"Alex! Please wake up, it's not your fault. Please, it's not your fault."

I'm scared.

"Come here"

I feel someone pull my head up and rest it on something soft. Someone is hugging me from behind.

"Rest now Alex. It'll be fine."

I breathe heavily.

"Zoe?"

I ask while keeping my eyes closed.

"Yes Alex, it's me you can calm down now."

"Please don't leave me"

I cannot think straight anymore.

"I won't. Alex, trust me on this one, I'll stay with you."

I start crying again this time out of relief. Slowly opening my eyes I look behind me. Zoe is watching me wearing a worrisome expression. Although I have calmed down I look at Zoe with fear in my eyes.

"Please don't leave me"

"I won't little one. Come on stand up I'll lead you to bed."

She grabs me from behind and lifts me up. Then slowly pushes me towards my bedroom. Taking baby steps we creep towards my bed.

"Lie down"

Like a doll she pushes me on my bed. Then she takes my boots off and helps me lay off my clothes.

"Now sleep"

I put up a slight resistance but soon I find myself shuddering under my blanket.

As Zoe sits on my bed I reach out for her hand and grab her.

"Please stay Zoe. Please"

"Ok, don't worry"

I can feel her brushing my hand off which makes me flinch in emotional pain. But I realize she's just taking some of her clothing off. Then I can feel something snuggling to me in front of me. I can feel her breathing in front of me as she puts one of her hands on me cheek.

"Don't worry so much Alex, everything will be fine."

She leans her head on mine so our foreheads meet.

"You're too dense to break over something like this."

Dense?

I've had panic attacks since forever. Pretty much ever since my parents died. Well, to be specific when I killed my parents. It happened when I had manifested my power. Before I knew it my parents where a pile of green mush on the ground. I recreated dolls for public but they were not the same thing. Ever since then Zoe had taken care of me. Whenever I felt fear I would call her over and she would calm me down. We had slept in the same bed for as long as I could remember. We never told anyone... too many rumors would spread in too little time.

Still holding her tight I ask

"Why dense?"

Slightly smiling Zoe snuggles even closer in our embrace.

"You asking this question makes me realize how dense you exactly are. But don't worry I can deal with that."

And just before I fall asleep I can feel a weird sensation.Someone just kissed me.

But there's only Zoe around?

Must've been my imagination.

As I wake up I feel considerable better. Zoe is not in bed anymore though. she must've gotten up earlier... I can smell something. Food? Shit... what time is it? 9 pm..... I had slept for seven hours after getting my panic attack. I slowly get out of bed. I don't care that I'm only wearing underwear right now.  The moment I open my door the smell of fried chicken reaches my nose. Looking towards my kitchen I can see Zoe standing there... wearing some of my shorts and one of my tops. She bound her hair back so it wouldn't get into the food.

She didn't seem to notice me.

"Thank you Zoe"

"Alex I told you I'd always help you and here I am"

smiling she turns around.

"By the way, I borrowed some of your clothes ok?"

Since I knew it was useless to fuss over this I didn't say anything.

"What about your parents? Shouldn't they worry about you?"

I asked instead

"Don't worry about it, I called them and told them I'd be spending some time over at your place because you weren't feeling the best. They took the bait I think"

I shake my head.

"The dolls?"

I'm asking about my supposed parents.

"They're in bed, function normally. If anything comes up they should be able to communicate just fine... By the way, mind putting on some clothes? Normally I would love to see you like this but you're clearly still the dense Alex I know so it's just irritating."

"Wait. What? Oh and that time... did you kiss me in bed?"

I ask her directly. She fumbles her... my top and answers in a silent voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

...did she just blush? I'm about to ask her when she interrupts my thoughts.

"It wasn't us the military was searching for... If they had they would've checked me way more, but they only made a normal clear check. I could easily fool them."

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I instantly forget everything else.

"Did they find anything?"

I ask instead of my earlier question.

"Can you at least wait until I'm done making dinner? Let's talk then. And put some clothes on please it's distracting."

She's probably right... I walk back into my sleeping room and quickly take out one of my older cargo pants and a tank top. After getting dressed I come back into the living room just to see Zoe put two plates onto the table filled with chicken stripes and vegetables. After sitting down in front of her she stares at me for a second before sitting down herself.

"ok let's talk."

She said calmly. The incident a few hours ago not forgotten but put aside.

"The military was looking for members of HALO and the Raiders well, generally speaking they were looking for espers in general, but they're only searching for wind and force type espers.... not nature oriented. I could feel it from them. We are not their targets, which doesn't mean we can just do whatever we want. I suggest staying here for a few days. I can tell my parents you're not doing that good and you need a friend at your side. To the teachers it'll just be you being sick. If we play our cards right we'll get out of this but if anyone of the military suspects even one person in school then everybody will get checked up for real."

I eat slowly and try to digest what she just told me. Basically I can't go to school for more than a week. While we eat she also tells me that it could not have been a normal check up of a randomly selected school since one of the high ranks in the military lv 3 Ali Greene was amongst them. His power enabled him to enhance his eyes beyond human capabilities. This as such doesn't sound as if it deserved lv 3, but Hawk Eye uses his power to see everything in slow motion. further he could sense espers with his bare eyes. Or at least espers that are not specialized in hiding. He was a pretty high rank in the military because of that special skill. But since he was here it meant that they actually suspected something was up.

"But what did they look for then?"

Zoe looks at me worryingly

"I don't know Alex, I really don't. All I can say is that I cannot allow you to go to school for as long as they are here. And even if you don't go there's a chance that they'll come to your house to check your story... It basically means under no circumstances can you leave the house."

Che.

"And what am I supposed to do with my free time? I don't want to get bored to death here."

I'm annoyed. spending 1 week in my house without anything to do is horrible.

Yes I can just spend time on the pc or reading. But I'll have to stay at home. Not being able to go outside is horrible. Zoe's face changes to pity.

"I know Alex, but we don't have a choice. We both know that if you lose focus for only one split of a second Hawk eye will find you. And we both know what will happen then."

yeah we do. Defeated I let my head rest on the table. To be honest I feel devastated.

Well, there's nothing I can do really.

"I guess I can't change that now. But honestly? Can you do me a favor and buy me a lot of food for the fridge? I'm kinda running low on supplies and I don't think I'm supposed to walk around outside."

"What about your dolls? Aren't they able to do that kind of thing?"

"It's hard controlling them to such a degree, they just have normal functions and I don't know if they'll manage to be honest."

My dolls are really nothing but meat bags.

"Ok I can do that don't worry" showing me a dazzling smile which warms my heart.

With all that being said we start eating for real. It's good food, since Zoe wants to become a cook when she grows up she had always been happy to use me as a guinea pig for her newest creations. In the early days it had been a pain. But now she actually makes really good food.

It always makes me happy to see her follow her dream.

After we ate all the food we pretty much did nothing except watch a movie on tv.... while eating ice cream.... and talking about random stuff..... maybe we ate a lot of chocolate too....

But even though we did all that we still went to bed as soon as the movie ended.

It's the next morning and once again Zoe is not in bed anymore. Again the first thing I want to know is the time. Che.... 10am.... I've slept a lot. Lifting myself out of bed I walk towards the living room expecting to find Zoe there. Instead I'm greeted by an empty kitchen. Looking around I notice a piece of paper on the kitchen table.

"I saw you were sleeping so soundly so I couldn't bring myself to wake you up. I went to school to explain everything to the teachers and the principal. I also borrowed your car to buy some groceries for you. I should be able to come back at around 3 pm. Sorry about taking the car but it was the only way to get everything you probably want in your house for one week.

Zoe

ps. There's some leftover stuff in the fridge"

well.... to be honest it's not the first time she did something like this but since she's actually registered on my car too it's alright. Although her parents don't know about that, they only know she has a license like me. Sighing I open the fridge and find some salad and two sandwiches. She takes good care of me whenever I have panic attacks. Smiling I take out the food and sit down in front of my tv and start watching some old drama while cuddling into my dark blue blanket and eating the sandwiches she had made me.... I don't touch the salad though... I don't like it that much, but she always tries to make me eat healthy.

I drift away to various thoughts, I wonder what the interns are doing though. Or Max as a matter of fact. I bet he got out of control when he heard the military was looking for members of the raiders in our school. He probably annoyed the shit out of the military by asking who they were looking for.... yeah, that sounds like him. He's a nice guy really.

Well, I guess I'll just go back to doing stuff until Zoe comes back... not like I got anything else to do anyways.