Who We Are

Chapter 4

 “You’re trying too hard again. Just let go. Let the energy take over. Run. Jump. Get on the other side of this room by instincts, not by trying.”

I gritted my teeth and turned my head towards my trainer. He found me clothes appropriate for training and he’s been torturing me like this for about a week now. I was covered in sweat. If I did what he asked of me, my muscles would rip. They were already screaming for me to just sit down and take a brake. “I can’t. Trevon, I need to rest.”

“No, if you rest now, you’ll be so sore tomorrow, you won’t be able to move.” he answered and stared me down. I didn’t dare defy him again. Last time I told him to piss off and tried to sit down, he nearly shot me. He carried two huge guns around at all time, it was one of the most noticeable things on him. Besides the fact that he was black and black people almost didn’t exist anymore. He was still looking at me, before letting out a sigh. “Do five more laps, then hit the showers. We’re done for today.”

“Five more laps?” I asked disbelievingly.

“No need to rush. Take it easy. And after that do two more walking. If you feel like you’re going to drop dead at any moment anyway, go find a supporter. He or she should be able to heal your body a bit.” he instructed me and headed towards the door.

He warned me that things were only going to get tougher. He would be building my strength and teaching me how to properly use my powers. So far, he’s been focusing on the smoke part of me. To be specific, he’s been acting as if the shadow part of me didn’t even exist, even though I knew it was there. I’ve been grooming it by myself. I always followed people around the base before I went to sleep. Now, whenever I walked around, I could know exactly who was who. I didn’t know them by name, but I knew how they moved, what they did at night, I knew what some of their powers were, what they ate… I was like one of those creepy stalkers from movies.

“By the way,” he said when I started running in a slow pace. “You’re getting a visitor tomorrow. So make sure you don’t look like… That. We don’t need anyone telling you that you look like a slave.”

“But I am a slave. I have to do everything you tell me to.” I growled.

“Yes.” he said matter of factly. “But they don’t need to know that.” And with that he left.

I was muttering curses for the next four laps around the training rooms and just focused on doing my work for the remaining few.

“Well he’s been making sure you’re busy.”

I cursed again and turned towards the door. The problem with letting my guard down and trying to make my smoke powers flow through me with no restriction also meant that I didn’t pay much attention to my surroundings, which led to Philip sneaking up on me. “What do you want?” I asked and glared his way.

“Gosh, and here I thought we could talk like two civilized people.” he mocked and crossed his arms. “I was just wondering how you were doing.”

“Not good.” I answered and stopped walking. I was done for today. I couldn’t wait to step under a hot spray of water and wash the sweat off of my body. “Trevon is acting like I’m his slave.”

“You’re not his slave. It’s like that with some trainers but they just want to do you good.” he said, even though we both knew I wasn’t an idiot and was aware of that already. “He’s one of the best, you know? There aren’t many people who would get picked to be Contractors. I wasn’t one of them. So when they discovered me and brought me here, there were numerous trainers waiting to see which one would be the most appropriate to help me. He was one of them. But he turned me down the second he saw me.”