Chapter 8
A plush lavender horse reared up on
its hind legs and galloped about the playroom under its own power. Its owner, a
five-year-old girl, watched at it with squealing delight as she hovered in midair
above her myriad of toys.
At the entryway, Dr. Bill Garner, Morgan le
Fay, and an effortlessly disguised Clive Ogden watched Anne play with the
projected manifestations of her imagination.
“Remarkable.” Morgan whispered.
The horse made a cartoonish grin and Anne did
a back flip in midair. She flew across the room, holding her breath and phasing
through her plastic castles and toys as if she were as much a projection as the
horse.
“This is her whole world. We found that she does
not know why we all don’t fly or tunnel on a daily basis. Of course, like all
children, she sees the adult world as boring, and usually works to make it more
to her liking.”
“Of course, the little terrors grow into big
monsters that way.” Clive intoned. His face had an odd lucidity; his features
shifted whenever he moved, bordering on looking like a proposed
four-dimensional painting.
Garner nodded.
“The problem is that she wants interaction of
equal kinds, but does not understand that she is unique.”
“So, she goes all poltergeist and ruins the
upholstery then.” Clive said.
Garner chuckled.
“Oh yes. It’s a pain in the neck to deal
with.”
Bill Garner was a very lanky man. He was tall,
wore very thick glasses, and had a thin brown moustache that matched his
receding hair. Morgan noticed with disgust that it sounded like phlegm inhibited
his voice, making his breathing sound like a rock scraping over pavement.
Garner continued.
“We believe in the needs of each individual,
yet with our young Anne, we directed her toward being a happy young girl. She
is free to use her power to her own means and whenever she wants, as long as no
one is hurt. This is to help detour being rebellious when she’s older. We fear
that if she’s not content, she could be very dangerous. We try not to let her
get away with her wrong doings, but it’s a challenge, as her parents will
attest to.”
Morgan held her thumb and index finger above
her lip, as if she were to pinch it. Anne let the horse dissolve. She held her
right arm to her side and an animal cracker floated over to her hand. Anne nibbled
on the cracker and looked at Garner. She waved at them and sent them each a
cracker. Clive absorbed his through his palm.
Morgan nodded and studied the cookie.
“I am intrigued, yes, but a question lingers,
Dr. Garner. For what was I brought here, long after I was banished from the Meta
Corps daycare?”
Garner pressed his lips together and furrowed
his brow. He didn’t answer for a moment.
“Why
was I brought here?” Morgan asked with a firm tone.
Garner’s heart rate increased and it showed
through his sudden fidgeting and straining voice.
“I have spent my life trying to explain
psychokinesis in the lab. The best thing to come out of it is a form of
biofeedback, where one can manipulate part of their brain and an EEG reads the
patterns that equate them to a desired function. Some of our metas are labeled
as such strictly because of their artificial accoutrements. They are cyborgs.
Anne though, well… Our second most powerful
meta next to Anne, Geoff Teslowski, he is able to pick himself up and fly fast
enough to break the sound barrier. He has problems lifting anything else
heavier than he is with the will of his mind though. He only has a four-foot
radius before whatever he’s holding drops off suddenly.
Anne displays much of the same skills that
Geoff does, but she can project her thoughts like a hologram and tunnel in
addition.”
Clive scoffed; it was a wet, metallic sound.
“So Anne is a collective hallucination and
she’s not real. That’s not a problem, it just means that we’re all mad.”
Morgan watched Anne watch them, both with
intense curiosity. Anne eyed Morgan’s cookie, and Morgan took a bite. Anne
giggled.
“What are the limits of her telekinetic force?
A person of her stature is unable to lift a sofa by their will alone.” Morgan
asked.
Garner nodded.
“That’s about right. Anne expressed strain
when we asked her to lift a 16-gallon tub of water. She could only lift the tub
an inch off the ground, and she ended up physically tipping it over. That sent
the water flying across the room at an increased velocity.”
Morgan stared at Anne. She got bored and flew
off, creating a translucent rainbow in her wake.
“You have yet to tell me what I was summoned
for, and I can assure you that I was not brought in to suck the marvelous teat
of your credentials again.”
Garner got close to Morgan, to which she
recoiled slightly; his breath smelled of artificial fruit and intestinal acids.
“I want to run some tests on her, but because
of a child’s aversion to needles, I have yet to get a blood sample. I have
several ideas for evaluating her, and I need someone of a higher stature to
help explore her powers and create a consumable form.”
Clive frowned.
“Yeah, we all know how that turned out, nudge,
nudge. I’m still paying court fees.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes.
Garner continued.
“I have a high-powered scanner that I would
like to have rigged with an inescapable chamber for her. I have tested the
scanner and results are positive, yet they take a notoriously long time to
complete. Most importantly, Morgan, I do not want her harmed as we work.”
Clive stepped up and added to the conversation,
his body rippling noticeably.
“So, wait, what do you want Morgan to do then?
Trap the girl, build her a cage, or figure the munchkin out for you? She’s a
doctor, not a steel welder.”
Garner wagged a skinny finger at him. Clive
stared at him like he planned to set his greasy hair on fire.
“Look you, Anne is the closest that man has
ever gotten to ascension by way of a natural mutation. Anne may be our future.”
Morgan could not help but have a flashback
triggered by Garners statement. She sat on a stage… next to Walter, overlooking
an audience as a male barked out promises to the crowd, so very long ago.
“I am the closest that we have ever been to
ascension by way of Gaias power, I am your future!”
Morgan warped back and saw Anne approach her
with a grin and her full attention.
“Hi! You’re scary.” She said with a playful grin.
Morgan sneered.
“And you’re stupid.”
Anne giggled.
“You’re funny too.”
Morgan nodded.
“Charmed to hear that.”
Anne giggled again and floated away. Morgan
watched her, inspired by her untimely flashback.
“I require a few days to prepare, for I have
my own tests that I wish to run. I have my own inquiries about our Miss Anne
Redford.”
Chapter 9
August 18th,
2010
“How did that happen? Will you let
me see!”
“Jason, stop! Get off! What’s wrong with you?”
“Hey, Sarra, it’s not every day that your best
friend becomes a liquid creature, and I haven’t seen you since before it
happened. Let me see! I could try to put Meta Corps in court for you for a
toxic tort or something.”
“Will you just—“
Jason pushed Sarra over. Sarra lost her shape
and splashed into EnWol silver on the pavement. Jason frowned and hesitantly
bent down to poke at Sarra, thinking her dead ‘or something’ in his obtuseness.
Across the lawn, super suited Lora and Cindy
were carrying the very last of the boxes out to the We-All-Haul truck. It was
six in the morning and dawn had just broken. Unless Lora and Sarra wished to
fly, the estimated time of arrival by towing the truck was around three in the
afternoon if there was good traffic all the way up.
Lora and Sarra were adjusting nicely to being
EnWol, Lora was still sketchy about hurting people, regardless of their
morality, but she was keeping a note to shrug it off. Sarra could hide her
elasticity with little effort, but she was still put off by it. She figured
that she was a better person than to sit around and mope about it though.
“I just, like, still can’t believe this is
happening.” Cindy said. She stretched up to place a final box on top of the
stack. Lora was floating alongside to help it up; the enclosed space trapped
her energy and it made their hair burst up like fiery billows of hay.
“Oh, I know. I wish I didn’t have to go,
Cindy. You really helped me get used to these new powers. You’ve been doing it
for so long and I just started, I really appreciate that.”
Cindy smiled.
“Aw Bubbles, it was my pleasure.”
Lora got down from her floating perch and gave
Cindy a hug, both unable to help but shed tears.
“Hey you turkeys, get a room!” Jason yelled
from outside.
Lora and Cindy broke off as Sarra’s red headed
friend smiled, looking to Sarra for a high five. Sarra, having resumed her
normal shape, just glared at him and left him hanging. Jason frowned.
“You’re a bitch, Sarra.”
“Well, you’re an idiot.”
Jason shouted at Sarra.
“You’re a freak!”
“You’re a psycho!” Sarra retorted.
“I’ll miss you.”
Sarra bit her lip and nodded.
“Yeah, me too.”
Both Lora and Cindy giggled.
Serena came out of the house with Louie
trailing behind her.
“Alright ladies,” she said while projecting
her voice. “The house is cleared out, the glass and the hole in the wall are
fixed,” she turned to Louie, who just shrugged and avoided her eyes, “and the
new tenants want in, so we need to head out.”
Lora and Cindy looked at each other, the
thought that both that none of them would see each other for a long time
sinking in. They started to cry. They gave each other a last hug and wept on
each other’s shoulder.
They broke off and Cindy started down the trucks
ramp. Lora watched her jump onto the sidewalk and fly away. She held her hand
out, hoping that Cindy would have seen her off. Lora watched her friend fly
away until she disappeared.
Sarra and Jason looked at the house; it looked
familiar yet there was something terribly wrong. It was hollow.
“We’re going to get a Count Sucirlada on the
block, I just know it. That would be awful.” Sarra said, avoiding a pun
pertaining to the word ‘suck.’
Jason scoffed.
“What is it about you girls and vampires? They
must feel like sandpaper.”
Sarra sighed and rolled her eyes. Louie came
up and slapped Sarra’s back.
“We’ll go north young one, for the witches
here will make us blind.”
Sarra scoffed and glanced at Jason.
“No kidding.”
Louie nodded.
“Yep. Let’s go. Are you going to fly or
carpool?”
Sarra shrugged.
“Let’s see how tired I get.”
“If you even get tired.” Jason said.
With Sarra flying above and Lora below, the
Summers family took one last good bye before they left; the streets of Lake
Forest California already looking alien to them.
If you would like the whole book, a souvenir of the experience, check it out at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87111
If you would like the whole book, a souvenir of the experience, check it out at Smashwords here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/87111
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