Suddenly, I saw a tessellating pattern of glowing tiles in my mind. The pattern grew in size, until it filled my telepathic field of vision. Artemis is annoyed at her interference.
Stay out of this or you will be next.
I could just about hear the quiet voice of the older woman who stood, her face impassive. The man at the till went to shut up the shop. Her telepathic voice was mocking.
You know how that ended up last time. You ran away to recover, like a frightened lamb.
Artemis’s face frowned as she stares at my protector.
I can defeat you, old woman. My powers are now unassailable.
I heard the lady gasp with pain as our enemy directed some of her power towards her.
While the aggressive telepath was distracted, I had an idea. I pictured a door in my tiled thoughtspace domain.
Leave her alone. It’s me you want, I’m letting you in.
I imagined the door opening and a fiery human-shaped avatar entered and stood there gloating in triumph.
Thank you. I now walk among your thoughts. This makes the deletion of your telepathic abilities even easier.
I feel the thud of telepathic footsteps as she enters my private thoughtspace and the pain gradually increased as my telepathic identity was slowly erased. My eyes closed tight as I focused on picturing tessellated corridors for my telepathic intruder to walk down. I started counting and every time I reached five, I pictured the corridor changing direction.
I imagined the corridors twisting and turning like a maze. The other lady realised what I was attempting to do and gently turned my thoughtspace from a maze-like structure into an infinite, ever-changing array of fractal branching corridors.
What is happening? Why aren’t you disappearing? Where am I? I must escape… escape… escape…
I opened my eyes and looked straight at the face of the young woman, who was frozen in shock. She fell toward the floor in a dead faint. The man hovering near the till managed to prevent her head hitting the floor. She came round after a couple of minutes.
“Where am I? Who am I? Wait, who the hell are you?” she asked her in a plaintive London accent.
Oh no. This was an unexpected development. Had she been so fixated on erasing my identity that she had been reckless? By entering my mind did she end up losing her physical host. The host who is now, very confused and possibly suffering amnesia.
“You’re all right dearie. We’ll look after you until you’ve recovered your wits,” my rescuer told her.
She allowed herself to be taken to the bungalow where the couple who run the shop live. The decoration is muted pastel coloured walls and flowery wallpaper. She perched awkwardly on a dark green, corduroy armchair sipping tea. Gradually, her vacant expression changed.
“I’m sorry, but what the bleeding hell am I doing here?”
“You had a bit of a funny turn. You fainted my dear. When you came to, you agreed to come and have a cup of tea until you felt better,” the voice of our host was calm but firm.
“Right. Well, thanks for the tea. I’m okay now,” she checked her phone. “Damn! I shouldn’t be here, I’m supposed to be in Oxford.”
“It will be fine, just tell your boss you had a family emergency and were called away. They can’t argue with that,” replied the older lady.
“I need to get back to my car or I’ll get a ticket” she said getting up to leave and putting the cup and saucer on the table.
“George’ll run you down,” the lady said with smile.
George did as he was told and they left.
Well now, you’ve had a narrow escape and it’s time you had some answers. I am Carol and you had better prepare yourself for some rather unsettling news.
Fractal Power!
Between them our two telepaths manage to trap Artemis. Fractals are a fascinating branch of mathematics that are revealed in the everyday natural world. The romanesco broccoli, ferns, snowflakes and even inside you with branching blood vessels and the pulmonary alveoli in the lungs are just a few examples.
So with the hunter neutralised, what news does Carol have for our telepath?
Find out next time in the final instalment of thoughtspace…