A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 16 Dark Memories and Breaking Chains

Chapter 16 Dark Memories and Breaking Chains

In an empty place, a gray place, there was a stirring. A great beast shifting in its sleep that was not sleep. Its dreams were morphing. Its power was gathering. It could feel the keys to its prison were being forged. It could feel the chains breaking.

In the woods, lying at Ahleena's feet, Callin's unconscious mind drifted deep. The burst of his power had opened a pathway to blocked memories. It had broken some of the chains the lab had forged in his memories.

    The crystal vase, sparkling coldly in the pale, florescent lights, wobbled into the air. It was floating as if it were being lifted by invisible wires. Wires wielded by a drunken puppeteer, swinging unsteadily about.

Callin was sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor, eyes locked on the vase as it floated in front of him. He was sweating heavily, even though the temperature in the underground room was only sixty degrees. Dr. Hall stood behind him, video camera in one hand and a clipboard in the other. Callin could hear the doctors heartbeat, had heard it accelerate in excitement as he used his telekinesis to lift the vase.

"Focus! Hold it steady!" Dr. Hall snapped.

His hated voice was enough to break the fragile hold Callin had on his telekinetic power. He felt it slip away, slithering off into the void in his mind like a snake made of fog. The vase fell, the weak crystal no match for the unyielding concrete. Pieces of it scattered amazingly far, considering they had only dropped from a few feet.

"No! You idiot!" Dr. Hall yelled, swinging his clipboard down at the back of Callin's head.

Callin's unnaturally keen hearing detected the whistle of the oncoming clipboard, and his cat-quick reflexes kicked in. He rolled forward, narrowly dodging the blow, and leapt to his feet.

Dr. Hall visibly regained his composure, the sense of disappointment still a sharp stab in his mind. Subject 13 was finally close to Level One telekinetics! He was finally going to have proof that his mind-control techniques had merit. Once the subject gained stable Level One control, he would present his thesis to the board. And they would have to agree his techniques worked. He would finally be given the full resources to move forward on the project he had been working on for the last thirteen years.

"Sit. We will start over. This time, focus like I've taught you!" He snapped, pointing at another crystal vase.

"No." Callin said, shaking his head. "I don't...I can't reach the power anymore. I think it's used up or worn out right now. I need to sleep."

He had blue-black smudges under his eyes and he knew he was pale. This morning, he had dropped his spoon three times while eating breakfast. And was never clumsy. He knew he needed sleep, but the telepaths and scientists running his schedule were pushing him from test to test. He had been allowed three hours of sleep a night for five weeks now, and it had truly begun to wear him down.

Dr. Hall's scent dripped with anger, making the hair on Callin's arms stand straight, and his claws ache in their sockets. He fought the urge to bare them, knowing what would follow if he allowed that to happen.

"Did you just say no to me? Did you?!" Dr. Hall ground out, stepping closer threateningly.

Callin quickly readied his mental defenses, ready to try a new concept in protecting his mind from telepaths. He knew Dr. Hall was a powerful telepath, and he knew if provoked, he would certainly try a mental attack. The walls around Callin's mind were now laced with hundreds of glittering points of light, like holes on a midnight-black parchment.