Freak [Zianourry] - COMPLETE

Chapter 2

Blackness swirled around me, before I looked around. I was in the woods again, but it was burning, smoke choking me, my scarred feet reigniting. Screams filled the woods as I ran, weaving my way through walls of heat, licking away at trees until they fell, causing a blockage in my path.
Turning, I noticed the fire had trapped me in, and I couldn't run. The smoke was overwhelming, and I struggled for the tiniest bit of air. "You killed us, freak!" A familiar voice yelled just as the fire touched me.
I screamed, convulsing, eyes rolling into my head as my flesh melted. My agony was short lived, with the smoke sending me unconscious.
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"Louis! Louis, wake up!" Someone shouted, and I shot up, jumping out of bed and racing into the bathroom, throwing up in the toilet as I retched the non-existant smoke from my lungs. Faintly, I heard a crash and running feet, before someone was pulling my hair out of my eyes and talking.
"I... Sorry." I mumbled, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.
"What? Don't apologise." Someone told me, before I was pulled up and led out of the bathroom. "Hey, don't cry. It's okay." I realised I had tears running silently down my face, and wiped them away furiously.
"I - sorry, normally no one hears me." I muttered, flopping face-first onto the bed. "I'm fine. You can go if you want." There was a few moments of silence, before several footsteps left, and I relaxed into the pillow.
"Do you want to say anything?" Harry asked me, making me jump. I thought they had all left.
"No."
"Anything?"
"No."
"You do. I have an empathy mutation. You want to say everything, but you're scared you'll seem weak, and that I'll shun you because I don't care. You dreamed of fire because - ...oh my god, I'm so sorry." Harry suddenly paused as he read my mind freely.
"It's fine."
"It's not." Harry placed a hand on my shoulder and gently rolled me over, his bright, green eyes searching mine. "Even if I know, it might help to say it. I know everything anyway." I didn't say anything. "And I know you're happy that I know, but you don't want to say anything. It's a relief to you. And you also want me to stay."
"N-no, I don't!" Blushing, I ducked my head so I didn't look him in the eyes.
"You do." Harry smiled. 'Cute b*tch.'
I stared at him, open-mouthed, my eyes wide. Had he seriously just called me that?! Harry paused, before laughing. 'Yeah... Oops.'
'Does this mean we could technically be telepathic?'
'Everyone else who had an empathy mutation would be able to hear.' Harry shrugged as he lay on his back beside me. "Besides, it's sometimes difficult to focus on that thought. Most of the time, unless it's a secret, it's a lot easier to just say whatever it is."
"Wait, wouldn't that mean if two people were together, and one of them was going to propose, wouldn't it make it not a surprise for the other one?" I asked, thinking it over.
"Bit off topic. But you can train to build defences around your mind, that stop people from reading it so easily. Can you read my mind right now?" As I focused, I noted that I couldn't hear any voices in the back of my head.
"No."
"Thought not." Harry hummed as my eyes started to drift close. "Breakfast is in two hours, I'll wake you in one."
"Thanks." I murmured, drifting off to sleep again. This time, there was no nightmares.
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"Louis, wake up. You need to go pretty yourself up for breakfast." Someone was shaking me, but my eyes were screaming with tiredness, so I curled up underneath the covers and whined, clinging onto my pillow. "Louis!"
"Don't get angry, please, don't hit me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I suddenly shot up, almost falling from the bed in blind panic. A hand gripped my arm and I flinched away, trying to hide my face.
"Louis, woah, it's okay." Harry stared at me in concern, pulling me back onto the bed from where he had stopped me falling off. "I'd never hurt you."
"Oh, erm... Yeah." I slowly got up and silently gathered some clothes, Harry watching me. I settled for very tight beige jeans and a black t-shirt, with white trainers and some socks. Harry left the room as I went to shower, and I noticed the repaired door. Clearly, they had broken the door last night to get to me. Probably Liam.
"Morning." Niall, Zayn and Liam chirped as I walked into the main room.
"Harry's just gone to get dressed." Liam smiled.
"Right." I smiled awkwardly, sitting down on the sofa. They were talking quietly, but the dream was replaying over and over in my head, my breath becoming quicker, hands shaking slightly. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself.
A smash sounded from upstairs, and I flipped. While I managed to hide the reaction, I could sense everything too clearly around me, old wounds reopening mentally, memories of what he had done -
"Louis!" Harry's voice broke through my frantic thoughts. Running footsteps and he was crouched in front of me. "It's okay, someone just broke something." The others glanced over in concern.
"He - he -" my eyes wouldn't focus, so Harry placed a hand on my forehead and muttered something. I fell asleep in seconds.
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"You better?" Someone asked me as my eyes fluttered open. I was laying on a bed, with four people hovering over me. A few seconds later, everything came back to me and I blushed lightly.
"Um, sorry..." Averting my eyes, I slowly got up and stretched my arms and legs out.
"Come on, it's breakfast time." Liam pulled me up with no effort and we made our way downstairs, with them chattering quietly, as I watched everyone around us. I didn't trust them not to attack me, which is why Harry, Niall, Liam and Zayn were hovering around me, sensing my nervousness.
Half an hour later, I was much more relaxed, eating my breakfast with slight input to the conversation. Harry sat on my right, Niall on my left, and Zayn and Liam were opposite us. People were lively and happy, something that put me at ease.
"What classes do you have?" Harry asked me, and I shrugged. "Huh."
"Mr. Tomlinson?" Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I froze up, turning to face her, still defensive. It was the woman I'd seen in the building Harry took me to when we saw the headmaster, but I was still wary.
"Yes?" I asked, cowering slightly.
"Here is your timetable. You start classes at nine, and you can ask if you need anything else." With a smile, she left.
"Ooh, let's see. I want to know what classes we have together." Harry leaned over, examining my timetable, as Niall did the same. "I've got history, defence theory and practical, and English with you."
(A/N: see rest of timetable in picture).
When we figured out that I had classes and frees with someone every day but Thursday afternoon, I finished my breakfast and headed off to 'Traps' with Liam and Zayn.
"It's like rope work and stuff. Basic survival skills." Zayn shrugged.
"It can teach you a lot, like how to escape from nets or trip wires, and how to disable more advanced stuff." Liam inputted, pushing the door open to one of the school buildings. "It's on the ground floor, so we don't fall through the ceiling or something like that." They led me to the left, until we were at a large room, with various cluttered workbenches around the edge, and contraptions swinging from the ceiling. "Watch it!"
Zayn and Liam pulled me back as something snapped by our feet, and a net fell down. "Daily trick." Liam grinned, quickly bundling the net up and throwing it into a basket with several others.
"There's always something in the morning." Zayn laughed as we crept into the room, keeping lookout for anything else.
"Good morning!" A woman strode over, her long hair swishing behind her. She looked about thirty, and had piercing grey eyes with dark hair worn in a plait that ended at her waist. While she looked older than us, she was probably more agile, at least than me, if her clothes and walk were anything to judge by - a tight jacket that covered her hands and neck, made from a thick leathery material, black trousers with deep pockets on the side of her legs, light boots and a tool belt strung around her hips. "I'm Miss Aberny, and I'm the teacher here."
"Good morning." I said quietly, offering a shy smile.
"Morning, Miss!" Liam and Zayn both smiled, eyes bright. They clearly enjoyed the class, which made me relax a bit.
"So, we're working on our snares today." Miss Aberny nodded at us before heading off.
"We basically just work on our task." Zayn explained as we went towards the left wall, and Liam gathered some strings and small metal objects. "For the entire time."
"For three hours?" I asked, shocked, and they both nodded, grinning at my disbelief that we were basically free for three hours. Each lesson lasted one and a half hours, but there was only four lessons a day, and an hour for lunch, which ended at four o'clock.
"Come on. Do you know how to set up a snare?" Liam started to show me how to create a hook and use the tension with a tree or weighted rock, and set the noose carefully. The lesson flew by, with me picking up everything I needed to know, in a fishing snare, a normal snare, a triggered snare, and how to disable or escape them.
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"How was your morning?" Harry asked me as he sat down next to me at lunch.
"Okay." I shrugged. "I mean, I kind of cut my arm, but I did okay."
"He's a fast learner." Zayn grinned. "He'll be better than us before the end of the year."
"I won't." Rolling my eyes, I felt someone come and stand next to me. It was Niall, who turned my arm over, before touching the cut which ran from my wrist to my elbow, and it healed. "Thanks."
"No problem." Niall smiled at me, sitting down with his own lunch. "Geez, I hate English."
"Don't we all." Harry grumbled. "And if you aren't in a bad enough mood, they send you to training afterwards."
"Oh, come on, I have it first thing on a Monday." Niall complained. "At least you've got Louis."
"I'm on my own for maths." Harry pointed out, making Niall take sympathy.
"But, then again, I have history last thing on a Friday."
"Oh, shut up." Liam told them. "You've been through this twenty million times."
"You said that last week." Harry scrunched his nose up.
"Because you haven't managed to say it a million times in said week to get to twenty one million. You need more maths lessons." Zayn looked at him seriously, making me giggle.
"Hey, guys, we've got a free together on Friday morning, fancy a lie in or going out somewhere?" Niall looked at his timetable.
"Probably a lie in this week," Liam thought it over. "Maybe next week."
"Or just a movie." Zayn suggested.
"STOP CHATTING! It's one o'clock, you should be in lessons!" Someone screeched next to us, making me jump, recalling a similar incident when I was seven years old.
"Louis? You're shaking." Harry whispered, looking at me with concern.
"I - I'm fine." I bolted from the room, running back to our room. The twenty eight flights of stairs proved difficult, but I made it all the way back to my bedroom, where I locked the door and hid under my duvet, cursing myself for acting so jumpy and skitterish.
"LOUIS?" Harry yelled, and I heard the door opening and closing. "Louis, are you okay?"
'Not really.' I thought sullenly, as I heard him walking down the hallway, before there was a knock on my door.
"Hey, Louis, open up." Even at Harry's request, I didn't make a movement to get out from under the covers. Several minutes later, my door swung open, and he padded over to my bed, sitting down next to me. "You good?"
We didn't need to talk, because he could freely read my mind, and everything I was thinking. Despite my mental guard being down, his wasn't, and I wondered why. "It's because you don't need to be listening to me on top of everything." Harry murmured. "I'll be in my room if you need me." With that, he left me.
About half an hour later, I uncurled, my mind freshly clear. Harry was writing something on one of the sofas. "Hey." He muttered distractedly, so I leant over his shoulder to see what he was writing. It was an essay on something I didn't really understand. "It's a history essay. We get one every week, you'll get one on Wednesday."
"Yippee." I muttered, going to make myself a drink in our small kitchen, and I also made Harry a cup of tea, taking it out to him.
"Thanks." Harry flashed me a smile, putting his pen down. "Did you get a lot of homework in your old school?"
"I, uh, didn't go to school." I admitted. Harry looked curious, so I sighed in resignation. "I - my, uh, carer, made me work. She called it home schooling so I didn't have to go."
"You never went to school?" Harry looked upset, concerned and angry all at once. "Like, can you read and write?"
"Kind of." I shrugged. "I mean, not as well as everyone else, but I learned because I had to sort out stuff like bills."
"That's not fair." Harry said simply, pulling me down onto the sofa next to him. Uncertainly hovering, I wondered what he was doing. The next second, Harry hugged me, and I gave up, just leaning on the supporting tower that had held me up since my world turned upside down just the previous day.
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A/N: I couldn't find where to end this chapter, so I'm sorry if it's short. Yep. Just watched the X-Factor finals - Andrea... Yep. Whatever. #TeamBen.