Shelly pulled the car behind an abandoned, rundown plaza. Some windows were broken, others boarded, and none in anything resembling good shape. Normal doors hung off hinges and automatic ones were forced open. Plants had started to reclaim the cracked parking lot. This place hadn’t seen any positivity in years. I didn’t even know such a depressing plaza existed in my town.
“Explain yourself. Now,” Shelly commanded, shooting a harsh glare back at Lori. “If you’re trying to play some prank or tell an elaborate joke, this is your last chance to tell me.”
“It’s n-not a joke,” Lori stuttered. “Let me prove it to you. Try to calm yourself down. Wait! Both of you calm down. Once you do, think of memories that make you feel any sort of strong emotion. Happiness, sadness, fear, love, anything at all.”
My sister continued to glare at Lori, who was getting more and more nervous. Sweat ran down her face and she was visibly shaking. For a few moments, I debated on whether to try and pull Shelly back, but she was so set on vetting Lori that I decided to let it play through. I may have been an adult and capable of making my own decisions. That didn’t mean Shelly suddenly stopped being the single most important person in my life. Still, I felt bad for the tiny, trembling figure behind me.
“Fine. Ethan, do what she said.” Shelly’s cooperation surprised me. I hadn’t expected her to go along with it. “You read emotions, yeah? Guess my emotions three times, followed by Ethan’s three times. If you make one wrong guess, there’s going to be an issue. Understand?”
“What do you mean?” Lori asked as my sister’s words hung heavy in the air.
Sighing, my sister reached into the glovebox, pulling out her handgun. I didn’t know much about firearms, but I knew it was real and my sister could use it. I had also forgotten that Shelly even kept the thing in the car. After Mom and Dad were killed, Shelly wasn’t playing around. She was a smaller woman herself, and taking on the role of protector was something she did seriously. For her to take out the gun, it was a big deal. It felt like a massive hand was tightening around my chest.
“Oh God, oh God,” Lori repeated, panicking. Her eyes grew wet. “Please, I don’t want to…I don’t want to get shot. I’m not like those guys on TV, I can’t defend myself from that!”
“I’m not going to shoot you unless you try to hurt us,” Shelly replied in exasperation. “Listen, you show up and say my brother has been tracked by you. You say he’s the reason why you’re here. I’m not a bad person, and more than that, I’m not a stupid person who just recklessly discharges a gun in her own car. I’m showing you this gun as a promise. If you try to hurt my family, that’s when I’ll use it.”
And the three of us sat there, the only movement came from Lori blinking away tears that were in the corners of her eyes. I knew that Shelly was a woman of her word and really would only use the firearm to defend us. That didn’t mean Lori was privy to the same information. To her, she was in a car with people she didn’t know, and one of them had a powerful tool in her hand. To her credit, she didn’t back down or run away.
“Okay, okay, I understand,” Lori said as she collected herself as best as she could. “I’m g-going to close my eyes. I’ll determine your three emotions first, before moving on to your brother’s. I do have one r-request. If I get all six correct, I want you both to talk with our leader at a diner in town today, in public and in broad daylight. Are you, uh, okay with that deal? You can choose the place.”
My sister took a deep breath and contemplated it for a moment. “Yes, you have yourself a deal. Guess them all, and we will meet with your boss today. You have my word.”
With that, Lori relaxed slightly and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and shook her arms out. I could hear her mumble some self-encouragements to try and return to some form of normalcy if normalcy was even something that could be achieved in that situation.
One last breath left Lori’s mouth and she nodded her head, signaling the beginning of the test. For a few seconds, the only sounds I could hear were the car and some undoubtedly chilly birds chirping outside. It was almost nice, in a weird way. Both women were so focused on this test that it actually created a positive kind of intensity, instead of the intensity of having a gun waved around in your face. It felt more productive and meaningful, as two wills both did their best to prove themselves.
That brief intensity was broken when Lori suddenly gasped. I saw her face tighten up to make sure she kept her eyes closed, not wanting to break the rules that she set up. Her small hands balled into tight fists, making her knuckles go white. Lori looked like she was about to be sick. I was getting ready to look for a plastic bag in case she was about to make a mess, but she spoke up before I could.
“Anger and fear! Mostly anger. Very strong anger, but there’s fear in there as well. Whatever has you angry seems to have you scared as well. Lori’s eyes were shut so tight they looked painful. She was speaking through gritted teeth. She was either a better actor than I originally gave her credit for, or her power was putting some serious strain on her.
“Spot on. Take a few seconds to compose yourself and we’ll begin again.” Shelly broke out her no-nonsense, authoritative tone. Since Shelly gave Lori a chance to compose herself, I figured that was a good sign that she was leaning toward believing what the girl said. I hoped that meant things were going to end well.
Lori sighed in relief. Her face and hands relaxed significantly. Whatever changed in Shelly’s feelings had made her much more comfortable again. A pang of guilt stabbed my heart when I looked at the tips of her relaxed fingers and saw red. Her hands were balled up so tight that her fingernails dug into the flesh of her palms and drew blood. My instinct told me to get bandages on her hands, but Lori didn’t seem to notice.
“Great happiness and joy. There’s sadness in there too. A sense of longing and loss.” Lori’s voice cracked and broke like she was the one experiencing the emotions herself. Tears ran down her freckled cheeks, touching the corners of her upturned mouth. It was one of the saddest smiles I’d seen. The kind of smile you have when saying goodbye to someone you care about or when you reminisce about old, better times. Seeing that reaction reminded me of how I felt when I thought about my parents. I had to wonder if that was what Shelly was thinking about.
“Correct. Last one for me, and then you’re on to Ethan.” Shelly’s expression had softened a bit, though her voice was still firm. It was only for a moment, but I thought I saw my sister wince in sympathy at Lori’s condition. The color drained from her skin as she continued to sweat. Whatever this required of her, it was really starting to take its toll.
Without a word or any time to rest, Lori nodded her head for Shelly to feel her last emotion for this test. Once again, the only sounds were the car and whatever critters were outside. The focus was there, but much of the intensity and tension had died down. I was pretty sure my sister was starting to believe what Lori was saying about having superpowers.
“Anxiety, f-fear, and excitement. All a-about even.” Lori was stuttering, her body making small twitches occasionally. “This is s-sort of how I felt when I had to come h-here, just amped up m-more, like going on a b-big rollercoaster.”
“Fine, you’ve passed,” Shelly huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She never liked being proven wrong ever. It had to be harder to be proven wrong when it came to matters of family security and well-being. “I guess I believe you enough, so you don’t have to-”
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Lori’s eyes shot open, and she put her head back against the seat with a loud groan. She looked like she was at death’s door. Her skin nearly looked as ghastly as the girl who made the building in Vancouver collapse. Her short hair clung to her face from how much she was sweating. Her small frame trembled as she attempted to compose herself. My sister and I could only watch, unsure of how to proceed.
“Sorry, doing that takes a lot out of me if I’m focusing that hard.” Lori was having some trouble speaking. Every word was punctuated by a deep breath. After managing to compose herself a bit, she leaned forward and continued. “I can ‘see’ emotions with no problems. I can also feel them from other people, but I gotta let their emotions connect with me and fully embrace them.
“When I do that, it kicks my butt. It might not sound like a hard thing to do, but having to take on someone’s raw feelings can be a challenge, especially when I end up mixing them with my own. Your anger was the strongest emotion you felt, and when I let that in, it nearly floored me. The others were no cakewalk, don’t get me wrong. Even positive emotions can feel like a sledgehammer to the chest. They were still nothing like that first go. That’s why I hardly ever try to use this aspect of my Anomaly.”
Lori looked down at her palms, which had mostly stopped bleeding but were no doubt still hurting. She looked around for anything to wipe them on, but there wasn’t anything in the back to do so. Sighing, Lori was about to wipe them on her jeans when I remembered the first aid kit we kept in the glovebox.
“Wait, let’s get your hands clean and bandaged, don’t wipe them on your pants,” I said, rummaging around in the first aid kit. Digging through a bunch of things that I didn’t know the purpose of, I finally found the few things I knew how to use. We didn’t have any gloves, but we had antiseptic wipes and a couple of rolls of bandages, which was all I’d need.
Lori stuck her hands out to me, bloody palms facing up. I couldn’t believe how deep she ended up driving her nails in. I took a few of the antiseptic wipes and cleaned the cuts as best I could, drawing some grimaces from Lori. Even with the discomfort, she was already looking better. Her skin had some color behind it and her breathing was steadier.
“When did you discover your Anomaly?” I asked as I flipped her palms upward and began to bandage them. I had to run through the steps of how to bandage a hand in my head a few times before I really started. “Actually, when do most people learn that they have one?”
“I was fourteen when I developed mine,” Lori said, her eyes getting a distant look in them. “I was home alone doing some chores and noticed that we needed a lightbulb changed. Simple thing, right? Well, I went into the closet where we kept them, but they were on the top shelf. If you look at me now, I’m sure both of you can guess that at age fourteen, I wasn’t exactly a ‘top shelf’ height girl, but it was just getting a lightbulb, right? Trained monkey could do it, yada yada.
“Anyway, I climb the stepladder we keep in there to grab the bulb, and what do you know, a spider runs along my hand. I’m not the biggest fan of spiders, so it freaked me out a little. I panicked, fell back, brought the box of lightbulbs down, knocked the light fixture out, and when I caught myself on the door, I somehow hit the handle in a way that made me unable to turn it.”
“So…a spider made you discover your Anomaly?” I asked, trying not to laugh. The idea of a girl being so freaked out from a spider crawling on her hand that she awakened superpowers was a hilarious one to me. Funny enough that it almost made me mess up the bandages on Lori’s little hands.
Lori snorted and chuckled, so she at least found the humor in my idea. “No, you dork. The lightbulbs and light fixture shattered on the ground, and I couldn’t get the door open. I was stuck in a small, pitch-black room with glass all over the floor and no way out. I was too scared to move around, so I had to wait for my parents to come home.”
Lori took a second to finish gathering her wits. I used the lull in conversation to make sure I wasn’t messing up my bandaging work. I’d never had to do it on another person before, so my confidence was hardly anything to write home about.
Lori cleared her throat. “Everything about that situation was too much for me to handle, causing me to have a bit of a breakdown. I don’t even know how long I was in there. It couldn’t have been that long, but that didn’t matter to me. All I knew was that I fell, some glass broke, the door was stuck was one or two potential steps away from being seriously injured by that broken glass. So, yeah, that kind of did it. When my parents did come home and get the door open, I could see the fear radiating off them. To make another longer story short, it didn’t take long for us to figure out that I was seeing emotions, and a tracker for Luna found me soon after. Less than a year later, my mom and dad now work for Luna, and we all live in one of the apartments there.”
“Seriously, you have to stop talking about things like trackers,” Shelly interjected. I had almost forgotten she was even there, even though she had just non-so-subtly implied that there would be trouble if anyone tried to hurt us. “It sounds like they’re out to just kidnap people with powers and their families.”
We all went quiet as Lori looked like she was contemplating what to say next and I finished bandaging her hands. I squeezed the tip of each index finger and watched the color return almost instantly. Satisfied that her circulation wasn’t being cut off, I checked the ends, making sure the adhesive tape was holding it together.
“You’re good at this. Have you done first aid training before?” Lori asked, going over the bandages and testing the mobility of her hands with a small grimace.
“Eh, I get by with it. It’s the only real first-aid thing I’ve learned, and I’m still not great at it. I’m not good enough to provide care for severe wounds. I’m hoping I never have to. I can do little things like this. It should prevent your hands from getting infected for the day, at least.”
Lori nodded and smiled at me before turning to face my sister, her face again serious. “You’re right, Shelly-”
“Michelle, not Shelly,” my sister interrupted. I’d called her Shelly for as long as I could remember, but she wasn’t keen on strangers using that nickname for her. To her, calling her that was something that had to be earned.
“Right, sorry.” Lori’s face went red. She averted her gaze from my sister’s face, instead choosing to look out the car window. “You were right about how I phrased the tracker thing. He did his best to respect your privacy, but still let us contact you. He figured out your address because he could feel the latent power within Ethan, then felt the same thing at the high school, and with that information known, it wasn’t hard for him to figure out which one of you it was. I apologize for the distress I put you through, Michelle.”
Shelly just stared at Lori. I wasn’t an expert at reading facial expressions to get beats on people, meaning I had no idea what was running through my sister’s head. It all sounded so wild and unbelievable.
“This isn’t…I’ve never done something like this before. This was my first assignment because of my age, appearance, and Anomaly, but I didn’t have any idea how to recruit someone. Without wishing to sound self-deprecating, I’m a twenty-year-old girl who’s spent most of her teenage life in the same living complex. Granted, there are people my age there, yes, but I haven’t had the best luck making friends. The person I’m closest with is seven years older than me, and he’s more like an older brother kind of friend. But I thought honesty would be the best policy with you two. I guess that was how it worked out in the end.”
“Wait, you’re twenty?” I asked, shocked. I thought for sure she was at least my age, if not younger. “You don’t look it.”
“Is that a short comment?” Lori invited with fake annoyance.
“It’s trying not to be, but maybe it is, just a little bit.” I turned my head forward and tried to nonchalantly whistle.
Her story did make sense to me, though. She really did not seem like she was trained to fool people, so maybe being honest was the best route for her. Maybe reading emotions made it harder to dance around them and lie. I had no idea. Had she tried to lie to Shelly and she found out, that would not have been a pretty scene. With Shelly’s gun still in her hand between us, I was glad it didn’t work out that way.
“Oh, that’s right! My leader said she could afford to meet us for about two hours. Since I, uh, passed the little test thing, can we go to a diner or something like that? Conversation is better amongst food, after all.” When Lori mentioned getting food, a little twinkle of hope sparkled in her dark eyes.
Shelly sighed. “Fine, fine, fine. You won my little challenge and I’ll keep up my end of the bargain, but I fully expect to be let in on everything.”
“Of course! She can be tough, but she’s always been honest with me.” Lori’s voice was peppy to try and reassure us. “That said, I don’t think you’re the kind of woman to be scared of many people. I think this will go well, honestly.”
My sister handed me the gun she had been holding and gestured toward the glovebox, indicating that she wanted me to put it away. As I did so, I noticed a small smirk on her face out of the corner of my eye. With that, she put the car in reverse, backed out of our little hiding spot, and we were off to meet this Mrs. Carmichael person Lori seemed to hold in high regard and a little fear.