Upon waking up, I saw and heard nothing, aside from two small voices, both of which were presumably female. Knowing that they may not have noticed me, I acted like I was still unconscious, trying to listen in on what they said, but I only heard fragments.
"No idea who or why he… the security didn't work with him… How could he possibly get in? Morgan said she'd be with her friend, then texted us…"
I struggled to decipher between the two voices, as they were almost exactly alike in pitch and tone. At least, they were from my position. They were easily fifty yards away, or at least it seemed that way.
"Jacob. That's Morgan's friend's name." I said to anyone who could've possibly heard me. "They were on the other side of the wall I came in from. He was told to step inside, so he did. Although, he wasn't expecting everything to go pitch black, or hear voices talking." When I said this, the two voices seemed to get closer.
"That's impossible. There's no way he could've gotten in here. You're the only one that…" She trailed off as the realization of who I was talking about hit her. "Really, Carmen? Out of anyone you could've… 'affected…' it had to be him?" someone, who I presumed to be Lilith, retorted.
"Thank you, Lilith. Now, why am I here, exactly? I mean, I know why I'm here," I said as I gestured towards the room I was in," but why am I being contained? Seems a little belligerent, doesn't it? Sorry, not the time. Got it. So, what happened? One second, I'm diving through an opening in a bush before Morgan could fully close it, and the next, I'm strapped into a chair, as if I'm being interrogated."
"Wait." Lilith began. "How did you know my name? That's really weird, because that's not a common name. Not many people around here have that name. Actually, I think I'm the only one that does. Can you tell those kinds of things before you ask, or is there something else? Morgan never said anything about that. Are you able to see the future too? Maybe that's what you can do. Your 'ability,' I mean."
Before I said anything, I figured I'd mess with her head a little. "Woah, future vision? Like precognition? That sounds amazing! But what do you mean by 'ability?' Was that just a random way to phrase it? Lack of a better word? I've heard Morgan reference Lilith and Carmen a few times. You addressed her as Carmen." I said, nodding my head to indicate the quiet one over to the side, hoping it was the right person. Even though I heard two voices, I could only see one person. "So I assumed you must be Lilith. Now, what exactly did you mean by 'ability?'"
"Oh! Um… Nothing! Nothing at all!" Startled, Lilith tried to avoid any questions about the ability. "Just me being weird and random again. Sometimes I'll—"
"He's messing with you, Lilith." Carmen cut her off before she could continue, staring directly at me, then at a watering can on the table next to her. "Jacob may not have that ability, which he doesn't, but he does know what you're talking about."
Carmen turned her attention back to me once more, and started laughing to herself. "You know he's the right guy, so would you show yourself? Kid's trying to figure out where you're at, even though he looked directly at you. Twice, actually."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the watering can next to Carmen shift. Just as I looked over, it seemed to twist and grow. After a few seconds, a girl in navy blue athletic shorts and a black and white Motley Crüe shirt was sitting on the table, right where the watering can had just been. Noticing my gaze, and seeing that I was looking at her, Lilith looked down and smiled at the ground. Darting my eyes away from her, I quietly asked what she could do.
"Obviously, you can shapeshift, but what else can you turn into? And does the color of what you're wearing always show on whatever you turn into, or was that just a coincidence?"
Turning to Carmen, I asked her about her abilities, and got a simple reply.
"Initially," I began, "I would've assumed that you could tell a person's feelings and/or emotions, but now I'm guessing that you're some sort of mind reader?"
"Of sorts." she replied. "I can read minds, yes, but I can also send thoughts as well. So I'm basically a two-way mind radio."
As if I needed a demonstration, Carmen's voice echoed in my head. See what I mean? Lilith has no idea what I'm "telling" you, but you can hear me just fine. Can't you?
"It's taken some time to get it to the right person, but I've been able to control it a lot better than when I first found out about it. Speaking of which… We know what Lilith can do, and now we know what I can do… But what can you do? Now that we know that you don't have future-vision or anything. You're the only one of us that knows exactly what it is that you can do. Hang on. Morgan just texted me. She said… Oh, never mind what she said.
Carmen looked over at Lilith, and showed her the text.
"So, should I turn into a ball or something?" Lilith whispered. As if on cue, Morgan texted back immediately after. "Well, forget that idea. Here. Found something that might work."
Lilith walked over to a table that had a pot on it, and set it down by Carmen. Being oblivious to what was about to happen, I looked down at a small petunia that had recently begun to sprout, so it didn't seem like I was being obtrusive.
"Jacob! Think fast!" someone shouted.
I couldn't tell who said it, because their voices were still like one, but I looked up to see the same pot Lilith had just picked up. Although, it wasn't in her hand. She must've thrown the pot, then said my name, for I looked up, and it was barely a foot away from me. For a second, at least. Once again, the object disappeared. Except I didn't have to look around me to try to figure out where the pot went, like I did with the fan and the oranges. Hearing it shatter against the solid oak planks behind me was enough to tell me what had happened.
Appearing as though I knew what I was doing, I nonchalantly turned around, looking for a broken pot. Only, when I turned around, there wasn't a broken pot anywhere. To the right of me was the pot, but it wasn't broken. Not even a scratch could be found. Whatever causes the object to reassemble every time it disassembles must have put the pot back together, even after it broke. Turning back around, I looked at Lilith and Carmen, both with stunned expressions. Silence followed for the next few seconds, then Lilith was the first to speak.
"Alright, what just happened, and how did it happen? More importantly, when did you find out you could do that? Morgan said you haven't been able to do that for very long, but she never specified how much training or help you've had." Lilith seemed both amazed and shocked. Even Carmen seemed impressed. Or curious. She hadn't shown much emotion prior, so it's kind of hard to tell which it was.
"Wait." Carmen said. "Have you had any training? Or is that the reason you came here in the first place? You just found out about it today? It's happened before, but Morgan just told you about it today… Oh, sorry. Should I not have read your mind just now? Sometimes I tend to do that without meaning to."
"It's alright. You did nothing wrong. Although, I should probably warn you ahead of time. Reading my mind may not always be the best course of action. But I'll try to let you know if there's ever a time when I don't want you to. Just please let me know if and when you're about to read my mind or think-text me, so I know it's you, and I'm not going crazy or hearing voices, just to make sure nothing bad happens."
Lilith spoke up before Carmen had the chance to. "That's great and all, but you may want to wait to say anything like that."
As if she said something that she shouldn't have, she tensed up and immediately looked over towards Carmen, as her face flushed. Hearing a silence, or a ringing sound that sounded like someone was flatlining, was the least of my concerns.
"Ignore that." she said, as she turned to me. "Jacob? Don't you think Morgan should have been here by now?"
Shifting my gaze towards where I thought the door to be, I noticed a small glint of light and started walking towards it.
"Wait, when did you let me out of the chair? Did I pass out again, and that's when you let me out?" Looking around, I couldn't see any chair at all, let alone where I had just been sitting. "Wait, where…"
"What chair?" Carmen asked. As she looked at me, she started laughing, and I knew exactly what she meant, and what had happened.
"There was never a chair there, was there? You just made me think that there was. You can alter minds too, can't you? Make me think there was a chair, when there really wasn't?"
"I can't alter them, but if I tell someone something often enough, they tend to believe it.
Right after she said this, Lilith pulled Carmen aside, and I could faintly hear the conversation. Not all of it, only fragments. But I could still hear enough of the conversation to understand what was being said.
"Morgan texted back. She went to go check something. Do you remember when you found—sorry, when your 'Helpet' found you? Exactly! That's what she told me, and mine took about a month too. Apparently, Jacob almost met his today. He had been talking to Morgan earlier, and she said that she barely had enough time to stop him from hitting the ground."
After hearing their conversation, I realized that Carmen wasn't speaking. There were pauses in between Lilith's sentences, but I never heard Carmen utter a word, so I figured she was talking to Lilith without speaking again. Not wanting to interrupt, I just waited to see if Morgan would come back, or if Carmen and Lilith would come back first. After not even a minute, they came back into the room, and Morgan still hadn't arrived yet.
"Okay, so your story checks out." Lilith began. "There's just one thing…"
Following this, there was a long pause, as if to add emphasis and suspense to this important question. Although, it wasn't exactly a silence. No one was saying anything, but there was still this piercing sound, much like the sound of someone flatlining, only about a note or two lower.
"Yeah, I know. I'm not exactly sure what a 'Helpet' is, but I did fall, and there was a minute of flashbacks or visions. Some animal was in it, but I've never seen it. Well, I've seen the animal before, but not this specific one. There was something different. As if it was a pet that I've had for years." Then the reason behind the name Lilith used to refer to the animal finally dawned on me. "Pet… It was like a pet…" I repeated this several times. "Is that why you referred to it as a 'Helpet?' Let me guess… That's what Jordan is? Kind of like an animal sidekick of some sort? Morgan's 'Helpet,' no doubt."
Awestruck, Carmen just stared at me. "How did you know… You heard us, didn't you?" She started laughing somewhat nervously. "So you heard us, then? You've heard everything we've said, haven't you? But yeah, Jordan is Morgan's 'Helpet.' Terrible name, I know. We couldn't– well, I couldn't– think of a better name for them. Two or three years ago, Carmen and I were texting, trying to think of a name for them. When I meant to ask her if it was a sort of 'animal helper,' I accidentally typed 'animal helpet,' and since we couldn't think of another name for them, we just stuck with that one until we could come up with another one. Obviously, we haven't yet."
"We all have one." Carmen briefly explained. "Apparently, you almost met yours today, which you should've realized by now. We've only been saying it for the past three minutes now."
There was a certain tone of sarcasm in her voice that was easy to place, and she seemed somewhat agitated. Almost as if her opinion of me at that very moment was similar to, if not the same as that of a stereotypical teenager's opinion towards a friend that had done something better than them. That is, if the teen seemed as if they were more or less—
"I'm not jealous!" she yelled.
Glancing up, I saw Carmen glaring at me, and Lilith, who had been standing right next to her, was now easily three feet away from her.
"Here we go again." she commented.
Hearing the same piercing sound in the near silence that I heard before was the least of my worries at that point. Not knowing what she meant, I thought about asking one of them, preferably Lilith, since she didn't seem like she wanted to hurt me, but decided against it. Maybe later, when I'll be able to ask Morgan. Maybe she'll know, I thought to myself.
"If you wanted to know, you could've just asked. I'm not gonna hurt you… yet…" I heard Carmen mutter.
"Oh, right… Maybe I should've thought about that before I… um... thought about it… If that makes sense… It probably doesn't. I guess I just didn't think that through thoroughly enough. So, um… What exactly did happen? Something like this had to have happened before for Lilith to say 'Here we go again' like that. You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Smiling, I couldn't help but press my luck. "Who hurt you, Carmen?"
She just stared at me for a second, as did Lilith, but Carmen was, surprisingly, the first to bust out in a fit of laughter, simultaneously relieving and frightening both Lilith and me.
"You know," she began, "I should really punch you for that, Jacob." As she said this, I cautiously stepped back, out of arm's reach. "Should. I'm not going to. But I should. It just wouldn't be justified. That's pretty much what happened with–"
"Oh no, not this again!" Lilith absentmindedly began to lay back on the table as she cut Carmen off.
"Oh, hush! It's not my fault that you just happened to be here all three times I've mentioned Junior. Anyways," she continued, turning to face me, "Junior did. Well, in a sense. Nothing really hurts me anymore."
With perfect timing, Lilith mouthed the last sentence, as if she had rehearsed what Carmen had said over and over, causing me to stifle a laugh.
"Lilith, if you mocked me, you better start running. Oh, it doesn't matter. I'll still find you. As I was saying, Junior is the one I was talking about, although he didn't exactly hurt me. Last year, there was a robbery at a convenience store that used to belong to the father of a friend of mine. School had just let out, and I was passing by the store on my way home when I noticed. Seeing as how there wasn't anyone else to help, I decided that I'd do it. Making sure no one could see me from inside, I made my way over to the store. Just as I got within twenty feet of the front door, I realized that there were only five people visible, but I could sense six, and could hear six.
"Suddenly, one of the people spoke, right in front of me, but I didn't see anyone near me. Voices continued– or, thoughts, actually– to resonate from the store, but the one kept getting closer, until they stopped right in front of me. Somehow, I managed to notice a slight shimmer in front of me, and figured that it was another one of us, but he could make himself nearly invisible, or something to that extent. He seemed as though he wanted to help, because as I read his thoughts, I kept hearing small fragments, since I had only noticed my powers about a month or two prior, and each part was about getting people away from the store, or related to it."
Lilith interrupted before Carmen could continue with what she was saying, reminding her to tell me her "favorite part" between laughs. Judging by Carmen's reaction, I could tell that it wasn't Carmen's favorite.
"As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted." she said, with a sideways glance at the now silent Lilith. "He seemed like he wanted to help, and as I reached out, a voice yelled. 'Watch it!' he yelled. I sorta panicked, because I hadn't expected him to be right in front of me. So, anyways, I panicked, and, out of instinct, I–"
"Wait, you punched him?" I asked. My question was met with an embarrassed nod from Carmen.
"Sort of. I mean, I tried to. I didn't hit him. I punched, but I never actually touched him. Remember how I said there was a slight shimmer? It wasn't because he was invisible. I mean, he wasn't visible, but he didn't have the power to turn invisible. Junior was a speedster. Is, I mean. He is a speedster. Junior must have been shaking faster than the human eye can see, so he was practically invisible. But yeah, he surprised me, and I punched him."
"Failing to suppress a laugh, I reached my hand out for a fist bump, and she just looked at me, confused, as if she was trying to figure out why I was fist bumping her.
"I do the same thing." I said. "When I get surprised, in a bad way, like if someone jumps out at me, I punch. At least, I used to. I'm not sure what I'd do now if that happened, because of my ability. But I used to."
"Oh, God!" Lilith began. "What if someone jumped out at you now? Would you, like, disassemble their body? When you do, would that kill them? Glad I didn't turn into the object I thought about before, whatever it was."
"Ball." I replied.
"What did you say?"
"I said a ball. That's the object you were going to turn into. You were reading the text that Morgan sent, and you asked, 'Should I turn into a ball or something?' but said never mind. Probably because Morgan told you what I can do, or what might happen. One of the two, anyways. Or something else that I may have failed to mention. Wait, Morgan couldn't have told you what I can do, because you both seemed surprised. At least, I think Carmen was surprised. You don't exactly show much emotion, but there are some there." I said, turning to Carmen.
"Alright, you got me." Carmen retorted sarcastically. "I'm not exactly one to show emotion, and if I ever do, then I trust you." There was a brief pause before Carmen spoke again. "Never happened to me before. I don't get caught off-guard."
She must've read my mind before I could ask if she shows emotion when she's caught off-guard. Either that, or she's used to hearing that question. Then again, she could've just read my mind, because she said "Never happened to me before."
"Well I'm not like that." Lilith commented. "I'm about as deep as a kiddie pool when you first get to know me. Oh, that impression goes away after I talk to you. Or anyone, for that matter, honestly. I do, however, have more layers to me than the one you see now, but I don't usually open up most of them until after I've known the person for a while. Some of them are reserved only for when I need them. But one of them…" she trailed off, a distant expression on her face. Shaking her head, she resumed talking. "Oh, that one's never to be used. We all have one of those levels inside of us, don't we? One that we hide away, never to be used. Anyways—"
We were interrupted by a rustling sound and a light shining through, into the room. Unsure of who, or what, it was, Carmen just stood there with a blank expression, but she seemed as if she was trying to concentrate, probably so she could read their mind and figure out who it was, if it was a person.
"Why can't I get a reading?" I heard Carmen ask next to me. "This isn't good. They're blocking me out!" Her voice got increasingly frantic with every sentence."
Looking over at Carmen, I saw the worried look on her face. She wasn't even trying to hide it. If she was, she wasn't hiding it well. Even I was worried at this point, because even though I had only known Carmen for a few minutes, I could already tell she wasn't one to get worried easily. Now, she was worried to the point where even I was in complete shock, and a buzzing sensation began to grow increasingly stronger each time I heard Carmen freak out.
"Sorry I'm–" Morgan was cut off as a vine wrapped around each of her wrists, restraining her. "Really? This was your plan if some threat came in? Wrapping them up and exposing your powers was the best you could come up with, Jacob?"
Morgan's voice grew increasingly agitated with every question. Her demeanor had completely changed. When the vines first restrained her, her face looked simultaneously worried and pained. Now, the vines were brown and shriveled up, in pieces on the floor in front of her. At this point, she was practically yelling. It was as if a switch had flipped in her mind, completely changing her.
I was the first to say something, and I hesitantly apologized. "I know that apologizing won't help anything, bu—"
"It won't, so don't even try!" she snapped.
"I'm not going to. I was just going to say that I'll try to control it next time that happens. I just panicked…" I trailed off, not knowing what else to say. "Is there anything I can do to make up for what I've done to make you mad?"
"I'm not… I'm not mad." she began, as she looked down at the ground. "It's not that. I panicked too. It's just that… When I was little, my father was abusive. Both verbally and physically. But he never took it out on my mother. Just me. So, one day, I was exploring, and came to this clearing. I didn't even know it was here, and I don't think my parents did either. Not at first, that is. That same day, I built a little house. Started to, at least. Of course, it wasn't fully finished until about a month or two later. Three or four years later, when I was ten, my mother took me on a vacation to Laos, where she grew up when she was our age. That's probably when my father found my house.
"We stayed in Laos for a week, then went back. Mom had to go back to work, and could only take a week off at the time. Four years later, I was at my house when my father came looking for me. He was wasted, which meant that the abuse would be worse. When he went to my house, he saw me at the front door. Then he... he... " She took a breath, seemingly to regain her composure, and started to speak again. "He raised his hand to strike me, and my arms reached out, as if to brace myself. I panicked, and that was all I could think to do. His hand was about to come down on me when a vine lashed out from the ground and wrapped around his wrist, restraining him. After that, he tried again with the other hand. Same thing happened.
"His eyes went wide, and he tried to run. He broke free of the vines, and took off. I guess the fear and adrenaline sobered him up, because he ran pretty quickly, and he didn't stumble even once. Animals came out of trees, and from the woods. Most went after him, but some stayed with me. After he got about thirty feet away, he reached a creek, and they began to attack him as he tripped. My father got away... But he never came back. We're not sure where he went. Mom doesn't know about any of that. Only I do. We, actually. Only we do."
Morgan looked up, and everyone was silent. None of us knew how to react, let alone what to say. Everything was still for a moment, then Lilith spoke up.
"We didn't know. But that's why we're here. To help you, and anyone else who needs it. Not just us. But anyone we can, any time we can, in any way we can. Can we agree on that? Good. Now, I need a minute to get some food. Where's my bike? Anyone want some chips?"