August Intruder- Chapter 241- It Is Okay To Put The Weight Down

In the silence of her waiting for a response, Melmarc raised his hand.

Ms. Jennifer turned to him. “Yes, Marc.”

With his raised hand he held up two fingers. Ark’s eyes moved to his fingers. His lips squeezed into a sharp frown, then relaxed. He sighed as he sat back.

Melmarc watched Ms. Jennifer as her eyes settled on his fingers. If she pretended not to know what it was about, was he going to count that as a lie. It was definitely deception, but it would not necessarily be a lie.

Ark looked at her in disappointment.

“Really?” he asked, displeased. “Is this how you work?”

The woman looked at Melmarc’s raised hand and back at Ark. It made Ark sigh again. This time, he looked at Melmarc.

“Are you buying it?” he asked.

Melmarc shook his head.

Ark nodded. “Alright then.” He looked at Ms. Jennifer. “That’s two,” he told her. “You’ve got one more lie left and then we’ll decide.”

Ms. Jennifer opened her mouth, but no words came out. She closed it after a while, seemed to think about it, then opened it again. This time, words came out.

“Just out of curiosity,” she said, crossing her legs once more and ignoring her notepad. “What happens if there’s a third lie?”

“Good question,” Ark mused. “Personally, I’d pick quick violence. Something that won’t make you suffer. Mel’s probably going to ask us to get up and leave. He’s merciful like that.”

Melmarc lowered his hand but watched the woman. It was interesting, knowing Ark’s choice of violence did not worry her. It did not scare her.

She nodded slowly, in understanding, then turned to him. “And is walking out your choice?”

Melmarc didn’t think he needed to give the question much thought. Walking out was definitely going to be the right answer. However, there was just something unrepentant and insulting about being warned not to lie and still deciding to. It was in the nature of adults to be disrespectful to children in the simple things they did, either because they thought the disrespect was so small that it didn’t matter or because they thought the disrespect was necessary for the greater good.

With that in mind, Melmarc looked around the room. Mainly, he took notice of  the distance between the door and where they were—how quickly it would take for someone to get inside.

Unless Ms. Jennifer had a powerful rank or class, he could end her life before anyone could cross the distance. [Secrecy] could do the job, all he had to do was make sure the ring buried itself in her chest.

But there’ll be a time delay, he considered.

The replacement came easily. [Rings of Saturn]. He could burrow it in her chest or he could throw it like a discus and take her head clean off.

Veebee, he thought, reaching out to it, remembering something it had done when  it met Patience and Pelumi.

<>

Melmarc wasn’t sure what that was about, but it did make him curious. Was Veebee editing its lexicon?

Pushing the thought aside, he continued to the important matter.

Can you tell the class and rank of anybody?

<>

That was a bit worrying. He would have to tell it not to go around reading minds and telling him unless it was absolutely necessary.

Can you tell me the rank of the lady in front of me?

“Marc?” Ms. Jennifer asked. “is everything alright?”

<> Veebee answered in disapproval. <

Maybe, Melmarc answered, humoring it. Maybe.

<>

You didn’t tell me her rank.

<>

Then Veebee was gone, no longer  paying attention.

“Ms. Jennifer,” Melmarc said, returning his attention to the therapy session. She looked at him, proving that he had her attention. “I do not like being lied to. And my brother is right. I would say that we should walk away if you lie a third time.” He shook his head. “But no. Lying a third time is an insult to us, an intentional one. So, if you lie to us a third time. One of us will kill you.”

And there it was. The fear. He could feel it seeping out of her. She did her best to hold it together, to suppress it. To him, she was failing.

Why? Melmarc found himself wondering.

Why was she afraid of him but not Ark? Was that how bad his reputation in Fallen High had become. Where even the members of staff worried around only him?

“Wow.” Ark let out a low whistle. “Remember when you asked about safe places and all that?” he asked Ms. Jennifer. “Well, this place is slowly becoming unsafe.”

Ms. Jennifer nodded slowly, affecting calmness. She was very good at it. “And why do you believe I will be easy to kill?”

Ark pointed at himself. “[Demon Lord.” He pointed at Ark. “Very good [Faker].” Then he pointed at her.

Ms. Jennifer said nothing, merely watching and waiting.

After pointing for a little too long, Ark shrugged and dropped his hand. “I really thought that was going to work.”

Ms. Jennifer smiled. It was not a grin or a smirk. It was a simple smile. A smile that said she’d actually liked what Ark had done, that she’d found it fun.

“You had to know that I wouldn’t get pulled into the whole thing and tell you my class,” she said amiably. “But it was a good try.”

Ark nodded. “It was.” Then he looked at Melmarc. “Mel?”

“B-rank [Scout],” Melmarc answered without missing a beat. “I can kill you before you get up from your seat, ma’am,” he said politely. “We can kill you before you can see the next frame of reality.” The fear washed over him. “Before you even know that you are dead.”

Ark shivered visibly. It was an act and Melmarc knew it. “That’s cold… and true. I’ll gladly oblige. But still cold.”

Melmarc rolled his eyes. “So, please, do not lie a third time. Being labeled a criminal will make my life a little harder than it already is.”

“Please,” Ark snorted, “it won’t make your life hard at all.”

“Ignore my beloved brother,” Melmarc said, fighting back a smile from what Ark had said. God knew Uncle Dorthna, Veebee and their parents were powerful enough to make murder go away, but that was not the direction his thoughts had been going. “Please, continue with the session. I may not look it, but I am very aware that I need therapy to solve issues that I am not aware of.”

“I see.” She took her glasses off and placed them on the table. Melmarc noticed the small tremor in her hand. “Then I’ll proceed and try not to say anything that you will see as a lie.”

Ark nodded. “Please.”

“Now,” she continued. “I’ve noticed that you both don’t need a lot of talking to communicate, you’re quite in sync.”

“We are,” Ark said proudly.

“Do you think that connection might have somehow overlapped wherever you two ended up? If,” she added quickly, “there is a chance that you two ended up in the same place.”

Melmarc actually thought about it, specifically if their lack of need for verbal communication worked in a fight. They hadn’t been in a lot of fights where they were on the same side before.

He and Ark looked at each other and it clicked immediately.

The plane.

“I assure you,” Ark said with equal pride as before. “If we were together, it definitely helped.”

“And how would you explain having less injuries than your brother if you both ended up in the same place?” she asked.

Ark paused. Melmarc could feel his guilt rising from knowing that he had been unable to help while Melmarc’s life had been in danger.

In the end, he shrugged in false bravado. “I’m more comfortable with chaos.”

Melmarc smiled a little. Anyone who knew Ark would know that he was not answering the question, he was simply talking, saying a truth. It was why his words did not read as dissonant. It was a mental state. It made Melmarc wonder if he would be strong enough for his mind to detect this, too, as dissonance. He knew his father would be able to. Uncle Dorthna had once said that their father could tell if a fly was lying.

“About that.” She picked up her pen and pointed it at him. “When you woke up, did you feel as if you had been comfortable wherever you had gone? Would you say, it didn’t really feel as if you’d lost anything or something had happened that was not supposed to happen?”

“Are you trying to confirm if I experienced a level of chaos that I was still comfortable with?” Ark asked.

She wrote something down on her notepad. Then she looked up at them, eyes panning from Ark to Melmarc and back. “Yes, that is correct.”

Ark shook his head. “I think whatever chaos happened where I was, I was comfortable with it.”

“Then tell me, how exactly would you describe the, for lack of a better term, memory loss?”

Ark tapped a thoughtful finger to his lips. “Can you be more specific?”

“I can,” she said. “Some people have memory losses like things they’ve forgotten. They know it happened but don’t know what exactly happened. Some people see it like sleeping and waking up. They are not even aware that something happened.”

Ark snapped his finger at her as if finally realizing the answer. “You know when you fall asleep and dream, but then you wake up and you can’t remember what you dreamt about but you know that you dreamt about something?”

“I am aware of it,” Ms. Jennifer confirmed.

“It’s like that,” Ark answered.

Dissonant.

“Then,” Ark continued, “my brother told me that his feels more a little different. It’s as if his body knows that something happened, but he can’t remember what it was.”

Dissonant.

Melmarc fought back the urge to wince in irritation.

Ms. Jennifer wrote something down again. “So, Marc’s body remembers the pain of what happened, obviously.” Her eyes moved over to Melmarc’s shoulder, proving that she knew about the injury. “But his mind doesn’t. I would say that his memory isn’t lost. It’s still inside there, but whatever happened to you, Marc, your mind doesn’t want you to remember it. it has blocked it away because it believes that it is too much for you to handle.”

Melmarc folded his arms over his chest. He had to admit that if anything, she was good at her job.

“Do you think,” she continued, “that it is possible that there are weights that your brain does not believe you are equipped to carry and get over the burden of easily?”

Melmarc’s mind went to a single thing. [Optimum Existence].

If his brain had once upon a time believed that there were things he needed to block out to survive, [Optimum Existence] would be in disagreement now. The trait was all about him dealing with the chaos of his mind. He doubted the trait would allow him to forget anything.

So, his answer was simple. “No.”

“And yet your mind refuses to allow itself to remember what your body cannot forget.”

Ark raised his hand as if he was in class. Speaking only when the woman looked at him. “You are missing one other possible point.”

“And what is that?”

“We, arguably, got drawn into portals. What are the chances that the effect of this portal is not the memory loss?”

Ms. Jennifer paused, thought about it, then shook her head. “I do not believe that there are any registered cases of memory loss in relationship to portals.”

“Yes, yes.” Ark sighed as if she wasn’t thinking large enough. “Are there any recorded cases of portals appearing all over the place including among people all at the same time?”

The therapist shook her head. “No.”

“And are there any cases of people being sucked into portals?” Ark continued. “We have it on video that my good brother here was sucked into a portal against his own will.”

“That is true.” She looked thoughtful. “Perhaps we will have to look into that. However, I can’t help but shake the feeling that you are trying to take me away from the possibility that you are lying about not remembering.”

Ark crossed his legs with a knowing smile. “Do you think we’re lying about not remembering?”

“You tell me.”

There was a moment of silence. It slithered through the room. Interesting enough, while it was heavy, it was also comfortable. It looked like they were having a silent banter with each other.

Melmarc was more than happy to let things slide. He was more than happy to allow them to get to know each other better through the silence. After all, this was only their first session of a number that he was not aware of.

“Marc,” Ms. Jennifer said, ending the silence.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered.

“Please,” she returned. “You can call me Jennifer.”

Melmarc nodded. “Yes, Jennifer.”

She pulled her pad to her. “Let’s talk about Sanders Vult.”

“What about—” Melmarc paused, feeling something. It was questionable, a new feeling. It was as if he had just forgotten something. And yet, he knew what it was.

It was the silence in his mind.

Melmarc’s face hardened, and he got up from the chair. “This session is over.”

Ark was already getting up with him, looking a little confused but ready to follow without delay.

“Did I touch a soft spot, Marc,” Ms. Jennifer asked cautiously.

“No,” Melmarc answered. “There are more important things going on than the problem I have to solve.”

“There are no things more important than your problems, Marc,” Ms. Jennifer said carefully, kindly. “The world might tell you otherwise, but fixing your problems is more important than anything else.”

Melmarc paused, his hand on the doorknob, and looked back at her. “My problem can be fixed tomorrow or the day after or next week. This has to be done now.”

With that, he turned the doorknob and moved to open the door.

“Melmarc Lockwood.”

Her voice stopped him just as he opened the door slightly. He looked back at her. “Yes, Jennifer.”

Her voice was soft when she spoke, as if she was not talking to him but speaking to his soul. “It is okay to put the weight down. It is okay to rest.”

His face softened a little and he looked at her. She was so much older than him yet seemed so young in this moment. Her life seemed so simple even though he knew that it was probably greatly complex like the lives of many adults.

It was okay to put the weight down. It was a gentle assurance. It was kindness put into words. It was telling him that he was enough. Melmarc knew those words very well. It was okay to stop.

She had wrinkles to be expected of a woman her age. Her eyes looked a little lonely, but there was a satisfaction in it, like someone who enjoyed what she was doing. He was sure someone had told her the same thing before, and it had probably helped her.

He smiled at her sadly. “No, Jennifer. It is not.”

Then he left the room, Ark following behind him. Only when they were out in the hallway did Ark speak.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, urgency and worry in his voice.

“It’s Veebee,” Melmarc answered, his own worry growing.

Ark almost stumbled in his steps. “What about Veebee.”

Melmarc’s face stiffened in worry.

“I can’t hear Veebee.” He looked at Ark. “I can’t sense Veebee.”