orange. He put on his cop shades and sighed. This was your idea from the get-go, Jack. Time to make it a reality! He got out of the car and put his hat on. He left all the doors open. His heart pounded wildly as he pulled the hat lower on his brow and used the wide brim to hide his features. This will never work, he thought as he started to walk towards the rear entrance to the florist's shop. It's still not too late, I can just turn around and leave. They haven't seen the car. They haven't seen me yet. His stride faltered, but he checked himself and walked on. Oh, this is the dumbest idea in the history of dumb ideas. He reached the pathway that led from the sidewalk to the florist's rear door. I'm gonna get shot! They're gonna see I'm not a real deputy and they'll fucking shoot me! He tried to keep Chrissie's advice on acting like a cop in mind, but it evaporated from his head. He slowly stepped onto the pathway and began to cross the seven yards of distance towards the door. Oh, please, God! Oh please, oh please, oh please, don't let me be shot! Oh, please, oh please, oh please, God, don't let me be shot! He reached the door and made sure his shadow didn't cover the camera lens. He needed the sun to shine right into it. This is such a stupid plan! I'm gonna get killed! He kept his face low and used the brim and shades to cover up his features. This is not going to work! They'll totally see through my "disguise". They'll have a good laugh before they shoot me. He reached up with a trembling hand and pressed the buzzer by the door. He let his hand drop and held his breath. I should never have come here! I should have stayed at home with Mia. I could have been fucking her some more and not getting killed here by some fuckers that have never even heard of me before. Why am I doing this? It's not worth my life! I should go! I should just run before they shoot me and leave me paralyzed below the waist and unable to fuck Mia ever again. I should turn around and go. It's not too late! Just turn around, Jack, and run! A buzzing noise made his arm reflexively shoot out to grab the handle and tug. The heavy door came loose of its frame. He sighed in relief. Thank you, Lord! He pulled the door wide open and held it there with one foot as he reached into his back pocket for a pair of latex gloves. Spot, Aramis, Athos and Porthos sprinted across the florist's backyard, knocking down some tools, and zipped through the door as fast as lightning. Jack tried to steady his shaking hands enough to don his gloves as he listened to the loud clattering of dogs' paws against linoleum and furniture that was coming from within. He heard a few yelps and thuds. With a deep breath, he finally managed to pull on the gloves. He took a wet wipe from his pocket and wiped clean the door handle, lest his prints be found on it. When he was finished, he walked inside. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 The shop was a typical florist's workshop with potted plants and gardening equipment lying everywhere. The thing that differentiated this shop from all the others like it was the fact that Aramis, Porthos and Athos had one guy each pinned to the ground with their jaws closed around their throats. The guys' eyes were bulging out as they silently begged for their lives. Jack walked around them and kicked their guns away. He duct taped their eyes closed, so they wouldn't get a good look at his face and be able to tell he wasn't one of the deputies. Spot raised his tail and one paw as he pointed his snout at one large cupboard in the corner of the workshop. Jack crouched before the cupboard, gave Spot a pat on the back, and opened it. Inside were bags of fertilizer. Jack took a few of them out and saw bags of pills and bricks of powder stashed in the back. He smiled. Bingo. He pulled out the drugs and made a large pile of them in the middle of the floor. One of the guys on the floor tried to protest, but Athos growled briefly and the guy lay still and silent. A small pool of yellow started to spread between his legs shortly thereafter. Jack pulled out the last bag of drugs and his eyes went as wide as tea saucers. It was weed. Holy mother of all jackpots! It was more weed than Mia had planted in his locker. It was more than twice as much. He smiled and decided to take that for himself. Now I'm set for vision quests for life! He sent Spot the order to scout out back. When the dog returned to give him the all clear, he hauled half the drugs and took them to the trunk of his car. He repeated the procedure with the other half and then returned to duct tape the gangbangers to the shelves of the store. It wouldn't take them very long to get loose, but that was part of the plan. They asked him why he was doing this and he smiled to himself. They sounded like they believed him to be a local deputy. He duct taped their mouths and left the store. He drove to Sheriff Sonuvabitch Traitor's lake house. The rear door to the kitchen had a doggy flap and Jack got a box cutter from his toolkit in the trunk. He slid its thin, short blade between the flap and the door to work the latch that kept it closed. Spot, being smaller than the Great Dane, the Belgian Malinoise and the German Shepherd, squeezed through the doggy flap and jumped up on a counter to pull the bolt on the door with his teeth. Jack got in, rubbed Spot's head and went to the basement, where he carefully hid all the drugs he had taken, except for the weed. He closed the rear door. Spot bolted it and crawled back out through the doggy flap. A few soft kicks shook the door enough for the latch to fall back into place and lock the doggy flap. Jack laughed softly as he took off his gloves. "Unsuspected and undetected. Come on, guys! Let's go home!" He led his dogs to the car and texted Drew of his success. He changed into civvies and stowed the uniform in the trunk before he drove back to Springfield. There were no problems on the way and he got home in high spirits. Mia rushed out of the house as soon as he parked and gave him a hug. He hugged her right back and crushed her large breasts against his chest. His dick was starting to get hard all over again. The adrenaline rush of fear he had experienced while walking up to the florist's door earlier was demanding he do something to feel alive right now. Fucking Mia seemed like the best course of action so he decided he'd do just that, but only after he paid the Maynards a visit to make sure he wasn't still needed to help the plan along. She sighed against the side of his neck. "This has been the longest evening, ever." He looked up and saw Janice looking out of the living room window. Her face was scrunched up in an expression of righteous indignation. Jack drew a slow, calming breath. "Everything went as planned. We did it, babe! Let's go to Chrissie's! I've got to return the uniform and give them the map of the graves on the mountain. After that, we should go out and celebrate." Mia nodded and got in the car. Jack let his dogs out to guard the house. He retrieved his new stash of pot from the trunk, hid it in the bag that had contained his change of clothes and went inside. He pointed a warning finger at Janice as he walked past her. It shut her up and he managed to get to his room without a lecture. He quickly hid his new amount of pot with the old one and then saw that he couldn't fit all that pot and the pot cookies in the same place. He considered his predicament for a second. He couldn't just leave the cookies out in the open. Someone would eat them. Leaving the pot out in the open was out of the question. With the state Janice was in lately, he wouldn't put it past her to call the cops on him. Ah, screw it! Sex on drugs is supposed to be something else, right? His hiding place was left full of pot, with only a few cookies left on top. He took most of the pot cookies and put them in the bag to take with him. He chuckled as he remembered Sébastian's dick getting bitten off. Better safe than sorry. He took his crystal and put it in his pocket, along with the map of mountainside graves he had drawn yesterday. He rushed out to the car and drove to Chrissie's house. "So, how long before that place in the city is ready for us to move in?" "I don't know. Should be less than a week. Why?" "I just don't wanna live under the same roof as your mom anymore. Could we, maybe, like, move someplace else, just for next week?" Jack smiled. "I was actually thinking we'd fly up to New York this week and see the sights. Then we'd come home, move to our new place, and...I was thinking we'd do some travelling this summer. I always wanted to see the world and we don't have to live in the city until September and the start of lectures." He looked at her. "What do you say?" She smiled a radiant smile at him. "I say yes, please!" She squealed with excitement and jumped into his arms to give him a firm hug. "Whoa," he complained good-naturedly as he nearly swerved. The streets were empty of traffic and he got to Chrissie's in minutes. Chrissie answered her door with a wide smile on her face. Before Jack could do, or say, anything, she wrapped him in a big bear hug as she giggled with delight. "It worked! It worked! Your plan worked!" She let go of Jack, only to pull them both inside. Drew hugged Jack tight as his moustache reared up into a wide smile. "The Feds got them all," Chrissie said in delight. "The sheriff, the bikers, the dirty deputies." She shook her head in delighted disbelief. "All in one place, all making legally admissible confessions. Drew's Bureau contact called him a few minutes ago and told him they'll all go down for a stretch." Jack took out the map of graves and held it for her to see. "And these will make some of those stretches longer." She took the map and sat on the couch with her brother. She unfolded it across her coffee table for both of them to study. Drew's phone rang and he showed its screen to Chrissie before answering it. Chrissie shushed at Jack and Mia. She tensely listened as Drew acted nonchalant with the person on the other end of the line, giving noncommittal, one word responses. At length, Drew said, "I guess it would depend on what kind of money I was being offered." Chrissie nearly jumped for joy in her seat, even as Drew tried to wave her down. He listened for a few seconds and then said, "Well, alright, you've got yourself a deal. I'll be there at seven a.m. and we can get started." Chrissie squealed with joy, even as Drew tried to quiet her down. "See you then." He hung up and Chrissie hugged him tightly. He hugged her right back and his moustache reared up as he smiled wide. They hugged and gently rocked, seated on Chrissie's couch for a while before Mia asked, "What's going on?" The Maynards broke their hug and wiped the corners of their eyes. "That was the county selectman who just called me. He said the FBI found heaps of drugs in the sheriff's lake house. The're certain the sheriff would be going away for a long stretch and, seeing as how I've been telling them he was a bad guy for two decades now, they've decided that I should be interim sheriff and clean up the department and the county before the next sheriff's election." "Wow, Drew," Jack said, "congratulations!" "Thanks," he said. "This...this was all your doing, Jack. We can't thank you enough!" The Maynards got up and hugged Jack tightly. He could barely breathe, squeezed between their powerful, stocky bodies. "You're... welcome," he managed to wheeze out to get them to stop. "We owe you big time, Jack," Drew said. "Whatever you need...just call and it's yours!" "Short of dropping bodies," Chrissie said. "We should celebrate! I have a bottle of champagne somewhere." She went to her kitchen. Drew put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "I've got a lot of work to do before I get elected sheriff. I'd really appreciate it if your CI-" "Wait a minute," Chrissie said. "You're not going to run for sheriff! I am!" "Don't be ridiculous, sis, I'll be the next sheriff." "Don't be stupid, Drew! I can't be hired as a deputy because of my criminal record. But I can be elected sheriff. Then I'd hire you as my chief deputy. I should be the one that stands so we can both continue dad's work." "After we overturn all the convictions and clear your name and dad's, I'll hire you as my chief deputy." "Overturn the convictions? That could take years! I'm not going to sit around twiddling my thumbs while you get to play sheriff!" Drew's moustache stood on end. "Play sheriff?" "I'm the eldest, I should be sheriff after Dad!" Jack and Mia exchanged a look. Neither wanted to stay and listen to a sibling squabble. "Uh, hey, Chrissie," Jack quietly said, "here's the uniform you lent me and we'll be going now." Jack and Mia turned to leave. "Hey," Chrissie said, "where are you two going?" "Uh, we have a previous engagement," Mia said. "Party," Jack said, overlapping Mia's claim. They shared a look and then Jack said, "A previous engagement to attend a party." "Wow," Chrissie said, "that was cocky. Planning to go to a party on the same day as bringing down organized crime." When Jack looked flustered, she gave him a wink and a smile. "I get it. You two go and have fun. Just one last thing. Don't worry about the group home and the assholes that tried to make your life miserable. I have this feeling that the interim sheriff will conduct a raid there later this week and find very large quantities of drugs." "Ugh," Mia said with a frown. "Lara holding for her asshole boyfriend again?" Chrissie nodded. "Among others. Anyway, the scandal will be too much for the current bosses to withstand, so someone like Luther will take the place over and fix it." "That would be cool," Mia said. "Luther's one of the good guys. He genuinely cares." "It'll happen," Chrissie said. "I know it will, because I'm a psychic, of sorts." Jack briefly laughed out loud at the irony of her joke. "I'd like to see that place fixed, too, but won't Alpha be angry?" Chrissie snorted in derision. "After the way they left you hanging in the breeze, I honestly couldn't care less." Jack nodded. He cared about the people that worked for the company. The upper management, on the other hand, could walk off a cliff and he wouldn't shed a single tear. Drew held out his hand. "Thanks again, young man. We owe you so much." They shook and Jack led Mia back to the car. He handed her his phone. "Find us a room nearby, Mia. I'm going to fuck your brains out." "Look, Jack, I love you and all, but I don't think we should..." She trailed off as Jack held up the violet crystal. "Find us a room nearby and don't jump my bones until we're safely inside it!" Her skin flushed with arousal and she heaved deep breaths as she typed with one hand and squeezed her tits with the other. "Here!" She showed him his phone and the map to the motel. He started the engine and drove them there with her giving directions and teasing them both by mauling her tits the whole time. He ordered her to behave while he retrieved the pot cookies and checked them in. As soon as he closed the motel room door behind them, she jumped into his arms. He stumbled backwards onto the bed. She tore his clothes off and attacked his bare skin. He noted that the longer she was ordered to keep proper after being shown the violet crystal, the wilder she got when he finally released her. All rational thought left him shortly after she bared her breasts. She rode him with wild abandon and they came together in a matter of minutes. After that, she blew him back to hardness and rode him some more. Despite seeing her cum on his dick several times, he managed to last almost seven minutes before they came together again. He was completely drained and lay there gasping with a smile on his face. She lay next to him and masturbated. When she came yet again, he got up on one elbow and watched her frig herself to another orgasm. He decided, right then and there, that the sight of a woman pleasuring herself without any restraint was the sexiest and most beautiful thing in the whole world. After her second screaming orgasm faded, she noted he had gotten hard, yet again. She climbed atop him and rode him some more. He groaned and gasped as the sensations coming from his dick were dulled by overuse. She used him as her fuckstick and drew shrieking orgasm after shrieking orgasm from her seemingly tireless body. Her nails scored his chest and back, even as he mauled her big tits. When he came for the third time, the heat of his shuddering orgasm left him completely drained. He dozed off with a happy smile, even as she was licking herself off his limp dick. Jack blinked his eyes open with a groan. The early morning light was stabbing him right in the face as the curtains on the window were thrown wide open. He groaned and rolled over on his back, still struggling to wake up fully. He stretched out and was surprised to feel the bed was empty. Where's Mia? He realized he could hear a soft, squishy noise, similar to someone chewing with their mouth open. He sat up on his elbows and looked to the source of the noise. He blinked his eyes several times in rapid succession as he tried to clear the sleep from them. In a corner of the room, Mia was naked on her knees, sucking off Jamie Jacobs, who was sitting in a chair and smiling at Jack. Jack told himself he must not call out for help. The world outside hated him and wanted to do him great harm. He told himself he should not try to leave this room for any reason, or the people in the streets would form a mob and do him great harm. He told himself that reaching out to anyone for help, by any means available, would result in great harm being done to him. He told himself he was safest in this room, being as quiet as a mouse. Jack flinched at the feel of the strange mind in his, giving him orders and instilling thoughts. He reached for his cloak and was stunned to feel nothing in his grasp. It was as if he tried to lean against a building only to fall flat on his ass cause the building had vanished the instant he took his eye off it. Jacobs chuckled. "There's that look I wanted to see." He laughed some more. "Oh, how shocked and scared you look. The power is gone and I've taken your sex slave as my own." Jack looked at Mia with horror. He could scarcely believe what he was seeing. I'm having a nightmare. That's all. I just need to wake up and everything will be alright. "Usually, I don't let a phony see, or hear me, but you are something else, Jack Watts." Jacobs groaned at Mia's efforts on his dick and smiled bitterly. "Of course, the usual method went out the window when I had to make that girl bite that phony's dick off last night." Jacobs shook his finger at Jack. "I did not appreciate that interruption." Jack shook off his shock and said, "Phonies? What are you on about?" Jacobs' eyes bore into Jack's with an intensity that nearly made Jack look away. "Phonies; the subhuman swine that dare copy my power." Jacobs smiled the ugliest smile Jack had ever seen. "Though I've never yet met one that had the audacity to copy my thought shield. You're the first in that regard." Jack could feel his limbs grow deathly cold as all the air left his lungs. "You're the cloaked figure." Jacobs frowned. "The what?" Jack told himself he needed to be quiet and not interrupt. Jacobs twined his hand into Mia's wild hair and pushed her face down on his crotch. Jack blinked away tears and watched the cloaked figure use his girlfriend's face as a sex toy. Jacobs' short legs straightened out as he groaned and pressed Mia's face all the way to his crotch. Jack closed his eyes to not see the man as he shoved his cock down Mia's throat. With his eyes closed, he could hear every single sound that was made during the oral violation. He winced. Hearing it was even worse. Jack told himself that he had an overwhelming obsession with tasting semen, particularly when it came fresh from the tap. He also remembered he hated the taste of semen and found it to be the most vile thing in the universe. He opened his eyes. Mia stood up from Jacobs' lap and walked over to Jack. Her naked body glistened with a faint sheen of sweat, while her blue eyes were dull and lifeless. Her face was distorted, as if she was going to be sick at any moment. Jack gasped as he realized she must have a mouth full of cum. He felt his desire to taste it and was disgusted by it, at the same time. Mia stood over him and let her mouth fall open. White globs of cum were visible on her tongue. Jack felt himself salivate at the sight of them. She leaned over him and stuck her tongue out. The thick globs began to slowly slide down towards him. Jack was disgusted by the sight before him, but more so by his overwhelming desire to taste that creamy goo that was sliding out of her mouth. He closed his eyes as he angled his head backwards and stuck his tongue out. When the first glob of cum fell from her tongue onto his, he nearly retched from the awful taste. It made him cringe. It was the worst thing in the entire universe, yet he could not stop himself from swirling it around in his mouth and making sure he had tasted every possible facet of it. It was as if he needed to confirm that cum tasted that fucking bad. Jacobs laughed from his seat, but Jack barely registered. The disgusting thing he was tasting was making him gag. Jack told himself he had always had a compulsion to swallow cum and feel it slide down his throat. Jack swallowed the terrible goo and nearly threw up. He could feel it slide slowly down his gullet and that feeling made him think he would never be able to eat anything else in his whole life again. He was that disgusted by his compulsive cum swallowing. Jack told himself he needed to stand up and hold still. He stood up and tensed his muscles. All of Jack's thoughts and emotions suddenly shorted out as Mia kicked him in the balls with all her strength. Jack's will to live faded to nothingness as his whole body locked up in agony. The breath left his lungs with a wheezing shout and he didn't care if it never came back. There was so much pain coming from his groin that he couldn't imagine even the smallest part of his genitalia remaining intact. No point in living without a dick. His legs gave out and he fell to sit on the bed. His limp body slid off the bed and fell down to the floor to lie on his right side, curled up into a fetal position. His lifeless eyes fell to the carpet next to his nose and he couldn't scrounge up the willpower to even lift his gaze. He could hear Jacobs sigh happily in his corner, but it didn't matter anymore. When the man's immaculately polished shoes walked up next to his head, he found himself idly wishing they would stomp on his head until they put him out of his misery. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 05 "Aw," Jacobs drawled with fake empathy, "feelin' a little down, sport?" He chuckled. "You don't know the half of it. Now, normally, whenever I come across a phony, I take their copy of my powers, their sanity and will to live. Then I just sit back and enjoy as they punish themselves for their transgression. But you? That would be too fucking good for you." Jacobs clucked and walked into the bathroom. Jack heard running water. "I mean, it's one thing to copy my powers and use them, but it's something else to copy my shield. That I have never seen before and I've been dealing with thieves for most of my life." The water stopped running. "Oh, and the way you used my powers on dogs?! Disgusting. Utterly disgusting. My Momma always said I was special, a gift from God, and she was right! My power is proof of that. My power that you copied, you fucking phony, and then used to train dogs! Fucking guide dogs! "I mean, I can't even come up with a fitting punishment for that. Plus, you're a pothead, for fuck's sake! You shouldn't even have the brain cells to pull off any of that! Taking your life and sanity is just...too merciful, you know? "Yeah, I guess I'm just gonna have to keep you around until I come up with something fitting. The punishment should always fit the crime, right?" Jack could hear Jacobs rifling through something. "Don't they have any hair care products in here? What kind of a sleazy motel is this? Argh! Now, I've got to go face my audience looking like this! Momma's special man facing the crowd with his hair all...argh!" Mia kicked Jack in the gut with all her might. After the horrible agony from his groin had broken his pain dial, this new one was barely registered. He did note that he couldn't breathe anymore, but he didn't really mind that. Death seemed like a pleasant alternative to whatever the cloaked figure would come up with for him. "That was for making me stay up all night looking for you! You stole my shield from me, so I couldn't read your mind at that chick's place. I had to stake out her mind in the hope that you'd go rooting around in it." Jack heard Jacobs chuckle in derision. "Using the power to try and make cunts feel better. What a waste! And after you did that, poof! You once again vanished using my shield! I didn't pick you up again until you fell asleep. You have no idea how much effort it took me to locate you this morning." Jacobs growled in frustration. Mia stomped on Jack's face. Again, his pain dial gave a tiny twitch to politely inform his brain of the event. Jacobs' shoes moved across Jack's very limited field of vision. "I've got a show to do in the city in less than an hour and I've got a forty minute drive ahead of me. And look at these bags under my eyes! Unbelievable! While I'm off communing with my adoring masses, you are going to stay right here. And your ex-girlfriend is going to be guarding you to make sure you don't try anything funny." Jack told himself he must not hit Mia, or try to leave her sight. "When I come back, we're going to start your punishment in earnest." Jack could hear the front door be opened and then closed. He lay there in a stupor for an indeterminate amount of time after that. His whole body was limp as his mind struggled in vain to process what had just happened. At length, the agony coming from his groin had descended from infinity to just below ten, which made his brain start to receive it clearly. He groaned and winced. The agony broke through his lethargy and he reflexively began to attend to himself. Drawing deep breaths made his diaphragm and ribs explode with stitches. The whole left side of his face was throbbing. He dragged himself across the carpet towards the mini-fridge, ignoring the nearly burning sensations that made against his skin. Mia followed him, never out of kick-range, but made no action to stop him as he reached in and retrieved a big fistful of ice. He looked around for a container to hold the ice so he could press it against his groin. There were none around. The mere thought of dragging himself across the carpet all the way to the bathroom to get a towel was very discouraging. He reached for his T-shirt on the floor and wrapped the ice cubes in it. He gingerly pressed it against his groin and sighed in relief. He spared Mia a quick glance, fearing her kicking him again, but she gave no reaction. With a brief and hesitant touch he found out that his genitals were all in place, just very bruised. He iced his balls for a while, until they stopped shooting pure agony into his brain and began to try and shrivel back up into his abdomen to escape the freezing cold. He alternated pressing the wet T-shirt with ice cubes against the side of his face, his belly above his navel, and back on his balls again. At length, the pain lessened enough to stop preventing him from thinking. He sat up against the side of the bed. He considered Jacobs' rant and frowned. Copying his power? That doesn't make any sense, whatsoever. Granted, I copied his cloaking power, but I didn't copy his power in the first place. I had it long before I had any clue he existed at all. It had been with me since... Jack couldn't quite remember when he had first felt his power, or used it. He bit the inside of his lip as he considered other arguments. That guy is in his early thirties. I've seen visions of dozens of mentalists that had had power since before he had even been born. Hell, the last vision I had showed me the graves of mentalists that had died years before this asshole had even been born. Half the mentalists he had attacked probably came into their powers since before he had been born, too. None of what he said makes any sense. That guy is just plain crazy. The more Jack thought about Jacobs' words and actions, the less sense he could make of them. He gave up on sifting through the man's madness. It's no use, anyway. He's obviously a loony tune. If all the misery and death he had caused by now hadn't given him a reason to stop and think it over, then nothing I can say will have any effect, either. He considered his options, which were few. The phone sat on the nightstand, mocking him to make a call for help. Whomever Jack called, they would gather up a mob and come over to kill him for being a freak. He glanced out the windows. The outside world was going along with its own thing, ignorant of his presence. Good thing, too. They'd probably lynch me on sight. He sighed bitterly. Honor and duty demanded he fight back with everything he had, no matter how hopeless the fight seemed, but he had exactly nothing. He idly considered trying to escape the room under cover of the night. The angry mobs outside wouldn't be able to spot him so easily, but he couldn't leave Mia's sight. He grimaced. He couldn't use force against her and he couldn't come up with a way to make her come along with him willingly. He gave up on that plan as he knew Jacobs would find him, anyway. Any thought of escape was futile. Even though he knew no appeasement strategy would work on the cloaked figure, he decided to stay put and do nothing. As he sighed and tried to sit up into a more comfortable position, his hand touched something plastic under the bed. He grabbed it and pulled it out. It was his big bag of weed-laced chocolate chip cookies. Fuck it. One last high before that asshole makes Swiss cheese out of my brain. He grinned feebly as he opened it and reached in for one. He glanced up, but Mia made no move to stop him. He chewed it slowly, enjoying the crumbling cookie and the soft, creamy spots of chocolate within it. He lost track of the time as he sat there, bereft of hope. He ate more of the cookies, more to give himself something to do, than out of any actual hunger, or desire to enjoy them. "Eat up, pothead," Mia said and smiled at him. "That's the only fucking thing you're good for, isn't it? Getting high and wasting your brain. I'm about to step out on stage in front of thousands of adoring worshippers. You're too weak to even understand what that means, let alone work towards achieving something like that on your own. You're pathetic!" Jack swallowed dumbly as he looked up at Mia's vacant eyes. Jack's skin went cold as he realized Jacobs was watching him through her eyes. He must have ordered her to repeat a mantra of some sorts, or hold a picture in her mind's eye so he could slip inside her mind at any given time. Jack's eyes watered. He began to realize just how fucked he was. There was no escape from Jacobs' clutches. There would be no respite from whatever torment he decided for him. He wept softly and wished he could just kill himself. His heart skipped a beat when he finally realized that he hadn't been ordered not to try and kill himself. His spirits soared. Suddenly, death was not the ultimate bad thing that could happen to him. It paled in comparison to whatever Jacobs would be coming up with as punishment for him. Jack pressed his lips tight and set aside the rest of the cookies. There was a possibility of escape and he needed to act fast if he was going to seize it. He considered Mia standing over him. He knew he couldn't use force against her, but he wondered if he could somehow get her to allow him to be alone in the bathroom for a moment. He'd only need a few seconds to break the mirror, grab a shard and start slicing away. The high from the cookies kicked in and he sighed in annoyance. Great! This is just what I need when I'm trying to kill myself! Being as high as a kite. The cartoon dog sighed next to him in commiseration. Jack nodded in acknowledgement and then did a double take. The cartoon dog from his visions was lying on the bed, with its head hanging off the mattress to be at eye level with Jack. Jack shot a nervous look up at Mia, but she gave no indication at seeing the cartoon. Holy fuck, Jack thought at the dog, does this mean that I'm still clairvoyant? The dog gave a sigh. It was the exact same sigh Spot would make when he would get tired of following Jack around the house and decided to sit in one place. Jack understood this sigh to convey the words, "This means that you're still a dumbass, dumbass." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 06 Edited by Over_Red ******* For the past hour, Jack Watts had been sitting on the floor of the motel room with just his upper back propped up against the side of the bed. He had been all but broken by Jacobs taking away his powers and invading Mia's mind. He had eaten most of the pot cookies he had brought with him until the cartoon dog showed up out of the blue. It was sitting on the bed right now, staring at him with an expression that bordered on amused. Jack sat up straight as he pulled his naked ass closer to the bed. He sighed with relief. He didn't know if it had been the pot, or the improvised ice pack, but his balls, face and gut didn't hurt anymore. He smoothed down his shaggy brown hair with repeated sweeps of his hand. He looked again at the cartoon dog, who now had to sit up on the bed to be at eye level with Jack. How is this possible? How can I still be clairvoyant when Jacobs took my power away from me? The dog snorted. Jack spared another worried glance up at Mia. She stood over him in all her naked glory; a doppelganger of Megan Fox, but more beautiful than the starlet as far as Jack was concerned. Her bright blue eyes still gave no indication of seeing the cartoon. Jack focused on the dog again as it yipped and softly barked. Jack's jaw fell at the dog's meaning. It told him that Jacobs hadn't taken his power. No one could do that. Jacobs had merely obscured the memory of the first time Jack had ever used his power, thus preventing him from using it again. In response to Jack's confused frown, the cartoon dog growled. It was the instruction for Jack to enter his meditative state. Jack drew a series of slow, deep breaths. His emotions had an almost complete control of his mind. His fear, his despair, his hurt at seeing Mia made into a true slave, his helplessness and his profound guilt at not having been able to protect her all worked together to try and overwhelm his desperate attempt to achieve a meditative state. Jack persisted, beating down each and every emotion with a single-minded tenacity. Either I get over myself, or I am over. With each mighty breath of air that he drew and then slowly released, the countless worries lessened. It took him a short while until he finally finished focusing his mind. He opened his eyes to find himself in a classroom that was strangely proportioned, yet still seemed somehow familiar to him. He gasped when he recognized it. It was the same kindergarten he had attended as a toddler. He was alone, except for the cartoon dog, which was now standing on its hind legs, wearing an old-timey schoolmaster's robe and hat. The dog cleared its throat and tapped a long stick against a blackboard that suddenly appeared behind him. "Focus, young man," the dog said, sounding like an aging Englishman, "you have much to learn and time is precious." Jack ignored the surprise of hearing his vision guide speak plainly in English and concentrated on the matter at hand. The dog wrote "memories of using your power" on the blackboard and smacked the stick against the board so as to underline the word "memories". "Can you actually remember using your power?" "Well...obviously, yes, I can remember that I did use my power multiple times, it's just that..." "Can you remember the actual usage of the power?" Jack frowned as he concentrated. He shook his head after a moment. "No. I can't remember using it. I can remember the many situations when I used it, I can remember why I used it, I can remember what I used it for, I just can't remember how I was able to use it." The dog sighed and nodded. "Yes, just as I thought. To undo the damage, you must first understand it." Jack's heart fluttered as he realized he had a shot to restore his power. He fought hard to keep his excitement at bay. It was not compatible with a deep meditative state. The dog snapped his fingers and the lights went out. Jack found himself in the movie theater. The dog's stuffy, British voice narrated a movie that was playing on the big screen. The movie opened with a shot of the human brain. "In order to conserve space and energy, the brain makes only one copy of every memory." The brain was then replaced by a diagram, in the shape of an inverted pyramid. "When the brain learns new things, it combines the old information with the new to make knowledge. Here is a simplified example of how the concept of properly touching a ball allows us to play basketball." Jack examined the diagram. At the bottom of the pyramid, in bold letters, the words, "touch the ball with fingertips only" were written. On the next level were statements of how to direct the ball with one's fingertips and how to bestow a rotation to it. In the level above, those combined to allow for dribbling the ball, shooting at the basket in a high arc that results in a nothing but net, or shooting in a low arc with a spin that makes the ball bounce back into the hands of the team in offense, if the shot was missed. As the levels went higher, the concepts got more complicated and included other ideas, but Jack got the gist of it. "I get it," he said. "If you were to forget to handle the ball with fingertips only, you'd turn into a chucker." The dog smiled. "Correct. It is by exploiting this simple feature of the brain that Jacobs had disabled your power. He has deleted your memory of first using your power. That is the bedrock upon which your mentalist skill rests." "So, how do I undo it?" "You must sift through the aether to find the memory of when you had first used your power and re-learn it. Once you do, all the knowledge you possess that is built upon that memory will be reassembled in your brain." "That's it?" Jack chuckled. "Heh, that's easy! Here we go!" He thought back hard on when he had first used his power. It was the time he had first learned that his mother had been cheating on his father. Images of Jack attending the cinema, of him walking around with half his collar turned up and of him startling Spot at night zipped by on the screen as his memory settled back to the day when he had first learned of his mother's infidelity. With a flick of a finger, he wound the film from when he was helping a bunch of townie kids knock their basketball loose to when he was in the emergency room, getting his knee stitched up. He frowned. He couldn't quite remember exactly when during the day it had happened. It was the most pivotal moment of his life and yet, he had to examine his entire aether footprint of that day to figure it out. "Why are there so many of my memories?" he asked the dog. "They have not yet faded," the dog replied. "If you take a stroll down your aether record in twenty years, half of these will be but strands of mist against the backdrop of a gloomy day." Jack looked over at the dog sitting next to him in the audience and raised an eyebrow. The dog shrugged. "I am your vision guide. An extension of you, yourself. My language is your language." "Then why'd you call me a dumbass?" The dog's snout bore a sardonic grin as he shot Jack a look. "Whatever," he said and faced forward again. On the screen, he was wheeled out of the emergency room and the next five days of his recovery were represented by a brief montage of him eating ice cream in front of the TV. So, before the emergency room. He rewound the film to when he was leaving the basketball court and walking home. He let it play from there and watched himself tumble over a bench he should have been able to jump over. He saw his thoughts at the time, the fascination of how bone looked and the fear of being crippled. He flushed in embarrassment as he watched himself hobble home, screaming like a stuck pig. That's not how it had gone down, I'm sure of it. "Yes, it is," the dog said. "The aether contains nothing but true and exact memories as they really happened. The human brain constantly alters memories that it revisits, editing out the things it doesn't like, or can't handle, and embellishing others. If the aether shows that you screamed like a little bitch, then you did that, even if you don't want to admit it to yourself." Jack grunted in annoyance. He focused on the screen. The movie unpaused to show he had skipped all the way home and seen his mother right outside the house. She had berated him for his behavior, but when she had seen his injury, she had shared his emotions of fascination at the sight of bone and fear that he would be crippled. Needles and pins went through Jack when he felt it for the second time; that timeless moment when he had lost all his senses. He had no body attached to himself, so no sights, smells, touch or sounds could intrude into his innermost being. He had existed with just his thoughts. Immediately after that moment, he had thought his mother's thoughts, but that instant of utter senselessness was the foundation of his power. Turning off his other senses was the key to being a mentalist. As Jack perceived the moment, he felt his power come alive again. Yes! The memories of every time he used his power restored themselves in his mind, one by one. With half a thought, he burned away all the suggestions Jacobs had put in his mind. He laughed in his seat and wiped his face as the relief washed over him. A tiny thing was bugging him, from somewhere just beyond his notice. He was going to pull his cloak up, but he stopped and asked the dog, "How come I was still clairvoyant? Didn't reading the aether hinge on me being able to quiet my senses, too?" The dog sighed and shook his head. "Your clairvoyance is a part of you, just as your power is. Neither can be taken away from you. Non-mentalist people hallucinate upon taking hallucinogens; mentalists become one with the aether. Even if Jacobs had deleted the memory of our first meeting, you would still perceive the aether every time you partook of hallucinogens." "Well, that's good to know." Something was still bugging him, like a very faint itch he couldn't even locate, let alone scratch. He postponed pulling up his cloak and ending the vision, yet again. "So, there is no aether recording of how that asshole manipulated my mind?" "None whatsoever," the dog confirmed. "Damn." Jack thought back to the orders he could still remember Jacobs had given him. They had been so bare. When he placed thoughts into another's mind, he sent along concepts, images, feelings, the whole shebang. When Jacobs had put his orders into Jack, they had come in the form of bare text. There had been no feelings attached to them, no imagery to make them more palatable, no concepts to ease their assimilation. How does one send just bare text? Jack dwelled on that question, guessing that the answer to it was the key to understanding Jacobs' ability to cloak and attack at the same time. The irksome thing kept thrumming at the edges of his awareness, disrupting his train of thought. He growled and looked around for it. After a few moments, he spotted a small flicker in the lower right-hand corner of the film screen. Jack focused on it and it kept growing larger until it was clearly visible. It was a few strings of the aether and they were being repeatedly plucked by a mind near him. With an exertion of his will, they soon grew to cover half the screen. Just watching the strings being twanged repeatedly on the screen was telling him nothing, so he concentrated on translating the vibrations into picture and sound. An image of Jamie Jacobs' leering grin came on the screen, accompanied by Mia's voice chanting, "I am a willing slave of Master Jacobs. I have no false masters, only Him. I am a willing slave of Master Jacobs-" Jack roared in wrath. The entire theatre shook as fires broke out. The walls came tumbling down and Jack found himself back in the motel room, snarling up at Mia. Except that he wasn't snarling at her. He could practically see Jacobs' face inside her beautiful blue irises. He could hear her submissive chant in every beat of her heart. He exhaled and his breath felt like dragonfire upon his chin. The edges of his vision filled up with red as his heart beat loud in his own ears. All the burning wrath that was in him suddenly left his head and he blinked his eyes to find himself back in his seat in the theater. "What was that?" "You got so angry you couldn't remain one with the aether and then you burned away all the things Jacobs had put in Mia's mind this morning. She's free from his influence." Jack sighed with profound relief. Just as he did that, the theater began to shake violently. "Now what?!" Before the dog could answer Jack, the walls started to crumble and Jack could see Mia's tearful face through the cracks. He realized she was trying to shake him awake and he pulled his cloak around his mind to sever his connection to the aether and end the vision. He opened his eyes and saw relief wash over Mia's tearful features. She fell atop him and spread her arms around his sides. She made wordless exclamations of delight. He could feel the moisture upon her cheeks as her face pressed into the side of his neck. "It's ok," he said. "It's all going to be alright, Mia. I promise you." His voice sounded distorted and there was an echo to it. He managed to slide his arms out from under her body and returned her hug. She was bawling terribly. He began to feel a freakout coming his way. Shit, I'm still high. He decided to let her have a cry while he dropped his cloak and returned to the theater, which was again whole. All traces of his high vanished the instant he dropped his cloak. "Can Jacobs reach me in here?" he asked the dog. The dog shook his head. "Actually, no, he can't. You're one with the aether. He can't put thoughts into you while you're one with the aether. He also can't read your mind while you're here. I don't know if he can read your memories of the things you learn here, but it seems like he can't." "Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier? Like, any of the other times I became one with the aether?" "You didn't know any of those things before. I am an extension of your subconscious. My knowledge is informed by your experiences. Now that your mind has been manipulated by another-while you slept-we know a great deal more about how things really work." "Makes sense," Jack quietly said. He let go of his attempts to discern the true nature of mentalism. He had a more pressing matter to deal with. If Jacobs had really known all that Jack had learned while he had communed with the aether, he certainly wouldn't have made the mistake of leaving Jack with a way out of this mess. That meant that he was safe while in the theater. Safe to look for him. Jack focused on the face and voice of Jamie Jacobs and waited to see a movie start playing on the screen. No movie came. Jack growled in frustration. Even now that he knew Jacobs' name and face, his memories were still unavailable. "So, he's from, like, the west coast, or Alaska, or someplace." "Or New England, or Florida, or Canada, or-" "Yes, thank you," Jack said, cutting off the dog. "I guess I'll just have to get the Maynards to find this guy's home town for me, so I can go there and learn his weaknesses." As he said that, the screen showed Chrissie cheerfully handing out freshly-baked cookies to all the girls as they passed her security station at the group home and then Drew attending a serious meeting with FBI agents. Jack dismissed the films with a flick of a finger and sighed. "Wish I could find him in real time, though." The screen came alive with the broadcast of Jamie Jacobs addressing a mass of seated people in an auditorium. Jack's jaw dropped. "Is this real time?" "Yes," the dog said. "You're watching him through the eyes of a devoted follower." "How?!" "This person is...obsessed with Jacobs and desires to be with him every day of his life. Your desire to get close to the man was similar enough to their own desire to allow you to peek into their mind." "Oh, right," Jack said. He had spied on Mia in real time once, though he had had to rush to save her from getting raped back then. He had also thought he had seen the future at the time, so he never really explored the possibility of real-time snooping. Jack twirled a finger in the air to work the imaginary controls for the screen. Now that he was locked on to the mind of the obsessed fan, the movie rewound to when the follower had driven up to the venue and parked. Jack took note of the address. "I know where that is! That's right around the corner from the University campus in the city! I'm going there to end this!" Jack's mind whirled with thoughts as he rapidly formulated and rejected one plan of attack after another. He shook his head. "Ugh! While I'm sitting here on my ass, high as a kite, I'm risking him checking on Mia and finding his mantra gone from her mind. If he does that, he'll cut his show short and disappear. Then I'll be back on defense until he gets me again and there will be no third chances." Jack sighed. "I need to finish this now." He turned to the dog. "I need to get all my resources and drive to Jacobs immediately. I'll formulate a battle plan on the way over." "A good plan of action," the dog said, "but you ate a lot of cookies. You will be high after you raise your cloak." "Shit," Jack said. He looked at the screen. The image of Mia sniffling in his arms was shown on it. Jack sighed sadly. "Goddamnit. I need her to drive me over there, right now." "You do," the dog said. "I need to go pick her brain and...intervene." "You do." "Fuck." He hated himself for messing with Mia's mind, but he had very few options he could take if he was to catch Jacobs in time. He needed to go, right now. Reluctantly, he focused on Mia's emotional state. The screen showed a close up of Mia's tearful expression. "I'm so sorry," she bawled. "I don't know what came over me! I don't know why I hurt Jack! I don't know why I hit him! I don't know why I..." She reacted with revulsion. "Why I sucked that guy off and then fed his cum to Jack. I'm so, so, sorry! Please, God, forgive me! Please, God, grant me mercy! Wash away my sin! I'll pay any penance!" Jack looked at the dog. The dog raised his paws apologetically and said, "Hey, don't look at me! You're the one that erased everything that asshole put in her head in a flash of anger. She can remember what she had done, she just can't remember the why. So, she filled in the blanks with it all being her fault for having sinned. Her head's messed up that way, you know that." Before Jack could formulate the best thoughts to put into Mia's head to get her to calm down and be helpful, he frowned. "Wait a minute. I can't put thoughts into her mind while I'm one with the aether, can I?" The dog shook his head. "Being one with the aether is, to use computer parlance, a read-only thing." "Well, fuck," Jack said, realizing his predicament. "I'm high as a kite and I'm gonna be high as a kite, for quite some time. If I raise my cloak to end the vision, I can't influence her mind. Not with my cloak up. If I drop my cloak to go writing in her mind, I wind up here, with you, instead." Jack raised his arms. "How the fuck am I supposed to go get Jacobs before he slips away?" "You could try to get really, really angry again," the dog suggested, half-jokingly. Jack shot him a look. "I don't think I'll ever again be as angry as that." "You have two options. You can either hang here with me until the hallucinogens you've ingested are used up by your power, or you can raise your cloak to end this vision and try to somehow get into Mia's mind, despite being high and cloaked." "I don't have the time for option one and option two is impossible." Jack punched his fists against the armrests of his seat. "There has to be something I can do!" A Loner Mentalist Pt. 06 "Of the hundred or so mentalists that have lived within range of your aether vision and whose memories you have access to, no one had ever come across anything relevant to your situation. Not one of those mentalists had ever even tried drugs, believe it or not. They had either thought that would have robbed them of their abilities, or turn them evil, or some such." "Well, fuck their stupid asses! Look at comic books and fantasy literature! Find me a kid somewhere in range who's dwelling on a similar situation and dreaming up a solution!" The screen came alive with a montage of various superheroes and how they dealt with similar problems in their fictional universes. None of their problems or solutions really applied to Jack's circumstances, but, as he analyzed and rejected each and every example, he did wind up whittling down an idea of his own. He pulled up his cloak and found himself sitting against the bed, with Mia's warm, naked body still wrapped in his firm embrace. He shushed and cooed at her to get her to calm down as he reached for the bag of weed cookies. "It's alright, Mia. It's all going to be ok." He let go of her to put a finger under her chin and get her to look him in the eyes. "Trust me, baby. Everything's going to be a-okay." His voice sounded to him like it was being piped in through really crappy speakers. Her face scrunched up and she moaned out a breathless, "Sorry," before continuing to bawl miserably. Jack fought against the dark feelings her misery was evoking in his altered state of consciousness. He pulled a cookie out of the bag and held it up for her to see. It seemed to be right in front of his nose, even though he was holding it at arm's length. "Mia, if you want to pay penance, you must start to do so, right now." Mia's hitched crying started to lose its strength and volume as she opened her eyes and looked at the cookie. "Do you know how the Catholics have a ritual where they drink the blood of Christ and eat of his body and such?" Mia's brow furrowed as she looked him in the eye. She blinked away her tears and sniffed her nose before shaking her head no. "Well, they do. It's called Communion. We're going to do a similar thing. If you want to start atoning for your sins, you are going to very slowly eat this cookie. You are to feel it on your tongue first. The texture of it. Then you are to bite off a chunk of it and taste the chocolate chips inside of it. You are to slowly chew on the cookie and dwell on its taste and texture." He felt so wise for knowing all this. He felt like he had it all covered. "I don't...understand," she gasped between sobs. "First atonement, then forgiveness, then understanding." Jack held the cookie to her lips, which looked like they were covered in cherry blossoms. Fuck, I'm high. She looked at him with incomprehension as she fought back her sobs. Finally, she took the cookie into her own hand. Jack drew a deep breath. He focused and fought back against the high. He needed to gather all his mental might for this little experiment. He recalled the way the cookies had felt against his tongue. He remembered their taste and made it come alive in his mouth yet again. He could feel the soft specks of chocolate again. As he dwelled on those memories, he could feel their shapes. He picked at similarly shaped strands of his anti-aether cloak until he made holes in it. His mind remained mostly cloaked, but he now felt himself able to look outside for anyone else thinking those exact same thoughts that he had cut into the cloak. He looked into Mia's eyes as she brought the cookie to her mouth and bit into it. Her thoughts of how the cookie tasted went right through the hole in his cloak, settling in his own mind. They were stilted and flickered in and out of his perception as her experience of eating the cookies differed from his, but he felt them all the same. Yes! I can read minds while cloaked! This new method of reading minds was all but identical to the one without the cloak. He still had to become one with the other person, but now he only had to match the one specific thought he was looking for. Unless another mentalist happened to be thinking the exact same thought at the exact same time, he would be protected from other mentalists, while he read minds. This way requires more concentration, but less power. His beaming smile made her brow scrunch up in confusion, but she sniffed her nose and took another bite of the cookie. Jack tried to root around her mind, but his cloak didn't allow him to. He imagined her guilt and unraveled another tiny rip in his cloak, just big enough for that feeling to come through. He felt her guilt and the taste of the cookie at the same time. He tried to read the rest of her mind, but he could only get the briefest of glimpses before his own cloak stopped him. The holes kept closing on their own, as soon as he stopped focusing on maintaining them. Well, at least I won't have to worry about leaving them open and getting owned by anyone. They're self-sealing. He took another cookie from the bag and handed it to Mia. She obediently took it and bit into it. Her watery eyes were searching his, looking for a sign of forgiveness, or a simple connection, Jack didn't know. Her eyes started changing color as rivers of sludge began to flow from them. Jack frowned and refocused his mental energy, fighting back the hallucinations. He kept his guilt-shaped and cookie-shaped holes in his cloak and looked out of them again. He felt her corresponding emotions and tried to explore beyond them. He could again catch only the briefest of glimpses of other thoughts and fears that were consuming her. He tried to alter the holes in his cloak to allow for those thoughts to come into his own mind more clearly, but he wasn't fast enough to do so on the fly. He fought back the sensation of flying. He made himself feel that everything is alright and that everything will be fine, if he just obeyed Jack's commands. He made another hole in his cloak, shaped like those beliefs. He projected his power out of that hole and into Mia's mind. Stars flew in through the windows, trailing brightly colored rainbows behind them and his vision became sluggish as he tried to trail the stars with his eyes. Mia was calming down in his arms, her hitched breathing quickly becoming even and strong. "Get dressed and drive me home as quick as you can!" Mia propped herself up on her arms and nodded. Jack tried to blink his vision clear. Mia's long, dark hair was floating around weightlessly and her big breasts seemed to elongate and soften as they floated in front of her chest. He dropped his cloak and found himself in the movie theater again. "Fuck, that was trippy," he exclaimed as his high once again disappeared. "Quite," the dog said. "Ok, I need to focus! I have to get dressed, get the dogs, get Mia to drive me to the city and kill Jacobs. Right?" The dog nodded. Jack thought again of how much he would love to be near Jacobs and the screen showed him leading his flock in chants and prayers. The blond-haired man touched a woman who suddenly stood up from her wheelchair and exclaimed joyfully that she was healed. Jack dismissed the film and pulled up his cloak. Getting dressed while high proved to be quite a chore and he was very grateful for Mia's help. He did his best to explain to her that she needed to drive him into the city after picking up his dogs at home. His voice sounded distorted, like he had been turned into a cartoon, but she nodded along with his instructions and even repeated them back at him, when he asked her if she had understood him. The car was parked right in front of the room, so he managed to walk to it without much difficulty, but the seat kept sliding out of the way as he tried to get in. Finally, he gave up and sat in the back. The rear seats welcomed him with a cheerful sigh. The car began moving. To Jack, it seemed like they were moving sideways. He dropped his cloak to return to the theater. "Fuck, I'm high!" "Quite," the dog said. "I didn't overdose, or anything?" "Of course not! You'll be right as rain in time to fight Jacobs. Just stay here with me for about half the drive to the city." "Ok," Jack said. He checked again on Jacobs. The man looked to be positively beaming with joy as the mass of people chanted his name. The theater shuddered and Jack dismissed the movie to pull up his cloak. Mia was shaking him by the shoulder. He looked around. They were parked in front of his house. "Jack! You said to get your dogs, but they're not listening to me!" Jack unraveled holes in his cloak, in the shape of commands, and projected his power through them. Spot, Porthos, Aramis and Athos came running. Jack changed seats and let the dogs take the back. The passenger seat started to sink down below the ground, but his hands grew extremely long at the same time and he had little difficulty with inputting the address of their destination into the onboard navigation system. "Drive us there like the hounds of Hell were after us, Mia!" His voice sounded like the chirping of birds. "Seriously, drive as fast as-" He gasped at the smell of hair burning behind him. He turned around to see four hellhounds growling as brimstone clung to their flaming fur. His cloak dropped and he found himself in the theater again. He shook off the sudden fright and his faculties quickly restored themselves. "I am never eating any more pot! Not ever!" The dog grinned, but made no comment. Jack checked on Jacobs and saw him still preaching to the crowd. The rabid fan whose eyes Jack was seeing through was trying to get up on stage to be with the object of his worship, but some guards stopped him. Jack grunted in disappointment at seeing their nondescript suits. If Alpha had been doing security for Jacobs, he would have had an ace in the hole. He briefly considered calling in the many favors he had been promised by the guys, but dismissed the idea. He was heading to the city to end a life. A mass murderer's life, but a life, none the less. It was not something to involve other people in. "And then what?" the dog asked, referring to killing Jacobs. "After I kill Jacobs, I'll enjoy the tremendous weight falling off my shoulders and finally be free of the fear that's been hounding me for too long now. Then I'll be able to go traveling with Mia and see the world. After I set her straight about what's happened this morning. And after I heal the minds of the mentalists that...haven't..." Jack trailed off as he considered exactly how he would accomplish that task. He wanted to restore those people's sanities, but it was dawning on him that it would be much easier said than done. "He erased some of their memories, too, didn't he?" "Yes. Jacobs erased memories of the first time they had used their powers and also an unknown quantity of other memories that robbed them of their sanities and their wills to live." Jack realized he would be unable to restore those people's minds unless he could read Jacobs' mind to see the exact damage he had done to them. The first time they had used their powers would be an easy memory to find and restore-it would surely stick out in their aether footprint-but he had no intention of restoring supernatural powers to a bunch of crazy and suicidal people. It would be the equivalent of handing a live nuke to a suicide bomber. He needed to first restore their minds and only then decide if he was going to restore their powers. His recent walk down memory lane had illustrated to him just how difficult it would be to find the missing memories. The mentalists' aether footprints and the memories they have in their minds in the present would differ in many ways. It would be impossible for Jack to spot which discrepancies were the result of Jacobs' intervention and which were just the results of revisions and the passage of time. "Ah, fuuuuck..." He raised his hands to his head as his mouth opened wide. "Sadly, you need to take him alive," the cartoon dog said. Jack wiped his face in frustration. He wanted to kill Jacobs. It wasn't just his sense of duty telling him to rid the world of this monster, he genuinely wanted to stand triumphant over the man's mangled body as the light went out of his eyes for good. He wanted to see Jacobs' blood spilled on the ground and smell its coppery tang in the air as he whooped in joy over the kill. He had never thought he'd feel that way about another human being, but here it was. He desired that man's death more than anything in the world at that moment. As far as Jack was concerned, the moment Jacobs had taken over Mia's mind, he had signed his own death warrant. And for the crime of taking Jack's power, the execution had to be painful and protracted. "Fuck," he groaned out loud again. He shook his head. "I can't do that. I can't take him alive. I can kill him. I will kill him. But I can't take him alive." "If you kill him, how will you restore the minds of those other mentalists?" Jack sighed bitterly. "I don't know how! And I don't care! Where's it written that I have to be the one to bail them out of trouble I didn't get them in?!" Jack slammed his fists on the armrests. "I can't do it." He shook his head. His voice was barely a whisper as he said, "I'd love to take him alive, but I can't do it, dog. I really can't." The dog stood atop the seat directly in front of Jack's and regarded him sadly. "Don't look at me like that! Tell me how I'm supposed to do it! Tell me how I'm supposed to beat him in a mind-against-mind battle! He's got a lifetime of experience with his cloak and making tiny holes in it and shit and I'm...I'm..." He chuckled bitterly. "He's right! I'm just a phony, compared to him. My cloak is just a copy of his shield. The holes I've started ripping in it are an idea I've cribbed off his intrusion into my mind." He tapped his forehead as if he had just remembered something. "And, oh, yeah! He had literally been inside my head, dog! Literally! How the fuck am I supposed to compete with that?!" The dog made no reply. His snout hung low as he regarded the floor of the theater. On the screen behind him an image slowly came to be. A camera panned over a beautiful meadow, bathed in sunlight and covered in all kinds of flowers. It panned over to a big pile of brown leaves. Jack frowned. A gust of wind suddenly swept the leaves away, revealing a familiar gravestone. The marker bore the name of Jack White. Jack's face lowered and he glared at the floor between his feet. "I'd love to be able to defeat that monster," he quietly said. "I'd love to slice through his defenses, see all the damage he had ever done and undo it. I would." He shook his head. "But I can't do it. If I don't kill him before the next time I fall asleep, I'm doomed. Worse than dead. It's either him or me and Mia and everybody else he's going to drive to suicide in the future." He looked up at the dog. "He's not going to stop. Not until he's dead. You know that." The dog kept giving him the same, sad look. "This is just like war, dog. You can't abandon your post to help a fallen comrade if it means the enemy wins because of it. Sometimes, a man just has to stand his ground and finish the job, no matter the cost." The dog was as silent as the grave of the lieutenant that had died young to save Jack's father and eight other shipmates. Jack blinked back tears and sighed. "Fine. I'll try." "Do, or do not! There is no try." The dog's rendition of Yoda broke the tension and Jack laughed, letting go of his nervousness. He sat up straight in his seat. "I guess I'll just have to have my dogs take tiny bites out of the man until he caves in and drops his shield to let me run rampant in his mind. But if he doesn't..." Jack bit his lower lip and shook his head. "Then he's dead." The dog nodded solemnly. "I can feel my high running out. Let's check on Jacobs one last time." As Jack let himself feel the great desire to be near the faith healer, the picture on the screen shifted to show the auditorium slowly filing out. Jacobs was walking off the stage and one of his security men was keeping the fan from following him. "Oh, fuck! His show's over! He must have reached for Mia's mind and felt nothing. He's going to run!" The cartoon dog showed a collection of huge teeth as he snarled at Jacobs' retreating figure on the screen. Jack's high ran out and he found himself sitting in the passenger seat of his SUV. He pulled his cloak around his mind. He swallowed against the dryness in his throat and his ears crackled to allow him to hear the roar of the engine. He looked out and flinched when he saw the breakneck speed Mia was driving at. The SUV leaned to one side and then the other as it weaved between two cars she overtook. Jack's insides nearly switched places as his arms shot out to brace him against the violent motions. "Nice to see you awake at last," Mia said. She sounded cheerful as she floored it past a semi. Jack glanced at the speedometer and nearly whistled in admiration. She got the big car to do a hundred and thirty. "Yeah, it's, uh, it's good to be awake." Mia took her foot off the gas and the car started to slow down. "Why are you slowing down?" "I'd love to race through the city, but there are too many idiots on the streets." Jack finally allowed himself to look out the windscreen and into the distance. Just half a mile ahead of them, the city began in earnest. Jack checked the navigation and saw that they were less than ten minutes away from their destination. If they obeyed the speed limit. "Floor it, Mia! I need to be there three minutes ago!" Mia huffed audibly, but tailgated the station wagon ahead of them. Jack wiped his palms against his thighs and drew a deep, calming breath. Chills were running up his spine and he didn't know which he feared more: finding Jacobs gone, or finding Jacobs. He squirmed out of the grip of fear and set about getting ready to fight Jacobs. He kept his cloak tightly pulled around his mind and opened up tiny holes to allow himself to feel the dogs' minds. As he did that, their blind devotion to him flooded through and filled his heart with courage and hope. They adored him like a god that stood over them. He had felt it every single time he had used his power on their minds, but at that moment, it struck him like a flash flood, washing away his fears and doubts. He felt mighty, loved and worshipped. He felt like he could take on an army of Jacobs' clones and win, power or no power. Mia drove them to the venue's crowded parking lot. "Don't go in yet! Circle the place, slowly!" She shot him a confused look, but then nodded and drove around the block. Jack modified the carefully shaped holes in his cloak and gave orders to his dogs. Despite being four different breeds of dog, they acted with one mind under his direction. He let one dog out on each corner of the block with orders to search for Jacobs. They each had his scent and image in mind from when they had found him spying on the Latina. He felt them search for the man's scent as Mia drove back around to the front and parked. The parking lot was rapidly emptying and Jack could only pray they weren't too late. He got out of the car and leaned back in. "Wait here! Keep the car running!" Mia nodded and he left to find his nemesis. The people had practically emptied the hall by now and the last of them were getting in their cars, or walking off down the street. Jack scanned them with a glare, searching for his target, but finding no one who even remotely resembled the short, blond-haired man. His dogs reported no luck, either. The sheer number of scents they were hit with was making their search very difficult. Jacobs had some goons doing security, so Jack hesitated going indoors. There might be a wholly mundane trap waiting for him inside. He stood in front of the hall's big, open doors and forced himself to think. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 06 He thought of being ordered to stay and look out for himself and made holes in his cloak in the exact shape of those orders. He listened to hear a mind think of them. The thoughts came. They were broken telegrams at first, but he altered the holes in his cloak until he could receive them in full. There were four goons waiting to back up their boss when Jack came. Back him up?! Jack chuckled mirthlessly. The blonde bastard's actually waiting for me! He carefully modified the holes until he managed to receive the words "dumpster" and "alley" through them. He closed up those holes and sent his dogs the order to locate the back alley that had the dumpsters in them. He made a new hole, waited, and soon received the location through it. He sent his dogs the order to sneak in and investigate. He heaved a deep breath and stepped into the hall. The auditorium was exactly as he had seen it through Jacobs' fan's eyes and he hurried past the rows of stained seats towards the stage. He scrambled up on stage and ran through the side exit to reach the backstage area. He proceeded carefully from there until his dogs reported finding all four of Jacobs' goons in the alley, crouched behind dumpsters. The monster himself was standing still and calm in the middle of the alley. Jack deployed one of his dogs to each of the goons, still under the strictest of orders to remain hidden, but ready to attack at a moments' notice. He strode through the empty backstage area and came out the alley door. The wide alley was covered in loose litter and the dumpsters lining its walls provided ample cover. On either end of the alley was a corner, so no one from the streets could see, or hear, anything going on in this middle stretch of it. Jacobs was standing just twenty feet away from him. His arms were folded across his chest and a smirk uglied his features. "Did you think I'd run? From a phony like you? I'm the original, you thieving, punk-ass bitch!" Jack squared off with the man. He knew two of the goons were behind him, but he had them all covered. "It doesn't have to be like this, Jamie." Jacobs looked nonplussed. "It doesn't?" He cocked his head at Jack as his brow wrinkled. "No." Jack knew the man wasn't going to listen to reason, but he went through the motions anyway. "You don't have to persecute others like you. The-" "There are no others like me," Jacobs roared. He pounded his chest with each following statement. "I am the original. I am the special one. The only one! You are all just fakes, stealing my gift by..." Jacobs faltered and his chin shook for a moment. He composed himself quickly. "You are all insignificant, thieving little gnats that I am going to squash under my feet." "That's not true and you know it. You've hurt and killed mentalists that had their powers since long before you were even born, so drop this-" "Fuck you, asshole," Jacobs roared, pointing a threatening finger at Jack. For a moment, Jack thought that was the signal for his goons to attack, but the dogs sent him no warning. The goons were still crouched in their hiding places. "I don't answer to the little people! I am great! I am mighty! I..." Jacobs seemed to swallow back his next words. "Drop your shield and let me in your mind," Jack calmly said. Jacobs gaped at him. "What?!" "After I see the exact memories you had taken from the mentalists that are still alive, I will take your power from you and spare you. You will be free to live your life as you wish, but I will make you unwilling to harm others, ever again." Jacobs stood staring at Jack in disbelief for a pregnant moment. He laughed briefly and then went back to his smirk. "You take my power, you take my shield, you take my know-how and you would take my freedom. But, have you taken my pain?" "Let me into your mind and I'll ease any pain you feel." "Fuck you! You don't know pain. If you had gone through what I had gone through, you'd know that I! Am! The! Original! I'm the special One! It was my...my soul that they..." Again, Jacobs faltered. Jack searched the man's eyes. They seemed to be unseeing, looking right through Jack at something that was miles, or years, away. Then Jacobs reached up and started smoothing back his gelled hair, over and over again. The haunted look slowly vanished to be replaced by one of pure madness. Jacobs sneered as his crazy-eyed gaze focused on Jack. "You must all be purged. No mercy." Jack closed his eyes for a moment and searched for patience. He had none. His dogs had none to give him, either. They were eager to get on with the bloodshed. His lips tightened as he nodded to himself. He looked Jacobs right between the eyes. "Yup. Knew this wouldn't be settled with logic." He sent his dogs the order and moved. The twenty feet vanished in a second and Jack's open hand struck out at Jacobs' surprised face. The heel of his hand connected with the blonde's jaw and sent him tumbling backwards. The goons reacted as soon as Jack moved, but the dogs had started first and dragged them down, chewing on their gun hands as they shrieked in pain and panic. Jack kicked Jacobs in the gut with all his might. The short man was lying prone and he doubled over as he tried to clutch at Jack's foot like a boxer trying to hang on to his opponent to stop the rain of blows. Jack knelt down and grabbed Jacobs' greasy blonde hair in his left hand. He lifted the man's face and cocked his arm. He smashed the heel of his right hand down on Jacobs' nose. A wisp of the man's hair stayed in Jack's grip even as his head was slammed down against the tarmac. His nose was smashed in and spurting blood. His scalp broke out in red, angry dots, too. Jack stood up again and kicked Jacobs in the side this time. He felt ribs cave under his strike. His dogs had disarmed the goons by now and had them lying prone on the floor of the alley. Their teeth were on their throats, ready to kill at a moment's notice. Jack guessed that the men were probably Jacobs' mind-controlled slaves. He had every intention of freeing them, but he couldn't spare the effort to examine their minds and set them free while Jacobs still drew breath and had power. He'd just undo it in a heartbeat. Consequently, Jack had ordered the dogs to kill if necessary. Jack shook his left hand over Jacobs' face to dislodge the oily hairs that were clinging between his fingers. "You're not much good when it comes to actual fighting, are you?" Jacobs spat his blood on himself in reply. "You're not much good, period." Jacobs' head lolled around as blood still poured out of his nose. Jack made another small hole in his cloak. It was in the shape of the sight of him towering over someone. He watched through it to see if Jacobs' shield was down. It wasn't. "Look at me, Jacobs!" Jacobs was still insensate on the ground. Jack stepped on the man's hand. Jacobs groaned in pain as his body stiffened, but he could do nothing to stop Jack. "Look at me!" Jacobs suddenly came alive again and glared up at Jack's face. His own, smashed face was now a terrible rictus of hatred. Still, Jack received no image of himself from the man's mind. "Lower your shield!" "Fuck you!" Jack lifted his foot off the man's hand. Jacobs immediately pulled it up to his chest and nursed it with his other one. "You will drop your shield, Jacobs." Jacobs tried to snarl, but his bleeding lip stopped him. "Never," he roared with a nasal voice. "I'd rather die than ever submit to a thieving phony again!" "You'll drop your shield," Jack said with finality. He smiled down at Jacobs. "And you'll do it soon. My dogs will be taking tiny, but painful, bites out of you until you do, but that's not why you'll drop your shield. You'll drop it because I'll drop mine at the same time and the two of us will go toe-to-toe in the only way that matters. Mind against mind. Nothing but our imaginations and willpowers pitted against one another. Winner takes all. If I win, I take your power, undo the damage you had done and change you into someone that doesn't hunt extraordinary people for sport. And if you win...well, you alone know what happens then." Jack spread his hands. "What'll it be, Jamie? How much of you will my dogs have to chew off before you man up and meet me on the mental battlefield? Surely the original should have no trouble dealing with a phony?" Jacobs closed his eyes and seemed to be concentrating. Jack's heart skipped a beat as he realized the moment of truth was coming. Their minds were going to clash. He was a bit surprizes to learn that he was no longer afraid. His dogs were with him and their minds were open to his. They filled him with their staunch faith and devotion. Their predatory instincts cleared his mind of all distracting thoughts. Jacobs' goons could not provide their master with such succor. When Jacobs lowered his shield, he was going to get slammed by five predatory minds at once and Jack was going to make him his bitch. Jack kept his emotions in check and focused on overpowering the man's mind. He looked through the tiny hole in his cloak for the sight of himself which would let him know the shield was down. Two sharp pops suddenly rang out and Jacobs' brains exploded across the floor of the alley, away from Jack's shoes. The dogs followed their orders and ripped the men's throats open in the very next instant. Aramis also pounced on the left arm of his man. Quiet gurgling noises came from all four of the goons as they were drowning in their own blood. Jack stood stone still and stared at the bloody mess at his feet with incomprehension. He blinked a few times and sealed up his cloak tight to make sure Jacobs hadn't snuck a trick in. The splattered brains were still there. Jacobs' eyes were closed, but Jack could see in his slack face that he was truly gone. Jack watched the blood come out of the gaping hole in the side of the man's head. It flowed away from Jack and towards a storm drain just two feet away from Jacobs' head. Its course took it away at an angle from the gray and pink splatter and it formed a slow, red river of its own. Aramis' confused whine brought Jack out of his state of shock. He finally realized he was standing next to a bloody corpse and he stepped back to notice blood coming out of the entry wound, too. His retreat had kept the oozing blood from getting on his shoes. The four goons were dead. Their pale faces bore expressions of regret and fear. Jack could smell the coppery tang of blood and it made him retch. He bit back the bile and forced deep, slow breaths through his nose. I never wanted this. When he got his stomach under control, he straightened up and looked back in the direction of Aramis. The goon he had been covering had fired the shots that killed Jacobs. Jack walked over to the man and saw his left hand had been bitten off. A tiny pistol was still clutched by the lifeless fingers. The gun looked like something a saloon madam from an old-timey western would hide in her garter. The goon's right wrist had bloody gouges on it from Aramis disarming him. Taking care not to get any of the dead man's pooling blood on himself, Jack crouched lower to take a better look. The gun had been propelled out of the man's sleeve by a concealed spring mechanism and the man had quickly fired both shots from it. Jack felt queasy again, only this time it was at the realization that he could have been killed just as easy as that. One flick of a downed enemy's wrist, a squeeze of the finger, and no more Jack. His breath seemed gone from his lungs as icy fingers tickled down his ribs to grip his bladder and bowels. He stared at the tiny pistol with unseeing eyes. I will never, ever run headlong into a fight again. Mindful of the large radius bloodstain, Jack stepped around to the other side of his would-be assassin's corpse and crouched to look down his extended arm. Aramis had bitten the man's hand clean off, but left it in place, at the end of the arm. Both arm and hand pointed at Jacobs' head. Jack frowned. From the man's position, he should have aimed several inches to the left and raised his hand by almost a foot to blow Jack's brains out. Even with a dog's jaws pressing against his throat, the man had badly missed his shot. Jack stood up and moved back towards Jacobs. As he did that, he could see the dead shooter's eyes were also locked on to Jacobs' head. Jack felt a shudder run deep through his innards. Goose bumps ran down his skin. Jacobs' last action in this world had been to slide into the mind of the dead goon to make him shoot. As Jack looked from Jacobs' splattered brains to the goon's bitten off hand and the dead eyes fixed on his late master, he realized the shot had been aimed for Jacobs. "Holy fuck!" He stood up and gulped air. His dogs stopped licking the blood off their snouts to look up at him. He could have killed me, but he chose to commit suicide instead. He couldn't even begin to fathom why. A gust of wind swirled some crushed papers and made them land atop the pools of congealing blood, where they quickly soaked up the red. He needed to get out of there. Jack barely managed to open the backstage door with trembling fingers and his shaking legs left the alley behind him. The dogs whined as they followed him in. Jack looked them over. They seemed to be upset by the bloody paw prints they were leaving behind themselves with each step. There was blood on their paws, snouts and necks. Jack sighed and looked up. There was no one around, so he led the dogs to a dressing room and ran the water in its ensuite bathroom's tub. On Jack's orders, the dogs obediently stood still to be washed and suppressed their instincts to spray forensic evidence everywhere. Jack washed them as best he could and then spent a lot of time drying them. He could feel how unnatural and uncomfortable it was for them to remain damp when they could just shake the fluids off their fur, but they obeyed his ban, nonetheless. Jack grabbed some blankets and old coats he found in the dressing room and led the dogs to the car. There was still no one around and Jack guessed that Jacobs had cleared the theater on purpose, to be able to face off with him. Mia was nervously pacing next to the car and she jumped in the driver's seat as soon as she saw them coming. Jack put the blankets and coats down on his back seat and had the dogs get in and sit still on them. He went around to the driver's side of the car. "Ok, baby, let me drive," he said to Mia. Mia slid over and let him get behind the wheel. "Well," she said in a trembling, nervous voice, "did we get here on time? What happened in there?" Jack sighed heavily. He knew she was still thinking of doing some kind of penance and that was the source of her trepidation. He also knew she was still confused by her actions earlier in the day. He decided she deserved to know the truth. She had already suffered at the hands of an evil mentalist and being kept in the dark would protect her in absolutely no way. "We need to talk." She sniffed and muttered out a tearful, "I'm so sorry." Jack gasped and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "No! No, Mia, it's not like that! I'm not angry with you, or anything. I swear! I just need to tell you some things...and it would be best if we had some privacy, ok?" She nodded, but kept weeping quietly. "Damn it," Jack muttered and put the car in gear. As much as he wanted to talk to her and give her comfort, they were parked in front of a crime scene and they needed to get away before the hall's staff came back and saw the corpses when they took out the trash. He drove past the nearby University campus and up the hill. The house they were going to live in was just minutes away and would be a private place to discuss things. He was almost there when he remembered the place would most likely be crawling with construction workers since he had blackmailed the owner into quickly fixing it up for free. He turned the car towards the freeway exit. "Fuck," he whispered as he considered other options. They were few, since the city wasn't his stomping ground. There was a necking spot in a nearby park that the students had told him about, back when he had visited the University, but that was out in the open and it was only supposed to be private after dark, anyway. He scanned the streets and spotted nothing of use. He got onto the freeway and drove until he reached the first rest stop. He pulled in and parked. "Mia..." He had no idea how he was going to tell her the truth, but he had to. He decided to start by addressing the pressing issue; the events of this morning. "About what happened back at the motel-" "I'm sorry," she bawled. "I'm so, so sorry, Jack! I'd never..." "No, no, Mia! It's not your fault!" "Yes it is! It's all my fault! I've sinned and the Devil has gotten into me! I'm damned!" "Mia!" She wailed and didn't heed his call. "Mia! It wasn't the Devil from the Bible that had gotten into you." She stopped wailing and regarded him through watery eyes as her breathing hitched. "It was a very, very evil man with supernatural powers." Mia's face scrunched up and she shook her head no as she resumed her wailing. "Mia, I'm telling you the truth. Nothing you did this morning was your fault." She was weeping inconsolably. He bit his lip as he looked up to the heavens. Clouds covered the sky with a broken canopy, keeping the sun from turning the day into a complete scorcher. God, help me! "Mia...I'm a man that has supernatural powers. I'm not the one that made you did those things this morning, but..." He trailed off when he realized she wasn't paying any attention to his confession. He sighed heavily and imagined feeling shame at his sin and the weight of it making him cry. He cut such holes into his cloak and projected his power into Mia's mind through them. His mind resonated with hers, through the shared guilt, and he pictured himself being completely naked and unable to feel any clothing on his skin. He made the corresponding holes in his cloak and his thoughts took root in her mind. Mia suddenly gasped and clutched at her t-shirt over her tits. She crossed her legs as if to hide her bare pussy and bent forward as she stared at passing traffic with wide eyes. "Where are my clothes!?" "They're still on you," Jack said. "I just used my power to make you think you're naked." She kept squirming in her seat, trying to keep hidden from the eyes of everyone that was passing the car. "Jack! I'm naked! In public! People might see! Do something!" "Only after you acknowledge that I have supernatural powers." She looked him in the eye and her face had an expression like she just realized he was sitting there. "What did you do? Oh, my God! You are a witch! I knew it! I totally knew it!" Jack was somewhat glad to hear her words, as they indicated he was getting through to her. Then she said, "That's why the Devil has me! I've sinned with a witch! I'm damned beyond salvation!" Jack facepalmed. "Oh, for fuck's sake..." He cleared his throat, drew a deep breath and beat back his frustration. He didn't want to have this conversation with her, but his guilt at having allowed her to be enslaved pushed him along. He looked deep into her bloodshot, watery eyes as he searched for the right words. She licked her lips repeatedly. He gasped when he finally recognized the telltale signs of pot use. Oh, fuck, I had her eat the cookies so I could test my cloak-holes! He groaned. "The Devil is coming for me! The Devil is coming for me!" He realized she was both high and having a bad trip. As she shivered in fear, he removed his suggestion from her mind. She looked down at herself and gasped. After a brief giggle, she repeatedly smoothed down her T-shirt, as if she was hugging a long-lost friend. Jack imagined himself feeling his hands running down his T-shirt and made the corresponding holes in his cloak. He felt Mia's thoughts through them and did his best to feel the rest of her mind. He failed again. He simply couldn't reshape his holes on the fly fast enough to follow her changing thoughts. The brief glimpses he got told him she was definitely going to freak out as soon as she got over the delight of not being naked in public. He imagined himself feeling profoundly safe and unable to think of anything that made him afraid. He made the appropriate holes in his cloak. After projecting his power through them, Mia calmed down. He put the car in gear and drove back to Springfield. Her high should expire by the time we get there. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 06 Mia sat back in her seat and giggled softly as she stared out the window at the landscape the freeway passed through. Jack parked in front of his house. It was Tuesday afternoon and Janice was still at work. He took his dogs out back and attached the hose to the top of the fence. He turned it on and let them wash themselves properly. He came back to the car to find Mia missing. He panicked and cast frantic looks up and down the street. "Hey," her voice came from behind him. He turned to see her standing on the front porch. She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. "Coffee's on. Wanna come inside and explain things?" He heaved a big breath of relief and nodded. She went in. He waited a few moments for his heart to stop trying to smash its way out of his ribcage, then he grabbed the coats and blankets from the back seat and stuffed them in the metal trash can. He was going to burn those later. He went inside. Mia was seated at the kitchen table with a pair of steaming mugs in front of her. Jack sat down and drew one of the mugs to himself. She took the other and brought it close to her mouth. Jack weighed the warm ceramic in his grasp and found himself glad for the strong smell of coffee. It would be a point of commonality he could use to slide into her mind more easily and intervene if she freaked out. He blew on it, took a sip when she did, and winced as it almost burned his mouth. It was very strong. She set her mug down and cleared her throat nervously. Her eyes darted between his face and everywhere else in the room. She shifted in her seat and opened her mouth a few times before saying, "So...these supernatural powers..." Jack simply didn't know what to say. His power had been the focus of his life, ever since he had first felt it, yet he didn't know how to tell the story of it. She was staring at him anxiously, and he couldn't keep her in the dark anymore. The words just came rattling off his tongue. "I can read minds and influence them, too. There was this other guy that could do the same thing, only better, and he, uh, he didn't like the fact that there were others who could do the same things he could, so he, uh, he came here and messed with our heads. He made you...do the things you did this morning and he made me unable to use my power to fight him. I recovered and undid the stuff he had put in your head and then we drove to the place today and he, uh, he chose to commit suicide rather than face justice for what he had done." He cleared his throat and took another sip of his coffee. It was still scalding hot. Mia stared at him with an expression that slowly changed from anxious to a combination of incredulous and offended. "That...that's bullshit! Mind reading? Do you honestly think I'm dumb enough to fall for that? You're a witch. A boy witch and...I can't even begin to imagine what you're up to, but this story with mind reading is complete bullshit and I'm not falling for it." Jack blushed even before he began to speak. "The band I took you to see...you, uh, you've had many sexual fantasies about being taken backstage and blowing the singer. Then their road manager would film you doing that and use the recording to blackmail you into staying with the band, or he'd send a copy of the film to anyone that you ever came into contact with. Then the band would use you as...well, for lack of a better expression, a cum dumpster, and if you were a good enough lay, you'd be rewarded by one-on-one sessions with the singer." Mia's face lost all color as her eyes bugged out in shock. "You also had some sexual fantasies about Justin Bieber and whipped cream that I've been trying to forget ever since I learned of them." Mia's face suddenly turned beet red and her mouth fell open. Jack frowned. "The one thing I don't get is when you fantasized about Lisa spanking you in the locker room at school, you imagined her blackmailing you into being her sex slave by threatening to tell the whole school you were a dyke. How would that work, exactly? Wouldn't that make her a dyke in the eyes of the whole school, too?" Mia exploded out of her seat. Her hands shot up to grasp her hair, as if she was trying to literally keep her head on her shoulders. "Oh, my God! You are a mind reader!" Jack winced at how loudly she yelled that out and gave a small, apologetic smile. "Yeah, sorry." "Oh, my God!" She paced back and forth, hyperventilating. "Oh, my God! And you've...you've read my...oh, my God!" "So sorry about that. I didn't mean to. It was an accident, I swear!" "An accident!?" She stopped pacing and rounded on him. "An accident?! How was reading my...how was that an accident?!" "Well, it was the day after I had saved you from getting raped by Ramon in the woods and you started accusing me of being a witch." She barked a mirthless laugh. "Then you came out of school all cool and saying you were sorry. Your mind changed on a dime and I just needed to take a small look to see what was going on in your head." Now Jack turned beet red. "It just so happened that...at that precise moment, you were, uh...touching yourself and..." He shrugged with an apologetic grimace on his face. She sat down heavily, put her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. Her breathing was irregular and he could see a thin, wet trail running down her cheek. "You're a fucking monster," she said in a small voice. She lowered her hands and shot him a look. "How could you do that to me? How could you violate me like that? What have I ever done to you?!" Jack's brow drew down as his fists clenched. Her mouth opened, doubtlessly to deliver a tirade, but he cut her off. "Are you kidding me?! You had me kidnapped and stuffed into the trunk of a car, you bitch, and you dare take that tone of voice with me?!" Mia's righteous indignation vanished in an instant to be replaced by shame. Jack's wrath lessened at the sight, but not completely. "For your information, I could only really use my power on dogs before you had done that. It was in that dark, bouncing trunk that my power started to work on people in earnest. It had to. I was so fucking scared that you'd kill me, or rape me, or worse, that I truly gained control of my power. So, if you want to know how I could use my power to look into your mind, ask yourself how you could have me stuffed into a trunk and taken out into the woods by a trio of psychos!" Only after finishing his tirade did Jack remember he had read her mind once before that, but he chose to ignore that little tidbit. Mia's eyes darted around as she tried to look as small as possible. "That doesn't..." Jack leaned forward, making her flinch, and put a hand to his ear. "Sorry, what?" She looked frightened and then slowly raised her hands. "Look, what's done is done. No going back on it. What we need to do is go to a church and pray for salvation. We need to be cleansed of the Devil's touch so-" "I am not touched by the Devil, Mia." She adopted a long-suffering expression on her face, even as she nodded along with his words. "You're right." She licked her lips. "Let's go to the church then...and light a candle to thank God for...uh...for giving you this ability." Jack's brow drew down as he shook his head at her. She was channeling the fundamentalists that had fostered her after her adopted parents had died. "Seriously? You're sticking to the teachings of your first foster parents? Still? That guy lusted after you and his wife was jealous of you. Remind me, how old were you when they placed you with them?" Mia's eyes glassed over. "And they shall be among the people, and they shall speak truths and whisper secrets and you will know them by their crafts." For a moment, Jack was reminded of his mother's Bible-inspired lessons. The pain of her hypocrisy when he had learned she had been cheating on his father struck him all over again, like an old wound that suddenly flared up. He slammed the palm of his hand down on the table, startling Mia and almost himself, too. "You will not recite biblical bullshit at me!" Mia looked fearful, but nodded. "You are possessed." Jack rolled his eyes and spread his arms. "How the fuck did the conversation turn into this? I'm trying to tell you about the fact that there are dangerous people with supernatural powers out there. I'm trying to explain what one of them had already done to you and you're reciting the Bible at me, like that matters." Mia licked her lips. "If you were to reject the Devil's offering, the Lord would take you back into the light. It's not too late. It's never too late to repent." Jack wiped his face as he fought against the urge to go intervening in her mind. She hesitantly reached towards him with a hand. "I can go to the church. I can speak to the priest about your...ability. He can come here and help rid you of it." Jack gaped at her. "Mia, if you love me, or have any kind of feelings for me, you will never, ever tell anyone about my power. Ok? And if you feel any kind of gratitude towards me for saving you from getting raped, or worse, by Ramon, or for helping you graduate high school, you will start to listen to what I am saying to you." "The Devil leads us into temptation in many ways, but we can always be saved. We must never lose hope in the salvation of our immortal souls." She nodded earnestly as she stared at him with huge, pleading eyes. It slowly dawned on Jack that she was not herself. The revelation he had sprung on her had probably overwhelmed her. Well, shit. Now I really have to go poking around inside her mind. He gently clasped her outstretched hand on the table. He focused on the feel of it in his own hand and made the corresponding hole in his cloak. He felt her thoughts mirrored through the hole. He worked hard to remember what it had been like back when he had been a kid and the mere thought of God had filled his heart with awe. When he recreated the religious fervor with which he had been raised, he tried to match it to Mia's state of mind, but failed. "Pray for me, Mia. Pray for me, right now." Mia nodded and clasped her other hand over his. She closed her eyes and bowed her head. Jack watched her full, red lips move a little as she prayed with an inaudible whisper. He guessed it was "Hail Mary". He focused on the words of the prayer and quickly matched her state of mind. He worked on her mind for a few minutes, making holes in his cloak and projecting his power through them, until he managed to dispel her fervor. He convinced her that the Devil was not upon them both and that he was not a witch. He put the truth of the matter in her head and let go of her hands. He picked up his cup of coffee and blew on it before taking another sip. Mia opened her eyes. They fixed on him, but he could not tell what her reaction to things was going to be. He had put nothing but the truth inside her head and left the decision of what she would think of it solely up to her. She slowly sat up and then leaned back in her seat. He searched her cute face for any sign, feeling bad for seeing her looking almost haggard, but picked up no hint of what was going on inside her head. At length, his patience expired and he said, "Well?" "Well, what?" "Well, what do you think of all this?" She shrugged. "I will think whatever you want me to think." He frowned. "Mia..." "I mean it. You have the power to make me think and believe anything you want. My own thoughts don't matter." "You can't really mean that!" "Why not? It's the truth." "Mia, I'd never!" "You just did!" She leaned forward on her seat and pointed an accusing finger at him. "You just changed what I believed in!" "I corrected your beliefs. Corrected." Mia stared at him incredulously. "I am not touched by the fucking Devil, God damn it!" "Yeah, you had me going until you said God damn." "Mia..." "Look, Jack, I don't know why we're even talking about this. You can do what you want with me. You can turn me into anyone you like. I can't do anything to stop you." He leaned forward across the table and reached out for her with one hand. "Mia, I don't want to turn you into anyone other than who you already are. Why can't you see that?" "But you could if you wanted to." Jack rolled his eyes. "I could do a lot of things if I wanted to. I could strangle you to death right now, if I wanted to. I'm way stronger than you. I could rape you right now, if I wanted to. I could go out with my dogs and have them maul people to death in the streets, if I wanted to. I could take the mind of a guy holding a button on a nuke somewhere and blow up the world if I wanted to." Jack's tirade stalled as he realized he didn't see a single reason why that should not be true. He shook off the terrible thought and focused on Mia. "But I don't want to do any of those things. I don't want to change you, Mia. I want to keep you safe. I want to please and pleasure you. I want to see you grow and bloom. I want to take you on a trip around the world and flaunt your grace to everyone." He leaned further forward and grabbed her limp hand. He pulled it onto the table and grasped it firmly with both of his. She searched his eyes as she weighed his words. "I love you, Mia Newman." Her eyes watered and she gasped for breath through an open mouth. "What's wrong?" She shook her head as she cried. "No one ever said that to me before. But, we can't be together, Jack." "Why not?" "Because I've been defiled." He frowned, perplexed. "Defiled? How?" "I had that guy's cum in my mouth." He grunted in bemusement. A grin spread across his features. "So did I. Remember?" She sobbed even harder at his words and her eyes searched his. He guessed she saw the truth in them, because she jumped out of her chair and sat in his lap with her hands around his neck. "I love you too, Jack Watts!" She gave a small, nervous laugh. "I've never said it to anyone, either. Well...I never meant it before. Not once!" Jack took her delicate chin in his fingers and turned her face up towards his. They looked into one another's eyes for a long time before their lips came together for a kiss. It was a slow, steady affair which seemed to affirm the truth of their feelings for one another. Their tongues wrestled between their open lips. He put his arms around her waist and drew her in closer. He could feel her heart beating behind her firm breasts and she squirmed in his lap as his dick tried to lift her on its own. They gently explored each other's mouth, as if doing it for the first time. At length, he slid a hand over her ass to slide down her thigh to the back of her knees. He stood up, lifting her in his arms, and walked upstairs, to his bedroom. When he laid her down in his bed and started to undress her, she stopped looking like a willing participant. He stopped and stretched out beside her to plant another kiss upon her soft, succulent lips. She barely returned it. He kissed her forehead and pulled back. He searched her eyes with a tender gaze. "Their teachings stopping you?" She seemed embarrassed and quickly nodded. "Should I dig out the crystal? That was one of the three times I used my power on your mind, you know." "You mean you didn't hypnotize me with a flickering candle while you tutored me?" He smiled at her imagery and shook his head no. He had never mentioned any flickering candles when he had put that suggestion in her head. He took note of how she had filled in the blanks. He gently swept her hair away from her face. "What were the other two times," she asked. "When I calmed you down after I chased off Ramon and just now, downstairs." "That's it? Only those three times?" He nodded. She looked confused. "Why?!" Now it was Jack's turn to be confused. "I mean, look at me! I look so fucking hot and I just, I can't imagine any red-blooded male not being out to take advantage of me. How come you haven't turned me into your perfect lover, or, like, an empty-headed fuck-slave?" "I've seen enough romantic comedies to know that the right answer to that question is 'because you're already perfect', but I respect you too much not to give you the true answer. First off, changing you against your will would be wrong. Not just because that's what society says, but because I would feel bad for having done such a thing. Second, that would probably be boring. No one wants an empty-headed fuck-slave. Well, I don't. I prefer to be with a girl that likes me on her own. Making a lover would be...pathetic, you know? Like I was admitting to myself that I was unlovable, or unworthy of genuine human companionship." He chuckled. "I guess I think too much of myself to stoop so low." She bit her lip as she nodded. Then she smiled a warm smile and said, "I love you for who you are, Jack Watts!" Now it was Jack's turn to grin. "I know you do, Mia. Do you want to make love to me?" She nodded. "I just...I don't want to sin." He kissed her forehead. "That's ok, babe, we know how to work around that." He reached into his pockets, searching for the violet crystal. "Could you...could you look into my mind and, um, and do...and make changes that I want. That you can see in there?" Jack's brow rose. "Are you sure about that?" She closed her eyes and nodded. "Ok." He took her hand in his. "I need you to slide your fingertips against mine like this." "Why?" "So I can get inside your mind and read it and do what it is you want me to do." She frowned in confusion. "Can't you just...get inside my mind?" "That's not how the power works. I need to have some thoughts in common with you to be able to get in. It's kind of like how you have to tune two radios to the same frequency for them to talk to one another. If we're thinking the same thoughts, feeling the same feelings, or experiencing the same sensations, then I can get inside you to do my thing." She looked at him in surprise. "So, you can't just..." "What? Just think it and it is done? No, I need to have the same thing on my mind as you do on yours and only then I can enter your head. It's the same with all the people that have mental powers." "How many of you are there?" Jack grimaced. "I'm the only one for hundreds of miles around. There used to be more of us, but the guy from this morning killed all the rest." She gasped in fear and sat up on the bed. He sat up as well. "Don't worry, don't worry. He's gone. He killed himself when I confronted him. He's dead." He rubbed her arm to give her some comfort. "He can't hurt anyone anymore." Mia took a few moments to recover from her sudden fright. "So, if I had strange stuff in my head, I'd be immune to mental powers?" "Yes, but it's not as easy as it sounds." He moved his hand to her breast. "I mean, I could pinch your nipple, think about what it feels like to have my nipple pinched, and poof! I'm in your mind." She frowned as she digested this piece of information. "But if you weren't near me, I would be safe from your power?" "Pretty much, yeah. That's why Jacobs had you think that mantra this morning, so he could find your mind at a distance." "Mantra?" Jack took his hand off her tit to wave her question off. "Never mind. I made you forget it. So, technically, I used my power on your mind four times, but I only removed what Jacobs had done this morning, so that one doesn't really count." "Will you teach me how to fight against mental powers being used on my mind?" "Yes. Yes, of course." He didn't know how to teach her something like that. He honestly didn't know if it was even possible, but he'd definitely try. She smiled a relieved smile. "Good." She took her hand in his. "Now, where were we?" "Um, you wanted me to do something in your mind? Would you mind telling me what?" She hesitated, grimaced, and then said, "I can't, Jack. Just...just look inside and do what I need you to do." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 06 A Loner Mentalist Pt. 06 Killing people had turned Jack off violence. He didn't want to see another corpse for as long as he lived, particularly not one that he made. Seeing what this evil puppetmaster mentalist cunt did made him change his mind. They were out there, somewhere, and they deserved to die in misery and fear. They deserved to drown in their own blood. Jack closed his eyes and fists and forced himself to calm down. Jack focused on the four goons that slaughtered Jacobs' family and had then been turned into his lackeys. Each of them had been an ordinary, non-descript young man, the only thing they had in common was the fact that they were big and strong. Despite being close in age and living in a relatively small town, not a single one of them knew any of the others, except in passing. They were just going about their lives until the day Jacobs was to come home from college. On that morning, their aether records had been blurred for a few moments, before blindly obedient servants emerged in their stead, chanting, "I obey," to themselves. Jack frowned when their minds vanished from the aether soon after their transformation. "What the fuck? They weren't mentalists!" He looked at the dog, who shrugged in perplexed confusion. "Can a mentalist shield a non-mentalist's mind?" The dog shook his head no. "What? But...the goons?" "Why their minds are no longer recorded by the aether, I cannot say. All I know is that a mentalist can't actively protect a mind other than their own." "Then how was this done," Jack demanded, pointing at the utter lack of goons' memories on the screen. "I have no idea," the dog admitted. "Some vision guide you are," Jack grumbled. He spent the rest of his vision trying to find out more about Jacobs and his four abusers/victims, but it yielded no pertinent results. He looked for other mentalists, both benevolent and malevolent, but found only a long row of gravestones. When his vision ended, he was back in the hotel room, sitting on the bed while Mia sat in a chair opposite. She was perusing a magazine and looking bored. "I thought I told you to stay on guard?" She shrugged. The visions of what had been done to the Jacobs family had shook him to the core. He needed a hug. He wanted to cry on her shoulders. Instead, he said, "Well, I guess you're only good for fucking, then." She gave an insulted gasp before blushing with arousal. She smiled wickedly and leapt across the room to land in his arms. She plundered his mouth as she pushed him back to lay on the bed. Her fingers frantically worked to undress them both. When she freed his cock from his boxers, she bent down and sucked it to hardness. She rode him with abandon and he shot his load into her with his fingers clenched in the supple flesh of her hips. Much better than a simple hug. He relaxed in the afterglow of his orgasm and fell asleep. The first thing he did when he woke up the next morning was book them on a flight home. The only flight with first class seats available was in the afternoon. Jack didn't hesitate before taking them. The ride in coach had been all but unbearable, with his long limbs pressed up against things. He had also been sorely tempted to use his power on several of the annoying and rude people seated close to him. In the end, he hadn't, but that didn't mean that he was going to put himself in such a position ever again. The price difference between coach and first class was well worth it, as far as he was concerned. When he turned back to the bed, Mia was awake and she saw his morning wood tenting his boxers. Before he could complain, she was on her knees, pulling down his boxers and licking up and down the length of his shaft. After he blew his load down her throat, he had her lie on the edge of the bed and ate out her pussy until she screamed out her pleas for him to stop. He made her lick her juices off his lips before letting her go to the bathroom to relieve herself. They made themselves presentable and descended to the hotel's dining hall for the buffet breakfast. A trio of tall, broad shouldered, black men in sharp-looking suits ogled Mia while whispering between themselves in some weird language. The expressions on their faces made it quite clear what they thought of her. Mia responded by blushing and then burying her tongue inside Jack's mouth. He couldn't order her to stop with his mouth plugged and he wasn't even certain he wanted her to. She pulled him into the men's room and into a stall. By the time she finally unplugged herself from his mouth, she had her panties around her ankles and her skirt above her waist. She turned around and bent over, propping herself against the water tank with both hands. Jack latched the stall door closed, unzipped himself and released his boner. He lined himself up with her snatch and pressed in, groaning with delight at the feel of her silky wetness. Her heat engulfed him gladly as he bottomed out and slapped her clit with his hanging balls. He drove into her with long, hard strokes. Three sharp raps on the stall door interrupted his enjoyment. A deep voice with a thick accent called out, "Come on, boy, we want the whore, too!" Jack growled in annoyance. Mia responded to the shameful title the man gave her by bucking back against his groin and gyrating wildly, even in her bent over position. Jack focused on her gasps of pleasure and made such holes in his cloak. He felt four minds perceiving her gasps along with him. He dropped Mia's mind by modifying the holes to exclude her shame. Now that he had contact with their minds, he was at a loss as to what exactly to do about them. Mia's pussy sliding up and down his shaft with twisting motions was making it very hard for him to think. "Come on, boy," another deep, accented voice said, "share the whore!" Wrath flared in Jack's mind. He could scarcely believe these guys. He would have imagined impotency and put it in their minds, but Mia's attentions made such thoughts impossible. Her gasps were turning into moans as her pleasure was rising. "Hear that, boy," the first voice asked. "She wants us! Come! Let us show you both how real men do it!" "Open this thin door, or we will," a third accented voice threatened. Jack imagined Mia being a hooker hired by the police to find immoral men for them to arrest. He made such holes in his cloak and projected his power through them. He thought he heard gasps from behind himself, but Mia's moans were climbing in intensity and volume, so he couldn't be sure. Three timid knocks were heard on the stall door. "She's with the police, boy," the first voice hissed low. "Run before her screams call them here!" With that, the men left and Jack felt Mia cum on his cock. "You liked that, didn't you," he asked her. "You liked them on the other side of a thin door, listening. You're such a whore." Spurred on by his words, she resumed slamming herself back into him. He planted his feet and braced himself against her onslaught. Her juices were covering his whole crotch and her ass made wet slaps against him. When her pussy fluttered around him for a second time, he groaned in ecstasy and shot his load deep inside of her. He held her tightly and felt her heart race under her skin. They took a few minutes to recover and made themselves presentable before he stepped outside to see if the coast was clear. When no one was looking towards the bathrooms, he reached back in and pulled her out by the hand. They made their way to the buffet table and loaded up their plates. Jack was pleased to see the Africans' table was being cleared by a busboy. There was no sign of the assholes. After they finished their big breakfast, Jack rented a car and drove them to Greendale. He laid fresh flowers on the graves of the Jacobs family. When Mia asked why they had come there, he simply told her these people had also been victims of the evil mentalist. He didn't have the stomach to tell her the full extent of the story. They drove back to Denver with only thirty minutes to kill in the airport coffee shop before their flight home. Mia got singled out by the TSA for a pat-down, yet again, and Jack made holes in his cloak in the shape of wanting to draw the hot brunette aside just to feel her up. When he felt the TSA agent's mind through them, he made new holes, in the shape of thoughts of excruciating testicular pain and projected his power through them. The agent bent over and groaned in agony before he could touch Mia. His colleagues rushed over and helped him through a door marked "Authorized personnel only". As soon as Mia and he were allowed to board, Jack undid the pain. Shortly after arriving home, Jack got a call from his landlord, who informed him the work on the house was done. As soon as all the paint dried, Jack was free to move in. Jack thanked the man and hung up. When he told Mia, she jumped into his arms and gave him a tight hug, squealing with excitement. Jack reveled in the feel of her firm, big tits pressing against his chest. He thought he could see a tear on Janice's cheek as she left to go up to her room, but he chose to ignore it. The way he saw it, his freedom was only a day away. He discussed the layout of the new house with Mia over dinner. Janice claimed she wasn't hungry and stayed in her room. Jack set the smallest of the upstairs rooms aside for his meditation chamber, where he would put mats on the floor and blinds on the window. Aside from that, he let Mia do the indoor stuff, while he already had the yard plotted out for his dogs. After dinner, they retired to their rooms, content to wait another night before seizing their freedom to bone at will. He urged Mia to pack and went online looking for a novelty chest with a false bottom. He wanted to keep his pot and pot-laced cookies in the meditation room with him. He found one such chest on e-bay and bought it right away. After that, he packed his things and went through his room. He didn't have many knick-knacks and mementos lying around. The ones he did have were mostly from his father, or his former friends, so he decided to leave them all behind. He was so excited at his impending move that he couldn't get to sleep that night. His mood was tempered by thoughts of the Jacobs family being destroyed in one fell swoop. His stomach churned as he thought of that being done to Janice and Bert. He wished he knew how the goons' minds had been cloaked. He found himself wishing, yet again, that he had someone to talk to. Someone to give him some answers. Seeing that sleep wasn't coming, he got up and munched on some pot cookies. He did his meditative exercises and decided to check up on his fellow mentalists that were suffering in mental institutions throughout the state. He found himself in the theater and the curtain lifted to reveal only seven of the mentalists standing on the stage. Two fresh gravestones completed the lineup. "Fuck! What happened!?" A movie screen descended to be the backdrop to the stage and a movie played on it in which three of the mentalists had been released from the hospitals they had been in. They had been released to their families' care and each of the three attempted suicide as soon as they got the chance. Two had succeeded. The third, the heavily bandaged black woman standing in line with the rest, was in an intensive care unit. "I don't fucking believe this. Why did they take them out of the hospitals? What were they thinking?" New movies played, showing the families, already suffering because their loved ones had gone crazy overnight, grow impatient with the lack of doctors' progress and trying other things, or just wanting to have their loved ones near them again. Jack dismissed the films with a wave of his hand. He put his face in his hand and rubbed his tears from his eyes. How am I ever going to fix these people? Ten powers taken. Ten sanities and wills to live, right along with those. How many memories is that? How am I ever going to find them all? Something didn't make sense to Jack, so he gave the people on the stage another look. There were seven of them, plus two gravestones. He searched the lineup and said, "Where's the blonde? The pretty, young one?" The curtain descended on the stage and lifted to show the stage empty. "Is she gone? Where and when did she go?" The movie screen lit up to show her sitting in a plastic chair in the hospital, watched by a nurse. Suddenly, the nurse got up and quietly left, his movements mechanical and hurried. A voice rang out in the blonde's mind, saying, "There must always be one." Jack gasped and jumped out of his seat. The blonde on the screen blurred. Jack's heart raced as he realized she had been transformed into another Jacobs. He gripped the back of the seat in front of his own. The air in the theater suddenly seemed absent. The blonde was refocused on the screen and she looked deep into her own mind. She believed all mentalists were out to get her and do unspeakable things to her. One had already taken her power and sanity. She vowed to never let that happen again. She set out to find and destroy all mentalists and ensure no innocent ever suffered the way she had. "They're beyond salvation," she spoke aloud, her voice thick with venom. "They must be purged. All of them." Her image vanished from the screen. "Oh, fuck," was all Jack could say. There was a new cloaked figure on the loose, hunting mentalists. His legs gave out and he fell heavily into his seat. His head was spinning with all the implications of the brief movie he had just seen. He forced himself to calm down and think them through. "May I be of any assistance," the cartoon dog politely asked. "Yes," Jack said. He wiped his clammy hands on the armrests of his seat. "How did the...evil cunt mentalist know about the blonde? Did they look through mental hospital admission records hoping to find Jacobs' victims?" "Sounds like a lot of work," the dog commented. "Perhaps the evil mentalist cunt had been guided to Shauna?" Jack faintly grunted. There's a silver lining. I know exactly who the cloaked figure is this time. Shauna Patrick, a tall, strikingly beautiful blonde. I shouldn't have much trouble finding and stopping her. "No, you shouldn't," the dog said. "Particularly not with Acting Sheriff Maynard's help." "Wait, what do you mean by guided to her?" "Well, it seems to me that the evil cunt made a new puppet monster quite soon after losing Jacobs. And they restored Shauna's will to live rather quickly, I daresay." Jack's jaw dropped. "Jacobs must have been reporting back on his kills. He must have sent reports on all the mentalists he had ever found and destroyed." "That's not an unreasonable assumption," the dog calmly said. "Hell, there's probably a record of all the memories he had ever taken off a mentalist, somewhere out there. If I could get my hands on that..." "Then you could heal all the mentalists." "Holy fuck! What if Jacobs reported on me and Mia!? He hit us the other day. What if the real cloaked figure has our names, too?! What if they send Shauna after us?!" The cartoon dog had no answer to give him. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 Edited by Over_Red ********* Master had roused him and his colleagues before dawn. They had piled into the vehicle and sat as still as they knew He liked them to sit. That was always a hard task for them, but that morning, it was harder still. Master was tense. He didn't like it when Master was tense. His colleagues didn't like it either. It made them all nervous, though they did their best to hide it. Master took them to a new place, strange and dour. It reeked of fear and misery. They soaked it in. The feel of the place, the smells, the sounds, the tiny flickers of motion in the trees that surrounded it. There were many traces to pick up. Most were fresh, some were a day or two old. Master had them ignore the fresh ones and focus on the old ones. Over and over again, they walked every inch of the search area Master set out for them, picking up the traces. Over and over again, they wanted to quit. There were too many traces to pick up. Too many to keep track of. Master's will kept them at it. It drove them on until they scoured the place and picked up every trace there was. Each of them held all the traces in their minds. Then the people came out of the big house and Master had them match the traces to every person that walked past them. It was the strangest and most unnatural thing he had ever done. It flew against every instinct he had. His instincts told him to hone in on a single trace and follow it to its source. Master's will was there, hurrying him along, so he let go of his misgivings and did as Master bid him to. Soon, he realized that Master's bidding was, in fact, a search. They were whittling away the multitude of traces until only the one Master wanted remained and then they would follow it to its source. Once he and his colleagues understood that, they relished their task. They charged at the people and picked up their traces to eliminate from their memory. Master had them slow down, lest they sent their quarry running, so they settled for sneaking up behind the people and evaluating their traces from a slight distance. By the time the sun rose to its high point, they had eliminated most of the traces and felt glad for the accomplishment. The bitch came to Master's aid. He could feel her gratitude and affection for Master, but she was too old to bear Him pups. He could tell that from her scent. Still, he liked that bitch and her tiny, nervous underlings. They weren't with her then, but they were always loud in their fears. They ran prettily, too. They always reminded him of something he couldn't quite recall but made him feel at ease with himself. He would delight when Master let him chase them down, one after the other. He would catch them and then box them in and keep them in an area, before letting them run free and then boxing them in all over again. That was such fun. The bitch sat with Master in His vehicle and they looked at a flat box with changing lights. Then he and his colleagues got in the vehicle and Master took them across town. He didn't like going places in the vehicle because he would never know where he was in relation to home once they disembarked. That was quite unsettling, at first. Master would never lead him astray, he knew. He'd never leave him in a strange place, unless He had a purpose for him there, so he eventually grew complacent with the rides. His colleagues were still a little uneasy at not feeling the ground beneath their paws as they traveled, but Master had taught them to disregard that feeling, just as He had taught him. At every location they went, they found one or two traces and eliminated them from their list. The bitch left them and the sun came down low on the horizon. Master drove them back to the spot from that morning. More traces had been refreshed since they had left and Master had them eliminate those from the list, as well. They waited patiently as people came and went and they picked up each trace to eliminate from their list. In the end, they wound up with just two traces. Master's enemies. Their prey. Master had them think on those traces over and over again, dissecting them with their noses. One was of a man grown, the other of a young bitch in her prime. Master had them focus more closely on the man's trace. The man had eaten bacon that morning and his skin smelled of spiced sausage and musk, with just a hint of vanilla. They memorized that scent all over again. Fixated on it. It was their target. Master instructed them to always be on the lookout for that scent. For their prey. They obeyed. The bitch's scent was of less concern to Master, but He had them all keep her scent in mind, too, and look for it. Master moved them to a new home that night, filled with new noises and smells, but they hardly noticed. They obediently settled into their new territory, after thoroughly marking it, and sat as their predatory minds churned The Scent over and over. Nothing else mattered, Master instructed. Seek The Scent. Find The Scent. Identify The Scent. Bring Master to The Scent. The Scent worried The Master and so it worried them. They feared it, just as Master feared it. They stood guard, sniffing the night breezes, discerning each smell they carried and looking for The Scent. Master was in the house, mounting His bitch. He could hear her high-pitched mating calls through an open window. The thought of The Scent coming here and hurting Master, or His bitch, made his heckles rise. Bloodlust started coursing through his veins and each of his breaths came out growling. As he looked across their new home, his colleagues looked back at him. Each of them was bigger than him and younger and stronger, but they all followed his lead because Master willed it so. He knew his colleagues felt the same way he did. He sat down in his guard spot and looked up at the moon. It was nearly full. Instinct, or memory he never even knew he had, compelled him to break Master's oldest orders. He opened his snout and let out a low growl that slowly grew into a loud wail. His colleagues joined him in his oath. They looked up at the moon and swore to find The Scent. They swore to hunt it down and kill it for Master. As their angry wail rang out, he could hear others nearby responding nervously to the ferocity and bloodlust in their oath. They professed their submission with subdued voices. He ignored them. Only The Scent mattered. ****** Jack rolled off Mia, gasping for breath. He had gotten into the habit of letting her ride him, since she seemed to draw energy from sex, rather than get drained by it, like he did. Tonight, however, he had fucked her, pounding her into the mattress with strong thrusts of his hips. He wanted to baptize their new bed with their combined juices. He intended to anoint every room of their new residence in the same way. Mia was definitely happy with the idea. She had gone to a gynecologist and gotten on the pill earlier that day, so they would be free to keep going bareback and not worry about getting her pregnant. He had read somewhere that the pill did stuff to women's sex drives, but that didn't matter at all. Her arousal wasn't ruled by her hormones anymore. He looked out the window. Had the dogs howled while he fucked her? He had been so focused on her succulent lips and the silken vice of her pussy that all he could hear had been her moans of ecstasy. She pressed her hot body, damp with fresh sweat, against his and all thoughts of the dogs left him. He put his arm around her shoulders and sighed. Her hand moved slowly over his torso, tickling his skin as it snaked ever closer to his groin. "Not now," he said. Her hand stilled for a moment and then glided up to hug his opposite shoulder. She put her head into the crook of his near shoulder and squirmed a little as she draped a leg over his and settled in. Being naked within his eyesight, or in his arms, she'd still feel the religious guilt she had been raised with and her arousal would spark from it. However, his no would stop her from making love to him, so she would settle for just cuddling. He didn't mind that in the least. Her firm breasts were pressed into his chest and her smooth thigh was inches away from his wet, limp dick. He could feel her hot wetness against the side of his hip. He wanted to fuck her again. He just needed to get his breath back. He had spent the day at the mental health facility Shauna Patrick had been in. He had taken his dogs there and managed to identify the scent of the evil mentalist that had turned her into the new cloaked figure. It had been a long, tense day, whittling away the multitude of scents that were present around the clinic until they had the right one. Mia, on the other hand, went to the gynecologist and then spent the rest of her day moving them into this new house. They both came lightly packed and the furniture was already here, so she hadn't had all that much to do. Which is why she's purring next to me, while I'm still gasping for breath. He thought back to his visit to the clinic. Not knowing who the puppet master mentalist was, Jack had to make a hole in his cloak and try to read the mind of every single person whose smell his dogs could pick up. He only checked to see if their minds were cloaked, or open to manipulation, just to rule them out. That had taken a considerably smaller effort than actually reading anyone's mind, but repeating it a hundred times had pretty much left him drained. After he eliminated most of the staff, Chrissie helped him find the recent visitors and he eliminated those, too. He had half hoped the puppet master had signed in as a visitor, or left some kind of clue to be tracked by, but he had no such luck. The puppet master had simply used his power to gain entry and had the security personnel erase the relevant twenty minutes of the surveillance tapes after he left. All Jack knew was that the mentalist was a man because his dogs identified his gender by smell. He yawned. As much as he wanted to fuck Mia again, he definitely needed some sleep. "Bored of me already?" she teased and smacked his chest. He barked a soft laugh and the pulled her face up towards his. "Never," he said and pulled her into a soft kiss. They both smiled when they broke the kiss. His gaze caressed her blue eyes before lingering over her soft features, framed by dark hair. He sighed in contentment. It doesn't get better than this. His phone rang, interrupting his reverie. "Yeah?" "Jack, it's Drew." "Oh, hey, Drew." "I just wanted to let you know what happened with Patrick." The tone of Drew's voice made Jack's guts tie themselves in knots. This could not be good. "What do you mean?" "Well, the NYPD picked her up at her hotel-" "What?!" "-and she escaped from their custody. Vanished into thin air." "Goddamn it, Drew! I asked you to just find her and not let her know she was found! I never asked you to get her arrested!" He had kept up the ruse of investigating a gang that was training man-hunter dogs. He had told Drew that Shauna was a potentially crucial witness in the case and asked him to discreetly locate her. "Now, you watch your tone with me, young man. I'm the one that's doing you the favor, here. They didn't go there to arrest her, but to take her into custody as a material witness. They were going to hold her until-" The whooshing drumbeat in Jack's ears drowned out the rest of Drew's explanation. Jack's fists tightened. I could just punch his stupid, donut-munching lights out for this. The cops had known where Shauna was and, instead of telling him so he could stop her, they went and blew this incredible chance. Shauna had apparently checked into a hotel under her own name, thinking she was safe from pursuit. That told him neither the puppet master nor she had been watching the clinic. It also suggested they had no idea Jack was searching for them, which he found encouraging. Well, they know now. He grinned ruefully. He just knew that Patrick would never again be so sloppy. He drew a deliberate, deep breath and forced himself to rebuild his calm. The drumbeat ceased in his ears and he heard Drew say, "Didn't your parents teach you any manners?" "Yeah, they did. What you did was the height of incompetence. You scared my witness away. So..." He bit back a few choice curses. He simply couldn't make Drew understand how much had been at stake and how many lives had been left in harm's way by his actions. He replaced the word fuck with thank and sarcastically said, "Thank you, Drew. Thank you for all your help." "Now, look here, Jack! I'm the law enforcement professional here and I won't be-" Jack hung up. He tossed his phone aside and wiped his face with his hands. If Shauna had not been tipped off like that, he could have tracked her for a while and figured out how she communicated with the puppet master. He could have gotten some answers, figured out how to heal the still living mentalists and ended her rampage before it even started in earnest. He sighed with annoyance. "What an idiot." "What happened?" He looked at Mia and her nervous expression. "Oh, Drew was just being a dumbass cop." He leaned over and kissed her brow, smoothing away her worry. "Sent the woman running." "The Patrick girl?" Jack nodded. He had explained the real situation with evil mentalists to her last night. He could see she was scared by it. She hugged him closer. "I don't want to lose you to them." Jack hugged her back. "You won't. I promise." He thought the situation through. Patrick now knew the cops were searching for her and she would trace it back to Drew, if she hadn't already. That meant that she would come back here and read Drew's mind to see why he sent the New York cops to find her. "I have to go." He slid out from under her and got up. "Where are you going?" He collected his clothes from the floor and began to put them back on. "Drew's station. I have to erase our identities from his mind. Well, from the point where we helped him and his sister take down the bikers and the evil sheriff. Make him and Chrissie think it had been someone else." "Why?" "Because Shauna could be here at any moment to see why Drew sent cops to find her." Mia's eyes went wide. "He did that?" Jack nodded. "But, why? You told him to-" "What's done is done." He sighed. "I have to focus on what we can do to fix things. This might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. I know where she will most likely go next. I'm going to put the dogs on Drew and wait for them to pick up her scent." Mia's smooth brow wrinkled. "Don't worry! I won't let her hurt me." Just as it had been with Jacobs, killing Patrick was a viable option. He hoped it wouldn't come to that, but if he had to, he would. Just because she had been innocent once, that doesn't mean he'd pull any punches. A deadly monster is a deadly monster, no matter their provenance. He ran a finger down Mia's smooth chin. "I'll leave Spot here to guard you. If he gives the SOS bark, just ring me and I'll come running." Mia gasped with fright. "You think she'd come here?" "She has absolutely no reason to, but I'm not taking any chances when it comes to you." He flashed her an easy smile. "You're far too precious to me." He left the bedroom. Mia lay on the bed for a few moments more and then jumped up. "Wait! I'm coming with you!" Their first stop was Chrissie's place in Springfield. He crept up to her window and saw what she was watching on TV. It provided him with a gateway into her mind and he made her believe that the guy that informed on the gang and helped them end it was a former gang member that wanted to get out and go straight. Instead of Mia, it was the guy's new fiancé that impersonated Rachel Ransfeld. Jack also made Chrissie forget helping him track down visitors to the mental health hospital, making her believe she had spent the afternoon playing with her Chihuahuas. The drive to Drew's office was a quick one, since the county roads were empty at night. Drew was in his office, burning the midnight oil. Jack made Drew believe the same thing about who had helped him with taking down the biker gang and erased all memories of asking him for any help afterwards. Instead, he put a single message into Drew's memory. It was, "Your mind has been fundamentally changed by the same evil man that ordered it broken in the first place. You do not truly wish to hunt and hurt innocents and make them suffer as you yourself had. Drop your shield and I can show you the truth." He hoped it would connect to something inside of the woman. Jacobs had slaughtered hundreds, if not thousands, of mentalists and he had found the strength to stop it, in the end. Perhaps there was a spark of resistance in her mind, too. Perhaps he could kindle it. He suspected it wouldn't work, but it didn't hurt to try. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. It actually did hurt to use his power. He had overworked himself checking the minds of everyone coming and going from the mental health clinic that morning. It had left him almost as exhausted as he had been when Mia's former thugs had kidnapped him. A brief afternoon nap had revived him, but now he was wiped again. His daily meditations had granted him the endurance to keep his mind cloaked the whole day long, but that took far less energy than invading and changing another's mind. Still, he had noted even the mind reading and manipulation aspects of his power had grown a little. He sent the dogs to discreetly patrol the perimeter of the Sheriff's office in shifts and sniff the air for any signs of Shauna, or the puppet master. "I'm gonna take a nap," he said to Mia and relaxed in his seat. "Wake me if the dogs come running." "Will do," she softly said as she stared at the darkness around them in apprehension. Something startled him awake and he sat up in his seat to squint at the world outside the car. The sun was already up and he blinked repeatedly until his eyes adjusted to the light. After a few seconds, the noise that woke him was reproduced when another car passed his. He relaxed in his seat and looked over at Mia. She wasn't in her seat. Before he could get scared, he noticed her curled up on the back seat. He looked at her. Her dark hair was messy and covered half her face. A line of dried drool ran from her mouth over her cheek. Even in such a disheveled state, she could pass for Megan Fox, easily. He watched her chest rise and fall with each slow breath she took. Watching her tit rise and fall made him think of how good they felt filling up his hands. He frowned as he awoke fully and remembered what had brought them there. He raised his cloak, checked in with his dogs, and learned that they had kept their vigil all night long. Neither Shauna Patrick, nor the puppet master had come round to investigate Drew. He got out of the car and stretched. After that, he did his best to put his mop of brown hair into a semblance of order. He kept a close eye on Drew that hot, humid day. The car's air-conditioning was able to keep Mia and him from cooking alive in their seats, but it still wasn't a very comfortable stakeout. The dogs panted and slobbered as they crawled along their patrol routes. Jack had them take frequent water breaks. When Drew went home in the afternoon, Jack followed and deployed his dogs around the man's house. He dropped a very bored and sweaty Mia off at the bus stop so she could go home and get started with some of the redecorating she wanted to do. He drove back to Drew's place, parked down the street from it, and resumed his stakeout. He woke up at one point during the night. He couldn't sleep in the car anymore. It was just too uncomfortable. It was obvious to him that Patrick wasn't coming there that night, but he didn't want to drive all the way home and risk missing her if she came there in the morning, before Drew went back to work. He reached into his glove box and took out a small bag of pot cookies he had taken with him the night before. He ate them and then got out of the car to do a series of stretches. After he limbered up and worked out the kinks in his back, he got back into the car and started his meditative exercises. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 Shortly, he found himself in a classroom of his old elementary school. He shot the cartoon dog a sardonic look. "How did you know?" "I am a facet of your subconscious, after all," the dog replied, sounding like an aging Englishman. "On to the matter at hand!" He tapped his long stick against the blackboard, where Jack read the words, "Cloaking During Sleep". "First off, you must know that an unconscious mind is a safe mind." Jack frowned. "As long as no thoughts are running through a brain, there can be no resonance and no takeover effected by a mentalist. It is the same reason why you cannot go waking people up from persistent vegetative states. There are simply no coherent thoughts for you to latch on to so you could intervene inside their minds. Even if there were, you couldn't know what they were so you would be unable to match them to slip into their minds." Jack felt a little ashamed for never before thinking about helping people in comas. Well, at least my subconscious did. "However, the mind isn't truly unconscious during the whole time it's asleep. During REM sleep, the mind dreams and drags up the memories of the day to process them for storage, or oblivion. It is during this stage of sleep that a mind is truly vulnerable. If a mentalist knows how you have spent your day, they can stake out your dreaming mind until those images reappear in it. Then, they've got you at their mercy. Jacobs had known how you had spent your day and had thus been able to enter your mind while you had slept." "Ok," Jack said, nodding at the explanation. "How do I defend against that? I always felt like I could keep my cloak up while asleep, but I don't know how. I have it up when I fall asleep and it's down when I wake up." "You cannot defend yourself while you're truly unconscious. But, that's ok, since there's no need for it then. What you can do is train your mind to raise the cloak before it starts to dream. That would make you protected at all times." "Excellent. How do I do that?" The classroom disappeared to be replaced by his newly outfitted meditation room at home. The cartoon dog sat down cross-legged on the mat-covered floor and Jack did likewise, facing him. The dog then taught him a new meditation exercise, which would make his subconscious raise his cloak before every dream cycle. Jack did the exercises until his high ran out and he found himself back in the car. He raised his cloak and checked on the dogs. There was still no sign of either scent they had been taught to track. He did the meditative exercises until Drew came out of the house to go to work. Jack spent the day following Drew at a distance, as the man with the bushy moustache and shiny badge drove all over the county, doing police work. At every stop, Jack would deploy the dogs to search the perimeter and find either target. There was no sign of Patrick, or her master, anywhere. After Drew drove home again, Jack growled and gave up. He had spent almost 48 hours in his car, drinking bottled water and eating gas station snacks and he had had enough. His dogs were troopers, eager to keep going even though the small bag of kibble he had brought for them had ran out. He felt bad about subjecting them to any more of the torment. He figured the woman was not going to call on Drew and that was that. Call. Jack nearly slapped himself silly when he thought of another way a mentalist might engage people's minds. He could call them up on the phone, speak into their ears from a distance and slip into their minds. He could think of no reason for that to not work. He had once already felt Sébastian's mind from the next town over; this shouldn't be any different. He decided to try it out. He called Mia. "Hey, Babe," she said, "how's it going?" "Alright. Listen! I'm doing this experiment and I need your cooperation. Can I have your cooperation?" As he focused on his words and made the appropriate holes in his cloak, he felt Mia's mind through them. He expanded his holes and felt Mia's excitement at the chance to help him. He thought he could also sense her feeling proud, but his cloak-hole-making wasn't quite quick enough, yet. "Of course! Anything you need, babe! What can I do?" His excitement at figuring out his mentalist power really did work over long distances vanished the instant he remembered he had told Mia she was safe from other mentalists, so long as they weren't near her. He lowered his head in his hand and rubbed his brow in frustration. How was he going to tell her that her own phone could turn into her doom if she answered wrong call? "Babe? You there, babe? Jack?" "Yeah, I'm still here." "What's going on?" He didn't trust himself to speak. He made holes in his cloak in the shape of her words and caught up with her mind again. He made more holes, in the shape of the knowledge about the danger the phone could be, and sent his power through them. "Oh," she said. "I see." "Yeah. Sorry." "No, no," Mia quickly said, "it's better to know than to get jumped, you know?" "My thoughts exactly." "Anything else?" "No." Jack paused for a moment. "Well, there's just that I'm coming home soon." "Did they come?" "No, and I suspect they're not going to." "Shame, that," Mia said, sighing. "Want any dinner?" "Sure. Order us a large pizza with everything." "Will do. See ya soon." "Bye." Jack ended the call and looked at Drew's house. He chuckled to himself. Mia's getting awfully blasé about all this stuff. He called Drew up on the phone. "Oh, yeah," Drew drawled after Jack identified himself. "You're the guy that trained those nervous rats my sister keeps feeding. What's up?" Jack spoke in a monotonous voice. "I was just thinking about asking you whether or not I could make an inquiry with regards to this thing I wanted to know something about." During his speech, he made the appropriate holes in his cloak and felt Drew's mind receiving his words through them. He carefully expanded the holes and checked to see if Drew had gotten any strange phone calls that day. He hadn't, but he had been called by a woman the previous morning and she had recited poetry at him over the phone. She had hung up halfway through and Drew had traced the call to a pre-paid cellphone broadcasting from a tower that was some fifty miles to the north. Since that was out of his jurisdiction and she had made no more calls, he had dropped the matter. Jack knew that Shauna Patrick had a degree in English literature. It said so in the file Drew had made on her and given to Jack. That call must have come from her and she was definitely not coming here. She was likely no longer in the area, either. "What the Hell is it with you young people and your lack of communication skills over the phone? Or is this a prank? What's going on? Why are you talking like this?" "Ah, forget it, Drew. Never mind. Thank you for your help." Jack ended the call and started the engine. He recalled his dogs to the car and drove home. He had nearly turned towards Janice's place before he remembered he no longer lived there. He floored it as he drove out of Springfield and towards the city, where his home was waiting for him. He nearly fell asleep behind the wheel. He had to let his dogs into his mind to stay awake. When he came home and finally relaxed in the comfy downstairs couch, he groaned with relief, sounding like an old man. Mia giggled and settled down next to him. They watched some TV and Mia handed him his slices of pizza. He wished the world would go away and leave him alone with her like this, forever. He wished he didn't feel like he had a duty to go around and warn other mentalists about Shauna Patrick and her handler. During a commercial break, he said, "I have to go." Mia raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. "To the bathroom?" She grinned. "Aww, is my baby so tired he needs my help to go to the toilet?" She tickled his ribs with a finger, eliciting a grin from him. "No," he said, suppressing a chuckle. "Then, where do you have to go?" He paused and looked away. "I have to travel across the whole country. Perhaps even farther than that." She looked uncertain. "Um, why?" "I need to find other mentalists and warn them about Patrick. I can't just sit on that knowledge and let people get blindsided by her." He looked into her eyes and saw her nodding. "I totally get it, Jack. You really should do that. You can find them when you get high, right?" He nodded. "You should really go warn them. Warn them all. I'm coming with you." Jack looked at her in surprise. "You are?" "Yes! You're crazy if you think I'm going to be separated from you for longer than a bathroom break. I mean, seriously, Jack! There's evil people with magic powers hanging around and I'm not gonna be more than ten feet away from you at any fucking moment from now on. Shit, I can even find myself taken if I answer the wrong call." She shook her head vigorously. "I'm not leaving your side! Not for a second! You got me? I'm coming with you. And that's that!" He smiled and rubbed her knee. "I'd like that." "Good. Then it's settled. When do we leave?" Jack leaned back in his seat and sighed. "I seriously need a good night's sleep in a proper bed before hitting the road again. We go tomorrow, before noon. Before the heat." They spent the rest of the evening in front of the TV. When he followed her up the stairs to their bedroom, his eyes were glued to her tight ass in short shorts. He reached out to touch it, making her skip and twist. "You've got such a great ass." She blushed with arousal and took him by the hand. She led him into the bedroom and pushed him down on the bed. She straddled him and leaned down for a kiss, even as she worked his jeans loose. As soon as she had his cock out, she pushed up his T-shirt and kissed down his slim torso until she captured his manhood with her mouth. She sucked him to hardness within seconds. She jumped up to shuck her few, brief articles of clothing and then straddled him again. She lifted his swollen cock and aimed it at her pussy before she carefully lowered herself. They both groaned as she slowly sank lower on his shaft, engulfing him with her wet, hot tightness. They relaxed and looked into each other's eyes once she had him fully buried inside her. She started to grind herself on his shaft and he gasped at the sensations. He grabbed her ass and gave it a few squeezes, before reaching up and grabbing her ample breasts. The thing he loved best about her new arousal mechanism was that it eliminated the need for any foreplay. He still liked to caress and kiss her, but making her wet with a single look or word had its charms, too. Her gasps slowly turned into moans as her orgasm crept closer. The phone call realization from earlier made him think on how poorly he had been using his powers. He couldn't help but grin as he made holes in his cloak, shaped like his grinning face. Once he had contact with her mind, he made more holes and projected his power into Mia. Mia's mouth flew open as she was suddenly kissed by dozens of hungry mouths, sucking and teasing every inch of her flesh. She screamed in orgasm as her skin broke out in an angry shade of red. Her veins popped out on her forehead and her whole body shuddered. Jack turned the kissing lips into feathers that lightly tickled her sensitive flesh in unison. She gave strangled cries and her whole body convulsed with each caress. He smiled triumphantly and used his power to strum every tense fiber of her body like a harp. She clutched at his shoulders and fell into another paroxysm of ecstasy. Her pussy convulsed against his shaft, making him groan with delight. She collapsed against him with his dick still inside of her. His hips reflexively adjusted their angle to alleviate the sudden stab of pain her maneuver caused to come from his taint. Her body was hot against his and her breath came in irregular gusts against the front of his throat. He stopped the feathers. "Too much?" She gulped air some more and then emphatically shook her head no. "More." She lifted her head and looked him in the eye. "Please," she gasped. "More." He laughed an evil laugh and put his hands behind his head. He made her feel a strong tug on her scalp. She squealed in pain and quickly sat up in his lap, forcing his dick deep into her pussy and alleviating the discomfort he had felt earlier. Before she could complain, he suggested to her mind that something prickly was pressing against her asshole, trying to get in. Her eyes grew comically large as she rose up away from it. Her tight pussy slid along his dick. He told her mind that her nipples and clit were attached to him by lengths of delicate chains. If she ever rose so high as to let his dick slide out of her pussy, she'd be in agony. She yelped in pain and let herself drop back down the length of his shaft, where the cactus was waiting to try and invade her bowels again. She gasped and rose again, only to grit her teeth against her yelp and fall back down. "Too much?" he asked her. She shook her head no. "Faster." He barked out a laugh of delight. "You're a superslut." Her eyelids fluttered at the spike of arousal those words caused. "Here we go!" He used the cactus and chains to speed up her humping and she squealed continuously as she bounced up and down on his dick. When he felt the heat rise from the pit of his stomach, he turned the chain on her clit into a suction tube with a million tiny fibers that tickled her clit from all sides. She collapsed against him as her whole body flailed impotently in the throes of a massive orgasm. Her voice cut out and her eyes rolled back into her skull. The fluttering walls of her pussy coaxed his seed out of his tight balls and he came, shooting deep inside of her. His whole body flexed, from his head to his toes, seemingly to give more oomph to each shot of his cum. When he came down from his orgasmic high, Mia was still shuddering against him. He hugged her tight and enjoyed the feeling of his softening dick slowly easing out of her. He lost the connection he had to her mind and double-checked his cloak holes. He then looked at her face and saw that she had fallen unconscious from all the pleasure. He chuckled. I fucked her brains out. He laughed some more and then slowly rolled her off himself. He went to the bathroom to get a soft towel. He gingerly dabbed her juices and some of the sweat off her skin before gently arranging her to lie on her side. He got in bed next to her and spooned her while he covered them both with a thin, soft sheet. He listened to her breathing for a while. It was strong and even. He did his protective meditations and let sleep claim him. The next thing he knew, he was in a darkness that was so thick, he could feel it pressing against his skin. He drew his trusty longsword from its scabbard. The blade shone with a pale light, forcing the darkness away. He waved the blade around and flinched when the light hit Shauna Patrick's face. It was the only part of her visible underneath her dark cloak. She was mere inches away from him and her round face was distorted by her sneer. She reached towards him with arms made of darkness. He knew that if she touched his skin, he would lose everything. His sword whistled through the darkness as he swung it around. With a meaty thunk and a jarring impact he felt deep in his bones, Jack slashed Shauna Patrick in two. Her body vanished almost instantly, leaving only her dark robes to pool on the ground where she stood. Before he could rejoice at his triumph, a second cloaked figure stepped over the robes and reached for him. Jack flinched and backhand swung his blade at the last possible instant. He slashed the cloaked figure with a grunt of effort and it too vanished to leave a pooling cloak behind it. Before the cloak fell to the ground, a third cloaked figure advanced from the darkness. Jack barely had the time to lift his blade and let the dark figure impale itself on it. The weight of the cloaked figure nearly pulled the blade from Jack's hands, but his adrenaline kept a death grip on the hilt and he remained armed when the figure dissolved into just a falling cloak. Immediately, another cloaked figure stepped over the cloak and advanced to touch Jack. He swung his glowing sword and cut it down without mercy. The next one then separated from the darkness to try where its predecessors had failed. Jack relentlessly swung his blade at the cloaked figures as they emerged from the darkness, one by one. It seemed to him that there was an endless line of them, hidden just beyond the small circle of light his blade was casting. As soon as he cut one down, another would step forward. Their bodies were solid when he cut them and he exerted himself to slay each and every figure. He grit his teeth with every impact of steel against bone. Once he cut them down, though, their bodies would vanish and he would be left off balance, struggling to keep his footing. He couldn't catch a break and his endurance was waning fast. Sweat poured into his eyes. Before long, his arms grew tired and his hands became numb. His lungs burned for air as battery acid flowed through his veins. He knew he had to keep at it and slay all the cloaked figures, but there were just too many of them. Pure desperation fueled his swings after his adrenaline rush ran out. At length, a cloaked figure impaled itself on his blade and wrenched it from his grasp with its weight. The light of his blade was dimmed under the pooling cloak and the darkness advanced on him. Just before it swallowed him whole, he could make out the next cloaked figure lunging at him, arms of an even blacker darkness stabbing towards his eyes. He flinched awake and gasped for breath as his heart raced. He looked at the darkness around him and saw that he was in his bed. It was just a dream. His pillow was soaked with his sweat. He flipped it over and found a fresh spot to rest his head on. He pulled Mia into his embrace and spooned her sleeping form once again. It took him a few minutes to let go of the nightmare and fall back asleep. A gentle caress on his forearm coaxed him to wakefulness. He squinted with one eye and saw Mia lying next to him. She was wearing nothing but a goofy grin as she slowly traced the fingers of one hand across his arm. He made a small motion and she looked up at his face. Her smile was made of sunshine. "Good morning, sleepyhead!" He groaned. "Morning." "So...last night was something else, huh?" The nightmare was still on his mind as he grudgingly said, "Yeah, I guess it was." He pulled his cloak around his mind, like he always did when he woke up. Mia began to look guilty. "I mean, I, I, I don't need more than just you, you know, it's just that...uh..." He guessed he must look displeased, or angry at her words, for her to start backtracking like that. He didn't want to dwell on the bad dream and the endless stream of cloaked figures. He wanted to lose himself in her deep blue eyes. He smiled. "Relax, Mia, I liked it, too." "Oh," she said and gave a small laugh in relief. "As a matter of fact, would you like some more, right now?" Her blue eyes grew humungous at his words. She nodded, shyly. Her religious shame had already made an appearance, he knew, when she had woken up naked next to him. Thus, she was already aroused. He didn't bother asking her for her likes and dislikes. In all matters sexual, it fell on him to take the lead. He smiled and got out of bed. When she followed suit, he held out his hand, palm out. "Wait! Stay there. Lie back." She lay back down on the bed. "That's it. Just relax and close your eyes. Relax and listen to the sound of my voice." As Mia relaxed on the bed, he made holes in his cloak, shaped like his words. He felt Mia's mind through them. She was very eager and on the verge of starting to squirm on the bed in impatience. He smiled evilly and made more holes to project his power through. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 He made her think a tentacle monster had reached up from under the bed and seized her wrists and ankles. Her eyes shot open and looked out in alarm. "What the fuck!? Jack! It's got me!" He made her think another tentacle wrapped itself around her throat. Her pleas grew hoarse and stopped. Her limbs tensed and writhed as he made her think the tentacles were pulling her into a spread-eagle position on the bed. Her arms all but shot out to the corners of the bed and her legs spread more slowly. Her whole body arched off the bed as she fought against the imaginary assault. He loved seeing her muscles strain under her smooth skin. Her struggles were futile and she wound up spread eagle on the bed. She turned her pleading eyes Jack's way. He made her think dozens of smaller tentacles were also emerging from the bed and reaching out to slide across her bare skin. The undersides of the tentacles were covered in suckers, which glided across her skin like silken handkerchiefs until they found a sensitive spot. They would attach themselves to that spot and suck like a lover leaving a hickey. A strangled cry managed to escape Mia's throat. Jack expanded his holes and checked on her emotional state. Her arousal and desire were so strong, they nearly shattered his concentration. It took all of his mental discipline to keep going. I'll just see what she felt later on, in the aether. He kept on teasing her with the tickling and sucking tentacles until she began to buck wildly on the bed. Her ass was lifting off the sheets, presenting her pussy like an offering to the monster that was assaulting her. He smirked and made her think another tentacle emerged from under the foot of the bed. This one was smooth and cylindrical. Its tip was shaped like a human dickhead and it rose up high between her legs. Her eyes widened as she stared at the space where she thought the phallus was. He made her think it was wider than a porn star's and she shook her head as much as the imaginary tentacle around her throat would allow her. Small, strangled cries for mercy escaped her lips as she lowered her hips to try and get away from the monstrous phallus. He made her think a smaller phallic tentacle had slipped into her open mouth and all her protests stopped as she closed her eyes and sucked on the intruder. He made the tentacles attach themselves to her nipples and clit and apply suction. A scream of ecstasy was choked in the back of her throat as she came. He let her ride out her pleasure and stoked it higher with the tentacles' touch. When she came down off her high and opened her eyes, he waved the monstrous phallus right before her face. Her terror returned and the phallus slowly slid down her throat to press its heat to her collarbones. Tentacles pushed her ample tits into a deep cleavage and squirted some kind of fluid into it. The phallus slid easily between her tits and pumped away with a rising rhythm. Mia moaned around the imaginary phallus pumping away at her mouth. Jack felt around her mind again and saw that she was torn between wanting to feel that monster stretching her loose and wanting to please it with her tits. He chuckled. She had no choice in the matter. He made the phallus leave her tits and she whimpered as she gagged. The phallus dipped below her eye line and she tensed in anticipation of being split open by it. Jack made it pause between her spread thighs, which were glistening with her juices, until she relaxed and looked up at him. When their eyes met, he made her feel the huge phallus breaking into her. Her whole body tensed as she wailed around the intruder in her throat. The phallus pushed in slowly, making her feel getting stretched out with each and every millimeter of penetration. The invading shaft sawed across the underside of her clit. When the monster bumped up against her cervix, the pain and pleasure became one in her mind and she came hard. Her whole mind was overwhelmed in a rush of ecstasy and Jack lost his connections to it. He watched her writhe on the bed like she was having a seizure. He felt proud for having done that to her. A small part of him actually loved having her completely in his power, he realized. So what? She likes it that way, too. Her convulsions of pleasure slowly subsided into small tremors as her orgasm ran its course. He stepped closer to the bed and looked down at her. She was wet from head to toe. Her hair was plastered to her head with sweat and her juices had soaked the sheets between her legs. He bent down and moved some of the hair from her forehead. He planted a soft kiss upon it. He left her to bask in the afterglow of her ecstasy and went downstairs to make breakfast for them both. She was still lying in a puddle of her own sweat and juices when he brought their breakfast to bed. Her face bore a dazed expression and he guessed she didn't have the strength to do anything at the moment. He got into bed, propped her up against himself and slowly fed her. He stole a few bites for himself while she languidly chewed on her own mouthfuls. By the time the food was gone from the tray, she started to exhibit signs of strength. She craned her neck and kissed him softly. "I need the toilet," she said as she disengaged from him. "How romantic." He watched her tight ass as she walked into the bathroom. His dick began to harden again, but he ignored it. Mia was exhausted and there would be no more action this morning. He got up and got dressed in boxers, slacks and a Serenity T-shirt. Mia came out of the bathroom. "What are you doing?" He picked up the empty tray and shot her a look. "Cleaning up. Why? What does it look like I'm doing?" "I meant," she firmly said as she stepped closer to him, "what are you doing with your clothes on?" She shot him a playful smirk. "You didn't think you'd be getting nothing in return, did you?" "Uh, no." "Good." She undid his belt and zipper. "Take these off and lie down." He let his pants drop to his ankles and stepped out of them before lying back on the bed. She stepped over him and let her long, straight, dark hair fall down to touch his face. Her lips followed her hair and she kissed him, probing his mouth with her tongue. She pulled back and kissed his chin, playfully sucking on it. She kissed down the front of his throat before pulling his T-shirt up and scooting lower on the bed. Her hair tickled his chest before she descended to lick and nip at his nipples. He sucked air between his teeth. Her nips went beyond playful in an instant. She let go of his nipples to kiss down his flat stomach. She sucked on his navel, making him giggle, before going even lower and bumping against his hard shaft with her chin. "Someone's ready," she said and moved to kneel between his legs. She grasped the base of his dick and wasted no time in swallowing his head. She tickled his glans with her tongue as she pumped his shaft with one hand. Her other hand was busy gently cupping his balls and tickling the sensitive skin beneath them with a fingertip. Her ministrations made his whole body flex. He felt the urge to grab the back of her head and drive his dick down her throat with mighty thrusts of his hips. He grabbed fistfuls of sheets and fought against it. She kept sucking on his cock and driving him to a high he had never felt before. Her tongue, the insides of her cheeks, her firm, pumping hand and her gentle tickling fingers all worked together to grab all of his focus and place it squarely at the tip of his dick. Heat spread from the pit of his stomach to the base of his spine. He felt like he would explode at any moment. When she leaned down lower and let his cock bump into the back of her throat, he lost it. He shouted out loud and flexed his hips off the bed in orgasm. His dick slipped past her tonsils as he shot his load down her throat in five full-body spasms. He finally relaxed and fell back down onto the damp sheets. His limbs felt weak and hot needles pricked his torso. His mind got clouded in sweet fuzz and he passed out. His nap was short. Mia and he got up and fed the dogs, before going online and working out the logistics of their cross-country tour. "I can feel mentalists at slightly less than two hundred miles of distance, so we'll drive about three hundred and fifty miles in a straight line every day and then we'll stop somewhere so I can do another sweep." "Gotcha." Bringing the dogs along was of the utmost importance, so Mia searched for pet-friendly hotels while Jack plotted their course. She couldn't find them in every place Jack intended to stop for a night. He tried to modify their route, but the gaps where they could find no hotel that boasted online of being pet-friendly, or had a reputable kennel in the same city, were just too big to overcome. Finally, he decided to rent an RV for their tour. Mia packed the both of them while he went to pick out an RV. When he drove it home, Mia stood on the front porch with a shocked expression. "What the hell is that?" she asked. "It is a recreational vehicle that we will use to traverse the country." "It's a Winnebago," Mia said, frowning. "Yes it is. It's got all the amenities of modern living. We can drive around more comfortably and we can sleep in it, too. We'll save a ton on hotel bills." Mia looked dubious. "Come look inside!" He nearly dragged her into the RV and pointed out the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom and the entertainment center. Mia looked at everything like it was covered in dung. "Come on, it'll be fun! And some of the cash we save on hotel stays, we'll spend on fun things." "I am not driving around in this thing." "Oh, come on, Mia. Do you have any idea how grumpy we'd be if we drove around the country in my car? With all four of my dogs in the back seat? This is way better." Mia shook her head. "I guess I just thought that we'd...I don't know, stay in buildings with foundations and walls, not wheels." "We will. Every now and then." She looked unconvinced. "What do you want me to do? Leave the dogs behind and go chasing Patrick and her master without them? That's just stupid. I'm not gonna waste such a tactical advantage." Mia stepped outside and looked over the faded paint on the outside of the RV with thinly veiled disgust. "I mean, babe...something like this...you gotta hook it up to sewer lines and shit, ya know?" "A, that's a fairly simple procedure and B, I'll pay someone to do it for us at the RV camps we stay in." Mia shook her head. "I just, I don't wanna stay in a trailer camp with...trailer people." "Well, I guess you're staying here, then. I'll send you tons of postcards." "Wait! You can't leave me here!" "What I can't do is leave the dogs. I need them with me. You'd be safe if you stayed here. No one will come and get you." "You don't know that! This Patrick girl could just phone me and-boom-I'm sucking random dicks somewhere." Jack stepped closer to her and put his arms around her hips. "No one will hurt you like that ever again. I promise. Look, we'll drive in the RV and every second, or third night, we'll stay in a hotel and take a long shower together and watch cable and eat room service and all that jazz. Ok? But this here," he nodded at the RV behind himself, "is the easiest way for the six of us to drive cross-country and warn every mentalist there is." Mia reluctantly got on board with the idea and went online to help find places that catered to RVs. Finding RV parks online was no problem at all. In nearly every stop they planned to make, they'd have multiple choices of where to park. They loaded up the RV, Jack ordered the dogs in and had them lie still under the tables. Their first stop was the local supermarket, where they stocked up on supplies for the trip. Then, they hit the road and headed north. Their first destination was New York, where Shauna Patrick had gone to. He didn't think he'd find her there, but he wanted to see what damage she had wrought. From Springfield, he had covered Virginia, the capitol, Maryland and most of North Carolina and Delaware. From New York, he'd cover Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, most of Massachusetts, half of New York state and the eastern half of Pennsylvania. He didn't know if he'd reach all the way up to Boston, but he'd cover that city with his next stop. The drive north was a leisurely one. They kept to the interstate highways and skirted the cities. They had the AC on full blast and the dogs quietly sat in the back of the RV. Jack and Mia played I Spy and other road games. When that got boring, they tuned in to some satellite radio and had a few laughs. After two breaks, one for a late lunch and the other for an early dinner, they found themselves pulling into an RV park overlooking the banks of the Hudson River. The city had a deluge of pet-friendly hotels and reputable kennels, but Jack opted against them in the end. He wanted the dogs near him at all times and the hotels were a tad too expensive for his taste. Thanks to the baseball cards, he now had money. He knew he wouldn't have it for long if he spent it needlessly. They got out of the RV and Jack had the dogs run around to shake off the effects of sitting in one spot for too long. Mia looked wistfully at Manhattan as it started to turn its lights on across the river. He stood next to her. "Maybe you should look behind you." "Why?" "Because the sunset is even prettier than that." Mia snorted softly. "I can see the sunset anywhere. This is my first time near New York. I wanna go into the city and see it! I wanna feel what it's like to walk the streets of New York! I wanna see Park Avenue! I wanna see Central Park!" "Yes, yes, all right. I'll take you into the city, I promise! Listen, I'm gonna get started." He nodded at the RV. "You stay out here for an hour and get to know the lay of the land, ok?" Mia looked around them. Her face scrunched up at the sight of the half-naked people that were climbing in and out of the RVs next to theirs. "Nuh-uh, I'm going inside with you." "If you do that, you have to stay quiet and let me do my thing without interruptions." "Better that than hang with this crowd." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "This is New Jersey, babe." "Don't be a snob. They look alright to me." She shot him a look and gestured to a nearby man bending over. His cutoff jeans dipped low enough to display his hairy crack to the world at large. "Well, you'd have the dogs to protect you." "I'm coming inside." Jack relented and they got into the RV. He left the dogs outside to keep nosy neighbors and busybodies from interrupting his meditations. He pulled the big bag of pot cookies from its hiding place and ate four of them. He calmly sat on the bed in the back of the RV and did his meditations to tune out the outside noises. He found himself in the theater and sat back in his seat. He thought about Shauna Patrick and the puppet master, but nothing happened. He sighed in disappointment and thought about Shauna's latest victim. Again, nothing happened. Oh, that's right! Mentalist interventions aren't caught by the aether. He thought about all the mentalists he could feel from his location. The stage went dark and was then brightly illuminated. Many rows of tombstones appeared on the stage. Standing in front of them were several rows of people. Jack did a quick count and estimated about two hundred tombstones, which indicated dead mentalists whose memories he could still access, and more than fifty living ones. I've got my work cut out for me. He thought about which mentalists were malevolent and most of the ones from the stage vanished. Forty tombstones and a dozen men remained. All the living men wore expensive suits and flashy wristwatches. They worked on Wall Street and he pegged them as douches. As he focused on them, his suspicions were proven correct. Each of the malevolent mentalists was located here, in New York city, and they used their powers to get laid. They made beautiful, young women fall madly in love with them, fucked them to their dick's content and then dumped them without so much as a goodbye. In many a case, they didn't even bother to undo their interventions into the women's minds. Quite a few of the girls overdosed, unable to cope with the loss of their One True Love. The men responsible not only didn't give a fuck, but they took pride in the fact that they drove the girls to suicide. Those girls' inabilities to go on with their lives actually stroked the men's egos. They also used their powers to make themselves richer every day. They would either read the mind of a gifted market analyst and make investments before the analysis could be acted upon by others, or they'd simply force a business competitor to make a bad deal that benefited them greatly. They didn't care about anyone but themselves and Jack could not tolerate their behavior a moment longer. He searched the aether for their memories of the first time they had used their powers. He only collected nine of the memories before his high ran out and he found himself sitting in the back of the RV. Mia looked a little worried. "Are you ok, babe?" "Peachy," he lied as he fought to keep his wrath from his face. "Drive." "Um...where?" "Nearest convenience store. We need to buy burner phones." "Ok." Twenty minutes later, they were back in their allotted space in the camp and Jack was dialing the first number. When the asshat mentalist answered, Jack handed the phone to Mia, who said, "Please hold for Donald Trump." Jack played Bach's Air on the G-String as hold music and focused on it. He made holes in his cloak in the exact same shape as those notes and then he felt the asshat mentalist's mind, hearing the same notes, as well. He convinced the asshat's mind to ignore the memory of first using his power and ended the call. He repeated the procedure with the other eight asshats whose memories he had seen. When he was finished, he wiped his face with both hands. "You ok, babe?" He nodded. "Tired." "Want a back rub?" He nodded again. She had him turn his back towards her and worked her fingers against his tense shoulders. Pretty soon, he began to relax under her touch. "Where did you ever learn how to..." "Cheerleading squad." His eyebrows rose. "Ok, I know you girls never got sensual with one another." She chuckled. "Not like that, babe. Cheerleading is very hard, you know. Takes a lot out of your body. We used to give each other rubdowns after tough practice sessions." Her fingers kept working their magic on his back until he was fully relaxed. Then she moved her hands and let her fingers work their magic on his front. She got him to forget all about the mind-rapists across the river. Once he got hard, she rode him until they both came. He fell asleep, pleased and exhausted. He dreamed of Jacobs' four goons that his dogs had killed. They stood around Jack, dread etched onto their faces. They reached out to him, to warn him of something, but when they opened their mouths, only blood came out. They desperately tried to tell him something, make a plea of some sort, but the blood was gushing out of their mouths like a geyser, preventing them from speaking. When they vomited blood onto him, he woke up with a start. He calmed down and hugged Mia's firm body tighter to his own. A glance out the window told him that dawn was fast approaching. He lay there with Mia's hot body in his arms for a long while. He couldn't decide between getting up and going back to sleep. At length, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. It seemed to him that he had only been asleep for a few seconds, but he woke up around nine in the a.m. Mia was frying pancakes on the stove. After using the bathroom, he sat at the table and Mia served him a big stack of blueberry banana pancakes. He slathered them with butter and ate ravenously. He could hear the dogs happily crunching away at their bowls of food, right in front of the RV's door. They each reported not catching a single whiff of Shauna Patrick, or the puppet master. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 Mia sat down opposite him. She was all smiles. "So, what's the plan for today?" He didn't need to read her mind to know that she wanted to go into the city. "Well, I've got some more tracking to do here. Bad guys to take down, good guys to warn." Her expectant face fell a little. He grinned and grabbed his wallet. "You'd be bored to tears just watching me sit in one place, so why don't you go do some sightseeing and maybe some shopping?" He took his credit card out and handed it to her. She squealed in joy and jumped out of her seat to hug his face with her tits. When she let go of him, he licked the butter off her cleavage, eliciting a throaty laugh from her. They looked at one another for a few heartbeats and then she twined her hands in his hair again. She pulled his face up for a soft, leisurely kiss. When they broke their kiss, he wanted to stand up and take her to bed. She pushed him to sit back down. He looked up at her with a questioning look. She smirked mischievously. "You just finish your breakfast." She got down on her knees and undid his zipper. He relaxed and enjoyed his pancakes while she blew him. After she left, he ordered the dogs to keep visitors at bay. He ate three pot cookies and did his meditations. In half an hour, he was in the theater. He looked up the remaining three malevolent mentalists and the first times they had used their powers. His high was still running by the time he gathered that intel, so he focused on benevolent mentalists. Almost sixty people showed up on stage, backed by about a hundred and sixty gravestones. Jack focused on the living mentalists and asked how many lived in New York city. The tombstones and ten mentalists vanished from the stage. That's a lot of people. He thought of the ten that lived outside of New York city and focused on them. He looked up their histories and how they came to know they had powers. He also looked up some of their most intimate secrets, things that no other living being could possibly know about. He didn't like to intrude into their privacy like that, but he felt like he needed to demonstrate his power to get them to heed his warnings. By the time his high ran out, he had such info on four of the ten. He wrote all the pertinent information down, while it was still fresh in his memory, and called the remaining three asshat mentalists on the phone. He took their powers and felt good about himself. He was also parched, so he made a pitcher of ice cold lemonade. He slowly sipped it as he thought about his warnings to the benevolent mentalists and how exactly to put them into words. He wrote the letters to the first four mentalists. He included their darkest secrets, so they'd know he was for real. After that, he ate more cookies and looked up the remaining six non-New Yorker mentalists. He wrote them letters, too. He called Mia before heading out to lunch. "What's up, babe?" "Nothing. I'm taking a lunch break and I wanted to hear your voice. You know, just to see if you're ok." He could hear her smile over the phone. "I am! I totally am! New York is the best place on Earth!" "I'm glad you like it." "I love it! There's just one teeny, tiny thing wrong." "What's that?" "I'm here all alone and you're across the river, doing your thing." "Well, I'll probably be done today, so we'll head into town together tomorrow, ok?" "I'll do you one better! I've booked us a hotel room for tonight. You'll come over and wash my back. Ok?" He laughed. "Ok. Text me the details. See you tonight, Mia." "See ya, babe!" He picked up the dogs and drove to a diner for some lunch. When he returned to the parking spot, he ate a dozen cookies and did his meditations. He wanted to be done with New York mentalists before he went into the city to spend the night with Mia. When he found himself in the theater, he thought of benevolent mentalists living in New York. He counted forty-nine of them on the stage. As he looked at them, wondering where to begin, he noticed they were actually standing in three wedges, not neat lines. He focused on their strange arrangement and learned that the mentalists in New York were organized into three loose societies. The first group was a coven of seven people of Hispanic descent. They lived on Staten Island and were led by a wizened old man. They considered themselves brujas and did rituals they believed would enhance their "magical" powers. Jack looked up some intimate details of their lives to lend credence to his warning letters. He raised his cloak briefly to make notes on those. The words floated past his hands as he wrote, but he managed to get them down on paper, all the same. He decided he would not confront their beliefs about their powers and wrote only to warn them of Shauna Patrick and her handler. After he dropped his cloak, he looked at the second group. They were of mostly African and Caribbean descent and lived in the Bronx and Brooklyn. There were sixteen of them and they considered their powers to be gifts from Houdoun demigods. A big, rotund black woman led them and saw to it that they didn't abuse their powers. Jack learned their secrets and took two trips out of the theater to write down notes on them. The third society, counting twenty-six members, was located in Queens, with a few members living in Manhattan. Their membership was eclectic, but dominated by second and third generation immigrants from Eastern Europe. They were led by an elderly Romani woman, who seemed quite protective of them all. As Jack looked at her, she began to tell a story. "My mother survived Dachau. The Nazis took her there, along with all her family and tribe. Every one of them was murdered, only my mother survived. But she did not survive by accident, or luck. They let her live because she was their most successful experiment." Jack shuddered at her words. "She told me many times about how the Nazis experimented on the prisoners. They made people miserable and frightened for the sole purpose of harnessing those emotions for their dark experiments. They did things in those camps..." She frowned. "Things that tried to wed dark magic and sorcery with science and medicine." She shook her head. "Such vile things. They executed children to see how much pain their parents would feel. They executed parents to see how much pain their children would feel. They executed one twin in secret, just to see if the other twin could feel it. My mother told me of all this. She told me all of that, but she never said what experiments they did on her, or why they left her alive. I guessed it was because she could throw things with her mind." Jack gaped at the woman's words. Is telekinesis possible? "The soldiers that freed her brought her to this country. She was just a little girl back then, but others already looked up to her. She was strong, you see. After Dachau, after what the Nazis did to her and the rest of our tribe...no one could fuck with her. Not anymore. She stamped out evil in every form, wherever she could find it. That's what drew all the people to her. That's what made this society. Her strength. When she died, I inherited the leadership." The old woman shook her head sadly. "I'm not as strong as she was. I'm not as wise, either. There is darkness gathering around us and I can't do anything to stop it. It will come for the people that look up to me for guidance and protection." Tears started to run down the Gypsy woman's wrinkled cheeks. "I wish my mother was here. She'd chew up the darkness and shit out rainbows." Jack grunted sadly. "Well, now I wish I could meet this woman." A tombstone appeared behind the old gypsy woman and another, similar woman stood up from behind it. She was bent over and had murky eyes, but she looked ready to spit fire and piss acid on anyone that dared look at her askance. Jack wondered what happened in the concentration camps. He knew he didn't have the range to see that from New York. He was surprised when the old woman on stage looked right at him. Their eyes locked and her face blurred out of existence. He could feel her eyes boring into his soul, but he couldn't see them anymore. He looked away from her and blinked his eyes. When he tried to focus on her again, she was nothing but a blur. He couldn't see any of her, but he could feel her eyes boring into him. He looked away from her, but her eyes were still on him. When he looked back at the blur, it had grown in size. It also seemed much closer to him. He chose to focus on the members of the society, but the blur was beginning to eat up the theater, making everything fade into a kind of nothingness where everything existed, but nothing could be made out clearly. Because nothing mattered. All things were the same and that same was pain and suffering and the sounds of all the screams that ever happened because- Jack raised his cloak and found himself safely sitting on the RV's bed. "Oh, fuck." He breathed deep to calm himself. He gulped down two glasses of lemonade and splashed some cold water in his face. His vision was blurry and the RV seemed to be changing dimensions. It reminded him of the blur. His fear cropped up again and he spun repeatedly, fearing the woman suddenly popping up behind his back, unseen and blurry. He became dizzy and fell onto the bed. "Fuck." Over his labored breathing, he could hear some squeals. On, no! Not the sounds of all the screams that ever happened! Before he could start screaming in panic, he heard barking. It echoed through a thousand caves, but he still knew it. Spot, Aramis, Porthos and Athos were barking in alarm. He snapped out of his fugue and made holes in his cloak to see into their minds and find out what the real danger was. He learned the dogs were merely worried about him, cause they could smell his fear. There was no external danger. He sighed in relief and thanked them for their concern. He drew strength from them and dropped his cloak. He found himself back in the theater. The cartoon dog was sitting in the seat next to his. Jack thought of the third group of mentalists and the gypsy woman and her twenty-five followers stood on the stage. He wasted no time in reading their deepest secrets, completely ignoring the woman at the head of the society. He already knew what he was going to put in her letter. He raised his cloak three times to jot down notes. When he dropped his cloak for the third time, he was done with New York mentalists. He just had to write up the letters and mail them. He looked at the cartoon dog and shook his finger at him. "I've got a bone to pick with you, dog! What the hell kind of protective meditations did you teach me the other day? I've had nothing but nightmares ever since!" "First of all, let me congratulate you on your success. You've managed to teach your subconscious to raise the cloak before dreaming, so you are now safe from mentalist intrusions, 24/7." "Yeah, ok, bully for me, but why am I having nightmares?" "Those are only natural, I'm afraid." "Natural?" Jack spread his arms in bewilderment. "What the actual fuck? Are the new meditations making me have nightmares, or not?" "No, they are not." "Then what gives?" The dog sighed heavily. "This is not a topic you wish to discuss, Jack. Not even with your own subconscious." Jack squinted at the dog. "I'm pretty sure it is." "Jack...you've been through a very traumatic experience in that alley. You could have been killed. That's not something you can just shrug off. It's going to stick with you for a long time. Along with the guilt. You feel guilty about causing those deaths, particularly after you've learned that Jacobs and his quartet had been innocent pawns of a greater evil." Jack looked away. "I had no choice. I had to do that. It was them or me." "I know that, Jack. You did the best you could, based on what you knew at the time. But you still feel guilty over it." Jack drew a deep breath and sighed. "So, what's going to happen to me? Am I going to have nightmares for the rest of my life?" The dog moved to sit in front of Jack. His cartoon eyes locked on Jack's and gazed deep into him. "No," he pronounced at last. "You'll always feel guilty over those deaths, we both know that, but the nightmares will slowly fade away. You're too tough, deep down inside, to let them turn you into a neurotic mess. You'll get over it. Just give it some time and keep meditating to control your emotions." "How long will it take?" The dog shrugged. "A few months, maybe more." Jack put his head in his hands. "God, I wish things had gone down differently." The dog put a four-fingered cartoon paw on Jack's shoulder. "I know, Jack. I know." After a while, Jack felt his high running out. "Well, I have to go write letters. Bye, dog." The theater faded away and Jack found himself back in the RV. He pulled his cloak around his mind and gathered up the mess of notes he had made. He moved to the side table and opened up his laptop. He looked at the river and the city beyond. It was well past noon. He sighed and got down to the task of deciphering his stoned notes on the most intimate memories of almost fifty people. He perused the ten letters he had already typed for the non-New Yorker mentalists. He made a form letter for the remaining mentalists in which he warned them about Shauna Patrick and her unidentified master. He included a copy of her driver's license photo. He also pointed out what Jacobs had already done. He put the innermost secret of each recipient at the very beginning of their letter, to get their attention right out of the envelope. Those would also make it painfully clear that his warning was genuine. The dozen rapist fucks from Wall Street had come from all wakes of society and he didn't want to even think about what kind of damage they would have been able to get away with if they had known how to cloak their minds. The three societies he had looked at also had members tempted to turn to the dark side, but the oversight of their leaders kept them in line. Jack suspected some of the mentalists might go rogue if they had a way to hide from their peers. In the end, he made a firm decision. He didn't tell anyone about becoming one with the aether, or protecting their minds. He didn't feel like he could trust such power to just about anybody. He didn't write about himself in the letters, but he let a lot be read between the lines. When he finished the letters, he stared at the blank space on the bottom of each letter. The space where a signature should be. Whilst he had no intention of revealing himself to anyone, he felt a sudden desire to mark his work. He knew it was immature, but the desire refused to be dissolved with reason. At length, he typed, "Half a league, half a league," in lieu of a signature. After he saved drafts of all the letters, he went to a copy shop, where he used his power on the lone employee. He made her print the letters, put on a pair of latex gloves he handed her, stuff the letters into the envelopes with printed addresses on them, seal the envelopes with a wet brush, charge him and forget what his face looked like. He drove into the city and tossed the letters into a mailbox. He tossed his gloves, and the ones the copy girl had been wearing, into a trashcan two blocks down. It was early evening by the time he drove to the hotel Mia had texted him about. He groaned as he pulled up in front of it. It looked like a five-star place. Damn it, Mia, you don't need to spend all my money. He parked around the side, forgoing the valet parking. He walked in and asked the man at the front desk about Mia. "Are you Jack Watts?" Jack was startled, for an instant, before he realized Mia must have given the man his name. "Yes. Why?" "Miss Newman would like for you to join her party in the restaurant." Jack frowned as the man gestured at a big, mirrored door on the opposite end of the lobby. "It's right through there, sir." Jack forced a polite smile. "Thank you." He headed towards the door, shaking his head to himself. Who could she have invited to dinner? Neither of us knows anyone up here. He opened the door and stepped through. The restaurant was very tastefully decorated. The furniture was made from quality wood and the brass details that were everywhere gave it a distinguished feel. The bar was large and to the left of the entrance. Soft light was provided by scores of gas lamps along the walls. Thick, wooden posts spanned the height of the room at regular intervals. Each post had four gas lights attached to it, one per side. "Party of one," a woman asked Jack. He hadn't seen her standing at the other side of the door, behind a hostess' podium. Even in her black, slinky dress, he wondered how he could have missed her. She was tall and lean. Her hair was braided and fell down her bare shoulder. Her dark brown skin glistened in the lamplight. "Uh, no." He gathered up his composure and smiled at the beautiful mulatto. "Newman?" The woman immediately smiled, showing off a row of perfect, white teeth, and said, "Of course. Let me lead you to their table." Again, a pang of worry struck Jack. She said their table. Who's with Mia? He followed the hostess through the restaurant. As he passed under a lamp, he noticed they weren't actual gas lamps, but electric bulbs situated in metal and glass casings in the shape of old-timey, gas-powered, street lights. Some flickering paper between the bulb and the outer casing gave the illusion of flame. His admiration of the restaurant's decor was cut short when the hostess led him around the bar. A whole other half of the restaurant was there, invisible from the entrance. Unlike the more intimate part they had walked through, this one had large windows along one wall and pedestrians were visible walking outside. The setting sun was painting the fronts of the buildings on the opposite side of the avenue with many shades of orange and purple. Across the room from the large windows were big swinging doors, which Jack guessed led to the kitchen. The hostess led him halfway to the opposite corner, not too far from those big doors, before he finally spotted Mia. She was wearing a violet, off the shoulder dress which Jack had never seen her in before. It looked really hot on her, as it hugged her big bosom, narrow waist and wide hips. Her hair was swept sexily to one side and had a lot of wave and bounce to it. Her appearance reminded him of how she had looked on prom night, when they first had sex. He smiled at the memory. His smile fell when he saw who was sitting across the table from her. It was some chubby, middle aged guy he had never seen before. The way the guy's eyes ate up Mia's form made Jack hate him right off the bat. He was bald in front and wore the rest of his long, wavy hair in a pony tail. He was wearing a white shirt with an unbuttoned, black, sleeveless vest and faded jeans. To Jack, he looked like an aging hippy. "Jack," Mia happily exclaimed when she saw him coming. She stood up and waved. The guy's hungry eyes glued themselves to her ass, so he didn't notice Jack glaring at him. Mia pulled Jack into a hug and gave him a kiss. The passion in Mia's kiss made Jack realize she had been primed by Pony tail's leering and, now that Jack was with her, she was ready to jump his bones. If they weren't in public, she'd probably have his dick out, already. He pulled back, looked into her glazed eyes and said, "No." Mia cooled off and nodded in the affirmative. She turned around and said, "This is my boyfriend, Jack Watts. Jack, this is Eric Winters." Jack held out his hand. "Hello." Eric's eyes went from Mia's cleavage to Jack's face. Eric extended his hand and Jack grabbed it, crushing the man's fingers with all his might. Eric frowned and seemed confused. His face was betraying signs of discomfort, which made Jack happy. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 "Jack wants to hear all about your work, too," Mia said. She pulled Jack to the seat next to hers. "Here, babe! You can sit down and hear all about it. Eric's happy to share." Reluctantly, Jack let go of Eric's hand and sat down. Eric winced slightly as he flexed his hand. He shot Jack a sour look, as if Jack had been the one out of line, and returned his attention to Mia. He got an eyeful of cleavage as Mia leaned forward whilst sitting down in her own seat. Jack was distracted by the beautiful hostess, who leaned in to tell him, "I'll send your server right over." Jack nodded and smiled his thanks at her. When she left, Mia leaned towards him and whispered, "Babe, you're not gonna believe our luck. We got into town yesterday and Eric did, too! Can you believe it?" "What's so lucky about that," Jack asked, as he leveled an even glare at Eric. "Well, babe, Eric is the nation's leading expert in all things supernatural." Jack gave the sleazy-looking guy a good once over. The only thing he saw was a middle-aged loser. "Is that so," he said. "Well," Eric said, leaning back and giving Jack an actual look, "I prefer the term paranormal connoisseur. There are many things in this universe which transcend science's narrow views. Those who are not constricted by the vaunted paradigms of the establishment can perceive such things, but only if they are willing." Jack fought hard not to roll his eyes at the man. He was losing the battle, so he turned his face towards Mia. "And how did you meet Eric?" "I attended his lecture today. Isn't New York great? You can find anyone and anything here!" "Yes, quite." He made holes in his cloak, in the shape of his incredulous face and waited to feel Mia's mind through them. When he did, he made holes to look for anything that she might have already told this man about his real abilities. He found nothing, so he felt relief wash over him. He made more holes and looked at why Mia had gone to Eric's lecture and why she invited him to dinner. He felt her need to be useful to him. It had driven her to seek all things paranormal and landed her an invitation to Eric's lecture. The man had spoken of many things, but a part of his lecture spoke about people with paranormal powers and that got her attention. It also netted Eric an invitation to dinner. Jack modified the holes in his cloak and projected the words, What is this idiot doing here? Asking him about mentalism is like me asking a drag queen about you, into her mind. "I invited Eric to dinner and he said yes. He's going to tell us all about mind powers. You should hear him out, babe. It's better than asking a drag queen about your girlfriend." She turned to Eric and flashed him a conspiratory smile. "Would you believe he did that once?" Eric chuckled. "Sounds to me like your boy has a lot of growing up to do before he can deserve a girl as beautiful as you." Jack dropped his connection to Mia's mind. Sound to me like Eric's going to develop a severe case of Sudden Testicular Explosive Pain Syndrome and it's not going to go away until after I leave town tomorrow. Eric gave Jack a dismissive glance. "Boys can be so insecure. What you need is a man who's been around the block a few times. Seen all there is to see." His leering smile made it clear that he considered himself the right man for Mia. He acted as if the two of them were destined to wind up in bed together, later tonight. Before Jack could vent his wrath upon the asshole, a waiter came over to deliver Mia and Eric's starters. Jack sighed with displeasure at seeing they've already ordered. He wanted to tell Eric to fuck off, but Mia shot him a pleading look. The waiter placed a menu in front of Jack and he resigned himself to spending an hour or so in Eric's company. He ordered a steak au poivre with fries. "So, Eric, could you tell my boyfriend something about the government's mind reading experiments?" The way Mia accented the fact Jack was her boyfriend made him cool off. His anger was pointless, he understood. She was with him and nothing this middle-aged punk did could ever change that. He settled back in his chair and waited to hear what Eric had to say. He doubted it would be anything but wacky conspiracy theories, but they might turn out to be amusing. Eric swallowed a mouthful of his appetizer and looked at Jack. "I sense that you're a skeptic." Did the fact that I'm looking at you like you belong on the short bus tip you off? Jack bit back his sardonic grin. "I like to think that I keep an open mind. Please, say what you want." "Oh, I get to say what I want," Eric sarcastically said. "How generous of you." He drew a deep breath, as if he had come to a decision, and said, "When people hear 'government mind control', they think MK-ULTRA and slipping people LSD. That was only a small part of it. It wasn't about achieving mind control through drugs, but it was aimed at identifying individuals with the potential for mind reading powers." Jack stiffened in his seat. His aether connection was fueled by hallucinogens. LSD is a hallucinogen. He knew that MK-ULTRA had been real and that the government had really secretly dosed Americans with LSD. Could they have been trying to spot mentalists? He shared a look with Mia. This is why she brought him here. She grinned, looking like the cat that got the canary, and attacked her appetizer anew. "Did they succeed?" Jack asked Eric. Eric shrugged. "If you want to know the truth of that, you'll have to get the government to share its files with you. Their real files, mind you, not the redacted crap they feed to the public." He paid Mia's breasts another dreamy look. "The truth is a treasure, hidden behind a flimsy veil." He wagged his eyebrows at her. "All the best things in life are." "What else falls under the government's mind control efforts?" Eric was focused on Mia. "What," he asked, distractedly. Jack huffed and said, "You said MK-ULTRA was only a small part of it. What else?" "Oh, well, the rest is too big for any one person to know about." Eric chuckled. "Hell, if I knew even half of it, they'd hunt me down and wipe my memories, or something. The things your friend wanted me to talk more about concern the Ghost Company of the OSS and Operation Librarian." "Do tell," Jack said. He realized that Eric was only talking to impress Mia, but he didn't care. If he wasn't so tired from spending the day reading the memories of fifty mentalists, he'd just reach into this guy's mind and see what's what. Besides, I'm hungry and it doesn't hurt to have some dinner theatre. "Well, during the years leading to World War Two, the Nazis rose to power by leaning heavily on the Thule Society and their paranormal abilities." Jack's flesh broke out in goose bumps. This sounded like the stuff the gypsy leader had heard from her mother, who had been in a concentration camp. "The Office of Strategic Services was formed to fight against all the unconventional things the Nazis brought to bear. They quickly realized the paranormal abilities of the Thule Society were the biggest threat by far, so they formed the Ghost Company, made up of US psychics." "Let me guess, they defeated the Thule Society and really won the war?" Eric shook his head and sneered at Jack like he was a particularly stupid child. "No. The Thule handed them their asses every time they went up against them." Jack spread his hands. "So, why aren't we speaking German right now?" Eric sat back in his seat, pleased as punch at the notion that he had answers others wanted. Mia sensed Jack's impatience and interest and said, "Oh, please, don't leave us hanging, Eric." Eric smiled at Mia. "How could I possibly leave such an enchanting creature hanging?" He leaned towards Mia. "Mia, I can tell that you're truly interested in this subject." He shot Jack a disparaging glance. "I'd like for us to have a chance to converse on this delicate subject matter in private." Jack shook his head at the man's impertinence. Hitting on my girlfriend right in front of me, like I don't even exist? Here's a nice dose of pain to your balls for that! Jack made holes in his cloak in the shape of Mia's embarrassed face and felt like he was falling on his face. There was no mind currently viewing Mia's face, except for his own. Jack frowned and tried to sort things out. He closed those holes and made new ones, in the shape of his words. "No, please, Eric, don't exclude me. I'd be honored to learn all that you have to say on the subject." Through the holes in his cloak, Jack felt only Mia's mind hearing his words. The realization hit him like a freight train. Eric's mind is cloaked! He struggled to keep his panic off his face. He could be the evil puppet master mentalist cunt! Jack's fists tightened as adrenaline flowed through his veins. He bit back the bile that was rising in his throat and reached out for his dogs. They felt his need and eagerly answered, feeding him with strength and a predatory drive. If you've come here to gloat before taking me down, Eric, then you've seriously fucked up! He sent his dogs the order to find the back entrance into the hotel's kitchen and come here. Spot worked the RV's door with his mouth and the four of them spilled out to follow their master's bidding. Eric sat back down in his seat and relaxed. "I won't bother you with specific details, but the Thule Society was aided by many groups. I'm not talking about just the Nazis. They were their patrons and sponsors and all that, but there were many more groups which joined forces with the Thule Society during the war." Jack felt his dogs find the rear door. There was no way they could open it from without. Jack would need to buy some more time until someone opened the door for them to get in. "What were these groups?" "Well, there was the Catholic Inquisition, various witch hunting groups from across protestant Europe, Sufi mystics from all over the Islamic world, and lots of non-religious groups that knew about humanity's true powers. They all joined the Thule Society to study the very nature of humanity's paranormal abilities. The Nazis gave the Thule and their associates full run of the concentration camps, where they performed experiments on the prisoners." "What kind of experiments?" asked a horrified Mia. "My dear," Eric said in a smarmy tone, "a woman of your exquisite stature should never learn about such terrible things. It's best that the details of such atrocities remain unspoken. Besides, it all boiled down to torturing and executing the people in the camps in creatively gruesome ways. It was like Mengele, only more cruel." Jack made holes in his cloak and checked on Mia's mind. As far as he could tell, she had no ideas recently implanted into her mind by Eric. He felt relieved. "Why would they do that?!" Mia sounded like she was learning about the horrors of the Holocaust for the first time. Eric's smile grew even wider. "It is so rare to find a woman that is as sexy as you and so smart at the same time. You've hit the nail right on the head there. They were making use of the misery the Nazis were going to cause anyway, and they did it so they could discern the very nature of human mental powers." Someone opened the rear door to take a bag of trash to the dumpsters and the dogs rushed in to find the kitchen. Jack's adrenaline kicked into higher gear as he got ready to take down the true cloaked figure. An image of the four goons lying in their blood popped up in his head, unbidden. I just need confirmation of the target, first. "What were their findings," Jack asked. "Not all of their research survived the war. Most of it was lost, actually. I can only tell you what was recovered by the Ghost Company in Operation Librarian. It was a part of Operation Paperclip which was specifically aimed at the Thule Society's works." Jack frowned. Operation Paperclip had brought Nazi scientists to the US to create America's space program. "Are you saying that Nazi mind controllers were taken to the US after the war?" Eric laughed and waved his hand. "No, no, no, no, no. Let me start over. The Thule Society and their associates tortured people to discern the very nature of mental powers. But they and their allies had plans that were...let's say, incompatible. The Thule wanted to learn how to bestow mental powers on normal people. They wanted to create a master Aryan race that would literally have rule over all the other races, by paranormal means." Jack felt his dogs gain entry into the kitchen. The staff immediately noticed them and he knew he wouldn't have the element of surprise on his hands. Never mind. After I take down this shit, I'll just make everyone forget I was here and tell the cops Eric committed a particularly horrible suicide. He sent three of the dogs the order to rush into the restaurant proper and make a ruckus. He sent Spot the order to sneak in beside them and hide under tables until he got a good whiff of Eric and could confirm he was The Scent. "Some of the Thule's associates wanted the same thing, but most wanted to understand humanity's mental powers so they could purge them. Wipe the abomination from God's green earth once and for all." They could hear noises coming from the kitchen and Eric peered that way. "Let me guess," Jack said, leaning forward and trying to reclaim Eric's attention, "the religious groups wanted to rid humanity of the paranormal." Eric looked at Jack with surprise in his eyes. "Yes. It wasn't just the religious groups, most of the others wanted the same thing, but all of the religious groups wanted to end-" Porthos burst through the big, swinging doors to run around the restaurant. Everyone jumped up in alarm. People started rushing around and Spot was able to slip through behind Athos and Aramis, unnoticed. He slid under a table and began to creep closer to their table. He sniffed the air. Not wanting to be outdone, Porthos, Aramis and Athos suddenly wheeled around and rushed towards a panicked Eric. Eric was holding on to a thin, metal necklace he had pulled out of his shirt. He looked like he was praying. Jack was struck speechless when all four of his dogs got a good whiff of Eric's scent and declared him to not smell like the true cloaked figure at all. If he's not the evil puppet master mentalist cunt, then who is he? Why can't I read his mind? The hotel staff was trying to wrangle the dogs and Jack gave the three big ones the order to rush out the back, run to the RV and hide inside. He sent Spot the order to come and hide under their own table. He wanted to have some backup, just in case Eric turned out to be a different evil mentalist. With the dogs gone, and Spot hidden out of sight under the fourth chair that was at their table, the hotel staff did its best to try and placate the angry patrons. Most left, understandably angry at the intrusion. They complained loudly about the hotel's lack of hygiene and some threatened legal action. Jack almost winced at the damage he had done to the hotel's reputation. What choice did I have? Eric was as pale as milk and he had looked like he was going to soil himself when the three large dogs had run his way. Jack looked at Mia and nodded at Eric. She nodded, getting the message, and reached across the table. "Eric, won't you tell us more about the, uh, the Thule?" Jack grinned at how lost Eric looked and raised a hand to summon a waiter. The hostess soon joined them and apologized for the incident. She insisted their meal was complimentary and thanked them for their patience. A waiter came rushing over when she snapped her fingers and took Jack's order for a double Scotch without protest. Jack intended to pour the drink into Eric, to get him to relax, but he saw his chance, so he ordered a bottle of wine for the table, as well. Neither the hostess, nor the waiter, contested his order because of his age and he smiled. Pretty soon, Eric downed the Scotch and the waiter opened their wine to let it breathe. When the waiter left, Jack leaned forward and said, "Eric, you were saying?" Eric startled and looked at him. "What? Oh! Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, uh...where was I?" "The Thule Society wanted to create a supernatural Aryan race and their allies wanted to wipe out all of humanity's supernatural abilities." "Now, you have to understand that most of their work was lost forever. I don't know anything more than what was recovered in Operation Librarian. The bad guys were able to determine that humans themselves were the source of their abilities. People project this sort of...group subconscious that particularly sensitive people can use to read minds and such." Jack sat up straight in his chair. He's talking about the aether. "The more humans lived on the planet at the same time, that is, the bigger the population became, the stronger the shared subconscious would become. This would lead to more and more people gaining supernatural powers, since even the ones who were less sensitive to the group subconscious would be able to feel it." He held up his hands like a pair of balancing scales. "The stronger the shared subconscious, the less strong the gifted person needs to be to access it. Do you follow my meaning?" Jack and Mia both nodded. "The associates of The Thule knew that the only way to truly end the paranormal was to end humanity itself and they didn't want that. They stuck with the research until they discovered a way to sever humanity from the shared subconscious." "How?" Eric lifted his plain necklace. "This is how, actually. My great-great-uncle left me this. He had been a part of the Ghost Company. Everything I know about this subject, I learned from his surviving correspondence that I also inherited." Jack looked at the simple chain of links with a skeptic eye. "How does a necklace sever humanity from the shared subconscious?" "It's the composition of the alloys themselves. See, half the links are made from one alloy and half the links are made from another. Each link is connected to links made of the other alloy. When they touch each other against human skin, they piggyback on human bioelectricity and create this static field that shields a person's mind. If they're worn around the neck, that is. If you wear them around your ankle, they don't do much." He gave Mia a leer. "Unless you can put your ankle behind your head." Mia gave a tiny shudder of disgust and Jack beat back the urge to backhand Eric across the mouth. He cleared his throat instead. "My question still stands, how does one necklace sever humanity from-" "No, no, no," Eric interrupted. He was much more talkative once he had some Scotch in his belly. "The necklace only protects my mind. It's the two alloys when they're touching each other and a living person, that's the trick. They emit this static field that's similar to how human minds interact with the shared subconscious. While the Thule strength was out steering Operation Citadel, their associates somehow used the combination of these alloys and the mass sufferings in the death camps to sever the link." Jack frowned. "So, there are no more supernatural powers?" He briefly had the urge to point out to the man just how untrue that claim was. Eric shook his head. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit shook up. I don't see rabid dogs run through an upscale restaurant every day, you know. I'm not explaining myself right. It's only severed in two of those places. In the areas where two concentration camps once stood, there can be no supernatural powers used. They were still experimenting, you see. They did it once, by accident, and a second time to make sure they knew what it was. They were gearing up for a global event, but didn't make it in time. The Thule had felt the events and rushed back to stop their associates." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 "See, now that doesn't make sense, either," Jack said as he sat back in his seat. Eric's ramblings had struck some chords true, but there were holes in the story. "If The Thule Society and all these other groups had mind readers in their ranks, why didn't they know about what the other side wanted to do?" "They did know. The Thule knew about their associates and they knew about The Thule agenda. It's just that each group needed the other's help in achieving their own goals. At the very beginning, they learned that humans themselves were the source of the shared subconscious. After that, The Thule dismissed their associates' goals as impossible and started to share all their research in earnest. Both sides were equally surprised when the alloys were stumbled upon." Eric frowned. "Wait a minute! What makes you think they had mind readers in their midst? I never said anything about that." "You said the OSS Ghost Company was made up of US psychics and The Thule kept handing them their asses." Jack spread his arms in question. "How would they do that without being psychics themselves?" "Oh," Eric said and looked stymied. "Right." "So, what happened?" Mia's question made Eric notice her again. "A very good question, Mia." He winked at her. "You're as smart as you are sexy." He picked up the wine bottle. "Here, let me pour you a glass of this wine." Jack was eager for answers, not wine. He snatched the bottle from Eric's hand. "I'll pour." Eric relinquished the bottle and leaned towards Mia. "That's ok. I find myself wanting to gaze into your beautiful eyes." Jack saw that the man's eyes weren't aimed at Mia's face eyes, but rather at her chest eyes. He took a deep breath and focused on pouring the wine. If the guy didn't have that necklace that protected him from his powers, he'd use his powers to-Jack realized he didn't know if Eric's mind was protected by the necklace, or if he was a mentalist that was lying about the necklace. He set the wine bottle aside. He made holes in his cloak, connected with Mia's mind and sent her the order to try on the necklace. "Eric, may I see that necklace?" "Of course," Eric said with a sleazy smile. He got out of his chair and stood over Mia. He leaned down until his necklace was hanging freely in front of her face. He now had a spectacular view down Mia's cleavage and he was taking every advantage of it. Jack wanted to stand up and smack the asshole on the side of his head to remind him that he was right there, sitting next to them. He settled for giving Spot the order to take aim at the man's balls. If Eric pushed it too far, he would be castrated, mentalist, or no. Jack sketched a bitter grin and said, "Mia, I want to see how it would look on you. Put it on!" "Ok!" Mia took the necklace off a distracted Eric's neck with one swift motion and put it on herself. Even before she swept her hair over it, Jack lost his connection to her mind. Holy fuck! It's true! A fucking necklace can protect you from mentalism! He double-checked his hypothesis by making holes in his cloak shaped like the sight of Mia's prodigious cleavage. He felt several male minds looking down various cleavages, but once he refined the hole to include the color of Mia's pretty, new dress, he felt only Eric. He immediately looked to see if Eric was telling them the truth. Jack was relieved to learn that he was. He made Eric feel the need to tell them everything he had ever learned from his great-great uncle's estate, along with the desire to never again leer at Mia. Eric returned to his seat. "Well, after that, The Thule Society and their associates fought and destroyed each other. The Thule were completely gone, but the OSS had some good leads that there were several survivors from their associates' ranks. Anyway, the groups were all effectively destroyed, so they never bothered with rounding up those few individuals who went into surprisingly effective hiding. Most likely," he nodded at Mia, "they had such necklaces around their necks. Without The Thule helping them, the Nazis began losing to the Soviets and the OSS soon found itself on German territory, gathering up what remained of all their research." Eric frowned. "A lot of this stuff, it wasn't done in the most stringent of scientific conditions, you must understand. The very nature of mental powers is highly individual, difficult to reproduce with a high degree of certainty. There are indications that The Thule had managed to master remote viewing, precognition and postcognition, but no solid data on those things had ever been recovered." Jack nodded. He had managed to accomplish remote viewing into the past when he had seen the young soldier bury his baseball cards. It was the result of being joined with the aether under the effects of pot. He had also thought he had managed to see into the future when he rescued Mia from rape, but that had turned out to be just an extrapolation of current events. "They also learned that the language barrier prevented mind reading. If a person with mental powers didn't have a language in common with a person they wanted to read, they simply couldn't do it clearly." Jack frowned. He had read the mind of a rapist whose first language had been Spanish. Oh, right, his dad and he spoke English, too. He kept his frown. "If they couldn't read minds in foreign languages, then how did The Thule help the Nazis against the Soviets?" "A lot of the Soviet senior brass had been trained in German academies before the war, so they were fluent in German. There was one thing that The Thule had managed to accomplish with a reasonable degree of reproducibility. It was a terrible, terrible thing. They could bestow a paranormal power to a regular person." "What power," Mia asked. "Telekinesis." "That doesn't sound terrible," Mia remarked. "The way they did it was. The only people they could turn into telekinetics were prepubescent girls. The way they did it..." Eric shook his head and his eyes glazed over. "I never told this to anyone. It's too terrible. But I'll tell you. They learned that if a prepubescent girl was sexually abused by a close relative, she stood a small chance of gaining telekinesis if she was utterly unable to stop the horrible abuse in any other way. Usually, that would mean that her abuser was a person of impeccable social standing, but in those camps..." Eric looked disgusted. "God! Just reading about that shit made me nauseous. To this day, whenever I see a neo-Nazi group on the news, I just want to pick up a gun and...rid the world of them." Jack thought back to what he had learned about the former leader of New York's largest mentalist society. He closed his eyes as he tried to banish the image of her blurring out his connection to the aether. He realized he believed everything Eric said and that meant that the aether was probably broken somewhere over Europe. He wanted to go there and take a look. An image of a derringer in a chewed off hand popped up in his mind's eye, making him feel like there was no air to breathe. What if I go there and lose my powers permanently? The old gypsy woman had come out of Dachau with mind reading and telekinetic powers, but that didn't mean Dachau had been one of the camps where the aether was broken. He forced himself to draw a deep breath before saying, "Which camps had the ae...the group subconscious been broken in?" Eric looked stymied as he shrugged. "The letters never said which camps. Very few things had been specifically written in the letters. Both my uncle and whomever he was writing knew the specifics, so their language was very broad." Jack shuddered and decided he wasn't going to go to Europe any time soon. Mia interrupted his train of thought by taking his hand in hers and giving it a squeeze. He looked at her and was surprised to see her bubbling with barely subdued excitement. He gave her a questioning look, but she just smiled. "Anyway, that's all I've been able to piece together from my great-great uncle's letters. Everything else is..." He shrugged. "I don't know. It's hidden in a CIA vault, or somewhere. If you want to know more, you need to talk to someone else. I know I talk a big game, but pretty much everything else I say in my lectures is either hearsay or stuff I make up to get people to invite me to give lectures." He shrugged. "A man's gotta earn a living and if people want to pay me to tell them stories..." "Do you know about any current paranormal powers in America," Jack asked him. Eric shook his head. "No, not really. There are supposed to be more supernaturally endowed people in the world now than there ever were before, but they are all hidden. Either they're all wearing those necklaces, or they've fallen off the face of the Earth." Or Jacobs had found and killed most of them, Jack thought ruefully. Was the puppet master I'm chasing one of those fucks that ran experiments in concentration camps? He remembered his dogs had identified Shauna's handler as a man in his prime and that made him wonder if the man himself wasn't a creation of those evil fucks from those days long gone. He wondered if all the suffering he had witnessed wasn't the result of just one sick fuck trying to accomplish some agenda from humanity's darkest hour. "There must always be one," were the words he had felt through the aether when Jacobs and Patrick had been turned. That sounded to him like something a religious crusader would spout. The waiter came out with their food, assuring them the dogs had never come near it and apologizing for the delay, but Jack and Eric barely picked at it in their depressed state. Mia ate with a healthy appetite and poured herself a few glasses of wine to go with it. They skipped dessert, which made Mia give a disappointed whine. Eric stood up to leave and asked for his necklace back. Jack slipped into his mind again to learn all he could about the necklace. The chemical composition of the alloys had been explicitly written in one his great-great uncle's letters and Jack quickly memorized it. After that, he gave Mia the nod to hand the necklace over. As she took it off, Jack was struck by a sudden idea and reached out to take it himself. He felt nothing while it was in his hand. He lifted it over his head and let it fall down to lie around his neck. He still felt nothing. He lifted his cloak and felt nothing. His cloak remained in place, only it now felt like it was being forced on him. He tried to make holes in it and failed. He realized his cloak was just an emulation of the necklace's properties. The realization that his own cloak was the result of those terrible experiments made him feel sullied and sick to his stomach. He forced himself to focus on the positive. The necklace disabled a mentalist, when worn around the neck. He could use it to neutralize Patrick and her master. It also protected against mentalism. He could send all the mentalists he had warned a second letter and urge them to wear such a necklace at all times. He'd just have to find a metalworker to make enough of them for all the mentalists in America. He took the necklace off and returned it to Eric. He lifted his own cloak in its place. Eric left without a word and Jack got up to slowly walk out. Under the table, Spot made a soft noise. Jack sent him the order to follow him out and left the restaurant. The hostess gave him a heated glare as she saw the dog. She stomped up to Jack and said, "You brought the dogs in! You'll answer for all the damages the hotel might be held liable-" Jack opened up holes in his cloak, in the shape of his sad face, and slipped into the woman's mind. He convinced her he didn't have a dog with him. As he thought about walking out through the lobby and being seen by the people at the front desk and the doorman and security cameras, he looked into her mind to see if there were security cameras in the restaurant itself. Once he saw there weren't, he told Spot to go out through the kitchen. "Mia, check out, please." "Aw, but I got us the room and I-" "Now, please." She huffed and went to the front desk to do as he said. Jack went to the RV and ate a pot cookie as soon as he got in. He pet his dogs and took out the files Drew Maynard had given him. He leafed through them and saw that each of Jacobs' four goons had a plain necklace in their pocket at the time they had died. Jack had skimmed right over that tidbit when he had first read the files. The necklaces had been found in the goons' pockets, not around their necks. That explains why I was able to read their minds. Jacobs probably had them take the necklaces off while they waited for me so he could communicate with them that way. Jack shrugged. It didn't matter to him why the goons hadn't been wearing their necklaces when he came calling on Jacobs. All that mattered was that he had a lead on four backup necklaces, in case he couldn't get some made for them right away. He got into position on the bed. He began his meditations. Halfway through them, Mia opened the door and climbed in, her arms laden with shopping bags. She tossed them all down on the side table and couch and huffed loudly. Jack kept ignoring her and patiently did his meditative exercises as he waited for the brief high to kick in. Once it did, he found himself in the theater. He thought about a metallurgist, or someone who could be able to recreate Eric's necklace in short order. He saw several people on the stage, each doing something. He thought about which one of them had those exact alloys on hand, or could get their hands on them the quickest. An old, fat man sitting in front of a TV remained. Jack thought about his phone number and it was projected onto the big screen at the back of the stage. Jack's high ran out very quickly and he raised his cloak as he found himself back in the RV. He raised a finger at Mia, to stop her from speaking, and dialed the man's number from one of his burner phones. He made holes in his cloak that were shaped like the words he was saying to the man and slipped into his mind. He tried to convince the man to make a large batch of the anti-aether necklaces, only to learn that such necklaces were standard issue for the US military since 1947. He could get them at any Army surplus store, as well as at the fat, old man's store-which was closed at the moment. Jack convinced the man to meet him at his store and turn a dog tag necklace into two chokers for Mia. He closed up his cloak holes to end his connection to his mind, and hung up the phone. He drove to the store and bought the two chokers for Mia. When he got in the RV again, he handed one of them to Mia. "As long as you wear this, you're safe from any and all mentalist intrusions into your mind." Her eyes went as wide as saucers. "For real?" He nodded. "Even the over the phone stuff?" "Yes. This protects you from every kind of gimmick. You're safe, as long as you have this around your neck. And here's a spare. Keep it near you at all times, too." The necklaces were too short to be placed over her head, which also made them too short to be removed that way. She put one in her purse and opened the clasp of the other. She handed it to Jack. "Put it on me!" She lifted her hair and turned her back to him. He fastened it around her neck and she turned around to kiss him. He was still shaken up by all the information he had taken in that day, so he barely responded to her tongue's prodding. Mia pulled back and looked into his eyes. "Thank you, Jack. Thank you so much. I knew you'd keep me safe!" She gave him a hug, taking care to press her tits hard against his chest. When she let go of him, she asked, "But we can still have some magical, sexy fun with this on, right?" Jack shook his head. "That stops your mind from being tampered with by anyone for any purpose. Including me making you think you're being ravished by a tentacle monster." Mia wilted somewhat. "Shame." A mischievous grin spread across her face. She picked up her necklace and pulled the clasp around to the front. "Why don't I take this off so we can have some naughty fun?" "Not tonight, Mia. Drive us back to our spot across the river." "Aw," she protested, "but I had a whole night planned for us and everything." He moved to the bed and wiped his face with his hands. "Just drive, please." She got behind the wheel and punched the location into the navigation. She turned the engine over and carefully edged the big vehicle into traffic. She had a little difficulty maneuvering such a big rig through the thick New York traffic, but she managed. Jack joined her in the front seat after a while. "Mia, why weren't you shocked?" "What do you mean, babe?" "When Eric told us that terrible story about what the Nazis did to small girls, you seemed almost excited." "It's true?" "There it is again. You look like you're holding a winning lottery ticket and not like..." Mia was biting her lower lip before she broke into a hopeful grin. "Could you do it?" "Do what?" "Give me a power? Like that telekinetic thing?" Jack gaped at her in horror. "Of course not! Didn't you hear what he said in there?! Didn't you hear any of it?! To become telekinetic, you'd have to be a little girl that's...I mean, fuck, Mia, that's just sick!" "Well...you could just make me think so. It doesn't have to be for real." "No! Absolutely not!" "Oh, please, babe!" "Are you even listening to yourself?! Can you hear how crazy you sound!? I'm not going to make you believe you've been molested! I can't believe you'd even ask me to!" "It would just be make believe! You could always undo it!" Jack faced front, feeling shell-shocked. "I'm not even going to talk about this anymore." "Oh, please, babe, won't you even try?" Jack turned to stare at her in revulsion. What the hell has gotten into her? "I'd make it so worth your while, babe." She gave him a saucy wink, completely ignoring the expression on his face. "No." He faced front again, nothing but darkness and revulsion on his mind. "Don't ever so much as mention this crazy shit to me again." He glared out the window and wondered if the whole world was built on madness and lies. He quickly stopped asking himself such pointless questions and focused on what he really wanted to know. Was the aether broken somewhere in Europe? He guessed that if going to those places could permanently strip a mentalist of their power, then Jacobs would have kidnapped people and taken them there, instead of doing what he did. At the very least, he would have called his mentalist victims up on the phone, told them they won free trips to Europe and booked them into hotels near those two places. A mentalist could always find the money to pay for such trips. Jack needed to know for sure. He couldn't rely on conjecture about Jacobs' actions. The puppet master's agenda, whatever it was, did not exactly reek of logic and sanity. While Mia drove them across the river, he ate a few more pot cookies. By the time she parked at the RV camp, he found himself back in the theater. He thought about New York's mentalists and which of them were most likely to try drugs. He was surprised to find that nine of the mentalists regularly used pot and psychotropic mushrooms to fuel their clairvoyant abilities. Each of them shared their clairvoyant visions with their societies, but they kept the secret of what fueled them to themselves. Jack wasn't surprised to learn that having clairvoyant powers gave the mentalists greater standing in their societies. He wondered how those mentalists kept the source of their powers a secret and the three leaders of the societies showed up on stage. They recited one of the rules that all three societies shared; no member shall read another member's mind without express permission. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 07 Jack was a little surprised to see that keeping such a secret did not paint a mentalist malevolent in his vision. The cartoon dog showed up in the seat next to Jack's. He answered Jack's unspoken question. "You don't consider keeping a secret like that to be evil, so these people aren't presented to you as malevolent." Jack thought about which of these pot-smoking mentalists was most likely to go to Europe anytime soon. A young man from the Romani woman's society remained on the stage. Jack thought about how to get in touch with the man. The young man's name, Pavel, was projected on the screen behind him, right above his phone number. Jack's high expired and he left the RV to let Mia fix their bed for them. He took one of the burner phones and dialed Pavel. He slipped into the young man's mind as soon as they spoke over the phone and learned that Pavel was going backpacking across Europe this summer. Jack instilled the desire to visit every concentration camp in the man's mind and also the desire to use his clairvoyance at those locations. Jack hung up the phone. Before the summer was out, Pavel would be back in New York and Jack would learn if there were rips in the aether over Europe. He looked across the water at the lights of New York. He would love to go to Europe himself and enjoy seeing all the beautiful places with Mia, but he had a duty to attend to. He had mentalists to warn. He sighed and went back inside the RV. A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08 Jack spent the night awake, staring at the roof of the RV. Mia slept soundly, draped over his side. Plagued by doubts, he paid little notice to her firm, hot body next to his. He didn't know whether to tell benevolent mentalists about the necklaces that protected against mentalism, or to leave them exposed to Shauna Patrick and her master. Mentalism granted practically absolute mastery over any mind whose state and thoughts a mentalist could match, even for a split second. He had felt the temptation to abuse such power lurk in the hearts of several of the benevolent mentalists he had found in New York. They were members of supernatural societies and they toed the line, but Jack feared that they would skip over it, if they had the instrument of concealment at hand. Plus, if they felt the necklaces touch their skin, they might learn how to replicate their effects on their own, thus allowing them to cloak their minds in the same way as he did. Usually, mentalism required that a mentalist become the person whose mind they're intruding into, even for a moment. It was hard to violate another person when you could feel them and their thoughts and feelings as clearly as if they were your own. The cloak-hole technique gave no such insight. Jack could only hear the thoughts he was specifically looking for. It would be easy to disregard the other person's emotions if you didn't have to feel them. If these mentalists figured out the cloak-hole technique and that ability made them go bad and mind-rape other people, Jack would feel responsible. On the other hand, if he didn't tell them about the necklaces, sooner or later, Patrick and her handler would get to them. They would take away the mentalists' sanities and wills to live. Ever since his father had told him about the Navy officer he had been named for, Jack had tried to live his life in accordance to that man's teachings. Lying in bed and enduring the humid heat, he thought of them. Good men had a duty to serve the greater good every day of their lives, Jack White had taught his father. A good man was always ready to honor his own worth and the worth of others by standing up against evil wherever he found it. Those were ideals to live by, but Jack couldn't figure out how to apply them to his current situation. Tell the mentalists about the necklaces and risk them becoming evildoers, or don't tell them and leave them exposed to the current evildoers? He didn't feel like it was his place to decide the fates of hundreds, or thousands of people. He wasn't an elected official. He never signed up to serve. Didn't I? This trip was my idea, no one asked me to make it. And here I am, stumbling on the first step. He let himself wallow in the yearning to just go home and forget about all this. While his mind spun in endless debate, sleep managed to creep up on him. He dreamed he was in a field. It was autumn and decaying leaves were everywhere. A sudden gust of cold wind made Jack shiver and curl up. It blew the leaves off the ground and revealed Jack was in a graveyard. Tombstones stretched out as far as Jack could see. The names on them were of all the mentalists that had suffered at the hands of Jacobs and his master. As Jack's gaze fell, he saw that the five tombstones nearest to him bore the names of Jamie Jacobs and his four goons. Rotting, skeletal hands suddenly burst from the loose soil and reached up to seize him. Jack startled awake in his bed. He wiped the sweat from his brow and gulped air. The dogs woke up and watched him with raised ears. He calmed them with a gesture. Mia rolled off him and he got up to wipe himself down with a towel. The night was oppressively hot and humid, even without a nightmare-induced burst of adrenaline sweat. He lay back on the bed and his mind resumed spinning in its cycle of what-ifs. By the time dawn finally broke, he came to a decision. It was dishonorable to think of the benevolent mentalists he had seen as just bad guys waiting to happen. They had banded together and done good. Those had been their choices in life, so far. They deserved to know. It was his duty to help them in any way he could. He would tell the benevolent mentalists about the necklaces. Just as they deserved to know about the danger that was out there, they also deserved to know how to protect themselves from it. In the end, he was laying the responsibility at their own feet. If they chose to go bad and hid it from everyone else, he was not to blame. In his mind's eye, all the suffering they could cause was secondary to all the suffering Patrick and her master will cause. After all, everyone can be a rapist, or a murderer, but the vast majority of people chooses to not rape and murder other people. He beat back the small voice in the back of his mind that tried to point out that the vast majority of humanity didn't have the option of making strangers do their killing and raping for them with mentalist impunity. If I decide that benevolent mentalists, people who have already chosen not to abuse others in such a way, aren't worthy of my faith, then where do I draw the line? He got up and typed up second letters for those mentalists, in which he told them about the necklaces. He signed them with "Half a league onwards", the second verse from "The Charge of the Light Brigade", one of the few poems he knew by heart from start to finish. Mia woke up by the time he was done and they had a breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and sausages. The dogs scarfed down bowls of kibble. Jack pulled out of the trailer park and drove them north. He stopped at the first print shop they passed, and again had the letters printed without traces that could lead back to him. He tossed them into a mailbox in the next town they passed through. "So, where are we going?" Mia asked as they entered Connecticut. "Well, I was going to drive us to Augusta, but...I'm having second thoughts." "What do you mean?" Jack sighed. "I originally made my cross-country tour plan with the intent to stick to the major population centers, where I was more likely to find mentalists. I'm not so sure about that anymore." Mia frowned. "What? Do you wanna stay in, like, the woods...or something?" "No, it's just," he trailed off. "For instance, our recent stay in New York was a mistake. I wasted almost half my radius on the Atlantic. I didn't feel any mentalists on ships passing by the shore." "So, you wanna stay away from the sea?" "Yes, we need to keep inland. When you try to cover the US with a bunch of circles, you either have a lot of overlap, or a lot of gaps in between the circles. I mean, I'd prefer overlap to huge gaps, but they are both unavoidable. I'll have to waste half my radius on the sea again, sooner or later. I need to re-think my route. I'll pull over here and you take the wheel, ok?" "Ok." While Mia drove them north, Jack modified his route. He'd have to stay in coastal places a few more times, but he felt confident he could cover the entire US, including Alaska and Hawaii, in less than forty stops. For his next stop, he chose a small bed and breakfast in a historic house some twenty five miles west of Augusta. It would allow him to see the whole of New England, while wasting little of his radius on the ocean. It would also let him see all the way from Boston to Quebec and Montreal. He was curious to know if Jacobs' master had confined him to national borders, or not. When they stopped for lunch at a roadside diner, he brought the laptop and showed Mia where they were going to stay that night. The website boasted of internet access, a premium cable package in every room and ensuite bathrooms. That was more than enough to sell it to Mia. The drive north was uneventful and provided them with many opportunities to admire the beautiful countryside. The people running the B&B were an elderly couple named Rick and Mandy. Mandy had a long face, covered in wrinkles. Her skeletally thin hands kept rubbing one another, as if she was spreading an invisible cream on them. Her husband had a prominent pot belly. His head was bald and covered in liver spots, which simply drew the eye away from his hawkish nose. They both greeted Mia and Jack warmly. They lured their young guests to a table in the large, downstairs sitting room with trays of freshly baked cookies that smelled mouthwatering. No sooner were Jack and Mia seated, than the owners launched into their life story. They told of how unhappy they had been in their lives before purchasing this house and opening their little inn. Mandy had worked as a secretary and Rick had been a salesman. Their children had moved to Florida and California and rarely called. Mandy told of how long it had been since their last visit with a quiver to her lip and a tremble in her voice. Jack didn't want to appear rude, so he sat and listened for the better part of an hour. When the couple launched into recalling all the minute details of refurbishing the lovely, three-storied house, his patience vanished. "Thank you both for the lovely welcome," he said, "but I'm afraid Mia and I have to go unpack now." "Oh," Mandy said, sounding forlorn. "We had hoped you'd be willing to stay and sit with us for a while, but I understand." She nodded with a tear in her eye. "We don't want to be a burden to you." Rick put a hand on hers and gave it a squeeze in sympathy. "You're not a burden," Mia said. "We'd love to hear about the floral wallpaper! Wouldn't we, babe?" "Uh..." "Sit down, Jack! Mandy, please tell us where you found such a wonderful wallpaper! The flowers are so beautiful." Jack shot a dubious look at the wallpaper. The house was an amazing specimen of architecture and it had obviously been built with skill for it to be still standing after all those years. Jack never had a keen eye for the aesthetic, but he thought the decor to be garish. The floors, staircases and banisters were all made of oak and would be impressive, if they weren't partially covered by rugs in clashing, loud colors. The chairs were rickety and upholstered with odd geometric patterns. The more Jack looked around, the fewer things he found pretty. "Um, I'll leave you to talk decorating tips while I go get our bags." Jack turned on his heel and left, ignoring Mandy's attempt to point out the beauty of the furniture to him. Rick got up to follow Jack and help him carry the bags, but he stood at the front door while Jack got the bags. He held the door open for Jack and complained about his rheumatism stopping him from repeating the many feats of strength he had done when he was Jack's age. Jack briefly interrupted him to learn where their room was. As Jack toted the bags past the sitting room, he could hear Mandy asking Mia in a loud, conspiratorial whisper, "So, when are the two of you going to tie the knot?" He paused at the foot of the stairs and listened for Mia's reply. "Oh, we're too young to be thinking about that," she said. "Nonsense! You're never too young! Time is ticking away, young lady. If you don't go after what you want, you'll become an old maid. You don't want to be an old maid, believe you me." Jack shook his head and carried the bags up the stairs to their room. Rick followed slowly, clutching a key in his hand as if it unlocked the Pearly Gates. Jack patiently waited for Rick to fumble his way through unlocking the door and then carried the bags inside. He took a look around the room and asked, "Where's the bathroom?" Rick hooked his thumb over his shoulder and pointed behind him. "It's at the end of the hall." Jack frowned. "What?" Rick waved for Jack to come to him and pointed with his arm down the hall. "It's right there, at the end of the hall." He smiled warmly and spoke to Jack as if he were a small child, "It's the white door with the brass knob. You turn the knob and open the door to go in." "Your website said each room had its own bathroom." "Yes," Rick said. He nodded down the hall. "That's the bathroom for the rooms on this floor. The rooms upstairs have their own bathroom." "Hey! I didn't reserve a room with a communal bathroom." "Of course not! This room has that bathroom and the rooms upstairs have their own bathroom. It's only called a communal bathroom when there's only one bathroom per inn." Jack blinked and looked at the other five doors on this floor. "The fuck...?" Rick frowned. "Young man, we do not tolerate such language in this house!" "Do you, or do you not, have rooms with ensuite bathrooms?" Rick shook his finger at Jack. "I already explained the bathroom situation to you. Now I think it's time I explained some other rules in this house." Jack huffed and squeezed past the man. He came down the stairs, where Mia and Mandy were cheerfully talking about the best flowers for a wedding bouquet. "I hate to interrupt, but our room doesn't seem to have a bathroom." Mia's jaw dropped. "What?" Mandy gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "There's nobody else staying here this week. The bathroom is practically your own." "I also didn't see a TV set in our room, or any sockets, for that matter. Do we have internet and cable?" "Of course you do," Rick said, sounding winded and insulted as he came up behind Jack. "It's all set up in the television room." He pointed to the door next to the banister. "Right there." "So, unlike what was said on your website, we do not, in fact, have our own bathroom, internet access and cable TV?" Mandy shook her head with a patient smile plastered on her wrinkled face. "Young man, I have a feeling that you're trying to be difficult. You have your own room and full run of the bathroom down the hall. The TV and computer are right here, in the next room, where we can all sit down and spend some time together." "One TV?" Mia asked with disbelief. "In the same room as the computer?" "Yes," Mandy said. "Oh, you young people and your flashy screens and internets and what-nots. Whatever happened to good old fashioned face-to-face conversation? Spending quality time together?" Jack snorted and said, "I think it went the same way as truth in advertising." Mandy didn't like the sound of that comment, so she folded her hands in her lap and said, "Young man, the way things are is the way things are in this house. You can take it, or leave it, but-" "Oh, we'll be leaving," Mia said and jumped out of her seat. Rick muttered something behind Jack's back. All Jack could make out was the word "spoiled". Mandy's face went cold and hard. "As you wish. But we charge cancellation fees and we will also be charging you for a day's stay." Mia gasped in offense. "What?!" "We could have rented that room to anyone else today, but we didn't, because you had reserved it." "We only reserved it earlier today," Mia exclaimed. "And you don't have anyone else here! You said so yourself!" "That is besides the point," Mandy calmly said. She looked at Jack in triumph. "Your credit card will be charged for the late cancellation fee and a day's stay." Jack drawled, "Yeah...that's..." He shook his head and smiled. "That's not going to work for me." Mandy snorted. "Well, young man, there's nothing you can do about it." "Yeah," Rick piped up behind Jack and poked him in the shoulder with a finger. "So stick that in your pipe and smoke it!" One minute and a few cloak-holes later, Mandy was erasing Jack's uncharged credit card information from their system and Rick was on the phone with whoever made their website for them, inputting some changes. Mia watched them with a smirk on her face while Jack retrieved their luggage. Jack drove them away from the inn and saw a small side road that led into the nearby woods. On impulse, he decided to venture off the beaten path and turned onto the side road. The camper handled the rough, rutted, forest road with ease, though Mia didn't look too happy with the jostling. They soon came across a creek and found a small clearing next to it. It was ringed by old, thick trees, covered with bright green moss. The creek burbled as it wound its way between and around boulders that broke the surface of the water. Mia gaped out the windshield. "It's beautiful." "Wanna stay here for a while?" She nodded. "I'll put together a picnic!" Jack parked as close to the clearing as the trees would allow and let the dogs out. The grass was a thick, green carpet underneath his feet. Mia put together a small picnic for the two of them and they ate it on a blanket in the clearing, enjoying the afternoon sun. That got boring after a while, so they cleaned up their picnic and tossed a Frisbee for the dogs to catch. The foursome dashed this way and that, happily sailing through the air to catch the Frisbee. Half an hour later, Jack quit playing and turned towards the camper. "Hey," Mia called after him, "where are you going?" He turned around and hooked his thumb over his shoulder. "To do what I came here to do." "Ok, well, what am I supposed to do in the meanwhile? We're in the middle of nowhere." Jack shrugged. "Take the dogs for a walk, or something." He started to turn around when Mia indignantly asked, "Did you just tell me to go take a hike?" Jack froze for an instant and then turned to face her again. Her expression was one of sadness and disbelief. "No! Uh, Mia, I don't-I mean, I didn't-I...you know why I'm here, I need to-" Mia burst into loud laughter and pointed a finger at him. "Gotcha!" He shot her a look, while she laughed a little more. "Ah, you should've seen your face, babe. Go! Go do your thing! We'll be fine out here, all alone in the cold and dark. We'll just huddle together for warmth and safety." "It's ninety degrees, the sun is shining and your T-shirt is clinging to your body from all the sweat." She stuck her tongue out at him and walked off, patting her thighs and calling for the dogs to follow. Jack sent them the order to go with her and keep her distracted for at least an hour. He knew they'd have no problem with finding their way back to the clearing. Once inside the RV, he scarfed down some cookies and did his meditative exercises. Half an hour later, he was in the theater, looking up intimate secrets for the letters he would send to the seventeen American and five Canadian mentalists whose memories he could access from his location. He also felt the memories of twenty-five deceased American mentalists and another five dead Canadian mentalists. Some of them had gone loony and killed themselves since Jacobs had been made into the cloaked figure, so Jack assumed that he had killed them, just like the rest. The cartoon dog showed up in the seat next to Jack's the instant Jack began entertaining doubts. "Should I assume this was all Jacobs' work? Manipulating a mind doesn't show up in the aether. Some of these people could have just gone nuts on their own." "That's a good point," the dog said. "Look closer at their lives. Did they slowly slip into insanity, or was it a sudden thing?" Jack thought about it and learned that all the suicide victims went nuts overnight. "It was a sudden thing." "Well, there you go. Jacobs' work, no doubt." "Wait! Why can't I see Jacobs anymore?" "You never could see Jacobs," the dog said. "When you had watched the cloaked figure take powers from mentalists, what you actually saw was the personification of their fear and the way their subconscious interpreted their sudden loss of powers and sanity. None of them had any memory of the event. When you saw those two mentalists back home commit suicide, there was no longer a cloaked figure with them. No one was standing over their tombstones." Jack sighed. "So, if I find a living victim of Jacobs, I'll see the cloaked figure passing a hand over their face and turning them into a depressed lunatic?" A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08 "Yes, you have that glad sight to look forward to," the dog deadpanned. When Jack's high ran out, he found himself back in the RV, personalizing the warning letters with each mentalist's most closely guarded secret. He felt like a perv for having pried into those, but he needed to make them believe what he was writing. Mia came back with the dogs before he finished. She quietly set about making some dinner for them. Typing up the letters was quick work and Mia still hadn't finished making dinner by the time he was done. He remained seated on the bed and typed up the names of all the mentalists he had ever felt. He divided them into two lists, one for the living and one for the deceased. He was compiling the deceased list to try and spot a pattern in Jacobs' behavior. I should find a record of all the places he visited as a faith healer. If Jack could figure out how Jacobs' targets had been chosen, he might be able to predict Patrick's movements. It was a long shot, he knew that, but he felt obligated to try anyway. He couldn't recall the exact dates of death he had read on all the tombstones he had seen in his visions but, after a lot of effort, he found that he could recall the month and year of practically all of the deaths. It helped that they seemed to come in droves. Jack didn't doubt that he would find those coincided perfectly with Jacobs' tour dates and locations. Wait! Tour dates? He advertised those for months in advance. Did he know that far ahead where he'd find his victims, or had he simply traveled and searched at random? Jack sighed. Once he had all those names organized by location and date, he felt confident that adding to the list as he toured the country would teach him something about the enemy's behavior and how Jacobs had chosen where to travel. Tour the country? I have to go north and warn the Canadians, too. He sighed and looked at his planned route. It's best if I tour Canada now, in the summer. I don't want to freeze to death in the tundra later in the year. He deleted his planned route with another sigh. Mia snapped him out of his contemplations by pointing out that dinner was ready. He closed the laptop and joined her at the dining table. They ate fried pork chops with mashed potatoes and a nice salad. After dinner, Jack tossed the bones to the dogs and Mia set the dishes to soak. She sat back down heavily. "Man, I'm all sweaty and stuff." "You can go take a shower." Mia looked at the door hiding the tiny bathroom/toilet combo and her nose wrinkled. "I prefer room while I shower. And time. I don't think that tiny tank holds enough water." "I don't want to drive through woods I don't know in the dark. We'll both shower tomorrow." Mia pouted at his words and slid lower in her seat. She crossed her arms under her ample breasts. Outside the window, the setting sun was painting the sky red. "Grab your toiletries! We're going to go wash up!" "Where, babe? I don't want you to drive if you-" Jack held up his hand. "No driving necessary. It's within walking distance." "What is?" "Our shower/bath combo cleaning system." Mia sat up and leaned forward in her seat with a frown. "Our what?" Jack smiled and pointed behind her. She looked where he was pointing and then looked back at him. "Where are we going? Into the woods?" Jack chuckled. "No, silly. The creek. We're going to go take a dip in the creek." Mia's full, red lips spread into a smile. "Ok." Jack yelled, "Race you!" He jumped up, opened the bathroom door, grabbed a bar of soap and turned to run out. "Last one there-" Mia's slender, hourglass shape was jumping out the door. With a bark of laughter, he launched himself after her. They both pulled their T-shirts off and tossed them aside as they ran. She got to the creek first, but her skintight jeans were tough to shed in a hurry. Jack's loose slacks fell off him as soon as he undid his belt. He stepped out of them and his boxers at the same time. He allowed himself a brief moment to appreciate the sight of Mia's shapely thighs straining to shed her jeans before wading into the creek. "I won!" The creek bed was soft clay, with the occasional round pebble to provide grip. It took him only four steps to get to the middle of the stream. The water was up to his navel. It was so warm and gentle against his body that he couldn't help but crouch down and relax into the flow. He sighed and looked up at the purple sky. A grunt from Mia called his gaze to the side. She was hopping on one leg and working her jeans off her ankle. He let himself eat up her half-naked body in the twilight. Her ample tits were barely contained by her black, lacy bra. Her long, dark hair was practically plastered to her head, but strands shook loose with each hop. At last, she pulled her jeans off and stood up straight with a shout of triumph. Her eyes landed on Jack's. She saw him eating up the sight of her body. She could feel his eyes all over her exposed skin. She felt ashamed for being nearly naked in public. An instant later, she was too aroused to think. She undid her bra and tore it off her tits to fling it aside. Jack's mouth fell open at the sight of her breasts gently saying from side to side as she stepped out of her panties. Her eyes were glazed over with arousal. With long, hurried strides, she waded in. He only had time to stand up and plant his legs before she was upon him. She put her hands behind his head and drew him into a deep kiss. Her tongue invaded his mouth. She nipped at his lips as she tried to get his tongue to come out. He put his arms around her and crushed her pliant body to his. He loved the feel of her tits against his chest, with their erect nipples poking into his skin. One of his hands slid lower and kneaded her firm ass. She moaned into their kiss when she felt his dick poking into her lower belly. He knew she was as aroused as she was able to be, it was a result of the mechanism she had asked him to put into her mind. His dick was so hard it was starting to get uncomfortable pressing her body against his. As much as he enjoyed making out with Mia, they were both ready for the main course. He pulled back, breaking their kiss, and backed her up towards the nearest boulder, where the water was less deep. He turned her around and had her spread her legs. "Lean forward," he commanded, his voice strained. She leaned against the top of the boulder and her pussy rose above the water. His dick seemed to find her opening all on its own and he pushed slowly in. Mia urged him on with wordless gasps of joy. He groaned as his shaft was being swallowed by the silken vice of her pussy. He went as deep as he could and just held himself there, enjoying it. She started to grind back against his shaft, grunting with pleasure. He grinned and grabbed her hips to hold her steady. He pulled slowly out of her, feeling his balls dip into the warm water as he did so. He shoved himself back in deep, making them both grunt in unison. He fucked her with fast, forceful thrusts that sent his wet balls slapping against her clit, making her mewl with pleasure. Their slapping flesh sent water spraying everywhere as he picked up the pace. When Mia came, he buried himself inside of her and let the contractions of her pussy set off his own climax. He roared as each spurt of his seed shot tingling heat up his spine. He nearly collapsed atop her when he finished. He found the strength to stay awake and pulled her up into his arms. She was still shivering with pleasure. His dick softened and slowly slid out of her. He nuzzled the side of her neck as she gulped air. When her aftershocks subsided, she reached behind and hugged his sides. Pretty soon, Mia started to grind her ass against his crotch. "No more," he said. "I'm wiped." Mia nodded. They clung to one another in the gathering dusk and enjoyed the feeling of the warm water gently lapping at their hips. "You know," she said, "it really would be nice if we could wash up in here." "That's why I suggested it. And why I brought a bar of soap." He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her sides tenderly. "And where's the soap, babe? Did you drop it?" He chuckled. "I think so." "Never mind. I'll go to the RV and get some more. I need my body wash and shampoo and conditioner, anyway." "You're not going anywhere," he said, tightening his grip on her. "I'll get the dogs to bring us what we need." He reached out to sense his dogs through holes in his cloak and nearly flinched when he felt them watching him. He opened his eyes and saw the four of them on the bank, not ten feet away. Mia looked that way, too. "What are they doing?" "Guarding our clothes," Jack said and rubbed her sides. "And guarding us, so no one interrupts us." Mia smiled and said, "Aw." She half turned in Jack's embrace and they kissed. Jack sent Porthos the order to go get Mia's toiletries from the shelf in the RV's bathroom. He was big enough to reach the bathroom shelf once he stood on his hind legs. The other three Jack sent to find the bar of soap he completely forgot between the RV and the creek. Spot picked it up with his mouth. Jack had dropped it when he had taken off his slacks. Jack took the soap and dipped it into the water to wash off Spot's saliva. He lifted one of Mia's legs and put her foot on the boulder. He gently worked the soap into her skin, combining making a rich lather with a massage. She giggled when he soaped up her foot. When he was done, she put her leg back in the water and let it wash the soap off. He did her whole body like that, gently lathering up her skin and massaging her muscles underneath. She had a dopey smile on her face the whole time. After he finished, she returned the favor, rubbing him with the soap from head to toe. Her touch got him going again and he found himself fully erect long before she was finished. His previous no kept her from feeling ashamed at the sight of his erection. Porthos took three trips to bring the toiletries to the bank, one by one. Mia took the bottle of shampoo and squirted some on the palm of her hand. She spread it over her hands and had Jack sit down in the water. His head was now at the same height as her navel and she worked her fingers into his scalp, giving him a massage as she shampooed his hair. Jack sighed. He could feel her fingers working all his worries out of his head. When she was done, he bobbed under the surface to rinse. He emerged between her legs, running his nose against her belly as he slowly stood up. She giggled. "What are you doing?" He stood before her and let his dick touch her lower belly. "I'm going to fuck you, slut." His words negated his previous no and she shuddered as a strong wave of arousal flooded her to the core. "Yes," she hissed. She began swaying her hips to rub the underside of his cock with her belly. Her eyes glinted in the pale moonlight as she ran her hands up and down his sides. He pushed her back against the boulder and had her sit on it. She spread her legs and cupped her tits, presenting them to him. He bent his head down and latched his mouth to her nipple, sucking and lightly nipping at the protruding nub of flesh. She mewled as she threw her head back. Her hands twined in his hair and she kept him from removing his head from her tits. She only allowed him to alternate between nipples. He spread her thighs and used both hands to tease her outer lips. She humped his questing fingers as best as her perched position allowed. He let her take her pleasure from him until he felt her gasps rising in pitch and becoming squeals. Her hips ground themselves against his hands faster and faster and he knew she was close. At the last possible moment, he moved his hands and left her pussy to hump empty air. She let out a pitiful whine, which slowly changed into a growl of wordless fury. Her nails dug into his scalp. He smiled against her tit and slid his hands behind her knees. He caressed the ticklish spots he knew she had there and she growled in frustration some more. Her nails stopped digging into his scalp, though. He grabbed her knees and lifted them out of the water, pinning them against her sides in one move. She groaned and let go of his head. He looked into her eyes. They were blue cauldrons of fury, need and arousal. He grinned and looked down between their bodies to carefully inch his cock closer to her pussy. She growled impatiently and tried to reach around her legs to pull him in. She couldn't, so she started to plead. "Fuck me! Please! Come, on! Fuck me, already! Fuck my pussy!" She tensed up when his cock finally made contact with her pussy. He slowly started to slide it up and down her slit. She gulped air and babbled incoherently as she shook her head from side to side. He liked seeing her craving his cock. Her voice never sounded as good as it did when she begged him to fuck her. A shudder of delight went through his body when he felt his balls press against her smooth ass. With her thighs pinned against her sides, she couldn't move. He could tell she desperately wanted to grind her clit against his erection to finally get her off. He smiled and fucked her as he wished. He knew he'd last long after the fucking they had. He changed rhythm and depth every time he felt her closing in on her climax. She howled and mewled, but he didn't relent. At length, his own climax was coming on strong and his concentration slipped. The hot, wet vice of her pussy shuddered against his cock while she wailed with pleasure. He held still inside of her and felt her climax spread through her body, making her legs shake in his grasp. When she finally stopped convulsing and just lay there gasping for air, he resumed his fast, forceful thrusts. She squealed and he knew she was feeling a little pain mixed in with the pleasure, as her pussy was very sensitive now. He couldn't care. He needed to cum. He pounded away, making her whole body slide up and down the boulder. Her squeals joined together in one loud wail and he came, spurting his seed deep inside her. Her pussy clamped down on him again, seemingly in revenge for his recent treatment. Jack shouted in triumph at the sensations of his girl cumming when he did. Their bodies shuddered together and seemed to feed off each other's orgasm. He floated away on the liquid pleasure that was running through his mind. When he came to, Mia was holding him up. Her face was flushed as she looked deep into his eyes. "Are you okay?" she asked. Jack could hear her question was actually a plea for round three, but he knew he didn't have it in him. "I'm fine," he gasped out. She lowered her head and suckled his nipple. "Stop. I'm done for the night. No more sex." She sighed and let go of his nipple. "Ok." She hugged him tight. "Thanks. That was great." "Yeah, you too." "Aw, babe," she tilted her head back and smiled up at him, "you do know what to say to a girl after fucking her raw." He smiled at her sardonic comment and held on to her until he felt steady enough to venture out onto dry ground. They both splashed their faces with more water and then got out of the creek. They dried off in the RV and Jack went to bed. He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He didn't know how they caught him, but they managed it. It didn't matter anymore. He was strapped to a chair and they were standing behind him, whispering amongst themselves. Huge beads of cold sweat trickled down his temples. They were whispering about what they were going to do to him. He could only make out a few words, but they were definitely talking about performing a surgical procedure on his brain. "Hey! Hey, stop! Stop this! Talk to me! Don't do anything, please!" A fat, old, bald man stepped around him and leaned in to pat him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, it's for the best." He slid a gag into Jack's mouth and Jack could only scream in wordless frustration. "Let's begin!" A drill started to whirr right behind Jack's head, making him struggle in a blind panic. He flinched awake in his bed in the RV. Mia moaned in protest and rolled away from him, still asleep. He gulped air as he kicked off the thin sheet. He was completely wet. He reached up and tentatively touched the back of his head. Everything was in its place and he nearly passed out from relief. "It was just a dream," he muttered to himself. He got up and drank some water before toweling himself dry. He got back into bed and lay awake, staring at the ceiling. He did his meditations and managed to clear his mind of the nightmare. He did another cycle of meditations and lulled himself to sleep. After breakfast, Jack drove them away from the lovely clearing and back onto the roads. He briefly consulted a map and turned north. "Where are we going, babe?" Mia asked. "Moncton, New Brunswick." "What's in Moncton?" Jack shrugged. "The next place where I look for mentalists to warn." "I thought we were only doing the US?" Jack shrugged. "So did I, but it turns out that the bad guys operate in Canada, too, so I have to go north. Wait! You did bring your passport, right?" She looked at him blankly. "Yes. You had mine made at the same time as yours, babe." "Good." "I hoped the passport meant that we'd be going to Europe, or at least to Cancun, but...Canada's fine, too. I guess." Jack shot her a small, sad smile. "I'm sorry, Mia, but I have to do this. My whole summer is going to be about this...quest I'm on. Any fun I have while I'm doing it is just incidental." "Ok." "I mean, I get that this isn't fair to you-" "It's fine, babe." "You ought to be able to spend your summer just relaxing and-" "Babe, it's fine!" "Or traveling. Going places, seeing stuff." He shrugged. "You know, a normal summer." "Jack! Listen to me! I'm perfectly happy doing this with you, ok?" She gestured out the windshield. "We're going places. We're seeing things. We're having fun. Last night was great!" "I know and I really, really liked that, but if you'd-" Mia shook her head. "No buts! No ifs, no buts and no coconuts, either. I'm coming with you and that's that. You're not leaving me alone." "Mia, you do realize that you're safe now, right?" He tapped the base of his neck to remind her of her choker. "No mentalist can touch your mind. You don't need to stick to me to be safe from them." She made no reply, so he spared her a quick glance. She was glaring at him. "Is that what you think? That I'm only with you so you'd protect me?" "No, I-" "Because it's not! I..." Jack navigated an intersection and then spared Mia another look. She sat with her arms crossed over her chest. She was looking away from him and out the side window. "Mia, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just meant to say that if you wanted to do something more fun this summer, like go traveling, or hanging out with your friends, then you can do that. I can do this alone." She was silent while Jack picked out the proper turn to get him on the road to Moncton. "I'd give you the cash for tickets to wherever you wanted to go." She was still silent. He spared her another look. She was wiping her cheek. Is she crying? "If that's what you're worried about." "No," she said and sniffed. "Look, Jack, I'm spending the summer with you because you're really cool and...ah, fuck it! I might as well come clean. I don't have any other friends. You're my best friend, my only friend, my boyfriend." Jack liked the way the words "my boyfriend" sounded coming from her. He didn't like the rest of what she said. "What about Lisa and the girls from the cheerleading squad?" Mia snorted in disdain. "I thought we were friends, but..." She dug her phone out of her pocket and held it up. "They haven't called, texted, emailed, snapchatted, facetimed, or anything at all. Not since school was out." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08 "That was less than two weeks ago," he said. "They'll call. You'll see." "They won't," she said in a small voice. "Of course they will. They're just distracted with...uh..." "They won't call," she said with sadness and a note of finality to her voice. "Back when I arranged for the AV club to make that video for the prom...I ran into some of the girls from the squad and may have said some things to them." "What things?" Mia hesitated before saying, "Things. Just things." He shot her a look. "They were talking shit about you, so I talked some shit about them. Right to their faces." She sighed bitterly. "They'll never call. You are literally my only friend in the whole wide world." "Mia," Jack softly said, "you are literally my only friend in the whole, wide world, too." She got up from the front seat and moved behind Jack to give him a quick hug. "I guess we've only got each other, babe." She kissed the top of his head. "I love you." "I love you too, Mia." She got back in her seat and they drove on for a few more minutes before Jack said, "Although, to be perfectly honest, I do have a couple of pen pals." Mia looked at him. He hadn't mentioned Rob, Steve, or John ever since his speech at the prom. She could tell that he was still sore about their betrayal, so she changed the subject. "Pen pals hardly count. We're both friendless and that's that. Oh, hey, look! A Scooby-Doo van!" Jack looked where she pointed and saw the VW van. It was red and had nothing painted on it, so it didn't remind him of Scooby-Doo, apart from the make and model. "Cool," he deadpanned. The drive north passed quickly. Mia worked the radio to find cool music and the two of them played road games. They stopped for lunch and then swapped seats, so Mia drove the rest of the way to Moncton, while Jack made reservations in a hotel there. A brief use of his powers ensured that they had no trouble crossing the border. No one mentioned the dogs and Jack had Mia pull over at the first exchange office he saw. "What are you going to exchange?" she asked him. "American dollars for Canadian ones." Mia snorted a laugh. "No, for real, Jack, what are you going to exchange there?" "American dollars for Canadian ones." Mia held her hands up in confused disbelief. "But, it's the same thing, right? The Canadians have the same money as we do? Don't they?" "No, they have Canadian dollars." Mia remained skeptical. "Are you sure about that? Aren't you worried that...it might be some kind of hoax?" "Mia," Jack exclaimed, shocked to see that she was earnestly concerned. "Seriously, Canada is a different country and they have different money here. Don't worry, I know the current exchange rate to the fifth decimal point. No one's going to swindle me. Stay here and I'll be right back." He left the RV, unwilling to believe that she really had such a giant gap in her general education. Although, she was flunking high school when I took her in. When he came back to the RV, Mia said, "I was just kidding earlier. You know that, right? I was trying to, you know, scare you and shit." Jack could tell she hadn't, just by looking into her eyes. The embarrassment was plain to see. He laughed it off. "You almost had me going there. You can be quite convincing when you set your mind to it." Mia briefly joined in his laugh and then focused all her attention on following the directions to Moncton on her navigation screen. Jack felt like an ass, despite not being able to figure out what, if anything, he had said could be construed as offensive. The silence in the RV was becoming louder with each mile, so Jack turned on the radio. The New Brunswick scenery passed by their windows, largely unnoticed. Before too long, they were in Moncton. When Jack directed Mia to pull into a casino's parking lot, she gave him a look. "Our hotel is part of the casino," Jack said. "Yes," Mia hissed in delight. She pulled up to the valet's station and Jack told the man their reservation code. The valet guided them to a parking spot big enough for their rig. Jack put a service vest on Spot and took him inside the hotel with them. Jack claimed he had diabetes and that Spot was his service dog. After checking in, Mia snatched the keycard and ran to the elevators, not bothering to wait for Jack and the luggage. He felt a weight lift from his shoulders. She seems to be over this morning. By the time Jack arrived to the room, she had already scoped out the place and given it her seal of approval. She pulled Jack into a big, wet kiss, despite the bellhop standing right behind him. Jack fished some money out of his pocket. He held it out for the bellhop and felt the man take it. The door closed within seconds and they were left to enjoy their kiss. Mia finally broke the kiss and grabbed Jack by the hand. "It's time we had a proper shower," she declared. "Work, work, work," Jack mock-grumbled as he allowed himself to be led into the shower stall which was large enough to accommodate six people. They made love under the hot spray, then washed each other before making love again. Jack dried off and got dressed in fresh clothes. He gathered up their dirty ones and called to have them picked up and laundered. "Mia," he called out over the noise of the blow-dryer, "I'm going down to see to the rest of the dogs! I'll be back in about twenty minutes, ok?" She gave him a thumbs up and he gave Spot the order to stay with her. The dogs were bored, but otherwise alright. The RV wasn't hot, despite the afternoon sun beating down on it. He petted them and had them enjoy a lazy day with nothing to do but chew on their chew toys. When he came back to the room, Mia was dressed in a pair of beige slacks and a white tunic. Her dark hair was gathered in a ponytail and covered by a white baseball cap. She put on a pair of reflective sunglasses and smiled. "Are you ready to lose?" "Sorry, what?" She strode to him, putting on a pair of white gloves, and deliberately said, "Are, you, ready, to, lose?" "Lose what?" "A game of miniature golf." "Miniature golf?" "Yes. There's a course at the local Magic Mountain. Thirty-six holes of humiliating defeat, if you think you can handle being beaten by a girl." Jack squinted at her. He guessed she felt the need to even the playing field between them after her currency hiccup this morning. "You seem to be forgetting that I used to be a varsity athlete. I'm pretty sure that I have the hand-to-eye coordination to beat you at miniature golf." "I'm hearing a lot of talk, Jack. I'm not seeing you walk the walk." Jack snorted. He found her impertinence quite amusing. "Ok, but don't come crying to me after the big bad Jackinator crushes you." "As if." "You are forbidden from having sex with me until after we come back here." Mia shot him a look. "What the...oh, right." "Yeah, not only would it be an unfair advantage for me, but you'd be literally dripping all over the golf course. People might slip on the pools of your juices and injure themselves." Mia smacked him across the stomach with the back of her hand. "Not funny, babe!" Jack followed her out of the room with Spot on his heels. He only made the dripping juices comment to make her feel ashamed and see if his ban was in effect already. As he watched her wide hips sway with every step, he was glad for that. It really wouldn't be cool if their game consisted of him saying no to her every twenty seconds, as men ogled her perfect form. They took the RV to the water park and Jack let his dogs out to play on a meadow not far from the park itself. He put Athos in the service vest and no one objected to the German Shepherd following them onto the course. Mia and he rented some clubs and waited for their turn on the course. Mia sketched a small cheerleading routine, spelling out the words "Mia Winner". Jack smirked in response. "Your pathetic attempt to psyche me out is pathetic." His smirk faded after the second hole. Mia made them both with one shot, while he took two on the second one. "I take it you've done this before?" She tapped her temple in response. "Didn't see that coming, didja?" "No," he said, smiling and shaking his head. "Who taught you to play so well?" "One of the foster families that had me cooked meth. They had me over the summer and they needed me out of the house, so they took me to a miniature golf course, stole a club for me and showed me how to sneak in. No one ever bothered me once I was inside and I had nothing better to do. No friends, or anything, so I spent, like, I dunno, thousands of hours playing golf that summer." "That must have been lonely." She shrugged. "Did we come here to talk, or for me to beat you down? Come on!" By the tenth hole, her lead grew to five shots. The eleventh hole was on the top of a steep crest that fell off just as steeply behind it. If the ball was hit too hard, it would fly over the hole and roll down the other side. If it was hit too soft, it would roll back down the front. One had to hit it just right. Jack got it on the first try. Mia needed seven, blowing her lead and working up a nice, frustrated rage. They were neck and neck over the next seven holes, which required mostly timing to get the ball past the swinging windmills and shifting barriers. On the nineteenth hole, Mia bent over, right in front of him. Her tunic dipped low, all but displaying her bra-encased tits to him. "Is that supposed to be a distraction?" Jack politely inquired. "I don't know what you're talking about," Mia replied. "I'm just stretching. If I'm distracting you, I'll turn around." She turned around and bent over, displaying her ass as her slacks grew tight over it. Jack chuckled. "Nothing I haven't seen and touched already." On this hole, a rectangular barrier rotated atop a slope. The slope leading down to the hole was ninety degrees to the left and led to a lane with barriers to the sides. The ball had to be timed just right to bounce at the proper angle and pass between the barriers after it rolled down the other slope. Despite her attempts to distract him, he tapped his ball when and how he wanted. It rolled up the slope, bounced off the rotating barrier at a practically perfect ninety degrees angle and slid down the other slope passing just within the barriers at the end of the lane. "Hah! Did you see that?" He raised his club and hooted in joy. Mia shot him an unhappy look. She glanced at the ball again. "Oh, come on!" Jack looked at his ball and saw that it had not stopped rolling after it came down the hill. It rolled towards the hole, slowing with every inch. It rolled just past the hole but, as it lost momentum, it turned and fell in. Jack laughed out loud. "A hole in one! You're going down!" Mia shook her head. "I don't friggin' believe it." She had all the enthusiasm of a wet kitten as she put her ball on the tee. She managed to get it to roll down the left slope, but it bounced off the barriers at the end of the lane. "Oh, come on! Fucking slopes!" Jack laughed while she took two more shots to get it in the hole. The next two holes also had slopes where the strength of the put was crucial. Jack's lead grew to nine as they started on the twenty-second hole. Mia rallied and cut his lead down to four by the time they got to hole number thirty-two. It also had a slope. She took the hole in five shots, while Jack needed only two. "Fuck it," she said, dejectedly, "I quit. You win." She shook her head. "You must think I'm a retard, or something." Jack gathered her in his arms. "Hey, hey, hey," he cooed, "don't say things like that. You know I don't. You know I wouldn't. Not ever." "I don't know why not," she said in a small voice. "Because I love you, Mia, and I know what your story is. I understand." He angled her face upwards with a finger under her chin. Her blue orbs gazed into his brown eyes without flinching. "Don't be afraid of me judging you. I've already judged you. I judged you worthy of my time, my help and my love. Nothing's going to change that." She hugged him back and pressed herself close to him. He could feel her breath hitch a few times. She sniffled. "Thank you." "You got it, Mia." Other players walked up behind them and they broke their hug. Mia turned to leave. "Where are you going?" "Back to the RV." "Why? We're not done yet." "Ugh, I lost," she said, rolling her eyes. "Can we just go now?" He shook his head. "No. Not until you have some fun, too." "Fun?" "There's more to life than winning at competitions." She cocked her head and looked him up and down. "Like what?" "Like doing trick shots, just for the hell of it." Her red lips slowly broke into a smile, displaying her perfect, white teeth. She nodded at him and they spent almost an hour on the last four holes, just daring one another to bounce the ball off this obstacle, or that one, in a specific way. They laughed when they failed, hooted if they succeeded. A single look from Athos kept the players behind them from complaining too loudly. They parted ways after the last hole. Mia went to a mall to do some shopping, while Jack collected the dogs and went back to the hotel. Athos followed Mia, acting as her service dog and keeping an eye out for Patrick's master. Jack put another vest on Spot and had him resume his role of service dog inside the hotel. After eating his pot cookies and doing his meditations, Jack was transported from his hotel room to the theater. He thought about mentalists and saw ten people on the stage. Fifteen tombstones backed them up. He noted the dates on the tombstones. A brief montage of how those mentalists had been acting right before their deaths played on the screen at the back of the stage. Jack grimaced and shook his head as he saw that five of them had gone nuts shortly before their deaths. He focused on the living ones. Two of them he had already seen yesterday, so he ignored those. After thinking of which ones were benevolent and which were malevolent, he was pleasantly surprised to find all eight grouped together as benevolent mentalists. He thought of their most tightly kept secrets and watched brief movies play on the screen at the back of the stage. He still felt uncomfortable watching such intimate moments from people's lives, but it was necessary if they were to believe his warnings. He raised his cloak and found himself back on the hotel room bed. He typed up quick notes on the secrets and listed the dates of deaths from the tombstones. His high kept kicking in, making the text on the screen lag significantly behind his fingers on the keyboard, so he popped in and out of the theater twice to get all the notes down. The last mentalist whose secret he looked at was the youngest. Her innermost secret was that neither she nor her brother could read the mind of her boyfriend. Jack frowned. Her brother wasn't on the stage with her. Jack looked closer at her and learned that her brother lived in the dorm right next to hers. They were both attending the Université de Moncton. When she wasn't in classes, or with her boyfriend, she was with her brother. "The fuck...?" Jack looked beside him and the cartoon dog was there, in the next seat. Jack gestured at the screen. "Explain this!" "Her brother is Francophone, while she is bilingual." Jack took another look at the girl and saw that she was the only bilingual member of her immediate family. She was even dating an Anglophone Canadian soldier. "Yeah, ok, she speaks English. Why can't I see her brother?" "You know the answer to this, Jack. You don't share a language with the man, so you can't read his memories from the aether." "That bit doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," Jack protested. "The aether is made of thoughts, of memories. Feelings and stuff. Language shouldn't have anything to do with it." "Shouldn't it?" the dog softly asked. "What is language used for, Jack?" "Communication?" The dog nodded. "Yes. Through language, people communicate thoughts, ideas, concepts. Your entire cognitive process has been shaped through the use of the English language. Everything you know, you've learned in English. You are incapable of thinking in any language other than English. You can't perceive thoughts that are made by minds that have been shaped by other languages." "Wow," Jack said. "The language barrier really inhibits mentalism." "Thought shapes language, language shapes thought." "So, if I was to learn some foreign language..." "Yes and no," the dog said. "You need to be able to think in a language to be able to touch minds shaped by that language. Learning a couple of hundred words won't cut it. Also, fair warning, learning to think in another language opens up your mind to mentalists who speak that other language." "Yeah. Ok. Duly noted." Jack slouched in his seat. I guess I'll go study languages at college. In a way, he was relieved to finally have a direction for the fall. For years, he had been dithering between robotics, biotechnology, astronomy and nearly every other cool thing he had ever heard of. His quandary hadn't been helped by his aptitude tests, which always returned multiple choices of careers. "Wait! If I learned French, would French-speaking mentalists be able to read all my memories, or just the ones I made after I learned French?" The cartoon dog smiled and pulled a gold star from his fur. He pinned it on Jack's T-shirt. "Well done, Jack. Excellent question. As you can see from this girl's aether footprint, at first the other mentalists could only read new memories. However, as time went on and your brain revisited more and more memories with each passing day, so would those memories be made available in your second language. In a few years, your entire aether footprint would be bilingual." "Ok, well, that's cleared up now. What about this mysterious Canadian soldier she's dating?" A new movie played on the screen. It showed the mentalist girl getting fucked by a muscular young man with a goatee. She was thrilled beyond belief by the fact that she couldn't read his mind, or predict his moves, particularly in bed. A clip in which the man reamed her ass doggie style provided Jack with a very compelling clue. "He's wearing dog tags! The Canadian military is also protected from mentalism! Who knew, eh?" Jack shook his head. "I bet all the NATO militaries are protected. Their civilian leaderships, too." Jack's high ran out and he found himself back in his hotel room. He typed up the letters to seven of the eight mentalists. The girl's letter gave him pause. He was going to ruin the mystery of her relationship with her handsome, butt-fucking soldier by revealing the secret of the necklaces. He shrugged and asked her to warn her brother, too. He went out to print and anonymously mail the letters. When he got back, he wanted to arrange a nice, romantic dinner for Mia and himself. He made an Athos-shaped hole in his cloak and saw that she was not yet done with her shopping spree. He browsed the menu to pick out something really good. He watched through Athos' eyes to see when she was coming. He had the dog stroll into the RV when they got out of the taxi in front of the hotel. Spot was their inside-the-hotel dog. When Mia came back to the room, she dropped a dozen shopping bags just inside the door and took a running start at him. He planted his feet and braced for impact, not sure if this was a fight, or not. When he looked into her eyes, he saw an incredible lust and remembered the order he gave her before they went golfing. "No!" Mia skidded to a halt on the carpet and heaved big breaths. Her skin was flushed and clammy. She ran her hands through her hair. "Phew! Thanks, babe. That was a big one." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08 He took her by the hand and guided her out to their balcony. She grew visibly more relaxed and calm with each step. A table for two was set up there and he pulled out her chair for her. They slowly enjoyed their meal and laughed over their game of golf and all the things she saw at the mall. The sunset painted the sky in many hues of red. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, "You look gorgeous." She looked away in embarrassment and then looked him in the eye, a naughty grin curling her lips. He paid her body one polite compliment after the other and watched with satisfaction as her arousal slowly grew. They spent the night making love, slowly and tenderly. They woke up with his erection poking her thigh in the morning. She rode him until they came together and fell back asleep. A little after noon, they packed up and checked out of the hotel. He drove them to a small airfield, where he chartered a plane to take them out to Newfoundland. They landed in Botwood and rented a van to take them to Grand Falls. After checking into a small motel, Jack wasted no time in eating a few of his cookies. Mia took two of the dogs to a nearby park to play. Jack did his meditations and found himself in the theater. He soon learned that there was exactly one English-speaking mentalist in the whole of Newfoundland. Jack rolled his eyes and learned the man's secret. His high hadn't been spent by then, so he sat there with the dog at his side and looked at the man on the stage. He dismissed him after a while and turned to the dog. "How does this necklace thing work, exactly?" "The electromagnetic field the necklace makes once exposed to human bioelectricity loops your mentalist power into engaging your own mind again. Just as you do with your own cloak." "Why can't I make holes in it?" "It's too strong a draw. The voltage, if you want to think of it that way, is too big for you to overcome with willpower alone." Jack cocked his head and considered. "How does it protect a non-mentalist when it's on their neck?" "When your power tries to come into contact with another's mind, the necklace they wear loops it safely around them and they may as well not exist." "Huh," Jack said. "Can I read their memories?" "If they were made while they didn't wear the necklace, yes. The aether doesn't pick up anything from a person wearing the necklace." "Wait a minute! That Eric guy claimed that the aether is projected from people. If everyone was to suddenly put on a necklace, would the aether weaken? Collapse and vanish altogether?" The cartoon dog though about it for a moment. His long snout wrinkled and relaxed a few times before he finally said, "Yes. You felt it completely sever you from the aether when you put it on. If all of humanity were to wear such necklaces, the aether would quickly atrophy. Mentalists would become powerless." Jack grunted. "That's a thought." Stuck in the theater for the time being, Jack decided to see which members of society were readable and which weren't. The nearby military base turned out to only contain one civilian contractor whose mind could be read. The local police was available for reading, but Jack noted that the RCMP wasn't. "Huh," he said. His high ran out before he could look any further. He felt strange, posting just one warning letter. The next day, they flew back to Moncton and collected their RV. "Where to now, babe?" Mia asked. "West," he said. "I don't think there's more than one or two mentalists hidden in all the vast Canadian north." He shook his head. "I'm not going to spend weeks tracking them down in all that space. We're going to do a tour of south Canada and then we'll go back to the States. I'll look in on Vancouver and the Canadian southwest on my way to Alaska." "Whatever you say, babe." They drove as far as Baie Comeau that day and Jack decided it was as good a spot as any to look for mentalists. He found the memories of only two mentalists, both of whom died decades ago, with no trace of insanity. There were no active mentalists in the area that he could feel. He didn't find that surprising. No one in the town seemed to have ever even heard of the English language, so there were probably Francophone mentalists around. They drove all the way south to Peterborough the next day. Jack covered the rest of New York state from there, as well as the most populous parts of southern Ontario. He found twelve Canadians and two Americans to warn. There were also the memories of twelve dead mentalists, whose information he added to his files. Mia and he ate dinner on the green, next to the lift locks. Jack watched them in awe. Mia yawned. Several times. After a brief stop in Timmins, where Jack found four more mentalists to warn, as well as one recently deceased, they crossed the border into Michigan and drove to Standish. He was going to see a few mentalists he had already seen, but he had another reason why he wanted to go to that particular town. "Your pen pals are prisoners?" Mia asked him, her voice incredulous. "Yes," Jack said. "They're dog trainers." "What did they go to jail for? Did they train their dogs to, like, kill people, or something?" "No. They went to jail for...whatever and they learned how to train assistance dogs while in there. Being in prison means that they spend all their time with the dogs and that's the most important thing about training assistance dogs. Being with them all the time. Reinforcing their training hour after hour." "I...I don't feel safe going into a prison." "You don't have to. You can just stay out here and wait." "No! No, I'm coming in with you. I want to meet your pen pals, it's just...I don't think it's safe." "What do you think will happen in there without my express permission?" Jack asked in bemusement. "Anyone tries anything and I'll make them twirl around like a ballerina and sing show tunes. By the way, you are not to have sex with me until after we are clear of the prison." Despite all his assurances, Mia clung to him while they were entering the prison. Much to her relief, they didn't walk through a yard full of prisoners, or a long hallway with cells on either side. Instead, they went through security and were escorted through a short hallway and into the prison mess. The door at the far end opened and in came five men wearing orange jumpsuits, leading five dogs on leashes. Each dog was wearing a vest. Mia gasped and took a step back at the sight of the men. Four of them were big bastards with visible tattoos, while the fifth was a short, scrawny black guy, whose intense eyes managed to make him look even scarier than the big ones. The five of them lined up and Mia stared in shock as the big, bald white guy with swastikas on his neck stood calmly between the two black guys on one side and two Latinos on his other side. All five regarded them with a mixture of wary hostility and open lust. She was glad for Jack's order. A gangbang would be the last thing she wanted surrounded by actual gangbangers. "Hi," Jack said. "I'm Jack Watts." He gestured at Mia. "This is my girlfriend, Mia Newman." He held out his hand and walked to the first prisoner in line. "You must be Carlos." The big, burly Latino prisoner smiled warmly and shook Jack's hand. "Hello, Jack, it's a pleasure to meet you!" Jack looked at the big dog sitting by the man. "And this would be El Toro, right?" Carlos nodded and Jack pulled a squeaky toy out of his pocket. He held it up in front of El Toro's face. "Here, boy! Here, boy!" He tossed it aside. "Go fetch!" El Toro barely followed the toy's trajectory and remained rooted in place. "Well done," Jack said to Carlos, making the tattooed man beam with pride. As soon as the attention was on the first dog, the five scary men started ignoring Mia. Their faces changed from intimidating to open and warm. They spoke freely with Jack. They asked him for help with their dogs and she knew Jack was using his power on the pooches when he looked them in the eyes. Jack told each man what was holding up their dogs and advised them on how to get them over their barriers. The men listened patiently and nodded. When Jack demonstrated a few exercises, their faces started to show awe. Jack started to give a short lecture on dog training and the men listened raptly, completely ignoring Mia. It was a strange situation for her to be in, ignored by tough-looking men, but she felt a strange feeling slowly swell up inside of her. Looking at Jack commanding the prisoners' attention, she felt proud of him. She shook her head and decided to try and pay attention to what he was saying to them. She wanted to sound knowledgeable when she praised him afterwards. Well, I should sound like I was listening to him talk, at least. Jack claimed that the direction the hair on the dog's scruff swirled in was an indication of their potential as a service animal. Mia nearly gasped aloud, thinking he was pulling a fast one on his pen pals, but they took his words at face value, without a hint of doubt on their faces. A warm tingle spread through Mia at the sight of these dangerous men treating her boyfriend with such obvious deference. The visit lasted for the better part of an hour, before the guards declared it over. Mia had been completely ignored in favor of dog talk, but she didn't mind it one bit. The prisoners followed the guards out the mess hall, calling out questions and thanks to Jack. He kept assuring them that he'd answer all of their emails. "It was an honor to meet you in person, Mister Watts," Carlos said before the guard shoved him out and closed the door behind him. Jack sighed and glanced at Mia, like he had forgotten she was even there. "Had fun?" Mia smiled at him. "I learned a lot." She gave him a kiss and they left the prison. Later that day, Jack ate the last of his pot cookies and saw nine American mentalists living in range, as well as several Canadians, two of whom he had already seen. One of the Americans was bad, so he noted the first time that woman used her powers. He took three trips out of the theater to write down the intimate memories of the rest of them. His high hadn't run out by the time he was finished, so he looked at the memories of his pen pals. He didn't know if he was more relieved, or saddened, by the fact that they were all justly convicted. Three of them even had more serious felonies that could be pinned on them. He was a little surprised to see that he couldn't read the memories of any of the guards after they got their jobs at the prison. Corrections officers, too? Wow. Everywhere I look, people are wearing anti-mentalism dog tags. While he went to mail the warning letters and call the evil woman to take away her power, Mia got started on the cookie mix. They baked enough of them to last him the rest of his tour, making sure to put plenty of leaf in each cookie. Mia didn't mind sleeping in the RV that night. Their next destination was right up her alley. Chicago. From the Windy City, Jack found thirty-two mentalists, thirteen of whom were organized into a crime ring in the city itself. They felt superior to all the other humans and they used their powers to take other people's money and things, as well as evade capture by the police. Originally, there had been seven of them, but they had a run-in with the FBI, whose agents had been immune to their powers. Three of their number were captured and vanished, while the rest regrouped and recruited new members. The recruitment was not amiable. They changed the minds of mentalists they could find and turned them into abusers, too. They recreated their group but they didn't bother with the small stuff and daily risks anymore. This time around, they went big and discreet. They focused on taking pretty, young girls and changing their minds to become perfect sex slaves. The girls were then sold to every rich man that came along. They also took grown men and changed them to become perfect lovers for rich ladies. Many of their rich customers were also immune to mentalism, Jack learned. Jesus fucking Christ, is everyone and their mother in on the whole mentalism thing? He prolonged his stay in Chicago to three days, during which he called the evil mentalists and altered their minds. The good ones, he changed back and convinced to undo the damage the group had done. He changed the bad ones, too and sent them to find and retrieve all the sex slaves they had sold. They were to undo the changes they had made to those girls' minds and give them enough money to allow them to restart their lives. They were also to bring down all the rich bastards and cunts that had bought slaves and custom-made lovers. While he hunted, Mia was sightseeing and having fun, followed by her service dog, Porthos. One day, a pair of Asian tourists accosted her on the street and jumped up and down, excitedly chattering away in their own language. Usually, she'd feel afraid in such a situation, but she had Porthos with her. Also, this girl and boy were both smaller than her and wore thick, coke bottle glasses, which made them seem non-threatening. She had no clue who they were, or what they wanted with her, until they pulled out a Katy Perry CD and held it out, along with a pen. She laughed and autographed their CD for them, signing Katy Perry's name. They hugged her and took selfies with her, before growing serious and bowing repeatedly in gratitude. As she walked away from them, they waved goodbye to her until she could no longer see them. When Jack and Mia departed Chicago, she looked longingly at the city in the rear-view mirror. After Chicago, Jack cut a line towards the Atlantic, moving south and west of the area he had already checked out from his home town. In every stop they made, it was the same thing. He'd eat pot cookies, meditate and find mentalists. The good ones got a warning letter, the bad ones got a call that stripped them of their powers. All of them got added to his files, along with the dead ones. The whole trip, Jack would check his dogs' minds for any sniff of Shauna Patrick, or her master, only stopping when he was asleep, or they were on the road. Mia would explore the town while he did his thing. Some nights, he'd have nightmares about doctors cutting into the back of his skull with gunpowder-actuated power tools. Other nights, the dead goons would vomit blood into his face, startling him awake. After breakfast, they'd start the long drive to the next spot on his tour. The only anomaly on this part of the tour happened when he was in Knoxville and felt a crazy, suicidal mentalist in a mental health facility in Chattanooga. So, Jacobs was in Tennessee before coming to my neck of the woods, Jack thought. He noted the woman's name with special care, but did nothing more. Without a record of which memories Jacobs had taken, he couldn't help her. They hit the sea in Charleston, South Carolina and went south to cover Florida with two stops. He saw a society of mentalists living in Miami. They were all of Cuban descent and he perceived them through the eyes of their bilingual members. His ability to swear in Spanish didn't allow him to see Spanish-speaking mentalists. He sent all fifteen of them one warning letter. The mentalists of foreign descent, he noted, seemed to gravitate towards joining with those like themselves, while American mentalists preferred to go at it alone. New Orleans came next. Jack found only eight mentalists in range and none of them lived in the city itself. Mia and he stayed in New Orleans for two whole days, enjoying the cuisine and music. He didn't have any nightmares there, but he felt like he was in a waking one when he saw the remains of the damage Katrina had wrought. They left the city with a sour taste in their mouths. Three stops covered all of Texas and revealed sixteen mentalists living in the Lonestar state. They were in Midland when the news cycle became saturated with reports of prominent people in all the states that bordered the Great Lakes getting arrested. Some even stepped forward to confess their crimes. The crimes ranged from insider trading and other corporate abuses to rape and murder. Jack watched it all with satisfaction. The Chicago gang was undoing its crimes with great speed. He decided to go back there. By the time he arrived, they would be done with their work. He'd take away all their powers and send the bad guys to jail. The mentalists that had been originally good, he'd just strip of their powers and let go. He didn't feel like he could trust them to not revert to such evil behavior after participating in it for years. The bad guys had changed their minds too thoroughly over too long a period of time for him to be able to just undo everything in one sitting. Particularly if he wanted the changes to stick forever. He didn't have the time to go rooting through their minds with a fine toothcomb and catch every evil thought. He made himself a promise to come back to Chicago and restore them as soon as he finished his tour. The road back to Chicago led through Oklahoma City and Jefferson City. In Chicago, Jack did his work with the evil mentalists in two long days. At the end of the second day, he found himself back in their hotel room. Mia wasn't there and he was thoroughly exhausted, so he just sat down on the couch and munched on some cookies from their bags. He ate six of them before his tired brain remembered they were special. He growled and put the bag away. He was going to get high in about twenty five minutes and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't like being high, so he decided to be one with the aether and spend it all quickly. He found himself in the theater and chatted with the cartoon dog about reshaping minds. There was hardly anything new to say, so they chatted about the lists Jack was making. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how Jacobs had hit mentalists in the past. Sometimes, he'd hit a young person that was just discovering their powers and other times he'd hit an old mentalist, whom he had passed by several times before. It all seemed so random. "I need to find out exactly what Jacobs' movements had been these past fifteen years," Jack said. He shook his head. "But there's no way for me to know all that. It's not like the man left a journal for me to read." "There were lots of people attending his events," the dog pointed out. "Those events were advertised, the venues booked and paid for. There is a trail out there for you to find." "I should have been thinking of people who had attended Jacobs' prayer events, too, right?" The screen at the back of the theater came alive with a multitude of images. It was split into at least a thousand smaller screens, each showing Jacobs on stage from a different perspective. Even a cursory glance at them showed that Jacobs was dressed in twenty different ways in those movies. "He's been to Chicagoland as a faith healer more that two dozen times." Jack shook his head. "This is too much information for me to sort through." "True," the dog said. "What you need is an assistant for all that data." "I can't put Mia on this. I mean, she'd do it and all, but the tricky part is me getting all this data out of this theater and into the real world. Hell, once I do that, I don't need any help at all. I can just see how it correlates with my lists." The dog said, "You need a data miner." Jack nodded. "I need a data miner. A hacker who can gather all this data from mundane sources and give it to me." The screen changed to reveal almost a hundred faces in tiny boxes, typing and talking into headsets. Jack understood them to be the most competent hackers in range of his aether-reading abilities. He smiled. "Ok, if I'm going to reprogram a hacker to serve me and discreetly gather data for me, then I need an evil hacker." The boxes vanished except for eight of them, which grew to fill out the whole screen. There were five geeky-looking guys and three bitchy-looking girls on them. Jack's eyebrows rose. "Uh, I was kidding about the reprogramming and serving bit." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08 "None the less, there are eight evil hackers on that screen." Jack huffed and concentrated on them. They all did bad things, ranging from gathering social security numbers and selling them, to outright credit card fraud and electronic theft. Jack made notes and decided to tip the police off about seven of them. The eighth, he would feel no shame in enslaving. George Henderson was a vile son of a bitch and Jack could plainly see that. The man thought of himself as the unrecognized master of the universe and treated everyone and everything like shit. He stole money wherever he could get it and he hit on every young female he saw. Since he was a fat slob, they all passed on his rude offers of being his fuck toys. He believed that made those women evil and he would avenge himself by hacking their social media accounts and making fake posts and tweets that got them into trouble, or broke up their relationships. He would cyberstalk them for years to come, thoroughly enjoying the mess he made out of their lives. Whenever he found that his programming and electronics savvy gave him power over another human being, no matter how small, he exerted it to their ruin, just to make himself laugh at the pain and misery he caused. He even murdered a waiter by hacking into his medical records and removing the bit about his allergies. In George's mind, the waiter had deserved execution by penicillin shot for not licking George's boots when he came into his restaurant one evening. "This is a very sorry excuse for a human being," the dog said. "Amen," Jack agreed and noted George's private cell number. The call was coming as soon as his high was over and then George was going to go the way of the Chicago crime family mentalists and their misogynist, mind-rapist ways. As Jack thought about those assholes, a movie played on the screen, revealing a new set of assholes. Jack frowned, his fists tightening in rage. "Oh, someone's going to get their ass raped with a spool of barbed wire," he declared darkly. ********** The men were sitting around the mahogany table and sipping their champagne when the door opened. A bound young woman was shoved into the opulent room without much ceremony. Her mouth was gagged and she was drawing deep breaths through her nose, but she didn't look particularly scared. A tall, thin man entered after her. He grabbed her by an elbow and unnecessarily held her still for the men to view. The men downed their drinks and got up to walk over to the girl. "Well, well, well," said the oldest of them. He lifted his gaze and smiled at the tall, thin man. "Jerry, you finally did it. You brought us a girl that really looks like a movie star." Jerry smiled an ugly smile and shoved the girl forward. "Found her at the mall." Two of the men grabbed her and held her still. "Holy fuck," said one of those two men. "Look at this bitch! She looks so much like Megan Fox, I just wanna make a call and check if this isn't the real deal." "Don't be dumb, Hank," said the oldest of them. "She's obviously got tits twice the size of Megan Fox." "I dunno," Hank said. "Fox is a MILF nowadays. Tits grow for breastfeeding, ya know. Tits grow." He chuckled. The oldest nodded at Jerry. "Thank you, Jerry, that will be all." Jerry nodded back, turned on his heels and left the room, closing the doors behind himself. "Now, my dear. Let's cover the basics, shall we? Our names aren't important and neither is yours. We're all going to have some fun." He gestured at another member, who was filming things on a small, digital camera. "Mike's going to film everything so we can all look back on this night some day and remember it fondly." The girl flinched when Hank grabbed her tits and gave them a big squeeze. "Play nice, bitch," he snarled. The oldest one took the girl by the chin and turned her head towards him. "Listen to me, girl! Listen! This can go one of two ways. You can play nice and have some fun with us. If you do, you'll be going home with Ben, the driver, and he'll give you a nice, fat envelope when he drops you off. Or, you can choose to not play nice. We'll still have our fun with you, but we'll be sending you home with Jerry. Jerry...well, you already know he isn't as nice as Ben. He certainly won't be giving you an envelope when he finally does bring you home. So, what'll it be? Are you going to play nice?" The girl squeezed her blue eyes shut and nodded her head as best she could in his grip. He pulled the gag out of her mouth and said, "Now, let's hear you promise you'll play nice and be a good girl for us!" The girl worked her jaw loose. All five men were eating her up with their eyes. She gulped and licked her lips before saying, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" "What," Hank barked out, laughing. The girl could see that the face of one of the five men changed. He looked confused for a moment and then seemed to adopt a calm, neutral expression. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" Mike, the camera man, seemed struck with a sudden indecision, before he lowered his camera and turned it off. "As far as pleas for mercy go, that one is fairly...out there," said the oldest man. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" The oldest man put his hand over her mouth, even as she saw the third of the five adopt a blank expression. "Well, I guess we don't need your mouth to have our fun, do we now?" "Let her go," Mike said. Hank gaped at his friend. "What?!" "Let the girl go," piped in the guy in the back. The third one nodded in the affirmative. Hank and the oldest man shared a bewildered look. "What the hell has gotten into you three?" Hank demanded. Mike shoved him aside, while the other two men grabbed the eldest and took his hands off the girl. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," she said. The old man looked pensive for a moment and then calmed down and settled into a neutral expression. Hank looked panicked as he shoved Mike aside. "I'll fucking kill you, you fucking bitch!" His advance on the girl was stopped by the other two men. "Get off me!" The girl said, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" Hank's face betrayed confusion, for a moment, and then he calmed down and backed away. The other two men let go of him. Mike stood up and said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm done with raping. Why are we doing this, anyway? Paying assholes like Ben and Jerry and Thomas to lure girls to us and then filming ourselves as we rape them? When did this get fun?" The other guys murmured assent. "We have all this money and power between us...and look at what we use it for. I'm disgusted by what we do. I'm disgusted by who I've become. I'm done." "You said it, brother," Hank added. "It's time we put an end to all this." The others murmured their heartfelt agreement. "Let's all go to the police and confess our crimes. It's high time we paid for them. I know I'm looking forward to it." The others worked to remove the zip ties from the girl's wrists. The oldest among them said, "Wait a minute! What about the girl?" "What about the girl?" Hank asked. "Ben, Jerry and Thomas are down the hall. They won't just let her go. They won't stay cool while we confess and stick them in prison." "Relax, gentlemen," the girl said, "my boyfriend is coming here and he'll take care of your men outside." "Are you sure," Hank asked. "They're all former special forces operators. Tough as nails and completely remorseless." "Yeah, but only Tom and Jerry are wearing their dog tags," she said. "What's that got to do with anything," Mike asked. The girl smiled warmly and put her hand on his arm. "Don't worry! It's all been covered." She gestured at the table they had been sitting at when she first arrived. "What's going on here? Were you playing cards?" "Omaha Hold 'Em," Mike said. "Let's play a few hands," she said. The men agreed and moved to the table. Hank brought a chair for her and pushed it in for her. "What's your name, Miss?" "Mia. Mia Newman." Hank smiled a charming smile. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Newman." Mia smiled. "You have no idea, Hank." ********** The taxi pulled up in front of the mansion and Jack told the cabby what the code for the front gate was. Jack read both the code and the address in Hank's mind when he restructured it. The cabby leaned out of his window and typed it in. The gate slowly swung open and the taxi drove up the tree-lined drive. Two large men came out of the mansion even before the taxi had a chance to park. Jack slipped into Ben's mind as soon as the man saw the taxi. He ordered him to remove Thomas' dog tags. Ben reached over and yanked the thin, metal necklace, ripping it out of Thomas' shirt. "Hey," Thomas cried out. Jack made holes in his cloak in the shape of a pain around his neck from the necklace being pulled off and found himself inside Thomas' mind. He projected orders to remove Jerry's dog tags. He sent the same order to Ben, too. The men turned around and went back inside the house. Jack told the cabby to wait and went in after them. As soon as he came in, Jack saw the three men fighting in the hallway. Most importantly, Thomas had a dog tag necklace in his fist. Jack said, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," and felt through the hole in his cloak that three men had just heard him say that name. He selected the angry, surprised mind and found himself in Jerry's head. He sent the man the order to stop fighting. He sent all three the orders to wait for the police and confess all their wrongdoings to them after they arrive. Jack went through the hallway and opened the door he knew Mia was behind. Her face lit up when she saw him and he felt a flutter of relief deep inside of his belly, too. She jumped up and rushed into his arms. He held her close. After they calmed down, he made sure none of the men could remember him, or Mia. He had Hank, who was playing the host for the evening, erase the security camera footage. Mike had already erased his own, handheld camera. Jack and Mia took the cab back to their hotel, leaving the villains to call the cops and turn themselves in. His relief at finding her safe and sound gave way to anger as soon as they were back in their room. He shook a finger at her. "You will never do that again!" Mia held her hands up in an innocent gesture. "But, babe, we were a pair of superheroes! We got the bad guys!" "No, I was the superhero, you were bait. You could have gotten hurt. What the hell were you thinking?" Mia spread her arms. "Come on, Jack! You knew I wouldn't get hurt. And this was such fun! A gang of rapists taken down!" She karate chopped the air and struck a fight pose "Hiya!" "This was stupid in the extreme!" Mia adopted a more serious expression as she said, "Oh, come on, babe, it wasn't that bad. It all worked out in the end." "You shouldn't have done that!" "What? Gone out and saved an innocent girl from getting raped?" "You put an innocent girl in danger!" Jack stopped and took hold of himself. His anger had been tempered by the sheer panic he had felt when Mia had left the room, but now that she was safe, it was back in full effect. "How could you've fucking done this? What was going through your head? Seriously, tell me what was going on inside your brain to make you go out, all alone, and offer yourself as bait for these maniacs!" "Hey," she said, defensively, "if I'm too much bother for you to work with, then-" "Work with?!" Jack's tone of voice was utterly incredulous. "You call that working with me?! Holy fuck! I shudder to think what would happen if you decided to work against me one day!" "I let them take me and I led you straight to them." Jack's mouth fell wide open. "Led me straight...led me straight to them?! Are you fucking kidding me!? You snuck out of the room while I was taking a dump and only sent me a text message after the fact. What if I hadn't seen it? Answer me this, Mia! What would have happened if I hadn't checked my phone and seen your text to listen for you saying Beetlejuice three times?" Mia faltered for an instant. "But you did see it, so-" He got in her face, eyes ablaze with anger. "They would have been gangbanging you right now!" He hooked a finger under her choker. "And I wouldn't have been able to find you unless they took this off your neck." Mia licked her lips and looked down at her feet. "Well...uh..." "God alone knows which cunt they would have given you to afterwards! Jerry would have left your corpse in a ditch at the side of the road, somewhere." Jack blinked away the tears that were misting up his vision and drew deep breaths to keep calm. Mia scrunched up her mouth and lifted her gaze to meet his. "You couldn't find them because they were wearing military dog tags! You said they were out right now, in that mall, looking for their next victim and you couldn't find them! I had to go-" "I could find them! I was going to find their employers, who did not wear dog tags. I was going to eat more pot cookies and look for them again, just as soon as I took a shit. The only reason I told you about them was because my high ran out. It ran out just after I saw that they always turned off all the phones before they went to a random, foreclosed house to get their rape on, but it ran out right before I could see which fucking house it was this night. I was going to eat more cookies and learn which house it was in half an hour. But I couldn't do that and listen for you saying 'Beetlejuice' three times at the same time, now could I? And where the fuck did you come up with Beetlejuice, anyway?" "It all worked out in the end. You found me and you took their minds and-" "Oh, my, fucking, God, Mia! Are you not listening to me, or what?! What if they had taken a different girl and not you?! Huh? What then? I didn't eat cookies, cause I was running around the mall, looking for you and listening for you saying 'Beetlejuice' the whole time. If you hadn't been the one they took, then some other girl would have been taken and raped. Hell, by the time you got your head on straight and called me, the poor girl could have already been dumped on the side of the road." Mia's face fell when she finally understood she had almost been a hindrance and not a help. "But, it all worked out in the end," she said in a small voice. Jack wiped his face and sighed. "This was...I don't understand what the fuck possessed you to go off and do such a thing." "I wanted to be useful," she said in a small voice. "I wanted to help." "I appreciate the sentiment, Mia, I really do, but...you cannot be pulling off things like that. You just can't." "I'll do better next time." Jack rolled his eyes. "There isn't going to be a next time." Mia's lip quivered. "Don't send me away. Please, I-" "I'm not sending you away. I'm saying that you will never, ever know anything about my work with mentalists, or any criminals I happen to come across. I just can't trust your judgment." She burst into tears and ran into the bathroom. He heard the lock and his shoulders slumped. First she wants me to violate her mind on the off chance it would make her telekinetic. Now she hauls off to be taken by a bunch of rapists, hoping to lead me to them despite being insulated against mentalism...it's like I'm dealing with a five year old that dreams of being a superhero! I wouldn't be surprised if she tied a blanket around her neck for a cape and started leaping over furniture while making whooshing noises. He could hear her sobbing in the bathroom, so he fell heavily into the couch and turned on the TV. He surfed the channels aimlessly. At length, the bathroom door opened and Mia slowly came out, her face hanging. "Sorry, I'll never do that again," she mumbled. Jack sighed. "Look, Mia, I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have blown up at you like that. It's just..." He patted the cushion next to his. She sat down and he gently took her hand into his. "If you're bored on this trip, or you want to feel more useful, or whatever...tell me! We'll talk about it and work something out. Ok? I'm not comfortable using you as bait, but there could be other roles you could play. So long as we have to talk about it first, ok? Make a plan and stick to it. I'm a little bit proud of you for going out and taking the place of an innocent girl. I'm super pissed off at you for doing that without talking it out with me first. That's what you did wrong. Running off with half a thought for a plan and leaving me to panic and play catch-up." Mia sniffed and nodded. "I understand. I won't do anything without your permission again." "It's not my permission you need to have before you try and play the hero. It's my knowing assistance that you must have. Ok?" She nodded. He put a finger under he chin and brought her face close for a tender kiss. She leaned into him and they hugged as they spent the evening on the couch, watching TV. Jack stretched and called his dogs to him. They padded closer to his bed with their paws smacking wetly against the floor. Jack sat up in his bed and looked over to see exactly why they were making the wet noises. His eyes grew wide when he saw the dogs covered in blood from snout to tail. Blood that came from their victims, not them. It was horrible to see Spot and the three musketeers look at him with love and trust, while wearing a thick coat of human blood. They cocked their heads at his shock. He could feel them asking him why he was unhappy. Did he want them to butcher more people at his command? All he had to do was think the thought and they would tear the throats out of anyone he wanted. They came all the way to his side of the bed and shook the blood out of their fur. Jack startled awake in his bed as he felt the red drops splatter against his face and make him wet from head to toe. He wiped his face and looked at his hand. It was wet with sweat. He sat up in bed and realized it had been just another nightmare. His dogs were in the RV, except for Spot, who was sleeping next to the door. Jack lay back down with a sigh of relief. He could see out the corner of his eye that it was already dawn outside the window. He lay still for a while longer, but got up when he saw that sleep wasn't returning. He picked up his phone and called the hacker. The phone rang seven times before George Henderson answered it with the words, "Whoever this is, I'm going to end your life for calling me this early. And then you'll kill yourself. But first, how the motherfuck did you get my private number, you early-rising sack of pigeon shit?" Jack calmly said, "I am calling you to end your reign of tyranny." He made holes in his cloak in the shape of his words and felt George's mind through them. He made another hole in the shape of wanting to incessantly chant the words balaclava and dichotomy. He projected his power through them and hung up the phone. He moved to the couch and sat cross-legged on it. He closed his eyes and focused. He made holes in his cloak in the shape of chanting those two words and locked on to the panicked mind of George Henderson. He took his time reshaping it from the ground up. By the time Jack was done, it was already mid-morning and Mia was sitting in a chair opposite him, drying her hair. "Morning," she said. "Morning." He craned his neck this way and that. All the changes he made to George left him mentally exhausted, particularly since he did them all in one sitting. He yawned and got up. He felt confident he'd be in able to search for mentalists by the time they drove to Minneapolis. "Hungry?" "Yes." "Me too. Order us some breakfast while I shower. Ok?" Mia nodded. "Where are we going today?" "Minneapolis." He sighed and frowned. "I, uh, I have to tell you something." A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08 "I'm allowed to know things?" He shot her a look. She raised a hand in apology. He cleared his throat and said, "I've made a slave." She stared at him incredulously. "He, uh, he was scum, quite frankly. He enjoyed causing and spreading misery and he even killed a man once. He has some mad skills that I need, so I've changed his personality and deepest beliefs and he's going to," he paused to choose his next word, "aid me to the best of his abilities from now on." Mia looked at him for a long time before saying, "Ok." He nodded with relief that she wasn't disgusted by him. "I'm not going to keep him, or anything like that. This isn't permanent. As soon as he's done helping me with what I need, I'm going to have him call the police and confess his many crimes." "So, what are these mad skills you need from him?" "He's a hacker. He's going to gather some information for me." "What kind of information?" Mia asked. "He's going to track Jacobs' movements for me and he's going to try and figure out how Jacobs had talked with his master. If I could get my hands on their communications...I could restore some minds and heal some suffering families. Plus, it would, obviously, lead me to Patrick and the evil puppetmaster cunt." Mia didn't ask further and he took a shower while she ordered breakfast. After breakfast, Jack drove them to a downtown coffee house, where they met with George Henderson. George had thinning auburn hair and stood an inch shorter than Mia. He also looked to be about three times as wide as she. He was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, both of which bore multiple stains. Mia hoped the stains were from food. The large stains under his armpits clearly weren't. They ordered their beverages and moved to a table. George immediately pulled a thin, metal necklace from his sweatshirt. "I got it, Boss," he said in his nasal voice. "I also got a spare. I'll never take it off for any reason, don't worry." "I know you won't," Jack said and put his laptop on the table. George wasted no time in booting it up. He clicked through some of the menus and shook his head in disdain before picking up his backpack. While he rummaged through it, the barista called that their order was ready. Mia brought the drinks to the table. George had a bunch of flash drives on the table and was plugging them into the laptop, one by one, to copy some programs and run them before moving on to the next. It took ten minutes, but then he happily declared, "There! No one can ever get into this laptop without you giving them your password, Boss. I've also taken the liberty of making sure your web surfing will be virtually untraceable." "Good," Jack said. "Did you copy the lists I've made?" George nodded. "Of course, Boss." Jack closed his eyes and looked within. He felt confident that he could use his power without incurring a major headache. "I have it on good authority that you could do a whole lot more for me if you had administrator access to the internet service provider's mainframe. Who has the codes that can grant you that?" "Seventeen people," George said. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen a few times. He showed it to Jack. "This is a payroll from the service provider, listing the mainframe administrators. These people have the power to erase any online traces. Like, actually erase, not just reroute it randomly. If I had their codes, just one of their codes, I'd be unstoppable!" Jack raised a bemused eyebrow at the comment and peered again at the list. "Can you call any one of these people on the phone?" George looked almost offended by the question. "Of course, Boss." "Ok, then," Jack said. "Pick one and call them up on the phone. You'll tell them that they won a free trip to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan." George tapped his phone a few dozen times in two seconds and then held it up to his ear. "What do I say after that?" "Nothing," Jack said. "That will be more than enough." He focused on a hole in his cloak in the shape of the name of the Canadian town and state. He felt the woman's mind and made a new hole to look for her administrator's password. He wrote it down on a napkin and handed it to George. "This is the code you're looking for. Use it wisely." George held the napkin with reverence. "Yes, Boss." Jack gestured at his laptop. "Are we done here?" "Yes, Boss. I'll call you as soon as I find anything about their communication." "I know you will," Jack said. He sipped at his drink and got up. Mia followed, while George stayed seated and looked like he wanted to make love to the writing on the napkin. From Minneapolis Jack saw the memories of thirty-seven mentalists, only seven of whom were still alive. After sending warning letters to the seven, he decided to go south the next day. He suspected that he might need more than a day at each stop he made in Arizona and California and he decided to get those out of the way first. Canada and the Northwest could wait a week, or two. The way south led through Nebraska and Kansas. Neither place left much of an impression on Mia. They drove through Colorado and stopped in Greendale again. Jack paid a visit to the graves. He felt a shortness of breath as he stood over each of the five recent graves. Mia squinted over one of them. "Jamie Jacobs," she read from the marker. "That's the bad guy, right?" Jack didn't trust himself to speak, so he just nodded. He lay fresh flowers on each grave and said a little prayer. Mia tried to make small talk, but he could hardly hear her. While he was praying over one of the goons' graves, he heard the click of the tiny pistol behind him and spun into a fighting stance. His dogs pricked up in confused alarm. He searched the area behind himself, but there was nothing there. Nothing but graves all around. Mia stepped closer and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Babe? You okay?" He shrugged the hand away, almost by reflex, and said, "Fine. I am fine. Perfectly fine." He left the graveyard feeling sick to his stomach. The drive to Santa Fe was a quiet one. He found thirteen dead mentalists there and three living ones. He didn't think to look at George RR Martin's mind while he was one with the aether. After his high ended, he also passed on the chance to go visit the man's movie theater, opting to stay shut up in their hotel room. Mia tried to get him to talk, but he didn't even comment when she mentioned that there was another Las Vegas, just miles to the east of them. All she got from him was a no, which cancelled her arousal from being leered at by strangers. He spent the night waking up from nightmares every few hours. He felt glad that he couldn't remember what they were. He suspected they were about Jacobs and the confrontation in the alley they had, but the fact that he couldn't recall them gave him hope. Maybe they'll stop altogether. He didn't feel certain that he should look forward to the day he no longer felt guilty over what had happened. In the morning, he got in the RV and sat heavily in the back. Mia asked him where they were going, but he was too tired to give clear instructions. Mia checked the navigation system and extrapolated their course. She veered a little bit to choose Phoenix, Arizona as their next destination. The distance between Santa Fe and Phoenix was 324 miles, so she knew that wouldn't leave Jack with big gaps or overlaps between his search circles. She listened to music as she drove, but Jack rebuffed all attempts at conversation with single-syllable words. He picked at his food during their lunch break and that nearly put her off her appetite as well. She muttered about how mature and reasonable he was acting, right behind his back, but even that failed to get a rise out of him. Jack only spoke when they crossed the Phoenix city limits. "This will leave a gap," he said, almost startling Mia as he moved to the shotgun seat. "From Truth or consequences to El Paso. Uncovered." Mia screwed her lips up tight and said, "Well, you shoulda thought of that sooner, babe. It's not like I didn't ask you where we were going. You just sat there like a log." "Sorry." "Look, babe, I wanna help you. I can help you, you just gotta let me in, you know? You gotta tell me what's going on inside that head of yours. You gotta share, babe." "I will." She could tell from his tone of voice that he was just saying that. She shook her head in disapproval. Men. They think they're so tough, but they're all just big babies. Jack's vision quest showed him five living and twenty-four deceased mentalists. He spent the time in the theater exploring which levels of government were impervious to mind reading. He learned it was federal agents, members of state and federal legislature, as well as the top tiers of executive and judicial branches of state government. He took a long shower after posting the warning letters. A routine check into the dogs' minds for a trace of Patrick, or the puppetmaster, snapped Jack out of his misery. An FBI Hostage Rescue Team was deploying covertly in the hotel's underground parking lot, watched by Aramis and Athos from the RV. He sent the dogs the order to leave the RV and sneak up on the Feds, but they showed him that the Feds were searching the parking lot. He sent his dogs out to hide under a nearby car and see if the Feds were looking for the RV. Aramis worked the latch on the door and they hid under a nearby station wagon. As expected, no combination of thoughts gave him insight into the minds of the agents sweeping the parking lot and the hotel. Looking through his cloak for people holding automatic weapons and searching for targets yielded hundreds of results from dozens of firing ranges. He tried to tell himself that the Feds were there for someone else, a drug kingpin, or something like that, but his gut told him different. He turned off the shower and ran out of the bathroom, dripping water everywhere. Porthos was with Mia, and Jack took a peek through his eyes. Mia was talking with some people in a coffee shop. Jack listened in and snuck into the minds of those people. They were just normal people politely answering her questions. No one but Mia was wearing a necklace in that cafe. He sighed with relief. His dogs told him the Feds found and surrounded the RV and he knew the shit was on a collision course with the fan. He wrapped a towel around his waist and grabbed another, which he put over his shoulder. He grabbed all his bags and felt grateful that he had been too down in the dumps to unpack that day. He had only booted up his laptop to make new entries to his lists. He looked out his window and felt a mind watching pretty much the same view. It was a young woman on her honeymoon. He found out which room she was staying in and gave her the order to let him in when he got there and not object to helping him in any way she could. He ran out of the room with Spot leading the way. They ran two floors down the stairs. Neither Jack nor Spot could hear any boots stomping up the stairwell. Jack got off on the right floor and got to the woman's room, just as the husband did. The sight of a wet young man wearing only a towel was enough of a crib for Jack to come inside the man's mind. He made the man feel very helpful and that got him expressly invited into the room. Once inside the room, Jack stopped, unsure of how to proceed. His heart was pounding in his throat. Getting out of his room seemed so obvious to him that he had done it on autopilot. Aramis and Athos reported the FBI tearing the RV apart. "Fuck!" He had no clue why the FBI was after him. The why didn't matter much. His first priority was to evade capture and get the hell out of the hotel. He sent the dogs the order to sneak out of the parking lot and stake out the exits. Mia! He sent her the text message, "drop phone follow porthos to find me avoid fbi go now" He looked through Porthos' eyes as she ignored her phone and continued with her relaxed chat. He had the Great Dane jump on her and paw at her front pocket until she pulled out her phone and saw then message. Then he had Porthos lead her out of the cafe. "Where, where, where do I send them?" Jack paced the room. Mia looked scared through Porthos' eyes. He needed to establish two way communication with her and that meant public phones. He ordered Porthos to go west and lead her to a public phone that was at least three blocks away from the cafe. "Great. Now I just have to find a public phone for myself." As he thought about calling from this couple's room phone, he came up with an idea. He said, "Beetlejuice," three times and slipped back into the husband's mind. He had the man call down and ask to be connected to security. When he was refused, Jack made him be insistent. Once he was finally connected, Jack had the man claim his wife had gone missing. Using the husband's words as a template for his cloak holes, Jack slipped into the mind of the security officer on the other end of the line. There were several FBI agents at the security station, using the internal surveillance feeds. They were watching their breach team get into position outside the room Jack was supposed to be in. They were waiting for the agent in charge to give them the go ahead to breach, making all the hotel security personnel nervous. Jack was astounded as he expanded the holes in his cloak and learned that the FBI told hotel security that they considered Jack the most dangerous homegrown terrorist of all times. He lost the connection to the security man, who also hung up on the husband, but not before seeing that the FBI agent in charge was waiting on the phone for someone else to give him the go ahead to breach. His laptop made the noise which indicated an incoming Skype call. Jack frowned at it. Could this be whoever is behind the FBI raid, calling to gloat?