Human

34.

            I glanced furiously between the two men in front of me.

"We can't stay here." Charles said in a hushed tone. "They're coming." He turned motioning for us to follow him.

Derrek avoided my eyes and fell into step behind Charles. "I'm not going anywhere with the two of you." I said as I firmly planted my feet and crossed my arms across my chest.

They both stopped walking and exchanged an exasperated look. "Cade, now isn't the time." Derrek whispered.

I started to argue with him, but then I saw the shadows cast on the ground from the men who were still walking around out front of the store. I stepped out of their view but then stopped walking again.

"Please come." Charles urged. "They will find us in here. We have to go, now." He turned to go to the back door, but he stopped when we all heard it creak open. Derrek and Charles rushed back to me, standing uncomfortably close. "Cloak us Cadence! Hurry." Charles whispered quickly to me.

"Huh?"

"She hasn't learned that yet." Derrek told him as his eyes flashed around the small space. We were about to be surrounded. I could hear voices at the front of the store now, and footsteps coming from the back.

"Time to learn, then." Charles huffed. "Close your eyes and focus on hiding us from their view. This is your crash course, you either do it or we all get caught."

"But I can-."

"You can." Charles cut me off. "Close your eyes. Breathe, and shield us." Charles grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the ground. "Kneel down together so the area she needs to cover is smaller." He whispered.

The three of us hunkered down on the ground, Derrek and Charles on either side of me. I tried to do as I was told. Like he said, it was either figure it out or fight these guys. I bit down hard on my lip I was concentrating so hard. I mentally counted in my head the number of steps left the men had before they would be in the same room as us. I wasn't sure if I was doing it or not, but the moment of truth came.

The lights flipped on and four men came into my view. I held my breath as they looked around the room.

"Good job."

I cut my eyes over to Charles in surprise. "You're telepathic, too?"

"Clearly." He replied. Even though it was in my head I still felt like I could hear a smile in his voice. "Just keep it up. You're doing great."

"Ok."

I watched the men stomp all around and look under and behind racks of clothing. I only recognized one of them from the pictures of the official members of The Order that Wes had showed me. He was bulky, but shorter than the rest. He had long gray hair that he wore slicked back and tied into a small rubber band. "She got away!" He yelled kicking a box beside him. "You two go back out to the car and keep an eye on it, she couldn't have gotten far on foot. Marco, you go drive up and down the streets and look for her. Frankie, you come with me to check the other stores out."

I was starting to feel the strain of keeping us invisible. I wasn't sure how much longer I'd be able to hold it up, but thankfully after a few more seconds the lights shut back off and I heard the last lock slide back into its place on the doors.

I exhaled and lowered myself a little more to be lying back on the cold tile floor, staring up at the ceiling. I felt like I had just swam a thousand laps, or ran track in 100 degree heat. I forced myself to slow my breathing and try to regain my strength.