Kiss kiss

1

I sat behund a dumpster, a hand over my mouth to muffle my breathing. Hard footsteps pounded against the concrete, maling my heart beat faster. When they passed, I almost cried in relief. I stood up and ran further down the alley, freedom so close. My hope for freedom shattered when I got to the dead end. The 20ft brick wall seemed to laugh at my predicament as I banged my fist against it. Footsteps filled the alley, too soft to be cops, but too many for it to just be some random person on a walk. I turned to see three identical women walk down the alley, their fancy clothes and nice shoes were a stark contrast to the rundown and gross street. "Hello, I'm Esme." The one in the middle said, her hand folded infront of her. "Sophie." The one on the right said. "Phoebe." The one on the left waved. "We've heard about your predicament. And we want to help." Same smiled, and Sophie stepped forward. "We want you to join us in making a better world for mutants, where we can use our powers without being hunted." Phoebe walked forward, a hand on Esmes shoulder. "And we think you'll really like it with us. We have a really big house." Sophie looked at her, then back to me. "And really good food." Same put a hand over her mouth like she was whispering a secret to me. "Plus, theres a really cute boy there." Nice house? Fresh food? Cute boy? "Well, I guess I can." I said walking towards them. Same put an arm on my shoulder and the 4 of us walked to a black S.U.V.

"Welcoem to the Hellfire Club." Esme said, and I looked out the window. "Wow." Was all I said as we pulled up to the front door, where a black woman and a pregnant woman stood. "Y/n welcome. I am so happy you chose to join us. I am Reeva Payge." The black woman said, her brown hair pulled into a tight braid. "Hey kid, I'm Lorna." The pregnant woman said, shaking my hand, her green hair was loose around her head. "If you'll follow Esme, she will show you to your room and introduce you to the others." Esme guided me through the double doors and up a flight of stairs. You room will be just up here." Esme opened the doors and I nearly cried. The room wasnt big, but it was mine. My bed. My closet. My dresser. Mine." I dived onto the bed, my face landing in the pile of pillows. "Glad to see you enjoy it, now come on. I promised a cute boy." Esme said motioning me out the door. I followed after her, down the hall, up more stairs, througha nother hall and into another room. A boy with blonde hair stood above a table, a pool stick in his hand. On the other side was a girl with shirt brown hair. "Why do you keep doing this to yourself Andy? You can't beat me." The girl said, hitting a ball with the stick and sending 3 of them into the holes. "I will. Give me time." Andy said, looking over the table. "Andy, Sage, this is our newest member. Y/n." The two turned to look at me. I smiled awkwardly and waved. Sage waved to me, and Andy dropped his pool stick, his eyes wide. "Um, hi. I'm Andy." Andy said rushing over to shake my hand, forgetting about the game. "I'm y/n." I smield at him. He's cute. "I told you." Esme said, leaning over to my ear and nudging me. "Whats your ability, y/n?" Sage asked, placing her stick on the table and leaning over it. "The simple explanation is, I'm a telepathy with extra steps." I said, smiling at her. "Can you give me specifics?" She asked, a laughing smirk on her face. "Well, my powers are love-based." I said walking over to her, leaning over the table. "Whenever I kiss a person, I can see into the mind, seeing their memories, reading their thoughts, feeling their emotions. But I can also manipualte them. I can change their memories, I can manipualte their thoughts, I can change their emotions." I said, rolling a ball back and forth on the table. "You said love-based, thats kiss-bassed." Sage said, lenaing further across the table. "Well, according to my mom, my powers react differently to people in love. Even more so when their in love with me." I said, looking backa t Esme and Andy. "It also changes as to what kind of love they feel. Whichever 8 are more dominant will affect how well I can sense if manipualte something. If Eros is dominant, then I can sense physical feelings and make them do alot more physical activites like fighting and things of that kind." I said, and Sage nodded. "You said according to your mom, have you not used your powers?" She asked, and I laughed, rolling my sleeve up, showing the pink and red lines wrapping around my arm. "No, I just don't notice." I said, pulling my sleeve down. "Those shades are too different from your skin to be scars, what are they?" I pulled my sleeve down lower, covver up my hands. "'Aphrodite will mark her chosen with the vines of love until they join her in her halls of gold'. Whenever peopel in my family use their powers, a new line will appear. If our entire body gets covered, we disintegrate into gold dust." I said smiling at her. "Thats one he'll of a drawback." Andy said, picking his pool stick up. "Yeah, but its worth it to get free stuff." I joked, winking at him. "You said that it changes even more depending how they love you. How so?" Sage asked, pushing a ball into a hole. "It gets harder, instead of easier. The easiet one to manipulate is Eros, the hardest is Agape. Agape is actually impossible. If someone feels Agape towards me, my powers don't work, and actually, when we kiss, instead of appearing, a line disappears." I said, a sad smiel on my face. "But, I've never had to deal with any of them except Eros so its mainly just family legend to me." I said, brushing a small tear away. "Well, if you kiss anyone here, you'll feel nothing but love. We're a family here." Andy said bumping my shoulder. I laughed and bumped him back, slightly harder. "Whats your ability?" I asked Sage, who had now cleared off the table and was putting the sticks back. "I'm smart." She said, placing a stick on the wall. I chuckled, "if you can't explain it simply, you don't really know it." I said and Sage rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That's not the quote." I laughed and she put Andy's stick away. "Hey, we arent done playing, I havent beaten you yet!" Andy excalimed and grabbed his stick. Esme laughed and guided me out of the room. "The kitchen is on the first floor, it is the 4th door on the left of the front door." I followed behind her, fidgeting with my hoodie sleeve. "We will have clother in your room placed by tonight. There is one more member, his name is Fade, but we don't really see him much." Esme pushed open a door and I almost cried again. Such a big kitchen, and I can eat anything. "Just don't eat anything with Lornas name on it." Esme said, smiling at me as I opened the fridge. I grabbed a can of whipped cream and sprayed the sugar flavored cream into my mouth. "Havent eaten in a week, and this is the first thing I eat." I laughed and put it back after getting one more spray. "Dont worry, we dont judge here. So there's no reason for the hoodie. No one will care about your marks." I looked at her, pursing my lips. "I get it if you're not comfortable enough yet. You just got here today, but I just thought you should know." Esme said and left the room.

I stared at the ceiling of my new room. My room. My. Mine. Such a strange concept at this point. I have a new 'family', a new home, a new purpose. I sat up and pulled off my hoodie, looking at the red and pink lines that danced across both arms and my chest. I've counted them numerous times, so I noticed the new one immediately. I red mark runing from my collarbone to my elbow. That was from a security guard at the mall I stole this hoodie from today. I just needed him to let me leave the mall with it, but now my entire shoulder is almost covered completely. I laid back down, my hand tangled in my h/c hair.