Minds: Book One

Chapter Ten

        “Will all of the council members introduce themselves to Alice and Isaac please?” Richard said as he sat down. Kayla stood up.
        “My name is Kayla Lobel, I am a shape shifter, and I’m a spy for the Safe House in ROIM.” She said with her kind voice. When she was finished she sat back down in her chair. A tall scrawny guy stood up next.
        “My name is Adam Wesley, I am an unseen, I’m also a spy for the Safe House in ROIM.” He sat back down.
        “Adam will you please elaborate on your special ability please?” Richard said with a stern voice. Adam stood back up and said,
“I can make myself invisible.” Just as he said that he disappeared and reappeared sitting back down in his chair. I looked over at Alice and smiled. She smiled back. A medium height girl stood up next, she had black hair and bright blue eyes.
        “My name is Piper Emerson, I’m a Blazer-” She paused for a second and held up her left hand and a small fire appeared in her palm when she closed her hand the fire went out. “-I can create fire from my hands, and with my mind.” She looked at a piece of paper in front of Richard. It suddenly burst into small flames. Richard backed away from the paper and it quickly turned to ash.
        “Piper what if that paper was important?” Richard said as he glared at Piper. She just shrugged her shoulders and sat down. Next a boy that looked like he wasn’t much older than me stood up. He was a few inches taller than me and his muscles were definitely a lot bigger than mine. He was definitely a lot better looking than I was too.
        “My name is Bentley Reed, I am an H2O, which means that I can manipulate any form of liquid with my mind or hands.” As he said that the water in the cup in front of him started flowing up into the air in a single stream. He had the water dance around in the air and back into the cup. He sat back down winking at Alice. Even though his ability was really cool, I didn’t like him. Richard stood back up.
        “I have gathered all of you here today to discuss River Payne.” He looked at everyone that was sitting at the table. Confused by why we had to have a meeting about River I leaned back in my chair.
        “We are going to vote on if he can continue to live here at the Safe House with all of us, or if he cannot live with us here at the Safe House.” Richard said in a monotone voice. I shot forward in my seat.
        “Why would be not be allowed to stay here? I thought this place was called a safe house.” I said not trying to hide any of the anger in my voice. I could feel everyone staring at me. Richard crossed his arms and glared at me.
        “Because he is a Mindless, this place is a safe house for Minds. He doesn’t do anything special.” Piper said with a harsh voice. My eyes shot over to hers.
        “He doesn’t do anything special? He saved my life, and Alice’s life. Without him we wouldn’t have made it out of ROIM.” I said with my voice full of anger. Piper raised her eyebrows at me.
        “You have no way of actually proving that he saved yours, and Alice’s life. Plus I bet Kayla could have just as easily, gotten you out of ROIM.” She said.
        “I agree with Piper.” Bentley chimed in. I glared down at him.
        “River has been my best friend since kindergarten, you guys can’t just kick him out.” I said this time looking at Richard and Nick.
        “I don’t give a rat’s ass if River is the Queen of England, he’s a Mindless. The Safe House isn‘t responsible for keeping the Mindless safe from ROIM.” Piper added. My eyes shot back to hers.
        “That’s enough.” Richard said with his stern voice. Alice grabbed my wrist and pulled me back down into my chair.
        “I’m going to ask each one of you for your vote and your reason behind it.” Richard said as he gestured toward Kayla.
        “I vote he stays. Just because he is a Mindless, doesn’t mean ROIM still won’t kill him. I mean he went against his own father.” She said with her kind voice. Richard nodded his head and gestured towards Adam to give his vote.
        “I vote he stays. I like the kid, I don’t want him to get killed by ROIM.” Adam said as he looked at the ceiling. Richard nodded and gestured toward Piper to give her vote.
        “I vote he doesn’t stay. Like I said before the Safe House isn’t responsible for the Mindless. Plus his dad is the President of ROIM, what if he tries to find him and he finds the Safe House, then we are all dead. And for what? A stupid Mindless. Yeah no thanks.” Piper said with bitterness in her voice. I wanted to jump across the table and strangle her. I actually might have if Alice wasn’t holding my arm. Richard nodded and gestured towards Bentley to give his vote.
        “I vote he doesn’t stay. Piper made a good point, what if his dad does try to come find him and finds the Safe House. That’s too much of a risk.” Bentley said. Richard nodded and looked over at Nick.
        “Looks like you’re going to have to be the tie breaker.” Richard said.
        “All of you do make good points. But what if we kick him out of the Safe House and he gets so angry that he runs back to ROIM and tells his dad where the Safe House full of hundreds of Minds is located? And if he did stay I don’t think his dad would come looking for him. From what River has told me over the years, his dad doesn’t give two shits about him” Nick said as he looked around at everyone. “My vote is that he stays.” Alice and I exchanged excited looks. Richard nodded his head and said, “Alright then, River Payne gets to stay with all of us at the Safe House.”  Piper slammed her hands down on the table.
        “If we all die thanks to that stupid Mindless, don’t come crying to me.” Piper said as she stood up and left the room.
        “Well I guess the meeting is dismissed.” Richard said as he rolled his eyes. Adam, and Bentley both stood up and left the room.
        “God, Piper is such a pain in the ass.” Kayla said and everyone laughed.
        “All of the Blazer’s are pains in the asses.” Nick said.
        “Yeah just because they are only kind that only has one type of Blazers, they think there are all superior.” Kayla said rolling her eyes.
        “What do you mean the Blazers are the only kind that has one type?” I asked.
        “Well for example, I’m a “different” shifter which means that I can stay in any form I want for a max of twenty-four hours and resist ROIM‘s tests. But a normal shifter can stay in any form for a max of twelve hours and cannot resist ROIM’s tests.” Kayla said.
        “Can everyone with special abilities do that?” I asked.
        “Everyone that is a “different one” with in their special ability can resist ROIM’s tests.” Richard said. I looked around the room at everyone. Kayla was staring at her perfectly polished finger nails, Richard was highlighting something on a sheet of paper, and Nick was just staring at Alice. I looked over at her, she was pulling at a string on the hem of her shirt. Her hands were shaking. Her eyes met mine.
Will you take me outside please?
I glanced back over at Nick who was still staring at her like he was a lion and she was his prey. I stood up and said, “We’ll see you guys later.” Kayla and Richard both smiled and waved. But Nick just glared at us. I wheeled her out of the room. Adam leaning over the balcony reading a book.
        “Hey Adam, would you mind giving me a hand here?” I asked. He looked over at us and rushed over.
        “Yeah, of course!.” He said as he handed Alice his book. She locked her wheels and Adam held onto the front of her wheels and I held onto the back of them. Just like that we carried her down the stairs again.
        “Thanks Adam.” Alice said. She handed him his book.
        “No problem.” He said as he took the book and ran back up the stairs and continued reading. Alice directed me to the back door so we could go outside. When we were outside I helped Alice out of her wheel chair and sat down on the grass with her.
        “I’m cold can I have your hoodie?” She asked as she shivered. It wasn’t that cold outside but I could tell she was cold. I slipped the hoodie off and put it on her. She smiled at me and I kissed her forehead.
        “What was Nick’s problem?” I asked. She bite her lip for a second before answering.
        “He’s jealous of you.” She said without looking at me.
        “Why?” I asked. She looked over at me. She didn’t have to answer, he was jealous of me because of the connection between Alice and I. I smirked a little.
        “Ever since I met him, he has always tried to be with me. He didn’t understand the word no. When your case got reassigned to me he got even more jealous, because I was getting attached to you.” She said as she looked away.
        “Wait, what case of mine?” I asked leaning forward to look at her. Her eyes met mine and said,
        “Well the Safe House monitors all of the people in the world that have special abilities. All of the “different ones” in the Safe House get one or two people assigned to them and we have to monitor our person in case ROIM discovers what they are. If ROIM discovers that person we have to go get that person as soon as possible and bring them back to the Safe House without ROIM taking them first. I was monitoring you for about a year and a half before ROIM found out about you.” I furrowed my brow at her.
        “You were watching me for a year and a half?” I asked with a voice that was harsher than I intended.
        “Well I only monitored you for a year. Nick originally had your case, but he was careless and he let you see him too many times.” She said. That was why Nick seemed familiar to when I first saw him that first night that Alice was taking me to the Safe House. I had always seen him around town. It seemed like anywhere I went I saw him. But I never thought anything about it.
        “Still you watched me for a year.” I said scooting away a little from Alice. She rolled her eyes at me.
        “Isaac, it’s not like I planted cameras in your house and car or something. I was mainly watching ROIM, where we actually do have cameras planted, to make sure they didn’t find out about you.” She said with a touch of hurt in her voice. “Yes, I did watch you sometimes but it was really only whenever you had a game in one of the sports that you were playing.” She looked away from me.
        “You went to all my games?” I asked. The only person in my family that ever went to any of my games was my mom. I could always hear my mom cheering me on and holding up a different sign for each sport that I played.
        “Yeah. My favorite sport to watch you play was football.” She said without looking at me. That was my mom’s favorite sport to watch me play too. I reached over and put my hand on Alice’s back. She looked over at me with tears in her eyes. I pulled her into my chest.
        “Hey, hey it’s okay.” I said as I rubbed her back. She pulled away to look at me.
        “I think I know how ROIM found us.” She said shaking her head. “Nick must have given them our location anonymously.” I just stared at her.
        “Why would he do that?” I asked. I know Nick was jealous of me but would he really give ROIM our location just to get back at her for saying no to him?
        “When ROIM found out about you, I was about to leave on the mission to go get you and bring you back here, Nick told me that if I went he hoped that ROIM would find me and succeed in killing me this time.” She said as tears fell down onto her cheeks. I am going to kill him.