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What goes on in the mind of an empath? What do they dream about? Dreams, though chaotic and multifaceted, have meaning because they are produced from the roots of your subconscious. The subconscious is a cluttered closet, a multi headed beast; it stores all those intrusive thoughts, disorganised memories, entangled emotions. It stores all the messy, unattractive parts of your personality in a bottle and only at night is its contents poured out.
One's subconscious is enough to full out about eight hours of blissful madness...but what happens if one mind contains more than one? More than two? Or three or four? Being an empath is more than manipulation for others' emotions. There's an exchange that occurs. When Evan taps into another mind for emotions, he creates an imprint on them that allows their subconscious to intermingle with his as a bridge of sorts. Over some time, depending on how compatible their personalities are, that bridge strengthens till it becomes less of a bridge and more of a thread that can never be severed. Soon he can never tell where his end and another begins. It's happened before with his sister Elara and his best friend Lou.
He never thought that would happen with him and Cinder though. Especially after only three days of knowing him. Though that was partially his fault.
They were deep in the caves as he thought this. Cinder was ahead of him, leading the way. They were trying to find a way out after discovering that the way Evan fell in was blocked. Trying to retrace Cinder's steps to the way he fell in and leave before their water ran out.
The process was slow and frankly frustrating. They had tried different passages that led to solid walls, marking the ones they tried by etching crosses on their entrances. This was their fifteen passage, this one looking less promising than the last.
Evan held his light stick in front of him, watching the red gleam mix with the dark shadows as Cinder yapped on about who-knows-what. He thought about their first night...when he heard Cinder cry in his sleep...
' Evan was on his back, staring at the ceiling, glad that Cinder let them sleep with the light sticks on though he'd never admit it. He was thinking about the Trials and Elara and how much he loathed the Dominion when he heard. The whimpers of pain.
He turned on his back, his instinct to fight picked, his eyes alert only to find Cinder in the gloom, his body curled into the fetal position, his forehead beaded with sweat, his face grimacing with pain. Evan stared. A nightmare?
But no it was more than that. He could feel it, the sharp shards of torment crawling down his spine. Reluctantly, he reached into his mind, opened the vault and let the power out. The effect was immediate. Evan hunched and twitched violently as ropes of cold worked into his body, from his toes to the top of his head. He gasped.
What he saw with his mind's eye was a snow storm heavy above their heads, plummeting hail and Cinder was taking the worst of it. Evan was shocked, never had he seen emotional torture this severe. There was nothing for it, he would have to break in.
He closed his eyes, ignoring the hot dribble of blood down his nose and imagined Cinder's mind as a locked vault. Gently, he pried at it, trying one combination after another and he cracked it and the floodgates of his subconscious crashed into his own. The pressure of it was almost crippling, he felt his lungs tightened under the strain. He forced himself to relax, letting Cinder's mind take hold of him and soon his emotions screamed at him.
Pain. Loss. Hatred.
Emotions that formed memories. A boy of five screaming for his mother as he was dragged away in arms of metal. The boy at eight standing in a lab with walls of glass being watched as he was attacked with rapid firing bullets. The boy at twelve locked in a spherical vault, forced to use his power before he died from a lack of oxygen.
They poured into him, stirring in with his own until that became one form of the beast. When the bridge forming was done, he mustered his strength to mentally push the snowstorm away. It took a great deal of effort, of which black spots started appearing in his vision. Just as his body was about to give out, the snow dispersed and he heard Cinder sigh in relief.
He sucked in the air greedily, his heart pounding in his chest. He glanced up at the sleeping form of Cinder and realised something he should have in the beginning.
There was a reason Cinder chose to save a stranger from falling rubble and it wasn't because he was a 'good guy' (at least not according to his subconscious) it was because he needed to find the Aethermind...and he thought Evan could be it.
Maybe the boy was high on planet dust or in serious need of a therapist because this nut job of teenage desperation was nothing short of a big pile of crap and he knew it."
But that didn't stop Cinder from believing he was even as they reached the deep end of the passage.
"Well, this isn't it either," Cinder mumbled to himself as took out some coal and etched another cross on the wall.
"Cinder, we're trapped, ain't we," Evan said, failing to conceal the note of accusation in his voice.
Cinder didn't look at him, "We should try this way," pointing to the right was a crevasse as wide as his torso was and without a backward glance he headed in.
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It was several hours later when Cinder announced something that quite nearly urged him to finally jackslap the guy.
"Okay. don't get mad but I think we're lost."
Evan blinked at him, "What?"
Cinder turned to him with a sheepish smile, "Yeah. I overestimated my navigation skills, we took too many turns and now..." He shouldered the last words. Evan stared at him for a long time and...laughed.
He laughed so hard that the noise reverberated on the walls of the caves and multiplied. He laughed until tears started to fall down his face. Cinder didn't know what to do so he laughed too though with significantly less gusto.
"I should have ditched you when I had the chance," he said after he calmed down. He sat down and rested his arms on his knees. He glanced at the boy and scowled.
"Of course we're lost. I follow the weird kid who cries in his sleep and still thinks ghosts give directions. Tell me, were you trying to get us out of here or did you plan on sharing a bedtime story about your dead mom?"
Cinder flinched, his eyes hardened, "What did you just say?"
Evan smirked and crossed his arms, "Which part?"
Cinder stepped closer, his anger flaring in his mind like a comforting heat.
"Evan, I can kill you, you know," he said in a soft tone. Evan didn't doubt it but he was on a roll. He needed this, whatever this is. If it meant poking the boy to release his own anger and so be it.
"You can? Funny. With how much you moan in your sleep I would have thought the slightest forehead flick would have you crying for mommy."
Cinder's eyes darkened further and he moved to crouch in front of him so they were practically nose to nose with each other.
"Careful now, Nightlark. I can pick you apart until you're smaller than a spark of dusk."
"Hm. You asked me once what I was in for. Why was I chosen? Would you like a demonstration?
Cinder gave him a confused look before his face paled. Evan watched calmly as Cinder's breath shook, beads of sweat falling down his face. His eyes, once darkened with anger, were now wild with potent fear. Evan knew he was not looking at him anymore but at a memory. A very, very bad one. Evan smiled darkly as Cinder jumped to his feet, stumbled and fell. He started to whimper, mumbling to no one "Please, please, please" as he shook on the floor.
Remember when I mentioned that Evan was demented, yes? Years of pain and emotional torture can do that. In fact this was what the Dominion bred you to be. An instigator of pain. A tool to inflict suffering. And you were often allowed, nay encouraged to practice on your peers. How else was an empath meant to do so?
Evan? Said a voice he loved, missed, despised and resented with his whole being.
Evan, Elara's voice said, what are you doing?
Leave me alone.
This isn't how I raised you.
Oh? And for how long have you raised me for? Ten years? Seven or less than that?
Ev. Please.
Evan scowled and released Cinder. He watched as he laid there in the shadows, his face froze in shock. He looked at him. Evan looked back, "Don't test me."
The earth gave a long, loud burp. The floor, the walls, the ceiling quivered at the sound and the boys quickly came to their feet. The noise continued, bellowing deep enough that Evan could hear it in his bones. Flashbacks of the cave-in went through his mind, causing his heart to jerk as he grabbed Cinder's arm turning him to one of the dark crevesse they came through.
"We need to leave. NOW."
They ran, light sticks in hand as they slithered their way through the crevasses. The rumble was getting louder and closer, overriding their quickened breathing and pounding hearts. Just as they were about to fall through one tight crevesse, the earthquake hit. And it hit hard.
The world tilted. Dust and debris caked his helmet so he couldn't see a thing. He had Cinder yell. Or was it him? The ground cracked open and they fell through...
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