Introduction
Chapter 1:
It was late, really really late. Blair looked up from the folder she had been compiling and squinted at the clock on her laptop. 3:05 a.m. flashed back at her.
The blue light coming from her computer only intensified the throbbing pain behind her forehead and she ran her hands down her face trying to relieve some of the pressure to no avail. She turned to her left and opened the desk drawer, rummaging around to find her last bottle of painkillers. Screwing it open and dumping them on her palm, she tossed back four pills and swallowed them dry. She was almost out. Again.
She closed the case file she had been working on and rubbed her temples in slow methodical circles trying to focus and calm her mind. Her raging headache meant that her powers were getting bored, restless. At least that’s how she personified them. Without any human contact in the last few days her powers had no opportunity for release. Without any thoughts to be heard or subconscious to explore it seemed like her telepathy grew large and hungry inside her head, pressing against her skull, and begging to escape. The throbbing intensified.
Blair sighed, she was out of her depth on how to control her powers and relied heavily on medication to control the pain. She was well aware that her frequent medication use was killing her kidneys but she had no other option to control her splitting headaches. Left alone they caused her debilitating pain and she felt that taking the edge off was a justifiable tradeoff, kidneys be damned. Before her powers were enhanced, her empathic abilities were much more manageable and didn’t interfere with her daily life or cause her physical pain. Now they demanded her attention.
If she was around other people, her telepathy played much more nicely and grew calmer. By dancing in and out others’ streams of conscious she was able to release small bursts of power and keep it in check. Even right now she could release the pain if she wanted. Blair contemplated how good it would feel to let down the barrier in her mind and cast her powers out across the whole apartment complex. It would satisfy her hungry mind, probably.
Although this fantasy often played through her mind when she was isolated she had never played it out. She was too careful for that and even more careful now that she was so close to finishing her case. People were always watching and she couldn’t risk being tracked or discovered. For three years she had lived on the run, always under their radar, always one step ahead, and she couldn’t give it all up now just for some headache relief.
Rubbing her eyes one last time, Blair shut her computer and stood up from her desk. She crossed her apartment to the bed and shut the curtains. Tomorrow she would get release; tomorrow she would finish the mission. Right now she would just have to hope the aspirin kicked in soon.