MICHAEL WAS A HUNTER; ADOPTED AND TRAINED THAT WAY. Ever since he was seven, he was kidnapping and killing off people who had very special gifts. Ever since he was seven, he had learnt that diploids were.
He wasn't sympathetic; he never was. He couldn't help but notice that the word itself had 'pathetic' in it. He was stone-cold like his adopted family. All four of them didn't even blink when they slit the aliens' throats.
But when he looked into Calum's eyes that first night in the restaurant, he couldn't do it. His eyes were too human, his face was too innocent. He had pulled the human act off way too well. Michael had fallen for that before.
That was one of his biggest mistakes.
He thought getting the job done quick and easy would make him forget about those way too human eyes. But he couldn't. He had the knife against his throat, and he let him scream before he even attempted to do anything.
The two were smart. They knew that being in groups would improve their chances of survival. Not once were they alone.
He wished they were dumb, like the guy who helped them find the two boys. They nearly killed him off, but they decided not to because he was too valuable. He had found too many people for them. Without him, they wouldn't have killed three diploids.
***
Calum was working at the restaurant again, waiting tables ten to twenty. Ashton was in the kitchen, watching his best friend, looking out for a certain redheaded boy and family. He was scared for Calum, and offered to swap places ten times.
The Maori was fine with it, only annoyed that table eighteen was large and noisy. There were probably fifteen people squished into a booth, all trying to talk over each other. They kept on giving him funny looks, but he couldn't hear their thoughts over the angry couple next to them.
"Can you bring more ice, please?" a younger boy from the table asked for the fourth time.
"Stop asking for ice!" the girl next to him yelled.
"I can't help it!"
Calum returned with ice, and was utterly confused when the boy downed it like ice wasn't frozen. Feeling a little awkward, and unable to look away, he asked, "Would you like a spoon or something?"
The twelve-year-old smiled politely and shook his head. "No, thank you."
As he walked away, he swore he heard the kid think, what an idiot, but he ignored it. The night went along fine, and Calum helped Ashton do dishes, and Ashton was thankful, but he didn't say it. When it was nearing midnight, they walked out of the restaurant and got into Luke's car.
They put their seatbelts on, and Ashton put the car into ignition. Then – of fucking course – somebody jumped on the hood of the car. Both of the boys groaned, but not before Calum let out a girly scream.
They got out of the car, and Ashton dragged the girl off of the hood, his teeth gritted. "What the hell makes you think you can jump on people's cars?"
"I . . ." just wanted to see if you were the screamer. Ah yes, sounds real normal, Stacey. She looked down. "Your fingers twitch, but not your hands?"
"Why'd you jump on the fucking car, Stacey?" Calum asked, impatiently tapping his foot, completely forgetting the fact that he'd just said the stranger's name.
"How do you know my name?" The blond girl grinned, looking more excited as the realisation caught on that maybe Calum was just the guy she thought he was.
"For fuck sake, Calum." Ashton groaned, turning to him.
"You screamed a couple of days ago, right?" The Maori looked at her, nodding slowly. "Well, you brought all of us together, good job!" she exclaimed.
The two boys exchanged looks, because, what the fuck was she even talking about? They stood there just looking at each other, all confused until the teenage girl started to speak again.
"You do know when a diploid screams it attracts other diploids, right?"
"What the fuck is a diploid?" Ashton asked.
"I have super-speed. What do you have?" she asked, ignoring the eldest boy's question.
"Shut up." Calum grumbled, turning to his best friend. "We should go."
After years of people mocking him and tricking him into believing something that wasn't real, the Maori found it very hard to just believe someone so easily. He was used to thinking twice about what people said, and now wasn't any different.
"Cal . . ." she's talking sense, bro.
He knew she was talking sense, which made the tanned boy even more suspicious. People always told him he was crazy, but now someone was saying they understood, he couldn't believe them. He just couldn't.
Ugh, why can't he just come with me and make this easy? John'll kill him.
"Who's John?" He'd heard from Michael who he was, but he still didn't understand. Was Michael hired to kill him or capture him? Now he knew.
"He's a hunter. You can read people's minds?" Calum nodded slowly.
That's fucking sick. "And you?" she raised her eyebrows at the blond-brunette.
"Super-strength."
Hot.
"You'll be surprised how many of us are left." Came a different voice from the shadows. He had a sharp jawline, brown, curly hair and eyes almost as green as the guy who tried to hunt him. "Table eighteen is all we have."
"There's only fifteen of you?"
The guy smiled, and Calum nearly drooled. Stacey noticed it, and thought about it with a smirk. How cute. "Seventeen, now."
Ashton and Calum looked at each other before walking closer to the two slowly. Ashton stood in front of the lankier guy with curly hair, trying to look more dominant and less suspicious. "Well, what do you want with us?"
"You've been on the run for four years not knowing who you are. We want to show you where you belong."
Before they could even register what was happening, they were in a van, squished in with six people. The two boys looked at each other in confusion, unclear on how they got in the car so willingly. The six other laughed, saying how Jackson hypnotised them.
"All you gotta do is look into his eyes; then you're gone." The twelve-year-old boy Calum served ice to laughed.
Feeling extremely uncomfortable, Calum grabbed onto his best friend's arm. He listened to Ashton's thoughts to calm him down. You're okay, Cal. You're safe. I'm the strongest one in this car. If they try to hurt you, I'll hurt them back.
Being together for nearly ten years with the only people to trust being each other, the boys formed a weirdly close bond. They were like a part of each other, and they never went without each other. No matter what.
The van got quiet, and watched warily as the Maori hid behind the other guy's shoulder to try and prevent himself from having a panic attack. "Um, are you okay?" somebody asked. They were concerned for him, and it embarrassed the tanned boy even further.
Can I tell them? Ashton thought, and Calum nodded. "When Cal was younger, he got sent to a mental institution for hearing voices. He spent his whole life being told he was schizophrenic, and now that there's more than just me with powers, he's a little overwhelmed."
A girl placed a hand on his thigh. She looked to be in her early twenties or just below, and was taking away Calum's pain and fear instantly. She smiled warmly. "It'll be okay."
"Y-You . . . I'm not . . ."
"I'm a healer. It's what I do."
The van pulled over, and the healer got out, letting everybody yell, goodbye, Mel! They drove to various places until there were just six left in the van. Jack – the guy driving, the twelve-year-old named JJ who asked for ice, Stacey and Jackson. Calum crossed him arms and glared at the awfully attractive guy across from him.
"I can't believe you fucking hypnotised us."
"It was the only way to get you in the car." And you looked better under my control.
Calum furrowed his eyebrows at Jackson's completely creepy thoughts and moved the tiniest bit closer to his best friend. Ashton didn't even blink. He was too busy trying to pretend he wasn't freaking out. But his thoughts were going haywire.
The car came to an abrupt stop and Calum leant over the tanned boy to look through the window. "A fish factory . . . that's – that's cute."
The driver rolled his eyes and turned around to the new kids. "It's your – well, our – house for now. It hasn't been used for ages, and when it is, it's used for storage, so we're safe here." But you know we aren't, really, don't you, Calum?
Calum didn't like the way Jack knew Calum could read his thoughts, and winced when the guy directly addressed him, but tried to ignore it. They got out and walked warily across the yard. The old sign shook a little, really setting the scene to the all-in-all absolute fucking creepy place.
In the main entrance, a desk still stood, phone and all still in place. The few chairs that hadn't been taken were flipped over and papers were scattered around. Calum knelt down and looked at the papers. They weren't bills, the amount of fish guts received, or anything Calum could've ever expected.
They were . . . They were plans.
Plans for something big.
"This place isn't a fucking fish factory." Calum said, the paper shaking in his hands.
"No, it isn't. And you're not really a fucking mind-reader, are you?"
"W-What?"
"You would've heard Stacey telling you to run."