Per 
Chapter One
First Day
We are afraid of what we can’t understand, humanity, I mean. Every culture on Earth has its pantheons of gods and monsters; they were the explanations for phenomena our primitive knowledge could not quite comprehend. But as time passed, we wised up. What once was thought to be anomalous and inexplicable was found to be commonplace and knowable. To assume we know everything, however, would be a mistake. Just take me as an example.
I first noticed it when I was 10 years old. I was at a friend’s birthday party and was thinking to myself, “What if that pinata just exploded?” I closed my eyes and thought about how funny it would be, when I heard a loud bang and I was pelted by candy. My friend seemed to think it was her brother pulling a prank, and I just nodded in agreement. I wrote it off as a coincidence and continued on with my life.
I moved to a new school when I was 12. Scared and lonely, I closed my eyes and imagined my old friend sitting next to me. I opened them to hear her scream as she had just appeared in the seat to my right. Nobody saw her walk in, but since people can’t just teleport, they thought of some other reason.
I have much more control, now, but I still have to be careful. I’ve seen the movies; if I’m found out, some shadowy government agency will lock me in a lab and do tests on me, painful, agonizing tests. I’ve had to distance myself from others, both to protect me and them, so I don’t have many friends. I get picked on from time to time, but it doesn’t bother me too much.
Today is the first day of school. I’m a little disappointed because my favorite teacher, Mr. Kandy, retired. He made my most boring class interesting, chemistry. After a somber morning of mourning my summer vacation, I grab my backpack and go to my neighbor’s driveway to catch a ride with my friend Lilly and her older brother.
“Hi Mandy!” Lilly says with a wave. She was standing outside of her brother’s beat up car, fidgeting with her hair. “Excited for school?”
“No,” I respond, but I smile, anyway. Lilly doesn’t miss a beat.
“I can’t wait to start my new art class,” she said. “Want to see what I drew last night?”
She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a slightly crumpled paper. The rose on it looked like it contracted leprosy and had a seizure.
“It’s really good,” I say with a smile.
“It took me 30 minutes,” she said, flattening it out. She stopped suddenly and latched onto my arms. “Mandy. Guess. What.”
“Uh…”
“Brian has the same first period as us!” She squealed.
“So are you ever gonna talk to him?”
“Maybe there will be a lockdown and we are the only ones in the room. Then I can act all scared and then-“
Lilly’s fantasy was cut off by her brother exiting the house.
“Hey Mandy,” he said. His name was Tyler, and he could not be more different from Lilly.
“Hey,” I say back. Without another word, he climbs into the car and turns the key. Lilly hops into the front seat, and I slide into the back.
The entire trip, Lilly talks about what she hopes school will be like, and it slowly begins to resemble the plot of High School Musical. Tyler just nods occasionally, while I interject with an occasional “Yep” and “Totally.” When we finally get there, Tyler drops us off at the front of the school, says, “See you later,” and drives to the student parking lot. Lilly grabs my arm and pulls me inside.
“Here’s my locker,” she says, even as she pulls out a box of stickers which she applies to the surface liberally. “I have extra if you want some,” she offers.
“No thanks,” I say. I walk to my locker, which is around the corner down the hall. It’s right next to the science classroom, and I can already smell the chemicals that will emanate from within. I’m busy sorting through my things when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn to see an adult with his hand outstretched. “Hello,” he says.
“Um…” I looked to my left and right.
“I’m Mr. Octave,” he says as he grabs my hand and shakes it. I notice one of his eyes is blue, and the other is brown.
“I’m the new Science teacher, and you’re my new neighbor.”
“My name’s Mandy.”
“Short for Amanda?”
“Miranda, actually.”
“Miranda Skye? You’re in my fourth period class. I can’t wait,” he said with a mischievous smile as he turned to leave. I was beginning to wonder if I might like him when the first bell rang.
I grabbed a notebook and a pencil and rushed to my first class. When the second bell rang, Mrs. Muller, the English teacher, cleared her throat and announced, “Would everyone please take their assigned seats.” She indicated towards the projected image of the classroom, with each desk marked.
I was a desk away from Lilly, but that didn’t really bother me. However, when I saw Brian’s name on the desk next to hers, I knew that things were about to get interesting. Sure enough, once Lilly came in and saw her name next to his, she began shaking like a faulty clothes-dryer. She tripped on her way to my desk.
“Mandy, help me,” she said.
“Stay calm,” I told her. “Try not to think about it, you don’t have to talk to him yet, you just have to sit there and look to the front, OK?”
She nodded and went to her seat. I opened my notebook and prepared to write. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Brian enter the room. He looked at the seating arrangement and took her seat. Lilly’s face was now beet red, and her breathing was beginning to increase.
That’s when the worst happened. Brian turned to Lilly and said, “Hey.”
She froze and smiled nervously.
“H-hey,” she stuttered. “It’s kinda hot in here.”
There was only one thing I could do. I closed my eyes and imagined Lilly’s heartbeat stabilizing, and her breathing returning to normal. When I opened them again, Lilly looked much better, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
After that period ended, she grabbed me in the hallway.
“That was so weird,” she said. “I was so nervous, and then it all just went away.”
“Weird.”
“I talked to him a bit after class, I can’t believe it.”
“Good for you,” I say.
She embraces me like a tightening vice. “I could never have done it without you.”
I manage to break free, “We need to get to our next class,” I say. After exchanging a few goodbyes, I finally make it to my locker. Mr. Octave is standing outside his door again.
“Your friend seems nice,” he says.
“She is, but she can get a bit too excited sometimes.”
“Would you change that about her?”
The question took me slightly aback. “No… Why do you ask?”
“You learn a lot about a person from how they speak about someone when they think they’re not listening.”
With that he gave a small salute and disappeared into his classroom.
When I finally got to my fourth period class, I went into Mr. Octave’s class, not entirely sure what to expect. His desks were organized in a semi-circle, with a counter in the middle covered in test-tubes and flasks. There was no seating arrangement, so I sat in the middle row on the far side from the door.
“Good day, students,” Mr. Octave said.
“What’s with your eyes?” a boy shouted from his desk.
“What about them? Are you insinuating that my eyes are in any way abnormal? Perhaps your eyes are the oddity here,” Mr. Octave said. He chuckled. “It’s heterochromia iridum. I was born like this.”
The class chuckled slightly.
“Anyone else feel like criticizing my appearance? Wanna see the birthmark on my back?”
This question was met with a mixed response.
“Well you’re not gonna cuz the Principal said I couldn’t after I traumatized my first period class.”
This was met with a great deal of laughter. I had to admit, I was warming up to him.
“So I’ll tell you how today is going to go. I’m going to hand everyone a paper with a random question on it. Then we’ll go down the line and say what we wrote,” Mr. Octave said as he procured a stack of papers. He shuffled them around in his hands and passed them out.
I looked at mine; it asked me what my future goals were, after a moment of introspection I scribbled an answer and looked around the room. When it was clear we were all finished, Mr. Octave pointed at the kid at the other end of the room.
“Jessica, you start.”
“My favorite food is cheesecake.”
The boy sitting next to her spoke next, “My favorite memory from this summer is my trip to Yellowstone.”
And so they went around the room until it was my turn to speak.
“My future goal is to go to college.”
Mr. Octave shook his head. “Too vague,” he said. “What kind of college, what do you want to be?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Do you want to be an artist? A musician? Or are the arts not really your thing?”
The entire class was staring at me. I began to panic slightly. “A scientist, I guess?”
“Was that a question?” Mr. Octave asked.
“I don’t know. Can we move on please?”
Mr. Octave nodded. “And so begins the fun part. Most of you may think that science is boring. Like, I get it. It’s mostly just numbers and math. But there is a small part of science that I find particularly interesting: explosions.”
The word caused the entire room to fall silent.
“Normally I would have to jump through a couple dozen bureaucratic hoops to do anything, but since I’m new, I think I’ll get off with a warning. Just in case, don’t tell your parents.”
Mr. Octave put a bowl on the table in the center of a steel pan. “It’s just water,” he said. “But its about to blow.”
He reached into a box and grabbed something. Before anyone could protest, he dropped it in the water. Immediately, a smoky cloud of gas rose from inside it.
“It could explode at any moment,” he said as he put on a pair of goggles and began stepping back. “Cover your eyes!”
A few people in the audience screamed.
After a few tense moments, Mr. Octave started laughing.
“You should have seen your faces!” he wheezed.
“That was just dry ice!” I said, a little annoyed that I got pranked.
“It’ll add to the drama. Everyone get a pair of goggles, we’ll blow this bowl for real.”
There was a small stampede as the students scrambled for protective eyewear.
“This element is potassium,” Mr. Octave said holding up a small glass tube with a minuscule amount of metallic substance inside. “Commonly found in a banana, in its pure form it reacts to water and air with rather devastating results.”
With one swift movement, he threw it into the bowl, and a loud bang resounded, causing the bowl to explode into a heap of water, ceramic and dry ice.
The students cheered as Mr. Octave gave a long, exaggerated bow. “SCIENCE!” he announced with his hands in the air.
When the bell rang, I gathered my things to leave, but Mr. Octave grabbed my shoulder. “Mandy, would you mind speaking to me after class?”
I wanted to say yes, but as a subject to an authority figure it was outside of my control.
When everyone else left, I walked over to Mr. Octave’s desk. “You said you wanted to be a scientist?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I said. “I mean, I still have a lot of time to choose.”
“What is it about science that interests you?”
I thought a moment, “I guess its discovering new things.”
“Science can lead to discovering new things, yes, but more often than not its is about explaining things that we couldn’t previously.”
Mr. Octave was giving me a look like he knew something I didn’t. "There are things in this world we say are anomalous, things we cannot explain and cannot hope to.”
My heart was starting to beat faster. Did Mr. Octave know what I could do? Out of fear, I raised my hand to my head and said, “Sorry, I have a headache.” I closed my eyes just long enough to imagine Mr. Octave telling me I could leave. When I opened my eyes, I was staring right into his multi-colored eyes.
“Some things defy all logical thought and explanation, that is why we need scientists. They can explain what we can’t,” he said with a smile. “If you want you can help me clean up the experiment..”
“Sorry, I have somewhere I need to be,” I lie as I walk briskly towards the door.
“Sorry to keep you, Mandy, I just wanted to talk to you for a moment. I see a bright future for you.”
I left the room and opened my locker, faintly I could hear Mr. Octave in his classroom.
“Hey Crow, thanks for the lesson plan. Went. Great. I kinda like being a high school teacher.”
Not wanting to eavesdrop, I quickly made my way to the lunchroom.
Chapter Two
Nothing but Treble
The first semester went by faster than I thought it would. I was doing well in English, passing in gym, and excelling in science. Mr. Octave’s classes were never boring, but I never could shake the uneasy feeling that he knew what I could do. I discovered on a few occasions that my powers didn’t really work in his classroom, or around him. I studied him just as much as I’m sure he studied me.
Good news: Since I helped Lilly get over her initial fear of talking to Brian, the two of them have become an adorable couple. Too adorable. Honestly, it feels like watching a cheesy straight-to-DVD teen romance.
Bad news: a group of older boys have taken an interest in making my life miserable. I may have made one of them angry when I refused to date him. He was gross, and I regret nothing.
This all culminated on one very jam-packed day. In the middle of December. Lilly was talking to me about Brian while I walked to my locker. Unfortunately it was blocked by Rueben, the boy I didn’t want to date. The little eejit was here to harass me, and I was getting tired of his crap.
“Hey Man-DEE,” he said with a sneer.
“Hello Neanderthal,” I tell him. “Go extinct like the rest of your backwards species.”
“This is your last chance. Hook up with me or bad things will happen.”
“There is no winning in that scenario.”
He was getting angry. “Seriously, Man-DEE.”
I stepped back as he stepped forward. Fortunately, Mr. Octave stepped out of his classroom and looked at the two of us.
“Reuben stop harassing the general populace,” he commanded. Reuben took one look and walked away briskly.
“I could have handled him,” I said.
“I know, I just don’t like the idea of cleaning up afterward,” he said as he walked back inside.
If I were smart, I wouldn’t have brushed off the threat Rueben made, because as soon as I saw Lilly crying next to her locker, I knew something was wrong.
“What happened?” I asked.
“B-brian broke up with me!” she wailed, pulling me into her arms. I pushed back and looked into her eyes; her makeup distorted from the tears. “He left a note,” she sniffed, holding a piece of paper up.
I grabbed it from her hands and read it.
Lilly,
I cant be around you anymore you are ugly
-Brian.
This, however, was not Brian’s handwriting; it was too rough, and lacked grammatical correctness. I do know who’s handwriting it is.
“It's just a prank,” I said. “Reuben wrote this.”
Lilly sniffed. “He sent me a text too.”
I looked at her phone.
Lilly, I’m sorry, we have to break up.
The note was one thing, but the text was another. Were they blackmailing Brian into breaking up with Lilly?
“I’ll see what’s going on,” I say. “Don’t take this too seriously, I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.”
I went to my locker to find a note taped on the front, in Reuben’s handwriting.
Meet after school in the parking lot
-Rueben
He drew a crude heart next to his name.
For the rest of the school day I had to text images of puppies and kittens to Lilly to keep her calm. I considered using my power, but I dismissed it. I don't like messing with people's emotions. At the parking lot after school, I confronted Rueben and his goons.
“Hey Man-DEE.” Rueben said.
“What did you do to Brian?” I asked.
One of the Igors pulled Brian out from behind a car. He waved sheepishly.
“He could say it was all a mistake, but first you have to agree to go out with me.”
“I make no exaggeration when I say I would rather die,” I retort.
“You’d be so much prettier if you just stopped talking.”
I had to bite down my rage so I could say, “Tell me how you made Brian break up with Lilly, and I’ll consider it.”
Rueben’s thick brain churned like week-old moldy butter. “Show her the picture,” he said.
Brian’s face went white. “NO!”
I didn’t know what to expect but It certainly wasn’t what I saw. Brain was not only cross-dressing, but he was also dressed up like a girl in an anime, complete with bright pink hair and anatomically incorrect breasts. At that moment, I knew what it was like to stare into the deepest and darkest pit of one’s soul.
Rueben pulled the picture away.
“We’ll show this to the school if you don't-“
“Counteroffer: give me the picture or I show everyone this,” I say. I close my eyes and imagine a similar image of Rueben appearing in my hand behind my back. I showed it to him when I opened my eyes. He gawked at it.
“How did you do that?” he asked, anger rising in his voice.
“Magic,” I said with a smile. Victory tasted sweet. I expected him to hand me Brian’s picture so I could cast it into hell where it belongs, but instead he hit me in the face, sending me sprawling.
‘I gave you every chance I could!” he growled. While I tried to get up, he kicked me in the stomach.
“You’re a *wheeze* real charmer,” I say.
“Stop talking!” he shrieked, and I felt another blow to my stomach. Hazily I saw Brian take off towards the school.
I close my eyes and imagine Rueben falling to the ground. When I opened them, Rueben’s face met the pavement.
“A real gentleman,” I said as I got to my feet. Rueben’s goons broke their stasis and approached me.
Eyes closed; I imagined their pants falling to their ankles. Eyes open; they were all stumbling in their new clothing arrangements.
“Your parents should have raised you better,” I tutted. “But then again, I guess they would have had to actually be there.”
I became aware of Rueben grabbing my leg. I tried to shake him free, but I was pulled to the ground again.
I closed my eyes again. Honestly, these guys had this coming for a long time. But that’s when I felt a sharp pain in my belly. I opened my eyes to see a switchblade jutting out of my flesh. It was very jarring.
Out of fear and pain, I closed my eyes and imagined Rueben’s group being thrown far away from me. I opened them to see the miscreants launch through the air and fall to the ground in a series of sickening crunches. With shaking hands I pulled the knife from my chest. I used my power to heal the wound and got to my feet.
“Mandy?”
I looked to see Tyler staring at me.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I say quickly, but it wasn’t convincing, because Tyler was gone. I tried to imagine him turning back so I could come up with a good lie, but I was interrupted by Brian and Mr. Octave rushing towards me.
“What did you do?” Mr. Octave asked, looking at the bodies of the boys I gave temporary orbit.
Brian looked just as confused. “But they were just-.”
“Hey Brian, take this picture and burn it. Please.” I say as I hand him the cursed object.
“You should go,” Mr. Octave told him as he helped me to my feet. “Did anyone see you?”
“Just Tyler. He’s my neighbor.”
Mr. Octave nodded. “I’ll call an ambulance. This was an unfortunate accident. Come with me.”
I follow Mr. Octave back into the school, watching as Brian disappeared inside.
“But it was a crime scene, shouldn’t we stay?”
“Did you single-handily pummel every one of those teenagers until they were left unconscious?”
“Well… no.”
“I thought so.”
We entered his room, and he went to unlock his closet.
“We’re in trouble now, Mandy. It’s time for the truth.”
“I don’t know what-“
“I said no more lies. You have powers, and you know I know.”
I was beginning to feel very afraid. “How?” I ask.
“Long story. Tell me how you use them, and how powerful you are.”
“If I imagine something with my eyes closed, it happens in real life. I don’t know how powerful I am.”
Mr. Octave opened the door, revealing a chamber full of papers, monitors, and equipment.
“Type 4 at least. I was hoping we could do this under less stressful circumstances.” He grabbed a phone. “Hi 911, this is Mr. Octave, there has been an accident at the high school and some boys are badly injured, send ambulances.”
“Your life is about to change drastically. Right now, you’re in serious danger. An organization will be coming, and they will try to kill, not capture. Tomorrow, expect to leave in the morning.”
“What?” It was too much for me all at once.
“I think Cimmerian wrote up a pamphlet. Ah, here it is.” He handed me a piece of paper titled, “The Foundation and You.”
“Foundation?”
“I am a member of the SCP Foundation, dedicated to Securing, Containing, and Protecting anomalies. In this instance, you’re the anomaly. My name Is Dr. Alto Clef, you can call me Clef for short.
“Wait, Who's coming to kill me?”
“Highly trained assassins from the GOC. They’ll kill you without you ever knowing they’re there.”
“Uh what’s going on here?” It was Lilly, who had just entered the room.
“How much did you hear?” Clef asked.
“Nothing, I just wanted to find Mandy. Do you know where Tyler’s gone? I can’t find his call and he’s not answering my texts.”
“Maybe he went to get gas first,” Clef said. “Could you go? we were in the middle of something.”
Lilly looked at me expectingly.
“I have to stay too. I said I’d help Mr. Octave prepare for his experiment tomorrow.”
“Right,” Lilly said. “Guess I’ll go wait in the parking lot.”
“No!” I say. “I think I saw Brian head back into the school. He said he made a mistake and was sorry.”
Just like that, Lilly shot off like a rocket. Clef tore down a chart and opened a compartment, pulling out a disassembled rifle.
“I’ll give you a ride home. Gather your things and get ready to leave in the morning. 6:00. Any later than that and the GOC will be on our tails.”
“What about my parents?”
“Are they normal?”
“Yeah?”
“Then they’ll be fine.”
“Follow me,” he said. We went to the staff parking lot.
“My car is white with black lines on it. If you see any other car outside your house, hide and use your powers to obscure yourself the best you can.”
After a whirlwind of instructions and one wrong turn, Clef dropped me off outside my house. “6:00. Any later than that and your chances go down by 50%” he said as I closed the door.
Now deeply paranoid I darted into my house. My mom and dad were sitting at the table on their electronic devices.
“You’re a bit late,” my dad said. “Didn’t get into any trouble, did you?”
“I had to help Mr. Octave prepare for an experiment tomorrow.”
“I remember Mr. Octave. Weird dude, asked a lot of questions about you.”
“I’m sure he did,” I say, even as I check the room for hidden assassins.
“He seemed nice,” My mom said. “He was very interested in your plan to become a scientist.”
I got to my room and shut the door. After I gave myself a moment to breath, I opened the pamphlet and read:
You’re wrong about secret organizations. The SCP Foundation has been around for a long time. We are devoted to protecting the world by securing and containing possible threats and dangers. We are also dedicated to protecting you. So, don’t be scared when Foundation agents show up at your doorstep, we are here for you.
I’m Dr. Cimmerian, Chairman of the Ethics Committee. It is my responsibility to make sure anomalies such as yourself are safe and cared for. Now you may be thinking, “What’s an anomaly?” And I can assure you, you’re probably wrong about that as well.
Before I could read any more, I heard a knock on my door. “Mandy, someone is here to see you,” my mom said.
My heart dropped. “Who is it?” I asked.
Lilly walked into the room.
“What is going on?” she asked.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“Brian gave me a ride. I saw the picture. How did you do that?”
“What picture?”
Lilly showed me a picture on her phone. It caught the moment Rueben and his friends went airborne perfectly.
I closed my eyes and imagined the image changing.
“That’s just a puppy,” I say.
Lilly looked at her phone. “Sorry, wrong picture,” she said. She scrolled down and showed an identical image posted by a different user.
I imagined her phone’s battery dying.
“Your phone is dead.”
“It was just at 40%. What is going on?”
“I don’t know, why are you asking me?” I say back.
“If you’re hiding something from me, I need to know,” she said. “Best friends don’t keep secrets.”
“Who said you’re my best friend?” I say. As I form the words with my lips, I feel myself shrinking to the earth.
Lilly was taken aback. Tears welled in her eyes. I couldn’t get a word in before she ran from my room.
Great. As if today couldn’t get any worse.
I shake my head, there was no time to get emotional, I had to prepare to leave. I grabbed my clothes, my laptop, a few cords and notebooks and put them together. One backpack and one duffle bag contained everything I would have as I left home.
I set my alarm clock and sat next to my window. There would be no sleep tonight. I thought about writing a note for my parents, but I couldn’t think of anything other than, “Sorry I ran away from home.”
When 6:00 did come, I was already rushing down the stairs to the road. Where was Clef? I cringed as the time changed to 6:05, then 6:10 before the white car with black stripes pulled up.
“Get in!” he said. I threw my stuff into the back and lunged in.
“You said 6:00!” I shouted at him.
“I made a wrong turn.”
“Again?”
“I’m not perfect, Mandy.”
‘You’re also not inspiring a lot of confidence right now.”
“Duck!” Clef said, pushing me forward. I heard the sound of something cutting through the glass. A small hole was inside my window. He pressed the gas peddle and we sped off down the street.
“You said 50%!”
“Yeah and this is on me, but don’t worry,” he said as he sped through a residential zone at 70 miles an hour. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
There was a small bump and Clef said, “That was either a speed bump or a dog. If it’s a speed bump it means we’re almost outa here.”
There was another bump.
“One of those was a dog.”
We pulled onto a bigger street.
“Watch the sky for helicopters,” Clef said.
My eyes were now glued to the sky.
“Nothing,” I report.
“You should keep your head down,” Clef said. “We’re almost to the interstate.”
“Where are we going?”
“The closest Foundation safe-house,” he said. “From there we wait for extraction.”
We drive for several more minutes before I hear the sound of a large upward-facing propeller.
“Helicopter,” I say.
“Rats,” Clef said. “Ours odds just dropped another 25%.”
“You don’t have to tell me these things!”
Clef got off on an exit ramp at an extraordinarily high speed. He pulled into a parking lot outside of a Burger King.
“Grab your stuff.” He said as he slung his rifle over his shoulder.
“Burger King?” I ask.
“We have to go on foot. Stay behind me.”
I followed him across the street and down a couple blocks.
“They probably don’t have snipers here yet, and the buildings will keep the helicopter away. We have 15 minutes before their agents get here, if we cut across this construction zone, we might make It in time.”
We rushed through alleys and down sidewalks, until we finally made it to the construction zone.
Unfortunately, there was a group of people standing in our path. Clef stood in front of me.
“Move, or we'll shoot” a female voice said.
“It’s me! Agent Ukulele!” Clef said. “Don’t shoot!”
The soldier in the front motioned for them to lower their guns.
“How do you know about Ukulele?” she asked.
“Very interesting question. You know I play the ukulele, right?” Clef stepped towards the soldiers.
“Francis, is that you?”
“Who’s Francis?” Clef asked as he stepped even closer. “I am a Ukulele.”
He rolled on the ground and tackled the woman. “Run!” he shouted to me. “Ruthenium Gallium! Ruthenium- AH” he got kicked by another soldier. As Clef tangled with them, I bolted to the right. Ruthenium was number 44 on the periodic table, and Gallium was 31. That must be the address of the safe-house! I heard a gunshot, and heard the bullet striking near me.
I closed my eyes and imagined a clear bullet-proof glass shield behind me. I chanced a look back to see my wall absorb another 10 shots.
Heart beating, I run down the streets. 4410, 4415, 4420… I see it. I rush up the front porch and tug on the door. Locked. Quickly, I use my power and rush inside. The door, the walls, everything seemed much thicker and sturdier than I saw on the outside. I lock the door and sit on the floor, trying to catch my breath. I see lights filtering in through the shades over the windows. They must be patrolling to find me.
For 2 hours I sit still, afraid to move, until I hear the door unlock. Scared, I throw myself behind a couch and watch. Clef walks in.
“Mandy? You here?” he asks.
“You’re alive!” I say as I get off the floor.
“I think so,” he said. “Good to see you made it in one piece.”
“You said 15 minutes!” I say accusingly. Come to think of it, this whole operation seemed pretty botched.
“Look we’re both here, and we’re both alive. I’d call that a win.”
I sit on the couch and sink into it. “What now?” I ask.
“I, for one, am hungry. Let’s see what they’ve got for us.”
