Centre of the Storm

Chapter Six: Just Another Missing Kid

A/N: there's a LOT going on in this one lemme tell you, the story's about to get dark

My heart stopped. Or at least, that was how it felt. I could barely breathe as I looked at Alyssa. I had no idea what to say. My mind raced. What could she have seen?

There was nothing. Even if she had been awake when the storm froze, there was no way she could think it had anything to do with me. And there was also no way she could have seen it when I made the objects in my room float. There was no one in my room except for me when it happened, and I was too high up for anyone to see from outside. I had to be safe. I had to be.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to play it cool, trying to keep my voice from shaking. This could be about anything. Alyssa liked to be dramatic, theatrical. Maybe she'd seen me sneaking around at night by the library?

She sighed, resting her elbows on her knees and interlocking her fingers as she crouched near a tree. "It was yesterday night. I had nothing to read, so I went to your room to ask for my book back, since I knew you probably weren't liking it anyway. When I opened the door-" she paused, looking down. Then she looked back up at me, pressing her lips together before she spoke again. "You were... floating. In your sleep. All your stuff was shaking. It was freaky."

And in that second, my heart started to beat again, very loudly. It had to have been while I was having my nightmare about my mother. I forced a laugh. "Are you sure you weren't high? That's crazy."

She wrung her hands nervously. "I know. I know it is. But I also know what I saw. I just kinda stood there, and I wasn't sure what to do. After a moment, it stopped, you just dropped down and didn't wake up, and everything stopped shaking. And I left."

I felt my head begin to pound as well. The buzzing sensation was back, and it was rising faster then it had before, already becoming hard to ignore. I wanted to scream, put my fist into a tree, but I didn't want to scare her. I didn't want to lose her.

She looked at me with wide eyes. "Are you like... magical or something? Is that possible?"

"Of course it isn't." I said through gritted teeth, as my nerves started to tingle. "This isn't a fairy tale. I don't know what's wrong with me, and I don't know how to find out."

"There's nothing wrong with you," she promised.

"And how do you know that?" I demanded. "You don't know anything about me!"

She looked down at the ground, hurt clouding her face, and I felt a pang of guilt. I hadn't meant to yell at her.

"What if we told someone?" she asked after a moment.

"We? There is no 'we'," I said. "Not about this. I have to do this on my own."

"You don't!" she insisted. "It's not like you're the only person to ever have this, I'm sure there are others, there have to be others!"

"Have what?"

"I don't know!" she cried. "Powers?! Abilities?! You're special!"

"I'm a freak!" I said. "Don't you understand that?! I'm not special, I'm dangerous! You shouldn't be around me. What if I hurt you?"

Alyssa got up and walked over to me. "You're not going to hurt me. I can help you," she said gently. "We can tell the staff, they're adults, I'm sure they can-"