Fight With Fire

16

I climb out the window feeling the wind blow my braid over my shoulder. I look up to the sky looking for any thunder clouds. I close my eyes not feeling my legs holding my weight against the window sill or my hands gripped inside the window. I just let everything slip away for those few moments when the only thing I can feel in the wind against my skin. I take one last deep breath and open my eyes.

I spin around, close the window, and start my descent. The light of the sun follows me down the building as it sets in the distance. The trees are green with the last sunshine of the day and the sky is painted with the warm colours of a fire.

I drop off the side of the building hearing the grass scrunch beneath my weight. The sun has set and the trees are darker now almost daring me to enter their depths. The sound of my boots is joined by a slow clap making me spin around to see a figure hiding in the shadows of the trees. He looks as relaxed as when I first walked into the testing room.

"That was very impressive." John has stopped clapping and lets his hands rest against the wall he's leaning on. He pushes away from the wall and takes a few steps toward me. A few feet in front of me he turns on his heels and looks up. I follow his gaze to see the building standing tall, the top lost in the clouds. It looks much more intimidating than when I was climbing it.

"Anyone could do it," I shrug and look back to him. I keep my face unreadable. "Most are just too scared to try." I shift my weight between my feet thinking of a polite way to ask what he is doing here waiting for me. John cocks his head to the side and looks me in the eyes.

"Do you really believe that?" I open my mouth to give the obvious answer but close it again at the look he's giving me.

"No," I answer truthfully. What is the point in lying when he can see right through it? "Why are you here?"

John doesn't answer right away but continues studying me like he's trying to read a very big word. He moves his gaze to my cheek where my iae is making me feel immediately uncomfortable. He looks me in the eyes again his mouth stretching into a wide smile.

"Have you ever wondered why you can do that so easily?" He gestures to the building towering 80 stories over us completely ignoring my question.

I look at him taking my turn to study him. I think back to the first time I climbed out my window. The elites had made plans for the first meeting at the circle. They had assumed I wouldn't come because no Oari had ever gone to the circle before. I had gone back to my room determined to prove them wrong. I didn't know how to get out until I looked out the window. Something clicked and then I was already half way down the building. I was one of the first one's there.

Standing in front of this man now, I feel myself questioning everything I've ever known. He sees my confusion and continues speaking without waiting for a response.

"I'm sorry," he waves a hand dismissing the topic, "this is unfair. I'll stop interrogating you. Let me tell you something about me." He pulls his collar down fully exposing his iae which marks him as a Mind Controller. "You're probably very curious as to how my Aerdell works." John backs up and leans against the wall again the picture of calm. "Do you know of Brian Coles? He has the same Aerdell, he's on the council. He is the one that gives us the numbers for the List." John stays silent letting this sink in. I wait patiently wanting to know how his Aerdell works. After all our conversations I thought he could hear people's thoughts or know when people are lying.

Whatever I expected, it was not what he said next: "I know everyone's Aerdells, how they work, and their Drells."

My breath hitches and everything starts spinning. He knows. This explains how simple the testing was. He knew enough about everyone that there was nothing more for him to learn. That is also why the Flier scored so high without exposing themselves. John is watching me as I try to sort everything in my head. I start walking towards him and fall to my knees on the soft grass. The world starts to spin and I grip the grass in my hands. My knuckles turn white. I look up at him wanting with every bone in my body for him to tell me what my Aerdell is. Words and sentences start forming in my head. Arguments and reasons for him to help me. But after taking a few deep breaths, only one word comes out.

"Please."

John doesn't move, doesn't flinch. He continues to study me. I feel like an animal in a cage being observed by scientists. Waiting to see what I do next. My throat has closed up stopping me from pleading any more. All I can do is plead with my eyes looking up at John. I pray like someone praying to god as I kneel on the ground at John's feet. The silence lengthens, the only thing to be heard is my heavy breathing. I wait for him to do something but he doesn't move. Some part of me wants to believe that he isn't real. That he is a statue and I imagined the whole conversation.

"Ella! C'mon, we're about to get started!" I turn to see a shadow standing under the swaying branches of the tree. The crunching of grass makes me turn my head back to where John was standing.

The only sign of his presence are the footprints he left in the grass.