…

I woke up feeling disoriented. I was on a bed that was in the corner of a big room where several other people were sitting around a table, laughing. It looked like they were playing cards and having fun. There was no windows and only a door to the left of the people. There would be no way I could move passed them if I were to try to bolt it out the door. I sat up on the bed, wincing a bit when pain erupted from my head.

“Sara, you’re hostage just woke up.” The woman that had kidnapped me stood from the table and walked over to me. She poured a glass of water and handed it to me. I was hesitant to take it.

“Relax, it’s not poisoned.” She took a drink of it. “See?”

I took the water and drank it all. I was so thirsty and hungry. “What are you going to do with me?” I asked.

“I’m not interested in hurting you. It’s Liam I want. I’ll let you go once he comes and finds us,” she said. “What power do you have? Just a precaution.”

“Empathy,” I stated.

“Empathy? What the hell is that?” One of the others from the table asked.

“You’re so stupid, Alex. It’s got something to do with emotions.”

“I can sense and manipulate emotions,” I explained.

“Really? That sounds kind of useless,” the man named Alex snorted. That pissed me off and I sent a wave of fear in his direction. He fell out of his chair, as if trying to get away from something, in terror. Fear was the only emotion I could use to immobilize an enemy. It manifested inside the brain, showing the person their worst fear.

“What’s wrong, Alex?!” One of the others said grabbing his arm. I stopped the fear and Alex looked at me in shock.

“I take that back. Not so useless.”

“That was a good show. I’m Jeff. How about sending some happiness my way? Or can you give Sara the hots for me?” The woman that kidnapped me, Sara, tossed a glass cup at Jeff in annoyance. The glass shattered against an invisible wall before it hit Jeff in the head. He must’ve had some sort of ability that could form an invisible shield of some kind.

“So what’s a young girl like you doing with a guy like Liam?” Sara asked.

“Liam is my friend. We’ve been together for three years now,” I said. I didn’t sense any malicious intent coming from anyone in the room. They all were carefree. “What do you want with him?”

“Do you know what he does to get by? Have you ever wondered how he gets money and supplies?” Sara questioned.

“He raids houses. We do it together sometimes.”

“So he lies to you. Liam works with us,” Jeff said.

“We’re a group of contractors.”

I didn’t understand. “Contractors?”

“We’re people who take on job requests from people. We have a main boss that tells us jobs and we do them.” It didn’t sound all that bad, but I felt there was more to it than what they were saying. “What kind of jobs?”

“It varies. We do anything from finding lost items to killing people.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Killing?” I whispered. I had no idea that was even a job. Why would anyone want to kill for a living?

“Tough times like this call for desperate measures. We do what we need to do in order to survive,” Sara stated.

“If you work together then why are you trying to hurt Liam?” I inquired.

“A little while ago, my brother Joseph went on a job with Liam. It was so we could disperse a gang that was harming people for no reason. Something went wrong and Joseph was killed. Liam couldn’t tell me what happened and I want to know what happened.”

It was hard to believe what I was hearing. Liam had never mentioned any of this before, but it made sense. He’d be gone for days at a time sometimes and would return bloody and battered. It was because he was doing dangerous jobs in order to support us.

“That was fast. It seems Liam is here,” Jeff said standing to go to the door. I got up as well, getting anxious. How was I going to react to him after hearing all of this? The door opened to reveal Liam and I felt happy. Even after learning of his actions, I was still very happy to see him. He was still my friend, my Liam.

“Ash!” Liam called out and ran towards me. It took both Alex and Jeff to hold him back from reaching me. “If you hurt her in any way, I’ll kill all of you!”

I flinched at the anger in his voice. Why was he so worked up? Was he really that worried about me?

“Well this is a surprise! I never thought the unstoppable Liam would lose his cool over a girl. You must really love her,” Sara smirked pulling me into her, holding a knife to my neck in a threatening manner. “Now tell me how Joseph died. There’s no way you can take on five contractors without her getting hurt.”

Liam relaxed and the other two released him. “He wasn’t ready for that kind of job. There was a gang member that had a self destructing power. I told him to stay back so I could take care of it. He didn’t listen and ran into that member. Before I could reach him, the self destruction already occurred. I would’ve brought his body back, but there was nothing left. I’m sorry, Sara.”

Sadness filled the room and Sara pushed me away from her. She was sobbing into her hands now and I sent a wave of calm to her, trying to help. She glared at me and slapped me across the face. I fell back, but Liam caught me by the shoulders. “Don’t you dare change my emotions. I want to mourn for my brother properly.”

I rubbed my sore cheek. I imagined losing Seth and it made my heart ache. I couldn't ease that kind of pain. I turned to look away from her, not liking this feeling. It was like I was drowning in sorrow and I couldn’t come up for air. I think if I wasn’t so young when my parents died I probably would’ve mourned them like this as well.

“That was his first job. He shouldn’t have accepted it. It’s not fair!” Sara cried.

“I accept responsibility, Sara. I couldn’t save him so do what you want to me to feel better,” Liam stated. He stepped in front of Sara and she attacked him. Liam didn’t fight back, letting Sara hit him as hard as she could. Blood was gushing out of his nose and I moved to stop it. Alex held me back and I just watched in horror. I could feel the pain that Sara had and she was pouring all of it into the punches she was throwing at Liam. He wasn’t even making a sound and just wiped the blood off his face with his gloves after every hit.

Sara stopped, dropping to her knees, and clung to Liam. “I don’t feel any better blaming you. Nothing will help me feel better.”

“Time will help,” Liam stated wiping the blood off of his face on his sleeve. “Man, you certainly hit hard for a woman.”

Sara let out a weak laugh. Liam had the gift of putting a smile on anyone’s face even in times like these. He turned to me and it hurt me to see his face all beat up. “I’ll take you back to Seth now,” he said to me.

I didn’t like the way he said that. It felt like he was saying he’d take me back, but wasn’t going to stay. “We’ve all lost people since the meteor hit. We shouldn’t be fighting each other or else we’ll have no one left. Then when our situation becomes better we’ll have people to enjoy it with,” I said to everyone.

“You’re very mature for your age, girl. Come visit us with Liam sometime under better circumstances,” Jeff smiled. I smiled back and nodded before leaving with Liam. We had been in a rundown office building on the 5th floor. It was near the wall and not too far from our shelter.

He was silent as we walked home. He seemed troubled, but since I couldn’t sense his emotions it was hard to tell. I reached out and wrapped my arms around his left arm. He looked down at me in surprise. “Thank you for coming after me,” I stated.

“I’ll come for you every time if you allow me to stay with you.”

“Stay? Are you going somewhere?”

“Now that you know what I do, you don’t want me to leave?” He asked.

“Is that what you’re worried about? I never want you to leave. Besides, if I could pull my weight then you probably wouldn’t have to do those jobs. I know you have your reasons for doing it,” I replied.

Liam wrapped his arm around my shoulders and I couldn’t see his expression because it was hidden by his black hair. Then he looked at me with his goofy grin, but I could tell it was forced. That hurt my heart more than before. I didn’t want him to feel bad. This was the first time I had seen him so down about something. “I’ve been saving money so we can get out of here. With our powers we could hide them and blend into society. Next month when Seth turns 18, we’ll start a real life again.”

He did all of this with us in mind. He did hard work just so he could get us a better life. He was selfless when it came to Seth and me. It still amazed me to this day how much he had done for us.

“You’re amazing,” I smiled. “I hope I can pay you back someday.”

“When you’re older, I’ll take my payment,” he smirked.

“And what will that be?” I questioned.

“You’ll have to wait and see.”