When Tessa and I round the house I see Zee and Jackson standing beside the fence, a few feet from eachother. Teesa's walking slows as we near Jackson so I link arms with her and smile in what I hope is a comforting way. She squeezes my arm and smiles back. We walk up to the guys and I stare at Jackson. "So, what's up?"
"First off, I want you to listen and not interrupt me, okay Gem?" I glare but keep my mouth shut. After a few seconds he continues. "I know you both think I'm a bad guy, and in some ways I am, but I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." He pauses to look at both Tessa and Zee. They both look away. "I've always been able to.. hear things really far away. When I was about 15 I started to be able to read minds. Since then these powers have grown, and I can do other things. That's what lead me to Gem. I won't get into detail, because it's not important right now.
"All of you are right, Sam and Will didn't just run away. I know what you guys were lead to believe, and you've been lied to." I can't help it, I interrupt.
"Lied to about what?" I get a look from Jackson.
"I was just getting to that. You all think this is some sort of program to study psychics. In a way, that's what it is, but not in the ways you think. When the police got me in Colorado, they handed me over to other people and I was transferred to that place Gem met me in. I know what they're up to, and why you guys are here.
"They want to find out what heightens the psychic gene in some people and not others. All that blood they took, finger prints, brain waves, it's all being experimented on and studied. Once they find out how it works they're going to try to make psychics of their own, and you will all be done away with."
"Done away with.. As in..?"
"Killed." Tessa grips my arm and I almost yelp. Zee looks like he might throw up.
"That's what they did with Sam and Will?"
"Not yet. Keeping us here and studying our abilities first hand is just the beginning steps. Once they think they've got it, here and back with the stuff they took, they drug you and take you to their labs back at that building. I'd tell you what they do, but you don't want to know." There's silence as we all let this soak in.
"Where do you fit in?" Zee asked, but Jackson never looks away from me.
"I'm here to protect Gemma. As much as both of you don't believe me, that's what I'm here to do. You're all in danger, but she's got it worse than either of you."
"Why?"
"You're the biggest mystery, and therefore the most valuable. They'd basically give anything to keep you here, including let someone like me stay here with a bunch of innocent kids." I bristle at the word 'kids'.
"We're not kids."
"That's all they see you as. Kids that have powers they want. And they'll do anything to get them."
"Why are you telling us all this now? Why not before Sam and Will were taken?"
"You wouldn't have believed it before. Now that you've all noticed things yourselves I felt like it was time to tell you." It makes sense, cause I wouldn't have believed him if he'd just up and told me a month ago, but it's still annoying.
"Didn't they worry that you'd tell us, sooner or later?"
"They said they'd hand me over to the cops if they found out I'd told any of you."
"Can't you plead self defence?"
"Not after running across state lines." There's something else, but he's hiding it from me.
"So who's next?" Jackson shakes his head.
"I don't know. All I know is that if they don't figure Gem out by the end of next month, she's going whether they have or not."
"What about us?" Zee is sitting on the ground, leaning against the fence, looking pale.
"They'll figure you out eventually, but if they don't, they don't care. It's Gem they really want. Keeping us here is just a pretense."
"What about our parents? It's not like they can just explain this away." Jackson shrugs.
"Kids run away all the time."
"But this isn't some group home for troubled teens. This is supposed to be a school."
"Think they care? If you don't talk to your parents for months they can say whatever they want." Tessa lets my arm go and sits on the ground beside my feet.
What else do they have against you?
I can feel indecision in him.
They said if I told anyone, especially you, that they'd pin the Sam and Wills' murders on me.
No comments:
Post a Comment