1 Cultist Encounter

Startled, the girl opened her eyes as the terrifying memory of being followed, snatched off the dark street, and then being shoved into the waiting car while something had been pressed against her face and then the darkness closing in on her sprung forth into her thoughts. As her scared and confused mind tried to piece together what had happened and where she might be, a man in a cheap Halloween mask suddenly loomed over her with a serrated knife in one hand and a tube of what looked like white powder in the other.

Frightened of the menacing figure, she tried to get away from him, but quickly discovered that she had been tied to some type of table that had been set up to look like come kind of cultist altar or something similar. She then swiftly scanned the room and saw that she was in what looked to be some type of basement or underground cellar with designs and other things on the wall that added to the cultist theme. While looking around she also saw several figures standing around the room that were dressed in priestly looking robes and masks standing around her.

Her attention then returned in panic to the man above her as he gleefully and menacingly announced to the others, "Now that she has awakened, let us initiate the testing." and, with a suddenness and sureness of movement born out of many years of practice, the man easily took the knife and quickly sliced her shirt open, applied a sanitizing solution to her stomach just as quickly, then menacingly picked up a scalpel and cut her stomach wide open from her bra strap all the way down to her navel before she could even draw breath to protest or scream.

Momentarily frozen in shock, the girl could only numbly stare at the fatal wound until the deep red of her blood overflowed the gory gash along with the deep intense pain finally forcing it's presence into the forefront of her consciousness. As the terror and pain then reached a crescendo, she released a resounding scream that was muffled through her gag.

Smiling in delight the man then gleefully opened the vial and lightly sprinkled the powder along the profusely bleeding slash like he was seasoning his grisly plate for supper. The powder stung as it dissolved itself into her quickly leaking life force, and she watched in shocked but grateful disbelief as the bleeding slowed to a stop and her rendered flesh quickly started to mend itself together until there was only a small line of pale flesh to mark where the formerly gaping wound had been exposing her bones and organs.

The man then pleasantly announced robotically, "The drug has performed its primary function as expected. Now to monitor for secondary effects." while she started to feel a strange buzzing from somewhere in the back of her mind accompanied along with a pleasant floating sensation.

Seeing her pupils dilating and the dreamy look taking over her features, the man added, "secondary narcotic effect progressing as expected. No adverse reaction as yet."

"Looks like another successful test. Initiate psychedelic protocol and arrange for the subject to be returned to her last location as soon as the test drug is out of her system and she has been dosed with the masking narcotics." He finished in dull but noticeably pleasant tone as he turned and appeared to exit the room looking to be bored or no longer concerned about what was done with the girl.

Meanwhile the girl was floating inside the euphoric sensation, and the buzzing slowly resolved itself into a cacophony of voices. Confused, the girl anxiously scanned the room, looking for the source or sources of the growing flood of voices. But then, as the loud babble of voices threatened to overwhelm her, she saw a half hidden form in the corner of the room she hadn't seen before. As she focused on the shadowy figure trying to see them more clearly by fighting against the effects the drug was having on her, one voice suddenly gained more clarity over the multitude of others.

>Fight the panic.< The feminine voice she heard in her head was saying, >Focus on the euphoria and block everything else out.<

With her heart madly racing, the girl thought about asking the voice's owner what was happening and tried to speak but it came out as a drunken mumble so she then tried do as the voice suggested to help her get some sort of control of her mind and body back. And slowly, as she finally regained a small semblance of calm and her coherent thoughts returned, she began to wonder what was happening. >Shh. I'll explain everything later, but for now concentrate on staying focused.< She heard as her thoughts slowly faded into the hazy narcotic fog.

A short while later, the girl awakened in a room that looked like any standard hospital room, strapped to what looked like a standard hospital bed. As she took in her surroundings and wondered if she had been rescued and taken to a hospital while she had been passed out, the buzzing voices painfully returned.

>Shh.< she heard as the thought formed to try and free herself or holler for a nurse. >When they find out that you're awake they'll drug you back up and put you back to sleep.<

Listening the the strange voice, silently she wondered who this person speaking in her head was, where she was, and was trying to figure out what was going on at the same time.

>I will answer what questions I can. But some things I wont be able to tell you until later.< Answered the feminine voice, the mystery girl's voice she slowly realized, inside her head.

>Who are you and how are you talking inside my head?< She thought of asking this girl if she saw her again.

The mysterious girl answered, >I can't tell you my name yet. But you can hear me because the drug that was in the powder that he put on your wound unlocked your ability to hear thoughts.<

She kept thinking about things she wanted to ask the girl but did not get any answer. Thinking she was using her new ability wrong, she kept trying to listen harder and harder but kept hearing more thoughts from others until it felt like she was standing in the middle of a stadium full of people screaming. Slowly though, as she tried harder and harder to hear only the "voice" that the other girl had used, the overwhelming flow of the thoughts she was getting from others gradually faded into the background.

She had been concentrating on this so much that she was startled when she heard someone physically say to her, "you don't have to pretend to be asleep now." She froze until they continued, "Nice work on learning how to use your abilities so quickly. Some people take years to learn how to do what you've learned in just a few hours."

Slowly she opened her eyes enough to peek out and saw that they were the only ones in the room and her door was closed. Hesitantly she opened her eyes fully and looked at her guest. Warily she asked, "Are you the girl that was talking inside my head?"

Her guest grinned and replied, "No. She is busy attending to something else right now but she did fill me in on your exchange and on your repeated attempts to contact her again. Attempts that have surprisingly demonstrated how strong of an ability you have and also how you have learned so much about using your ability so quickly. Rarely is someone strong enough or even know enough about the ability to come so close to breaking through her shield.

Now first, before we continue, my name is Wanda. And, with me being the nurse that has to keep an eye on you, I do have to perform a medical check on you to make the boss and that mean paperwork fairy happy. As such I will need to check your eyes with this light, tap your knees for reflexes, all the other usual stuff like height, weight, and all that, along with having to take some blood tests. Then I'm gonna have to ask you some medical questions to see how your brain is doing, But after all that, we can talk further about your abilities. OK?" Grimly, the girl agreed and Wanda started her exam.

A short while later, after completing the exam, Wanda said, "So, Miss Jessica, now that we have verified that you're healthy inside and out, you must make a hard choice. You can choose to go back to where you came from and lose your abilities, or you can remain here and learn more about your abilities. But if you do choose to stay, in order to keep your abilities safe, you will have to stay in our psychiatric ward for a while."

"I don't know about the crazy ward part but I do want to learn more about this hearing voices thing." Jessica quickly replied.

"As far as that goes, I should share a couple precautions that have to go along with staying.." Wanda held up her hand and cautioned, "While you have already made great progress in learning how to block it all, I must warn you that your ability to hear thoughts will make your stay in the psych ward really hard on that head. You will be surrounded by people whose abilities drove them coo-coo crazy and it prevents them from holding back and not flooding other minds. Also, to ensure your safety, you will have to keep your abilities a secret from those that do not know of them and you will have to come across as just as crazy as your neighbors whenever someone that doesn't know is around." As Jessica started to reply, Wanda raised her hand again and finished, "Wait. We won't accept your decision yet. We will only accept your decision when you wake up after spending the the rest of the night in the psych ward. That way you will know firsthand what you will have to endure while you are here if you decide to stay."

Reluctantly, Jessica agreed and Wanda told her she was going to have to either pretend to be asleep or gibber random things while she rolled her and her hospital bed over to a room on the psych ward. So she reluctantly held still and pretended to be asleep as Wanda rolled her to the room and closed the door as she left so that Jessica could truly go to sleep for the night.