CHAPTER TEN- BEING CRIMINALS

Feton stepped protectively in front of me, his arms spread to shield me as much as possible.

“My, so protective of our loved ones- aren’t we?” The man said mockingly. By now his appearance had changed all together, the clothing that had mimicked my fathers had changed to black pants, a black shirt and a black trench-coat. His hair had also changed from brown to black as well, and his eyes were all black too.

“Someone sure looks like he belongs in the dark.” Feton said sarcastically.

It was true; the man did look like some gothic/vampire creature that should never be exposed to even a light-bulb. The unnatural orange light from the kitchen light-bulb didn’t go well with the man’s pale skin, the paleness of it reminded me of a drowned corpse since it had somewhat of a blue tint to it.

I was woken from my thoughts thanks to a deep snarl from the mans throat, he obviously didn’t like being criticized. I could feel my hands trembling, as well as the rest of my body, with fear.

“Why?” I asked quietly and simply.

“Why what?!” Feton and the man said at the same time.

“WHY!? Why are you here?! What do you want?! When is this going to end!?” I yelled at the top of my lungs. Feton and the man exchanged equally confused glances at my outburst. “Who are you?!” I asked angrily, all the fear I had held before had been replaced with anger. Anger at everything, at people barging into my life and ruining it, at people who I didn’t even know or didn’t want to know, at my Gifts. The man looked astonished and Feton looked smug, for reasons unknown.

I didn’t even give him a chance to reply before I hurled myself at him, desperate to get rid of him anyway I possibly could if it meant having a normal life again. He easily dodged out of the way and landed a blow between my shoulder blades. I crashed to the floor and winced out of pain. Feton’s smug expression turned fierce as he threw punches at the man, trying desperately to make him pay for hurting me.

Nothing was working, I tried lighting him on fire, and he avoided my fire each time, Feton tried again and again to use sounds to distract him, but he knew and kept his eyes on Feton. Suddenly a thought came to me, clear and perfectly formed.

He can see…I thought.

The future! Feton finished for me. We looked at each other in horror, no matter what we did; he’d be ready for it! We both looked at each other and nodded. Feton boosted me onto the counter where I unlocked the window and jumped out it with Feton following suit behind. The man may have known it was going to happen, but he couldn’t run fast enough to stop us as we barreled down the street together.

“I! Need! Air!!” I gasped, inhaling deep breaths of air as I lay on the grass. Feton and I had ran a far distance, nearly half off the city, and we were both laying on the ground in a park, exhausted.

“I managed to figure out who he was…” Feton mentioned. I sat up and looked over at him.

“Who?” I asked, I wanted to know but I also didn’t want to know.

“You know how there’s all those Gifteds in the forest? And Chien is the leader?”

“Yes,” I replied, “Go on.”

“Apparently there’s more than one group like this. The man we ran into, he’s part of another group that lives in the ‘Dark’ side of the city.” Feton said. The ‘Dark’ side, it was a horrible place. I remembered seeing lots of newspaper headlines about people mysteriously vanishing in that maze of alleyways, and bodies being found constantly as well.

“That could explain why he wore all black…” I pointed out, “Because, if he lives there, it’d be crucial for him to be able to blend into the dark walls and everything whether it’d be night or day.” Feton nodded in response.

“Yes. His name is Harley, and he’s a lower rank in their ‘Clan’, as they call it.” Feton said.

“Lower rank?” I asked,

“Uh-huh, their group has ranks and you can gain rank by completing missions such as murder, recruiting, spying, and even bounty hunting.”  Feton listed off.

“Bounty hunting?” I asked weakly, trying to hold myself back from panicking.

“Yup, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a large amount of money being paid to catch us.” Feton said.

“What?!” I asked shrilly, “It’s not like we’re criminals! Or famous! Why would anyone want to catch us?!”

“Because, we’re pretty strong if you hadn’t noticed. We supposedly killed Kiyo…” Feton said. At first that meant nothing, but then he explained it. “The Gifteds in the forest also had a sort of rank system. Kiyo was one of the highest ranking Gifteds there, and everyone thinks we killed her.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“That’s pretty big, low ranks like us killing a high rank like her. To the Clan from the ‘Dark’ side of the city, it means that we could easily help them kill people or steal or do any of their dirty work for them.” Feton paused to look at me intently, “To the Gifteds of the forest, it means that we are murderers and that we need to be caught and destroyed. Unfortunately, none of them know that it was actually a police officer who killed her, not us.” Feton sighed and added bitterly, “Apparently Hugh still can’t tell a story without lying somewhere along the way.”

I rolled back over and sucked in a deep breath of air, “Life sucks…Why does it suck?” I asked Feton plainly. He shrugged and let his eyes drift to the clouds in the sky.

“Life itself doesn’t suck,” He finally said after a while. “Just our lives do.” I surprisingly was able to smile a little, even in the gloominess of the whole situation.

After a while the sky had gone gray, then black as clouds settles overhead and the sun sunk below the horizon. And an even shorter time later it had began to rain. Feton and I found shelter in a jungle gym that had two long tunnels on it. We couldn’t see each other, but we could hear each others breathing.

Feton’s was softer, while mine was loud and raspy; I think I was catching a cold.

Feton? I asked after a while of silence.

Yes? He asked back. I enjoyed our silent conversations, partially because no one else could hear what we were thinking, and it was easy to stay silent this way. I thought for a moment, what I was going to say to him.

I don’t really know, actually. I replied, feeling slightly childish, but the childishness filled me with joy for odd some odd reason. I started to tremble with laughter, and then I was shaking. I think I was having a breakdown, perhaps, but I eventually passed out from exhaustion. That could’ve been the reason I was going into hysterics-not enough sleep.

“Hey Lady!” I opened my eyes slightly, just enough to see some little kid sitting half-way in the tunnel and looking at me. “Hey lady!” He yelled louder, jabbing my in the shoulder with a stick he’d found.

“Ouch! What?!” I asked. He didn’t move.

“Get out of the tunnel, my friends and I are trying to play here and you’re ruining it!” He accused. I could only wonder if Feton was getting the same wake up call from little five year olds.

“Give me that stick!” I heard Feton yelling. Yup, he apparently was. There was a lot of noise coming from the tunnel beside me and then there was a lot of screaming from little kids. I dragged myself out of the tunnel, motioning the little boy to move aside for me.

The first thing I saw when I emerged from the cramped tunnel was Feton holding a little kid in the air, the little kid was smiling in delight but Feton looked less then happy.

“Morning, Feton.” I called. Feton dropped the little kid, and it started bawling as soon as it hit the ground. “Feton!” I yelled, “That little kid is alive you know!” I ran over to the little kid, who turned out to be a little girl with extremely short hair, and helped her up. “You’re going to get us in bigger trouble if the parents of these kids see them crying!” I pointed out to Feton.

“Humph…” Feton said in reply, “I say, since we’re already ‘criminals’, that we go to the nearest store and steal some new clothes. Then we can go to a local pool, pay our way in with the small amount of cash I do have, then use the showers there to get cleaned up before changing into our new clothes.” Feton told me.

“Well, it sounds like a plan-except the part about stealing!” I told him. “Besides, I’m curious. If that guy wasn’t my Dad, then where is my Dad?” I shooed the little girl away, saying something like ‘go play’ as I did.

“I’m assuming…Dead.” Feton said, making me wail in agony.

“Please say you’re lying!” I pleaded, but in the back of my mind I knew that he was probably right- The Dark Side clan did murder people. It wouldn’t’ be surprising if my ‘Mom’ wasn’t my Mom either.

“Like to say I am, but I’m not.” He replied, “Now, let’s get to the nearest store- I think it’s a K-mart…” I rolled my eyes and trailed after him as he led the way towards the store. How much time had he spent in this city for real?!

“Ahhh…Good ol’ K-mart. Filled with rude shoppers, lots of gum stuck to the floor and dirt and wonderful bratty children running around and into other shoppers.” Feton said sarcastically as a little kid ran into him. I could tell he was itching to hurt the little kid, but I gave him a warning look. “I know, I know… I won’t hurt the little brat.” He said.

“I’m not stealing, I am not!” I repeated to him, trying to get him to back out of the idea. No deal, he was going through with it.

“You don’t have to, I’ll create a distraction, grab the stuff and then we’ll bolt!” He said, making it sound like the easiest thing in the world.

“In other words, I stand here uselessly and run when you say to?” I asked sarcastically. He grinned and nodded. “That’s just great…We’re turning ourselves into real criminals now. By the time this is over, who all do you think will be after us?”

“The Army, The Air Force, The Navy, all of the cops in every country, the Gifteds from the Forest, the Dark Side clan and probably every other clan or group of Gifteds out there…” Feton listed off.

“Never mind…” I muttered, “Just create a distraction and let’s go.”

“You know, I think it’d be better if you created the distraction- just a small fire to get the fire alarms and sprinklers to go off. It’d work better, because everyone would be rushing for the exits then.” He said. I shook my head no.

“Uh-uh, no way, not gonna happen!” I said.

“Oh, but it’d make things so much easier…” He murmured lightly in my ear before kissing me. It was bribery… Bribery through kissing, and I liked it.

“Oh fine!” I hissed to him. I cupped my hands together then flattened them; the fireball I was creating went out with a hiss. “Feton, it’d be a smarter idea if we grabbed the clothed before the sprinklers went off so that we won’t get caught up in the frenzy.” I mentioned.

“Hmmm, probably.” He agreed. We worked our way over to the adolescent section and began picking out clothes that were our size that we liked.

In the end, I ended up with dark blue jeans that had jewels stuck to them, a white tank-top, a black sweater that had a fuzzy hood and also some black and white converses I’d snatched off a shelf. Feton had some plain blue jeans, a black shirt and some white tennis shoes he’d found and liked. He nodded and I handed him my new outfit.

I cupped my hands together again and pulled them apart to reveal an orange ball of fire. We watched as the smoke from it trailed upward and touched the smoke alarm. The alarms all went off and blared loudly throughout the store while the sprinklers began shooting out water.

Feton grabbed my hand and we merged into the crowd of people trying to escape their unexpected showers and the supposed fire. I was glad I was holding Feton’s hand, because the crowd was shoving and pulling in every direction and I didn’t want to lose him right now.

We made it outside safely and dashed away from the store and crowd towards the city’s Rec. Center which had more than just an indoor pool, from a rock climbing wall to a full track that was inside the building- it had it all.

Feton had just enough cash to get us each a one-time pass to go swimming, and we eagerly scurried towards the changing rooms. Neither of us had plans to go swimming though, and I quickly peeled off my dirty clothes and hopped into a shower.

It felt so relaxing and nice, and I noticed something while I was in the shower. I could heat up my body temperature, and in the process I could heat the water from freezing to boiling. It was interesting, I’d be the first human heater and I bet that if I stepped into a pool and heated the water, I could create my own hot-tub.

I finally remembered what I was supposed to be doing, so I finished cleaning up before trying to yank the tags off my new clothes. Feton had it easy, he could use his strength to just pull them off, I had to burn them off when pulling at them, biting them and doing everything else I could think of didn’t work. I finally managed to get the tags off and get changed though.

Feton stood waiting outside for me, looking perfect in his new clothes. I’d never seen him so cleaned up before, but it probably wouldn’t last for long.

“So,” I called to him, “We pulled it off. We stole from K-mart…” I couldn’t help but sound a little proud of myself. I’d never liked that store; all because I’d once stepped in someone’s spilled slushy and ended up falling down when I was little.

“I know! Man, that was so…” Feton searched for a word for a moment before shouting, “Awesome!!” I rolled my eyes.

“Don’t be stupid, stealing and being criminals is not awesome!” I told him. He made a pout face at me.

“Yeah, but nothing exciting ever happens in the forest so this was neat.” Feton contradicted.

“Oh yes, people walking around with horns on their head, wings on their back, and fire coming out of them is very boring.” I said sarcastically.

“Hey, I’m curious about something…” Feton informed me.

“What?” I asked suspiciously, noting the hint of mischievous in his eyes. Feton walked over to the nearest car and grabbed it then lifted it in the air.

“Feton!” I screamed, “Put it down! You are going to make the cops come after us!”

“Don’t you think they already would’ve by now? There were plenty of cops present when Kiyo died; they all saw us use our gifts.” He argued.

“Mommy look! It’s superman!!” A little boy exclaimed, excitedly tugging at his mom’s skirt.

“That’s nice dear.” She replied, not even bothering to look up at the ‘amazing’ spectacle of Feton holding a car in the air. Feton set it down hastily but gently, its tires making no more than a tiny squeak as they hit the pavement. I walked over to him and smacked him.

“Don’t do that anymore! We don’t need to draw attention to ourselves!” I hissed. He grinned and shrugged.

“Alright, fine…Whatever.” He replied. But I don’t think the cops saw us use our gifts really… His thoughts told me.

“What do you mean!?” I asked out loud and in return receiving a silencing ‘shhhh!’

I think that the normal adults refuse to believe in magic and powers so that when they see it they think it’s something else. I wouldn’t be surprised if they convinced themselves that you used a match to light Kiyo on fire, and that you were fighting her with grenades earlier. He explained.

I looked at him and frowned, But what’d they think of Kiyo then? She became a bug!

Simple, she used illusions to create the effect that she was changing into different species- like a Magician for a child’s birthday party. Feton thought casually.

“It’s all too confusing!” I yelled at him. He shrugged and I crossed my arms to pout.

“Well then, what should we do now?” He asked.

“Find out if my parents are dead or not… Or run away like cowards.” I suggested.

“I vote find parents.” Feton said, “Raise your hand if you’re in favor of being a hero!” He raised a hand and when I looked at him oddly he grabbed my arm and raised it as well.