The slender young woman's straight ponytail swayed to the rhythm of her intense jogging. All Night by Martin Jensens and the Vamps was thumping in her ears, not that she'd ever admit her musical tastes to anyone. She readjusted her neat white cap, the color not chosen randomly since white was known to reflect the rays of the sun, unlike the color black, which absorbed them and heated up the object efficiently.

          Annela Morgan's olive-toned-skin was covered with a thin layer of sweat, which cooled her off, barely compensating her burning limbs. Her chest lifted and rose regularly, her feet lightly receipting the weight of her body.

          She entered the cool atmosphere of a forest, keeping her eyes straight ahead, anticipating her movements, dodging low branches, avoiding uneven floor levels. Her breath started becoming heavy as she felt the start of a steep slope. She noticed her body's reaction and accelerated her pace, pushing her limits, telling herself to run as if being chased by a psychopath.

          The thought made her smirk. Although it wasn't really motivation because she wouldn't be scared, she did it anyway. Soon she arrived at the top of the hill, to a calm country dirt road, with infinite wheat crops on both sides. The lowering sun shone on the scenery, with sometimes a tree or two in the middle of nowhere discontinuing the regular surface.

          The girl slowed to a stop, calming her breath and wiping a few drops of sweat on her forehead. She wasn't insensible to the landscape, painting-like. She rested her hands on her waist and paused the music blasting in her ears to enjoy the tranquility and the emptiness of her mind.

          Not a single soul was present, she opened her mind to let it breath, inhaling the clean air deeply. A feeling of pure ease and peace filled her chest. Keeping her mind closed was tiring and required an annoying amount of effort to do so, but it was completely worth the exhaustion in her opinion. Otherwise, she would have her mind bombarded with the fusing thoughts of the people around her, without asking to know any of them.

          Suddenly, a piercing scream of a woman splits the quiet bubble.

          All senses alert, she closes her eyes and extends her mind to localize the person. She reaches the head of the woman and in a second knows more about the lady than the lady herself. Anne Hood, mother of two little boys, pharmacist, and secretly feels insecure about her ears.

          Annela's head tilts to the side in confusion as she takes a look through the eyes of the woman, trying to decipher the context of the disagreeable situation the mother is in.

          On top of her leans an imposing bearded man, she fiercely tries to free herself from his iron grasp. But panic is taking over the victim's mind, numbing any cold blooded reaction, and reducing the poor mother to the instincts of an animal. Which leads her to hitting hand kicking any body part in view, only aggravating the brute impulsions of the man, disturbingly enjoying the distress of his prey.

          She desperately screams for help as she hears the clinkering of the belt the man was undoing. He violently clasped his powerful hand on top of her mouth and nose, growling menacingly, losing all human characteristics, resembling more and more to an irrational beast.

          Desperation fills the woman's mind, no one will be able to hear her screams as piercing as they are. She was in the middle of a forest, miles from the town. Regret fills Mrs. Hood's mind, thinking about how stupid it was to go on a jog alone in a forest. Her friends' warnings kept fusing in her chaotic thoughts. Her mind was an emotional battlefield in which Annela troubled to analyze the woman's surroundings efficiently.

          However, the young lady manages to recognize the forest path she had just trodden and springs onto her legs. Anne was beginning to see stars, unable to breath correctly under the rough hand of the man, just as Annela arrived to the scene.

          She walks over to the man and taps the red squared shirt covering his bold shoulder. His attention immediately snaps to the twenty two year old, a pair of destabilized eyes staring up into a haughty other.

          "Excuse me sir, could you please just remove yourself from this woman, I think the forest floor might be a little uncomfortable," she coldly ironized.

          The man gets up slowly, an amused twinkle glimmering in his eyes, dirtied by the malevolent smirk stretching his lips, hidden in his approximately trimmed and bushy beard. Anne immediately kneels up and leans back on a tree, breathless and too weak to stand up, watching the tensed affront. She was ready to defend the young woman, rage consuming her heart, beating unevenly, as her body regained the oxygen it needed.

          "Well well, haven't we got ourselves a brave little girl here?" He spat, walking towards her, not bothering to dress back up.

          "Brave? Yeah," she shrugged, nodding approvingly. "Little? No."

          He snorted at her.

          "And stupid," he muttered, taking a leap in her direction and trying to imprison her arms.

          But he suddenly froze, staring in her hard eyes, pain spreading in the back of his head, a few centimeters away from Annela. Confusion filled his thoughts. Nothing was touching him, yet he was unable to budge a single muscle, paralyzed.

          Stop. I hit you with a big branch on the back of you head. Faint. She orders.

          His eyes go blank before he crumbles heavily to the floor at her feet. She scrunches her face in disgust as she removes her foot from underneath his arm and throws a glance over to the other woman ; who is in a total mess.

          Her shorts were ripped, twigs and dead leaves hung from her blonde hair and were glued to her skin by her sweat. She had wiped her tears with her dirty hands, leaving finger traces all over her face.

          "Thank goodness you're alright dear!" Anne hysterically shrieked, her motherly reflexes coming in. "And thank goodness you came!" She added, realizing how lucky she was.

         Annela walks calmly to the woman and kneels next to her. She forces herself to touch the woman after many efforts.

         You saw me hit the man with a branch behind the head. Faint.

          After the order sent, she frowns in disgust. Touching the target for a mind reader makes the reception of the order more powerful, in case of a lack of concentration from the Controler, but at the same time establishes a strong access to intimate thoughts.

          Those were the last words Mrs. Hood pronounced before losing consciousness. Annela caught the middle aged woman just in time and gently deposited her on the floor. She pursed her lips, unimpressed and searched the floor with her eyes for the phone of the mother to call the police.

          Fifteen minutes later, a sheriff's car pulled over and two other police cars followed, sirens blasting. Observing the scene carefully, a man in a black uniform jotted down notes on a tiny notebook. Annela had positioned herself against a tree, in a way that showed she had struggled, and found a big branch to lay by her side. The sheriff walked over to the two women and the rest carried the heavy man, regaining consciousness just as the car door was slammed shut to his face.

         A tiny bottle was opened under the nose of Anne, who's eyes opened, distraught, but body didn't budge an inch, strained and exhausted. The puzzle pieces starting assembling in her head and she violently sat up straight, her head turning in all directions.

         "Where is he?!" She screamed, not finding her aggressor.

         A bald and imposing muscled policeman quickly crouched to her level and laid his hands softly on the shoulders of the woman.

          "Whoa whoa whoa," his soothing voiced tried to reassure, completely contrasting with his gruff physical appearance.

          "Everything's been taken care of ma'am, he's in the police car at the moment. But right now we need you to stay calm and ride back to the station to hear everything that happened," he carefully explained, in a slow tone.

          Anne sighs, releasing the tension in her shoulders. The women were sat down in the backseat of one of the police cars. Annela stayed silent, mentally rolling her eyes at the long interview she felt coming.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

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