Black Equation - The Gifted Ones

Number Twelve

Rael shot her an exasperated look. “Please, not now. Don’t be a burden. Get away from here. Do it for Atom’s sake. Get him far enough. He couldn’t handle it.”

Put that way, there was nothing she could argue or do. With an affirmative nod, she eased herself into the hole, caught Atom’s curled body after Rael lowered him and strapped the heavy bag of supplies on her back.

Rael was slowly closing the lid of the tunnel. “Take care. I’m serious. Krad will kill me if something happens to you.”

Oh, she couldn’t live if something happened to them. “Be careful yourself.”

He gave her a heart-stopping grin. “The flashlight is on the left pocket.” And then the whole tunnel was enveloped in total darkness.

Abcidee didn’t know where she was going, but she was given instructions and she had no other choice but to follow them for Atom’s sake. She wanted to stay, perhaps be of little help, but she didn’t know how to fight. She had no idea how to control her Gift. What could she do? She didn’t want to be a burden, didn’t want to be an inconvenience and only by leaving could she assist Krad and Atom.

If only she could remember her past.

She was struggling for breath. The bags were too large and too heavy for her. It was quite a task to make Atom walk on his own, and despite the flashlight, the tunnel was giving her the creeps. They must have been walking for thirty minutes nonstop, and truth be told, her knees were giving up on her. The blood trickling down Atom’s chin continued to bother her, but the boy remained insistent that running away was top priority right now. She was not in the mood to tell him off.

 “Do you want to rest?” she gasped after several more minutes of brisk walking.

 “No,” he flatly answered.

 “I can clean the blood – “

 “No.”

 “Why are you being so stubborn?” she shrieked in frustration, and her voice echoed on both sides of the dark tunnel.

Atom looked at her like she was the most idiotic person in the world. “Because I can hear the thoughts of people even when they’re dying and the thoughts of those who are killed are always the worst. Do you know how many men were sent to track us? Twenty seven men were sent to ambush us in the house. One is bad enough, but that many?”

Abcidee didn’t know how to react to that. It was hard for her to understand. Everything was a foreign concept for her, and she had stopped analyzing everything the moment she found herself within Krad’s protection. Even so, Atom was still a kid, and she didn’t wish him pain. Could she pretend to not notice him wincing? With a warm smile, she held his cold hand and squeezed it tightly.

 “Do you want me to sing? They say I have a good voice. How about a happy song while we walk?”

She wasn’t entirely sure whether she’s saying these because she pitied him, or if she was trying to be brave herself, but for a while, she was able to pretend that they were playing around instead of running for their lives. Ever since her accident, she had refrained from singing, as it never failed to bring her a melancholic mood every time she tried to sing. For now, that fear was forgotten. She had to be strong for Atom. She had to comfort him. And she had to do it her way.

 “What do you want me to sing?” she asked cheerfully. Atom’s face wore a ghost of a smile, but his eyes lit up like Christmas lights.

 “Nursery rhymes!”