Adventures of Matt Parkman, Chapter 9: Torture
Matt had Ryan drive him to the pharmacy so he could fill his scripts. He supposed he'd probably be able to manage driving, but it would pull at his stitches and the doctor had strongly cautioned him against that. In any case, he was at least giving Ryan something useful to do with himself, assuming he didn't wreck the car or give Matt a heart attack in the process.
Parkman poured out the coffee unceremoniously, not explaining it to his driver. Ryan started to accompany him inside. For a moment Matt was irritated that the kid was following him everywhere like a bad smell, then he remembered he'd told him to. "Go wait in the car," Matt said as he walked inside, not bothering to look back.
He picked up what he needed, along with some generic painkillers, a Dr. Pepper and a bag of Doritos. He was starting to feel hungry. More pressingly, he was feeling strung out and craved painting. Or maybe he was craving the drugs, he wasn't sure. Back at the car, Ryan was waiting dutifully. Matt grinned at him, pleased he'd done something right.
Next they went to an art store where Matt bought canvas, black paint and thinner. He was doing fine on the other supplies, as far as he remembered. He winced at how much the canvases ran him. He put them on his credit card, then wondered how long it would be before Janice took him off the account. Need cash. He still had seven diamonds from the heist, but they all had etchings on them and were identifiable as stolen.
He loaded his stuff into the trunk, still favoring his right arm. He got in and opened the bag of chips. Ryan waited for directions. At the moment, Matt wasn't inclined to give them. He most wanted to go home and paint, but he'd had another idea while leaving the cash register. He turned to Ryan and said, "Do you know any fences?"
"Uh… sell things, fences?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah. There's a pawnshop over on 15th that's okay. I've sold him car stereos and tools I got off porches and out of garages."
"Uh-huh," Matt was re-affirmed in his activity of getting Ryan off the streets. "Does he buy rings, jewelry, diamonds?"
"I… yeah."
Matt pursed his lips and went to the bother of reading the man's mind to find out what he had been about to say, but hadn't finished. It didn't do him much good, as Ryan's thoughts had moved on to considering the best route to get from where they were to where the pawnshop was. Parkman sighed and went through the aggravation of digging. Ryan's brows pulled together and he reached up and scratched at his ear at the slight discomfort. Otherwise he seemed unaware of what was happening to him.
Matt frowned and rolled his eyes. The thoughts were irrelevant. Ryan wasn't sure, but he assumed he bought jewelry. He remembered watches in the store, but he hadn't paid much attention.
Fine. "Take me there."
Ryan started the car and took off. They were a half mile down the road when Matt said suddenly, "No, wait. Take me home."
His driver glanced around and made an illegal U-turn in the middle of the street. Matt yelled in surprise. "What the hell? What are you doing?" It wasn't that different from how Ryan had been driving earlier. Basic traffic laws were just general guidelines to Ryan, if he was aware of them at all - things that applied to other people and not so much to himself.
Alarmed by the yell, the car swerved back and forth as the young man spent most of his time looking at Matt, not where he was going. They ran up over the curb, forcing a pedestrian to dodge out of the way. Had the lady on the sidewalk been inattentive or slow, they would have hit her.
Pay attention to the road, not me!
The driver's eyes snapped to the road, swerving again and getting properly into his lane. Another car passed by, honking at his bad driving. Ryan gave them the finger dismissively. The gesture incensed Parkman, who was already on edge from getting scared by the U-turn and nearly running someone down. Enraged, he reached into the man's mind and took control of his body.
The car swerved again, several times, as Matt tried to adjust to the different experience and perspective of driving via possession, without entirely giving up his own body. It was awkward. Ryan was fighting with him, mentally, the whole time as he struggled to control himself. Matt had him pull the car off the road and into a strip mall parking lot, come to a stop and put it in park.
As Matt withdrew, he forced an impression, a sensation of burning into Ryan's mind, making his feel his entire body was on fire. The man began to flail and writhe. Matt reached into him again and clamped down on all voluntary muscles, locking him up, leaving him unable to do anything but sit quietly and feel himself in agony. After most of a minute, Matt relented and released him from both the fire and the lock.
Ryan whimpered and tried to curl up, away from Matt. He didn't know what the older man was doing to him, but he definitely knew who was doing it. An impotent, terrified rage washed through him. Matt smirked sourly at the things Ryan wanted to do to him and was too afraid to try.
Don't flip people off.
Ryan whimpered again, making inarticulate mutterings. Matt knew what he was thinking though. He chuckled. "You want your mommy? Your mommy isn't here, Ryan. Now straighten up and drive the car, or I'll do it for you."
With great difficulty, Ryan sat up and ran his hands uneasily around the steering wheel. He reached down to the keys and turned them, grinding the engine, because the car was already running. He inhaled sharply, looking between the keys and Matt in horror, terrified of what even a minor mistake would cost him.
Matt rolled his eyes. Great. Just great. He's too fucked up to drive. Well, I guess I could use the practice at possession. Didn't know that was really possible, anyway. Sylar managed it, of course, but that was kind of different. He entered the man's mind, trapping his consciousness, walling it off, even as Ryan tried to struggle against him again. He hadn't expected it would be much of a fight, but he'd let Ryan become utterly terrified, flooded with adrenaline. Matt couldn't make him move smoothly with so much resistance, such fear and hate coursing through him.
Frustrated that he couldn't do what he wanted, Matt hit him again with fire, letting him cook for a few minutes before finally taking the pain away. Parkman sniffed and looked over with a grimace. The young man had wet himself at some point. Now he only twitched, his mind nearly broken, his sanity questionable. Parkman considered that he'd probably pushed the youth too far. He wasn't sure how to stabilize him, but he knew if he didn't, then he might as well go bury him somewhere because he wouldn't recover.
Matt projected something of himself into the young man's mind, giving him feelings other than fear, something in his mind other than gibbering. He waited as patiently as he could, which wasn't very much and probably not enough. He was trying to give him a baseline consciousness to cling to, something calm. It was foreign, but Ryan eventually latched onto it, accepting it because it made more sense than what was left of himself at the moment.
Matt reached through the man's mind to move his body and found it easier now that he'd exhausted him with the torture. He lifted Ryan's left arm and counted off his fingers. Some further part of Ryan's grip on reality faded as he watched his body used as a marionette. From his perspective, he'd entered some sort of nightmare like he'd seen on horror movies. He surrendered and retreated into senselessness. Parkman let him. It was easier. In the meantime, he needed to drive home.
It took him a moment to remember why he'd been putting Ryan through this, why he'd told him to turn around in the first place. Then he had it: he needed to go get the diamonds! That was it. That was why he'd told him to turn around. He'd been hurting him because Ryan had severely pissed him off by scaring him with his incredibly bad driving, then flipping someone off over it. Matt possessed him entirely, leaving his own body insensate in the passenger seat. He touched himself briefly. It felt creepy to see himself being touched, but feel nothing except the sensation of touching, not of being touched.
He shivered… or more accurately, Ryan's body shivered. He put the car in drive and headed out. It was much easier to drive when he was seeing out the eyes of the person doing the driving. The total control was simpler than partial and at this point he'd crushed Ryan's mind enough that he wasn't interfering.
At his apartment, he switched back, not wanting to leave his body unattended. Instead he left Ryan sitting in his own urine, too traumatized to do more than stare off vacantly with tears running down his cheeks. Matt took his painting supplies upstairs. He paused and looked at the regression paintings, remembering his moment of pleasure that Ryan had thought it was good. It gave him a weird feeling. He ignored it. He put his stuff down and collected two diamonds, then went back downstairs.
The boy was still sitting in the car, having become vaguely aware of his surroundings in Matt's absence. It was better than he'd been when the older man went upstairs. His eyes caught on Matt and he began to shake. Parkman controlled him, not letting him get worked up this time. He cut him off and suppressed the boy immediately, driving to 15th street, whereupon he had to dig through the captive mind for the exact address.
Parkman walked in the pawnshop in his own body and presented his wares. The owner studied them for some time, asking the usual questions. He offered far too little for them, less than half what Matt had gotten per diamond for the five he'd sold months ago to finance his apartment. Matt hadn't used his powers then, relying on simple haggling and picking a place willing to take stolen goods without too much question. That place had been busted a few months after, but Matt had gotten away clean. He'd been lucky. He wasn't feeling patient enough to negotiate, especially with a known fence for the criminal underworld. He just used his ability.
Double it. Make the deal.
Blinking, the man offered to double his price. Matt accepted. He looked at the camera on the wall behind the counter, targeted right on him as he stood next to the register. The diamonds will check out as stolen. They might trace it here. If they do, they'll check the tape and see me. I can't keep relying on luck. I've probably already got the cops looking for me for questioning about that double murder.
Destroy your security camera footage from today. Do it now.
The man stopped in the course of counting out money and headed off to do as directed. Matt looked at the unattended cash. He scooped it up and flipped through it. It was enough. He craned his neck to look in the register. There was more though. The man came back, looking at the money in Matt's hand and getting alarmed. He was being robbed. Parkman interrupted his thoughts before he could reach for the panic button, thinking to him, Tell me the truth. You want to cooperate with me. Do what I tell you to do.
"How much money do you have left in there?" Matt asked.
"Ah… a little over thirteen hundred. After that." He gestured at the money already in Matt's hand.
"You have more in the safe somewhere?"
The man nodded.
"Fine. Give me an extra thousand."
The man did. He looked very sad as he gave his money away.
Don't buy stolen goods. Don't report me to the cops.
Matt started to leave, then he reached out and took his diamonds with him. There was no reason not to.