Pulse

Hell yes, I want to know everything! What kind of question is that?”
    Faith was having a familiar feeling of rebellion in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t realize how hard this was for Dylan, how much harder it was going to get before the night was over, or how her reaction was pushing him away.
    “Come on, there’s someone you need to meet,” Dylan said. He put his firm hand on the small of Faith’s back and guided her forward. Faith calmed down as they walked, but with each step she was struggling with the idea of seeing her parents. It would not go well, she knew this now, and it was putting her in a defensive mood she’d have trouble letting go of.
    “Did you know your training started the day after your parents left?” Dylan asked. It was a subject he’d wanted to bring up but hadn’t had the courage to. With time running out, he wanted her to hear it from him, not from Meredith.
    “I don’t understand,” Faith said. “You mean the stuff we’ve been doing on top of the Nordstrom building? That training?”
    Dylan nodded. He was hoping that a couple of small revelations would make the blows to come slightly less overwhelming. “It started the night after your parents left. In fact, if you want to know the truth, it’s why they left.”
    “Why do I not like where this is going?” Faith asked. She stopped in her tracks, fearing the worst. Something had been going on for a long time, and her parents were involved. It was the last thing she wanted to hear.
    “It took a long time to find you, Faith. Years . And we’re out of time. I knew what you could do because I can feel it when there’s a pulse hiding out there. I felt you long before we ever met.”
    “This is starting to sound creepy.”
    Dylan looked up, breathed a sigh. Then his eyes were back on Faith like he wished he didn’t have to explain. “The first time you moved something by thinking about it was in your sleep. That’s the way it starts. I was patiently waiting to feel it happen; and when it did, I found you. That was four months ago.”
    “Four months? Wait, so you’ve been . . . what? Watching me or something? And my parents are in on it?”
    “Faith, please—I’m trying my best here. The only way to draw this power out of your subconscious is to help you. That’s something I can do by watching, thinking certain thoughts, focusing very specifically on you. So yeah, I’ve been watching you sleep. For about four months.”
    “Okaaay,” Faith said. It was voyeuristic, and Faith wasn’t exactly sure how she felt about it. “What do my parents have to do with this?”
    “Catch this,” Dylan said, and then he threw his Tablet out into the darkness like a Frisbee. Faith reacted intuitively, a flash appearing in her brain as the Tablet came back and landed in her hand.
    “If I hadn’t spent those months showing you what to do while you slept, you wouldn’t be able to do that. And it wasn’t going to work if your parents were in the picture. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know the answer. It just goes faster if you’re isolated. I mean really isolated, not just alone. Like I said, we were very short on time. They understood what was at stake.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?” Faith asked. She felt manipulated, used.
    Dylan couldn’t tell her the truth. She was possibly the most important person on the planet, but he didn’t know how she might react to news like that. He decided to stop while he was ahead.
    “Just don’t blame anything on your parents. You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that.”
    “Stop taking their side. You don’t even know them.”
    That wasn’t exactly true, and Faith knew it. Dylan had been with her parents for the past four months, listening to them go on and on about how terrible Tablets were and how the States were evil and who knew what else. It made her furious, but she decided to hold it in. It would be more satisfying to use it on her parents when she saw them. “Lead on, Prince Charming,” Faith said sarcastically, handing Dylan’s Tablet back to him.
    They started walking again, this time without talking to each other. Dylan was afraid he’d make another mistake, and Faith was laser focused on all the things she was going to say to her parents when she got the chance. They came to a door, which opened with a swipe card Dylan produced, and there was yet another set of stairs.
    “The person you’re going to meet . . . she’ll tell