Empowered

Chapter 6:.....Empathy Part II

Ember once again woke up screaming. It was her reoccurring dream again.

"Damn. I think I need to talk to somebody about this. What the?!?!" She looked around the room she was in but did not recognize it. She looked down at her hands, and they weren't her own. There was a mirror in the room. She hopped out of bed and ran to it with her unusually feeble legs. The face she saw in the mirror was not hers, but she did (thankfully?) recognize it.

"Oh my god! I'm Jenny!?!" She shouted. She stood there puzzling for a while until her thoughts were interrupted.

"What's going on in there?! You'll wake up the baby! Let alone the rest of the house!" hissed the unmistakable voice of a middle-aged man yelling through the door.

"Uhh nothing?! Dad?" Ember guessed who was yelling at her. 

"Go back to sleep!" He boomed.

"You got it pops!" Ember yelled back. 

"What was that?" boomed the voice.

"I mean. Yes, sir?!" Ember said, hoping to appease the obviously belligerent dude on the other side of the door so he would just go away already. She heard some grumbling and then footsteps away.

"Jesus, how did this happen again? I remember fighting that creepy Gromet thing, and then Jenny found out I'm Empowered – yikes – but fixable. Then she killed Melinda, who was apparently like the Gromet's conjoined twin, which was less than fixable. And then I told her it was going to be ok. She was sobbing uncontrollably. It was almost like she didn't even remember stabbing her. I told her to run home, and that I would take care of it, but before she left, I hugged her and, oh, I think I see what happened. Well, not exactly." Ember thought back to the incident in question. She had found Jenny holding the knife in the lifeless woman's body.

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"I just did what she asked me to. I didn't mean to do it. It just happened. I don't even remember doing it!" Jenny sobbed. Ember knew exactly how Jenny felt in that moment. She was even in the same fucking park where she had done something similar three years ago. She knew she had to get Jenny out of there because E-Corp. would want an explanation of what happened, and she didn't want Jenny to face any consequences like she had; well, Jenny wasn't a dangerous monster like her, but still, she was sure there would be consequences, the least of which would be Jenny being stripped of her memories of what transpired there or any recollections involving Ember herself. Maybe it would have been for the best if she had forgotten what happened, but she didn't want her friend to go through a B.R.A.I.N.W.W.A.S.H.

"Look Jenny. I promise I'll explain everything to you later, but you have to be strong right now and get yourself out of here." Ember ran over and grabbed the grocery bag off the park bench that she surmised belonged to Jenny. "Here, take your bag and go home." She commanded, handing the thing to Jenny. "Tell your mom, dad, or whoever you got stuck in the park helping an old woman. There are people who I work for who will make you pay and take your memories from you if you don't go now."

"I'm sorry, Ember. I really don't know what happened. I just – " Jenny said, trying to express herself but couldn't; she was too broken to speak and confused.