Chapter 11

Chapter 11        

Nick rushed out of the storage room, first making sure it was back exactly the way he found it. The last thing he wanted was to be discovered snooping around.

He walked swiftly down the hall, eventually finding an agent, who helpfully directed him in the direction of the room. A few minutes later, he pushed open the doors to the living room. No one was present except for Erica, who was laying down on one of the couches reading a book. She looked up as he entered.

“Erica,” Nick said, putting on the biggest smile he could muster. “I have a huge favor to ask you.”

“Let me stop you there Nick,” she said, a scowl on her face. “Tom is looking for you. He came in hear a minute ago fuming. He ran out to hunt you down. I’d hide if I were you to let him cool down.”

“What?!” Nick said, suddenly angry. “How is he mad at me? He practically drowned me!”

“Drowned you?” Erica said, suddenly looking curious. Nick quickly ran through his side of the story, which he was sure was different from Tom’s version of events.

“Well that does sound like him,” Erica said when he finished. “He said you threw him against the wall just because he was helping you train.”

“He’ll probably say anything to get me thrown out of here,” Nick growled, fuming.

“Like I said, just let him cool down,” Erica said, continuing to scowl at him. “Just lock yourself in your room for a while. It always works for Henry.”

“Good idea,” Nick said, an idea suddenly sparking in his mind. “Why don’t you join me?”

Before Erica had time to argue, Nick had seized her hand and pulled her up from the couch, leading her into his room. He shut the door, leaving them alone in the room together.

“Nick!” she hissed, the scowl now fiercer than ever. “What are you doing?!”

“I wanted to get you alone,” Nick paused, then a mischievous grin grew on his face. “I am sure most women will kill to be in your position.”

Erica scoffed and she felt her face going read. She made to leave, but Nick blocked the door. “But in all seriousness,” he said. “I need you to teach me how to read minds.”

Erica stood still for a moment, shocked. She looked at him like he was from a different planet, a look Nick found deeply unsettling. “Excuse me?” she sputtered.

“I need you to teach me how to read minds,” he repeated.

“You know that’s extremely difficult, right?” she said, continuing to look at him in shock. “It can take years of training to master, and even then, you may only get emotions, like I do.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nick said, growing frustrated. “I need you to teach me. I’m a quick learner.”

“How do you expect me to teach you?” she asked. “I can’t even read minds myself. As far as I know, only one person has ever mastered reading minds.”

“Blackwell.”

Nick realized too late his mistake. Erica’s shocked expression grew guarded and a scowl developed on her face. Nick had to recover from this…fast.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

She held up her hand, stopping him. “Why?” she said coldly. Though it was only one syllable, Nick felt like he had been punched by her words. There was anger in them, but also hurt.

Nick suddenly grew uneasy. Should he tell her why he wanted to read minds? Just mentioning Blackwell’s name almost caused her to refuse. If he told her he wanted to learn to read Blackwell’s mind just because he thought he was up to something, she would never agree. “I can’t tell you.”

Erica threw her hands up in the air and scoffed. “Then I guess I can’t help you.” She turned to leave.

“Wait!” Nick said, pleading with his eyes. “I need to learn how and you are the only person who can teach me. Please.”

Erica looked at him and their eyes locked again. Blue met green as they looked on at each other, neither breaking the connection. Nick couldn’t shake the feeling Erica wasn’t just looking at his eyes, but was reading his mind again.

“There should really be a consent waiver,” he thought.

 

Erica was indeed reading Nick again, and she did not like what she saw.

For one, the promise she had made to not care about Nick was completely out the window. What she saw in his mind had confirmed that. He wasn’t trying to con her. What she saw in his mind was desperation. She would have delved deeper if not for the pressure building in her head.

“This is important to you?” she breathed.

“Very.” He responded.

Erica groaned slightly, causing Nick to look uneasy. Why couldn’t these things be easier? If it was up to her, things would be black and white. You hate someone, or you don’t. Nick, however, was pulling her emotions like no one had before. One minute she defended him, next she hated him, now, she was helping him.

Erica sighed in surrender. She would have Fox to answer too when this was over with. “Fine then. Your first lesson starts now.”

“Now?” Nick asked in surprise.

“Now,” Erica responded. “Take a seat.”

Nick and Erica sat down on his bed. Erica had her legs folded in a very flexible position beneath her. Nick attempted it, but fell down as he found his legs could not bend that way. The beginnings of a smile tugged at the corners of Erica’s mouth, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

Erica closed her eyes and rested her hands in her lap, appearing in deep thought. Finally, she spoke. “What you are about to enter is the most mysterious branch of our power. Mastery of it can enable you to read thoughts, uncover memories, and even control the consciousness of others. Few have the composure to enter the realm of the mind, and even fewer than that can remain sane in the process.” Her eyes flew open. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

This is where she saw if he was really serious about this. She had learned long ago that everyone looked down on her for what she focused on. The all thought true power was moving big things with your mind and having incredible control over it.

Erica, however, thought differently. She had seen Blackwell in action before. She had come to learn that moving things with your mind was impressive, but having control over the mind itself was…scary. However, few shared her opinion. That’s why it greatly surprised her when she heard Nick’s answer.

“Yes.”

Erica sighed and closed her eyes again. “Okay then, but know this. When you enter the mind of others, your own mind must be completely focused. To do this, you first must break away any barriers which are preventing your own mind from concentrating. You must put your own mind at ease before you can enter the minds of others.”

Erica opened her eyes to look at Nick. “Which means you have to be completely honest with me as I attempt to help you. And know if you lie, I will know.”

Erica could see uneasiness fall on Nick and she couldn’t help but smile. He probably didn’t expect that she would be prodding around in his mind when he said yes to this.

“Okay, so what are we going to do first?” he asked, his uneasiness clearly present in his voice.

“First,” Erica said, pointing at Nick’s bag across the room. “I want you to cause that bag to fly into your arms.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Make it fly to you.”

“I thought you were trying to help me read minds, not move things around,” Nick shot at her, suddenly defensive.

“Interesting,” Erica muttered under her breath. If she wanted to help him read minds, she first had to get around the barrier keeping him from using his powers. To do that, she wanted to read his emotions again as he attempted it, but from the way he was acting, it seemed like that would be difficult. He was extremely evasive, a fact Erica found very interesting.

“What?” Nick shot back. “What’s interesting?”

“Nothing,” she muttered. “Just try to move the bag.”

Nick sighed, finally relenting. He raised his hand and concentrated on the bag while Erica concentrated on his mind. She was only reading his thoughts for a few moments before she pulled away, gasping in pain. She rubbed her head as an excruciating headache formed and began to pound her temples.

“What does this mean?” She thought. “This has never happened before.”

But it had happened. Nick’s thoughts were so powerful, they caused her excruciating pain just by reading him for a brief moment. She could only imagine what would have happened if she tried to read him longer.

She looked up to see Nick was still in intense concentration, having not heard her involuntary outburst. Beads of sweat began to form on his brow, but the bag stayed firmly rooted in place. He finally cried out in frustration and pounded the bed in frustration.

“I can’t do it!” he cried. “It’s too big!”

His failure was almost unbelievable to Erica. With all the power she had felt in his head, it seemed impossible that the bag had stayed stationary. “You destroyed an entire street,” Erica said. “And you can’t move a little bag?”

“I wasn’t thinking then!” Nick said in anger. “As soon as I think about what I’m doing, I’m useless!” Nick turned to look at Erica. “And what exactly did making me feel even worse about myself accomplish?”

Erica didn’t answer for a moment. “I was trying to reading your emotions. There’s a reason you’re having trouble with your powers.”

Nick snorted. “Yeah. I suck.”

“No that’s not it.” Erica replied, ignoring Nick’s sarcasm. “Most Enhanced can pick up on their powers pretty quickly. You’re extremely powerful, so you should be able to pick them up even quicker, but you’re not. It’s like you’re purposely suppressing them.”

Erica knew it was true, but Nick only confirmed it. He turned away from her and wouldn’t make eye contact. His sunglasses materialized from his pocket and migrated instantly to his face, shielding his eyes and the emotions they could betray. It wouldn’t usually be a problem for Erica, but after the intense pain she endured last time, she wasn’t about to try and read Nick’s thoughts anytime soon.

“You are suppressing them, aren’t you?” she said.

Nick took a deep breath and put on the best confident smile he could muster, though it didn’t fool Erica. “Of course not! You saw how hard I was trying! Does it look like I’m suppressing them?”

“Yes,” Erica said without hesitation. “And I thought I told you not to lie to me. I would know if you were lying.”

Nick didn’t respond, but turned away once more. Erica concentrated again, her earlier promise to not read his thoughts forgotten, pushed down by her curiosity. She winced as she began to read him, but she pushed through the pain. She needed an answer.

“Anger…fear…” she winced and a depressing look fell on her face. “Sadness…”

Nick jumped to his feet, an intense look behind his eyes. “I don’t need this.”

“You asked me to train you, this is part of the process,” Erica responded. The truth was, she no longer cared about training Nick. She needed to know what had happened to him. The power she had felt in his mind was immense, and the reason they were being suppressed nagged at her even more. “What happened to you?” she asked.

Nick walked to the door and exited. He suddenly realized he was in his own room to begin with, he reentered and held open the door, motioning for Erica to leave. “I’m sorry Erica, I don’t think this is going to work out.”

She stared at him, even more shocked than when he told her he wanted to learn mind powers in the first place. He had seemed so desperate to learn when they first started, but now he wanted nothing to do with her. What could he possibly be hiding? “Nick…” she began.

Nick held up a hand, silencing her. Erica got to her feet and left the room, shooting one last worried look at him. Nick avoided eye contact and closed the door. Erica heard the telltale click of the lock as the door was sealed.

She stood at the door for several minutes, not sure what to do. The brief interaction between her and Nick had completely reversed her view of him. Going in, she had tried her hardest to hate him, but now, it felt like she wanted to throw open the door and give him a big hug.

His sudden mood swing scared her even more than the pain she experienced. One minute, he was the sly lady’s man she knew, but the next, he was defensive and bitter.

She pressed her ear to the door, listening intently for something to quell her curiosity. She was surprised when she heard an elevated voice from the other side.

“You are a cold hearted criminal Nick! You are better than this!”  

She heard a bang and knew Nick had punched the wall. Afterwards, she heard nothing. She pulled away from the door, but she was more conflicted now than ever.

If it was possible, Nick Bennet was now even more like Blackwell than before.