Ray's Crazy Kids

I Hear Things

It was midnight and Karry sat in bed, going over a news article about the Lincoln Towers fire. His grandma slept in the cot next to him, her breath a barely audible wheeze. Miss K and her grandson now shared a small tent with another family, though having found shelter at a relative's they had left the refugee tent to the Keatons.

Karry sighed and crossed his hands behind his head. The Towers had been his grandmother's house, and when he hadn't been at Ray's, his home. Now he was reduced to sleeping in a tent because his grandmother didn't want to leave Enid, her equally as elderly neighbor, alone in the temporary shelter the inhabitants of the Lincoln Towers had been provided by the city.

"And all this because of a pyrokinetic eh?" Karry hummed to himself as he skimmed over the article. A large picture of the impressively bright fire covered the front page, a headline in fat black letters printed above it : 'FIRE IN TOWERS BELIEVED TO BE OF ABILITY-RELATED ORIGIN.' Karry frowned, staring at the front page, displeased.

He'd read the article five times, so unbelievable was it's content. Apparently, when evacuating the building, one of the firemen had spotted someone lighting things on fire with what looked like pyrokinesis. Investigation two days later, after the fire had died down, found no error in electrical, fuel or heating systems, and instead validated the fireman's testimony when a specialist was brought on the scene to confirm the origin of the arson as the work of a pyrokinetic.

Though this was worrying news, all Karry could help thinking about was the tiny apartment on the fifteenth floor. Ten years ago, his mother had died of pneumonia, leaving Karry to live with his grandmother as the boy's father was a mystery that had eluded the family since he first heard of Karry's existence. Miss K might've done her best to raise her daughter's child on her own, but a frail old lady who had previously depended on her daughter to pay her residency at an Elders' Home could not do what a young woman could.

The Keatons, once comfortable enough, were forced to rely on Welfare and the meager paychecks Karry stemmed from minimum-wage jobs. Meeting Ray had helped : his Aunt Mo helped a great deal with Miss K's frail health, putting her nurse talents to the test when she spent long afternoons in the old woman's company.

Karry sighed. Long afternoons passed in the Lincoln Towers apartment, amongst his grandmother's pictures and trinkets. Now, the apartment was gone and Karry worried for his grandmother. Someone of her health wouldn't be able to live in a tent for the weeks it would take for Karry to find her a new apartment. And the old lady's resolution to stay with Enid didn't help : they could've accepted Ray's hospitality but Miss K didn't want to hear any of it.

The newspaper seemed to be glaring at Karry, it's fire shining bright even in the light of his dim-bulbed flash-light. Karry flipped it face-down and laid back on his pillow, turning off the light before closing his eyes to sleep. Hopefully nightmares of the fire wouldn't crowd his over-sensitive mind as they had for the past week. Falling asleep was hardest for natural telepaths such as himself, because being so tired made you lose control of your abilities. Thus, you could hear absolutely everything around you, and when you're trying to fall asleep, that isn't very welcome. Karry filtered through the various bribes of people's thoughts to try and let himself fall asleep when he heard it.

"I should've made the fire brighter."

Karry froze beneath his sheets. His breath hitched, mind nearly losing the bribe of thought until the boy concentrated on the small, furious voice and listened to someone's inner monologue. To hell with it being illegal, whoever had just thought that could be the pyrokinetic responsible for the fire!

"I can't believe the building went down! My entire stamp collection, gone in smoke-" Wrong person.

"Just keep calm. Susan's mother isn't that bad an old bat. It'll just be three months. Then the apartment Joe promised will be clear-" Wrong, again.

"Don't scream out her name, it's not Danny, don't scream Danny, don't do it, stop it, stop-" Definitely the wrong person.

"Three more minutes and I could've gotten to Allison. Damn firemen, getting in the way... Shit, what am I gonna do? That jerk saw my face, he'll know it was me... Damn Chris, what am I gonna do? I can't leave without Jess... Can't let the screws take her away from me. Damn Allison wuss... I should've made it brighter. Allison should've burned, the son of a--" the mind Karry was listening too suddenly filled with tension, "Screws! Shit!"

A great racket pulled the young telepath from his trance. Karry shot up in bed at the sound of a few people yelling orders and dozens of others screaming their shock and confusion.
He ran out of the tent in nothing but his pikachu-print boxers to witness the refugee camp swarm in fear. A team of officials were storming through the camp, ripping open tent doors to check who was inside. From a nearby tent, a man was forced outside and handcuffed by an officer reciting him his rights.
People started a scrambling for their families, desperate to find them before they too could be arrested. Karry stopped a relatively calm bypassed by grabbing his arm :
"What the hell is going on?"
"It's ACS! They've come for the pyros!" the man screamed over the rapidly increasing ruckus.
Karry let him go and the man ran off. The unfortunately named and many times unsuccessfully renamed ACS squads were more professionally referred to as Ability Control Squads. The government only ever sent them in when they were sure they had a target and said target was a person of class C power or more.
Kerry swore as he ducked back into the tent to wake Miss K. This time he'd carry her over to Ray's house if it came to it : there was no way he was leaving his grandmother in a place swarming with ACS. Fortunately, the old woman helped with packing as soon as he explained who was causing the ruckus.
The Keatons left the tent in a rush, neither turning back to notice the young man who crept inside as soon as they'd left.