Archer Warrick February 21st,20XX

The man Joyce had seemed so familiar with stared at me awkwardly, like he couldn’t figure out what to do with me. He shifted in his seat and looked into my cup to see if I’d drained it empty yet, but the warm brown liquid sat at the halfway mark of the mug.

“Uh... shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I slept at the hospital and in the car. I’m fine.”

I was tired, but I was also too wired to sleep. As soon as I’d said I would go with her, Joyce had swept through my discharge procedure and had rushed Eva and I into her nice car. Since I wasn’t actually hurt, it was fine, but I wondered why she was in such a hurry to get Eva and I out of there.

If not because I could read her mind, I would have suspected ulterior motives. She’d spent most of the drive speaking on the phone with someone and had looked distressed the whole time. She’d put up a partition and filled the back seat with white noise, so we could sleep on the way here, but while I appreciated the consideration, it had meant that I couldn’t hear what she was talking about on the phone.

The drive had been long and smooth, so despite my original intentions, I had fallen asleep. By the time we had reached the house, I’d woken up to Joyce carrying Eva in her arms and directing the man I’d seen in her memories to do the same to me.

I was already fifteen and didn’t need or want to be carried like a child, so I’d quickly woken up and asked to walk on my own. And now I was here, sitting in the living room and waiting for everyone else to wake up.

The man awkwardly looked around as he tried to figure out what to say to me, but stayed silent. I tried my best to resist the urge to read his thoughts, but clips of emotion still made it into my head. Ever since last night and the emotional assault that my uncle had accidentally sent over to me, I’d been overly sensitive to other’s emotions.

It wasn’t impossible to block off, but that would mean completely estranging myself from my powers. I didn’t consider myself dependent on the powers, but it would be too dangerous to seal them off completely while so many strangers surrounded me.

While I sat in the living room with Aaron, I instinctively looked around for Eva, who usually hung around me like a shadow and remembered that she was asleep in another room with Joyce. She had glommed onto Joyce so quickly that I’d wondered if Joyce had used any powers on her, but as far as I knew she was a normal human. The two had taken over Aaron’s room and the air mattress he’d spent so much effort inflating went unused.

“So… I’m assuming you have…abilities as well?”

He gently tried to broach the topic, and I sensed worry and caution from him. From his question I could tell that Joyce hadn’t told him what powers I had, so I wondered why he was so cautious around me.

I ended up getting lost in my thoughts and apparently took too long to respond. A thought dawned on his face and he looked around. He finally settled on a bottle that laid sideways on the floor and extended an arm towards it.

Before I could gather a read on his intentions, he flicked his wrist downwards and the plastic bottle flattened under an invisible weight.

“I have them as well, so you don’t have to be cautious around me.”

It was such a casual display of power and the warm smile on his face made it hard to keep my guard up, but I knew that adults smiled too easily, and lied even easier. This much was nothing.

Still, he had shown off his powers first, so I thought to return the courtesy. Miss Joyce had brought us here to meet people like us, so there was no reason to hide my abilities.

I gently put down the cup of hot chocolate and extended my arms toward the flattened bottle. While I could move things with my mind, it didn’t come easily, and I could only lift about the same amount of weight that I could with my body.

His eyes widened as I moved the flattened bottle from the floor and into the trashcan.

“I can move things with my mind… I can also read people’s minds, but you don’t have to worry, I can turn it off.”

I figured Joyce would eventually tell him and exposed my ability to read minds as well.

Aaron looked surprised by my sudden volunteering of information and put down his cup of coffee as well.

“Well, I can manipulate gravity, but I’m not that great at it. I can fly with it, and I can make other things heavier or lighter. The twins, you’ll meet them later, have powers as well, but I’ll let them introduce themselves. There is also another girl named Destia, we’re all going to meet her for the first time tomorrow though.”

Although I’d insinuated that I wouldn’t read his mind, I couldn’t resist the urge and did a light scan of the second layer. His emotions were steady and aside from a slight nervousness of dealing with me, showed that he was comfortable.

He said he was okay, but those bruises look pretty bad… what type of idiot would hurt such a small kid, anyway?

While being referred to as a small kid ticked me off, I tried not to show it on my face and reveal that I was reading his mind.

I tossed out a prodding question to get some more information. Ms. Joyce had told us a few things, but I felt that I would get a more trustworthy opinion from someone else that had powers. As well, he seemed to know her pretty well and would have a better understanding of her intentions than others might.

“Why did Ms. Joyce gather us all up? What does she want with us?”

He looked surprised by the sudden question but answered quickly in response.

“What? Well, she just wants to help. I know it sounds hard to believe, but she doesn’t have much else of a reason.”

His answer was standard enough that I didn’t bother listening and went straight for his mind.

Why is she helping so much? Probably to feed her hero obsession…She won’t make me wear a costume, will she?

A hero obsession? A costume?

I tried another leading question.

“Has she helped you a lot then? Or like, has she run any tests on you or made you do anything?”

“ She barely lets me pay her back for anything, never mind makes me do anything. As for tests… She set me up with a bunch of scientists and test grounds to get used to my powers. She’ll probably have you guys go through a couple of tests to see if your powers show up in medical scans, but outside of that it’ll be up to you guys to decide what you want to do.”

I almost didn’t have to look into his head to know that he genuinely trusted Joyce. His eyes sparkled when he talked about her, and he broached topics like being tested without so much as a flinch.

A fast-paced song broke the silence, and he quickly brought out his phone. He sent me an apologetic smile before getting up and leaving to answer the call.

The living room felt a lot larger than it had while he was here, and I suddenly felt alone. I got out of my chair and walked around the house, looking at its long hallways and decorative wallpaper. It was much bigger than any I’d even been in, but it felt too silent.

My hands itched for the notepad I’d left back at my aunt and uncle’s house, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get it back. I’d recorded most of the songs on my phone, but I wasn’t that great at using notation and relied heavily on the guide my dad had left me in there.

It suddenly occurred to me that there wasn’t anything stopping me from returning to that place. My uncle was in jail, and my aunt was well on her way to a different country. Even if I returned to that building, it would only be an empty shell. And eventually, the building would get sold off, and I wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.

No matter what Joyce wanted to do to us… as long as it wasn’t too unbearable, and as long as she didn’t mess with Eva. I would just have to bear with it.