Twilight 月 Incandescent Moon

Chapter 18: Getting Down to Business

(song - Crimsion, Shiki Tv Rouge sountrack)

Chapter 18 - Getting Down to Buisiness

　

　

　

I laughed my head off as I walked down the middle of the street in the early morning. The look on Trent's face had been priceless and worth all those months of bullying. I was getting better at using my powers. I wish I could've heard his thoughts to know what he was thinking, but apparently that didn't fall under the list of my abilities.

No one was awake this early in the morning as I walked freely down the street, and I didn't have to worry about cars either. It was just me out here. I admitted that I had to give some credit to my friend Anna. She'd done such a good job at describing the outfit that Maddison had been burried in. It had helped that I'd seen the girl once or twice in my life, but mainly it had been Anna's decription that I'd relied on.

Opening the window had been all my doing, but I hadn't entered. I had stayed kneeling down outside the room messing with Trent's puny brain. I made him think he saw Maddison come into his room and walk over to the end of Ely's bed. And then, I'd used my telekinesis to lift him up in the air after he sat up and apologized out loud to the illusion.

Then I'd really kicked it into high gear by making him see Maddison after the crash. I hadn't really known what the real wounds to her body looked like, but I figured as long as I didn't mess with her face (Anna had said that it had escaped injury) he wouldn't notice the differences. That had been the most fun I ever had, even if it was due to my heightened spirits at my awakening.

I started to calm down some and revert to normal as I walked into town using the sidewalks. Anyone who I'd ran into I programed them to forget about the past me. This was the first step in my plan so I could walk around freely.

The morning sunlight hit my eyes as it rose over the mountains and momentarily blinded me. I couldn't see a single thing and so I'd stumbled into a nearby shop, hoping that they had sunglasses. The clerk recognized me from the time my friends had shown me around time, but I quickly commanded his brain to erase the data and think I was a stranger.

"Why, hello young miss." the clerk said after his mind had recovered from my 'reprograming'."Can I help you with something today?" He asked me. The clerk was an old man who only worked here to talk to people. His face was lined with almost as many wrinkles as Billy Black's.

"Uh, well, do you sell sunglasses here?" I asked him, trying to sound as innocent as possibly without being overly exagerative.

"Certainly. They're over on this stand right here." He said, walking to the other end of the counter where a stand was sitting on the edge of it.

I walked along with him to the other side and tried on a few before a chose a pair of plain black ones, but they were really expensive.

As I walked with him back to the front of the counter, I got an idea in my head."You'll pay for me, right?" I asked as I stopped the register.

"Of coarse, young miss." He said and pulled money out of his own pocket and inserted it in the machine after scanning the price tag of the item.

The old clerk man snapped off the price tag for me and handed them over with a smile on his face.

"Thank you." I said as I put them on and took a step outside.

"It was nothing." He said before I completely disappeared outside.

With my new sunglasses, I continued to walk down the street reprogramming people as I went. I was able to tell whose minds I'd tampered with successfully because the people would suddenly stop in their tracks, freeze for a second, then continue doing whatever they had been. Since I was fixing everyone's minds, no one thought anything was off when they saw people stop walking even if they had been in a hurry.

I did this until the whole of downtown had forgotten about the past me. With one particular group of people, I tested to see if I could get them to blank out anyone who had met me without doing the task myself. First, I choose a random person walking down the street. I programmed him to forget about me, but also make whoever he came in contact with that had seen or known me also forget when they ran into him. I tested this out on a gang of teens that were hanging out on the opposite side of the street around a bench.

Ordering the zombie that I'd programed with the special instructions, he followed me across the street and over to the group.

"Hey." I said as I approached the skate boarders sitting / standing around the bench.

Some of the guys who didn't know me said hi back, but there was a particular member among their group that had gone expressionlist."....Lilia?" he said in disbelief.

As soon as he recognized me, his face paused for a few seconds, then relaxed without me doing a thing. My test had worked. I could get other citizens to spread my programing to all points of town.

"Ah, no. I don't know who you're talking about." I said."My name's Zalenia." I said, choosing something foreign and exotic to fit my new personality."I just arrived in town."

"Oh, nice to meet you." Dan said, smiling.

"Well, I got to go. Don't want to keep my folks waiting." I waved them goodbye as I walked away.

I made them forget about the man who had attended with me as I did, and made the man himself walk in the opposite dirrection from me before releasing him.

Then I headed down the street towards my aunt and uncle's.

　

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I walked right up to the house like nothing was wrong and pressed the doorbell. I had to wait for a few minutes before my aunt came to answer the door. Today was perfect because both of them were home.

When my Aunt Phelicia first opened the door, she had been wearing a beaming smile for whoever had decided to visit her. As soon as she saw my face, her lips turned down into a frown and her eyes went from happy to absolute terror. Before she could put together who I was completely or scream, I took ahold of her mind and made her forget.

"Let me in." I ordered her after she remained standing in the doorway from being reprogramed.

She moved aside at once, letting me into the house. My uncle Tom was in the living room and watching television. He saw me move into the house without his wife following, but didn't think nothing of it. Before he could do a double take and notice I had white hair, I erased his memory of me and made him my zombie for a while with my aunt. I programed them both to make others forget around them like I had done with the man in town. They accepted the orders without complaint.

I turned to leave the house when I noticed my aunt Phelicia's orange tabby cat sitting on the back of the couch. I approached it and almost went to pet it when the cat hissed and swiped at me with it's claws, but it only met air. A bit fustrated, I left the house and closed the door behind me. That cat used to love me, I didn't get why it hated me now.

It was a good thing I had programed my relatives because if they ran into anyone who tried to ask them about me, they'd make them forget. My uncle Tom would be going to Billy's sometime during the weekend and would make him forget, which would make Jacob and whoever visted him forget, and so on.

It would continue until the whole town would forget about my prescence. Eventually, I knew my parents would come and visit my aunt and uncle again and they'd make them forget too. My family along with any other relatives would forget about me too.

Even though this was neccessary so that I could move around the town, it also hurt me inside. I didn't want my parents, or my aunt and uncle, or my friends to forget about me. But I had to make them forget. At least they wouldn't have to suffer through the pain that they'd lost a young family member or a close friend. I could even remake my friendships with Anna, Mickie, Seth, and the others. I was sure I could. It would just take time.

I walked down and around the lattice fence that was still set up from my graduation party and to the forest, with my arms crossed and hugging myself tightly. This pain was nothing, I told myself sternly. I could handle this.