When I was nineteen years old, I still wasn’t fully comfortable using my ability to control minds. I had tested it out and pushed some boundaries here and there. It was exhilarating to make people obey me with just a simple command. Still, I was scared to try to really push someone. I just gave people little nudges here and there to get something I wanted. One time I told Kyle, the owner of the restaurant where I worked, to give me a modest raise. He didn’t even blink. He just agreed and we moved on, except I was making a few more dollars an hour.
After that I kept thinking that I should have pushed for more. I probably could have asked for a hundred dollars an hour and he would have done it without a second thought. I couldn’t get the question out of my mind. How much could I get away with? The answer, I learned, is that I can get away with anything.