Kaja Lando February 29th,20XX

Ember’s large body delicately trembled in fear as outside the bathroom broke into chaos. Footsteps thundered outside and fists banged on the door to the bathroom, but Archer had locked the door shut. I hadn’t even known the bathroom had a door since most public bathrooms didn’t, but Archer had somehow discovered this abnormality and used it to our advantage.

Another bang exploded outside and screaming ensued. Thankfully, we were safe inside the bathroom, but I couldn’t ask Archer how he’d known to pull us in here.

He had to have ‘heard’ something before everything happened. I was curious, but I couldn’t ask while Ember was still awake. The poor guy looked terrified and was likely seconds away from passing out, but somehow stayed conscious.

“Archer? What about Eva?”

The small girl suddenly popped into my mind, and a sense of dread filled me. It was heavy and made it difficult to breathe. The thought of Eva, crouched under her desk in the other building, shivering and alone. I had Tillo and Archer with me so I wasn’t that scared, but Eva was only eight and she was-

“Kaja! Tillo! I’m going to need you two to focus on my voice. Eva’s scared, so she’s reaching out to the three of us. I’ve texted her, and she’s okay, but she’s still a kid so she can’t help it. Keep talking to each other and try to keep your minds off it.”

I’d always wondered what Eva’s powers were and how they worked, but this… this was crazy.

I fought myself out of the fog of fear, distinguishing the eight-year-olds worry from my own, and reached out to Tillo. My hand moved with an unusual weight and I realized I hadn’t let go of his hand since.

“I already called the cops, and I had Eva tell her teacher what’s going on. The elementary building is on lockdown and there only seems to be one assailant. For better or worse, he’s right outside. She’ll be safe.”

It suddenly occurred to me that Archer was actively using his powers right now. As the oldest person in the space…. Well, the oldest person who had super-powers, I had to take control of the situation.

“Archer, can you find out who the assailant is? And what he wants?”

I knew that using his powers strained him. I remembered his breakdown when we’d all gone to the amusement park, but we needed information before we could do anything.

“Also, were those… bombs?”

Tillo’s voice trembled as he asked and I could tell how scared he was, but he was coping a lot better than Ember. Well, Ember was a native student of this school. For a rich kid who probably didn’t have any bigger problems than what club to join in high school, this was likely a life-defining event.

Archer’s forehead wrinkled as he tried to focus and get answers.

“I’ll try to find out, but you need to keep in contact with Eva. Text her your name, whoever wants to take over.”

I reached out to the phone and texted Eva my name, as Archer had asked, but I wondered why. After all, it was just texting. Did it matter who was on the receiving end?

‘Hello? Kaja?’

As soon as I heard her powerful voice rip through my thoughts and make it difficult to think of anything else, I realized why it had been important.

“Kaja, it’s a one-way street. You need to text her your response. Well, the two of you should figure it out. Tillo, call Joyce while Kaja liaisons with Eva.”

Somehow Archer had taken control of the situation and was barking out orders, but I tried not to let it bother me. After all, he was the one with the most information, and he was the reason we were safe now.

“Eva, are you okay?”

‘Yeah, we’re fine. I showed my teacher Archer’s text, and we’re all hiding under our desks. It’s dark.’

The voice that rang in my head didn’t sound like her voice. I’d only heard her talk out loud a few times, but the quiet childish voice couldn’t compare to the powerful, attention-demanding roar I was currently receiving.

“Try to stay calm and stick it out. We already called the police and Joyce so it’ll all be over soon.”

“Okay! It wasn’t a bomb! Or well it was, but they were flash bombs, no one’s- no one’s dead, but a few people hurt their heads as they fell. The assailant came for someone named The-“

“WHERE IS THELMA CORNETTE! BRING HER OUT AND NO ONE HAS TO GET HURT!”

A desperate voice rang out from a few feet out of the door. My voice had changed so many times as I used my powers that I could roughly place it as a heavy-set male in his mid-forties.

Then again, I could also be completely off, but as soon as I painted the profile in my mind, it stuck.

Suddenly a vile retching sound echoed from the stall and a solemn flushing sound filled the silence as we realized we weren’t alone.

Ember was too far gone to register what we were saying, so I didn’t worry about him too much, but if anyone else was in the state of mind to make sense of what we’d been saying… That would be bad

“Who’s there?”

Tillo and I traded a look before my younger brother walked forward and knocked on the door.

“Come out! We’re students too.”

After a few seconds, the door to the stall swung open and a familiar dark-haired girl with a nasty expression revealed herself. Even while being so scared she’d puked herself, she carried a look of repulsion on her face.

“You’ve only been here for a few hours; how can you already be calling yourselves students?”

The urge to knock her unconscious and drag her to the assailant crossed my mind, but I let it pass after seeing the disappointed expression on Archer’s face.

I didn’t use physical violence on her, but I did the next best thing.

“Shut up before I open this door and hand you over.”

She clammed up at the threat and tears beaded in her eyes. Her knees shook, and she collapsed to the ground. But Tillo, being too nice for his own good, caught her before she got hurt.

He carefully helped her back up to her feet. But I wasn’t in the mood to pamper the reason we were all in danger.

They heavily restricted traditional guns, and it was rare to see anyone that wasn’t a high-ranking government official carry one. But there were still electric guns, and knives, and other weapons that the assailants could use if they were desperate enough.

“You’d better buck up and tell us why the hell are we hiding in the bathroom while a crazy person looks for you.”

She didn’t let go of Tillo’s shoulder as she balanced herself, but that didn’t stop her from taking a step towards me and barking out a response.

“What should that matter to you?”

In response, I took a few steps toward the bathroom door and put a hand on the handle.

“Kaja!”

“No!”

We’d all been speaking in harsh whispers, but she screamed so loud that it pulled up the hairs on my arm. Tillo moved quickly and put a hand around her mouth, albeit with an apologetic expression.

“It’s something about her dad’s company. It went under a half a year ago and a bunch of old stockholders have been angry. She thinks they’re likely here for her.”

“Well, are they?”

“It’s… one reason.”

The way he hesitantly answered made me think I didn’t want to know the others.

“IF THELMA ISN’T OUT HERE IN EXACTLY FOUR MINUTES, I’M GOING TO hurt ONE STUDENT AT A TIME UNTIL SHE DOES.”

The way the assailant spoke clumsily and didn’t detail his threat made it clear that he wasn’t too experienced at doing this.

“Wait, please don’t send me out. Please. I don’t know what he’ll do to me, and I don’t even know where my dad is! He’s been gone for so long, and the house was repossessed, and I don’t know what to do. Please.”

She suddenly started spilling out her life story and attempted to play on our sympathy, but I couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly she’d changed her tune. Then again, it kind of made sense why she disliked us so much.

If her situation was that bad, then she’d probably seen the Squire program as her last chance.

“Calm down!”

As Archer half yelled at her to calm down, I walked forward and ripped her away from Tillo’s arms. I couldn’t risk her thinking back to this moment in the future and having some suspension bridge type effect and falling for my brother. I didn’t really care who he dated, but it couldn’t be her.

“TWO MINUTES”

“He’s holding a kid. He’s serious.”

Archer’s quiet voice was serious as he updated us on the situation outside. I could see the strain visible on his face and I felt bad, but I couldn’t ask him to stop.

My mind whirled through a million situations of what to do, but there was only one option I could think of.

“Archer, Tillo, I have a plan but it’s a little risky. Would you be willing to work with me?”

“Wait, what are you guys thinking of doing?”

Ember finally came to his senses enough to ask questions, but I could tell he didn’t really want an answer.

Tillo finally took mercy on him and grabbed Archer’s backpack, then fished around for a few seconds and brought out a pair of heavy-duty but cheap headphones. He loosened his tie from his collar and smiled kindly at Ember.

“Ember, just close your eyes, and this’ll all be over soon. Keep these on and try to go to sleep. When you wake up, it’ll all be like a bad dream.”

I’d half expected Ember to refuse, or to at least resist, but he quickly slammed the headphones onto his head and let Tillo wrap the tie around his eyes as a makeshift blindfold. Somewhat regretfully, I volunteered my headphones and placed them over Thelma’s ears. We used Archer’s tie to cover her eyes and left the two huddled in the corner of the largest stall.

Archer looked at his phone for a few seconds and after texting something to Eva, plugged in the headphones into a dual jack. He fiddled with it for a few more seconds and started a playlist with an alarming name.

‘Distraction for Eva #6’

I’d heard bits and pieces from Aaron’s and Joyce’s conversations that his background hadn’t been great. I hadn’t paid it much mind, but seeing things like this made me wonder…

“Just focus on the music as much as possible and try not to listen to anything.”

He said the phrase like he’d said it a million times and pressed play on the music. It was so loud that it broke the foam barrier of the cheap headphones, but neither of the two students tried to take them off or lower the volume.

Archer turned back around to me and connected his odd-coloured eyes with mine. I could tell that he’d seen my thoughts, but he didn’t address them.

“Now, What’s your plan?”