Love or Lust?
Chapter 10
“Mom I’m home!” Tina yelled as she entered the mansion. Shopping with Wendy had been great and she felt a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Now she had someone to talk to about her powers.
As Tina made her way to the living room she felt something odd. Her mom was panicked and in a rush as she did some task. It wasn’t until she heard the click of bullets being loaded into a gun that she got truly worried. Quickly Tina rushed over to see her mom loading a revolver with a worried look on her face.
“What are you doing mom?” Tina asked frightened.
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen about Samantha,” Alex said checking to make sure the gun was in proper order, “She’s kidnapped Allan. She intends to leave the country with him. I’m going to go rescue him now.”
“Mom, you can’t use a gun,” Tina took a careful step forward.
Alex let out a sigh, “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect this family dear. Our powers don’t work on that girl, so that eliminates the easy way.”
“Mom, if you get in trouble that might cause more problems for the family. There has to be another way.”
“I wish there was dear. The longer Allan stays with Samantha though, the more of a chance they have to escape. If that happens, well I don’t want to think about that possibility.”
Tina reached out and slowly took the gun from Alex, “Let me deal with it mom. Allan belongs to me and is my responsibility. I’ll rescue him and then we can report Samantha to the police.”
“I’ll give you until sunrise dear,” Alex took a seat and took a deep breath, “After that I’ll do whatever I think is necessary. Even if that means shooting her.”
“I will succeed, don’t you worry.”
Allan tired keeping his concentration. Hours of screaming through his gag had left him worn out and dry mouthed. Samantha seemed to notice the silence and looked over. Allan tensed up as she came over rubbing her hands over her body.
“Done screaming?” Samantha asked as she bent down to be eye level with Allan. Allan quickly nodded his head and Samantha smiled and took the tape off and pulled out the cloth, “That’s better. Try screaming again and the gag goes back in. Understand?”
“Samantha, just let me go,” Allan pleaded, “I’ll ignore everything that’s happened.”
“Not going to happen,” Samantha smiled as she kissed Allan forcefully, “We’re going to have a great life.”
“Samantha, it was never meant to be between us. We were just too incompatible, you need to realize this. We aren’t going to be happy.”
“Oh Allan,” Samantha grabbed a nearby cloth and wiped sweat off of Allan’s face, “We’re going to make this work.”
Allan took a deep breath. Samantha wasn’t going to listen unless he said something drastic. Summoning up what little courage he had, Allan looked into Samantha’s eyes and spoke up, “I don’t love you Samantha. I thought maybe I did when we went to school together, but it just didn’t turn out to be true. I will never love you Samantha.”
Samantha only smiled as she continued to wipe the sweat seemingly ignoring Allan’s comment. Allan cautiously watched until Samantha finally finished and tossed the cloth to the side. Taking a deep and calming breath Samantha suddenly slapped Allan with a new fire in her eyes.
“It’s that bitch Tina isn’t it!?” Samantha shouted startling Allan, “She ruined you! She took away your love for me. Well, I’ll just have to deal with her then. I’ll make sure she never messes with us again. Don’t worry Allan, I’ll help you remember, I’ll break you free from her evil clutches.”
“Samantha, this isn’t about...” Allan suddenly felt his eyes get heavy. Samantha had turned around and injected him with something. She was so fast he didn’t even notice it till it was too late.
“When you wake up, everything will be better,” Samantha’s voice slowly faded out.
The hotel was actually nicer than Tina had expected. She didn’t know how much money Samantha had, but from the looks of it she had enough. Getting past the front desk and finding the room had been easy, a bit of quick manipulation on the receptionist and Tina instantly knew where Samantha was.
It was hard telling what was going on inside the room. Allan’s thoughts were silenced as if he was asleep. All Tina could pick up was vague images of his dreams. Noises on the other side confirmed that Samantha was indeed awake and moving around, likely packing to get out of town as soon as possible.
Tina could feel knots in her stomach. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Samantha was a small enough girl so she could easily overpower her if it came to blows. Unless Samantha had a weapon hidden of course. Tina began regretting not taking Emma with her, but who knew what her mother would order if she had. Emma was loyal to the family, but she listened to Alex above the rest of the house.
Taking a deep breath, Tina used the spare key she got from the front desk and opened the door. Instantly her assumption about Allan had been proved correct. She saw him tied up and knocked out with a gag inserted. However Samantha wasn’t packing like Tina had anticipated; she had a long kitchen knife likely from the rooms kitchenette in her hands.
Both girls just stood for a few seconds, stunned. The way Samantha was holding the knife told Tina that she wasn’t cooking. The girl was bent on using it to harm someone else. Allan or her, it was hard to tell due to the block on her mind. It was Samantha who made the first move, she lunged towards Tina with all her might.
“You bitch!” Samantha shouted as Tina easily dodged the first lunge, “It’s all your fault, you ruined Allan. He used to love me.”
“Allan never loved you,” Tina couldn’t help but shake in fear as she positioned herself between Samantha and Allan. It didn’t matter if she got hurt, Allan had to be protected, “You forced yourself onto him. You’re just delusional if you thought he loves you or ever did.”
“That’s not true,” Samantha steadied herself for another attack, “Allan loved me until he met you. I’m going to take him away and make him remember. I’m going to be happy.”
“You’re going to be a criminal,” Tina rushed forward to try and disarm Samantha. Samantha however moved more quickly than expected. She quickly forced Tina down and got on top of her, “No matter where you go, you and Allan will never be able to live in peace. You’ll always be on the run.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Samantha raised her blade and struck downwards.
Dull thumping noises pierced the blackness. Slowly Allan opened his eyes and managed to get a look around. At first Samantha couldn’t be seen, but in the corner of his eye Allan spotted something. Samantha was on top of Tina with a knife at her throat. Tina had hold of Samantha’s wrists, but there was a cut along her palm, probably from defending against Samantha.
“Mmmph!” Allan screamed through his gag.
It was no good. Neither Tina or Samantha seemed to be aware of him. They were both caught up in their battle to notice anything else. Allan desperately tried wiggling his way out of the ropes Samantha had used to tie him with. They didn’t budge an inch though and began creating a rash.
“I’ll tell Allan you said goodbye,” Allan looked back over to see that Samantha had somehow gained the upper hand in the battle, “Now die like a good bitch.”
‘Tina no!’ Allan screamed with his mind. Tina was stronger than that, he knew she could win if she really tried. He didn’t want her to die and would do anything to see that it didn’t happen.
“What are you doing!?” Samantha suddenly stumbled back with her hands over her ears, “That’s not right. You shouldn’t be in my mind like this. What are you, you freak!”
Suddenly Allan felt a sense of peace wash over him. He could feel Tina’s mind enter his own. For a few brief moments he could feel her thoughts as if they were his own. In that instant he could see that she had no intention of harming Samantha. She never wanted to harm anyone.
‘Tina?’ Allan spoke out with his mind. Samantha lay on the floor with a blank expression on her face.
“Allan?” Tina looked over at Allan and her eyes grew wide with panic, “Oh my god! Did you see all that?”
‘I did’ Allan tried keeping his cool as he collected his thoughts, ‘why didn’t you ever tell me?’
“You heard Samantha,” Tina began to cry, “I was afraid you would think I was a freak and then you wouldn’t love me anymore.”
‘That’s just silly,’ Allan tried laughing through his gag, ‘I would never stop loving you Tina. I care too much about you to worry about small things.’
“Here let me get this off of you,” Tina quickly removed the gag, “It’s a bit hard for me to use my powers right now. Whatever that was, it seemed to drain me.”
“What about her?” Allan looked towards Samantha, “What did you do to her?”
“I induced a coma,” Tina looked back at Samantha, “I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her. Letting her go free would be a big mistake and I’m not going to take care of her.”
“Can’t you just erase her memories?” Allan stretched as Tina undid his knots.
“I dunno,” Tina shrugged, “It sort of feels like I can with these new powers, but it’s a big risk. No psychic has ever successfully erased another person’s memories.”
“Maybe...” Allan felt his eyelids become heavy. The stress of the day finally caught up to him. As his vision went dark he could feel Tina embrace him tightly. For the first time since he had been kidnapped he felt safe.
“You got lucky,” Alex said as Tina laid Allan on the couch, “If whatever it is that awakened in you didn’t, you would have died. I should have never let you go in the first place.”
“Give it a rest mom,” Tina lovingly stroked Allan’s hair, “I’ve attempted to erase Samantha’s memories with my new powers. I think she’ll wake up in a few hours, but there’s no telling what will happen or if the wipe even worked. This is all new territory for me.”
“It’s new territory for every psychic out there,” Alex let out a deep sigh, “Never in the history of psychics has someone gained what you have. I’m afraid your life is going to get a tad more complex from here on out. For your safety I don’t want you ever talking about this incident. Who knows how our enemies might react or worse, other psychics.”
“That’s a new one. I never heard of psychics harming each other outside of special circumstances.”
“Oh, you are a special circumstance. There are those out there who desire power above all else. Other psychics might come after you to learn how you did it and that would put you and Allan in danger. Just trust me and keep silent about this.”
“What about...” Tina looked to the floor, “What about Alice? If this memory wipe works, can I free her?”
“Of course,” Alex went from concerned to a friendly smile, “I have no desire to deny you happiness dear. However we will need to think of a good cover story for why she’s been gone so long.”
“Oh, I think I can handle that,” Tina looked at Samantha, “She needs to be punished for what she’s done anyways.”
The front page of the local newspaper was dominated by Alice and her happy return home. Right next to her photo was a picture of Samantha in an orange jumpsuit as she was being processed to go to prison for her kidnapping. With a signed confession it was an open and shut case, all that was left was for her to be sentenced. Rumors flew she would be getting thirty years in prison easy.
“I’ve never seen you read the paper,” Tina came up from behind and hugged Allan.
“You’re sure about this?” Allan held up the paper and showed Tina the story, “Thirty years seems a bit harsh don’t you think?”
“I know it does,” Tina kissed along Allan’s neck, “She’s a threat to a lot of people though. She needs a very long time to sort herself out. If she seems to have learned her lesson at any point after ten years I’ll consider freeing her. I can’t go any lower than that though, she needs to be punished for kidnapping you.”
“You know I trust your judgment,” Allan let out a sigh, “I guess it’s just the nice side of me. I just don’t like seeing harm come to anyone.”
“What about Alice?” Tina pointed to the photo of Alice standing next to her family, “Do you think any less of me because of her? I held her against her will for months.”
“You never harmed Alice,” Allan cleared his throat at the uncomfortable topic, “You’ve already explained to me what happened with her. While I don’t completely approve of it, I can’t say I blame you for doing what was needed to protect yourself from society.”
“And what about you?” Tina moved around to Allan’s front and began kissing him, “From day one when I agreed to go out with you I have been controlling your actions. How do you feel about that?”
“Not the most normal relationship, I admit,” Allan kissed back, “I don’t personally have a problem with it. I know I loved you first and you never did anything to mess with my feelings. I actually kind of like having you in control of me.”
“Oooh very nice answer,” Tina began undressing Allan, “Let me give you a reward.”
“Can I request we don’t take too long?” Allan asked as his hands began undressing Tina, “I have to help my brother and Cynthia pack to go back to college soon.”
“We’ll see,” Tina giggled as she pushed Allan to the ground.