Freedom.

It was something she hadn't tasted in nearly two years. Two years since she had been forced to come to this place. It was something she had only experienced in a handful of years during her short life.

She watched through the haze of rain as two men walked below her window, each tethered to the guard dogs which routinely patrolled the confines of the compound she was forced to call home. She wondered if the two men were actually aware of the torrential rains which fell around them.

He sat in the shadows of the room, slightly behind her, reclined on the couch that was the only piece of furnishing in the barren room. She needn't turn to face him, she was perfectly familiar with his face.

He was young, nearly the same age as she. He almost seemed far too young to hold the position that he held here. He wanted her to do the same things they had been asking of her for the entire duration of her "visit" here. What he wanted of her, she refused to give him easily.

She reached up with her finger tips, cool from touching the glass, and absently pushed a lock of her dark hair away from her face. Looking down at the dress supplied by her hosts, she smoothed the white fabric that scantily covered her body. Feeling a little more secure, she turned to look at her captor.

"They've made their decision." She said the words, not questioningly. The words simply fell from her mouth. A statement not really intending to gain a reply.

"You haven't shown any reason for them to not reach the decision."

He crossed one of his legs over the other while he sat easily on the couch. Whiffs of smoke curled around his head from the cigarette he smoked. She looked to him, and wondered how a man this attractive could be this cruel, this evil. She had known many other's like him in her life, many who held the aura of coiled control, ready to strike when least expected of them. He was quick-witted, but had sense enough to know not to let his thoughts show in the body language so typical of the rest of humanity.

But he was also all too perfectly aware he didn't need body language to convey to this woman his own thoughts. He needn't even put those thoughts into words.

They had decided to terminate her life, for she was no longer of any use to them. If she wouldn't give them what they wanted, they couldn't simply set her free to roam the world any longer.

The fact was, they wouldn't set her free if she did give into their desires.

He watched her as she crossed the small room slowly. Each step she took was cat like--soft and full of caution. Her ice-blue eyes sparkled in the faint light of the room. Her dark hair and shadowed complexion was alluring. Reaching her destination, she curled her legs underneath herself as she sat on the opposite end of the couch from him. She then slowly wrapped her arms about herself, and looked to him with those almost inhuman eyes of hers. Then, she waited.

"Sarah," he began, addressing her fully, "you know the board members can't let you just leave here. If anyone were to ever learn of these operations, it would be devastating."

"To whom?" she asked, already knowing the answer before she even asked. She waited patiently for several seconds before deciding to continue anyway. "A government that would do this to some of the very people they lead? Or is this on a more personal level, Craig?"

"To a government who would stop at nothing to ensure national security." The words fell from his mouth like venom. The most frightening part was he honestly believed his words.

He paused as she laughed softly to herself. "You honestly believe that for yourself, don't you Craig." Again, not asked as a question.

"I am bound by duty..."

"And I am bound by my own personal faith..."

He rose quickly, the shades of anger quickly overtaking him.

"Dammit, Sarah! I'm telling you that your life is hanging in the balance this time! If you don't deliver, all of our research would be for nothing!"

She locked her eyes on his own, the crisp blueness seeming to strike him. Her jaw set, and he noticed her hands gripping tightly into balls. "If I must die to keep my secrets locked away from you, then that is the way it should be."

"Shit!" he said, turning away from her quickly. He began pacing the floor in the way she had become all to familiar with. He looked briefly to the corner of the room before diverting his eyes again. She knew the camera was hidden in the far corner, the very camera from which the members of the 'board' were watching and listening to their conversation.

She also knew Craig was thinking, choosing his words he would say next very carefully. She opened her mind briefly, touching his own to learn what the next words would be just as she had done secretly so many times before. She had grown to long for a touch of his mind and feel his thoughts for herself, even if those thoughts would bring her pain. She knew that this man had fallen in love with her long ago. She knew that he wanted to take her away from this place and these people that would unlock her mind for research to make others like her. But she also knew that he was here for a purpose, one he believed in more than he believed in his own emotions. She didn't know if she loved him, or hated him, for that conflict in himself. What she caught this time nearly stopped her heart.

With a quick gasp, she brought a hand quickly to her mouth, terror forming in her soul.

He slowly turned again to look at her, knowing what she had learned.

"They found her yesterday, Sarah. How long did you think you could hide her from us? From me?"

She rose slowly from the couch, pushing back the tears of anger and frustration. She fought for words to say, but could find nothing.

"Did you think that I wouldn't look for her, Sarah? She's my daughter, too, for God's sake."

"For God's sake?" She walked toward him, the flood of emotion washing over her as surely as the rain outside washed over the very land. "You know nothing of God! How dare you tell me she is your daughter too! You bastard! You tricked me with your emotions, made me believe the love you have for me was true. You did nothing more than rape me..."

"I do love you!"

"But you love your 'science' and those monsters watching us now more! You would trade me and our daughter for them!"

The scream of rage died on her lips as she remembered the new center of the conversation. She had to think now, had to use the talents that she possessed! They had her daughter, and they would tear that small mind apart like they had tried to do so many times with her own. Her daughter was just a baby, and would be raised to think this was the correct way! This war mongering brutality would become her life!

"Craig," she started again, more slowly. Calling on all of her reserves, she approached what was the human part of this machine like man. "Craig, she is our daughter. You can't let them do this to her."

"Does she have your abilities, Sarah?"

Sarah never let her eyes wonder from his. She wished desperately there was some way to escape this day. Some way to flee from this hellish nightmare.

Her entire life had been shrouded with this very gift the government officials now holding her hostage in this research center would exploit. They wanted to find some way of turning others like herself into mind machines.

From a very young age, she had learned of her differences from others. She could feel her friends and family's thoughts, sometimes even before they were conscious of them. The colors of their emotions sweeping over them like veils, she knew without having to listen with her ears the way they felt about her.

In her very early childhood, she had thought everyone else was like her. It wasn't until her parents had sent her to the psychiatric institute for the emotionally disturbed children she had realized she wasn't like everyone else. The doctors had told her mother and father she was schizophrenic, hearing or seeing things in her mind that didn't exist for anyone but herself. They had promised her parents with the correct treatments and medications, they could make their little girl 'normal'.

What they did, instead, was cast her into a place where she was bombarded by waves of chaos. The other children she was surrounded by had become a part of her own chaos--their minds so free, so uncontrolled. It was an assault that caused her to nearly loose her own sanity! Some of the children had constant visions of monsters chasing them, or being with them through every move. Others were plagued with what seemed a million different thoughts coming together at once, causing them to completely withdraw from the world. They had been called autistic, and it was said of them they were incapable of interaction with others around them. If only they could have heard the many different thoughts of those children!

Still others of those children were called 'retarded'. Because of some defect, be it genetic or by some other cause, their minds had been damaged, simplified. They came to be the easiest for Sarah to stay around. The simplicity of their thinking didn't assault her, and cause her to shrink away and hide from the constant assault of emotions, memories, and dreams.

She had to learn quickly the ways of closing her mind away from these assaults. She had to learn to reach within herself, to push the other minds away from her own or risk losing herself to the others! She had become very good at this thing, and become more practiced in this art even after she had left that "school".

Four years ago, many years after the hard lessons of childhood, and only a year after she had left the school, fooling the doctors into thinking she no longer heard the 'voices', this man had come to her. Quietly. Craig had found her sitting by the park, silently reading to herself. She hadn't opened her mind to him then, for he was a total stranger to her.

They had developed a friendship, almost a fairy tale romance. He seemed so different from the other people she had encountered in her life, accepting her for what she was, and not learning of her talents and exploiting them. She had chosen not to expose her talents to him like she had others, to not brush his mind with her own. It was the continuation of the lessons learned over several years.

She had wished a thousand times since then that she had opened her mind to his during those first encounters.

She had begun falling in love with him. They had talked many times of marriage, of making love. She had reluctantly given in to his and her own desires, and had learned to trust him more completely than she had ever trusted another living soul in her life. She had developed this trust without the mind brush. She had been proud she had found another human she could develop this trust for without the use of the mind brush.

Until it was too late to rectify her greatest mistake.

When she had come to him and told him of her pregnancy, his emotions had become almost too great for her to block them away. Elation. Pure and simple satisfaction. Yet, not the kind of happiness she would have expected from the father of her child. It was more like the feeling of pure success!

She opened her mind to him in her own confusion, and at that moment, she had learned the horrible truth of this man who had come to her shyly only a few months earlier. He wanted far, far more from her than her love and their child.

She had run from him then, and had managed to hide away from him and his kind for the entire duration of her pregnancy. She had dreamed of being able to share the life of her child, but she had known all along it would never be possible. When the baby had come, she had found the house far away in the mountains, and left the crying baby at the doorstep of people whom she had sensed would take care of her and love her the way she would have herself. Sarah had hoped the child would forever be lost to these monsters who stalked them those many months. Now she realized this too, had been a horrible mistake.

"Why can't you leave us alone, Craig?" she asked finally, the feeling of defeat nearly overwhelming her. "Why can't you go after another psychic? Others advertise their services on television all the time!"

He looked away briefly, and for a fleeting second, guilt seemed to take him. Then he turned back to her. "They're all fakes, Sarah. You know that! You and your abilities were found out from the time you were taken to Pettersburg."

"Pettersburg?" she questioned, but a realization struck her. "You're saying when they took me to that institution, it wasn't because they thought I was schizophrenic?"

The chuckle starting on his lips made her stomach turn sickeningly. "They told your parents that to convince them to let the government psychiatrists of that time have you. That was the beginning of the Project, Sarah. Mind control was a completely new science, and you tested well beyond any limits set at that time."

"Your doctors nearly destroyed my mind!"

He let his arms fall to his sides, helplessly. "Sarah, at the time the Soviets were years ahead of our research in the field. Russia is continuing those studies even today! What they have learned and developed goes beyond any type of infiltration technology could give the Intelligence Service! You could be our stepping stone to a completely new form of intelligence collection!"

"And the others?" she continued. "In the compound? Are they so willing to give in to your research, Craig? Have you drained their minds in the same way you want to do with mine?"

He looked to her, not surprised. "The others have the ability, Sarah. But none tested as high as you did as a child."

"But you have nothing to make you believe I still have this ability!"

He walked closer to her, reaching out as if to lay a hand caringly against her arm. She pulled away sharply.

"Sarah, you and I both know you still have the ability. You and I both know you can teach us everything we need to know."

"And if I don't teach you, you'll rape our daughter's mind to get your precious research!"

He looked to the floor again, briefly. She knew his answer even before he opened his mouth.

"Yes."

"You are the worst kind of criminal there is, Craig Jacobs."

He looked to her again, the hurt reflecting in his eyes only briefly before he straightened himself up and took another drag from his cigarette. "Either help us, Sarah, or we'll get what we need from Kristine."

"So help me God, Craig, you touch Kristine and I'll..."

"You'll what, Sarah? What will you do? Get inside my mind and melt me into a quivering mass? That's only for the movies, Sarah! What will you do? Huh? You know, if you weren't so damn selfish, they wouldn't go after Kristine!"

He was taunting her, and she knew it. He was told to do this by the 'board' to make her angry enough to lash out, to do anything they could monitor and learn from. He was doing his job, as he had always done.

What could she do? She had never given her mind free reign. She had sensed other's thoughts so completely before she needn't even speak to them to know their entire lives. How could she use that to get herself away and find her daughter to take her away from them too?

Her heart sank as she realized she couldn't. There was simply no way to win this situation.

Or could she...

She turned away from him, as the tears came to the brink of her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She was beaten, and he had found the way to beat her. Even if she died today, they would still have Kristine. Yet, there could still be some way she could save herself and her daughter.

She felt his hand grip firmly around her arm, as if to pull her toward him, to face him again. She felt the tightness of his hand pull on the fabric covering her body, as if he would pull her to him with warmth and affection.

False! Everything about him, about this place, about her life had been false hopes and promises! Her entire life had been a study of the way one person's mind would work, and another person's wouldn't. Lies! Deceit!

Anger began boiling up within her, beckoning her. A well opening deep within herself, that same place where she had hid so often as a child in the 'institute' called to her, begging for an opening which to poor out into the world around her. It called to her for use, for strength!

And she gave in.

The surge flowed through her body, causing a tingle of every pour of her skin. The fine hair on the back of her neck and arms seemed alive, and it bristled with the unknown power of that hidden place in her mind. Something awoke which she had only thought in passing she possessed before. She turned to him again, a calmness overtaking her. A calmness which she had never before felt.

"Are you willing to cooperate now, Sarah?"

His voice was like sand-paper against her very nerves. If ever she hated anything in her life, she couldn't possibly have hated it more than she did this man and his 'colleagues' now. The fool! He was truly blind to the ways that the real gift worked.

"Craig," she started, looking down passively at the hand which still gripped her arm. She looked at it as if she were studying an insect under a magnifying glass, impartially. "I know of the people who watch and listen to every conversation we have in this room." She then raised her eyes to lock on his own. "They should have a pretty good view of this from the angle of the camera in the corner over there," indicating with a nod of her head.

Craig's eye brows drew together, as confusion crossed the fringes of his mind. "Sarah, what are you talking about? There is no camera in here."

"Oh, my darling, Craig," she said again, the calmness in her soul becoming complete, the rage deep within her growing to a fury. All the while, the part of her mind telling her softly this was good. This was what they wanted. And by God, together, they would give these living nightmares what they wanted. "There are cameras, and there are six sets of eyes watching us as we speak. Don't even think of denying it, because I can see those faces clearly through your own mind. I can see every face of every living being in this compound through your minds eyes and memories."

Her chin quivered as the anger started to rise. "You pompous, arrogant son of a bitch! Did you really think that by threatening me with my daughter you would get me to cooperate with your plans? If it's the abilities of my mind that you want, then this should fill volumes for you 'research'!"

Shallow beads of sweat began to form across her fore-head and upper lip. Her face turned ashen as her breathing became more shallow.

Craig released her arm, and watched as she took a step away from him. A fear he hadn't felt before began to gnaw at his stomach. He could feel the beads of sweat forming on his upper lip. His cigarette dropped from his hand and landed against the smoothly tiled white floor.

Her own eyebrows drew together. Her crystal blue eyes became shaded. She locked a gaze on him that turned his soul to the ice reflected in those pools of blue in her own eyes.

"Those people who possess a 'gift' like my own aren't intended to be used for your trivial purposes. Who are you to play gods with people's lives?"

Craig began looking around the room. He could feel the electricity building in the air. Panic was nearly overtaking him! Everything he had ever feared as a child, and as an adult began to swim around him as if he were in some great wind which swept through his very being. "Sarah! Stop this, please! There's still time! We can still work this out!"

"Do you have any idea" she continued, "what it's like to be locked in a cage without bars or even walls, Craig? A cage of your very mind? Terror constantly assaulting your very soul? Hundreds of unleashed, uncontrolled minds floating freely about you, unable to hide their fear, their anxieties? Their confusion? The very minds you study for false cures, while only placating your own overwhelming ego? Do you really know what craziness is, Craig?"

He took a step away from her, then another step. What was happening? The fear welled up in him, caught him in a frozen grip of death itself! His heart began pounding in his chest, a scream rose in his throat, but somehow couldn't make it out of his mouth!

Then the burning started. A fire! Uncontrolled rage and fury racking his thoughts, shattering them and tossing them to the very wind which raged through his soul, thrashing those thoughts about as surely as a puzzle of a million pieces flung through an open window!

He threw his hands to his ears, trying desperately to block the sounds of tortured screams of a thousand minds as they assaulted his mind. His brain was burning inside his own head!

She watched impassively as he dropped to his knees before her, collapsing in front of her in a sobbing heap. He began crying, shaking uncontrollably.

"Death would be too good for you, Craig." she said quietly, but knowing her words echoed like thunder claps through his thoughts. "I want to make sure you live with what you have created for people like me. I want to make sure you live the rest of your life with what you wanted to put our daughter through."

Craig began screaming then, and continued screaming to the point his throat ached. He wanted desperately to block her voice from his ears, to shun his mind from her as she penetrated into his very humanity. No matter how much his mind told him this was forced on him, he couldn't subdue the overwhelming fear and helplessness his soul told him existed. He had no choice but to give in to the fear. A fear of living his remaining years on Earth and never really knowing why he was afraid.

His mind completely fled away from reality, as he became what Sarah had seen of so many children in the institute years ago. She watched him for several seconds, lying on the floor, his sobs of desperation coming in waves.

His own living nightmare had only begun.

She again walked, stepping over him and heading to the window to look outside. Below her, laying on the ground, were the men with their dogs. They too, had become an agonized mass on the ground, fear choking away the grip they had on the real world. She almost felt sorry for the dogs, for they really didn't know why they had become this way. It was simply too much for her to choose certain minds over others. It had to be done.

All the other minds in the compound save one. Her daughter now knew of her mother's closeness, and that she would soon be in those arms again, safe from the monsters which haunted her dreams.

Pulling her eyes away, she reached up and wiped at the tears which had spilled over to her cheeks. She walked to the door which would lead to the hallway. Once she had found the corridor leading to the outside world again, there would be others laying in the floors, draped over their desks, or frantically searching for hiding places. All would be locked in their perpetual nightmare as well.

They had all wanted the knowledge of the mind, of how to listen to others thoughts and feel their emotions. She had finally given into their wishes, and as surely as a genie in a mythical bottle, she had granted their desire. She was comforted slightly, that she had been able to help them find their wishes, even if she had taken their sanity to do it.

Walking through the doorway, she began the first steps of her journey to find her daughter. Together, they would leave this place, and find that freedom that the rain's outside had.