“Well, you see,” Vince said, mouth curling up at the edges in a slight smile. “It all began three years ago. I had always known that I could control people, making them bend at my every whim. But I never knew I could use it to such a great extent. I used to use my abilities for inconsequential things, like making mother buy me whatever I wanted at the store, or even making my brother think he liked to eat pigeons,” he said, chuckling. “But those things mean nothing now.”
The room had wood-paneled walls and high ceilings. Vince sat in a red wingback chair by a small fireplace. Elegant victorian curtains were tucked back from the windows to reveal a rolling expanse of fields and country hills.
“That was when I realized the world needed me,” he said, getting up and beginning to pace steadily.
“War, poverty, disease and every other nasty thing that you could think of had infested the earth. Even the claimed-to-be purest groups had all these things and more festering in every dank, shadowy corner. The whole world, in all its glory, had become nothing but a small child covered in blood and dirt, crying out to the universe for help. Defenceless and dying, I knew that it didn’t have much time. If I hadn’t stepped in and saved it, the human race would be nothing but a smear left on the side of the Earth, doomed to be washed away and forgotten.”
Vince took a moment, closing his eyes and bowing his head, mourning the world that could have been. He looked out the window, sucking in his breath. His eyes stayed on the radiant hills outside for a moment before he continued, this time with a smile.
“So I provided the ultimate solution. The problem was in people’s predisposition to be hostile, ignorant and self-serving. It caused them to lie, not help others in need, and simply make the wrong decisions. So I stepped in to help them make the right ones.”
At this point, he was grinning. “It took me three years to design and fulfill my plan, but it was all worth it. It started with me walking into the Walt Disney Studio in California with my mind control wrapped up in a buttoned up tux and a smile that oozed charisma. I went into the big man’s office, and pitched my idea for the movie of the century, and he went wild over it. To this day I couldn’t tell you what the thing was about, but it gave the people what they wanted- to be controlled. My abilities weren’t only strong enough to be perceived through the camera, they were powerful enough for people to crave more. Simply seeing the trailer got people so engrossed that hundreds of theaters across the country sold out weeks before the premiere.”
“The day of the release was the best day of my entire life. The world changed when everyone walked out of that theater. My advanced mental structure became the framework for every other human on earth. My opinions, my beliefs, they were all the standard. I had ultimate control, but no one felt like they were being controlled. No one’s opinions clashed, and World Peace was achieved for the first time in human history.”
“My mother and father stopped fighting. My sister even came home from Tennessee to be with us. We celebrated my big success with a nice family dinner. Mother even made my favorite, turkey pot pie, and it was everyone else’s favorite, too. We were finally the picture-perfect family we were always meant to be.”
Vince’s grin faltered, and his expression fell. “But now… I don’t know what’s happened. It started with my sister leaving us, saying she had to go back to college in Tennessee. I showed her all the different classes she could take here at home, but she still left, pushing my suggestions aside. As if our family meant nothing to her. As if I meant nothing to her.”
He put his head down in his hands and his shoulders shook. For a moment it looked like he was crying. When he lifted his chin his face was red, and he was laughing, hard. “I really didn’t. All those times as kids she would play along, pretending to be controlled by me. Now I see that it was just out of pity,” Vince said, voice flattening and becoming serious. His jaw clenched, his eyes glared.
“I could never control her. She just led me along until the time was right, hitting me where it hurt the most. All she wanted from the beginning was to break our family apart. Soon after she left, mother and father started to fight again. I could hear them shouting about me, saying all sorts of horrible, terrible things- things they never thought before. I was certain they only said them because of my sister’s manipulation, so I tried to help them, using my powers to make them forget her, but it didn’t work! Mother gave me this pitiful look that burned into the deepest parts of me, a look that I’ll never forget. And after that, they stopped fighting, but sent me to you,” he said, voice choked and eyes now brimming with tears.
The man sitting in the opposite wing-back chair looked up from his clipboard through large, wire-rimmed glasses.
“Help me, doctor. How do I get my powers back?” Vince asked, a desperate strain in his voice.
“Have you been taking your pills?”the doctor asked patiently.
“None of them work!” he shouted, lunging forward and pounding the chair with his fists. The doctor looked at him calmly. Vince retreated, hostility leaving him. He fell into the chair with his arms tight around his chest. He pressed his palm hard into his forehead, repeating the same word, spitting it out through his teeth. “Sorry… sorry... sorry….”