The Enlightened (Mind Dimensions #3)(20)

Our mind is blank, like a pond on a windless day. There are no ripples on the lake, no movement of any kind, only stillness and serenity.

I, Darren, find this very odd. I came here in an attempt to sample this monk’s fighting style, but that’s not what I’m getting. Like the Abbot’s, this mind is in an altered state, as though the monk is meditating, despite the fact that he’s moving around. What’s stranger is that when I try to feel light and rewind the monk’s memories, I get a similar result: some nirvana bullshit but no actual memories. That’s really odd.

Frustrated, I exit his head.





*





My self-esteem has taken a serious dive today. First, I lose all those fights with Caleb. Then I miss all those targets. And now I just screwed up a Reading. Still, I suspect all this stuff is small potatoes compared to Julia’s reaction when I tell her why she’s here.





Chapter 8





Determined, I walk into the mansion-like guesthouse and approach Julia. She’s wearing a sleeveless dress. Without giving myself a chance to flake out, I touch her exposed elbow.

An animated version of Julia appears next to me, her blue eyes filled with shock. “Darren? What are you doing here?”

I look at her uncomfortably, unsure what to say.

“Is something wrong?” she asks, her surprise turning into worry. “You look pale.”

“I... sort of have something strange to tell you.”

“Okay.” She blinks. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

“You’re not here for the reason you were told,” I say, looking at her.

“I’m not here for any reason at all.” She frowns. “They’re giving the reins to my mom.”

“Right. That succession thing? It’s a ruse to get you to come here,” I say, watching her closely. “The real reason is different.”

“Okay, and are you planning on telling me this reason you’re building up so much?” she asks almost teasingly. She has no idea what’s coming.

“It kind of involves me,” I say. “Or, rather, us...”

She stares at me for a moment as I search for the most delicate way to proceed. Then her eyes widen.

“You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding.” Her joviality forgotten, her perfectly manicured hands tense. “These old farts want us to marry each other? Or are they liberal enough nowadays to just breed us like f*cking livestock?”

“The latter,” I say, glad she guessed it for herself, sparing me the need to explain.

“How could you, Darren?” she says with disappointment. “I thought Eugene was your friend.”

“What? He is. I said no.” Realizing that might have sounded insulting, I explain, “I’m not here to talk you into it. I’m here to see if you can help us get out of it.”

She looks a tiny bit calmer and takes a breath, letting it out with an audible sigh.

“Fuck,” she finally says.

“They didn’t call it that,” I say, attempting to lighten the mood.

“It’s not funny,” she says, but the corners of her eyes crinkle. “What are we going to do?”

“When I said no, they basically decided to bore me to the point of agreeing to do it.”

“What do you mean?”

I explain to her how I have no idea where my body is, and how because of that, I can’t phase out of the Quiet.

“What I don’t know,” I say, “is how they’re planning to convince you to do it.”

Her lips tighten. “Sadly, they have many ways. For starters, they can threaten to ostracize me if I don’t cooperate. Perhaps that’s why they brought my mom here. They might tell me the only way she’ll get what she wants is if I play ball. But what makes you think they would have to convince me at all?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if you were willing, all they’d have to do is tie me up—”

“Oh, come on. You can’t be serious.” I shudder from the images in my mind. “If it goes that way, then they can wait as long as they want. I will f*cking travel the world on foot before I stoop to raping for them.”

“They might not have presented you with their most persuasive arguments yet,” she says. “These old people are ruthless.”

“I was thinking it’d be easier to ‘go along with it,’” I say, making air quotes. “We can just pretend to do it. We could sleep in the same room but do nothing. I’ll sleep on the floor or something.”

“Gentlemanly, but extremely na?ve.” She gives the door a worried look. “The Enlightened know what they’re doing. If they don’t watch us do it in person, they’ll install a camera in our room for sure. And I doubt they’d let us out of here until I passed a pregnancy test.”

“Shit.” I begin to pace around her. “I didn’t realize they’d be so thorough.”

“Yeah, that they are,” she says, watching me.

I stop after a minute. “So what do we do?”

Instead of responding, Julia steps closer to me, making me uncomfortably aware of her rather ample breasts. In a daze, I wonder whether she decided to see if she might want to go along with what the Enlightened want by first giving me a kiss or something, like a little test to see how bad the situation is. But instead, she whispers in my ear, “We try to escape. Though I’m not sure how yet.”