“You hear that Sash, she don’t like it,” Toshiko laughed.
“Ha, if you don’t like it, take some of this,” Sasha snapped before flying at Scarlett.
“Run!” Scarlett urged the Gouldens, who quickly raced to the stairs. As they sprinted out of sight, she telekinetically threw a plate at Sasha to defend herself.
“You!” Toshiko yelled. “The telekinetic witch. I should have known. How did I not sense you?”
“I think our cover’s well and truly blown now,” Lucy sighed. “Come on Neelam, let’s go help her.”
As the pair ran towards the action, Lucy threw an electric bolt at Toshiko to stop her landing a devastating kick right on Scarlett’s chest.
“Thanks,” Scarlett smiled gratefully.
Lucy gave her an ‘it’s nothing’ shrug.
Out of the corner of her eye, Scarlett noticed Sasha was back up off the floor. She flew at her again, but this time Scarlett didn’t react quickly enough. Sasha pushed her flying out of the edge of the restaurant wall and into the main store, where she dropped Scarlett mid-air.
“Oh no, what do I do know?” Scarlett thought in a panic. Her heart was racing and her mind was spinning with conflicting thoughts and emotions. She glanced around for something soft to break her fall, but there was nothing.
“Help!” she screamed in vain as she squeezed her eyes tight.
Then someone grabbed her. Someone with a very strong hold. Scarlett opened her eyes to see who her saviour was.
“Dylan!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never been so pleased to see you.”
“Oh you know, I was just flying past,” he quipped.
“Leave the jokes to Jay,” she laughed. “That was dreadful.”
Scarlett was laughing and crying at the same time. Every feeling and thought possible was surging through her anxious, elated, scared, excited and erratic mind. She locked her eyes with Dylan’s. Suddenly, she went a little giddy and her stomach felt all fluttery. “It’s just the adrenalin from the excitement,” she tried to tell herself. There was something about being wrapped in his arms that made her feel very comfortable and protected though. It just felt right.
“Thank you,” she whispered to Dylan, grabbing hold of him tightly. He smiled and brushed her hair from her face, then he flew her back up to the restaurant.
“Oh thank goodness!” Lucy exclaimed. “You’re OK!”
Neelam and Lucy ran to hug her.
“Toshiko and Sasha have left and I think we’d better get out of here too,” Lucy said.
“Good idea,” Dylan agreed. “The cops, press and security will be crawling all over this place soon. Neelam can you make us invisible as we leave?”
“Consider it done, boss.”
“Lucy, can you short circuit any CCTVs that are around? We don’t want any of this being caught on camera.”
“Of course.”
“OK, let’s get out of here.”
Forty minutes later, the group arrived home. Dylan had insisted they all took the tube back together as a team because they didn’t all have powers that allowed them to fly or move quickly. They had travelled home in silence, but the girls knew they were in trouble once they got through the door. Neelam had mentally warned them to expect it and Scarlett didn’t need to be a telepath to know that Dylan was angry.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he barked as they all walked into the sitting room. “Neelam, I’m so disappointed in you for leading this crazy plan”
Neelam hung her head guiltily. Lucy looked sheepish.
“And Scarlett, I can’t believe you went along with it.”
“She didn’t know,” Lucy said sticking up for her. “It was mine and Neelam’s idea. Scarlett thought we were just going shopping.”
Scarlett couldn’t believe she’d defended her.
“Although, she did attack Sasha and Toshiko first and blew our cover,” Lucy added quickly.
“They were going to hurt the prime minister,” Scarlett protested. “Thanks for nothing, Lucy,” she thought silently.
“So…” Jay snapped. “He deserves it.”
“So, that’s wrong. No matter who someone is, we help them,” she insisted.
“Scarlett’s right,” Dylan said. “We don’t stand by and watch people be attacked, no matter who they are. She did the right thing.”
“I am sorry…” Neelam started to say.
Dylan looked impatient. “What was the point in all this anyway? What were you hoping to achieve?”
“Lucy stumbled across some information that made us think Goulden might have taken some more teenagers prisoner. Obviously, we were concerned they might be some of our siblings. Lucy couldn’t find anything to verify this or give us any more details though. I wanted to get close enough to Goulden to read his mind and find out more. Lucy came across an appointment for lunch with Adam in Clarissa’s PA’s diary, so we grabbed our opportunity. I needed to take the girls with me to cover my back while I got the information I needed.”
“You still should have told me,” Dylan said, shaking his head.
“I know, but I thought you wouldn’t agree to it.”
“That’s right, I wouldn’t have and now you can see why. Scarlett would have been killed if I hadn’t turned up.”
Dylan paced the room.
“At least I’m not in trouble for once.” Jay quipped, breaking the air.
No one replied.
“Hey Scarlett,” he said. He was obviously keen to babble rather than let the room stay silent. “I just thought. Why didn’t you fly yourself when Dylan saved you?”
She looked at him incredulously.
“Because I, erm, can’t,” she said as though he was stupid.
“Yes you can,” he laughed. “You always used to fling yourself around. You’ve got the power of telekinesis, silly. You can lift things, so you can lift yourself. Wow you really have forgotten everything.”
“Shut up Jay,” Dylan interrupted, rubbing his temples. He was still pacing. “You’re giving me a headache.”
“Is this true?” she asked.
“Yes,” Dylan said. “We’ll sit down and have a proper chat about your powers, I swear. And a practice. But we need to finish discussing this first.”
He gave Jay a look for interfering. Poor Dylan really seemed hassled. She understood that her needs weren’t a priority here and let the matter drop. For now.
“What more is there to say?” Lucy moaned. “You really do draw your lectures out.”
“Don’t be so insolent,” he said giving her a serious look. “We still haven’t asked Neelam if she managed to find out anything when she mind-probed Goulden. I want to know if this ridiculous escapade was worth the risk.”
Dylan turned to Neelam. “Well?” Suddenly all eyes were on her.
“He has got two teens with super powers,” she said, “but I couldn’t find out where he was hiding them.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know,” Jay reasoned.
“Two more of us? With powers?” Dylan said. “Is that possible?”
“It’s entirely possible,” Neelam said. She paused as if she was trying to find a way to say what came next. She looked at Lucy.
“It’s Lucy’s brother, Aaron, and Sasha’s sister, Maria.”
Chapter 10
“Hello?” Scarlett called as she walked down the stairs.
There was no reply.
She wandered through the kitchen, dining room and the lounge, but she couldn’t find anybody. She took a seat and sighed. There’d been a hostile atmosphere hanging over the house ever since they had got back from yesterday’s disastrous mission. Everyone had sulked off on their own for the rest of the day. Dylan took solace in the training room, Jay distracted himself by playing computer games and Lucy and Neelam had been hanging out in Lucy’s room. Even when the four of them had run into each other, the conversation had rapidly descended into a row, which led to them all stomping off in different directions again.
Meanwhile,
Scarlett had been busy hiding in her own bedroom reading books – just like she used to do whenever her parents had a row at home. She hated arguments and tension, so she preferred to keep out of it and escape into her own little world. Especially as she was new to the group.
Scarlett had tried going down to the training room, in the hope that Dylan would answer some questions about her powers and help her practise, but he’d been so preoccupied, he hadn’t even noticed her standing at the door watching him for 30 minutes. She realised now that she probably should have spoken up, instead of skulking around by the stairs, but he seemed so focussed. She figured he needed some time alone.
She’d waited long enough now though. Jay’s revelation that she could fly was playing on her mind and she needed to talk to Dylan to find out more. Scarlett had always wanted to fly – she even used to balance on chairs and pretend she was Supergirl when she was six years old. The thought that she could do it for real was so strange. Nothing seemed impossible after the events of the last few days though. She’d learned to expect the unexpected.
She crept back into the hallway, which seemed big and empty with no one around. The house was so quiet and still, it was eerie. She stared at the steps to the training room. “Is Dylan still down there?” she wondered. She wanted to go and check out the facility for herself, but was she allowed? She wasn’t sure if she’d be breaking some kind of rules if she waltzed down there on her own. Scarlett really didn’t fancy being on the receiving end of one of Dylan’s lectures.
Scarlett looked back at the stairs. “Oh what the hell,” she thought. “Let’s do this.” She looked left and right to make sure no one was coming, then darted across the hall and skipped down into the basement. She pushed the door open and looked around the huge white space. It was empty, which made it seem even larger and more imposing than it had the other day. The walls and ceiling were all painted a brilliant shade of white, while the floors were made from old mahogany wood. It looked like a cross between her school gym and a science lab. As she tiptoed further into the huge space, she felt a little hesitant.
“Maybe I should go back upstairs,” she thought nervously. “I probably should... On the other hand, I could have a little practise, seeing as I’m down here.” She didn’t have to switch the machine on. To be honest, she didn’t know how to, but she could still try a few moves all the same.
She walked into the middle of the room and wondered what to do next. She desperately wanted to try flying, but she had no idea where to begin. She looked around apprehensively to be absolutely certain no one was watching her.
“Fly,” she whispered. She stared at her feet. They were still firmly on the ground.
Scarlett jumped. “Fly!” she said, more loudly this time. No joy.
She jumped as high as she could and pulled her legs up to her chest. “Fly!”
“Owch!” she yelled as she landed flat on her bum.
She clambered back to her feet, stood on her tiptoes and flapped her arms.
“Fly, fly fly!”
It still didn’t work.
“What on earth are you doing?” she heard Dylan say.
“Oh no,” she thought as she froze on the spot. “Am I in trouble?” She slowly turned round to see him standing at the door giggling.
“Trying to fly,” she mumbled, staring at the floor and blushing.
Dylan roared with laughter.
“By jumping and flapping your arms? You’re not a sparrow.”
“Well, I don’t know how to do it,” she protested. “No one seems to want to help me.”
Dylan sighed and walked towards her. “I’m sorry, Scarlett, there always seems to be a million things going on around this place. I didn’t mean to neglect you.”
“I know,” she shrugged. To be honest, she was just grateful he wasn’t telling her off. “Where is everybody anyway?”
“Jay, Lucy and Neelam are following a lead about Lucy’s brother. They think he might be being held in Birmingham. It seems like a long-shot, but we have to check it out.”
“And you didn’t go with them?”
“No, we had a few rows. You might have heard them,” he said dejectedly.
“One or two.”
“So I thought I’d let them go alone, to prove that I’m not a complete control freak.”
“You’re not a control freak,” she assured him.
“Aren’t I? I feel like I’ve failed. We’re getting nowhere. The team doesn’t have any faith in me. I’ve taken no time to train you. I’m a terrible leader.”
“Don’t be so down on yourself.” It seemed strange to see him looking beaten instead of confident. “Every leader feels unpopular sometimes. It goes with the territory. The group are never going to like all your decisions and your decisions aren’t always going to be right. You can’t go through this without having mistakes and conflict, it’s how you handle those things that counts.”
Dylan smiled. “You’re so wise, Scarlett. You always know what to say to make me feel better.”
“I am pretty smart, aren’t I?” she joked. “Now are you going to stop sulking and help me train, or what?”
Dylan laughed. “OK, I think we’ll have to do it with the room like this though. I’m unsure about using the machine without Lucy around.”
Scarlett felt less stupid about not knowing how to use it hearing that.
“Is that alright?”
“Of course,” she insisted.
“Right, well… hmmm. I’ve never taught anyone to fly before, so bear with me.”
She watched Dylan’s eyes dance around as he searched his brain for what to say.
“Right… he began. Now, remember, I’ve only been doing this flying lark myself for a couple of months. You taught me, so it seems weird now, doing it the other way round.” He laughed.
“I taught you?” It was strange to hear that. She was annoyed that she had no knowledge of her past with Dylan, or the rest of the group. It was like someone had taken something from her. Something special.
“Yeah! I hope I can be half the teacher you were.”
Scarlett was embarrassed by the compliment, but she loved it all the same.
“Why didn’t you tell me I can fly?”
“I thought it’d be better to let you get used to moving other things around before you risked flinging yourself through the air,” Dylan explained. “I still think that, but I understand that you’re keen to get started, now that Jay’s gone and told you.” Dylan looked annoyed as he remembered Jay’s revelation the day before.
“Thanks,” she said. “For thinking of me. I promise not to push myself too far though. If I feel like I’m not comfortable, I’ll go back to learning how to move stuff. How’s that for a deal?”
“Sounds good,” Dylan said, putting his hand out to jokingly shake on it.
She took his hand and shook it. “Done!” they both said.
Dylan stood in front of Scarlett, as if to signal he was ready to begin.
“Now, relax your mind,” he told her. “I know it sounds cheesy, but you really do have to be calm. Trying to force yourself to do it won’t work.”
“OK.” She tried hard to relax, but she still felt tense.
“You need to think of it as being as second nature as breathing. Believe you can fly and it just happens. Like this.” Dylan floated a foot off the floor and came back down.
Scarlett tried. She failed.
“I don’t think I can do it,” she said sadly.
“If you think you can’t, you won’t be able to,” Dylan said. “That kind of negative thinking is a block. Don’t wonder if you can, don’t hope you can, believe you can… and you will.”
“I can do it, I can do it, relax, I can, relax,” she repeated in her head.
She felt her feet start to lift off the floor. But then it stopped.
“Damn it!”
“You were doing it then, I swear you were.”
“I was probably just standing on tiptoe,” she muttered.<
br />
“Hey! No negativity. If you don’t stop that, I’ll make you go out of the room, leave your destructive thoughts outside the door and come back in.” He laughed to try to lift her sprits, but there was no use.
“I can’t do it,” she insisted. “Can we stop? I don’t feel like it’ll happen at all.”
“It will,” Dylan said reassuringly. “And in the meantime, I promise to be there any time you need rescuing in mid-air,” he grinned.
“Thanks!” she laughed. “There aren’t many people who can promise me that. Well, there aren’t any, thinking about it.”
“So…do you want to do some training on your other telekinesis skills?” he asked.
“Of course,” Scarlett said. She didn’t want to seem like a complete wimp to Dylan. She had might as well put some work in.
Dylan looked around the bare room.
“Hmmm, we might have a bit of difficulty practising down here without Lucy,” he realised. “Let’s go upstairs.”
She followed him up the steps and into the sitting room.
“Can you lift that?” he asked, pointing at a book.
Easy. She’d been practising on small items in her room. She lifted the book, whizzed it over the room into Dylan’s hands and opened it at page one.
“Very good,” Dylan laughed. He looked impressed, which made Scarlett proud.
He passed her the book. “Now, can you put it on the shelf over there in place of another book?
Another easy one. She pulled a book off the shelf, then moved the one she was holding over there into its place. She brought the spare book over to them, again placing it in Dylan’s hands.
“You’re funny,” Dylan said.
He pointed at the coffee table, which was covered in mugs and magazines.
“Can you clear that?”
“What, I’m your little servant now?” she joked.
“No, I’m helping you develop your powers.”
“Slave driver,” she teased
“Stop slacking and do as I say,” he joked in a mock serious tone.
Out Of Time Page 9
