Chapter 8: A Follow-Up Exam
I decide to stay in the barracks again. I have just participated in my first mission and watched my own abilities hurt someone. There is no way in hell I am even going to attempt to sleep alone in my apartment tonight. Even though I am alone here, there are other Gifted around. I just can’t stand to be completely alone with my memories tonight.
I manage to fall asleep for about an hour and a half before my room wall starts playing my music playlist. I rip the covers off and attempt to touch the window to turn it off when I hear a knock on my door.
“COME IN!” I scream over the music. It’s a lot louder than it was when I turned it off yesterday. I glance at the clock in the corner of the window screen and seet that it is 8:06am. My room door opens and I am too busy trying to figure out why my window won’t respond to my touch when it suddenly goes blank and then turns back into a window that is showing the sun up and a slight breeze blowing through the fake trees that are fake outside. I turn around and see a woman in my doorway.
“Good morning, Physion,” she says to me. I have never seen her before. She is about thirty and has long brown hair. She is considerably shorter than I am but seems very pleasant in the tone she speaks to me in.
“Hi,” I say to her. I turn my entire body to face her.
“I am sorry about your window, but I wasn’t sure how else to guarantee that you’d be awake when I got here,” she says to me as she holds up a remote control and shakes it a bit. She flicks a button on it and my window turns to my morning welcome screen telling me the time, temperature, and gives me a city and Templar Agency newsfeed. She puts the remote back in her pocket but remains in my doorway. I realize that I am being rude and I move toward her.
“You can come in if you want,” I tell her and she steps slightly inside my bedroom. I walk over to her and she extends her right hand for me to shake.
“Thank you. I am Minerva,” she says to me as I shake her hand. “I don’t believe you know me, but I know you, Physion.” Great, as if there weren’t enough people running around who know me and I have no idea who they are.
“I am your psion,” she says to me as she lets go of my hand. “I have studied your file extensively. Now I would like to have an official meeting with you,” she announces. I step back and sit on the edge of my bed.
“I thought Shadowmind was my psion,” I reply. I start drumming my fingers together to calm myself.
“No, no, he is the psionic portion of your team. I am your psion psychiatrist. Now that you’ve completed your first mission, it is Agency policy that you undergo a psychiatric evaluation to make sure you are not withholding any mission details and that you are mentally stable to continue your Agency work. It will be standard procedure following all missions from now on,” Minerva explains to me. I stand back up and walk over to my dresser. If the Agency is going to keep having people bust into my room in the morning, at least I can get dressed before they make me leave my room.
“And by ‘psychiatric’ you just mean ‘psionic,’” I say as I open one of my drawers. Minerva laughs a bit before she speaks again.
“No, no, honey, I will not just be tapping into your brain the entire time. Psionic evaluations are only effective in this type of setting when I only use my abilities to help you remember things or to understand things you cannot express to me adequately in words. This is not a mindscourge, this is a partnership,” she explains to me. I nod at her and pull a pair of jeans from the drawer.
“Okay, I guess,” I say back. I know I don’t have a choice, so I might as well just accept this.
“I will wait outside for you to get dressed and then we can proceed to my office,” Minerva says as she walks out of my room. I shake my head a bit and pull on my jeans. I search for my favorite shirt and pull it over my head. I decide to just wear slippers instead of shoes and I can explain it to Minerva if she asks. Hey, maybe she already knows I don’t feel like wearing shoes. I turn off my electronic window as I step outside into the hall and find Minerva leaning against the wall next to my door. She smiles at me and nods in my direction and I follow her to an elevator at the end of the hall. I don’t bother to memorize the directions to her office. I am too nervous to think of anything other than what she might learn about me and what she already knows.
We enter her office and it is nicer than any of the other rooms I’ve seen at the Agency thus far. She has a very nice oak desk that she sits behind and pulls a few drawers open before she moves to sit in an oversized chair with a clipboard. She motions for me to take a seat across from her and I am allowed to choose between a very pillowy couch or another oversized chair similar to hers. I decide to sit in the center of the couch.
“So, tell me about your mission yesterday,” she starts right off. I thought maybe she would at least offer me some water or coffee or something, but she dives right in.
“Uh, I…” I stop. I have no idea what to say. “We got the Pyro,” I say. She locks eyes with me and I feel calm, similar to the way I felt when Shadowmind locked eyes with me when I was in the hospital room that first day. I have always been so good with my words, but they are failing me now. I decide it would be much easier for me to just let her in. I reach out my hand toward her.
“Just do it. I don’t know what to say,” I tell her. She shakes her head at me.
“No, no, I don’t require physical contact like Shadowmind. I may be a psion, but we are all unique. I am going to need to you maintain an uninterrupted stare into my eyes. If at any point you feel anxious or uncomfortable, look away and I will immediately lose connection. I will not resume unless you tell me you want me to. Okay?” she explains to me. She crosses her left leg over her right and sits up straight. I nod my head and look directly into her eyes.
I feel warm and a light tingling sensation starts in my chest. It is different from my manifestation feelings, though. I don’t feel anything other than warmth and tingling for about five minutes and then I see Minerva’s eyes change from green to gray and back to green. She turns her head from mine and clears her throat. I’m guessing she is done.
“Mindscourge, Physion, it’s been bothering you all night. You haven’t slept. I’m sorry I woke you right as you fell asleep. The Pyro, your name burning, the use of your powers, the mindscourge. I understand,” Minerva says to me.
“As much as I want to protect you from seeing something such as a mindscourge, I understand now that you need to witness it. I can’t explain why you feel like you owe it to the Pyro, Physion, I can only tell you what I saw in there. But since the idea of the mindscourge is weighing very heavily on you, I am going to make my medical recommendation to Dr. Rhodes that you witness the Pyro’s mindscourge. According to his file, he is scheduled for 9:30am. Is this okay with you?” she asks me. I don’t know how to respond, but I know she felt how much the idea is bothering me. How much I need to see the Pyro again, I need to see if he will be okay, need to see if my involvement in his life has caused it to take a turn for the worst. I am terrified by what I will see, but I nod my head. Minerva stands up and walks over to her desk. She picks up her videophone and turns around as she instructs it to dial Rhodes. I don’t listen to what she’s saying because I can only think about what kind of terror I will experience, see…feel.
“An escort will be here in five minutes to take you over to the interrogation barracks, Physion,” Minerva informs me. She walks over to me sits down next to me. She gives me a thumbs up and hugs me. She writes a bit more on her clipboard and smiles at me every so often and before I realize what has happened, there is a knock on her door. An escort I don’t recognize is waiting for me and I stand up to leave. Minerva hugs me again and squeezes my hand.
“I hope this will give you the peace you need in the long run, Physion,” she says with a smile. “I am available if you need to come back and talk…or not…about it.”
I manage a weak smile and walk over to the escort feeling as though I might just faint on the spot out of fear.
