Psychopomp
XII

Violence Potential Test

Record Number: NJM104-0064

Unsullied white and three feet tall the obelisk stands, with half a foot to each of its four sides. A slanted oblong crown with a slot no larger than a coin sits just above the conical lens that protrudes from its front. Inside the slot sits a clear glass data disk and from the lens endless pixels of light emit.

Ten days before her death, Norma manifests before him now, as though she sits here with him within this room empty as the universe before Creation and blind bright. Her legs are crossed, auburn hair curled and brushed, probes nibbling upon the porcelain, sensual skin of her face and neck, black strap wrapped tight around her chest. Whether the emptiness in her face is for the test or her experiences, Ewain is unsure as he studies this young girl now seemingly returned to life.

Between them upon a round white table is a solitary blue pill and modest glass of water, but she does not yet touch them. Her Neptune eyes stare ahead into the lens which he sits next to and watches her now, their eyes caught together in a moment where it feels she may be alive, and she knowingly looks deep into him. Yet it is the vacuous pitch-dark hole of glass that holds her, he knows, where her thoughts are captured and vaporized.

To her left her eyes are enlarged and brought to unsettlingly focused projection. Below are three horizontally elongated screens, each with blocked text in their corners: Cardiac, Ocular, Vocal. Frequency lines roll along each like waves, with Cardiac the only currently with rising and dipping tides.

“Take the pill before you,” commands a male voice tempered with mildness, echoing into the entire room.

Without word, Norma does so. The vocal wave careens with her three gulps of water then steadies.

“Close your eyes,” as soon as they are, the man continues, “Thrust yourself into the drifting dark. All that exists is my voice. You hear it as if your own, feel it like sonar, see it like water ripples.”

So follows watery silence, body held in suspension between dark depths and sparkling surface as the mind disseminates, spreading consciousness from the structure of brain into the sea void to both flow and float.

“Open your eyes,” the man’s voice arrives omniscient, received by the whole body now.

Quietly, slowly as though waking up, Norma does so. Her pupils stand wide, eclipsing nearly all the blue. Not a man could resist their engulfment, their dismantlement of inhibition and coldness.

“State your name.”

“Norma Jean Mortenson.”

“Your age.”

“Nineteen.”

“Sexual Preference?”

“Male.”

An entrancing enunciation and slowness emanate now from the man’s voice to mystically weave with the hollowness of the room. “You return home late after a busy day, exhausted. That night you get poor sleep and feel terrible. You have a shift early the next morning. Your husband lovingly tries to keep you in bed, suggests not going in.”

“I decline his suggestion and report to work on time.”

“Do you report him?”

“I reprimand him for the thought, but if he has never made it action I do not.”

Brief silence. “You visit a lonely older relative near death in their secluded home. You see hidden away in their home a Funerary Box, a real one.”

“I say nothing of it. Spend time with my relative.” A resoluteness follows her initial hesitation, however unable to hide a handful of pulls in her sweet voice.

“An opportunity of a lifetime appears, one which you’ve deeply longed for and could change your life. One of your friends, knowing its importance to you, takes it from you.”

Slight ticks elevate for her ocular, vocal, and cardiac. “I confront them, ask why they did this to me.” Genuine hurt wrings the octave of her voice.

“They express criticism and are unapologetic. Place the blame on you.” Subtle decibels of aggression stir the man’s words.

The whip of his words yields a wince from her face, “I…I don’t know what I’d do. Just leave and never speak to them again, I hope.”

Another erring moment of silence. “You find a man whom you come to deeply love. You open yourself in trust, believe in a future, and one day you are blindsided by betrayal. He ruins your dreams, sells your secrets, and feels no remorse.”

A breathless fall besets her cardiac and in her eyes a spring seeps. How her eclipsed, planetary eyes gloss, her nose wrinkles and moves, and lovely pink lips purse and push give to this projection convincing life. “I hit him and hit him and hit him until I can’t anymore, until he tells me why he did it, until he hurts as I do.” Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the ꜰindNʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“He strikes you back. Threatens to hurt you more if you continue,” the man’s every syllable now slashes and cuts.

The palpitation in her throat and stillness of her chest seems to keep her of words. “I-I don’t know what I would do,” Norma confesses shakily.

When the questions finish, when Norma’s presence fades away and the chamber again stands empty, Ewain remains sitting, staring at where she once was. “Her performance in this test,” he begins to ask, “how was it judged?”

Art, in complete quiescence to now, answers. “She was flagged, and the test marked as a deviation from her normal base lines. From what I can gather, however, this isn’t abnormal and near every resident that submits to this test is flagged at one point or another. This test measures emotional response and how a person manages it. It was better for her to say she did not know than attempt falsehood.”

“Are the prompts the same each time?” Ewain asks, still looking forward.

“No. They may be similar, but the prompt selection is dependent on what readings the proctor gets from the subject in the moments before its commencement.”

“And being flagged? What consequences are there for it?”

“If a person is repeatedly flagged for the same deviation, they may be apprehended for further observation and study. A relatively new amendment advocated by Voigt to replace the more draconian measures of his father. If it is an abnormal occurrence, as was the case for the victim, then they may have simply recommended monitoring or waited until the next test to see if it repeats. I believe the latter was chosen for her.”

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