Destia Jayden February 21st,20XX

She looked me in the eye and processed the response I’d just given her. The cautious expression on her face tempted me to explain myself a little better, but I stopped myself.

Right now, the best course of action would be to wait for her response. If she didn’t rescind my application, then I would stand by it, but if she did, then I would say whatever I needed to for her to change her mind.

“Calm down, Ms. Jayden. I said I wanted to help you so I will. I’ll ask you one more question though.”

Her tone was flat and any attempt at making me feel welcome was long gone. I knew she was uncomfortable with my answer, but she’d asked me to be honest. It wasn’t that I thought those thugs might hurt others if I’d left them be; it was that I’d seen them hurt others many times.

They were strong, so they liked to bully others they thought were weaker than them. What was so wrong with me dealing with them by their own laws?

“I have four other kids like you under my care. Two of them are sixteen, one of them is fifteen, and the last is an eight-year-old. Two of them are shapeshifters, one of them is a telepath, and the other is an illusionist.”

She held her phone in her hand and sent a text to someone as she spoke in that same dry voice. I could tell that she was purposefully intimidating me, but it worked, and I feared what she would say next.

However, her choice to reveal information about the other children gave me hope. There was no way she’d tell me as much if she didn’t plan on taking me to meet them, right?

“I understand why you did what you did, and as I said, I have no intentions to chastise you for it. But I need your word that you won’t resort to violence around those children. If you can do that, then I’ll take you home to pick up your things and take you to the building right away.”

I debated just agreeing and going with her, but again I was honest. I wasn’t sure why, but I got the feeling that lying to her would be pointless.

“But what if I needed to protect them? Or myself?”

She softly scoffed and chugged down her drink. She wasn’t scoffing directly at me, but it still felt bad.

“There may be villains Destia, but there are no supervillains yet, and if I have anything to do with it, there won’t be. Do you know what that means?”

Her bright red nails flashed in between the dark black case of her phone as she twirled it between her fingers. The fragile device nearly fell with each rotation it made around her palm, but retained its balance. She made sure I was looking at it by bringing it up to my eye line.

“It means that you’re fighting an unfair fight. Super speed? Invisibility? You held back this time, but all it takes is one moment of inattention.”

The phone slipped through her fingers and crashed down to the floor with a bang. It wasn’t that loud of a sound, but in the otherwise silent room, it was deafening. She gracefully uncrossed her leg and kicked it over to me.

I wrapped my fingers around its back, knowing what I would see, but wanting to play my part in the demonstration.

“One mistake and they’ll end up like that. Broken at best, and at worst…”

She trailed off and made eye contact with me again, done with the games.

“Look, Miss Jayden. I don’t have super-powers, I don’t have an explanation for why you got them either, but I have a way to help you control them. I have a way to connect you with others like you, so you feel a sense of community. But it’s all contingent on your willingness to cooperate. I’ll ask you again. Can I have your word that you won’t use violence around those kids?”

I knew it wasn’t about what I wanted or what I thought. Right now, Miss Knightly wanted to protect those kids at all costs and she had identified me as something or someone to protect them from.

She opened her purse, and two new phones emerged from the small container. She slid one over to me and casually set up the new one. The phone she gave me was a silver-backed contraption that was much larger and much more expensive than anything I’d ever owned.

The phone was a considerate gift considering I’d broken my previous one in the fight earlier, but it left me with a bitter feeling.

It was unfair.

She was treating me like a villain, but it wasn’t like I’d hurt those people because I’d wanted to. They were about to hurt a little kid, and as someone with the power to stop them, it wouldn’t have been right to let them carry on.

I was the good guy here!

I didn’t want to nod; I didn’t want to give her a promise that I had no intentions to keep. But she wasn’t giving me much of a choice.

As I struggled with the decision, she suddenly got up and rounded the table. Her heels clicked on the marble floors and flooded the room with their imposing sound. Her red nails that had so mercilessly thrown the phone onto the floor rose from her side and warmly caressed the side of my head. I felt a few strands of my messy hair catch on her nails, but she expertly maneuvered them out of it.

“I’m not here to scare you miss Jayden, I’m not here to threaten you either. I know you’re a good girl… I just hope you know that as well.”

Again, she didn’t wait for me to respond and slowly walked out of the room. The remote had somehow made it into her hands and the heavy door hissed as it swung open. Her heels didn’t stop clicking, but her voice filtered over the sound that I’d come to dislike.

“You don’t mind if I push your moving day forward a bit, do you? I’m sure you’re just as excited to meet the other kids as they are to meet you. Finish your food and come out to meet me. I’ll drive you over.”