"I stared at my father with the most blank expression imaginable, my jaw hanging open. Either he was full of blasphemy, or the words that had just been spoken were a joke. There's no way I could be a twin."
Alleah and Andrew Smith were born healthy...
"Who are you?" I gasp, lifting my head off Oliver's shoulder. The boy comes and stands right in front of the television and with the snap of a finger, he shuts it off and the lights come on. My heart starts hammering hard in my chest as I realize someone other than Oliver knows about my powers.
Not just that, but he has powers, too. How is this even possible?
"Allow me to introduce myself," he smiles, but it doesn't seem very genuine. "My name is Andrew Smith and I'm your twin brother."
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What?!
"No, you're not," I immediately go into denial, shaking my head. "I don't have siblings. I'm an only child."
"You think you're an only child, but you're not. Can't you see the resemblance between the two of us?" he flashes his pearly whites at me for a split second before his expression turns mysterious again. I'll give it to him that we look very similar, but it's not enough to convince me. "I'm sorry we've been separated for so long, but you were quite hard to identify until recently. Otherwise I would have come much sooner."
"Look, I think you have the wrong person," I say, trying to maintain a somewhat calm composure despite my body nearly going into cardiac arrest from information overload. "My father is dead and my mother is at work, but she can tell you that she only gave birth to one child. That's-"
"Have you actually asked her that?" he interrupts, leaving me a bit astonished at his boldness.
"Uh, no, but I don't think I need to," I stutter a little, fearing that he could possibly be right. "Sorry, but I think you need to leave. I don't have anything you want and I'm certainly not who you're looking for."
"Is that so?" he smirks as if he thinks I'm an idiot. "If you're not the girl I'm looking for, I suppose you can't save yourself if I tried to hurt you."
"What are you-" I start to blurt, but he doesn't wait around. He raises his fingers in the air and I watch an electric current buzzing at the tips of his fingers. He jerks his fingertips right at my head and almost like a reflex, I put my hands out in front of me and create a shield, another ability I wasn't aware I had. The energy from my shield knocks him to his knees and as soon as he recovers from the blow, he looks up at me, astonished.
"Dang, you're more powerful than I expected," he pushes himself back into standing position, smiling evilly when he realizes how angry I am that he uncovered my secret. "Sorry, sweetheart, you're exactly the girl I'm looking for."
"How did you find me," I demand, keeping the energy flowing into the shield as a measure of protection. He gets back on his feet and takes a step back when he realizes how mad I am, but his confidence doesn't decrease.
"Easy, do you feel that buzzing in your nervous system? Our energies are trying to connect and therefore, the closer I am to you, the more I can feel the buzzing. It also helped that you saved that little human. I've been looking for a strange news report like that for a while, but it didn't happen with so much surety until today," he continues to stare at me with the most intense gaze and I'm about ready to wake up from this nightmare.
"What do you want from me?" I cry in exasperation. It's hard to believe that only last week, I was living a completely normal life as Alleah Johnston, daughter of Janette and the deceased David Johnston. I was a semi-popular athlete with two of the greatest friends a girl could ask for and things were normal. Now, I have dangerous abilities, I'm possibly adopted, and I have the most abnormal life anyone could ever imagine. When will this madness go away?
"Come with me," he replies, though his voice is soft and he doesn't sound as harsh as he was when we first met. "You and I could be so powerful together and you won't have to hide your marvelous abilities. You wouldn't have to live with the fear that you're going to hurt someone you love with just the flick of a finger. I can train you and we can be a family, just you and me. That's what I want."
"I... I can't," I let out a giant breath I'd been holding for far too long and bite my tongue so I don't start to cry again. It feels like PMS on steroids, all of these emotions going out of control everywhere. Part of me wants to believe him and go live free of my fears, but I know I can't do that, at least not right now. I have a mother to take care of and best friends that I don't want to lose.
"Ah....well, I'm sorry to hear that," he relaxes as I finally let the shield vanish into thin air. I trust him enough that I know he won't hurt me, but beyond that I still don't know where our boundaries lie. "I was hoping you'd choose to come, but I guess that was too hopeful and now I'll have to be bold. Next time I come, you will come with me. You can guarantee that."
He gives me one last serious look before he nods his head, backing away into the darkness he once emerged from. Everything goes silent and I collapse to the floor, unable to bear all of the fear, sadness, and stress that is trapping me in one of the closest experiences I've had to hell.
