To hide or not to hide? That was the question Skye mulled over while she locked herself in the bathroom. She knew she could leave and return to the meeting room if she wanted to, but she also knew that if she did, she'd be letting the officials inject her with lightning juice. She shuddered at the thought.

But could Skye get away with locking herself in a public restroom instead of coming out to get tagged? She didn't know. If she had somehow managed to stay hidden, not only would she be protecting herself, but she'd also be doing something much larger: proving that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't so powerless after all, and somebody as insignificant as her could win a victory against an institution as large as HACF. But what if somebody found her? What if nobody found her? When would Skye escape the bathroom? Would she escape? All of those questions flooded her mind, swirling around like clothes in a washing machine.

What would happen to me if I stayed here? Skye thought. What would happen if somebody found me in here, a HACF worker, perhaps? Would they beat me up? Drag me out of the bathroom? Hold me down by my arms and legs so I can't resist, and force their shock tags into me?

Or would they tell my school? Skye wondered. Maybe I'll end up getting expelled from Springs because I refused to go along with HACF's procedures. That wouldn't be so bad.

And what if nobody finds me? How will I know when it's safe to get out? What if there are security cameras outside the bathroom, and as soon as I leave, I get discovered? And if I get discovered, then what? Will the HACF people tell my parents about my transgression? Will my parents stop loving me?

And what if they never loved me at all in the first place? Skye thought as she sat there, ruminating. I'm an aura-haver, after all. A ticking time bomb. I could impale somebody with an icicle at any given moment. Who in their right mind would love someone like that? It goes against all common sense. My parents are crazy for risking their lives, all so an idiot like me could gain a semblance of happiness.

Maybe I'll stay in here forever, rotting away in a bathroom stall. Good riddance, Ivan will say. Finally, I don't have to deal with that problem child anymore, Dad will think. And Mom will finally get a break from me. If I disappear here, that would be better for everyone.

Maybe I'll become a toilet ghost and haunt the bathroom when I'm dead. People will pass me by and speak of a translucent girl in a red beanie and a striped scarf. And then they'll open the stall door and find my rotting corpse...

Minutes passed while Skye sat on the toilet, contemplating anything and everything. But as soon as she heard the bathroom door open and a knock on her stall, she jumped.

"You're a HACF worker, aren't you?" Skye accused. "If you are, you better stay away from me!"

"What's taking you so long?" Maia asked from the other side of the door, her voice shaking with fear. "It's been twenty minutes already. Are you okay?"

***

Skye dragged her feet down the corridor after her mother, and Maia opened the door to the main meeting room. "Get on the platform," she ordered Skye. "All of the aura-havers who are getting tagged are up there. I'm sorry, I know how much you don't like this, but you've got to go. Otherwise you can't go back to Springs."

"Oh, so now you want to send me back to that damn school?!" Skye snapped. "Though you said you were sorry for sending me there, you still want me to go back? Make up your mind, are you sorry or are you not? Did you know how miserable I was at that place, how many hours of pain I’ve endured?"

Maia breathed an exasperated sigh. "Skye, I don't want to argue. It's for your own good."

"My own good?!" Skye fumed. "What the hell are you on? In what universe would you electrocute your child for their own good? Don't you see how fucked up this is?!"

The staring. There it was again. Skye felt everybody's eyes boring into her, but this time, she was going to let them. She was going to let everybody at HACF see the truth, once and for all, about how wrong this all was. She was going to expose Sierra's lies and deception, and knock some sense into these people. At that moment, Skye knew she wasn't crazy, they were. The people who worked at HACF were the real monsters, not her, for believing that something as horrible as tagging could ever be justified.

Suddenly a familiar-looking, dark-haired boy stepped up, grabbing Skye by the arm. As she tried to resist, he dragged her onto the platform, pulling her up beneath him. "Crazy girl," the boy muttered under his breath. Skye pulled against him, but she wasn't as strong as him so she couldn't hold her ground. Instead she shot daggers at the back of his head with her eyes. Come on, Skye thought, seething. You're an aura-haver. We should be on the same side here, but no, you're with HACF. Traitor.

At this point, Skye was too drained, and too scared, to resist any longer. Her legs were jello, each of her steps shaking as she followed the group off the platform. By now she had already cooled off after her sudden outburst, and was starting to regret how she behaved. God, I wish I hadn't thrown a tantrum like that, Skye thought. I thought I was doing something, but all I did was make a fool of myself.

The young man with the dark hair rounded up the aura-havers and led them off the platform, not one of them resisting. He then walked them down the room and opened the door, the same door as the one next to Skye's seat from earlier. After that, he led the group through the corridor which split in two, but this time, they took the right corridor and ended up in front of the elevators. The group leader did not acknowledge Skye at all.

"Since it's impossible to fit all of you into a single elevator, you will be entering in groups of seven. Go to the sixth floor and once you get there, wait outside for everyone," the group leader instructed while a boy with curly hair tried to get his attention.

"Hey, can you come over here?" The boy asked. "We have a problem. Orion says that he doesn't feel well. He's on the floor right now."

The group leader rushed over to Orion and crouched on the floor. "What can I do for you?"

"Call... an... ambulance..." Orion responded, his voice weakening. Then he fell unconscious.

For a long moment, the group leader stood frozen in place. But after a while, as if a switch turned on in his brain, he started moving again, and with a considerable effort was able to lift the body from the floor as he stood up.

"Can somebody help me here?" The leader asked the group. The same curly-haired boy approached him, lifting the body along with him. The group leader then led the rest of the aura-havers away from the elevators and through the lobby, and at the lobby there was a woman behind a desk. She stopped the group.

"Cayto, where do you think you're going?" The woman asked. "The tagging room is on the sixth floor."

"One of my clients fell unconscious, so I'm getting medical attention. We're all waiting outside for the ambulance," the boy leading the group responded, speaking in an official-sounding, monotone voice.

"An ambulance? I doubt that's necessary." The woman remarked.

"Orion told me to call an ambulance before he passed out, so I'm doing what he says is best." Cayto replied.

"Go ahead. But once he gets some help, return immediately. Got it?" The woman behind the desk reminded him.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Cayto nodded, leading the group out of the building and onto the city block. But it wasn't an ambulance that arrived, but a series of vans, and there wasn't a medic in sight. Instead an old lady hopped out of a van.

Wait, Skye thought. Isn't that the old lady Ivan talked to earlier?

"You're getting rescued, do not resist!" The lady yelled. Before Skye could ask what was going on, the old lady tossed her into the van, and in no time, everybody got shoved into a vehicle. In the van, Skye got sandwiched between Cayto and somebody else wearing a multicolored hoodie. She stared at the person in the hoodie, who looked suspiciously like her brother. Wait, is that Ivan? Skye wondered. What is he doing here?

"Skye!" Ivan greeted his sister and laughed. "We're getting kidnapped! Isn't that great?"

Skye shook her head. "Ivan, what the hell?!"

"I know this sounds weird, especially with how Juliana is going about this, but I know that following her is safer than staying behind at HACF," Ivan stated, unfazed by the turn of events.

Skye shifted in her seat. "What? How do you know?"

"Remember Luka Archer? That plant kid who moved to Redmount?"

"Oh yeah, weed man." Skye chuckled, recalling Ivan's nickname for his old friend. Luka's chlorokinetic abilities earned him that name.

"He didn't actually move to Redmount. That was just a cover. Avriya is where he lives, and I know because we call each other. He says its a nice place," Ivan explained. "And now we're all going to Avriya."

"Avriya?" Skye asked, perking up. "Where is that?"

"Off the coast of Winterbay," Ivan responded. "When I talked to Juliana at HACF, she said she knew my friend because he's also from Avriya. Luka has mentioned Juliana in his calls before, and they're familiar with each other."

That explains why Ivan was talking to some random stranger, Skye thought.

Just then Skye had another question. "What happened to Orion? Didn't he pass out?"

The voice came from the backseat. "No need to worry about me, I'm doing fine. My ability just happens to be mind control, and I had to pass out so my consciousness could move from my own body to Cayto's—"

At that moment Cayto regained his senses, realizing where he was. "I GOT KIDNAPPED?!" He screamed. "THAT'S IT, I'M CALLING MARTIN HALIFAX. NONE OF YOU ARE GETTING AWAY WITH THIS."

Orion paled. "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I forgot I was supposed to stay behind while in your body and wait for my consciousness to return on its own instead of boarding the van as you. Now we have an extra person whom we don't want in here."

"Don't worry, I took Cayto's phone, so at least he can't report us." Juliana reassured Orion from the driver's seat. "But because of your mistake, we'll now have to watch over this person once we get to Avriya. I know, I hate holding people hostage, but this is no ordinary worker you've taken. This is Cayto Halifax."

For a moment there was silence. Then Juliana started to talk again.

"His parents are Martin and Sierra. They own Halifax Industries, and Martin plans on handing ownership over to Cayto in the future. It would be foolish to let Cayto out of our sights when his entire family wants us dead," Juliana stated. "As much as I hate to separate Cayto from his family, we have no choice but to keep him at Avriya."

Skye and Ivan remained on edge, and Cayto stared out the window for the rest of the ride, refusing to look at any of his captors.

***

No. No. NO. This couldn't be happening. If he really got kidnapped by these people, Cayto could lose everything. Thanks to some guy with a mind-control curse, he could lose his position at Halifax Industries. He could lose the opportunities that came from being born into a family as wealthy as his, and he could lose everything he owned and be forced to start life over from scratch.

Cayto took a breath. I shouldn't be panicking, he reminded himself. I have to stay calm and find a way out of here. And if I do, I'll tell the authorities about these people. Make these curse-bearers pay for what they did. And maybe I could convince Mr Halifax to not get angry at me. I'll show him that I still deserve to inherit the company, even if some lunatics took me away in a van and I failed to complete what he had asked me to do. If I work extra hard to make up for my mistake today, then everything will be alright.

Now for escaping the van, Cayto thought. If I get out of here, I may be able to find directions home.

Cayto tried to open the door, but Orion reached from the seat behind Cayto, yanking him backwards. "Don't bother. The doors lock when driving." Orion reminded him.

So much for jumping out of the van, Cayto thought.

The van drove through a forest clearing and parked at a strip of sand by the sea. While everybody else exited the vehicle, Cayto ran for the woods in an attempt to escape, but he tripped on the old lady's walking stick. While Cayto struggled to regain his footing, an aura-haver in a teal jacket waved his arms around, causing a sand-filled gust of wind to hit Cayto in the face. When he tried to run, the wind pushed against him, and the blowing sand stung his eyes.

"Thank you for the wind barrier, Elliot," the old lady who tripped Cayto with her walking stick commented. Then she coughed. "Would be nice if you got rid of this sand."

"No problem," the wind user responded. Then he produced another gust of wind and the sand got lifted away.

Cayto let out a sigh of relief. At least there was no more sand blowing in his eyes. But still, the air was chilly, so he made his way towards the wind barrier's center. To his annoyance, most of the group had already crowded in that area.

"I'm doing a survey!" The old lady yelled over the blowing wind. "My name is Juliana Shaffer. If you don't trust me, I understand why, because I practically just kidnapped you. But still, since you all were scheduled for tagging, I'd like to hear your opinion. Did any of you actually want to get tagged?"

Most of the crowd ignored her. Only two people answered her question, and both answers were ambivalent.

"Some of you are uncertain," Juliana shouted, "and I get why. You mean well. You believe that getting shock tagged is the only way to protect your community, but at the same time you're afraid of pain. I'm here to tell you— the pain is not worth it! Martin Halifax, Sierra Halifax, the Public Safety Department, the tagging industry, none of them care about your wellbeing. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They'd kill you if they could."

Cayto bristled at Juliana's lies, but the woman continued to spout her propaganda. "The reason we came to HACF was not to kidnap you, though it may seem that way. We actually wanted to offer a chance to escape shock tagging and Cloudgate's prejudice in general, but we didn't want to reveal the location of our base. I'll explain why confidentiality is important to us later, but for now, the point is if we left you behind, you would have gotten tagged. Have you gotten tagged, you would go through immense pain every time your aura manifested. We had firsthand experience of the effects of tagging, and they are horrible, trust me. Some of us have gotten shocked by them and are now scarred for life. It's sad how normalized this is."

Sad how normalized your face is, Cayto thought, but he didn't say it out loud, because as much as he hated Juliana, he wasn't an idiot. He knew that saying such a thing would only make his situation worse.

Meanwhile, a girl with messy black pigtails that faded to pink stood further from the group, laughing to herself. Cayto recognized her as one of his clients: Alexis Bingham, a sixteen-year-old telepath. Got sent to HACF because of her tendency to spread highly specific and accurate pieces of gossip. She made momentary eye contact with Cayto and a voice popped into his head:

I heard that.

Fuck off, Cayto thought.

Meanwhile, Juliana spoke. "So I'll be honest with you: as long as you're on a tagging center's database, you're not safe on Cloudgate's mainland. I know this because I know that HACF happens to be one of the largest tagging centers, and they are persistent when it comes to their so-called clients. That's why we set up base on Avriya, an island hidden from the rest of Cloudgate. Avriya remains secluded because it's wind-barriered and covered in mist. On top of that, the only way to get past a wind barrier is with supernatural abilities."

So I may be able to escape Avriya, Cayto thought. But I don't know if lightning will be of any use against a wind barrier.

"All of us will check out Avriya very soon. After that, I'll let you decide whether you want to stay or go home. You can change your mind later, and if you choose to stay at Avriya, we'll let you tell your family and friends if it's safe for you to do so. Though most of us are aura-havers, we allow non-havers here if they are family of aura-havers and/or support our cause, and if they promise not to tell outsiders of our existence. We have to be careful, because if we risk letting the wrong people know about Avriya, they could shut us down or worse. It is the last place where magic is not only legal, but actively taught, which would be considered problematic on the mainland. Any questions?"

The crazy ice girl bounced on her toes, nowhere near as mad as she was before. No, this time there was an enthusiastic gleam in her eye, her expression akin to that of a child at a candy store. "So I can become a mage?”

"Yeah, if you can get through the entire training program. But let me warn you, it is difficult." Juliana answered. "However, we recommend all aura-havers to at least go through the basics so they can defend themselves in case of an emergency."

A boat resembling one of Thunderport's ferries made its way to shore and docked. The wind mage named Elliot waved his arms to remove the barrier, and the wind surrounding the group of people on the beach died down. Cayto insisted on staying behind, but before he could go anywhere, Juliana grabbed his arm and dragged him onto the boat. Then she raised the anchor and the boat drove off.