Isolation [Erik Lehnsherr]

Chapter One

Four months had passed since Scarlett had come to live with Rory. True to her word, Rory had stolen her brother's mattress the next morning, when her parents had gone to work, and her brother had left for school. She also snagged some food out of the fridge, and handed it to Scarlett when the girl had awoken.

In those four months, the two girls had become incredibly close. They didn't interact all that much, to be honest, as Scarlett slept during the night and Rory during the day, but during the moments they did interact, they bonded. Rory had told Scarlett all about her parents, and how they found her repulsive because she was different, because she had abilities that they didn't understand. Scarlett admitted that she didn't really understand what Rory had gone through, but she still never really elaborated on why she'd shown up at Rory's window that night. But, the black-haired girl never asked any questions, for she figured Scarlett would tell her on her own terms.

Some of the things they'd learned about each other were their abilities. They were both so different and unique. Rory flaunted her shadow abilities (mainly her ability to travel between shadows, which helped when it came to sneaking upstairs to get food) and her fire powers. Scarlett, on the other hand, was a little more iffy about using her abilities, even though Rory couldn't figure out why. They were pretty epic, what with the shape-shifting into different animals, and the mind reading. That actually scared Rory, the first time Scarlett had read her mind. But, Rory soon found herself able to block Scarlett's prodding in her mind, which excited the older girl to no ends.

However, their peace together was about to come to an end, as this was the day that their whole lives was going to turn upside down.

It was one of those rare days that Rory was awake during the day, as her parents had decided to take her brother out for some celebration. Rory didn't particularly care, because it just meant her and Scarlett had the run of the house until they returned. She took advantage of this by deciding to watch television: something she rarely got to do. Scarlett loved watching television, something that amused Rory, so she let the younger girl pick out some random show.

However, shortly after turning the television on, Rory found her mind wandering. That was one of her issues, she never was able to focus on one thing for too long. Today though, it was a different story. She kept swearing she heard noises, but as Scarlett wasn't saying anything about it, she thought she was hearing things. After all, Scarlett could easily tell if someone was going to break in, what with her being able to read minds and all.

That did not stop her from nudging Scarlett when she heard a crash from the kitchen, which was just off the entry to the house. A second later, the door slammed close.

That got Scarlett's attention, and her blue eyes went wide.

"They have abilities too," she whispered to Rory, which made the older girl quickly jump off the couch. She found her hands ignited with fire quickly, and she stood slightly in front of Scarlett. However, Scarlett wasn't going to have any of that, and she pushed her way so she was standing side-by-side with the older girl.

In the next two minutes, two men entered the living room. Rory quickly noted plenty of things about the two of them. They both had brown hair, and they both were smiling. Just as well, they both were unknown. Scarlett had said they both had abilities, and Rory was dying to find out, but she didn't dare lower the mental wall she kept securely around her mind at all times, in case one of these two were able to do something similar to Scarlett.

"Who are you?" Rory snarled.

The taller of the two men laughed. "I'm Erik, and this is Charles." His eyes glanced towards the fire that was dancing on Rory's palms. "It's nice to see we weren't mistaken about you."