The Portal Chronicles

Forward

So. I am changing tenses. I can't decide which I like better: past first person or present first person. Or past third person. Sigh. If you have an opinion, please let me know!

I really hate being on the floor with people touching me, especially when that touch is telepathic. I jerk into a sitting position and hit the hands on my temples away as hard as I can. Gresséir backs off a foot, giving me some breathing space as I try to hold my shaking body up. I had been laying on the couch in his office and he is sitting on the coffee table.

My thoughts whirled, but two pieces of data click. "You... Kurth thaid..." My mouth stumbles over the words.

"Take it easy. You need to lie down." Gesséir says, pressing gently on my shoulders.

"Thelepathic. You." I say, stabbing an accusing finger into his chest.

"Yes. Lay down, now."

I lay back on the couch, head swimming.

Iris, you need to trust me. Let me in.

No, shrink. No drugs for Iris. No shock, no sizzle.

I promise, you will be able to dictate any treatment you receive here.

Leave me. Alone.

After a few minutes I am back in the land of the coherent. Gesséir is sitting in a chair a few feet away, watching me intently as I ignore him. I massage my temples, trying to remember just why I had melted.

You were remembering a time when you were experimented on.

Get out of my head! I turn on Gesséir, pushing him out of my head.

"Sorry, I was keeping tabs on your consciousness."

"You were invading my privacy!"

Gesséir cocks a brow. "Coming from a fellow telepath, that sounds like hypocrisy."

"Unlike you, I have manners. I don't simply walk into someone's mind and do whatever I want without asking."

"So you walk into someone's mind and do whatever they ask?"

I try to work my jaw, but I am too angry to think of a comeback.

"Before you storm out, you need to sit there a few minutes. Both to restart your body and to speak with me a bit." The first bit he is completely correct about. I can hardly move my limbs. The second part, however...

"If you think I'm going to do mind babble with you willingly, you're thick in the head."

"Iris, I don't know what you've experienced in the past, but I can guarantee you will be happier here if you cooperate."

"Like I haven't heard that line before. For all I know you've brainwashed the kids here to keep them docile, believing they are free. I'm not buying it."

"Do you really think I, a fellow mutant, would do that kind of thing? And why are you still here? Perhaps you can get out the same way you came in- but you haven't. What do you want from us?"

"Nothing."

"I find that hard to believe. Not only do you want something, you need our help." I tried to relax into the chair. I can't give away the fact that I can't teleport out. I need to keep them out of my head and get into theirs... Now there's an idea.

"I have an idea, but you aren't going to like it." I tried to pin Gesséir with a glare, but he simply smiles.

"Go ahead?"

"If you agree to hearing the idea, you agree to following through with it."

Gesséir's smile fades, and he thinks for a moment.

"As long as no one could be hurt, we have a deal."

I give a tight smile. "I look through your thoughts, and you don't try to stop me. I get access to everything until I know what this place is about, all the dirty little secrets."

"And this falls under the 'No one could get hurt' category?" Gesséir arches another brow. God, that's getting annoying.

"I can handle myself. You'll only be hurt if I want you to be."

Gesséir sits silently for another minute. "Let's do it, then."

It takes me a moment to get my thoughts in order. When you're pulling memories from someone there are a lot of things that can go wrong-- for instance, melting both parties' minds into big useless irreparable blobs. To insure this doesn't happen simply requires focus and control. Simply...

Gesséir tries to relax in his chair, sitting back and crossing an ankle over a knee. One brush on his mind, however, and I can tell he has mixed emotions. Granted, two mental breakdowns within about twenty four hours isn't the best resumé for me keeping a handle on things. Sending out a probe of thought, I wait to do more until he pulls me inside his consciousness. Closing my eyes and focusing on my heartbeat, I bind my own thoughts into a compact orb and search for complete focus on what I was looking for... What I had known from places with doctors and scientists and psychologists. Corruption, cruelty, experimentation, execution. Back to the beginning...

•• •• ••

I walk through a dimly lit dirt tunnel, wary of the places my eyes cannot reach. This is the perfect place for us, I think to myself...

Page joins the staff today, and I'm glad for it. It is fitting that the woman who gave me my fighting chance will help me give others the same...

A girl... limp body twenty feet from our door. Slow working poison in her veins. The first death.

Silent government funding, labeled as the President's expenses. He will lose his next election for it, thank God, and now we have a place we can truly call home...

I stare at the sullen face of the untrusting teen. He leaves the next day, is hunted down a week later. It's splashed across every headline...

Appleton Facility has an escapee, perhaps the underground will ferry him here. Every faction of rebels wants him. Wants his mind... If there is any left.

I pry myself quickly from Gesséir's mind, letting the thoughts fall back into place. Appleton...

Gesséir stirs, opening his eyes. "Appleton, what about it?"

I sit up straighter, trying to refocus on reality. "What time is it?"

Gesséir wipes a hand over his face, then checks his watch. "Twenty 'til noon. You've been picking my brain for almost two hours. Why did you only keep those few memories?"

"I don't want memories that I can't use." I mutter, pressing my temples. God, I forgot what a pain sifting is.

Gesséir sits back in his chair, sighing. "Did you find what you need?" He asks, rolling tension from his shoulders. I contemplate for a moment.

"Yes. Thank you..."

"Of course. I'm glad you didn't turn my brain into goo." He grins. I analyze his features for the first time. Blue eyes, dark hair, a handsome enough face. Worry lines aged him, contrasting with his mid-thirties physique.

"Tell me what you know about Appleton." I say, voice monotone. Gesséir's grin falls.

"It's like Guantanamo Bay for mutants. To the public it is a normal enough prison. For mutants it's a place that specializes in the detention and dissection of those exhibiting or simply carrying the mutant gene."

"What year is it?"

Gesséir squints at me. "2037."