A Touch of Memory and Revenge

5. Overwhelmed by the darkness

Johan peered into the hidden cabinet but saw nothing except for containers of pills and drugs. The woman was using drugs, it probably was what she was trying to reach for but why was she panicking to reach for it, he thought.

Turning around to study the room, he noticed that this was a woman’s bedroom. The position of the bed, the wardrobe, the shelves and even the wall paper on the wall that was burnt signified that the room belonged to the woman. He moved closer to the bed touching the drawers and only getting mild memories of the same woman, so obviously, this was her room.

“There’s nothing here”, he concluded rising to his feet and walking out of the room into the hallway. Next was the kitchen. This was the sole place where fires usually originates from.

He moved straight for the gas cooker and touched it’s switch. A lot’ of visions flooded his memory causing his head to start pounding. Seems like they used this kitchen a lot’, he thought.

He placed his hand on the switch again and this time, he tried to flip through the memories he was getting.

For as long as he could remember, he had always had the ability to see into people’s memories and their past whenever the left  part of his body comes in contact with them, usually his left arms and his hand.

 At first as a child, he could not control it as he touched things with his hands only to see a flash back of the people’s memories.

His father had thought he was going crazy and carried him to the hospital for tests but the doctors found nothing. When he discovered that they were about to lock him up in a psychiatric hospital, he lied that he had stopped seeing things. 

After His father monitored him for months, and found out that he was being truthful, he terminated the plan to send him to the psychiatric home.

Only his brother, Erik knew that he was still seeing things whenever he touches objects of great importance. Because it was only his left hand, he stopped using that particular hand. He would always tuck it into his pockets or wear gloves claiming that he was cold.

With time, he learnt how to control it when his brother Erick took him to see a professor of his. The professor had told him that he was psychometric and started teaching him how to control his abilities and get rid of unwanted memories. 

Now, he could scan and flip through memories like they were the pages of a book and not only could he do that, he could also shut down  his abilities and touch things freely without seeing the memories that object held as well as turn it on whenever needed.

When ever he losses control especially when a fire was involved, memories floods into his mind and he always ended up in bed rest to regain himself.

This time, he was trying to be careful of what he touches and not stay around the scene for too long.

He paused seeing someone who was different from the occupants of the house touch the gas cooker switch. This person was obviously not a member of the house, half of his face was covered in a mask so Johan could only see his eyes and a strand of white or gray hair that slipped out of the beanie he was wearing… and a scar?.  He had turned on the gas cooker and left the kitchen.

Johan opened his eyes feeling exhausted. Flipping through memories always drains him faster. He walked over to the gas cylinder, if the man had turned on the gas cooker then he touched the gas cylinder too.

Johan touched the regulator of the gas cylinder and saw the same man open the gas cylinder for gas to seep through and cause the explosion.

He opened his eyes using the cabinet to support himself as he tried to catch his breath. This was too much memories in one day and he needed to stop. He slid down to seat on the floor when his legs could not hold him any longer.

“Just a minute…”, he told himself.

He dropped his hand on the floor and he felt an object beneath his hand. Immediately without permission, memories flushed into his mind. He saw a hand bending the wire to create a round shape, he saw another memory of the same man dropping the object on the ground in the kitchen.

“Shit” , Johan cursed opening his eyes. They were dealing with an arsonist. Someone had intentionally set the house on fire and dropped their signature. 

He picked up the object from the ground and studied it. He turned it in his hand. The arsonist was someone who could bend wire things with his hands. 

Johan tried to stand to his feet, he was done for today. Instead of rising, he slipped and fell to the ground. His mind assaulted by different images of a car on fire with a baby inside, he saw an explosion and as usual, the memories came with a sharp pain to his head.

He screamed in pain, shaking and mumbling incoherent words.

He heard footsteps rush into the kitchen and hands started touching him. He wanted to tell them to stop touching him but he couldn’t voice out his thoughts.

Someone carried him bridal style out of the kitchen, outside the building and removed his nose mask.

Johan took in a gulp of clean air and sighed as he slipped into unconsciousness.