CAPTIVATION • AARON WARNER

One

———

MANY WEEKS BEFORE ...

I'M WEARING A blonde wig.

"Isn't this great?" Kenji asks me as I face myself in the mirror.

"She doesn't look that bad as a blonde." Brendan agrees. "It's cute."

"I like the bangs," adds Winston. "But honestly, I will always be the superior blonde."

"Thanks, Winston," I say. His comment was meant to be negative but I'm not offended.

I've decided to ignore the remark because this is one of the rare times Winston has gotten any free time around here.

Kenji smiles excitedly. "Thank you, thank you." he says, even though they were complimenting me. "Try this one."

He holds out a bright pink wig, cut into a short bob.

It's a vulgar shade.

"What is this?" I say, leaning away from it.

"What?" Kenji shrugs. "We need variety. It's for disguises!" he argues.

"That wouldn't suit her," says Brendan. "Give her another one."

"This is the only other one."

"Well, it's ugly." I say. "No one would ever willingly dye their hair this color."

Kenji recoils in mock offense. "How dare you? I risked my life and went outside, searched for eight hours to gather disguises, and this is how you repay me?" he gasps. "That's fuckin' low, Cici."

I roll my eyes. "Let's go eat," I say, realizing it's dinner time.

"Agreed. I'm hungry." Brendan says, helping me take off my hairnet and wig.

"Not as hungry as me." Kenji places the wigs back into the closet.

Winston scoffs. "You're such a child."

The four of us walk out of the storage area, heading for the dining hall.

I've been living here, at Omega Point, for a little over a year. I've adjusted a lot, and it's not the best, but much better compared to my past living situations.

At least here, I have food and somewhere to bathe.

I enjoy it here, too. I've made friends, for the second time in my nineteen years of living, I've gotten to learn more about my powers, and I've been given much more freedom.

The younger kids and some of the teenagers who don't have powers are always talking about how bored they are, or how they want something new to do.

I've seen them asking Kenji or Winston or Ian or Emory if they could go on missions (in which they were all rejected) and I wondered why.

I was confused.

Why would they want to endanger their lives simply because they were bored? It didn't make much sense to me; these people didn't know how to fight very well and they had no supernatural abilities like most of the people who were allowed on missions.

I enjoy Omega Point. It has quickly become my home.

And it offers much more freedom than any of the other places I've lived. Much more than any of the compounds, too.

I was able to sleep in a bed, we don't need to pay or work for our food, and we have a lot of things that were inaccessible to the rest of the sector.

Anyways—

"Cici, are you going to eat that?" Kenji pokes my shoulder.

"Absolute pig," Brendan scowls, his accent coming off strong. "You've already eaten half of my food, plus yours, and you're still going to ask for more?"

"Don't blame a man for being hungry!"

I laugh at the raven-haired boy. "It's fine Brendan, he can have it."

Kenji greedily grabs the meat from my plate and takes a huge bite.

"Gross, mate! You're not even gonna slice it?"

"Aboslutely disgusting," Winston comments, sipping his coffee.

"Where are your table manners?" I say.

Brendan hands Kenji a knife, who refuses it. "I'm fine without one."

"You're so gross!"

At that moment, Ian walks over to us. He looks uptight. Troubled, even, which is not normal for him.

The mood shifts instantly.

"What's wrong?" Kenji says, seeing the look on his face, turning serious.

"Winston," Ian says. "Castle wants to talk to you."

The blonde furrows his brows and adjusts his glasses. This is serious Winston.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

Ian looks around. It's clear that he doesn't want anyone to know. His eyes flit towards Kenji, then to me. "It'll be better if Castle explains. You know how I am." he replies.

Winston nods. "Sure," he agrees. "See you guys later." he says to us.

After he exits, the three of us turn to each other.

"What do you reckon that was about, then?" Brendan asks.

"Don't know," Kenji is already back to stuffing his face. "Don't care. As long as it doesn't concern me."

"You were worried two seconds ago!" I cry.

"Yeah, but if it was really important, Castle would've asked for me too."

"Mate, did you see the way Ian looked? That's not like him."

"It's no big deal." Kenji ignores us. "I don't want to worry about anything right now, okay guys? I just wanna eat and enjoy a, for once, peaceful evening around here."

I sigh, but I can't deny that I agree with him. He's right; it's the first week in months that we haven't had to skip dinner.

So, I don't push the subject.

I figure Kenji's right. He likes to think he always is.

It's probably no biggie.

I take in the smell of food, the sounds of happy chit-chat surrounding me, my friends with me.

I figure I should enjoy this. Tomorrow it will be no different: waking up at 5AM and having chores from top to bottom.

In fact, I think today must've been my best day since coming to Omega Point.

———

A/N: sorry for shtty chapt... i'm going to improve as we go on i promise😭