A Loner Mentalist Pt. 03

To Jack's utter dismay, they all passed on the story. The only thing they were interested in writing about was how teenaged girls were sociopathic, hormonal monsters. Institutionalized corruption seemed to be an unfamiliar term to the journalists he spoke with. All they asked of him was if he had any reason to believe that there was a prostitution ring active inside the home. The only other thing that could peak their interest was if there were any kinds of deadly hazings going on.

Jack was disgusted. Instead of reporting the truth, these so-called reporters wanted to spout sensationalistic nonsense. When Jack tried to explain to them that the young women in question were actually good souls, deep down, and just needed a fair shake, the reporters would hang up on him. Jack could scarcely believe the level of cynicism and unprofessionalism the reporters exhibited. He was at a loss for what else he could do to try and help those other girls. He didn't know a single one of them well enough to risk setting out and using his power on the people responsible to fix things. Not with the cloaked figure looming over his every waking hour.

Then it occurred to him. He should make all the girls more familiar to the general public. He called up Chrissie and floated the idea of starting up web pages for the girls that were in the home, but she transferred him to the home's boss and the man made it very clear that he would call the police on him and have him charged as a sex offender if he so much as looked at the home ever again. He explicitly forbade Jack from talking to any of the girls and threatened him with legal action. The threat wasn't empty since he was, technically, their legal guardian.

After the man was done with his tirade, he hung up on Jack, not allowing him the chance to reply. The threatening tone the man had taken with him told Jack that he had struck a nerve and that gave him hope. He was getting close to something. He reviewed his options and decided that he could only anonymously publish all that he knew online and let the world take action. He needed people to come together to make a difference. After quite a bit of wrangling to get his computer to do what he wanted, Jack managed to put up the website and waited to see what would happen.

Pretty soon, Jack's website elicited a response, it just wasn't the one he had hoped for. He didn't know if his phonecall had incriminated him, or if they had hired a hacker, but they knew it was him behind the website. The email with the link to a bestiality porn video that his former friends had sent from his email account was published and used to utterly discredit him. No one bothered to read the truth of his website and the corruption he was trying to expose. Everyone just got on the Dog Boy bandwagon and derided him for his alleged perversions.

Worse than that, with his personal information suddenly published online in such a context, he started receiving many disturbing emails and late night calls. The furries offering to let him fuck them in their costumes were almost funny. The righteous who called him to condemn him for his sickness were annoying beyond belief, but he had to change his email and phone number to stop the flow of sick crap he was sent by the actual sickos who regularly fucked animals.

The ones with a particularly tenuous connection to reality would try to stop by his house. Spot could smell their intentions from a hundred yards away and he kept them all at bay, using his toothy smile.

Jack turned to the charities for help in clearing his name, but they chose to go back on their six years of cooperation and disavowed any affiliation with him. The coordinators told him that if they associated with him anymore, their donations would dry up. When Jack told them he'd be willing to resume training dogs, they still refused to stick up for him. Some of the coordinators told him that it had been strongly hinted to them that the state would deny them tax exempt status, which would end the good work they were trying to do.

Alpha Security Solutions called soon after and announced they were ending their collaboration. Two of their dog handlers drove over and collected the seven dogs he was training at the time. They handed him his severance package, along with a letter that formalized the dissolution of their contract. The reason stated in the letter was the fact that his reputation for animal abuse was incompatible with the company's image, which was meant to inspire trust and confidence in both the general public and their clientele. The handlers left with hardly a goodbye.

Jack watched them drive off with dismay. Without their recommendation, how was he supposed to get Mia a job promoting events? For all he knew, they were likely going to actively work to prevent her from getting such a job, so even if they tried to get it on their own, they'd get nowhere. This thought bummed him out. He really wanted to give Mia the satisfaction of working and earning her own way in the world. He wanted her to stand tall and take pride in herself. Now that seemed like a pipe dream.

With both his charitable and his profitable work taken from him, Jack felt lost. He could scarcely believe that the world could turn on him like that, when all he did was try to do the right thing. He was lacking in guidance and he didn't know what to do. He wondered if he should use his powers to set things right. He found himself wondering where he would draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable use of them. Ultimately, his quandary was quashed by the fear of the cloaked figure somehow detecting him in action.

He called his father, breaking their usual pattern of just exchanging perfunctory emails, and tried to ask him for advice on how to weather this shitstorm that had been raised around him. His father was of no help, as he was in a quandary himself. He was offered an executive officer's posting on a destroyer, complete with promotion to commander, and that tempted him because it was potentially a fast track towards a flag rank. His alternative was to stay on the carrier and continue to work towards becoming deputy operations officer. That would allow him to participate in operational trials of new technologies and ensure that he would have a say in the future of the Navy.

Jack soundlessly laughed at the irony. He asked his father what the late Jack White would have wanted him to do. His father fell silent for a moment and then they exchanged pleasantries until Jack hung up.

Jack started having nightmares about the cloaked figure, which would wake him up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. They would quickly fade from his memory, but the dread they induced in him would linger on. Out of boredom and fear for his safety, he went to the pound and got himself three big dogs he would train as his own security force. It wasn't much, but it was better than just sitting around and stewing in his own fear.

Besides, he told himself, if the sickos that like to fuck dogs start showing up in greater numbers, Spot's going to need some backup.

******

It had hurt Mia's heart to learn of the injustice that had been done to Jack by the rest of the school. When his dogs were taken away from him, those feelings came to a boil. He had gotten himself some replacements and was training them, but there was no one who would benefit from the dogs and the whole situation was starting to look heartbreakingly pathetic to her.

Jack had done so much good in his young life so far and yet he had gotten nothing but abuse for it. She knew that even his own mother berated him each and every day. They didn't think she did, but she caught snippets of her rants, here and there. They hurt her to hear, especially since she knew the woman was as wrong as she could be. Mia could tell that Janice was basically just venting her frustrations with her own life at Jack and she could also see that Jack knew this to be true.

She wanted to step in and intervene and make the older woman see the light, but she never did. Her lifetime of growing up in terrible homes had conditioned her to keep her head down and ignore huge injustices. She would bury her nose in the books and do the work and memorize the lessons and prepare for the next make-up exam she had.

Jack deserved her help, she knew. She was grateful to him for the chance he was selflessly giving her, out of the goodness of his own heart, yet it was that very chance that stopped her from speaking up on his behalf in front of his own mother. For the first time in many, many years, she had something she was afraid of losing. A future.

She feared that if she were to stand up to Janice, the resulting fracas might cause Jack to lash out at her and deny her the huge chance he was giving her. She hated herself for the inaction, but keeping the peace at the house was of the paramount importance to her and it was something she felt she had to do. Besides, she knew Jack was more than capable of standing up for himself and fighting his own battles. It was his refusal to do so that prompted her worry.

Finally, she could no longer stand seeing him lost. She decided to do something about it and, since interfering with his home life was out of the question, she decided to fix his social life and undo the terrible injustice that had been done to him, all in one swoop.

She quickly came up with a plan. She would get Jack to take her to the prom, as her date, and get the school to present him with a humanitarian award for his charitable work. It would be a sort of group apology for treating him like a leper for the two years he had spent there.

The more she thought about her plan, the more she liked it. Especially in light of the fact that only the most clueless of jocks had asked her to the prom. Even if Jack wasn't in the picture, she would never go out with the likes of them. Particularly not on prom night. She had to tell them no many times over for their tiny brains to finally register the refusal over the sound of their humungous egos deflating.

All the other girls in the cheerleading squad would talk about turning down this cute guy, or that one, and delight in the choice of dates they had for the prom. Mia found herself hating them since a combination of her spectacular looks and reputation for dating only older men scared off all the dateable boys in school.

She felt sure that she could get any one of them to take her to prom if she asked them, but she wanted Jack to take her and she wanted to be asked, just like any other girl. She found herself getting excited at the very thought of Jack taking her to prom and eagerly imagined which dress she would wear. Whenever the girls asked her who was taking her to the prom, she would just smile and tell them it was a surprise.

There was, of course, one hitch to the whole thing. In order to get anyone to believe the truth about Jack, she would have to find the letters and video testimonials from the people who had received his dogs. Those would also make for a terrific montage to play on the video wall at the prom before Jack would be called up to the stage to receive his award. Jack had taken the letters and videos when she had first found them and he had hidden them somewhere, but she had no idea where.

She guessed she'd find them in his room, but to search it, she would need him to finally leave the house while she was there. Jack only left the house for any kind of significant amount of time while she was at school. What she needed was a distraction. She needed someone, or something, to get Jack to leave the house long enough for her to search his room.

She sat down to have lunch when she saw them. Jack's three friends, whose names escaped her, were sitting on the other side of the school's cafeteria. She briefly hesitated to approach them for their help in getting Jack out of the house, what with the flagpole incident and all, but she figured that enough time had passed since then and that they would be interested in helping their friend. She felt bad about having done that to them, but she told herself that it had only been a practical joke that had gone a little too far.

If all else failed, she could always just charm them to help her. She'd done that to geeks time and again to keep herself from flunking a year. She was wearing her cheerleading uniform and it was the ultimate prop for twirling boys around her little finger. She took a deep breath, checked her hair and makeup in her small, handheld mirror, and then put on a smile as she walked over to them.

"Hey, guys," she said to them, pleasantly. The three boys froze in place and looked at her in terror. She put a hand over her chest, hoping to draw their eyes to her bust. "I'm Mia and I'd like to talk to you about-"

"Are you fucking kidding me," one of them said, sounding shocked. Another chuckled bitterly.

Mia didn't know if the chuckle was aimed at her, or at his friend's remark. "Um, no," she said, trying to sound more confident that she felt, "I'm serious, you guys. I-"

"You, y-you think that we wouldn't know your name," the third one spoke up.

She smiled and discreetly gestured down at her brief outfit. "Well, I am the head of the squad, so-"

"You're also the rabid cunt that had us stripped naked and taped to the flagpole," the third said, interrupting her. "We're not likely to forget that any time soon."

Mia laughed politely, despite feeling bad, and said, "Yes, true, we did play some jokes and have some fun-"

"Fun," the boy exclaimed as he stood up. His chair clattered behind him loudly before toppling over. The noise drew every eye in the cafeteria towards them. "Fun!? Are you fucking shitting me!? Fun!? We most certainly did not have fun, you crazy bitch!"

A teacher ran over, drawn by the sounds of the commotion. "Mister Cooper," he shouted, "report to the vice principal's office, right now! This is going to go on your record!"

"You're a fucking joke, Kaczinsky," one of the seated boys yelled at the teacher.

"You too, Mister Barnes," Kaczinsky said.

Steve Cooper marched off towards the door, followed by John Barnes. Mia winced as she finally remembered their names. The situation had not turned out the way she had hoped it would and she was definitely feeling bad for what she had done to them in the past. She turned towards Rob Torrance. "I'm so sorry for what I did to you guys! You gotta believe me! I-"

"Fuck you, you fucking cunt," Rob said, standing up.

"Mister Torrance," Kaczinsky said and pointed after his friends.

Rob ignored the teacher as he sneered at Mia and said, "If you think a simple, fucking 'sorry' is gonna cut it, then you're even dumber than you look, bitch!"

"That's enough, Mister Torrance," Kaczinsky bellowed.

"No, it's not, you fucking cunt," Rob yelled right back at the teacher.

Mia cupped her hands over her mouth and whispered, "I'm really sorry, Rob!"

"Go choke on a fucking dick and die, you goddamned cunt," Rob yelled at her.

"That's it," Kaczinsky yelled. "This school has a zero tolerance policy regarding death threats, Mister Torrance!"

"And yet the school has an ample tolerance policy for humiliating and violating students," Rob said.

"To the vice principal's office," Kaczinsky yelled and pointed to the door, where John and Steve waited for Rob.

"Fuck you," Rob said, flipping a bird right at Kaczinsky's face. The middle aged teacher seemed to be struggling with his composure as he balled up his fists. To Mia, it looked like they might come to blows at any moment. She flinched when Rob rounded on her and flipped her the bird, too. "Fuck you, too!" He turned to the rest of the cafeteria and flipped them off with both fingers. "And fuck all you faggot motherfuckers!"

A smattering of applause was heard throughout the cafeteria as Rob stomped off to follow his friends out the door. Kaczinsky glared at the applauders and then ran off to follow the trio. The entire cafeteria turned back to their meals and seemed to forget all about the incident in a matter of seconds.

Mia walked back to the cheerleader table while her stomach tied itself into knots. As loathe as she was to admit it, she had wronged those boys and she had wronged them terribly. Her ruminations were interrupted as soon as she sat down at the cheerleading table and the rest of the squad present started to ask her about why she had gone over to the losers' table in the first place.

She waved them off and tried to deflect their questions, but she only succeeded to quench their suspicions when she said she was planning to lure them somewhere and play a practical joke on them.

Lisa, Mia's second-in-command of the squad, laughed and brushed out her long, wavy, blonde hair. "There's nothing you can do to those boys you hadn't already done," she said and held up her smartphone. The photos of the boys, naked and taped to the flagpole, were on its screen. "As long as these are still online, those losers will spend each and every day of their lives knowing just how pathetic they are."

Mia excused herself to go to the bathroom and left the table. Lisa had a point. As long as those pictures were still online, she had no business even trying to apologize for them. She hesitated only briefly before making up her mind. She dialed the number of one of the guys that had put the pics up on his website. "Ramon? Hi! It's me, Mia. We need to meet."

******

Jack was contacted by some people from Alpha Security Solutions who wanted to offer their support. Apparently, everyone except for the upper echelons of management thought that he had been given a raw deal. A small group of employees was so disgusted by how the company treated him that there was even talk of going on strike and demanding the company re-hire him, sever their contract with the group home and expose the shenanigans and neglect that went on in there.

Jack was touched by the news, but he put a stopper on their efforts. He couldn't find the time to train Alpha's dogs, even if they wanted to pay him more money than they had. Training his cloak was priority number one. He thanked his former colleagues for their support and they repeatedly made him promise to take them up on their offers of free admission to any club, or event, they were doing security for.

Jack had been avoiding going on another vision quest ever since he had felt how hard the mentalists had been hit by the loss of their powers. The unexpected support he was given, the knowledge that people he hardly knew would be willing to risk their jobs and livelihoods to right a wrong that was done to him made him feel ashamed for sitting on his ass. He sacked up, made some pot brownies and ate them.

While he waited for the pot to take effect, he began his meditative practices. He kept his mind open and asked no question, wanting to see what would come up on its own. Pretty soon, his meditative state deepened and he found himself inside a dark movie theatre. He was all alone and the only light was that of the projector. He feared seeing a movie about the evil, power-stealing mentalist. The mood and setting were similar.

On the screen before him was a black and white picture of a car weaving through the streets. It was accompanied by suspenseful and thrilling music, which reminded Jack of Hitchcock's classics. As he watched the movie, he realized it was all very familiar. The streets looked exactly like the streets of his town, despite being in black and white. There were two passengers inside the car, but he couldn't quite make out who they were from behind. Neither of them was wearing a dark cloak.

Soon, the car drove out of town and started to drive down a nature road. Jack would normally be bored to tears by a movie that detailed a car drive, but the music was very suspenseful and it made him feel like something horrible was about to happen. He didn't know what exactly about the music it was, perhaps it was just the sense of imminent urgency, but it seemed to hint to him that what he was seeing had not yet happened. He focused on the route the car was taking and paid special attention to the landmarks it passed. If he got lucky, he might be able to ride out there real quick and find the cloaked figure in time to unmask him, or her, and save a fellow mentalist.