"Poke... Poke... Poke" is the first thing I hear as I start to regain consciousness, and it is coming from someone very small and young.
"Mel, stop it. Five more minutes, then I'll make breakfast." I say as I try to push away the small body standing next to me.
"Mel? Whose Mel? My name is Roger." the little voice says, at this point I'm awake enough to now realize that the little voice belongs to a little boy.
I open my eyes to find, sure enough, a little boy a little older looking than Mel, staring right at me with is wide gray eyes. His red hair is kind of sloppy looking, like he hasn't brushed it in a long time, and he has freckles that dance across his nose. He smiles at me and reveals a toothy grin to along with chubby cheeks.
"Poke... Poke..." he says again, only this time I notice that he is poking me in the arm pretty hard actually.
"Okay Roger, that's enough. You've been poking her arm for two hours now. I'm surprised her arm isn't aching all over." I hear a voice say. Roger backs up and looks up, that's when I notice that I'm laying on the bottom bunk of a bunk- bed.
"But I'm bored." he says giving the voices owner a pout by jutting out his lower lip.
"Fine, then go find something use full to do like practice your powers." the voice says and Roger walks away, leaving me and the person on the top bunk.
I lay back down and try to see if I can get back to sleep, but it doesn't come. My mind is racing with too many thoughts and questions. Question one: Where am I? Question two: Why am I here? Question 3: What's going to happen to my family? But before I can think another thought, a girl around my age pops her head down from her bunk and pretty much scares the living daylights out me. Her black, short curls bouncing around her electric green eyes
"Hey, sorry I didn't mean to scare you," she says noticing my face that has fear written all over it, "Oh and sorry about Roger, but he hasn't seen a new face here in two months. So he got excited and then bored after a while when you didn't wake up. You know, you must have hid somewhere really well because they took forever to find you and they found the rest of us within three weeks. And..."
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" I ask, interrupting her.
"Oh, right, silly me. You probably don't remember me. Uhh, I'm Brenna. We were friends when we were in the 05's together, I can bend really weirdly and easily." she says as she bends off the top bunk to the floor and wraps her arms around her stomach two times so it looks like she has a belt on.
"Yes I remember you, and I really didn't need to see that." I say looking away, I feel like I might gag to be honest.
"I understand that, it kinda grosses me out too." she says as she walks over to my bed and sits down next to me.
"Wait, you said we were friends in the 05's right?" I ask.
"Yeah." she responds, in a quick yet obvious way.
"Is that where I am?" I ask, silently praying that isn't the case. Yet I have that feeling in the back of mind that's telling me I already know the answer.
"Yes. Welcome back to prison." she says with a grave tone in her voice.
"Great. What's going to happen to my family?" I say more to my self than to her.
"What's that?" Brenna asks.
"My family... what's going to happen to them?"
"I don't know. My mom and dad were pretty much in shock when the agents showed up at our door. I don't think they were really expecting the agents to find me. When they started to take me, my dad was livid. I think he would've tried to rip out one of their throats if he got the chance."
"Did he?"
"No. The other agents pulled him off their colleague before he had the chance. However that guy did walk away with a pretty bad broken nose. What about your parents how did they respond?"
A pang of jelously hit me square in the stomache. To have someone who is more than willing to fight for you, that is something I've only been able to dream about. Chris didn't even blink an eye when the agent tried to take me and mom... oh mom what was she going to do without me? Not to mention Jenn, Mikie, and Mel. Mel was going to be starting school soon, and Jenn and Mikie wouldn't have any money to do anything. If they're lucky Chris will remember to pay the bills this month, but that's normally something I have to nag him to do. Plus almost all of the money that I save from the jobs that I've been in and out of go into those bills.
"Umm, Glow? Are you okay?" Brenna asks in a concerned voice.
"Yeah sorry. My, uhh, family, to answer your question, has pretty much fallen apart. My dad died in a lab expirement here. When that happened, my mom took off with me and my siblings to California. She got a boyfriend, Chris, who is a total jerk not just to her, but to me and my siblings as well. He is abusive and I was the rock of my family, especially since my mom was diognosed with stage four lung cancer. So there you have it... my live story that has turned into a horror movie."
"Glow, I'm so sorry. I had no idea I..."
BANG
"What was that?" I ask with my hands over my ears.
"Roger. Roger! Stop!" she yealled as she ran over to the little boy who was standing by a huge metal door with his fists raised above his head.
" What you told me to practice my powers." he said innocently.
"Yes I told you to practice, not break down the door. If the agents catch you, you'll be in huge trouble." she says in a voice that reminds me of a mother scolding her child.
I look at the door and marvel at its size. It has to be, at least, three stories high. I also notice a small box near the door with a slot in it that looks big enough for a credit card to fit in. As I look closer at the metal on the door I notice two tiny dents in it, about the same height on the door that Roger is. Without thinking I raise my own fists and pound on it as hard as I can.
"Glow what are doing?" Brenna asks as I pull my hands away from the door and notice that I didn't even make a dent in it.
"How is it that Roger can make dents in the door when I'm more than twice his age and can't?" I ask her.
"That's his power. Roger is incredibly strong. If kept hitting the door for an hour, he would have holes where those marks are now. However we've been warned about trying to escape. Lets just say the warning gave Roger and Lily nightmares for weeks."
"Lily? Who's Lily?" I ask.
"Right, you haven't met everyone yet. Guys come meet Glow!" she shouts.
A young girl comes out from behind a curtain, behind the curtain I see several plants growing in small pots of soil. The girl has very long nutmeg colored hair that looks crimped, althougth something is telling me that it's natural because I highly doubt that the agencey gave her anything to style her hair with. I also notice that a small purple flower is placed in hair and really helps her earth brown eyes pop. She is wearing a gray and black jumpsuit, and I notice for the first time, that we're all wearing the exact same thing.
"Hi, I'm Lily." she says in a cheerful voice.
"Glow," I say, "So, what's your power?" I ask her, although I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what it might be.
"I can grow plants on comand. You?" she asks.
"I glow, well its actually more of a shine, and control light." I say back.
"Is your power how you got your name?"
"Yep."
"Can I see you do it?" she asks sweetly.
"I guess so."
I close my eyes and focus on the energy in the room. The power from the light bulbs and the power of my emotions. Then I feel it. The familiar feeling of tingling spreading up my legs, like static electricity running up my body.
"You might want to close your eyes, it gets pretty bright."
Then the static stops and I feeling like all the emotions I've ever held are escaping through the light I create. Kind of like when your angery and you hit your pillow to let out your anger go. I'm trying to be careful, I don't want anyone to become blind, but sometimes it gets out of control. However right now I don't sense anything wrong with my light.
"Hey shut that light off!" someone yells at me.
I quickly turn my light off and look around the room. That's when I see him, a boy around mine and Brenna's age lying on a top bunk. His black hair almost reaches his eyebrows before he runs his fingers through it. He sits up and looks right at me, his blue eyes piercing mine in a full on glare. I glare back. For some reason, he reminds me of some of the boys who used to cause trouble in my classes when I used to go to school. Back before I dropped out to support my family.
"Zac come over and meet Glow." Brenna calls over to him.
"I don't have to since you just told me her name and I was almost blinded by her power, so I'm good." he says as his glare deepens before laying ack down and turnin around to face the white wall that surrounds us.
"Zac come on." Brenna says.
"It's okay Brenna, I can tell when someone's too shy and just want to hide in their little shell." I respond, more to Zac than to Brenna.
Zac rolls over and jumps off the bed, I wince waiting to hear the sound of a bone breaking. Brenna is one thing, she is basically an acrobat and she bent off the bed. However, all I hear is the sound of gliding air. I open my eyes and find Zac hovering three feet above me.
"Zac I fly. There I met her." he says before flying back to the top bunk and laying down again.
The rest of the day goes by pretty uneventfully. A few hours later we have dinner, and when I say dinner, I mean the kind of food that comes in a bag and you put water in it. Camping food basically. After that it was lights out, I guess I slept in really late today before Roger woke me up. I have trouble falling asleep at first. I can't get Mel's frightened face out of my mind. Some how sleep finds me, but not for too long. I feel as if someone is watching me. I open my eyes and gasp at the face staring right back at me. I don't ever remember seeing him before, I don't remember his name, but yet I know him and that I should be afraid of him.
"Hi Glow." is all he say before he dissappears and leaves me too scared to sleep at all tonight.