Fourth Birth: The Oakmont Saga, Book 1
Chapter 19

For the next week, the fog that had settled over me seemed to lift a little, thanks to Aliyah’s talk with me, but only a little and only when we were practicing together. We’d grown even closer since that talk, including talking mind to mind more often than with our mouths.

Aliyah was shocked when I first showed her the pyrokinesis. Since then, she’d been trying to figure it out, but she seemed to have some kind of block to it. What was interesting was that she could sense people coming, and she could tell where someone was when she concentrated on them. It wasn’t an absolute thing with her, but it was very good and saved our butts several times, since it suddenly manifested.

I’d shown her how to mask her new strength, which also saved us big time. Of course, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work with the brain scans they took of us all the time. I also showed her that her probes could go beyond walls, which was hard for her at first. It was really weird that all of the telepaths here were limited by walls, and they did it to themselves.

She helped me prove my shield worked, even informing me that I had shields already. She then learned that skill amazingly fast. Although I wasn’t able to compare my shield with hers, I suspected hers were stronger than mine. She claimed I was stronger than her overall, but there were some skills that she was way better than me at.

We began sharing our skills mind to mind, which seemed to be much better than trying to describe it with our mouths. We also picked up how to do things much faster that way, since we could feel how it was done. I didn’t understand why this wasn’t how telepaths were trained. It was so much better.

November 12th came and I had ballet that evening, at least I had to go tell Mrs. Renault that I was quitting. I had decided that I couldn’t put it off any longer, and this had my stomach in a knot all day, in spite of my dulled emotions and general lack of concern for most things. As much as I hated this place, I didn’t want to hurt her. I knew she was going to be disappointed in me, just adding to the list of disappointments I was responsible for in my life.

When I was finally done with classes, I headed to the dance studio hoping she was there early. I hadn’t been there since the attack when James ripped up my dance clothes. Of course, thinking about that caused the images to flash through my mind again. I’d gotten to where they weren’t as bad, but now they were making me feel sick again.

I went straight to her office, where she was sitting at her desk with headphones on, just like that first day. She turned to look at me as I walked in, smiling brightly when she saw me. She looked at me and her smile fell, as I looked down.

“You are not going to stay with me,” she said.

“No, ma’am.”

“Would you do me one favor before you leave me?” Feeling like I was betraying her, I would have agreed to almost anything right then.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Change into your dance clothes and do the Angel’s Dance part which you have learned.”

I was about to say no, but she raised a finger. “Just once. That is all I ask,” she said, handing me a set of dance clothes which had been sitting on her desk, as if she was expecting this.

Even though I didn’t want to, I changed into the clothes she gave me and came back out, feeling confused inside and more than a little self-conscious about the dance clothes. Memories of having them ripped off of me were parading through my vision.

There was sadness, disappointment, anger and a lot of other things I couldn’t figure out, along with those visions. On top of it all, I saw those images in my mind again. They were about to overwhelm me. Before I could stop it, a couple of tears leaked out.

“Now, start your warmup and then we will go through the beginning of the routine,” she instructed me.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, and began my stretching and warm ups.

Done with the warm ups, my chest hurt a little, but not too bad. I was a little stiff at first, but I started loosening up pretty quick, my body remembering as I ran through the the exercises. Of course, the stretching I’d been doing for PT probably helped.

Once done, she put on some music as I prepared myself. I’d never danced to the music, so it was a little surprising, but the music fit not only my mood, but the dance as well.

At first, I was very stiff, since I hadn’t danced in over a month, and I wasn’t very good even then. With the images in my mind, I quickly began to lose myself in the dancing, allowing myself to flow with the music. It took over all of my thoughts, and I surrendered to it.

The images from James began fading away as I danced. The music changed from a very chaotic piece to something more sweet and soft, as I moved through the dance. The images changed from James to what I envisioned of the story behind the music.

She had told us the story for this ballet, but I hadn’t seen it in my mind until that moment, the music making it come to life in my imagination. I was the beautiful angel her character was supposed to be.

By the end of the music I was a little winded, but felt really good, and not just in my body. It was like a dream as I danced. I heard a bunch of clapping as I stopped, positioned in the final hold position at the end of that scene. The clapping shocked me and as I returned to reality, I saw the entire class admiring me, including Mrs. Renault, and dropped my pose, embarrassed.

“That is how you get lost in the music and the dance. When you feel the music like Melanie just did, you will truly become a ballerina,” she instructed the class. “Melanie, thank you for demonstrating to the class. You may go get changed now,” she told me, pretty much dismissing me.

Heading to the changing room, I went to an isolated corner in the very back. I was confused, feeling like I was letting her down, but also a little unhappy that she dismissed me that easily. Did I really mean that little to her? Of course, I was the one quitting her and she had a class to teach and a show to prepare for. I sat there for a while, trying to sort out my emotions, curling up in a ball in the corner on the floor.

“Melanie, I thought you would be gone by now?” I heard her say.

“I’m changing,” I told her, not even beginning to uncurl.

“You have been changing the entire class and it is hard to change sitting on the floor in the corner,” she informed me. Had I really been sitting there that long? She sat down, wedging in beside me in the corner and placing an arm around my shoulders. “Melanie, you are such a beautiful girl, but there is something inside you that you fight with.”

I was about to say something, but she gently placed a finger on my lips. “No, I will speak for now,” she said. “I have seen it before in girls. They are hurting inside and will not talk to anyone. Maybe it is fear, or they are embarrassed, or even guilty feeling, but they lose themselves. Sometimes they give into drugs or liquor, to make the bad thing in their mind go away. Sometimes other bad things,” she said with a look on her face like she was remembering things she’d rather forget.

Almost shaking the thoughts away, she looked back at me, refocusing her eyes. “These girls replace whatever they can to escape the pain in their minds and hearts. I do not want to see this happen to you. Do you understand what I am trying to tell you?” I gave her a tiny little nod, barely containing the tears that were trying to burst free.

“Melanie, I do not know everything that happened to you, but I know the look in your eyes because I had it too. I know the pain you have, because I had it too. I also know how bad it can mess up your life, if you let it. I know this because it happened to me. There are people here that want to help you. We are not trained doctors, but we can listen, and some of us know what you are going through,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

Not knowing why, I grabbed her, holding her as tight as I could. No tears came from my eyes, but I felt like I wanted them to. She wrapped her arms around me and held me, giving me comfort, as much as I could get right then.

“It was so horrible. I can’t stop seeing it. It just keeps going over and over. I feel dirty and I can’t clean it away,” I told her, knowing I should be crying, but I couldn’t.

“I know,” she said, rubbing my back and holding me tightly. She thought I was crying, but there was nothing there.

Lifting my head, I looked at her. “He put images of it in my mind. I can’t get them out. I see them all the time,” I told her, looking at my hands kneading in my lap.

“I know. I had the same kind of images in my mind. I promise, it does get better,” she assured me. “Melanie, I will not try and talk you into coming back to ballet. I understand what happened, was after this class. If you ever want to talk to me, you can come. I will talk to you,” she said and I hugged her tightly.

“Can I still be in the show?”

“If you are still here, I would not have anyone else,” she said, squeezing me tighter. That last comment was odd, but I didn’t really think anything of it.

“Now, if you want to be in the show, there is something I must hear from you.” She looked at me, waiting.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“I want you to say, ‘I am pretty’ or I will not allow you to dance.”

“But I’m not,” I said, looking down again.

“Yes you are. You will not admit it to yourself, but you are. There are few as pretty as you. I do not lie when I tell girls these things. If you are not, I will not tell you that you are.” She lifted my chin, forcing me to look in her eyes. That was really hard for me.

“You say this thing, or I will not let you on stage. You must become to believe it or you will not be the best you can be on stage or anywhere else. This is not about thinking you are pretty, but you learning to believe in yourself. You must learn to believe in yourself to accomplish anything in life.” I considered getting up and leaving, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I wanted to dance, regardless of how much I thought I wanted to quit. I truly wanted to dance.

“I’m pretty,” I finally said, knowing I sounded pathetic.

“No, ‘I am pretty’ and put your heart into it,” she commanded.

“I’m pretty.”

“You say it like a question. Mean what you say. Convince me you believe it and say every word. Do not use the contraction.”

“I am pretty.”

“That is a little better, but you need it in your heart.”

“Mrs. Renault, I’m not pretty. I can’t convince myself of something that isn’t true.”

“Then you cannot dance,” she said, and stood up, looking disappointed. My anger was building up now. Why was she pushing this so hard? Why did this mean so much to her?

Shocking me, she walked away, leaving the room. I looked in the mirror in front of me, and wondered, could I actually be pretty? My anger was so hot now, I yelled at the mirror and at myself, “I am pretty!” Tears were coming from my eyes now, even though I fought them.

“That is much better. With that kind of attitude you can do anything you want to. Now practice that all the time. Every morning and every night, when you clean yourself and brush your teeth and brush your hair. Here is the tricky part though. Do not act like it. Do not get, how do you say, stuck up,” she said, making me spin around to see her behind me. Smiling, she walked back out.

After that night, my self-esteem did pick up. Even I noticed it, although I still doubted how pretty I really was. Thanks to Mrs. Renault’s advice, I started feeling a little prettier though. Aliyah and I got into a regular pattern with our practice. I still needed my afternoon sessions to try and sort out all of the screwed up emotions inside, but they started becoming more planning than sorting as I became focused on my goal.

Aside from training, I restarted my effort to replace supplies for our eventual escape, including stealing two backpacks from the school supply room, thanks to my newfound ability to pick locks. I imagined that they belonged to the soldiers, but they wouldn’t notice two backpacks missing. At least I hoped they wouldn’t. I had to get more of some of the small items I already had, now that it was going to be both of us escaping. The hardest thing to replace was the tent, but I managed that as well, thanks to the training program for the high school kids. They were taught survival skills, which included outdoor survival, since they were going to be special agents or something stupid like that. They might notice the missing tent, but I hoped they didn’t notice until after we were gone.

“Good evening, Rebecca,” Stone said, as he sat in a small chair across from her desk. “I would’ve expected you to be at home by now.”

“I had some things to figure out, and I think better here.”

“May I ask what those things are? If it’s none of my business, please let me know and I’ll apologize for snooping.”

“No, it’s something that John and I were discussing after the girls had their scans, right after the last attack.” He looked curious, but didn’t say anything, allowing her to proceed at her own pace.

“We’re almost certain that Aliyah has taken X6 and I believe that Melanie was the one that found it, not James,” she told him, eliciting a curious expression.

“That’s very interesting,” he said, his words making her curious. It wasn’t the words, but more the way he said them.

“Why do I get the feeling you have something to tell me?”

“That might be because I do,” he said, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. This was something she’d never seen in him before.

“Melanie’s changed her patterns,” he started.

“Please don’t tell me that she’s started something unsafe or potentially bad,” she pleaded, although the look on his face indicated that it wasn’t.

“At this point, I can’t be sure, but I think it will end up being bad for the program,” he said, allowing her a moment to think about that.

“First, she has apparently decided to stick with ballet, and she wants to be in the performance Mrs. Renault is putting together,” he said, making Rebecca beam with happiness. She had all but given up hope of convincing Melanie to stick with it.

“How?”

“I don’t know for sure, but Mrs. Renault told me Melanie would be her star.”

After a moment of letting Rebecca enjoy that news, he went to his next topic. “Now that that news is old, I have more. Melanie had been practicing during lunch, and I’m certain that’s what she was doing. In the evenings, she’d been going to the old Hammond lab,” he said, giving her a pause so she could interrupt, which she did.

“I would assume she’s stopped, being that you’re saying that in past tense.”

“You would be correct, although the same activities are still happening. A short while back, on Aliyah’s birthday as a matter of fact, Aliyah followed her to the basement after dinner. Since then, Melanie now goes to the basement and the lab during her lunch period, apparently splitting her time between practicing and the old lab. In the evening, she’s begun hanging out with Aliyah again.”

“That’s wonderful!” she said, smiling broadly at the apparent improvement. That was two wins at one time. Maybe there was hope, after all.

“That depends on your point of view,” he said, making her smile slip. “In the evenings, Melanie takes long walks all over the facility. I’m unable to watch her constantly, the way she roams. It almost seems random, but I’m almost certain it’s not. Along with this, there are more supplies missing now, including packs and a tent. I have to assume she got the packs and the tent, but I’m not sure how, being that they were in locked supply rooms. Regardless, the amount of supplies has doubled. Once she’s done with her roaming, her and Aliyah both go to the basement.” She just stared at him for a long time, stunned by the implications.

“Yes, I strongly suspect that Aliyah is a part of her plan now. Whatever happened between them on Aliyah’s birthday, Aliyah is now involved. I have no idea what changed, as Aliyah never was prior to that. Even though they were friends, Melanie was smart enough to know she couldn’t tell Aliyah anything. That has definitely changed.”

“I need to talk to Mike!” she exclaimed, picking up the phone. Stone just sat and waited.

“Mike, would you come to my classroom? We need to chat about Melanie,” she said and hung up a moment later. Several minutes passed before there was a knock on the door, and it opened, Mike walking in.

Once Mike was settled, Rebecca looked at Stone and he indicated that she should lead. “Mike, have you been reading Aliyah on a regular basis,” she asked, rather than telling him about their suspicions.

“I read her every day. Why?”

“What have you been getting from her?” she asked.

“She’s very concerned about Melanie and there are the normal things. Why, what’s going on?” he asked, looking between them.

“Have you had any indication that she’s training outside of class and normal practice type activity?” She still wasn’t telling him anything.

“No. All of her thoughts are similar to what they’ve always been, with the growing concern about Melanie. Everything looks normal,” he answered, curiosity written all over his face.

“It appears that she’s been training with Melanie lately,” she informed him.

“That’s not unusual, being that they’re roommates,” he replied, not seeing anything of concern.

“Have you noticed a jump in Aliyah’s strength?”

“No. She’s about the same as always.” Stone and Rebecca pointedly looked at each other, then she returned her gaze to Mike.

“That’s interesting, considering her scans show a significant increase in strength. Melanie has the same increase, but hers happened with the last attack, when she was given a new serum by James,” she told him, curious at the lack of evident strength increase. “Mike, I can’t be sure, but I strongly suspect Melanie’s figured out how to mask her strength and has taught Aliyah,” she said, looking at him expectantly.

“That’s not a skill I’m familiar with,” he admitted, after thinking about it for a minute.

“You wouldn’t be, because it only ever manifested in the X2 trials, and inconsistently then. It was lost in the successful mix of X3,” she informed him.

“Why would they mask their strength? I could understand Melanie, but why Aliyah? She’s been raised on the strength and skill boards and should want to be as high as possible.”

“She’s already at the top in strength. Melanie is very untrusting of us and wants to hide everything about her abilities. Aliyah is working with her now and so she’s also hiding things as a result. In short, Melanie is influencing Aliyah,” Rebecca told him.

“But why?” he asked, obviously not seeing the complete connection.

“So they can escape,” Stager finally added.

“Consider this as well. Melanie is much stronger and skilled than we have believed,” she said.

“The ability to hide her strength, although impressive, doesn’t impart incredible skill,” he countered.

“No, but the ability to send images and emotions does,” she replied, leaving him speechless for a minute.

“Has she actually sent images?” he finally asked, not even acknowledging the emotions she mentioned and looking excited at the prospect.

“Yes, complete with emotions,” she told him, not leaving the extra out as he had.

“That’s incredible!” he beamed, looking like the proverbial child let loose in a candy store.

“Yes, it is. However, it also implies that she’s much more advanced than any of us gave her credit for, even though we’ve had suspicions about her.”

“Good God! She’s only ten years old and she can do that? What else can she do?” he asked.

“What else indeed, and she’s now eleven. She recently had a birthday, which no one even noticed. We missed an opportunity to help boost her morale and we let it slip by,” she admitted, looking unhappy with herself for the lapse.

“Rebecca, you can’t throw her a party. Aside from her really not having any friends and it being very poorly attended, she’d see right through it. And then there’s the obvious favoritism and forming an attachment issue. Although most know you’re forming an attachment, there’s nothing concrete. That would be,” Stone told her, but looked sympathetic.

“There’s nothing to see through. My concern for her is genuine as you said, even if she doesn’t see it. I admitted to her something that I have never needed to admit in my career. I care about her, which you correctly said I’m not supposed to do. I care very deeply for her, and I can’t explain why. She hates me and there’s passion in her when she says it,” Rebecca said, tears forming in her eyes.

“Rebecca, she only hates you because you’re one of the faces of her imprisonment, which has definitely not been good for her,” Stone said.

“He’s right,” Mike added.

“Whether she knows it or not, you’ve been fighting for her. Know that you’ve done the right thing,” Stone told her.

“Have I?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

“Considering the situation surrounding Melanie Brager, the right thing would be to send her home, for many reasons,” she told him.

“There’s more to this than you’re telling me,” he said.

She looked at Stone for help, not sure how to get out of this and how much to let Mike know. “We have a copy of her background check. It’s rather impressive. Aside from her developing at around six years old, she likely figured out how to turn her ability off no older than eight or nine, maybe younger. Her intelligence scores are off the charts and she has been a social outcast since she first awakened to her gift, if not before. Aside from that, she never cried, prior to coming here,” Stone informed Mike.

“Why would she start crying when she came here, if she never did before? And why would you mention that so pointedly?” he asked, concern and curiosity warring in his expression.

“She’s been acting since she came here. She views herself as kidnapped and she’s definitely being abused. She was doing it to try and solicit sympathy, I suppose, or maybe see if it might drop someone’s guard enough to let something useful slip. I’m not sure, but what’s most impressive is that she came into this facility with at least the idea of a plan and motive,” Stone told him. He let Mike digest that for a minute before continuing.

“She should not be here. We’ve declined admission to a handful of children over the years who’ve not been anywhere near as high a security risk as Melanie Brager. Her father has a higher security rating than the President,” Stone explained. With the last statement, Mike looked shocked and appalled.

“What’s in his record that’s so bad?” he asked.

“We have no idea. They won’t give that information to us. Most of his record is redacted,” Stone said.

“I thought we had the highest security level,” Mike said.

“Everyone does, but no, we don’t. There are a handful of people that we can’t get their records. He’s the first we’ve ever come across. Melanie’s records are highly modified, which takes some impressive connections. He has those connections, including at least one current U.S. Senator,” the security chief said.

“How do we get her out of here and back home?” Mike asked.

“It’s too late for that. If she leaves here knowing what she knows, it’ll get out. Besides that, the head docs have taken ownership of her, as you know, and I doubt they’ll let her go easily,” Rebecca said.

“You said she’s planning to escape. How do you know that? I haven’t been able to replace anything out about any plans from Aliyah.”

“She figured out how to hide her thoughts from day one, as you are well aware. She has taught Aliyah, and from what you have said, I suspect Aliyah may be better at it than Melanie. Supplies have been disappearing since Melanie arrived. Only little things and small amounts, spread out over time. Nothing to cause alarm, in itself, but I noticed because that’s what I do,” Stone said.

“Melanie never let Aliyah in on her plans. I’m pretty sure she knew you were reading Aliyah to watch her, so she kept Aliyah in the dark as well. I’m sure that didn’t help her feeling of isolation and also hurt her morale. She sets a very high bar for her ethics, but she basically has been lying to everyone, including her only friend. She views escape and survival higher than that and worth the cost, regardless of hating to do it. That changed on Aliyah’s birthday. They began training together, and that’s exactly what I believe they’re doing. I’ll try and see if I can watch them sometime soon, but for now I only have my hunches. Anyway, since Aliyah’s birthday, the amount of supplies disappearing has doubled. Aliyah is in on it now,” Stone finished, looking very intense.

“Should I do a deep reading on the girls?” Mike asked.

“From what I understand, a telepath knows when a deep reading is done. That would tip our hand sooner than I think we need to. For now, I’ll watch them closely. I’m on to them, even if only barely,” Stone said. They parted company, worried about what was to come.