His overall cheerful attitude wasn’t the most enticing thing ever, but my situation could have been a whole lot worse, after a couple of hours I was strong enough to get out of bed, he gave me some comfy clothes and we headed up stairs to the main part of the school, I've never been in a house this big, it was old fashioned but warming too, it was the end of the school day and the kids were running around the house, the funny thing was that none of them looked like mutants, they all just looked normal, but then so do I, and Charles. the first thing that we did was we went to go and find me a room, there were so many floors to this place, it was more like and block of flats than a school, a few kids ran passed us and I watched them run around, they looked so happy, they were almost glowing with happiness and delight, all because of someone who cared about them, I zoned out for a second before I heard the Professor calling me, I quickly followed after him and saw him holding a door open, I stopped for a moment and we locked eyes,
'And this is your room Rachel' I quickly joined him and had a look inside the room, it was defiantly spacious, there was a single bed, a wardrobe and dresser, it was pretty basic, but it was more than what I was used too, not the same mattress on a dirty wooden floor, I went over to the window and looked outside, even the world seemed brighter here, there was just endless fields and trees stretching out, people were sat on the grass in groups and teens playing football, it felt like a dream, it didn’t feel real, Charles joined me at the window,
'This place is a safe haven for the gifted, away from the rest of the world' it certainly seemed like it, I sat down near the window and looked at him,
'I was watching those children who ran past us on the stairs' he looked at me with such kind eyes,
' I remember when I was younger and I used to look in the mirror at their age, never did I once look as happy as they did, not even close, it’s a bit scary you know, almost fake, this all looks, fake' he pulled up a chair and sat down next to me,
'People are afraid of what they don’t understand, no matter how much we evolve, there will always be someone who doesn’t understand and then that person will convince somebody else, and then it just turns into a mindless game of Chinese whispers, the longer it gets, the more distorted it becomes, at that’s what we are, the victims of evolution, and it scars more people than others'
'And some people are more stronger than others, they don’t see themselves as the victim, but just incredibly gifted individuals' I was about to reply when starving stomach made itself known, it sounded like a growling dog, the professor was taken back for a moment, then it hit him,
'I'm sorry I'm going on, you must be starved, will go down to the kitchen and get you something' he made for the door but I didn’t move, I just watched him,
'Thank you and I'm sorry' he looked at me confused, he came back to me as I stood up,
'What are you sorry for? '
'Surely you can see why, I'm a burden, I always have been and I always will, I've been forced to be independent all my life, any sort of compassion or love I have learnt to block it out, because it has always masked the real truth behind people' he brought his hand to my cheek, I looked deep into his eyes and searched for any hint of lies or deceit,
'This place isn’t just for teaching, it’s for learning as well, and you don’t have to go back to being so independent, your still so young, there's still a chance for happiness here'
'Is there, well I think that will be one of my lessons then, the search for happiness' and with that he grabbed my hand and left the room together.
When we got to the kitchen downstairs, I was by then really hungry, and my stomach kept making weird noises, which made the professor look twice as hard for food for me, I began to look with him and soon found some vegetables and a tin of chopped tomatoes, then an idea popped into my head,
'Professor? ' He turned round to me as I put the vegetables on the kitchen worktop,
'Please Rachel, call me Charles'
'Okay, Charles, do you have any herbs in the cupboard, and any tomato puree? ' he quickly went back to looking in the cupboards, sure enough there was a unopened tube of tomato puree paste, and he also managed to find some herbs covered in dust, I put all the ingredients together and thought for a moment,
'Ah, I have it' I looked at the professor and he just looked at me with his mouth open, he was just staring at me,
'What? , what are you gawping at? ' he scarpered for a moment then produced a small hand mirror from a drawer and held it in front of me, but I didn’t see me there, just the back wall, I reached out to grab the mirror and there was nothing, I suddenly realised what my other gift was, but obviously he wasn’t aware of this, maybe I could use this to my advantage,
'Rachel? , Rachel are you there? ' I didn’t reply, he then took his fingers to his head and closed his eyes, I expected to hear his voice, but there was nothing, not a sound, was I actually blocking him out of my head, he then opened his eyes and lowered his hand, I went to move away when someone came into the kitchen, I looked round and saw it was the guy from the other night, Erik I think his name is,
'Charles, who are you talking to? ' I moved out of the way as he moved closer to me, I saw that the door was open, but if I moved to quickly they would know about it, I will just have to wait for them to make their move,
'Erik its Rachel, she has completely disappeared and I can't reach her' Erik almost laughed at what he said,
'Charles, you have the most incredible mind in the world, and you can't find a girl a few feet away from you, now that’s disappointing'
'Thank you for your contribution Erik, but this is very important, Hank found something odd in her blood results and I'm determined for her to remain here out of harm’s way' that lying swine, I blindly out of anger picked up a tomato and threw it at Charles, but he managed to grab it before it hit him and in a split second Erik lifted his hand in the air and my arm went into the air too, along with the rest of me, I was once again suspended in the air, I didn’t bother to struggle, I simply hung there, I considered my options, and decided to go back to being visible,
'What happened to your arm by chance? ' this time Erik spoke, he and Charles eyes were very much the same, which made me even less inclined to trust him, Charles once again brought his fingers to his head but didn’t close his eyes this time, I knew exactly what he was doing, so I didn’t bother to reply, like I was going to,
'Self-inflicted, a 6inch metal rod in the upper arm, self-harming' both men looked at me with sadness and anger, both men looked ready to flip out, Erik more so, I was a little bit worried about Erik's anger, was he strong enough to cause real damage, the air felt tense and I started to squirm a little bit, Charles came up to Erik and rested a hand on his shoulder, the anger practically disappeared in an instant, I was then lowered back down to the floor and I held my arm tightly to me,
'I'm sorry' Erik reached out to me but I retreated back, his hand froze for a moment, his hand open slightly as if grasping for something, he then closed it and left the room, Charles was looking at me but I didn’t dare return the look, I simply walked past him and started preparing some food, I felt him coming near me, but I just blanked him out,
'Rachel I'm …'
' As soon as I'm healed I'm gone, you hear me, I don’t belong here' I didn’t wait for a reply, I just carried on with what I was doing, he simply sighed and left the kitchen, I stopped for a moment and forced myself not to cry, I haven’t spoken to anyone ever about what happened, now I'm an open book to some guy, well that’s just great, because this so where I expected my life to head, I gripped my arm tightly for a moment, the heat of the rage stopped me from flooding everywhere, I released my arm and carried on with the prep.
