The entire scene left me speechless. I was staring at the cat, at the group, then back at the cat. So many questions were bouncing around in my head, but I couldn’t speak any one of them. And they were enjoying the damn show, nobody bothering to clear things up.

“How… why? Who did this to you?!”

I was talking to a cat.

A cat!

“You did.” Ria said waving her tail.

“What?! Are you insane? How the hell…”

“The energy you put into my body damaged my cells. Now, every morning I wake up as a cat.”

I was stunned.

“…no, it can’t be! Ria, I’m so sorry, I just…I can’t…”

“Ria, stop messing with her. Mia, sweety, it’s not your fault. She’s a shape-shifter.” Allaya said.

“What? Oh, wow! Oh, thank God! I really thought that… Oh, you bitch!” I said, releasing a small wire of electricity from my hand.

“If you want the same scars from your back, on your face as well, you could just ask.”

She purred.

“Stop! Both of you, stop now!” Allaya faked an angry face. “Why can’t you two just…” and suddenly burst out in laughter, followed by the rest of them.

“Mia, you should see your face.” Bill said through the tears.

I rolled my eyes and started to eat my breakfast.

All said and done, after this incident, we started to train. So far, I managed to control the amount and the intensity of the electricity and succeeded in spreading it around me like an aura-shield. The radius of the release is currently six meters in all directions. All that practice got Bill hurt sometimes, but Allaya was there to heal any of the more serious injuries.

On that day, Bill wanted me to expand the shield around all of them, in case another fight came along. That is, to expand it without hurting anyone else in the process. It was hard as hell and doing it put me in some amount of pain. On top of that, my headaches grew worse, as my power annoyingly got out of control. Yet I wanted to protect them so much, the sacrifice was insignificant by comparison. Nobody will die.

“Bill, I need to find my brother. You promised!”

“Did you check the lists…?”

“I did. No sign of him. And I know that, three days ago, they delivered mobile phones in my hometown too.”

“Mia, we can’t leave town. How…”

“I will sneak out. I don’t know how, but I will find a way. Somehow.”

“That’s impossible and you know it. They’ll arrest you.”

“Or even worse, they could kill you.” Allaya said.

“Yeah, not likely.” Bill mumbled.

Allaya sighed and checked the list on her phone again. There was no Karl Russell on any list. We tried to call the neighbors and his few friends, but nobody saw Karl. How is that even possible? They found each other, but they couldn’t find my brother.

I was informed that my aunt was found dead, in our house. After our parents died, she moved in to take care of my brother. I moved to Bayas to study and get a job, in order for me to be able to pay the bills and Karl’s treatment.

Our mother died on a crosswalk, hit by a drunk driver. She went to pick up my red dress from the cleaning shop. I was 14 years old and my birthday was two days away when it happened. It turned out that I wore a black dress.

Since then, my father found a way to move on: booze and drugs. Typical. That turned out to be his downfall. He died five months later, in their bed, hugging my mom’s pillow and a bottle of scotch.

“What if somebody kidnapped him?”

“Mia, sweety. Why would someone kidnap a sick boy who knows hardly anyone?”

“Then, where is he? Who’s taking care of him?”

“Calm down. We’ll find him, I swear.” Allaya hugged me.

“Something is not right, Allaya. I can feel it.”

“I know. But trust me, we’ll find him. He’s not dead, that’s for sure. Otherwise, they would have found his body.”

Allaya was right, he’s not dead. At least, that’s what I wanted to believe. We continued our training and Ria delighted us by shifting into a dog, a monkey, then again into a cat. She told us that she practiced her power every morning, in her room, to spare us from the grisly images, of stretched muscles and cracked bones. My mind was elsewhere, so we called the training off. I needed to be alone and took a walk in the forest behind our house. As I came closer to the center of it, I stopped to admire the view and took a deep breath.

I was surrounded by trees and in that moment my mind and body were one with nature. My eyes were closed and my senses were tickled by the warm air. Enjoying the silence and disconnecting from the world and its burdens.

Each breath was like water, fresh and cleansing, flowing freely into my lungs. The forest hummed with life around me and tears streaked down on my cheeks. I was far away in the past, into another forest with my mom, who was singing to me. What an angelic voice she had. I’ve never allowed myself to miss her, but I needed her so much. And I cried. For my family, my lost world and its dead people. Suddenly, the same blue eyes as before appeared in my head accompanied by a loud and violent scream: “RUN!”

I yelped and fell down on my knees, trying to breathe, while frantically scanning the forest. What the fuck just happened? Judging by the sounds, somebody was approaching, making the grass rustle. I started to run like crazy, but I couldn’t understand myself. There were other people who wondered in that forest, occasionally, besides me.

When I got closer to our house, I saw Allaya and Ria pacing restlessly, at the entrance to the forest.

When they saw me, Ria picked up her phone and called someone.

“Bill, we found her. She’s home now. Be cautious on your way back.”

“Allaya! What happened?” I asked while heading towards them.

“Mia, thank God! Get inside, now!” Allaya dragged me into the kitchen, through the back entrance. Where’s Bill?”

“On his way here.” Ria answered.

“What the hell is happening?! Some kind of freakish eyes appeared into my head, telling me to run and when I get here, I find you two shaking like leaves, looking to hide me from… what?”

Bill stormed in, being relieved to see me safe and sound. That comforted me a little bit.

“They’re after you, Mia.” Bill said.

“Who? The authorities? Why?!”

“No, not them. Some fancy suits motherfuckers hunting the one who caused the ‘dangerously powerful lightning’ three weeks ago.”

My jaw was on the floor. Hunting?! We were staring at each other, unable to believe what just happened. I was… hunted? Why?

Because I couldn’t control my power and my friends might be in danger because of me. That’s what the rational part of me felt. I could already sense what I had to do, a plan forming in my head, but Allaya, being emphatic as usual, read me like a book.

“Don’t you dare leave! We stand together and make it through.”

“We can’t fight them!”

“Listen, Whitey. They don’t know your name or your face. Only that, in this area, someone released a big bolt of lightning.” Bill intervened.

“But a few people saw me after I killed Tommy.”

“…what? How?”

“While Allaya was taking care of your injuries, I went outside to clear my mind and there were some people staring at me.”

“Who saw you? How many?”

“I don’t know, Bill. Three or four people. But I haven’t seen them around, since then. Maybe they left the area.”

“We can’t risk staying here anymore. Not when they put a bounty on your head. Whoever is willing to give information on you will receive money and food. We need to move.” Allaya said.

“A bounty?! Who the fuck are they? Why do they want my power?”

“Mia, I don’t know. But I have the feeling that you just got the rich fuckers’ attention. They and the Ministry of Defense work together, but nobody knows on what exactly. I bet they’re creating an army or something like that.” Bill said.

“This is insane!”

“Listen. Who’s running the world? The rich elites. The top percent. What is their weapon? Power! And you have plenty of that to catch their eye.”

“We can’t leave this house.” Elliot said.

“Why? Spit it out, kid.”

“Look, they’ll stick around for a while and they’ve already saw us in this house. If we move out, two things could happen. One, they will spot us on the street, since the surroundings are filled with their agents. Two, we don’t know what houses they checked. They already saw us in this house. If they find us in another one, how are we going to explain the reason for leaving behind perfectly fine house to live in, like this one?”

Bull sighted.

“Smart kid.” Bill said.

“Elliot is right. We will permanently keep the door locked and I will not leave the house anymore. But you guys need to get back to your daily routines. This way, they won’t get any more suspicious about us. I hope.”

After our emergency group-talk, Allaya made us all tea and locked the doors. I managed to calm down and we were sitting around the table, making plans. They seemed to be optimistic, but deep down, I knew that I’ll have to leave soon.

I looked at Allaya and tried to hold my tears in. Then I looked at Bill and the rest of them. I will miss them. They saved my life and it was time to return the favor. Ria had a serious look on her face and was checking me carefully. We were looking into each other’s eyes and she nodded. And this is how Ria and I shared our first and, probably, last secret. She knew I would leave and she was not going to try and stop me. I couldn’t blame her.

That night I couldn’t sleep. My thoughts were randomly flying around in my head and I couldn’t decide what to do next. My brother was missing, some dangerous men were hunting me and someone was messing with my head. But even if it sounds crazy, those eyes kept me alive twice. The image from the meeting room came clearly to my mind, each and every time I was thinking about them. There had to be a connection between these dots and I needed to draw a line. Who was that man staring at me over Ken’s shoulder?

Giving up on sleep, I went to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea. I didn’t turn on the lights, not wanting to wake anyone up.

The water was boiling in the rusty kettle and I was looking out the window. Something caught my attention and my mind was already on alert. Another movement behind a tree confirmed what I already felt, that this couldn’t be the wind or an animal. I kept peering in that direction, until a man with a rifle left the hidden spot and stealthily moved towards the house. Another followed him and then another one. It looked like things were heating up.

I woke the others up and shared my half-baked plan as quick as I could. For the other half we had to improvise. The plan was to wait in the kitchen until they broke into the house, through front door. We checked the back entrance, which led to the forest and we saw there were a few of them there. They were probably waiting for us, in case we tried to run through the back. And that was exactly what we did.

When the front door was slammed open, I opened the kitchen’s door and used my power without hesitating a second. I was leading the way through the forest, destroying everything in front of me. Some trees caught fire and the smell of burnt skin chocked us. We started to run, without looking behind.

We were chased by a group of around fifteen men. They were barking orders at each other, that I couldn’t understand properly, while they were spreading out. These hunters had a strategy they followed and my panic got even worse as what we had didn’t even resemble one. We were like a flock of sheep, chased by wolves.

I could see quick movement out of the corner of my eye and their voices were approaching us faster and faster. Suddenly, I heard a loud thump behind us and I almost tripped over. They caught us. My mouth was dry and my vision got blurry. Bill saw that I was about to lose my mind and screamed from behind:

“Ria is shifting, keep focusing on the road, Mia.”

“In a bloody cat? Now?!” I barked.

A wild growl caught me from behind and suddenly I was running next to a black gigantic cat. Except it wasn’t a cat. It was a jaguar! The big, frightening, angry jaguar gave me a threatening look and it froze my heart as well as the time.

And I had just called her a cat.

I tried to look forward, since I was so close to dying. Smashed by a three, eaten by a jaguar or just a plain old bullet in my head. So many options, Mia.

“Spread out!” Bill ordered.

“I’ll take Allaya and Elise. You go with Ria and Elliot.” I suggested.

Ria growled and deep down, in my trembling bones, I knew it was the promise of a long discussion with less words and more action, probably. Oh well!

The girls and I took a left, following the oak trees with no clue of what was ahead. The other three kept the same path, following the river. I shut the outside world down for a moment, to reach out for my power. It was hard to focus, while running desperately without any manner of direction and that’s why my power was difficult to be felt or controlled. Allaya and Elise were my responsibility, so I had to become calmer and less panicked.

I thought about my mother and I started humming the lullaby she used to sing to me, when I was sad. My heart was still racing, but at least I started to feel the lightning within my chest, coalescing on the top of my fingers. The more my strength grew, the more confident I became.

“Mia, they’re almost on top of us!” Elise screamed.

I looked behind at my friends and I saw Allaya being very firm and calm, looking away. She had already started to fight and probably killed several men by now. It was my turn, as four of them appeared in front of us, with their rifles raised and pointed at us.

“Stop where you are!” one of them ordered.

I released a big amount of electricity within my hand and sent it straight ahead. They died screaming, burning along with the forest, whose trees and greenery was turned into ashes. The men from behind started to shoot, which managed to piss me off so much that my power almost exploded into my chest. It felt like a damn breaking loose. It begged to be free and I was just waiting for the right moment.

“Are you both ok?” I checked the girls.

“Yes, keep running. We need to lure them all in a tight place so you can finish them off with your lightning. I’ll cover your back.” Allaya said.

“Allaya?!” Elliot shouted.

Allaya and I almost tripped, when we came to a stop and turned around in shock. We were staring at Elliot and Elliot was staring at us.

“Where’s my sister?”

…

“What the fuck?!” I yelled.