The Mind Bender

Chapter 9

Dane woke up to hear that strange, deep voice again, which echoed in the room next his -- in his mom's room. He looked around his room to see anything strange. Aside from his bedside lamp that illuminated his pillows in yellow light, he saw nothing that particularly caught his attention. His room was still.

"Do it, Elaine. Convince him!"

That deep guttural voice made him turn his head in its direction again. He walked to the wall and pressed his ear against it. He could hear the man's cold, thunderous voice.

"I need your son."

"I can't... I don't want..." The hesitation in Elaine's voice was apparent. "I don't know you."

Dane got anxious. Why would his mom invite someone she didn't know? This time he was sure he wasn't just imagining things or dreaming. Someone was inside his mom's room, someone who's presence was concealed. Dane was about to run towards the door when he caught a terrifying image in the periphery of his vision.

As he stood frozen beside the wall where he had eavesdropped his mom's strange conversation with a stranger next room, he saw himself sleeping. Dumbstruck, he walked slowly to the bed. He looked around his room to see if there was anyone or if there was anything strange. He could see nothing bizarre aside from his own body sleeping under the sheets. He had moved his hand to touch the forehead of his sleeping twin when he heard the angry voice of the man next door.

"If you don't do it, I will!"

Dane jerked, sped to the door, and ran towards Elaine's room. The door was locked. He knocked loudly, striking the wood with one hand and twisting the unyielding doorknob in another. He could hear the deep, guttural voice, but couldn't make out anything intelligible from the voice. "Mom!" he called out. "Mom, who're you with?" He got no answer. But he heard Elaine speak.

"Get away from me!" Elaine yelled but sounded scared and alarmed. "I'm not letting you into mgggr ... Get away fromgg..."

Dane thought she was being choked. "Mom!" He twisted the doorknob again, but it won't move. With his hands striking the door violently, he shouted, "Get away from my mom!" Suddenly the door creaked. Dane moved back as he saw the screws falling off from the hinges. His eyes widened as he saw the door collapse into Elaine's room.

What he saw made every hair on his body stand. A dark figure stood beside his mom who was quietly asleep, but with a facial expression that bore anxiety and fear. The dark figure slowly turned its head to look at him as he slowly walked into the room, stepping onto the fallen door. Dane was nervous.

The man had an unkempt hair. His face, disfigured. His fingers barely showing out of his black shabby coat. He eyed him with a malicious grin, showing his decaying teeth, some of which were missing. "Welcome to the astral plane!"

"Who are you?" Dane asked in a voice almost muted by his nerves. His heart had started to race.

The disfigured man stood up and met Dane's stare with a wide grin. "You don't need to find out." He walked slowly towards the flabbergasted 10-year-old.

Dane tried as hard as possible to keep the jitters from showing. "Who are you?" His voice was louder this time. "What are you doing here?" But he got no response from the hideous stranger who slowly brought his face near his and licked his ear.

"Wonderful boy." The man pinched Dane's chin.

Dane moved back. "Get off me!"

"Come with me." The man's right hand was extended from the sleeve of his old, musty coat.

"I don't know you. Neither does mom."

"But I come as a friend." He smiled, his rotten teeth showed out.

"I said I don't know you." Dane's voice reverberated in the room so loudly that the stranger had to cover his ears and grimace.

"Your mental ability is impressive," the disfigured man said, leering at him.

"The last person who did something bad to me ended up in a coma." Dane's stare was firm.

"That's why I want you." The man rubbed Dane's cheek with his knuckles.

"I said get off me." He quickly slapped the strange man's fingers. "Get out of our home or I'll hurt you."

"You can't hurt me." The man sniggered and then glared, but then soon held out one of his hands. "Come with me. You don't belong --"

"This is my home." Dane met his gaze with unrelenting blankness.

"You don't belong here."

"I said this is my home."

"No, this is not. You belong in a special place."

"I don't belong anywhere but here with my mom. It's you who don't belong here." The young boy glared at the disfigured stranger who gave him a smile that made him uncomfortable. "Leave this place now." He saw the man cover his ears. "Leave... Leave, leave, leave... Leleave... Leleleave..." His voice reverberated in the room and soon the reverberations created a wild, deafening symphony that hummed loudly and rendered the stranger cowering in front of him. He saw stare at him with an expression that bore both awe and malice.

And then the unwelcome visitor vanished.

* * *

"Did you come to my room last night?" Elaine asked. Her eyes, puffy.

"No. Why?" he responded nonchalantly.

"Nothing. I thought I heard you."

"Maybe you were just dreaming." He watched his mom sip her coffee while he finished his cereal.

"Are you still hearing people inside your..." Elaine fluttered her forefinger near her forehead.

Dane nodded. "Sometimes."

"Do they bother you?"

"Sometimes."

"What are the voices saying?" She made another sip and looked intently at him.

"A lot." He didn't look at her. Her questions were hard for him to respond to. Not that he didn't know the answer, but because he knew she didn't understand.

"Frank called yesterday, asking if you were okay."

Dane just ate his cereal.

"Told him you were getting better."

"I don't trust him."

Elaine nodded and touched Dane's cheek. "I know. Anyway, why didn't you tell me kids are bullying you at school?"

"Only Max. Not everyone."

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" she asked calmly.

"It wasn't your problem." He finished his cereal and wiped his lips and chin with his hand.

She touched his arm and spoke closer to him. "I'm your mother. You should've told me."

"You have problems of your own."

"But..." Elaine stopped for a moment and appeared arrested in contemplation. "If someone hurts you at school, you have to tell me. Okay?"

Dane nodded.