Aaron Cyrus February 22nd,20XX

Okay, so driving to a different State on an impulse hadn’t been a great idea. Driving to a different State with four kids who looked like they’d just escaped less than ideal circumstances had a terrible idea.

My credit card cried in my wallet as I shovelled the bags of old clothes into the corner of the hotel room and my arms cried even more. I was too tired to even use my powers and ended up just doing everything with my body.

The kids shared a family suite right next to me, and I’d taken the room across the hall since there wasn’t enough space for all of us and isolating any of the kids wasn’t an option. It wasn’t particularly like it worried me that anything or anyone could hurt them, but it was better safe than sorry, and there was strength in numbers.

My phone half-heartedly rang as Joyce repeatedly called me, but I didn’t want to pick up. Ever since that accident a few years ago, I had made sure not to miss any of her calls, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind to talk to anyone right now.

Just what the hell were we doing with these kids?

Superpowers aside, they were all in worse shape than the other. I know Joyce just wanted to help them out, but was this the right way to go about it? I mean, one of them screamed like he was being murdered when he took a quick nap and all the others had panic attacks when they were a few feet from one another.

I suddenly remembered Archer’s refusal to sleep the day before and got even more worried. What if he didn’t enjoy sleeping because he kept getting those nightmares? Were they that frequent?

My head ached and the phone’s ringing didn’t help either. I couldn’t turn it off since I knew she was currently tracking me down through its GPS signal and turning the volume down also seemed wrong.

What was I doing?

I knew I’d joked around kidnapping with Joyce, but wasn’t what I’d done exactly that?

Ahh, I’d suddenly felt that taking them to that building was the wrong thing to do and had randomly thought of taking them to the amusement park I had visited about a month ago. It was a nice and warm place, but it was also expensive as hell, and super popular. I’d worn a mask and asked the kids to do the same, but I was still worried about being seen by people with less than noble intentions.

I would be fine, but it would be the exact opposite of helpful if I exposed their faces to the public before they were ready.

“Ahh!”

I screamed into my pillow and jumped out of my bed.

The clock showed it was only a few minutes past midnight, but it felt much later than that. Time crawled by like an injured snail, and I could feel each second pass by like a grain of sand.

Thinking wouldn’t do much.

I’d take the kids into the amusement park tomorrow and let them have all the fun they wanted. By then Joyce would have arrived and we could figure out what to do next.

The kids seemed fine with everything, but I couldn’t help but worry on their behalf. They didn’t know us! They didn’t know each other either. Yeah, we’d given them a choice, but was it even a choice? We’d essentially threatened to leave them on the streets or in a dangerous household situation if they didn’t come with us! Would they benefit from being with us?

Joyce and I could try our best to help with their powers, but as things stood, it didn’t seem like they needed help. Tillo and Kaja could manipulate their bodies like putty, and the Warrick siblings seemed content not using their powers at all.

They’d come with us as a way out of their previous hardships, but as things were now, I didn’t think it was right to make them focus on using and controlling their powers before they could be kids.

As a responsible adult, what should I do? What was the right thing to do here?

A knock suddenly echoed from my door and a thin, sleepy voice slithered through.

“Aaron? It’s Archer, I wanted to talk to you.”

I rushed to the door and opened the door to see a pyjama-clad Archer standing there with a guilty look.

“Ah, come in! Get onto the couch, I’ll get you something to drink”

Although the actual park was warm, they kept the hotel at a slightly cooler temperature. It was fine for me, but probably wasn’t the best for kids. He looked bewildered as I suddenly swept him into the room and wrapped him onto the couch in a blanket. I felt bad enough about how things were, it would push me over the edge if one of them caught a cold because of my recklessness.

I handed him a cup of warm water and powdered milk with a bit of sugar mixed into it. There was only coffee in the room, so that was the most kid-friendly drink I could offer. Archer stared blankly at the cup for a moment before wrestling his limbs out of the blanket burrito I’d made him into and taking it from my hands with a grateful expression.

“Thank you.”

While trying to calm myself down, I took a seat in the armchair and angled it toward him. I was a mess, but I needed to look reliable to the kids. Things were bad enough as they were.

“Is anything wrong, Archer? It’s pretty late for you to come over for a casual chat.”

His two hands wrapped around the mug as he gathered his thoughts, and he kept his eyes trained on the sickly white liquid.

“Ah, you don’t have to drink that if you don’t want to.”

He shook his head so quickly I worried he would get dizzy and he quickly took a large gulp of the drink, but it was still hot and he ended up spitting most of it out. He was nervous, but I wondered why. Or well, I knew he was probably nervous about coming to talk so late at night, but I’d want to think I wasn’t scary enough to elicit such a response.

“Stop!”

His sudden scream made me stop mid-step and look back at the flustered teenager. I’d been about to go get some tissues so he could clean himself up, but maybe it was too embarrassing? I couldn’t imagine it would be more uncomfortable than sitting there with milk all over one’s self.

He suddenly looked at me like I was an idiot and pulled both of his hands away from the cup and into his hair with a pained expression.

“I said STOP THINKING SO LOUD”

He suddenly started screaming, and his voice, which was already rough, broke with the pressure. Tears streamed down his face, and he huddled into himself.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry that I looked into your thoughts back in the car! The truth is, I saw a terrible memory, and it scared me so bad that I ended up screaming in the car! I wanted to apologize tomorrow, but ever since then, I haven’t been able to block out a SINGLE THOUGHT FROM YOU. Not even from another room. I’m sorry… I’m sorry so just stop thinking…. so loud.”

His voice completely gave out by the end and he shivered in anticipation as he waited for my next action, but the sudden confession had successfully shocked me into silence.

“Wait, hold on one second.”

He looked at me balefully and pushed his hands closer to his ears.

“You’re going to start thinking again, aren’t you? I can read everything, so why don’t you just say it out loud?”

Well, fair.

“Sorry, I’m a bit thrown off right now. What did you see that got you this messed up?”

I mean, it was a memory from me, but it was breaking him down much worse than it hurt me.

“That… I don’t want to bring it up since it seems like you’ve completely buried it. Some memories just need to stay buried. But why do you keep thinking about us like we’re idiots?”

He suddenly changed the topic and accused me of something else. It looked like my thoughts were the real villain of tonight.

“What? I think you’re all incredibly smart kids-”

“That! That’s the problem! One second you’re saying that we’re smart kids, then the next you’re talking about us like we’re idiots! We all made the best decisions that we could! And all of us are excited about finally having a place where we can feel safe and can use our powers as we want! You… how could you think of taking that from us, even if you say it’s for our good?”

Ah… so he’d meant it when he’d said he could hear everything.

He’d stopped screaming by now and had switched over to a raspy tone that cut deeper than his anger had before. He trembled as he spoke and shrank into himself more and more with each word; like he foresaw I would get angry and do something…

Ah.

I sat back down and took a sip of the coffee I’d made for myself and tried my hardest to gather my thoughts.

“You’re right. It was impetuous of me to take things into my own hands like this… but it looks like reading minds doesn’t mean you can understand them that well. But it’s my fault for that too, I guess. I knew I had a mind reader in the party and I still went on as I did.”

He suddenly looked up at me, confused that I wasn’t angry at him, but he didn’t loosen his defensive position.

“Archer. I think you kids are about the smartest kids I’ve ever met in my life, and I’ve only known you all for about a day. You can read as much of my mind, feelings, whatever you want to know if I’m being honest about that. But as smart as you are, you’re still children, and children need to be cared for by whatever adults they find themselves around. Yeah, there are some scumbags out there that neglect that duty and there are idiots like me, that can only try our best but still make mistakes. None the less, we’re still adults, and you as a kid just need to sit back and let others take care of you, even if it isn’t in the exact way you want them to care for you. Of course, you can choose to leave if you don’t like the type of care the adult offers, and you can talk with the adult to negotiate on what mistakes they’ve made. In that case, you did a very brave thing tonight and I’m happy you came to me.”

I took another sip of my drink and continued to search for words to say what I wanted to say. As he’d said, he could read all of my thoughts so it would be faster to just say it all, but I didn’t want what I wanted to say to get lost in the mess that my mind was currently in.

“However. You need to trust a few things from both Joyce and me, who are the adults currently in charge of both your safety and happiness. We’re always trying our best to do what’s right for you and unless it reaches a point that you absolutely can’t stand it, then you need to sit back and enjoy whatever is in store for you. If you don’t like it then say so, if you like it but find it embarrassing to say it then don’t. But never, ever think that either of us would do something for the sole reason of depriving you of anything.”

“But you wanted to take away our chance to go with Joyce and train our powers! You kept saying that it was an awful choice and that things were unfair! You want to take away our new home before we even get to see it!”

“Again, it looks like you need to hone your mind-reading abilities more. I said I wanted you guys to get settled as regular kids before you have to deal with your powers. All of you kids haven’t ever gotten to live regular lives, so how could you choose if you wanted to be extraordinary or not?! I say that you got an unfair deal because I the adult in charge, who has more experience than any of you, in this case, can see that it’s unfair, and I want to even the playing field for you… can you, at least temporarily, trust me enough to do that?”

He finally slightly loosened his pose and put his legs onto the ground, but he kept the blanket wrapped tightly around himself. His expression was impossible for me to decode, but it wasn’t a negative one, and I felt a bit better.

I didn’t want to intimidate these kids or anything, but I needed to make sure that they knew that neither Joyce nor I would try to do anything that would hurt them.

“Fine… I’ll try. And sorry for reading your mind without permission.”

I casually waved it off. I’d already resigned myself to being read like a book when Joyce had brought the kids home, but I worried about the feedback he was experiencing.

“We can talk about the mind-reading thing and boundaries later. Like you just experienced, although I’m not sure what you found in my mind that scared you so bad, there are a lot of things that people don’t want to be dug up or seen by others. But hold back on using your powers until you can get a better handle on them. You look a few steps away from passing out whenever you use them. Gosh, do you want me to carry you to your room or do you just want to sleep here on the second bed?”

He got up quicker than he had any right to and rushed out of the room.

“I’m fine… good night.”

His words lingered long after his swift exit, and for a moment I wondered if he was the one with super speed. But I shook off the thought and finally laid down on my bed.

I debated it for a few seconds before taking two sleeping pills. There was no way I was sleeping without them, and from how sensitive Archer was to my thoughts, he wouldn’t be able to sleep much either. Best to knock out for a few hours and wake up refreshed in the morning.

There was no way I could apologize to Joyce without enough energy, anyway. She was likely furious by now.