Accused (Ganzfield) by Kate Kaynak Read Free Book Online

chest.
    Blind and helpless. Wonderful.
    My new hospital gown was puke green. Sadly, this was the most colorful object in my cell. Staring at the ceiling, I fell into a strange, zombie-like state. It wasn’t proper sleep, but I didn’t have the energy to think anymore. Every movement seemed to make me ache. My thoughts turned as colorless as the cinderblock walls and my mind felt as weak as a wet Kleenex.

    The music cut out shortly after the delivery of my breakfast goo on what was probably Monday. Hunter smiled as he opened my cell door. He had a new plan in his mind and dismay splashed across my face before I could stop it. Hunter’s smile widened as he processed my reaction.
    “Tell me what I want to know and I won’t have to do it.” His voice sounded overly calm and condescending. “You’re the one making me do it this way.”
    I’d been a prisoner for nine days. I’d detoxed secondhand from heroin a dozen times over. But I suddenly knew that Hunter had found a way to break me. He’d guessed why I’d killed Del and his friends—guessed at what could really hurt me. Oh, God. My ability was fading. Could I hold out until the dodecamine left my system? Could I endure what he had planned? It had been nine days since I’d had a shot. That meant five days more, at the absolute most.
    But oh, my God, I didn’t want what he was planning in my head. Even if no one physically touched me, I’d have the thoughts and memories. At that moment, if I were capable of saying something coherent, I would’ve talked. I would’ve told him something… anything. I’d have made stuff up, or tried to stall, or reasoned with him, or talked him out of it. I could already feel the grubby touch of his mind. I started to shake.
    “Still not going to talk?” He was actually getting excited about putting his new plan into action.
    Sick son-of-a—
    Hunter left the room and the door clicked as the lock caught. I felt him open the door to the cell next to mine. A wave of nausea passed through me as Hunter unzipped his fly.
    I’d seen dirty images in guys’ heads before. A few had even put them there intentionally to make me uncomfortable. But Hunter’s was so much worse. His intentions were crueler—he was trying to break my will, like beating a dog until it followed his commands out of cringing, obedient fear. I felt everything he imagined doing to me with vivid, raw intensity, since I had no other minds in range. Tears burned down my cheeks and I started whimpering. I curled tightly into a fetal position, wrapping my arms around my head, as though I could somehow block out his thoughts.
    I startled when he opened the door to my cell. For me, this was worse than the pain in the hospital—the images seared into my mind, torturing me from within, making me feel… unclean.
    Violated.
    His smug look and head full of degrading images made me feel like I wanted to die. “Tell me what I want to know and it won’t have to happen again.”
    A blast of killing energy shot from my mind. At that moment, I didn’t care if I gave him proof of my ability—I just knew how much I wanted Hunter dead. The pain hit him hard and he staggered back and slammed the door—cutting off my line-of-sight. Dammit! I could feel him out there—still alive—but with a killer headache and an intense desire to hurt me.
    Hunter returned to the cell next to mine several times over the next two days. He may have kept coming after that, but my ability had dwindled to the point I no longer sensed his thoughts. By that point, the world had faded to a grey and lifeless thing that I no longer noticed, leaving me with just my nightmares for company.

CHAPTER 5

    “Get her cleaned up.” Hunter’s voice barely registered as the female guards each took me by the upper arm. I flinched away from their contact, but I was too weak to put up a fight. They stood me in the shower and one of them even washed my hair. They dressed me in clothing that I vaguely recognized