Escape

Getting Some Answers

I blink at that statement, 'I am you and you are me? We are one?' I want to laugh in this woman's face because that sounds crazy, but after everything that has happened thus far, maybe this statement was not that crazy. Something in me settled when she said we were one and I was keen on trusting my gut so I asked again.

"Where are we?" The woman tsks at me.

"Let's take things one at a time, yes? You asked me who I was and I told you that I am you. The reason you, or we are in this situation is because you keep refusing to see what is in front of you, who you are. You have known since you were a child that there was something different about you but you ignored it and pushed it down instead of embracing it and learning it. Now, you are in a situation where you need your abilities but you have no idea how to use them or what they even are. Let's start there."

"Abilities? I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about-" I try to lie but she sees right through me.

"Tsk, child do not try to lie to me, that is akin to lying to yourself which you seem to do a lot of. You know exactly what I'm talking about. If you wish to play games do so elsewhere and stop wasting my time. You came here for answers, for help. Seek your answers and learn from me, ask as much as you can while you can for I fear you are not safe and you have little time."

The warning in her response sends a chill down my spine, she's right I'm not safe and she seems to know what I'm thinking so there is no point in lying, remembering the danger that I'm in I step closer to her and in desperation I plead, "Please if you have answers that can lead me to safety you have to tell me. I have no idea how I ended up here and I just want everything to go back to normal."

"Poor child," her beautiful face looks crest fallen as she delivers information that I do not want to hear. "I know the feeling of wanting to be normal, but that will never be a part of our reality, we are not normal there for life can not be normal." Her warm eyes look sad but determined, she continues. "Let me tell you our story, it is important that you understand who you are and who you can trust."

As she was talking I walked up the dias to her throne and sat at her feet, she began stroking my hair and got a far off look in her eyes and then it seems like she decided upon something and her gaze meets mine. "It was a long time ago when we began and there were many like us." She says this as she waves her hand and again the scene before me shifts.

Before me I see a little girl that looks exactly like I did as a child. But she looks... lonely. As I look at other aspects of the scene I realize that we are still in the exact same throne room but she is the only child there. I then begin to hear the conversation that is being had.

"Where did she come from? We haven't seen children here in ages! She looks like she's around 6 years of life, who can explain her? Step forward now!" This voice booms through the hall. Everyone turns and looks at the little girl and she steps back looking frightened.

"That is us in the beginning." The scene continues to play out but it is as if everything is muted. People seem to be shouting and pointing at the little girl who begins to cry in fear. "From the very start, our existence was a mystery and it scared my people, you see there hadn't been a child created in nearly 1000 years so where had I, We come from?"

I looked up in surprise at this, no children in 1000 years? Then how were there still so many of our people alive? Seeming to see the question in my eyes the woman answers. "Our people do not age the same as humans today, we age slower as we get to our prime. As a child one year is maybe 5 years in your time but as an a adult one year in our time is 50 in yours. We live for a very long time. And we are very hard to kill if we are using our specialties consistently."

My attention is drawn back to the scene before me when the crowd suddenly turns on the little girl and begins backing her into the wall of the room. The sound comes back in and I can hear the crowd yelling questions at the little girl and the poor child's high voice doing her best to answer. Suddenly a large man tries to snatch at the girl's arm but the minute he makes contact with her she screams. The whole room fills with that familiar bright, blinding and hot light. The man as well as the entire crowd boxing the girl in are thrown back several feet, many of them hitting the walls in the room with enough impact to leave cracks.

The scene before me fades and the throne room is empty again. I blink and look back at the woman. "What happened?"

"We specialized." Is her simple response.

I huff and roll my eyes, so far everything she has told me has just led to more questions, I thought she said she was going to help me. "And what does it mean to specialize?"

Ignoring my annoyance, the woman smiles at me. "Now you're asking the right questions! To specialize is to find one's true inner power, of course this could be as simple as being a feeler or as complex as being a taker." Seeing the confusion in my eyes the woman continues to explain. "In our society not everyone specializes, it usually takes hundreds of years of self learning and understanding of the world before anything materializes. The lowest level of specialization are feelers, they can sense the world at a deeper level. This could mean intrinsically understanding plants or animals or just understanding a person's motivation and desires without asking or knowing the person. A taker can absorb the essence of another being, for instance if someone is very skilled at a task a taker can absorb this person's skill and use it as their own. Takers are the most powerful of the specialized, that is, until we specialized."

Part of me knows what the woman is about to tell me, some part of me that feels deep and old and shared with someone else. As my eyes and the woman's meet, I feel a spark of energy between us, a building block falling into place. "The scene you just saw was us specializing for the first time, but not the last. You recently specialize as well, I felt it. This is why we are now able to communicate." I close my eyes and sigh, yes that's what happened in the cell that feels so far away now, when I felt heat and light leaked out of my body in painful, delicious aching waves."I was hoping you would have specialized sooner so that I could have explained more to you and trained you but we are here now and you are not safe. I will tell you as much as I can while you are here."

Panic returns and burns the comforting feeling I was having away, danger, kidnapping and being drugged that's what waited for me once I woke up. I needed answers and I need then yesterday.

"What are we then?" The woman's eyes seem to shine gold as I ask this question. "We are undefined, there has never been one to specialize like us at such a young age. We control and manipulate energy of all forms." As she says this white light begins to come off of her in warm waves, a more controlled version of the little girl I saw earlier who exploded with pure, raw energy. A more controlled version of...me. The woman before me was powerful and beautiful and wise beyond any person I had ever met. I felt safe in her presence but I knew at the flip of a coin she could release her hold on that energy and wreak havoc. I needed to be wise yet dangerous just like her if I wanted to get out of this situation alive.

"This power has always been in you too Sasha, it has been dominant, waiting for you to call upon it." As she speaks the air around us fills with electricity and a breeze begins to stir in the room, the woman's hair whips at her face. "Everything, everything you need to know is inside of you, when you're ready call upon that feeling." The breeze picks up into a wind and right before my eyes the woman begins to slowly blow away with the breeze.

"Wait don't go, you said I was in danger, what does this Boss guy want from me?"The woman continues to slowly blow away and her answer is a whisper on the wind. "Child he wants your power, you can not let him get it or the world as you know it will crumble. Find the key before he does! Learn to control your powers so that we may meet again."

"Wait! What's your name? How will I reach you again" the woman answers me but her voice is carried away with the rest of her into the wind. A loud clap rings in the air and the scene before me disappears. As the scene fades back to the darkness that it all began with I hear the faintest echo on the wind.

"Isis, my name is Isis, little one."