• How did I get into this?

    The thought runs through my head, as repetitive as a beating drum and a millions times harder to ignore.

    I think it was teaming up that did it. That stupid, back-stabbing, two-faced lying traitorous piece of horse shít, Cole, turned me in. After two years, he still preferred to save his own butt than to go down with me.

    So now I lay here, in the Null room, gagged and bound and generally wrapped up like a present on Christmas. All because of my stinkin' Talent.

    I'm... different from other people. When I was little, I used to be able to know what the weather would be the next day or what Mum bought Logan for his birthday. I didn't tell him what it was, if you were wondering. I'm not a spoiler. But I did tell him about the weather. And he told Mum. And she told Them.

    They are my enemies. And, even though he's my brother, Logan is one of them now. That makes him my enemy too.

    They find people with Talents, like me, and try to see what happens in various tests. Eg; someone with a shape-shifting talent would be tossed out into gale force wind and told to change into a bird or get Punishment. How do I know this? Easy. Damien was a Shifter.

    I first met Damien when I was taken to the Academy. Thats what they call their high-tech prison. More like Freak Central.
    Anyway, Damien held the record for the longest to survive at seventeen. He had spent nine years in there when I met him. He knew all the secrets that they didn't want you to know. Like how to override the security system. Thats how he got us out. It had taken him all nine years, and then he needed to get supplies - without Them noticing - for the outside. I had only been there one year when he broke me out. We stayed teamed up for another year.

    Then he died.

    ~

    The sound of someone clearing their throat brings me back to the present. I blink back the tears that come inevitably to my eyes whenever I remember Damien. I can't see who it is; they're behind me and I can't move under all my present-like wrappings.
    "You've grown, you know. How long has it been? Four years?"
    My blood froze. I'd know that voice anywhere.
    "And your power! Who would have thought that you could produce visions as well as recieve them? A true illusionist." My brother walked over to me and crouched down. "Well, now you're safely home and we can help you again."
    I was outraged. Home? Help? They didn't know the meaning of the word help! And this was not my home!
    "At first I was jealous. But then I saw how much you have to hold yourself back, all the time. What happens when you let go, I wonder?" He smiled, stroking my hair like he used to when I was little. "We'll find out soon enough. I'm so glad to have you back, Sis. It just hasn't been the same without you. I saw the plans for your new tests, and they designed a room just for you..."
    I let his voice fade out. I didn't want to hear his glorious plans to torture me into becoming theirs. It was all an act. They pretended to care about my state, pretended to be helping me.

    And the saddest thing?

    My own brother believed it.

    And he was one of Them.