The Gifted

by C. C. Lynch

Over by the laboratories was an older man and the guy that had been upset about Abrielle, Erik. He was pointing at the guy and yelling something about Abrielle being gone and it was the other guy’s fault. From the expression and sudden meltdown that the other guy was having, that was not his intent. Erik put his hand on the man’s arm and his entire demeanor changed. Whatever it was that Erik had done to him, I did not want to be next. I slowly crept away and went back towards the room full of dangerous chemicals.

  I saw the two walk by the door and I decided that the laboratories might have better options. After checking a few places, I found vials labeled “Abbott, A.” That was Abrielle’s last name, I was sure of it. My first instinct was to pick them up, but instead I took all the vials and smashed them on the ground. Whatever was in those, I did not want the people at Replyx to get their hands on them.

  The British man appeared behind me suddenly, causing me to shatter a bottle of acetone on the ground. “Jeez,” I put my hand on my heart, “you startled me.”

  He raised a brow, “did you stir up some chaos?”

  I nodded in response.

  “Good,” he looped his arm in mine and took me back to Glaston Academy.

  “Wait,” I put my hand up quickly, “you’ve got to help out Connor and Ovolina. Some crazy neon guy is after them.”

  Halfway into his eyeroll, he teleported out of the room.

  Donny was sleeping peacefully on the floor where I left him, but I needed to get him down to the shelter where it was warm. Fortunately, my masculine build was good for something, even if it was carrying my brother fireman style down a set of stairs.

  I put my hand on Donny’s forehead. He was cold and slender. He had the same lean build as me, but had lost weight since I last saw him. Whatever he saw at Replyx, whatever happened to him, left an obvious mark.

  As silly as it may have been at the time, I wanted him to have soup when he woke up. Something hot and comforting should be ready for someone after they go through a traumatic experience. Then again, I had no idea what exactly he had gone through.

  I ran to the cafeteria, threw a cup of broth into the microwave, and ran back. I set it in front of him quietly and took another look at him before I would go back up to see if I could help with anything else. Just as I turned to leave the shelter Donny’s raspy voice whispered, “hey, Claire.”

  I turned and knelt down in front of him, grabbing his cold hand in mine. “I’m here.” I squeezed his hand. “How long were you there?”

  He shook his head, not quite opening his eyes yet. “I don’t know. The… the food was drugged.” He fought through a haze to keep speaking. “Just slept, mostly.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, tears burning my eyes. “What can I do?”

  An exaggerated breath escaped, a sad form of a chuckle. “Too serious, Claire.” He fell back asleep and I held his hand until his breaths were light and rhythmic. Then I just watched and waited, hoping he would wake up and be back to his full strength once again.

  23

  ABRIELLE

  There was no way to tell how long I had been in the black place. Time was not a thing and everything was a comfortable silence. I was warm and at rest.

  “Abrielle,” Steph’s voice came through sharper than Vlaine’s had. “Abrielle I need your help, right now.” Her voice became a bit quieter and it sounded as if she was scolding someone. “She won’t give up if someone needs her help.” A moment later she called back out, “Abrielle, I’m in trouble. I need you right now.”

  My chest tingled at her plea. It was the first thing I had felt in what seemed like a lifetime. The darkness surrounding me started to become noisier and harsher.

  “Vlaine, just do it,” I heard her say sharply.

  “Abbs,” he spoke uncertainly, then began to grow confidence, “Abbs, Steph needs you right now. She’s in serious trouble and you’ve got to help her.”

  “Steph,” I tried to call out. Nothing escaped my throat. It was like one of those dreams when you try and try to yell for help, but not a sound escapes. “Steph,” I stared screaming over and over. “Vlaine, I need help.” I could not speak, but it felt like I was getting closer with each try. “Aiden! Aiden, wake me up.”

  I felt like I was being suffocated. No matter how hard I tried I could not breathe or yell. I fought, fought as hard as I could to get to Steph.

  Draxe began to speak, his calm and comforting tone relaxing my panic. “Abrielle, we’re coming to get you, but we need your help. Steph really needs you right now. Come on back to us.”

  I kept trying to yell, trying to speak to Steph. The darkness was getting rough, like it was filled with bristles. It felt like I was pushing my way through shrubbery.

  “I’m trying,” I yelled. In that moment, I felt a breath of air escape. “Steph,” I called out again, feeling hopeful. A small sound, like a quiet and pathetic moan came from my mouth.

  “You got it, Abbs, I can hear your thoughts. Keep trying!”

  I tried to look around, tried to find something in the darkness. I tried to wiggle my fingertips, my toes, anything just to wake my body back up. Finally, I could feel that my mind and mouth were connected again, I could find my way out of there. Fighting to turn my body, I felt someone near me in the dark place.

  “Aiden?”

  24

  AIDEN

  Abrielle said my name so softly I could hardly hear it, then her eyes fluttered and she looked at me. She mouthed the words “thank you” before her gaze drifted to Steph and she fought to whisper, trying to ask Steph what she needed help with.

  I had never tried to reverse time for one person before and with every second passing, I felt her chances of coming back slipping. Josnic and Draxe worked together to control my ability, pushing me to the limit. My body was wiped of any energy; it took everything I had. If Steph hadn’t helped to bring her back, I would not have had enough energy to finish. Abrielle would have been gone forever.

  She was confused and in pain. Al’s folks had been working on healing her while I was reversing time. As far as I knew, no one had come back from death like she had. For all I knew, she could have been brain dead from the lack of oxygen. Maybe whatever we did made it so her body just jumped from the moment Osiris was about to kill her to the moment she said my name.

  How long she would need to recover was a mystery. All I knew for sure was that taking time to recover was not something she would be concerned with. She would jump to finish what she set out to do and Josnic would have a new vendetta to keep him busy.

  I tapped her shoulder playfully. “Welcome back to the land of the living.” I tried to hide the exhaustion in my tone.

  Abrielle’s eyes grew wide and her mouth hung slack. “You… you mean I was dead?”

  “Yeah,” I said flatly. Josnic gave me that warning look, like I had crossed a line. I was too drained to bother filtering my statements. She had to have had an idea she died, she was fighting to come back right along with us.

  Abrielle wrapped her arms around my neck and sighed, “thank you so much for bringing me back.”

  I pointed my chin at the brothers. “You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.” She hugged them quickly before asking how long she had been gone. None of us knew the answer. Could time be counted if what we did was pull her from one moment to an entirely different one?

  She looked at Steph and smiled, “you know I have to finish this, right?”

  Steph sighed and took a chunk of Abrielle’s hair and twirled it affectionately, like an older sister would to a younger one. “I know,” she nodded, “just be safe.”

  Abrielle’s eyes turned to me pleadingly. “Aiden, can you help me?”

  My hands were on my knees and I fought the fatigue gnawing at my muscles. I wanted to throw in the towel and call it a day, but my conscience had other plans. “Of course,” I replied.

  She placed her hand delicately in mine and teleported us to the building. She turned to me and I looked up and whispered, “
stop.” Sometimes it felt more powerful if the universe seemed to heed my command.

  The world was frozen, all except me. That was how I liked it best. I could see people for who they really were; know their secrets without having to pry. Abrielle was stuck in place, an optimistic smile pulling up at her lips.

  It was time to see what the rest of the tree house was up to. I wandered the entire floor we were on. There was only one other person. He was looking at some papers on their desk. I tied the person to a chair, taking note of a tube of powder against the far wall.

  The next floor had six people that I locked into one of the rooms. If that powder was what I thought it was, leaving a match in there with them would make for a bad day. I let go of my grip on time and let it commence, seeing if my assumption was right. A few seconds later I heard screams and a small explosion. Whatever was there was meant to keep the flames going, not start them.

  I tried to climb the stairs, but my legs were giving out. I could not keep going while stopping time, my body would not allow it. There was an elevator on the floor and I hoped that if I could make it to that without any trouble, then I could continue searching the building.

  I made it into the elevator and fell to the floor. Bringing Abrielle back took everything out of me. I sat in the corner of the elevator helpless, fighting the dark edges taking over my vision. I could stop time and bring people back from the dead, but I was stuck in a stupid elevator in a building full of psychos looking to extract everything they could from gifted kids.

  I was screwed.

  25

  OVOLINA

  Sometimes I hated how callous I was. It was bad enough I left Miranda alone with a psychopath, but I also ran when plasma boy was coming for Connor. Growing up without anyone close to me left me cold to everyone. Frankie was even making a friend and I was just as lonely as ever.

  I agreed to help Abrielle because I did not want anyone hurting Frankie, but I also truly wanted to stop Jeremiah. After letting a few people out of their cages, I just ran away from anyone else. Part of me held my survival high above making a difference, but the other part knew that if we did not stop Replyx, they would just come after us with a vengeance. Okay, so the whole selfish thing was not going to go away in a day, but there was some remorse for leaving Miranda and Connor.

  I could help to stop the scary ones, that much I could do. Electricity and plasma. I was not sure what could extinguish that Heinrich character, but if I found a ton of rubber then Jeremiah could be controlled. Maybe a drastic temperature change could stop Heinrich? I had no idea how I would accomplish that, but I would try.

  My luck was pretty poor because every room I was coming to was locked. In an angry burst I slammed my palm on one of the doors.

  “Hello?” I heard a girl’s voice call from the other side.

  Crap. There were people in these rooms? “Hello?” I called back, curious as to whose little voice that was. “Who’s in there?”

  “Sarah,” she called out sheepishly. “Can I have lunch now please?”

  She sounded so desperate and sad that my heart broke for her. “How do I open the door?” I searched around, looking for a key slot. It was a number pad and I had no idea how many numbers or even what to guess the combination to be.

  “38355,” she answered quietly. “Am I going to get in trouble for knowing that?” Sarah sounded so sad.

  “No,” I answered reassuringly, “of course not.”

  I pressed the numbers and the lock clicked open. When I opened the door there was a little girl, no older than twelve that was in dirty Replyx attire. There was nothing in there except for a metal bed with a little blanket, a toilet, and a sink.

  “Come on,” I waved her out quickly, “let’s go.” I stopped and looked at her, realizing that she was probably not the only person locked in a room. I was under the impression that Al was in charge of getting all the gifted prisoners out, but he must have gotten caught up with something. “Wait, are there other people in these rooms?”

  She shrugged shyly, “yeah, there’s someone in every room. Some have two in there.”

  “Any idea how to get into them?” I looked at her little cherub face. She had messy blonde hair, big green eyes, and big cheeks that seemed out of place on her frail little body.

  She nodded slowly, “yeah. I can get them open.”

  “Okay,” I smiled, “why don’t you go and make sure everyone gets out.”

  Sarah put her hand lightly on the pad next to the door closest to the room she was in. She closed her eyes and a moment later the door clicked open. She pushed rogue strands of hair off her forehead, only to have them fall right back, then smiled and said, “technology influence.”

  I pulled my lips back, trying to give her a warm and friendly smile. “That’s really good. How about you go open all the doors here. Every single one with people in them. Then I want you to get everyone in one spot.”

  She wiped the blonde hair out of her eyes, thinking. “Oh, the lunch room? That’s where we’re supposed to be now, I think.”

  “Great idea, take everyone there and I’ll meet you really soon.”

  I looked around frantically, trying to find something to stop the psychos with. All the rooms on the floor had nothing separate aside from a few blankets.

  “Oh my God,” I said out loud to myself, “the cages! I could make a faraday cage.”

  I ran as fast as I could back to the place where the humans were locked in the cages. One man was in the hallway and I threw him telekinetically down the hall. The man was not chasing me, so I had probably thrown a good person down the hall. How typical for me to mess something like that up.

  There were no problems afterwards; the goons must have been preoccupied with something else. I can only imagine the scene: me running down the halls of this God forsaken building with cages floating in the air behind me. The next person I saw in the hall, I simply knocked them out with one of the cages.

  When I finally found the room where Sarah had gathered the other kids, I began making the faraday cage. It was not simple taking them apart. Some of the other gifted prisoners ended helping me out when I told them what I planned on doing with the cages. Most of them were hesitant, afraid I was just putting them all into one large enclosure. Sarah spoke on my behalf and they seemed to trust the young prisoner.

  As long as they were in it, Jeremiah could not affect them. That crazy Heinrich guy could definitely get through, but I just hoped this would keep them safe until someone could teleport them out.

  “Guys, just stay safe and be quiet,” I said to everyone, “I’m going to find help.”

  There were bad people somewhere in the building and they were working on something big, that was the only explanation for the halls being clear. I just did not want to run into the place where they all were. The thought made me run faster until I ran smack into someone, or their force rather, and flew backwards onto the floor.

  “Oh good, Ovolina,” Connor stopped short and helped me up. “I lost Heinrich. There’s a trap. I don’t know what it is, but there was a whistle sound and he stopped and turned around. Something weird is going on.”

  The recognition of the strange occurrence pushed the air out of my chest. I swallowed hard, “what do we do?”

  Connor seemed lost in thought. “I don’t know. Hope we find Al, I guess.”

  I looked around, trying to put together the mystery. “Al has telepathy, right?”

  He shrugged and his red hair flipped to the side. “I think so, but I really don’t know. We can give it a shot.”

  I screamed Al’s name in my head, trying to get his attention, wherever he was. I felt ridiculous. I had never called out to someone with telepathy before.

  “Aiden won’t let us down,” I said as convincingly as I could. “I know he won’t.”

  Connor waved for me to follow him and found an opening to an air vent. He pulled out a pocket knife and undid the screws and motioned for me to get in.

  I put my han
ds on my hips and rolled my eyes. “This isn’t a stupid kid’s movie; we’re not sneaking around in an air vent.”

  Unlike most people, he did not argue with me. Instead he picked me up and pushed me into the opening. I was barely able to fit inside the small space. I flattened myself out and army crawled a few feet.

  “What’s the plan now?” I hissed at Connor.

  He pushed my feet forwards gently and whispered, “We’re going to be as invisible as we can be and figure out what the heck they’re up to.”

  “This is so dumb,” I growled, to which he replied, “I’ll be right here when you have a better idea.”

  We pushed our way along the dusty metal vent, searching for any sign of Jeremiah and the rest of his workers. It felt like just moving five feet was as much effort as climbing ten flights of stairs.

  “Sorry,” Connor uttered behind me, after we had crawled past half a dozen rooms, “this was a bad idea.”

  I was about to snap something mean and sarcastic when we heard voices.

  I cocked my head to the side, trying to listen better. “Is that Abrielle?”

  “Go, go, go!” he yell-whispered.

  We pushed our way towards the next grate. Connor handed his knife and I dropped it outside the vent and undid the screws telekinetically then pushed the vent door open. As proud as I was of myself for being able to do that, it took intense concentration and I was mentally drained once I finished.

  I stuck my feet out, then dropped lightly to the floor. Connor followed, taking no shock at all when he landed. I dusted myself off quickly and we ran to see where Abrielle’s voice was coming from.

  In an office Abrielle was healing Aiden, her hands were hovering over him, intense concentration crinkled her nose. We pushed our way into the room, I whispered her name gently so that they would know we were there.

  Abrielle turned her head and gave a quick smile of acknowledgment.