“Meet your new roommate.” Maya barked. She’d opened the door with a loud bang, and Brad barely had time to get to his feet before she’d shoved a trembling teenager into the tiny dormitory room.

Maya had a position of rank in Rosenkreuz that was ironically called a Nanny. Brad wasn’t sure if Nanny was a nickname or euphemism for some proper title he’d never heard, but he didn’t find the joke very funny. Nannies patrolled the dormitory buildings and looked for trouble. They were usually precogs or telepaths, and Maya happened to be a telepath, which made her dangerous. At Rosenkreuz there was no privacy, not even privacy in thoughts.

There was very little trouble in Maya’s building. Incidentally there was also a high turnover rate in the population.

“Um…” He wanted to ask about Alex, but couldn’t think of a way to phrase the question that wouldn’t end in Maya hitting him with her nightstick. She actually carried a nightstick with her.

“Your old roommate was transferred.” Maya said with a cruel smile, indicating in this particular case transferred was a euphemism for dead. Of course, a transfer was technically involved, the transfer from the dorm building to the crematorium.

“Oh.” His stomach twisted from a stab of guilt. He could have helped Alex, but then, he would have had to watch over the kid for his entire life, sacrificing all his goals in the process, and he hadn’t wanted that either. It didn’t change the fact that with his intervention Alex would still be alive, and Alex was an innocent. He’d never done anything wrong, and that’s why he’d been killed.

“This is Becky.” Maya introduced, before slamming the door again. There was a click as it was locked. “Lights out in fifteen!”

Becky looked ready to pee herself.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” Brad suggested. “You must be new.”

She nodded, but didn’t move otherwise.

“Seriously, I know it’s a small room, but you still wanna be sitting on the bed before the lights go out. It gets really, really dark.” He pointed out.

Becky sat stiffly. Her eyes were wide, darting around the room. It was starting to make him nervous.

“My name’s Brad. Um…I’ve been here for a little while now. So if you have any questions…I’m sorry, did something happen to you before they brought you here?”

“Isn’t being here enough of a something?” Becky asked in a quavering voice.

“Good enough.” He said with a laugh. She focused her gaze on him, and he shuddered. Her eyes hadn’t been wide from fear, they were apparently always wide and slightly protuberant. They were also a pale shade of periwinkle he’d never seen in human irises before, and he found her gaze unnerving.

“I can’t believe you can laugh. Don’t you know where we are?”

“Of course I do, you’re the new on-“

“Bradley Crawford your plan is not going to work. Even if you do escape this place physically, you’ll have to leave yourself behind to do it.” She broke her gaze from his and went back to frantically glancing around the room. “She’s in my head. Maya’s in my head. Goodnight Bradley.”

“G’night.”

He didn’t really know what to say to her. Alex had been a very low level Talent, and the two boys had joked around with each other and tried to make the best of it. Becky wasn’t that sort of precog, apparently. And it seemed she could already See quite well, new to Rosenkreuz or not, because she’d definitely Seen her imprisonment coming, and in enough detail to know more about her roommate than he knew about her.

Becky was dead by the end of the week. Brad had wanted to ask her how much she knew about his plans, and if she’d Seen anything that could help him, but every time he’d tried to talk to her, she’d cut him off saying Maya was in her head. She was probably right too, Maya did like to patrol the new kids.

Becky left for the lavatory during a meal and quite simply never came back. Brad didn’t think much of it until lights out that night when she wasn’t in their dorm room. He promptly reported it to Maya. If he waited, and she’d escaped, he would be punished for being an accomplice. Maya sent up an alarm amongst the other Nannies, and ordered Brad to look around for her.

“Why me?”

“She’s your roommate, you know how she thinks better than us. Now move it-“

“She’s been my roommate for three days Maya, I know jack about her.”

Maya pushed her nightstick against his throat and pinned him to the wall by it. “Well I hope you picked up something from your time together, because if we don’t find her I will hold you responsible. Understood?”

“Ghht!” When that didn’t suffice for an answer he gave her the thumbs up, and she let him free.

“Now find her Crawford. You have free reign of the grounds. I’m giving you special permission. Consider this a training exercise.” She turned on her heel and started kicking open doors and barking orders at the inhabitants.

Brad grabbed his boots and sweatshirt from his own room and pulled them on as he made for the grounds. He wracked his brain for something, anything he knew about Becky that would indicate where she’d go if she could escape. In all honesty, after the first night he’d for the most part avoided talking to her since she was creepy, except for when he’d tried to wheedle information about his future from her.

He’d never been on the Rosenkreuz grounds after dark before. It was an ugly place in daylight. Nothing seemed to grow there, the grounds were large stretches of dusty red dirt and concrete walkways. The buildings were squat brick things dotted with barbed wire and iron bars. A rumor had gone around that the site was a restored concentration camp, and it was considered a particularly credible rumor.

During the day kids in tanned jump suits would be led to different buildings by Nannies, Teachers and Administrators. At night the grounds were for the most part empty, barring the occasional patroller. The walkways were lighted very poorly, just the occasional floodlight that stuck out at awkward angles from adjacent buildings, leaving large portions of unlit walkway between the lights.

He walked around aimlessly after giving up on finding Becky through insight, and instead decided to try coaxing a vision of her whereabouts. He almost missed the sobbing sound because of it.

It was coming from between two buildings, some faint crying. One building contained a gymnasium, the other he didn’t recognize. It was probably a dorm for one of the other types of Talents. The alleyway between the buildings was completely dark, but he could distinctly hear the soft, breathy sounds of a child crying. He couldn’t imagine it would be Becky, but he decided to check the alleyway anyway. It was for the best, chances were it was some other potential escapee, and if that was the case even if it wasn’t the escapee he was looking for he would still be expected to bring them in.

“Is someone there?” Brad called. He gingerly stepped into the alley. It was pitch black, he couldn’t see a thing and by nature he hated stepping blindly into unknown situations. He was rarely caught off guard, and that was the thing he hated most about Rosenkreuz and, later, Esset. They were always thrusting him into the unknown.

The person in the alley didn’t answer him, but he heard a startled gasp and the crying stopped for a minute. Then he heard a scraping sound that indicated the person was scooting backwards, and they were breathing heavy, whoever they were. They were clearly terrified. He walked a little further into the alleyway and held his hands in front of him to show they were empty. “I’m not here to hurt you.” He hoped his voice sounded reassuring. “Are you okay? Do you need help?”
An answer was screeched at him this time, but it was in a language he didn’t understand. The voice sounded very young, and he wished he could see into the alleyway a little better. It sounded like a young boy, maybe nine or ten years old.

Brad squinted into the end of the alleyway. Some clouds shifted above them, allowing a tiny expanse of moonlight to shine on the two of them. He could just make out a messy blond head, buried in shaking arms propped on his knees. Rosenkreuz didn’t often take children so young. They generally preferred to take Talents who were into their adolescence, as Brad had been, to see what kind of effect puberty would have on their abilities, and if they could hold onto their sanity despite the pressure of their Talents. And yet here was a child no older than ten, wearing an ill-fitting tan jump suit.

Brad crouched next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He wanted to tell the kid that it was alright, but in addition to speaking a different language from the child, he didn’t want to lie.

The boy looked up, and their eyes met, cobalt blue and honeyed-brown. The contact set off a stream of vivid visions, so forceful and sudden that Brad fell over backward and had to fight off the urge to wretch. He tried to make sense of the psychic assault, but it was all passing too quickly: white suits, a man with horrible side burns laughing obnoxiously, a boy eating rice, Sylvia shooting at him, a bloodstained pale boy licking a knife, an androgynous Asian lunging at him with a sword, a flash of orange hair and a self-satisfied grin…

“Are you okay?”

He was on his back. His eyes were half open, and everything was blurry. There was a child standing over him, clutching Brad’s glasses, with wide, scared blue eyes and messy blond hair.

“Can I have those back?” Brad asked, reaching for his glasses. The boy handed them to him in a quick, jerky movement.

He sat up, and put a hand to his head as it spun. He was still disentangling himself from the visions. It felt as though he’d Seen the rest of his life and yet he couldn’t understand any of it.

“You’re bleeding Mister.”

Brad’s head had cleared somewhat, and he noticed the boy was speaking in heavily accented English.

“What?”

“Y-your nose. I said you’re bleeding Mister.” The boy repeated. He’d clearly been too, there were flakes of dried red around his nostrils. Brad wiped at his own nose half heartedly, then put his glasses back on.

“My name’s Brad Crawford. Can you tell me yours?” He asked carefully.

“I’m…um…” The boy mumbled and stared at his feet. He chewed his lip. “I don’t speak English.”

“You’re speaking it right now.” Brad observed.

“I know. I don’t know what’s going on, I speak German but I can’t remember any of it. When you looked at me I saw…” He put his hands in front of his forehead and wiggled them. “Stuff! And then it was gone and I couldn’t think in German anymore. But you speak English. I think you stole my thoughts.” He accused.

“You saw stuff? What did you see?” Brad asked.

“I saw…lots of stuff…I saw someone with a sword, and I saw…I saw a lady with a gun and I saw a building blow up and then I saw water and a kid who was moving things without touching them and then I saw me, at least I think it was me, and I was smiling-“

“I saw that too. You think you’re the one with the long red hair?”

The boy considered. “I thought it looked more orange.”

It was hard to mask his excitement. This boy was a telepath, and a strong Talent at that, although obviously lacking in finesse. Which was to be expected, he’d obviously had no formal training. He’d somehow managed to elude his captors long enough to disappear into this alleyway, and he would grow up to have long orange hair. It was the telepath from his successful vision, it had to be.

“What’s your name?” Brad asked eagerly.

His eyes welled with tears, and then turned angry. “I don’t know! You stole it when you stole my German!” He screeched. “I can’t remember anything! I can’t…where am I Brad?”

“You! Crawford, who do you have with you?” Maya barked, shining a flashlight on the pair rather suddenly. Brad threw a hand up to shield his eyes, and the boy whimpered and hid behind him.

“I don’t really know. A telepath, I think. He’s lost.” Brad answered diplomatically.

“That’s not your responsibility. Becky’s dead, hanged herself in the toilets. You might have mentioned the last place she went was to the lav. Wait a minute, I know that kid. C’mere…” She was clearly trying to make her voice sound gentle, but instead of barking it was only gruff, and the kid clung tighter to Brad’s side.

“No! I want to stay with Brad.” The boy whined. Maya’s eyes narrowed with dislike.

“I said come here you little brat! Hey, didn’t you only speak German an hour ago? What did you do to the kid Brad?”

“I didn’t do anything, not consciously anyway. When we made eye contact our minds met. He’s suffered some memory loss, he might need to see a medic.” Brad explained.

Maya scoffed. “The Nanny for his block will make that decision, not a low-level precognitive like you. Now come on, you get back to the barracks, and you come with me!” She yelled at them.

“No!” The boy yelled. He’d wrapped his arms around Brad’s waist and buried his face against his abdomen. “I’m not letting go until he gives me my mind back!”

“Crawford, do you actually have any of the kid’s thoughts floating around in that thick skull of yours?” Maya demanded.

Brad thought for a minute. He tried to think something in German, but his mental words remained in stubborn English. He looked at the boy and tried to think of his name, but nothing came, other than that he was acting something like his little brother Darren. But that was the sort of thought he always had without insight from another mind. “No, I don’t think I have any of his memories.”

“Then it’s a malfunction of your own kid, Brad’s not gonna help you. Now let go and COME WITH ME!!” She roared, finally losing it and attempting to pull the kid off of Brad.

“No!” The kid yelled back, clinging harder. He had strong little arms, and his bony fingers dug into Brad’s side, no doubt leaving little ten year old finger sized bruises.

“Ow! Ow, this is not helping, will both of you stop!?” Brad yelled. The results were instantaneous. The boy let go of Brad, and Maya overbalanced and fell on her ass. The boy almost went with her, but recovered his balance in a show of superb agility. He grinned, and Brad thought of the vision. He could just imagine that face framed in stringy orange instead of tangled yellow.

“Alright. I have had enough.” Maya gripped her flashlight threateningly. It was a suitable stand in for her nightstick. “You are coming with me. You are going back to the barracks.”

The kid looked to Brad. “Should I go with her? She seems kind of crazy.”

“Why are you deferring to him?!” Maya screamed.

“What?” The boy asked.

“She wants to know why you’re listening to me.” Brad explained.

“Oh. Well she could have just said that. I’m listening to Brad because he’s going to take care of me. I saw it when I looked at him. And I don’t want to listen to you because you’re crazy and you want to beat me with your flashlight.”

Neither telepathy nor precognition were really all that necessary to understand how the boy came to that last conclusion, but Brad decided it was still a show of the kid’s Talent. Maya looked unnerved.

“I had my shields up. How did you know what I was thinking?” She screeched.

As though to infuriate her more, the boy shrugged. “Shouldn’t you know that? I’m just a kid.”

“Look, Maya, how’s if I take him over to the Telepath’s Barracks? He seems to trust me. It’ll make the whole thing a lot easier, don’t you think?” Brad offered.

Maya considered, breathing like a winded rhinoceros in the process. Clearly she had wanted to take all credit for finding the valuable new commodity, a nine or ten year old who could breach a seasoned telepath’s shields without detection and merge his mind with a stranger’s, yet still emerge with his sanity intact. A prodigiously talented telepath. But he was only listening to Brad, and Brad didn’t plan on losing him.

“Fine!” She spluttered. “I have to cut Becky down anyway. Fucking bitch, bet she offed herself just before my review on purpose. Well? GET GOING!!” She barked.

“Come on.” Brad took the boy’s hand and led him down the alley and onto a lighted walkway.

“What is this place?” The boy asked.

“Rosenkreuz. The most miserable place on Earth.”

“Then why do you stay?”

Well that was a promising remark. “We stay because we have to. The people here are more powerful than us, and they could kill us if we tried to leave.”

“Oh.” They walked in silence a few minutes. “But Brad, I want to leave. I don’t like it here very much. More of the people here are like Maya than like you, and she yells too much. How can we leave?”

They were uncomfortably close to the Telepath’s Barracks. Brad hesitated before answering in a careful tone. “Well, I don’t think it’s really possible to leave here.”

“Yeah you do. I saw it in your head. You know how to leave, and you want me to help you, and you’re going to help me. So how do we leave?” He asked.

“It’s not that simple.” He bent down to be on eye level with the boy, who was rather short, even for a ten year old. “It’s very dangerous to even think these things. The people here would kill us for talking about it, people like Maya. Do you understand?”

The boy nodded. “Don’t worry though, they won’t be able tell you’re thinking about it anymore.” He reached over and tapped Brad’s temple with his finger. “I know how to keep people out. I’m really good at it too. And I can keep a secret. So you keep thinking about how to get out, and let me know how to help, okay?”

Brad was dumbfounded. “O-okay. Sure. And maybe we can find a way to get your German and your name back for you.”

The boy smiled. “That would be good. I can kind of feel my name on the back of my mind like it’s itching me, but I can’t get it.”

“Well we need something to call you in the meantime.” Brad said as they resumed their walk to the barracks. He was still thinking of Darren, there was something about the kid’s mischievous smile and goading attitude towards Maya that reminded him of his little brother.

The boy scrunched up his face, obviously thinking really hard, possibly trying to grab that tickling thought from the back of his consciousness and force it forward. Finally he said something. “Schuldig.”

“Pardon?”

“Schuldig. It means guilty, and right now it’s the only bit of German I can remember, so that’s got to count for something.”

“I don’t think that’s actually a name.”

“I don’t care. Call me Schuldig.”

***

“So?” eMu asked, looking up from her laptop. “What do you think?” It’s not that she really needed her character’s approval for the story…it was more like curiosity.

“It sucks.” Schuldig said flatly.

“It’s what happened to you!” eMu screeched defensively.

“Two chapters and it’s all about Brad so far-“

“Hey, you were definitely the star character in that last bit!”

Schuldig started pacing. “You said you were giving me a back story. What the fuck was that?! I’m introduced at Rosenkreuz already with no memory of how I got there? Fuck that!”

“I thought you made a cute little kid.” She whined. “And I accomplished a lot, okay? I set the stage for Brad’s moral decline, I established you as amazingly talented, for which you can thank me at any time, and I explained the fact that you go by something that is not, in fact, a name. So there.”

Schuldig grumbled something under his breath. “I still know German.”

“I know, it’s coming back. Just not your identity.” She smirked. He threw his sunglasses at her, and she ducked to avoid them.

“Well? Keep going! And don’t stop until you get to my back story!”

“Sorry dear, I have to take a break and go to work. And then I need to read a few books for school, so I don’t think I’ll be getting back to this for a little while.”

“AAAAAAAAAARGH!!”