The Storm Inside

Chapter Six: Crisis

A/N: NEW CHARACTERRR

"Sophia?" I asked carefully, turning to bodily face her. "Is that... really you?"

She nodded. "This is me."

"Tell me about your power," I said softly.

She came and sat down on the bed across from me, crossing her legs. "Well, it took me a really long time to develop it. When I was little, my eyes were always changing colour, and my parents said they just looked different because of the lighting. But I knew that wasn't true."

She looked up at me, and her hazel eyes were now sea blue. "It kept happening," she continued. "And I couldn't control it. I would look into the mirror and it would be someone else, someone I knew, or a stranger. And then I started to develop something else too..."

"Which was?"

"I could show people things. Like, dreams. Memories. Other stuff. They saw it, in their heads. One time, I did it for a friend."

"That seems pretty harmless," I said.

Sophia shook her head. "We w're just messing around, I don't know how it went so wrong. What she saw, it traumatized her. She never spoke to me again. I didn't mean to show her anything bad..."

"I know you didn't," I assured her. "When my powers started to show themselves, I never meant to hurt anyone either."

She sighed, looking down at her hands. Despite the tears in her eyes, her voice was flat and didn't tremble. She must have a lot of composure.

"Did no one else ever notice your powers?" I asked.

"Oh no, they did. My parents noticed," she said. "When I was eleven, they wouldn't let me go to school or even leave the house. They said other people wouldn't understand, and would be afraid. When I was twelve, they told me to pack a bag and we drove away. By then I was starting to learn to control it."

"So how did you end up here?"

"We went to this little house my dad's company had built, down the road away from the city. One of my parents would go back in the city every week to bring what we needed. It only lasted for a few months. One day, I was in the car, and..."

Sophia took a shuddering breath. "They were outside. I heard the shots, so I hid under the seat. They tore apart the little house looking for me. Then the car door was ripped open and I thought they were going to kill me too. But that wasn't why they were there."

"It was Thomas," I said, feeling sick.

"He said he was here to rescue me from the bad guys who had killed my parents, and he took me back to the orphanage. I always knew he was a part of it, but I was too scared to do anything about it because I was sure he would kill me."

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "You must have been so scared."

"I hid in my room a lot, and I tried not to have too many friends because I didn't want to accidentally imitate them," she said. "I learned to suppress it, which was better than nothing, I guess. But it's always there."

"Come with us," I said.

"I don't know if I can," Sophia murmured. "I'm not ready for the world to know."

"It's okay," I said. "But you're always welcome. Thomas is gone now, so you're safe. But one more thing..."

I dug in my bag, suddenly remembering something. The little house Beatrix and I had stayed in on the outskirts of the city, that had Sophia scratched into the wooden floor.

"Is this yours?" I asked, holding out the photograph we'd found, of a little girl and her parents.

"Where did you get this?" she asked me, her eyes widening. "I thought I lost it."

"Never mind that," I said. "Keep it, it's yours. I just had it because I thought it might mean something. I guess I was right."

When she left, I lay down on the bed, looking up at the ceiling. Then, my phone began to vibrate. I pulled it out, and saw it was an unknown number. My curiosity getting the better of me, I picked up.

"Hello?" I asked uncertainly.

"Damira?" Beatrix asked. She sounded nervous.

"Beatrix? Where have you been? I haven't heard from you in days!"

"I know, I'm sorry," she said. "I've been... busy. Something happened."

"What? What happened?"

"My mother... I got a letter from her," she said after a long pause.

"But she's dead," I said slowly.

"Maybe not," she said in shaky voice. "I-" she trailed off, and I could hear her heavy breathing.

"Are you okay? Where are you?"

"Not really. But you don't have to come now. Just meet me at Val's place when you're done with whatever you're doing," she said.

"Wait, don't hang up," I said quickly. "What happened?"

"Why do you even care?" she snapped. "You've barely spoken to me in two weeks. I literally died, and you went to ignore me?!"

"I'm sorry," I said. "I just didn't know what to say to you, I still don't. I mean, you literally died in my arms, don't you think this is hard for me too?"

"I have to go," she said quietly, and I heard the click as she hung up.

Groaning, I flopped back on the bed. I had no idea what to do now.

Eventually I went back downstairs, half wanting to stop by Alyssa or Cashlin's old room, but not having the courage. I knew mine was either empty or inhabited by someone else so I didn't bother there.

"Hey, where were you?" Valerie asked when I met with her again.

I pulled her into the library and lowered my voice. "I found out who else had powers here," I said softly. "Sophia. She can imitate people, basically make herself look like them, and can show people stuff like dreams or memories she they see it in their heads."

"That's crazy," Valerie said. "Where is she now?"

"She's not coming back with us," I said. "She's not ready to be public about this. So if anyone asks, we've never spoken to her before and I came here to see if I could grab some stuff left behind from Beatrix's room."

I held up the bracelet I had grabbed from between the mattress and the bed. "This will do for a good alibi," I said. "But we should get going."

"Just because you don't live here anymore, doesn't mean you don't have to use inside voices in the library," the librarian said cooly from behind her desk.

"There's no one in here!" I protested. "And we are using inside voices!"

She ignored me, and went back to typing one character a minute on the dusty old computer in front of her.

"Let's go," I said. "I think Beatrix is having some kind of crisis, so we should probably get back."

We gathered Alexis, who was busy talking to the cafeteria workers about some kitchen health code, and went outside, heading or the car. I looked up at the dark, gloomy building once more, and saw Alyssa looking down on us, before she changed to Sophia once more.