Origin (Book 2)

Chapter 24

The sound of footsteps awoke me.

I opened my eyes and tried to move my arms. My wrists were chained to a ceiling high above, and I had to stretch to make my feet touch the ground.

My surroundings made it look like I was in a dungeon. Someone had gotten decorating tips from Dad: dark stone covered the walls, and a rusty iron door with bars at the top and a small hole in the bottom shone light into the room. Other than that, it was almost completely dark.

A face peered at me from outside the bars. I looked down, feeling ashamed.

If I didn't kill everyone, I nearly did. My powers were uncontrollable if I gained too much energy, a fact that I should've known before I tried to absorb as much as I did. And this, this Di-men energy, I didn't like it one bit. Right now, I couldn't use my abilities, and my energy reserves were gone completely. But Di-men still lurked below the surface. He- it- was recharging.

"Who are you?" I said brusquely, still looking at the ground.

A set of keys rattled in the lock, and the door opened wide. A man stood there- about my height, with greying hair and a sensible biker clothing style that didn't go with it. He wore small metal spikes on the shoulders of a leather jacket, and wore jeans that looked faded. His hair was combed forward and to the side, so it served as a cap from light.

"I knew you were awake!" he said with a smile. "How are you doing, Jay?"

For some reason, I had the strangest urge to like him. "Where am I?" I presented his question with another.

"That's...none of your concern right now," he said. "Oh, I'm so glad I finally found you. We've been trying to get a hold of you for years."

Well, there was no doubt about where I was now. I was at a Zero facility. Probably a prison made specifically for meta's like me.

"What did you do with my friends?" I asked him.

"Them?" He laughed, doing the full routine. He bent over, his face turning red.

I could see inside his mouth. His teeth were perfectly white, now a single cavity or space between them.

"Jay, those are not your friends," he said, wiping a tear from his eye. "They left you for dead. They're not even here."

I pulled against the chains. "You're lying."

"Am I?" He raised his eyebrows. "By now, you've probably figured out who I am."

"Not really. But I know where we are."

"I'm hurt," he said. "You don't remember me? Your dear Uncle Peter?"

My head rocked back. Uncle Peter. The name sent a headache throughout my body.

He wasn't actually my uncle. But that's what he had told me to call him. He had visited my family and me for years before I got my powers, but after that, nothing.

But why had I never remembered him?

I know what you're thinking," he said, wagging his finger at me. "'I know him, but why am I just now remembering him?'"

He moved a little closer to me, blocking out the light behind him so I couldn't see him. "That's because of your parents. But never mind that. We're moving off topic."