Emotionally Charged by Selina Fenech

hummed with pain. “What happened? Is Dean…?”
    The detective took a seat next to my bed and pulled out a note pad. “We were hoping you could tell us what happened. No one else has been able to, and the scene we found, with one boy shot and you and three others unconscious, well, I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve identified the shooter from the bank robbery, and the two other men carrying guns as his associates. Now we’re just trying to work out how you and the boy who got shot come into it.”
    My mind raced over all the evidence of my involvement with Jake’s team. Photos, phone calls, texts, leaving home, my stuff at their place, the video from the bank. I had to tell the truth, as much as would be believed, that I didn’t realize who they were until it was too late. It was going to be a long story, and long investigation, and I couldn’t handle that now. I could barely think.
    I looked the cop in the eye and told him we were just victims, and that I’d tell him everything he wanted to know when I was better. If I ever got better. The detective may not have been physically attracted to me, but the rush of power I felt let me smooth through all his defenses. He nodded in complete agreement and gave the side of my bed a sympathetic pat.
    “Of course, but if you could help me understand what happened, I’d appreciate it. We’ve got enough evidence on the three men to tie them to a number of crimes in the area, but the confusing part is that they either seem to be trying for an insanity plea or are actually mentally disabled. Catatonic, all three of them.”
    I could tell him what happened, now I realized what I’d done. I’d killed them. Or I might as well have. I ripped all their emotions right from their bodies, leaving them as vegetables.
    I bent over the side of the bed again, my eyes watering and chest convulsing. The nurse held a pan out for me again but nothing came. My body rolled inside with pain and guilt and I wished I could vomit it all out, clear all these feelings from me.
    I had taken lives.
    Their powers I had somehow absorbed, stolen. That’s why everything was amplified. I deserved this torment, the screaming of every emotion around me drilling into my skull. It could send me insane, and I almost hoped it did. I only had to know one thing first.
    My voice was a harsh scratch, and I spoke to the floor, still bent over the side of the bed. “Did he die? Is Dean dead?”
    My heart grew small and painfully tight waiting for the answer.
    The nurse replied. “He’s been in and out of consciousness since surgery. He almost-”
    I was already moving, throwing back the sheets, tearing drips and wires off me.
    The nurse tried to talk me down. The detective stepped in front of me to urge me back to bed. I shoved him weakly, and he flew across and hit the wall with a smack, bringing a beeping machine down with him. Stronger than I could have known I’d be, I clenched my teeth as my body ran riot with overloaded emotional power.
    I bolted down corridors, not giving a thought to the state of my hospital robe. I followed my nose, or rather, my heart, and found myself at ICU. I stumbled into the room Dean lay in, grabbed his hand and dropped my head onto his shoulder.
    I found quiet there.
    Next to Dean, the pains and pleasures of others that bellowed around me were muffled. I found myself weeping with relief.
    “Hey.” Dean’s voice was dry and husky.
    “You’re alive. You’re awake,” I whispered into his shoulder.
    “Yeah, you too.”
    I didn’t feel any cold, just soothing warmth. He wasn’t holding back. He wasn’t keeping any of his emotions from me, but still calmed me with the abilities he’d learned.
    The love I sensed from him made me weep more, but happily. I wished he could experience how I felt for him in return.
    I lifted my head from his shoulder and kissed him.
    The kiss was gentle, lingering, and I put everything into it that I couldn’t give justice to in words.