The Hunter and the Hunted

"Is it me? You know, I felt something last night."

"We kind of connected, didn't we?"

"Yeah. It was awesome." Despite the shitty situation, we both smiled a bit.

He was right, but I didn't need to say it. He knew how I felt about it anyway. Our minds were beginning to connect and it felt so good.

"Sadly, it seems to lead to me losing my abilities, which we really need for our survival. I've never felt so good in my whole life, Neil. This connection is like a drug. It feels great, but it might kill us."

"Yes, I can almost see it. It's like we are waves and we're not in sync, eliminating each other."

It made sense, but he had seen something I hadn't. That, like this whole friend / love thing, was completely new for me. The explosion from downstairs pulled me out of my reverie rather thoroughly. I looked into Neil's eyes, trying to appear confident. The fact that I was shaking like a leaf might have given me away, though.

"Effie, however this might end, I want to say that I don't regret having come here. Meeting you is the most awesome thing that ever happened to me."

That moved me so much that I would have had to cry, if I hadn't taken his head between my hands and planted a big kiss on his mouth. It meant that I felt the same way, and he knew it.

I watched Neil cautiously peeking into the antechamber, through the small gap between the brick wall and the steel door. He showed me four fingers to indicate that all four assholes were present.

Yes, some of them were injured. Yes, we were armed. Still, without my special abilities, we were easy prey for them. They were trained killers without any scruples. We were just a shrink and an escaped lab rat.

Neil was peeking through one of the gaps until he suddenly jumped backwards. Pierre's face appeared in the gap, grinning madly and looking exactly like Jack Nicholson in "Shining." Shit, how did I know such things? For the first time, I felt robbed of my past. I obviously had one, but someone had stolen my memories. The thought made me incredibly angry.

For some reason Pierre had chosen to talk, not shoot through that gap. We had accepted that unspoken truce.

"Hello, my dear wife." Pierre started the conversation in the worst way possible. I desperately needed Neil as an ally. Even more importantly, I needed him to keep loving me. Pierre, staying true to his role as an asshole, had to choose this time to reveal my darkest spot. Neil looked shocked, but remained silent.

"Pierre," I said, in as neutral a tone as I could manage.

"You didn't know that, Neil, huh?"

"Has nobody ever told you that your 'huh' sounds dumb as hell?" Neil calmly answered and I loved him even more for that answer.

"What? What the fuck are you talking about? I think it sounds rather cool, huh."

This talk had started weird and was deteriorating quickly. I felt it was time to take part.

"Who gives a fuck if I once was dumb enough to marry you, Pierre? You're scum and that piece of paper means nothing."

"You're still my wife, legally. I'd really hate to shoot you just like this. Come with me and I will do what I can for you."

"Wow, you've convinced me, Pierre. Of course, I'm going to come with you, the man I hate, who used and betrayed me back then. The guy who's tried to kill me ever since he arrived here. Why wouldn't I leave the man I love for a piece of lying shit like you?"

Pierre was a bit surprised by my eloquence and still looking for a retort when Neil joined the conversation again.

"Wait, you're really married to Pierre?"

I sighed. "Long story, Neil. Let's save it for later."

"There won't be much later, my darling wife. Enjoy the short time you have, you lovebirds." Pierre laughed and his face vanished from the gap. For some reason I noticed that he had stopped saying 'huh'.

"Let's go around that corner, Effie. We're stuck in here, but I don't want to be shot through that gap."

We went there and began to build a makeshift barricade, using some junk that was lying around. I felt the desperate need to explain things, to save my reputation.

"Neil..." I began, unsure how to continue. We were running out of time, I needed to set things straight, but I couldn't find the words. I was never good at talking, but this was important.

"It's not my business anyway," he gruffly replied. Shit, this was going to hell in a hand basket.

"Neil, I don't love him. I hate him, actually. You've seen it, he tried to kill me."

"But not anymore, right?"

"Yeah, but that's probably even worse. We're in a trap now, we're no real threat anymore. He can take his time to do whatever he wants with us."

"Okay," he sighed. "So, what's the story? How can anyone actually marry this piece of shit?"

"It's... I don't know... It really seems absurd, you're right. I was living in a whole different world back then. I was living in a small apartment in Dr. Orlov's lab. I had no memories of the time before and still haven't. I'd really like to know who I am, I'd like to meet my family, to know my past. There have to be about 16 years of memories that are lost.

"Anyway, try to imagine being a young girl, living isolated from the world, coming of age, with an awakening sexuality. Imagine her living in some sort of prison, having no contact with the outside world. I knew everything about this world, I woke up in the lab with a complete education. I knew that I was being held prisoner, but I had no way to escape. Plus, I was deathly afraid of being alone in the outside world. I knew nobody outside of the lab.

"Then the only attractive man around starts to show interest in me. Pierre, the head of Dr. Orlov's security. You've seen him, he's decent looking, at least compared to the lab guys, and I didn't know what kind of asshole he was back then. I sucked up his attention like the clueless teenage girl I was. As soon as I turned 18, he started the full court press, and for some reason, Dr. Orlov seemed to approve. I think that Orlov's daily experiments on me didn't show any progress, as he seemed to become increasingly frustrated. I guess that's why he wanted me to become a woman. He needed something to change and Pierre might provide it. So, with Orlov, Pierre and my raging hormones pushing me towards it, what chance did I have?"

"Couldn't you look into their heads and see what was going on?"

"No, my abilities were far from what they are today. The lab was a steel structure and I could vaguely sense things, like in that mining building. Nobody, including me, had any idea about the future seeing thing back then."

"I see."

"All of this might excuse what followed, but part of truth is that I was a young girl craving what Pierre could provide. They didn't have to push me very hard, to be honest. I think that I was madly in love with him in the beginning. Orlov even organized a wedding ceremony, inside the lab, of course. A few lab assistants and guards were present and pretended to be happy for us."

"Are you legally married?"

"I can't be sure, but I think so."

"That thought must be pretty repulsive."

"I hate it. I can't even begin to describe how much I hate being his wife."

"It seems your relationship cooled off a bit at some point."

"I have to admit that the sex was awesome. He took my virginity, and although he always was a bit rough, I was starved for it. I had no one to compare him to... ah... and to be honest..."

"You still don't."

"Ummm..."

"No need to be ashamed. Your first relationship was a dud. It happens to most of us, including me."

I hadn't realized how tense I'd been. Sure, we were in a potentially deadly situation, but I suddenly relaxed. He didn't judge me. He just accepted me as I was, warts and bad decisions and all. I wanted to kiss him desperately, but I needed to get everything out before Pierre came in and killed us.

"One day, Pierre came into my cell at night and told me a story about Orlov wanting to vivisect my brain and that we needed to escape. I never doubted him for a second and packed a few things. I was so unbelievably naive back then.

"For the first time, there were no guards in sight, even at the main gate. I didn't think much about it at the time, except that it made our escape easier. As soon as we left the building, I felt like a fresh breeze of air swept through my brain. It felt like I expanded mentally, somehow. It's difficult to describe. It was as if my brain completely rearranged itself. I was totally occupied with that until I found myself sitting on a bed in a hotel room.

"The hotel constricted my abilities a bit, but not as much as the lab or that mining building. I could easily enter Pierre's brain and what I saw shocked me to the core. I saw that he was uncaring, cunning and totally sadistic. I saw that he had killed the complete night shift in the lab. He knew that most of those five guards had families, and it didn't bother him in the least.

"I also saw his plan. Orlov never wanted to hurt me, I was his most valuable asset. Pierre hadn't rescued me, he kidnapped me. He had been offered a pile of money for me, but he had no idea who was behind it. The marriage was a sham, all he wanted was sex and me trusting him. He didn't care for me in the least and was about to sell me, like some merchandise. I felt like a dumb kid, like a trusting lamb lead to the slaughter. I hated myself for believing him and hated him even more.

"I was, by then, deeply afraid of him. I needed to get away, and I needed a good plan for it. I forced myself to calm down, relax and think. I let my mind wander freely for the first time, without the constrictions of the lab. To my surprise, I couldn't just look into his mind with absolute clarity, I also saw the first thread leading into the future.

"He carried a gun and had given me one as well, to protect myself as he'd said. That was how much he trusted me, he said. He had looked so sincere when he said it. While I was sitting there, meditating, I could see in his mind that my gun was loaded with blanks, but his certainly wasn't.

"The thread showed me that he would leave both guns unattended in a few minutes. I knew exactly where I had to be at what time to switch them without him noticing, and that was what I did. It was laughably easy and I understood that my abilities gave me the most valuable and powerful thing of all: information.

"With shaking hands, I pointed the gun at him. He looked as if he wanted to laugh. He obviously doubted my ability to pull this off almost as much as I did myself. 'F, put the gun down. It's not loaded anyway. I love you; I really do.'

"'You're completely wrong,' I answered. "My gun is loaded, yours isn't and you don't love me at all.'"

"He started to get angry then. 'You little bitch. You've already cost me too much. I've put up with being married to a psycho and killed five good men. I don't want to hurt you, but I'm going to do this. That's a fact, get used to it.'

"'Get used to this, then,' I said and shot him in the leg. It was surprisingly easy.

"'Fuck, I'm going to kill you bitch.'

"'Maybe, but not today. Don't follow me, I'm not the dumb girl you've married anymore,' realizing that it was true while I said it and just left him there.

"I didn't believe for a minute that I had seen the last of him when I left that hotel room. I never saw him again until you rolled into town with his team."

Anxiously, I waited for his reaction. His not rejecting me was the most important thing in my life then, even more important than Pierre wanting to kill us.

"Wow, that's quite a story. I'm just sorry that you had to endure..."

That was as far as he got before I covered him in little kisses for not judging me. Some banging from the antechamber interrupted us before things could progress further.

"Why don't they just blast away this door?" Neil whispered. "Something is going on over there. Wait, I'm going to take a look," Neil said before he went back to the gap.

"Pierre is wearing some kind of helmet with lots of cables. I've never seen this thing. It must have been in one of the 'keep your fingers off or die' boxes," he explained when he returned to my side.

"Shit," I said and then it struck me. Pierre struck me, to be more precise. He suddenly was in my head. He was standing there, right in the center of it, whatever "it" might be. I've never consciously been in this place. He was fat and ugly as hell. His presence in my mind was nothing like the rugged, muscular body he owned. It was a repulsive, shapeless mass of evil and it was right inside of me.

In panic, I shrank away, but realized that there was nowhere to go. There wasn't really anything around us, not even empty space. We were just... somewhere. There was nothing else there, nowhere to hide, no boundaries, no structure. It was just me and him. He was huge, evil and determined, and I was tiny, frightened and had no idea what to do. I had no idea what 'do' even meant in there.

He slowly came nearer, although nothing like distance existed in there. Frozen in panic, I awaited my fate. The big, repulsive being formed an opening and was about to make me part of itself. To ingest me. Death seemed like the better option, but there was no way to kill myself in here. I made myself think of Neil, resolved to make that my last conscious thought. I knew that I loved him. I had for a while, but never admitted it to myself. It was just cruel. Finally, I had found someone to trust and love and could only enjoy that feeling for mere seconds before being consumed by a shapeless mass of evil inside my own head. In despair, I reached out to Neil for the last time.

The thing smiled cruelly without having any visible structure, let alone a mouth. These things were just obvious in there, as obvious as the thing's next thought.

"Finally," it communicated. "You're going to be mine. I'm going to swallow you whole. I won't sell you and what you can do. I will learn how you do what you do and get rid of the rest. Ah, you can even look into the future. This is even better than I thought. I will be invincible with this."

I felt it touching my nonexistent body and immediately saw how he basked in visions of himself being powerful, rich and cruel. Where we met, we immediately began to merge. I was like a drop of one color, being sucked into a large barrel of another. In horror, I watched it happening right in front of me. Hell, it happened right inside of me. I began to feel the thing's thoughts even clearer now. They entered my mind, soiled it, started to dominate it, started to extinguish it. The thing laughed in glee until it suddenly stopped and seemed to detach from me as soon as it could.

Fear. That was the last thing I saw in its diseased mind.

Seeing it leave was a surprising relief, but I still felt just as vulnerable and powerless as before. My mind had almost been taken over effortlessly and I never had the slightest idea how to even start fighting back. Then it had suddenly stopped, again without my input. This was like being in that lab again. The experiments hadn't been the worst, the feeling of being at someone else's mercy had.

The thing's attention wasn't focused on me anymore. It was fixed on something behind me. Something back there had to be even more evil than this repulsive being in front of me. Full of dread about the horror I was about to discover, I shifted my own attention back there. To my surprise, I found Neil's relatively clean mind there. I could see a few stains here and there, but compared to Pierre, he was clean as a mountain well. I mentally laughed at his embarrassment at being so exposed.

Expressing my love wordlessly, I opened myself up to him. He didn't hesitate and completed me like a Yin and a Yang. A soon as we connected, we changed shape. All of the proportions suddenly shifted. I had no idea whether we were growing to an enormous size in an instant, or if the Pierre abomination in front of us was shrinking. It didn't matter. Nothing absolute existed in there, anyway. As one being, we strode forward, covering the non-existing distance, and without a conscious thought, we smashed the tiny frightened thing in front of us to pieces.

Suddenly, everything around me began to take shape again. Sounds, smells, contours, colors, life, everything reappeared. I was in a mostly empty and terribly dirty room in a decaying abandoned industrial building once again. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

The only unpleasant feeling was this pressure on my chest and shoulders. I looked down and saw Neil's arms locked tightly around my upper torso. He was obviously just coming to and was still busy coming to terms with the real world.

"Oh, sorry," he said and sounded terribly embarrassed.

"You bastard! You touched me while I was unconscious."

"I know," he stammered. "I hope you're not mad. It suddenly seemed the right thing to do. I'm so sorry."

"Don't you ever do that again, you hear? All touching will be done while I'm conscious and can enjoy it too, comprende?" I mock scolded him.

"Ah..." was all he could get out before I silenced him with a big smacker and we both laughed, relieved.

"Thank you for following me in there and fighting with me."

"My pleasure," he happily replied. "You know, this is some kind of modern fairy tale. The hero has slain the fat stinking dragon, but he did it together with his fair maiden."

I had to laugh at that. "Fair maiden? No one has ever called me that."

"But you are. She's just hidden under those layers or hurt, wariness and, well, a bit of grime."

"Well, Mister, you're not exactly squeaky clean yourself."

We both laughed again until we simultaneously thought about the small detail of a few battle-hardened mercenaries in the next room who wanted to kill us.

I looked around mentally and was surprised about the clarity. It had never been able to look that far and that clearly. Mentally, I reached out to Neil and invited him to join me. I watched him take a look himself. We both knew that he had no telepathic abilities on his own and would never be able to do this without me, but it was already clear that we could connect and that he was enhancing my abilities somehow.

"They're already moving towards the cars," he unnecessarily observed as he watched them through my mind. He would have to get used to nonverbal communication.

"Yes, three of them. One is missing."

In wordless understanding, we opened the door to the antechamber and looked at Pierre. While we had been in that place, which was obviously inside my head, we never doubted that this was a fight for life and death. The corpse in front of us confirmed it.

Blood had poured out of his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and was about to congeal. The eyes and mouth were wide open and the whole body was contorted horribly. This was no peaceful death, but we both mentally agreed that he probably had died before his mind had returned to his body.

"Consider this a divorce, dearest husband." I thought it was a cool and appropriate line, but I still didn't find joy in someone else's death.

The helmet was still loosely attached to his head. It looked very much like a prototype, hopefully the only one of its kind. Unfortunately, its designer was still out there somewhere. Pierre was dead, but the threat behind him was still alive.

"Together, we can win if someone wants a rematch," Neil remarked, switching back to verbal communication.

I agreed mentally, because I liked that way of communication. It felt so private, so secure, so intimate. Neil wordlessly agreed, but remarked that we would need times for ourselves from time to time. Before I could really start to pout, he assured me that he enjoyed this just as much as I did.

We waited until the survivors had left the area before we took a look at their camp. We could still sense remnants of their intense fear lingering around. They had left as quickly as they could, leaving two cars and all kinds of equipment behind. We had a nice, comfortable camp all to ourselves and used it for a few romantic nights. We found out that making love while being connected mentally really is a mind-blowing experience.