"Look! Over there," Walter shouted. "There's another one that's been transformed." Fifteen yards downstream where the river became more shallow, the young deer struggled to heave itself out of the water. When it gained its feet, it stood awkwardly as if it was orientating itself, and then turned sideways. They could see the wide gash in its side was healed. The deer tossed its head, shook water off itself, and then powerfully bounded into the forest.
"Oh my, God," Gemma whispered. "It's true. The deer metamorphosed in the water. I felt it healing itself." Like a magic portal from The Witch, The Lion and The Wardrobe, the green vortex calmed and disturbing pool grew still and clear again.
Walter looked at her closely. Gemma grew alarmed. "What are you looking at?"
"This is really affecting you. Are you tied to the natural world on an energetic level?" He looked at her with an intense interest.
"Stop staring at me." She clasped the collar of her hoodie tight around her chin.
"I'm sorry, I didnt mean to be that forward. I guess I've lost some social skills living out hear alone for all these moths.
"I'll say. Yes, that's my dilemma. I love animals and plants, but the world doesn't. I could never dissect a living creature. That would be like dissecting myself." Creed nodded in agreement.
Walter smiled. "I agree. Living dissections are unnecessarily cruel." Gemma's face softened a bit. He looked at Creed. "What's your ability? Can you feel magnetic forces in the earth too?"
The dark-haired teen grimaced. "If you ask me, it's more of an affliction than an ability. Not like Gem. I don't have her skills." He smiled at her. " I wish I did." He looked at Walter. "If it's quiet, I can often feel what people are thinking. I think they sense it and it makes them uncomfortable. It's not hard to tell what someone's thinking once you know how a person feels."
"No wonder Kinsey sent you here." He frowned with distaste.
"What do you mean?" Gemma asked. Uneasy, she and Creed glanced at each other.
"The government's studied your kind in order to weaponize their soldiers. If I'm correct, your science teacher's an old nemesis of mine."
"What do you mean, our kind? Mr. Kinsey's a good person, not some sort of Dr. Frankenstein. He's different than the other teachers. He's a high sensory person like us."
Walter emitted a low, dry chuckle as if he hadn't laughed in a while and had forgotten how to use those muscles. "He's different alright. He's one of the most cunning narcissists I've ever met. They feed off of empathic energy like vampires."
Gemma and Creed stared at him.
"He had me fooled for years. He mirrored me, analyzed my emotions and then betrayed me. He's the reason I'm hiding out here doing research while he's in charge of the program." He pointed at them. "He set me up and he's using you as bait."
Creed looked doubtful. "What are narcissists?"
"They're the opposite of empaths. Unfeeling predators. A cunning, human cancer on society."
"You mean like a sociopath?"
"No, they're worse. Much worse. An empath will scan your emotions and experience your happiness or pain, but a narcissist will assess your emotions to use against you. They have no feelings. They enjoy your pain. They're demonic."
"I don't believe you." Gemma's jaw hardened. She turned to Creed. "Do you?"
Creed grew thoughtful. "Why is Mr. Kinsey interested in this area? And why didn't he do these experiments himself?" He waved his hand towards the pool. "This was more than a high school science experiment."
She shook her body as if she was shedding a heavy blanket of worry. "We have what we need. Let's go."
"No!" Walter took a step towards them and Creed moved in front of Gemma. He blocked their way on the trail. "You don't understand. Because you've seen the anomaly, you're in danger."
"Why would we be in danger." Creed was skeptical."
"Because you're witnesses. Empathic witnesses."
"Listen, we're just people with screwed up senses. We're not special. We can't even socialize without being zapped for Christ's sake. We're outcasts." Gemma's frustration didn't faze him.
"Yes," said Walter. "The government's favorite kind of experimental victim. Does anyone else know about this a anomaly?"
"There's an online science forum that's discussing it, but we're the first people to come out and do physical measurements."
"I meant, are there any more students who are like you."
"There's two more of us, but they became sick and left about an hour ago," Creed answered. Beside him, alarm bells went off in Gemma's mind."
"Come on, Creed. Let's go."
"Gemma, he's telling the truth."
"I don't have to like it."
Creed fished the motorcycle keys Jaxxon had touched out of his pocket. He held them up for Walter to see. "Do you own a motorcycle?"
Walter shook his head in the negative. "Why."
"Our friend, Mallory, sometimes she senses things that are going to happen. She saw a premonition of someone drowning. Gemma and I are heading back the the lookout point to see if we can find the bike's owner. If anything like that's going to happen, maybe we can stop it."
Walter's eyes grew bright. "I'll go with you."
"Wait a minute, Grizzly Adams. No one invited you."
"Gem, he can help us. I think we should trust him.
"Or kill us and chuck us in the pool."
Walter grimaced. His blue eyes were bright. "That's what I'm trying to prevent from happening to you."
Gemma turned on her heel and started walking up the trail. "Suit yourself. If you try anything, I have a phone and I'm calling 911."
Walter ignore her and addressed Creed. "Tell me what happened when your friend Mallory had her vision."
Creed inhaled as he remembered the incident. "Mal started having a seizure. Jax too, but hers was worse. It was like she was drowning on land. I thought she was going to die."
"Are they both alright?"
Creed nodded. "As far as we know. Each one of us has experienced some level of physical xx. That's why we're all friends. We're all high sensory.
Walter nodded. "HSP's."
"People hate us," Gemma interjected.
"They don't hate us, they sense we're different and it makes them uncomfortable."
"I don't know why," Gemma said bitterly. "I knew Cheryl Payne stole money out of Janet Dickson's locker and that Brad Davis was dealing drugs, but I never told anyone. I'm not a snitch."
"If you have empath, extra-sensory perception can be challenging," Walter said. "Still, I wish I had those physical traits."
"Why?" Gemma asked.
"Instead of weaponizing high sensory perception, I want to use it to cure psychological trauma that buried deep in the psyche. Instead of going through years of therapy, people could be cured with psychosomatic surgery."
Creed nodded. "That's what shamans do."
Walter nodded and looked at him shrewdly. "There's not enough shamans to fix all the broken people in the world."
Creed thought of his father and nodded. "I know. They have to want to be healed. A lot of them don't." He looked at Gemma.
Uncomfortable, turned and walked away. "Don't," she said. "Don't feel sorry for me."
"I wasn't." Creed took a step towards her.
She brushed a tear away from her eyes. "It hurts so much to be like this." She used her anger to push back the pain. "All of this new age therapy sounds great, but I doubt one man can win against the government. She whirled and faced Walter. "If I were you, I'd disappear before they get here." Her blue eyes deepened. "I don't want to be anywhere near you. You're a magnet for trouble."
Walter blinked at her accusation. "I don't want to hurt anyone."
"But you will. Just like Einstein didn't want the planet blown up when he discovered how a tiny amount of mass converts to enormous energy and evil people used that knowledge to create an atomic bomb. Even if you claim to be against it, you're part of the new age war machine."
Creed put his arms around her and silently hugged her.
I wish I could help you," Walter said." Take all your pain away.
"Why would you want to help us?" Gemma said over Creed's shoulder, looking guarded and delicate at the same time. Sometimes, Creed thought she looked like a China doll and he was afraid she would break if he touched her. "Just because I'm not empathic doesn't mean that I don't have empathy."
Gemma broke away from Creed. "I want to go. Now," she said pointedly. She walked towards Creed's bike with her shoulders hunched.
Behind the mountains, the weather changed for the worse. The sun disappeared as black-blue angry dark clouds formed overhead.
Without the sunlight, the water cutting through the gorge pool turned the surface into a glass-like obsidian color. There was an eerie silence as the barometer dropped and the air pressure increased.
Gemma glanced above them at the heavy clouds. She shuddered. In their relief, the mountains appeared as if they were closing in on them. "It wasn't supposed to rain today, but I feel a heavy downpour coming. Creed, we need to leave." She glared at the bearded man. "Now."