Teri opened her eyes. The world spun. She tried to focus, to plug into her surroundings, but there was nothing there. Even her eyes were blurry.

  “So, what’s your name?” The man’s voice rose and fell in her ears, like a radio with the reception going in and out.

  “Ruddy?” She shook her head and her vision cleared. The man was Ruddy’s size, but instead of pasty-pale and lumpy, he was tanned with hard angles and big muscles.

  “You’re not Ruddy,” she said.

  The man smiled. “Hi, I’m Richard.”

  “You’re the man from … you attacked me.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Richard said. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

  She pushed away from him. Ruddy? Xeke?

  “Calm down. You’re going to hurt yourself.

  Her wrist—it was handcuffed to his. Her eyes got wide.

  Ruddy! XEKE! RUDDDDYYYY!

  “Adrian will be here in a minute, he’ll explain everything.”

  She couldn’t scream. Her mouth was gone. But that didn’t make any sense. So why couldn’t anyone hear her?

  It hit her like a punch in the gut. It wasn’t her mouth that was missing, it was her powers.

  She took a breath and tried to reach out. Nothing. She was trapped inside her body.

  Helpless.

  Richard picked up a Coors can and spit into it. Brown juice ran down the side.

  The smell of chewing tobacco and stale beer assaulted her. There was a black fragment stuck in Richard’s teeth.

  It was Tip. He was in a different body, but it was him. It had to be. She felt herself falling.

  “No …” She yanked away from him. The handcuffs caught her wrist again.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Richard said.

  Teri screamed and jerked back. Her wrist twisted around when she fell out of the chair. Pain shot through her arm. Richard shouted as his spit cup spilled all over him.

  I can’t breathe! Ruddy, Xeke, help me ...

  “Jesus!” Richard said. “Settle down, girl. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Teri crab-crawled back from him.

  “No no no please don’t hit me, I promise I’ll be good…”

  Adrian hurried down the stairs into the basement when he heard the screams. “Dammit, Richard! What the hell are you doing to her?”

  Richard was crouched over the girl, his face red. One fist was clenched behind his back, the other arm stretched out to the length of the handcuffs.

  The girl looked up at Adrian. “Please help me, please please, don’t let him hurt me.”

  Adrian pushed past Richard. “Jesus! What’s wrong with you? Where’s the doctor? Get in here, Zimmer!”

  Dr. Zimmer ran down the stairs with his medical bag in his hand.

  “Nothing happened! She went crazy,” Richard said.

  Adrian bent down. “Stop struggling, girl. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

  She tried to slide away from him. “Please, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, don’t …”

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Before the Event, Adrian’s daughter had suffered from nightmares, and he’d been the only one who could calm her down. He softened his voice. “I promise, nothing will happen to you. You’re safe here. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Now hush.”

  The girl stilled. She turned her head, still staring at him through the corners of her eyes.

  “What’s your name, honey?”

  She looked like she was going to answer, but it came out in a shaking sob. Within seconds she was crying so hard she could barely get a breath in.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “Take your time.”

  Several minutes passed. If anything the sobbing was worse. Adrian shook his head and turned to Zimmer. “Is there something you can give her for this?”

  “A small dose of Tramadol will make her feel a little better, but it’s not a long-term solution,” Zimmer said.

  “Do it.”

  The doctor rummaged around in his bag and removed a syringe and a small vial. Teri watched as he prepared the injection. Her breath caught in her throat again.

  “I’m s-so sorry,” Teri said. “P-please tell Ruddy and Xeke. Whatever I did, I’m sorry. They didn’t have to l-leave me.”

  The doctor took her arm. She didn’t move. She was too tired to fight anymore.

  She felt a stab, and then a euphoric feeling crept through her. Richard helped her back into the chair.

  Colors swirled and resolved into Adrian’s face. He was holding her free hand, but she couldn’t feel it.

  “Everything is going to be okay,” he said. His eyes sparkled, and his hair seemed to be lit from within.

  “You’re pretty,” she said.

  He smiled. “Thank you, dear. What’s your name again?”

  “Teresa Reanne Darby, but everyone calls me Teri, ever since I can remember. Honestly, it doesn’t feel like Teresa is my name. You know researchers in Belgium discovered the first letter of your name sometimes dictates where you choose to work, but they don’t really know why. My hypothesis is that we are all egomaniacs. Anything that starts with whatever letter our name starts with is automatically going to be better. Humans aren’t really very logical when you think about it.”

  “That’s very interesting, Teri,” Adrian said. “You know, I knew a Darby once.”

  “I knew several, actually,” Teri said. “My mom, my sister. Tip.”

  “Who’s Tip?”

  “He’s my dad, but I don’t call him dad. I call him Tip, because he hates it. Sometimes he hurts me. After mom was gone, he hurt me a lot. He locked me up and broke my bones.”

  Adrian frowned. “Really? What an awful thing to do.”

  “There are a lot of bones,” Teri said. “At least 54 in the hands alone; scaphoid, lunate, triquetral, pisiform, trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate…”

  “Woah,” Adrian said. He looked at Zimmer. “Is she for real?”

  Zimmer nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “Real is very subjective,” Teri said. “I think, therefore I am real ... or am I?”

  “Descartes?” Adrian said.

  Teri smiled at him. “You think it too, so you must be real.”

  Adrian nodded. “Let’s get back to Tip.”

  “And my bones,” Teri said. “He broke most of them.” She continued listing bones in a cheery, sing-song voice.

  Adrian listened as the girl rambled on.

  Great. We finally get a mentalist and she’s bat-shit crazy.

  “... important not to break the teeth,” she said. “Can’t break the teeth. People would notice.”

  “Teeth aren’t bones, are they?” Adrian said.

  She looked at him like he was a moron. “Teeth are mostly bones, but not always bones. Like in sharks.” She started poking at various places on Adrian’s face. “Cuspids, bicuspids, molars, premolars, canines…”

  Adrian stepped back and made an effort not to raise his voice. “Whatever. That doesn’t matter.” He took a breath. “Was Tip a doctor? Did he teach you about bones?”

  Teri laughed. “Tip sold used cars. I guess he sold cars to doctors sometimes. But I learned about bones from everyone else. I know everything that everyone knows. But not now. Now I have to remember all by myself.”

  “You sound like a very smart little girl.”

  “They tried to test my IQ but it’s too big. Off the charts. But it doesn’t really matter. Think about it. How many IQ tests are there, and the metric itself changes according to the scores. You can’t compare results from different populations or different time frames unless you pool them and define your curve from the pooled results, but even then, the test only measures your ability with respect to the test itself, so there is no ...” She stopped talking and turned pale. “I don’t feel good.”

  The doctor felt her pulse. “There may be some nausea. It will pass.”

  Adrian nodded. “You know, Teri, I’d like us to be friends. We can take care of you here and make sure no one can break any more of your bones.”

  She locked her gaze onto his. Her face darkened. “I don’t have any friends.”

  Teri pictured Ruddy’s face in her mind. She could still feel his hatred.

  Her world crashed down around her again. Her only friends were gone forever. She was all alone, chained to a man in a basement.

  “Really?” Adrian said. “Ruddy and Xeke and Corey seem very worried about you.”

  “Stop it!” she yelled. “Stop talking about them. Just shut up!”

  Adrian jerked back. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Teri. Hush now. It’s okay.”

  “No it’s not. Everyone hates me. I’m a monster. They won’t even tell me what I did … I think I killed someone.”

  “Shhhh. You’re not a monster. You have a wonderful gift, Teri.”

  She burst into tears. “No. That’s gone too. I am as blind as death. As deaf as a corpse. As crippled as this whole fucked up world.”

  Adrian looked confused. “You’re just tired. Do you want something to eat? We can bring ...”

  “NO! I’m not stupid. He took it away.” She turned to Richard and rained feeble punches on him. “Give it back! Give it back!”

  “Now now, we’re all friends here,” Adrian said. “Friends don’t hurt each other.”

  “Friends hurt each other the worst,” she said. She jerked her hand against the handcuffs over and over. Blood trickled down her arm, but she felt no pain.

  “Leave me alone,” she said. Richard grabbed both her arms, and she thrashed against him. “I said leave me alone!”