Time Thieves

his telepathic abilities had continued to develop and that he was now capable of using his psionic power as a weapon, on a smaller scale but similar to the eyeless alien's ability.
        
        But what good did that do him? They had Della.
        

----

    XIV
        
        
        She wakes up and reaches out and feels cold sheets. When she opens her eyes on the dark room and his absence finally registers on all levels, she withdraws her hand, beneath the covers, holds her breasts and tries to keep her breathing even.
        
        She listens for him.
        
        She throws off the covers and gets out of bed, slips on her tongs and goes to the bedroom door. She opens it, steps into the hallway and stops again to listen for him.
        
        Silence.
        
        “Pete?'
        
        Silence yet.
        
        Perhaps, she thinks, he is dwnstairs, sitting in an easy chair, reading. He likes to read in the mornings.
        
        “Pete?”
        
        But why doesn't he answer her?
        
        She starts down the stairs.
        
        Her heart is thudding. She has a hollow ache in her stomach. She feels a weakness behind the knees.
        
        When she is halfway down the stairs, she sees the shape move at the bottom. At this hour, shortly after seven o'clock, the front room is in all but complete darkness. But it must be Pete.
        
        “What are you doing down there?” she asks.
        
        He comes out of the shadows.
        
        He isn't Pete.
        
        He is a complete stranger who-
        
        No, he is the man from the Emerald Leaf Motel, the stranger Pete swears he sees everywhere.
        
        Men have never frightened her, no matter how crude or fresh or direct they get. Still, this man, in this place, in this awful silence-this man frightens her.
        
        “What do you want?”
        
        He smiles.
        
        He says, “We will not harm you, Mrs. Mullion.”
        
        “We?”
        
        Another man appears behind the first. They are twins.
        
        “Stop right there,” she says.
        
        They continue up the steps, towards her.
        
        “We will not cause you any pain, believe me,” the first man says.
        
        She turns to run, swaying on the stairs.
        
        She can't seem to lift her feet.
        
        Arms touch her from behind.
        
        “Stop it!” she shouts.
        
        “No pain-”
        
        A shroud falls over her mind. She feels blackness welling up, consuming her, soft and warm and gentle. She struggles against it, without success. As it swallows her completely, she thinks of all the things she fears, lets them roll through her mind, hideous vision after hideous vision…
        
        Then she sleeps.
        
        Then she wakes.
        
        She is sitting in an easy chair in the living room, with no idea how she has gotten here. In her mind, some alien presence holds down her will to act. She tries to lift her arms from the arms of the chair, and she finds that she cannot do even this simple thing.
        
        She now discovers a terror she has never known before, the horror of complete helplessness. Visions of cerebral hemmorages, of paralysis and lifelong dependency on others fit across her mind. If this is what has happened to her, she will kill herself. She will not be a vegetable all her life, watching Pete wait on her, hand and foot.
        
        “Relax, Mrs. Mullion,” a voice in the darkness says.
        
        She does not turn her head to look for the speaker. Someone else turns it for her.
        
        She sees him, and she remembers the twins.
        
        “You will not be harmed,” he says. “Just relax and play along with us. You can't do otherwise anyway. We guarantee your safety.”
        
        She tries to question him but still cannot speak.
        
        “We'll be upstairs,” he says. Then he climbs the steps, out of sight.
        

----

    XV
        
        
        “Della?”
        
        “Who's there?”
        
        Confusion, fear mixed with anticipation…
        
        “Pete.”
        
        “Where are you?”
        
        “With you.”
        
        “I don't see you? Where? How can you hear me when I can't