Phantom Ch 06 Pt 02

Maggie was sent to see a World Government therapist twice a week now, and Brad told her that if she ever took Virtue again that he would leave her. One morning Maggie was staring into her bathroom mirror again when she heard that voice in her head. The voice of Kelly.

How're you doing, dear?

"You!" said Maggie, looking into the mirror. "You're ruining my life!"

You mean like the way you tried to ruin mine, in college?

"Get over that! You were just put on probation!"

That was the wrong thing to say. Kelly's outrage grew fourfold.

You still have no remorse, do you? You did it before and if you could, you'd do it again! You fucking bitch! I think you need another attitude adjustment, dear.

"What do you mean?"

Kelly told her what she wanted.

"No... no, not that," said Maggie. "Please Kelly! Not Anal Dissolve!"

It's either that, or you wake up tomorrow morning to find Brad dead and your hand holding the bloody knife.

********

An hour later, Maggie was sobbing as she bended over in the bathroom. Her pants and panties were around her ankles. In her hands she held a tiny paint brush, that she had just taken out of a small, amber colored jar. The brush was wet.

"Please, Kelly! I'll do anything else, anything!" Maggie sobbed. "But not Anal Dissolve! Please, don't make me do this!"

But Kelly was unrelenting. And so Maggie, with a trembling hand, slowly painted the left side of the rim of her anus with the liquid.

Now do the other side!

Kelly was unrelenting.

Maggie's hand trembled even more as she painted the other side.

Good. Now enjoy your trip, drug addict!

Anal Dissolve had the virtue of working quickly. Maggie could feel the electricity, like a burning fever, rising from her rectum into her body cavity and up into her brain which quickly became fried. Soon Maggie felt like she was flying in the clouds. But in reality she was running around the streets of San Francisco on her hands and legs, totally nude, baying at the moon and chasing after dogs.

"Awooooo!" said Maggie, baying at the moon.

San Francisco, of course, had many years of experience dealing with people who were combating substance abuse. Maggie was caught, diagnosed, processed, and sentenced. She would live "free range style" in a half-way house, the half-way house being the streets of San Francisco. The city would provide her with a safe supply of Kethadone, a drug almost identical to Anal Dissolve but which the World Government said was safer, and the freedom to roam the streets of San Francisco while she underwent treatment.

As Kelly Gray watched Maggie living her new life, in a squalor of feces, madness, and drug addiction, she realized she was somewhat pleased, and yet also still

unfulfilled

. There were still so many girls to go after, still so many wrongs to be addressed....

********

The Doctor felt groggy as he woke up in his hotel room. He went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

You look sleepy.

"I am sleepy."

You cried out in your sleep.

"Did I?" The Doctor rinsed his face.

And the night before as well. And you spoke a name.

"What name?" The Doctor asked.

Yael.

The Doctor took a deep breath, and resumed washing his face.

That was your wife, wasn't it?

"Yes," said the Doctor.

I noticed in your home you had a machine that helped you sleep.

The Doctor continued washing his face.

I also noticed that when you travel, that you take sleeping pills. Do you have a lot of trouble sleeping?

The Doctor looked at his image in the mirror. "I don't suppose that ghouls sleep, do they?"

Not as you understand it.

"Then consider yourself lucky," said the Doctor, his face grim.

********

They ate breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. The Doctor was eating nuclear bacon and cloned eggs.

You eat too much protein, Doctor. There's meat in every one of your meals!

"Healthy living tips from a ghost. I love it," said the Doctor.

"What, Doctor?" said Sophie, looking up from her own eggs. She invariably ordered whatever the Doctor did, which infuriated Alanna even further. He was setting such a poor example for the girl!

"The ghoul inside of me very politely pointed out that I should be eating grass for breakfast, Sophie," said the Doctor as Sophie laughed.

"You should be eating more fair trade, locally grown, gender friendly fruits and vegetables," said Alyssa. "Or-

"Or what? I'll die before my time? Haven't you noticed the somewhat risky profession I'm in?" the Doctor snapped. He pointed to Alyssa's plate. "Besides, if I ate what you did, I'd be hungry again in fifteen minutes."

"I don't get hungry after fifteen minutes," said Alyssa.

"You're used to eating like a sparrow, I'm not. Also, I use my mind. That takes a lot of energy," said the Doctor. He popped a Girl Ball into his mouth.

And must you eat so many of those ridiculous sweets?

"Yes, I must," said the Doctor. "I need a lot of energy to kill ghouls." He lifted his cup to take a drink.

"You're just brimming with hate and aggressiveness," said Alyssa. "Why do you dislike

kalaks

so much?"

Doctor, be gentle with her. She doesn't know-

The Doctor slammed his cup down with a bang. "You want to know why I hate ghouls?

You really want to know

?" He practically shouted it, making Sophie flinch.

Alyssa suddenly looked unsure of herself. But she said, "Yes, I do."

"Get ready for a story, little girl."

*********

Benjamin Renberg was born in the coastal city of Ashdod, Israel, to Naftali and Miri Renberg in the year 2354. He was recognized as brilliant even at an early age. He graduated high school at 14, college at 16, and began pursuing advanced degrees almost immediately. He met his future wife, Yael, when he was studying for his Ph.D. in Exotic Energy Sources at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. Yael was a dark haired beauty who had a deep appreciation for Ben's dry wit and an even

deeper

appreciation for his long, circumsized penis.

They were married two years later, at which time Ben also shortened his name to "Ren"... "for the sake of efficiency", he told Yael. "Think how much time we can save not saying 'berg'!". Yael had smiled. He always loved her smile.

Ben was highly sought after by many high tech companies, having developed fourteen valuable patents by the age of 25. He had his pick of jobs, many of them with big companies, but instead he chose a lower paying, more obscure offer with a foundation that was working in the experimental field of psychic energy. Psychic energy was only a theory at that point, the belief that the energies of the mind was a distinct kind of power that could be tapped or generated artificially.

The director of the project was a kindly old man who wore a yarmulke named Wally Harbinger. He was a retired entrepreneur, and bankrolling it out of his own funds. "It might all work out to be nothing, yes? But either way, I think it will be fun to find out."

And so Ben went to work at the experimental reactor that Wally had created, four miles outside Dimona, deep in the Negev Desert. Ben always loved the water and hated the heat, which is part of the reason he eventually moved to the Isle of Man, but he loved his job very much, and more importantly, they were making progress! Within six months they were able to generate small amounts of psychic energy artificially. Within a year they were able to detect psychic energy in the most vague of ways; within two, they were able to detect it in locations around the globe.

Wally stared at the red dots floating around the world. "Could all these be masses of psychic energy?"

"Possibly," said Ben. "We need to figure out a way of locating them even more specifically. Then we need to try to figure out how to communicate."

"To communicate?" Wally looked startled. "We're talking about energy. Do you think they possess intelligence?"

"Possibly," said Ben. "Let's see what we can come up with."

And so Ben kept working.

And then one day Ben looked up and saw a stranger on one of the catwalks above him, in the reactor control lab. "Hello?" he said uncertainly.

The man looked down at him for a moment. There seemed to be something odd about his face, like half was one color, and the other half was another. The man looked down at him, and vanished.

Ben was smart enough to realize what had happened. He went to Wally immediately with the news.

"You think you've attracted some kind of... psychic spirit?" Wally said.

"I don't know what to call it," said Ben. "A ghost. Maybe something that exists on a parallel plane of existence."

"What do you suggest we do about it?"

"Try to communicate with it," said Ben. "We could learn so much."

Wally looked at Ben. "If it were anyone else, I would say you were imagining things."

"Wally, I didn't imagine it!"

"I believe you," said Wally. "Keep me informed."

********

The next day, as Ben got up in the morning, he saw the image of a man in the mirror behind him. The man's face was half white, and half black.

"Who are you?" he asked. He slowly turned around. There was no one there. He turned into the mirror again. The half white, half black man was still there.

"A friend," said the man.

"You're psychic energy, aren't you?" said Ben, trying to contain his excitement.

"In a sense," said the man. "It's a shame we had to meet like this."

"Why?" Ben asked.

"Because I see you're intelligent, and have no malice. Unfortunately, I have to destroy you, and everything you've created," said the man.

"No!" Ben cried, even as the man seemed to surge forward, and enter his body. He struggled within himself, but was immediately overpowered.

"That's right," said the man, speaking through Ben's mouth now. "There's no way to resist me."

"Why do you want to destroy me?" Ben asked, finding he could still speak.

"Because you've learned things you're not supposed to learn, and you've seen things you're not supposed to see," he said, in a singsong voice. "And now I need your help to kill all your friends."

"No!" Ben cried. He found his body slowly walking out of the bathroom, into the hallway, past his wife Yael, who was preparing breakfast in the kitchen. "Where are you going, dear?"

"I'll be back soon, honey. I just need to check something," said Ren. The words that came out of his mouth were not his; and he found himself incapable of saying anything else. He was under the complete and utter control of this creature.

*********

"Hello, Ben," said Mischa, as Ben entered the Reactor Control Room.

Ben didn't respond. He couldn't. He went over to the controls, and started making adjustments. Very shortly the hum of the reactor started to increase, and the status gauges started to move into the red.

"Ben, what are you doing?" said Mischa.

Ben didn't respond. He just kept blankly manipulating the controls.

Mischa came over, saw what he was doing. "Ben, no, you'll overload the reactor!" He moved his hands over the controls, but Ben grabbed his wrist with one hand. His other hand went around Mischa's neck. He squeezed.

"Ben," Mischa gasped, and then there was a snapping sound. Ben threw Mischa's body across the room with incredible strength. Then he returned to the controls.

"You just made me kill my friend," Ben sobbed.

Only the beginning.

"Please, please don't do make me do this!"

But he did. Once the reactor was set to overload, Ben short circuited the controls so it couldn't be reversed. Then he got out of there at a fast walk.

*********

He was on a sandy hill, overlooking the reactor. Ben was familiar with the area, having taken walks there. But today there was something new, a tall metal rod, sticking into the ground, and electrocuffs attached to it. Ben picked up the electrocuffs and snapped one shut around his right wrist. The other one was attached to the rod.

And then he gasped as the black and white man came out of his body.

"Why are you doing this?" Ben sobbed.

"I arranged this especially for you," said the half white, half black man.

"Please, there are nearly forty employees in this facility, including their families. Including my wife!" said Ben.

The man shrugged his shoulders. "You are responsible for their deaths."

"Me?"

"You opened a door which was not supposed to be opened. Your kind must never know about mine," said the man. "It is fitting that you watch this happen to your friends. I expect when the reactor explodes, you'll have a few seconds to observe the devastation before it reaches you."

The man started to walk away.

"Please! Please don't do this!" Ben cried.

But the man only laughed, and vanished.

Ben struggled against the electrocuffs. But they held him firmly. At the bottom of the hill he saw the Dome of the reactor, and the homes clustered around it. All of them would be vaporized.

"Get out! Get out now!" Ben yelled. But his voice was like a slender reed in the wind. He struggled again against the electrocuffs, to no effect. He thought about Wally, and all the people he worked with, and their families... and Yael. He would never-

There was a brilliant flash, and that was all he remembered.

********

He woke up in a hospital bed. He tried to rise, but felt a stab of pain.

"Take it easy."

He looked up to see a tall nurse hovering over him. "You're very lucky."

Lucky?

"You died on the way to the hospital. You were dead for 94 seconds, Doctor Ren."

Ren tried to speak, found he couldn't.

"You have burns over 40% of your body. We're going to start a regeneration treatment once you've recovered some. You're very lucky your eyes were closed when the blast hit, you could have gone blind."

Were they?

Ren didn't remember. He struggled to speak. Slowly, words came out. "My... my wife," he sputtered.

The nurse bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Doctor Ren. You were the only survivor. There wasn't even enough left of the bodies to identify. We're actually going to need your help to tell us who-"

Ren tuned the rest of it out.

********

Ren recovered. His body healed. He got up, and left the hospital, and vowed to take a new purpose in life. Not merely to identify psychic energy. But to destroy it.

He moved away from Israel; Israel was full of unpleasant memories now. He moved to the Isle of Man, which at least was on the water, like Ashdod. He marshaled his resources, and built up his technology, and prepared for the day when he would do battle with the ghouls.

*********

"How terrible!" said Alyssa. "And this... this

kalak

made you kill everyone, and then forced you to watch it happen?"

The Doctor nodded.

I'm so, so very sorry, Doctor Ren.

Alyssa licked her lips. "I... I can understand why you view

kalaks

so negatively, Doctor." She shook her head, as if debating what to say next. "But... but you have to understand, all

kalaks

aren't like that one."

"They aren't?" said the Doctor sharply.

"No," said Alyssa. She found the courage to look him in the eye. "My mother died when I was fifteen. She meant the world to me. I was desolate. I would barely eat, and barely sleep. And then a voice came into my head. It told me everything was going to be all right."

"Alanna," said the Doctor. It wasn't a question.

Alyssa nodded. "She comforted me. She got me out of my depression. She taught me that there was more to live for."

The Doctor spoke into the air. "I thought making your presence known was forbidden. I thought interfering was forbidden. Your precious Three Laws, correct?"

"It was forbidden, Doctor," said Alanna, speaking through his mouth. "I faltered in a moment of weakness, out of my compassion for Alyssa."

"For which I was intensely grateful!" said Alyssa eagerly. "We... we got to know each other over time. Alanna is wise, Doctor! She taught me so much about life!"

"And whose idea was it to turn your body over to her?" the Doctor asked.

"Alanna mentioned that

kalaks

sometimes looked for Samaritans... to help them with special projects. Alanna is very important, Doctor. She goes after

kalaks

who don't obey the rules. As a Phantom, one of the last remaining Phantoms, she has an awesome power, and an even more awesome responsibility."

"You have gone after abusive ghouls?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes, many times," said Alanna, through the Doctor's mouth.

********

The Doctor talked with Alyssa some more. It looked like they were declaring a truce. Sophie was glad things were settling down between the two of them.

They had made three stops so far, trying to track down the elusive Penguin. The Doctor had taken some readings, and then shaken his head. Sophie rarely heard what Alanna was thinking, unless she talked through the Doctor, but she got the sense that Alanna was beginning to get impatient.

Sophie had eyed a small florist shop across the hallway from the hotel restaurant they were eating at. She went to it and saw the proprietor, a young man with an easy smile, grinning at her.

"What can I get for you today?" said the young man.

"I don't know. I'm just looking," said Sophie.

"So am I," said the young man, as his smile went wide.

Sophie looked sharply at the young man. It was not the kind of comment she expected to hear from hotel staff. But there was something easy about his smile that disarmed her, that flattered rather than offended her. "What can you offer me?" she asked flirtatiously.

"Oh, more than you can imagine," said the flower seller. "Over here we have lavender roses."

"Oh, they look beautiful!" said Sophie.

The man smiled behind her. It would be so easy to snap Sophie's neck. He would grab it, and twist her head, and with one crack she would be dead. His man nipples grew hard just at the thought of it.

"And over here we have Peruvian lilies," said the man.

"Ooooh, they're adorable!" said Sophie.

Her voice was so cute. As Sophie bent over, the man studied her young ass. It looked so firm, so squeezable.

And then Sophie turned around to face him. She had thick dark hair, green eyes, high cheekbones, and a pert little nose like... just like....

"It's hard to know what I want sometimes. You know?" she said, looking up at the young man.

"I do," said the young man. "But sometimes what we're looking for is right under our noses, and we don't even know it."

Sophie gave him a bashful smile and rubbed her thighs. "I'd... I'd better be getting back," she said.

"Wait," said the man. He picked up a Peruvian lily, and handed one to her. "For you."

"For me?" She inhaled and battled her eyelashes gratefully. The man realized how tremendously beautiful she would look with black and blue eyes, with red choke marks around her throat after he had strangled her.

She looked earnestly at the young man. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate it."

"It's my pleasure," said the man. "Come by any time." He watched her go with a smile.

********

Kelly had something

special

planned for Joyleen Peacock.

Joyleen had been the one who had suggested Kelly go to the Frat House party where she had gotten ganged raped. Joyleen had practically dragged her there. "Come on, Kell, it will be good for you!"

And then Joyleen had stood in the crowd of drunken frat boys and watched her get raped, smirking and cheering wildly.

Kelly's revenge started with three, simple words.

You killed me.

Joyleen was startled the first time she heard the words. She was happy married to Cliffton Prescott, and in fact getting ready to celebrate their fifth year anniversary, and they had a three year old son named Christopher. Joyleen was a Free Speech Monitor for the World Government. It was her job to monitor suspected holocomm conversations flagged by an AI program and see if any of the 72 forbidden words were spoken. If so, the thought police would be called in immediately.