The Touch

Chapter 43 - Trapped

Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked at him. How was he alive? Why was he in this room with padded walls? Why were they keeping him here and why didn't Theon let me know when I first came here.

I could feel the tears slip down my face as I placed my hand up towards the window, towards his face. I knew he couldn't see me and we were looking through a mirror, but something told me that he knew I was on the other side.

"I don't understand Theon. How is he is alive? I saw him die, he was in my arms and he was dead!" I screamed.

Theon looked at me and knelt down beside my chair. "When you left he was dead, but as soon as you were placed in the car he started breathing. I ran out to the car to try and let you know but the car was already off down the driveway. I am sorry I didn't tell you about him sooner, but there are things you also don't know about Slade that we have to explain".

"Let me see him" I said, turning towards the doctor. "Let me in NOW"

"I can't, I'm sorry" Dr Campbell said.

I tried to move my chair or to get out of it so that I open the door next to the window.

Max came in front of me and sat me down again. "Lacey, that man in there is not Slade. He is something else, someone else".

"I don't understand. What do you mean he is someone else? He is clearly Slade and he clearly knows that I am here. Now will you all stand aside and let me into that room!".

Dr Campbell sat down on a chair near the window and looked at me. "Lacey Max is right. Slade, the Slade you knew, is not this man that you see here. This man is wild and the reason he is in this room is because every time we have tried to interact with him, tried to calm him, he attacks us.".

I looked at Slade and I knew that what they were saying was correct but I also knew that my Slade, the man I loved, was hidden deep within this person banging on the window.

"Why are his eyes blue and bright like mine were? Slade does not have the Touch".

"Well that is where you are wrong Lacey. What we have discovered, is that not only does Slade have the Touch but that you triggered it in him when you saved his life". Dr Campbell replied.

"I don't understand? Are you telling me that I gave him the Touch when we were at the farmhouse?"

"No Lacey, you did not transfer the Touch to Slade, he had it already in him. In fact we think we have discovered something amazing, something that the Government does not know".

"What have you discovered?" I asked.

Dr Campbell looked at Max and Theon and then back at me. He smiled and then placed both of his hands on mine.

"Lacey, if we are correct and we are working on trials to see if we are, then everyone has the Touch".

Everyone? How could that be? If everyone had the Touch then why did only some show it?

Dr Campbell must have read my mind. "Not everyone shows they have it, that is correct. But we think that they have suppressed it and therefore it lies dormant in their body. When you wrapped Slade in your light you awoke his abilities, you awoke the Touch".

"Well if that is true then why is he here in a padded room? Surely he should just be like everyone else. Why is he different?".

"That was a hard one to work out" Max said "Theon said that when you were taken by the Watchers you were basically pulled away from him while the light was still wrapped around you both. We feel that the only reason why Slade has changed is because you did not finish the cycle and therefore he is trapped between having the Touch and not having it.".

"Trapped?"

Theon looked at me "That is the only word we can use to describe it Lacey. He is trapped. He doesn't recognise me or anyone else that he knows. He is angry and violent and he talks about things that none of us know about. He is Slade, but is trapped between being a person with the Touch, and being what he was before. Somehow being trapped between two worlds has caused him to become someone else. We have to work out a way to get him to become who he was before, but with the Touch.

As I looked at Slade again I could see it in his eyes. He had anger there when before he had love. His mouth was formed in a grimace and I could sense that if I opened that door then he wouldn't know who I was. Were they right and was he trapped inside somehow? I raised my hand and placed it against the window and I watched him move instinctively towards it. I moved it again and placed it further along the glass and he moved again and placed his head against it.

It was then that I knew that Slade was still there. The Slade that was kind, loving and strong was inside this image of him and I knew it was up to me to get him to come back to me.

I turned back to the others standing next to me.

"He will come back, I will make sure that he does, and when he comes back then we will work together on how to trigger the Touch in everyone and we will also make sure that every Government Laboratory is taken down and the people running them are held responsible for what they have done.

Max looked at Theon and they both smiled.

"Alright Lacey" Theon said" Let's do this!".

Slade moved his head from my hand and growled as if he knew what was ahead of us now. The fight to get Slade back was making me stronger and as I looked at him I could feel his strength through the walls. I would bring back the man that he was, no matter how long it would take me and what risks I needed to go through. I loved him and I would never be without him again.

But doubts about my abilities and whether I still had them played on my mind. Could we use my new ability to trigger everyone that didn't currently show that they had the Touch? Was it possible that this is what Marlena had seen?

I remembered her words now. 'One day the people with The Touch would be the ones that everyone would turn to'.

I only hoped that her premonition would come true.