Meditation

"So you're honestly saying that every dude in the world that touches you wants to have sex with you?" Grountin asked incredulously.

Upwina sighed, then replied, "If you count rape as sex, then yes."

"And you can freeze people? Even though I've only ever seen you use fire," Grountin remarked disingenuously.

"I could have shown you before I started eating this," she said, motioning to the lighter still burning in her hand.

Grountin laughed, inquiring, "Okay, so why is dick size such a big deal to you? You've mentioned it several times. Size doesn't matter. My friends always said that women who want a big dick have something wrong with their pussies! Haha!"

Upwina reached between her legs, giving her vagina a comforting pet, and then muttered, "The pain vibrators still affect me now, even. The only pleasurable sex for me is when a man can go deeper than they did."

Grountin's cheerful demeanor faded immediately. He sat next to her on the loveseat, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Besides," Upwina continued, "my experience is that the bigger the dick, the bigger the dick."

Grountin actually started chuckling again, despite wanting to comfort her, asking comically, "What does that even mean?"

"You guys that are bigger don't hide how you feel about things or why you do them; even if they're not good reasons. The smaller guys are more like pussies: they are terrified and always making excuses," explained Upwina.

Grountin stopped giggling to ponder the accuracy of her statement, realizing that based on what he had seen in other men's fears, there was a bit of a pattern.

"Well, it's not a serious fear, though," he stated informatively. "Besides, if the only dicks you've had have been from cops, doesn't that limit the different personality traits you've tried?"

"I've had a lot of cocks, Grountin," she moved further from him, facing away as she corrected him. "When I first ran here, I didn't know how my abilities worked at all. I just knew that I had this- thirst, this- desire, to touch everybody. And even though two people literally got frozen to death before, I couldn't stop myself from taking the chance."

Grountin, dismayed that Upwina preferred him at a distance, morosely queried, "What happened?"

"At first, people fell in love with me. Some raped me, claiming that it was love-based. Women got whichever guy they're closest to emotionally to try to impregnate me: husbands, dads, sons, brothers, and whoever else. I hated it more and more. But eventually, I froze somebody again and although I felt bad, the thirst to touch people came back; even the ones who raped me," Upwina wept softly into her hands.

Grountin, clearly unnerved, quietly asked, "Did you get pregnant?"

Upwina cried, "I didn't want their babies! I hated them! But when I saw a baby bump, I touched it, hoping it could go away. It worked!" She shuddered as she kept talking, "My stomach got all cold and the next day, this kinda frozen, dry-looking blood fell out my pussy. I was so sad, even though it was what I wanted. It's like I wasn't allowed to be happy!"

Grountin debated on reaching to comfort Upwina, but decided against it. They sat in silence for a few minutes, staring downward and away from each other; Grountin with arms crossed; Upwina peering through her hands while they covered the rest of her face.

"Have you tried meditation?" Grountin questioned her, breaking the silence.

Upwina glared at him, asking in disbelief, "What would that do?!"

"It's just what I did when I first realized I had no idea what was happening, so I did it and it helped me understand the people I touched. That's all I'm saying," Grountin stated with eyes widened and hands in the air, leaning away from her.

"I already know the people I touched!" she shrieked.

Grountin calmly inquired, "Then why aren't you aware of where the souls go?"

"I- I don't know," Upwina admitted mournfully. "Fine, then. Maybe it will make a difference."

She sat still, listening for things not there physically. Grountin went to the kitchen in search of a beverage, only to see that a landline telephone was off the hook on the way there, thoroughly distracting him. He remembered the time when he was saying disparaging comments regarding his perception of his sister's treatment of him being unfair over the phone; his mother hearing him on the other phone connected to the line; and being whipped by her immediately afterward. He, out of paranoia alone, grabbed the phone and put it to his ear to detect activity.

After twenty seconds, a strange man replied, "Okay. We've got enough."

"Oh, crap!" Grountin thought as he hung the phone in its receiver. He tried to calm himself so that he, too, could quickly meditate and determine why they might have been being monitored.

Finally achieving a fleeting peace, Grountin could remember the man's fears vividly: not being enough to keep a woman to himself {from experience}; his crush on his boss being discovered {unknown effect}; grey people being evil psychpaths {derived information}; being prosecuted for the money he stole from his job being discovered {derived information}; his vindictive, recently turned ex-girlfriend being a snitch {unknown effect/from experience}...

"We need to leave again!" Grountin hollered rapidly.

Upwina gradually opened her eyes, saying, "But I just started to unde-"

"Somebody was onto this guy! I think his ex reported him. He wasn't single when you met! He broke up with her for you! He's been scared of her telling on him about the cash he stole!" Grountin shouted, ravaging cabinets, then leaving them in disarray.

"Yeah, that seems to be true," Upwina spoke softly, "but that has nothing to do with us."

Grountin sighed, gripped both of Upwina's shoulders, looked her in the eye, and uttered, "Somebody was listening to his calls. They heard everything you said."

Upwina's eyes widened, her peaceful state immediately dropped, as she yelled, "We need to go! I basically just incriminated myself!"

The two frantically grabbed as much supplies as they could gather, shoving it all into various bags. Grountin briefly searched the man's fears a little more meticulously and found that the money was hidden under where they were sitting earlier; he stashed it at the bottom of the bag, so nobody would see it.

"Come on! Come on! Let's go!" Upwina cried whilst rushing to the door too late; it opening without her to her surprise.

A financial agent snickered in the doorway, "Tee hee hee! Not the one we were looking for since you killed him; at least, according to you." He pointed his revolver at Upwina as he kept speaking, "You'll have to do. You probably got the money in there anyway, don't you?" Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a walkie-talkie, and requested, "Please send a copy of the recording to the ONI, thank you."

"Copy that," replied an unseen fellow agent through a communicator.

"This. Cannot. Be happening," Upwina stated in shock.

"Oh. But it. Is! Tee hee hee!" cracked the agent, holding his side with one arm and his firearm with the other. "We heard all about you and your abilities. So unless you can melt or freeze bullets being fired at you, you're going to have to freeze... yourself in place! Tee hee! One more move and you're... toast. Tee hee!"

Grountin hustled from the kitchen toward the front door at that moment, dropping the bags he just prepared to put his hands in the air as the handgun shifted to focus on him.

"We don't know much about you, though. That's why we don't trust you," the financial agent sneered. "You're new. To this city, let alone this apartment building. She said something about you having powers, right? Hopefully ONI is on the way."

"What is ONI?" Grountin sincerely inquired.

The green-haired financial agent chuckled, "Tee hee hee! You are really new! Organization of Neutrality Implementation. It's their job to grab people like you and... Well, I don't really know what they do after that. Still, you orange, purple, and pink hairs make me sick. I wouldn't mind if they exterminated the lot of you! Tee hee!" He took off the safety, beaming, "Maybe I'll just do my part now."

Upwina leapt towards the agent, slapping his face right as a gunshot was heard.

"Dumpling, no!" the man called to her as he held his gunshot victim in his arms.

Grountin began running to her, but the recently fired gun was cocked again, pointed right back at him. However, it did not remain steady in place.

The agent began removing his pants fervently, claiming, "I-I know, uh, penis to vagina r-resuscitation, so, uh, y'know..."

Once the agent had the gun pointed downward while he was opening Upwina's legs, the scowling Grountin stampeded to his position. The agent shot.

"Owww, my foot! Oh, my god! Owhowhowhowwww! Dammit! That fucking hurts!" the financial agent cried, still trying to initiate sexual intercourse all the while. "Augh! Maybe some sweet loving will help, ergh, nullify the pain. Come on, dumpling. Ugh! Let's help each othe- Oaf!"

Grountin punched the man in the jaw as hard as he could, hurting his own thumb in the process due to his poor form. The man fell out of Upwina and Grountin covered her crotch with the man's removed pants while sobbing.

"Upwina!" he wailed, staring at her gunshot wound bleeding profusely. "Take my heat if you need to! Just don't die on me!"