Powerless

Chapter One

One. Sweat drips falls to the ground as I hang upside down from the tree. Two. I lifted my upper body up again to reach my knees. Three. My thoughts begin to drift as they usually do when I'm doing my daily excercises. Four. I continue in this rhythm until I'm suddenly interrupted.

"Maple! Get down from there!"  a little girl shouted from her position on the ground. "C'mon, let's go!" She has such an authoritative face on, which is pretty comical, from my viewpoint.

"I'm coming, Amber." I replied, annoyed that I've been interrupted. Again. "What do you want?"

"Iris is calling you! She wants you to come and taste what she made." she answered. Then she giggles. Which naturally causes my suspicion to arise.

"Tell her I'll come...later." I claim.

"Don't lie to me, Maple.", she says with a smug tone to her voice, "You know you can't."

Of course I can't. I know I can't. The reason for that is because Amber has the ability to tell if someone is lying or telling the truth. That's her special power.

We all have special abilities. Elemental powers, the ability to do magic, you know, the usual.

Her power may seem little compared to ours, but trust me, it's come in handy many times.

I grunt when my feet hit the packed dirt and take my place next to Amber. As we begin walking, I start to relax. Being surrounded by nature always seems to be able to calm my nerves. Soon, we reach our hideout. I perform the secret knock that Iris and I made up. Only the inhabitants of the hideout know it. This protects us from many things. Mosquitoes, thieves, the occasional angry mob armed with weapons to hunt us down. You know, the usual.

"Maple and Amber are back! Someone come and open the door!" someone inside yells.

"Why can't you open it?" another person yells back.

"Because I don't want to!"

"Lazy buffoon!"

"David and Daniel, if one of you don't come and open this door now, I'll make sure you'll regret it." I warn.

"Okay. Yeesh. I'm coming." One of them replies. I can hear the series of locks being unlocked. "There you go."

"Thanks David." I reply, even though I have no idea whom I'm talking to you. This is because David and Daniel are identical twins. Usually, in twins, there might be some physical trait or contrasting characteristics that could differentiate them. In David and Daniel's case, that is not true at all. They are exactly the same in every way. They're loud, troublemakers, and fast. Extremely fast. That's their ability. They can run from the U.S. to Tokyo. in about 15 minutes and 53 seconds. I know. I've kept count.

"Where's Iris?" I ask, as I take of my sneakers.

"She's upstairs making another one of her drinks." says Daniel. He shivers.

"It's not that bad, is it?" I ask. They stare at me with sympathy in their eyes. I sigh, already tasting the horrid juice in my mouth. I might as well get this over with, I think.

"Iris, I'm here!" I yell for her to hear.

"Ooh, Maple! Come upstairs so that you can taste my juice! I think I've gotten it this time!" Iris yells back.

I begin to walk upstairs with dread in my system. Iris is my best friend and I love her to death but...the food and drinks she makes taste horrible. Even when I just imagine them, I begin gagging. I step into the room. "I'm here." I respond. She hands me the glass without even looking at me. Thanks for the welcome.

"Taste it." she commands. I bring the cup to my lips. I hesitate before the liquid touches my tongue. And Iris most likely sees this because she tips the cup down my throat and all the juice comes pouring.

"What the heck, Iris?!" I yell.

"So, how does it taste?" she asks, excitedly anticipating the answer.

"It's actually not that bad, I guess." I answer. And I mean it. It's better, compared to the other ones she's made. Honestly, I don't understand why she has such an obsession with juice. Iris has the power to grow things like plants, trees, etc. So if she can grow things like apples and oranges and make juice out of them, why get so preoccupied with making your own special juice?

"Yes! Let me just make some improvements, and then I'll..." she begins to mumble to herself. Oh brother, I think to myself.

"Yeah...I'll be going. You guys just call me if you need anything." I inform them.

"Okay." they all respond simultaneously. I begin to venture to my room. As I'm walking, I pass the rooms of everyone that lives in the building. There's Rose, who has the power to heal almost anything. Right now, she's inside her brightly colored room practicing on a dummy. I glance inside another room. In this room, there's Simon. He's able to take away energy and to give energy away. He's on the computer completing an IQ test. That boy does them as if they're games. I internally shake my head. The rest of the doors to the other rooms are closed, leading me to conclude that their inhabitants are either out of the house or they just want privacy. I leave them all to their own devices.

I soon arrive to my room. I open the door, enter, and turn the lock. I collapse on my bed, exhausted. I didn't realize how tired I was until now. Usually, my morning excercises don't take this much of a toll on me. "But I have had things on my mind." I mutter to myself. It's not unusual for me to feel stress when I have about 27 kids to look after. But that's not the issue, I muse to myself. I know the issue but I hate facing it. It's the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me and I'm the one that's caused it.

It was the day my powers awoke. The most terrifying and heart wrenching day of my existence. The day I killed my family.