Good day to you Sparks!
I’m a little late, sorry if you’ve been waiting with bated breath, hanging on the words (I wish!)
I’ve been so, so busy this week! My Dad officially retired and my siblings, and my husband and I, all helped my parents move into their new retirement house BY THE SEA! Wow! They so deserve it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not super jealous anyway. (Grumble grumble crummy farm life, grumble, natural beauty, grumble...)
(Wild kosmos flowers - Photo by me😉 because I owe
a picture of the fields here where I live.)Anyway, the move kept me so busy that I’ve not even had time to respond to comments, or do stuff on Notes, or even read much of anything. This also means I haven’t yet had time to work on the promised housekeeping, and my inbox is also chock full. I think the last time I looked it was 468 unread emails. Sheesh! I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. At least Mum and Dad are settled and happy.
As for the story…
I hope you enjoyed Luke’s perspective. I hope you found it fresh and exciting and that it filled in a few gaps for you. Today we are back to Logan and the present and woohoo! Do I set us up for some sparks to fly!? Patience, patience, we’ll get there.
For now, here’s your fix.
INDEX | Chapter 6 | Scenes 1 & 2 | Scene 3 | Scene 4 | Scene 5 & 6 | Scene 7-9 | Scene 10 | Scene 11 | Scene 12 | Scene 13 | Next Scene →
Previously: We saw the whole interrogation experience through Luke’s eyes, gaining some surprising insights into Misty/Jenina’s life before the guys found her. We got to see one of the pivotal moments in Misty’s life, even though during the interrogation she seemed to brush it off - having ‘seen worse.’ Which (hopefully) makes you wonder what could be worse…
“So what does it mean?” I ask pulling up my shoulders and shaking my head as Luke rests his chin in his hands, elbows on the patio table. It’s been a long day.
“The memories were highly subjective, as they always are.” Luke mutters sleepily, yawns, then continues, “and as I told the General, there’s not much that I can explain accurately without more background or more complete information.” He is exhausted from a full day of sustained telepathic conversation. Come to think of it, I can feel the fatigue coming off of him in waves, I’m not sure how much is his and how much is mine.
“Fine. I’m satisfied. Let’s call it a night.”
Luke nods, then wanders off and I sigh tilting my head back to look up at the stars. It’s a beautiful night, with just a sliver of moon and Centaurus winking at me.
I wonder what it means. The facility. The training. The conditioning.
It all suggests some kind of sinister intent but it’s surreal. That’s the kind of thing that only happens in the movies.
The fragmentary picture of Jenina’s life before we found her, that Luke was able to put together was bleak. From the broken snippets, it was looking more and more like the apparently innocent little girl we knew as Elle could well be a partially trained warrior.
“I’ll kill you for what you’ve done!” She thought. “I’ll kill you…”She thought it over and over when they caught up to her after Chrys fell. Luke said she lit up like a glowstick. Her power was a raging inferno in a bottle that was about to burst. She planted her feet, knees bent, put her hands together, and fired. It flowed off of her. He said he felt it, like water pouring into a funnel, channeled straight at the tall blonde trainer. She didn’t wait for the smoke to clear but she knew that he was gone. It’s hard to believe that she was only about eight years old at the time...
I’m not sure I want the full story anymore. My father was a warrior, and Tom and I have been fighting since we were little kids, but neither of us have ever taken a life. For Elle to have done something so horrible… Just what were they trying to turn her into?
There are traces of psychological trauma everywhere. Even though Luke couldn’t pinpoint any specific event for it. It’s as though every memory fragment was laced with it. Which certainly explains the brutality of her attacks.
Luke mentioned conditioning. After breaking away it seemed to carry over a bit. He said he couldn’t speak aloud for a week. He felt physical pain when trying to form words. Even after the pain passed there was a reluctance, like a mental block. He said he had to force himself to make any kind of sound. Delivering his report was an excruciating mental exercise that took far too long, and afterward, they held him under ‘observation’ for a week to be sure that there were no lasting side effects.
“What I don’t get is why the PG is so interested in her,” I say to no one in particular, just thinking aloud. “I get that in the beginning it was about Tom and me, but how does that drive this course of action? What could they possibly want with her? How do they even know anything?”
“I’m not sure, but I’ve seen this before,” Tom says from behind me and I nearly jump out of my seat as I turn to face him.
“Tom. How long have you been there?” I ask, wondering if he saw what Luke and I were up to.
“Since Luke left.” He states matter of factly, and I feel a twinge of irritation that doesn’t show through my brother’s perfectly pleasant smile.
“You said you’d seen it before?” I ask.
“The PG have their sources. What worries me more than how they know is that whatever Luke gave them won’t satisfy them for long,” Tom says bitterly as he bends down to inspect an imperfectly set nail in the deck.
“How do you figure that?”
“Because, considering how Luke has been acting since he got home, it seems to have only whetted his appetite.”
* * *
“Elle,” I call out, knocking on the closed door. I open it without waiting for an answer and stand just inside the threshold. She’s over by the window with her hair down, brush in hand. Her back is turned. She pauses for a moment, then continues brushing over her shoulder, rather less than gently drawing the bristles through about a quarter section from the midpoints to the ends.
I feel an intense flash of irritation, overlaying a deep and profound sadness that drowns out my own guilty conscience. It takes me a moment to shake it off. Even though I’m sort of getting the hang of this empathy thing it’s still really jarring sometimes, trying to figure out how all the feelings relate.
“Elle, I know you don’t want to see me, but it’s been a month,” I say sorrowfully, pausing to gauge her reaction. I can tell her anger has abated, but she feels no less betrayed than before. “I just wanted to tell you that Luke is back.” She stops with the brush at the ends of the section of hair and looks at her bare feet, biting down hard. Fulfilled dread.
“He told me,” I confess, feeling the intimacy evoked by that simple statement. Elle clenches her fist around the handle of the hairbrush. “I’m sorry,” I say pausing when there’s a crunching sound and the head of the brush falls with a thump to the carpet. Elle shows no other reaction, but an aura of livid rage pours off of her.
“You have to understand. We didn’t have a choice.” I whine, knowing I’d have a hard time trying to make her see our point of view. “I’ve told you about the Authority, and the Planetary Guard, and Luke’s work.” I gush, knowing it won’t be enough, she’s too angry right now to be swayed by a handful of words and if I drag this out it could get ugly. “We were only trying to help you. We had no idea...” She turns to look at me, her eyes full of emotion.
“Luke tells me your name is, Je-” I start to say with a warm smile, thinking it would be a relief to be called by her real name after all this time, but she hastily cuts me off.
“No,” her eyes wide and intense for a moment, and then her expression narrows in frustration. It looks like she’s trying to make herself say more. I can feel her irritation at the effort it takes. I see her quail as if it hurts when she finally spits out, “Elle,” her expression earnest and pleading. I can’t look at her anymore. I can’t stand to see that look in her eyes. I leave the room.
Standing outside the closed door, I wonder if I’m overthinking it, or reading too much into her feelings because I can understand them. I wonder if I am assuming too much because I know what Luke does.
Elle is feeling conflicted. She is afraid, mistrustful and hurt. She’s worried about how what we now know about her past will affect how we treat her. She’s got some serious baggage. Her communication issue was conditioned into her. And she’s killed. And if what Tom says about Luke is true, we are in for more trouble ahead.
Next Time: Tom and Logan still don’t see eye to eye about the whole head-hacking thing and as time passes the boys get closer to a confrontation. Elle seems to be holding up pretty well in the meantime but who can say how she will react when Luke finally works around to facing her?
Thanks so much for reading! If you like, please:
Or better yet:
and as always, I love hearing what you think so, feel free to:
As you promised:) they are lovely. Thank you!
A beautiful field and beautiful flowers, thank you! Also, thanks for sharing the happy occasion for your parents. That's wonderful!
So. I feel a little like Luke when I think about your title for these scenes... I won't know until I know more! I have often had the same thoughts about why wouldn't she just destroy these people who betrayed her, and I guess I can buy the desensitized by the years of conditioning argument for now. But if Luke takes another run at her, I would think all bets are off. It sounds as if that is a possibility out there! And to me it is still not clear how much detail Luke gave the General?
You did give us an example of the conditioning still in place about the name, Jenina! But it seems to be weakening also, I think I can understand her insisting on Elle, as I believe that was her part of what was a joint existence with Chrys that she clings to... that's my theory anyway.
Lastly, it is hard to believe that Logan could be so obtuse about why the PG is so interested in Elle after originally being so on about Tom and himself! He said it himself, she is a trained warrior (I think read super warrior) and the PG pretty much knows it!