Was I visible? I don’t know, I couldn’t know, I saw myself through his mind.
The frothy waves unburying me from the warm sand. I felt something poking me, it was not very smart, I repelled it, I needed brain power, at least until I could replenish myself. I felt soft claws digging me out, shaking me near its head, I could feel the electricity, perhaps the smartest being on the planet. It was a cub, even better.
I was attracted by the mass inside his skull, and I got in by his ear canal, I knew it, I knew it was an ear canal, a brain, a boy. I knew everything he knew, I was in the sand, the water was sea, the movement was a wave, the soft claws were fingers, I was attached to his brain. Alas, he was just a boy and not an adult, less knowledge but more room to grow, we would grow together.
He tried to remove me, hitting his left ear and temple, crying, screaming, while my thread involved his brain, he tried yanking his head from side to side, he fell while I rebooted his brain. My effort was almost in vain, he fell too close to the sea and the waves took him away, his dad pulled him out. I woke up in a hospital, I was so happy his eyes could capture color and depth, not as sophisticated as I could process, but I was previously attached to what they call a dog.
You might be thinking it wouldn’t be mutually beneficial, but I do not take advantage of beings, I am grateful for my hosts and I act accordingly. He enjoyed comics, I gave him a superpower many would only dream of, and I am sure he would wake up and be forever grateful.
*
He woke up in his own bed, strangely cozy, he was on the beach last time he was awake, his throat was dry and his head was aching. In the kitchen, his parents prepared dinner, he froze. They were speaking but their mouths were closed. His dad was talking about pushing more babies inside mom, and mom was speaking about how she wanted a day in her life just to relax without her children almost dying on the beach.
“Did I almost die on the beach?” He asked, touching his head, still hurting.
“You had insolation, that’s all, you are fine.” Mom said it but her other voice screamed how scared she was to find him laying dead in the sand.
He grabbed a cup of water and ran back to his room, scared, as his father spoke again how much he would love to waste his load in his mom’s ass. He wondered if his dad didn’t notice he was there with them! He was a boy, a teen, he was disgusted, appalled, nauseous.
“Calm down.” Pebble finally spoke.
“I am calm.”
“Your heart rate says the contrary, I am Purple Pebble. We are together now. I gave you the ability to read minds, what do you think?” Purple Pebble hoped for a cheer, a demonstration of gratitude.
“I don’t want that! Take it away from me!”
“I thought you would like it, I can’t take it away from you, I am in you, we are one.” Purple Pebble was disappointed.
“Can you at least turn it off? I don’t want to know about my dad and mom… it’s invasive.” He felt his stomach still churning.
“I can’t turn it off. You read comics, I thought you would love to have a superpower. Try to avoid looking at their brain.”
The beach day marked his social death. He stopped speaking, stopped looking at people, confined himself to books, and experiences that did not involve people. Sadly, he could not avoid going to school, it was a nightmare, gut wrenching. Boys and girls going through puberty had similar thoughts, more than the girls liked to admit. He noticed how eyes and body moved, the armpit sweat and smell of teens, and it was still less dirty than their minds. From regular kid to a weird kid in one beach day.
It was difficult to concentrate on a single conversation when there were many brains screaming to mate, eat, pee and poop. Nobody was a deep thinker as they thought themselves to be, they were looking for food to eat, a partner to mate, and another trinket to take home. He noticed how humans were simple animals with clothes and haircuts.
Not to say reading minds was all that bad, he learned to use some of it for his own good. His success rate in love was near dragonfly level, despite being a quiet kid. He chose the girls that had already chosen him, and to his surprise, his average body and face counted next to nothing, girls wanted boys with trimmed and clean fingernails, with impeccable hygiene and that listened to them. Completely the opposite to what his eldest brother taught him. “If a girl says no, she’s just confused, she wants you bro.” He followed his brother’s advice once and noticed how the girl was searching for the closest exit. His brother was a dumbass. Even Purple Pebble agreed.
He did not use his mind reading only for women, he finished school first place in his class, he went to a great university, teachers and professors were surprised with the young man’s brilliance. At least on the outside. Professors often resented their own students, especially at university. But he bypassed everything, no professor could resist his intelligence and quiet charm. Nor the young women. Nor at job interviews. Ignoring people’s dirty and sad thoughts was easier, his life got better because of the Purple Pebble.
He paid for his own studio, his own university and still had money left to eat pizza sometimes. The disagreements between Purple Pebble and him were minimal. He spent most of his time alone in his studio, working, leaving only for lessons. And outside he tried to look at the floor, avoiding people’s brains and their own cries. Unless it was finals, then he would sit near to the smartest kids and outsmart them. He thought professors would have the answers, but they were mostly thinking about what they would do after, the type of sandwich they would eat or the nap they would take.
He liked a girl, but she sweated like a construction worker after a twelve-hour day. He took her swimming and did her on the beach, the sea was salty and so was she. He could hear her desperation, the position made her look fat, the cellulite, the stretch marks, the belly rolls, if she was wet enough. He wondered if sex would be much better if he didn’t get to read their minds panicking. He knew he wasn’t that good looking either, and he was grateful he was chosen by her too! He bought her ice cream. She was happy again. At least he could make them cum.
He looked at himself in the mirror, after washing all the sand and sweat of himself, nobody but him could see the purple dot in his left temple. He envied clueless people, people that had silence inside their own minds, Pebble would speak too much, he could not hear his own inner voice, he became resentful of the space Pebble was taking up in his brain. Pebble grew stronger inside him, and he was not just hearing people’s thoughts, he noticed he could guide people to do as he pleased.
Nothing big at first, additional caramel in his coffee, someone giving him a seat inside the crowded metro. Pebble pretended to be ignorant of the change, but Pebble knew very well, the next phase was starting, he, the human, would become powerful, his brain craved more carbs, he could eat an entire sourdough bread or a pot of rice in one sitting. It was becoming unsustainable being insatiable.
“I can’t afford all this food. What’s going on?” He hated the feeling of being bottomless.
“I will hatch soon. You could have done so much better, you could have gotten richer, have a beautiful woman, have a better house, you are weak, I will hatch and leave you soon.”
He remained silent, wondering if he would be brave enough to ask the fateful question, he decided not to. Pebble already knew it, and decided to respect the young man’s mealtime. It would be inevitable, he came in, he would come out. “You will be fine.”
Pebble lied, but not entirely, he decided to wait for the man to sleep and began unclipping his claws, removing his web from the bouncy and juicy brain. Pebble made sure to turn him on his side, when the seizures started, he would not choke on his own saliva. I was not possible for Pebble to leave through the ear. Carefully, Pebble pushed the left eye out of the socket, and the human started crying purple. Pebble was wobbly and gelatinous, big as a human eye, he squeezed himself out, but could not push his eye back inside. It did not matter.
Pebble, without his host, could not see the young man without an eye, jerking back and forth with his dura mater full of holes, the brain juice dripping out. Pebble knew he would not make it. Pebble dried up slowly, his dry mineral form was bigger, the size of an olive. Nobody went to look for him, the weird young boy. When rent was due, the apartment was opened, he was long rotten. At least Pebble didn’t have a nose to understand how foul the smell was.
The landlord saw a purple pebble near to the young man’s head, he pocketed it, it would at least cover the deep cleanse the apartment would need, they could feel the cadaver scent from the elevator. He tried to sell it, hoping it would be valuable, but when he found out it wasn’t, he tossed it on the beach, he would have to sell his T-shirts and vinyls to get some money back.
*
“Oh, so cute.” A woman held a purple pebble close to her chest.
