The Gift: Day 04

"Obviously," Jesse looked at her clothes.

"Yeah, obviously," Elena pointed to the hickies on his stomach. Jesse smiled sheepishly and felt a hot embarrassed blush rise in his cheeks. She said, "I think I know why Daniel hasn't been able to control you or me."

"Okay."

"He tried to get inside my head after the mob took me," she said, "But it was like he couldn't break through my head. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't do it."

"How did you stop him?"

"That's the funny thing," she smiled and laughed a little, "I didn't even try. I should have been really scared, but I wasn't. I think being afraid makes it easy for him to control people."

"Fear?" Jesse frowned, "You mean everyone in this town is afraid?"

"It could be anything," she ventured and thought for a minute, "The kids in the bio class ... I mean come on, who isn't scared in high school? Afraid of not being popular, of not being good enough, of not graduating, of not being loved ... all of us have that inside us. I think Daniel takes our fear, whatever it might be and uses it to get inside. I think he does it without even knowing it."

Jesse looked at her, "And you're not afraid?"

"I guess I'm just as afraid as anyone else," Elena said, "But at that moment, I was angry. It's not ruling me, you know? He couldn't find a way in."

Jesse leaned back in the seat and thought about what she was saying.

"It could also explain why you're having a harder time with this 'gift'," she added, "You're afraid of what you might become because of it. You feel guilty over what happened that first night."

"I don't get it."

"Remember what Madame Helena said? She told us that the gift doesn't favor those with strong morals or conscience. If you've been feeling guilty and convicted over something you've done, then it's not going to be as strong."

"That makes sense," Jesse bit on his thumbnail for a moment, "But tonight I was able to use the power like Daniel did. I tossed Mrs. Brewster off me with my mind right before she tried to kill me. And then I bent that lamp post to get rid of Bozo back there."

"How were you feeling?" she asked.

Jesse thought, "Angry. But I also felt calm too. It was weird."

"Anger," Elena said, "Anger is what keeps the power out."

Jesse looked out the window and thought for a moment. He then said, "Ever since Madame Helena gave us the gift, I've been feeling scared and guilty. I haven't been really angry until tonight."

"It's time to get pissed then," Elena smiled and then jumped, her eyes wide.

Behind them in the shadows, a window shattered and the night became alive with the sound of running feet and shouting voices. The woods around Castleton Rock echoed with angry yells and almost feral expressions of rage as Daniel's impromptu army charged forward. And then they appeared in the dim light, pale and naked and reduced to animal instincts as they jabbered and slobbered their way towards the VW bug. Elena slammed the car into gear and kicked up dust and gravel behind her as the car surged forward.

Rocks and garbage hailed down on the body of the bug as the mob tried to keep up. From somewhere in the crowd a flaming bottle of whiskey arched into the night sky and then plummeted towards the car. It smashed on the hood and spread a liquid coating of fire that splashed down through the broken windshield and on to the dashboard.

"Holy shit!" Jesse yelled and grasped the dash cover with one hand. His skin burned as he yanked and flipped it out and away from them through the window. He hissed and covered his burnt hand protectively to his stomach as Elena slapped her smoldering steering wheel cover with both hands. She tore it off and threw it out as her car burned. She turned suddenly and barreled towards the freeway onramp heading south. Flaming alcohol spilled away to the road and drizzled down the side of the car.

They entered the freeway still blazing and almost collided with a huge eighteen wheeler. It blared its horn as Elena jockeyed her tiny car through the traffic. The fire on the hood suffocated in the wind and died down as the flaming whiskey was blown from the car and to the road. The engine groaned and the tail pipe sputtered as Elena pressed the gas pedal to the floor. She coaxed the car up to sixty-five and roared down the freeway until they reached a rest stop. She almost missed it completely as the right front tire blew out and sent the car into a mad wobble and turn.

"Hang on!" she screamed, trying to correct the birthing skid. The bug leapt up over the triangular divider between the off ramp and the freeway. It caught air for a moment and then slammed back to the ground. Sparks flew from underneath the car as the rubber of her mangled tire ripped and tore away, exposing the rim to blacktop. Jesse suddenly reached over and buckled his seat belt as they careened down the incline of the ramp, jerking to and fro. Elena turned the wheel and sent the car into the shoulder. Gravel and dirt spewed in all directions as the rough surface slowed them down and shook the entire vehicle.

In a cloud of dust the bug came to a stop, it's body burnt black and smoking as the headlights blazed into the night. The brake lights flashed for a minute and then went dark. After a long moment, Elena released her foot from the brake pedal. Jesse sat still, his arms locked against the door and seat and his eyes so wide Elena thought they might pop out. He looked over to her and exhaled a long release of tension. He said, "Nice driving."

"Well," she shrugged, looked at her burned dashboard and sighed, "I don't like to brag."

Jesse saw lights emerging from the fading cloud of dust and smoke. The neon sign of the rest stop was about a hundred yards away, nestled in the thick pine and cedar trees. There were a couple cars parked there, but not enough people to ask any questions. He said, "I gotta pee."

"Me too."

Jesse motioned to the rest stop and said, "Can you drive this heap to your aunt's house?"

Elena shrugged, "That depends."

"On what?"

She nodded to the right front end of the car, "Can you change a tire?"

***

Daniel rubbed his jaw. It throbbed with a dull pain that wasn't terribly comfortable. Still, he preferred that to the painfully sharp swelling in his battered testicles.

He had wanted her to know how much he appreciated her by giving her clothes that were more in line with his view of beauty, by giving her the very finest his town had to offer. He had gone to all that trouble to make Elena feel wanted and sexy, and she had rejected him out of hand. More than that, she had openly defied him. He supposed that she could be forgiven for saying no to him. She could even be forgiven for her harsh words and blatant disrespect for him. Truly, how was she to know what he had become? How was she to know that he was superior in every way?

She had yet to be educated.

But, the bitch had broken his balls. Somehow she had found a way to block his power and resist him. She had made him doubt his own gift and caused him to have a moment of hesitation. It was that moment she used to overcome him. And then to add insult to injury, she had punched him like he was some little cunt. He had felt his hold on the town slip a little when she knocked him out. In the darkness, he had felt the snare loosen over all them. He figured that's probably why Jesse was able to escape Diane and Tina.

Daniel stood in the darkened main drag of his town, a lonely tyrant whose subjects were too filled with fear of retribution to face him. They had let Jesse and Elena escape. He knew they didn't understand what was at stake here. The fact that they had made it out of Castleton Rock meant that there was the possibility of outside interference now. While the gift offered him a vast array of powers, Daniel was not so vain as to believe he didn't have limitations still. The carnival had been unlucky enough to stop in town over night. It had been more for his protection than amusement to keep them here in the celebration of the liberation of Castleton Rock. The few motorists that had come into town during his coup today had been easily taken over, but he wondered just how many he could control.

"It doesn't matter," he told himself.

Soon he would be the master of the gift, the sole possessor of the unearthly power Madame Helena had so foolishly given them. When that happened, it wouldn't matter how many people came into Castleton Rock. He wouldn't have to lift a finger to cloud their thoughts and ease them into his order. Before that could come to pass, though, he would have to rid himself of the competition.

Jesse was like another suitor for the favor of the power. Every time Daniel was near his former friend, he could feel the battle between them for control. The power favored Daniel, of that much he was absolutely sure. But there was a small part of the intangible fabric of its' nature that was interested in his opponent in the same way it was fascinated with him. The gift could almost be like an indecisive bitch loving two men at the same time. He imagined that was also why Jesse had escaped his trap.

He was learning and beginning to understand.

Daniel shook his head and walked back towards the quiet carnival. There were people strewn allover the sidewalks and street, their legs broken or backs crushed from the daring escape his friends had made. He looked down on them as they moaned and cried from the pain. He wanted to feel sympathy and compassion for them, but he couldn't. The fact of the matter was, he simply did not care. He didn't care about them anymore than he had cared when the couch had dropped on Erin's face earlier that morning and killed her.

"Please," someone called from down by his left foot.

Daniel looked and saw the mangled body of one of the clowns that had come in with the carnival. His white painted face was spattered with blood, his nose broken and his legs bent backwards at an impossible angle. The man's back had been broken when the lamppost bent down and scraped him off the car. The once jovial funnyman looked to his master with tear filled eyes and said, "I'm dying."

"Yes you are," Daniel agreed.

"Please help me," the clown asked as blood trickled from his mouth into the wild tufts of his orange hair.

"You're in great pain?" Daniel knelt down and looked into his servants' eyes. The man behind the greasepaint had fallen under his whims like everyone else had. When that had happened, his life became property that belonged to Daniel. And Daniel was responsible for him now, in life and death.

The clown tried to nod his head, "Yes ... and I can't feel my legs."

"You want me to end your pain?"

"Please?" the clown asked desperately.

Daniel looked around and saw the moonlit faces of his citizens looking at him from the shadows of the dark buildings. Occasionally, the yellow lights from the center of the carnival would flash across the walls and windows and reveal them to his sight. They were looking to him to be merciful, to be kind and gracious as anyone in power should be. Daniel took a deep breath and looked at the clown. He asked softly, "Do you have a family?"

"A wife," he gurgled and convulsed for a second, and then, "Two daughters." Daniel nodded, "Do you believe they love you?"

"Yes I do."

He put his hand on the clown's forehead, "What is your name?"

"Jack Skinner."

"Jack," he repeated and closed his eyes, opening himself up to the outer world and reaching out to find Jack's wife as he simultaneously searched the clown's memories. After a short minute, Daniel found her. He could see her in their home, not too far from Castleton Rock actually. Jack's two daughters were sleeping in their bunk bed, and in his mind's eye he saw them smiling and content. But Jack's wife ... well, she was busy in their bedroom.

"Your wife is cheating on you at this very moment," Daniel told him flatly, "As you lay dying, she is filling her mouth with another man's cock, Jack."

"No," the clown said.

"Yes," Daniel corrected him and then let the vision pass from his mind to the clown's brain. His arm and hand acted as a conductor for the psychic energy as they watched the vision together. The clown named Jack began to cry and Daniel only showed him a few seconds more of the adulterous habits of his beloved wife. He released Jack from his grip and stood tall. Daniel's face was impassive and harsh in the warm lights. He watched his servant weep over his broken heart, a pain Daniel knew was worse than that of his broken body.

''Women,'' Daniel thought of Elena and felt a surge of righteous anger, "Are traitorous whores. All women are, Jack."

The clown only cried.

"I'm truly sorry Jack."

"Please ... "

"I release you," Daniel held his hand out, palm open and fingers wide. The people hiding in the shadows watched silently.

Daniel then made a sudden hard fist. The clown cried out, his voice high pitched and watery as his skull cracked and inwardly crushed under an invisible force. The bone shattered and caved in as though it made of Styrofoam. His screams stopped as his painted face collapsed in on itself with a grotesque squelching sound. Blood and gray matter gushed from his destroyed eye sockets and nose in a disgusting flood. The clown named Jack spasmed and then died on Main Street of Castleton Rock, California.

Daniel turned to the empty street and addressed those in hiding, "Am I not merciful?"

He felt that as a man possessed of a god's powers, he should also show them mercy. He had been harsh on them. He had been brutal on Erin and his parents, and even on Jesse back in the gym of the high school yesterday. If he was going to claim the power of a god, then he should also display the mercy of a god. He knew that he wasn't a deity, but the temptation to think of himself as one was becoming more and more irresistible with each passing moment.

"Am I not merciful?" he shouted into the streets, his voice echoing.

He looked down at the dead clown. Who but a god could decide who lived and who died with such absolute impunity? Who but a god could bend the people to his will in such a definitive way? He felt comfort in thinking of himself as a "God in Training." But if he was a god among men, then what did that make Jesse?

He felt a sudden tingling in his stomach, a strange exuberance that electrified his fingers and toes as he looked at his balled up fist. He opened his hand slowly and looked at the vessel of the gift, the chosen tool for using the power. His eyes were alive and wide as he realized the truth about his destiny. All his time being stepped on and made fun of by others had been a test of his character. Those horrible times had been the fire in which his metal was smelted and purified. How could he have ever known what it meant to give mercy unless he had experience an existence without it?

For the first time in his life, Daniel began to understand who he really was.

"I am merciful," he whispered.

No one replied.

They didn't need to.