Command Me To Be Well [Completed]

2 - Away with it

They don't call me Empath anymore. They call me Seer.

I like it. It's a more fitting name anyway. Emotional mapping has nothing to do with empathy. Quite the contrary. It requires a certain level of cruelty.

A great deal of cruelty, to be honest. It's a must. Seeing emotions, but avoiding to be involved. Making rational decisions, regardless of feelings. Not only other people's petty, feeble, ever-changing feelings, which are so easy to decipher. My own feelings too. They simply must be left out of consideration.

That's what makes a Seer.

To see, but never interact.

To recognize everyone's deepest emotions, as if they were written over their forehead, but not to sympathize with them.

To sense people's mood from the distance, as little dots, placed on a map, and decide on their fate without mercy.

To be as close to a human computer as possible.

"Madame, we're almost there!"

It's the pilot of the jet fighter, transporting me to my new station. It's called the Gate. A good name for the last remaining military outpost of our world, while everyone else is living underground, I must say.

A few days ago we still had two of them. We lost the other one in the bloodiest battle of our history. We always knew the Wasps came to conquer, but we seriously underestimated their forces. It turned into a war for survival too soon.

The Gate is our last chance now. Period. The Gate is the gate. Standing between the enemy and the rest of humanity, scattered in underground shelters all around the world. If they don't manage to stop the swarm, the game's over.

We, I correct myself. It's not them anymore. It's us. We have to eliminate the monsters, no matter what. That's why I'm heading there, disregarding all the cells in my body screaming at me, wanting me to turn my back on that place and flee.

But it's just my emotions speaking. Completely illogical, just like anyone else's. If it was a fear of the monsters I'll be facing there, I might give it a second thought. That would be reasonable. But, alas, it's not the Wasps I'm worried about. It's just a simple human. Well, not that simple, being the military leader of the Gate, but even this can't be a good enough reason for me to feel anxious. It's just a stupid feeling, right? Away with it.

That's what makes a Seer.

He probably doesn't even remember me. We only met once, many years ago, and he surely did worse things than breaking someone else's arm on purpose ever since. Much worse. It sounds like a job requirement for the chosen savior of humanity, as he is dubbed these strange days.

Still, it would be so much easier if it were anyone else I have to work with. The insane amount of respect everyone pays him didn't make his personality any lovelier, probably. But, even if he makes my stomach turn, I have to handle him. And I will, plain and simple, without excuses.

Because that's what makes a Seer.

I guess we won't have to chat a lot. But we certainly will clash. The very moment the first attack arrives, and he understands what I do when I do my thing.

I command the army. That's what I do. Emotional mapping sounds so harmless. But in practice, it means that I take over most of his tasks for the course of the battle.

I bet he won't be happy.

But it's not something we can avoid. The attack on the other outpost happened in my absence. And while I certainly don't miss the headache, the nosebleed and other severe physical symptoms that a successful mapping causes to my body, I can't escape the feeling that I should have been there. Because my presence could have made a difference.

Even if I wouldn't have survived it.

And who knows? My brain is able to stand more pressure than anyone else's. The pressure that excessive mapping puts on a human mind. The strain of following too many targets at a time, mentally, and making decisions based on their emotional state. The tension of being omniscient for a short time.

It hurts like fuck.

But I'm the only one who can track an entire army of Wasps. It's a fact. I'm not proud of it, it's a given. My brain is simply stronger. More durable. Less fragile. And, in a war, that's the only thing that matters. The sheer amount of other minds you can detect.

That's what makes a Seer.

It's a pity that all the other girls born with the gift had to die to prove it.