A scream ripped through the air a moment before all the windows in a two story home blew out with a crash and tinkling of glass.
Just as suddenly as the scream had come, the rain that had been pouring all day and part of the night stopped. Silence. Nothing, not even a cricket could be heard, but that wasn't true for all.
Mary Chase, 25 years old, personally assigned recluse and hermit, heard things. She felt them. She felt the fear, the pain, the confusion, and anger from 20 miles away in the city. She knew exactly where it was coming from as well; the University where the critically acclaimed psychic Simon Silver was due to preform.
Mary had successfully managed to block out the thoughts and feelings of the city prior to the incident, up until a strong force ripped her barriers away, leaving her open and susceptible to an attack. She was mad, not just because she'd managed to put up a barrier for the first time in years, but also because she could feel the anger of others, it seeped into her, and she absorbed it.
She felt pain as well, such a great pain, but also triumph. Triumph from an unidentifiable source; an unidentifiable person.
Mary shivered as the cool night air blew in from outdoors, bringing with it more feelings and thoughts.
A man, Simon Silver, floating above the ground.
Another man in pain, getting beat up in a bathroom.
The same man that got beat up now in the auditorium where Silver was, limping and blood soaked in his shirt.
Silver demanding the man to stop.
And then...
Mary screamed again, the sheer number of thoughts, memories, and feelings overwhelming her. She curled up into a ball and hugged her knees whispering make it stop. But it didn't, it never stopped. It was her gift, her curse, and she could barely think as to why she had them in the first place.
She tired constructing a wall around her mind to block it out, but each time she did, it got torn down by the same persisting energy. It was new to her, the energy, but it was gradually retreating until it disappeared within the swirls and whorls of the rest of the cities thoughts and feelings.
Anger.
Simon Silver demanding how the man had "done it".
Fear.
The audience frozen by the events that had just taken place.
Confusion.
People trying to comprehend just what had happened.
And something else, something seemingly foreign; acceptance.
"You can't deny yourself forever."
But what the acceptance was about, Mary did not know. It came from the man who'd confronted Silver, the one that had disappeared.
For the first time, Mary tired to reach out and find that energy, but to no avail, it was hopeless. They were gone. Mary could've spent the rest of the night looking, only to gain a headache.
She'd felt a connection to that energy, something she'd never felt before. Something that let her to seek it out; to find help. Anything to help her deal with her curse.
"Help me," she whispered hoarsely. "Help me."
She concentrated on that energy she couldn't find. Even the memory of it was slipping, a fading beacon in the dark.
Help me. Help me. HELP ME.
Twenty miles away in the hospital, physicist and self proclaimed psychic debunker Dr. Thomas Buckley clutched his head in pain. The only thing he could make out through the haze where two words:
"Help Me."