All That She Can See(60)

‘Ooookay.’ Cherry stood up quickly, causing her head to spin. ‘Oookay. This is a lot to take in. I just need a second.’

She tried to organise her thoughts into some kind of order but there were too many of them clamouring for attention. She paced around the room and Peter simply watched her, his head swaying one way and then the other as Cherry moved from wall to wall. Eventually she stopped and turned to look at Peter. ‘Okay. All right. Start from the top.’

‘My mother left to work at the Guild. She’s one of the few who can see both good and bad Meddlums so she’s got more reason to want to switch off that kind of sight than anyone. When I was taken in, I guess her maternal side hadn’t been entirely eliminated by all of the Guild’s experimentation so she convinced the people in charge to leave me alone. I was put into a special unit instead. Solitary confinement, basically. It was a lonely existence but at least I was mostly untouched.’

‘Mostly?’ Cherry started to pace again, breathing in for three steps and out for the next three.

‘The solitude got to me every few months, I hated it, so I acted up now and then and they would take me in for electrocution therapy. It would… keep me calm, more docile, for a while. I was less trouble for them that way.’

‘Why didn’t they just remove your feelings permanently?’

Peter gestured towards the smoke that was still filtering in underneath the door. ‘Have you seen her? They couldn’t get her off me. They tried hacking her down like a tree at one point but she just wouldn’t budge. Our attachment is a little too strong. She loves me too much. That’s why they never let me go. She was too big. All they could do was return her to her original, less real form, lock us up and keep up the electrocution whenever they thought it was necessary. They didn’t care about the effect it had on me,’ Peter added bitterly.

Cherry looked at him with sympathy. ‘I can’t imagine it… what you went through. All those years, locked up. I’m so sorry that happened to you.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Peter said quietly.

‘But still, I am so, so sorry,’ Cherry said. ‘So how did you get out?’

‘After all those years locked up there, I eventually found a weak link. The Guild employees have to undergo electric therapy every three months to keep them numb and that takes its toll on their memories.’

‘Every three months?!’ Cherry gasped.

Peter nodded sadly. ‘They think feelings get in the way of their so-called law enforcement. Fewer real feelings equals better judgement, is how they justify it, but it’s another excuse to cover up the fact their “better judgement” means they’re bringing people in for the smallest “crimes” simply so they have more guinea pigs to experiment on. So many kids were brought in after accidentally making someone feel something they weren’t supposed to.’

‘They bring in kids?’ Cherry shouldn’t have been surprised, especially as she knew Peter had been taken away as a child, but she’d so been wishing that had been the exception rather than the rule.

‘Mainly teenagers. Kissing is a minefield.’

Cherry touched her lips and her mouth filled with Belonging. Chase.

‘Teenagers being free and easy with their kisses is a problem for the Guild, especially if the teenager hates the world. One misjudged kiss and all hell could break loose.’

‘I didn’t really do much kissing when I was younger. The little bit that I did do probably caused Confusion more than anything.’ Cherry shook her herself. She was getting off topic. ‘Tell me about what the therapy does to memories.’

‘The human body can only handle so much of it and continuous treatment meant that Feelers like Happy became more and more forgetful. One of the guards would bring me food three times a day and yesterday the guard who brought me my lunch forgot to lock the door to my cell. It was the first time it’s ever happened so I knew it was my one and only chance to get out of there. I found a spare uniform in one of the supply cupboards and then I just had to put on a gormless expression and leave. Once I was in the uniform, I looked like all the other workers and no one noticed me. I just needed to get out of there. They were starting to get desperate.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Bad Meddlums are becoming bigger. The suicide rate of people like us is at an all-time high. There have even been some cases of PTSD where Meddlums have been so monstrous, they’ve frightened people to their wits’ end. The Guild doesn’t know how to help people with these kind of mental health issues so they just up their dosages, ramp up their therapies and experiment more aggressively.’

Cherry was at a loss for words. The more she heard about the Guild, the more desperate she became. How was she going to get Chase out of there?

‘They will have noticed I’m gone by now, though,’ Peter continued. ‘This is where it gets dangerous. Getting caught after I’ve escaped will be game over for me. They won’t just put me back in a cell. They’ll make an example of me to send a message.’

‘Why haven’t you been caught already? You’ve got lenses, right?’ Peter nodded and blinked hard. Cherry went on, ‘Surely they can just hack into your sight and find out where you are, can’t they?’

‘They should be able to,’ he said, a look of confusion on his face. ‘So either they’re happy to be rid of me or there’s a serious glitch in their system.’