Colour Me Happy Ch. 25

"Par for the course here in Vegas, guys like think they can do whatever they want", said Jen.

"You don't know the half of it", said Tess, "he's a manipulator, and was pushing fog to improve his chances hitting on her."

"Ewww much," said Tilly, "what a creep."

With the excitement over we ordered our meals. As we ate, we enjoyed some small talk, Jen and Tess asking Tilly lots of questions and getting to know her better. We finished our meal and decided to go to one of the clubs.

The club was split over a number of levels. When we entered on the ground floor a live cover band was playing. There was a bar on the far end, tables surrounded the other three sides. In the center of the room was a packed dance floor. Patrons lined the bar getting drinks. The second floor was quieter lounge setting. There was music in the background but not loud enough to disturb conversation. The environment was informal and people milled about introducing themselves and chatting while waiters served drinks. We decided this was more our speed.

With three gorgeous women accompanied by one guy it wasn't long before we had the attention of a number of potential suiters.

I leaned over to Tess, "Open your sight to the flux, take a walk over to the ladies, on your way take a look around and see if you notice any manipulators, or anything that looks unusual. Remember, don't do any manipulation yourself, and harder still, if someone tries to manipulate you, you have to eat it, you can't resist, it's a dead giveaway. I'll to the same on my way t the men's room. Then we can check in."

The other girls were listening in, "Looking at this crowd, you two ladies are going get some attention. It would be a major level of a self-restraint if there was a manipulator here and he didn't use the flux to hit on you. You can't trust your emotions so be careful, I'd go as far as to say, the more harmless someone appears, the more dangerous they are likely to be."

Tilly gave me a worried look.

Jen said, "Yeah, I got it."

The both had a blue plume issuing from them indicating their nervousness.

"Are we sure this is a good idea?" asked Tilly.

"Tess and I won't be long, you'll be fine, order some drinks when the waiter get here, but make them mocktails, it'll look like we are drinking while staying sharp", I said.

Tess stood and headed toward the ladies. I rose and moved to men's room which was on the opposite side of the room.

Scanning as I moved, nothing much seemed untoward. There was the usual social interactions. Boy likes girl, girl hates boy the occasional boy likes girl, girl likes boy, and a good quantity of my dick is bigger than your dick etc etc. There was no overt manipulation of the flux. If manipulators were present they were keeping a low profile. I used the mens room and was returning to our table when I scanned the bar. With her back to me and wearing a white leather skirt to match her artificial white flux was the woman from the hotel. My heart skipped a beat and I had to a double take to make sure, it was definitely her. I was preoccupied as I made my way back to the lounge where we were seated, looking up I was surprised to see we had seemed to have picked up a new friend. Tess was also returning just as I arrived at our table, she made eye contact with me and rolled her eyes, gesturing with her head toward the interloper. Taking a closer look, I coughed realizing what she was getting at. It was Joe Slimeballs trying to chat up Till and Jen.

"See, I told you my boyfriend would be back soon", said Tilly.

"And I told you I'm a lesbian and here is my girlfriend", said Jen.

"Hey, I don't mind sharing", said Joe.

"Has anyone ever told you that you make their skin crawl", asked Jen.

Ouch. Time to beat a hasty retreat? Ahh no.

"Ohh don't be like that sweety, I can be real nice", replied Slimeballs.

I sat down, quickly followed by Tess.

"Who do we have here?", I asked.

"This is Geoff, He can't take no for an answer and now I just want him to FUCK OFF!", said Jen.

Red and purple fog was pouring of Jen and Tilly. He could not possibly have missed it. He tried sweeping it away, and following up with happiness and contentment. But no sooner would he clear the negativity would it be replaced with an even more hostile reaction.

"It might be time to go Geoff", I said, a little amused.

He didn't like my attitude and pushed fear towards me, "Why don't you mind your own business."

The thing is, when you know you are being manipulated, it doesn't have the same affect.

I stood up, "This is my business, I suggest.."

I was cut off by Tess who had picked up her drink and threw it in his face. Nice sticky sweet red stuff covered his business shirt.

Geoff jumped up, "Bitch. You'll keep," and he stormed off towards the bathroom.

"What an asshole," said Tilly.

We all took a deep breath; I caught the eye of a passing waiter and order Tess another drink.

"That was tiresome," said Jen.

"I wonder if that actually ever works for him," I said.

"He's very amateurish," said Tilly, "didn't show any control."

"Anyway," I tried to reset the mood, "did you see anything peculiar when you went to the ladies?" I asked Tess.

That got the attention of Jen and Tilly.

"Not really, although there was one guy who was a pure as the driven snow, and really hot, I was tempted to take him home."

"I only know one person who appears as pure as the driven snow, and she is at the bar."

Tilly caught on, "The woman from the hotel?"

That shocked Tess, "Ohh, I didn't think of that. He may be an accomplice?"

"Who do you know that is constantly nice, truthful, happy?" I asked.

"Fuck, no one, I'm an idiot, I won't make that mistake again", said Tess.

I nodded.

Tilly looked towards the bar trying to identify the woman I was referring to. She caught sight of the blonde with the white leather skirt amongst all the beautiful blondes who frequent this sort of place.

"That's her, isn't it, 4 no 5 from the right of the bar?" She asked.

I nodded again.

"She stands out, but I don't really know why. They are all beautiful," said Tilly.

"She is manipulating the flux," said Tess. "It makes her seem more attractive."

Just then Joe Slimeballs walked past our table, there was a wet pink patch that covered most of his chest. He glared at me and Tess but didn't say anything, I suspect correctly assessing he had better prospects elsewhere. Although with that shirt he probably should have called it a night. He took a look at the smorgasbord lined up at the bar and took a seat strategically placed so he could stare at their asses.

"What a sleaze", said Tess with an eye roll, "For fucks sake, go home you retard."

He barely sat down before he zeroed in on 'Snow white'. She had her back to him and was sipping her drink, clearly unaware that a manipulator was right behind her. Yellow fog started shifting.

"Ohh My God," said Tess.

"No. Don't," I gasped.

Tilly and Jen were staring in the right direction but couldn't see what was about to happen. As one they looked at us, "What?"

Slimeballs slammed a spear of yellow flux into the back of Snow White. Her glass crashed to the floor as she tensed up. Even Tilly and Jen could guess at what just happened.

Jen asked, "Did she just cum?"

Snow Whites thin veneer of manufactured white flux disappeared, replaced by pure rage, a red so intense it hurt my retina.

"I hope he knows her well," said Tess, "because if he doesn't, he did the flux equivalent of jamming a finger into a stranger while riding the subway."

Snow White turned, looking for the perpetrator. Slimeballs had a shit eating grin on his face. He stared right back at her. She started walking towards him.

"Fucking idiot," I said.

As quickly as she lost control, the red disappeared and was replaced by her white façade again. The look of revulsion replaced with a painted-on smile.

A black flux formed up around her. The shit eating grin disappeared from Slimeballs face. The confidence replaced by terror as the black flux speared towards him.

"Fuck me, what's that?" Said Tess.

His feeble skills were no match to those of Snow White. The flux appeared to slow momentarily before breaking free and spearing him through the chest.

Snow White continued walking past him and towards the exit.

I heard a crash which brought my attention back to Slimeballs. His hands clutched his chest, he fell forward his head slamming into a coffee table with a blood curdling crunch of bone on heavy wood and glass. A woman screamed. I jumped at the sudden cacophony, my glass slipped from my hand adding to the general mayhem. Someone yelled for 911.

A guest came forward, "I'm a doctor", he said.

He and one of the staff commenced CPR. I knew immediately that it was wasted effort.

"They can pump his chest for as long as they want. That fucker is dead. We need to get out of here", said Tess standing up.

Jen and Tilly stood to leave.

"Yeah, lets get out of here," I said.

We made a bee line to the exit. No one spoke as we walked briskly back to the hotel.

It was Jen that ended the silence once we were in our room with the door closed, "what happened to that Geoff guy at the club, the way he was clutching his chest it looked like a heart attack."

"I don't think it was a heart attack, or if it was a heart attack, it was brought on be external forces", said Tilly.

"External forces?" Asked Tilly.

"Yeah, after his epic failure with us he settled in front of the bar. At the bar keeping to herself was the blonde woman Stephen first came across at the hotel. She had this all white aura, which normally indicates the person is truthful or maybe pure, but I've never seen anyone that pure. Even really good people will have 'impurities'. They are whiteish but you can't control your thoughts and occasionally even good people hav bad thoughts. Anyway, Geoff thought he would try a direct approach. With her back turned towards him, he hit her with a bolt of flux. You all saw the effect, that's when she dropped her glass, she was taken completely by surprise and I'm sure she came. But it was not a pleasure, it was like being assaulted", Tess filled in some of the blanks.

"She responded in kind", I added, "only she hit him with... I really don't know what it was, I've never seen it before."

"It was like all the colours drained from him, he tried to fend her off...", added Tess.

"He was no match for her at all," I interrupted.

Tess continued, "Next thing we know he was clutching his chest, but I could see there was no coming back from that, she murdered him, and she murdered him in plain sight.

"That black flux, I've never seen anything like it. That is new and it amplifies the danger."

"If she can kill someone, what else can she do?" Added Tilly.

"She is very powerful, that much I know, and I wouldn't want to face off against her", said Tess.

"Tess think about how you learned the colours you now know and think about the level of control you have now compared to when you first were able to move them around", I said. "If you were like me, I only recognized new colours when they were in there proper context, and when I first started manipulation, I couldn't control it at all."

"Yeah, with practice, I achieved control," replied Tess.

"You have such control Tess, it's like watching a surgeon. Still, I don't think you should be putting them to the test," I said.

"As despicable as he was, I don't think Geoff committed a capital offence. Makes me wonder what else has she done, or who else has she murdered," said Jen.

"Hmm, and for whom," added Tilly.

We all nodded at that.

"There was more than one of them, so they were organized," I said.

Tilly made the suggestion, "Maybe, we should go down to the hospital, I'm sure they would taken him there by now. At least we may be able to find out how the the locals are describing his condition."

"That's a good idea, I think Tess and I should go. There is no point in you two putting yourself in harms way when you don't need to," I said.

"I agree," said Tess.

Tilly and Jen tried to raise an objection, but Tess and I would not have any of it.

"We won't be long, we will pop in, ask about him, and disappear," I said.

With that Tess and I made our way downstairs. It only took a few minutes for an Uber driver to arrive.

"I don't think I have ever been to a hospital before," I said.

"Hey me neither," replied Tess. "Never been that sick, haven't known anyone who was that sick either."

We arrived at the hospital and entered through the emergency department. We found the usual hustle and bustle of a typical Friday evening. The nurses were triaging patients while three doctors worked their way through an infinite list of prioritized patients.

When we entered the room, it was like an avalanche of negativity hit me. I opened up my colour sight. It was a kaleidoscope of colour, but not in a good way, worry, stress, and fear were the predominant colours. I exchanged glances with Tess. The look she gave me indicated she had a similar thought to my own. I looked at each of the patients and staff, their colours looked normal, no obvious artificial facades, and no manipulation going on.

One patient, a child of maybe 10 years of age was there with his mother. By the look of way he was clutching his arm, he was in obvious pain and looked like he may have been in some sort of accident.

Tess made eye contact with the mother.

"Accident?" She asked.

"Yeah, I think he may have broken his arm," she replied.

"Chin up buddy, these guys will sort you out," Tess said to the kid sympathetically.

Tess is not usually 'the show sympathy to stranger' type so I knew where this was going. The boy was surrounded by a thick dark grey fog. Tess looked around, then cleared the grey fog. The kid immediately brightened up.

I looked around alarmed that she would take such an action in public given the circumstances. I scanned those around us. She didn't seem to draw any attention.

She withdrew her support, slowly the dark grey fog gathered around the kid, it built to a level and the kid groaned and hugged his mother.

I wanted to get a feel of this dark grey fog, I nudged it away momentarily, but didn't want to make it obvious. It had an oily disgusting feel to it, like touching an oil slick. At least that's what I imagined touching an oil slick would be like.

"Maybe we should enquire about Geoff," I said.

We both rose from our seaters and approached the duty nurse.

"My friend was brought in with a heart condition..", I said.

She cut me off as if to save me breath and her time, "All heart patients are immediately taken to the heart unit on level 3", she pointed toward the elevator.

Thanking her Tess and I moved towards the elevator. When the doors opened we were greeted by the beeping sounds of heart monitors. It seemed that all of the patients must be attached to a monitor.

A reception area was immediately opposite the elevator and a hallway extended east and west. We turned left and proceeded down the corridor as if we knew where we were going and had a reason to be there. We really didn't have a plan, Geoff was certainly deceased and was unlikely to have been tucked into a bed next to another patient. We walked the length of the corridor peering into each room as we passed. We reached the end of the east wing then returned passed reception again to walk the west wing. We we approached the last room Tess walked in. There was a 70 something woman in the cot attached to a heart monitor. A man I took to be her husband was attending to her.

He looked up and addressed us, "Doctor says she probably won't last the night."

Tess responded, "I'm very sorry to her that."

She was surrounded by a swirling black fog. It seemed it was trying to find a way into her body, almost as if it had a sentience of its own. Or perhaps it was her, drawing the fog into herself. Either way, the occasional wisp of fog would enter her body, the heart monitor would coincidently respond indicating stress. It was clear to me the doctor was correct in his estimation. I didn't think she had long to go. Tess made an attempt to move the black fog away from the woman. Instinctively, I looked over my shoulder to see whether anyone was watching. No one was there. In spite of my uneasiness, I leaned in and helped Tess. Together we shifted the fog, eventually dispersing it. The heart monitor seemed to relax a little. I looked at Tess, she had sweat on her brow due the exertion. This fog was different to anything else I had observed. It was heavy, viscous and sticky. It was death. I gained a new appreciation for the strength and skill of the blond woman.

Tess got my attention, "We should go."

I nodded in the affirmative and we left the man and his wife. As soon as we rose to leave, I saw black wisps of fog reforming around the woman. It won't be long now, I thought. As we approached the reception area, as if on queue a red light flashed on the desk and a signal sounded from one of the rooms behind us. The nurse at counter immediately rose and walked briskly past us disappearing down the hall.

Rather than turn toward the elevator, I walked straight into the reception area and behind the reception desk. I hit the computer return button a few times to wake it from the screen saver. The window of the hospital application appeared. There wasn't a password on the screen saver, excellent.

The window displayed the list of patients currently on the ward. A checkbox was marked 'History'. I selected it and in reverse chronological order a list of prior patients was displayed. Of those marked with today's date, only one had a first name of Geoff. I selected the row for Geoff Cunningham and pressed the print button. I looked older my shoulder, there still no sign of the nurse, but I was still nervous that she may reappear at any time. The printer slowly ejected a page. It seemed slower than it probably really was. The second and final page finally ejected. I scooped it up, folded the pages roughly together and stuffed them into a pocket.

Tess hit the button on the elevator and moments later we were on the street hailing a cab.

Back in our room Tilly and Jen were waiting for us.

"What happened," said Tilly the moment the door closed behind us.

I started to read the printed report as Tilly explained what we had discovered.

"We started in Emergency, there was a kid with what I think was a broken arm. He was in obvious discomfort, and we could see that he was shrouded in a fog. The fog was related to his pain, and we able to manipulate it, albeit very clumsily. We also saw the fog the blonde bitch hurled at Geoff. It was as we suspected, the fog is related to death. A woman in the heart wing was terminal and the fog was surging around her. I knew that at any moment the fog would enter her body and she would die.

"We now know without a shadow of a doubt that manipulating the flux can be used as a weapon.

"We didn't know Geoff's last name, so it was a bit of an up-hill battle finding him. Just as we were about to give up, some alarm sounded in a patient's room which distracted the duty nurse. Stephen got into the computer and as luck would have it there was one Geoff admitted today."

"How did you get into the computer?" Asked Jen.

I looked up from the notes, "No password on the screen saver!"

I continued, "I was't sure whether this Geoff", I waved around my notes, "was our Geoff, but it definitely was him."

I handed around one of the pages that was a photocopy of his drivers license. The photo was unmistakably him. The others nodded as they viewed the image.

"The documents don't say much, suspected sudden cardiac death, absence of risk factors, heart muscle thickening, rhythm conditions, congenital heart defects, or impact to chest. Toxicology report shows alcohol 0.08% by volume. He shouldn't be driving but that level should be a long way from killing him. No other drugs.