Mike’s POV

Nikki was out for about an hour and when the school nurse began to fuss too much about what exactly was wrong with her, I told her it was a panic attack. She did not seem to understand what a panic attack was. I decided not to explain what it was due to the state of our society’s aversion to mental health so I just said asthma; that she understood. I wondered where she got her license from because from her level of understanding of certain things, it seemed that they were practically giving it out to anyone who asked nicely. She also tried to get me to leave Nikki, which I protested vehemently. She ended up agreeing for me to stay at the infirmary because I was her twin. I noticed that we got away with a lot of things being twins. Nikki came to when the nurse was in her office. I was afraid she would go to that dark place again and wouldn’t speak but when I heard her voice trying to reach out to me in my head, I knew that she would be okay.

Did I just pass out?

Yhup.

In front of everybody?

Yhup.

Fuck.

Nikki tried to sit up and it seemed she was a lot better because she did not suffer when she sat up. After a minute of silence Nikki wanted to know something.

It was real?

Yhup.

The boy…

Yhup

“He’s here? In this school?” Nikki’s voice was laced with dread and she was sweating despite the air conditioning. I nodded “Do you know which class he’s in?” I shook my head. I was too focused on getting her away from him.

The school nurse came to check on us after a while, looking to discharge Nikki.

“Are you okay?” The school nurse asked Nikki, feeling her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Yes” The school nurse discharged her, without even checking her to see if she was still dizzy or anything.

When we got to class, Nikki’s question was answered; the boy was in our class and he was sitting directly beside Nikki’s seat.

Classic universe, trying to kill us.

The Maths teacher asked Nikki if she was okay and she said yes, trying to avoid eye contact with the rest of the class. They were all staring at us, including the boy with the obsidian eyes. Now he did not have obsidian eyes, his eyes were brown, like the rest of us. We locked eyes and I did not look away; I narrowed mine and he flinched which left me surprised. When Mr. Blay left us to take our seat, I made Nikki sit by the window and I sat at the seat beside the boy.

We did not pay attention, we couldn’t, the boy of my sister’s nightmares was sitting beside us in class. First period came and went and then second period flew by pretty quickly. Then the dreaded snack time came. The other kids run out of the classroom as soon as they heard the bell leaving the Social Studies teacher to pack her stuff on her own. When she finally strutted out of the classroom, there were just a handful of students in the class, including the boy with obsidian eyes. It seemed like a good idea for dad to get us snacks in the morning, but now, we hated him for it. Nikki kept her eyes firmly outside the window as though the view of the children in the park would make the boy go away.

I saw the boy in my peripheral vison turn toward us and I turned to look at him right back. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he flinched again. Was he afraid of me? Oh, he knows about my abilities. He glowed with a yellow sheen when I turned on my aura abilities and then turned it off when I saw enough; it was difficult to see anything else with the neon lights shining everywhere. His aura was relatively clean, his soul was not dark but how was he able to try and kill another human without being a sicko? Maybe he can mask his aura to make it purer than he already is.

Or he’s dangerous, thinking he’s doing the right thing. In judging one’s soul, intent was everything, and from what I saw, his intentions were pure. I really hoped he was masking his aura.

“Oh, hey um…” the boy started to create a conversation with me but was interrupted by Gloria Hayfron. She was among the popular girls at the school. She was lead singer in the school choir and organized the best parties in school. She had various social media accounts and had many followers on such accounts. I heard that she was even creating a YouTube account soon. I do not know the truth in that rumor, but if it were true, she would be even more popular. It was no brainer that everyone wanted a piece of her but for her wanting a piece of someone? That was weird.

“Hey! You’re Neil, right?” Gloria said in a bright voice.

“Yeah, I am” Neil replied in kind, but was still stealing looks at me and my sister.

“Great! I’m Gloria. Nice to meet you” Gloria held out her hands and he took it.

Neil was a bit attractive, a bit darker than what girls usually liked, but he was attractive. Coupled with the fact that he was a foreigner, or apparently a foreigner, that increased his appeal and I suppose Gloria wanted to use that appeal to increase her popularity.

“Let me show you around. Come on!” Gloria said, after asking Neil about his school and Benin.

“I think I’ll pass on the offer Gloria” Neil said, trying to be as nice and as gentle as possible “but I wanted to get to know my seat mates”

“How about Olivia? You sit directly beside her and she’s not even here” she said, sitting on Neil’s table and leaning seductively towards him “Besides,” she began in a conspiring tone “you don’t want to be hanging around Michael and Nikita. They’re weird” she laughed as if laughing would help make her claims less absurd.

Neil laughed as well and I glared at both of them. This wasn’t funny “Well, I’d like to figure that out for myself”. Gloria looked stunned and then looked at me and then Neil.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Then she shrugged “If you want to join the cool team, just approach me” she winked at him and walked away. I noticed how shorter her skirt was.

“I do not agree with her, I think you guys are cool” his accent wasn’t even remotely French. How do people fall for this shit?

“You don’t know us” I retorted. Normally I would be grateful for such a comment but this was the enemy.

“I suppose your sister is Nikita” he said, looking longingly at the back of Nikki’s head.

“She prefers Nikki”

“She doesn’t like me a lot huh?”

“Shocker!” Neil laughed uncomfortably.

“I really need to talk to you guys” he blurted out after a long pause.

I looked at Nikki, she had turned her face towards Neil and was looking at him squarely the first time that day. There were tears in her eyes. Neil was looking at her imploringly. I reached out to her mind.

You don’t have to do this. I’ll do everything, you don’t have to…

I’ll do it.

And at that, she turned back towards the children on the park.

“Time’s almost up…” I began but he cut me off.

“Not in school. It’s not safe” How is school not safe? I wanted to ask, but I felt that I did not want to know the answer. Maybe there are more people like us and such people would be evil?

“So where?”

“There’s a place…” if he thought we would go anywhere alone with him, he was joking.

“No. Come to our place” I was worried about him coming to our place. He would know our home, the only place we were safe at. If he had negative intentions, then our home would not be safe anymore but I was not going anywhere with him.

“Okay fine, your place” he sighed in relief “Thank you, especially you Nikki”

Nikita flinched “Leave her out of this. You are talking to me, okay?” I reprimanded. He nodded and the bell rang.

I was worried about Nikita she was quiet, too quiet. When she couldn’t speak, her mind was working, her mind would tell me things, what she wanted, what she needed, what would make her feel better but now it was silent. It was like she wasn’t even there at all. I tried to engage into conversation with her, but completely ignored me and it made me very upset. I felt so hopeless, and it was all because of some liar who couldn’t have the basic decency to even fake a French accent.

Lunch time came and Nikki said she was going to the library, I offered to go with her but she said no. She didn’t even eat the lunch food. Neil had tried to talk with me several times and I religiously ignored him. He had ruined the relationship I had with my sister. I couldn’t even hear her thoughts. When he realized that I wouldn’t mind him, he ate his food and then took the tour offered by Gloria. She was the happiest girl in school that day.

I wonder how she would feel then if she knew her newest boyfriend had the ability to attack little girls spiritually.

The last two periods flew by pretty fast and very soon, it was closing time. Neil stood up with us and followed us to the car park where we would wait for dad, waving and greeting students the entire time. Mr. Blay informed us that our dad had a hold up in the office so he would send us home. He looked pleased when he found out that we were being friends with Neil and spoke to him the entire journey. Nikki meanwhile, looked like she would drop dead any second and hit anyone who touched her at the same time. I just wished she would talk to me. I just wished she would say something, anything but I gave her space. She was the one who had suffered because of the event not me and I understood that she needed to think.

I was secretly pleased though that she had figured out how to keep me out of her head but I hoped it would be on a much lighter note. Neil, who sat at the passenger seat, would glance at us occasionally and his face would fall every time he looked at Nikki. I did not want to assume anything about his character, but it seemed that he regretted what he did and he was trying to make up for things. It could also be that he was trying to attack Nikki, but then seeing that she survived, he wanted to get closer to her to finish her off. Better still, he knew about our powers and he was from this secret organization and wanted us to join them. Whatever his intentions were, I did not like it one bit.

“Go up there,” I said to Neil when we reached home. Nikki went straight inside and Neil and I thanked Mr. Blay for his troubles. “don’t touch anything, we want to change” he nodded and made his way to our tree house. When I got to the room, Nikki was in her briefs and was silently choosing which clothes to wear.

I recommend the plain black t-shirt and the jeans shorts. It’ll make you look like you don’t care.

She turned to look at me and she begun to glow again. Normally, it was a bright red that lit the entire space and made line patterns on the wall, today it was different. This red was dark, it sucked all of the light and color in the room and made her eyes look dark. She looked dangerous and dark and absolutely scary.

Something was definitely wrong.

“Nikita…” I began swallowing my fear and walking towards my sister.

“Don’t call me that!” she said dangerously. I was almost blind; the only thing I could see in the room was her. Her and her veins that were crooked and gnarled like glowing red tree barks.

“Your aura is stained” I said as though in a trance. I wasn’t supposed to tell her anything, but this, this was scaring me.

“What the fuck are you saying?” her aura turned a bit lighter. She looked at me for a while, then wore my recommended attire and left the room. I wore similar clothes, except that my shirt was white instead of black. When I looked at the mirror, my aura looked the same. I always loved how surreal my eyes looked when my aura manifested.

I noticed how our auras only manifested when we were in this room and for Nikki, it glowed brighter when she was asleep. It had a lot to do with how comfortable the possessor of the aura was. When we were here, we were comfortable. I did not know about anywhere else, but here I was sure to see it. One night, I stole my father’s phone to google about auras and from the things I was seeing, it made sense. I copied down the colors and their meanings and then spent every night trying to memorize them. This would be the key to my figuring out the true intentions of others, ensuring the safety of Nikki and I. From her aura, she was being unforgiving and unyielding. This was causing her a lot of pain and if not checked, would ruin her. I had to make sure, more than ever, that Neil was not here to hurt anyone. If he wasn’t, praise God, but if he were…

I hoped he wasn’t.

Back in the tree house, Neil was eating a sandwich I prepared for him in the spirit of goodwill. He was also wearing his Physical Education attire provided by the school and his uniform was on a hanger hanging on the nail on the window for air to pass through it. Nikki sat at my side, eating her sandwich silently with a soda, I was too nervous to eat mine, although I had made many sandwiches in front of me in a tray. I handed Neil a soda from the ice chest, which he accepted gratefully.

After a while of loud chewing and slurping, which came mostly from Neil, I couldn’t take it any longer.

“Neil,” I snarled, making the name sound like a curse word, but he did not notice, he looked up innocently at me, bread crumbs all over his lips. I wanted to inform him about the crumbs but I decided against it “I think it’s time for you to start talking”

“Yes,” he popped the remaining sandwich in his hand into his mouth and drank the rest of his Pepsi. I winced, expecting him to belch loudly, but he didn’t. He then used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth, to my pleasure “Sorry, I was really hungry and I forgot to take extra money. I was told that I wouldn’t need money and everything will be provided by the school”

At least he knows how it feels like to be lied to.

“Thanks Mike, it was really delicious.” I thought he would say something to Nikki, but after a moment of deliberation, he decided against it.

Smart lad.

“So, what do you want to know?”

“Why did you attack me?” the both of us looked at Nikki, that was the first time she had spoken to him directly since we met him. If I wasn’t mistaken Neil was afraid, he was afraid of Nikki which proved that he knew everything I knew and wanted to know.

“Nikki…” he said breathlessly.

“Don’t you dare mention my name” she wasn’t yelling, but the ice in her voice was enough to chill the both of us. Neil nodded “Why did you attack me?”

“I had no choice Nikki,” he slid to the edge of his seat so that if he needed to kneel down, he would.

“I don’t have time for this. Say it”

“Nikita, you’re a witch”

Nikki sat up in her bean bag in a posture that looked like she would pounce on Neil if he tried to escape, but her face wasn’t menacing, it was just tired.