The Gift

Chapter Ten-Losses

"I'm Rufus." The man smiled at me. 

"What are you doing to Chase and Cole?" I said, ignoring his statement. Rufus chuckled and looked at me.

"Nothing, if you come with me--"

"NO!" I screamed, and suddenly, the two lamps that were once on blew up. The lights went out, my body glowed, and then it illuminated the entire room, zapping the few men that were in there, including Rufus, making them fall to the floor. I ran out of the room in a hurry.

"Nichole!" I heard my name and I whirled to see Chase running up to me. I smiled gratefully when he finally got to me and instintively threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. He just stood there awkwardly for a second, before hugging me back.

"Was that you, too?" He asked me. I was still hugging him.

"Yeah, I think so." I finally let go and looked around. "I didn't mean to, I just got scared. He wanted to take me."

"He wants to take all of us. Come on, we need to find Cole." Chase grabbed my hand and we ran off, listening for anything that would tell us he was around here somewhere.

We heard a painful groan, and sobs from nearby. I stuck close to Chase as we slowly walked towards the groans and sobs.

"God dammit," I heard Brett's voice grunt angrily. "It hurts. Do something, Emma!" 

"I'm trying!" I heard a girl say between her sobs. I leaped into the darkness, and tripped over the girl named Emma as she shrieked and lit up. Her body was giving us a bright glow and I frowned. But then I saw Brett was shot--a few times. In the stomach. 

Shit...

Emma had curly blonde hair, and big bright blue eyes, with glasses and she was a little scrawny. Kind of like a mouse...she had tears in her eyes, too, as she blushed and the glow went away. Brett groaned once again, and put her hands back on his stomach. She started sobbing once again sadly.

"This is all my fault! I should have helped him. Instead I just stood there like an idiot watching him get shot at. They eventually went away but now...it's too late!" She sobbed and put her forehead against Brett's. She couldn't have been older than fourteen. 

"It's not your fault, Emma, it will be okay--" Chase tried to go and comfort her, but she moved away, sniffling.

"No, it's not. Just go away, I'll be fine. I've got this. He will be okay," she told us. I rolled my eyes because I knew she didn't have it under control.

"Look Emma, Brett is injured and in pain. I know you think you have it under control, but you don't. All you're doing is holding his stomach so he doesn't lose blood, but he is still losing it. You've got to let us help, otherwise Brett's gonna die," I told her sternly. I felt bad for being so harsh, but she wouldn't have listened if I wasn't.

She looked at me with sad, tear-filled eyes. She was sniffling pathetically, making me feel bad for her. Why was she so close to Brett?

"He chose me," she finally choked out. "Over all the people he could have chosen, out of all those pictures, he chose me. He saw something in me, and I'm not going to let him down, alright?" She wasn't going to let him down. Definitely not.

I understood just then. Brett chose her picture to save. Out of all those different kinds of people, he chose a scrawny, curly-headed young girl, that looked no different than the average person. No unique things about her. But inside there was. He chose her because she stood out to him. Because he saw something in her when no one else could. And that's why Cole chose me. He saw something in me. He couldn't not choose me, because if he chose someone else, my powers, my abilities, my life...it would all be gone. That, or Rufus would have me, and since I would have known no better, I would have thought Joseph was the enemy. Cole knew there was something about me. Something in me that was special. Just like every one of us in this school were special and unique. I was so lucky to get here in time. So many people didn't get here in time, and Rufus got them, or they were killed because they were "dangerous," but really, he was the dangerous one. Only people here were safe. And even here, Rufus still could get to us. But at least we had people that could help us, and we could back each other up.