{Original Story}
Having supernatural powers should feel like a blessing, but for Jack Parker, the most powerful Gifted in the world, it means he gets to be haunted by ghosts, hallucinations, and premonitions. Oh, and he's also on the run to stay on...
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The living room was free of the clutter that wrecked the kitchen and the hallway, and so Anna chose it as the destination of their confrontation. Now, she sat in a chair, sipping grape juice from a wine glass. Across the room from her, slumped in the matching chair, was Jack Parker. He was tied up and, unfortunately, still unconscious.
When four minutes had passed since she hit him with the vase, Anna began to worry that she'd given him irreparable brain damage. She would get to kill him whether he woke up or not, as Death was no longer here to interfere, but she was still holding out hope that they would get a chance to talk.
She froze when he suddenly bolted upright as if he'd been electrocuted. He was squinting at her now, face screwed up in pain, dried blood on the side of his head. She saw the exact moment his vision unblurred, the exact moment he realized he was tied up, and his face twisted even more.
But he didn't say a word. Didn't struggle against the rope. Didn't even look the least bit scared.
"Doesn't it frighten you?" Anna asked. "That I haven't killed you yet?"
Jack was unamused. It irked her, and she tried not to show it as she leaned back in her chair. The true emotion that stood out on his face was not pain or hatred. It was hollowness. It might be because she hit him with a vase, twice, and he wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders. And maybe...he had no clue that she murdered his friend and sent the other running off into the night. Anna hadn't gloated, and he must be assuming that they made it out fine.
The arrogance.
"Why are you stalling?" he asked finally, but even that sounded like it was out of exhaustion rather than fear.
Anna leaned forward. "Because you're Jack Parker!" She gave his name the emphasis worthy of a celebrity. "I can't just kill you, after all the trouble I went through to find you. We should talk first!"
He only blinked.
"I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm—"
"Anna van Danne," he said. "Twenty-nine years old, and the second-youngest direct descendant of the original Enhanced. The youngest is your twin. You spent the last few years in a mansion in Ohio instead of hunting, but it wasn't because you grew a conscience." He smiled; there was blood on his teeth. "It was because you were jealous and bored. And the second you had the chance to do something special, something worthy of your egotistical self, you jumped at the chance."
Anna's hands tightened on the armrests. "I don't appreciate you digging through my head."
"And I don't appreciate being tied to this chair," he snapped. "I guess we're both out of luck."
She tried to look neutral. She wanted him to fight back a little, but not like this. Not at the expense of exposing her feelings. "Where's Death?"
