Diamond City Trilogy

Chapter 5: Breakout

Whatever was happening to Fresco came on with a vengeance. As though freed from some long confinement, his mind gaped wide, open and raw, letting in everything around him. He staggered as he was flooded with emotions from the people in the corridor, their truths visible to him. Somehow, he was sharing their pain, their joy, their pettiness, and it terrified him. Not knowing what was going on or why he was suddenly feeling, Fresco bounced from person to person like a pinball, ricocheting from emotion to emotion. He vaguely recalled his English teacher, Mrs. Palmer, asking him if he was all right before pulling away from her in terror.

Because there were whispers included with the feelings.

gave up the stage for these ungrateful brats

Mrs. Palmer's concerned frown was overlaid with deeply hidden anger. Fresco dodged her and moved on to the next horror.

called me pizza face

whined a redheaded boy with terrible acne.

what if I'm pregnant

worried the head of the yearbook committee as she smiled at Fresco, not knowing he just laid bare her darkest secret.

going to fail Chemistry

fretted the smartest boy in school, ignoring him completely.

The trouble was, he couldn't ignore them. Whatever was happening to him forced him to look deep inside the people around him and squeeze out the darkest part of them to feel and examine, the images of who they really were driving spikes of pain through Fresco's mind.

Overcome and in complete panic, he finally resorted to shoving and running, gasping for air into lungs constricted by fear. He reached the front door and fresh air as he brushed past a small girl with a huge pile of books and felt a shock pass between them. Fresco never noticed her before, but suddenly saw her father was abusing her.

I'll kill myself as soon as I get home, she thought. I hope it's Daddy who finds me. He stopped short, heart pounding. She looked up at him with a blank, empty expression, but her soul screamed at him for help.

Unable to cope, Fresco ran on.

But he couldn't outrun this. He hit the pavement at a full sprint until he was away from the school. He stopped to catch his breath. The pressure of their feelings lessened, but it was still there, haunting him. Air whistled in and out of his straining chest. Despite his restricted breathing, he started to jog, just wanting to get home. He stopped next to a handsome couple at a streetlight waiting to cross. The woman, well dressed with flowing brown hair and a scent of perfume around her, was doing most of the talking. The man, tall and suited, thanked her for walking him to the corner. Fresco's hand brushed the woman's coat, and the gates opened again.

He knew everything about them.

The bank is around the corner, the man's deep voice was horrible in Fresco's mind. I'm taking everything, you b***h. Then Emile and I can go to Mexico and you can rot.

The woman's smiling face hid her own secrets.

Think the money's still there, you bastard? Her voice was a screech. I cleaned it out this morning. Just after I found the letters from your "boyfriend." Your phone will start ringing as soon as you cross the street. That would be my lawyer, asshole.

Fresco stared at them, at the smiling, happy faces and the masks of hatred morphing them into horrible creatures as the light switched. The man kissed his wife and moved off. She turned and walked back the way they came, trailing her true self behind her.

Fresco flinched when the man's phone started to ring. It was all Fresco had in him not to collapse as he watched the man answer. He couldn't bear to be there any longer. He forced himself to cross the street, barely making it past the furious man who turned and almost crashed into him on his way to chase the woman down. There was murder in his mask. Fresco stumbled away from him, stunned and shaking, before dragging himself the rest of the way across the street, ignoring the impatient horns of the drivers who now had a green light.

He staggered to a halt, resting against a mailbox.

"Are you all right, son?" Fresco flinched as a street cop reached out to touch his elbow. He looked genuinely concerned, but his thoughts were clear.

Damned stoners, his accusation jabbed into Fresco like a weapon. Should lock the lot of them up and hang them.

Fresco watched the officer's duality, wide-eyed and unable to speak.

"Are you sick?" The cop asked out loud as his true self said, This one's going in the tank.

It jerked Fresco into action. "Sorry, officer," he said in a shaky voice. The cop's thoughts continued to churn. Fresco stilled, amazed at the power of his own self-preservation. He even managed to smile his most charming. "I'm all right. It's a dizzy spell. Thanks."

He kept up the act as the cop's mind said, Bullshit, but not worth the effort. I'm going for a coffee. Maybe the cute waitress with the too-short skirt is working.

The cop walked off, leaving Fresco alone. As he did, the pressure in his body clenched tight and released. As he watched, the officer who was two became one. Just as it mysteriously began, whatever it was shut off. The instant quiet was almost as unnerving as the crushing empathy.

Fresco stood there for a long time in the stillness, trembling and terrified, waiting. But the phenomenon didn't return. Wanting to be sure it was really gone, he even made himself reach out to the people who walked by him, carefully studying their faces. His mind remained his and his alone.

Too used up to feel much more than relief and not knowing what else to do, Fresco ran for home.

He didn't make it two blocks when he heard someone call his name. He stopped, desperately looking around. He knew that voice.

Fresco!

Again, he heard it, but this time he knew it was in his head. He hunted wildly for the source and, for a moment, across the street, he was sure he saw Daniel standing in the mouth of an alley. But not the Daniel who betrayed him. No, this was his Daniel, the Daniel he remembered from childhood.

His brother waved and smiled.

Fresco.

Before he thought or acted, a line of cars passed, shielding his brother from his view. When they finally went by, Daniel had vanished.

***