“Oh, it’s nothing.” I looked away. I waited for my face to cool before looking back to him, "I’m just having some trouble.”
“Really, What kind of trouble?” he asked, his tone turned concerned in a heartbeat.
“It’s nothing.” I wished he would just drop it and move on.
“Your abilities are directly connected to your mental well being. How long has it been since you used your abilities?” he demanded.
“I don’t know, since we escaped.” I turned away from him and took a few steps in the other direction.
He grabbed my arm and turned me to look at him, "Grace this is important, we need to get you checked out.” he pleaded. I wrenched my arm out of his hand but I didn’t know why I was all of a sudden so defensive. I realized quickly that I had overreacted.
Ronnie saw what was going on and rushed over to where Silence and I stood. He stepped between the two of us.
“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you Grace?” Silence looked at his still outstretched hand.
“No, no.” I said, "It’s just with everything, I’m just a little jumpy.”
“None the less, I need to call Sam. You need to see the doctors.”
“Is that really necessary, maybe she just needs to have a few days to find her abilities again or something?” Ronnie backed me up.
“No, Ronnie I think he is right.” I gently pushed him to the side. He didn’t fight me on the subject, but looked disappointed.
“So much for keeping it under wraps.” he turned and walked away.
Silence returned to the tent picking up his shirt on the way. I felt that it was only a matter of time before they declared me normal and sent me packing.
I stood by the door chewing on my thumb nail. I tried to hear what was being said but Silence was very good at keeping his voice down.
He pressed a button on the screen of his phone and put it back in his pocket, "Sam will be up here to get you shortly. He would like the rest of you to continue to practice with your abilities.”
I opened the cooler that Sam had unloaded from his SUV and took a bottle of water. Everyone followed my lead. Silence instructed everyone to return to practice. I sat down in a canvas folding chair and rested my head on my fist. I was so mad that my abilities weren’t working.
Sandy was holding back from the rest. She hadn’t done anything to attack any of the targets, "Sandy, why are you hesitating?” Silence asked.
“I’m not sure how I would use my ability to attack people.” she scratched her head.
“Well you possess the ability of metamorphosis, correct?”
“Yeah, how am I supposed to use that?” She said impatiently.
“I’m sure we can think of something.” he stopped for a minute. "Try turning your hand into a knife or some kind of blunt object or something.”
Sandy thought for a moment then closed her eyes. It took a few seconds, but her fingers started to close, and then mold together into a point. Her hands began to stretch out and flatten; they changed from flesh to what looked like metal. She opened her eyes surprised at how her arms and hands now looked.
“Very good.” Silence patted her on the back, "Now, test them out.”
Sandy ran as fast as she could swinging her arms at the head of a nearby target. She swiped it clean off. She turned back and smiled proud of what she had done.
“I wonder if I can use electrical power to form different objects.” Ronnie looked at his hands.
“You’ll never know until you try.” Silence smiled.
Ronnie concentrated, as moments passed nothing happened. He got frustrated and sent a bolt smashing into the closest target.
“Don’t get angry you may just have to practice. Just keep at it.” Silence laughed.
“How do you feel?” Sam asked. We were heading back to the clinic.
“I feel fine.” I put emphasis on the word fine.
“I understand that you feel fine compared to how you were before, but Aurora, they changed your body, and you may not be able to tell if there is something wrong on some of the new levels.” he explained.
“What if I’m just normal now?” I turned to look out of the window, “What if I, like, used up my abilities? My eyes burned, but I forced my composure.
“It’s not that easy. I know that you would like for things to return to normal but there is really no turning back now.”
I smiled, and then flashed with embarrassment and the depression flooded in quickly.
“What?” he asked.
“You misunderstand. I don’t want to be normal. I think that being here is a definite plus in my life, in all of ours. We have a chance at fitting in. I don’t want to have to leave.” I explained.
“Grace,” He paused, "even if your abilities vanished, which I’m sure hasn’t happened, we wouldn’t just send you away.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“It really is magnificent.” Sam said.
We pulled into the clinic parking lot and parked near the front.
“We have a small medical staff here; at another facility, we keep more on standby. We have never had a need for a large staff.” Sam said as we got out of the truck. I followed him into the building. We walked right past the waiting room into an exam room.
“Have a seat.” he motioned to a table. He left me alone in the room and closed the door as he left.
It was cold, steel.
It reminded me of being back at Aurora.
Sam returned with two men in toe, he pointed to a tall man with blond hair that brushed his shoulders and thin lined glasses, "this is Doctor Timothy.”
“Nice to meet you.” Doctor Timothy spoke in a heavy English accent.
“And this is Doctor Ziefer.” Sam pointed to the other man who was my height, messy hair, and glasses on the top of his head.
“You hit level six, right?” he asked extremely excited.
“Um, yeah.” I leaned back on my hands.
“You’ll have to forgive Ziefer, he loves his work. He is our expert on Kinetic brainwaves and mental health.” Sam explained.
“He is your expert on mental health.” I said bewildered.
“You’ll learn to like him.” Sam left the room to give us privacy.
“So, Grace, how do you feel?” Dr. Timothy asked.
“I feel fine. I’m always hungry.”
“Does your head hurt a lot?” Ziefer asked.
“Sometimes.” I said, "What was your name?”
“Ziefer, call me Z though.”
“Well, let’s do a physical work up, then a mental.” Dr. Timothy said.
“Sounds good."Dr. Z said. He turned and joined Sam in the small waiting room outside of the exam room.
Doctor Timothy gave me the same exact exams that I had had the last time I went to the doctors before we had been abducted. I always felt extremely self-conscious but he made it as easy as possible. He was a hundred times more personable than my last doctor; who had acted like a car that was in for a tune up.
Doctor Timothy left the room with two samples of my blood that he had taken. The room was cold and the table was incredibly uncomfortable. I looked around at the posters on the walls. They were all the normal posters, except one. Mental health is key.
Doctor Timothy returned with a chart in his hands, "Well Grace, everything checks out perfect.”
“Like I said, I feel fine.”
“Maybe Doctor Z will be able to help you more.” He shrugged. He left the room again. I was starting to think that they should have installed a revolving door.
Doctor Z came in and was very difficult to read as a person. He was a short slightly overweight man who was in love with his work. That much I could tell.
“I’m going to attach a brain wave monitor that we stole from Aurora and modified.” Dr. Z jumped right into the subject without any small talk.