The next morning, Xeke let himself in without knocking. Teri was sitting on her bed staring at her feet. She hadn’t left her cabin since the incident with Sean.

  “We missed you at breakfast,” Xeke said. “I brought you some pancakes.”

  “I know,” Teri said.

  “Don’t be like that,” Xeke said. “You don’t really want me to stop talking to you, do you?”

  “No.”

  “Look, you know Fred sent me to talk to you, but I think you also know I’d have come anyway. Believe it or not, I understand what this is like.”

  “Except that you couldn’t hear everyone talking about you,” Teri said.

  “Well, that’s true. I killed pretty much everyone I knew, so there was no one left to talk.”

  Teri looked up. I am not wallowing!

  Xeke raised his eyebrows.

  “I am, aren’t I,” Teri said.

  “Yeah, but I may have you beat in the wallowing department. I wandered around the woods eating bugs and berries for six months. I was planning to kill myself the entire time, but I never got around to it.”

  “You?”

  Xeke smiled. “Yeah. Me. See, there are things not even you know about me. I really do understand, Teri, I promise. Life does go on after you make mistakes. Even if everyone thinks about it all the time. I can’t hear them, but I know people all over the world are thinking about what I did. Every time someone realizes who I am, they take three steps back and their eyes bug out of their skulls. There are religious groups that believe I’m the Antichrist, and there’s one church founded on the principle that I’m Satan himself.”

  “Great. Satan himself has come to tell me it’s all okay.”

  Xeke frowned. “Actually, it isn’t all okay. If Fred hadn’t stopped you ...” He watched as Teri went back to being devastated, but he pressed on. “I killed a lot of people, and I could do it again if I’m not careful. I didn’t ask for this kind of power, but I have it. I could walk into a city, have a temper tantrum, and wipe out ten thousand people. It’s not an easy thing to live with. Before I met you, Fred was the only other person I knew with that kind of power.”

  Teri stopped chewing her pancakes and swallowed several times.

  Xeke locked eyes with her. “You have to learn restraint. You must never use more power than you can control.”

  “It doesn’t work like that for me,” Teri said. “My powers don’t come in quantifiable units, and not using them wears me out more than using them does. I mean, I can close myself off to specific people, spread my powers out thin or concentrate them, but there isn’t a master volume control. Keeping them down is like trying keep a flood from happening. I know it doesn’t sound logical to you, but it’s when I let my power out that I have the most control. I can’t stop the water, but I can divert and direct it.”

  Xeke shook his head. “Teri, you have to try. It’s important.”

  “It’s not that I’m not willing to try,” Teri said. “I just think it’s the wrong approach. Holding back my powers would wear me out and lead to the very outcome you want to avoid.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I’m not so sure,” Xeke said. “I think you’ll want to learn to direct them before you let them out.”

  Teri sighed. “You don’t understand. Let me show you.”

  Xeke hesitated. After what she’d done to him and Ruddy on the trip here, he was a little leery of Teri’s powers. She rolled her eyes at him and patted her hand on the bed in front of her.

  “I’m just going to let you see through my eyes,” she said. “It isn’t a big deal. I promise I won’t turn you into a newt.”

  Xeke took off his shoes and sat down across from her with his legs under him. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

  Hold on, Teri said. Ruddy’s coming.

  “What are you guys doing?” Ruddy said. The door banged into the wall as he opened it.

  Ruddy’s loud thought came through the link. I get left out of everything.

  Xeke exchanged a look with Teri.

  “I was going to show Xeke how my power works, so he can help me figure out how to control it,” Teri said. “Did you want to come too?”

  “Yeah.” Ruddy got onto the bed next to Teri and leaned back against the wall with his feet out in front of him. Wet grass and dirt fell from his boot treads onto her bedspread.

  “What do I do?” Ruddy said.

  “Just close your eyes,” Teri said. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Xeke was unprepared for the reality of it. Through Teri he was aware of the tiny pinpricks of life around them … the indecipherable points of consciousness possessed by even the smallest insect. He could feel the anticipation of a spider as a moth beat its wings in her web. Nearby, a mother coyote felt a pang of hunger as she nursed her pups.

  Though hard to relate to, the animals were at peace with themselves. In contrast, the thoughts of human minds were like glass shattering all around him. Insecurity and fear overlaid a million day-to-day concerns.

  These were the thoughts of people he’d known for years. They seemed so calm on the outside.

  What Teri overheard from him or any other person was like one voice in a crowded room. He felt better knowing she didn’t consciously process every single thought anyone around her had.

  The most remarkable thing was her ability to look through the eyes of others. She could simultaneously “see” everything that every animal or unguarded person around her could see. It was like looking at a three-dimensional mosaic map.

  I can barely remember what it’s like to see the world through just one camera, she said. And I can never close my eyes.

  How can you stand it? Xeke said. I can’t even tell what’s what.

  It’s a little bit like living in the middle of a circus, but you get used to it. I’ve come up with ways of making it quieter when I need a break.

  Teri created an image of herself solving a simple Rubik’s cube. A thought bubble appeared over the image, like in a comic book. Inside it was another Teri solving a more complex cube. The second Teri had another thought bubble with another Teri and another puzzle. The image repeated over and over, more complex each time.

  Xeke felt her sense of relief as she found a constructive point of focus for her intellect. The busier her mind was, the less invasive the din of noise became. He stopped counting after fifty thought bubbles. When she reached the limits of what she could keep track of, she was able to ignore most of what was going on around her, as if she was absorbed in a good book in the middle of a loud bus station.

  This is as quiet as it gets, she said.

  Wow, Ruddy said.

  Yeah, Xeke said. I’m right there with you, brother.

  The illusion dropped, and the roar of the crowd returned.

  I can focus in on one mind if I want to.

  Xeke found himself inside the mind of a lizard. He could feel hunger, fear, and a sort of alien sexual desire.

  I could make it do whatever I want, but the idea of it gives me the creeps, she said. I think it’s what I do to people to make myself invisible. I make them walk around me or make them look at something else. That’s not quite as bad; at least I don’t think it is. Really I try not to think about it.

  Xeke was back in Teri’s head again.

  I do know how to turn it off, for a while. Let me show you what that’s like.

  Teri’s awareness drew back into her body. It was like holding a door against a barbarian horde. On top of that, she was now keenly aware of her body. It was small, fragile, and beaten up. Aches and pains were too numerous to count. Xeke doubted he’d feel as broken down when he was ninety.

  With only the input from her normal senses to work with, she felt blind and deaf. She could only imagine what was out there in the darkness. Fear rose up like floodwater in a ship. She could bail it out with rationale and logic, but it was a losing battle.

  Enough! Ruddy said. God. Stop!

  Everything spun out of control for a second, then Xeke was sitting on the bed again. He was surprised to see Teri still looked the same on the outside … just a girl with a cane.