The Twelve

Chapter 1

Maya

The coffee shop had a long line. Like, hella long. My brother Adam and I were standing there, waiting, for the past five minutes. Adam was tall, around six feet, and at 5'4" I always felt overshadowed. I couldn't help but notice that there were a whole lot of tall people in this line. At least all taller than me.

Sitting at a table by herself to our left drinking a cappuccino was a girl who could've been my height, whose hair was tucked behind her ears, and whose eyes were focused on something outside the window. Everyone else had left with their coffee once they got it.

"She has a writer's mind," Adam said to me. I looked at my brother closely.

"What?"

"Her mind, it's- it's what I'd imagine Stephen King's mind was like. Only way less gory."

"I don't get it," I said. "You like her because she reminds you of a horror book writer?"

He smiled a little bit but still didn't look at me. He was too focused on her movements. Like, every. Single. One. If I didn't know my brother, I'd think he was stalking her. But I knew Adam, and I knew that our dark brown hair and our too-pale complexions weren't the only things we had in common. I always got bewitched by things I thought were beautiful, so I knew his deal. He was just fascinated by her. I couldn't see it, though.

"No, little sis," he replied. "Her mind works like a writer. Every time she thinks about what she should say, her thoughts finish off with 'I said.' And after someone else talks to her, she thinks, 'he said with a smile on his face,' or something. And she mentally describes, very quickly, everything she sees with detail. She's... exquisite."

I shook my head, my shoulder-length dark hair moving from side to side "You really shouldn't be peeking in on people's minds. Do you even know what she acts like in person? You know there's a difference. Sometimes it's a huge difference. Do I need to remind you of Fallon?"

Adam looked at me sharply, and it seemed as if his bright blue eyes bore daggers into me. I was always so jealous of those eyes. "No." He shuddered. "Okay, I get it. I'll be careful. Damn. Yes, I'll be careful."

As one of many Mind Readers in our world, my brother wasn't different. But he was someone people feared. And who some individuals wanted to challenge. Fallon was one of those people. She was a Slur. She could confuse people's emotions and abilities. If someone was a Teleporter, she could get them confused on their destination. And for Adam, the Mind Reader, she could get him confused on what he thought he heard from her mind. When he thought she was thinking of how much she loved him, she was actually thinking of how much she loved cats. That's a big difference that my brother absolutely would have caught if he wasn't so blinded by her beauty, and by being in love with her. She messed with his admiration and lust, turning it to love. A little bit of a hell-raiser.

Then Fallon moved to Canada, so he snapped out of it. All of us did. No doubt, though, that if she returned, we'd be put under her spell again.

"He should be more careful with his heart," remarked an old woman in front of me. I didn't turn to her, though. Instead, I studied Adam's profile. No part of him seemed to register that the woman was there. I turned back to her, knowing now that she was a ghost. That was my Ability. I was a Viewer. I could see more than the average person. I only ever knew four others personally who had the same Ability. Although I heard that Rainn Wilson from The Office was a Viewer, too. Did not surprise me. Some people get a bit crazy from talking to the dead. Not me. I was always aware of them enough to be able to sense if there was something wrong with them. If there was, I would simply blow them away by whispering farewell words in their ears. It worked every time.