Archer Warrick February 20th,20XX

The room I’d yet to enter more resembled the pits of hell, and I had to walk into it with my own feet. The beige walls were stained with dark burn marks from the things my uncle smoked, and red streaks from poorly done cleanings showed the violence that had occurred in the place.

I took a deep breath and entered the room before he could get angrier. It took ten steps to reach him, but each felt heavier than the last.

There, sitting on a ratted couch with many burn marks, was my uncle. The only one of my blood-related relatives that had been willing to take both Eva and me in.

I thought back to that day, four years ago, when he had appeared like a dream and grandly swept us out of that orphanage and into his shed of a shack.

He’d started off by treating us pretty well, but things had reached their worst about half a year before Eva and I suddenly developed these abilities. He hadn’t started using weapons until a few months ago, though.

Things had changed on that day, seven months ago. A loan shark had walked into the house and had broken everything in that old wretched place. Eva had gotten scared and had acted on instinct. She’d only had the most primal version of her abilities back then and had used her ability to shove the fear she felt into his body. It had been a sight to see a large man as he had been, crumple up in fear and start confessing all of his secrets to her.

My aunt had always been smarter than my uncle and had quickly gotten him to shell out all the money he could.

That had been the beginning of a long and dangerous half a year. Between Eva and I, we’d gotten a lot of things out of many people. The beatings had mostly stopped, and they treated Eva better and promised to continue as long as I cooperated.

In the beginning, they had tried to force Eva into doing their bidding, but my powers were just as effective. I’d had her fake a deathly sickness every time she used her powers and convinced them I was a better fit to join them in their scams.

My powers were better suited for gambling and betting than they were for intimidation, but as long as they got money, they didn’t particularly care how it came about.

My uncle got up threateningly, and his legs wobbled as he walked over to me. He was drunk, so he would hit a bit harder than usual.

So far, Eva would have finished listening to the song for the first time. I needed to make sure this was over with before she finished looping it without falling asleep. I couldn’t have her use her powers against the only legal guardians we had. As well, using her powers didn’t make her as deadly sick as I made it out to be, but it wasn’t easy on her either.

I only had three more years before I could leave this place and take her with me.

As long as we continued to cooperate, then it wouldn’t be too bad. He only hit me when he was under the influence anyway and would be apologetic the day after. Maybe I’d be able to convince them to buy Eva a few more things before school started.

There was no way they would get anything but the bare minimum for me, but my aunt enjoyed taking Eva around like a doll. She rarely minded spending money to fit the aesthetic she’d created.

“So, you thought about running away, huh?”

He took in a deep breath of the toxic substance he willingly inhaled into his body and breathed out the remnants into my face. I wanted to cough but held it back in case it made him even angrier.

He didn’t bother to wait for a response and took my split-second silence as a refusal to answer.

“What, too good to answer your old uncle now? Where were you going?”

This time he waited for a bit longer, but this time I chose not to respond. There was no answer I could give him that would help me avoid getting hit.

“Now you’re glaring at me? Put that look in your eyes away, boy! You- just because you and your freak show of a sister got those cursed abilities, you think you don’t have to respect me, right?”

He took another long drag and the bat’s rounded tip rose into the air and prepared to strike down on me. It was a hollow bat so it wouldn’t break any bones, but the outer wood was tough enough to break skin and hurt a lot. It had been a ’loving’ gift from my aunt, who didn’t want me to get hurt badly enough to go to the hospital.

I braced myself for the impact but was taken aback when the bat suddenly sank back down to the floor and he similarly sank into his chair. He took another drag and closed his eyes to calm himself.

Eva was probably on the third loop of the song by now.

I didn’t know why he hadn’t hit me, but I took it as an encouragement to attempt talking my way out of this. It rarely worked, but as long as I read his mind carefully enough, and he remained willing to listen, then I might get away tonight.

“Where were you going? And I want an answer.”

“I was going out to meet my friends.”

His grey eyes, a feature that both Eva and I shared, levelled with mine and his upper lip curled up into a condescending smirk.

“What type of idiot do you take me for?”

The bat was slightly raised again, and his foot rhythmically tapped on the hard wooden floor. He finally put the cigarette down into the ashtray and stood up again, this time with both hands on the hilt of the bat.

He used it as a sort of balancing tool to keep himself upright and stared at me long enough for it to be uncomfortable.

I wasn’t used to this, and I didn’t know what was going on, but I hoped it would end in the next twenty minutes.

“You were going to apply for that ‘Page’ program, weren’t you? Well, I’m not surprised. The only reason the two of you hadn’t disappeared into the streets is that you’re waiting for Adelaide, but even that isn’t enough reason for you to have stuck around here with what you can do.”

He let out a dry laugh and rocked back and forth from his heels to his toes. The effects of the alcohol had faded, and he’d sobered up enough to talk properly.

“April has always been such a lovely, positive lady, you know?”

He suddenly started talking about his wife and our aunt.

“She was sure that as long as we started treating you mutants decently, you wouldn’t hurt us. As if you were dogs. But you’re smarter than that, aren’t you Archie? I’ve seen the way you look at me, it’s the way you’re looking at me now.”

A flood of repulsion filled me as he used the nickname my father used to call me by. It took me back to the first day I’d met my uncle. My father had never talked about him, so I hadn’t even known I had an uncle until he’d shown up that day at the foster care office.

At the time, it hadn’t even occurred to me to be cautious around the man that resembled my father so much. He’d treated us so well at first and convinced the caseworker that he would try his best to take care of us, despite his poor living conditions.

He hadn’t always been a bad person. But it had started when he’d been laid off from his job and had gotten worse when he’d started hanging out with the wrong people in the name of looking for work.

The drinking had started then, as had the smoking. He’d met April a bit later, and things had only escalated from there.

“Have you ever seen a rat in a mousetrap? They don’t exactly stay still when they’ve been caught, you know? They fight, they scream, they aim to kill before they’re killed. That’s what I see when I look at you, Archie. A rat. A vicious, dangerous beast. You can pretend to be a mouse as long as you want, but you’re always marking me, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I’m not an idiot! You hate me! And you want to leave, but you’re scared! Imagine that, a monster like you fearing a loser like me.”

He stopped mid-monologue and struggled to take in a breath. He was a loser, a far cry from the kind man that had taken us in those years ago.

“See! That’s the look! You’re looking down on me! April says I’m crazy, but it’s only a matter of time before you get tired and deal with us as you deal with the others.-“

He stopped again to breathe, but this time it was in preparation. He raised the bat with more force than usual, and I finally recognized that it wasn’t the weapon I was used to. This was a real bat and was one of substantial weight. I could see it by the way his thin, discoloured arms struggled to lift it above his head.

“There’s only one way to deal with a monster that despises you.”

I read his intentions from both his mind and his actions and tried to talk him down. My voice came out panicked and trembled so much that I could barely recognize it as my own.

“Uncle?”

His body language had calmed so much that it was threatening. His eyes no longer wobbled, and he had found a sense of balance as he made his resolve. In contrast, my body trembled in anticipation of the pain, and I feared for my life. I took a step back, more out of instinct than in preparation to run away.

That had been the wrong choice. He became incensed, and the bat fell to his waist again.

“Wait..”

His puffy and reddened eyes tracked my every move and twinkled with a terrifying delight.

“You fear me? Ha! Imagine that!”

“U-uncle… don’t do this.”

But it was too late, He took a large step forward and raised the bat over his head. I was backed against the wall at this point and had nowhere to run. No, I was too scared to run. Although my mind screamed at my body to move, it refused to cooperate and stayed still. Trembling and shivering in fear.

My legs felt like lead and my head swam with the flurry of drunken emotion I got from him, I could usually cut off the connection between myself and someone else when reading their mind, but in cases like this, it was too strong to ignore.

It hurt more than the potential hit from the heavy wooden bat and stunned me into stillness. It felt like someone was roaring into my ears with a microphone and enunciated every hateful word as clearly as they could.

I was disoriented and struggled to keep track of my reality. The screaming was like a muddy swamp that steadily stained my stream of consciousness. I was drowning and could barely open my eyes.

“ARCHIE!”

“Archer?!”

Eva’s voice ripped through the fog and demanded my attention while another woman’s voice, an unfamiliar one, beckoned me back to shore. After what felt like eons of fighting, I managed to peel back my left eyelid and saw my uncle being tackled to the floor by a troop of uniformed people.

My aunt’s screams soon joined the foray, and I felt myself being carried by two people and led into an unfamiliar car. Eva was right beside me the whole time, anxiously sending thoughts into my head and trying to wake me up, but as loud as they were, I couldn’t respond.

Once again, my body betrayed me and launched me into a deep sleep I wasn't sure I would ever awaken from.