Bluejays

The First Problem

Elijah sat on his bed the next morning. Ollie had woken him, and they were waiting to act on their plan. Phoenix needed to make sure that Asher couldn't stop them.

While they were waiting, Ashlyn woke up. She noticed them being up, and her face broke into a grin. "Elijah! Ollie!" She cheered. 

"Hi," Elijah said.

"Why don't you go back to bed?" suggested Ollie. "We were just talking a bit, waiting to be tired enough to sleep."

"No," Ashlyn said simply. She stood up, and went to go get breakfast.

Elijah turned to Ollie. "We're gonna need to get rid of her," he said.

Ollie nodded. "We will," he promised.

Ashlyn returned to them a minute later. "Someone's coming downstairs," she said. "It's not someone I know. I know everyone else's presence. I don't know this. They're not up to good; I know that."

Elijah and Ollie looked at each other, trying not to laugh. Ashlyn was good at mind-reading, but they weren't about to start worrying about what a two-year-old thought. Even Elijah, with his youth, was smarter than that.

But sometimes, it's wiser to listen to someone, no matter how credible they seem.

_

One week previous

Asher had stopped going to work  for several days. The reason was that he was going to D.C. to talk with his superiors about the progress of the children. But of course, he couldn't say that, and was instructed to simply not provide a reason. A coworker wanted a wellness check, so the police went to the house, and they found it seemingly empty, until they heard a door handle moving. It was coming from the basement. They headed over, and found the door locked. They sent a tiny camera down there, and saw several people gathered around in a circle.

They could tell that the people were all children, and quite young, too. Too young to be home alone like this.

Then, the camera picked up voices.

"How long until it works?"

"I don't know. We should work until it does."

With that, they left. They had been standing around a computer, which was charging.

One of the kids went to a tiled area, with five carpeted areas around it. One for each child.

The camera was sent to one of these areas, and it revealed that there was single piece of furniture, which was a small bed. There were some buttons. Using the controller, the camera was pushed against one of these buttons until a glass semi-circle slid over the bed. It covered the entire bed.

Both police officers gasped, shocked. They brought the camera away from there, which was the best thing to do, as they ended up missing the fact that the children had noticed the glass closing over the computer, and had stopped practicing. The camera also didn't notice one of them firing a burst of energy at the bed. The camera, luckily, managed to avoid that, but barely. The police were surprised to see the burn on the back and part of the side of the camera.

They went straight back to their station, and got a warrant. The man that owned that house was clearly doing something to those kids.

_

Present day

Phoenix was among the first in the house to hear the police sirens. He gasped, running back to the stairs.

He heard the sounds of struggling coming from the basement, and saw the door open. He gasped, reaching out with his mind as he ran to the couch and went behind it. He found Ashlyn, and was allowed into her mind. She had a crazy amount of control over her mind-reading, and she would be able to protect herself while talking to him.