Chapter 15

Chapter 15

               He had been there hours, simply sitting on a bench that was across the street from the burn site of the home. Patience was a virtue, or something like that. Loqi simply knew if you were hunting something it was often more effective just to let the victim come straight to you. And she did. Dressed in clothes she looked like she stole, everything ill fitting but black to help her blend into the shadows, even a black hat to cover the blood red of her hair, she came around what once would have been the back of the house.

               The neighbors had their lights on, but they were avoiding looking at the burn sight. Even if they did look, they would only see the broken items that were still left behind, waiting for someone in the city to clear everything away. The people of the city knew nothing more than the house burned down. To them, Rhapsody and Ellie were still missing, having run away from home. They would not have been searching for Ellie even if they had been watching the house, they thought they would never see her again.

               Ellie stepped carefully onto the broken wood. Loqi could see tears streaming down her face, but she was silent, trying to not be seen. No matter what she did, she stood out and she should be grateful he was there keeping anyone from seeing her. She did not see him, though. He decided to give her time to dig through the remains of her childhood, to say goodbye to what had been done to her parents.

               He felt nothing for their deaths, he had not known them, and they had been traitors. He would have enjoyed torturing them for more answers. Perhaps they knew something more than they had said.  Had the father possibly known what he was doing to his children? Had it been suggested to that man by someone to do that to the painting?

               Loqi sneered at himself. Overthinking was not in his repertoire of skills her preferred to partake in. It did him no good. Still, the niggling at the back of his head continued to bother him and he wished David had not decided it was easier to kill his parents.

               Because David had known something.

               “Fuck,” Loqi said to himself.

               Ellie’s head came up and she looked at the bench. Loqi knew she did not see him, but she heard him, or at least had heard something through his illusion. He blamed his overthinking, one of the reasons he preferred not to, and fell silent again.

               Ellie was holding a board in her hand, somewhere in the vicinity of where the sitting room would have been in the house. Loqi knew what she was looking for, and she would not find it. She knew she would not find it.

               He stood from the bench, having given her enough time to dig through the items on the ground. Ellie clenched the board tightly in her hand and Loqi realized too late she had, at the very least, sensed him. She swung the board up and around, ready to strike whatever was in striking distance. Loqi leaned back, just out of reach of the board, but he felt the wind of it along his face. Her aim was good, even fighting blindly.

               “How did you know I was here?” Loqi asked, truly curious.

               She looked directly at him. “I could hear you,” she told him. She swung the board again, and he knew she could see him now. He dodged, and was ashamed he almost stumbled over the rubble of her home. He jumped back and she came at him swinging again. She was scared and prepared to run.

               Loqi reached out, catching her arm on the third swing and stopping her, pulling her towards him, twisting her around, and holding her in very much the same position he had held her in when he had a gun to her back only a few days before. “I’m beginning to think you like it in my arms,” he told her.

               “You are delusional,” she snapped at him, struggling, less afraid than she had been on the train. That would make torturing her all the more sweeter.

               “No, Eleanore, you are.” Loqi played with the illusion, but left it up to her mind to make the decision. Loqi did not see the illusions that people saw when he put the illusion up, and the ones where he allowed people to choose their own illusions, unless they said names he only knew how they reacted.

               He released her and she stepped back, staring at him. She did not see him anymore, but whoever she wanted to see most. She wrinkled her nose and stepped back several feet. She looked around her. She was no longer in the open air of the burned down home, she was somewhere she felt safe. She reached out and ran her hand up and down nothing, but he was sure in her own vision she was touching a wall of some sort, feeling if it was real. Loqi had a guess where she thought she was. This very house, before it burned, somewhere she had grown up and been loved. She very well could have been seeing her father in Loqi right now, someone she missed immeasurably, but had been willing to leave behind to stay with her friends.

               “Stop it,” she hissed at him.

               Loqi felt the entire illusion drop. There they stood, facing one another, her anger flashing in her eyes, her fists clenching at her sides. He was sure she was looking for her board again to try to hit him again.

               “How did you do that?” he asked her. “How did you break it?”

               “I am telling you nothing,” she snapped at him.  

               “Fair enough,” he said. “I can torture it out of you later.”

               “I’m not going anywhere with you,” Ellie stated.

               Glancing around at the rubble Loqi turned back to her and said, “How are you going to stop me? With another board?”

               “I’ll fight my way out,” she insisted.

               “Look, you are going back to the manor with me. Bastian is anxious to meet you.” She paled. Loqi caught it. She felt she had been betrayed, he knew the look, he had seen it on many faces before. “Oh, this is amazing,” he said to her. “David knows where you are. He did find you.”

               “No,” she said, and she said it with an absolution that almost made him believe her. He felt the prick in his head, a twinge, but he fought through it, causing an illusion he did not mean. She screamed out and he did not know what she saw, but as he fought through what she was doing, she was fighting through what he did back to her.

               It was quick, but both were panting when it was done. He stared at her, a bead of sweat dripping down her face. She was fighting his illusions as he was fighting whatever it was she could do. “He thought you had a form of manipulation,” Loqi said. “He wasn’t wrong. How strong is it?”

               “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Why can you stop it?”

               “Probably because both of us have a form of manipulation,” Loqi said. “I can feel when you are trying it on me.”

               Ellie’s lips thinned and she said, “Well, this has been a pleasant conversation and all, but I’m going to go now. Don’t follow me.” He felt it again, the twinge in his head. It caused a headache to form, but he fought through it again and once again she screamed as he threw the first thing at her he could, which was the sight of her parents bodies on the ground. She reached up and tore at her hair, pulling hard and closing her eyes.

               Loqi moved while she was fighting it, he had little choice despite the pain throbbing. He grabbed her and tackled her down to the ground, pinning her there as she fought and bit at him. He held her arms over her head and forced her to stay down. “Stop fucking with my head,” he snapped at her. “Every time you do I’ll get meaner.”

               “What could possibly be meaner than showing me my parents dead bodies?” she screamed and snapped at him.

               “You would be surprised,” he said. “Stop fighting.” Ellie went limp. She was not dwelling that he showed her the actual vision of their bodies on the floor, bullets in their heads. Likely, she thought it was just a cruel vision he was creating, when the pain had been too sharp for him to have been that manipulative at that moment.

               The two stared at one another, neither willing to move. Loqi wondered if he lost his complete illusion and they would be noticed. Before she could manipulate him, or give him another headache, he pushed off of her and looked around. He made sure to reinforce the illusion around them that kept them hidden, and unheard. Someone walked in front of a window in the house that was kitty corner from where they stood, but no one looked out the window. She did not want to be seen as much as he did not want to be seen, between the two of them no one would notice them.

               Loqi and Ellie were sizing one another up, wondering how to win the situation. Her only instinct was escape, his was to take her back to the manor. Back to the manor and back to Bastian’s experiments. He pictured this young woman in the same shape as David and again felt that disgust, wondering if she would turn into Bastian’s willing slave after she was disfigured by him. If she wanted to be the slave of someone who could torture he, he would much rather her be his slave.

               Returning her to Bastian was not an option, but letting her go was not an option either.

               “Why do you not want to go back, you would be with your siblings,” Loqi pointed out. “You were the one running away just to be with your sister and friends. No one has hurt you, you have been promised a good life, why run?”

               Ellie faltered in her stare down. He saw the question and answers go over her face, he saw her work through an answer that was satisfactory, at least to her. He did not expect her to answer him, but she did give him an answer in her next question. “Are you an experiment?”

               Loqi let out a belting laugh. “No, I’m naturally this messed up,” he admitted. “I did not need someone to experiment on me to make me enjoy the pain of others. You know about the experiments.”

               Ellie gave her hand a waver back and forth to indicate she knew very little and had been looking to him for a confirmation. He had given it to her. They were back at their stare down, neither knowing what to do or say next, while trying to figure out how best to win. Loqi could not return her to Bastian, but he could not let her go.

               “If you give me something, I will give you something,” Loqi said.

               “What?” she asked, not hesitating.

               “I am not ready to hand you over, but I am not letting you out of my sight, so you are stuck with me,” he said. “That part is not negotiable. But if you come to me freely I will tell you why David is scarred.”

               “Come to, oh ew, no.” Loqi dodged the board she threw wildly at him.

               Loqi placed a hand over his heart. “First of all, that hurts. I am pretty sure I am the best prospect you will ever get. Secondly, we would make a beautiful experiment of one another.”

               “All right, I am tired of hearing about experiments,” Ellie snapped at him. “I think I am going to leave now.”

               “You aren’t,” he said. “I told you no matter what happens now, I am sticking with you. If you would like to go back to the manor that strongly, we can. I do not recommend it.”

               Ellie stopped, turning back to him, determined. “Show me.”

               “What?” he asked.

               “Show me,” she demanded again. Loqi let out a shrug and showed her a vision that visibly raised the hair on the back of her neck and had her pale cheeks turn pink. “Not that,” she snapped at him.

               “How was I supposed to know what you meant?” he asked.

               “I mean show me the experiments.” Ellie said it with an eye roll, trying to brush off the image he had pulled up for her.

               He stepped closer to her and she stepped back, away from him. He reached out and grabbed her arm, forcing her close to him, and he said, “Stop struggling and just close your eyes. I don’t want you to imagine you are there, I simply want to show it to you.”

               “I don’t trust you,” she whispered.

               “You asked,” he pointed out. “I could be faking what I’m showing you, but I am going to show you what happened to David.”

               “You said you would only-“

               “I’ll get my prize from you,” he said. “But I don’t want another headache by forcing off your mind trick, so let me show you.”

               Ellie watched him, silent, her eyes looking over him, searching for something, anything that was recognizable to her. Nothing was, he was an enigma she did not understand, which was just proof of her innocence. He was going to break her of that innocence. He only hoped she would be as fun to play with when he did.

               She closed her eyes hesitantly. Before he could use illusion on her she opened an eye again, watching him. He simply stared her down, causing her to close her eye once more. With a sigh, he leaned his forehead against hers, causing her to jerk. His hands tightened around her arms, holding her in place while he forced the image directly into her mind.

               Loqi was not there for it, he did not see the entire experiment. He had been there for the part where David volunteered to be a part of the experiment with a young woman Loqi had never seen before. She was strapped to a table, a gag in her mouth to keep her from screaming. She had not been a volunteer. Loqi did not know where Bastian had found her, or how she came to that chamber beyond Bastian’s wall. He had come with David and Bastian had turned to them, asking them who would volunteer to help him. Dr. Meridion had been in the corner, watching, waiting for a volunteer, looking less like the kind man who worked with Dr. Torrow and more like the mad scientist he truly was, the glasses on his face gleaming in the blue lights of the chamber.

               He felt Ellie’s tightening when she spotted Dr. Meridion in the background.

               Loqi volunteered, but only as an illusion. Loqi was already hoping they would choose David over him, but if he did not pretend to volunteer Bastian would show him his disappointment, and while Loqi was not scared of much, he was scared of Bastian. In order to show Ellie the true image of what happened, he also had to show her his fear, let her feel it running through her senses, burning through her veins. She was growing stiffer under his grip with every passing second. Her heart raced. He was not sure how much longer he could keep her in place without pushing too deep into her thoughts.

               David stepped forward, offering himself as the one they would use the blood from. Dr. Meridion stood and pulled out a needle while Bastian dismissed Loqi. Loqi left the room and for Ellie he fast forwarded. He did not need her to see the waiting, the illusion was hurting her and he was running out of time.

               He came back to when David was screaming. Loqi did not hesitate to rush back into the chamber, his curiosity the bigger reason and not coming to the rescue for the young man. David was directly hooked up to the woman, whose eyes were lifeless, blood dripping from her lips and soaking through the gag that had kept her quiet. David, however, could not stop screaming, tearing at his own face, trying to remove his own eye with his fingers. Until he did. He dug deep enough, pulling his eye from his socket and still he tore at his face, his shortened nails pulling at the skin and tearing it away. Loqi watched in fascination, unable to do anything else.

               “David,” Dr. Meridion was saying, pulling the needle from the dead woman and dropping it to the ground, trying to stop the connection. “David, you need to stop right now.”

               Ellie could take no more. He felt her mind screaming through his for him to let her go and he did instead of fighting the manipulation, which did not hurt. Her nails digging into his hands did hurt, however, and he wondered when that had happened because there were bloody gashes in the sides of his hands. She was leaning back, stiff, unable to move as the connection was broken, but somehow she had still managed to reach up and grab him, trying to tear herself away from the vision.

               “Eleanore,” he said, trying to force her limbs to move, to force her to react to him in any way. “Eleanore!” he called.

               She crumpled, and he felt a breath of relief. He had seen people broken from a link like that, because he had been the one who broke them. He did not want to break her, only to torture her soul. That had almost been too much on her, though. Going into someone’s mind to show them memories was rough, even for him. He could manipulate the memories any way he wished, but it would not keep it from being an intrusion. His illusions fooled the mind most of the time, which was less intrusive, it was just a trick that most people were susceptible to, but entering their minds and showing them a memory could change their entire being if not done carefully.

               Still, it was better to risk the link with her than it would have been to have had her seen the room, to have been standing there, helpless to do anything, listening to David scream.

               Ellie was panting from the ground but she was regaining control of herself. He reached a hand out to her which she smacked away. “You just watched,” she said to him.

               “I am not a healer, Eleanore,” he reminded her.

               “You could have gotten help,” she accused.

               “I didn’t want to,” he admitted. “I don’t care what happens to David.”

               “Then why are you helping me?” Ellie asked. “You could return me to Bastian and let him do… that to me.”

               “No, I can’t,” Loqi said.

               Ellie pushed to her feet, struggling to keep standing. He was impressed she was fighting it off. It might not be easy, but he had seen grown men who had taken a link like that and been down much longer. He continued to grow fascinated by her every move. They were alike, whether she wanted to admit it or not, but he still believed a lot of that was her naivete. If she saw more of the world she would know how cruel it really was.

               “I want my payment,” Loqi said.

               Ellie’s face scrunched up in rage. “After what you just showed me you still want that as a payment?”

               “Yes,” Loqi said, and he grabbed her, pulling her close again. Once again she stiffened, but this was different. This was not from control, this was simply her not wanting to pay him back. He stopped a breath away from her and said, “Tell me to stop and I won’t kiss you.”

               “Stop.”

               “You didn’t mean it,” Loqi laughed, he could not help it. There was no manipulation to it. No headache he had to fight off. He looked down at her again and said, “I guess I should have said say stop and mean it.”

               “You are horrid,” she told him, but her lips met his and he was pretty sure she was the one who leaned into it. It was clumsy, the young lady was definitely inexperienced, but it was enough for him to know that yes, he was going to do horrible things to protect her. Because he had not lied to her. He wanted to do an experiment of his own with her, and he wondered if he could turn her to agree with his views on the world. Between the two of them they could take the whole world, and possibly take Bastian down.

               He was the one who broke the kiss and pulled away. He watched her pink cheeks and said, “Eleanore, I think I might have to join your rebellion.”