REFLECTIONS (A Tate Langdon Fan Fic)

Chapter 20

~~LEAH

I slipped deep into the darker corners of Tate’s mind, all his memories were flowing through me like adrenaline. It sped up my heart rate and my brain was racing trying to put Tate’s memories in order that day. The day that everyone said turned Tate into a monster because of the house and the torment his mother gave him. I saw everything through Tate’s eyes that was the only way this power worked for me. I watched while Tate felt like he was in a trance, his body moved like it was on autopilot and it looked like no one was home inside his head. I watched him enter the bank of some sorts with gasoline container clutched into his hands. He made his way into a room where a man was jumbling numbers into a calculator; a few seconds later I watched Tate dump the gasoline on her and throw a match onto him. Tate walked away emotionless with the guy screaming and on fire as he exited the building. About an hour later I watched Tate arrive at Westfield High School armed with two shotguns and two hand guns. I watched the horror on the faces of his victims when he shot them without a word. I watched the blood splatter across the walls and bits of brain to follow them. The carnage continued on but I couldn’t close my eyes to un-see these images that flew around. After the a few minutes which felt like hours I watched Tate come back to his house. He went up the stairs still in a hypnotic state and sat on his/my bed when he heard the sounds of sirens enter the area. I heard the police rushing up the stairs, not just two but dozens of them coming for him. I already saw this part of the memory the Swat team all rushed in surrounding Tate who just watched blankly at them. He stood holding up his hands while the muffled voices of the police were speaking to him. The next few seconds I saw Tate pull a gun at the police and the SWAT team opened fire at him. I felt the pain of a thousand knives piercing inside my chest while the bullets seemed to go through his body. It felt like forever until they stopped and Tate’s limp body fell onto the bed to the floor. He felt numb now when the cop came to him trying to figure out why it happened. I felt Tate slip away and I felt myself pull out of Tate’s mind just like he was in his death. I opened my eyes seeing Tate in front of me and I felt exhausted almost.

        “Now you see the truth, I’m a killer. I’m trapped for eternity to walk this house forever. I’ll leave you alone, it’s better for me to stay away from you.” Tate exclaimed where I touched his face with my hand giving him a weak smile. I stood up pulling off my ripped shirt tossing it into the pile pulling out a clean shirt placing it over my shoulders. I stared at the mirror seeing Tate’s sadden expression with hurt and pain to mix in.

        “We all have darkness inside us Tate. We are all killers, including me.” I replied which I could see in his eyes he was curious now. I opened the drawer seeing five journals lying in them taking them into my hands. I plopped them onto the bed in front of Tate who couldn’t figure out what I meant. “For as long I had my gifts I had documented everything that happened to me and everything that I think. There is something else I write in these journals.”

        “Like what?” Tate asked touching my hand when I turned back to look at him through the cracked mirror only, I instantly felt my stomach churn.

        “The times I blacked out and when I wake up I’m surrounded by dead people.” I replied seeming to catch his interest with what I was about explain to him the deep horrors of my brain. “It all started when I was thirteen years old at my first high school in New York. We were investigating The Morris Jumel Mansion said to be haunted by Eliza Jumel after she was murdered by her husband. It was also meant to believe it housed the killer of the former president Alexander Hamilton. After a few months of investigation and dealing with the laughter and taunts from bullies I guess you could say I was fed up. I remember going to school one day and then everything goes black, and when I wake up I see dead kids everywhere. My father decided to move away on to the next house and move on. It wasn’t until we moved here when I started to remember everything.” Tate looked at me while I felt his eyes piercing my back.

        “What happened?” he asked where I gripped the top of my dresser in my hands trying to find the right words but nothing seemed right.

        “Do you remember when I told you how I received my powers?” I started where it looked he was thinking about it.

        “You believe you received them because of the ghost witch possessed your mother when she was in labor with you in Joshua Ward House where your parents were investigating the ghosts that inhabited it. It’s where the witches of Salem were hung and said to be cursed living in there. Your father believes you inhabited your mother leaving her powers with you.” Tate mimicked the shorter version of the long story I told him a few weeks ago tightening my hands against the dresser.

        “It’s this house; it’s when I remembered what happened to them, all the bullies that taunted me. I guess I was like you were in a trancelike state not knowing what I was doing or who I was hurting. I watched myself, play back all my memories of that incident like it was yesterday. I used my powers on them, my telekinesis that is. Whether I was choking people, send the shattered glass at them, whether I set them on fire or pull out there hearts without touching them.” I exclaimed levitating the small glass ball from the table staring at it blankly. It was spinning slowly in my sight feeling the pain in my chest. “I couldn’t stop the rage within me; I did it to every school and every bully who taunted me. I couldn’t control it and now every time I’m angered or feel threatened it happens. You see Tate; you’re not the only monster. I’m one too.” I lowered the glass ball to the counter where I watched Tate walk up to me; I felt his hand touch my shoulder. I pulled the messy bun from the hair tie letting it fall down and then felt Tate’s hand stroke it away from my neck.

        “You couldn’t control it even if you wanted to Leah; it’s not your fault.” Tate exclaimed when I looked back up at the mirror to look at him seeing something I never saw before. The crack in the mirror I saw half of my face and the other side I saw half of Tate’s face. Our faces connected with the mirror, it was telling me that we were linked with the darkness inside us.

        “Do you know what I saw when I first looked at the mirror in this house?” I asked him where he looked at me trying to see what I meant. “I saw nothing but a monster within me fighting to claim control of me. Then when I learned the truth about whom you really were, that changed. I thought you were the monster.” I saw the guilt hit his face where I touched his hand from my shoulder.

        “I’m sorry….” He started but I stopped him from speaking with my hands when I turned around to look at him.

        “When I look at you now, I see me. We are the same. We both are cursed and we both are connected. We are bound by all of the pain and all of the anger inside us forever.” I smiled before standing onto my tip toes to kiss his lips with mine. The kiss wasn’t cold like I thought it would be but hot and filled with a lot of passion.