Mayne

26. Solitary Mind

                    Miss Reynolds had been through multiple sessions with multiple doctors just today. She thought of the chaos in her mind, how every thought felt like she was drowning in the laughter and mocking of the intruder within her own mind. She stood at the window trying to pretend she was alone for just a little bit. The feeling of company coming up behind her snapped her out of it again. "Who..." she whipped around to see no one there. "Just me." The intruder laughed and Miss Reynolds pushed it back down into the background of her mind. The air thickened making it hard to breathe "you won't win, you might as well give in to me..." she growled at the intruder and shoved it back, locking it up again. She breathed deep "that's a process that is getting too frequent." She leaned against the glass exhausted.

                      "Miss Reynolds," one of the doctors came up behind her "Ethan is here, he wants to talk with you again."

                   She nodded and silently followed the doctor who led her to an exam room, ran several tests, once we was satisfied he escorted her to the conference room she had been meeting Ethan in for the past several days. "I'm fine here, I'll wait... you can leave" She sat down and closed her eyes trying to recharge. The doctor nodded and left, closing and locking the door behind him. It was just ten short minutes before he arrived.

                  Ethan took a deep breath, and entered the room. Miss Reynolds was seated at the table looking dejected as usual. Ethan thought of the constant reminder of the Fallout she had to go through , how it was difficult for her to endure. Not that anyone was cruel to her about it, just that the reminder that someone or something was in her mind. That her most private place, she had to share with an intruder. He tried to visualize himself feeling that way and shuddered. He thought of the constant pressure of the invader and wondered if the pressure was painful. He couldn't even fathom what that would do to a mind.

                   Ethan could see the strain on her face, silently he reminded himself of what they had learned, fact... it can't affect fact. "How about we try to get rid of this problem today?" He sat down and smiled. "With Mayne's help, I have discovered something. I think the reason it can lock itself in a foreign mind like it does is pride. After a bit of research we have discovered that the Elite's that create the fallout are narcissists."

                  "All of them?" He nodded, Miss Reynolds was surprised but hopeful "how does this information help?"

                "We have always known that it has been connected to a memory. That the memory or maybe even memories have a core similar to the core motivation of the Elite that created it." He smiled "knowing the simple fact that the Elite's responsible were all Narcissists gives us the motivation, and how to find what it is connected to." He took a breath "first the memory is going to be either one of your more arrogant moments or one of your worst memories like something painful. Something that represents a narcissist of that type, or of the emotional state they love to cause. Second we need to maintain fact right now, emotion is how it has control and can hold onto the memory, so we need to remove that."

                "Logic, no emotion" she took a deep breath "got it."

                  "Do you have abilities?" Ethan tried to make small talk to help her relax.