Susceptible

Chapter twenty two

I used to be scared of the dark when I was younger. I was scared of what could be lurking in the darkness around me that I couldn't see. But now there were a lot of scarier things that could be unknown to me. I became much more scared of the unknown nature of the future than of anything that might be hiding in the night.

Slipping out the window into the cool of the night these were the thoughts that surrounded me. I appreciated the nighttime now. The loneliness it brings somehow keeps me company. Every night I could count on the ache that night somehow brings to one's soul. When all your sorrows intensify, forcing oneself to forget the positives of any given situation.

Jogging down the sidewalk, streetlights seemed duller than normal as tonight was especially bittersweet. I knew in the day I would be happy, or at least okay enough to fake it, but for now, my birthday weighed down on my chest. Another year of my life gone. Another year slipped out of my grasp. I thought about all the things I wished I could be done in the past year but didn't. I thought about how much my life may change in the next year. How I didn't really have much control over anything in my life. It was terrifying.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard voices headed towards me down the sidewalk and I quickly shifted my thoughts to one of a small tabby cat. As the two men passed me in their suits with ties loosely undone, smelling of alcohol, all they saw was a stray cat trotting down the street. They would have no idea that there was anything out of the ordinary going on, that is unless I touched them. I kept my human form, I wasn't a shape-shifter, but rather I was able to manipulate images in people's brains. I could have changed the scenery around to just exclude me instead, but it was easiest to just think of a quick thought to change my form.

Changing my image required almost no energy from me, and changing the scenery that I was currently in wasn't too hard either. The hardest things were conjuring something up from someone else's mind. Though I couldn't browse through their brain, I could focus on the thought of their fears and put them standing on the edge of a skyscraper all of the sudden, or have spiders crawling up their arms. I couldn't know what exactly I was putting someone through, but I could see the distress on their face as suddenly they were plagued by their worst nightmares.

I didn't want to start fighting crime at first as I didn't think my powers would be of any help, but when I first joined the fighting scene I was an indispensable asset. I still don't like to go out on my own, but I jump in to help the other supers as I can paralyze the criminals in seconds. I simply manipulate their environment to think we have them trapped until the other supers actually can get them trapped, and when I let go of my manipulation they're already sitting in the back of a police car. It wasn't flawless though as sometimes they figured out they were in a manipulation when the fire didn't burn them, or they would rather take the step off the skyscraper than be caught, only to discover they weren't actually falling to their death. I couldn't manipulate their brains to cause any physical harm, only the emotional distress of the images I was providing. So if they figured out my game, and were no longer paralyzed by the fear of the situation I aroused, knowing that it wasn't real, I had to dig deeper, doing the thing that took the most energy out of me.

Pulling someone's memories was not too hard on its own, but changing their memory so that a new version of their past played in front of them was what drained me. I could take a scenario from their past so it felt familiar and real to them, then slowly warp it into a hellish nightmare that was sure to render the strongest of minds action-less.

My powers took lots of mental excursions and experimenting to gain the skills I needed to fight alongside the other supers. Of course, when I was experimenting with my powers on someone I knew I used to focus on happy memories, and pulling out pleasant scenarios, but I didn't have someone to practice those happy memories on now. My only chance was seeing how far I could push the darkness of thoughts on criminals in the city.