Speak No Evil

CHAPTER FIVE

THE PAIN IN HIS head was gone by the time Carter returned to Dr Paley’s office. Even so, something in his head was different. It was like the TV of his dreams was embedded somewhere in his brain. At some point in the last session, it had been switched on. It was off again now, and Carter preferred this state of mind. Now that he was entering Dr Paley’s office, he had the sensation it could be turned on again, and he didn’t want that. But he’d been told to return, and he did what he was told.

Dr Paley seemed different too. His eyes were brighter, his smile was wider. Change meant danger. Carter began to shiver.

‘Sit down, Carter. I want to show you something.’ He wheeled a trolley to the middle of the room, and positioned it in front of Carter’s chair. On top of the trolley stood a television, smaller than the one in his dreams, but still a television. Carter felt his heartbeat quicken.

Dr Paley didn’t notice his discomfort. ‘I want to show you the tape I made of our session this morning.’ He touched a button and slipped a disk into an opening. Then he sat down behind his desk, where he too could see the screen. He held a remote control towards the TV, it flickered to life, and Carter saw himself, sitting in this same chair. He couldn’t see Dr Paley on the screen, but he heard his voice.

‘I’m going to count back from ten,’ Dr Paley said. ‘Close your eyes. You will feel yourself getting sleepy. When I reach the number one, you will be in a deep sleep, but you will continue to hear my voice. Ten. . nine. . eight. . seven. .’

The pain was coming back. Carter covered his ears. Quickly, Dr Paley took the remote control. The tape continued, but Carter didn’t hear anything.

‘Actually, we don’t need the sound,’ Dr Paley said. ‘You never spoke. Now, watch carefully, Carter. Here it comes.’

Carter didn’t have any expectations as to what he might have done under the spell of the doctor’s hypnosis, but even so, it was a shock to see himself get smaller and smaller.

Dr Paley had said Carter had a gift. Was it a gift like Tracey’s? Then he realized that the chair on the screen wasn’t vacant. A small white rabbit sat there, twitching its nose.

‘That’s not really a rabbit, Carter,’ Dr Paley said softly. ‘That’s you.’

He picked up the remote control. ‘I’m going to fast-forward for a minute. There, now watch this.’

The rabbit on the chair seemed to puff up. Then it became fuzzy, almost impossible to identify as a rabbit. As it enlarged, it changed form. The form became too blurry to see anything in detail, but then Carter could see the outline of arms, legs, a torso. . The focus returned. It was Carter, in the same position as before, still sitting in his chair. And all this happened in less than a second.

‘You’re suffering from Acute Faculative Allomorphy, Carter, commonly known as shape-shifting,’ Dr Paley said.

Carter took his eyes off the screen and looked at the doctor. His whole body began to tremble.

Dr Paley came out from behind his desk and drew another chair closer to Carter. He placed a warm hand gently on Carter’s shoulder.

‘Don’t get upset, Carter. You’re going to be all right. You’re safe here, nobody is going to hurt you. As I told you this morning, you have a gift. It’s a very unusual gift — very few cases have been recorded, and these cases have been kept secret. My own interest in extraordinary abilities has given me access to information that has long been hidden from the public.’

His voice was calming, and Carter stopped shaking. But was he really safe? How could he be sure?

The doctor continued. ‘You must know by now that uncommon gifts like this exist. Think about your classmates.’

Carter stiffened. He could hear Madame’s voice. ‘Never tell, never tell.’ He’d told Serena, and he’d been sent away from the class.

It was almost as if Dr Paley could read his thoughts. ‘You’re not in trouble, Carter. No one is going to hurt you, or any of your classmates. I know everything because I’ve been talking with Madame. She has always suspected that you too may have some kind of special ability. We both have your best interests at heart. We want to help you.’

The words rang true, and Carter had always trusted Madame.

‘I’ve learned from Madame that many of your classmates’ gifts arose through extreme situations — a trauma, a crisis of some sort — and I believe this may be true of you too. We need to know why you became a shape-shifter. From your reaction in watching the tape I could see you were shocked, but I don’t think that was the first time you’ve ever shifted. Your state of amnesia has erased all memories of your gift. But the explanation for your ability is buried deep within your subconscious. I can’t reach you through traditional hypnotic procedures, so I need to try something else.’

Carter’s eyes followed the doctor as he rose and went to the white cabinet in the corner of the room. He opened a drawer.

‘I’m going to give you an injection. It’s perfectly safe — it’s just a sedative which will help you to relax completely and allow you to overcome the inhibitions which are preventing you from speaking. Hopefully, you will recover some memories and be able to tell me about your past. Would you roll up your sleeve, please?’

It was a direct order. Carter had to obey. But Dr Paley must have sensed the fear that engulfed him, because his voice became even more soothing.

‘You’ll only feel a little prick, and retrieving the memories shouldn’t be painful. You may not even remember what you tell me. But I’m taping you so you’ll be able to watch it all later. I’m keeping no secrets from you. You have to trust me, and you must not fight the need to express yourself.’

It was just as Dr Paley said — the injection was just a little sting in his arm, and then he felt nothing.

‘We’re going back in time, to six months ago. Close your eyes, Carter.’

Carter closed his eyes, but what he saw wasn’t darkness. At first he thought he was dreaming, because he could see the boy of his dreams. But then it was if he was inside the boy, and it wasn’t a dream. The boy was him.

He looked around, and everything he saw was familiar and comforting. The room held a sofa, two armchairs, a bookcase. At one end of the room, there was a large wooden table and chairs. On the floor, there was a colourful rug. There were windows, and through the windows he could see flowers.

He knew this house. He knew about things he couldn’t even see, like the basketball hoop over the garage that held two cars. He knew that through the archway there was a big kitchen. He knew that if he went past the table and through another archway he’d be in a hallway, and off the hallway were three bedrooms. One of those bedrooms belonged to him.

Someone was singing. He could hear a woman’s voice drifting out from another room. He knew the voice. It belonged to his mother.

A man sat in one of the armchairs with a newspaper in his hands. He knew this man. He was called ‘Dad’.

The man looked at him. ‘I’m sorry, Paul. It’s just not possible.’

Paul. That was the boy’s name. Not Carter, Paul.

My name is Paul.

He knew what his father was talking about too. Paul had just asked him if they could buy one of the puppies that had been born to their neighbour’s dog.

‘But it’s so tiny, Dad. And Mrs Robbins says he won’t get much bigger.’

His father smiled, but he shook his head. ‘Your mother is allergic to dog hair, Paul. It wouldn’t matter whether the dog was big or small. Your mother can’t visit the Robbins’s house for more than a few minutes. If we had a dog living in this house, even if you kept him in your room, she’d get ill. You wouldn’t want that.’

‘No,’ Paul said. He turned to see his mother standing in the archway.

‘I’m so sorry, sweetie-pie,’ she said. That was her special name for him, ‘sweetie-pie’. He was grateful for the fact that she never used it when any of his friends were around. Not that he had many friends, not yet. They’d just moved here a few weeks ago.

They moved a lot. Every now and then, serious men came to talk to his parents. Soon after that, they would move. Years ago Paul had asked his father who the men were, and why they were always moving. His father told him that the men were from the government, and they were protecting them. They were part of something called a ‘witness protection programme’. His parents had witnessed a crime, and so had Paul, even though he couldn’t remember it. He’d only been four at the time. But ever since then they all had to be protected from the criminals, who had never been caught. His parents told Paul they had nothing to worry about as long as they did what the government men told them to do. And Paul didn’t worry, because he trusted his father and his mother.

Right now though, his mother looked a little worried. But it had nothing to do with criminals.

‘Sweetie-pie, I hope you don’t hate me for this,’ she said.

‘I don’t hate you, Mom,’ Paul replied.

‘I’m going to see a specialist next week,’ she told him. ‘Maybe there’s a new medicine for my allergy.’

‘Thanks, Mom,’ Paul said. ‘But it’s OK, I don’t have to have a dog. How about a couple of gerbils?’

‘That might be just fine,’ his mother said. ‘I’ll ask the doctor.’ She looked at her watch. ‘I need to run to the supermarket before dinner. Paul, could you empty the dishwasher?’

‘Sure.’ He went into the kitchen. Just as he opened the dishwasher door, he heard a knock on the front door. His mother must have opened it, because he heard her cry out.

‘What do you want?’

Then his father’s voice: ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

And then a horrible loud bang, followed by the sound of a body falling down. Then another bang, and another body hit the floor.

A gruff voice muttered, ‘We gotta find the kid.’

Paul heard the footsteps coming down the hall. He knew they wouldn’t find anyone in the bedrooms, and the next place they’d look would be the kitchen. Frantically, he looked around for a place to hide.

He ran into the little pantry and shut the door. But there was no lock to keep the men from opening it, and he could hear them coming.

His parents couldn’t help him. There was no escape. In seconds the men would open the door and shoot him, just as they had shot his mother and his father. Danger — he was in terrible danger. There had to be some way, some way to save himself. If only he could become invisible. .

He couldn’t. But he could do something else. He didn’t know he could do it — it just happened, and when it did, it felt like the most completely natural reaction he could have to the situation.

And when one of the men pulled the door to the pantry open, he didn’t see Paul. He couldn’t even see the small gerbil hiding behind a box of cereal.

From way off in the distance came the sound of sirens.

‘The neighbours must have heard the shots,’ a man said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

From behind the box, Paul waited until he couldn’t hear any voices. Then, slowly, he crept out of the pantry.

How odd the kitchen suddenly seemed to him. Such a big space. . he knew he could scamper across it but he was afraid to move too quickly. He could imagine the sight he would encounter in the living room, and he wasn’t ready for that. He wasn’t ready for anything. Huge structures loomed ominously over him. He knew what they were — a refrigerator, a dishwasher — but his perspective made them frightening. He inched his way across the cold linoleum floor, and he’d almost reached the archway when the door to the living room burst open.

Frantically, he ran behind the stove. Peering out, he saw men in police uniforms. They were holding guns.

If he ran out the way he was, would they shoot him? He couldn’t turn back into himself, not while he was behind the stove — he wouldn’t fit into the space, he’d be crushed. And if he ran out and then transformed, the police might think he was one of the bad guys and kill him.

He heard one of them speak. ‘We need an ambulance immediately.’

Enormous boot-clad feet were directly in front of him. ‘Kitchen’s clear,’ a voice rang out.

Another voice. ‘Bedrooms and bathroom are clear.’

And then another voice. ‘It looks bad. I’m not getting a pulse on either of them.’

Paul knew who they were talking about.

He stayed where he was. Time passed. There were new voices, new sounds.

‘The house wasn’t ransacked. This doesn’t look like a burglary. Someone had it in for these folks.’

‘They must have been pros. We’re not going to find any fingerprints.’

‘Headquarters says don’t touch anything, they’re calling in the FBI.’

‘Why?’

‘No idea.’

‘Can we move the bodies?’

‘Yeah.’

Bodies. Paul knew what that meant. His parents were dead.

He remained behind the stove, and he had no idea how long he was there. There were more voices, more sounds. And then, finally, there was silence.

He came out, and moved into the living room. There were some dark stains on the carpet, and he sniffed them. Blood. His parents’ blood. Vaguely, he wondered why he wasn’t crying. Maybe gerbils couldn’t cry.

And now what was he supposed to do?