Elsie immersed herself in the moment. The swaying and dancing of bodies around her. The sweat flying and mingling. The love twining in and around the music that came from the stage, clean and painful despite the noise coming from a thousand throats all around.
She knew more than any other the united thoughts and feelings that floated and spun through the hot night air. The love, the excitement, the admiration, the eagerness, and the hope, all coalesced and reflected in a thousand hearts and minds. It pounded through her and she gave up trying to block it out. It leaked through no matter what she did, so strong was the power of united feeling. She let it flow through her and she gasped. She had never felt the like of it before, and it bore her up and along, escalating. A girl next to her gasped and nearly fainted, though a huge grin was plastered to her face. Elsie suddenly realized that she was projecting and gathered her thoughts in protectively around her as best she could. She looked again at the girl. Her smile had faded some. Elsie opened up carefully and brushed the surface thoughts of the girl. She was wondering what had happened and she desperately wanted that feeling that she couldn't pin-point to return. She had felt it all along, but never ever that strongly before.
To hell with it , thought Elsie. She no longer cared. She would do her best to let those that she could reach share what she felt. Plus, she herself wanted that feeling of a thousand loving voices saying the same thing silently to return. With a grin she stopped struggling to hold in her thoughts and let loose. Then, along with a thousand other unique individuals she enjoyed the music.
"I will come to you . . ." At first when she "felt" it she didn't even realize it so great was the feeling of well being. Slowly though it crept up on her awareness. Someone was crying inside. Genuinely hurting.
Carefully Elsie gathered her thoughts and scanned, trying to pinpoint the inner turmoil. There were many who cried, but none whose pain was as great or deep as the one that was still niggling her. At last she turned her attention to the stage and the people on it. To the people whom all the love was channeled. Hanson.
Elsie quickly shut her thoughts and did her best to refrain from swearing and crying out loud. Crap! Not Isaac. Please not Isaac! But she knew that it was he who was crying and struggling. He showed no outward sign what-so-ever. That was clear from the video closeups of him. However, inside was another story. He was breaking down before her. Slowly, barely perceptable, but before long, there might be nothing left of the guy hiding inside.
As a personal rule she never delved into peoples personal thoughts. Usually she only skimmed the surface thoughts, if anything at all, and that was not often. She always felt guilty about invading the thoughts of others. With the crowd was one thing. It was a group, an overwhelming presence of anonymity, often more difficult to deal with, though not in this case. In this case the crowd was so united. No personal secrets or thoughts other than those immediatly at hand were really breached, though each individual's thgouhts were heard and understood at the same time. Elsie knew that some things should never ever be known by another person.
Elsie had labored long and hard to control her thoughts and learn how to use them, and protect herself. Before that she had nearly gone mad with the thoughts continuously leaping into her mind from others. Their pain, their hurts, their fears, their secrets. It had nearly been too much for her. But she had learned. It had cost her much, but she had learned. Not just the techniques, but also the value and the danger. She could help people in ways others never could. But it was tricky and extremely dangerous. To herself and the one she tried to help. One thing that was very important, and also another guilt trap for Elsie, was the fact that the person could not know. She felt guilty helping, but even more guilty if she did not. She had to set priorities though, she could not help everyone. She was only human, only a single person. There was only so much she could do. The premature lines lightly etched on her thin strong face were the only outward sign of everything she had gone through and the inner turmoil that still continued.
In this case, she couldn't refuse. She couldn't say no. His pain was so great. The amount of people who looked toward him and relied on him were too many. He could not fall. Elsie wouldn't let him.
Carefully Elsie narrowed her thoughts and focused on Isaac. She nearly flinched away before she got past the surface thoughts. He was thinking about the music, but only partially. He loved it, but that love was being destroyed before his own eyes. He had so many questions and no answers.
Do they really love my music? How can they really love me? Why do they scream and holler and cry? How can I live like this? Will I ever have a normal life? go to college? Meet and fall in love with the right girl? How can I ever be sure with my looming fame? Have kids? But . . . my music? Why do I not feel energized anymore? Where has the joy that it gave me gone? I need to be loved . . . but not like that. Not fake. Not now. Do those fans even really care? About me or my music? Do they even see me? Who do they see? Not me. But who am I? Oh God . . .Why? WhyWhywhywhywhy? Why am I asking why?
His mind and thoughts were churning. It reminded Elsie of whitewater rapids. There were rocks followed by big waves and churning chaotic water. But there were also eddy's of smoother water where the water went agenst the flow of despair. Elsie tried to ease his fears as best she could. Soothing. Clinging to those eddy's and trying to expand on them, at the same time trying to wear away at the rocks. However, it was nearly as difficult as trying to change those real life eddy's and rapids. She could only soothe the fears so much. Change so much directly without traumatizing or destroying who Isaac was inside more than what was already going on. Then just as the song was ending Elsie had an idea. A very farfetched idea. A feat greater than any other Elsie had ever attempted and would most likely ever attempt. She hoped she was strong enough.
She kept a loose link with Isaac, then extended her thoughts back out to the crowd and even to Zac,Taylor and every person in the entire building she could reach. It was the strangest and most wondrous thing that ever happened to every single person that was included. It was a moment every one would remember for years and years. A moment that could never be repeated.
As Elsie's awareness expanded she included each person in a web. The love, the excitement, the admiration, the eagerness, and the hope, all coalesced and reflected in a thousand hearts and minds. But this time it was not confined to just Elsie and the few around her who caught her mind's natural projection. This was everyone. They all felt it. They all knew it. They didn't know how it happened or what it really was, but they knew it's essence since they felt it themselves.
The stadium gradually grew to what would seem silent to an observer as each person listened and was included. They realized they all shared more in common than they thought. They suddenly knew, KNEW the people around them mosy of whom they had never met before in their life. It no longer mattered at all what other people thought of them and Hanson or anything else. They were part of a 'community'. They belonged. For a short while, they were almost as one, for they loved as one.
Even those few who before didn't care much about Hanson or anything associated with them were carried along in the moment. Their eyes were opened and their hearts were pulled toward the feeling of love and belonging. They too were swept up and their hearts melted with the others around them.
However, Elsie was careful with the Hanson's themselves. She let them in on the web she constructed, but first only as onlookers, to let them absorb what she showed them. She showed them the true way the fans felt for them.
At first they were surprised, like everyone else. Then slowly they too realized what they felt. Each Hanson felt in his own turn, fear, puzzlement, wonderment, joy, appreciation, a humbling, and last, they loved back.
It was Isaac Elsie watched closest, though her attention and abilities were stretched to their utmost limits. She felt his fear and pain ease and she too was lifted by the overwhelming emotions that flowed. She felt his soul begin to heal and his heart lift. It was then she knew he would be okay. It gladdened her heart that he was not the only one that she healed and helped in this feat.
Her last touch was including the three boys in the projection. Everyone knew the moment she did so, though they did not know it was she who did so. Their thoughts were different. They too were those of love, but also of gratitude, and directed toward none other than the fans themselves. The feelings escalated and peaked in responce to each other. There were more than a few people in tears of joy, the boys included. People grasped hands, hugged, laughed and wept. The sharing suddenly ended, the web no longer held, but they did not care. They knew the feelings were still there, though maybe no longer perceived to the previous extent.
Isaac, Taylor and Zac walked to the front of the stage and hugging and crying began to sing. Every person in the theater sang along even if they didn't know every single word. Every person in the theater sang along except for one girl who lay unconscious in her seat. Unnoticed, unmissed. Yet whose absence of presence was noticed and missed. They would always remember her, but never make the connection with a face. Maybe the brushing of a thought. Her presence breifly felt. A small weird sense of deja vu. All associated with that moment, bringing back the warm memories. But never a person. Never a face.
Never the face of Elsie, the hidden telepath, who spent every last ounce of her strength to provide an unforgettable moment that touched many minds and hearts and bound them all together in healing. Including her own.