Mind Judge

Overload

I ran outside, trying to find Liya. She was sitting there by the pool in her school swimsuit. I changed into my shorts and joined her. I took a seat beside her and she sighed in discomfort.

"Hey!"

"What do you want?"

"Oh come on, Liya-"

"Don't talk to me!"

"Just, let me explai-"

"I said N-"

"Please?!"

I told her about how my condition changed upon turning 16.

"That's all, I swear!"

"But, now you can't read my thoughts?"

"Well, right now I can't hear a thing."

"Are you saying your powers just vanished?"

"I don't know, I haven't tried to read minds since this morning."

"Well, try to access mine then."

"What? But-"

"It's ok, you have my permission"

"Uhm, ok then"

I glared into her eyes and focused.

". . . . . . ."

"So?" she was waiting patiently.

That's weird, I can't access her mind... Judge, any idea what's going on here?

". . . . . . . . . ." Judge? Dude?

"Kyle? What's wrong?" she tapped my shoulder twice.

"I . . . . I can't access my powers... I can't hear Judge anymore"

"Isn't that a good news? You've always wanted to get rid of it all."

"Yeah bu-" and then, everything went black.

Liya's POV

"Yeah bu-"

He just... collapsed.

"KYLE!" I yelled.

Everyone gathered. He was breathing heavily. Our classmates carried him to the nurse's office.

They put him on the bed and the nurse attended to him right away.

She made a few check-ups then stared back at him, shocked.

I was holding his hand, I was scared. It was the first time I saw him like that.

"This is bad!"

"What do you mean "bad"?"

"I-I don't know, his body's temperature is normal but his-" she placed her right palm on his forehead "-is burning. We need to get him to a hospital right now, there's nothing we can do here" she rushed to her office and called for an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived. Kyle was lifted on a stretcher and taken into the ambulance. They allowed no one in so I called my sister Zoe.

I waited for her outside the school, she came with her car and gave me a lift to the general hospital where Kyle was.

I rushed through the hallway with Zoe and went to the receptionist. She gave us the room number and we managed to reach it.

Kyle was laying on a bed with many devices attached to his head. The doctor was standing there, observing the monitor.

I knocked twice and stepped in with Zoe.

"Oh, hello, are you his family? That was quick!"

"Uhm, no, I'm his friend and this is my sister."

"Yeah but, only his family members are allowed in."

"Please, doctor, I've known him for ten years now, I'm sure that at least grants me the right to stay beside him."

Zoe spoke up as well "I'm sure the rules can be bent and exceptions can be made sometimes"

The doctor nodded "Very well."

I looked at Kyle then back at the doctor "So, what's his condition?"

"I honestly have no idea."

"I'm sorry... what?"

He sighed and rubbed his neck before pointing at the screen "Allow me to explain,"

The screen showed a digital 3D draw of a human brain "This is the average brain," he then pointed at some moving charges that looked like electric ones but they looked minor "These are the brain signals sent to the body's nerves to make it move and respond to the brain's instructions," he then pointed up at the right corner of the screen "Now this, this is the level of the brain activity... You won't understand the numbers so I'll try to simplify it by giving a certain level," he remained silent for a moment as it was notable he was trying to find proper words to explain to us "Let's say an average human brain has the level one activity. I wouldn't be surprised if we encountered someone with a brain activity of level 2, I'd even go so far and say level 3 is acceptable."

I rubbed my neck and asked, "What are you trying to say, doctor?"

He pressed a button on the screen and showed us another 3D drawing of a different brain "This is Kyle's brain." There were so many signals moving around it, it looked like a storm of meteors orbiting the center of his brain, there was just too many of them.

"So, are you saying his brain activity is higher than three?"

". . . . .," he paused for a moment "His brain activity is at level five."

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows but I wasn't really surprised, knowing he could read minds it made sense to me.

"So, is he ok now?"

"For now his condition is stable."

"Well, any idea what caused him to collapse like that?"

"The logical and scientific explanation is. . . his brain overheated."

"Overheated?"

"Well, yes, it seems his brain was taking in too much information it kept processing them non-stop which caused some sort of an overload on his brain, causing it to overheat."

"Wait, so, all of this happened because his brain overheated?"

"Yes, think of it like how computers work, when the processor hardware overheats and melts."

"Oh my God!"

"Don't worry, he's in no danger right now."

"But you just sai-"

"I know what I said. Allow me to continue"

I nodded.

"I believe when his brain was overloaded the brain performed a complete shut down to all of it's activity... Something like a safety mechanism to ensure the brain doesn't overheat too much and have a permanent damage but-"

"But?!!!!"

"But, I can't guarantee you it will happen again. I'm not sure what caused all of that but all I can do for now is give you this" He then handed me a small device, it looked like a hand watch.

"What is this?" I asked.

"This will calculate his brain activity. If something happens and raises his brain activity level this watch will display it. If it passes a certain level the watch will glow in red and make a beep sound. Right then he should try to avoid whatever is causing his brain to overload"

"I see."

"That's all I can do, now, if you will excuse me." he nodded and went outside.

Kyle's family arrived, his mother, father, and sister rushed into the room. Of course, they flooded us with questions about what happened. I explained to them that he did too many physical activities while we were swimming and collapsed, couldn't just tell them that their son is some sort of a Mentalist.

They stayed for hours until it was after midnight. They spoke to the doctor and he ensured them that he's in no danger and he could leave next day in the morning. After that, they took their leave to get some rest and come back the next morning to pick him up.

I took a seat, held his hand and waited patiently for him to wake up. I was too tired so I've decided to close my eyes for a minute.

"Hey! Liya!"

"Mmmm?" I opened my eyes and rubbed them, I looked up and it was Kyle. He's awake, oh thank God.

"Could you let go of my hand? You're kinda drooling on it, Ewww!"

Woah, you ungrateful little s**t!

"Oh, sorry." NOT SORRY.

"It's ok." he swept his right hand onto the bed in disgust. He's starting to irritate me.

"Are you ok now?" I asked as I was worried.

"Yeah, until you started drooling on my hand." SERIOUSLY?

"Sorry, haha!" I wanna kill him now.

"Haha." Little s**t!

"Here!" I offered the watch to him.

"Ooooh? What's this?"

"It's a hand watch!"

"I see, where did you steal that from?" Oh my God I'm gonna kill him!

"Excuse me?" Die!

"No wait, it must have cost you a lot though!"

"Well not re-"

"Here!" He took something out and offered it to me.

I opened my palms and took whatever that was... Fifty cents?

"Uhm, What is this?" I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

"Money, for the watch!"

"Huh?"

"What? That's pretty much how worthy it is!" Grrrrrrrr, that's it, I'm gonna kick his butt!

I stood up with widened eyes, my right eye twitched and I prepared my fist to smack his stupid, UNGRATEFUL FACE!

"Ah! My head! Ouch! It hurts!" Wait, I didn't even touch him yet.

He peeked at me and kept groaning. Oh, I see now, you little-

"Hehe!" he stuck his tongue at me, teasing.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRR

"You little-"

"What? you don't wanna assault a patient in a hospital, do ya'!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. He chuckled.

"Sorry. I just wanted to lighten the mood a little, you looked so worried."

I sighed and sat down.

"Geez!"

"Hey, I'm really glad you're here. Just wanted to thank you for always having my back and being always by my side" He smiled cheerfully.

"Yeah yeah!" I rolled my eyes.

"Hug?" Dawwwwwww.

"Hmph, fine, but just this once!"

"Hehe."

I stood up and wrapped my arms around him, he hugged me tightly.

"Thanks, Liya. I'm glad my best friend is someone as nice and kind as you are" Oh my gosh, stop it I'm blushing.

". . . . "

He let go and put the watch on.

"So, still can't read minds?"

"Nope, nothing, and Judge is not there anymore." He looked sad.

"I guess you do miss him."

"Yeah, I might have been a d**k and kept cursing his existence along with my powers but, I'm just too used to having them both, I feel like I'm incomplete."

"I'm sorry about that."

He turned the watch on and it displayed the number "5" on it.

"So, what's this again?"

"It's a watch, it calculates your brain activity level, if it goes beyond a certain number the watch will flash in red and make a beep sound."

"Woah Woah Woah, where'd you get something like this?!!"

"The doctor gave it to me, he said you'll need it to avoid whatever raises your brain activity."

"Oh, I see, so you didn't buy it!"

"Nope."

He extended his right hand to me.

"Hmmm?" I questioned.

"Give me back my fifty cents, please!" OH MY GOD, that JERK!

My right eye twitched and I grabbed the pillow and hit his right arm with it with a pout.

"Ah, my head, it hurts!" he covered his face with his arms while chuckling.

I couldn't help but chuckle as well. He's a one funny jerk after all.