The Pulse Pt. 07

I took her shoulders in my hands and shook her very lightly.

"Ami. She's been mentally abusing you for I don't know how long. Don't blame yourself for what you did. She deserves all that and more if you ask me."

Her head dropped slightly as she nodded.

"I did try to warn you about her."

"I know you did."

"What will you do about Jennifer and Harry?"

"I don't know. I need to find some sort of irrefutable proof to clear my name. The police know that none of it is true but if I don't sort it out then I'll always be 'that rapist' to some people. I can't live like that."

"If I hear of anything then I'll let you know."

"Thank you Ami. You'll always have friends amongst us."

She looked slightly teary and unable to speak as she nodded her thanks. She walked over to the side of the house to retrieve her bicycle which I hadn't noticed when I arrived. I realised that I was still linked to the two girls and severed the blue threads.

I walked back over to the car and looked at the time.

"Shit! I have to get home. I still have to take Tina to the concert."

=================

It was only two hours later that I pulled onto the Lathan's drive.

I'd managed to get thirty minutes sleep despite Fiona's best attempts and had also showered and shaved. I'd shovelled down some food and was feeling considerably improved as I got out of the car and made my way up to the front door of a large detached home in the nicer part of town.

I rang the doorbell and heard heavy footsteps on the floor behind the door and then Mr Lathan was filling the doorway.

"Jake! Good to see you. Believe it or not Tina's been ready for about an hour. I never thought I'd see the day."

His huge bear paw of a hand engulfed mine in a firm grip.

"Daddy! Be nice."

Tina looked really good. Her long hair was loose and lightly curled. She was dressed in a black Muse t-shirt which she'd tied into a knot at her waist. Thankfully it wasn't too fitted to her large boobs but nothing short of a bedsheet was going to disguise how stacked she was. The t-shirt had been cut from the neck to show some cleavage and there was a glimpse of a black bra showing. She was wearing a pair of fitted jeans with some ankle boots completing the look.

"Hi Jake."

"Hi yourself. You look great Tina."

"Thank you."

She blushed prettily. She kissed her father goodbye promising to be home before midnight and then grabbed my arm almost skipping back to the car.

"Thank you so much for doing this."

"What? Taking my friend to see a band that I really like?"

"You know what I mean. I really wanted to call to make sure that you're alright but Daddy told me about Fiona and I didn't want to...you know."

"We're friends Tina. It's always good to talk and I'm sure that Fiona would have been fine about it. You have met her haven't you?"

"Not really. She wasn't in the same crowd as me being that bit older. I don't think that we've ever spoken."

"Well if there's time tonight when we get back then I'd love for you to meet her."

I suddenly realised that she might not like me talking about my girlfriend and that maybe the last thing that she wanted to do was actually meet her.

"Err...that's if you want to...you know..."

I felt like such a klutz.

"It's fine Jake. It would be nice to meet her. She must be very special."

She did look a little sad as she said it and I was mentally kicking myself the rest of the journey. I managed to change the subject and we started to discuss what the playlist might be and which song they might open with and her excitement for the concert returned.

We pulled into Reading town centre and drove into the dour concrete car park. We were surrounded by other Muse fans and while there was the odd whistle at Tina it didn't feel threatening. I made sure that I was very obviously with her, either holding her hand or with an arm loosely around her shoulders.

She was really happy and we made our way to the entrance of the Hexagon. The building is a bit of a seventies monstrosity. All concrete and very little to recommend it. But you could squeeze over a thousand people into its six sided space and you felt really close to the band.

Inside there was the usual array of tour t-shirts and posters and I bought one as a souvenir. We grabbed a drink, "my treat" she insisted and worked our way into the arena just as the support band were finishing. We were in the standing section on the floor in front of the stage and as a steady flow of people headed for the bar and the toilets after the support act we found ourselves about four rows from the front, right in the middle.

"This is fantastic! I can't wait to see Matt close up."

"We're right in the middle here Tina. Are you sure you're going to be alright?"

"Of course! You're here aren't you?"

She smiled beautifically at me and I suddenly realised that this might be her first concert. I hadn't been to many but I didn't want to be in the middle of the mosh pit with her.

I started to guide her off to one side but there were too many people crammed in and it was all I could do to keep Tina from being pushed around too much as people tried to get to the front.

As more people crowded around Tina started to get more attention.

"Look at the norks on that!"

"Show us your tits love!"

"Get 'em out for the lads!"

It was mostly good humoured and I managed to quieten down most of them by scowling back but there were a few drunk guys off to one side that looked like trouble.

Just then the lights went down, the crowd surged and the first bars of Muscle Museum started blasting out.

Can you see that I am needing

Begging for so much more

Than you could ever give

Tina was singing away in raptures and I began to relax a bit. The crowd was eating out of the palm of their hands. Midway through the set Muse launched into 'Cave', the heavy riffs and driving beat getting everyone bouncing up and down.

Suddenly Tina was screaming as she felt hands grabbing at her tits and arse. It was a maelstrom of people around us but it was all coming from the drunk lads that I'd spotted earlier. I lashed down at some of the hands pawing at her. I pulled her close to me using my arms to protect her when I got caught by a glancing blow to the back of my head. Their hands were all over her again, pulling at her t-shirt and bra.

PULSEPULSEPULSE

In a massive burst of blue and red I drew on multiple threads of blue and red energy. I filled up with it, almost drunk on the power that it represented. Blue threads lashed out at the people surrounding us, a web of thirty or more threads forcing people to ignore us. A wall of red power surrounded us as I held the sobbing Tina close to me. I allowed the sway of the crowd to move us within that bubble but nothing could penetrate it.

"It's OK. I've got you. They can't get you now."

She had her arms wrapped around my neck as she sobbed into my shoulder, the concert forgotten.

"I'm cursed. I just want to go home," she shouted over the crescendo of the music.

"You're not cursed. We just should have found a different place to watch the gig from. Look, it's under control now, everyone's watching the show not you. Let's stay and enjoy the show."

She wiped her eyes and realising that what I was saying was true she started to enjoy it again, though a little less exuberantly than before.

By the end of the concert I was swaying with the effort of maintaining so many links. The drain on my energy was huge. It was massively more than anything that I had tried to do before and I was white as a sheet.

As the lights went up and the crowd calmed down I released the red wall and slowly severed the blue links from most of the people near us. I maintained the ones to the drunk guys until we were a decent distance away from them before severing the links.

So. Tired.

Tina was busy chatting away about the performance and the songs that they'd played when she realised that I was barely responding. As we were walking along I stumbled and dropped the t-shirt that I'd bought.

Tina looked at me a bit worried before picking it up.

"Jake? Are you OK? My god you've gone really pale."

"I'm not feeling so good."

"Do you want a drink? Some water?"

"A coke or a lemonade maybe..." I was beginning to slur.

Wonderful, cold, sugary liquid found its way between my lips and I recovered enough to get back to the car but I couldn't even summon the energy to get the key in the lock.

"Here let me."

Tina helped me into the passenger seat. I felt the seatbelt fasten around me and knew no more.