Don't Look Back! Part 2

Chapter Five: Thunder and Lightning

"One of who?" Lucy leant against the cold stone wall behind them.

A smile hushed over his face as Thomas spoke, and the more he told her, the faster the words raced over his lips. "Okay, so when I first arrived they told us about a few chosen ones. Kids that can do things we can't. Like create fire, or fly, or just speak without opening their mouths, and then one of the children said he could do that and they took him away to test him I guess, but he never came back. Dr Paige told us he had been put into a different programme, and the more of those chosen ones came, the less we saw of them. Until a few months ago-"

"Do you think my brother is one of them?"

His mouth still open to speak, Thomas halted. "Why?"

"He's changed. I think they did something to him" Lucy closed her eyes. Jack? No answer. Shrugging her shoulders, Lucy faked a yawn and gestured Thomas to get off the bed. "Good night"

"Good night, Lucy" Thomas cheered as he jumped off the bed, turned one more time to see the light room her skin vanish and headed off to his own bed at the other side of the room.

Soon after, Stephen and some others entered the room and headed to their beds.

Sleep took long to arrive and inside her head the thought of Darian having changed did not loosen its grip on her fear they might take him away from her. And so the night ended the way it began. Lucy lay awake in her bed, her eyes on the ceiling, Darian's words echoing inside her mind. Wicked is good. Did he truly believe that, or did they tell him to believe so. If only she could talk to him the way she could with Stephen, or Jack.

Jack. She had seen him before. Upon their arrival he had drawn a tree into the air, but no one but her could see it. He must have been one of the chosen ones as well, but chosen for what?

Turning from one side to the other, Lucy had closed her eyes in an attempt to find at least some peace, but the hurricane of thought would not stop. It went on until a pair of arms wrapped around her, soothing her as the calm humming behind her ear let her mind take off. No more fear, no bad thoughts, just quiet, and warmth.

The alarm that woke them for breakfast came much sooner than Lucy liked. A yawn escaping her mouth, she turned to the person whose snores made her feel like a tree being gnawed on by a beaver. With a gleeful snort, she watched Thomas, who lay in bed behind her, the mouth half open, snoring, his arms still wrapped around her.

The wild blond locks fallen into his face tickled his nose, and out of the blue, his eyes opened, gazing at Lucy before him. "Hey, you're up" he mumbled, his eyes closing as he spoke.

What happened? Lucy asked, her glance changing from Thomas to Stephen in one of the beds at the other end of the room.

Sitting up, Stephen rubbed his eyes and smiled. You talked in your sleep and Tommy got worried.

Awe Lucy brushed her fingers through Thomas's hair, trying to free his face from the locks but whenever the last bit of hair touched her fingers, it dropped back onto his nose.

Scrunching his face, Thomas glared at her. "What are you doing?"

"How come they cut my hair, but not yours?"

"They tried, but Thomas kept making threats"

Giggling, the others rose from their beds and headed to the washroom to get cleaned up before meeting the rest of group E in the canteen for breakfast.

Lucy remained in her bed, next to Thomas, her eyebrows furrowed as the thought from the previous night returned.

"Are you all right?" Thomas asked, a strand of hair between his fingers as he tickled Lucy's nose with it. "You know you talked in your sleep"