Would right about now feel good for you? :tongue:
-----------------------------------------------------
Chapter 11 – A Plan of Action
“Lizaaaaa, lemme alone!”
“But Tate, your hair is a mess, and you didn’t clean up after your lunch!”
Two youths, identical at first sight, sat in front of a vast array of computer screens. One was trying desperately to edge her hairbrush and a napkin towards the other’s face. The other was doing everything in his power to resist.
“Getoff! I don’t need you to take care of me!” He slapped the napkin out of her hand, and it floated gently to the floor. A red light began flashing on the wall behind them, but neither noticed.
“But that’s what big sisters are for!” She dove at him again, kicking the still falling napkin away from the consoles, but missing his head by mere inches. Lying facedown on the tile floor, she turned and smiled sweetly back at him.
He looked down, mumbling, “by two freakin’ minutes”. He scowled, obviously agitated, and attempted to resume his place by the monitors.
The girl, Liza, seized the opportunity and launched herself at her twin, placing him in a one-armed headlock. She continued to smile. “Just hold still, and this will be over quickly,” she said gently as she tried to run the brush through Tate’s long hair.
Tate struggled mightily, but his breathing was coming in short gasps. His face turned red, then purple as he struggled against his sister’s powerful grip. I’m gonna pass…
“STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!!!” A loud, stern voice came from the back of the room. The twins looked up as Sabrina ran down the stairs from the upper level to their area. “We do NOT fight against our colleagues, and we most CERTAINLY do not put them in headlocks!”
Liza immediately dropped Tate, who fell to the floor, gasping for breath, and she walked towards Sabrina. “I apologize, Professor Natsume. I was merely trying to impress,” she emphasized the word, “upon my brother that his appearance determines the amount of respect given by his students.” The smile never left her face as she said this. Behind her, Tate let out a loud cough that sounded strangely like “Brownose” as he continued to gag and gasp for air.
Sabrina looked down her nose at the pint-sized teacher, her eyes flashing and a small scowl appearing on her young face. “It does not matter. You have a job to do, and nothing should stop you from that job.” She peered over Liza’s shoulder. “You might have noticed that we have an alert. Check it, now.” Sabrina turned on her heels and walked up the small flight of stairs towards another console which faced the front of the room.
Liza’s smile faded slightly. “Yes, Professor.” She turned on the bottom level of the room and resumed her position at the console, dropping her comb on Tate’s stomach. Tate had begun to breathe regularly, but was clearly not quite ready to retake his place.
Liza scanned her screen for a moment, checking what the alert was about. She started. “Professor, it’s about Doshi.”
Sabrina turned on her heels, peering at the largest screen in the room directly above Liza. “Put it up there, and pipe in whatever audio you can find.” She waited while Liza typed some commands into the console. Tate finally regained enough strength to crawl his way back to his console. Picking up the napkin that had been dropped earlier, he sat and also typed furiously.
The main screen flashed black for a moment, then showed a room which Sabrina immediately recognized as one of the elevators, and she was fairly certain it was Elevator 2. There was a boy there, tall for his age but thinner than a rake, moaning. His words weren’t making any sense. “…two years…”
Sabrina glanced at Tate. “When is this occurring?”
“Right now, or just a couple of minutes ago.” Tate replied curtly. “I can’t get an accurate temporal lock on this.”
“…blackthorn mall…”
“Clear it up,” ordered Sabrina, who summoned a captain’s leather chair from across the room and sat in it like it were a throne. The room was in silence for a moment, other than the boy’s mutterings, which were making less and less sense by the second.
Liza’s head popped up. “This happened exactly 31.8 seconds ago, Professor. Elevator 2. The tape is being erased as we’re watching this. We do not have the ability to pause.” Her smile was still unchanged from earlier as she continued to type.
Sabrina swore. “Tate, find some way to back this up, even if the method is unreliable.”
Tate rose quickly. “Gotit, Prof,” and he sped up the stairs past Sabrina into the control room above and behind her.
Sabrina shook her head, and turned to watch Tate’s movements in the control room.
“BRANDON!!!”
All three jumped. Liza knocked her chair over, and Sabrina very nearly fell down the three stairs to the ground floor. All three looked with great interest at the main screen.
Bull sat bolt upright, still grasping his head with both hands. Quickly, he shook his head. “No. That incident was two years ago.” He was still shaking his head, but his mumbling was far more coherent now. “You were cleared of everything involving that incident. By both the police and by one of Sabrina’s assistants. You had no control over that.”
Bull went silent for a moment. His face went pale, and he braced himself against the wall, completely forgetting that he was still sitting on the floor. “No. You’re wrong.” His voice was weak.
Again, silence. It looked like he was listening for something. Still shaking his head, Bull talked into thin air. “I didn’t… I couldn’t…” He could hear his voice crack as he said it, as though he didn’t believe it himself.
His face was getting paler by the second as he again lost his voice. After a brief moment, he whispered, “That’s why I came here.” Bull’s entire body was shaking now. “My desires are nothing short of … Intense … And vivid … They cannot be fulfilled …”
“What’s going on in there?” Sabrina’s fists were white as she clenched them and Bull again fell silent. Tate continued running around the room behind her, stopping only momentarily at various desks and screens to move some piece of electronic equipment or to enter some code.
Liza had regained her chair and was typing furiously at her screen. Shaking her head, she said, “I don’t know. It seems like he is having a conversation. I know not with whom.”
“STOP!!!” Bull screamed, the most forceful action he had taken in a good few minutes. Color began to return to his face, but only faint. “It wasn’t my desire for that to happen there. It wasn’t my desire for Brandon to have to endure that.”
Sabrina swore again. “I know with who.” Liza turned, her smile faded as she raised an eyebrow. “You don’t need to know about it.”
“Then why does he no longer remember the incident?” Bull was talking into nothingness, and only one person watching knew why. “You know as well as I do that the Police can’t do anything to the mind. As you also know that Sabrina’s assistant told me directly that I would have to live with the consequences of your actions.” Bull’s voice was getting stronger as he spoke. “She modified nobody’s memories. Immediately thereafter, I forced you into the deepest portion of my mind that I could think of, and created the most complex maze possible for you to get out. I assume you remember that.”
Liza continued to gaze at Sabrina as she turned away from the screen. “I need to make preparations for this. Liza, allow Doshi at least twenty minutes after he leaves that elevator. Monitor his progress closely. After those twenty minutes are up, send him directly to my office.” Sabrina’s voice shook slightly as she spoke.
If anything, Liza’s eyebrow raised further. Though, when she spoke, no hint of a question was on her voice. “I understand, Professor.”
Bull smiled. “I’m amazed you haven’t seen it yet. That wasn’t designed as a permanent barrier. It just needed to buy me some time. You are so weak in the aftermath of using your abilities. I found Brandon immediately. Put him into a telekinetic coma. Tried to erase his memories of the event. But I wasn’t skilled enough then. I accidentally erased his memories both from the six months prior to that day, and every memory he ever had of me.”
Bull began to pick himself off the floor. “You must have noticed that Brandon didn’t come anywhere near me after that incident, didn’t you?” Bull’s smile widened.
Sabrina stopped at the top of the stairs. “I know you have questions, Liza. I don’t have the answers you seek.” Liza turned back to her screen, her serene smile returned at last.
She walked into the control room and spoke directly with Tate as he rummaged through a box in the corner. “Bull’s battle is beginning. You know what you must do.”
Bull looked in his reflection smiling in the side of the elevator. “Think back again. Think about how Brandon acted. If he were once a friend who had been betrayed, he would have been the furthest person away at any given moment. He would have been as far away as possible from me, so that he couldn’t have been hurt again.” He continued to smile at his reflection, and wiped some sweat off his brow.
Tate’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean, that, do you?”
Sabrina nodded.
“I never thought we’d need to use her like this,” Tate said softly as he shook his head. “She won’t like being pulled out early.”
“Just like everybody else.” Bull finally stood up straight. “He was no different from anybody else after it happened. In fact, for the first week or so, he was perfectly friendly, even though he didn’t know me. You took far too long to figure out my ‘simple’ puzzle. It was almost a month before I heard your voice again.”
Sabrina turned back to the screen. “I know she won’t. But we need her. Right now.”
Bull nodded his head. “You’re not coming out again. This trap, you haven’t seen anything like this before. Even my vaunted Cyclone Defense is nothing compared to this. See you in hell.” Bull swore, held out his hand, and closed his eyes, slipping softly to the floor.
Tate watched as Sabrina shuffled around to him, bending so their faces were level. “You have your assignment. I will be waiting.”