Beyond The Sea Blue Light

A Switchblade Attitude

I've been so tired lately. My whole body feels drained of energy and lifeless. My head aches constantly, even as I lie in bed, trying to sleep. I wake up in the middle of the night, my pillow wet with blood from my nose. It's the same feeling I get from using my powers a lot, though that can't be right, since I haven't used them much.

Whenever I do use them, it's harder and harder to stay out of the memories. I find myself collapsing more and more, lost in the past of other minds. I see young Oli running through a field, chasing another boy. I see a younger Frank, tiptoeing across the room to where Gerard is.

It doesn't help that we've started training again. Gerard and Frank are nice about it, it's so unlike the Facility and the cold scientists. Gerard helps us with our powers while Frank teaches us anything else we need to know, from how to pick locks to how to start a car and throw a decent punch. How they learned all of this, I'm not quite sure, but I don't ask.

Frank teaches us how to spar in the afternoons. I'm teamed up with Oli as we throw punches back and forth, as Frank gives us comments and advice. I'm honestly kind of terrible at it, everything happening too fast for me to react to it. But I do manage to knock Oli to the mat a few times, pinning him down underneath me. In the end, the two of us are laughing too hard to focus and Frank calls it a day.

The one downside of all the fight training is all the bruises. Oli and I don't get injured very much but Alex does. From what I've seen, he's been trying to stop bullets, though it's not going very well. I know he still feels guilty over not being able to save Vic. At the end of the day, Alex ends up limping in, covered in blood, for me to heal him.

Jack helps Alex sit down as I take his hand, closing my eyes. My head pounds and I feel faint as I focus my energy on Alex. It never used to feel this way, it just started for the last month or so. Ever since I started seeing Vic in my dreams. I push down the feeling of nausea, my strength ebbing as I slip into a memory.

The hallways are brightly lit. Too bright, in fact, the glare bouncing off the walls. I'm led down the hall, the person in front of me saying something I'm not paying attention to. Something about treatments and studies. The only thing I'm paying attention to is the gray concrete of the walls and the toughness of the place. Something whispers in the back of my mind, telling me to run.

"And this will be your room," the man says. The door in front of us is gray, just like the rest of the place. A dark four is etched onto the door, the black paint bleeding down the front.

"My room?" I ask slowly, confused. I turn back to see my parents, standing behind the closed door. They told me this is a place where people like me go. Where I can get better. Because of the things I can do. Because of the inhumanness of me. It's a treatment place. Their words masked the truth. It's not a treatment place. It's a prison.

"It's okay," my mother mouths at me. "It's okay." But it's not. It's not okay. They're letting me be taken away. They're letting me be locked up. I run toward them, dodging the hands of the guards as I slam my fists into the door, screaming.

"No!" I cry. "Don't let them do this to me! Please!" I slam my fists into the door, over and over again, as if the metal could be broken through by a fifteen year old kid. Hands wrap around me, yanking me backward down the hallway. I struggle and fight against them, but they're too strong. The scene dissolves around me as I'm dragged down the hall, screaming and struggling to get away.

The gray walls form around me, so familiar and strange. I'm sitting on my bed, levitating a pillow in front of me. We're not supposed to use our powers but I don't care. What will they do if they catch me, throw me in the Dark Room? I don't care at all.

The all too familiar buzzer rings, making me jump. I look up, almost expecting to see Vic there, but I know it won't be him. Instead the guard comes in, pushing a familiar looking boy into the room with him. As he looks up at me, I gasp in surprise. It's Jack.