A/N: hello i'm back from the dead, just to warn you i haven't written anything apart from science essays in years, so don't expect this chapter to be very good. I have actually outlined the story and we have 3 or 4 chapters left really. And chapter four is about ΒΌ written so should be out soon.

Sorry again for the long long long wait and I hope you enjoy.

Chapter Three

To Toby it felt like hours but in reality the walk was probably only twenty minutes, but by the time he arrived his legs felt like jelly and he could barely stand. He somehow made it into the psychology building and collapsed in a chair in Ray's office. The chair was cosy and Toby felt himself relaxing into it, his eyelids were heavy and they started to close seemingly of their own accord.

Toby was jolted awake after just a few seconds by Ray's voice "Hello Toby,"

"Erm, hi, sorry I'm late. I met the little girl's father on the tram."

"It's quite alright. Now Toby I have a confession to make, please do not get angry," Ray said.

Toby's face scrunched up with confusion, "Okay."

"You are not the only telepath I've worked with." Ray sighed, a huge sigh of what could only be relief; like a huge weight had been removed from his chest.

"I'm sorry, what?" Toby said his voice raised slightly, "All these years I've been alone with this and you've been lying to me!"

"Toby wait,"

Toby stood up out of his chair, anger radiating from him, "What else have you been lying about Ray? Any other secrets you've been keeping from me almost my entire life?"

"Toby listen!" Please.

Toby stood, towering above Ray frozen in his place, he didn't know why but he felt like he owed it to Ray to at least let him explain. Toby sat back down in his chair, crossing his arms protectively and stared at Ray with real malice in his eyes. "Go on then, explain why you betrayed me."

"You are the only telepath I've ever encountered outside the clinical setting, every other person I've ever met with a gift like yours has been driven mad by it. Christine Donnelly had enormous strength, but even she was so doped up on medication it's a miracle she could function in the real world."

"So that's no reason for you not to introduce me to them, at least I wouldn't be alone. At least I would know i'm not the only freak out there!"

"But you would be alone, no-one else's gift even came close to being like yours, they could read the minds of someone maybe a metre away and that drove them insane. You on the other hand could read an entire building, or a street, or if you tried a city, and you could control it. Keep your sanity, do you have any idea how unique that is?"

"I still don't understand why you didn't tell me," Toby said.

"I guess I was just trying to protect you, to me you'll always be a boy in need of protection, I didn't want you to have to deal with what this ability can do to a mind. You've got enough on your plate." Ray's eyes darted to the floor I'm sorry Toby, can you forgive me?

"No, I don't think I can Ray! Goodbye!" Toby stood up violently the chair he was sitting on tumbling over and he stormed out of the room.

"Toby, wait!" Ray shouted.

TOBY, COME BACK!

Toby started to run, he ran at full speed, TOBY PLEASE, but he could still hear Ray in his head. Eventually Toby collapsed in a side street his head was quiet for what felt like the first time in an age. Ray's voice had left him, and the rest of the thoughts of the city seemed to have stopped just for a moment. Toby felt peace as he lay in the middle of the road looking up at the orange glow of the street lights. He didn't know where he was or how long he'd been running for, but his legs were on fire and his grey tee shirt was soaked with sweat.

The next thing Toby was aware of was a bright white light that filled up his whole world, he couldn't hear anything, all he could see was this light. Toby couldn't feel anything either the light was the only thing he was aware of. He shut his eyes and welcomed the darkness and the silence.

"Sir, Sir." Toby felt himself being shook, his whole body was moving but not by his hand. Someone was shaking him like a rag doll in the road.

"Hmmmm" He managed to say.

Just another drunk.

Waste of time.

Is he okay.

The silence was gone, Toby opened his eyes and the white light returned but Toby realised it was just the headlights of a car, he raised his arm to shield his eyes and looked around. A few people stood around him and there was a car stopped in the road about a metre away from him and a police car just behind that. It's blue flashing lights illuminating the street in a strange kind of glow.

"Mind telling me what you are doing in the middle of the road sir?" The police officer said.

"Sorry I guess I passed out, won't happen again officer," Toby got up unsteadily but he was on his feet.

This guy is so hammered I'm surprised he can talk

"I haven't been drinking officer, I just had a nasty headache, do you mind telling me where I could hail a cab?"

Should I take him in and deal with all that paperwork at 3am?

"Try the main road, it's just up there," He said pointing it out, "Now get out of my sight!"

Fucking punk arse kids wasting my time

"Thanks officer,"

Toby began walking down the street, thanking his lucky stars that he hadn't been arrested. He turned onto the main road when he was hit with a sudden realization, he can't have left Ray's after eight and there is no way he had managed to run for so many hours to be found passed out at 3am. Where had all the time gone he must have lost at least six hours if not more? How had he not noticed? What had he been doing in all those hours?

Toby spotted a taxi rank outside a club and headed towards it, getting in the first available taxi and asking the driver to take him home.

"So, rough night?" The female voice said from the front of the cab.

"I guess so," Toby replied.

The cab fell silent once again for the remaining half an hour it took to cross town and get to Toby's apartment block.

"That'll be $30, please" Toby's eyebrows raised but he reached into his wallet to get the money passing it to the taxi driver who had red painted nails that clasped around the notes.

"Wait, turn around!" Toby said when he realised who was in the front seat. The cab driver obliged and Toby found himself facing a middle age, middle eastern, man who definitely did not have red painted nails. "Sorry," Toby said blushing slightly and he got out of the car and he headed inside. Once Toby was in his apartment he collapsed onto his bed and instantly fell asleep.

LSLSLSLSLSLSLS

"No, what are you doing?" It was Sarah Donnelly she sat in the room crying. The walls were wet and the whole room smelled of damp, the room was slightly lit by a single lightbulb in the middle of the room above Sarah, but it was not very bright.

Someone was tying the girl up, and a gag was placed around her mouth preventing her from making any coherent noises.

"Sssh little girl, I'm not gonna hurt you," It was a man's voice that came out of the darkness.

The room was suddenly lit up as a door opened, a woman walked in her face covered in shadow. "Good, good, now let's have some fun shall we."

Toby woke with a jolt, he was covered with sweat and his shirt was sticking to his back like a second layer of skin. Sun was filtering into his room through the gaps in the blinds bathing the room in an orange glow. Toby looked over at his alarm clock the red numbers glowed bright telling him it was seven, Toby rubbed his eyes and collapsed back into his bed. He shut his eyes trying to get back to sleep, but he felt wide awake and could sense that sleep would only allude him.

He rolled over and out of bed, he stumbled into his bathroom and looked in the mirror. What he saw shocked him, he looked like a zombie, he had huge bags under his eyes and his skin was white and pasty. But what worried him the most was the blood trickling out of his nose, there was dried blood too so he figured he must have had another nose bleed earlier but not noticed it.

"What is happening to me?" Toby whispered to himself, he stared at his reflection some more as if he was looking for answers within the mirror.

LSLSLSLSLSLS

Toby arrived into work on his bike, he was there an hour early due to his sudden wake up in the morning. After locking his bike up he heads towards the hospital and into the children's ward where Sarah should have been transferred to once she left the ER. Toby walked up towards a nurse who was sitting at the nurses station reading a magazine.

"Hello, my name is Toby Logan, I am a paramedic at the hospital. Can you tell me where a Sarah Donnelly's bed is?" He asked

The nurse looked up at Toby a look of annoyance on her face. "Sure, let me check," Toby smiled and turned slightly to look down the corridor, "Sorry she was discharged AMA last night by her Father,"

Toby turned to face her, "What time?"

"Sevenish,"

"Have you got an address for the father?"

"Sure, 16 Pleasant Grove,"

"Thanks a lot," Toby said and smiled.

Toby turned and headed back down the corridor, How could I let this happen?. Toby turned towards the voice and saw Robert sat on the floor his head in his arms

"Hey, Robert?" Toby said and Robert's head jerked up and his eyes opened with panic. Who is this guy?

"Just go away, okay don't get involved!" Robert stood up, turned and headed down the corridor away from Toby.

"Stop, I can help you find your daughter." Toby said, and Robert stopped and turned to face him.

"How? How could you help me? How could anyone help me?"

"I've seen her, the lady with the red nail polish,"

"You don't even know who she is. She's nobody, she's not important," Robert said his voice cracking.

"She has your daughter," with that Robert attacked Toby and pinned him up against the wall.

"I want you to tell me exactly what makes you think that, and I want you to tell me now, or so help me God I will kill you!" Robert said. Are we quite clear on that!

"I saw it, in my mind." Robert let him go and smiled, then laughed, which turned to hysterical crying laughter.

"You're one of them, of course you are, well I've got news for you bud, you can't always trust what you hear," With that Robert stormed away.

"Wait you can't leave me, tell me what's going on, please I deserve to know!" A nurse walked past and gave Toby a strange sideways glance.

Robert stopped walking again, "Okay, maybe you'll be able to help, so I'll tell you the basics, what you need to know."

"Thank-You" Toby said and jogged slightly to catch up with him.

LSLSLSLSLSLS

Robert and Toby sat on a bench just outside the front entrance of the hospital, it was a beautiful day, completely clear skies and the grass was still damp with dew. The hospital loomed tall above them but did not cast a shadow and birds sang around them.

Robert sighed and began to talk, "In the 60's the US government began a programme to create telepaths to use against the Russians. The took people from prisons and off the street and injected them with what we call Substance C. To a large degree it worked, but the results were not what they wanted, most telepaths had to touch a person or an object to be able to read their minds. Those that could do it remotely had a very small range. The program ran until the early 80s, after that a company was set up to monitor the subjects as they entered a normal society, my father worked for this company"

"So I'm just a government experiment, grown in a lab, just a lab rat." Toby said.

"I don't know the specifics of your case, but yes your mother would have definitely been a part of the program, or you may have been taken from your birth parents as a baby and injected with the substance"

"Okay, okay, go on what happened next?" Toby said, trying to compose himself.

"Well at the end of the government program we were told there was about 20 subjects left still alive, so this company provided them with a great big house to live in outside of New York. That is where my father worked, he'd take me in to work sometimes. That is how I met Christine and we were best of friends. One weekend me and my father travelled to the head office in Washington DC and found that the company were selling the remaining telepaths all around the world to people and organisations for huge sums of money. Our house in New York was just one of many houses around the country where the telepaths were 'stored' until they could be sold."

"How many of us were sold?" Toby asked.

"I wouldn't know, I was only 13 and walked into the wrong meeting looking for my father. That's how I found out. This was all in 1982 and when I told my Father he tried to leave the company but they wouldn't let him, so we ran away and I demanded we take Christine with us. So we adopted new identities and tried to make a life here. Christine had some serious issues with living in such a big city but we had to, they'd never look for us in a place like this."

"Is Sarah a telepath?"

"Yes, not very powerful one, she needs direct contact and then even then she can only hear powerful thoughts."

With that Robert stood up "Are you leaving?" Toby asked

"Yes, if I were you I would stay out of this mess, the company have Sarah and you won't be able to get her back. Just carry on with your life, live under the radar. I'll find Sarah alone, no one else needs to get involved." Please stay out of this if you can, don't ruin your life.

"Okay, if you're sure, I'll stay out of it. But can I ask one more question?"

"If you must."

"Who is the lady with red painted nails?"

Robert chuckled, "I don't know, Christine has been going on about it for years, I just thought she was a figment of her imagination."

"Thank-You" Toby said and Robert walked away towards the main road and then into a taxi. Toby sat back against the bench and put his hands on his head, it was starting to hurt slightly. This was becoming a lot more complicated than he originally thought, he had to find the girl, if he could find her maybe he could find the woman and get this whole mess sorted.

LSLSLSLSLSLS

"You look like death warmed over," Oz said giving Toby a worried look. "Sure you're gonna be okay to work?"

"I'm fine Oz" Toby said before clambering into the ambulance.

Toby head rested against the window of the ambulance as they drove around. They had only had one call that morning and had spent the rest of the day driving around Toronto city centre. Toby's eyes slid shut for just a second.

HELP!It was Sarah's voice bursting into his mind which caused the floodgates to open.

Chips, stereo, killer, coke, mom, playground, paper, ketchup It felt like all of Toronto's inhabitants were talking at once in his head.

HELP!The room flashed back into view, but it was not only Sarah in there, there was a woman as well with blonde hair, she was gagged as well. The woman was also filthy, her clothes were nothing more than rags and her hands were tied together with a white cable tie.

"AH" Toby screamed, his head felt like it had split open and every single muscle had tightened up. Blood was gushing from his nose and covering his hands and uniform with the wetness.

HELP! clothes wendy love shopping peter duck park chemical IKEA friends lamp teddy. Sarah's voice was louder than everyone elses, she was screaming for help while the entire city was chatting away inside his head.

Oz had stopped the ambulance and he ran to the other side where Toby was and he opened the door. Inside Toby began to seize every single muscle in his body shaking and contracting. Toby had slid down slightly and his stomach kept violently hitting the plastic dashboard. Oz tried to hold him down and stop him from hurting himself but to no avail.

HELP!

Toby muscle spasms began to slow and he eyes which had been open the entire time even though they weren't seeing anything fell shut and he lost consciousness. Blood was still pouring from his nose.

A/N: Look this is gonna sound strange but I want you to tell me where I have gone wrong in the writing of this chapter. It's been so long since I've written anything that I feel my writing has regressed. So if you want to leave a constructive criticism review that would be much appreciated and I won't take offense if you are a little mean to me...

Review people!