Matt was in a dark building, surrounded by small children, all with Native American blood by the look of them. Suddenly, one marched over to two identical little boys sat together in a corner who, Matt realised with a jolt, must be Scott and Jamie. The words the child spoke didn't make any sound, but instead seemed to float through Matt's brain, loud and clear, so he knew what was being said. "I know something about you two!" the child taunted.
The twins ignored him, continuing to play with a little red ball, pushing it back and forth between them as they sat facing each other. The boy, angered by the lack of reaction said, "You two are gonna have to leave soon because you're weirdos and nobody wants you!"
One of the brothers looked up, obviously very upset. "That's not true!" he cried. The other one glanced at his twin for a moment before glaring at the offending child. "Go away."
Sensing he'd hit a nerve, the little brat grinned nastily, "What you gonna do if I don't?"
The twin who Matt was now certain was Scott, stood and leaned in to the other boy. "I'm gonna tell everyone how nobody wants you because you wet the bed and broke Mrs. Tyler's vase."
The bully squeaked and went white. He then turned red with anger. "Freak!" he cried, shoving Scott to the floor, who jumped up and pushed him right back. Unfortunately for him, he pushed the boy into a glass coffee table, causing it to shatter into lots of little pieces.
"What's going on in there?!" an angry voice yelled. All the other children froze in fear. A tall man came striding in the room, took one look at the ruined coffee table with the boy in its remains and rounded on Scott. "Did you do this?!"
"He pushed me first!" little Scott justified, clearly upset. The man shook his head, "That's it; I've had enough of you two! You've caused nothing but problems since you came here! I'm calling the social services, you can be someone else's problem!" And he stormed out again, slamming the door shut.
The bully smirked nastily at the twins, "Told you so! Bye-bye." And he sauntered away, all the other children in the room following suit, leaving them all alone. Little Jamie started crying and all little Scott could do was hug him, saying they would be alright.
XXXXX
Scott had just experienced something similar to Matt. He knew how it all worked, having done this sort of thing before, but now he was aware of Matt's presence as well. He wasn't there with him and Scott was not watching his own memories like someone else did when he and Jamie looked into their minds; he just had a sense that Matt was near him, like a shadow or an aura. Pushing that to the back of his mind, he concentrated on what he was seeing. It was not an individual memory; it was three clumped together, something Scott had witnessed in another's mind before, though not something he came across very often. It usually happened when someone associated a few events together if they were all very similar.
Young Matt had just had his first precognitial dreams and both times, his father had been furious when he had found out about it. Even though they had helped people when he told them about it, the doctor just refused to accept what had happened. "There is a rational explanation for everything!" he thundered, when he thought Matt had gone to bed. "This is ridiculous! There is no such thing a future-seeing or fortune-telling or whatever you want to call it!"
The second time, he hadn't bothered to wait until his small son was gone, simply shouting about how it had been a coincidence and there was nothing supernatural going on. Scott was beginning to hate this man, dismissing things he didn't understand, though he could feel Matt's love for Mark Freeman and he had to, grudgingly, admit that the man did care for the little boy very much, it was apparent even though he was angry. Scott also knew that Matt's little plan was backfiring so far; this was just making him resent the English boy even more, having seen him being loved when he himself and his brother had never been.
Tuning in once more as the surroundings shifted, he was in the garden outside the family's pretty house, looking down at young Matt as he absentmindedly rolled a ball around in front of him. He sensed, rather than heard, the thoughts radiating from him, about how he didn't tell his dad because he would be angry again, but he had to tell him. Though the boy had already resigned himself to the fact that it was going to happen, he harboured the hope that maybe, just maybe, Mrs Green would decide to call them and they would turn around and come home. Though, when the police car pulled up, both the little boy and Scott knew that it had really happened. Mark and Kate Freeman were dead – and Matt blamed himself for it. So maybe his plan wasn't backfiring after all, Scott reflected, as he saw the neighbour who had looked after him give him a horrified look.
'But it wasn't his fault,' Scott wanted to shout, 'He told you, you wouldn't listen!' Though he knew that Matt would still be harbouring guilt over it, just as he did over Ed.
XXXXX
Matt was still reeling from what he had just witnessed; the first accident where Scott had controlled someone: the school bully who had attacked Jamie. It was odd, Scott had been standing in one of his classrooms', getting scolded yet again by one of his teachers, when he felt someone punch him – only it hadn't been him, it had been Jamie. His head had actually been flung back by the force, causing his teacher to stare at him in bewilderment. Without a second thought, he had sprinted out of the classroom to the yard where his brother was in the fight. And he did it.
It had been terrifying, like a force was using him to break free, just like Matt's power back in Omega one when he had escaped or when he caused the glass to explode in Gavin's hand at Forrest Hill. The words had just come out of his mouth unbidden and next thing he knew, the boy had stumbled off and nearly died in the desert. He had sworn he would never do it again. But, although Jamie had only told Matt so much about their past, he had a sinking feeling that Scott failed to keep that promise.
Matt was now in a grubby little house, that reminded him vaguely of Gwenda and Brian's place, rubbish everywhere and a strong smell of alcohol. He had just experienced the odd moment when their foster father had hit Scott in the face, resulting, somehow, in Jamie getting the bruise. Now he watched as the brothers huddled together in the back of the room; they had a habit of doing that, they were drawn together, even now, back in Peru, Matt mused with a slight smile. It disappeared when the door opposite them banged open and in staggered Ed, the smell of alcohol clinging to him like a second skin, probably coming from the bottle dangling loosely in his hand. "Right!" he yelled. "I've decided, you two are outta here!"
Jamie cringed away from the man, but Scott stood his ground and simply scowled, "Oh, what a surprise," he drawled in a bored fashion, though the anger was clear in his eyes. "Like we've never heard that one before." Even at eleven years old, he had a rather cynical view of life, not surprising, really.
The slightly drunk man gave him a look of open hostility, and then he grinned in a way that sent chills down the boys spines, Matt included. "Oh, no, no, no," he said in an irritating sing-song way, "It's different this time . . ." he took a long swig of vodka from the bottle and moved further into the room, peering down and putting his face right next to Scott's, causing the boy to lean back a little in disgust as Ed's breath washed over him. "Jamie's going to another state," he smirked evilly, "But you're staying in this one: you're going to be separated."
The twins went pure white. Ed laughed. Jamie's hands started shaking; he gripped one of his brother's arms with both of them, looking like he needed the support to avoid collapsing. Scott moved closer to him, as if to refuse to be parted from his brother. He was shaking slightly as well, but his voice was steady as he said, "You're lying, they wouldn't separate us."
The man laughed louder, stopping only to drink more vodka before sneering, "Oh yes? And what makes you so confident?"
"They've never done it before." Matt could tell the confidence in his voice was for show; it was obvious he was very frightened.
"Yeah, but seeing as sending you two off as a package never worked out before, they've decided to use a different approach to offload you, two is one too much, you see," he added, as if explaining something simple to someone stupid.
"They won't," the fear was audible in the young boys voice now, "You're lying! Derry never would have-"
"That stupid old bag? She hasn't got control of you two anymore, has she?" he asked, leering. "And the other workers aren't as concerned."
"Don't insult her; she tried to look after us! She cared about us!" Scott snarled. "Yeah, Derry would make a better parent than you!" Jamie insisted, trying to support his brother. Unfortunately, all it did was turn the man's attention from one twin to the other.
"Y'know, I am soooo sick of you two," he cackled suddenly, "but since you're going your separate ways anyway, I guess there's no need to keep you together right now, is there?" He lunged forward in an attempt to seize Jamie, but before he could get a grip on him, Scott launched himself backwards, dragging Jamie with him, out of reach of the drunk and pushed him against the wall, standing in front of him as if to protect his brother, one of the leather chairs toppling over to create a sort of half-barrier between the children and the adult.
"It's not true!"
"Oh, yes it is!"
"No it's not!"
"Oh, you two are gonna be so lonely, aren't you?" he sneered at them once more, draining the alcohol in the bottle down to the dregs as he did so. "So far away from each other – you might not even be able to use your little mind trick!"
"Shut up!"
"How sad! What's the point of being freaks if it doesn't even held you two stay together? Oh poor little boys!"
"I said, SHUT UP!"
"I doubt you'll even be able to keep in contact; take a good long look, boys, because you'll never see each other again!" he burst into laughter one more time. Scott snapped. Matt watched in anticipation as Scott's facial expression became very dark and he hissed, "Nobody's going to separate us. You can go hang yourself." They all froze. Then Ed got a strange look on his face – just like the one the school bully got when Scott told him to get lost. Then he turned and walked out the door, dropping his vodka bottle to the floor with a thud.
There was silence. Then it was punctuated suddenly by Jamie, through his thoughts. 'Oh my God . . .' he thought, 'He's going to – you have to stop him Scott!'
'I can't!' his twin answered, breathing heavily, his eyes wide, his face ashen. 'I don't know how!'
They stayed where they were for a few more hours, when the silence was broken by the horrified screams of their foster-mother. "ED!" she screeched. "Oh my God – ED!" The brothers did nothing. Matt felt a painful pang in his heart – not for the dead man, who quite frankly got what he deserved, but for the twins, who were going to suffer the most.
XXXXX
Scott watched the scene before him in horrified fascination, praying Matt would be okay. 'What am I praying for?' The rational part of him asked. 'Of course he's okay, I know him after this happens, I know he's okay!' The somewhat comforting thought did not prevent him from flinching, however, as the madman formerly known as Sir Michael brought the knife slicing down into Matt's chest. Scott felt Matt's emotions, felt the sudden overwhelming presence of his powers surge through him, just as Scott had once felt, not in control of it, merely a vessel to direct it somewhere. It Matt's case, he directed it to the knife, causing the blade to burn the old man and snap the leather bonds holding Matt to the metal slab. Scott's heart flared in elation as he watched Matt free Richard (whom he now had a higher degree of respect for after seeing how he helped Matt) and run out of the room with the journalist right behind him, the doors flinging themselves off of their hinges to get out of the way.
He, of course, ended up following them as they went underground. He now had to admit that Matt's plan was certainly working and, despite himself, he found he related with the English boy and actually felt quite sorry for him. As he watched Brian beat Matt around, as he saw him struggle through day-to-day life in Ipswich and get involved with that creep Kelvin and get in trouble with the law, he realised he might have had a better time of it than Matt. He had had a crappy life, but he had Jamie. Matt had no one.
Snapping back to Matt's memories, he realised they were now in the underground part of Omega One, near a river and a tank full of blue acid. With a cry of pain, Richard suddenly went down and that crazy witch, Jayne Deverill, now turned on Matt. 'Use your power!' Scott was desperate to say, but he knew it was useless. Matt couldn't control his power; up until recently, he hadn't even been aware he possessed something beyond precognition and he usually tried to ignore that. Scott hated the helpless feeling that overcame him and Matt as the insane woman forced him back against the railing, about to push him in. Scott felt a sense of triumph as Richard recovered his strength enough to push her over the railing to her death. 'A well deserved one, too . . .' he thought grimly.
"Don't look, Matt," Richard said, still attempting to relieve some of the trauma from the teenager. He looked around, searching for a way to escape the horrible place, before realising they would have to use the river. "Hold on to me. Just hold on."
He looked on in something close to happiness as Richard and Matt jumped into the river, clinging to each other. 'Like brothers,' he observed, his first fully genuine smile in months gracing his face.
XXXXX
Matt flinched as he felt the pain sizzling through Scott's body, searing his insides, causing him to gasp and cry out in pain. If he had the energy he would've been writhing and screaming. He hardly had any sense of what was going on around him anymore, his world dissolving into a mass of pain. Matt's heart constricted in his chest as he watched the other boy's suffering, thinking back to those harsh words he'd shouted at him, back in Professor Chambers' hacienda. It seemed a world away now.
He also noted with a sense of incredulity, but not a feeling of surprise, that the most painful bit of this for Scott wasn't that he hadn't been given nearly enough food or water and lack of rest, or that they had electrocuted him or that they were pumping something into his bloodstream that made it boil and ripped him apart on the inside. It was because he was away from Jamie. He was such a devoted brother that even in this state, some part of him wondered if Jamie was okay and where he was, it wasn't a very large part of him, but it was there. It was the only thing that kept Scott clinging to some shred of sanity, through all his fear and pain. Matt admired his strength, but he was also afraid, because he realised that whatever that stuff was, it was making Scott forget everything. Where he lived, where he was now, how he got there. All he remembered was Jamie and through Jamie who he was.
Matt looked up as the door opened and in walked an unknown woman – but Matt could tell instantly that this was Susan Mortlake; the woman Jamie had told him about who had been killed by Senator Trelawney's bodyguard and tried to manipulate Scott. He also knew that she wasn't here for any good reason. She sat down on a chair beside him and gazed at him thoughtfully. Matt saw Scott was trembling as he slowly moved only his head to look at her; he was frightened to do anything because he didn't know how whoever was doing this to him would take it.
Mortlake gently touched Scott's arm, sending a flare of anger coursing through Matt, as she spoke to him, as a mother would to her son, "What have they done to you? You poor boy." Matt growled quietly at her taunting, though it did him no good. "I'd have come sooner for you if only I'd known but, you see, it's so difficult for me. I want to be your friend. But I have to know that you trust me. You have to be on my side."
Mortlake lightly brushed a lock of hair out of Scott's eyes, the intimate contact enraging Matt further. 'Don't touch him, you bitch!' he roared inside his head wishing he could do something, anything. Her next words made his blood run cold. "Jamie left you. Do you remember, at the theatre? That's when they came for you and your brother just abandoned you." 'You liar!' Matt thought, horrified. "All your life you looked after him but he didn't care. The first chance he got, he was away, leaving you to all this. Right now, he's laughing at you. Because he's all right. He's having a fine old time. And you're stretched out on your back, connected to all these nasty tubes, and you could die here and nobody would think twice."
'This is impossible! It can't work, Scott and Jamie are always together, always looking out for each other, Scott can't possibly believe this lie!' But as Matt had that thought, he felt the smallest bit of doubt slither into Scott's mind. 'This is hell,' Matt thought as he watched the woman lie, unable to do anything. He now understood why Scott and Jamie didn't like their powers, to watch horrible things happen right in front of them and be unable to do anything . . .
Mortlake continued. "But that's the mistake you've made since you were little, Scott. Do you remember Ed and Leanne in Carson City? You thought they'd look after you but they let you down. And then there were Don and Marcie and they were even worse. But that's the thing about life, isn't it? It's always the good people who get pushed around. The little people. Do you want to be a little person, Scott, or do you want to be with me? Because, you see, in the world that's coming, I'm going to be in charge, and you're going to have to start asking yourself, which end of the whip do you want to be?"
Matt could take no more, he desperately wished that he didn't have to hear what came next – and he didn't. 'That's weird,' he thought, confused, but relieved all the same. 'Must be something to do with me not being a telepath . . .' He could see Mortlake's mouth moving but only two phrases floated to him ". . . Little swine and put a knife through his heart . . ." came first, followed by "Mr Banes has come to see you now." And she left. In her place was a bald man, whom Matt recognised as the one who attacked the twins at the theatre. He didn't know what happened to his partner. When Scott saw him, fear and anticipation for more pain swelled in him. The man smirked at him nastily before looking over at the door and beckoning another man to come over. Scott glanced at him in confusion –
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing; the entire world went black and Matt looked around in confusion, he could faintly hear Jamie's voice. 'Scott!' echoing through to him, but Scott blocked him out. 'Scott! It's me!' This too, was ignored. Then he was in someone else's head – the bodyguard's, Warren Cornfield. He watched as Scott gave the order to kill Trelawney, which was overruled, just in the nick of time, by Jamie ordering him to kill Susan Mortlake. Matt felt very satisfied about that. The only clear memory that came after this was waking up in the hacienda after Pedro had performed his first healing session on him.
'He must've repressed his memories,' Matt thought, 'It would make sense, he's experienced a lot of trauma . . . Dad once said it was the mind's natural reaction to this kind of thing, block it out . . . '
XXXXX
Scott terrified as the helicopter made its descent, circling towards the ground extraordinarily fast, turning the worlds into a blur. The final shattering crash left him breathless – at least it would have if this was actually his experience. Matt eventually had the good sense to force his way out of the wreckage, pulling Pedro with him. Once he was sure of the situation, he set off, Scott with him. This memory was making Scott look at him in a whole new light. He recognised that they were kindred spirits, but up until now, it still bugged him that Matt had seemed to appoint himself the leader. Scot didn't like it when one person had all the power, it seemed unfair. While he still had that opinion and would've preferred the Five to be equals, he knew now that Matt was a good leader and he should be the one to hold that position. Not that he would ever tell him that . . .
Matt now stood facing Salamander's mobile laboratory. Once more, Scott felt that incredible power pouring from him as he ripped the metal truck to pieces, tearing out bolts and the satellite with ease. He felt a quick twinge of fear when the man himself came out and, in his mad rage, fired a bullet at Matt, but kicked himself mentally a minute later for worrying; as Matt clearly demonstrated, he could throw the moving laboratory that must've weighed about four or five tonnes across the desert as one would skip a rock across a pond. A single bullet was useless. Five, on the other hand, was a different matter. He could sense, though, that Matt did not blame himself for Salamander's death and really, why should he? The man was a fool, a thief and a murderer. Something suddenly struck him though. Matt had won. He was beginning to strike Scott as nearly invincible. So how on Earth were the Old Ones back?
His question was answered almost immediately as Matt realised the satellite was still moving. And there was nothing he could do to stop it. He felt Matt's fear as the ground shook and began to tear itself apart; it was the most overwhelming terror he had ever felt in his life and Scott felt it too. Suddenly, the Old Ones were released back into the world.
Matt tried hard to stop them, he was almost certain he could do it too, as he felt Pedro's presence nearby. He was so close to winning! The King of the Old Ones was weak after his imprisonment and Matt was using that. Just a little more . . .
Scott cursed out loud as the gigantic spider ran at Matt and, for lack of a better term, sucked the life clean out of him. As the Old Ones disappeared and Matt lay on the desert floor close to death, Scott thought, 'Hell . . . we have to fight those things?! How the hell are we gonna win?!'
XXXXX
The two teenagers said nothing for a long time after they vacated each other's minds, simply sitting on Matt's bed, staring at the spread. Scott broke the silence. "I know none of this makes sense at all," he began, "But the skeleton dinosaur attack? That's just freaky." Matt laughed. Scott glared, though a mild one compared to what he usually unleashed. "I'm serious. The live fossils, the creepy witches, cat's coming back to life . . ." he trailed off, shaking his head. "All the really weird stuff seems to happen to you."
Matt grew sombre. "Yes, and all the cruel and painful stuff seems to happen to you." He looked Scott in the eyes, blue into brown. "I'm sorry for what I said about you and the whole Silent Creek thing. It was wrong." Scott shrugged, finding that it really didn't bother him that much. "Don't worry about it. It's not that that upsets me; it's the fact that you can't trust me." He kept his steady stare locked with Matt's. "Can you trust me?"
Matt hesitated before saying quietly, "Yes, I think I can." Scott nodded and averted his gaze. After a few more minutes spent lost in thought, he spoke once more. "You know," he said slowly, "You're actually not as much of an asshole as I originally thought."
Matt smiled at him, a little grimly, but happily too. "Thanks. You're not so bad yourself."
A/N: If you are thinking of complaining because my version of their telepathy does not exactly coincide with Anthony Horrowitz's, don't. I apologise, but I couldn't write his way, so call it artistic license.
So, does this, being the longest chapter so far, make up for my neglect? I couldn't do it sooner: it took me so long to find the chapter in Nightrise with Scott and Susan Mortlake in it! Yes, all the speaking for that scene is the original text (I didn't finish all of it because by then I was exhausted and the end wasn't all that important). Damn my need to get the wording right; I was fighting the urge to throw the book out of my window, I was honestly THAT frustrated!
P.S. The second man wasn't actually there, for those of you who haven't read the book in a while and got confused, that's relevant for later on.