Second That Emotion
by Latikia
Copyright © 2006
Chapter 4
“Ike? Can you hear me, baby? Ike, please wake up.”
The voice was a little fuzzy, but I recognized it as Izzy. I slowly opened my eyes, and there she was; my beautiful sister, with those luminous blue eyes and that pouty rosebud of a mouth.
“Hey.” I managed to say thru my sleepy smile.
Izzy wrapped me up in a monster hug and just held me. I put my arms around her and squeezed back.
“Damn, woman! When you cum, you really get your monies worth.” I rasped. My throat felt a little raw and my lips a bit swollen. Other than that I felt pretty good; a bit sweaty and a little sticky around the middle, but otherwise pretty good.
Izzy giggled again. Jeez, twice in the same lifetime.
She slowly released her grip and eased me back down on the bed.
“Is that what happened? I came, and you felt it?” she asked, her eyebrows scrunched up a bit like she was trying to work out some kind of puzzle.
“I think you came a few times. Every time you did, so did I. But the little ones weren’t enough to stop your need. You were still hungry. The last one was something else though. It was so much bigger than the others. So much stronger. I couldn’t take it, I guess and it wiped me out.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Do you feel better now, Izzy?”
She smiled sweetly at me and tears began to trickle down her pretty face, falling on my chest like fat little raindrops.
“I feel wonderful, little brother. Just wonderful.” She leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips, one hand stroking my cheek. I wiped the tears from her cheeks with the backs of my fingers, and she lifted her lips from mine. “Thank you, so much.”
“Glad I could help.”
Izzy patted me on the chest gently, kissed me again, then got up, collected her nightgown, unlocked the door and left.
I looked over at the nightstand where my alarm clock
sat. It was
Why, you might be wondering, didn’t anyone hear us and come running to investigate the noise coming from my room?
Well, first, by
Second, Ivan always left early to go work out with his football and wrestling buddies. He was usually gone before my parents left for work.
Third, my room was on the third floor. Okay, we only had a two story house, so my room was actually the attic. It was pretty well insulated, so sounds didn’t travel too well in or out. The only drawback was that I had to go down to the second floor to use the bathroom.
Mom and Dad had their room on the first floor, Ivan and Isabeau had their rooms on the second floor, along with Dad’s study. There was also a basement, but that doubled as a laundry and family room.
I waited about ten minutes before climbing out of bed and heading down to the shower. I was a mess. I was covered in sweat and cum. I didn’t bother to put on my pajamas or cover myself with a robe. I picked out the clothes I wanted to wear that day and carried them down to the second floor bathroom and hopped in the shower.
I must have stood under the hot water for about ten minutes before I started soaping up and washing myself. I got out and toweled off, taking care to dry my hair. My hair wasn’t quite shoulder length, but it was getting close, so it took a little time, including a few minutes with Izzy’s blow dryer.
I put on my underwear, jeans and sweat shirt and went back up to my room.
Looking at the bed I grinned a bit then proceeded to strip off the blankets and sheets piling them near the door. I got new sheets from the closet and put them on and tucked them in. Gathering up the soiled stuff, I hauled them down to the basement and put them into the washer. Then I headed back upstairs to the kitchen for something to eat. I hadn’t eaten in a couple of days and I was starving.
Izzy was in front of the stove frying bacon and sausage in one pan and making what looked like omelets in another. The table was set for two, with plates, silverware, orange juice and cups filled with coffee.
She waved towards the table with her spatula. “Have a seat; breakfast will be ready in a few.”
“Okay.” I said. I started for the table, but then I got this itch in the back of my head. It gave me the impression that I needed to do something…and that whatever it was it was real important. I looked around the kitchen searching for whatever it was, but all I could see was Izzy standing at the stove.
That’s when I noticed it. Her stance. Her whole body was ridged, almost as if she expected at any second to be hit between the shoulders.
I looked at my sister for a moment, thought for an instant then linked with her.
Izzy was scared. She was scared of me. It wasn’t fear, exactly. Not physical fear, this was emotional. She was terrified and feeling rejected by me for some reason. And this feeling of rejection was growing, bit by bit. What had I done? What had I said?
I walked up behind my older sister and wrapped my arms around her waist, pressing my palms against her belly and drawing her back against my body. I craned my neck down a bit and around and kissed her softly on the cheek, and then on the neck.
“Good morning, Izzy. I love you, you know that, right?” My voice managed to maintain its new baritone pitch without once cracking and throwing me into soprano hell.
Isabeau sighed heavily then leaned back against me. I felt her fear receding.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue.” I said, and kissed her fully on the lips. Not a passionate kiss, just a loving hello kind of kiss that said ‘I’m happy to be here with you’.
I squeezed her in my arms a little, then released her and took my seat at the table and took a sip of juice.
Izzy finished up with the food, carried the pans over one at a time and deposited the omelets, bacon and sausage to our plates. She put the pans in the sink to soak and returned, taking her seat next to me.
She looked at me over her coffee.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
“Just now? Yes. I got an itch that something wasn’t right in here. You were standing so stiff…I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was important. So I looked.”
“And by looking you knew what to do?”
I set down my fork and took her hand in mine. I looked deeply into her eyes, willing her to look back into mine.
“No. I guessed. Did I guess right?”
Izzy smiled and her face lit up. I could feel the happiness bubbling up in her. Along with a feeling of pride…in me.
“You’ve really gotten good, haven’t you?” she asked.
“You’ve been a good teacher. You’re the only person I’ve linked with, so I’ve had to try and work things out using your emotions.” I paused and took a drink from the juice glass. Setting it back down I sighed. “It hasn’t been easy. There are so many emotions going on in you all the time, and I only recognize a few of them. Sometimes they mix together and are harder to identify, and sometimes one or two just overpower the rest and those are the ones that seem to want to bitch-slap me.”
Izzy laughed at the image and tightened her grip on my hand.
“Is it getting any easier?”
“A little, I think. The more emotions I run into, the more I start to recognize. That helps; at least it helps me figure out what’s going on with you. I think my biggest problem right now is that I can’t shut down the link when I want to. I’m getting pretty good at linking whenever I want to, but I can’t turn it off.”
“Have you tried?”
I stopped to think for a moment.
“Yes, once this morning just before you came the last time. I tried to tuck all the feelings I was getting from you away someplace else, but I couldn’t do it.”
“Hmmmm…” was all Izzy said, and we went back to eating breakfast for a while.
As I ate, I could feel the determination in her, also a sense of protectiveness.
We had nearly finished eating, when she stopped and set her fork down across her plate.
“You know…hiding those feelings away isn’t the same as turning off the link.” I raised my eyebrow, encouraging her to continue.
“You’re linked with me right now, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“What am I feeling, right this second?”
I reached out along the link and climbed inside Izzy’s emotions.
“Determination, fierce love, relaxed and tense almost equally, curious, cautious and…oh-ho, someone’s feeling just a little bit horny.” I grinned.
Izzy blushed thru her dark coloration; it made her even lovelier in my eyes.
“Okay, Kreskin…now I want you to concentrate on the link. Get a good feel for the connection itself…then cut it.”
“Simple as that, huh?”
“Maybe. Give it a try.”
I pulled myself back along the link, out of Isabeau’s emotions and back into my own so that I could only sense echoes of her feelings. I focused on the link between us. I focused hard and then I reached out with mental fingers and snapped the connection.
As simple as that.
I laughed out loud and grinned like a maniac.
“It worked! Izzy, you’re a genius…it worked!” I leapt out of my chair and lifted her up by the waist and twirled her around before hugging her tight against me and giving her a giant bear hug.
Isabeau hugged me back then pushed my hair back from where it had collected around my eyes. She continued to smooth it at the sides, finally resting her hands on my neck and shoulder. And then she bent her head down and planted a little kiss on my forehead.
“Okay, put me down you beast and give me a hand cleaning up this mess.”
I squeezed her again and set her on her feet. The relief I felt at gaining some control over my talent was indescribable. At that moment I felt like some enormous weight had been lifted off my chest. I was giddy and lightheaded and ready to rejoin the world.
We cleaned the kitchen and did the breakfast dishes. I went down to the basement and took my bedclothes from the washer and put them in the dryer. That’s when it finally dawned on me that Izzy and I were the only ones in the house. Why hadn’t she gone to school? Why hadn’t my parents made a big deal about me missing two days of class?
I hot-footed it back upstairs and went looking for my sister. I found her at the front door putting on her heavy coat.
“Grab your coat, Ike. We are going to the mall.”
I got my coat from the hall closet and sprinted for the car while Izzy locked the house behind us.
I got around to asking my questions during the thirty minute drive to our closest shopping mall.
“Izzy, why didn’t you go to school today?”
She smiled but kept her eyes on the road.
“I wanted to try and get you out of your funk. I called in sick. Actually, Mom called in for me.”
“So why haven’t Mom and Dad been trying to make me go back to school?”
Izzy sighed a little. “They got into a big fight the night you guys came back from your hunting trip. Dad and Ivan were saying that you turned into some kind of crying little wimp, even after Granddad sat us all down and explained what had happened. Dad said you were just trying to get some attention. Granddad looked like he wanted to smack him. He stormed out, after telling Dad that he was an arrogant asshole. And right after that Mom tore into Dad and Ivan.”
“Wow…” was the best I could manage in response.
“Yeah…wow is right. I’ve never heard them go at it like they did that night. Then she sat me down and we had a long talk. About how I’d always treated you like my personal plaything, or worse; how Ivan and I should have been looking out for you all these years, protecting you instead of hurting and taking advantage of you.”
She went silent for a minute and I watched while she struggled to maintain her composure.
“After watching Granddad go at it with Dad and then listening to Mom I realized she was right. I’d been self centered, mean and cruel to the one person in the world who wanted nothing more than to love me and be loved by me in return. I figured I’d lost any chance of ever making up for it, till yesterday. That’s when I thought I saw a way to help both of us. If Granddad was right, you’d be able to tell I was serious about how bad I felt for all the things I’ve done to you. And maybe…just maybe you’d forgive me. And maybe, if you could get some good feelings out of it…just maybe you’d come out of the hole you dug to hide in. Anyway, I had to try, for both our sakes.”
I reached across and lay a hand on her shoulder and gave a light squeeze.
“I’m glad you did. For both our sakes.”
We were both silent, each working on our own thoughts. As the mall came into sight, another question I’d meant to ask popped into my mind.
“Izzy, does Mom know about you sleeping in my bed?”
She was quiet for such a long time I thought maybe she hadn’t heard me. I was about to ask again when she finally answered.
“Yes and no. We, Mom and me, agreed that I would look after you. She said I could after I told her about yesterday and how you cried from feeling my pain. I told her I was going to stay with you in your room overnight to make sure you didn’t crawl back into the closet. She doesn’t know about any of the rest of it.”
“Why…” I started to ask, but she cut me off quickly.
“Ike, we’ll talk about what happened this morning later. Right now you need to work on some things, so I need you to stay focused on that for now. Please?”
I could tell, even without linking, that what we’d done earlier bothered her somehow. I could also tell that my pushing her about it wouldn’t do either of us any good. So I let it go, for the moment.
“Okay Izzy. What am I going to do here? I thought you wanted to shop or something.”
“Not today.” She chuckled in her throat. “You are going to practice linking with different people, reading their feelings and then practice cutting the link until you can do it without thinking.”
Izzy pulled into a parking space fairly close to an entrance and looked over at me. She noticed how scared the thought of linking with other people was making me.
“Ike, I’ll be with you the whole time. You tell me what you’re feeling from the ones you link with and I’ll help you work out the ones you don’t know. I won’t let anything happen to hurt you, I promise.”
I nodded and took a deep breath then got out of the car.
The mall had only been open for a short time when we got there, so there weren’t many people inside wandering around. Izzy and I headed for the center plaza on the second floor (it only had two) and found a bench to sit on that looked down on the first floor. From this vantage point we’d be able to see pretty much everyone. Only the ‘in and outs’ wouldn’t eventually wander past our perch.
Over the course of about three hours I learned some very important lessons about my talent.
I had to be able to see a person to make the link. With my eyesight that gave me a really extensive range. If I lost sight of a person I’d linked with, it broke by itself and I didn’t have to do a thing.
The closer I was to a person I’d linked to, the more intensely I felt their emotions. The farther away, the weaker. Keep in mind that weaker and stronger are very relative terms.
The more I practiced that day, the easier it was for me to make the link, the more emotions I experienced the better I got at telling them apart and determining which ones were dominating the individual at that moment.
I also got so that I could terminate the link with barely a thought. Just getting to that point, for me, made the entire trip worthwhile.
I learned one other important thing that morning.
“Ike, do you think you could link with more than one person at a time?”
I thought about that for a little while as we finished off our pizza slices in the food court.
“I never thought about that. Why would I want to do that?”
“I guess I was thinking about Mom and Dad’s fight. If you could tell what both of them were feeling while they were fighting, maybe you could figure out some way to...” she finished speaking and waved her hands. She wasn’t sure just what I might be able to do with the information, but was hoping I could think of a way to help our parents.
“Alright, I see what you mean. Let’s give it a try.”
I looked around to see where the most people were then I looked up. I needed some altitude so I could see the most people at one time. I pointed up at the second floor overhang.
“Up there. I can see better from up there.”
We dumped our trash, deposited our plastic trays with the others and carried our sodas up to the second floor.
I looked down, leaning over the railing and surveyed my pool of targets. I spotted maybe forty or so, either seated and eating or standing in lines getting their food and drinks.
“Okay…here goes.” I felt my first link, a middle aged woman (she must have been all of thirty), then the second snapped in to existence, followed in rapid succession by each and every person within range of my sight. I was just beginning to feel a bit of pride and accomplishment in having achieved what I set out to when all their feelings and emotions came pouring in at me. Too much, too many, too…too…
“Oh fuck!” I croaked. My voice reached for alto soprano and then broke in lower bass registers and then I started to twitch and shake and contort. I very nearly pitched head first over the rail, but Izzy caught hold of my coat and hauled me back and put me down onto the floor.
I was thrashing around on the floor like a freshly landed fish.
Izzy threw her body on top of mine and forced her hands over my eyes and held them there while I tried to buck her off.
“Cut the links, Ike! Cut them NOW!” she yelled in my ear.
I think I must have reacted reflexively to the sound of her voice. The links broke. I don’t know if I did it myself or if her blocking my sight stopped it. Either way, it was over. I was still shaking a bit from the sensory overload when Izzy lifted me up and held me in her arms, rocking back and forth like a mother with her baby, whispering in my ear.
“It’s okay, baby…it’s all over now…you’re okay.” On and on she went until I stopped shaking and my muscles relaxed. I sagged against my sister and kept my eyes shut.
“Not your fault, Izzy.” I whispered.