Chapter 6

"And here's the real kicker," Hayden said, dropping a bombshell. "Our tech team dug deep into that Thought Translator and found a backdoor program even Chris himself missed."

"A backdoor program?" I was confused.

"That machine doesn't just translate the thoughts he projects at you," Hayden explained. "It can also pick up on his real, surface-level thoughts, the ones he never meant for you to hear."

As he spoke, Hayden hit another button on his tablet.

The same robotic voice came through, but this time, the words were completely different.

[Finally, they're here. If they'd taken any longer, this girl would've gone crazy thanks to her unreasonable parents.]

[Ugh, here we go again. Time to fake it. But for the sake of an easy life in the future, I'll suck it up.]

[What's wrong with her? Her eyes are terrifying, like she's about to eat me alive. Did I do something to piss her off?]

[Man, this couple are really weird. Their daughter's clearly not okay, and they keep pushing her over the edge.]

[State Security Agency? Damn, I'm screwed. I just wanted to live an easy life, and now I've got these big shots on my case. Great, my plan is totally ruined.]

My jaw dropped as I listened to these translated inner monologues. They were so different from the mean thoughts I'd heard before. Instead, they were packed with funny complaints and pure exasperation.

My brain totally short-circuited.

"What... what is this?" I stammered, my voice shaking as I pointed at the tablet.

"These are Chris's real, surface-level thoughts," Lindsay said softly. "Just like anyone else, he has all kinds of random ideas flashing through his mind.

"But what you picked up from him before was the darkest stuff lurking in his subconscious. These are what he's actually thinking when he's fully awake."

It felt like my whole worldview had been flipped upside down.

For as long as I could remember, I'd always thought Chris was some scheming, downright evil monster.

But now, these exposed inner monologues were telling a totally different story. Chris seemed like some unlucky guy who wanted a laid-back life, only to screw himself over big time.

Basically, he was a corporate drone who never stopped complaining, hated anything troublesome, and treated "taking it easy" as his ultimate life goal.

This gap was wild.

"So, all those things I heard from him before were just his subconscious malice, and he took advantage of that to set me up?" I tried to untangle the chaos in my mind.

"That's pretty much it." Hayden nodded. "He definitely had conscious malice. He wanted to use you to get control of the Sullivan family.

"But those direct thoughts about wanting you dead, or cursing you, weren't consciously intended by him. They were more like a side effect of his powers spiraling out of control.

"This is an extremely rare case. It looks like there's some kind of defect or anomaly in his abilities."

I was speechless.

This truth was crazier than anything I ever expected.

Did I hate Chris? Of course I did.

No matter how it started, he used my suffering against me and wrecked my life. That was a fact.

But now, my hatred was mixed with a weird jumble of emotions I couldn't really explain.

"So what are you going to do with him?" I asked.

"Given how unique and dangerous his abilities are, he'll be temporarily held at our base for further research and behavioral correction," Hayden said. "His dream of living a laid-back life? That's not happening anytime soon."

I could imagine Chris's utterly defeated face when he heard the news. For some reason, I was secretly pleased at his misery.

"As for you, Ms. Sullivan," Hayden said, fixing his gaze on me. "Your case is pretty special too. You're the only person we know who can consistently pick up on Chris's thoughts. In a sense, you and Chris have developed a unique mental connection.

"To make sure you're safe and to better understand what's going on, we've got two suggestions for you.

"First, we'll set you up in a high-security safe house and get you top-notch therapy. You'll be totally cut off from the Sullivan family and Chris, so you can start a whole new life."

"Second..." Hayden paused, picking his words carefully. "We'd like you to be our special consultant. With our supervision and protection, you'd have limited, supervised contact with Chris.

"This won't just help us study his abilities, it might help us figure out how to break the connection between you two for good."

I barely hesitated. "I'll go with the second option."