The doctor ordered another EEG, and once again, everything came back unremarkable. Another CT scan found no more signs of swelling, nor any signs of a brain bleed. Apart from the mild skull fracture, Rene was now good to go home. 

He had come to a decision. It hadn’t been an easy decision, and he continued to wonder if he would eventually come to regret it. He wanted to use Khal’s abilities to make the world a better place, even if the ethics of those abilities were questionable. He could use Khal as a tool to finally do right. Khal’s abilities, thus far, seemed to have been used mostly for personal gain. Rene suspected that their goddess would be pleased to finally see them do some good. 

Rene could see how excited Khal was at his sudden change of heart. 

“This is going to be incredible.” Khal said. “We’re going to have so much fun!”

Rene rolled his eyes. Khal’s enthusiasm was somewhat nauseating. 

“Where do we start?” Khal asked. 

“Why not here?” Rene said, indicating the hospital as he pulled on his shirt to leave. 

“Good idea!” 

“Just, take it easy. Read a few minds. We’ll figure out where to go from there.” Rene said. 

Khal nodded. 

“Your nurse is practically a saint, by the way. Your doctor is a bit of a narcissist. Has cheated on his wife with multiple women, and a few men.” Khal said. 

“Oh.” Rene said. “I’m not sure…”

“I can make him confess.” Khal said. “To his wife. She would likely get half of everything in the divorce since she supported him throughout becoming a doctor.”

“Would you have to see him again or-” Rene started.

Khal shook his head, “Nope. It’s already done.”

“H-how?” Rene asked. 

“When I make eye contact, it’s like I drop a pebble into the pond that is their minds. That pebble allows me to come back later if I’m concentrating on them, and introduce a thought. I can also read their minds if I’m actively trying. I can see and feel everything they’re experiencing.” Khal explained. 

“Well, that’s invasive.” Rene said, sitting down to pull on his shoes. 

Khal shrugged, “It’s how I was blessed.”

“You’ve uh, you’ve removed the pebble from Ari, correct?” Rene asked. 

Khal nodded emphatically, “Absolutely. It’s gone. I would have to actively make eye contact again to regain control, and I certainly won’t, as I promised.”

“Good.” 

Rene finished putting on his shoes and stood up. 

“Well, let’s uh, let’s do this, I suppose.” Rene said. 

There was a sick feeling in his gut at the thought of all the mental invasion they were about to do, but he was also excited, if he was being honest with himself.

He picked up his release papers, and they headed out into the hallway to walk to the lobby. Khal smiled at everyone, nurses, doctors, CNAs, patients stuck in the hallway, and janitors alike. He tapped Rene on the shoulder as they passed a beefy looking CNA who was slowly pushing a gurney down the hallway with an elderly lady sleeping on it. 

“That guy has terabytes of CP on his computer at home. He’s friendly with a group who exploit children at a local daycare, in the stairwell where there are no cameras to catch them.” Khal whispered. 

“Jesus Christ.” Rene murmured, looking at the man, who gave him a friendly smile. He briefly wondered if Khal was lying to him. The CNA seemed totally normal, but then pedophiles often blended into society just fine. 

“I’m going to have him confess, and turn in his friends.” Said Khal. 

Rene nodded slowly, and watched in awe as the CNA stopped pushing the gurney, and walked up to a cop that had just stepped around the corner. He began to blab out a confession, and everyone in the hallway capable of doing so, turned and looked at him in horror. The cop briefly looked in their direction, and caught Khal’s eye. 

“That officer is just as awful as the CNA. Maybe worse.” Khal muttered to Rene. “The things he has done to his wife and daughters would sicken you. Should I have him drive himself off a cliff after the arrest?” 

“No, no no,” Rene said. “Just make him confess like you did with the CNA.” 

Khal scoffed, “You’re incredibly naive if you think that his confession will amount to anything more than paid time off and a transfer.”

“We don’t kill.” Said Rene. “That’s not what this is about.”

“I wish I could show you what he’s done. You might change your mind on that.” Said Khal.

It occurred to Rene right then that being able to look into the minds of others like this was likely the reason that Khal was so fucked up. If Rene could look someone in the eyes and see every horrible thing that they had done, his threshold for what was appropriate might be more than a little skewed.

“Have him take the CNA to the police station. Have the CNA confess to the other officers, then have this officer confess and turn himself in. Under no circumstances should he go back home to his family, or kill himself.” Rene said. 

Khal smirked, then shrugged. “Okay then.”

The officer placed the CNA in cuffs, and they both headed toward the exit. 

Khal continued to look around. He gestured to a nurse at the nursing station, “She hates her step-daughter. Treats her like absolute garbage. Wants to send her away to a boarding school.”

“Can you, I don’t know, make her nicer? Like, permanently? Does that take a lot of energy?” Rene asked. 

“Not really.” Khal said. “Once I drop in the pebble, the thought itself takes control. I only check back in if I’m interested in what the person is up to. Otherwise, they pretty much just do what I’ve initially made them do indefinitely.”

“Then do that. Make her nicer. Have her apologize and be better to her step-daughter. It can be up to the daughter if she accepts the apology.” Rene said. 

“You know it’s not a real apology.” Khal pointed out. “She’s been forced to do it.”

“To the step-daughter, it will be real.” Said Rene. “And maybe it will eventually become real to her as well.”

Khal smiled and nodded. 

Rene watched as the nurse picked up her phone and began texting frantically. There were tears in her eyes suddenly, and she got up and left the hallway. 

Rene wondered where to go next, but Khal had already figured it out for them. 

“There’s a bigwig who keeps harassing the younger nurses. He works on the third floor. A lot of them have considered quitting because of how he treats them. I think we should go search him out.” Said Khal. 

Rene nodded. He felt a strange elation in his gut at the thought of taking down these predators. Khal led him to the elevators, and they headed up to the third floor. They walked down the hall, and a jacked security guard turned toward them from his station, ready to stop them, but never got a chance. One glance, and Khal had him turning away again like he had never seen them. 

“That guy is surprisingly chill. He rescues puppies for fun. And he always takes no for an answer.” Khal said. 

“Really?” Rene asked. 

Khal smirked and shook his head. “No, definitely not.”

“Oh.” Rene blushed.

“Our friend here likes to drug girls at the bar and take them home with him.” Khal said. “He gets very angry when people try to stop him. Even broke a man’s jaw once when he tried to stop ‘roids here from messing with a young lady. He’s a total fucking creep.” Said Khal. 

Rene shook his head. Were any guys here not predators?

“Have him confess.” Rene stated. 

“You know, it’s going to start looking a little suspicious if everyone in this hospital just starts confessing to crimes. You don’t think someone will look into that?” Khal pointed out. 

Rene shrugged, “I’ve never done this before. How would I know?”

“We still have to be careful. If my many years on this planet have taught me anything, it’s that terrible people can catch you when you’re not paying attention. We need to make sure we’re not caught. I’ll have somebody wipe the cameras when we leave here, and we’ve covered all our bases so far, but I’m not sure what my limit for control is yet, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to protect you.”

Rene frowned, “It kinda sounds like you’re looking for an excuse to hurt these people. We’re not going to do that. If you don’t stop pressing it, I don’t even think I can continue.”

“Okay, okay.” Khal put up his hands to placate Rene. “It’s just something to think about. I’ll stop pressing the issue.”

Khal rolled his eyes and the man stood up, took off his badge, and headed away from his station. 

“Where’s he going?” Rene asked.

“To confess.” Said Khal. “Nothing more, I promise.”

“Good, okay.” Rene rubbed his eyes. This was a lot. His head was still throbbing somewhat from where Khal had hit him with the kettle, but the acetaminophen had dulled it quite a bit. 

“Onward and upward.” Said Khal, placing a hand gently on Rene’s shoulder, and leading him toward the large office behind the desk. 

They walked into the room to see a bald man in a slick suit sitting behind a giant antique looking desk. He immediately looked up at them and began to rise from his seat in protest at their having entered, calling for the guard who had just vacated his desk. Khal gave him a devilish smile, and the man, having made the mistake of looking straight into Khal’s eyes, slowly sat back down in his seat.

“Oof,” said Khal, “Rene, let me introduce you to Mr. Davis, CEO of this fine hospital. Molester of many a young nurse. He made a deal last year to sell this place to private equity to ensure he would get his cut. That private equity is slowly sucking the life out of this place through the straw of capitalism. 

This man will steal the blanket off of a little girl with cancer if it’ll save the hospital a penny. He has worked with the lead finance man to underfund and overload every doctor, nurse, cna, receptionist, and janitor in this facility. His turnover rate is abysmal because he pays his workers a fraction of what they are worth to struggle out of ratio to keep patients alive. We’re talking one nurse to seven patients here, and that is a very unsafe number. 

When Covid hit, he decided to save money by not purchasing any masks for the nurses. He chalked it up to the shortage, but he certainly had the ability to lay his hands on some sweet N-95’s for his staff. Instead, he cost the lives of four nurses, two residents, three patients, ooh, and one of them was a little girl with cancer. He almost felt bad for that last one. The way her poor mother cried. He could hear the wails all the way down the hall on his way to the cafeteria. Nearly put him off his burger. Of course, he didn’t feel too bad when he got his 11 million dollar bonus. Bought a yacht and sailed south for a bit as his staff struggled to pick up the slack.

Then it seems he flew out to Taiwan to live out his Lolita fantasy. One of the girls he paid for started crying and he freaked out. That little girl looked a lot like Emory, by the way. The psycho decided to smother her to death to shut her up.”

Khal turned to Rene, who stumbled back a step in shock. 

Horrible. 

Fucking horrible. 

How could there be so many awful people in the world? How did everything not just fall apart immediately when these monsters were out there running things. 

He thought of Emory. Thought of someone doing the unthinkable to her. It made him want to rip this man apart. He could feel his fists clenching. 

“You want to kill him so badly.” Khal said, walking over to Rene. “It would be so easy.”

He wanted to say yes. He wanted to tell Khal to have this man slowly tear the skin from his own body, feeling the pain and fear of it the entire time. His mind flitted to the basement he had been kept in. What he would give to use those tools on this man. To tear him limb from limb.

Those tools though. 

Some of those tools had been used on him. 

Rene shook his head no.  

“You tortured me, and you killed others. Should we find a way to kill you?” Rene asked, finally unclenching his hands. “Should you be forced to drive off a bridge?”

Khal looked at him for one long moment, and smiled, “Would that I could read your mind.”

“I don’t think you’d like what you saw.” Said Rene. 

“I’ve got a pretty high tolerance for what dwells in a mind.” 

“Not…quite this high.”

Khal took a deep breath and nodded. 

“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”

“I know you’ll try.” Said Rene. “I wonder, though, if you can make it up to our goddess.”

Khal was now fidgeting with the sleeve of his jacket. 

“I have spoken to our goddess thousands of times. Everything I’ve done has been for her, and for you. I believe she has seen everything I have done, and has yet to decide me unworthy of her gifts.”

“Perhaps she needs to pay closer attention.” Rene glared at him. 

Khal threw up his hands, “Fine! Let’s have this creep confess then. Are you happy? Let him serve a few years in jail, get out on good behavior, and murder the next little girl when he flees the country in search of more exploited children. He’s worth $28 million dollars. He’s more than capable of disappearing.”

Rene realized that he had violently crumpled the discharge papers in his hands. Looking down at them blankly, he pondered what a fitting punishment for this monster might be. Would jail be enough? How many years would he even serve, being so rich? He was a fraud and a murderer, and he would have the advantage of living out his days in prison, if they decided to give him a life sentence. Maybe they would keep him in solitary confinement to make sure he didn’t get stabbed for being a child murderer, and maybe that would be its own personal hell. But was it really enough?

“Do something for me.” Rene said, glancing at Khal. “Make him tell me the truth.” 

Khal nodded, “It’s done.”

Rene looked at Mr. Davis, taking in a deep breath before he spoke. 

“Why did you underfund this hospital and let those people die?” Rene asked. 

“To save the hospital money.” Mr. Davis said, turning his attention to Rene. “So that I would get a bigger bonus.”

“Why did you kill that little girl in Taiwan?” Rene swallowed against the taste of bile in his throat as he spoke.

“She made too much noise. It was ruining the fantasy.” Mr. Davis admitted.

“What do you think you deserve for your actions?” Rene asked. 

“To be tied to concrete and fed to the fishes. It has always been my biggest fear.”

“If you died, where would your money go?” 

“To my estranged son, who would probably use it to plant some fucking trees. He’s an environmentalist idiot, and I hate him.”

Rene said the words, and in that moment, he knew he couldn’t take them back. 

“I want him to leave a note, confessing to everything. Then I want him to go tie himself to a cinderblock and drop himself into the river. It’s what he deserves.”

He looked at Khal, who was grinning broadly, and nodded. “It’s done.”

Chapter 29 https://storiesfrommontana.com/2023/08/13/chapter-29-how-far-weve-come/