The Orbist

Chapter 20

    "Hey, Elian." I mumbled, and held up my hand to point. "Look, there's a panther monster. Run!"

    "Okay, Cayson." I muttered back to myself. "Let's go!"

 I began running really fast, then I crouched down, and flipped on my side.

    "Agh, a needle pierced me!" I screamed.

    "Oh no!" I replied.

 I started laughing like crazy. I turned around and kicked the tree next to me. I picked off a handful of leaves and put them all in my mouth. I chewed quickly and giggled, which made spit come out the corner of my mouth.

    "Where's the water?" I murmured. "It's not even here, so, this place is a forest, and there is no water."

 I looked up at the sky.

    "Oh, I'm sorry,  Lord Almighty!" I growled. "But how about you get off your lazy hiney and help me!"

 I stood on my toes, and began jumping up and down, trying to get closer to the sky.

    "Are you busy? Busy making sure the, um, the, Ecators all get horrible, bad, stupid, deaths? Well, good!" I shouted. "That is um, that is great! You keep doing that, man. Go crazy! Get creative! Send me some photos when you're done!"

 I laughed like crazy again. When I calmed down, I turned back to the sky.

    "You know what? I am alone here, and I'm going to go cuckoo." I added. "Just, uh, a reminder. And, uh, not for Cocoa Puffs. Well, actually, Cocoa Puffs would be pretty okay right now."

 I giggled gleefully.

    "How about it, G-man? Do me a solid and start raining Cocoa Puffs down here."

    "Cocoa Puffs?" I heard a man's voice.

 To hear a voice other than my own startled me, and I flipped back. I saw a middle aged man with a grey beard and black hair. He had small and focused eyes. In his hands he held an axe.

    "You're real skinny." He mumbled as he walked towards me. "Have you been here for a while?"

    "Y-yes, sir. Do you have food?" I stuttered.

    "I have food." He replied, then looked me up and down. "What's your name?"

    "Cayson Kindell."

    "How am I supposed to trust some wacky dysfunctional teen in the middle of the woods talking to himself to not kill me the second he steps into my cabin?"

    "Because, I, um, I am just a kid," I mumbled desperately.

 He looked me up and down again and sighed. Then he walked over to me and held his axe in front of my face.

    "Try anything, and I'll leave your face carved in. Are we on the same page?"

 I nodded quickly.

    "Then let's go." He finished. "Follow me."

 Well, it looked like God was listening to me after all. I wasn't really religious, but I also didn't like to believe in coincidences. Following the man was easy, giving me more and more time to think. Like, what was my power? I was able to find a key in a closed drawer. I came to the conclusion that I had X-Ray vision, even though it was probably not only that.

 Anyway, we walked into a little brown, hardwood cabin. He ordered me to sit down on a man made wooden stool inside it.

    "You have a gun wound." He suddenly said. "On your hip. I can patch it up."

    "Um, thank-"

    "Shut up, crazy."

 He patched up my wound and left for a moment. He then came back with some corn and a piece of raw beef. I ate them quickly, trying to savor every bite, but ended up finishing it in half a minute. He looked at me strangely, almost angrily. I felt as if he hated me with a burning passion. His stone grey eyes were like the sun, I couldn't stare at them too long.

    "Where are your parents?"

    "I don't have parents."

    "How did you get lost in the woods?"

 I looked at him, trying to act confused, though I remembered every detail of how I ended up there.

    "I can't remember."

    "Of course you don't, you're nuts."

    "I was." I replied, tired of being treated badly. "Temporarily. I'm okay now."

    "If you're okay." He countered. "Then why don't you just walk out the door and go find your way to whatever you call home?"

 I didn't respond.

    "Yeah." He barked. "So I'll start believing bull coming out of your mouth when you stop asking the sky for cereal!"

 I looked down to the wooden floor.

    "Keeping you here is something I won't enjoy." He grunted. "But I can't let you out there anytime soon. You will die or you will kill someone."

 My gaze didn't break from the wooden floor. But then for a split second, everything flashed, and the floor turned to tile. I looked up, amazed.

    "Did you just see that?"

    "What?"

    "The ground, it turned to tile."

    "For Christ's sake." He groaned, and turned around to walk to another room. I stayed seated in my position. This guy thought I was really loony. I didn't blame him, but it still was annoying. I enjoyed thinking about shoving Kael's face into a meat grinder when the man returned. Handcuffs in one hand, an ax in the other.

"Come with me."