by Elodie Colt
After Jimmy introduced her to Cassie—which was unnecessary, really, and Bryceland’s look told me as much—and Scott, who was already sticking his nose in deep commenting on how delicious she smelled, Chris hopped down from his desk in his usual cool manner to shake Bryceland’s hand. He flashed her one of his killer smiles—that’s what Sarah used to call them, not that I would know—and left his fingers a little longer on her hand than necessary.
Figures. The bastard was flirting with her and gathering from the shock on her face, Chris’ attempt wasn’t lost on her.
Damn, the girl was here for barely fifteen minutes, and Chris was already trying to angle a score. I was used to Chris’ constant approaches, but I’d assumed he would be subtler around her. Had he forgotten about Ricky?
When Jimmy introduced her to me, I couldn’t help but snap my eyes back in her direction. They all waited for my reaction, but I couldn’t give them one. I just stared at her, trying to be as intimidating as possible and daring her to make one wrong move, but instead of scaring her, she held her stance and gave me a cocky eyebrow until Jimmy interrupted our silent standoff.
I couldn’t figure out that girl. I’d seen her scared and sad, letting tears fall because of my brother’s fate, and now she was standing up against me. Well, I hoped it wouldn’t backfire. For her sake.
After the introductions were over, Jimmy showed her to her room which happened to be next to mine. What a coincidence. I’d bet my position as second-in-command that Jimmy had done it on purpose.
“I can’t wait to see what her ability is,” Sarah exclaimed, clapping her hands in excitement.
“Yeah, we’re all fond of seeing her losing control and destroying half of the compound in the process,” Cassie mumbled, her bad mood apparent.
“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re the biggest mood killer on earth?” Sarah spat at her. “Why don’t you just go polish your nails or marvel at your face in front of your mirror, or whatever else it is you do all day?”
Cassie grinned and stood up. “You’re completely right. Now that you mention it, I’m in desperate need of a manicure,” she retorted in her usual sugar-sweet voice and pivoted on her heels to leave the room. Despite her attitude constantly raising my annoyance level, I still couldn’t prevent my gaze from making a sweep over her butt which was still covered in a tight skirt.
My resolve would get tested greatly in the next few weeks if I were constantly glued to this chair. Yeah, there were enough female students only too willing to get to something close to a fling with me, but I wasn’t having any of that. I had no interest in teenagers. I liked my ladies as women with a mature body that was in good shape. I wanted smart and cunning ones I could have fun with and in the best case, those who had a whiff of mysteriousness to them.
And that was exactly the problem with Cassie—she was anything but mysterious, never had been in the slightest. Nobody was as predictable as Cassie, and therefore, she was easy to get twisted around my finger. At first, I thought that was what I wanted, but the euphoria was short-lived in the end.
If I could just fuck Cassie once in a while in her room or somewhere else… My thoughts shot briefly to the night I’d taken her right here in this room on top of the office desks. It was one of the funniest experiences in my life considering Chris caught us right when Cassie reached her high screaming with her chin pressed against the table. She’d been so ashamed, she couldn’t look in anyone’s face for the following months. Chris had the worst laughing fit of his life.
I didn’t mind the attention because as it was between guys, everyone congratulated me and celebrated me as a hero. Cassie got labeled as the whore of the compound which hadn’t changed over the last few years. Yet, she still held her demeanor with pride.
However, screwing Cassie once in a while was impossible without having her following me around all the time and annoying the fuck out of me later. She was so convinced I had feelings for her that it complicated everything. I was a man who liked it easy, uncomplicated, and independent. I didn’t do drama which is why I was never interested in a serious relationship.
“Okay. Nice teamwork, guys,” Jimmy praised us when he returned. “I’ll give her a crash course tomorrow. She needs to learn as much as possible. We have to take it slowly, but I want her to know what she could be capable of and get control over it before it’s too late. And I need her to trust us. Completely. She’ll be part of Scott’s Freshmen class. I’ll wait a few weeks to see if she needs additional training in certain fields.
“Dylan, I want you to do the next shift tomorrow morning when I bring Haylie in here to talk. As a few parts of the conversation will be…” Jimmy paused, scratching the fluff of hair on his head, “… touchy subjects, I don’t know how she’ll handle it. I need a second pair of eyes to watch out for anything unusual and a second pair of strong hands to intervene should anything escalate. We need to be prepared for everything from now on.”
I checked all the technical equipment to make sure everything was working. The cameras recorded the meeting room from five different angles. I shaded the glass wall separating this room from the control room. Bryceland might be more willing to talk if she weren’t aware of my eyes judging her constantly.
I wondered if Jimmy gave me that shift as a punishment. Chris would have been just as fit for the job. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he wanted me to get closer to her. Damn him and his interferences.
I sat down while slurping my protein shake for breakfast when Jimmy entered with the person of interest. She was wearing contacts as well as black clothes like the day before. A fitted olive leather jacket with a worn-down look was the only indication of color. Her left hand was still wrapped in a bandage from where she’d cut it with the vase.
If her slumped shoulders and hanging head were anything to go by, I’d say she felt pretty uncomfortable—shy, even. Hard to imagine if I thought back to how well she’d handled the night of the attack.
Jimmy held out a seat for her, and she lowered herself with a short nod of acceptance. When Jimmy was seated as well, his gaze flew to her neck.
“Sarah can heal the bruise, you don’t need to wear a scarf all the time,” he offered and for a second, my eyes found the table in front of me so I wasn’t forced to look at the dark marks caused by my hands.
She let her upper body fall against the backrest as if the suggestion annoyed her. “I appreciate Sarah did whatever she was doing that night,” she started delicately. “But I don’t want anyone of you touching me again before I have all the answers I need.” Her voice quivered slightly, but her request was firm.
Jimmy grew serious at her tone and nodded in acceptance. “That’s why I brought you here. However, I need you to remove your contacts if we’re going to talk honestly with each other.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Why?”
“Because you already know that your eyes are telling us something about you, and it will help us find out what you’re able to do,” Jimmy replied patiently.
Bryceland gave him a measured look before her gaze flew to the glass panel separating us, studying it for a few seconds. Well, gone was our plan. She knew she was being watched, but she just turned her head back and nodded.
“All right.”
Wetting her fingers in the glass of water in front of her, she bowed her head and removed the lenses. I sat tight as a violin string to finally see what could very well turn out to be my downfall.
And as she lifted her head and shook the loose strands of hair out of her face, I saw the eyes that were haunting me every night. That was another thing with the girls inside the compound—every single one of them had the same eye color. There was no ‘Oh, honey, you have such beautiful eyes’ because all were the same.
But hers were not.
Their colors were mixed with the same nuances as her hair—jaylior. I knew she would have tinges of orange and yellow somewhere in between, but I wasn’t able to make them out from a distance.
/> It was shocking how drastically her appearance changed. The contacts had clouded the authenticity of her eyes, dampening the glimmer shining through. I’d stated her as beautiful before, but those eyes were enhancing her beauty tenfold. And they currently held the same expression as Jenna before she took her last breath—desperate and pleading.
I had to take a few calming breaths to refrain from swiping my arms over the desk, flinging everything to the floor in an outburst of frustration.
Jimmy smiled happily. “Just because your eyes are different, doesn’t mean you have to hide them. Everyone here is different in their own way, that’s why we’re living as a family. We don’t have to hide in here, and we can be who we are.”
“And who am I?” she asked through clenched teeth, her voice dropping to a whisper at the end as if she was dreading the answer. She nervously tugged at the widest of the dozen bracelets covering her right wrist. At first, I thought she was playing with them absently, but then I recognized it as a subtle movement to cover dark red lines marking the skin on her right forearm.
I didn’t have enough time to examine them, but they looked like long-healed cuts. A suicide attempt? Unlikely. The scars didn’t match razor cuts. They were crooked and somehow lacerated. Strange.
“You are what we call a Natural. I already told you about its rarity status. You are a Roe like we are, but with tiny differences in the DNA that make you stronger.”
She pondered over this and then shook her head with a slight curl on her lips. It was apparent she wasn’t buying Jimmy’s story. “And you know that with one look at my eyes?” she asked challengingly leaning her upper body over the table.
“Look into mine, and tell me you don’t know I’m different,” Jimmy countered and leaned forward as well. For a few seconds, they fought a stare-down, which Bryceland lost in the end. She blinked a few times and retreated in her seat.
“Why the name ‘Natural?’”
“Because you can connect to a power from Mother Nature.” After Jimmy saw the bewildered look on her face, he continued with, “Let me give you an example. I knew a Natural once with the ability to control fire.”
“Control it how?”
“Controlling it completely with the only limitation that she couldn’t produce fire, just manipulate it.”
Bryceland snorted. “What, like in X-Men?”
A standard question amongst students. The comic had earned its status because the X-Men jokes were as popular in here as jokes about blondes outside the compound.
Jimmy laughed. “The movie isn’t far from it, that’s right. But the difference to reality is that evolutional development goes much slower. Maybe we’ll all have the powers of the X-Men mutants—for example, mind controlling or shooting ice from our palms—in, let’s say, a million years. Think about how long the evolutional steps lasted until now. Maybe someday there will exist as many Naturals as there are ‘regular’ people now on this planet, and then they won’t be called Naturals anymore, just humans. But you’ll learn about the historical and biological origin about us soon enough.”
Bryceland remained silent, her expression stoic. It was clear she didn’t want to believe what Jimmy was telling her, even if his information made sense to her.
“Okay, so you’re telling me that Roes are the result of evolutional progress as well as the Naturals among them. Do all of them have ‘abilities?’” she asked with a sarcastic undertone as if questioning the sense of the word.
“Yes.”
“What kind of abilities are we talking about?”
“We know of seven abilities that exist so far.” Jimmy lifted his hands and counted them on his fingers. “The Catcher’s ability lies in hearing, the Watcher’s in eyesight, the Tracer’s in smelling, the Racer’s in running, the Fighter’s in strength and agility, the Regenerator’s in healing, and the Shifter’s in changing their appearance. Every ability is expandable. We can improve them with hard training every day, so there’s no saying where the limits are.”
“And what abilities do Naturals have?” She didn’t seem to lose much thought on what Jimmy had told her, solely focusing on getting the answers she needed.
“I can’t tell you. They are so rare, we don’t know much about them.”
Again, she squinted her eyes. It seemed she was desperate to figure out if she was being told the truth by looking for any signs of Jimmy lying to her.
Jimmy smiled again, leaning back in his chair. “You’re not buying my story,” he stated voicing my thoughts.
Bryceland slowly shook her head, but it was more in defeat rather than in denial. “I… I don’t know.” She brushed the loose strands in front of her face behind her ear. “I still don’t understand my role in this game, okay? How does someone know about their ability? I mean, when or how does it come out? I’ve never done anything unusual, magical, or what else it is you think I should be able to do. Maybe I’m just one of those who doesn’t have an ability? Maybe that’s also an evolutional process you haven’t observed yet?”
“Not possible,” Jimmy replied resolutely. “Evolution makes its steps forward, not backward. We ran a lot of studies the last few decades trying to find out about the origin of abilities. Not once did we find a Roe without an additional power.”
Bryceland didn’t seem convinced. “Deformations happen all the time. What about conjoined twins or disabled people? Evolution isn’t perfect.”
Jimmy let out a loud laugh. “Oh, my pretty girl, you’re the complete opposite of a deformation.” He intertwined his hands watching her closely. “Let me ask you a few questions. Have you ever been ill? And I’m not talking about a simple cold, I mean so you were forced to stay in bed for more than one day?”
Bryceland’s eyes drifted off as she pondered about this, then she frowned. “No?” she replied turning it into a question, unsure what Jimmy was implying.
“Have you been a good student? One of the best?”
“Um… yeah, maybe.” Now she looked slightly uncomfortable.
“Do you have an outstanding photographic memory? A talent for memorizing faces? A special skill for remembering facts and numbers?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“See, those are not just simple talents. This is evolution, my dear. Evolution has one goal… to achieve perfection. Handicaps, limitations, illnesses… they’ll be gone in a few thousand years because evolution will bring our immune system to perfection someday. To answer your question, the abilities of Naturals are not like ours, and not that easily detected. The woman who could control fire learned about her ability when she accidentally formed a fireball with the flames coming from a candle.”
“What happened to her?” Bryceland asked warily. Uh-oh, Jimmy had made a mistake. He’d talked about Jenna in the past tense.
“She died. The Hunters attacked her.” Jimmy didn’t hesitate to give her, well, half of the truth. Bryceland didn’t flinch as if she’d expected the answer. Apparently, she quickly realized she was standing in the same position as Jenna had.
“Why do they kill Naturals? I’m no danger to them.”
“When your ability comes forth, you will be a danger to them. You will be stronger than all of us and have power beyond imagination. Power needs to be controlled. If not, it can end badly. That’s why they fear you.”
It didn’t escape my notice that Jimmy had skipped the part about how this ‘bad end’ had already happened before, and I was glad. I didn’t want to be reminded about the night Jenna died in front of my eyes…
“Why don’t you fear me, then?” Her gaze was challenging, and Jimmy smiled in response. It was apparent he liked her attitude.
“I want to train you until you can control your powers so there’s no need for me to fear you. There’s a reason you exist, Haylie, and it’s called evolution. You’re meant to live, and I will see to that, I promise you.”
Bryceland took a few seconds to eye him and intertwined her fingers in front of her on the table. “So, how do I find out
about my ability? Do you expect me to go for a swim to see if I can separate water like Jesus did? Or should I go outside, puff a few times, and see if I can create a hurricane?”
I chuckled. Well, it would certainly work if she had control over the right element, but I doubted it. She would have discovered water or air abilities pretty quickly.
Jimmy laughed but shook his head. “Of course not. We’ll just watch. Each ability has one or more triggers. I, for example, can run faster when I’m chased because the adrenaline is pushing me forward. There can be a lot of triggers—fear, fury, depression, happiness… It depends on the person.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m pretty sure I’m going to experience at least three of those triggers as long as I’m here,” she grumbled, and Jimmy laughed again.
“It’s good to see you didn’t lose your sense of humor. Optimism is the best way to get through this.”
Bryceland laughed drily. “I’m not optimistic, believe me. I just think my life is a joke.” She lowered her voice at the end and let her head fall against the backrest with a deep sigh.
“I can understand that, but you’ll come to terms with it in time, I promise. We will discover what your ability is, but I need your help. I have to ask you a few questions, personal ones, and I need you to answer them honestly. Can you do that for me?” After a few seconds of hesitation, Bryceland nodded tentatively. “All right. How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.” Thank God. We still had time until the Awakening set in.
“Do you have any family left?” Her eyes narrowed. Now came the tricky questions.
“Why are you asking me this? You already know the answer.”
“No, you never told me. I can only guess, but I want to hear it from you.”