Chapter 15
“You're getting too close to your patients!”
Sarah’s words were the first ones to greet her as Elaine sat down for her personal monthly counseling session. These sessions were mandated by the prison board, as any psychological problems left untreated in a counselor could be exploited by the prisoners. Though Elaine despised Sarah, she also knew Sarah was a skilled therapist, and as the only one who didn’t hold regular groups she could maintain a dispassionate attitude toward what went on.
But Elaine rarely capitulated to anything she suggested, as evidenced by her angry retort. “What do you expect? Our offices are in the cell blocks – we can’t go outside! The only people we socialize with are other doctors, guards, or inmates. You don’t tell us what they have done, so no matter how good an imagination I might have, nothing can ever compare to the truth.”
“Blake told me of your workouts, of your long talks with Matthew. You can’t spend time like this with them – you just can’t!”
“Matthew’s harmless, and – ”
“Elaine,” she said compassionately, dropping the aloof attitude she usually carried. “You know why you’re here. While this meditation group you’ve started has calmed things down, it has come at a sacrifice of your independence. You’re now thought of as more an inmate than a counselor—I’ve heard it mentioned in the other groups. While they trust you more than ever, you are losing whatever authority you have, and those outside of this ‘clique’ you’ve established soon won't respond to any counseling you offer. You’ll lose the ability to hold others accountable to their actions, be unable to dispassionately analyze a prisoner’s mental state. Both you and Oliver just can’t seem to keep your distance!”
“Oliver?”
“Yes. I know you don’t like him, but he’s been as aggressive as you concerning the tension around us. Except he’s been trying to break up those who follow Ian and Darren, with limited success. He even has a few informants, who are keeping him apprised of the situation.” Sarah leaned back. “Now, why are you so close to these prisoners?”
Elaine gritted her teeth, and tried to calm herself down, though more and more she just wanted to strike out at anything and anyone who frustrated her. Despite her talk with Matthew, she was still full of fury concerning Todd, and her untenable situation as a veritable prisoner, like the others. She worked out more than ever, in the vain hope it would diffuse her tension and stress, but all it did was hone her body into a more effective weapon that begged to be used. “As I said, we’ve gotten close because the barriers between them, and me, are breaking down. The psychological barrier, that of their classification as ‘inmate,’ means nothing after the passage of time. The guards have no emotional depth to them, and hold themselves aloof from all of us. And we, that is, the other counselors, we all are too burdened by the things we learn about our patients, that we can’t interact with one another effectively.”
Sarah nodded. “A good assessment. How do we correct it?”
Elaine let out a long sigh. She hated when a teacher would take this kind of path, a ‘you can figure it out for yourself’ mentality. But . . . I have no memories of being ‘taught.’ I never had a teacher, stand over me, and tell me what to do. A part of me says I did, but now, I know otherwise.
“Elaine? Are you still with me?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head, “I guess I’m just tired.”
Sarah nodded, as if an epiphany had been reached. “I think you’ve hit on it! Interacting on this close an emotional level with any patient is emotionally exhausting, and with prisoners who have committed heinous acts, it’s even more so. Fatigue is a well-documented side-effect of this position.” She wrote down a few more notes and closed her notebook with a snap. “I am giving you and Oliver two days off, the duration to be spent in the detox rooms.”
Elaine instinctively wanted to argue, to fight her, to tell her she was wrong, but deep down she knew Sarah was right. Matthew's stature was frustrating her, the attitude of Ian and Darren was frustrating her, even Ronald's absence was frustrating her in more physical ways. She hadn’t yet had to face Todd, but she didn’t know if she would be able to restrain whatever anger was inside her for much longer.
“Yes . . . alright.” Elaine let out a long sigh, glad to be absolved of the increasing amount of responsibility she had accumulated, happy that someone else had solved her problems for her. “But what of the auditors?”
“I think things are going pretty well—we shouldn't have any problems. And this is an order, Elaine. You are to have no contact with any prisoner for the next two days—that goes for Oliver too. And I know you hate him, for whatever reason. But get to know him. You two have a lot in common, and I know if you two were able to form some kind of bond, you could use each other as a support mechanism to weather these times of stress and fatigue better.”
Elaine headed back to her office to gather a few things, her path taking her along the long stretch of corridor that just overlooked the lower bank of cells. Tannis coined the path ‘The Gauntlet’ to every new counselor, as it was a stretch that put the inmate cells into the closest visual contact with the counselors. She allowed herself brief glances at the inmates as she passed them by, and could see the change had already happened. While there was always a good degree of taunting, of catcalls especially to Sarah or Elaine, now there was silence. Deafening silence. Elaine could see the eyes of the prisoners following her, not only undressing her, but defiling her as well. And the grins beneath those eyes revealed they believed their dreams could come true.
The storm is coming, she thought to herself, as she gathered up a couple of confidential notebooks and headed out to her suite to pack the remainder of what she needed. Somehow, I think Todd knows of it too. That wasn’t the act of a man who thought he would be here for a long time – either he’s going somewhere, or I am.
It was then that it hit her, the full force of the conspiracy that was the Manipulator.
How stupid I’ve been! Just as we were discovering our identities, Sarah takes me out, and puts me in this confinement? My meditation group won’t be held, no one else will learn about themselves, in fact, some may even be reconditioned by the Manipulator. She rushed to her suite, and into her bathroom, standing in front of her mirror, peering into the depths. Are you laughing at me? I allowed myself to be raped, and now I’m allowing myself to be fooled. She pounded on the surface of the mirror, making a few long cracks along its surface. Are you listening to me?! Why didn’t you tell me what to do?! Who are you?! She leaned over on the sink, sobbing into the white basin. One of her hands was bleeding a bit from a crack in the mirror, and she watched as the blood mingled with her tears. Blood and tears, it’s what every criminal longs to see from their victims.
“And you are playing the part of a victim so well.”
Elaine jerked up to face her reflection, but found only herself looking back.
It was a short walk to the detox rooms, but one she rarely took. Located just past the medical bay, before the maintenance room for the euals, sat a large suite with two bedrooms. Used for select new prisoners during their first weeks of incarceration, they were meant to ease the transition from the outside world to one of restraint. But as they hadn’t gotten a new prisoner since well before Elaine joined, there was never a need to see them.
She opened the door to find Oliver lounging on one of the sofas in the center of the suite. His lanky limbs hung off the edges, and he seemed the picture of total relaxation.
“Hello, Lainey!” he cried, with a lazy wave of his hand. “Looks like we’ve become prisoners too, for a few days. Kind of ironic, since Sarah said we were identifying too much with them.”
Elaine harrumphed as she crossed over to one of the bedrooms. She saw Oliver had already claimed one, so she threw her things in the other.
“Isn’t it nice?”
“What?!” she spat.
He pointed upwards. “Look up.”
She did, and staggered back for a moment. The sky. She had forgotten how long it had been since she had seen the sky through an unfrosted window. Not even Todd’s office had an unobstructed view of the outside world, and the central skylight in the center of the prison was frosted. It was apparently a beautiful day, with lazy white clouds drifting across the sky.
“Makes you wonder what’s really going on out there,” said Oliver wistfully, as he sat up. “We never get any news, only those damned shows on the AVs. I would give anything for any scrap of information about who is doing what out there. We’ve only been in here for six months, but already I can’t remember what was going on, and who was doing what.”
She plopped in a chair across from him. “I know there was a civil war, and that one side lost, but I don’t even know how it was won or what it was all about.”
“It’s the damned mental tech they use on us. You never know how it will affect you. One time, when I was speaking with Todd, he let slip that there are suppression fields in place, to negate the part of your memory that deals with non-personal recent events. It supposed to be so that the prisoners won’t miss a world they’re never going back to, so we won’t mention it in a slip of the tongue.”
Elaine deigned to sit on the same sofa as Oliver, on the opposite side. “I feel like there are too many mental games going on. From disguising the food, to nulling our memories – it’s a wonder they even need the cameras! Why don’t they just steal our thoughts while we sleep, to see what we’ve done?”
“Who says they don’t,” said Oliver, with a smile. “But, we can’t think of that. What we have to figure out is how we’re going to survive two whole days with almost nothing to do.”
Elaine nodded, as the door slid open. A eual brought in a large tray with what appeared to be stacks of sweetbread with syrup, and grilled sausage with a greenish juice. The eual set it down in front of them, then left.
“That smells really good,” said Elaine, suddenly getting hungry. “There can’t be enhancers in here, too?”
Oliver reached over, and picked up a sausage. “This feels too real . . .” He rolled it over, sniffing it. Finally, he took a tentative bite. “This is real!”
“Real food?!” cried Elaine, as she dove into the tray of food before her. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all . . .
It soon was night, and more food was brought in. They spent the day arguing briefly over what station to watch on the large monitor, until Oliver discovered a classical music performance, and they both relaxed on the sofa and let its beauty mesmerize them. Some wine brought mid-afternoon certainly helped, and by dinner, they were laughing with each other, Elaine wondering why she ever hated him.
“You know Todd’s really serious about losing weight this time. He’s actually running every day.”
“Yeah,” she said somberly, the accumulated joy from the food and the wine dissipating in an instant.
“You ever notice ‘the hand?’”
She spat out some wine laughing. “How do you know?!”
“Sarah might be a little too fat and wrinkled for some men, but nothing female is beyond Todd’s desire. I overheard her complaining to Michael soon after I got here about his roving hand.”
“It’s so damned sick!” she shouted, laughing. She poured herself another glass, and emptied half its contents in an instant, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. It nulled her depression, and as she took a deep breath, she even felt a little better. “I mean, that sick little hand goes under the desk whenever I turn to leave, and all I want to do is vomit.”
“Yeah, yeah,” replied Oliver dreamily. “We sure got some characters here. I hear you’ve been working with Matthew and his clique?”
“Yeah. We’ve . . . made some progress, especially with the meditation I’ve been teaching them. But what about you? Sarah told me you’re actually turning some inmates away from Ian and Darren?”
“Yes, but too few, and not the really important ones. I mean, in Section D9, are those really heinous ones that we aren’t even allowed to deal with. Well, they form the core of whatever Ian and Darren are planning.”
Elaine leaned forward. “Whatever it is, it’s gonna happen after the auditors go.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Things are too quiet. Ian and Darren are beyond the planning phase—they’re ready. They’re just waiting for the right time. Nothing will happen while Todd’s getting everything ready—all the guards are too busy doing their job. But afterwards, when everything turns out good, and they relax, is when Ian and Darren will strike.”
Oliver got up, and began to pace around the room. Her eyes lingered on his form, and as much as she hated to admit to herself, she found him attractive. While outside the detox room she felt he was a cloying, mealy-mouthed coward, here she saw confidence and strength in him, balanced by an easy-going attitude that engendered loyalty and respect. “A sound tactic, but . . . what can they do?” he asked. “After the incident with Luke and the gun, any and all technical malfunctions with the prison's computers have been addressed. It would take a guard to let them out now, and I don’t think any of them are that suicidal.”
Elaine nodded. “True.”
They sat in silence, as the classical performance drew to a close. Elaine let out a yawn.
“I think it’s time for bed.”
“Before you go, could you do one thing for me?”
Elaine glanced at him quizzically, hoping he wasn’t making an advance on her, though in her mood, she probably wouldn’t turn anything down.
“What is it?”
“Teach me this meditation you’ve been doing.”
Elaine smiled eagerly. “Alright! Sit up straight, and place you hands in your lap.”
“Like Todd?”
Elaine burst out laughing. “No, not like Todd!” She hadn't felt this relaxed since she could remember, and hated the thought that it would end in another day. “Just relax, and I’m going to count back from ten to zero.”
She went through the steps of the meditation routine, and finally, Oliver sat before her, completely relaxed, feeling the warmth leave his head.
“Now,” she continued, “when the color of the space above your head feels cool, feels like the blue of the sky we saw, open your eyes.”
Oliver did, as he was looking at her. He almost jumped out of his chair, and she understood what was happening.
“What is it?! What do you see in me?”
“I . . . I know you!” Oliver shook his head, and rubbed his eyes, but he could still see the truth before him. “I’ve always known you.”
“Who am I?!” demanded Elaine, anxious to finally know who she was.
“You’re . . . you’re my sister.”
Quickly, she calmed herself down, and entered into a meditative state. Within a few minutes she opened her eyes, and saw a version of Oliver she had not expected.
He had a kindness to his face that almost brought tears to her eyes. It was a face she had seen too many times to count, one that always gave a supportive word or glance, one that was with her during her brightest moments and her worst failures. She knew he was someone who would never leave her, who would sacrifice his own life for her. He was younger than her – her baby brother – but he had a passion and ferocity that could have catapulted him well above her. He was her brother, Olymphant Abraham, son of . . . son of . . .
I almost know, she thought to herself. She strained harder, focusing all her energy on his face, on the feeling he conjured within her. There is a face that brings me even more joy than his. A face I saw when I was first born, a face who taught me to be a woman, taught me compassion and loyalty.
“I can feel your struggle,” he whispered. “I also struggled to see the face of our mother, when I recognized you. But I couldn’t make the image come clear. It’s as if—”
“Wait!” She shouted in a hushed whisper. “Listen!”
Outside the door of their suite, she could hear
the sounds of footsteps passing by.
“What is it? Probably just some guards.”
“There’s nothing to guard here,” she whispered. “The only thing past these rooms is the eual maintenance facility.”
“Well, maybe they’re just euals, returning to power down.”
“Their footsteps are too irregular to be governed by artificial sentience.”
Oliver was shocked by her observation. “How can you tell?”
“I just can. Come on.”
She crept to the door, with Oliver close behind. It was a sliding door, that had a proximity-based opening mechanism. She disabled it, opening a small panel nearby to open it by hand.
“Take a look out,” she said, as she groaned with a lever that probably hadn’t been used for many years. “Do you see anyone?”
“It’s dark,” he whispered. “Someone’s talking.” He suddenly darted back it. “Close it!”
She strained with all her might to quickly close the door. As it shut, a silhouette could be seen walking by.
“Here, let me,” said Oliver, as he took over at the lever. “You look.”
He opened the door, and Elaine peered outside. In the darkness she could make out one tall figure speaking with someone inside the eual maintenance bay. She leaned slightly against the doorsill, and focused on his words.
“. . . and this is the last night we can be doin' this, a-ffermaitve?”
“We’re payin' you enough,” said a voice she knew to be Ian’s. “And when the time comes, you’ll get it all! Todd’ll be dead, the damned docs gone, and we can make our own little paradise.”
Elaine pulled back in, and motioned to Ian to close the door.
“Who was it?”
“Ian. And Blake. I now know how they’re going to take over the prison.”
“How?”
“They’ll use the euals. They must be reprogramming them. The euals will open the cells, possibly even slaughter us. And with us dead, along with Todd, control will fall to Isaac and his little band of thugs.”
They sat up a little while longer, but the mood was shot. For a short while, Elaine related to Oliver all she had been doing with the prisoners, to make them recall their identities. Oliver grinned in admiration at all she had accomplished in secret, and at the end hugged her, as a brother would a sister. She hugged him tightly back, even shedding a tear, as she finally knew who she was, and had a connection that went beyond friendship. I have family, and this bond can never be broken. No matter what they do, what they throw at us, we will be there for each other. I am not alone! Suddenly, Elaine knew what had to be done.
“We must reprogram the euals.”
Oliver nodded in agreement, but had some reservations. “What if they come by tomorrow night? What if they decide to double-check the programming?”
“Then we die, a little earlier than we should have. We must do this, must reprogram the euals.”
“Why not just tell Todd? He can have Blake and Ian terminated.”
Elaine sat back, rolling over in her mind Todd’s . . . visit, to her quarters. “Because Todd is our enemy too, or have you forgotten? We are people who have had their memories changed, their identities wiped. And Todd is the only one who knows all about it. No, we must turn this into an opportunity for us. We may supposedly be counselors here, but something tells me we won’t be released in another six months like we should be. Six months is probably how long we have to live.”
Oliver sighed, acknowledging the truth of her words. He then gazed at her for a few moments, as a gentle smile came to his lips.
“What is it?”
“Something in my mind tells me you were always the pacifist – my older sister who didn’t like killing. How is it you’re so . . . mercenary now?”
“Because the time demands it of us. We must escape!”
“Where would we go?” asked Oliver, bringing up a nagging doubt in Elaine's mind she had tried to avoid. “History had been written against us, and we have been judged to be the vanquished.”
“We wouldn’t be alive if there weren’t any supporters for us – there is a place, somewhere for us. If we had been executed, we would have become martyrs. As it is, if necessary, the government can draw us out, and parade us around as prisoners, humanely treated. Or drug us, mentally recondition us, and have us say whatever propaganda they wish. There is a reason we're still alive, and I feel sure it lies outside these walls.”
“I feel so good in this room,” continued Elaine, as she raised her fists. “I feel as though this room is utterly clean of any mental manipulation. I’m sure Todd would never have put us in this room. We should thank Sarah, because unwittingly she has sealed the fate of our jailers.”
In the morning both Oliver and Elaine woke early to witness the rise of the sun. While they couldn’t see the horizon line, they could watch as the sky transitioned from dark blue to light blue, to a faint orange. They sat and marveled in silence as lazy white clouds drifted across the small viewport they had into the world, and it mesmerized them like primitives watching a moving picture.
A eual came to bring them breakfast, and Elaine and Oliver took the opportunity to re-familiarize themselves with its inner mechanisms. All counselors had a mental download of the fundamentals of the euals, for in the extreme emergency of a total prison takeover by the prisoners the euals would immediately switch to pacification mode and work to defeat the inmates.
“We only have about five minutes. That’s the maximum delay time euals allow before alarms start going off.”
“I do remember some things,” rebuked Oliver gently, as he pried open the machine’s back cover. “I got the same download as you.”
With the cover off, several complex motherboards were visible, along with a small interface for a terminal hookup.
“Did you see them with a terminal?” asked Oliver.
“No, but it was dark, and I only got a brief look at them. They probably used the one in the maintenance bay, and rewrote the commands by hand.”
“That would’ve taken them almost four hours.”
“Who knows how long they’ve been working on this.” Elaine prodded some more into the eual. “This sure is primitive stuff.”
“Primitive?” asked Oliver, shocked. “These are ninth-generation OLMAC meta—you remember the download. The only thing more advanced is restricted to military use.”
“I know, I know, it’s just . . . where are the laser-coded relays? And this still uses micrometa processors—I don’t see any EM processor spheres.” She sighed. “No wonder they’re so slow.”
She felt Oliver’s eyes on her. “You really believe what you’re saying, don’t you?”
“Yes. I know it to be true. Come on, we’ve got to let this thing get back on its way.”
After they put its cover back, and the eual left, Elaine sat back down, thinking for a moment.
“What’s my name?”
“E—oh, you mean your real name?”
“Yes. You never told me, brother.”
Oliver chuckled. “Iona Abraham, daughter of the . . . daughter of the—president?”
Something clicked in both their minds.
“Yes! Now it makes sense. President Abraham . . . was our mother. You were her . . . advisor, and I was . . . I was . . .”
“A senator,” he said confidently. “The first daughter of a president elected in the Imperium.” Oliver took a deep sigh, with a wide smile. “Good thing we hated each other. I would’ve hated to have had sex with my sister.”
“Now, that can’t be a coincidence. And no one ever questioned why I hated you, or you I. Todd has many, many secrets, and we must find a way to pry them out of him.”
Oliver sat next to her, close, almost intimately. “Give me your hands.”
Elaine’s interest was piqued, and she placed her hands in his. He squeezed them both, not hard, but firmly.
“Can you feel this,” he asked, “this connection? How many
times have you held my hand, in the course of your life? How many times have we waved goodbye to one another, with these hands. I can dimly recall you helping me to my feet, after I fell of some kind of bike. I see, through a haze, these hands of yours wearing white gloves at your ceremony of joining, and wiping a tear of joy from my eye. No matter what may happen, sister, my love, we shall always have this connection. Reclamation of our title or power is irrelevant, compared to this familial bond.”
“Oh, Oliver!”
She embraced him tightly and wept openly into his shoulders, and for a brief moment, he wept into hers. Her chest was filled with a love she had never known before, with a warmth that gave her strength. She may have lusted after Ronald, or felt pity for John and Luke, but something deep inside her knew, that never before in her life had she ever loved anyone like she loved Oliver.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. They hurriedly pulled away, each wiping their eyes and struggling to collect themselves.
“Expecting someone?” asked Oliver, as he went to open it. In barged Sarah, Michael, Simon and Elestor. Simon plopped down on the couch next to Elaine.
“Looky at you two! Man this is the good life.”
“I’m sorry,” said Sarah, as she sat in a chair and Michael grabbed a nearby bottle and poured two glasses of wine, “but we just couldn’t stay away – not on your last day! Do you know how impossible it is to get real food and alcohol in here? And this is the only situation I’m allowed to get it.”
“I see,” nodded Oliver knowingly. “You condemned us here, just to get some good food.”
“What of it?” demanded Michael, as he sat next to Sarah. “You two have gotten your rest, and we get some good food! The auditors see Sarah’s treating her counselors well – we all win!”
“Not all of us,” moaned Elestor, as he took a drink of the wine. “There have been some . . . deaths.”
Elaine grew serious. “What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing – nothing!” assured Sarah, in a broken voice. “It’s just that . . . well . . . Albert and Donald were both found dead last night. None of the cameras showed anything out of the ordinary. No one went to their cells but the euals, to bring them dinner, as they both were on solitary.”
“Why were they on solitary?” demanded Elaine. “Both of them were in my meditation group—they both have been model prisoners.”
“I don’t know. Isaac put them on solitary.”
“And that isn’t all,” said Michael. “Whenever we walk down the hall, by the cells, some of the inmates have taken to ‘whooping’ at us.”
“Whooping?”
“Yeah,” said Simon grimly. “They shake their bars, and whoop at us, confronting us with their gaze. It clearly is an attempt to throw us off balance, and shift the balance of power.”
“What are the guards doing about it?”
“What can they do? There are too many of them, and Todd is too busy working out to care. I think he wants out of here—that’s what all his exercise was about. He wants to put on the best impression for the auditors. He'll probably have the guards do a beatdown the night before they arrive, so the inmates'll be docile and tame.”
Sarah let out a sigh. “But we didn’t come here to bring you two down—honest!”
“No, you just came to steal our food,” said Oliver.
“True, true. Come on you all, let’s leave them to their little utopia. Enjoy it, because I have a feeling things are about to get much worse out there.”
Finally the night came, and Elaine and Oliver slipped out of their suite and entered the eual maintenance room. Thankfully the only camera was above their room, and turned towards the prison. Oliver kept watch at the door, as Elaine began the slow process of accessing the eual’s control program.
There were almost twenty euals in storage, and she knew another ten were in use now, carrying supplies and disposing of trash. At first she hoped to be able to change their programming entirely, but as the night wore on quickly and she had only processed ten euals, she had to switch tactics.
It takes too long to erase the changes made by Blake, and write a whole new program. As much as I hate doing it, I only have time to change a few lines if I’m going to get through all the euals. She decided on simply changing the target names. Blake had input the euals were to terminate Todd, herself, Oliver, Sarah, Simon, Michael, Elestor, Matthew, Luke and John. She altered the names, so now all euals save the first ten she altered would attack Ian, Darren, and Isaac.
I hate to do this, but it’s either you or me. And I sure want to live.
As she finished the last eual, and was about to leave, a shadow stopped her suddenly. She froze next to a eual, and knelt down to the ground. She saw the shadow move, but saw no footsteps. It came to rest in front of her, and though her eyes saw a figure standing above her, none of her other senses registered its presence. There was no heat from the form, no sound from its clothing or breathing, no sensation of the displacement of air from its volume. She looked up, and saw a face she couldn’t name, but that she knew as if it were a reflection.
You’ve forgotten about me.
Elaine tried to speak, but found she couldn’t form the words. She had never felt fear like this, but it consumed her whole.
You always were a whole lot of trouble. You never knew what was best for you.
Elaine couldn’t help it, but tears ran down her face. In the distance, a white obelisk seemed to appear from the air itself. It throbbed with life and light, though it cast no shadow, illuminated no eual or table. Elaine felt a terrible pull from the object, not on her body, but on her very soul, and the longer she sat, motionless, the more it hurt her in her core.
You don’t know who you are, don’t know where you are, and yet you think you can change things for the better? The figure, whom Elaine now recognized to be a woman, let out a long, shrill laugh. You don’t even know who’s using you, who’s got you trapped! You are the essence of a pawn, my child, and you know not who moves the pieces. Who is Manipulating you?
“The . . . the Manipulator?” she managed to ask. “Are you saying that all this, this . . . chessgame, is a product of the Manipulator?” She sank onto her knees, lowering her head. With every step forward, there has been a corresponding step back. “Then how do I know what actions are truly mine, and which are those precipitated by the Manipulator’s control?”
How do we ever know what actions are the product of our free will, and are the product of the Master-Creator. Except while you could never destroy the MC, you can destroy the Manipulator.
The woman faded, but the obelisk remained, pulsing now with a bloody light. Elaine knew the woman to be an aspect of herself, but it seemed so different from the image she confronted in the mirror.
Who was I? Who am I? Who will I be?
Elaine’s heart pounded within her, the veins in her face felt full and heavy, and she began to lose feeling in her arms and legs. The obelisk seemed to grow in size, and as it did, the euals turned to face it, and knelt before it. She could see words within its surface, words that hovered like a mist and shimmered in the darkness. She couldn’t make them out, but she knew they meant something terrible was coming, something she wouldn’t understand until it was all over.
“Elaine!”
She was shocked back to reality by Oliver’s voice. She shook her paralysis off, and rushed out the room with him, not daring to look back to see what position the euals were in now.