Liam's Ghost Story

Liam's Ghost Story (Chapter 6)

Perhaps he had underestimated the potency of the Barnbies' psychosis. Or maybe he had not fully disengaged his mind from that of the old man after distracting him with the mental figment. Either way, the crazy leapt from the Barnbies mind into Liam's, clawing and prying at his mental defenses. Liam felt insane laughter bubbling up from his own throat as he held the smoking gun in his hand. Quickly and without thinking, Liam broke his mind in two, quarantining the link between him and Barnbies, walling off the crazy in a partitioned portion of his thoughts.

Liam quickly took stock of what remained of his rationality and set to work purging the link to the other man and restoring his proper mental workings. He found himself staring down the barrel of the gun in his right hand and quickly partitioned his mind again into yet another fragment to deal with that threat as he furiously set what mental power he had to bringing himself back under control.

One part of his mind screamed insanity at him across the barrier, hurling insults and weeping with the futility of it all. What did it matter if he made this one thing right? The world was drowning in hypocrisy and blood and stupidity and failure! It did not matter! The things that ruled would continue to rule! How can a gnat fight a dinosaur?! There was no point, only suffering and pain and love that was lost! The bad things were so immensely bad in this world that the weakest and stupidest of them could conquer all of the good and the love without even trying! Humanity's only hope was to end the suffering before the torture could really begin!

Another part of his mind logically pulled his head to the left and heard the gun go off entirely too close to his right ear. It was likely his ears would be ringing for some time. That would reduce his fighting efficiency by approximately 5.3% utilizing hand to hand combat. In the now likely event that neighbors called the police after hearing two gun shots, he would be limited to hearing them from approximately 2500 feet away as opposed to what would normally be greater than one mile away. Though depending on the wind direction and direction from which the police cars came from, this could change drastically.

His left hand came up and deftly pulled the hammer back from the gun, and with lightning speed pulled down on the barrel of the gun, cracking open the cylinder and then with equal quickness pulled the cylinder out of the gun and dropped it into Liam's left pocket. It appeared to this part of his mind that his right hand was not quite under rational control yet, and it interceded when the rogue hand tried to claw at his own eyes now that the lethal weapon was no longer lethal.

Rational mind also took note of the flesh on Liam's torso moving, apparently of its own volition. Though this part of the mind had not been partitioned with the knowledge of why this was bad, it knew that this involuntary movement was indeed bad. It continued to monitor the situation, keeping the crazed partition from doing any physical damage to the body. The rational eyes continued to take in the scene and put together a list of recommended actions in terms of priority before subjecting it to the last and final part of the brain.

The rational mind added the crawling tattoos that had appeared coming from the sleeves of Liam's hoodie - what appeared to be links of barbed and hooked chains moving along the skin - to the top of the list, then coldly and rationally informed the final partitioned part of Liam's mind.

The last part of Liam's mind temporarily ignored the rational list of recommended actions as he grappled with the insanity. Trained as Liam had been, it was a simple matter to re-pattern and reorganize his thoughts to expunge the thoughts that were not his. The insanity was infectious, but Liam was intimately familiar with his own mind and was quite good at reassuring himself that he was indeed who he believed himself to be. In a matter of seconds, the insanity was eradicated, the mental link was wholly and completely severed, and Liam put the three pieces of his mind back together with a deep calming breath.

Tattoos had calmed and quieted, no longer pulling against his skin and no longer moving. He pushed the concern he had about the current positions of the tattoos away, having bigger problems to deal with at the moment. The gun lay on the floor, the cylinder and remaining bullets safely in his pocket. His left hand gripped the wrist of his right hand, which was still bent into a claw. He relaxed both and brought them down to his sides.

Liam's head whipped up with the sudden thought: where was Mr. Barnbies? How long had he been struggling against the crazy in his head?

A quick check revealed that it had been exactly 9.83 seconds since he had disarmed Barnbies before he regained control of himself. His ears were still ringing from the gunshots. Not seeing the old man in the room any longer, he swiveled his head around to catch a glimpse of where Barnbies may have gone.

Then he smelled the gasoline.