Thomas

Chapter 9: Three Months Later...

It had been three months. She was still gone. I was waiting for her to return each day, at nights I'd keep a torch lit just in case she came to find me. The nights were cold, colder than I'd ever experienced before but I knew if I just stuck to it then I would be safe and they wouldn't find me. The woman told me to practice my power, and I did. Each day for an hour I would practice my power to get supplies such as food, water and basic essentials.

One day while I was practising my power I walked out of the cave entrance that I had just recently covered with some curtains left in a bin which kept it slightly warmer but also made the cave look less visible, when I walked down to the road next to the gas station where I usually got food from I noticed someone had dropped an old sony walkman in the street which I took back to the cave and that became one of my only sources of entertainment. 

In only a few days I had listened to all of the songs on there around ten times and by the end of the week I knew most of the lyrics to the songs, Something I noticed over time was I could play the music while using the power, it made it easier to do things with the music on. I felt at times as a distraction from what I was doing. I knew taking the food was wrong which was why I only took from the cheapest foods I could find, some nights I just had dry rice because I couldn't bear taking anything more.

Some days the music would just play the classical tunes that someone must have once enjoyed before leaving it for me to find. I would sit on the edge of my cave and stare down at the cars as they drove by, stopping time every now and again to go and see the people and guess what their lives were like.

It was a pretty uneventful three months, each day started with either the cold air floating in and breaking my peace or a bug falling on my face from the ceiling causing me to wake up in a fright, unfortunately, it was usually the second one. I thought that I would get used to the bugs but I never did. The day would continue with me training my powers for an hour if I could hold it that long, as I said before the music helped.

I would then go down to the gas station to find something to eat, some days there was fresh fruit for me to take but when there wasn't I made myself stick with the food that nobody would but and would just be thrown away otherwise. The was a box in the gas station which was donations to be sent to some charity, one time I found a book about the first world war which I took and read many times. When using my powers I would go for walks to see how far towards the city I could get before starting to fade back, I didn't do this much, as I had to get back in time before anyone saw me. 

The last day I spent in the cave started as normal, I woke up later around noon with the sun glaring through a hole in the curtain covering the cave entrance. I got up and dusted my clothes off even though they were covered in dirt and dust already from months of wearing them. I stepped outside for a few minutes to catch the sun on my skin and enjoy the heat which was cut short when I had to throw myself back inside of the cave when a helicopter came from over the hill.

I wasn't scared of the people who worked at the top of the hill because I'd got away from them before and I was sure I'd be able to do it again. What I feared was my power, it was temperamental and at that moment if they found me then I don't know how long I'd be able to hold it for.

It was time for me to train I guessed as I held my eyes shut and walked out to catch the sun on my skin again. I walked down to the shop with the headphones on playing a Mozart song loudly in my ears. I walked across the street towards the station and looked on the floor to see a sheet of paper floating slowly in the wind towards me.  My curiosity told me to pick it up even though there were a couple of people around filling up their car with fuel and I should've probably just walked into the shop and got out as quickly as possible to make sure I wouldn't be seen.

I looked at the sheet that was in black and white. The first thing I see is a picture, and it's me. I stare at it for a second not believing what I could see, underneath was a warning saying: dangerous individual wanted for questioning, report to police if seen. My heart skipped a beat as I noticed that time was back, I didn't shut my eyes but somehow it came back. The couple filling their car stared at me for a second and pointed as I looked around for an explanation. With a wanted poster of myself in my hands I ran the only way I knew.

Back towards the city