A Loner Mentalist

Edited by Over_Red

*******

For the past hour, Jack Watts had been sitting on the floor of the motel room with just his upper back propped up against the side of the bed. He had been all but broken by Jacobs taking away his powers and invading Mia's mind. He had eaten most of the pot cookies he had brought with him until the cartoon dog showed up out of the blue. It was sitting on the bed right now, staring at him with an expression that bordered on amused.

Jack sat up straight as he pulled his naked ass closer to the bed. He sighed with relief. He didn't know if it had been the pot, or the improvised ice pack, but his balls, face and gut didn't hurt anymore. He smoothed down his shaggy brown hair with repeated sweeps of his hand.

He looked again at the cartoon dog, who now had to sit up on the bed to be at eye level with Jack.

How is this possible? How can I still be clairvoyant when Jacobs took my power away from me?

The dog snorted. Jack spared another worried glance up at Mia. She stood over him in all her naked glory; a doppelganger of Megan Fox, but more beautiful than the starlet as far as Jack was concerned. Her bright blue eyes still gave no indication of seeing the cartoon. Jack focused on the dog again as it yipped and softly barked. Jack's jaw fell at the dog's meaning. It told him that Jacobs hadn't taken his power. No one could do that. Jacobs had merely obscured the memory of the first time Jack had ever used his power, thus preventing him from using it again.

In response to Jack's confused frown, the cartoon dog growled. It was the instruction for Jack to enter his meditative state. Jack drew a series of slow, deep breaths. His emotions had an almost complete control of his mind. His fear, his despair, his hurt at seeing Mia made into a true slave, his helplessness and his profound guilt at not having been able to protect her all worked together to try and overwhelm his desperate attempt to achieve a meditative state.

Jack persisted, beating down each and every emotion with a single-minded tenacity.

Either I get over myself, or I

am

over

. With each mighty breath of air that he drew and then slowly released, the countless worries lessened. It took him a short while until he finally finished focusing his mind. He opened his eyes to find himself in a classroom that was strangely proportioned, yet still seemed somehow familiar to him. He gasped when he recognized it. It was the same kindergarten he had attended as a toddler.

He was alone, except for the cartoon dog, which was now standing on its hind legs, wearing an old-timey schoolmaster's robe and hat. The dog cleared its throat and tapped a long stick against a blackboard that suddenly appeared behind him. "Focus, young man," the dog said, sounding like an aging Englishman, "you have much to learn and time is precious." Jack ignored the surprise of hearing his vision guide speak plainly in English and concentrated on the matter at hand.

The dog wrote "memories of using your power" on the blackboard and smacked the stick against the board so as to underline the word "memories". "Can you actually remember using your power?"

"Well...obviously, yes, I can remember that I did use my power multiple times, it's just that..."

"Can you remember the actual usage of the power?"

Jack frowned as he concentrated. He shook his head after a moment. "No. I can't remember using it. I can remember the many situations

when

I used it, I can remember

why

I used it, I can remember

what

I used it for, I just can't remember

how

I was able to use it."

The dog sighed and nodded. "Yes, just as I thought. To undo the damage, you must first understand it." Jack's heart fluttered as he realized he had a shot to restore his power. He fought hard to keep his excitement at bay. It was not compatible with a deep meditative state.

The dog snapped his fingers and the lights went out. Jack found himself in the movie theater. The dog's stuffy, British voice narrated a movie that was playing on the big screen. The movie opened with a shot of the human brain. "In order to conserve space and energy, the brain makes only one copy of every memory." The brain was then replaced by a diagram, in the shape of an inverted pyramid. "When the brain learns new things, it combines the old information with the new to make knowledge. Here is a simplified example of how the concept of properly touching a ball allows us to play basketball."

Jack examined the diagram. At the bottom of the pyramid, in bold letters, the words, "touch the ball with fingertips only" were written. On the next level were statements of how to direct the ball with one's fingertips and how to bestow a rotation to it. In the level above, those combined to allow for dribbling the ball, shooting at the basket in a high arc that results in a nothing but net, or shooting in a low arc with a spin that makes the ball bounce back into the hands of the team in offense, if the shot was missed. As the levels went higher, the concepts got more complicated and included other ideas, but Jack got the gist of it.

"I get it," he said. "If you were to forget to handle the ball with fingertips only, you'd turn into a chucker."

The dog smiled. "Correct. It is by exploiting this simple feature of the brain that Jacobs had disabled your power. He has deleted your memory of first using your power. That is the bedrock upon which your mentalist skill rests."

"So, how do I undo it?"

"You must sift through the aether to find the memory of when you had first used your power and re-learn it. Once you do, all the knowledge you possess that is built upon that memory will be reassembled in your brain."

"That's it?" Jack chuckled. "Heh, that's easy! Here we go!" He thought back hard on when he had first used his power. It was the time he had first learned that his mother had been cheating on his father.

Images of Jack attending the cinema, of him walking around with half his collar turned up and of him startling Spot at night zipped by on the screen as his memory settled back to the day when he had first learned of his mother's infidelity. With a flick of a finger, he wound the film from when he was helping a bunch of townie kids knock their basketball loose to when he was in the emergency room, getting his knee stitched up. He frowned. He couldn't quite remember exactly when during the day it had happened. It was the most pivotal moment of his life and yet, he had to examine his entire aether footprint of that day to figure it out.

"Why are there so many of my memories?" he asked the dog.

"They have not yet faded," the dog replied. "If you take a stroll down your aether record in twenty years, half of these will be but strands of mist against the backdrop of a gloomy day." Jack looked over at the dog sitting next to him in the audience and raised an eyebrow. The dog shrugged. "I am

your

vision guide. An extension of you, yourself. My language is your language."

"Then why'd you call me a dumbass?" The dog's snout bore a sardonic grin as he shot Jack a look. "Whatever," he said and faced forward again. On the screen, he was wheeled out of the emergency room and the next five days of his recovery were represented by a brief montage of him eating ice cream in front of the TV.

So, before the emergency room

.

He rewound the film to when he was leaving the basketball court and walking home. He let it play from there and watched himself tumble over a bench he should have been able to jump over. He saw his thoughts at the time, the fascination of how bone looked and the fear of being crippled. He flushed in embarrassment as he watched himself hobble home, screaming like a stuck pig.

That's not how it had gone down, I'm sure of it

.

"Yes, it is," the dog said. "The aether contains nothing but true and exact memories as they really happened. The human brain constantly alters memories that it revisits, editing out the things it doesn't like, or can't handle, and embellishing others. If the aether shows that you screamed like a little bitch, then you did that, even if you don't want to admit it to yourself."

Jack grunted in annoyance. He focused on the screen. The movie unpaused to show he had skipped all the way home and seen his mother right outside the house. She had berated him for his behavior, but when she had seen his injury, she had shared his emotions of fascination at the sight of bone and fear that he would be crippled.

Needles and pins went through Jack when he felt it for the second time; that timeless moment when he had lost all his senses. He had no body attached to himself, so no sights, smells, touch or sounds could intrude into his innermost being. He had existed with just his thoughts. Immediately after that moment, he had thought his mother's thoughts, but that instant of utter senselessness was the foundation of his power. Turning off his other senses was the key to being a mentalist.

As Jack perceived the moment, he felt his power come alive again.

Yes!

The memories of every time he used his power restored themselves in his mind, one by one. With half a thought, he burned away all the suggestions Jacobs had put in his mind.

He laughed in his seat and wiped his face as the relief washed over him. A tiny thing was bugging him, from somewhere just beyond his notice. He was going to pull his cloak up, but he stopped and asked the dog, "How come I was still clairvoyant? Didn't reading the aether hinge on me being able to quiet my senses, too?"

The dog sighed and shook his head. "Your clairvoyance is a part of you, just as your power is. Neither can be taken away from you. Non-mentalist people hallucinate upon taking hallucinogens; mentalists become one with the aether. Even if Jacobs had deleted the memory of our first meeting, you would still perceive the aether every time you partook of hallucinogens."

"Well, that's good to know." Something was still bugging him, like a very faint itch he couldn't even locate, let alone scratch. He postponed pulling up his cloak and ending the vision, yet again. "So, there is no aether recording of how that asshole manipulated my mind?"

"None whatsoever," the dog confirmed.

"Damn." Jack thought back to the orders he could still remember Jacobs had given him. They had been so bare. When he placed thoughts into another's mind, he sent along concepts, images, feelings, the whole shebang. When Jacobs had put his orders into Jack, they had come in the form of bare text. There had been no feelings attached to them, no imagery to make them more palatable, no concepts to ease their assimilation.

How does one send just bare text?

Jack dwelled on that question, guessing that the answer to it was the key to understanding Jacobs' ability to cloak and attack at the same time. The irksome thing kept thrumming at the edges of his awareness, disrupting his train of thought. He growled and looked around for it. After a few moments, he spotted a small flicker in the lower right-hand corner of the film screen. Jack focused on it and it kept growing larger until it was clearly visible. It was a few strings of the aether and they were being repeatedly plucked by a mind near him. With an exertion of his will, they soon grew to cover half the screen.

Just watching the strings being twanged repeatedly on the screen was telling him nothing, so he concentrated on translating the vibrations into picture and sound. An image of Jamie Jacobs' leering grin came on the screen, accompanied by Mia's voice chanting, "I am a willing slave of Master Jacobs. I have no false masters, only Him. I am a willing slave of Master Jacobs-"

Jack roared in wrath. The entire theatre shook as fires broke out. The walls came tumbling down and Jack found himself back in the motel room, snarling up at Mia. Except that he wasn't snarling at her. He could practically see Jacobs' face inside her beautiful blue irises. He could hear her submissive chant in every beat of her heart. He exhaled and his breath felt like dragonfire upon his chin. The edges of his vision filled up with red as his heart beat loud in his own ears. All the burning wrath that was in him suddenly left his head and he blinked his eyes to find himself back in his seat in the theater.

"What was that?"

"You got so angry you couldn't remain one with the aether and then you burned away all the things Jacobs had put in Mia's mind this morning. She's free from his influence."

Jack sighed with profound relief. Just as he did that, the theater began to shake violently. "Now what?!" Before the dog could answer Jack, the walls started to crumble and Jack could see Mia's tearful face through the cracks. He realized she was trying to shake him awake and he pulled his cloak around his mind to sever his connection to the aether and end the vision.

He opened his eyes and saw relief wash over Mia's tearful features. She fell atop him and spread her arms around his sides. She made wordless exclamations of delight. He could feel the moisture upon her cheeks as her face pressed into the side of his neck.

"It's ok," he said. "It's all going to be alright, Mia. I promise you." His voice sounded distorted and there was an echo to it. He managed to slide his arms out from under her body and returned her hug. She was bawling terribly. He began to feel a freakout coming his way.

Shit, I'm still high

. He decided to let her have a cry while he dropped his cloak and returned to the theater, which was again whole. All traces of his high vanished the instant he dropped his cloak. "Can Jacobs reach me in here?" he asked the dog.

The dog shook his head. "Actually, no, he can't. You're one with the aether. He can't put thoughts into you while you're one with the aether. He also can't read your mind while you're here. I don't know if he can read your memories of the things you learn here, but it seems like he can't."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier? Like, any of the other times I became one with the aether?"

"You didn't know any of those things before. I am an extension of your subconscious. My knowledge is informed by your experiences. Now that your mind has been manipulated by another-while you slept-we know a great deal more about how things really work."

"Makes sense," Jack quietly said. He let go of his attempts to discern the true nature of mentalism. He had a more pressing matter to deal with. If Jacobs had really known all that Jack had learned while he had communed with the aether, he certainly wouldn't have made the mistake of leaving Jack with a way out of this mess. That meant that he was safe while in the theater. Safe to look for him. Jack focused on the face and voice of Jamie Jacobs and waited to see a movie start playing on the screen.

No movie came.

Jack growled in frustration. Even now that he knew Jacobs' name and face, his memories were still unavailable. "So, he's from, like, the west coast, or Alaska, or someplace."

"Or New England, or Florida, or Canada, or-"

"Yes, thank you," Jack said, cutting off the dog. "I guess I'll just have to get the Maynards to find this guy's home town for me, so I can go there and learn his weaknesses." As he said that, the screen showed Chrissie cheerfully handing out freshly-baked cookies to all the girls as they passed her security station at the group home and then Drew attending a serious meeting with FBI agents. Jack dismissed the films with a flick of a finger and sighed. "Wish I could find him in real time, though." The screen came alive with the broadcast of Jamie Jacobs addressing a mass of seated people in an auditorium. Jack's jaw dropped. "Is this real time?"

"Yes," the dog said. "You're watching him through the eyes of a devoted follower."

"How?!"

"This person is...obsessed with Jacobs and desires to be with him every day of his life. Your desire to get close to the man was similar enough to their own desire to allow you to peek into their mind."

"Oh, right," Jack said. He had spied on Mia in real time once, though he had had to rush to save her from getting raped back then. He had also thought he had seen the future at the time, so he never really explored the possibility of real-time snooping. Jack twirled a finger in the air to work the imaginary controls for the screen. Now that he was locked on to the mind of the obsessed fan, the movie rewound to when the follower had driven up to the venue and parked. Jack took note of the address. "I know where that is! That's right around the corner from the University campus in the city! I'm going there to end this!" Jack's mind whirled with thoughts as he rapidly formulated and rejected one plan of attack after another. He shook his head. "Ugh! While I'm sitting here on my ass, high as a kite, I'm risking him checking on Mia and finding his mantra gone from her mind. If he does that, he'll cut his show short and disappear. Then I'll be back on defense until he gets me again and there will be no third chances." Jack sighed. "I need to finish this now." He turned to the dog. "I need to get all my resources and drive to Jacobs immediately. I'll formulate a battle plan on the way over."

"A good plan of action," the dog said, "but you ate a

lot

of cookies. You will be high after you raise your cloak."

"Shit," Jack said. He looked at the screen. The image of Mia sniffling in his arms was shown on it. Jack sighed sadly. "Goddamnit. I need her to drive me over there, right now."

"You do," the dog said.

"I need to go pick her brain and...intervene."

"You do."

"Fuck." He hated himself for messing with Mia's mind, but he had very few options he could take if he was to catch Jacobs in time. He needed to go, right now. Reluctantly, he focused on Mia's emotional state.

The screen showed a close up of Mia's tearful expression. "I'm so sorry," she bawled. "I don't know what came over me! I don't know why I hurt Jack! I don't know why I hit him! I don't know why I..." She reacted with revulsion. "Why I sucked that guy off and then fed his cum to Jack. I'm so, so, sorry! Please, God, forgive me! Please, God, grant me mercy! Wash away my sin! I'll pay any penance!"

Jack looked at the dog. The dog raised his paws apologetically and said, "Hey, don't look at me! You're the one that erased everything that asshole put in her head in a flash of anger. She can remember

what

she had done, she just can't remember the

why

. So, she filled in the blanks with it all being her fault for having sinned. Her head's messed up that way, you know that."

Before Jack could formulate the best thoughts to put into Mia's head to get her to calm down and be helpful, he frowned. "Wait a minute. I can't put thoughts into her mind while I'm one with the aether, can I?"

The dog shook his head. "Being one with the aether is, to use computer parlance, a read-only thing."

"Well, fuck," Jack said, realizing his predicament. "I'm high as a kite and I'm gonna be high as a kite, for quite some time. If I raise my cloak to end the vision, I can't influence her mind. Not with my cloak up. If I drop my cloak to go writing in her mind, I wind up here, with you, instead." Jack raised his arms. "How the fuck am I supposed to go get Jacobs before he slips away?"

"You could try to get really, really angry again," the dog suggested, half-jokingly.

Jack shot him a look. "I don't think I'll ever again be as angry as that."

"You have two options. You can either hang here with me until the hallucinogens you've ingested are used up by your power, or you can raise your cloak to end this vision and try to somehow get into Mia's mind, despite being high and cloaked."

"I don't have the time for option one and option two is impossible." Jack punched his fists against the armrests of his seat. "There has to be something I can do!"