Simple Manipulation

Chapter 24

A deep sigh escaped my mouth as I slumped onto the couch. Did it not work? I didn't lay everything I had on him. But I did put in quite a lot of effort. I would also think it's nothing he has seen before. His tactics are completely different than mine. So there is no way, at least anyway that I know, he could bypass my methods with no sign of struggle. After years of studying the science behind each of my methods, the basic and complex human behavior strands and possible anomalies, I would have seen any differences in him if there were any.

But there wasn't.

Nothing changed in him. Nothing more than usual "googoo" eyes over me when I act differently towards him. He was normal Luke. A little more touchy, but that didn't lead to any major changes. Granted there were a couple minor body movements such as eyes and stature. But nothing else. I had nothing to work with. As if there was a barrier between him and I.

As far back as I can remember, the only other time my sources of manipulation failed on someone was once with Marren. Her mind was so distant from what I was doing she was not affected the slightest. She was instead so focused on keeping our horrible group assignment grade from me. Marren knew very well that I cared more about my grades than anything else, so she hid to, in her mind, protect me. She wanted so badly to protect me that everything I was using on her was bouncing straight off the mind barrier she had built.

Because she cared...

....she cared! She knew the news would hurt me!

"MARREN!" I screamed running into the house.

"Marren I figured it out! Not the whole thing, but I know what it has to do with." Panting I stood in front of Marren who shooed my siblings from the room. Once we had bribed Amber with enough cookies to make her leave, I relayed my discoveries to Marren.

"It's me Marren. It has to be because of me. We had our suspicions that this whole secret had to do with me, but now... now I am positive. Let me ask you this. When was the first and only other time, besides today, my manipulation methods haven't worked?" I ran to my bookshelf and pulled the old college psychology course textbook I bought a few years ago down.

"Eighth grade year, on me, when I tried to keep our sixty-seven score on that stupid project from you. But Pey, what in the cheese-loving world does that have to do with whatever secret Luke and Derek are keeping?" She replied as I flipped through the textbook pages.

"Here let me read this passage to you and if that doesn't help explain it, I will." I cleared my throat and began reading. "The human mind is a complicated, complex, yet fragile system. Interruptions in the state of its course can deter planned or needed focus. In order to protect this balance, the human in question is able to produce what many call a "mind barrier". Mind barriers, while very helpful to most in terms of remembering important dates, times, or plans, can also block you from other needed information. The mind barrier theory also correlates directly to the balance of a thought's strand of existence, more commonly known as a state of "flow". Much like a young student in a classroom environment who has their hand raised to propose a question. This students, in order to keep focus on their question without forgetting it, will set up an involuntary mind barrier and enter a state of flow. Any outside interruptions can lead to breaking both and the student forgetting his question. Bringing the topic back to how fragile the human mind actually is. If a thought of protection for another person, or thing, enters one's mind that causes them to keep back information, mind barriers and states of flow can be created. These mind barriers and states of flow will block them from any forms of interruption."

Marren held her cheeks in concentration. A normal gesture she makes whenever she is extremely focused. "So... Luke had a mind barrier set up. Because he is in a state of flow. A state of flow to keep him from sharing whatever secret he has from you. All because he is trying to protect you?" 

"Because, whatever that secret revolves around has to do with me and he is blocking me out because he feels the need to protect me." I clarified.

"So now what? As long as he thinks he needs to protect you, we won't get any of the information we need. Of course we could come right out and tell him we know. Or blow his cover. But that would mean that we would most likely end up with Derek on our trail. I've got no problem with beating him up again, although he has probably changed a bit since the last time." Marren voiced her plans although none of which would work.

We could very well come right out and tell him, or blow his cover. But Marren is right. Whatever he is hiding, also has to do with Derek. And he is the last thing we want to deal with. Especially considering his connections and how much it could backfire on us. 

I placed the book back on the shelf and smirked. "Well, we have definitely jumped right into something we should have left alone. But you know how I am with curiosity. I just can't forget about it. And we are so close. We just need to show him that I don't need protecting."

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I'm back! And I came with a pretty short update. But don't worry it's supposed to be short! I didn't get lazy on you. Mainly because the next one is planned to be pretty big!

I have a change in update schedule - Summer is here (yay!) but that means that I will not necessarily have one update a week, but I will still try my hardest. It will most likely be more scattered. I also am going to be putting out the prologue to a new story that I am super duper excited for! So stay tuned!

Comment, vote,  follow, and enjoy!!

-El

(P.S - the "passage from the textbook" is not completely true. While there is truth to it I had to spice it up. So please do not quote from here like it is from an actual textbook. If you want to know more about the topic feel free to ask! I have read up on it in order to write this so I would love to help you understand!)