Abilities

Chapter Five

     Lea travelled aimlessly. She didn’t even know where she was or where she was going. She went over everything Mark had told her a million times. The thing about being ready made sense, because no one had ever told her it was good.

     His last comment was more complicated. It’s not real. She wasn’t sure what “it” meant. She had mentally compiled a list of the possibilities, but one thing stuck out.

     Everything.

     But if everything wasn’t real, what about her? And Mark? She felt real. So did everything else. It must be real. However, she didn’t dismiss the idea.

     And the things he had said were wrong. She could only think of one example at first, and it was the one Mark had given her the first time they’d met; he’d asked her if she was tired. She knew what tired meant, she knew what sleep was, but for as long as she could remember, she had not experienced either.

     This was odd, that she should know the concepts, but not have ever done them.

     Once she had thought this over and over, looked at it from all angles and accepted it, the examples came pouring in. Time: she knew all the measurements of time- days, weeks, hours, seconds, months, years, minutes- but she didn’t have any way of measuring an hour, and she had never seen a single sunset or experienced a night. Hunger and thirst: she knew what both were, she knew how to solve both, but she had never been neither hungry nor thirsty, and had never drunk or eaten anything.

     There were endless concepts that made sense in her head, but she could never remember using them. This made her think there was more, more to life than just tasks, companions and Abilities. Maybe that only came once you were ready.

     Suddenly the feeling of certainty she had about Mark disappeared. It had all made sense, what he said, then as fast as someone clicking their fingers, she didn’t believe a word of it.

     How could everything she had ever worked for be a lie? Being ready must be good. It was all she had ever wanted to be. And if Mark had been telling the truth about anything, it would be the part about her being almost ready.

     With resolve, determination and courage she hadn’t possessed moments before, Lea turned around and set off into the empty city.

     She had a man to kill.

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     Lea’s breathing was loud and panicky in the silence. She stared down at her victim’s face. He was asleep. Peaceful.

     She couldn’t help remembering her thoughts from earlier, about her having never slept. Maybe those who worked for Him didn’t need to, maybe it was like an Ability.

     She looked at his face again and she noticed something she hadn’t before. His skin was chocolate coloured. I’ve never seen that before, she thought.

     Then memories came rushing back, like something from another life, vague and blurry, more like ideas.

     They had been wronged. People like this man, just because of their skin-colour. She had a feeling that she hated it, but there were those who hadn’t cared, who had thought that it was right to treat these people like animals.

     It wasn’t much to go by, but she knew this was important and it had to do with what Mark had told her.

     She resolved to go back to the lake and see him, and the second she did, it was almost like she was transported there. Damn, I need to concentrate more, she scolded herself.