Outcast (Camp NaNo 2015)

Chapter 5

I saw the woman in the corner look up briefly, her mouth open in mid stutter. I almost couldn't bear to step forward, but I forced myself to do it. I had gotten this far, hadn't I? I had to fix the problem that I had created. The problem I had created. I was calling this woman a problem. She wasn't the problem, I was.

Before I knew it, my feet had taken me from the only source of light outside and into the darkness. Into the corner where she sat, rocking slightly as she tried to get the words out. It was probably the same word I had seen on the video. This didn't seem to be a woman who would give up on a task, even as hard and physically impossible as this one.

I bent down, reaching out a hand to just touch her. That was all I needed to get a better idea of how jumbled her mind really was. It was dangerous, but I was willing to deal with any consequences that would arise. She flinched as I touched her cold skin.

I cleared my mind and waited, putting up shields, preparing for the eminent bombardment from her mind. But it didn't come all at once. The madness trickled from her mind into mine like a brook. I was surprised because this process was usually like getting hit with a tidal wave. They had never told me that she was dying and this worried me.

I slowly worked at pulling out the traces of myself that had entered her mind. The traces that worked actively to destroy her at this very moment. I wanted to work faster, but for her sake I worked slow and steady. If I tugged it all out like I really wanted to, she would die without question.

She shuddered as I sifted through her mind carefully, wanting to make sure I was thorough enough to get her back to normal. To not break her worse than than she had been a few minutes ago. The woman before me stared at me, her eyes empty as I sorted through her very being, trying hard to stay away from her private life as I went through her memories, trying to make sure everything was going to be okay. But I couldn't stay away if I really wanted to make sure that my touch would be gone from her mind when I left.

I felt like I was spying on something private when I saw her first steps, her first bike ride... her first mourning period for family. Her mother gone from the world leaving her with a father that left her to go fight a war in a distant country when she was 18.

I wanted to pull out from her mind after that, leave her private memories to herself, but I knew that my influence was still in her mind, eating away at her somewhere. So I continued the process that seemed to be taking much too long. I almost feared that I would be in here for a few hours. This was supposed to be a quick 'get in, get out' operation, but I don't think it was turning out like that.

I took a deep breath, continuing to shift through the last few parts of her mind before I withdrew. I was mentally and physically exhausted but I knew I had to keep going. The woman-Lynne Russell-stared at me long and hard, light coming back into her eyes that probably hadn't been there for a long time.

I leaned back against a wall, closing my eyes. I heard Lynne stand up but then it was silence. None of the scurrying footsteps I had expected to here going towards the door. I opened my eyes and saw Lynne holding out her hands to help me up. I gratefully took them, surprised at her actions.

"Thank you." I murmured, brushing off my pants which had gotten quite a lot of dirt on them for the short time that I had been sitting on the floor.

"I should be the one thanking you..." Lynne said, her eyes downcast. I sighed and shook my head. "You... fixed me. It was like some kind of... parasite took over my body. I was a robot... all in some kind of haze." It was much worse than that, but I wasn't about to voice that opinion, lest I scare her away or worse, get myself a follow-around puppy. The One Goddess knew that I didn't need that, not in my current situation with my recent title of Public Alien Enemy #1. But those two options were rather contradictory. I couldn't have her following me though.