Freaks

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“Why are we discussing this with her in the room?” I hear the client say as she gestures towards me. She’s a woman in her 30s, her hand is clutching her sons shoulder. The professor sighs,
“I will inform you that there are some casualties should this experiment fail.” The woman pulled her son back towards her. He was about my age, still so young. But apart from me, he had a future. I hope his mother would decline the professors offer, otherwise the boys’ future would be destroyed.
“What do you mean?” She asks, he holds my shoulder lightly and pushes me forward, I try not to resist but I need to keep up a charade.
“Kaytlyn, you see, cannot think. Her mind wasn’t as strong as your sons and cannot withstand the mental toll. The power cannot be put into simple thoughts, her accelerated mind energy is put into other things. For example, she can see through things, and read minds, and move things without touching them.” The woman looked appalled, He eyes falling onto mine and I hear her thinking of all the damage I could do. I know how much damage I can do, that’s why I don’t do it.
“Does she have no respect?” She asks, I stop myself from rolling my eyes at her simple mind. She didn’t take the previous information (however false it may be) into account. She ignored the professors statement about my empty mind. And imagined me as someone who could use this information, Well, I can. I thought to myself. But she doesn’t need to know that, and neither does the professor.
“You misunderstand, she doesn’t have any respect. She can’t.” Professor continues “She cannot think. She is an empty shell. Her mind has been taken over by a surge on energy that cannot be put into thoughts. Which is why we have figured out the mental strength that is needed. Your son, is far beyond the minimum amount. He will be safe.” I keep my face blank but I know the professor’s lying. They don’t know what’ll happen to him, they still think that I don’t have thoughts. And yet, here they are, assuring this woman that her sons’ mentality will be safe. They are dragging him into a hell hole that he will not be able to escape from. But I will break out of this prison, and they’ll never see it coming.

“Sir. I think you might want to take a look at this.” Professor Stevenson walks over to Carlos’ desk. Carlos was a student, specially selected by the professor himself to be his right-hand man. The young man was proud to be smart enough for such an important organisation. But not smart enough to realise the horror of reality from these experiments. Or he just didn’t know what they were experimenting on. My vote’s for the latter. Stevenson towers over him with an aura of importance that Carlos couldn’t dream of portraying.
“What is it?” the professor asks
“It’s test subject number one sir.” He says, Stevenson sighs,
‘What about her?”
“She’s not there.” The professor leaps forward and stares at the screen. True to his word, Kaytlyn was not there.
“But that’s impossible. Send someone down there!”
“I don’t think that will change anything sir.” Carlos said,
“And why is that?” The professor asked, annoyed and impatient.
“Her abilities do not only consist of hypnosis, telepathy and telekinesis, sir.” Carlos starts, “It would be wise to not exclude the possibility of teleportation.” Professor Stevenson growled,
“But she cannot think!” He yelled, “She wouldn’t have the thought to escape in the first place!”
“Sir. I understand that. But, because her powers are so unstable, neither would she have the thought to stop the teleportation.” The professor eyed the new employee with suspicion. This boy, he thought, this boy will be useful, His evil words echoed throughout his mind. A mind filled with plots and plans that would terrify the normal being. Then he smiled,
“Of course, I knew that your marks in the school were not faulty. A brain of champions you’ve got there.” He smiled and patted Carlos on the shoulder who smiled slightly and said,
“Thank you sir. Should I organise a search?” Stevenson nodded,
“That would be wise.” He said, “And make it quick. We cannot have someone like her out on the streets.”

I smirked as I watched Carlos walk away from Stevenson. That boy was smart, but not too smart. Just as intellectual as I needed to form an alibi. Still thinking that I was mindless, but knowing that I can teleport. Which would be a minor setback on my behalf.
“Get the next subject ready.” The professor commanded one of the guards. Who was holding the small boy from before’s shoulder. “We need to get this right.” he says and they drag the squirming boy into the lab. I narrow my eyes and think, Oh no you don’t.

*7 Years Later*

“HE NEVER QUITS!” I yell in frustration and the table flips over. I sigh and freeze everything in mid air. I tidy up the room and sit down as the chair flies back into it’s place. and when I say ‘tidy up’ I mean lift with my mind and transport into the right place. We don’t do things normally here.
“Kayt?” I hear Nick say my name from the corner of the room. I look up in surprise.
“Nick.” I say, he grabs a chair and pulls it forward.
“Who doesn’t quit?” He asks, I sigh,
“The professor.” I say grimly. His eyes harden,
“He’s making another one?” I nod,
“That’s the sixth one this year.” He growls, I see the eraser fly off the table and hit the ceiling, and he brings it back down slowly.
“It’s been seven years, and he’s still bringing six year olds into that damn laboratory.” He says as he gets up and starts pacing the room,
“He turns them into… into…” He searches for the word.
“Freaks,” I say, he sighs and collapses into a chair again.
“Exactly,” He grumbles. I stand up and grab my bag from the chair.
“Better save this kid, we can’t just leave them.” I walk out the door and Nick follows.

Here at the Shelter Home for Experiment Freaks (SHEF) we teach our students to control and command their powers in a practical and safe(ish) way. And the name was a gimmick so all the operated kids would come with us instead of staying. The name stuck and now we have our own sort-of orphanage. I walk over to the intercom and say,
“All Freak Scouts from level five to seven, please report to the preparation dock.” We only allow level five and up to carry out missions. It isn’t about heir age, who would want an eleven year old to follow through with a dangerous plan? No, it’s about their skill. The way things work at SHEF, is that once you join, you immediately start learning how to control your powers. Once you can control them, which is around either one year or two, you learn defensive techniques, for if anyone tries to attack you, as well as hypnosis so they forget they saw you. When you enter level four, you learn how to attack. Not lethally, but enough to make sure that you don’t get caught or injured. I should know, I’ve made a few mistakes along the way. I walk through the rooms and see a sight which normal people would rebel about. Kids, from ages six to twelve. Learning how to fight. Learning how they can use their abilities to save people. We turn into a separate room, it has clothes in it. But these clothes are important, they’re designed by us so that we fit in to wherever we’re going to be. If you think about it, clothes are very important. They can tell a person a lot about you. They can tell someone where you’ve been, where you’re headed or where you intend to be. So we take caution in these things. I take a glance at the room adjacent to this one. That’s where you learn about how to act under certain circumstances. Such as how to sound like you have a specific purpose, or how to sound clueless, or how to sound intimidating. Things like that. Those are for the people who aspire to help in the field. You can call them what you like, soldiers, agents, we call them scouts. The scouts train to go out and try to stop Stevenson. The rest, are trying to stay safe. If you haven’t applied for Scouts and you go into Level six, then you are transported to a different orphanage. One run by a nice man who understands our situation. I needed to meet with him a few times so we could get everything sorted out but he’s on our side and is helping the others become normal.

“Kayt.” I hear someone say and I turn around,
“Chris,” I address him and say, ”Are we ready?” He gives an uneasy nod,
“Those who are here are ready, but not everyone is here.” Chris is a level six, the best out of level six. He applied for scout when he was in level four and he hasn’t let us down since.
“Who are we missing?” I ask,
“Sam, Brendan, and Carter.” He reports,
“We can leave without them, they’ve been on most of the missions before.” He nodded and wrote the scout teams names on the board,

Code Orange team:
Kaytlyn
Nick
Chris
Arthur
Benjamin
Max

I stare at the list for a while and sigh. There were no girls on the scout team. They didn’t want to be risking their lives for, and I quote ‘something not that important’ as Charlotte had said when I had asked her. Of course this is important! We’re saving kids from that horrible place. I scowl as I say to myself, Well, only I know how horrible it is, I’ve been bringing people here since I got out of that place. They don’t know what it’s like to be there. I shake the memories away before turning to the scout group.
“Okay, you all know how this goes. But we need to fix a few things. One, how many times do I have to say, don’t force them. We need to make it clear that we’re there to help. The way to do that is not, picking them up and bringing them here, then telling them who we are. That’s kidnapping.” I start. Some people sigh and look away, trying to not meet my eyes, others are folding their arms and glaring at the rest of them.
“Two, don’t teleport unless you have to.” They’re confused at that one, “The kid doesn’t know they have powers yet and they see someone vanish right before their eyes! Are you sure that’s the best idea?” I ask, and they shrug.
“Good,” I finish. Then walk over to open the door.
“Let’s go.”