"Mother been knew."
That's the thought that's been running through my mind since first seeing their dead bodies almost two days ago. She just so happened to send Bean and me to check the flooding level? She just happened to know about potentials and distortions? She just happened to have weird visions? And she just happened to find all of her children and bring us together? There were too many coincidences, and I don't believe in coincidences. Everything has a meaning, and everything can be figured out.
At least that's what I think.
[And you think a lot,] Bean complained, making me chuckle internally.
On the outside, my face remained stern and blank—purposefully. Of course, Bean matched my expression. We don't need any attention or stares.
[Act like everything is normal? Nothing is normal. Mother is dead and was murdered, you killed that strangely built man, and we're going to work. I'm fucking sixteen years old and I can read and attack minds—I should be reading books,] Bean ranted.
I stopped walking and stared at her.
The only part that felt abnormal to me was that she was sixteen dealing with all of this. She deserved a normal life, like in the stories our mother used to tell us. Where all kids had to do was read, eat, and dance or whatever. Bean looked away from my stare, her facial expression never changing. I could hear her childish chuckles in my head become exaggerated.
Smirking, I laughed. "You're so weird."
In front of us stood the cave entrance where we watched pale humans stumble inside with different gaits, rhythmic movements, and swagger. The people in Howl disgust me. No one resists, no one raises their voice, and no one knows their potentials...at least obviously.
[And you only know yours because Mother told you,] Bean snapped.
The slight anger in her voice made me want to argue, but I know she can feel that too. This wasn't the first time Bean and I got into it about my views of these people.
Three Years ago, When I first met her...
"Touch her again and you won't be able to breathe anymore. Matter of fact..." I screamed.
I felt the acid emotion in my throat pairing with my rage as my hand motioned for the taking I wanted to reach for. The air in his lungs felt like a cup on a table not far from my grasp, something I could touch, feel, and manipulate. I felt my own breath growing larger as the air he thought he owned suddenly became mine.
The man I'd called Blockhead seconds ago had been touching the young, expressionless girl in ways I couldn't repeat. But I had heard her silent scream, ran to where I thought she would be, and found both her and this monster.
"Please! She... never... said... no," Blockhead choked out through strangled words.
Her eyes looked up from the floor, blank and empty. Her long black hair were scattered in a mess—some even looked torn from her head. There was a quiet pain within my mind, a feeling of disgust, horror, and numbness that I somehow knew wasn't mine.
I noticed how small she looked compared to my tall frame, how young despite being close to my age.
Blockhead's naked body stopped convulsing and lay on the ground, stiff. Dead.
[Thank you,] a voice whispered in my head.
The heat in the room felt as loud as the whispered voice. Her eyes danced with fear, which made me turn away from her. She should put some clothes on...
[She has a name,] the voice in my head felt confident and fierce.
By the movement I heard behind me, she must be getting dressed. How do I talk to her? I mean, she must be able to hear me now. How much can she actually read?
[Let's get this out the way look, I can read just about everrrrrything you think,] she said, emphasizing "everything" and dragging it out with a chuckle.
"Then I don't need to talk to you aloud, do I? You can hear everything I think, visualize, ruminate, and shame about." I was puzzled.
Quickly, all of my questions felt answered as relief washed over me. I turned and looked at her.
[You can call me Benette,] she said.
Benette, I thought. Even though her face read disinterested and unentertained, her voice felt light, excited, and energetic—which felt odd given what had just happened to her.
[Ain't nothing happened to me. Don't think you're my holy savior now,] Benette jibed with vivacity.
'I... ain't... your... savior...' I thought back, visualizing a priestess on the word "savior" that made Benette's psychic chuckles heighten in ferocity.
[We're going to be great friends, Sam,] Benette goaded.
"Yes, yes, Benny," I said as we turned to leave the room that was both our meeting place and what used to be her prison.
Back in the Present
Killing came easy to me. It always felt like a means to an end and nothing more complicated than that. Chan, our mother, told us it wasn't the best practice to have, but it was something necessary for our futures.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
For some type of oracle, she wasn't that reliable. You'd think she would have mapped us a path to the surface with minimum effort before croaking. But here we were in the mines, getting ready to move rocks around for the next three hours without being caught by government workers like the man who visited us yesterday.
Maybe I felt something in the beginning when people still seemed innocent or honorable. Now my perspective on this bunch felt like it did after one of those nights Bean was on dinner duty—shitty. How can they willingly let the government control them? Feed them? Kill them?
[What other choice do they have?] Bean muttered as she dropped a large piece of black rock beside me.
Bean's question didn't sound like a question it was a fact for her. But that's not true. I can feel myself getting angry again, thinking about all the untapped potential in this place not being leveraged or even considered. If we could just wake everyone up, they couldn't stop us from doing anything!
[Yeah, say you're right, Sam, and everyone dies because they don't know how to use their potential. We don't have time to teach everyone,] Bean said matter-of-factly without even turning to me this time.
She's right, we don't have time for that, and neither of us have the potential to identify others' abilities. What if someone can snap their fingers and get us to the surface? What if someone can make all the guards fall into an endless sleep? The latter I could probably manage, but it wouldn't be endless, and it would probably mess up a lot of people's sleep schedules. So actually, no, I couldn't manage that either.
Lifting and dropping these rocks was so routine for us that it took little thought. Pick up, put down. My thoughts circulated around finding a solution to get Bean and me out of here before the government inevitably came for us again or before the flooding reached us. Would they even send someone if the flooding was so close? Probably not.
[They already sent someone. Well, people,] Bean laughed.