Hellbound - 001/Henry Creel/Peter Ballard

001

I stare intensely at the small metallic ball, trying to make it move, but ultimately failing. The ball remains unmoving on the table and even though how hard I try there is not a single inch of movement there.

I slump my shoulders and fall against the plastic chair, wallowing in yet another failure of mine.

"You have to try harder Five." Papa says and I can tell he's disappointed at my inability to express telekinesis. My powers barely exist and I doubt I belong here.

I cannot push my sisters and brothers around with just a glance like they do. I cannot play with toys the way they do. I'm not the same as them and I am not treated like them. Papa values them, he respects them, but he doesn't have a single ounce of pride for me.

"I am." I sigh and try again, this time I extend my arm and tense my fingers using every inch of energy and concentration onto that little ball.

It stays still just as I expected, and I stay dysfunctional, useless, and powerless.

"You know Five, sometimes we think we can't do something, but in reality, we are just restricting ourselves from doing it. Take a break, clear your head, and don't think about your powers. You will come to master them one day don't worry." Papa gives me a sad smile and leaves my room.

He says the same thing every day but with every failure I can hear my clock ticking, time closing in on me, and late at night I wonder if anyone was ever been kicked out of here. I know that Thirteen and Twelve died in the hospital when I was still a child. Papa says it was an unfortunate event but never told us how they died. One day they just weren't there, and they like me had trouble expressing powers.

I lay on my bed and face the ceiling, thinking of the one time I managed to activate a lightbulb for even a second. I was overfilled with joy and satisfaction but that went away as fast as it came when I couldn't light it up again.

All my other siblings can do marvelous things. They can move your limbs with just a twist of their hand and control the game with just their eyes.

I am ordinary, nothing like them. Closer to human than supernatural.

Tears fall down my templed and onto my pillow. Why is it that I'm different thank them? Why can't I be like them?

A knock rattles at my door. "Five you have to join us in the rainbow room." Henry opens the door just enough so that his head can peak in. He gives me one of his signature kind smiles and urges me to stand up and go to that forsaken room.

"I don't want to. I'm tired and I just finished my training." I throw the blanket over my head, hiding him from my view.

I hear my door creak open and his footsteps in my room. My bed dips as he sits by my feet. "You know the rules Five. You can't stay in your room." He places a supporting hand on my legs and I lower my blanket just enough to look at him.

"Tell papa I'm feeling unwell and I can't go to the rainbow room."

After yet another failure I don't want to face them and hear their nasty comments again. I don't want to be reminded of my nature, of how better Two is than me.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." His smile falls a little and he lowers my blanket fully, forcing me out of bed. "What happened in training that you're so upset over?"

"Oh, you know the usual, me staring at a small object for minutes and not moving it. Same old stuff."

"I believe in you Eve, you're going to do great things one day."

My heart flutters at the nickname he has for me. I don't have a name, a name like his. I'm Five with a tattoo on my arm as the evidence of it but he made my number name into a name. Eve, the name I could have had if I didn't show that day my damned powers.

I tend to use them at the worst moment and hide them when they're most needed.

"Yeah, one day." I wipe away the semi-dried tears on my face and flash a flicker of a smile.

"I'm sorry." Henry says. His eyes seem to soften with sadness and I feel a twinge of guilt building up.

I furrow my brows, "What are you sorry for?"

"I don't know, I just am. You seem so disturbed over the fact that you're not like the others. You don't have to be Eve, you're so much better than them. You're special you just don't know it yet."

I sit up and he holds my hand in his.

I've been here since I was five years old, a coincidence with my name. I've been here for thirteen years. Henry has been one of the nicest orderlies here. I don't know for how long he's been here. I don't remember my first years here. He's the only guard that cares, the only one that talks to me. The only person here that doesn't mock me or is disappointed with me.

He's my only friend here. However, papa doesn't like it. He thinks I should socialize with orderlies and talk to my siblings instead. If he knew he would understand, he wouldn't bother me over it.

If he knew about my bruised back and the cracks in the rainbow room maybe he would leave me alone and let me be in my room.

"I've been here for god knows how long and I can't move a speck of dust. I don't belong here, Henry." I look into his sapphire eyes seeing only sadness and pain in them.

"Long before you came here, I knew a little boy that was just like you. He could not show his powers and he beat himself over it. He would stare at everything that could move hoping that he could succeed just once. I remember that he hated the rainbow room too, just like you. But one day, he found something deep inside of him, a switch, and suddenly came into a great power."

"Well, where is that switch. I cannot find it." I shrug my shoulders and think of his words.

A switch. What could that be? A memory? A hidden ability deep inside of me that I haven't reached yet?

"Only you can find it. You have to search yourself in your deepest levels."

I groan and throw myself on the bed again.

"Oh no, you are not laying down again. We have to go to the rainbow room." He pulls my hand and makes me stand up and guides me towards the door.

I look at the camera in the corner of the room. Henry is not supposed to be in my room, he gets punished every time he does. I've seen it. I look at the small red light at the corner and it doesn't blink.

The cameras are not recording.

I look at it, not believing my eyes.

We get out of the room, and I search for more cameras this time the red lights are blinking.

My room camera does not work.

"Henry, my room camera isn't recording." I look up at him, and a small smile spreads across his face.

"I know." He says calmly. His hand wraps tighter around mine.

He knows? What does he mean by that?

"Must be a technical issue. Don't worry about it."

I don't. I could care less about it, no cameras means more privacy and I don't get loads of privacy in this place.

Whatever crumbs I can get I am thankful for them.

We walk down the corridors to the double doors of the rainbow room. Instantly my heart starts beating out of my chest and I dread the worst. Another day of me being teased, another day of two and our others siblings torturing me slowly.

Henry opens the door but doesn't enter with me.

"I'll be back." He smiles at me and his hand slips from mine. I see the double doors close and him heading away and I take a long breath.

Here I go again.