Twin Reflection

Chapter 22 - Ella

Ella woke up. The first thing that she noticed was that she was in a completely unfamiliar place. Something was very wrong. She vaguely remembered getting up in the middle of the night with Willow.

"Ella! You're awake! Oh, thank goodness!"

Ella turned to see her sister who was also tied to a chair. They were in a bare room with white walls and a tiled floor. There were no windows and a single bulb was hanging from the ceiling. Ella shivered, after all they were still only wearing their pyjamas.

"Where do you think we are?" Ella asked her voice still surly from whatever was in that dart he'd shot at her. He'd been waiting behind the door with a stun gun, she hadn't seen that coming.

Her sister hesitated her voice rose in panic, "I don't know. He blindfolded me when we went into the car and he took it off when we arrived. I don't know where on earth we are but we aren't in that flat that we were in before, it took us hours to get here whereas the flat can't have been more than half an hour away. How will they ever find us?"

Before Ella could reply they heard the door open a voice they didn't recognise spoke, "You're right. We are not in the apartment that you were in before as I found that it was a little too near to where you lived. It would have meant that your parents and the police would no doubt find us in no time and conduct a thorough investigation of my flat. They will be looking around for ages now though and we'll be long gone before they even think about looking here."

The man in the suit entered the room and stood behind the other man. He locked the door behind him.

"What do you want?" Ella asked, her voice shaking, "What do our abilities have to do with you?" She knew there was no point in denying that they had abilities anymore. These people clearly knew something about them, and for whatever reason, they would go to great lengths to keep them for their own good.

"Well, seeing as you will be with us for quite a while," the new man said as he glanced at Ella, an expression of amusement on his face. His eyes were also covered in sunglasses and he was wearing a smart suit, he looked almost identical to the other man only older and with greying hair. "My name is Evan, at least, that is what you can call me. It wouldn't be very smart to reveal my true identity to you. I guess you should hear the full story. It started a while ago, when I heard of people being found to have the strangest abilities, but it was all hushed up by secret organisations and I couldn't find anything more about them. I gave up that search for the time being until several months back when I first heard that a boy had been taken ill from school around his 14th birthday. He had been having mysterious side effects and I was curious find out why. Shortly after, he discovered he had enhanced senses, like you, and superhuman strength. I once again began to search for more people like that, ensuring I found them before anyone else did. And now I've managed it. Only you two are different. We believe that all of you who have these abilities have powerful senses of smell, sight and hearing. Not only this, but you also have individual abilities. Ella, you have telekinesis and changing appearance and Willow, you have communicating with animals and invisibility. The reason you two are different to others with these abilities is that you both have an extra individual ability and you can both fly. We were unaware of this the first time we tried to catch you, and it seems that you were too. We think that the reason behind this is the fact that you are twins. Why this would influence the number of powers you have, we do not yet know."

Ella stared at him in shock. So there were others with abilities like theirs? 

"Now, you must be wondering why I have been trying so hard to get hold of you both. I have taken particular interest in your telekinetic ability Ella, it will be of use to me in achieving some personal goals along with some further plans for which your power would become extremely useful. I knew that you wouldn't necessarily obey my instructions if I threatened you directly, but if I threatened your sister, it would be a different matter." He took out a gun, "Yes Ella, you have been told before. I have no use whatsoever for your sister unless she proves to have some kind of powerful ability like your telekinesis." Ella looked at Willow who was staring wide-eyed at the man with the gun, apparently too shocked to be able to speak.

"What? You can't do this!" Spluttered Ella, "People know about our abilities, they'll figure it out and you will get arrested."

"Stop being so foolish. You haven't told a soul that you have abilities. I know for a fact you have told none of your friends. Trust me, I have eyes and ears everywhere."

Ella didn't doubt this, he seemed to know everything about them. She wondered how on earth they were going to escape from here. Maybe Willow could use her invisibility to escape, but how would they both get out safely before they noticed? They didn't have any idea about where in the country they were being held and there was nothing in this bare room that could help them figure it out. She was still very drowsy from that stun gun but hadn't missed the fact that they were going to use Willow to blackmail her into obeying them. She didn't yet know what he was planning to get her to do, but she knew that it wouldn't be good.

"What do you want Ella to do?" Willow choked out hoarsely, her eyes wild with panic.

"Well firstly," - Ella didn't like the sound of that - "I need you to show me what you can do. Can you lift this pen into the air for me?"

Ella obeyed. Despite her nerves, this was no problem for her, the man seemed to notice too.

"What else can you do?" he asked.

After about half an hour of Ella showing him everything that she was able to do, Evan nodded thoughtfully.

"Right." He said, his brisk tone back again, "You must follow my colleague's instructions and he will take you to where you need to go. No questions." He added as Ella opened her mouth to speak. "And remember, your sister's life is on the line, so if you dare speak to anyone or do anything you're not supposed to, she will pay the price."

And with that, he ordered the other man to untie her and take her out of the room. She barely had time to shoot Willow a terrified glance before the door slammed shut behind them.