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S adie wanted to talk but she couldn’t say anything, as if the ability to talk had been taken from her. She struggled, realizing that she was being rushed up to the hotel room, and yet she wanted to cry out and say they were being followed, and it wasn’t safe there, but she couldn’t speak.

She was helpless—paralyzed—as if somebody had grabbed her vocal cords and had clamped them shut.

She was functioning, in that she was on her feet and moving forward, though the men had their arms under hers and were basically dragging her down the hallway.

Once in the room, she turned to stare at Morrison, her eyes wide.

She tried to reach out a hand but found that it wouldn’t move.

She stared down at her hands, seeing something like a spirit hand, like the spirit tied to her hand.

Whatever it was called, she could lift that spirit hand out of her physical body and put it back in again.

However, when she tried to move her physical body, it refused to move.

Yet, when the men turned her in the direction of a chair and pushed her forward gently to sit, the momentum of their actions took her to the chair.

Morrison turned her around and gently helped her to sit down, but it wasn’t an action she took on her own.

It wasn’t an action that she could start and complete.

Yet her body carried on with its functions.

How did that work? She didn’t have a clue what was happening, but it was scary as she sat here, struggling, trying to figure out what to do.

She wasn’t panicked, but still, she sent out a message, realizing that if anybody could help her it would be Terkel.

I’m here , he responded immediately. I’m doing a scan on your system to see what’s going on .

She sagged in place, her body collapsing in on itself, as the relief worked its way through her body. She closed her eyes, grateful when that attempt to contact Terk had worked.

You’re getting a little bit more movement all the time , he told her.

Understand that somebody else is doing this.

Don’t fight it, just sink into it, then toss it aside, and try to regain control of your own power based on who you are.

No matter what you hear, don’t let them convince you otherwise.

This is a power grab. That’s all it is, purely a power grab.

Somebody else is trying to use your system, your body, your energy, to do what he wants .

Her words, succinct and harsh, snapped out and filled the room, as they erupted from her in an exploded fury. “Fuck that.”

Terk laughed. Exactly, and that is exactly what you need to do , he stated. This person isn’t used to resistance. He’s not used to having anybody who can say no. So stay strong and know I’m still working on it .

She faced Morrison, who immediately dropped down in front of her and squatted close. “Hey, glad to hear you talking.”

She gave a lopsided smile. “Not quite there yet,” she whispered, her voice rusty but functional. “Terkel’s helping.”

“Good.” Morrison nodded. “I gather somebody got a hold of you.”

Her eyes widened, she nodded. “Who knew?”

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “Remember what Gage said about all you would learn in just a short time?”

She nodded. “Don’t like it,” she muttered in a robotic tone.

“Got it,” Morrison said. “Keep talking, no matter how hard it is, because, if you have control of your vocal cords, then they don’t.”

The thought of somebody else having control of her vocal cords was enough to make her cringe.

But she jumped forward mentally and started pushing back all the shadows in her mind.

As she did so, her voice got easier and easier to use, and her words started coming out smoother.

Finally she could see this black ball inside her thoughts, and she quickly grabbed it and smashed it into a tighter ball, then flung it as far and as free from her soul as she could.

And with that came a sense of something breaking inside, and she jumped to her feet, spun around, and almost roared with happiness. “I’m back.”

She let out a loud whoop of joy and turned and grinned at them. “I don’t know exactly what that was,” she stated, “but I am so grateful that it’s not in there anymore.”

Gage walked toward her and smiled. “Congratulations. That was a very necessary step of progress in your energy work,” he murmured. “You’re doing great.”

“What happened?”

“What happened is something that I’m sure you don’t want to discuss, but you need to because, if he succeeded once, chances are he’ll try again.”

She nodded. “He’s already trying,” she confirmed in disgust, “and I have absolutely no intention of going back into that frozen fugue state again.” She made a flicking motion with her hand, and then she felt a subtle change to the air.

“I kicked him out of the room,” she declared, as she walked over to where the food was.

“If I was hungry before, you can damn-well believe I am starving now.”

And, with that, both men burst into laughter. With a note of admiration, Morrison smiled at her and said, “Seems you just graduated top of the class.”

“I didn’t graduate from anything,” she muttered, with a headshake. “I was saved, and I’m grateful to Terkel for being there to give me a hand. But if that’s my brother Darren? Well, he’s got another think coming,” she declared, “because I’ll never ever become his puppet again.”

“Do you think that’s what’s happening to your other brother? Don seemed pretty,… well,… afraid in a way.”

She nodded. “Yes, he’s a puppet because he’s the weaker one,” she stated. “But I’m not weak, and I’m nobody’s puppet, and that’s just not happening. I am my own person, and Darren can go screw himself, if he thinks this relationship will be all about that.”

“It could also make him very angry,” Gage pointed out.

“Yeah, he’s angry all right,” she confirmed, “but I really don’t give a damn.

” And she glared at him. “Right now, I need food. So, if you want to talk, we’ll talk in a bit, but right now I need to eat.

” She stormed to the to-go bag, served herself a large portion of the food that they had brought, then sat down in front of them and ate.

*

The next morning Sadie woke early, after an incredibly hard night where she was constantly bothered by nightmares of the same thing over and over.

She struggled to get to the shower, turned on the water, and stepped under the drenching heat, looking for some comfort, since she didn’t get any from a good night of sleep.

By the time she was done, she felt marginally better, pushing back the nightmares a little bit more, but it was hard to experience what she had just endured.

A whole realm of existence was out there that she had no idea was even possible, and now that she knew this much, it made her feel even more insecure about the world around her.

There was nothing good about knowing people could do these things, and she didn’t know how much of an effect it may have had on Don.

Her twin brother may be under someone’s thumb, and she was pretty damn sure it was Darren, the other brother, who was doing this.

So, one was dominant, one was weak, and she was an unknown factor but determined not to end up like her twin.

The fact that Darren was attempting to do something along this line just pissed her off.

It might just be temper on his part, but it didn’t change anything as far as she was concerned.

It was still not cool to stop her from doing anything.

Knowing this about Darren, Sadie worried about the whereabouts of her sister, Tammy, who was still a mystery.

Although, as Sadie dressed, she wondered if any updated news had been shared.

Apparently everybody was working on trying to find her sister, but Sadie was past trying to hope at this point. She would leave it in the realm of mystery for now and would try to focus on dealing with this mess with her brothers instead. Who knew what she was waking up to today?

Dressed, tired, stressed out, and wanting this whole nightmare over with, she headed out to the living room to find both Gage and Morrison sitting at the table with their laptops, working away. She stopped at the counter and grumbled, “Did you guys leave me any coffee?”

She deliberately kept her tone low and modulated, without the snap that her mood dictated.

But obviously it was evident anyway. Morrison hopped up, walked over, and, without asking permission, or in any way making it look as if it was anything other than his full intention, he pulled her into his arms and gave her a gentle hug, whispering against her ear, “Sorry you had a rough night.”

All her fatigue and crankiness melted away. She groaned, looked up at him. “You’re way too nice.” He snorted at that, even as Gage laughed out loud. She looked over at him. “And you’re not nice at all.”

That only served to set him off into more waves of laughter.

“You really did have a bad night, didn’t you?” Morrison asked.

“Yeah, every time I turned around,” she shared bitterly, “I was being attacked in a way that I didn’t even know was possible.

I mean, there’s a whole other world out there, and nobody even knows about this.

” Then she stopped, frowned, and asked, “Or do they, and I’m just the dumb one who’s completely in the dark? ”

“Most people have no idea because most people are not energy workers,” Gage explained.

“That’s the way everyone likes it really, since it keeps all that other stuff nicely hidden in the shadows, and nobody has to acknowledge that this energy-working stuff goes on out there.

Imagine the mass panic if everybody knew. ”