The Orbist

Chapter 32

 We were quiet for a moment, none of us speaking up, knowing there was a great possibility that Mr. Mac was hearing our conversation, somewhere, somehow. Elian, however, allowed his frustration to overcome any precautions.

    "He can't be in here." He blurted. "It doesn't make sense. If he's been hearing us, why was there any need to do the Ecator mind control thing to that librarian?"

    "The same reason he hasn't killed us all yet." Ralph replied, looking down at his reflection on the marble floor. "He's bored, and he likes toying with us with his sick sense of humor. Even with that, it won't be long until he gets a new kind of boredom, and begins to kill each one of us one by one."

    "We're screwed." Levi shuddered. I looked at her, trying to understand her. She didn't speak much in our conversations, and when she did, it was to treat Bryan or Ralph with sass. But now she looked the most scared out of all of us, scared of losing us.

 Ralph stood up to me, and leaned his head close to me. He uneasily let out a faint whisper in my ear.

    "Use your power. Find him."

 I didn't nod in response, I didn't have to. He knew as long as he was this group's leader I would obey strict orders in moments like this.

 When I did my thing, I usually did it with my eyes closed, but I couldn't, or else Mr. Mac would realize what I was up to. I remembered back in the prime of Teo and my escape from the E.O.H.C.C, I was able to locate a key in a closed cabinet without so much as a blink. I just had to do the same thing now, though it was much more difficult.

 I searched through the library, and though some of the images were kind of blurry, I was able to grasp most of what I was seeing. I passed preteens, old people, several books. But no guy with glasses and scruffy hair. No Mr. Mac. I frowned, more confused than ever.

    "He's not here." I determined aloud, feeling safer.

    "What?" They all replied in unison, inquiring looks on their faces.

    "Cayson, think about what you're doing." Ralph growled, angry at my sudden raise of volume. "Mr. Mac is smart."

    "Nothing escapes my sight, Ralph." I tried to convince him, putting my hand on his left shoulder. "He's not here."

 His eye twitched, annoyed.

    "Hey, uh, Ralph?" Bryan looked at him with concern. "You okay there buddy?"

    "No! You know why? Cause I want to meet Mr. Mac!" He shouted a bit too loud at us, fuming with anger. "Cause I seem to be the only one here that wants answers! I want to know why I can throw soda cans without touching them! I want to know why there is a whole organization trying to kill us or throw us all in some freak show lifelong nursery home! I want to know why the last thing I can remember of my entire existence is waking up on a sidewalk, with blood spilling out my face!"

 He turned to me, and pointed a shaking finger.

    "And you just blew the only chance we had of finally meeting him and coming out alive!"

 None of us spoke. I couldn't look at Ralph. But my rage was building up too quickly.

    "Aren't you adorable!" I yelled back. "What are you sad about? That you could get hurt? It seems like that to me, man! Cause when I was screwed with that temporary tracker liquid, you were the first one to let me stay and die alone, so you could prance away without a single bruise. In comparison to what I've gone through you're absolutely fine! You didn't see two of the E.O.C grunts die next to you. You didn't see your best friend's neck snap in front of you. You didn't go crazy and lost in a forest for weeks! You didn't witness a friend get shot in the chest! You pretend like you've got battle scars in front of everyone just so they will still think of you as a leader, but when you open your mouth you've got nothing true to complain about. Mr. Mac isn't here, Ralph, I looked. And even if he was, and we encountered him, what gives you the idea the outcome will be any different than us being killed immediately?"