Powers

Chapter 19

I wake up, only to find my head throbbing and myself behind bars. Touching the back of my head, I wince in pain, feeling the knot that has formed from James slamming his gun down on me. The room is completely dark, the only light coming in from a hole in the wall. There is no bed, no food or water, just the cold hard floor.

The pain in my head has gotten worse since I've woken up, so I try to heal myself. Barely touching the wound, I concentrate and try to force the power to work, but I feel nothing. No relief, no cooling sensation, no blue light, nothing. That's odd.

Looking at the bars in front of me, I realize that I can just turn transparent and pass through. I stand up, walk towards the bars, and let go of my attachments. I occupy no space, but I am instead the space itself.

I start forward, but instead of passing through, I walk right into the metal bars with a thud. The impact knocks me back onto the floor, and I get mad.

"What the heck is going on?! Someone answer me!" I scream. "The cell is power-proof," I hear a guard coming down the hall tell me. "Let me go," I demand. "No can do. You're stuck here until the Council decides what to do with you. By the way, here's dinner," the man says as he shoves a bowl of something so repulsive that I can't tell what it is to me.

"What's this?" I ask. "Food.........more or less. Now please, be a good prisoner and don't cause trouble. The unrest of the civilians is enough to deal with already," the man says as he walks away. "Wait! What unrest? Come back!" I plead. "The less you know, the better," are the last words the man says before he disappears back in the shadows.

There's an unrest going on? What are they going to do to me now? Torture me like they did Gwyneth? Publicly execute me? Kill the people I love? Lock me up here for the rest of my life? The possibilities of giving someone a terrible life are endless when it comes to the Council.

I put my hand in my pocket, wrapping my hand around the cold glass container of the mind-control immunity syrum. "Whatever happens, they won't take away my thoughts," I whisper to myself as I unscrew the cap. I put one drop in my mouth, and the taste is so sickly sweet that I have to force it down.

Normally, a person in prison would pace around, scream, try to break down the bars, all that sort of stuff. I instead find a spot on the floor and lay down, hoping to get a little but of sleep. I know someone will come back for me, so I might as well rest while I can.

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Hours pass, and I fall in and out of consciousness. By the time it's at least midnight, I start to panic. Why hasn't anyone come? Keeping quiet, I can hear shouts coming from a long ways off, most likely from the other side of the wall, almost like a rally is going on. I've got to get out of here.

The bricks in my cell are weak, and could easily be carved out. I look over at my bowl of the disgusting...food...and an idea hits me. I pick up the bowl and throw it at the wall, and it sure enough breaks into a thousand pieces. One of the guards had to have heard that, so I must move quickly. With my hands shaking, I grab one of the shards and plunge it into the wall, the bricks crumbling to dust. Cutting and shaking, I can feel my heart beating faster and faster. If I'm discovered doing what I'm doing, I'll be killed for sure. No one has ever escaped from these prisons and lived to tell their story.

By the time I've created a whole big enough for me to slip through, I can hear the sound of the guards' footsteps coming down the hallway. Without hesitation, I jump out the hole.

The fall surprises me; I was a good fifteen feet above the ground, but my landing was pretty good. Staggering to my feet, I hear the alarms of the prison go off. Dammit.