The Darkness Ignited (The Gifted)

Chapter 8 Part 1

Mia's Pov

Josh has been acting weird ever since he healed Leah. It's been a month since she got stabbed and the entire time, every time I talk to Josh he is either being super weird and trying to get out of the conversation or he just straight up avoids me. It's making me suspicious of him. I think he might be trying to hide something from me.

I had been asking people if Josh seemed weird to them and everybody said that they didn't know him well enough, he just seemed different than when they met him. So I guess that them saying he does seem weird but only a little. It was frustrating.

I was walking down the hallway trying to think of ways to talk to Josh when I quite literally walked into a wall.

"Damnit. Stupid wall," I said. I heard laughter coming from my right.

I turned and saw Jack, one of my least favorite people. He was annoying and always sticking his nose in other people's business and constantly asking questions about stupid things.

"What do you want," I said, glaring at him.

"Nothing," Jack said, raising his hands in surrender. "Just was here, when you walked into a wall."

"Go away," I said, glaring with increasing hostility.

"Why? Got to do something right here, in this specific spot. Otherwise, you could just keep walking." He said snarkily.

"You know, you are such an ass. I don't know what Lauren ever saw in you" I said starting to walk away.

I seemed to have hit a nerve. He glared at me.

"I have stuff to do," I said smiling slightly as I brushed past him.

"Make sure you don't walk into any more walls" He called after me. I flipped him off as I continued walking down the hallway to the medical area.

I walked into the medical room. Esme was sitting in a chair in the corner watching Leah. She still hadn't woken up.

"Hey, have you seen Josh? I wanted to talk to him." I said.

Esme looked up, "Um he left a couple of minutes after I walked in. About 15 minutes ago."

I nodded and went to leave then stopped, "Has Josh seemed off to you? You've been spending a lot of time here with him and I'm just worried about him."

"Uh no. Why?" she said looking away from me. She seemed nervous.

"Esme... is there something you aren't telling me?" I said stepping towards her.

Esme seemed to internally debate with herself before responding, "Fine. Josh didn't want me to tell you, or anyone for that matter," she took a deep breath before continuing, "When Josh was healing Leah, his powers wouldn't work. Something was stopping them from working. He injected himself with a drug to boost his powers, Kick, to heal her."

"What!" I said. "Why would he do that? I got it to save Leah but there had to be another way."

"I know, but there wasn't another way that we could see at that moment. He did it to help Leah," she said.

"That explains why he was acting weird a month ago. Not why he's still acting weird now." I said crossing my arms. Something still wasn't right.

Esme sighed, "I don't know Mia. He could just be being weird because he's keeping a secret."

"No, I've known him almost my whole life and this is not how he keeps secrets. Something else is going on." I said trying to think. Then it dawned on me, he never stopped taking the drug. After that first dose, he never stopped.