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article.”

  “You rerouted my email. I should have suspected that. So, you know I know the truth.”

  “But you don’t. That is some fiction you wrote.”

  “It’s not fiction.”

  “Dear boy, I’m not an alien. Grief has corrupted your soul. I have a group of counselors waiting to help you.”

  “Liar! I can tell.”

  “Poor boy. Let us help.”

  “You’re the corrupted one. The world will know.”

  “Do you think anyone will believe such a story? Let me help you communicate with your departed brother and father. Their words will let you know the truth.”

  “Now I really know the truth,” he says and takes a drawn out, staggered breath, “Your telepathy hacking mislead you. I thought of my brother’s and father’s gravestones before I came in here.”

  “You are obviously troubled by their deaths.”

  “My father isn’t dead! He abandoned me and my brother as kids but he’s alive.”

  “Calm down.”

  “No, the first stone is cast.”

  He descends on her with all of his weight as his heart slams like a piston against his lungs and his lips curl with rage. He clasps her throat and the crystal ball crashes to the cement floor. She kicks at him but soon goes limp. He tightens his grip and watches the capillaries burst in her eyes.

  “I didn’t want to do this, it’s the only way.”

  Bubbles of spit pop from the corners of his mouth.

  “Nooooooo!” comes from the entrance.

  Peter hears the woman’s scream but cannot stop. A log thumps his skull and dislodges his grip. Warm blood flows down his back. He sees sparkly blue and red lights. Everything turns yellow and then goes black. Gloria places the log in the stove.

  …

  Eyes closed, Peter aches. It’s hard for him to move but he forces himself up in bed. His eyes fight to open as his bedroom comes into focus.

  “Who are you?”

  “Are you there Thought Rider? I can’t see you”

  “Yes Peter I am here.”

  “Did I do it?”

  “Yes but we failed.”

  “What do you mean failed?”

  The Thought Rider grows from a base shadow on the hardwood floor.

  “KZ returned, but my people are not yet convinced to stop this addiction to madness.”

  “I understand. I will prove it to my people and close the portal from this side. I just need time.”

  “I am sorry but you are stuck in a place like the one where we first met.”

  “A dream.”

  “Yes, but a dream from which you will never wake from, a coma. I’ll visit you as long as we have the portal open. Know this, you are a hero.”

  “Will my people ever know?”

  “Maybe in time.”

  Headlines of the Elysian Gazette: THE FAMED PSYCHIC TO THE STARS KASEY WELLS’ FUNERAL WAS HELD TODAY. EX-SUPER MODEL GLORIA WAS IN ATTENDANCE.