Gifted

Chapter Fifteen

"How bad is it?" I asked.

"We need to get out of here." He stood, hand still on my arm. Chase pulled me to my feet and was already tugging me through the double doors.

We were walking quickly out of the building when Chase bent his head close to mine and murmured, "Head behind the building." We walked around the brick building until we were facing the surrounding forest. He gestured to the trees, and I could feel his hand on the small of my back nudging me forward. I looked at him confused, but started toward the forest anyway.

"It's quicker." He said. "Just watch out for the trees." And with a last smile over his shoulder he was gone. Nothing more than a blur and some rustling leaves. I'm sure I was still faster than the average human, but with being off the trail and having to dodge trees it took me longer than Chase. By the time I reached the woods behind my dorm only seconds had passed, but Chase was leaning leisurely against a tree trunk.

"Shall we?" He looked toward my dorm. "Great," he said sarcastically, "You didn't leave your window open."

"Didn't know I was supposed to."

"Is it unlocked?" he asked and I just shook my head. "You're going to have to unlock it for me."

I started toward the dorm, and he grabbed my wrist. "You might want to um, take care of that first." He lifted his eyebrows and nodded at my hair.

"Oh geez..." I trailed off as I concentrated on the hair I'd seen in the mirror earlier this morning. I felt the tingle, opened my eyes and smiled at Chase.

He was shaking his head. "Man that is so cool. I wish I could do that."

"You can't?" I questioned.

"No usually we only possess one Gift. That's what I wanted to talk to you about today."

I just nodded, still mystified by everything I'd learned so far. I ran in and got the window open. I watched in amazement as Chase jumped and scaled the side of the girls' dorm. He hopped through my window as I gawked. "Now that's what I want to be able to do!"

"Oh, I'm sure you can." He shrugged like it was no big deal, crossed the room and plopped on my bed.

"So, what happened back there?" I asked.

"When?"

"When you grabbed my arm in the cafeteria, I always feel a tingle, but that was like a shock!" I started rubbing my arm, thinking about the jolt I received.

"Oh, when your hair turned?" he asked rhetorically. "That's why we're paired up. Our powers work best in two's." He got up and started pacing around the room. "They say the reason we have soul mates is because there is too much power for one person to handle, so our souls were split in two. You know, to disperse some of the energy." He stopped at the window and looked out. "So when we're paired, it is full power just split between two people." He looked back at me sadly. I'm not sure why, but something about the sadness in his eyes got to me. I felt the sudden urge to walk over and wrap my arms around him, but didn't dare budge from my spot on the desk.