by Sarah Dalton
“Oh yeah,” I said with a sheepish grin. “I forgot. Well, there’s me and Daniel. I can move things with my mind, and Daniel sees the future. Then there’s Hiro who hears thoughts, Kitty who tracks people by taste and Mike who smells emotions and aspects of personality.”
“Fascinating.” She smoothed down the tablecloth and added a battered tin plate. “You mentioned earlier that you stopped the battle in the Compound. Tell me all about it.”
There was no point holding back now. She’d already seen us in full force. So I told her all about Hamish and how he wanted control of the Clans. I didn’t go into too much detail about Dr Woods trying to kidnap me and kill the Freaks, but I did tell her about us joining hands and strengthening our powers, and about how I managed to disarm both sides by using my telekinetic power. She listened with wide eyes, especially interested in how our powers joined together.
“Oh, Mina. You’ve been through so much. I have to tell you how stunning your power is. It’s grown so much and become so strong.”
“So… I used to move things when I was little?”
She giggled. “You were very naughty sometimes. Whenever you wanted something you’d just make it come to you. And when you were angry… well! We had to keep everything nailed down!” She laughed and then leaned across the table to stroke my face. “You were such a beautiful little girl. You had these chubby cheeks and chubby little arms. You ate so much! I had to follow you around, pulling biscuits out of your hands!”
My cheeks warmed, and I knew I must be blushing. “But it took me ages to learn to control my powers.”
“The teenage years are hard,” she said. “You have an abundance of hormones all fighting to gain control of your body. It was only natural you’d have a difficult time with your power.”
“Dad helped,” I admitted. “He taught me how to meditate and control my emotions.”
“I’m sure he did.” She stood and folded her arms, staring out into the Compound. “I just wish he’d let me help. I could have helped… I…” She trailed off and shrugged.
“Mum?” I said. I wanted to ask a question. I just didn’t know how. I pulled on the sleeve of my shirt, avoiding her eye contact.
“What is it, darling?”
“What happens now? I mean. Are you staying here with me? Will you and dad… get on?”
The corners of her lips twitched. “Well, I don’t think we’ll be getting back together any time soon. The truth is that I don’t really know, Mina. All I knew was I had to come to you. After ten years of not knowing where you are – I had to.”
“So you’re going to leave your job at the GEM?” I asked.
“Is that what you want me to do?” Mum raised an eyebrow.
“I… I don’t know, maybe.”
She let out a long breath. “Let’s just take things one day at a time.”
“Okay,” I said. “That’s okay with me. But, I have to help with the Compound. I need to use my power to clear the rubble from the castle––”
“Do you use your power every day?” Mum asked. Her brows knitted together, deepening wrinkles on her forehead.
“Pretty much,” I said with a shrug. “There is always something I can do to help around the Compound. The people here didn’t like me using it at first. I think they’re used to it now though. Plus, Dad used to train us every day before the battle with Hamish.”
“What sort of training?”
“Just the usual: combat training, martial arts and meditating. We learnt to control our powers, and we can alter them more than before. Hiro still struggles to filter everything because he’s so young. Mike finds it difficult because people’s emotions are so strong. We have to work on it every day and try to get better.” I shut up because I felt as though I was rambling and trying to impress her.
“That’s incredible for someone so young. You talk like an adult.” She sighed. “I’ve missed so much. So very much. Anyway, don’t worry, I’m here now, and I want to know everything about you. I want to meet your friends and learn about them too. Whatever is important to my Mina, is important to me. So tell me more.”
I didn’t know where to start. I never liked talking about myself, but something about her affectionate touches and easy conversation put me at ease. I found myself telling her all about Area 14 – like meeting Angela. I told her about how Dad said she’d joined the Resistance and the notes we received from the messengers that came to the house.
“He said they were letters from you. I feel so stupid for believing him.”
“Did you ever read these notes?” Mum asked.
I tried to think. Had I ever read them? Sometimes he read them out to me or told me Mum was safe and that she missed me. “No, I never did.”
“Then they must have been a secret. Perhaps they were notes telling him where to find the other children.” She spoke almost to herself as though she was figuring something out.
“You mean the other Freaks?”
“Yes I believe so, Mina.”
“That makes sense.” A sudden burst of anger seared through my body and I hit the table with my fist. How could he lie to me like that? “Sorry.”
Mum rearranged her hair. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m so sorry this has happened to you, I truly am. I hope now I’m here I can make everything better for you.”
It was all I’d ever wanted. “Do you think… do you think you can?” I tried to blink away tears, but they were persistent and threatening to overflow at any moment. A sob caught in my throat.
“Oh come here, my girl.” She outstretched her arms, and I rushed around the table, desperate to be in them.
An overwhelming sense of safety hit me. I never realised it, but I’d ached for that moment, to be back in her embrace. My troubles drifted away and all I knew was her arms, her warm embrace and the feeling of being a small child again.
6 ~ Angela ~
“I have to go to him.” Sebastian pulled back the sheets and lurched forward, but Ginge pushed him back into bed.
“Are ye mad?” she said. “Yer in no state te go swanning off te the Areas. Ye cannae even get out o’bed.”
“I have to see him.” Sebastian gawped at each one of them incredulously. “I have to go to him.”
“Ginge is right,” said Angela. “You’re not fit to go anywhere, and if you did, you’d only get hurt. You heard what Nurse Susan said.”
“She said I could leave––”
“As long as ye dunnae exert yerself,” Ginge added. She kept a hand firmly placed on his chest to ensure he didn’t go anywhere. “Ye need at least a few days te recover.”
“Did he sound like he needed me?” Sebastian asked Matthew.
“I wouldn’t like to say, lad. I don’t know your father well enough. However, I can tell you he’s fit, healthy and running the place. I’m sure he’d want you to get better before doing anything hasty…” Matthew trailed off as Ali entered the room. Their eyes met and held.
“Can we talk?” said Ali.
The two men left in silence.
“What was that all about?” Angela said.
“Och, no way!” Ginge blurted out. “That’s never the Matthew? Ah never met him last time he was in the Compound. Ah heard all about it from Mary, though. She said he never shut up about him.”
Angela glanced at Cam, and he just shrugged. “Ginge, what are you on about? That’s Mina’s Uncle.”
“Aye, an’ he’s also Ali’s boyfriend.”
Angela’s jaw dropped. “No way!”
Ginge nodded. “Big whirlwind romance it was. It all makes sense nae. That’s why we risked our lives gettin’ you lot out of Area 14. Matthew asked Ali te dae it. Ah should’ve known, the big soppy basterd.”
“This day just gets weirder and weirder,” said Angela. “Mina’s mother is alive, Sebastian’s dad is running Area 14, and Ali’s gay.”
“Hey, who cares about Ali’s sex life,” Sebastian said. “Let’s get back to the real issue here. I have to see my dad. I though
t he was dead.” His voice quietened. “I have to know if my mum is okay.”
Ginge took Sebastian’s hand in hers. “You will. Ye need ye rest nae though, eh.”
“Mebbe we should leave them fer a bit, Ange.” Cam eased Angela away by gently pulling on her wrist.
“Okay. We’ll come back and see you later. Don’t do anything stupid. And don’t you let him do anything stupid.” Angela pointed at Sebastian and Ginge, raising her eyebrows in faux seriousness.
Ginge shook her head, but Angela saw the smile peeking out from her curtain of hair. She returned it with a heavy feeling in her stomach. If Matthew had come back with a message about her family she’d want to go to them too, and she was worried he’d do something hasty. She wished Matthew had brought a message about her mother. Who knew what was happening in Area 14 right now. She had no way of knowing if the nursing home still functioned, or if her mum was safe.
“Ye all right?” Cam asked as they stepped out of the barn and back into the sunshine. “Ye look deep in thought.”
“Just thinking about my mother.”
“Least ye’ve got one,” Cam joked.
Since his father’s death Cam’s sense of humour had taken on a dark edge and Angela felt a bit wary of it. She didn’t laugh at his joke; instead she stopped walking and stared at him.
“Aye, ah know it wasnae funny. It’s just ma way of dealin’.” Cam rubbed the dark circles beneath his eyes. “It’s warm out here, eh? Ah’ll have te watch ma skin. Ah burn quicker than a fuse.” He grinned again, this time more genuinely.
“Are you okay?” asked Angela. She examined the expression in his eyes, trying to gauge his emotions.
“Ah’ll live. Ah guess ah’ve no’ been sleeping so well since…” He wrung his hands and looked away, out towards the sun. “Well, ye know. Bad dreams keep comin’ fer me. Ah thought they’d stop after he died, but they jus’ keep comin’.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Angela took hold of his arm and pulled Cam round to face her.
“Hey you two,” shouted out a soldier. “Are you gonna help with the clear-up today or what? We need all hands on deck.”
“Yeah, coming. Just a minute,” Angela said to the soldier.
“Ah didnae want te worry ye. Anyway, it isnae a thing, really. Come on, tha’ soldier’ll be havin’ a litter if we dinnae get our arses over there.” Cam walked off towards the castle leaving Angela with an uncertain sense of dread spreading through her body.
But the work helped. She enjoyed physical labour. It wasn’t as fulfilling as the farming. Helping things to grow, caring for the animals, harvesting crops to eat – she loved it. Her mind never felt as healthy as when her hands were busy.
She watched a group heave a heavy stone from the wreck of the castle and pull out a torn painting with a golden frame; the gold glinted in the sunlight. Angela leaned forward to watch more intently and saw the people gasp and rush away. A young woman doubled over and retched.
“What’s going on?” she said half to herself.
The group returned to their post, covering their noses with the sleeves of their shirts and grimacing.
“Look away,” said Cam, pulling her into his chest.
She pulled back. If she was to be any help she had to learn to cope with horrors like a dead body being pulled from the rubble. The group removed it, and Angela saw how blackened and scorched it’d become from the castle fires. Cam rose to his feet and walked away, his fists balled by his side.
“Cam, wait!”
She sighed. Only a total idiot agreed to clear the wreckage in the same place their boyfriend’s dad died. What had she been thinking? She ran after him as he weaved through the people bustling about their business. He never slowed, and he had longer legs than her.
“Cameron!”
It was no use. She lost him in a crowd by the old farm. Her arms flopped to her sides, and she sighed. It was so hard to talk to him these days. Nothing she said helped. Instead, she just made everything worse. It wasn’t like she even knew how to be a girlfriend. Like always, she remained nothing but a useless lump, in the way of everything.
A scream sounded out across the Compound and Angela hurried back near the castle. Large stones had collapsed from the tower, just feet away from where she’d worked with Cam, and from the reaction of the people around her, it’d trapped some of the workers underneath. Her heart started to beat more quickly, hammering against her chest. It could’ve been them. They’d missed the accident by just minutes.
Mina and the Freaks hurried towards the accident, and Angela watched as they worked their mojo on the castle site, removing the rubble from the hurt men. Those old feelings of jealousy stirred, and she quelled them by keeping her eyes peeled for Cam. There was a woman with brown hair watching the Freaks. Mina’s mother? They shared the same features – from the large brown eyes to the creamy skin and slender limbs. Life wasn’t fair sometimes. Why did some people get to be beautiful and tall, and others short and dumpy? She never said it out loud, but on occasion she even thought the GEM way seemed fair. Did beauty even exist in their world? She knew what didn’t exist – ugliness.
“How you doing, kid?” Matthew strode over to her. “You look how I feel.”
Angela fiddled with her headscarf. “That obvious?”
He placed a hand on her shoulder. “What’s up?”
She shrugged. “I dunno. Sometimes I just feel like I’ll never matter. Not really anyway, not like Mina.”
“What are you on about? Of course you do. You’ve changed, you know. You’re not the kid I left behind in Area 14. Neither is that one over there.” He nodded to Mina.
“We’ve all been through a lot,” she said with a shrug.
“Yeah but it’s harder for us, isn’t it? The ones without any powers.”
Angela’s head snapped up. “What do you mean? You were in the Resistance. You got us out of Area 14.”
He gave a bitter laugh. “I got caught. You guys got yourselves out of Area 14 with some help from the Scavengers. I did nothing. I brought Mina’s mother back even though I knew Jonathon would be angry. I know he hates her. He just won’t tell me why.” Matthew shrugged. “He doesn’t trust me. Nope, it’s not easy being the ones that no one actually notices. I do though. I see you, and I see how much you’ve grown up.”
“If you’d seen me a few weeks ago you wouldn’t think that,” Angela said. She carved a line in the soil with the toe of her boot. “I was awful. A real brat.”
“Well, now you’re a very strong and capable young woman,” Matthew said.
Angela lifted her head to meet his hazel eyes. “Thank you.”
He pulled her into a hug. “No problem, kid.”
“I should go find Cam. He’s taking things pretty hard. His dad died in the war, but his dad kind of was the war, so it’s been tough.” She pulled out of the hug.
“Ouch!” Matthew said. “That sounds bad. Make sure he treats you right, kid.”
“I will.” She stepped forward to leave, then hesitated. “So, Ali… didn’t see that one coming!”
“I just like to keep you on your toes,” Matthew replied with a grin.
Angela walked off shaking her head.
7 ~ Daniel ~
Gravel crunched underfoot on his way to the farmhouse, and the summer evening sun shone down. He walked with the Freaks with his head a mess of thoughts. Somehow he didn’t particularly relish the thought of spending an entire evening with Mina’s mother.
“Think we should’ve brought like some wine or something?” Mike said in a mocking tone. “This is going to be so bloody awkward. Do we have to go?”
“Yes.” Daniel shot him a glare. “We have to support Mina.”
“He’s right.” Kitty took Mike’s hand. “It must be hard for her.” The sun picked out the bright yellow highlights in her hair. For a fleeting moment, Daniel imagined painting her against the evening sunshine. Of course, she didn’t make half as good a subject as Mina.
�
�How?” Mike said with the hard edge of bitterness in his voice. “I don’t see any of us getting a meet and greet with their long lost parent. How is this hard? It would be her.”
Daniel stopped walking and stared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” Mike muttered. “Ignore me, I’m being a dick.”
“Yeah too right!” Daniel set off, wondering where Mike got off saying those things. He couldn’t imagine what it was like for Mina to be lied to for her entire life. He briefly thought of his vision, being careful not to think so long Hiro would pick up on it. This was why he couldn’t tell anyone. They were always so quick to lay into Mina.
They made their way in between the paddocks in front of the farmhouse. The vegetable patch had been obliterated by a bomb, bullets, and the hulking boots of soldiers, but a few goats still chewed grass and stared at the passers-by with vacant eyes. Daniel walked to the door and reached for the handle, hesitated, and knocked instead.
Mina opened the door and grinned, her eyes wide and alive. She stepped forward and surprised Daniel with an enthusiastic hug. “Come in! The food is nearly ready.” She disappeared from the door.
“Oh yeah, she’s taking it really badly,” Mike said, making a scoffing sound. “Things are really hard for her.”
“Shut up, Mike,” Daniel and Kitty both said in unison. Mike scowled.
They stepped through the kitchen. Mina and her mother had tidied and cleaned the dirt and dust away. There were a few smashed windows and some bullet damaged walls, yet apart from that the house had remained relatively unscathed.
Mina took Daniel’s hand and walked them through to the dining room. “We had to use five camping stoves at once to get the steaks cooked. Good job there’s still a lot of gas left.” She spoke quickly and with a high-pitched, excited edge to her voice.
Daniel took a quick scan of the room to find Ali, Matthew, Mary, and some soldier already waiting for them. “Isn’t your dad coming?”
Mina shook her head. “There’s no way I’m talking to him. Not after everything.”
