Unknown

6

We sit on the swings at the park, making small talk while I hold onto the plastic bag from the store. "So, what are your other abilities?" Eli asks. "I told you, you have to figure them out along the way," I respond. "Okay, so I know you can morph into stuff, right?" He asks. I nod. "Let's say if you morph into me, would you get my abilities?" He asks. "No. I just look like whatever it is, and I can do what it can do physically," I say, "Say if I morphed into a dog, I would walk on all fours and I could run faster and I could bark and do everything a dog can do physically, but not mentally." I explain.

He nods. "Can you see how they see? Cause dogs are color-blind right?" He says. "Yes. If I did morph into you, I would be able to see how you see, but I wouldn't be able to use your ability, or know how your mental process works." 

He nods again. "Okay, I get it." He says. I've never explained any of this to another person. I stand up off of the swing. "So, say if someone had more of a physical ability, like my speed for example, could you copy that?" He asks, following me to the fort where the slides are.

"I don't know," I say. "So, during tests, are you going to read my mind to cheat?" I ask playfully. "Only in Algebra." He winks. I climb the small ladder on the side of the fort and sit down on the platform. "So, can you project thoughts into other peoples' heads?" I ask, genuinely interested. "Yes, but only my thoughts. But it's kinda difficult for me." He chuckles as he sits beside me on the platform.

"So if I hear voices, I know I'm not going crazy?" I laugh. "Right." He smiles. It's good to talk to someone for once, without them completely hating me. He actually understands what I'm talking about.

It's too suspicious. When that guy first contacted me, he knew I was gonna ask who he was before I said it. He also knew where I lived. This guy can read minds, and he lives around where I live.

"So, who's that guy?" Eli asks. "No one. Don't worry about it." I say, trying not to think of anything else. "I think you lied to me." He says, leaning back on his elbows. I give him a questioning look. "When I asked if it was dark in there." He says as he pokes my forehead. "You're crazy," I say.

He lies down fully, looking at the sky. "It's cold." He says. "I don't know how you can be dressed so lightly." He chuckles a little. I shrug. "I guess I have a warm personality," I say calmly. I lay down next to him and feel myself drifting off to sleep.

**I wake up, my vision blurry. I look down at my hands and see that my knuckles are bleeding and my arms are all cut up and bruised. What happened? I notice my hands are smaller than usual. Confused, I throw the covers off of me. I see my legs have bruises and cuts too.

I throw my legs over the bed and stand up. My head starts throbbing and my legs hurt. I open the door and realize I'm in our old home. How did I get here?

I walk down the narrow staircase to the living room. "You! Why are you down here? Go back up there!" A younger version of my dad screams at me. "What's going on?" I ask, confused. "If you don't get out of my sight, I'll make sure I give you more than a couple scrapes and bruises." He says through gritted teeth. 'What did I do?' I think to myself.

He grabs me by my hair and slams me on the ground, hard. "Do you not understand English?" He screams in my face. He picks up my head and slams it on the ground repeatedly. With each slam, he says a word angrily. "Get. Out. Of. My. Sight. You. Little. Mongrel. No. One. Wants. You." The last slam hurt more than the others and he finally gets off of me.

"Do everyone a favor, and just die." He says. I can feel something soaking into my hair and my head hurts so bad and it stings. I lift up my head and turn around to see a puddle of blood on the hardwood flooring. What did I do to deserve this?