Waiting

Cabe is still running. He is now almost to the lift cage, and the stairs next to it. The man adjusts the gun, and again a clap.

A shower of blood and bone, and Cabe falls. His impetus carries him a little way and then he sprawls, full length, his head inches from the lift door, blood pumping vigorously out onto the orange tiles.

‘Nooo!’

‘Shut up.’

‘No. No. No.’

‘Shut up!’ He turned and grabbed her by the throat, pulling her upright. Tee fought for air, clawing desperately at empty space. ‘He was with you wasn’t he? Wasn’t he? I fucking saw him! Fucking bitch! Now I’ll have to move on! Fucking goddamn bitch!’

He carried her by the throat, so that she had to walk on tiptoes to avoid being strangled, back into the room, and threw her down onto the side of the bed, banging her ribs against the bed frame. She cried out in pain, already having difficulty breathing through the racking, hysterical sobs that tore through her.

He grabbed her again by the neck. ‘No!’, she screamed again. But he just gripped tighter.

He pushed her onto the bed, her legs dangling over the side. ‘No!’

He let go briefly to slap her, hard, on the cheek, and then pushed her down again. He forced her legs apart, and she felt his penis, hard again already, brush against a leg. ‘No, no!’

‘Shut up!’ She felt the hard, cold muzzle of the gun against the back of the neck. ‘One more sound and then you’re joining the bastard. I’m just gonna get my money’s worth and then I’ll be on my way’. He shoved Tee’s face down into the mattress. She screamed noiselessly, and fought to breathe.

Then he pushed inside her. He had to push very hard, as Tee was completely dry. The world disappeared, and the pain made her see nothing but shades of blue and red, revolving, whirling around her. She screamed silently inside her head, fought to scream out loud. Fought to yell out a scream of hatred, and vengeance and pain.

And she found a voice to scream with.

Everyone on the planet Eden had a telepathic ability. It was born of a sense organ that earth humans do not have, buried deep within the brain. Occasionally an adept came along who could use their ability straight away with no training at all. Some were born that way, and some discovered how because of some chance incident. They often had higher levels of transmission and reception than many of those who had merely studied the techniques of improvement.

Her rapist had time for one brief high pitched squeal before it was cut short by the massive electric shock that shorted out his brain. He fell heavily on the floor, in a puddle of his own urine, a blubbery mass of dead flesh.

Tee lay for a while on the bed, her tears darkening the sheets, panting heavily. Slowly her breaths returned to normal, and she lifted up her head to look around.

She could hear voices, both near and far, asking questions. What was the noise? Should they go look? Is my wife alright? Where are the children? Have I got enough money for the night? I can’t find my keys, where are my keys? Where shall I go tomorrow?

The questions were all different, all from different sources, yet all confusingly similar. Do they do room service? Damn, where has that woman put my pants, for the god’s sake? Can I afford to give up this lousy job yet? Maybe he just isn’t attracted to me anymore, is that it?

Tee looked around, confused. She began to see faces in her head, overlaid on the room around her. A fat man, balding, with a pale moustache. A woman with curlers. A boy with buck teeth. A man with long, greasy hair. Two children, both under ten, running and laughing. A baby crying. A young girl, face contorted in anger.

‘Stop it!’ called Tee. She stood and looked down at the body at her feet, trousers round his ankles. She was dimly beginning to understand what had happened. She had heard of such things. She was hearing the voices of the people in the hotel, and just around it, repeated in her own voice. She had been through what they called breakthrough trauma, and it had saved her. The voices were confusing at first, loud and brash, but already they were beginning to fade, like a retreating crowd. Still there, but murmuring more distantly. The faces were harder to cope with, and she struggled to keep her balance. She was feeling slightly seasick.

She stepped over the body at her feet and remembered Cabe. She tottered unsteadily to the ruined door. She could hear people approaching, but was having some difficulty separating it from the voices. Still naked apart from the coat she zigzagged her way along the corridor to her brother.

The blood had stopped flowing and he lay silent, cold and still upon the floor. Tee sobbed again, began to wail, but she had no more tears left to give. She sank to her knees on the wet, sticky floor next to Cabe. She leaned over his ruined chest and bent over his head. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate.

I think it was on the sixth floor. We’ve had reports it was on seventh. You check sixth. I’m going to check the fifth. Put it away. It’s time to sleep, darling. Find it yourself.

Voices in her head, emotions of all colours. Anger, hate, pain, lust, love, hunger, boredom, frustration. She listened to them all, the weak, the poor, the rich the callous. All the while searching for even the tiniest hint of the voice of the child at her feet. Nothing.

Tee leaned back and sobbed, her hands and legs stained red, blood in her hair and on her chest. She sobbed and wailed, great racking sobs of self-pity and remorse she had not wept since she was tiny, lying in her mother’s lap. She wept alone in a sea of voices, and waited for them to reach her.