Chapter Thirty
CHAPTER THIRTY
THE NEXT MORNING, Ethan and Jason woke early for the first appointment with Bellamy.
“I text Bellamy, he’s waiting for us in the lab,” Jason said, stepping into the doorway of their bedroom.
Ethan pulled a hoodie over his head and gave a tight-lipped smile, “Ready.”
Soon, they were on campus walking through the familiar doors of the Henderson Building. The campus was quiet and fresh snow had blanketed everything, Ethan felt a strange mixture of hope and worry emerging as they entered the hallway and walked towards the lab entrance.
They entered and heard classical music playing quietly from Bellamy’s office at the back of the lab, his door was ajar.
“Hello, Dr. Bellamy,” Jason called out.
A rustling sound came from Bellamy’s office and he poked his head through the door frame, “Just back here gentlemen, please come in.”
Bellamy was well groomed in his sweater and tweed jacket, and reading glasses were perched at the edge of his nose. Jason and Ethan entered his office, and they were mildly surprised to see him packing his office scattered throughout, books were in haphazard stacks. Bellamy’s diplomas were pulled from the wall and propped against it.
Bellamy scurried towards the door, removing boxes and pulling two chairs together in front of his desk, “Please come. Have a seat. Can I get you some coffee?”
Jason and Ethan took a seat and glanced at each other, “Are you packing, Dr. Bellamy?” Jason asked.
Bellamy took a seat across from them at his desk, he looked around wistfully “Oh just taking some things home. I’m going to be reducing my time on campus, and spending more time at home. I figured I’d take a few things with me.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your funding, Dr. B,” Ethan said, giving a mournful look to Bellamy.
Bellamy leaned back in his chair, “Yes, it is unfortunate. I’m sorry I’ve had to let you all go and right in the middle of some very important research. Hopefully, you all will find employment otherwise. I’d be happy to write you letters of recommendation, if you still want them, that is. But that’s not why we are here today,” Bellamy said interrupting himself, “Tell me. How are you feeling Ethan?”
Ethan hesitated, his fingers gripping the edge of the chair, “Where to even start?” He exhaled a shaky breath and began. He recounted it all, from the stabbing pain at the Ferris wheel, the voices and images that invaded his head, and the warning from the dream of the girl. All of it.
Bellamy leaned forward, his elbows resting on his desk, fingers steepled in front of his mouth, “So you can hear other’s thoughts? Can you hear what I’m thinking now?”
Ethan concentrated, but nothing came. “It doesn’t work like that exactly. They just come without warning.”
“Interesting, and the dreams. What do you make of those?” Bellamy inquired.
Ethan shrugged, “I don’t know. She doesn’t respond to me, the girl talks at me, she doesn’t talk to me.”
Jason shifted, “There is something I haven’t mentioned.”
Ethan glanced at him, and Bellamy turned his chair slightly towards Jason.
“When Ethan sleeps, things happen. I haven’t said anything because I didn’t want to add to the stress,” Jason said, putting his hands up in defense. “Ethan has been through so much already.”
Bellamy reached into his top drawer pulling out a notepad and a pack of cigarettes, “What sorts of things happen when Ethan sleeps?”
He wrote a few notes to himself and revealed a cigarette lighter from his pocket.
Jason and Ethan shared a look.
“You don’t mind, do you? It’s been a stressful semester for all of us,” Bellamy mused, lighting the cigarette. “Besides, they help me think.”
He lit the cigarette, as Jason continued, “The night of the Ferris wheel thing, the bed shook and things moved on their own in the house. Then a few nights ago, I was throwing the trash and was attacked by some sort of monster.”
Bellamy’s eyes snapped in Jason’s direction, cigarette puckered in his lips. “A monster?”
Ethan’s jaw clenched, a hole threatened to open inside of him.
“Yeah, a reptile thing. I fought it off and then it sort of evaporated into a gold light. Like fireworks or something, it was really strange.”
Bellamy took a deep drag of his cigarette,“Telepathic projection,” he whispered mostly to himself.
“The images you described, Ethan. What did they contain?” he continued, grabbing for an ashtray.
Again, Ethan shifted uncomfortably, “Th-They’re…” he cleared his throat, “They’re just images of like photographic stills.”
“Do you see these things in your dreams? That is when you’re not having the dream of the girl.”
Ethan tried to think back, “Yeah. The images are usually conjured after feeling something really, really intensely.”
Bellamy studied Ethan intently, his expression unreadable, “Interesting,” he murmured, taking another drag of his cigarette. He leaned back in his chair.
Ethan struggled to decipher his meaning. Reaching over, Jason placed a steadying hand on Ethan’s knee. “That’s everything, Dr. Bellamy. He’s been through hell these last few weeks. We need answers.”
Bellamy finished his cigarette, taking it from his lips, he grounded it into the ashtray. “Now, what I can tell you is purely theoretical. I have been able to replicate very simple psychic phenomena in my university lab and in my own personal research. But, what you are describing is something beyond anything I’ve been able to reproduce in a controlled lab setting.”
Bellamy took the familiar air of a professor about to deliver a prestigious lecture, “Based on the results of your MRI, it is likely you had a stress-induced activation of some type of latent ability. While this exceeds any of the theories I have put forth, it seems they’re similar.”
He delivered the same lecture offered to his class the previous day, then said, “In my private writings, I think of them has enhanced neurological attunements. As if your brain is more finely attuned to neurological potentials. There are many mysteries about how this came about. Some argue that it is the next step in our brain’s evolution, while others say that it is something we are capable of, we just need the proper stress to activate it.”
Bellamy concluded, grabbing another cigarette and lighting it.
Jason and Ethan were stunned.
It was Jason who shifted first, “you’re saying that Ethan’s brain has activated some — attunement? Like a latent psychic ability?”
Bellamy made a gesture, cigarette in one hand, lighter in the other, “It would seem so?”
Smoke wafted around them.
“Is there anything we can do about it? I don’t want this. I didn’t ask for this,” Ethan croaked.
Bellamy looked at Ethan through the haze of cigarette smoke, “There’s no putting that rabbit back in the hat,” Bellamy said. “You need to learn to harness it and make it work for you. There is one thing that is strange about your case though Ethan.”
Ethan's eyes went round, “Oh, this is strange enough?”
“Yes. In most cases of attunement I’ve read, an individual only demonstrates one potential — telepathy, spatial manipulation, precognition, empathy, or telekinesis. You are describing at least two, possibly three — telepathy, telekinesis, and precognition. This could explain the incessant migraines you’re experiencing. If all these latent attunements tried to manifest at once, your brain is likely working hard to organize all the new input.”
Gripping the edge of the chair, Ethan shot Jason an apologetic look.
“So, he needs to learn to manage them?” Jason said, cutting the silence.
Bellamy pulled the cigarette from his lips, “Indeed.”
“Can you help him?” Jason asked, “Learn to manage these, these…attunements?”
Snapping upright, Bellamy pulled the cigarette from his mouth, “Only if, Mr. Hernandez, is interested in the help.”
Ethan felt the hole opening up inside, “What choice do I have?”
Bellamy came from around the table, “Listen, Ethan,” he said, crouching down to meet him eye-to-eye. “This may seem like a curse, but I assure you, once you learn to master these abilities, you may be able to help a lot of people. Here’s what we are going to do.”