Outcast (Camp NaNo 2015)

Chapter 2

"Is it only the government?" I said after a minute.

Blair shook his head, "No. It's others too. Talk is that you've been around... longer than you should have."

"Longer than I should have?" I repeated, playing dumb while I stalled for more time. I looked around without turning my head, my eyes darting from place to place as I tried to spot someone—anyone else that was in the park.

But it was no use. No use worrying. I had evaded suspicion for this long, but that didn't mean anything, what with modern technology evolving every day. ?Able to track footprints just by particulates and able to trace those tiny answers that would lead the police to their suspect—me.

Still, my brain was racing, back to times when citizens could lock up suspects in police boxes, back to times when disco and the internet were new. Back to when the scientists were people, not robots.

"People said that they've seen you in pictures."

"Of course they've seen me in pictures! They've seen you in pictures too!" I countered, my mind working overtime on a way to get out of this, to prove to Blair that it—none of it—was true.

"They aren't new. They're old. Black and white, and Technicolor pictures." Blair insisted.

"Probably just a doppleganger or a clone." I tried to smile and pretend to shrug it off. Blair saw through it. Of course he saw through it. I was lying, and also because of those two, dopplegangers were rare and clones hadn't been proven, accepted or scientifically created—beyond a sheep. Dobby? Donny? Something like that.

"It is you, isn't it?" he demanded, his breath and black hair now in my face once again. I took a step back, my personal pace now getting a bit cramped. But I didn't answer. I couldn't answer, what, with my heard in my throat at the very thought of Blair knowing the truth.

"The government's after you now."

"You'll protect me, right?" I asked, desperate for a reply. But there was nothing. The only answer which Blair gave me was silence.

I saw something move behind him, a shadow, a ghost... a spy. But he didn't notice.

"Blair?" he still didn't reply. He just shook his head and walked past me. I was a mix of emotions, and I knew that wasn't good. Emotions were never good. Emotions meant a loss of control and that lead to my powers going out of control. I tried to stop it, but I couldn't. This going into his head, knowing what he was thinking.

I don't even know her anymore. That one single thought was enough to force myself out of his head. I didn't want to know more. The more I knew, the more I would hurt. Emotions were dangerous, fragile things and so was someone's mind. I wanted so badly to see what kind of rumors caused him to think like that. I wanted to root around inside his brain and find all my answers, but I didn't do it. The harder it was to find memories, to remember them, to unblock them, the harder it was for me—and him—to find them.

I still longed for answers, but this time I let him walk away Scot free. Next time he wouldn't be so lucky.

***

Being a mindwalker wasn't easy. Yes, I could try to make my living as a psychic, but that was a tough business these days. Nobody wanted to be told about their future. So many psychics got away with telling people what they wanted to hear, but I couldn't do that. I couldn't lie about what I saw. Not easily enough to be believable, anyways.

So, I was stuck here at a grocery store. Rather odd when I think about it. An alien working at a grocery store, almost undercover. But as I passed people while stocking shelves, I couldn't help but feel that people were watching me. Staring at me and calling me some sort of freak. But I was camouflaged. My purple skin hidden under the illusion of the seemingly normal peachy white of the average human. My light amethyst eyes were subdued to a blue but the rest of my appearance remained the same. Black, mid-back length hair and black fingernails. Both of these were natural, but no one needed to know that.