Freak

      Rose ran to the nearest window when people started to gather. They looked scared. Her heart started to thump. She brushed against a number of people as she pushed her way through the crowd. She could hear their hearts making a ruckus around her, beating loudly against their ribcage. She made it the rest of the way to the window feeling that if her feet pounded any harder against the floor as she ran she would break through it. That was, if there were anything below them. When she got to the window, her heart paused. There were a number of audible gasps and Rose couldn’t help but think one of those was her own.
         Men and women in camouflage uniforms were unloading from a number of jeeps. “There have to be twice as many of them as there is us!” she whispered. The men, women, and children around her were growing angry. She could feel them in her mind. Everyone thought they were going to die. “What the hell do they want”, someone cried. She could feel someone in the corner praying their heart out as they fearfully rocked in a ball.
      She jumped the few feet to the windowsill and stood upon it, bracing her arms on the sides of the window, “What the hell do you want!” Her arms shook as she noticed the guns upon the persons of everyone outside turn to point at her. The anger rose in her mind as their thoughts invaded, ‘They’re going to kill us all’, ‘They don’t care that we know nothing’, ‘God, I’m not even one of them and I’m going to die with these freaks’.
      She shook her head so she could think on her own and pounded a fist against the window, kicking it in the meantime. “Fucking bastards, what the hell do you want?” One of the women outside flipped her the bird and turned to her mates. “Fuck you too,” Rose flipped her back. “What the hell do you want?” she yelled. They couldn’t hear her apparently. She kicked at the glass again with all her might but couldn’t seem to break it. She could feel them around her. She turned on the sill to face them. “We will survive! These bastards won’t have us.”
         As she looked across the room, there was a bang on the window, she gritted her teeth as she turned to look at the person. Their gun was pointed at her and she noticed their hesitation to shoot at any of the people inside. Rose looked at their face and was stunned. She knew this person. She had loved this person. He saw her new name form on his lips as he crudely motioned for her to move back, “Freak.” “Bryant,” Rose whispered. If he was with them, there was nothing left for her out there.
         Rose jumped back from the sill to join the crowd and looked about at all the people. The same as her. They were Rose. She was in their minds.  She felt their gifts as if they were pages in a book she was reading. Rose felt them enter her own mind. She could feel their pages, some made of rock, earth, others of power and strength. They were all different and they were hers. The pages were of a knowledge most humans never come across and she had to protect them. It was her job to protect them. Rose felt that was what she was created for. It was her calling, to protect the knowledge and the people. It was her power.
         She jumped to the nearest bunk where there was a small window, barely noticeable from the outside and began to kick murderously. It refused to give way though, even with her added strength. “Damn it!” She paused when two of the guards making their way around the building looked up. She looked down at the people. They had all gathered in their bunks, two to five people to one bunk. There were about fifty of them. The children all clung to the closest person. Everyone was afraid. How could they fight people with guns?
         A pair of hands on her shoulders stopped her cry of frustration as it reached her throat and she took a deep breath of air. Pushing the people from her mind, she looked to the pair sitting beside her. Tairin and Cierin, the twin brother and sister she had been talking to earlier. They were using their gift to calm her. “Thank you. I didn’t know you could do that. I thought…”
      Tairin smiled, “that we could only induce sleep.”
      Rose’s brow wrinkled, “Yes.”
      “We can, but there are many different ways to use the gift of sleep.” Cierin replied. “As there is many ways to use anyone’s gift. Most people just don’t know there is different strengths to their gifts and how to use them. You of all people must know that.”
      “What do you mean?”
      “I think you’re much the same as a chunk of silly putty. You know? You copy people and save them in their thoughts. You have their gifts,” Tairin said.
      “You are all,” Cierin finished.