Moon Child

6. One Touch

Liam was the first to stand as he approached me. With every step he took towards me, I took one away from him. He was trying to touch me, and I couldn't let that happen. He was a freak. They were all freaks...

I was a freak.

Liam wanted to comfort me and explain, but he was unsure of himself. He was frustrated at his unsureness. There was also want. He wanted me, but he was conflicted because he had Sophia. Eventually, it turned to knowing.

"You know, don't you? Just like you knew my name before I even told you," he asked, trying to keep the conversation between us.

"M-Mya told me," I lied. A hush fell over the cafeteria as they watched me back away from their leader. Apparently, disobeying him was frowned upon. Another thing I didn't understand. Liam noticed my dodgy eyes and looked back at the curious faces with a growl before he stepped directly to me, passing me in the process.

"Come with me," he muttered towards me on the way out. I stutter-stepped before I followed him out quickly. I didn't want to be alone with Liam by any means, but staying in the cafeteria with all the eyes on me was worse. Liam walked briskly, and I had to jog to keep up with him. He left the school building out the back and went into a tree line nearby. My head was still pounding as I breathed heavily trying to keep up with him. Physical activity wasn't my strong suit and gravity wasn't my friend, so I more stumbled after him than jogged. The cold wasn't helping either. Even after walking for a few minutes, he continued.

"Okay, s-stop!" I yelled at him, shivering. My coat and scarf were still in my locker and I was completely vulnerable to the ice winds. He stopped and whipped around to face me, catching me off guard. I ran right into him. The hairs on my arms reached for him, even in the cold. I could feel him all around me. He tried to catch me, but it only made me freak out even more as I tried to get away from him.

"D-don't t-touch me!" I said, falling onto my butt. He huffed out a breath before crossing his arms and watching me stand up on my own. He grabbed my clothed arm as he stood in front of me.

"What are you?" he asked firmly.

"What am I? What are you?!" I retorted in frustration as I pushed him away from me. He growled low in warning as his canines extended further down.

"Never, push me away," he warned. I was too stunned to argue back. Stunned and scared. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. Well, once.

"Just like Sophia," I breathed out before my brain could tell my mouth not to talk. That only made him angrier.

"Sophia growled at you?" he asked, getting even angrier. I sighed and shook my head as I crossed my arms over my chest in a lame attempt to get warm. I really hated the cold.

"Yes. No. Not really... kind of... I don't know how to explain it. I don't even know what it is. I don't know what's happening, but ever since I got to this weird backwards town, things have been... weird," I struggled to find the right words. He didn't look happy with my answer.

"Try," he ordered, I glared at him.

"Stop using that tone on me; it only pisses me off," I told him before I took a breath to calm down. I shook my arms out to try and get some heat into them before I crossed them back. "Look, I don't know what's happening to me. I've always been an empath. Picking up on people's emotions and intentions has always been easy. But ever since I got here, it's been... intense. I'm reading people's minds. When I touch someone, a scene plays out before me like a movie or video. My vision hazes, my eyes go weird, I get these pounding headaches," I admitted, just ranting for the sake of getting it out at this point. "The first person I touched today was Sophia. My scene of her portrayed her as... feral and vicious. Her teeth extended like yours just did and she was glaring and growling at me. The scene wasn't clear cut in the picture it showed but the meaning was clear to me. She was jealous of me, for reason's I don't get at all, and she wanted to destroy me at this school," I finished. I turned away from him and ran my fingers through my hair and tugged on it slightly as I tried to make sense of it. The more I tried, the less I understood. Nothing was coming together.