Here again. Laying on a hard table like a side of beef. She didn't know where this was, but she had been here before. Her brain was a foggy mush, with thoughts slogging around in it, most of them were not even hers. The straps that made her stay where she was, felt too tight. They chaffed at her wrist and ankles. Without them she would have made a fine job of rolling off the table and falling on her face.
"These readings are optimal."
Her head lolled that way to see a skinny man in a lab coat, bent over as he looked intently at a screen that revealed the inner workings of her mind. She didn't know him. Though most likely she did. She watched the blue line on the screen, jump, climb and fall. It told her nothing. Whatever mysteries if revealed to him were lost in the haze.
Another man in a lab coat joined the first, watching the dancing line.
He too, was a familiar stranger. Psychopath with a PhD. He wanted something from her. Always pushing, threatening. Sour as lemon because she wouldn't give it to him. What was it? There was the impression it had been a terrible thing. Odd she didn't remember now. It had seemed so important. Worth dieing for. A person should really remember a thing like that.
"Then why isn't she performing?" He demanded.
"Because I'm not a trained monkey." The thought tumbled through her mind. It made her smile or try. Her mouth just twitched. Too many damn drugs. She couldn't make an expression let alone keep track of an idea. The one she'd just had was already part of the gray fog.
"We are getting negative connection with every subject." The doctor continued. "She is reticent to interact with a living mind."
That pulled her back. forced her be part of a world that moved too fast for her sluggish brain. She realized that she was seeing the doctor's face because he was bending over her.
"Perhaps we need to decrease the sedation." This from the lab tech.
"The dosage is fine" The doctor said, his fingers brushed her cheek, "She's just being stubborn."
She remembered that she hated him.
He leaned close and whispered in her ear. "You will give me what I want."
She also remembered what it was he wanted. A demonstration of this party favor her brain had been turned into. Many long hours she'd spent sitting across from some poor soul, whose mind seemed to lay open before her. All she had to do was reach out and take it. And yet she never would. Stubborn. Yes, she had been stubborn. She would rectify that now.
She looked into the doctor's eyes. They were pale. Bleached stones. The eyes of a dead man. His face changed suddenly. His mouth gaped opened. This is what he wanted. To witness one mind dominating another. His hands went foolishly to his throat and clawed at the nothing that choked him. He'd worked so hard to achieve this. She hoped he was pleased. His eyes bulged as his mind screamed for oxygen.
Then he fell, breaking her hold. She heard a harsh intake of breath. Not dead. What a shame.
The tech spun around. He was looking down in horror at his fallen boss. Understanding what she had done, knowing she could do it to him. He wanted to run. He should have, but he hesitated, torn by feelings of duty to her first victim. And in that precious moment of confusion, when he glanced at her, she caught him, gently, as if he were a butterfly.
Everything in him stopped, all thought, all feeling. He waited.
She could feel herself slipping back. Too many damn drugs. Like shackles for her mind. They made a simple thing so ridiculously difficult. But not impossible. The tech stepped over his boss and started unstrapping her. His hands shook. She fought to control the fear, to relax. There was time. From the floor she heard the doctor moan. They couldn't worry about him. The tech freed her arms and moved to her feet.
She sat up. Everything tipped sideways. She braced herself against the crazy roll of the world. Not good. Her hold on the other mind slipped as she fought to regain control of her own. He was fading away. She couldn't move him. He leaned over her, his hands frozen on the strap, realization pouring in as he came back to himself. The thread snapped. He was gone. Her own hands jumped clumsily at the heavy leather strap, fumbling to push it through the buckle. But she couldn't see, couldn't feel. Adrenalin will only take you so far. Rough hands shoved her back down. The straps again bit her wrist.
As she drifted out of the world she heard him say. "You betray yourself. You've shown me how to get what I want."
Despair followed her into the darkness.
