Chapter 3:

Jen was sitting by her bedroom window. Brynn was alone in Alex's apartment; she was working on his computer.

Jen stared. She had a feeling of unease. Somewhere in her mind she feared Alex would come back from work and find her doing what she was doing. But that didn't make any sense, because she wasn't doing anything wrong, and yet there was the feeling. Suddenly, a clearer thought passed through her mind: //I must copy all the files before Alex comes home.//

"What files?" she asked no one.

//The files I'm going to sell to the mutants.//

"Sell to the mutants? I'm losing my mind, why am I thinking about selling files to the mutants?" she asked her ghostly reflection on the window. Then there was another thought. As clear as if she was hearing someone say it, the voice belonged to her next door neighbor.

//I have to buy some more veggies, we are out.//

Then she heard another voice, and another, and yet another one; as if her entire building was inside her head.

//I have to get to the gym--// //I hope Albert likes red wine--// //God, she's so ugly!// //My breasts are too small--// //This is the worst sex I've ever had---//

The thoughts had no connection between them, because they came from different people.

Jen repeated the words in her head: //The thoughts CAME from different people.//

She was picking up other people's thoughts, just like she had picked up Alex's back in the coffee shop.

And the first weird thought she had picked up came from no other than Brynn. So Barbie Doll was the one fearing Alex might come home and find her copying the files she was going to sell to the mutants. Jen stared at her from across the way. "God, if only I could turn that computer off before she's done," she whispered angrily.

Across the street Brynn stood up from the chair suddenly. She began pushing all the buttons in the computer. It had turned off. She pressed another button and sat down. Jen picked up her thoughts.

//Useless piece of junk! I wonder why he hasn't bought a better one, a faster one, he can afford it. If only he wasn't so lost thinking about Jen he would realize how cheap he is--//

"Cheap?" Jen repeated softly. "Alex is not cheap, you slut!" she said angrily staring at her. "And you ain't copying any god dammed files from Alex's computer, because that computer is going to turn off and you won't be able to turn it on again!" she proclaimed. And so it happened.

****

She had the gene active.

Both her mother and her father had been carriers, and since that gene wasn't part of the normal procedure, they hadn't spotted it.

She smiled seeing that little piece of her DNA chain shining at her from the computer screen.

"This is great," she said softly, a smile across her face.

*****

"Let's go to the beach," Jen told Alex. Their surrounding immediately turned into a beach, and their clothes changed.

"Nah!" he complained, "I'm bored of the beach! Let's try something else, something more romantic, like a cabin, in the mountains, with a fire place." His voice was sexy. She smiled, and the cabin appeared around them, she looked at him and he smiled back. They kissed deeply.

"Are you happy here with me?" he asked.

"So much I don't ever want to wake up" she answered.

"Then don't ever wake up, and stay here with me, forever," he asked, kissing her neck softly.

"If only I could," she answered sadly. "If I could I would, I don't want to go back there, where it's hard and painful, I want to stay here with you, and your love," she pleaded. His kisses lowered a little, towards her breasts. "Alex, I think it's time for me to go back to work," she said.

"Already?" he pouted. She smiled at his face "You just got here!"

"I only get a short recess, I'm sorry, I have to go," she told him.

"I'll be waiting for you, right here, ok?" he said. She smiled and gave him one last kiss.

And then, she woke up. And headed back to her office from the resting quarters.

*******

That night, Jen rode her motorcycle across the town, listening to so many thoughts at once she felt dizzy.

Some of them were so innocent, others weren't.

She had stopped to buy a drink, and what the barman was thinking about her had made her throw her drink at his face and walk out of there, not without hearing what all the other men present were thinking of her too.

She toured the city, the lights were bright. Not too many people on the streets, because it was Wednesday. She thought of so many things, she heard so many people and moved so many small objects all over town, up in buildings, down in the subway, in other cars. She was so fascinated by the new world she had just unlocked for herself, she wasn't really paying attention to her immediate surroundings.

She was distractedly humming a tune along with a music player somewhere above her, when she heard a horn. She turned her head, but the truck was on her before she could do anything about it.

To be continued.