A Tale of Thieves (Part Five)

In case you missed Part One, Two, Three or Four. For Part Five, continue reading.

My slumber doesn’t last long, as I’m soon shaken awake. I gasp for air, waking in panic, thinking we have been discovered by the Justice Squad.

“It’s okay. Shhhh. Shhh. It’s okay. It’s just me.” Carla whispers, covering my mouth with her hand.

Smacking her hand off my face. “What are you doing?” I whisper back in sleepy anger.

“Sorry, I couldn’t sleep.” She states sheepishly.

“So you decided to disturb me?” I inquire, clenching my jaw in further annoyance.

“I was just thinking,” she begins, flopping onto her back. “More like wondering I suppose, do you have all powers or just the ones from the people that were near you at the time?” She inquires, staring at the ceiling.

“I don’t know,” I reply, feeling exasperated as I give a huff and flop onto my back so that I’m also staring at the ceiling.

“Do you want to go find out?” She inquires.

“Right now?” I ask, huffing as I already knew the answer.

“When else would we have time to?” Carla asks, already rolling out of bed.

Sighing I follow suit and clumsily roll out of bed. “Where are we doing this?” I ask, throwing a sweater over my head and a pair of baggy pants on.

“I think we can get access to the roof from the stairs outside.” She states, already opening the door and heading out.

I follow at a jog, doing my best to keep up as she leads the way to the roof. In the night air, I shiver slightly as a chilly breeze kisses my cheeks and pulls the sleep from my eyes.

With an involuntary yawn, “So what are we doing out here?” I ask.

“I want to know if you really do have powers,” Carla explains, watching me with a curious gaze.

“You know I have powers though,” I argue, watching her in confusion.

“Yeah but are they infinite?” She inquires, staying a few steps away as though hesitant to be too close.

“I don’t know,” I reply, watching her in bewilderment.

“Well let’s see then.” She requests with a hand out in invitation.

“I don’t have control over these things, I’ve never had any powers before and I don’t know how they work,” I state, taking a step back towards the door.

“You just need to focus and tell the powers to do something.” She explains, watching me closely in anticipation.

“Okay.” I agree, standing there dumbfounded. Still too sleepy to clue into what she wants from me.

We look at each other for a moment, neither speaking nor moving.

“Well?” Carla asks with impatience.

“Well, what?” I ask back, getting annoyed with her demands.

“Show me something.” She demands, furrowing her brow in annoyance.

“I don’t know what to show you,” I admit, starting to feel uncomfortable at the request.

“Just do something.” She commands, flinging her arm to the side in growing impatience. “Show me fire.”

Focusing I look at my hand and think about forming a fireball. Focusing my energy, a warm sensation runs down the length of my arm and bursts out of my palm. Producing a small ball of flame that crackles and flickers in my hand.

“I did it,” I whisper in astonishment, looking up to Carla in excitement.

“Whoa,” she mutters, taking a few tentative steps forward. Her face was illuminated in the light of the flames. She leans close and reaches a hand out to touch it, then wincing as the flames lick her hand. Leaving blisters in its wake, just as real flame does.

“Are you okay?” I ask, forgetting the flame and grabbing her hurt hand. But as I examined it, the blister began to fade and was absorbed back into her skin.

“What happened?” I ask, furrowing my brow in confusion.

“You healed me.” She explains with a smile of excitement.

Then her smile fades, but her eyes continue to glow with curiosity. “If you did take on the powers of The Source, do you think you can bestow powers like it did?” She asks, licking her lips in hungry anticipation.

“I don’t know,” I reply, letting go of her hand and stepping away in caution.

“You didn’t know you could make fire or heal people. Who’s to say you can’t gift people with powers of your choosing? I think it’s worth a try.” She states, taking an eager step towards me.

“I don’t know. What if it backfires?” I ask, feeling fear begin to twist in my gut.

“Try it.” She demands, grabbing my hand in hers.

“Okay.” I agree with hesitation. “What- what power should I give you?” I ask, my heart begins to race in nervous fear.

“I think getting my telepathy back would be a good start.” She states, smiling in excited expectation.

“Okay,” I agree, swallowing hard as I focus on my intentions to gift her the ability of telepathy. 

I hold my hand out for Carla to take, assuming I need to be touching the person I gift the powers to.

Suddenly a ball of light appears below the skin on my chest, it travels over my shoulder and down my arm until it reaches Carla’s hand touching mine. Then with the feeling of a static shock, it leaves my body, entering Carla’s and disappearing in her chest.

“How do we know if it worked?” I ask in bewilderment.

I think we’ll know. Carla’s voice rings out inside my head as she stands before me with a look of cunning.

“But I thought other telepaths couldn’t do that to each other?” I inquire, tilting my head in curiosity.

“You’re receptive to my messages. Now can I have telekinesis?” She requested, with a playful but excited smile. Her eyes twinkled in eager anticipation.

“Okay.” I agree, squeezing her hands and focusing my energy again. It happens just the same as last time.

Carla immediately lets go of my hands and starts looking around for something I can’t quite place.

“What are you doing?” I ask, watching her in confusion.

“I’m looking for something to test my new power.” She explains giving me a look of annoyance.

But before she could find an object, “Are you kidding me?” Corbin’s voice interrupts us in a mixture of shock and anger.

I whirl around, shocked to see him here. “Corbin I-“

“I don’t believe you! All this time you’ve had powers that could have helped us get out of the city faster and you could have given us all back the powers we lost! You’re unbelievable, I ought to turn you in.” He shouts, sliding off the fire escape ladder and out of sight.

Panicking I follow to the roof’s edge and peer down just in time to see him disappear under the cover of an oning on street level.

“Come on Carla, we need to go after him,” I shout, jumping over the edge and landing gracefully at street level.

“I’ll wait here, I need to try out my powers before I go after him. You go ahead, I’ll catch up.” She calls back from over the ledge of the roof.

I run after Corbin, desperate to catch up. I use X-ray vision to scan around for anyone who looks like him but have no luck, I use telepathy to listen to anyone in radius that might sound like him. But come up empty-handed.

After hours of searching, I return to our safe house and find Carla still on the roof, playing with her powers.

“Look, Keren, I can make this shirt fold itself and place itself in my bag.” She states excitedly.

“That would be the definition of telekinesis,” I replied in exhaustion, collapsing beside her with a tired sigh.

I watch her fold more clothes as the sun begins to peak over the horizon, too exhausted to do anything else.

“Did you find him?” She asks, glancing down at me.

“Would I have come back without him, if I did?” I ask rhetorically.

“No need to be so grumpy.” Carla snaps, folding her arms across her chest in unrest.

“Well, maybe I wouldn’t be so cranky if I wasn’t the only one looking for him.” I stated, “He said he was going to turn us in. He could be halfway back with the Justice Squad by now.” I sigh, still lying on the cool cement roof.

“That’s why I gathered our things, in case we need to make a run for it.” She explains, gesturing towards both our bags sitting across from her.

“What about Greg? Why isn’t he up here waiting?” I inquire, finally feeling suspicious of Carla.

“I didn’t think it was worth telling him until we had to.” She replies, folding more clothes with her telekinesis.

As if summoned by the mere thought, Gregory appears through the door to the roof.

“What are you guys doing up here and where is Corbin?” He asks, looking from us to the clothes that suddenly dropped to the ground.

“He went for another walk, we’ll leave when he gets back.” Carol lies, biting her lips together with a look of guilt.

“Okay. I’ll go grab my stuff.” He replies, giving us a suspicious look and heading back through the door.

“We’ll come with you,” Carla calls, abruptly getting up and nudging me to do the same.

I quickly grab our bags as we chase after him.

Walking in the door to our borrowed apartment, we are met by the sweaty and breathless expression of Corbin.

“There you are.” He begins, through heaving breaths as sweat drips down his brow.

“After I left here last night, I noticed someone following me. I think they lost my trail but we can’t be sure. Get your shit and let’s get going!” He pants, throwing his bag over his shoulder. His eyes are wide in panic.

Gregory jumps to action and begins madly packing his bag while the three of us wait for him.

“Why would you bring them here?” Carla snaps, his cheeks growing red in obvious annoyance.

“I didn’t I just don’t like knowing someone was on my trail so close to here.” He explains, opening the door. “Let’s go, Greg!” He shouts down the hall.

Suddenly there is a bang and smoke engulfs the room. The three of us stand there choking on the smog that fills the room and our lungs. I feel my body begins to tingle and grow weak. Before I even think to use any of my newfound powers, I collapse to the floor and my world falls into darkness.

Part Six: