The Chosen

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I spend the rest of the afternoon after training locked away in my temporary room, pondering the long list of bad decisions that led to me being here. It's not like Luke and Parker didn't knock a few times, I just refused to open the door. If they feel the need to lock me up and manipulate me into utilizing powers I don't even want then I'm just happy locking them out and ignoring them.

I've now been sitting on the floor for around an hour trying to unhook whatever Taylor did to me. Yet, no matter how hard I try, the hook linking my anger to the large expanse of power now within me is firmly fastened. Where there had once been an empty cavern in my core is now a flaming mountain of raging flame. I've accidentally burnt my sleeve twice now from how much I'm fiddling with them.

I don't like this feeling. I don't like having to look down every time I touch something to check whether I left scorch marks or not. Thinking back to the clock at the front of my classroom on the day I was taken, I remember the scorch marks left on the minute hand through the hole in the glass.

I remember the shock that followed. I remember how completely powerful I had felt. But most of all, I remember how much I was dreading what that type of raw, untamed power could do to a person if it ever came to that. Less than an hour later Tori was unconscious on the ground, her clothes slightly scorched from my flames. From my power.

Her sweet yet determined face flashes briefly in my mind, filling me with guilt and regret. She didn't deserve to get caught up in all this. She didn't deserve to have her best friend ripped away from her. For years it had just been the two of us, with so much trust embedded into our relationship that I would have trusted her with my life.

Yet, now here I am locked away in a private training facility with the power to take someone's life away with my bare hands. Meanwhile, she is out there somewhere unbeknownst to me, with her entire life ahead of her.

This time when she appears in my mind I am filled with a blinding hatred. I don't want to get angry since that's what Taylor's using against me, but I can't help myself. I hate him. I hate them. I hate them all so much it hurts.

I hate them for tearing me from my old life, for not even letting me tell my parents where I am while they're away. However, deep down I know that honestly, I hate them because they're a symbol of what's wrong with this world. People with abilities who value themselves over others and use their gifts for nothing good. Tori is a good person. She only uses her gifts for her needs and other people's. Never to bully or oppress those who don't have such a choice.

"Skylar" a low voice leeks through the door, "are you sure you don't want anything to eat, it's way past dinner and everyone else has eaten."

I recognise it to be Luke who is at my door from the raw concern seeping into his voice.

"Food is a luxury, not a necessity", I merely reply, "plus shouldn't you be tending to Jason's bruises?"

A sigh of defeat is soon followed by the sound of footsteps slowly receding. Atleast he finally gave up this time. Unlike with Tori where he had refused to put her down even when we were already in the car and driving to the facility for the first time.

That was the last time I saw her. In his unwavering arms, clutching her like she could shatter at any moment. But if he'd actually gotten to know her he would have found that the only thing that could make her shatter was being abandoned. Her father abandoned her family when she was younger and since then she has always dreaded being forgotten about or left behind.

Now I'd gone and done the thing she's feared the most for her benefit. I don't even know if she got out of here or not.

I don't even know whether my sacrifice was in vain!