UNIQUE (A Powers Novel)

Twenty-One

For the next few days, I push myself as hard as I can during testing, pouring all my energy into trying to get abilities to kick in. At night, I go into the lunchroom and take the same notes about everything, just observing changes in others to see if there could be any other potential disappearances. Then I go back to my room and compare.

Occasionally Forrest will enter and take a test subject with him. Every time he comes the room falls silent like everyone hopes not to be noticed.

I flip back through my notes and review them as Forrest and the test subject walks off, comparing all the notes again. The girl who left with Forrest just a few days ago hasn't returned. The other two girls who sat with her are abnormally quiet. What are they hiding?

Others are quieter as well, staring at nothing for long periods of time, flinching when others come too close. Those who once sat with a friend or two now come early and disappear. There are at least four now. Like they're ashamed or exiled.

I understand how they feel.

#

Early the next morning Forrest shows up to collect me. Sluggishly, I fumble my way out of bed half asleep and follow Forrest into the hallway, pulling on a t-shirt and covering a yawn. I'm not sure if it's just me, but it feels so early. Most of the doors are closed, but a few hang open.

The door to Room 1126—just down the hall from mine—is open, and inside a girl sits on her bed, eyes ringed with dark circles like she hasn't slept properly in years. Her haunted gaze follows us as we pass, and something about it gives me shivers. Like she's afraid of us.

–run. Before it's too late.

"Who said that?" I ask.

"Said what?" Forest doesn't stop walking.

My eyes lock on the girl's until she disappears beyond the doorframe.

Celeste's door opens a tiny crack; her dull green eyes peering out at me before the door snaps shut again.

Whimpering comes from down the dead-end hallway as Forrest and I turn the corner. Someone in pain. The sound will haunt me even after it fades from my ears. We don't slow.

Rooms 1119 and 1117 corner the recreation room. Both doors are open and the occupants—one the Somatic who travels with the telepath, the other a tall man with narrow features but an imposing presence—stand as if they'd been talking to each other. But when Forrest and I approach they fall silent. Hard gazes follow me up the hallway as we approach the elevators. They watch me like they're scoping out prey.

I swallow a lump that forms in my throat and eagerly follow Forrest into the elevator as the carriage door opens. The elevator goes a short way up, and we step out into a huge gym with a boxing ring and sparring corner at the far end. Numerous weight lifting equipment pepper the place: barbells, dumbbells, lifting bench, and more. They vary from five pounders all the way up to a massive one-ton. It's exhausting just looking at them.

Two of the walls are windows. The sun rises over Argon's downtown spires. It's the first sunrise I've seen in weeks, and I take the time to enjoy it while Forrest tapes on the electrodes. The sun burns through the fluffy white clouds, chasing dark hues of blue away with brilliant, blazing orange. The scale of colors glitters off the buildings. For just a moment the city is on fire. Beams of light create a halo around the building across the street. Then the fiery orange burns away to pink before leaving the sky perfectly blue.

"How's everyone treating you?" asks Forrest.

"For them to treat me in some way, they'd have to actually talk to me," I say. It's as much to protect anyone else as it is to keep my secrets to myself. One of the electrodes on my upper arm makes my skin itch, so I scratch at its rough edges.