Chapter Three: Passing the Headphones
Melissa's heart leapt in her chest. Something was wrong. She could taste not one, but two other mindcasters in Farmington. Madison wasn't conscious anymore, her mind silent.
"Where does Madison live? I need to get there now," she called.
"By the school. You want me to show you?" Carrie wondered, the unsure taste of concern mingled with fear flickering through the girl's thoughts. She turned to Jonathan, a queasy sense of unease stirring in her stomach.
"Jonathan, take me to her house as fast as you can. Carrie, you're the Acrobat, right? Lead us there. Jess, go on foot with the rest of them. Keep the Darklings away from that Seer!"
Carrie looked at her in even more confusion. Melissa had never asked the girl her name.
"Melissa, you serious? I mean, to take you there I'd have to -" Jonathan made a motion of holding hands and Melissa shuddered.
"Would I have said it if I didn't know that? Just shut up and take me."
He looked uncomfortably back at Jess, who nodded, and took Melissa's hand. She felt the thrill again, the rush of flying, and the familiar taste of his thoughts. She tried to block them out.
"You first," Jonathan called to the girl.
"All right, it's not far. Try to keep up," she shouted as she leapt into the air. Jonathan followed, the thought of "amateur" flashing through his mind.
Carrie was right, it wasn't far. The instant they landed, Melissa pulled away from Jonathan, wiping her hand on her shirt as she ran. Madison was still here, but there were others as well. Melissa locked onto Madison's thoughts and ran around to the backyard, hopping the wooden fence in the process. Jonathan followed far more gracefully.
"Where is she?" he muttered.
"Shut up," she hissed.
The screen door opened and a man in his sixties walked out, carrying the girl. He didn't look to be any older than forty, his hair still naturally dark, but his thoughts screamed of age. Beyond a few, subtle facts about his life, however, Melissa couldn't penetrate his mind. He was the other Mindcaster, no doubt about it, but he was strong.
She watched intently as he walked down the porch steps, and suddenly disappeared.
"What the -" Jonathan began. She punched him in the arm and crept out into the open. There were others here. She could feel it. Who were they, what was going on...?
"Jonathan, jump!" she shouted. He responded immediately as another acrobat appeared over the house, Madison in his arms. Jonathan met him mid-air, barely able to latch onto the man's legs. Melissa's attention returned to the ground, though her thoughts were locked on what was happening over her head.
"Who are you?" she called to the yard. Someone was playing tricks on her.
Suddenly, a slither swooped toward her, its teeth bared. She moved out of the way, grabbing for Jonathan's hubccap she had removed the night before, and threw it. It passed directly through the Slither, hitting the fence on the other side. She looked at it in confusion. What was going on?
"So you're the one whose been fighting me lately. From Bixby, are you?" the old Mindcaster wondered as he flickered back into visibility.
A woman stood next to him, her long dark hair streaked with white. She was only a few years younger than the man. Her hands were buzzing with power, her mind a blend of flavors and emotions so vivid Melissa couldn't look too far in for fear she'd be trapped. The man must have taught her how to block her thoughts.
Melissa tried to force her way into his mind, but he pushed her back out. He had mentioned Bixby. How did he know what was going on? "And you're the kidnapper, I take it?"
The man chuckled and walked toward her. "Kidnapper? No. Savior perhaps, in the literal sense of the word. I'm saving them from the world."
"By stealing them?"
"If need be." She tried to get into his mind again and he laughed. "It won't work, I promise you. We're both too well guarded to let the other in easily."
"Who are you, old man?"
"You'll know soon enough, I suppose. Unless you want to come with me now and see for yourself."
"What for?"
He was about to answer when Jonathan shouted. Melissa looked up to see Madison fall out of the other Acrobat's arms. She fell down like a rag doll, her unconsious body limply falling through the air.
The other mindcaster looked up into the air, his face white with horror, when Carrie leapt over the fence, kicking off from the top, and caught her friend mid-air. The man let out a heavy sigh of relief and turned back to Melissa.
"You want her? Do you think you can teach her everything she needs to know? She's going to wake up when Midnight ends, she'll go back to the insane confusion of minds she's been living in these last few days. She's powerful: more powerful than is normal. She needs special help. You think you can do that for her before she ends the madness herself?"
Melissa didn't know what to say. Jonathan and the other Acrobat fell back to the ground as Nicole, the twins, and Jessica struggled over the fence. The Acrobat was the same old man Jonathan had nearly run over before: Nathaniel.
Nathaniel ran toward the other two old Midnighters and grabbed their hands, jumping in the air with a practiced precision that not even Jonathan could match. Jonathan ran to catch up with them, but Melissa held him back.
"No. Let them go," she muttered.
"What? Why?" he demanded, his breathing heavy, his adrenaline sending an electric buzz across Melissa's tongue.
"That's why," she muttered, pointing to the dark moon. It wouldn't be long until midnight would be over.
Carrie walked back toward them gasping, her adrenaline just as intense as Jonathan's, though the confusion and fear she emanated was almost more than Melissa could handle.
"What was all that? What was going on? What's wrong with Maddie?" she gasped as she held Madison. Nicole ran toward her friends worriedly.
"He wanted to take your friend. We need to keep her safe."
"But she's home alone! Her dad is on business," Carrie announced.
"Just take her up to her room."
"But what -" Carrie began.
"Just take her to her freakin' room, will you?!"
Carrie pulled her friend into the house and Melissa massaged her temples. Where was Rex when everyone needed him? She wasn't supposed to be the leader, the Seer was!
"Carrie's right, you know," Nicole muttered. "Madison's dad is never home, and her mom skipped out when Madison was a kid. No one's there to watch out for her."
"We'll stay with her," Melissa muttered. She wanted to find out what was going on. She had sensed some wicked vibes from that old mindcaster, and if he knew about Bixby and the secret hour... It wasn't going to be pretty.
"Melissa, we can't just sleep in someone else's house," Jonathan began.
"And we have no where else to go. We'll have food, a place to sleep, and I have to help that girl control herself before she hurts someone. Now - if you have no more arguments - I want you to walk the seer and his brother back to their house before they're attacked again," she ordered as she walked into the house.
"Is she always so bossy?" Nicole muttered.
"Only since we left Rex," Jonathan commented as he turned to the twins, both still pale and obviously upset. "But she does have a point. Come on you two, I'll take you home. You want to come, uh, Nicole?"
"I'll go with Carrie. Now we know she can fly with people -"
"No, not this late. If she's in the air when real time starts again, it won't be pretty," Jonathan warned.
Nicole blushed a bit. "I hadn't thought of that. Sorry. We won't fly."
"Good."
Melissa looked around the house after Jonathan left a second time to get the car. Big screen TV, very clean, lots of food... Whoever Madison was, her dad certainly was loaded. She climbed up the stairs, spotting a series of guest rooms.
Finally she came to Madison's room. It looked like any other teenager's room: a bit darker than Jessica's had been, but girlier than Dess's. Madison lay on the bed, actually asleep, not under any mental lock. She was small, her hair jagged at the bottom as if she had hacked it off herself. Her face was twisted in pain, the thoughts and dreams of other people tormenting her even in sleep.
Melissa leaned back against the door frame and stared at the other mindcaster. She had never met another one her age before. All she had had was Madeline. Without wanting to she began to feel something for the girl. It wasn't motherly or sappy or any other expected reaction; she just understood.
Melissa spotted a portable CD player on Madison's desk. Without thinking, she picked them up and slipped the headphones over the girl's ears and pressed play. Madison muttered in her sleep, but Melissa could feel the girl relax a bit. She would learn how to deal with life. Melissa decided she would teach her.
"Passing on the headphones, huh?" Jonathan commented as he walked behind her. "Well, I guess the torch would be Jess' thing."
Melissa sighed and crossed her arms. "Pick one of the guest rooms," she muttered. "Make yourself at home. We'll be here a while."
Melissa trudged down the stairs the next morning, her head pounding, not from other people, but from the exhaustion of the night before.
Jonathan was already awake, eating a bowl of cereal as he turned on the big screen.
"Why couldn't Madeline's house have been like this?" he called. "You know, I might just block the weather channel."
"Do what you want, just don't make a mess. We're not supposed to be here."
Jonathan responded, but Melissa didn't hear. Madison was awake.
"What is it?" Jonathan wondered.
Melissa ignored him and walked up toward Madison's room. The girl sat on the side of her bed, staring at the ground, the CD player in her hand. Melissa noticed that she was wearing long, black gloves. How many times had Melissa thought of completely covering herself like that before? Melissa walked in and leaned against the door frame, waiting. Madison spun around and stared at her, her eyes wide.
"What are you doing here? Who are you?" she demanded. "You working with that crazy old man?"
Melissa smirked and walked into the room. "Not even close. The music helps, doesn't it?"
"You didn't tell me who you were. My dad'll be home soon, you better get out."
"Your dad is out of town, and you didn't let me get to my name. If you think about it hard enough you'd already know."
"How did you know where my dad is?" Madison grumbled.
"Your friend Carrie told me, so did Nicole."
"Where did you meet them?"
Melissa took a step closer and smiled. "The Blue Time."
Madison looked her over curiously, and huffed. "What do you want with me?"
"I keep telling you to think about what I am, to read my thoughts. I'm letting you."
"I don't want to read your thoughts. I don't want to read anyone's thoughts."
"You don't have much of a choice."
"Says who?"
"Says life. Now are you going to deal with it or spend the rest of your life sitting in this room with a wicked headache?"
"Last time someone asked me that I ended up nearly being kidnapped."
"You remember that?"
"I knew what was going on."
"Then you knew that we saved you."
"There's more than one of you?"
"There's me, Jonathan, whose downstairs glued to your TV, and Jessica. We'll get to her later."
"And how am I supposed to know you're telling the truth?"
"Why don't you look for yourself."
"I already told you no."
"It won't get better unless you do."
"Ah, so I'm supposed to do something that hurts to make it stop hurting? A little backward, isn't it?"
"You have to learn to control it or be controlled. You can't make it go away. The only way to learn anything is to practice."
"How, with you? Please, you're barely older than I am."
"And I've been doing this since you were a baby. I know what I'm talking about, I've been dealing with this my entire life. Your little friends just started experiencing Midnight, you don't know what's going on. We're here to teach you."
"You're here to keep me from that other man."
"You looked into my mind," Melissa announced with a grin.
She huffed and leaned back against her bed, turning her music up louder and looking intently at the wall.
Melissa supressed a grin and closed her mind again, noting Madison's sideways glance at her as she left. She would learn. It would take a while, but she would.