Em first thought she was still asleep. She couldn’t move her body and when she tried to open her eyes she found she couldn’t open her eyes either. She could hear a faint set of voices, which she knew meant that she was truly awake, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.
She tried to concentrate on the voices and slowly they began to become clear.
“What do we do if she won’t help?” One of them said, it was a quieter woman's voice.
“She will.” Someone else said. It was a guy this time. She recognized that voice as the guy in the woods who had spotted her using her powers.
“But what if-”
“She will!” The man said again loudly. Em felt her heart beat faster.
She didn’t know what they were going to do to her, and she was terrified. What was going on, she asked herself.
She tried to open her eyes once again and this time it worked. Her eyes opened revealing a small dark room. She slowly sat up her head pounding, making her dizzy. Looking around she realized that she was in a cave. She was lying on a wooden bed. She let her foot drop off the side of the bed.
“So you were awake,” the woman's voice said again.
Em turned around to see a young woman standing in the doorway. She had long black hair that complemented her olive skin tone. She watched as she walked into the room and sat on the side of the bed.
“My name is Rae, sorry for what the boys did to you. They can be quite dumb.”
“My name is Ember.” Rae smiled offering her hand to shake, Em accepted.
“What do you want with me?”
“We want your help. We need your powers.”
Em’s eyes widened, “What do you mean? I don’t understand.”
Rae smiled, she held out her hand and muttered something in another language, one that Em had never heard before. All of a sudden a butterfly appeared in her hand, flying into the air and around the room. Em gasped watching in awe.
“We are just like you. I can use some magic, but I need to know a spell. I had a spell-book but only have a few memorized.”
“My name is Gus and I have super senses, which is how I found you in the woods.”
Em jumped looking at the doorway. Gus stood in the doorway looking at the two. Ember watched as the Gus and Rae as they embraced each in a hug. They pulled away holding hands as the other man entered the room. He was the one who had through me back with the wind knocking me out. Em was about to ask why he had done that when he started talking.
“I am Abel. Sorry about before, we didn’t want you knowing where we were. I control wind as I think you know.”
Em didn’t know what to say. She was looking at three people with powers just like her. They had knocked her out and kidnapped her, and now they wanted her help. Why did they think that she would help them after that? She didn’t understand what was going on and what she should do.
“Ember will you help us?” Rae asked again.
“I...I don’t know,” she stuttered out. “What are you fighting that you need me. What can I do?”
“There used to be four of us-” Rae began, getting interrupted by Abel. “Rae no!”
She sent a look of daggers at Abel before looking back at Em and continuing. “His name was Samson, and he could control shadows. We did everything together but one day he used his powers on someone and they died. After that he wasn’t the same. He liked using his powers on people. We didn’t agree and he got angry that we wouldn’t help him, so he left.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Em asked still not sure why they needed her of all people.
“He found a way to steal others powers and is trying to take them all for himself. We are trying to stop him before that happens, but to do that we need you to help us.”
Em understood more than before, but now she wasn’t sure about anything. “I’m sorry, I just can’t help,” she said, standing up from the bed, heading to the door. No one tried to stop her as she walked out.
“I told you that she wasn’t gonna want to help,” Rae said looking to Abel, his eyes hard as he looked at the door where Em had walked out of. He turned his attention back to Rae and Gus.
“We need to follow her. Samson knows she exists now.” Abel started for the door as the other two exchanged a look before following behind.
Em didn’t know where she was until she heard the familiar sound of the pond. She rushed through the trees finding herself standing on the shore of the pond. She noticed something shiny on the ground a few steps away and walked over to it only to find her phone resting on the ground.
She turned it on to find that she had twelve missed calls from Daxton and twenty-five texts, and of course, there was still nothing from her father.
She hit the call button on his name and listened to it ring for a few seconds.
“Em is that you!” Daxton's frantic voice shouted through the phone.
“Yes, it’s me.”
“Why didn’t you answer any of my calls or texts?” She could tell that he was really unhappy and freaking out.
“I’m sorry. I went for a walk and forgot my phone at the house,” she lied. She felt bad lying, but she didn’t know how he would react to learning what had truly happened. That she had been kidnapped, but then let go. She didn’t even know how to react when it was all happening. They told each other almost everything yet she had just lied to him because of people that she had just met.
“Okay, well please take it with you next time. I was really worried.”
“I will, and sorry again.”
“Oh, I have to go. My mother is yelling at me. Goodbye Em, I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye,” she said. The call ended leaving her alone in the woods with her phone.
She put her phone in her pocket before continuing through the woods back to her house. She knew the way so it didn’t take very long until she was staring at the backdoor of her house. The door was pushed open. The lock on the door had been broken leaving the door ajar.
Em slowly pushed the door open wider walking in. “Dad, is that you?” She called out hoping that her father would answer. She thought it might have been her father who in a drunken state had forgotten his keys and broken into the door. He had done it once before but usually, there was more in the house that showed he had come home. The house was fine though when she walked in.
When there was no answer she walked farther in. “Your father isn’t here,” a voice said causing Em to jump in her place. She spun around to see a man standing by the fireplace holding a photo of Em and her mother. He was tall and had short black hair. His blue eyes seemed to glow in the dark.
“Where is my father?” her voice quieter then she wanted it to be.
“You look just like her,” he said gesturing to her mother in the photo. “Your father is still at work, I did nothing to him. I came to talk to you, just you.”
“Why? Who are you?”
“Oh, your new friends didn’t tell you about me.” Her breath caught in her throat. “I see. My name is Samson, and I need your powers.”
Em couldn’t find her voice. She was frightened of this man and everything that Rae had told her about him. Slowly she reached her hand behind her back to her phone. She hadn't closed the phone app when she turned her phone off and Daxton was the first and only person to ever call her so she hoped that when she clicked one it was him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It’s such a calm conversation between us you don’t want to make it violent now do you?”
“How did you know?”
He smiled, pointing behind her where there was a shadow that looked almost human. She put her hands down at her side looking back at Samson.
“Good now join me.” When Em didn’t answer he smiled, “Fine, then your powers.”
He put down the photo and started walking towards Em. He reached out for Em’s hand with one hand, the other going to his pocket. Before he was able to grab her or the thing in his pocket she ran. She ran back into the forest that she had just come through. She ran back to the pond she had been at before stopping and looking behind her.
She thought he would be right behind her hot on her tail but he wasn’t. There was no sign that he even came after her.
A buzzing filled her ears as she looked around for the source. “You're going to regret that, one way or another.” A voice said beside her. It was the voice of Samson. She turned, her eyes darting around the woods looking for him. She noticed the vanishing form of a person just like in the house. She fell to the ground in anguish, she didn’t know what to do. She wouldn’t help Samson but she didn’t know what to think of Rae and her group.
Her mind buzzed with everything that she could do. It overwhelmed her all the options. Her head fell resting in her hands as she let a few tears roll down her face.
“He found you didn’t he?” a voice called from behind her.
Em jumped, her heart pounding in her chest as she looked up. She didn’t know who she thought she was going to see but she came face to face with Rae. Her face softened when she saw the tears falling from Em’s face.
Em nodded, “I’m worried. What if he hurts my dad or my friends. My father is all I have left, I can’t lose him too.”
Rae looked at Em with confusion written across her face. “What do you mean?”
Em took a deep breath before starting, “My mother had cancer, and when I was five we were in the hospital when she started to die. Her heart started to give out on her. The nurse ran in and started chest compressions while I watched in the hall.”
Em froze realizing what she was saying. The only other person she had told this to was Daxton. She didn’t know why she was telling Rae now. She was a stranger, so why?
“Please keep going,” Rae said resting a hand on her shoulder.
“I watched my mother die as I stood in the hall doing nothing. Two years later I found out I could heal people but I couldn’t do anything for my mother. After her death, my father started drinking and he is never home but he is the only family I have left. I can’t lose anyone else, so please help me.”
“We are going to stop him before he can do anything. Will you help us stop him?”
Em whipped the tears off her face before at Rae, “I will help you.”
“Great now let's get those powers taken care of.” Rae stood up offering Em a hand. Em reached up before pulling her hand back down and pushed herself up and off the ground. She was still frightened of what would happen if she touched Rae.
Rae frowned before starting into the woods heading to the cave.
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