The Ultimate Threat
The Ultimate Threat
~*~*~
The grass brushed my feet, making them cold and wet. I paused and looked down, the blades were covered in dewdrops, the night must have been very cold, but I remembered little of the night's weather. Instead I remembered what I had done.
My father had been touching me at night and my mother had been sending him to me instead of stopping him. Last night they intended to let more than touching happen. I could see their thoughts and I knew that it wasn't going to happen. I had always been able to dig through the minds of others, even as a small child I knew what would happen if anyone knew about what I truly was. I had a decision last night, let it go or stop it, I stopped it...permanently. With my choice, my life got worse
Even as a small child I could dig through other people's thoughts as easily as I could shift through sand on the playground. I had seen in my parents' minds that my mother's older brother was special like I was and that men had come, taken him away, and put him in something called the Freak Squad. It had a real name but everyone in the country knew it was a battle group in the army filled with special people.
Last night I had most assuredly earned myself a spot on Freak Squad, if they could catch me. I had waited for my father to enter my room and I had shown him what I could do beyond just dig, I could manipulate what I found inside the minds of others. I forced my father to remember the time when his father came to him, forcing him into the mattress. When my mother entered it was not her he saw but his father. My father fell on my mother, beating her furiously around the head. I smiled when I saw her head caved under my father's fists and I let him see the results as well.
Once my father saw what he had done he stared at his red hands, dripping with both her blood and his own. I dove into his mind, I dug up all the negative thoughts about himself, the doubt, the depression, and most importantly the various methods of escaping himself. I buried his memories of me, even though the comparison of what he did to me and what his father did to him was excellent vengeance I needed him punished.
Like a puppet on a string, my father gave into the darkness I filled his mind with, I wasted no time getting him to the kitchen. It would be easy to kill him quickly, a slash over the throat, groin, or any major blood vessel. He had apparently put quite a bit of thought into how he might end his life quickly. That was not my plan. He stripped naked before me and I laughed, making sure he couldn't consciously hear my laughter at his fat, naked body. The knife sliced across his legs again and again, never deep enough to get arterial blood but not so shallow to stop flowing naturally.
I could have left after his legs were a red ruin, leave him lost in his own mind while I made my escape. Revenge burned in me and I would make him pay for every caress, every touch, and every tear his nighttime visits inspired. He got his left arm completely however once he went to switch the knife to his left hand the fingers fumbled, the knife fell, clattering across the kitchen floor to my feet. We both peered at his left hand and his mind brought up the thought that his tendons must have been sliced. I shrugged, he was dead, the puddle of blood around him was growing, the cuts were all deep enough that no single one could have killed him with care, but his legs had been draining for quite some time. I searched his mind and knew he was well aware that he was going to die.
I brought his consciousness back to me and he looked at me in shock. I tilted my head to the side, too innocent for a twelve-year old, but it had the right effect. My father thought of me as a small child and then his brain recognized the damage he had done to his body. He started to apologize to me when he stopped to notice the time. I smiled then, he hadn't had a real thought of his own since he entered my room. I let one of his dark thoughts about me rise up. It was the one about how much I looked like my mother's brother. I giggled, clasping my hands over my mouth and I nodded. The little blood that remained in my father's face drained in horror. He whispered my name with his dying breath. I left his body the moment he died, there was nothing to be done with his corpse. Now that he was dead my vengeance was sate, sadly I would need to get going.
I had been smart to get my mother's purse and my father's wallet. I emptied them both, they only had a few coins, most of our finances were done through credit chips. I had stopped to retrieve my father's credit chip from his slashed hand, thankfully he had cut the left open and not the right. I remembered the number code and headed for the nearest ATM, I covered the camera with a piece of gum before draining as many coins as I could carry from the chip. I began through the woods.
~*~*~
Had I known, while I stood on the grassy hill after dawn of the day I killed my parents, that I had only a short time of freedom, I would probably have ended my own life. I was a foolish child and was certain no one would figure out my role in the apparent murder-suicide of my parents. I had no idea how quickly the situation was evaluated.
I managed to have three days of freedom. I slept in hiding spots with other street children, keeping their attention off of me and on each other. I managed to get food at "discounted" prices by manipulating the minds of store employees. It was pleasant enough, doing what I wanted, digging around in the minds of others, and the feeling of getting away with murder.
The end of my freedom would have been easier, if I hadn't seen it coming. I wasn't actively digging, sort of just brushing the surface of the minds around the area. I was reaching as far as I could when I felt the abnormal brain. It was dark and hungry. I felt the brains around it slowly shut down, not die but lose consciousness. I got the impression that if the hungry mind stayed for too long the others would eventually die.
It was then I felt another mind searching. I quickly entered it, pushing my presence underneath its own. I delved into the thoughts of the minds around me and I knew about the hunt for me. Freak Squad was surrounding me, hunting me, and preparing to close in. I felt panic, but in that panic my rage grew. I had just earned my freedom, they couldn't take me so easily. I almost did something stupid but at the last moment I looked at the dozens of children surrounding me and I grinned as I learned the hard way about cannon fodder.
I dug into the children's minds and sent them on the offensive. I manipulated their thoughts, made all their minds scream guilt at once. Filled each of them with panic and sent them running from the horrors that their own minds created. I smirked, confident, but aware, searching for minds different from the rest.
The screams rang through the air and when the children approached the hungry mind they dropped to the ground. The sound had annoyed the hungry one and in return the children found death. The hungry one was suddenly in pain, whoever controlled the Freak Squad apparently wasn't pleased with the hungry one's heavy handed punishment.
The effort I took to creep away from the hungry and searching minds was difficult, I could get a faint read on two other minds but it was weak. I didn't doubt there might be more, perhaps my own uncle. I was getting further and further from where I first sensed the hungry one.
I was about to make it to the road where I intended to force the next vehicle to stop and help me when I felt it. It wasn't so much feeling it as it was the lack of feeling. I had a moment to look up and see the man. He was covered from head to toe in a skin-tight body armor. His head was covered by a helmet that hid his face. As I realized that this man was a member of Freak Squad I noticed the strange, large object around his neck like a pendant or an amulet, but it was massive. There was something about it and I realized a presence like the Freak Squad's was coming from it.
The man touched the front of the amulet and I only had a moment to glimpse at what lay inside the amulet. The eye was the same blue as my own and the thick gray thing behind it was part of the brain. As the eye focused on me I focused on the man's brain. I dug as something dug into me. As my brain shut down the man's fist slammed into the amulet, shattering it and ending what was left of my uncle's miserable life.
~*~*~
I woke up and I stared at the ceiling, a heavy weight on my head kept me trapped in my own skull. My wrists, ankles, and waist were tied tight to the table under my back. I didn't bother to struggle, I did keep trying to break free of whatever was holding my powers back. It was almost as bad as being blind. I didn't know how people could stand being trapped within their own heads.
"Don't bother, the fancy headgear you are wearing is keeping all brainwaves at human level, you can only think about using your powers," a man's voice said and I felt my helpless rage direct itself towards him. "That's a fierce face, exactly what we would expect from Ripper's niece." I could only assume that "Ripper" was my uncle's name among the Freak Squad.
"Now Mar-" a woman's voice began.
"Don't call me that name," I stated calmly.
"Well then what should we call you?" the woman asked.
"You're going to take away my name. You're going to give me a new one. You are also going to do horrible things to me so that I'll work for you," I said, glaring at the ceiling.
"I guess that means we don't need to play with the kid gloves," the man chuckled. "I'm General Shafer, I'm going to be your commanding officer. You won't be allowed out for quite some time. We'll need to learn what to do to you to make you more...controllable."
"Yeah, whatever," I huffed in mock indifference. I had no idea the horrors that were in store for me I could only face them with ignorant courage.
"Explain your powers and the first procedure will take place with you unconscious," the woman said and I decided to go the easy way.
"I can dig into people's minds. I can push whatever I want up or down. I can make people live their greatest fears. I made Daddy see his father, that's how he killed Mommy," I said, making my voice as innocent as I could. If they were afraid of me, they might treat me more carefully.
"Excellent name then, Digger," the General chuckled and I felt afraid at his tone as his face appeared in front of my face. He looked so normal, but I could see the cruel glint in his eye. "I think you're going to wait for a few years Digger. We'll put an implant into your brain and let you grow for a little while, giving you limited time with your gift."
"You're not afraid of me," I stated and the General actually smiled.
"No, you see, I know you saw what was in Specter's fancy necklace. I know you know who was in there. I want you to know we can do the same to you, so as long as I'm in charge, that is going to be the final option with you. Our scientists assure me that should another one like Ripper rise," he gave me a deep look letting me know all too well who he thought might be that possible Ripper. "...they can make new amulets that will last for over a century. Think about that, Digger, a hundred years as a fancy neck accessory." The thought horrified me, I would rather chew through my own wrists rather than risk that fate.
"She'll probably need to go through puberty to get to optimum power. I recommend letting her grow till twenty," the woman stated and the General looked at me.
"That's just fine, Digger here isn't going anywhere," the General stated and I felt my hate grow and rise. Should the opportunity ever arise, I would do my best to destroy the General and the Scientist. Still, I wouldn't risk ending up like my uncle, right now the General had me and we both knew it. I had eight years to sharpen my skill and when the chance presented itself, I would destroy both my tormentors.
~*~*~
Author Note: This story is based on one I did a long time ago, Digger is one of the most horrifying characters I ever created, with this prompt I was just inspired to give her a back story. I don't know what is worse, Digger herself, or the people who scare her.