Chapter One: It’s only the Beginning

“It looks kinda creepy.”

I rolled my eyes, “Of course it looks creepy. It’s an insane asylum converted into a ‘school for the psychically gifted’. You know if you think about it, we aren’t much better than the mentally insane. At least that’s what these ‘normal’ people think.” I looked over at Kara; she was fighting back tears, “Kara, what’s wrong?”

Kara looked at me; she never was very strong emotionally, “They think we’re monsters? That we’re just something to be locked away and forgotten about?”

Putting my arms around her, I pulled her close, “You know sis, that’s exactly what they think of us. Only some think that we can be deprogrammed and our ‘powers’, as they call them, can be turned off. That’s why we’re here. Mom and Dad want our powers turned off.”

Stephanie laughed, “That’s what your parents want? My Dad wanted to shoot me. But my mom persuaded him to put me in here. It took a lot of time to persuade him though. He kept saying he wasn’t going to pay any kind of money to allow the devil’s child to go to school. Sounds fun don’t it?”

Listening to her, I realized that my parents were the nicest parents a person like me could ask for. True, they don’t understand how their only two children could be like us. Especially the girls. That’s what Mom said anyhow. I’m glad that my parents didn’t try to kill us like Stephanie’s dad, or even lock us in the basement like Crista’s mom. That is neither here nor there, because Crista’s dead and Stephanie’s going with us to this ‘school’. The gates looked like something that would be in front of a castle, very ominous. I smiled at Kara, “Here goes nothing.” We pushed open the gates and walked onto the premises. Kara was right, it was creepy, and not just kinda. I started to wonder if Stephanie was getting flashes of what was to come by the way she kept wincing. I finally reached out and touched her lightly on the shoulder.

“Hey Steph? You okay? You look like someone keeps hitting you. You getting flashes?” That’s what Stephanie calls them, flashes. She says it’s like lightning- BAM- then it’s gone.

Stephanie shrugged, “Not really. It’s more of a feeling then a flash. This place doesn’t sit right with me.”

“It’s old. There is a lot of anger and resentment. So much pain. You can reach out and touch the pain.” Kara’s eyes glazed over, “The screams of former patients echo in my head. The pain they endured screams through my nerve endings. This is a bad place, we shouldn’t be here.”

Stephanie shuddered slightly, “The man that owns and directs this place is pure evil. Kara’s right, we shouldn’t be here. We need to leave…” “Leave? Why would you leave this wonderful school?” Steph started, she then whirled around to face the source of the voice. “What kind of person sneaks up on a telepath? What kind of person CAN sneak up on a telepath?”

The source of the voice turned out to be a tall well-dressed man. “Allow me to introduce myself: I’m Darius Carver; dean and creator of this school. You are…?”

“We’re students of your fancy school.” Kara tensed slightly at the smirk that Darius Carver gave. “Of course you’re students, but what are your names?”

“Our names aren’t important as of right now. So what is your school designed to do? I mean besides brainwashing us into believing we have no abilities.” Stephanie always was one to get straight to the point.

“Brainwash you? Who said anything about brainwashing you? All that this school is here to do is give you a normal life. Don’t you want to be normal? I mean no one laughing at you because you’re different. No one moving away from you when you walk into a room.” Darius Carver stared into Stephanie’s eyes.

“You’re telepathic! Aren’t you Mr. Carver? You can read my mind! You’re just as far away from normal as we are!” Stephanie exclaimed.

Kara nudged Stephanie and looked at Mr. Carver, “No it’s not Mr. Carver that’s the telepath. It’s his son, his son Reggie. Isn’t that right Mr. Carver? Your son thought that he was hearing voices, it never occurred to him he might be hearing the thoughts of other human beings. And you condemned him for it! You scorned him because he could hear your thoughts. You weren’t safe from him because he invaded your sanctuary, your mind. You hated him for what he was. Reggie loved you, and you treated him like a monster. You’re the monster Mr. Carver. You’re the reason he killed himself. He tried to stop the voices so that you wouldn’t hate him. He shot himself here…” Kara touched her temple, “and here…” she then touched the roof of her mouth, “It stopped the voices didn’t it. It stopped the voices but it also stopped your son. Your son could have ended world hunger and war. Because he could read thoughts, he was SOLELY telepathic. Something not many people can boast. You see most of us are a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But Reggie was SOLELY telepathic. Mr. Carver…” Kara stared into Mr. Carver’s eyes, “you know telepathy and other psychic gifts are genetic. Meaning that he got it from you. Now don’t shake your head, because even though you may not have the gifts, your father might have or your mother might have. So it’s really your fault that Reggie destroyed himself. But then again it could have been your wife’s fault. After all a human is half their mother and half their father. Who’s fault is it Mr. Carver? Can you honestly say you blame your wife for your son’s abnormality? Because that is how you see it, isn’t it. An abnormality which makes one different from others; out of the norm. But not special. No we must never call them special, they might start to think that their gift is something to be proud, and we can’t have can we? Because if they become proud of who they are, were will people like you go? You’re afraid Mr. Carver, and you should be. But not of us; of yourself.”

Mr. Carver stared at Kara; he began to get that look in his eye that you see in an animal that has been caught in the wild, “NO! It’s not my fault! I’m normal! HE WAS NOT MY SON! That thing was not my son, it was a monster, just like you’re monsters! You deserve death, but I’m here to help you. Can’t you see that? I’m here to destroy the monster inside of you.”

“Like you destroyed the monster inside of Reggie?” Kara’s eyes had gone cold; she hated death more than anyone did.

“NO! There was no monster in Reggie, because Reggie WAS the monster! Don’t you see? You still have a chance! You have to fight it before it consumes you and you become a monster too!” Mr. Carver was shouting this at us; he seemed to be lost in his past. A past he had tried to block out, a past that would not be blocked out.