Psychic Blanks

“The precogs are reporting some post-cognition reports. I've confirmed it with the authorities. Karden Lowen body was found dead,” Sherry's voice expressed concern over this.

“Good,” Dru said. “That's one less lunatic in the world.”

“He found the house of one of the employees that worked at the hospital,” she continued. “Kard killed the mother and may have tried to kill the children, according to police. However, we have come to believe the children were not in any immediate mortal danger. The emotional imprint left at the scene indicated a very happy and playful time, up until the mother had died. Things went fuzzy soon after that.”

“How did he die?” Jueqel asked.

“The police think it was an aneurism, but have not confirmed it. We have confirmed that Karden did die from blood vessel dilatations in the brain,” she was attempting to sound clinical, Nepal thought. “We could also tell it was deliberate.”

“Suicide?” Nepal asked. “Is that even possible for a psychic to do that?”

“Insane ones, I'd guess,” Etten said, shrugging.

“Dilations? You mean more than one?” Jueqel asked.

“Yes, that is correct,” Sherry answered. She smiled, apparently pleased that someone picked up on that fact. “He tried to fix something that was happening in his brain.”

“Fix what?” Nepal asked.

“Yes, fix what?” Jueqel asked.

“We have not determined that, as of yet, but it may be related to the medications that caused him to come around. We're looking into the matter.” She appeared expectant.

“You're holding out on us, Sherry,” Jueqel said. “Spill it.”

She playfully twisted her hands together, and looked as embarrassed as she ever had. “There was one thing that we're having trouble with. The children have been hard to track down. More specifically, the girl. We know where they are, but psychically, they are hard to see.”

Nepal spoke up, “I don't think Karden is dead.”

Everyone turned to face Nepal with the same questions, “Why?”

“I think I would have felt it,” He said. “I've been having these flashes of being in another place. It was a dream at first. I was at a house. The house had two children, a girl and a boy. There was a ocean fish game that we all played. I did not feel like myself. I had no control over the dream. There was a woman that was killed, I think. She hit her head on a table.”

“The mother is reported to have died from trauma from a head wound.” Sherry admitted. “However, we believe she was dead prior to that. Her life force had been in a standing position when it left her final living impression.”

Nepal continued, “I next dreamed about being in a hospital bed. There was a man that came in and something pushed him backward. He ran from the room.”

“You say these were dreams?” Etten asked.

Dru scoffed, “Dreams?”

“Yes, the first one was a dream, but the second one was after I ate breakfast,” Nepal looked apologetically toward Jueqel. He wanted to tell Jueqel then, but other things got on his mind and he soon forgot to mention it. He wasn't even sure it was real.

“When we attacked Karden,” began Kefen. “I felt I had lost something. Well, it wasn't me, it was that Nepal felt something had been lost. We all felt it while we were joined.”

Nepal remembered. “Yes, that's right. Something seemed to be missing there at the last.”

“I remember,” Dru admitted.

“You think that there is a link between you and Karden?” Etten asked.

“I think Nepal is just discovering his abilities,” Jueqel added, waving his hands as if the topic was going in the wrong direction.

“No, I think they have it right,” Nepal objected. “Something was lost to Karden. I think it was part of me. Something that...”

Jueqel interrupted, “that's impossible. Psychininas cannot loose parts of themselves, can th...” he trailed off to consider.

“Yes, I think we can,” Nepal said.

“So, what happened to Karden? If he's dead, how can he be going?” Dru asked.

“One of two things happened,” Sherry said in that I'm glad you asked perky tone. “The first is that Karden had time to manipulate the children's minds to be similar to his own. At least partially. We think he may have the ability to actually give blanks psychic abilities.”

Dru's fist slammed down on the table. “What!” It was not a question.

Sherry stepped back from the outrage and glanced at the exit. Obviously sizing up her escape route. “I...” was all she could manage to say.

Jueqel snapped a quick glare at Dru and mouthed, “calm down.”

Dru sat down, disgusted, and gave a grudging palms out, which indicated she should continue her briefing.

Sherry timidly stepped back up to the table. “Karden may have switched bodies with the girl. He may have had the ability to do that. If he did switch bodies, then he may or may not have replaced the girls mind with his own. If she is in there with him, she might be fighting to get her body back, but most likely she would know how. If she does fight back, then he might end up erasing all remnants of her mind from his new body.”

“The girl is either possessed by Karden or hypnotized by him?” Nepal asked.

Jueqel nodded, “that's a good analogy.”