The Freaks

chapter twenty-six

The air feels different when I wake up.

A bright light is all around as I open my eyes, blinding me and leaving spots of pain inside my head. I blink, seeing the sky first before anything else. Then my head moves, my eyes scanning the floor I am lying on. The rough gravel digs painfully into my body as I turn this way and that, seeing where the Freak might be.

But I see Brianna instead. She's laying down on the floor a couple of feet away from me, her eyes still closed and her hands tied behind her back. She's still not moving.

It takes me a moment to realize I am also tied up. The sharp sting of plastic tells me that he tied us up with zip ties. A little too tight at that. I look around some more, seeing the lip of concrete all around the perimeter, with pipes and some broken plant pots surrounding us. It doesn't look like the outside of the school. We must be on the roof of the building.

I look back down to Brianna.

"Brianna?" I choke out, suddenly noticing I'm speaking in my normal accent. I switch it back when I say, "Brianna?" again, louder this time.

"She's still out cold," I hear from behind me, and I look up to see the male Freak that must have knocked us out peering over me. "Don't bother trying to wake her up, because it won't work."

"Let us go," I say, glaring at him even though he looks like a silhouette against the gray sky, "or we will hurt you."

I know I shouldn't be saying this to him, since I should really be saving him and bringing him back to the Ghetto with all the other Freaks, but at this rate, I doubt he'll keep me alive long enough to even explain who—or what—I am.

"I am quaking with fear, truly," he says slowly, crouching down, his words dripping with sarcasm. "But do you really think you should be threatening me when one: I have you tied up, and two: I have a weapon and freaking powers?"

"So, what? Are you going to kill us?" I ask, my voice even, cold.

The Freak laughs, looking ahead at something I can't see. Maybe it's the other Freak that attacked us, but I can't hear if it is or not. A moment later he looks back down to me. "Most definitely," he says, smiling wickedly. "Don't feel so special, though. You wouldn't be the first Soldiers I've had to kill in my time in this lovely building."

I choke back a gasp. "You've killed Soldiers?"

"Of course. You sound surprised." He laughs again. "How do you think I escaped the iron grip of the Soldiers when they captured me many years ago?" He stares at me for a moment, watching whatever expression my face must hold. "If the Soldier I killed was one of your friends, don't worry—I made sure it was as quick as lightning." He claps once and continues laughing. "Quite literally."

But that would mean—

No.

For a moment my mind doesn't register his words properly. He put thoughts into our heads when we were wandering down the corridor looking for him. It wasn't another Freak. This is definitely the voice I heard. He broke the ceiling so it would have fallen on us if we didn't move out of the way quick enough. He used lightning to kill the Soldiers that captured him, all those years ago.

No.

This Freak is like me. He has multiple abilities.

I thought I was the only one.

I guess I was wrong.

My radio crackles to life and I startle at hearing Taylor's worried voice drift into the air, her words incoherent. I whip my head from side to side to try and see where it is, but my head can't seem to move too far. My hands shake and I try to pry them apart, but to no avail. I feel around my belt as much as I can, but I can't find it anywhere.