Marked

7

After Levi left, a girl knocked on my door and handed me a pair of sleeping clothes. I put them on quickly and attempted to sleep. The dark of wide window I was facing was consuming me. It shocked me that it was so dark, without the lights of other buildings or street lights. The silence was killing me without the hum of the late night trams. Everything about this place throws me off.

I sit up and glance around the room in daylight. Plain walls, plain furniture, crazy place. The soft sheets I'm sitting in seem out of place. I'm in normal clothes, a normal seeming place which in reality is more like an insane asylum where I've been falsely accused. A building overlooking a few other buildings, farther apart. It sort of reminds me of the farmland back home.

I stayed there once, in a boarding house with my family. I watched through the large window as the sun rose over wall of the city, painting the sky different colors. At the time, I thought it was beautiful, seeing the hills beyond the city. Right now, outside my home where the scene is close to the same, it seems as if it's my encasement from my old world.

There's a knock on the door. I slip out of the covers and crack the door open. Levi stands there, hands in his pockets, hair slightly flopping into his eyes. The stance makes him look attractive in a way that makes me know some girls would go crazy over. To me, he just looks like he's going to beat me up. He stares at me through the door like he's expecting me to open it all the way.

"Can I help you?" I squeak out an eternity later.

"Can you open the door?" He says. I frown but open the door more and step away from the doorway.

"Emanuela said that I could just tell you what she didn't get to finish what she said yesterday. We need to get started." He says, leaning against the doorframe.

"I'll get dressed." I say quickly.

"I can get you some new clo-"

"No. I'm fine. My old clothes are fine." I hurriedly stammer, pushing him out the door and shutting it. I sigh and get dressed, slipping my jacket on and pulling my boots up. My hand lays on the doorknob, it cold under my skin. Inhale, exhale. I think, turning the metal and shoving the door open. It smacks right into Levi's back.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry." I exclaim, dashing out of my room to make sure I didn't do any damage. He laughs from behind the door and steps out of the small space he was stuck in. "I'm sorry." I blurt again.

"It's fine. It's a new record, getting hit by you two days in a row." He teases. I frown and step away from the door, slamming it shut. We walk in silence down the long staircase leading into the outside air.

There are few people milling around the buildings, doing errands or just walking around. The carefully placed log platforms, which were pulled up to form a giant wall around the community, are being lowered by the few awake people. Rays of sun stream through the branches of the trees surrounding the buildings. A wind sweeps through the grass, weaving in and out of buildings.

"Common, this way." He grabs my arm and pulls me towards a large pavilion with old picnic tables scattered underneath it.

"What the..." I mutter as he drags me towards it. Glancing upwards, I am met with the sky. The pavilion's ceiling is a huge slab of clear glass, as if it has been just polished. Boxes like coolers sit towards the edges of the structure. The sun pokes through the tops of the trees surrounding the Homestead. Levi releases my wrist and sits at one of the picnic tables.

"Okay," he says, patting the spot in front of him. "Sit here." I frown but hesitantly sit down.

For a moment, he seems to just stare at me. His eyes graze over my face as if he was studying me like a problem he needs to solve. My blood boils at the thought of him trying to figure how I work, as if I'm a machine. Then he slightly shakes his head, regaining his thoughts.

"I was told to inform you about everything you didn't hear earlier. Most of it is what I perceive as unneeded information so I'm going to explain the main thing you need to know." He lectures. He points to the building I was in yesterday with Emanuela. "Make sure not to mention I'm skipping some of the 'necessary' details."

"Okay." I say flatly, dully glaring at him. If he notices, he doesn't care that much because he proceeds.

"With the 'special abilities', there's just some basic ones. Flight, obviously, telepathy, mind communication, you can only do that with people who also have the skill." He starts.

"The occasional teleportation skill, not extremely common but not as uncommon as invisibility and on command strength." He glances at me. The memory of me throwing the giant stick into the tree replays in my mind. I instantly feel uncomfortable. Already, I've been branded with an uncommon skill.

"There are also certain traits that only one person, maybe a few others, have at a time. Currently, there are about seven fire summoners. In the past there have been some who could breathe underwater. There was one boy who could control someone with their mind." His eyes glaze over, stuck in a memory.

"What else is there, people who shoot lasers out of their eyes?" I joke, trying to make the mood light. With the way Levi shrugs, I know his body language of 'maybe' is completely serious. Which means someone later on or in the past could have impaled someone with eye lasers. That's just great, I think.

"So anyway," He says. "I've been assigned to help you figure out what you can do." His voice is somewhat stiff and business like. I bite the inside of my cheek.

"And how's this going to go down?" I ask, drumming my fingers on the table. With that, Levi stands up and heads over to one of the boxes on the outskirts of the pavilion. He pulls out what looks like a pitcher of water and a cup. He walks over and sets them on the table in front of me. The sunlight streams through the glass, sending tiny rainbows across the wood surface.

"Pick it up." He instructs. Confused, I reach over and pick the pitcher up. "Okay, sorry. This is a test and I failed to be specific. Put it down." I frown, irritated, and put it back down.

"What you need to do is focus." He says then fixes his eyes on the pitcher. It floats up smoothly and pours some water into the cup. Levi picks the cup up, with his actual hand, and takes a swig of it. "If you just imagine you're picking it up for real, it's really not that complicated." I frown at him again as he sets the pitcher down with a loud clang.

"Well, go ahead." He says, taking me off guard. I take a breath. No big deal, just doing the impossible. Nothing to it. I narrow my eyes at the pitcher and envision an invisible hand reaching over and picking up the stupid thing. To my great disbelief in the impossible, the glass container rises shakily. Levi smiles slightly at the small accomplishment.

"Alright, shall we start on-" he's abruptly cut off by my telepathy cutting off and the pitcher falling over in mid pour, water splashing everywhere. Cringing, I wipe the water drops off my face. Levi wipes his eyes and looks back at me.

"How about we try this again?"