3
Tophat sat up and surveyed his surroundings. He glanced at the cold iron walls of his “Containment Unit”.
More like torture chamber. He thought. There was no visible opening on any of the walls, but he knew exactly how to crack this safe. He looked down on the floor, trying to concentrate on what he was doing, but every few minutes pain from the night before washed over him.
Fine. He thought. I won’t try to get out just now. He leaned back on the foam-stuffed cloth that was his mattress and closed his eyes. Soon thousands of memories were rushing past him. All of them had the same key figure: a girl with dark hair and piercing grey eyes. They started when she was small, just seven years old.
Wow, have I really known her for that long? But she was just a little girl… when did she turn into a woman… well… she took a big step towards it that day…
The memory became clear, pulled out from the ceaseless flow.
A young Tophat stands beside a small girl in the aisle of what looks like a grocery store, as they walk together with a man and woman, two men dressed in all black jump out from behind a shelf brandishing rifles.
“Dannie! Iiko! Get behind!” the woman shouts. The two children duck behind a shelf, but they can still see what is going on. Fear and stubbornness fill the girl and flow from her.
“Tophat.” She whispers “I want to fight too.”
“Dannie, you can’t. You know what they say,” The boy orders back. They hear a shot and a scream. The woman crumples to the ground, dead.
No! Tophat’s mind screams. And he stands. He hears the familiar sound of a phaser burst and suddenly pain sears through him. He crumples.
“Tophat! No!” Danae screams. She looks over at the woman, dead, and her eyes dart around in search of the man. He had run off, followed by the guards. The young girl begins to hyperventilate with fear.
I have to do something! I have to do something!
She reaches her hands over Tophat's stomach.
Stop hurting please, stop it, oh! If I could take it for myself. She stretches out her hands and closes her eyes tightly. Heat courses up her arms and her stomach begins burning. She cries out and collapses, but soon the burning dies down and she sits up again.
“What happened?” she asks Tophat. He is staring at her, completely amazed.
“Toppie! What happened!” she demands, tears filling her eyes.
She’s… an… Empath… he thinks.
“TOPPIE!” Danae yells “What did I just do!?” tears spill out of her eyes and down her flushed cheeks.
“Dannie, calm down, ok?” he puts his hands on her shoulders. “Dannie, have you ever heard of Empaths?”
“No.”
“Ok. Empaths are special people who can take other people’s hurts and feelings inside themselves and make the hurt person better. They are also usually Telepaths, Danae, I’m going to try something. I’m going to think a word, you listen very hard with your mind and tell me if you hear anything, ok?”
“Ok.”
Danae. Tophat thinks. At that moment Danae hears his voice in her head.
Danae.
“I heard you! I heard you say… or think… my name!”
“Yes! Very Good….”
The doors of Tophat’s cell opened and he was forced back into the pain of the present.
“Here’s your food, prisoner,” the guard said as he set a bowl of lukewarm something next to Tophat. Then he turned and left. Tophat picked up the bowl and began to eat slowly, his thoughts extended out to the guards in the corridors, he was finding his way out, but he knew that he would not be able to leave for several days.
Will they kill me by then? NO! Don’t think about that! Don’t think about anything! I have to get out of here. Dannie is thinking of something… boy, will it be good to see her again…
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