Awaening

All characters who participate in sexual activity in this story are 18 years or older.

WRITER'S NOTES:

This story contains elements of the Sharing, Group Sex, and Incest, if you're offended by those elements, don't read this.

THANKS:

A thank you goes out to NEUROPARENTHETICAL for the amazing editing, and making this story easier to read. And another thanks goes out to SARKASMUS, and others for taking a look at the story and giving me feedbacks.

Note on Story:

The first part of the story was posted as

Incest/Taboo

, because it did [kind of] have an incestuous scene at the beginning. And since the story as a whole has superpowers and magic in it, I decided to post this one as

Sci-Fi & Fantasy

.

I hope you all enjoy and I would like any HELPFUL feedback.

#

ARJUN'S MIND

Arjun immediately, silently shouted at himself.

What the fuck, you idiot? You could have just said 'no.' Made up a lame excuse. Told a bunch of white lies. Oh my god. You're so stupid!

He couldn't really disagree with himself, and meanwhile, Marianna and Paco were all set to start the process.

Idiot. Idiot! Just say you and Meera were sexting and sending each other naked pics, and so you don't want them seeing all that. It's barely even a lie. It's a little bit of embarrassment to save yourself from so much more.

"Great," Marianna said, clapping her hands together. She walked over to Arjun's side. "Give me your hand."

"Huh?" Arjun jerked back, confused. "Why?"

"My my," Marianna said, "somebody's very sensitive and suspicious all of a sudden. I just need to make physical contact, Arjun, and it's just your hand in mine. It's not like I'm asking you to cop a feel of my breasts -- as if you even waited for permission the first time."

Arjun's eyes widened, shocked by what Marianna had just said.

"I'm just messing with you," Marianna said. "It was an accident, and all is forgiven." Then she rolled her eyes, switching in an instant from playful to impatient. "Just give me your hand, or else I can't go into your mind."

Arjun cautiously held his hand out to Marianna, allowing her to interlace her fingers with his.

"

Amor

, ready?"

"Yes," Paco said. "Arjun, look over here."

Paco motioned for Arjun to look into his eyes. Arjun did so, unable to hide his discomfort. Even in the best of circumstances, he wasn't sure he'd like being on the other side of his own powers.

Arjun tried his best to not take his eyes off Paco's -- even if it felt uncomfortable -- by studying the colour of his irises. They were brown -- almost a sand-like colour. The pupils looked as if they were inviting Arjun to get lost inside of them. Suddenly, they dilated, covering nearly the entirety of his irises, leaving only a faint corona of silver around them. Arjun suddenly realised that he could barely move his own body. He felt tied down -- not completely immobilised, but restrained and burdened. The room around him began to fade from his vision; it was like all the lights were dimming at once. It reminded Arjun of those unpleasant dreams where his eyes just weren't working properly, and nothing he did could change that fact -- not flipping light switches, putting on glasses, or even going outside into the daylight.

At a certain threshold, Arjun's perception shifted. It seemed as though there was a tangible, moving darkness creeping into the room from every direction, swallowing up its dim, blurry remnants.

While Arjun experienced all of that, Marianna put the tip of her thumb onto the center of his forehead. Arjun didn't notice; he was lost in the trance Paco had placed him in. He also didn't see Paco's pupils suddenly constrict to almost nothing, while his irises turned a bright, moon white.

BLACK VOID

The black void: Arjun remembered it from when he'd been knocked out. As one might imagine, it didn't take long to confirm that it looked exactly the same. This time, though, he tried to really examine it. It was unsettling to him. Despite appearing entirely black, it

felt

to the young man like it was swirling, undulating -- even expanding.

He vaguely thought of his science classes; one of his teachers had once tried to describe to the class the idea that the universe itself was expanding -- its very fabric. Nobody had understood it. Even the biggest nerds in the class hadn't pretended like they could. The teacher himself hadn't seemed surprised or disappointed. He'd said that it was so alien that only a few people in the world could even understand the math and science that suggested it; nobody really

'got'

it. Maybe Einstein had. Maybe Hawking. He hadn't even seemed confident of that.

Arjun still didn't understand it, but, with great discomfort, he considered that he might be perceiving something very much like it, here, in his own mind.

He was sure that that science teacher would be frustrated by the fact that Arjun himself was clearly visible. He could look down and see something that looked very much like his own body; maybe it was a little fuzzy -- lacking in detail -- but he knew it was his, and it looked like it would under normal light. To say that the endless black void contained no light sources would be an understatement.

After an interminable period of peering at the darkness and examining his own arms, Arjun began walking. It happened almost instinctively. It also felt odd to him, considering that he couldn't feel any ground beneath his feet. It felt odd in another way, too, because he was walking amidst endless blackness. Never mind what he was or wasn't walking on; where, exactly, was he walking to?

Why aren't the Garcias here?

Arjun thought to himself. He wished he hadn't. His sudden awareness that he was alone made him feel awful.

Arjun kept walking, seemingly to nowhere. He felt that it was utterly pointless, and the endless black void wholly reinforced that feeling. Still, something within him -- a voice that wasn't a voice -- was telling him to walk. He couldn't discern how the voice sounded, or the gender -- if it even had one. It just kept telling him to walk.

Then something very strange happened. He stopped walking, but he knew he was still moving. He was levitating. Then, he was flying. He just knew that he was. He knew that he was as free as a bird, and that he could propel himself in any direction at all. The idea of 'ground' was gone. There was none. It was all 'sky' instead -- endless, onyx sky. It wasn't proper air, though. No matter how quickly he flew, there was no wind to sting his body, including his eyes. There was no physical discomfort to distort his vision.

He realised he wasn't wearing his glasses. He looked at his arm again. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't blurry, as it would have been in the real world, had he looked down at it with his naked, myopic eyes.

That's odd, he thought to himself. Then he paused, and thought about the thought. Then he started laughing.

Just that,

he added.

Nothing else. Just that one thing.

Arjun shut his eyes hard. He crossed his legs, sat on air, and ignored that silent voice that kept telling him to move. He wondered how he'd find the Garcias; he didn't think walking, running, or even flying around blindly would accomplish much of anything. For the moment, he judged, the ball was in their court. They'd found him before, and so he had to trust that they'd find him again.

What am I supposed to do until then, though?

With an annoyed sigh, Arjun opened his eyes.

What the...?

In front of him, the endless dark pit suddenly took on colour, warping and changing. It was weaving hordes of coloured mists, recreating what looked to be his bedroom. As it congealed and solidified, Arjun became convinced it was a carbon copy of the real thing -- apart from the fact that it looked more like an open diorama than a room in a house. It reminded him of how an interior designer might mock up a room, except that it was life sized.

His bedsheets, blankets and pillows laid in a mess atop his bed, just like how it always was. The only time it wasn't a mess was when his mother came into his bedroom to tidy up everything while he was at school. Arjun didn't care about the mess; he liked it to

some degree

. Most of the mess was purposeful. Some of it, he could admit to himself, was just due to his own laziness. That wasn't something he'd so readily admit to his mother.

The details continued to astonish him. The clock on the nightstand; the phone cords wrapped around his coin can; post-it notes with scribbles he clearly recognized as his own; they were all perfect.

"Oh, hey," Marianna said, out loud, with a bright smile on her face. "You're finally here. Where did you go?"

"Ahh..."

Arjun said. His confusion was obvious. He had no idea how he'd come across the replica of his room, nor how or why Marianna was speaking out loud.

"You can speak out loud," Marianna said, reading Arjun's personal thoughts. "We're at my house, so it's fine. And because we entered into your mind via touch, you won't drone while talking."

"Why does that matter?"

"Well, before, I was more or less 'phoning in.' Now, we're kind of having a real face to face conversation, and I have more control over what's happening here and outside."

"Ohh." Arjun nodded, pretending to understand what she'd said.

"Check to see if everything's the way it's supposed to be," Marianna said. "I scanned through your memory to create this, so it should be pretty good. Not to brag or anything."

"Everything looks how I remember it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, as far I can tell, at least."

"Okay!" Marianna said, slapping her hands together. "Now all we need to do is wait for Paco."

Arjun nodded before walking towards the life sized diorama, taking a closer look, trying to find any flaws. He couldn't - not a single one. If the void around it hadn't been that same pitch black, he would have felt as if he were home.

"If I had more time I would have made it bigger," Marianna said, reading Arjun's open thoughts, "without all the dark eeriness."

Arjun turned his head towards Marianna with bafflement on his face.

"Oh, sorry," Marianna said, reading Arjun's open thoughts again. "I guess you were thinking to yourself."

Arjun nodded, blushing.

"It's kind of hard to tell the difference here. Normal voices and thoughts all sound alike."

"I noticed..." Arjun said, his words trailing off towards the end. "Is there any way to stop that?"

"Your thoughts, or me reading them?"

"My thoughts," Arjun said, uncertain which would be better. "I think."

Marianna eyed Arjun with a thoughtful look. She looked like she was speaking to him, but there were no words or thoughts exchanged. "You get that?"

Arjun narrowed his brows in confusion.

"I thought out loud," she said, still all smiles, "like how you have been doing since the day we've met for the first time, in your head. But I made a Wall around my thoughts."

"And how would I do that?"

"Simple. Make a wall."

"Huh?!"

"It is as simple as it sounds," Marianna said with a shrug. "The only thing you need to do is create a wall."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Arjun countered. "How am I supposed to create something without even knowing where to start?"

"Oh." Marianna lifted her hand to her chin. "You know, I never had to explain that. The times I have taught people to make walls were to those who already knew

where

to start. But with you being someone who just got their power, I'm not sure how I would walk you through it."

Marianna motioned Arjun to walk closer to her. "Bend down a little, I'm going to try something."

Arjun smiled to himself. He hadn't taken into account how short Marianna was. It wasn't something that had crossed his mind; his mind was usually too busy focusing on her breasts. Standing right in front of her -- or the projection of her, which he judged at least as accurate as the copy of his room -- he noticed that she was about as tall as Meera, which wasn't very tall at all.

Marianna placed her hand on top of Arjun's head. Oddly enough, he was able to feel her touch. It felt quite real. "Do you feel anything?" she asked.

"Hmm, no."

"Huh," Marianna said, keeping her hand atop Arjun's head. "What about now?"

A hazy, stone-like feeling coursed through Arjun's body, a feeling that felt indomitable -- an almost indestructible hulking surface of sorts. "I think?"

"What do you feel?"

"It feels like there's a rock feeling up against me," Arjun said, tilting his head in an attempt to get closer to that feeling.

"Okay," Marianna said, taking her hand off Arjun's head. "Now, try to recreate that feeling."

"Ahh--" Arjun began to speak, but Marianna cut him off, placing her finger on his lips.

"I know," Marianna said. "Just try to imagine that same feeling in your head, like how you kept trying to remember the feeling of my breasts in your hand." She smirked at Arjun.

Arjun blushed, cringing hard. "Sorry."

"Oh, it's fine," Marianna said, waving her hand in the air. "I really don't mind. "Don't worry about that right now. Just focus on creating a wall -- at least until Paco gets here."

Arjun nodded. He closed his eyes, focusing on that feeling Marianna had created in his mind. However, he'd lost all sense of it as soon as Marianna mentioned the

incident

. Yet he still focused on the feeling, trying his best to create a wall. No solid feeling came to him, until he remembered running head first into the gym wall. He remembered that feeling quite well; he could still taste the gym wall in his mouth, as if it had happened just yesterday.

Slowly, a hard concrete like feeling came to him. It was strong and sturdy, and more distinct from the impenetrable feeling Marianna had shown. This felt peneratable, yet still strong enough to withhold brunt force. Arjun opened his eyes. Marianna looked at him with a thoughtful look, as if she were actively trying to read his mind.

"What?" Arjun asked.

"Did it work?"

"I think, yeah."

Marianna continued to look at Arjun; he could tell she was straining. Arjun felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. It was difficult for him to pinpoint exactly why he did. The feeling reminded him of his sense of embarrassment at being reminded of his inappropriate behaviour, but then, it also felt like a physical sensation - like a snake slithering across the back of his neck.

"

BOO!

" Marianna shouted inside Arjun's mind, using her telepathy.

Arjun screamed, cupping his ears and head in pain. "Why did you do that?!?!"

"For fun," Marianna replied, smiling devilishly. "Also, it worked."

"Wait. What worked? If it worked, then how did I hear you?""

"Because I've been doing this for longer than five minutes,

hijo

," Marianna said casually. "But when I penetrated your defence, you should have been able to feel me trying to do it."

Arjun nodded. Despite the fact that his primary tormentor could still read his mind, he felt a little better knowing that at least he'd have some warning.

After a few more moments, Paco arrived. He greeted Arjun with a smile and Marianna with a knowing nod.

"So, is everything ready?" Paco asked, looking at the still- forming bedroom.

"Almost, but I think we can start," Marianna said. "It's not like we need every detail of the bedroom, do we?"

Paco shook his head.

#

THE BLOWJOB INCIDENT

Marianna spiked Arjun and Paco forward, towards the bedroom. The three of them stood a few feet away from the bed. Arjun -- the replica in the bed -- was fast asleep. His phone laid on his chest, and tiny washes of light leaked out onto his naked chest.

Arjun -- the real one -- looked at himself cautiously. It wasn't every day he got to see himself sleeping. The only times he had gotten to see himself sleep was when his mother had decided to record him sleeping to tease him later. That couldn't compare to what he was experiencing in his own mind, thanks to Marianna.

"Arjun," Paco said, turning his head towards Arjun. "You said that you were texting your girlfriend, right?"

Arjun nodded.

"Hmm," Paco turned towards Marianna. "Marianna, could you go back a few minutes?"

Marianna nodded. The bedroom immediately began to change chaotically. The comforter Arjun had been sleeping under was pushed out towards the end of the bed, and Memory-Arjun was missing. There were no signs of his body anywhere near the bed, or in the room itself.

"Might be a little too far back," Arjun said, looking at the time on the clock on his night stand. It read nine O'clock. "I went to sleep a little after nine-thirty, I think."

"Oh, right!" Marianna said. "Oops! Going back is a little tricky."

She lifted her fingers up and swiped at the air, as if there was an invisible glass in front of her. Against a mostly-static background, Memory-Arjun and the bed's blankets shifted quickly but fluidly, hurrying towards the suggested time. "You see," she said, noting the vast improvement in the visual experience, "some people are really good at going backwards, while others, like me, are better at going forwards."

"You mean the memory?" Arjun asked, looking at the forming bedroom.

Marianna nodded. "It's a quirk each telepath has. Everyone has a different one."

Arjun turned his head towards Paco with a curious look on his face.

"Yeah, no," Paco said, waving his hand in the air. "We don't have anything like that. Apart from the life risk one."

Arjun cringed at the thought.

Memory-Arjun held his phone in his hand. Its bright blue lights flooded his face, flickering occasionally. There was a video playing on the phone, and a quiet moaning sound emanated from its speaker. Real-Arjun cringed seeing Memory-Arjun's juvenile excitement.

"Uh," Marianna said with a blushing, sly smile, looking at the bed. "How long until it happens?"

Arjun -- the one next to Marianna -- shook his head. "Not sure. But I remember it happening while I was..."

"Watching an educational video," Paco said with a stifled laugh, finishing Arjun's sentence.

"Sounds like it was very educational," Marianna teased.

Arjun lowered his head, blushing hard.

I guess this is what Meera feels like all the time, huh?

Suddenly, the phone Memory-Arjun had been holding fell down onto his chest. His hands dropped to his sides and eyes shut. It looked as if he had suddenly died, but his breathing confirmed to the onlookers that he was still alive.

Well, and the fact that I'm here to watch it, I suppose,

Real-Arjun thought to himself.

"Mrs. Garcia," Arjun said, looking at his motionless body.

"Huh." Marianna walked to the sleeping Arjun's side of the bed, examining his body. Aside from regular, shallow breathing, the body seemed unearthly still. As surely as Marianna could tell a dead body from a live one, she could tell the difference between regular sleep and Memory-Arjun's altered state. "Paco, did you notice anything?"

"No," Paco said, narrowing his eyes, looking at Arjun's body from the foot of the bed. Paco turned his attention towards Real-Arjun, asking, "So, you're in your dad's body right now, right?"

Arjun nodded.

"Marianna." Paco looked at his wife, signalling something to her.

A diorama-like room of Arjun's parents' bedroom appeared right beside the recreation of Arjun's bedroom that they were standing in. Marianna pulled the three of them back so that they could see it taking shape. Arjun's heart skipped a beat. He knew exactly what was going to happen next, but he had, surprisingly, forgotten about what had happened with his mother and him while he'd been in his dad's body. He'd been through a lot since entering his mindscape. Upon seeing the copy of his parents' bedroom, however, it all came rushing back.