Powers

Chapter 7

"Tell me this: what are the five senses?" Adam asks me. "Smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch," I reply. "Good. Now, based off of the room we are in, give me an example of each," he states. "Well, I can obviously see the room, I can smell the smell coming from the candles over there on the table, I can hear you talking, I can taste the air, and I can touch the walls and floors," I say simply. "Good. However, it is my job to make you sense these things further. Today, I will teach you to enhance your senses," Adam informs me. "How are you going to do that, Mr. Source-Of-All-Knowledge?" I tease. Adam huffs and says, "You will call me Adam. And I will enhance your senses this way," he says. "Let's start with touch," he says.

"Close your eyes and put your hand on the floor. What do you feel?" He asks. "The cold hard outline of tile," I reply. "Yes. Now punch the floor," he says. "Excuse me? What has the floor ever done to me?" I ask with concern. "The floor has no feelings. Punch it," he says once again. I shrug, and punch the floor. All I feel once again is the tile, but with my eyes closed, I somewhat get a vision of what's going on. "What happened that time?" Adam asks. "I...I don't really know. I still felt the same thing, but at the same time, it was like I could see the room even with my eyes closed," I reply. Adam smiles and says, "Wonderful! That is how you start to enhance touch. You touch an object, but you can still see around it. Let's try this: I want you to stand up."

Adam had my try stomping on the ground to see if I could still see the room in my head, which I was able to do. "Now that we know you can see without really seeing, it's time to test it," Adam said. He put a blindfold over my eyes and left me standing in the middle of the room. "Try and locate me," I hear Adam say from somewhere off in the distance. I feel like I'm being controlled. I know it's training, but it's only day one. I still have so much left to complete.

I bend down and touch the tile with my hand, and then I punch it, sending shock waves out that bounce off of all the objects in the room. I can sense Adam is in the right corner by the doors. "You're beside the doors," I call out. "Correct! But let's make it trickier. See if you can follow me if I'm walking around," he calls out. "I won't need to have enhanced hearing to still be able to hear where you're going," I return, still blindfolded. As soon as I say those words, I regret them, for the next thing I know, he makes me plug my ears. Great, as if I didn't already feel stupid enough. The blindfold was bad enough, but now I have to walk the my hands covering my ears. I must look like a deranged person who hears voices in their heads.

I try to begin locating him, starting by shifting my feet. I sense motion to my left, and I start heading towards it. Suddenly, the motion is gone, and I get confused. Come on Julia, you can do this! Concentrate!

I touch my hand to the floor and punch it once more, feeling the vibrations bounce off an object in motion. He's about ten feet to my right, so I jolt up and try to go after him. The stomping of my feet as I run are enough to let me visualize where Adam is going. To my right, to my left, in front of me, back behind me, he is everywhere. However, this little game of his is becoming easier by the second. Maybe training isn't all that bad. I touch the floor once more, feel a quick motion in front of me, and I lunge for it. In a flash, I've got him by the arm.

"Going somewhere?" I ask, the satisfaction of finally catching him ever present. "Very good. See, this isn't that hard," he encourages. Ripping off the blindfold, I rejoice in being able to see again. "Now, training is over for today, but if you want to be truly great at mastering this, practice somewhere outside of here. Meet me back here at 12:00 tomorrow afternoon and for the rest of the week so we can finish the five senses. Once that's done, you will have mastered the power of sense," Adam says. "Alright," is all I can say. Training only took two hours, but I feel like I just ran a marathon. All of my energy is gone.

On my way out the door, I hear Adam call for me to come back for a moment. "Yes?" I ask. "Listen, I want you to know that you can't trust the Council," he says with a worried look on his face as he looks over his shoulders. "But you're on the Council," I say. "You can trust me, I meant don't trust the others. Watch what you say and do; they're watching you now. They're always watching. Also, don't believe the story about Gwyneth. Yes she was murdered, but it wasn't by someone from the dark side. She was just one more person that was killed after crossing the Council," he frantically says. "Well what did she do to deserve to meet her doom the way she did?" I plead. "I've said too much already. Mark my words Julia, be careful. They're watching you now," Adam replies. He then turns around heads back to the building. What was he talking about? They're watching me? For what?