Aminu holds his hoodie tight, the one Abigail gave him only last week. When they were last together, before she was taken. His mind keeps replaying everything, every word she said. How she asked for a hug before leaving and how he stupidly said no. Said they would see each other again in a few days, that it didn’t make sense.

His phone keeps lighting up. People call him, but he hasn’t even answered his own family. He stays by the corner, sitting in the only position that he finds comfortable, trying to stop his brain.

He rocks back and forth, holding his knees tight, carving his nails into the flesh. Not hurting as much as his turmoil of thoughts.

A knock on the door resonates.

I should’ve put my headphones on. Go away.

“Aminu, please. I’m worried,” Padma’s voice echoes in the corridor.

Go away. He keeps rocking back and forth. Tapping his right hand on his left elbow continuously.

“I’ll just say here, then. Until you open,” and she sits on the floor, takes a sandwich from her backpack, and reads the news on her phone.

It takes well over four hours until he finally opens the door a bit. She’s standing in front of his door, stretches her legs and stands up. He refuses to face her and snaps his fingers.

“Can I come in?” The gentleness of her voice doesn’t make any change to his demeanor.

He just scratches his head and opens a bit more the door. She slowly comes in. It’s dark in there. There’s not a single light turned on and she knows she has to respect it.

“How are you?”

He doesn’t answer, instead goes back to his corner, sits again in his position, rocking back and forth.

“There's something I wanted to talk to you about. Regarding Emily and Abigail.”

He begins to be more agitated and crosses his arms to try to calm down.

“I’ll say this quickly, so this will go more smoothly. I work for an organization, similar to the Institute, that has a lot of resources. They are trying to find them. But to do that, they need an amplifier, Aminu,” she sits down facing him, “they need you. You are the best, they need the best.”

Aminu stops rocking.

“What organization?” He gets up and walks to his fridge, takes out a soda for himself, and doesn’t offer anything to Padma.

“Like I said, it’s like the Institute, but in the private sector. It develops…” she notices him pacing back and forth, “improvements on deviant matters. The bracelet started there actually,” he turns to her momentarily and keeps going. “They are building a machine. The idea is to connect it to both a mental controller and an amplifier and use it to search for the terrorists. When they find them, they will find Emily and Abigail and bring them home safely, also… bring the terrorists finally to justice.” She swallows her saliva.

He walks past her and sits again in his corner.

“Don’t know, o.”

“I understand, Aminu,” she sits again, facing him, “and I wouldn’t be pressing you so much if time wasn’t of essence… for them. This is a project that needs to start right away so they can save them. The longer they strive for ideal conditions, the greater the risk of harm to Abigail and Emily.”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

“Don’t know… There are other amplifiers.”

“Amplifiers are rare, Aminu. They’ve asked Eurasia for help. They said no. Here in the States, you are the most talented. Your levels are outstanding, more than anyone else. And who knows? Maybe you’ll like it. The pay is so much better there and you can work in both places. There’s an impressive lab. Ahktar is also the head there, maybe he’ll be more than glad to have you there too.”

“It’s better the pay?” he looks everywhere but her.

“So much better, here see it,” she grabs her phones and slides it to him, for him to see the photos of her apartment, “better than this room, right? And I get to still send a lot of money to my family.”

“Your apartment is so nice, o,” with that salary, I could bring my sister here.

“What’ya say? First things first, just meet with Ahktar, meet the mental controller, see how it goes. Impress them like I know you will and I’m sure he’ll hire you in a beat. And in the process, you can save Abigail and Emily from the misery that they are in.”

***

Rachel enters the living room with her sunglasses on. Ánh and Abigail are by the television watching a show and notice her.

“Finally! It’s almost lunch time!” Ánh shouts and Rachel holds her head.

She goes to the cabinet and takes a glass, fills it with water and slowly approaches the girls, sitting on the single couch next to them.

“Megan was long gone when I woke up… God…”

“Fun night, uh?” Ánh laughs and punches her in the shoulder.

Rachel shows a shy smile and Abigail looks away.

“What are you up to?”

“We just had lunch. We were about to go downstairs. Want to watch a K-Drama episode?”

Rachel just nods and takes off her sunglasses. Abigail and Ánh struggle to see any brown in her tiny eyes.

“I’m going to see how Emily’s doing. Have fun, girls.” Abigail gets up and faces Rachel for a second, smiling. Rachel returns the smile.

Ánh’s eyebrows raise and she grabs the remote.

Abigail grabs some food and water and goes back to her room. Ever since they arrived there that Abigail feeds Emily, brushes her teeth, tries to untangle her hair, cleans her the best she can.

Emily’s appearance changed drastically already. Her once perfect face now has dark circles under her eyes, her green eyes that were full of life, or at least pretend to, now are shallow and never present, the light brown hair that everyone saw always perfectly styled is breaking on its ends and the once influence that she had, as a tender starter, now she wore an oversized t-shirt and worn-out jeans. If someone sees her now, they wouldn’t recognize her.

“Emily, you have to try here. Eat, take care of yourself.”

“Why…?” She sighs. Her voice is shallow. “What for, Abigail?” she faces her. “Will that change anything? Will my brother miraculously stop being part of this group that wanted to kill me?!” she shouts now and curls her fists. “Won’t my father, mother maybe, be connected to it? Won’t yours? What good will take care of me do?” she scoffs and goes back to a fetal position.

“To build your own life, Emily,” her voice cracks, “you need to have the strength for it. Your father, mother, brother… they aren’t here. You are here. You have a life to live, one that can be full. Whatever they decided until now, it doesn’t matter. It’s your choice now. It will define your life.”

“My choice?” she laughs loudly. “Look where my choice got me!” she waves around, focusing on the two modest beds, the moldy walls, the paint cracking. “what are we even doing here?” she whispers, “What will they achieve? Abigail… we feared these people,” she laughs, “we feared them…” her voice raises, “and they are pathetic!” she laughs and faces the old ceiling, “Five, five again… seven with us. They make videos and as I am aware now, that’s all. All they do is make some homemade videos.”

“We’ll find this organization that Joshua is a part of. We’ll make them pay for what they did on the Institute.”

“Will we?” she laughs. “Abigail, sure, call me when we find them. Until then, leave me the hell alone.”

She turns to the side and covers her head.

***

Aminu checks his savings app on the computer, how much he has already set aside to bring his sister and how much more he’d have to put.

Madeleine Clark promised him she’d have a spot on the Institute, but that she couldn’t fund the bureaucracy and the travel expenses, otherwise everyone else would expect her to.

He promised his sister that he’d get her here. Even with six years of work and savings, it was still not enough.

Between sending the money to his family and the books he bought to improve his work on the lab, because he couldn’t just sign up for a class on community college, his sister’s dream of coming to the United States of America was a bit behind.

Now it wouldn’t anymore. At first, his ability was the only thing that mattered. Amplification. One that during the Great War had a name and feared deeply: Amy Anderson. Now it would be used differently, for a greater good, to find his friends and in the process, he’d work hard to prove to Saif Ahktar how he could be useful in this organization.