Harris Institute for Gifted Students Episode 10: Noise

Harris Institute for Gifted Students by Pineapple | Content warnings

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Ray invited Sofia to sit down on the couch. Her eyes wandered a bit. Though he was clearly comfortable at his computer set-up, this seemed to be an entry room that allowed for guests. The lighting was dim, but enough to see a low coffee table. There were a couple coasters. A low-pile rug covering the generic public school tile. There were a few posters taped to the wall, acting as a sorry excuse for interior decorating.

“I live here,” he explained, just as the thought started to float into Sofia’s mind. “I’m not a student. I graduated, like… a few years ago. Two or three? I don’t remember exactly.” He shrugged. “It got complicated with the fourth year shit.”

“Ah.” Sofia nodded along, trying not to think too hard.

“You’re a stronger telepath than Fatima is,” he noted.

“She said you’re even better,” Sofia said. She probably didn’t need to. He’d probably heard it, even without her trying. Maybe this was a test? Did she need to try to guard her thoughts? Did she need to…

“Can you cut it out?” he asked, shutting his eyes and rubbing his temples. “Your mind is running a mile a minute and your friends out there are still so loud.”

“Sorry.” She bit her lip. “You can’t help hearing it, can you?”

Ray shook his head.

“Neither can I, sometimes.”

Ray cracked an eye open to look at her, assessing. “I know,” he said. “That’s why she thinks I can help you.”

“Do you think you can?”

“I don’t know why I should.” He closed his eyes again, sitting back in his chair. It leaned back far enough that a flash a worry shot through Sofia, and Ray cracked a smile about it. “You come in here, giving me the biggest migraine I’ve had in a long-ass time because you’re worried about some one you don’t even know?”

Luckily, she was prepared for the possibility that he might be difficult. Not this difficult, but still. She scoffed, putting up a front. “You mean you don’t care? You must have heard something that night, and you’re going to act like you’re not even curious about what happened?”

Ray crossed his arms and stared Sofia down, eyes catching the led strips with a dangerous glint. “Don’t try to manipulate me when your thoughts sound like a bullhorn,” he said.

Sofia found herself matching his glare.

He smirked, a stupid, smug little thing with teeth.

Well. Time for Plan B. She reached into his mind. As powerful as he was, his defense was weak. The bubbles had popped earlier because there was no reason for them between two telepaths. She understood that now, with one hand in Ray’s noisy consciousness. There was an echo of the music, a lag from the headphones in real life to the wavelength in their brains. Hearing it twice just increased how pulsing and all encompassing it was. It nearly drowned out everything else—all the other voices that were there. Nearly.

Sofia could hear Sam: his thoughts were more worried, more sentimental than he’d ever let on. He was close to a breaking point. It felt like how Greyson had, when Sofia had met him, but it seemed like Sam was carrying it better.

She heard Sumire. It was Japanese and she knew that, but she could understand it when it was filtered through Ray. Sumire was debating following Sofia in, doing a whole cost-benefit analysis of the consequences. Sofia could understand why Vanessa sent these two. They were very analytical. Calm on the outside, even if their insides were racing.

But there were other voices, too. Some of them she recognized. It was… different. Everybody sounded different in Ray’s head than they did in her own.

Ms. Hera was nearby, clearing up the field, wondering if she could ask Ms. Fatima to have dinner with the excuse of giving the key back or if that would be too awkward.

Vanessa was wondering how it was going. She was trying to focus on her pitching, but she was having trouble paying attention.

Sofia tried to hear a voice she didn’t recognize, but… there was an underlying gibberish in the song that made it difficult. She tried to tune Ray’s mind like she did her own, twisting it like a knob.

Ray’s face pinched in pain. His hands clenched around the armrests of his chair.

can’t leave him like that

There.

… keep it going…

“Who is that?” Sofia asked out loud, looking at him pointedly. “Why does he sound like that?”

She felt the connection between them waver, like Ray was trying to sever it, but she persisted.

“It’s Alaric of the Light,” he said with a sigh, rubbing his eyes. “He’s got a lot on his mind lately.”

… use him… but how…

“Why can’t we hear everything?”

“If we’re gonna keep talking, can you get your shit out of my head?” he asked. “It hurts like a motherfucker.”

All that training must have paid off, she thought happily. She let her own powers recede. “Can we call in the others, too?”

“Don’t get too cocky,” Ray muttered. “We can’t hear everything because Alaric is a Great Sorcerer. He’s got some protections in place.”

“Oh.”

Sofia wondered if she was going to conduct the whole interrogation alone, but then Sumire opened the door, entering carefully before she let Samuel follow her in. Ray must have called them in, after all.

“Hello,” she greeted. “I’m Sumire. I heard you have some information for us.”

Ray waved vaguely in the direction of the couch. Sumire and Samuel piled on next to Sofia. The way he looked at them made Sofia wonder what it was he was hearing from them. It was noisy in Ray’s head. She wondered if he ever got a break from the flow of everyone else’s stream of consciousness.

“So you’re the genius kid that Alaric can’t stop thinking about,” he said. Not a question or a greeting, just a fact.

Samuel made a displeased noise in the back of his throat.

Ray’s eyes scanned Samuel’s face. “It’s interesting that you don’t feel guilty that he settled for your friend instead of you,” he observed.

“At this point, I’m just getting mad that you’re invading my privacy,” he said back. Samuel waved his hand around his head, a trail of silver in its wake.

Ray looked, not for the first time, surprised. “Worthy of the genius title, I suppose,” he said. “At least it’s quieter now.”

Sofia looked between the two boys. “He blocked your powers?”

“If only they’d teach everyone,” Ray mourned, slouching in his seat a bit. He looked a little more relaxed. His eyes drifted back to Sofia. “Shouldn’t you be better at it?” he teased.

She realized she could hear him still, a bit, if she listened hard. The echo of his music. The low, garbled sound of other voices. She could feel something between the two of them, some invisible string attaching them by the brain, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to ever get rid of it, even if she wanted to. (She realized she wasn’t sure she wanted to.)

Sofia blushed. She tried to move on. “What even is that voice?” she asked. “I thought it was part of your music, but the song changed.”

Suddenly, he was serious. She must have hit a nerve. “You can hear it?”

“Normally people sound different to me, in their heads,” Sofia tried to explain. “But when I hear them through you, it’s like… I know who they are anyway. Even if they sound different. If it was just me, I wouldn’t be able to understand Sumire. But you can understand her even though she’s thinking in Japanese.”

Sumire startled at the mention of her name, but Ray nodded along like he was understanding and urging Sofia to continue.

“So this voice… why… Why can’t you understand that one? Is it another spell like Alaric’s?”

“No,” he said. “That voice is Sahar’s. It changed that night you’re curious about. It sounds like him, but I can’t understand it anymore. It’s like it’s… beyond me. It’s just incomprehensible. Maybe if I was some master linguist or some ultimate alchemist, I’d know what he was saying, but I don’t.”

“What do you mean it’s ‘beyond you’?” Samuel asked.

Sumire’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve heard it before, haven’t you?”

“The only time I’ve heard something I couldn’t comprehend was the Evil Ones,” he said plainly. “But this is different. It sounds different.”

“So what exactly happened that night?” Sumire asked, all business.

“You know the basics,” he said. “The Evil Ones were created by Elliot Brady. The artist. He’s a bit misguided, but he’s not exactly an enemy.”

Ray suddenly looked at Sumire, but her face was unchanged.

“Jesus, you’ve got a mouth on you, huh,” he remarked. “God. One wrong move and he’s condemned forever?”

“Aiding and abetting a kidnapping is not misguided,” Sumire answered without missing a beat. “You’re too lenient in your judgment.”

Ray shook his head, sighing. “He didn’t realize what he was getting into when he made the golems, okay? Anyway, he’s not the concern. Sam’s right that Alaric is behind it.”

“Of course he is. He was Sahar’s advisor as he went into his fourth year,” Samuel said. “I’m relieved to know that Sahar still alive, whatever state he may be in. I don’t understand where he is or why Alaric would do this.”

“You do,” Ray said, nearly sympathetic. “You know why.”

Samuel’s eyes strayed. “Why keep him alive if he’s planning to steal Sahar’s accomplishments?” he muttered, fist clenching on his thigh. Sofia reached over and patted his hand twice before retracting, afraid he’d push her away if she offered more than that.

“He doesn’t know how,” Sofia said. “Something about… what he’s doing… Alaric must not know how to replicate it or what to do with it if he gets rid of Sahar. He’s safe for now.”

“So what I’m not hearing from you guys is a plan,” Ray said, spinning in his chair in little half-circles. “Sam might be a genius, but even he knows he can’t beat Alaric on his own.”

“The plan has always been to fight Alaric,” Sam countered. “I was never planning to do it alone. I’ve got a few ideas from today already.”

Ray stared at him, completely shocked by whatever it was he was hearing. “You’re insane,” he said. “You think that’ll work?”

Samuel smirked, shrugging nonchalantly.

“Samuel?” Sumire looked at him sharply, but he didn’t give an inch, just waving it off.

“Christ. Kids these days,” Ray mumbled. He raked his hands over his face. “Forget migraine. I’ll have an aneurysm.”

“We’ll leave shortly,” Sumire promised. “Do you know where he’s being kept?”

“No,” Ray said.

Samuel’s brow furrowed just a fraction. It was enough of a change that he looked mad.

Ray rubbed at the stubble on his jawline. It made a scratchy noise, and Sofia’s mind stuck on the friction of it, of all things, above everything else.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he explained. “I sometimes hear that Alaric is going to check on Sahar, but then I don’t hear him anymore. Sahar’s voice is so… so strange that I can’t figure out how far away he is. Maybe Sof can find out now that she knows what he sounds like.”

“You can recreate it,” Sumire said. “With Ben and his barriers.”

“That’s a good idea,” Sofia agreed, nodding to herself.

“Great,” Ray said. “Then you can get out of my hair and my house.”

Sofia stuck out her tongue. “Don’t act like you were so much help.”

“I didn’t have to let you into my mind, you know.”

“I don’t think you had a choice, actually,” Sofia shot back, feeling smug.

Ray wasn’t playing along, though, and a sinking feeling started to set in. She was about to apologize when he set his sights on Samuel. “You know, Sam,” he said. “There’s really very few things more intimate than being in each other’s heads. Are you ready for that?”

Sofia looked between the two of them, lost.

“How nice of you to be concerned,” Samuel said dryly. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes to get my friend back.”

“And you?” he asked, looking at Sumire. “You know your brother is worried.”

Sumire visually soured.

“You aren’t doing him any favors by babying him.”

“You don’t know me,” she said, “and you don’t know him.”

Ray looked back at his paused computer screen. “Maybe,” he said. “What’s the longest you two have been apart? What do you think he’d do to not be alone?”

“Sugi is fine.” Sumire stood, easy, confident. “He’ll flourish wherever he is.”

He hummed in response.

“Sofia,” he said. The feeling of Ray’s voice in her mind felt natural now. The thought scared her and comforted her. “Just because you heard something doesn’t mean it’s your business. You don’t have to help them like this.”

She watched him queue up more songs in his playlist. The genre names folk metal and symphonic metal floated into her head. It wasn’t so angry. Still fast and pumping, but a little more melodic.

“Why wouldn’t I help?” Sofia wondered.

“Would you sacrifice yourself for them?” he asked back. “Pushing your powers to the max even if it hurts you? Is it worth it?”

“We’re leaving now,” Sumire decided. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Samuel stood and followed Sumire out the door.

Sofia stood. “If you get lonely…”

“I’ll give you a shout,” he finished mentally. He didn’t turn around when she left. She could hear music until they’d left the building and Sumire locked it behind them.