Page 6 of Mender

“Your son?” I asked Mona as I stepped closer.

“Yes, this is Jake,” she said and followed me. I could see the resemblance, especially around the eyes and nose. Likely, there was something of his father in him, too. What was strange was that while he lay in bed, the covers tucked tight around him, he wasn’t asleep. His eyes were open, and they followed me.

“Hello, Jake,” I said, trying for a friendly smile, but I got no response. He only kept looking at me. “What happened to him?” I asked his mother. “Gerard didn’t go into detail, but he said it was recent.”

She nodded and took her son’s hand in hers. His eyes moved to look at her, but that was all. “Two days ago. His father and I went out for dinner, and Jake was out with friends. All I know is he came home before us, and we found him like this in the living room downstairs.”

“Any sign of a break in?”

“The front door was wide open, but otherwise, no. Nothing was stolen.”

I looked at Jake. He seemed conscious but unable to speak or move. Like a horrible nightmare come true. I sat down next to him on the bed, seeing his eyes turn back to me. “Can you communicate in any way, Jake?” I asked. He blinked once and I looked at his mother for clarification.

“He’s in there,” she began, saying the words more to herself than me, I expected. “We figured out that when he blinks once, it means yes. Twice means no.”

I nodded my understanding, turning back to him. I had a quicker way of getting information from him, though. I had learned over the years to keep my use of it to the most necessary cases. I knew it was a violation to hear people’s most private thoughts. I’d met enough empaths in my time to know what it was to be on the other end of the stick, at least to some extent. Feeling someone’s emotions often got you pretty close to what they thought of something, but with me, there was no doubt. I could hear it word for word. I could hear what was not meant for me or anyone but those who were thinking the thoughts.

Get the fuck out of my head.

With Jake, I really had no choice. However, if he didn’t know that I read his mind, he would likely not go to thoughts he didn’t want me to hear.

“Did someone attack you, Jake?” I asked trying to lead his attention to the reason I was there. To what I wanted to listen in on. I barely noticed his blinking once, as I looked into his eyes, concentrating on hearing him. It’s hard to describe how it works. I could turn it on and off at will, but the mechanism itself…well, it’s like when you decide to focus on a sound…or when you consciously tell your arm to move. It required me to maintain eye contact…that is to say, I have to see the person’s eyes. People call them the mirror to the soul, but to me, they’re like the loudspeakers of the conscious brain. When I had that and decided to listen in, people’s voices would come to me like a radio had been turned on. But as I looked at Jake, there was nothing. Like he’d been switched off. That had never happened before.

“Can you pick up something?” Mona asked me, looking hopeful.

Yeah, that was the thing. Except for Gerard, Annalise, Rob, Tegan, and Chief Mulligan…and Hansen, no one knew of my true ability. It usually made people uncomfortable and downright afraid, and unless I trusted them and vice versa, I didn’t tell anyone. It was generally believed in the Community that I was an empath. They were much more tolerated as well as common. And as close to the truth as I could get.

“Unfortunately not,” I answered Mona. “It’s like he’s closed off on the inside as well.” I sighed and went ahead. We had to do this the old-fashioned way and ask yes and no questions.

“Is Jake an affiliate?” I asked Mona as she walked me downstairs to the front door sometime later. She looked a little taken aback at the question, which let me know he didn’t get it from her.

“Yes,” she said. “It comes from his father’s side.”

“Every generation?”

“No. Before Jake, it had been a couple of generations. We actually had to ask his grandparents when he started developing his skills.”

I nodded. That was not unheard of. Abilities usually ran in families, and like green eyes could skip a generation, so could abilities.

“One last question,” I said, but Mona beat me to it.

“He can control people’s minds,” she whispered and must have seen a reaction on my face because she hurried to put my mind at ease. “Not uncontrollably. He can turn it off. He’s a good boy,” she added in the end.

“I believe that,” I said, but I knew her son had a dangerous ability. It was lucky for him that he could control it.

“Can you help him?” she asked as I opened the door and stepped outside to what was a beautiful fall day, though with a cold wind that ran through town. I turned around and did my best to look confident.

“I’ll do what I can,” I said, going for reassuring. “But medically…I’d talk to Dr. Morris.”

She nodded and we said goodbye.

As I headed away from the house, I kept calm, walking briskly until I got to the car. The beetle, which it had turned out was blue when seen in daylight, had been where I’d left it the night before. Gary had assumed I’d been derailed somehow, and let it be until I came to claim it. That was a good thing about the affiliates as well. They didn’t panic unnecessarily. My purse had even been in there. Not stolen, thankfully. No, there weren’t many car thieves in Ashport, and the few who had tried stealing from Gary over the years had had to deal with menders, including myself on one occasion. We were not a forgiving group when our people were mistreated.

I got in the car, grateful I had parked a few houses down from Mona’s as I had to close my eyes a moment and breathe calmly. What a fate. The poor guy. He was trapped in his body, fully conscious and imprisoned in himself. I felt shivers run through me at the thought. What piece of shit had done that to him? I had no doubt someone was behind it, even without Jake’s answers to my questions. People didn’t get locked into themselves in our world. When bad stuff happened, very often it was because some ass-hat among us, or someone in the know, did something shitty. I opened my eyes and nodded to myself. It was necessary that Mona, and Jake, for that matter, had not seen me like that. You didn’t help people by showing your fears or anger. What they needed was someone who was calm and in charge of the situation.

“Time to be in charge,” I told myself and got the car key out. I was about to put it in the ignition when the car door opened and Detective Hansen got in.

“Yeah,” he said as if he’d been sitting there all day. “We need to talk.”

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