Mindbender

Some stories don’t work out the way they’re supposed to. As your humble narrator, it would give me no greater pleasure than to recount to you the epic battle of good versus evil that led up to the events I will now be passing on to you. However, our protagonist has made a few mistakes along the way. It would not be fair to her to divulge the rising actions she no longer has access to. I must tell her story as she remembers it, that is, without any recollection of events prior to this day: June 16, 2030. Our story begins on a train.

Kara didn’t dare move her hands. She squeezed her eyes closed as tightly as she could, and then pressed her fingers into them for good measure. Panic was rising in her chest.

She knew her name. She knew her age. She knew that the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell. But for some reason she could not recall a single event that had taken place before this very moment.

Though she’d have preferred the comfort of closed eyes until she could piece together a single thing that had happened, the sound of a slide door broke her concentration.

“Kara,” The man sighed in relief as he slid into the train cabin. He took a seat on the luxurious velvet seat across from her. “Thank god I found you. We don’t have much time.”

Kara stared back in complete bewilderment.

“Did they hurt you?” He asked, concerned.

“I-...I’m sorry. It would appear I don’t know who you are. Or who I am, really… In fact, I don’t know anything!”

The man buried his face into his hands, mirroring the pose Kara was in moments prior. He had black hair messily strewn across his forehead, sapphire eyes, and pale skin. He was tall, and a bit lanky, but looked like he could put up a fight–and by the cuts and bruises on his hands and face, Kara figured he’d been in one.

“Oh god, Kara. This is really bad timing.” He took a deep breath. “Listen, what I’m about to say is not going to make any sense, but you need to listen to me very carefully. Your life, our lives depend on it. You got that?”

Kara’s puzzled expression did not waver.

“Nod if you understand,” He demanded.

Kara nodded.

“There are some bad people on this train, ok? They are the reason you cannot remember what's going on alright, they took that from you. And now they’re trying to get between us”–he circled his hand in the air above them–“and safety.”

She nodded again.

“Don’t worry, Kara. I’m here now, and they can’t do anything else to you while I am, alright? I’m Wes.” He held out his hand.

Kara shook his hand reluctantly.

“Ok. This train is headed directly for the city center. All we need to do is stay on this train until we reach the outer boundary. We can’t be too many miles out at this point. The only problem with that is–”

The cabin lurched suddenly, like the train was a snow globe being shaken. Loud, metallic screeches indicated it landed back on the tracks. Kara whimpered, even more confused than she had been before Wes entered the room.

“Jonas,” Wes growled under his breath. “We gotta move Kara, just… whatever you do, keep moving. Follow me, and don’t fall more than five steps behind, alright? Any further, and I won’t be able to protect you from them.”

Kara didn’t have the luxury of making demands. Wes was already on his feet and out the door before she got a word out, his hand reaching back in to snatch her wrist when she didn’t move quick enough.

The adrenaline kept her from falling behind. They made their way up to the train carriage, Kara taking notice of various broken windows and splintering ceiling as they did. Her mind was reeling with who the enemies were they ran from, but the only names she could place were from history books and movies: none of which were likely to be making an appearance in her own life.

Wes was incredibly fast. Kara struggled to keep up with him as they reached the end of the carriage. He slid open the door to the outdoor air, tracks moving swiftly below them. He leaned forward and opened the door to the next carriage, hopped across, and swung around, motioning for Kara to follow.

She moved just a little too slow, still mesmerized by the reality of seeing the ground below them. Certain death if she slipped and missed the next doorway.

Suddenly, her mind burned with pain. An incomparable pain, pulsating over her entire skull, that sent her straight to her knees, screaming.

Relief only came when Wes hopped back over and helped her to her feet. She was now understanding what he meant by being the only one who could protect her. They hopped across the gap between the train carriages and continued running.

By the time they’d almost reached the end of the second carriage, Kara was overwhelmed. She grabbed onto Wes’s wrist–ensuring he didn’t get five steps ahead–and begged him “Please… Wes… I am so confused. What the hell was that?”

He had desperation in his eyes, and Kara knew he was thinking can we not do this later?

Wes didn’t get the chance to respond. On the back end of the carriage, through the very doors they jumped through moments earlier, two new bodies jumped across.

The first was a bulky man with dark features and the second a thin girl with wildly red curls. Kara felt Wes stiffen next to her.

“Wes!” The redheaded girl growled, an animal-like edge to her voice. “You bastard.”

The man with her held a soft expression as he looked at Kara, contrary to the intimidating nature of his demeanor.

“Kara,” He called to her. “Kara… listen to me. You need to get away from that man right now.”

Kara shifted her gaze from the newcomers back to Wes, but did not waver. All she knew was that the man beside her was protection, while away from him was skull-crushing pain.

“Who are you people?” Kara demanded.

“Kara, please. It’s Jonas and Faye. We’re your… friends.” His voice dropped at the last word, like there was more to it than ‘friends’ described. “That man is against everything we stand for. He betrayed us, Kara.”

“I betrayed her!” Wes shouted, half-laughing with wild eyes. “I wasn’t the one that erased her memory!”

Jonas lowered his gaze to the little redheaded girl, Faye, at his side. His eyes narrowed.

“Oh whatever, all of you! We had a pact and I stuck to it. Any of us get captured by the regime, and I fry your brain. That includes going willingly, too!” She threw her hands up in the air, defensive.

Wes turned towards Kara and moved his face nearer. “Kara, we’ve lost, alright? The regime has taken everything from us. Jonas and Faye are trying to stop us from reaching safety–from reaching your mother, Kara. She’s stuck in that city! You were coming with me to find her.”

“We’ll find another way. We’ll get your mother back without turning ourselves over to be made into soldiers, god damnit!” Jonas yelled back.

Kara wanted to crawl into a ball and cry. She didn’t have any memory of a family either, but certainly if she could remember, and knew her mother was in danger… she’d do anything in her power to save her… right?

An impossibly loud screech came over the hall, and Kara felt her gravity shifting forward as the train began to halt. Wes banged the wall and cursed under his breath, turning to face Jonas with a fury. Jonas’s hands were flat against the floor of the train, as if willing it to a stop.

“I can’t take them both,” Wes pleaded, reaching out a hand. “We need to keep moving.”

Kara hesitated. She didn’t know what to think. When she didn’t move, Wes opened the train door, now with unmoving ground below them, and grabbed her by her wrists. As he tried to forcibly remove her from the train, bit of railway line started to break off into shards and aimed straight for Wes’s head.

Jonas had been moving closer. “Don’t you dare ever lay a finger on her.” His voice was low and deadly serious.

With the wave of his hand, Wes immobilized the shards, gravity sending the back to the ground. He ran out from between the train carriages, and off in the direction the it was previously headed.

Jonas and Faye raced towards Kara. She curled up against the wall of the train, burying her head into her hands again and praying to wake up from this nightmare.

Jonas dropped onto his knees next to her, moving to hold his arms around her, but hesitated. Faye stood a few steps back.

“I am so sorry, Kara.” He placed his hand on hers. “I know this must be so confusing.”

Kara began to cry, afraid of these newcomers she had just been running from, afraid of the man who she thought was protecting her, and afraid of what the hell these three could do with their minds.

“What are you people?” She pleaded.

“We people.” Faye snapped.

“We have… powers. We all do. Faye can create mental pain, pain so intense it can destroy memories.”

“And even kill you… if I wanted to.” Faye winked.

“But she didn’t,” Jonas continued. “Wes can protect himself. He’s immune to Faye. He could probably even knock a missile out of the air if it was aimed at him, though the regime hasn’t tried that on us yet. He betrayed us by going to them. With him on their side… it’s going to be nearly impossible to take them down. They’re trying to use people like us against the masses.”

Kara finally looked into Jonas’s eyes. They were a warm, honey brown, in stark contrast to the deep blue of Wes’s. There was something familiar inside them, a glimmer of a past-life.

“Like us?” She whispered, now unable to draw her eyes from his.

“Yes, you Kara, you can create fire from nothing. You are the most powerful of all of us. Our secret weapon.” The corner of his mouth went up into a smile as Faye scoffed.

“As for me…” Wes continued. As his hand continued to rest on her, he began to trace her fingers, landing on a thin silver band on her finger. “I can work with metal.”

She noticed as he stared at the silver band, a matching one was tied to a chain around his neck.

This was going to be a lot to process.