The Music of the Mind Ch. 13

As I walked up the walk to my town home I got that feeling you get when something just isn't right. You know, the feeling that makes you walk a little faster to your car in the parking lot late at night, or look around to see who is staring at you in the crowded restaurant. I call it Spidey sense, but I think maybe all of us are aware on some other levels beside the conscious mind.

Regardless, I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck and goose bumps ran down my arms. I pulled my defenses more closely around my mind and walked slowly up the last 50 feet to my front door. I could hear faint music coming from Jill's next door. As I approached my door I saw it stood ajar several inches, the interior of my place so dark the crack was just a dark line.

I pushed the door open with my toe letting light spill inside from the light on the walk. Debris littered the floor, a little vignette captured in that small frame of light. I reached inside and flipped the light switch as I pulled a tight ball of thought together in me. The snap of the light switch made me jump, and crazy light filled the room from the broken floor lamp next to the front door.

I steeped in and pushed the door closed behind me as rage began to burn through me. To say my place was trashed would be like calling the Titanic's impact with the iceberg a little ding.

The cushions on the couch had been torn open the stuffing scatered, the furniture smashed and broken. I walked past my overturned dining table and flipped the switch outside the kitchen turning the big florescent overhead light on. If anything the additional light made everything look worse.

I walked toward my bedroom, my mind still clamped shut and holding a spinning ball of sound ready. The rest of my home was in as bad or worse shape then the living area, but the place was empty. I finally let the ball of thought dissipate, but I did not lower my defenses.

"Why the hell had they done this?" I thought. Then it hit me, fear. I had nothing they wanted, and the damage looked more to the purpose of simple destruction then as if they were searching for something. My TV was smashed, not stolen. My computer destroyed, not taken.

Dolkoff ruled his subjects through fear and brute force, this was just his style. He wanted me afraid, to feel vulnerable. He wanted me weak, and helpless like all the others he had bent to his will in his unnaturally long life. The anger burned in me, and then I thought of Tuyen.

I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and called her cell. I stood looking at the destruction of my home as the phone rang into my ear. They had destroyed my photo albums, my books, and all the little mementos we collect over our lives. On the third ring I heard Tuyen's musical voice and I almost cried out in relief.

"Hey Mike, what's up?"

"Tuyen are you okay? Where are you?" I said in a rush.

"I'm fine Mike. I'm at home, what's wrong." I could hear the worry creeping into her voice.

"They trashed my house. Look, Tuyen keep your defenses up and get over here okay?" I said trying to keep the strain out of my voice.

"Oh shit! Okay, I'll be there in 45 minutes, traffic will be murder this time of day."

"Okay, great. I'll see you then, and Tuyen be careful for gods sake." I said as I looked at the soil from my potted plants ground into the carpet.

"I will, hold tight Mike. I'll be there soon."

After we said goodbye and hung up I walked to the kitchen to check the damage. All the food from the fridge had been thrown on the floor, and most of my dishes had been broken and the dry goods scattered.

As I walked in I brushed by my small glass toped breakfast table that lay on it's side. The glass top must have been precariously perched for it teatered precariously for a moment then fell over and shattered on the floor with a noise to wake the dead. It very nearly scared me out of my skin.

I looked in vain for a water glass that wasn't broken cursing myself for not buying plastic. I heard Jill's voice from the other room cut through the anger and fog in my brain.

"Oh my god! Mike are you in here? Mike!?" her voice sounded hysterical. I jumped over the debris in my kitchen calling out to her as I moved. "Jill I'm in here, hold on." I shouted.

She was standing just inside the door looking absolutely terrified.

"Mike what happened? My god your place. I heard a crash, I though you might be hurt or something. Have you called the police?" I crunched my way through the mess and wrapped her in my arms.

"I'm okay Jill, someone just trashed the place. The police have already come and gone." I said regretting the lie, but not wanting to drag her into this mess.

"What did they say? God Mike your stuff." She said looking around still shocked.

"I know, look lets go over to your place okay, there is no place to sit here."

She nodded and a few tears rolled down her face. At that moment I wanted nothing more then to just hold her and kiss those tears off her beautiful face. She turned and I followed her out shutting my door behind me. I didn't lock it, I figured why bother now. What I was really worried about was what I was going to tell Jill.

As I followed her into her place I text messaged Tuyen telling her I was next door now. I didn't want her to get there and not find me, and I doubt I could find anything in my place to leave her a note.

I closed Jill's door and turned to be captured in a bear hug from her. I could smell the sweet scent of her hair, and feel her wet cheek on my neck. For a moment all my worry and fear faded away.

She pulled back slightly then, looking at my face. "God Mike I am so sorry, what are you going to do?

I had to resist the urge to kiss her in that moment, and as I pulled away from her arms I felt like I wanted to kick myself for resisting.

"Well, I guess I'll buy an extra large box of trash bags, hire a made service, get a new alarm system put in, and maybe order a pizza for dinner tonight since I think cooking might be difficult in my kitchen at the moment.." I said with as much a cavalier attitude as I could.

Jill snorted a small laugh and smiled and I felt my heart warm. "I'm serious Mike, all your stuff, I mean..." she just shook her head for a lack of words. I walked over to the couch and plopped down as she took her favorite chair. God how many movies had I watch on this couch with her, how many late night discussions.

"I am serious Jill, there is nothing more I can really do. The police think it was some gang kids I threw out of the store the other week getting revenge. They may or may not catch anyone. Either way I can't let myself be made a victim by this."

She sat looking at me for a few moments before she started to smile. "Mike you never cease to amaze me. Your right of course, but still aren't you upset?" She asked clutching a pillow to her chest.

"Hell yes I'm upset, and mad as hell too." I said trying to keep my voice down. "But again what am I supposed to do?"

There was a quick nock at Jill's front door and Tuyen poked her head in.

"Hey guys." She said as she saw us and walked in. Ellen and Suzan followed her. Damn, what were they doing here too? "We looked at your place as we came up Mike, those assholes really did a number on it." Tuyen said.

"Mike are you hurt?" Suzan said as she crossed the room to sit by me. I noticed she had been holding Ellen's hand a moment before.

"I'm fine guys, I just found it when I got home. They were long gone by then." Ellen came over and dropped down on the other side while Tuyen stood by Jill's chair. "What are you guys doing here anyway?"

"Tuyen called us, said it was an emergency and we met her here." Suzan said. I looked up at Tuyen and she just nodded, no smile on her face. Ellen was gently running her hand up and down my back. She spoke softly then, and I could almost hear her therapist voice come out.

"Everything will be okay Mike. This is a terrible violation, it is okay if your feeling upset." A laugh bust out of me then completely out of my control.

"Upset doesn't begin to cover how I feel right now." I said still chuckling. The girls all smiled, all except for Tuyen.

"Do you know who did it? What about the police?" Suzan asked next to me.

"Police have come and gone, probably some gang kids I threw out of my store the other day getting some revenge. Guess they must have looked me up in the white pages. Nothing much anyone can do about it I guess." I said as earnestly as I could manage.

"Bullshit!" Tuyen shouted, and all eyes in the room turned to her. "I'm sorry Mike, I know you want to protect all of us but you are going to need all our help, you have to tell them. We can't do this alone!"

Tuyen stood staring at me, her eyes blazing and hands on her hips. The room was dead silent then as Jill looked from Tuyen to me.

"What does she mean you two need our help?" Jill asked and I saw the red rise in her face. I dropped my curtain enough to call her note to me. Her mind was in turmoil from my apartment, but she was also now beset with hurt wondering what Tuyen meant when she said "we".

"Jill, look I..." I stumbled over my words looking from her to Ellen and Suzan.

"Mike if you don't tell them I will." Tuyen said softly. I looked up at her and her eyes were hard. I nodded dropping my gaze for a moment to think when she spoke again. She took my nod for ascent for her to tell, not as a sign that I would.

"Mike is under attack by a cult of mind controlling crazies. They want to kill him because he has mental powers greater then their leaders, and there leader is a real nut. He tried to kill his own son for failing to kill Mike, but Mike helped him and now he is an allie, I guess?" She said the last statement with a tome of questioning as she looked at me. I nodded at her yes.

Jill, Ellen, and Suzan all just sat there looking from Tuyen to me. Man I was so screwed I thought. Ellen spoke first.

"Have you two completely lost your minds?" she said with a slight smile. She clearly thought we were putting them on. Suzan began to smile then thinking it a joke, but Jill was staring at me her face closed. I was going to have to prove it to them, and I only knew of one way to do that.

"Tuyen, lower your defenses to me." I said quietly. She nodded and I felt her note spring to life in front of me in my mind. I called all four of their minds to me then, just their surface thoughts. I did not try to read them, I only held them in my mind.

I thought of the images I had shot one by one at Anna the other day, and wondered if I couldn't share a more fluid image with our minds linked like this. I called to my mind the image of the genie in the store. I let it ring though their minds with mine. I was so deep in concentration I barely heard the gasps from the girls around me.

I let the image replay through my mind. The opening of the box, the genie and it's strangeness, the long hours of research, and then freeing it. As I thought through it I realized the memory had almost a life of it's own, that the girls were almost pulling it from me now.

I thought of the hospital, and the first discoveries of the gift. I thought of my encounter with Cynthia, and my attempt to help her and the trouble it had caused. I steered my mind away from the sex with her, and with Tuyen, I did not want to share that, especially with Jill.

I replayed the events at the club, my frantic search for the girl, and my brutal treatment of the attacker. I remembered how I tried to help Meg, and how I had nearly let the events crush me until I met with Meg at the hospital.

I let the encounter with Anna that first time replay through my mind, and then the later attack. Then I thought through the discovery of Dimitry on my couch, and healing him. I replayed Tuyen talking me into trying to open her mind, the genie's prophecy that I would need help. Last I replayed my encounter with Anna again today, and then coming home to my apartment.

I pushed there minds away then and returned to awareness. I could see Jill's shocked face across from me as immense fatigue washed over me. I felt the room swim out of focus and I heard Suzan's voice beside me as if through deep water. "He's going to faint!" The darkness rushed over me and with my last conscious thought I drew my curtain tightly closed across my mind.