The Wanderer - 181 (Patreon)

Chapter 181 – Unknown Territory

[2009 – October]

Having spent her life caged and experimented on, Celeste didn't really understand what it meant to love someone in a romantic way.

The only people that she had ever loved, that she had felt connected to, were her sisters. They had been with her since she could remember and losing them had been traumatic in a way that she couldn't even comprehend herself.

The five of them hadn't chosen to be together and neither had they ever questioned why they were. They were sisters, five parts of a single whole - of something whole. Something 'complete'.

Without them, Celeste felt broken as if parts of her soul had been taken from her. And in the face of this loss and grief, she could feel even more clearly how important they had been to her, how much she had loved them.

The only other person Celeste had ever felt connected to was Emma, even though their connection had always been blocked by the suppressors that the Facility had employed to control her and her sisters.

Her mother had represented a point of light in a life that had been filled with nothing but darkness, a faint hope of something more than just sickening scientific curiosity and sadistic cruelty.

And only when her world had been threatened to be devoured by despair with Phoebe's passing, when she was all alone and felt as if she was dying of sorrow, had Celeste called out to Emma.

At this point, she wasn't sure if she loved Emma because she was her mother or because she had truly become the hope that she had clung to in the moment of her deepest despair, but she undoubtedly did love Emma.

Still, the concept of 'romantic love' was foreign to her as Celeste had never met someone that she felt attracted to. She had never met someone into whose arms she wanted to flee when confronted with pain and sorrow, that wasn't related by blood to her.

The Facility had regularly tested her and her sisters' psychic abilities by having them enter the minds of different captives and retrieving important information or modifying their personalities. And it had been at that point that they had learned about the things that the Facility hadn't wanted or been able to teach them.

They had learned about love and loss, and all the emotions in between, from the memories of strangers.

And it had been Sophie, her eldest sister that had started to dream and hope to one day find someone that would share her burden, that would love and protect her, that could give her a reason to fight on and live.

She had dreamt about what it be like to love someone else but her four sisters, and up until the moment that she had died, she had longed to feel what it would be like to be loved back.

Celeste still remembered that she had promised Sophie that she would one day leave the Facilty and find out what it would be like to fall in love, to make up for her sister's regret.

It was the first promise that Celeste had made when faced with her sisters' last wishes as Sophie had been the first to leave the four of them.

So even though she rationally understood romantic love, Celeste had never been attracted to someone due to the circumstances into which she had been born.

As such, while she somehow couldn't help but glance at Laura, there was also conflict and confusion in her heart at the same time.

Minutely shaking her head, she bit her lower lip as she forced herself to stop staring at the dark-haired beauty, taking another forkful of the strangely fragrant rice that lit up her tastebuds and caused quiet hums and moans to slip through her lips.

Celeste tried to stop that from happening but between peering at Laura, eating something that actually had a taste, instead of the dull nutrition bars and tasteless sludge that the Facility provided them to perfectly control their intake of nutrients, and trying to listen to the conversation, she failed more often than she succeeded.

Her cheeks rapidly heated up when Elijah, Jean, and her mother started to look at her, smiling at the sounds that she unwittingly created. Even Laura threw her a curious look with the faintest hints of understanding, which made her feel as if her cheeks were on fire, causing her to hurriedly lower her head and fix her gaze on the plate in her lap.

Celeste didn't stay that way though, despite her embarrassment.

Tentatively raising her head, she forced herself to be brave and push aside her embarrassment, knowing that Phoebe would not care about how much others laughed, and neither would Sophie or Esme.

They would be bold, strong. And Celeste couldn't let them down. She simply could not!

…

I wasn't surprised by Celeste's reaction to the food as I could only imagine what kind of food she had been given while being held captive in the Facility.

The way she threw glances at Laura on the other hand, as well as the way she tried to fight off her embarrassment, was somewhat unexpectant, even though it shouldn't have been.

I had always been sensitive to other people's state of mind, even before I had gained my current inhuman strength. My intuition now being what it was, I could sense clearly how much she struggled with her surroundings and emotions.

Celeste had probably never experienced real human contact, and while her telepathy and the act of viewing the memories of another helped her navigate this situation, I knew that it wasn't easy for her.

I likewise picked up on her interest in Laura but I could also see that she was somewhat lost.

Thankfully, Emma was just as sensitive when it came to the mood of others, even without the use of her telepathic powers, which was definitely owed to her experience as a schemer and manipulator of the highest level.

After all, understanding your target was the first and most important step when it came to manipulating them.

So, despite having no experience at being a mother, Emma didn't hesitate to move closer to Celeste and place her palm on the overwhelmed girl's thigh, which did wonders to help the young blonde to center herself again.

Still, I had no doubt that Celeste would learn very fast how to be a teenage girl as psychics were generally without equal when it came to processing and assimilating knowledge,

This naturally seemed as if it was a skill owed to a psychic's ability to read the memories of another person without losing themselves in them. Their ability to passively select which knowledge to assimilate, and which not to in order to protect their own ego, was simply amazing.

Still, Dinner went by quickly enough and we didn't overstay our welcome, knowing that not only Celeste but also Emma needed rest after this rather turbulent day.

The three of us walked leisurely back to the Hellion Mansion, Jean's fingers intertwined with mine as she lightly held onto my hand, walking by my side with a quiet smile while Laura was on my other side, hands in her short leather jacket as she bumped shoulders with me every now and then, her smile similar to Jean's.

The walk went by mostly in amicable silence though just before we reached the mansion, I passed Jean the feathery bundle of joy that I seldom left behind as I still had somewhere else to go before this rather tiring day was finally over.

Disappearing in a cloud of dark smoke, I used the shadows around me as a gate through the Darkforce Dimension, to reappear in a seemingly inconspicuous office building in New York.