This is a Gift

This wasn’t her bed. This was hard.

That was Liadan’s first thought.

She could smell an old, musty odor, and quick wiggle of her fingers revealed to her that she was indeed laying on a wooden floor and not her own, soft, warm, familiar, comfortable, desperately wished for bed. She kept her eyes closed, hoping that if she pretended to be asleep, eventually she would wake up and find that it was a dream. Unfortunately, she became aware of voices, murmuring nearby. She tried to listen, reach out with her mind, feel around.

Stop that.

She heard it in her head. David’s voice.

Why? She shot back, cattiness infiltrating her inner voice. She didn’t have any idea what was going on and wanted to ask that instead, but she was discovering David brought out the less polite and reserved side of her.

Because you’ll alert them. His response was sharp and serious and Liadan dared to open her eyes. She was still lying face down on the ground, and she could feel the weight of her necklace under her shoulder; an owl charm, no bigger than the palm of her hand, but big enough to make her sore. Using her arms to lift her upper half, she looked above her and saw that the room wasn’t very big, and the ceiling was relatively low, maybe made of drywall. Were they in a house? Next to her, David was also laying on his stomach, but his hands were up by his shoulders, as if ready to do pushups. She got the impression he had been awake longer than her and was probably beating his head on the floor because the frustration was coming off him in nearly visible waves.

I see you’re awake. Julian’s voice now.

“Fuck,” David spoke aloud this time, and Liadan figured it was because there was no point in being secretive. David pushed himself up and back onto his legs. “I told you,” he said in a low voice, as he pushed himself to his feet and began to stand up. For her part, she pushed herself up into a sitting squat quickly, trying to take in her surroundings. They were in what appeared to be an old living room (or what would have been one), except instead of having an opening for them to exit into a foyer, there were metal bars and the room was entirely devoid of windows. There was a little bit of light, coming from a room on the other side of the foyer. It was flickering and blue, and Liadan could see that it was an old television set that had been left on in what looked like a den. The lights were all off, but the television light illuminated enough that she could see that there was an old couch and a few recliners and other odds and ends. Julian appeared in front of the bars within moments, smiling deviously at them, that flickering blue light giving him an eerie glow.

“Do you like my home?” He asked, knocking one of the bars with his knuckle. The metal ring on his finger made the bars dong loudly. Liadan didn’t say anything. She just scrambled to her feet. Part of her really wanted to cower behind David, but her pride and overall annoyance with him as a person prevented that.

“It’s where our initiates go,” Julian said, seemingly slipping through the metal bars. Liadan watched, mesmerized at how the bars just went through him as if he were a ghost.

“Initiates? Like…do you mean, puppies before they go to loving homes?” Liadan began babbling. She could feel David’s eyes on her, looking at her as if she were an idiot.

Julian looked at her amused. “Like our new friends.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the boy from Liadan’s class, the one with the gun, stepped out of the shadows to the right of David and Liadan wondered if he had been there the whole time. Maybe he was, Liadan thought with a shudder. She was relieved to see he seemed to lack the gun this time. She backed up all the way until she was up against the wall. It was cold, despite the wall being covered in old wallpaper. David stood where he was, and Liadan wasn’t paying much attention to him. She was terrified where she was.

“It’s a very special room,” Julian continued, stepping to the center of the room. “Whenever you use your abilities, I’m alerted.” Liadan shot a look at David who shot her back a look that clearly said I told you so with a hint of listen to me next time. “It’s connected to me, you see. So anytime anyone uses any of their special gifts, I’m made aware of it.” He finished, folding his hands in front of him. He was much more formal than when Liadan had seen him before, wearing slacks and a button down shirt. He’d rolled up the sleeves to his elbows and had left his top few buttons undone. His honey brown hair was slicked back with only one strand stylistically left out of place. He was like a rich, prep school kid now in his college years; maybe he had been before this. Liadan glanced around to see where her classmate had gone and caught David’s eyes.

“Are you checking him out?” He mouthed, incredulously.

Liadan was shocked. “No!” She mouthed back indignantly.

“Are we done flirting?” Julian’s voice made Liadan and David turn back to him. His eyebrows were raised with amusement. He glanced between the two of them for a moment before his lips pursed condescendingly. “I bet you’re wondering what you’re doing here,” he said, his tone mocking and patronizing. Liadan opened her mouth to reply that she could figure it out when she realized that she really couldn’t remember how she had gotten here. The last thing she had remembered that day was showing up to class. She couldn’t even remember class. The rest of the day, or what day it could possibly be now, and where was everyone else? A million questions popped into her head and she looked at David for answers, but his attention was now solely on the kid from class. He’d been silently standing just in view and started walking now, towards Julian.

“We wiped your memory.” Julian looked at her, tapping his head. “You’re not the only one who can play mind games, Lecta. Remember?” He laughed at his own joke. “Not that it matters if you know this. We’re going to kill you.” He looked at her, a mock sympathetic and simpering expression on his face. “And trust me, that is a mercy compared to the alternative.” Before anything else happened, before Liadan even had the chance to fully process that last sentence, she saw the kid from class, take something out of his jacket, his attention on David. She could sense his thoughts, though he wasn’t thinking them directly, and knew what he meant to do.

“Behind you!” She sent the message straight to David just as out of the corner of her eye she could see Julian lunging at her. She shot her hand out at him a reaction that didn’t make much sense to her, but the wave of energy that came out made her fingers tingle, her eyes still on David. He’d turned quickly, his hand hitting the kid in the face, and holding on. Smoke began billowing from between David’s hand and the kid’s face and her former classmate began screaming. The knife he had had in his hand fell to the floor with a clank. Julian, at the same time, was flung backwards from the energy Liadan had shot at him, his back hitting the wall with a crash. He fell to the ground with a snarl.

“Bitch,” he said aloud, his hand going to his chest where Liadan’s energy had struck him. She could hear it now, clear as a bell: Julian was calling for back up. Like every TV villain, he was telepathically telling different Channels to get them.

“Come on!” David yelled to her, the hand he’d just used on her classmate reaching out to her. She paused only a moment before hopping over her classmate (who was on the ground holding his face) and grabbing David’s hand. It was warm and oddly comforting, his hand was covered in callouses that were rough on her own; with his other hand, David grabbed the bars and held on. Smoke started billowing as before, but this time David was the one to cry out. He pulled his hand back and Liadan saw that it was covered in blisters and boils.

Beside them, still on the floor, Julian was laughing. “Those bars are protected. Any ability you use on it reflects back to you!” He was coughing and laughing, beginning to stand up. Liadan could hear footsteps and saw that a small handful of people had shown up on the other side of the bars. One of them was typing numbers onto the wall, as if to open it. Liadan thought she might have commented on the absurdity of a magical room being controlled by technology, but she felt David squeeze her hand tight, and she didn’t say a word. The adrenaline from fighting back had made her forget her fear temporarily, but it came roaring back.

The bars holding their cage slid open. Liadan felt herself get grabbed tightly around her forearms, felt David’s hand release hers. She wasn’t really looking at anything in particular; in fact, everything suddenly seemed slow and distant, as if she wasn’t fully present. She was aware of being pulled out of the cage, into the foyer. The lights, that weren’t really all that bright to begin with, seemed to dim. She was sure she wasn’t really there, because that would make the searing pain in her back a reality. That David screaming was not just her imagination. She dropped immediately and hit her knees before slumping over onto her side.

“You fucking idiot!” She heard Julian yell. The pain in her back became very intense, tight, and then all at once very warm. Her side was warm. Everything was becoming warm. She heard someone behind her screaming, noises that she didn’t think she wanted to know the cause of, and just when she thought it was all about to come to an end, Aaron was in her line of sight, kneeling next to her.

“Hold on, Liadan,” he said, and grabbed her arms.