Heroes

Chapter 2. New friends

A large stone room, with cells along two sides and a round metal table in the centre. There were metal benches to each side of the table and ridiculously bright lights overhead. A clock was hung on one wall, too high for anyone to reach. It looked like the inside of Alcatraz, and some people would argue that it actually is. Sitting around the table were four people: children, probably the same age as me. I expected the men to introduce me, but they let go of me and went back to the elevator. I was left with these four strangers. They were all wearing the same thing: a grey cotton suit, like what prisoners wear. Their eyes shifted over to me, as I stood uncomfortably in their midst, not sure what to do. One of them got up and came over to me. When I saw her close up, I was surprised: she was pretty. Really pretty. She had short brown hair and the deepest blue eyes I had ever seen. She looked just slightly younger than me.
She smiled at me. "Hey." Her voice was melodic. I knew that she was like me, but I was still surprised why someone as perfect as her was in a place like this.
"Um...hey," I replied uncertainly. She was looking at me curiously, with what looked like concern.
"It's okay. We're not gonna bite you." She was smiling at me, her eyes softening. "Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone. What's your name?"
She was being so nice, I couldn't help but expect something bad to suddenly happen.
"Uh...Mark."
"I'm Morgan. Well, come on Mark."
She motioned for me to follow her back over to the table, where she sat down again with the others. As I approached, I saw the other three all look up at me and smile in the same way Morgan did. They all looked perfectly normal, like they weren't suffering from any effects of being trapped here. Morgan gestured to the kid closest her, a boy with short dark brown hair and bright blue eyes.
"This is Jack."
Jack nodded at me and smiled a smile that filled me with a comfort I hadn't felt since I came here. On Jack's left was another boy, with light brown hair and deep brown eyes.
"That's Mat."
Mat also flashed me a warm smile.
"And that's Steph at the end."
Steph had long brown hair, which was kind of messy and hazel eyes.
"Nice to meet you," she said, the only person to yet say something to me besides Morgan.
"Guys, this is Mark," Morgan explained.
They all looked like normal people, kids who have abandoned by their parents.
"Come join us Mark. Have a chat with us," Jack said and I noticed instantly that he was Irish.
I hesitated to join them and Morgan sensed this.
"Don't worry, we're not like what they've no doubt told you up there. We're perfectly civilised. We're not gonna hurt you."
She said it so kindly and everyone else was smiling and being so friendly that I couldn't refuse. I sat down with them and folded my arms across the table.
"So, what do you have?" Steph asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked, though I think I already knew.
"What's your power?"

"Super strength?!" Jack asked, jaw dropping.
"Yeah," I nodded slowly. Jack was so excited when I did this.
"That's amazing, man! That's probably the best one here!"
"Uh, excuse me, but what about me?" Steph said from the end of the table.
"Well, what do you have?" I asked.
"Teleportation," she said, with a somewhat smug smile curling her lips.
"That's really cool," I said genuinely. It was amazing to meet people who shared my...disability, as it was called. In all my life, I never thought I'd find others like me.
"Just out of curiosity, are there any others, or is it just us?" I asked now.
However, when I asked that, everyone shifted a little uncomfortably and looked at each other with nervous eyes.
"Um..." Morgan started but then tailed off.
"What's wrong? Have I upset someone?" I asked, scared that I'd just lost my new friends.
"No, no it's not that, it's..." Mat began, but tailed off like Morgan. Instead, Jack told me.
"There is another. He's here with us too, but we never see him. We saw him once, when we first arrived. You'll probably be taken to meet him next," Jack explained, but he said it quite slowly, like he was mustering up courage to say it.
"Why don't you see him?" I asked, eager for more information.
"He doesn't come out of his cell. He just stays there, day and night. Has done for 3 years."
3 years?!!" I exclaimed incredulously. "How has he stayed there for 3 years without you guys or one of the guards getting him out?"
"The guards are afraid of him. They don't go near him unless they have to. He's the one who was here first. The one who was noticed first. He's been here just short of 5 years. He's 15 now."
"He was here when he was 10?" I asked. I was feeling more and more sorry for this mystery kid. If my parents had given me away earlier than this, I don't think I would've been able to bear it the way I am now.
"Yeah. When we arrived, the guards took us round to each person, and we met him too. They say he's scary and shouldn't be alive. But we just think he's...depressed. He's just a kid who lost his way and was sent away for being someone with a gift. Like us."
Everyone was silent for a moment and in that instant, I felt a strong urge to see this guy. To see just what an asylum like this does to someone like that: someone so perfectly normal before they showed signs. But they're not even bad signs, I thought to myself. It's not like we're summoning guns or something. We wouldn't hurt anyone with our abilities. Still, I'm not sure whether it was curiosity or sadness that was compelling me to this guy, to see why the guards were so scared of him, to see why he hadn't left his cell.
"Which cell is he in?" I asked, breaking the silence. Everyone looked shocked that I'd spoken, but then they gingerly pointed to the cell at the very end, furthest away from the elevator. Standing up from the table, I slowly began to make my way over there and stopped in front of an iron door.