Nonconformity | Henry Creel

Peter

But, as per my new usual, things were not that simple. The first thing I noticed wasn't too concerning. They all wore hospital gowns, like me. The second thing made my stomach drop. Each child had their hair freshly buzzed off.

My list of realizations seemed to grow more troubling as it went on.

They all had tattoos on their wrists. I couldn't quite make out what they read, but the left arm of each child was marked with black ink. I timidly glanced down at my own wrist, and almost screamed in relief when I saw my skin was unmarred.

The last thing had to be the worst. The last thing had to be impossible. Perhaps I had gone insane. I didn't know much anymore, but I did know that children should not have been able to move objects with their minds. Two of them sat around a game board, staring intently at a bunch of little wooden figures in front of them. Every few moments, one of them would strain, and the pieces would lift off the board and relocate to another spot.

Everywhere I looked, the laws of physics were being broken. A boy moved a marble through a little wooden maze without lifting a finger. On the other side of the room, a girl stood before a toy car that drove, seemingly on its own, as she rotated her neck.

If I had hit rock bottom yesterday, then the ground below me had just opened back up and swallowed me whole.

I took a step back, the words, "What the fuck?" ghosting over my lips.

It took all of my willpower not to turn heel and sprint in the other direction. What kind of sick science experiment was this? I tried to blink away my reality, but the displays in front of me remained the same. Why was I here? I could not move objects with my mind. In fact, I couldn't even remember things with my mind. I couldn't do basic things, how was I expected to do extraordinary things?

How had I gotten into this situation? I cursed myself for not remembering, I cursed Papa for not telling me, I cursed just about everyone and everything around me. His hand in mine felt like fire scorching my palm and burning off my skin. A grim, sobering realization took precedence in my mind, breaking through all the panic and confusion.

I had to leave.

"I can see that you're frightened," Papa murmured by my side. When I looked at him, his typical endearing smile didn't feel so comforting. It was nothing but a pretense, a sliver of kindness meant to make me forget that he put me here. That I would likely remain for a long, long time. Helpless desperation made my knees weak and my mouth dry.

"Frightened?" I had to hold back a furiously bitter laugh. My hands shook by my sides. I had been played. I had been tricked into compliance and, like a fool, I allowed myself to be manipulated.

And just when I was going to lash out, I paused.

Two could play his game.

I could lie, I could manipulate, I could play. And so I would. If I wanted to leave this place, I would have to lower Papa's guard. I would have to pretend all was well and his manipulations had worked. I was docile, I was eager. I would be the perfect 'daughter' he expected me to be. And so I plastered a small, nervous smile on my face and said, "Yes, I'm a little frightened. When you said I had power I wasn't expecting it to be like..." I glanced at all the children in The Rainbow Room, "This."

He tilted his head as if he were looking at a frightened puppy, "There's no need to fear. You trust me, don't you?" I nodded, barely withholding a scowl. "Good. I know this may seem a little... overstimulating... but you are no different from the children in front of you. You just haven't learned how to regulate your powers when you tap into them. Soon, you'll be able to do everything you see in front of you. How does that sound?"