--IV--

"Midnight!"

Kaylee was in a dress, a beautiful thing, it was light pink and studded with what looked like thousands of tiny little diamonds to me. It came straight from the US, and cost $500.99. I know because I'm the one who bought it for her.

"Kaylee," I said, grinning. I didn't hesitate to embrace her. She and her family had done so much for us. Next to Malcolm, she was the best friend I had in the entire world.

I remembered Experiment Nightingale. We were tied to chairs... all of us. None of us was older than twelve. The being tied to a chair wasn't necessary for me; even then, I knew there was nothing in my power that I could do to stop the experiments. I didn't know if I was going to live or die that day, I didn't know if I cared. I was being prostituted for money and food then and I didn't know if I cared to keep going. That in itself makes you feel messed up, makes you feel afraid of everything. Kaylee was crying. Sobbing and shouting about how her parents were two of the top men working somewhere with some kind of authority. But it wasn't enough. Kaylee and I were the only ones from the experiment still alive after three months.

Kaylee looked at me. Her eyes were brown, like mine, like her dad's. They were filled with tears. "Thank you so much for the dress," she said.

"You're welcome," I said. I had to try hard not to cry; she was always kind, and beautiful, without trying to be. She was one of those people you always wanted to be around. And she always told me I was one of those people, too, but I didn't know if I agreed. "Thank you for saving my life. And Malcolm's."

"You saved your own life. I just had to talk to people."

Caleb was standing in the doorway. I saw him by the golden light of their living room, which was spilling out onto the porch on that warm Friday evening.

Kaylee looked at him. "Jealous, Caleb?" she said.

I laughed, harder than I had ever laughed before. It was ridiculous. But not without merit.

"Shut up," said Caleb.

"Yeah, I know you are!" Kaylee replied. I know she found it funny; it was all that mattered to me.

--

--

She started walking towards the house. I waved hello to Aurelio, one of the men employed to guard the perimeter. He waved back; he always greeted me with a smile.

I loved the Davenport residence. It was beautiful, made from glass and marble and maple and mahogany and oak and stone and all sorts of things I had no name for. From where I stood I looked up at the chimney, which jutted out from the glass roof. I was transfixed; chimneys captivated me. I'd only ever seen five of them, four of them when I was assigned work in mainland US. Every curtain that I could see above the ground floor was dark red. Red was my favorite color. I smiled.

The four-story masterpiece was one of few places in the Overwoods where I knew I was safe. Just like Malcolm's house in the Port, it was home to me. And when you combine that with the fact that I didn't have one at all until I was fifteen, it wasn't just amazing; it was a sanctuary.

A sanctuary with, in my opinion, the kindest and nicest four people, ever. Though occasionally Henry got too drunk and started arguing with anyone who would listen about how telepaths only should be allowed to hold positions in government.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

I didn't know about that. And I only ever read minds to preserve my life or someone else's.

I wondered what mind reading politicians did. I wondered what politicians did at all. I wondered what they talked about, what they ate for dinner.

They're people, like us, aren't they?

Kaylee giggled as I followed her up the steps; she spoke to me in a hushed tone.

"You know, Chris, he really loves your smile."

"Must be the dimple," I replied. "My teeth are fucked."

"What? No, they're not."

"You don't see them like I do."

"Yeah, I'm not sure anybody does." She shot a glance at me as we walked up. "Especially not Caleb."

We were outside the door now; Caleb was standing directly in front of me, his eyes on mine. They were some sort of color between gray and blue. They reminded me of the ice-covered sidewalk I once slipped on.

He was a foot taller than me at minimum- which made sense, because I was five foot three, at most. I had to look up whenever he spoke to me.

"Howdy," he said. He had a thick and heavy US accent, of course, but it was slightly different from the one that Henry and Kaylee shared. It fascinated me. He looked like Scott; they were both tall, dirty blond, blue-eyed.

"Hi," I said.

"We heard you apprehended someone," said Caleb. "Good work."

"I... didn't apprehend anyone," I said. "I just kept someone from getting hurt."

He means from two weeks ago. A man was yelling in whatever language it was and shooting people with some sort of makeshift revolver. It's not like I was gonna stare and do nothing. Fortunately no one was killed; I only needed to do one hop. That's what I called it. I just jumped on him.

"I'm still proud of you," said Caleb. "You saved lives. It's what you do."

"You're giving me too much credit."

"Am not."

"I'll go leave you two alone!" squealed Kaylee, quirking her eyebrows at us and stepping inside.

Caleb and I stared at the doorway. For what felt like five minutes we listened to Kaylee still laughing inside.

"How's James?" said Caleb. "Anything new with the Webwork?"

"James is..." I didn't know how to put it. "James is as you would expect him to be, I guess." I loved James. I didn't want to say anything bad about the man. Bad karma.

"Of course," said Caleb. "On stimulants."

"I don't know. Probably." I remembered something else. "Somebody told me Chaquille overdosed."

"Interesting." Caleb grinned. "He's not there to tell you that you're a little twelve-year-old boy looking for drugs anymore?"

"Not recently," I said. "I haven't seen him for a month."

"And you still work with Meadows," said Caleb.

"Meadows," I said. "And Klein."

"Belinda?" said Caleb. "She's a bitch."

We heard some shuffling upstairs, and then Kaylee was back. Well, sort of. We saw only her head, peeking out of a second-story window.

Out of thin air, she created some sort of little handful of leaves. She placed it on the edge of the windowsill.

I stared at it. Kaylee looked at me, expectantly.

"I don't get it," I said.

"It's mistletoe," said Caleb.

"What's that?" I said. "What does it do?"

"Never mind," said Caleb.

Kaylee waved her arms from upstairs.

"Chris, make sure you DON'T read his mind!" yelled Kaylee. "Trust me, it'll be SO uncomfortable!"

I was silent. I didn't know if I was blushing red, or green. Caleb was blushing red for sure; I could see it, and he was glaring. I didn't hear him sound angry too many times, but this was one of them. "I am going to make sure he never buys you anything!" he yelled back. "Anything, ever again!"

Kaylee stuck her tongue out, shut the window, and disappeared from view.