Unworldly (Completed 2016 version)

Chapter 9

There were no eyes on me yet, not even the dawning sun's awakening glare, as I held my hand planted on Jacob's mouth to keep him from calling out. He squirmed, but he wasn't going anywhere — the metal stop sign that was twisted firmly around him, holding him captive for me, made sure of that.

"If you promise not to be loud, we can talk this out civilly, alright?" I said.

Hyperventilating through his nose, he didn't respond, which I took as an agreement and took my hand off his mouth.

"Hel–!" He tried to scream as soon as he got the chance, but with the flick of my wrist, the sign crumpled around his mouth and chin.

"Shut up man, I'm on your side!" I hissed, giving another paranoid look around to make sure we were still no spying neighbors or feds. "Look, I'm going to remove your memory of everything since the crash, alright? Trust me, you'll be better off."

He stared at me with wild eyes that darted from the neighborhood for help, to me for mercy. He wouldn't find any.

"Put your hands on my temples," I instructed.

Since his arms were still free, he took the opportunity to curl a fist and bash me across the face, but gave a muffled cry of pain as his knuckles bashed into a jaw as solid as titanium.

I didn't even flinch. "This'll only take a second," I said, and touched the tips of my middle fingers to his temples. "Put your fingers to my temples, I'll remove the memory, and we'll both be done with this."

He flipped me off with his uninjured hand.

"Fine then, I'll make it simple — touch my temples, or I'll have to lock you up in my alien space-lab."

Gulping nervously, I watched the alarm jolt through his thoughts.

"I'm not messing around, here," I warned. "I have to go to the school, I can't have you calling in a threat. And you really don't want to get caught up in the investigation as a firsthand witness who is this sure of the truth. Whatever they'd do to you would be way worse than anything I will. You're lucky I got to you first."

Let me go, f*cking freak. He brushed off my point, still resolute to remain against me as he was still mentally writhing with fear of me in the midst of being restrained and threatened.

"I can't let you go. I'm sorry, but it's too late for that," I replied to his thoughts aloud. "I want to play nice here, so just put your fingers on my temples, and you won't join the missing persons list."

He still refused. If anything, he was now even more deterred, his terror heightening as I'd just read his mind.

Damn it, kid. The brain damage of forcefully taking a memory was something he didn't deserve to take on. 

"Fine, here," I grumbled, setting my fingers back on his temples and my forehead to his, and I gave him a memory of mine.

I telepathically sent him an explanation of who I am, a simple description of how mind erase works, what happens when things go down between me and the CIA, and what could happen to him too if he was too close to me or knew too much.

"Get the picture?" I asked, pulling back from him. "I'm trying to help you. I know you're scared of me, cause I know I'm scary as hell to you humans, but everything I did at the intersection was to save lives, which is what I'm still doing now."

Jacob glowered at me, scoffing at the notion that restraining and threatening him was 'saving lives.'

"Look, we don't have much time. Please don't make me do this without your consent, because that could really mess you up." My eyebrows furrowed in sympathy. "I'm sorry about the way I'm going about this, but you have to hear me out. You're a smart kid, so just think this through."