✓ 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘁 ↣ 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐧

PART: 07

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Charles directed me to the top floor that over looks up over all of the corporation. You have the rooms that are sectioned off in tiny white boxes. The trainees. More people walking around here. From up here so far, it all looks so small.

"How are people selected?" I ask. "You guys obviously don't have high standards because I'm here."

"We don't just look at grades, Rowen. We look at everything one can offer. In my opinion, I believe my nephew selected you because of your criminal record," Charles says.

"That's makes no sense," I mutter to myself. My breath creates a fog against the glass. I back a foot away while drawing a star on the white clouded spot.

"You may not see it but you show a lot of potential. We only need to....adjust a few things. Tweak as you young kids say. Your record doesn't stand for criminal activity. It stands for your opinion. I am well aware of your art. You painted because you believed in what you do. Not the consequences, which we need to work on."

I turn my body away from the glass to fully face Charles. "We don't say tweak, and adjust? Adjust what? There's nothing to adjust."

Charles crosses his arms and locks his stare down on me.

"What?" I ask.

"There is a lot to change," he says casually.

"Give me one thing I need to change."

"Watching your attitude, to stop getting thrown in jail, pulling up your grades...."

"Why am I here if I'm only going to get ridiculed? I could be doing other things."

"Rowen," Charles says, closing in on me. "Your power is special. Extraordinary if I must say. It going without control or falling into the wrong hands could lead into mass destruction."

"Wow," I say dissapointedly.

"Rowen, this is serious. Here we will teach you self-discipline. Respect for others. Not to have such vulgar language. And most of all to learn your abilities and handle your power."

"You mean I can do more than what I know how to do?"

"Yes. As you grow and extend on your abilities, who knows what you will be capable of."

I bite down on my tongue.

"Walk with me," he orders. I follow him out the over-look room. Now we head down a corridor above the training area. "All of this is life or death. These kids are training for the sake of humanity."

"I understand that, but you can't change me as a person because you have this ideal hero," I say. "That's taking away my individuality."

"That is the least of our concerns here. The main priority is to get you ready and prepped for when an attack rises."

"I understand, but you cant-"

"You are either in this with us or out."

"If you would let me finish! I don't understand-"

"In or out!?"

"You can't take-"

"Quite frankly, I don't have time to put up with children. Here we raise heroes. Now I don't mind ripping up your contract right now and you leaving."

He stops in the middle of the hall. Below me is Landon helping a girl with her powers. Someone else is throwing knifes into a target, making them reappear then dissapear. They all sweat and bleed training for this.

"If you're gonna act foolish, we don't need you here. Don't make me regret Landon's decision."

"I'm not cut out apparently for what you do here. I'm me and I can't change that. You shit faces should have never choosen me in the first place!" I argue. "If this is what it's gonna be like, then I don't want to be in this place anyway."

I walk ahead of him to the elevator. "Your contract will be terminated," Charles says.

"I hope it is," I call back to him.

I exit out of the building, hurriedly walking to my motorcycle. I start the engine and head on back to the road.

I was stupid to think this would work out. I thought of this as some kind of redemption possibly. For all the shit I've done that this will make up for it. They are superficial ignorant people and my powers won't be used if I will constantly be shit on all the time.

I never tested how far my powers will go. The longest I've tried an energy build up was for two minutes. My nose started bleeding a flood. Those people could have helped me but they lost the chance.

I drive back into my university. Here we go again. Same old place that I will be stuck at for awhile. If my contract was ripped up, that means I can tell anyone what happened. It means the requirements no longer appeal to me. Or do they? I should have read the fucking thing.

I stumble in my room and fall flat on my back to the bed. I breathe loudly making the small pieces of my hair shoot up.

Why pick me? You can pick anyone with a criminal record. I have nothing more than my power and my art style of the way I do things. I'm fucking irritated that I wasted my time to go out into the middle of nowhere to only be insulted and rejected.

They don't need my powers. They have several other kids who have powers like me. They wasted my time and their's.

I put in my ear phones and listen to calming instrumental music. I turn off my lamp, close my eyes and wait for me to drift off to sleep.

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