Three days after the first introductory meeting, and two after dinner with Alex, I’d decided to move forward. If something came up, I could always just stop wherever I was or leave. Alex had fielded the majority of my questions yesterday, and it assured me that while this might not give me what I wanted, it was worth looking into and trying out.
Leo didn’t know I was here, and I planned to keep it that way. He was over-opinionated about it all. Sure, he had a few legitimate concerns, but I’d addressed them already. How will you share information with the NDA? Be very careful about it. What if they’re trying to get something out of you with the bio-screen? It wasn’t hackable, Leo. You designed it that way. And if they asked, I’d be required to say no anyway with the contract I had with Farley Tech. What if they try to use you for your ability? No is a complete sentence. I can always walk away.
The trials I was being put through today seemed neanderthal in comparison to what the bio-screens could do. There were sensors all around the room, monitoring as much as possible to get the same data the screen got. I was also covered in sensors, tiny stickers all over my body to measure heart rate, pulse, all the good and boring stuff. It had taken a half hour to place all of them correctly before we could even get started.
I didn’t care what information they gathered from me during these little trials today. The next person would do just as well as me, and it wasn’t like they could really use my abysmal stamina on the treadmill against me. I wasn’t a runner. Sue me.
I gasped as the treadmill slowed to a stop. Thank fuck. I was offered water and a chair to sit in to catch my breath.
“That’s the end of the, shall we say, traditional test,” blue scrubs informed me. I nodded, unable to get words out quite yet. A few gulps of water helped, and I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my hand. Maybe I need to start working out, at least a little bit, I thought. This is embarrassing.
“You’ve been practicing your skill?” black scrubs asked. It was more of a statement than a question; it had been a requirement to proceed with today. Black scrubs had yet to actually look at me today, and that didn’t change now as he flicked through the tablet.
“Yes,” I answered, just as flatly as he asked the question. No wonder these people were here and not in a hospital somewhere; no bedside manner. Or maybe they were, and volunteered here, and had nothing left to give. That, I could understand. But even the smallest of introductions when I first arrived would have gone a long way to helping me feel more at ease. As it was, I was tense, on edge, and not looking forward to this next part.
“Describe your ability,” black scrubs instructed.
“Teleportation,” I answered simply, crossing my arms.
Apparently my answer acceptable and specific enough; black scrubs made a few notes in my file while blue scrubs started moving things around at the other end of the cavernous room. It echoed slightly in here, and there was space for fifty or more people to gather with room to spare.
“Do you teleport yourself, or objects?”
“Objects.”
“Have you tried it on yourself or another person.”
“No.”
“Why not.” Should I have risked the lives of people just to fuck around? Sounded like this guy thought so. My fists clenched around the water, and I carefully set it aside as I stood.
“I haven’t met anyone I hate enough to try it out,” I joked. “It sounded like a bad idea waiting to happen. But if you all want, I’m open to trying here, today. Got any volunteers?”
Black scrubs didn’t reply until blue scrubs came back. “Get a few mice, please,” he requested, making eye contact with his colleague. Blue scrubs nodded once and left to fetch the mice.
My stomach turned. I hadn’t expected for them to take me up on my offer, though I probably should have. The real reason I hadn’t tried was because I didn’t want to experiment on living things.
Black scrubs gestured with an arm. “Please stand on the line. Move the objects on the table however you wish. You may start with any object and move it to any clear space in the room.”
About fifteen feet away were a variety of items, from an apple to a bowling ball to a feather. Mundane, everyday items, ten in total.
I held my arm out in front of me, relaxed. This, I could do. While I didn’t have to point my finger like I was a wizard performing some great, dramatic magic trick or anything, the extra direction helped me mentally focus better. To do without meant more effort on my part, and I was focused on practicing the basics right now over what I viewed as fine-tuning my ability.
Efficiently, I moved each item to different spots around the room in rapid succession. The bowling ball appeared at my feet. One. The broom clattered to the ground at the far end of the room, next to the trash can. Two. The water bottle rolled underneath the table it started at. Three. The feather somehow ended up in black scrub’s front pocket. Weird. Four.
Each time I moved something, my bio-screen buzzed once, alerting me to my own gamma. There had been no secondary gamma radiation so far today, making me wonder what abilities the two nurse-types had, if any. Because if they were here, they had to have something, right? Or were they trusted?
I finished my little demonstration by teleporting the apple into my hand—ten—and taking a bite. I’d been here for hours already, without more than a minute break, and I was hungry.
“So, not only can you teleport an item, you can change its orientation while it is in the in-between.” Black scrubs pointed to the water bottle, which had stopped rolling after running into the table leg. “And you can also set the object in motion upon arrival.”
I blinked. I hadn’t considered that his statements would be something worth mentioning. But now that he had, I had to admit it was true. I hadn’t thought about changing how the water bottle was positioned or making it move; I’d just done it because I thought it would show off my ability.
Huh. That was interesting, and definitely something I needed to pay more attention to.
“Apparently,” I answered unnecessarily. He was already messing with his tablet again, no doubt taking even more notes on what I’d just displayed.
“Very good.” Finally, a positive reaction to something. “Let’s get close to the table. Have you tried teleporting moving objects yet?”
I thought about it for several seconds. “I don’t remember, so let’s say no.”
“I’ll roll some tennis balls slowly to start, and work our way up to a greater velocity as you succeed.”
The rolling balls made no difference; it was just as easy to summon them to my hand. Eventually, black scrubs worked up to throwing them across the room, and I had them vanishing out of thin air and into my hand. I lost track of how much gamma I had racked up, which made me grateful I wasn’t being exposed to any secondary on top of all of my own doing.
Black scrubs nodded after I got the last one. I offered it back to him.
“I’d like to try something else.” He frowned down at his tablet as he thought. Could this guy pay attention to anything else? Make eye contact for any length of time? “This time, when I throw it, I’d like to see if you can maintain its original velocity.”
“Sure, I can try. Where should I send it?”
“I’d like to see you send it to your hand.”
“Do you want me to change its path so I catch it? Or do you mean teleport it to my hand and keep it moving?”
“The second.”
Awesome.
I don’t know why, but I had very little faith in myself for this.
For good reason.
When I teleported the ball from halfway across the room to my hand, instead of continuing along at a quick speed, it fell straight down and bounced.
“Try again.”
I did, with a similar result.
“Hmm.”
“Let me try again,” I requested. “I have an idea.”
Black scrubs obliged. This time, I decided to try a wizard’s dramatic magic trick. With my arm parallel to the ground, palm facing away from me and towards the opposite wall, I summoned the ball and gave it the biggest oomph that I could as I pulled it to me.
There was the tiniest moment, less than a heartbeat, where the ball was in my hand.
Then it blasted into the opposite wall, lodging itself there in the drywall with an echoing, thunderous whack.
We stood there silently, staring. My fingers buzzed, and I flexed them to shake the feeling.
“Uh, sorry,” I apologized.
“No need. This is why you’re practicing alone, and not with others today.” Black scrubs typed so quickly on his tablet that his fingers nearly blurred.
“Do you want me to go get it?”
“No need. We want to measure it. Do you think you can try again, but without making it into a volatile projectile?”
“Probably.”
He threw another ball, and this time, I gave it a tiny amount of force. With my hand outstretched again, I had no problem sending the ball flying several yards away before falling harmlessly to the ground. It was an extra mental hoop to jump through, but after figuring out where it belonged in my brain, it came much more easily.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“You’re a quick learner.”
I turned to him, taken by surprise by the compliment. “Thank you. Is that not normal?”
“No,” he answered without elaborating.
Alright then.
Blue scrubs returned then, carrying a cage of mice that he placed on the table where the original ten objects had been. The feather was still in black scrub’s pocket, forgotten. It made me smile.
“We will try the mice next. But let’s start at a closer distance.”
He led me towards the table where the mice quietly squeaked adorably in their cages.
I swallowed.
Blue scrubs reached in and grabbed one quickly by the tail, holding his hands like a small cage around the tiny creature. Its nose poked through the gaps in his hands, whiskers twitching as it sniffed.
“I’m getting pretty tired,” I lied suddenly, not wanting to go through with this. Not today, at least. I knew if I backed out now, I’d have to do it later. But at least I would be prepared better.
Right?
“This is the last task, then. Do you think you can finish?”
I inhaled deeply through my nose and held it. I was scared, terrified really, of killing the mice in my attempt. Inanimate objects, even plants and fruit, were no problem, not being sentient. But living, breathing animals?
Thinking back to my reason for doing this in the first place, I steeled myself. I could save people’s lives faster if I did this today. And while I thought every living being was important and deserving of respect, if I had to rate a person versus a mouse…I couldn’t not pick the person.
Just as I let out the breath to answer, my back pocket vibrated.
My phone.
I snatched it out, buying myself a little bit of time, and swiped up on Leo’s message. We quickly exchanged messages; he must have been waiting for my reply.
Leo: Where are you?
Me: Out. Busy. You good?
Leo: Fine. When will you be back?
Me: Not sure. Soonish? As soon as I’m done with this. Gotta go, though. See you later.
Leo: What are you doing?
I left his question unanswered. Black and blue scrubs were looking at me expectantly.
“Sorry. Roommate wondering if I was okay,” I said by way of explanation. “I think I can at least try with the mice.”
“Good. Just to your hand, please.”
I focused on the white, wiggling mass in blue scrub’s hands, holding mine out in front of me and creating a little cup so the mouse wouldn’t immediately fling itself out of my grasp. If I was being teleported through space and time, I would probably be pretty disoriented and want to get the fuck away from whatever madness I’d just been through.
Willing all the negativity, the thoughts that I couldn’t do this, into a box in my brain, I shoved it closed and locked it away. I could do this.
I tugged.
And was immediately bitten.
I yelped and jumped back, barely managing not to drop the mouse that was in my hands. I dropped to my knees and let the little heathen onto the ground.
“Why did you do that?” blue scrubs asked, watching the mouse skitter across the white floor. It nearly blended in, its pink tail the only thing standing out against the floor.
“Sorry, it bit me,” I answered, inspecting my hand. There was the tiniest indent of teeth marks, but no skin had been broken. Sooo, maybe I had been just as startled as the mouse for managing that.
Blue scrubs took a step to gp after the mouse, but I teleported the little furball back into the cage with its friends. The other mice squeaked and scattered when the other mouse reappeared, but they quickly settled.
A wave of exhaustion washed over me. I pressed a hand to my forehead and spread my feet apart to better keep my balance.
“That’s all I have in me today,” I announced honestly.
They wrapped up their notes and had me sit for twenty minutes while the rest of their tests finished running. They brought me a few snacks, which I devoured with enthusiasm.
While they were distracted with their fancy-to-them machinery, I checked in with my bio-screen. I hunched over in an attempt to shield it from wherever cameras might be.
That was…different.
The only object that might have been heavy enough to be classified as primary gamma level three was the bowling ball, but what four other objects created that much gamma to register as P3?
Was it when I intercepted the tennis ball and kept them moving those two times? The first time like a bullet, and the second, more controlled time? Did that impact the amount of gamma used? Current evidence suggested yes, but that still left two instances unaccounted for.
I cleared my bio-screen, leaning back against the chair and waiting out the remaining few minutes until the scrubs ripped all the sensor stickers from me and sent me home. I’d have to bring this up to Leo, but…another time. I didn’t want to deal with him tonight.
“Tell me you didn’t.”
Damn. He didn’t even give me a chance to fully wake up before starting an argument.
“Didn’t what?” I asked flatly, pressing the coffee maker’s buttons to get some caffeine going.
“Do that stupid trial thing.”
How he knew that’s what I was doing yesterday, I had no idea. Did he just automatically jump to the worse conclusions, at least in his own head? Was it my lack of response to his question about what I was doing, making him assume I was keeping secrets? I mean I was, so he was right, but still. No benefit of the doubt from this man.
“Do you want me to lie to make you feel better, or do you want the truth?”
“Callie, are you fucking kidding—”
“No, you don’t get to do that!” I pointed an accusing finger at Leo. He was on the other side of the counter. My coffee spluttered into the mug behind me. I was exhausted, wrung out, ran over by a bus, and all the other stupid metaphors I couldn’t think of. I’d overworked myself yesterday, clearly not knowing my limits yet. Today was a recovery day, one that I already had plans for, and getting into a fight with Leo was not on the calendar.
“Leo, I don’t want to argue with you about this. We talked about it. You shared your concerns. I gave you my response. So why in the ever-loving hell are you bringing this up again before I’ve even had my fucking coffee?”
“You need to stop.”
“I’ll stop when people stop needlessly dying. Do you have a date in mind for that? When will Farley hand out the screens for free? Or help people develop abilities?”
“You’re being difficult.”
I laughed, a high-pitched, hysterical sound. “Oh, I’m the difficult one. Got it. Forgive me for forgetting that you get to decide what I do with my time, how I decide to help people.” We were drowning in sarcasm. I turned around, collecting my mug and pouring in my creamer, seething.
At first, I’d chalked all this up to him being concerned for me. But even presented with my reasoning, and assuring him that I was quite capable of taking care of myself, he still treated me like some helpless princess who didn’t need to get her hands dirty or worry about the people in her kingdom.
Fuck. That.
This was life or death—maybe not for us, but that wasn’t important. People mattered. Meg mattered to her little boy. Friends, siblings, everybody mattered to someone. People with power knew how to help, and just…didn’t. Sometimes I thought Leo didn’t get how privileged he was. This example being Exhibit A.
As soon as Leo started to make noise, surely to keep arguing with me, I snapped, “I’m fucking done with these conversations, Leo. I don’t want to hear it anymore. You’re not treating me like an equal. You don’t hear what I say or think I’m capable. And until you do, you don’t get to have an opinion on what I choose to do.”
“I’m trying to look out for you!” he argued back.
I whirled and all but shrieked, “You’re trying to control me!”
He stalked around to come toe to toe with me. I held my ground, almost wavering. I crossed my arms in front of me protectively, and they brushed against him with how close he was.
His hands landed on my shoulders. I shrugged them off, but he dropped them to my biceps instead.
“Callie, I…” He sighed, dropping his head. His forehead was a hair’s breadth away from mine. It made me feel a little cross-eyed, trying to look at him. I gave up and settle for starting at the stitching of his shirt near his neck.
“You need to let me go,” I forced through gritted teeth.
He dropped his hands, but didn’t move away.
“I worry because I love you. I don’t want to see you hurt. And there’s so many things that could go wrong, and it’s consuming me worrying about you. Wondering if you’re okay.”
“Leo, you’ve been my best friend, but seriously? I can take care of myself. I’m working to help people, in my own way. You need to let go and trust me.”
He shook his head. “You’re not hearing me. You haven’t been hearing me.” He leaned forward, his hands braced against the countertop at my back, his arms bracketing me.
“Callie, I’m in love with you. Not a friendship love, or a sibling love. Like a wish-you-weren’t-dating-that-idiot love. You should be with me.”
My brain short-circuited and I twitched in surprise as Leo’s lips met mine.
Two months ago, I would have been over the moon at his declaration. I’d harbored a crush on this man for almost the entire time I’d known him. He was smart and had an odd sense of humor. Those first couple of days, talking in the hospital about any and everything, had created a bond that I thought would never break.
But now? With the way he had been treating me, trying to convince me to abandon what was important to me? The number of red flags was alarming now that they were waving in my face. I didn’t feel like Leo respected my decisions, respected me, and that wasn’t something I could ever look past.
If he thought that some grand declaration would change my opinion on what I wanted to do to help people, to convince me to change my mind for him, for his supposed love, he was going to be sorely mistaken.
I reached up, fisting my hands in his shirt, and pushed.
“Stop, Leo, I—” I needed to get away from this man, put some space between us, like right the fuck now.
I teleported.
I hadn’t meant to. But suddenly I was on the far side of the living room, my back pressed up against the wall next to my bedroom door.
Immediately, Icrumpled to the floor, my legs giving out.
My entire body was buzzing. It felt like all my limbs had simultaneously fallen asleep and were suddenly getting the blood back again. It was uncomfortable, but I pushed up to my hands and knees and focused on my breathing as the sensation slowly eased.
“Callie?” Leo called out, undoubtedly searching for me.
“Fine,” I called from the floor, hoisting myself up the rest of the way and trying to ignore the look of awe on Leo’s face as he rushed over. I leaned back against the wall.
“You…you teleported. Yourself.”
“Yes. It appears that way, doesn’t it? If you’ll excuse me, I need to go lay down.” It wasn’t a lie. The room was spinning, and there were almost two Leo's standing in front of me. My first few steps were unsteady, my hand braced against the wall.
Leo reached out to help me, but I swatted him away with intention to harm. I nearly fell over.
“No,” I said. “Your help is the last thing I want right now.”
“Why?”
Sometimes I wish I had the audacity of this mediocre man.
I glared. He just frowned, like he was only concerned if I was okay or not. I’d have to be properly threatening later. Lay down the law. Threaten to move out.
Actually, that last wasn’t a bad idea. But a problem for future Callie. Present Callie really did need to lay the fuck down.
“That you have to ask…” I trailed off, letting him fill in the rest. Or not. I really couldn’t care less.
My teleportation must have been unexpected enough that he let me retreat into my room without another word.
I closed the door behind me, locking a disgruntled Lucie in with me. She’d been spending more time in my presence lately, which I appreciated. Or maybe she was trying to tell me what an absolute dickhead my roommate was.
Reaching to pet her was the wrong choice; she puffed up and bolted. Whatever. But a flashing light on my screen caught my attention. In all the excitement—if one could even call such a negative experience exciting—I hadn’t felt my screen buzz at me.
Flicking on the screen, I paused.
For the first time a new level to my gamma table appeared, one that Leo must have programmed to activate if I ever got to that level.
P5.