But For You I'll Be Superhuman

"New Life Motel"

Niall’s POV

The next day was pretty hectic. We were each given a backpack and we were only allowed to take three sets of spare clothing, two sets of small daggers, some rope, a thin sleeping bag, a water bottle and rashers of food. The rest was all up to us, but with all the training and lessons we had endured, we would be able to live, hopefully. Once I had everything packed, I exited my room and made my way down to the bottom floor. Everyone was already there, either sitting on the couches or pacing anxiously. I walked over and stood next to Emily, who gave me a half smile, her eyes filled with worry.  Without even thinking, I lightly squeezed her fingers, trying to give her reassurance. Her eyes brightened slightly and she looked away, to the stairs that were now being descended by Charlie, Liv, Professor Clive and Hail. Everyone moved to stand in front of them; shoulder to shoulder. Liv looked teary as she stepped forward.

“After we say our goodbyes, we’ll set you in the right direction, but then it’s all up to you guys. Remember you need to infiltrate Daniel’s base, destroy the weapon he’s created and capture him so we can drain the power from him. But he is very powerful. You’ll all need to work together to defeat him. Now, once you leave the institute, his minions will pick up on your scent. They’ll track you, so you must always be ready to fight,” Liv explained, a look of sympathy and concern showed in the features of her delicate face.

“How come they haven’t been able to pick up our scent before?” Kate asked puzzled.

“Because you didn’t have powers before. Each power gives off a scent, and because we basically brought you straight to the institute and behind its barriers, they haven’t been able to track you… but once you leave…” Liv trailed off.

“They’ll know we’re out there and they’ll come for us,” I finished with a grave expression. Liv nodded sorrowfully. I looked around at the others; at their faces. Everyone looked terrible; bags under their eyes, hair at all angles, wringing their hands, eyes on their shoes. Nobody was ready for this, but it was something we all had to face.

“Alright, it’s about time you got going,” said Charlie. He walked over to me and took my hand, nodding and wishing me the best. He did the same to everyone as he went along the line. Liv gave everyone a big hug, and so did Hail, her crazy eyes dancing when she pulled away and wished us the best, reminding us of everything she’d taught us; the fighting, the dagger throwing, the defence, the quickest way to climb trees and so much more. Clive shook all our hands last, reminding us of the things he had taught us; how to get into Daniel’s base, how to destroy the weapon, how to find water and all the basic survival skills. With one last nod of his head, they all lead us out the front doors that weeks ago we entered not knowing what they would bring, now, we didn’t know if we’d ever see them again. With one last goodbye and a nod towards the nearest bus stop, Liv, Charlie, Clive and Hail, watched as we all tramped out of the gate, the metal clanging shut loudly behind us, the sound ringing in my ears. We walked in silence for what seemed like ages. Nobody knew what to do exactly. Sure, we all had fighting skills and a way better control over our powers, but would we be able to use these techniques when real danger threatened? I didn’t know and I’m sure that was what the others were thinking about; their faces creased with concern. We saw the bus stop up ahead and quickened our pace as we saw the bus rumbling forwards in the distances. All Clive had told us was that we were in the outskirts of Cheshire, North West England, and we had to make it to Wayland Woods in Norfolk, East England. We had a few days to travel and four weeks until Daniel planned to attack; we could do this. We took the bus as far as it would take us, to a small town in Cheshire I didn’t quite catch the name of. We jumped off just as the sun was setting in the horizon, sparking off orange rays of light that beat down on our faces, lighting up our eyes. The sky was a deep orange where the sun still sat, creeping up to a yellow and darkening to a dark blue. It was strange but beautiful and I breathed in deeply, accepting the light. We walked for a bit, just enjoying the lasting sun, when Harry spoke up. “I think we should start heading towards a Motel or something until morning. Daniel’s mutants would be able to attack us with ease during the night.” The rest of us nodded our agreement and we made our way through a tight alley, cutting onto another road where just a few meters down, a Motel stood. As we neared, the large sign that jutted out into the air caught my eye: New Life Motel. Something funny tugged in the back of my mind but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I shook it away as Steph opened the front doors and a bell jingled, signalling our arrival. We stepped through, warm air blasting our faces. It was nice inside, the place had a homely sense but something sent chills down my spine. I looked around. In front of us, wooden stairs lead up to another floor. There was a large wooden desk to my right, behind it a board of keys for each room. The carpet was red and tightly woven, with intricate patterning. There were yellow sofas around a small table to my left and a few coloured pictures of green scenery were hung in large frames on the light canary yellow walls. I walked over to the front desk, but before I could tap on the silver service bell, two people – a strange looking woman and man – jumped up from behind, broad smiles lighting their faces. I jerked back, my heart thundering against my rib cage, my arm raised halfway and in that moment, I realised something. I was readying myself for an attack. If these two strange people had attacked, I would have been ready to go on the defence.

“What the…” I breathed as I took in the two people that now stood in front of us and as I stared, bile started to rise in my throat. I swallowed it down, but my eyes refused to move. The woman’s hair was all the colours natural hair could be. One of her eyes was blue, while the other green, the pupil larger in the blue one. She was so short that her head just reached over the counter, her clothes large and baggy, splayed over her plump body. The man was the exact opposite. He was very slim and tall, towering over us and the bench. His eyes were squinty, so dark you couldn’t tell the iris from the pupil, and ringed with red signifying that sleep wasn’t a common thing for him. His hair was greying, sticking up at adjacent angles.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” he breathed, his voice husky and barely above a whisper. It sent a shiver down my spine and caused the hairs on my arms to stand. The woman elbowed him brutishly all while keeping her smile wide.

“What my husband Jim here means, is that we’ve been waiting for guests. You see, our motel sadly hasn’t been doing very well, but that’s all about to change. Now, separate rooms or will you be sharing?” The woman’s voice soundly like your great aunt’s might sound on Christmas day; high and sweet, but something dark made it feel wrong and tight, like it was forced. Steph pulled us over to the side and in a rushed whisper she said, “Um guys, this place might look lovely and smell like my grandmother’s closet, but there is something freaky going on here. The hairs on the back of my neck do not stand up when I’m greeted by a lady who wants to make me cookies; she does not want to make me cookies.” She was rambling but we all knew she was right. Something was definitely off.

“But we can’t go anywhere else, it’s black outside and I didn’t see any other Motels on our way through. It’s either here, where we feel uncomfortable and violated, or outside, where we could face down our first mutants and possibly even be…” Liam trailed off. He hated violence and couldn’t bring himself to admit the obvious. We needed to be ready, for we could possibly be killed at any time.

“Well if we’re going to stay here, we need to all be in the same room. I don’t think we should risk being separated in case something happens during the night,” Emily said in a rushed whisper. Everyone nodded and we turned back to the woman and her so called husband Jim. I looked more closely at the woman – which I felt disgusted in doing – and noticed she had a name tag pinned to her shirt: Carol. Carol and Jim; just delightful.

“We’d like to all share a room together please if that’s possible,” Kate said with a small smile. The large smile on Carol’s face wavered slightly before she quickly recovered.

“Oh deary, are you sure? Because I am sure that you’ll all be comfortable in separate rooms. You’ll have all that space and you all look awfully tired,” she crooned and I suddenly had the urge to use my power on her. Something was telling me she wasn’t going to budge. I stepped forward.

“You’re going to let us all share a room. You’re going to give us the key and you’re not going to argue or interrupt us while we stay,” I put all the force I could into my voice. Reaching through my mind, I grasped my control and powered it through my words, locking my eyes with Carol’s disturbing ones. I then moved onwards to Jim and did the same. But something didn’t feel right; I couldn’t quite grasp the power fully. They started to nod slightly and then something snapped in Carol’s eyes. She shook her head slightly and smiled viciously, her lips curling in a sneer. She reached forward and gripped my shirt, bringing her face so close to mine I thought I would throw up then and there. “You think you can use compulsion on me boy? I mean, of course it would’ve worked if you weren’t so weak, if you weren’t so tired, but you didn’t want to listen did you? Looks like we’ll just have to kill you now.”