Deep Down

Out Of Control

"Hailey, Hailey! Wake up!" I heard a small voice say excitedly say.

I immediately sat up, bouncing on my feet ready to go, and my hands curling into a fist. "What's wrong? Where are the others?" I said in a hurry, slight panic in my voice.

"Nothings wrong, Hailey. It's okay, I promise." He smiled, "Everyone else is out hunting right now."

"Why didn't they wake me up?"

"They said that they didn't want to bother you... but I got bored. I want to do something!" He grinned.

"Sure, anything in mind?"

He grabbed my hand and led me out of the cave. My ears flickered at every sound, then I remembered the leaf that I had got. "Give me a second, Dakota." I picked up another leaf, one that was similar to last night. Holding it in my hand, I closed my eyes and pictured what I wanted it to look like.

Numbness flowed through my arms, just like last night but not nearly as strong as the first time. I opened my eyes and to my disappointment, it just turned slightly frozen, with no beautiful colors, and it was still fragile. Like a piece of glass.

"Woah! That's so cool!" Dakota exclaimed and took it out of my hand hastily, and yet carefully at the same time. "But the one from last night was even more awesome!"

I giggled at his excitement, "Yeah, it doesn't compare."

"It's still really cool! I didn't know you could do this!"

"I didn't know I could either."

He smiled and skipped along, holding it. My eyes went wide, thinking that his steps would snap twigs and crunch the leaves beneath our feet as we walked. Something that small could give us away if they were in the area. But to my surprise, his steps didn't make a sound, didn't snap a twig or anything.

"Dakota, how are you walking like that? Being so quiet?" I questioned.

"I don't know, it's just something that I do." He continued, not even bothering to look back at me.

"Alright." This kid is something else.

We continued through the thick forest, I didn't know where we were heading but I just followed the young boy who always seemed to know exactly where to go. I looked around as we walked and noticed all the detail in everything. How the bark on trees each made their own pattern, the insects scurrying around, and the prints in the ground from passing animals. It wasn't nearly as beautiful as it was at night.

"Hey, what're you guys doing here?" Aiden said curiously.

"Hailey woke up so I thought we should find you guys," Dakota informed him. Pfft, more like he woke me up. "Look! Look at what Hailey made!" I didn't even realize that he had both leaves with him.

"Woah, cool." Aiden went to grab it but Dakota yanked it away before he could touch it.

"No, you'll melt it!" The youngest said sassily.

Aiden chuckled, "Alright kiddo. I'll keep my hands off."

I looked at the two in amusement, Dakota making it seem like it was the most important thing to him right now. But it was a big deal, to me at least. I didn't know I could do that, only Vale could. Noticing the commotion, Vale strode his way over to us. Looking at what the small boy was holding in his hand, he politely asked if he could hold it. Dakota gave his approval and Aiden whined.

"Hailey, did you do this? On your own?" He questioned while inspecting it closely, looking at all sides of it.

"Yeah, I did it last night while everyone else was sleeping."

"How?" He shifted his gaze towards me, now our eyes were locked.

"It just happened, I concentrated then, well, it froze over I guess."

"Interesting." He looked deep in thought. "We didn't know you could do this."

"Neither did I," I replied.

"Interesting." He repeated himself.

Meanwhile, Devina didn't seem to even look, nor care with her back towards us. She seemed to do her own thing, always keeping to herself. I walked up to her while the others were distracted. She was fiddling with something in her hands, but I couldn't see what.

"Hey, is everything alright? You know you can talk to me right? Girl to girl?" I reassured her, but she never turned to face me.

"You're only thirteen. I don't think you quite get it yet."

"Get what?" That was kind of rude, but maybe she's just stressed out.

"You are not right." She turned to look at me now, "We have been forced to be in the situation. You're not the same, you have changed in ways that I don't like. I don't even know if anyone else has noticed." She paused and ran a hand through her hair and took a few steps back. "Hah, you probably don't even know what I'm talking about right now, do you?"

"Devina, what are you talking about? How am I not right? And no, I don't know what you're talking about, so just tell me what's going on and what everyone seems to know except me!" I was getting riled up.

"You were just so...basic. No gravity manipulator shit, none of this passing out stuff."

Basic? Wow, okay. "Listen, I don't know what you're talking about, but you are starting to irritate me. I'm trying to ask if everything's alright and you're acting this way towards me." I clenched my fists. No one is telling me anything.

"Your parents gave you up! You were 9 years old when you came here! You had no powers, you couldn't even so much as speak properly! We don't know what they did to you but one day you went away and now you're like this! They took you away for four years and all of a sudden you don't remember anything! This is all your fault that we are in this situation! We should have known not to bring you along!" She was yelling, and that attracted the attention of the others.

"Devina, keep your voice down," Vale said in a calm yet stern way.

I stumbled back, I didn't need to be told that the look on my face was shocked. I didn't know how to take this new information. This wasn't my fault, no it couldn't be my fault. I couldn't control that. My body shaking in rage and sadness, my head was overloaded with this new information. The back of my neck tensed, making it go numb. Soon the feeling was flowing through my arms, then my legs than the rest of my body.

Tears pricked at my eyes, and my vision was getting blurry. No this wasn't true. All I know is those scratches on the walls that I remember in that room that helped me count days. How did I even know what days I was counting? I don't remember anything before that. Only scratching on the walls to keep track.

"Stop! How do I know you're not lying to me?!"

Breathing getting heavy, I was starting to not feel like myself. All of a sudden it felt as if my body was being pulled towards the ground beneath us. Seeing Devina on the grass, unable to get up. She looked up at me, straining herself to keep her head up. My body felt as if all of my muscles were contracting at the same time.

Looking at my hands, my whole body in pain from this. Twitching uncontrollably I couldn't stop. I didn't know how to stop. Her sentences kept replaying in my head over and over again. My fists balled up tighter and then she couldn't breathe.

"HAILEY! SHE CAN'T BREATHE SNAP OUT OF IT!" Aiden was yelling. Dakota was crying. Vale was staring at me. I unclenched my fists.

Devina gasped, getting as much air into her lungs as she could. She shakily stood up, giving me looks. Vale ran to Devina's side, helping her up. I felt like a monster. Out of control, I didn't want to do that. What happened? Why did I do that? I need to go.

My feet carried me close to the cave. I looked at it, they won't want to see me again. I ran into the other direction, away from them. I'll go back when I'm ready if I'm ever ready and if they'll ever want to see me again. I'll be back by nightfall and I'll keep my distance from Devina. Needing time to myself, I ran and let thoughts take control.