Carter had lost her brother two months ago. Not by accident, not by getting lost but by poof. Poof, the same as their dad had gone before. Lex should be grieving at the loss but she was happy. Happy to finally be alone.
Carter and her brother had always been survivors. They were smart cunning and sometimes viscious. They had both learned rule number one very quickly: never trust, never get attached and hide it if you are.
Both of her parents had been abusive. She had no idea why they had decided to get married but after her mother had gotten preagnant with her at seventeen she married the twenty-five year old man Carter now had to call a father. Used to, not now. Ha.
Both of her parents had wanted a boy. They'd hated her from the start, so they'd adopted her brother Micheal, who was three days older and smarter and handsome and better in everyway. Of course he wasn't enough because nothing ever was for her parents, but he was better then she was. Her father was alcoholic. He drank and he slurred and lumbered around swinging his arms like giant meaty baseball bats. He was always telling Lex what a disapointment she was, how she needed some sense knocked into her, how she needed to be more like her brother. Lex was smart very early on. She imagined she was the adopted one, these weren't her real family. She grew detached. She wasn't miserable and depressed, she was angry.
Her mother had been no better. She'd been a weasel of a woman with no spine or backbone of her own. She'd always bent to her husband's will. SHe'd even made a point to blame carter for the man's stupidity. SHe'd worked and worked and worked while her father yelled at her to work harder from his permanent position on the living room couch. Carter was disgusted by her family. She'd never been allowed to be a little kid. Her situation now didn't really help that much, but if she was going to have to grow up really fast she preferred it this way then the alternative.
She had been able to be comfortable with her brother at least, until he turned thirteen. That's when learned about dope. He was from a messed up family and needed escape, so he took it. Carter didn't work like that. He had said if she wanted it it was cool but Carter knew about dope. Dope made you just that, dopey. She didn't want to be dopey, she wanted to be sharp. She wanted to record every second of her messed up life so she could build from it. She had a photographic memory.
At night it was a different story though. On nights when she was really alone she's stare at her ceiling and think up alternate realities. What if she knew her parents biggest fears and use them against her parents? What if she made booze taste like water? What if everything her father did to her, her father felt himself?
Then her father got sick of her mother. He slapped her around. Both of them took their anger out on Carter. She often found herself thinking, what if they killed each other? I've been living on my own forever really.. It wouldn't be so different. I just wouldn't get slapped around and I'd have more take-out, not that the rents really make anything. Carter always made her own meals.
One day her father announced he was taking Carter and Micheal out on vacation. It was supposed to be a month long. Carter knew that her break from school wasn't a whole month long but she didn't mind skipping. She made all A's and she was stressed. A week missed wouldn't matter. She didn't really want to be with her father all the time, but maybe being out there would give her an excuse to wander off.
Carter's family was poor but her father's brother was filthy rich. They got his high tech cabin out in the middle of no-where. The closest town was perdido beach. Carter had been there for a week when she noticed she could do things. She could produce images that weren't there. She could make her father think he was only thinking things when really he was saying them outloud. She could make her brother think he was high enough to float when he'd barely taken any weed at all. Of course then he'd start getting annoyed that she was in the room with him. Carter started to hate him too. She was only trying to help. Of course, it's not like she let anyone on that she was starting to develop these powers.
Then she realized ways she could help herself. She made an image of herself come up at night while she hid in the closet. She had to hold her hands out to make it come up, but she could do it. It was a sick thing to do, watch herself being beaten by her father, but in a way it was sort of amazing. The illusion was solid. He really thought he was hitting her. She realized soon enough that she had the power of illusion. In the next week she was practicing. The cabin had ultra expensive cameras all around so she went deep into the woods. She could find her way back easily wihth her memory. She practied on animals. She would put the illusion of a wall in front of a squirrel. Then she got to the interesting stuff. She could project the animals thoughts onto a surface like a television screen. She went deeper and found that she could project it's fears and it's deepest desires too, but for a squerrel this was usually predetors or nuts.
One day her brother had pushed her out of his room while she was giving him the illusion of being high. When he closed the door her palms were still out but the illusion stopped. She had to see what she was aiming at. Of course her own brother pushing her out made her mad. She went out deep into the woods to escape everything and found a bobcat, or rather it found her. It was looking at her hungrily. She was mad and scared and she threw her palms out hoping for a wall but the outcome was very different. Suddenly the oversized cat was on the ground. A shrill unhuman scream was coming from it and it was squirming and twitching in obvious pain. Carter immediately clentched her hands to make it stop. As soon as she did that the cat lept up. It showed no physical sign that it had ever been in pain but it's face was frightened. It ran away. Lex also expiramented with this. The made sores show up on animals and then made it go away or she put them in a little pain. Then to make up for she gave them pleasant feelings. Sometimes she didn't though. She wasn't a sadist but she did like the fact that she was no longer the one taking the beating, she was dishing it out. She could make physical illusions too. She could give the illusion of pain or pleasure.
Then the day came that she was sitting and having breakfast with her father and brother. She was staring intently at her father at the time. Her hand under the table was palm forward and she was giving her father an itch on his neck. She would put it there and sometimes she would take it away before he could even scratch it, and sometimes she would make him scratch it relentlessly. His hand was on it's way up to scratch when suddenly it was gone. Her brother was more alert then he had been since his dope discovery. They were both fourteen now.
"What just happened?" He had said. Lex could see him checking himself, not concerned for their father but making sure it wouldn't happen to him too. Carter didn't know if this was her fault or not but she could usually feel it when she was using her power. THis hadn't been her. After her shock wore off her mind went into survival mode. "Micheal, you stay here. Take all of dads useful stuff and put it into living room. I'm going to check the city." Micheal didn't like being bossed around but he saw the reason in this. He did as he was told. Carter made herself invisible. Illusions went far. She saw kids starting to panic. She saw food being stolen, she saw chaos. She was going to stay in her shack. She was going to gather as much food as it was possible to carry on the hour and a half hike back, and then she was going to stay in her shack.
She had done a wonderful job of rationalizing all the food. If they did it right they'd have enouugh for a few months. That was plenty of time since she was hitch-hiking her way to the nearest bus station and going back home. Or so she thought. It wasn't long before she had discovered the wall. She went out to do some exploring while Michael, the oh so perfect son, went to town with his drugs. It shot pain through her arms and no matter how many times she dares bang it with her fist or throw illusions or rocks at it, it didn't budge. Time to re-rationalize.
And then it was Micheal's fifteenth birthday and he poofed. Carter decided she was the luckiest girl ever since he had poofed while about to check out the cameras and she got the entire thing on film. She played it so slow she saw the little black cloud. It didn't look pretty, but micheal was smiling. He must be seeing something different. Stupid Micheal, he had trusted the thing. Rule number one was never to trust.
Then her own birthday had come. She had seen her father. That was what the thing had thrown at her, her father. She realized that the cloud had probably eaten her father and that was why it could send him to her now. It was a guess but !t seemed right when it turned into some kind of monster when she called him a swine. Then she was back in her cabin. It was seven months now. Seventh months in this hell hole and she was tired of going into the city and watching them be idiots. She still had a bit of food. She had seen the kids of Perdido Beach starve and thinned out her rations even smaller. She'd also taken up hunting. With smaller animals she could usually throw up an illusion scary enough that their heart would give out. WIth bigger animals she usually made the animal completely calm and sleepy. SHe'd made a deal with the demon coyote things. SHe wouldn't hunt out of her own territory, she wouldn't hunt coyotes they would leave her alone. She did it quick. It was easy. It was humane. It was unlike anything going on in the city. She wanted it to stop.
She'd spent the last couple of weeks just observing, learning names, listening to stories, remaining invisible. She'd learned about everyone important. She'd made judgements on who she did and didn't like. She sized up who all she could take on. She could take on all of them, even Sam. You can't hit something you can't see. She was standing in the front doors of the old mayors office. They were in the middle of a meeting. She knew the members: John, who was small but nice, Edilio, who she liked fairly well, Albert, who was business-like and manageable, Dekka, who was moody and quiet but seemed decent, Howard, who she somewhat wanted to hurt, Astrid, who she somewhat wanted to kill, and Sam, who she'd formed no real opinion on yet. Carter was fairly sympathetic towards him though because he seemed to be taking the brunt of the punishment from his so called girlfriend Astrid.
Now, she busted in the halls right in the middle of Astrid's rant, which gave her a small amount of happiness. She looked them all up and down. She was considerable better dressed. Except for maybe albert. She was wearing a pair of denim shorts, and a still white printed T-shirt, along with her ever-present tennis shoes. They were scuffed and dirty, but Carter preferred to think of that as character. Her hair was cleaner too. She'd made a weird mix of plants she'd learned about for a science project in sixth grade to make soap. Sure she'd had to substitute a few ingredients, and at times it made her scalp itch, but it was clearly working. She had a well outside her cabin, hers as she'd come to think of it no longer her uncles, and could wash whenever she wanted. She had to hand pump it, but she was strong and it was better then nothing.
"This is a council meeting for council members only. You have to leave! Now." Carter didn't even need to look to know that the annoyingly shrilly voice belonged to Astrid. Carter took a deep breathe to stop her eyes from rolling and leaned back against the door frame, arms folded, looking calm, ready to spring into action. If she wasn't so sure they wouldn't hurt her she'd be a few feet to her illusions right, but she preferred to be in her own body. She may not trust anyone, but she knew people, and these people wouldn't hurt her. They had too little trust issues.
"Isn't it sort of the idea to report new stuff to the council? Isn't that your job?" Carter said sarcastically. She knew this premature government didn't do anything at all.
"What happened?" This time Sam spoke, even though Carter noticed he said it more warily then anything else. She noticed Astrid's face flicker in annoyance. Poor Sam, the go to guy.
"Once again, isn't it your job to recognize my face? Or more importantly not recognize it?" Carter sighed, then went on. "The kid, Zil, he's a problem and you guys are trying to kick me out because I'm not important enough when you don't even know who I am." Carter lifted herself off of the doorframe and started walking slowly towards Astrid, growing more animated with each step. "Think back on your history, Astrid, yea I know your name and I know you're smart, so think back. I was pretty smart myself back in the day. My favorite class was history. Ancient Egypt. Arguably the first civilized empire in history that records show. They had this one guy, what was his name, Justinian. All powerful Emperor. He came up with this code, see. It was that whole an eye for an eye thing. It was built biased on the whole hierarchy system, but people followed the rules. Want to know why? They followed the rules out of fear, because if they didn't follow the rules they'd be taken out. You've got a council, I get that, not into the whole Justinian thing, I get that. Let's go to modern day democracy. I liked government pretty well too. Not so much though. Want to know what a man gets for murder in America? Life in prison. Want to know why the murder rate is as high as it is? Because people don't think they will get caught. Want to know why it's as low as it is? Because people are afraid of life in prison. Nowhere in that balance so you hear me saying that it is as high as it is because there are no consequences. Nowhere in that balance do you hear me say it is as low as it is because of a sense of honor. Kids out there are getting massacred, and you won't let anyone do anything about it. I think you need to pick your government system and stick to it. If it were me, I'd start with good old Justinian. Why? Because your civilians are acting like cavemen and the Egyptians were the next thing up. I think Zil needs to be taken care of, and I think it should happen soon." Carter was breathing a little heavily now, but she was satisfied with the council's stunned expression.
Howard was the first to break the silence. He started slow clapping, and was completely oblivious to the fact that no one joined in. "Well I think chick's got some ideas! Now if only you had some way to execute them. These bozos have too much moral code, and no one has any more powers. So, baby, as great as your whole idea is and all, you're a bit out of luck." Now Carter Smiled.
"I've got powers. You know I mostly came to complain about your lousy law system. Your army's alright, but I think you should have kids with powers training side by side with the normal ones. It'll enforce equality. Right I'm getting off subject again. Your so called law system's one and only rule is that people should come forth with the new info. Well I'm here to present myself after months and months of careful deliberation. You don't need to know anything about me other then one," she counted each thing off her fingers, "I have major trust issues because people basically suck. Two, My name is Carter. Three, you've never seen me before because I don't live in town. Four, I am probably powerful enough to do you all quite a bit of damage."
"We have to deal with threats pretty quickly around here, and it isn't pleasant," Astrid dictated. Her voice didn't waver. Carter wasn't the only one hardened by months in utter peril. Carter's worst moment had been a particularly bloody coyote attack, before she'd made the agreement. She had to admit that their worst moments had been a lot worse. Still, she refused to look weak.
"Oh yea, I saw what's been done to Zil, I'm still shaking. Listen, I'm not a threat. I'm just telling you that I handle myself. I know it'll drive you crazy that you can't control me, but you're just going to have to deal with that.. I just want something done and if it takes a really really early overthrow of the government to make that happened then bring it on. Personally I think it would have been smart to put Zil on the council, but the time for that is kind of long gone. Now he just needs to be dealt with."
"Look, you are in no position to be handing out orders. You could be bluffing about the powers, and we can't just start taking people out. We can't just fight fire with fire," Astrid cried. Carter couldn't help but feel a little annoyed that none of the other council members seemed to have an opinion one way or another. Astrid probably always won the vote. Only Carter couldn't think of anything this council could actually vote on considering they didn't do anything.
"A, you fight fire with fire when your fire is controlled and it's your only option. B, if you'd like a demonstration of my powers you may have one." and then, before she could help herself, she flung her hands out towards Astrid. Without thinking she made Astrid believe she was drowning. She didn't turn blue, she wasn't in water, but she made soft choking noises and her face wore a shocked unnatural expression. Carter came to her senses, let Astrid go and separated herself from her illusion's body. That little stunt could have made Sam realize she was a threat. She shouldn't have done that. Because now everyone was sort of springing into action. The normals were on their feet, Astrid was turned toward Sam, who, along with Dekka, were alert with their palms out. Yup, mistake, only she wasn't too concerned because Sam wouldn't be able to shoot at her, and her illusion had taken beatings before non of which she could feel. Dekka, she was more worried about, because she was only standing about five feet from the right of her illusion and if Dekka used her power it was highly probably that she'd actually be taken up right next to her illusion. She scratched the back of her head in nervous habit, her illusion copied the movement.
"I can do other things too," she said, a little sheepishly knowing they wouldn't trust her now. "Albert, you want to come down here?" She received a look that said anything but. She sighed and rolled her eyes. "She" walked over to Sam, and lifted his hand into a ready position. Blast me if Albert feels a little discomfort," Carter said pointedly at Astrid, who looked extremely offended. Carter thought it best not to chuckle. Albert tentatively walked over. "Sit," she instructed, pointing at a nearby chair. Albert sat. She put her hands on his shoulders. First she made him a little sleepy, then calm,, then she made his back unknot and the aches lessen. Then she made the hunger lessen. She'd tried that on herself. She'd actually started herself for a few days and made herself believe she was stuffed. She'd made the mistake of simply taking the illusion away as sudden as it had come. The hunger was no worse then before, but she'd longed for the full feeling again and helped herself to a slightly larger meal then usual. So she didn't make Albert feel stuff, just comfortable. She worked it up into his neck and his skull. Then she slowly, extremely slowly, returned him to normal.
He turned to her like she was sent from heaven above. "I'd pay you to do that for a few minutes every day. I'd pay you quite a bit." Carter shrugged.
"I don't really need anything you have, but I'll help out if you want. I'm sure it would work wonders on kids. Not to mention Mary isn't looking so good. I can do permanent illusions too, but I refuse to do it on anyone in power. It's a bit like a drug, the permanent stuff, and you guys need to be lucid. I'd only do that to druggies, menaces... idiots," she said looking pointed at Howard. "Little kids can't be raised on it and workers can't work with it. It's like being high." Carter didn't mention that she'd found this out my putting him in the permanent illusion of high after his weed supply had ran out.
"I'm for it," Albert said. "It'd be like natural control you know. Plus it feels so good people would be comfort for them. I think we should tell the people about her. She might even be able to calm Zil and his people."
"Or I could spy. I'm really good at that," Carter snickered. "I've been doing it to you guys for months. This has to be disconcerting for you guys, but I'm a little amused." Astrid looked extremely annoyed.
"We'll deliberate on it. You could be a public menace to the people," Astrid said stoically. She looked like she had a giant stick up her ass.
"So you're going to spend a few months deliberating on wether help should be accepted? Another few months on wether your government system is too advanced for your cavemen? Another few months postponing on your decision because you don't want to admit you wouldn't really be able to enforce your "rules", and another few months postponing because you simply don't like me? I'm not going to bully my way into anything, but you need me. I'm going back home, call up if you ever decide to have authority," Carter snapped, feeling her temperature actually rising. Her illusion walked out the door. She stayed behind long enough to watch Astrid argue with most of the panel, convince most of them over to her side, yell at Sam about how he wasn't in charge, and see Sam walk out angrily, Dekka close behind. She had also argued on Carter's side.
Carter wondered around for about an hour before she went to Sam. He was sitting on the rocks edge... frying seafood. And by frying she meant shooting scalding lasers out of his hands and blackening the salt life. Carter actually felt a little bit of sympathy for the crustaceans. She went and sat beside him. "Woah dude you're going to end up frying yourself if you keep on like that."
He looked up at her a little confused. "Didn't you storm out of the place like an hour ago?"
"I use my temper wisely, as in I don't take it out on helpless sea creatures," She said with a smirk. The corner of his mouth quirked up in some representation of a smile.
"You had some good ideas, you know. They are acting like cavemen. We need to use some sort of force. We can't just let them run around like wild animals. there are kids getting doped up, murderers, and then I'm being called off like a wild animal... how do you eat?"
"Okay that was extremely random."
"I know... but I have to know. We have people here fishing for us, and growing things. How did you eat if you weren't a part of that?" He asked looking up at Carter with curious eyes. He was kind of handsome.
"I used my powers on the animals before killing them with my knife."
"How did you use your power?"
"Well I can't physically hurt them, so I had to sort of be crafty. With the big things, like bobcats, I had to make them think they are really sleepy and calm. With little animals, like squirrels, I usually projected the image of something terrifying and it gave them a heart attack and they died. I feel like thats quicker then anything-" but she didn't have time to finish before sam rolled over and pinned her to the rock. Carter felt every inch of herself covered with him and realized that struggling was hopeless. She didn't attack yet.
"You said you've been around here for a while, huh? You know how to make monsters pop up? Have you been screwing with people too? Because that's not so funny. People have been seeing stuff, you know. I've been seeing stuff. You got anything to say about that, Carter? Do you?"
Carter stayed calm. She was always good at being the calm one. She got even calmer when she saw the look in his eye. This was a haunted kid. She said each word clearly. "I. Have. No. Idea. What. You. Are. Talking. About." He looked shocked at himself for a moment.
"I... I'm sorry I just, things haven't easy here. Weird things. Weird things have been going on... weird even for the fayz. I can't handle it. It's not easy," he stammered. Carter's legs were starting to fall asleep. Her face was just inches from Sam's. It seems like he'd simply forgotten he was covering her.
She brought her face extremely close to him. Her voice went down an octave and she looked into his eyes. "You know what would make everything just a little bit easier, Sam?"
"What?" he whispered a lump going down his throat as he swallowed.
"If you would get the hell off me before my legs have to be amputated from loss of bloodflow!" Carter yelled angrily.
"Shit, sorry, I didn't mean, sorry, my fault, I should have, sorry," Sam stuttered. Carter felt a little bit of sympathy and a lot of aggravation.
"Lie on your back," she sighed.
"What?"
"Lie on your back. I'm free of charge right now, babe." Reluctantly Sam rolled onto his stomach and stretched his legs out. Carter straddled his hips. He started to protest but Carter started massaging his shoulders and let her power start up. She let the knots unwind. She moved down his spine and made his back feel like heaven. While her fingers helped a little bit she let her powers do most of the work. She helped his hunger, but not so that it would hurt when she removed it. She ran her hands through her hair and removed her headache.
"Man that feels good," he gasped.
"Name things you liked to do before."
"Eat, surf, play video games..." his voice trailed off.
She put him on a surfboard with the taste of vanilla ice cream in his mouth. The temperature was perfect and he felt no stress no fatigue. It was like a dream. In her mind she could see him doing what she made him believe he was doing. Perfect wave after perfect wave came down and he rode them all until he was tired and spent. She put herself into the illusion. Now she was there with him too. It was evening and the sun was setting. She made a campfire and sat in the sand. Same came up the beach and sat beside her.
"Thanks we must have been here for hours. I really needed this." He plopped down onto the sand kicked out his feet and rested his head in his hands and watched the sun setting over the ocean.
"It's actually only been about half of one, but I thought you would appreciate it more if I gave you a whole day."
"So am I just saying and feeling an illusion? Because I feel really really happy right now," he said worry lacing his tone.
"Nah I just took away the physical pains and made the scenery. You are feeling happy because you like this stuff. I could probably make you happy if I wanted, but I'm not into completely controlling people. I'd just be among drones."
"Astrid thinks you're the devil personified," he sighed with annoyance.
"I'm fighting for the right thing, okay? I believe in a government system sure, but she's doing it all wrong. She's trying to be a dictator enforcing democracy. I'm really not sure how you even stand her..." Carter pushed.
"I have to she's my girlfriend," he sighed.
"Not your wife," she pushed even further. It wasn't that she wanted Sam all for herself, but she knew they fought, and she didn't like the way Astrid was treating him like a dog she could call on and off. She just wasn't the leader type. She wasn't strong enough. Sam needed someone strong or he needed no one at all. Carter was prepared for him to say no one.
"How old are you Carter?" he asked rolling over onto his side and watching her from the other side of the fire. The flames flickered in his eyes and made him glow.
"I tured fifteen two months ago," she said looking up at the sky which was now covered in millions and billions of stars.
"Could you make a permanent illusion so that i'd live here?" he asked quietly.
Carter snapped her head up and looked at him. "No. I'd never do that. I'm sorry, but I couldn't not to you. Besides your body would still be in the real world. Things could happen to it. It's too dangerous."
"I was only asking," he looked as if he were calculating. "I'd like to leave now if you don't mind."
"I'm not... I mean you... you're okay right? I didn't like..." Carter couldn't describe it, but she really didn't want to disappoint Sam. She'd never seen anyone who deserved more before in her life, and she didn't get impressed easily. "You deserve a little break. I didn't mean to upset you," she whispered finally. She hated getting tongue tied, it was her one sign of weakness.
"You didn't upset me, I haven't felt better than this in what feels like years. I just, I can't live here you know. Some things are supposed to be in the real world. We have things to fix, people to round up, empires to start!" Sam sprang up with surprising energy. Carter let the illusion wash away, all of it, all the feeling, the illusionary morphine and all the landscape. Sam shook himself off, a little dazed by the transformation. He looked up at her. His eyes were so deep. Carter almost, but couldn't quite, manage a scowl at the tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach. She was sure she was just another chick waiting in line to date him, but it didn't matter. She wasn't going to swoon at him. She had a world to reconstruct.
She and Sam walked off talking about plans for the future, avoiding the subject of astrid altogether. Carter was hyper aware of his hand brushing against hers slightly, not once but three times.
She was going to let herself be seen, even though she already knew no one was going to like it. She knew how to handle herself, now she was going to handle everything else.
So I'll try and start up on a second chapter sometime soon.