Аманда Хокинг - Torn

“So what do you want to do?” Matt asked.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged, unsure of what exactly I planned to do. “But I just need to practice. It’s the only way I can get stronger.”

Despite Matt’s obvious reservations, Rhys went along with it. It felt very odd to have someone witnessing persuasion, especially someone clearly against it, but I had no choice. I couldn’t send Matt into the next room or something.

Matt watched me intently, and I could see him out of the corner of my eye. It was distracting, but that was probably better practice for me. I doubt I could get one of the Vittra to step aside to a quiet place so I could try to use a bit of mind control on the guard.

I decided to start simple. Rhys and I were standing, facing each other, so I started repeating in my head, Sit down. I want you to sit down.

His blue eyes met mine evenly at first, then something foggy passed over them.

His face seemed to slack, and his expression went completely blank. Without any acknowledgment, he sat down on the floor.

“Is he okay?” Matt asked, growing nervous.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Rhys sounded like he’d just woken up. He looked up at me, his eyes dazed. “So, are you gonna do it or what?”

“I already did it.” I had never talked to anybody after using persuasion on them, and it felt strange to be open about it.

“What are you talking about?” Rhys’s brow furrowed, and he looked between Matt and me, trying to understand.

“You sat on the floor,” Matt attempted to explain.

“Why did you sit down?” I asked.

“I…” His face scrunched up in concentration. “I don’t know. I just… I sat down.”

He shook his head and looked up at me. “You did that?”

“Yeah. You didn’t feel anything or sense anything?” I asked.

I had never known if what I did hurt people. They never complained of pain or anything, but maybe they couldn’t. Not if they didn’t understand what was happening.

“No. I didn’t even…” He shook his head again, unable to articulate what he meant. “I expected there to be a blackout or something. But… I knew that I was sitting. It was more like a reflex. Like, I breathe all the time, but I don’t think about it.

This was the same.”

“Hmm.” I looked at him thoughtfully. “Stand up.”

“What?” Rhys asked.

“Stand up,” I repeated. He stared up at me for a second, then looked around. His eyes hardened and his eyebrows pinched up.

“What’s going on?” Matt asked, moving closer to us.

“I… I can’t stand up.”

“Do you need me to help you up?” Matt offered.

“No. It’s not like that.” Rhys shook his head. “I mean, you could pull me up. You’re stronger than me, and I’m not physically pinned to the floor. I just… forgot how?”

“Weird.” I watched him with fascination.

Once before, I made Matt get out of my room, and it’d been awhile before he’d been able to go in there. But he had been able to this morning, so it meant my persuasion did eventually wear off.

“Weird?” Matt scoffed. “Wendy, fix him!”

“He’s not broken,” I said defensively, but Matt glared at me in a way that made me want to crawl under a rock. I crouched down in front of Rhys. “Rhys, look at me.”

“Okay?” He met my eyes uncertainly.

I wasn’t even sure if I could reverse the process. I had never tried to undo persuasion before, but I didn’t think it’d be that hard. And if I couldn’t, then he’d just have to sit down for a week or two. Maybe.

Instead of worrying about the possible repercussions, I focused all my energy on him. I just said Stand up in my head over and over again. It took longer than it did last time, but eventually his face started to fog over. He blinked at me a few times and got to his feet.

“I am so glad that worked.” I let out a sigh of relief.

“Are you sure it worked?” Matt asked me, but his eyes were on Rhys. Rhys stared blankly at the floor, looking more out of it than he had last time. “Rhys? Are you okay?”

“What?” Rhys lifted his head. He blinked at us, as if he’d just noticed we were here. “What? Did something happen?”

“You’re standing up.” I pointed to his legs, and he looked down.

“Oh.” He lifted one of his legs, making sure it still worked, and didn’t say anything for a minute. Then he looked at up at me. “I’m sorry. Were we talking about something?”

“You couldn’t stand up. Remember?” I asked, but my stomach twisted up. I might really have broken Rhys.

“Oh. Yeah.” He shook his head. “Yeah, I remember. But I can stand now. Did you do that?”

“Wendy, I don’t like you playing with this,” Matt said quietly.

Matt faced Rhys, but he gave me a sidelong glance. Matt tried to keep his face hard, but his eyes betrayed the fear he had.

I had scared Matt, and not in the same way as when I’d run away. He had an actual fear of something I could do, and it made a painful knot in my chest.

“I’m done now.” I stepped away from Rhys.

My dark curls hung around my face, but I had a hair tie around my wrist, so I pulled them up into a loose bun.

“What?” Rhys asked, sounding alert.

He had fully come out of the trance I’d had him under, but I didn’t even really want to look at him. Matt made me feel ashamed about using persuasion, even if Rhys was aware of what I had done.

“Sit down,” Matt suggested.

“Why? I don’t wanna sit down.”

“Sit down anyway,” Matt said, more firmly this time. When Rhys didn’t respond, Matt repeated his command. “Rhys, sit down.”

“I don’t get why it’s so important to you that I sit down.” Rhys grew more agitated as Matt pressed him, and I’d never really heard him sound irritated with anyone.

“I’m fine standing up.”

“You can’t sit down,” Matt sighed, looking over at me. “You broke him a different way, Wendy.”

“Wendy did this?” Rhys furrowed his brow. “I don’t understand. What did you do?

You told me not to sit?”

“No, I told you to sit, and you couldn’t stand. Then I told you to stand, and you can’t sit,” I said. “Now I don’t know what to say! I don’t really wanna say anything anymore! I might make it so you stop breathing or something!”

“Can you do that?” Matt asked.

“I don’t know!” I threw my hands up. “I have no idea what I’m capable of!”

“I can’t sit down for a while,” Rhys shrugged. “Big deal. I don’t even wanna sit down.”

“That’s probably a side effect of the persuasion,” I told him as I paced our cell.

“Whatever, I don’t care if it is,” Rhys said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not in a situation that really calls for sitting down, anyway. The important thing is that you know that you can do this. You can use this, we can get out of here, and somebody in Förening can fix me. Okay?”

I stopped pacing and looked uneasily at Matt and Rhys. Rhys was right. I needed to get us out of here. It wasn’t safe here, and Rhys’s inability to sit was a secondary concern. If anything, it just made me want to get us out of here quicker.

“Are you guys ready?”

“For what?” Matt asked.

“To run. I don’t know what’s on the other side of the door, or how long I can hold them off,” I said. “As soon as they open the door, you have to be ready to run as fast as you can, as far as you can.”

“Aren’t you just gonna Star Wars them?” Rhys asked, completely unfazed by the idea. “When Obi-Wan’s like, ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.’”

“Yeah, but I don’t know how many guards there are, or how dangerous they might be.” My thoughts flashed back to Finn and how he hadn’t been at my house. I shivered involuntarily and shook my head. “Let’s just get out of here, okay?”