Chapter 87: An Unexpected Call

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: An Unexpected Call

The planet Vega, the Gemini star system.

Hospital Number 1.

Lincoln Vance looked at his younger brother lying on the hospital bed with a pale face and a vacant gaze, not knowing how to open his mouth. Last night, his younger brother — Julian Vance — had arranged to go with a friend to see the newly released film. But only an hour later, Lincoln had received a call from the friend, reporting that Julian was undergoing emergency treatment at Hospital Number 1. He had dropped his work at once and run to his younger brother.

Julian had been taken into the emergency room unconscious, his mental power showing signs of running wild. Lincoln had asked the friend who went with Julian what on earth the two of them had run into, that his always healthy younger brother should suddenly fall into a mental power rampage.

That friend said that at first everything had been perfectly normal, the two of them had gone on watching the film attentively. But when a character named Wyatt appeared, Julian began to show strange signs.

His whole body shook violently, his face went pale. The friend asked after him with concern, and Julian only shook his head saying he was fine. He also refused the medical staff’s request to examine him, sitting there numbly following the character in the film.

The peak came at the passage where the character Wyatt is dragged into the music room by an Alpha who habitually bullies him, while his youngest uncle, out looking for him, stands right outside. Wyatt, his mouth clamped shut by that Alpha, his face covered in tears, looks out towards the door brimming with hope. Wyatt’s uncle sets his hand on the door handle, and just as he is about to open the door a call suddenly comes through. He stands outside the door taking the call for a while, after which he turns and walks away. Inside the room, Wyatt hears the footsteps gradually receding, reaching out a hand in despair.

At that point Julian had lost control, hurling himself forward to throw his arms round the holographic image. Of course it could not be held, but he still went on trying to hold it over and over again, howling and weeping as he did, calling out one person’s name.

"Elijah, Elijah. He kept calling like that the whole time." The friend rubbed his forehead, looking utterly helpless: "I could not pull him away. After that the medical staff along with a few Alphas who were there stepped in at once, forcing an anaesthetic on Julian before his mental power could erupt. Julian is a grade-A Alpha, heaven only knows how many people a grade-A Alpha in a mental power rampage would attack without meaning to."

After that, Julian had been taken to the hospital.

Lincoln was astonished: "A mental power rampage over nothing but a film? What on earth is this film like to have brought him to this?"

The friend scratched his head: "It is a horror film, but the section that made Julian lose control was not a horror scene." He opened his smart watch, sending the information on the film to Lincoln, from the production company and the director through to the related articles.

Lincoln sat down on the long bench outside the emergency room, opening it to look. When he saw the director’s name, his whole body went rigid.

Benjamin Martinez...

This name was like a blunt knife sawing at a wound buried deep inside Lincoln, not painful but unbearable. He looked only this far, reading nothing further, only opening the Committee’s home page to buy a ticket. But the tickets had sold out only minutes after going on sale, so Lincoln had someone pay a high price to buy a ticket from the black market.

Waiting until Julian’s condition had stabilised and he had been moved to the recovery room, Lincoln handed him over to a special nurse to look after, while he himself went straight to the cinema to watch it for himself. The film ran ninety minutes, and Lincoln watched from beginning to end. When it finished, he still sat on in his seat, staring at the galaxy space in front of him.

The medical staff came to ask after him every so often, and being so worried they even took it upon themselves to use a scanner to scan the state of his body. His body readings were perfectly normal, so the problem came from the mind. The medical staff and the cinema staff looked at Lincoln’s age, and all judged that he was a man who had become a father, with a child who had suffered school violence.

Lincoln sat on until the second screening was about to begin, when the cinema staff were obliged to step up and remind him. Only then did Lincoln slowly stand and leave the cinema. Before he went out of the door, a member of the cinema staff even came over to offer a quiet word of comfort.

Lincoln nodded, saying thank you blandly.

When he returned to the hospital, Julian was awake. Only he lay there with his whole body numb, staring up at the ceiling, without casting a single glance at his own elder brother. Lincoln said nothing either, only lacing his two hands together, propping up his chin to look at his younger brother. The two of them looked at each other like that for a long while, the time passing as though it stretched a whole century. Half an hour later, the one who had been staring numbly at the ceiling suddenly opened his mouth:

"I heard a sound?"

"What was that?" Lincoln was left blank by this remark with neither head nor tail to it.

"Back then, that day at the children’s house." Julian turned his head to look at his elder brother: "When I went looking for Elijah, I clearly heard a very loud sound in the equipment store room. I was just about to open the door when my girlfriend called me from out in the yard, and I left right after that."

Lincoln went blank, after which his face turned rather ugly. He tried to comfort his younger brother: "Surely that cannot be... It is only a film, Elijah is only an actor, that does not necessarily mean it actually happened to the boy..."

"Brother..." Julian cut across Lincoln’s defence: "After we found Elijah, the boy avoided me for several days running. At the time I did not pay attention, I thought it was because he was still angry with me for going off with my girlfriend and forgetting the promise I had made him."

He gripped the bedsheet tightly, saying heavily: "A few days later, the boy suddenly stood in front of me, said "Youngest Uncle, I am sorry" then ran off. At the time I did not understand why he was apologising to me. And then the next day, he stood in front of everyone and said that I had violated him. There were so many bruises on him, faded though they were, anyone who looked would believe it was true..."

"Say no more, Julian!" The rims of Lincoln’s eyes went red, cutting Julian off.

But Julian went on speaking as though he had not heard: "After that, my reputation was destroyed, my friends turned their backs, my girlfriend broke it off, wherever I went people pointed at me. And then two days later, Elijah said it was only a joke, only because he was angry at me for abandoning him on his own."

"Nine years." Julian covered his face and wept bitterly: "I hated the boy for nine years... But what right did I have to hate him. If I had not left him on his own that day, nothing would have happened to him!"

Lincoln seized Julian’s arm tightly, pulling him up to sit: "Come! Let us go and find them, ask them to make the whole thing clear. Do not sit here spinning theories and putting pressure on yourself. It is not necessarily like that at all."

The planet Sirius, the ship carrying Elijah to the planet Altair to enrol had only just vanished behind the cloud layer when Liam suddenly burst into bitter weeping. The whole family gathered round him in confusion, asking him over and over what was the matter.

Liam did not speak, he only wept, weeping louder and louder. Everyone tried every way of soothing him without the slightest effect. In the end Camila could only put forward the plan of leaving Liam to cry it out, with someone sitting by to see he drank water or nutrient fluid.

Camila sighed, helplessly rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Benjamin and Isabella along with Daniel let their shoulders drop as well. They could only sit staring helplessly at Liam sobbing, aching for him without being able to do a thing. With nobody interfering, only about forty-five minutes later Liam’s crying gradually quietened, after that he cried no more.

Just as everyone let out a breath of relief, the call chime on Benjamin’s smart watch rang. Looking at the caller’s name, he was left blank. Isabella turned to ask: "Who is calling that you are not picking up?"

Benjamin looked at her, answering in a low voice: "It is Eldest Uncle. I contacted him three months ago, I never expected him to call me today."

Isabella pressed her lips together. Knowing it was a family call, Daniel and Camila very sensibly went out of the sitting room. Benjamin drew a deep breath, after that he switched on sharing mode on his smart watch before taking the call. The moment the line connected, Theodore Vance’s voice came through:

"Benjamin?"

"Yes... Eldest Uncle." Benjamin answered in a low voice, a little timidity still in it.

"Has something serious happened, for you to have contacted me?" In Theodore’s stern voice there was a thread of worry he could not hide. One had to understand that these nephews and niece of his were exceedingly stubborn. In those years, when the paternal family stripped them of every asset, they had not begged their Papa’s family for help with so much as a word. Now the stubborn boy Benjamin had suddenly sent him a message, and the first thing Theodore could think of was that the children had met with something extremely serious.

He explained gently: "Three months ago my smart watch broke. You know my position is a particular one, the smart watch is of the encrypted secure kind, so it had to be sent back behind the lines for repair. That process dragged on three months. I had only just got the watch back, saw your message and called you straight away. Benjamin, have you children run into something?"

The rims of Isabella’s eyes went red, she turned her face aside feeling sorry for herself, biting her lip hard to stop herself bursting into tears. The bridge of Benjamin’s nose stung as well. He drew a deep breath, saying hoarsely: "Uncle Theodore, nothing is wrong with us. When I contacted you before it truly was because of something urgent, but everything is all right now..."

"Hic... hic..."

One small sob rang out beside them, and Isabella and Benjamin looked over at Liam in horror.

Surely not? Which sensitive spot of his has been touched now?