Stewart, a Man With Much on His Mind

For Stewart, the day started like any other. After the talk with his sister, the two of them took the bus to the college. Campus wasn't to far, so it was a trip of about fifteen minutes. As usual, they each sat in their own world as they watched the city roll by. Stewart pulled out an MP3 player and began to listen to the music he had saved before. In truth, he'd heard it hundreds of times by now, and he wasn't really listening to it in any case. It was a distraction, but his mind refused to be distracted and returned again and again to the key in his pocket. When he'd first taken it up, it had told him about all the things it could do. Now those things broiled inside of his brain, twisting and turning as they echoed with promise and danger both.

Stewart was not a serious guy by any means. In spite of his muscular frame, he couldn't hold a grudge to save his life. He had plenty of friends and few enemies. He was relaxed and laid back, figured that the best way to live life was to take it slow and do what felt good. He had no goals really - his sister had enough for both of them. He was smart when he could be bothered, though, and anyone who took his attitude to mean that he was dumb or stupid was sure to get a rude awakening. He was _good _at solving problems when he had a mind to.

For instance, the problem of the key...

If he used it, was this an evil act? It was making someone think or feel something they normally wouldn't. Overriding their self determination. By any metric, that was at best shady and at worst evil. On the other hand, it could also do a great deal of good. The first though that came to mind was helping people to deal with grief. If he could remove it or reduce it, wouldn't that make their life better? Even if it came at the cost of taking away their self determination?

He couldn't tell anyone he had it, of course. If he did, they'd probably not believe him. If they _did _believe him, they'd take it away. He didn't think the government would let something like this remain in the hands of some random teen. So confessing the truth of it was out unless he absolutely trusted someone. He had a few ideas of people he might trust that much, but that was for the second stage of his plan. The first one was...

Wait, hadn't he mentioned that he had a plan? Well, he'd come up with one, though it wasn't much of a plan really. He needed to test the key in a way that he felt less guilty about. Using it on himself was out of the question since if it went wrong, who would be able to remove the effects from him? It had to be on someone else, but he wasn't willing to mess with anyone's feelings just yet either. So he had resolved to use it on physical sensations. Something that didn't go as deep as feelings, but which could still be used to figure out how well it worked.

They arrived at the stop outside of the college and he remained lost in thought. The twins got out of the bus, and the entrance to the campus was just across the road. Jean said something and Stewart nodded, making some comment of his own. He didn't know what it was, he wasn't really paying attention. He was devoting more and more of his energy to the puzzle he'd set himself.

He couldn't use the key on just anyone, but it couldn't be himself and it also had to be someone who he absolutely trusted and who absolutely trusted him. In the end, only one name really jumped to mind. Susie, who was his girlfriend of three years. They'd gone to school together and then to college together and they were close. He trusted her with his life when it came right down to it.

Looking at the key, he mused that he might ultimately be about to do exactly that.

Lost in thought, Stewart wandered into the campus, leaving his sister behind.