Walking Among Humans

Chapter 5 - Part 1

Mona

I wake up screaming and Ben is by my side almost immediately. He wraps his arms around me and rocks me until I calm down. Once I calm down, I think about how glad I am that I have him. I would honestly be lost without him.

"I will always be here for you."

"I still wish I knew how you do that."

"How I do what?"

"It's like you're reading my mind."

A cocky, sly grin forms on his face. "Oh yeah, that. Well, it's funny you mention that because while you were sleeping I did some research. Your most recent mark seems to be the completion of your telepathy. It works both ways now. I don't know exactly how it works, just that I can hear your thoughts as clearly as if you said the words out loud now." He looks excited. "For once in our lives I know exactly what you're thinking about as much as you know what I am. I'll admit at first I thought I might be losing my mind—that's why I did the research. Now that I know, it's pretty neat that you can do that. Now you can't hide from me inside that pretty little head of yours anymore."

I don't know if I like him being able to hear my thoughts.

"Now you know how I feel."

"Oh, look at the time. We're going to miss breakfast!" I jump off the bed and hurry off to the bathroom to get dressed.

"I need to run to my suite and get changed. I'll be back in ten minutes."

"Okay!"

I am no sooner finished getting dressed and am pulling my hair back when I hear Ben come back into the suite. I can hear him talking to someone on the phone, so I decide to wait in the bathroom until he is finished. It sounds like he is arguing with John about the selection process. Based on Ben's side of the conversation, John isn't happy about the reasons Ben has for eliminating some of the candidates.

Once I hear him hang up the phone, I walk into the room.

I try to pretend I'm excited. "Ready!"

"Nice try. But I know for a fact that you are nowhere near that excited about anything that has to be done today."

"Sorry, it's hard to get excited about putting people's lives in danger."

"Well, the good news is I was able to narrow the field by nearly half while you were sleeping."

"Only by half? And here I thought you would already have the dream team handpicked."

"Well, I kind of need your help to finish the selection process. I need you to use your telepathy to assist in determining their level of seriousness about the assignment."

"You know how much I hate doing that. Isn't there any other way?"

"I've gone back and forth over it all night, and there is no other way. You know I wouldn't ask if I thought there was."

I know he's being honest with me. He'd been up all night considering every possible option. It shows all over his face. By the looks of my desk, he probably searched through several dozen books looking for anything he might have forgotten.

"Okay, I'll do it. I just hope they all understand why I have to."

"You cannot tell them you are going to do it."

"I have to! I'll be invading their privacy, no thoughts they have will be safe once I start. They have a right to know!"

"You can apologize to them all afterward if it makes you feel better. If we tell them ahead of time, they will most like put their guard up. And we need candid thoughts. It's the only way to make sure the detail we select isn't going to fail. I don't need to tell you what could happen if one or more of them doesn't want to be there, or has doubts about the assignment, their skill, or the risk."

I hate it when he's right. And once again he is, but as of late that is nothing new. "Fine, I won't tell them on one condition. You help me train my telepathy."

I don't want to do this, and I know he'll say no. He hates having me in his head. He is always saying that what he thinks about, nobody else needs to know.

* * *

Ben

I know what she's doing, and it's not going to work.

"Deal. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm starving, and the cafeteria is going to close soon."

Her mouth drops open and her eyes go wide, but she says nothing. For once I've stunned her into silence. On one hand I'm excited at the prospect – on the other I'm terrified of what I've just agreed to do.

She nods and I escort her out of her suite.

I stop as we reach the cafeteria. I need to lay down some ground rules.

"My only request with regards to you being in my head for this practice is that if I ask for privacy, you give it to me without question."

"Don't worry. I am sure if you need privacy I won't want to hear those thoughts."

* * *

Mona

Once breakfast is over we head back to my suite to discuss the profiles Ben already decided were unsuitable. As we get to my suite, Ben is the first to notice the door is slightly ajar. He looks at me and puts his finger to his lips. My heart starts racing and it feels like someone punched me in the gut. I take the opportunity to initiate a telepathic link with him, or at least try.

"I know I closed and locked that door when we left."

"Maybe it's just Lucy and she was in a hurry to get in and forgot to shut it."

"Let me check."

I refocus my thoughts and search for Lucy. This two-way telepathy might just come in handy more than I thought.

I find Lucy in class, so I know that it isn't her in the suite. I turn my focus back to Ben.

"Lucy is in class."

* * *

Ben

My instinct to protect Mona kicks in and I step between her and the door. I'm contemplating my next move when out of nowhere ten of the school's guardians appear. How did they know there was trouble? They see her door ajar and point at me, then at her and then at the ceiling. They want me to get her upstairs, out of harm's way. I nod, take her hand, and half drag her toward the stairway.

She's slowing me down more than I would like, so once all the guardians are several feet behind us I scoop her up and start running as fast as I can toward the stairs. We reach the other side of the door leading to the stairs in record time. I've never run that fast in my life.

I don't waste a moment. "Hold on tight and close your eyes."

I squat low and push off the floor. Suddenly we are flying. Well, we aren't flying in the literal sense. But it is probably as close to it as we can get without a plane or a helicopter. My foot barely touches the landing at the top before I shove off toward the next one. It's moments like this that make me wish there was an opening all the way to the top floor. I have enough strength to make it from the sidewalk outside to the roof of every building on the block.

Once we reach the fifth floor, I kick open the door and head straight for the Headmaster's suite.