nelson nightmare

"I've seen it too," Forthill said. "I haven't brought this up yet, but I thought you should know that Nelson came to me earlier this evening."
I nodded at the cot that had been occupied when we came in. "That him?"
"Yes."
"How'd he strike you?" I asked.
Forthill pursed his lips. "If I didn't know you sent him, I would have thought he was having a bad reaction to drugs. He was almost incoherent. Very agitated. Terrified, in point of fact, though he would not or could not explain why. I managed to get him calmed down and he all but fainted."
I frowned, running the fingers of my right hand back through my hair. "Did you have the sense that anyone was following him?"
"Not at all. Though I might have missed something." He essayed a tired smile. "It's late. And I'm not as spry as I used to be, after ten o'clock or so."
"Thank you for helping him," I said.
"Of course. Who is he?"
"Molly's boyfriend," I said. I glanced across the room, at the mother holding her son. "Maybe Charity doesn't need to know that part, either."

Proven Guilty Chapter 31, Page 247-248


Frustrated, I rose and went over to Daniel's cot. I called up my Sight. It took me longer than normal. I braced myself and regarded the boy.
I'd been right. He'd taken a psychic flogging. The phage had been worrying at his mind, his spirit, even as it had threatened his flesh. I could see the wounds as long, bleeding tears in his flesh. Poor little guy. It would haunt him. I hoped he would be able to get a little rest before the nightmares woke him up.
I stared at him for a good while, making sure his suffering was burned indelibly into my head. I wanted to remember for the rest of my life what the consequences of my screw-ups might be.
I heard a sound to the side and glanced up without thinking, turning my Sight upon the source of the sound-a restlessly stirring Nelson.
If little Daniel had been the recipient of a savage beating, Nelson's spirit had been in the hands of Hell itself. His entire upper body was disfigured under my Sight, covered in hideous, festering boils and raw, bleeding burns. The damage was worst around his head, and faded gradually as it descended his torso.
And each of his temples bore tiny, neat holes, sharp and cauterized, as if by a laser scalpel.
Just like Rosie.
Chains of logic cascaded through my brain. My head swam. I shoved the Sight away from me, and my ass fell straight down to the floor.
I knew.
I knew why my spell had sent the phages after the Carpenters.
I knew why Molly had been taken. I could make a good guess at where.
I knew what the phages all had in common.
I knew who had sent them. The realization terrified me with a fear so cold and sharp that it literally paralyzed me. I could barely clap my hand over my mouth to keep from making whimpering sounds.

Proven Guilty Chapter 31, Page 250


I nodded, and told Charity about the attacks at the convention, and about how Molly had gotten me involved. "I examined the victims of the first two attacks," I said quietly. "One of them, a girl named Rosie, showed evidence of a land of psychic trauma. At the time, I attributed it to the phage's attack on her."
Charity frowned. "It wasn't?"
I shook my head. "I found an identical trauma on Nelson." I took a deep breath and said, "Molly is the link between them. They're both her friends. I think she was the one who hurt them. I think she used magic to invade their minds."
Charity stared at me, her expression sickened. "What? No..." She shook her head. "No, Molly wouldn't..." Her face grew even more pale. "Oh, God. She's broken one of the Council's Laws." She shook her head more violently. "No, no, no. She would not do such a thing."
I grimaced and said, "I think I know what she did. And why she did it."
"Tell me."
I took a deep breath. "Rosie is pregnant. And she showed physical evidence of drug addiction, but none of the psychological evidence of withdrawal. I think Molly took steps when she found out her friend was pregnant-to force her away from the drugs. I think she did it to protect the baby. And then I think she did the same thing to Nelson. But something went wrong. I think what she did to him broke something." I shook my head. "He got paranoid, erratic."
Charity stared down at the altar below, shaking her head. "Is it the Council then, that took her?"
"No," I said. "No. What she did to Rosie and Nelson left a kind of mark on her. A stain. I think she forced Rosie and Nelson to feel fear whenever they came near their drugs. Fear is a powerful motivator and it's easy to exploit. She wanted them to be afraid of the drugs. She had good intentions, but she wanted her friends to be frightened."

Proven Guilty Chapter 32, Page 254-255


"Magic isn't easy," I said. "Not even for someone with a strong natural talent. Takes a lot of practice, like anything else." I walked quietly for a few steps and then said, "Tell me about the spell you used on Rosie and Nelson."
She paused, staring at nothing, the blood draining from her face. "I had to," she said.
"Go on."
Her pretty features were bleak. "Rosie had... she'd already had a miscarriage, because she kept getting high. And when she lost the baby, she went to the hard stuff. Heroin. I begged her to go into rehab, but she was just... too far gone, I guess. But I thought maybe I could help her. With magic. Like you help people."
Hooboy. I kept the dismay off my face and nodded for her to continue.
"And one day last week, Sandra Marling and I had a talk. And during it, she told me how they were discovering that the presence of a very strong source of fear could bypass all kinds of psychological barriers. Things like addiction. That the fear could drive home a lesson, reliably and quickly. I didn't have much time. I had to do it to save Rosie's child."
I grunted. "Why do Nelson, too?"
"He was... he was using too much. He and Rosie sort of reinforced each other. And I wasn't sure what might happen, so I tried the spell out before I used it on her, too."
"You tested it on Nelson?" I asked. "Then did the same one on Rosie?"
She nodded. "I had to scare them away from the drugs. I sent them both a nightmare."
"Stars and stones," I muttered. "A nightmare."
Molly's voice became defensive. "I had to do something. I couldn't just sit there."
"Do you have any idea how much you hurt them both?" I asked.
"Hurt them?" she said, apparently bewildered. "They were fine."
"They weren't fine," I said quietly. "But the same spell should have done more or less the same thing to both of them. It acted differently on
Nelson than Rosie." And then I put two and two together again and said, "Ah. Now I get it."
She didn't look up at me.
"Nelson was the father," I said quietly.
She shrugged. A tear streaked down her cheek. "They probably didn't even know what they were doing when it happened. The pair of them were just..." She shook her head and fell silent.
"That explains why your spell damaged Nelson so much more severely."
"I don't understand. I never hurt him."
"I don't think you did it on purpose." I waved a hand, palm up. "Magic comes from a lot of places. But especially from your emotions. They influence almost anything you can do. You were angry at Nelson when you cast the spell. Contaminated the whole thing with your anger."
"I did not hurt them," she said stubbornly. "I saved their lives."
"I don't think you realize the ramifications," I said.
She spun to me and shrieked, "I did not hurt them!"

Proven Guilty Chapter 41, Page 339-341