Page 14 of Ravage
“Hi! I’m Raegan, but you can call me Rae. What’s your name?”
The girl smiles up at me where I’m perched on the back of the chair, my shoes sitting on top of the desk. She’s tiny for this age group in the class, and from up here, she looks even smaller compared to me.
The teacher has yet to arrive, so others in the class are congregated in their little cliques as they whisper and gossip about the new kid.
Me.
Little do they know that I can hear them all anyway.
My lips twist into a smirk at that nugget of information that I’ll never share. The look on my face brings on a whole new wave of whispers from my new classmates. Their words are more familiar than anything else here has been since I arrived on the island yesterday.
“He’s so weird…”
“That look gives me the creeps.”
“Why is he on the desk like that?”
“Can you believe he kicked Mikal out of his desk?”
“Who does he think he is?”
Only three others and this girl are staying quiet. I notice that two of them, both of the guys, are watching her interaction with me.
Interesting.
I cock my head at her, as if studying a creature I’ve never seen before and trying to determine if it’s harmless or not. “Don’t you think I’m strange?”
She mirrors me by tilting her head like mine. It’s a silly move, but I smile at it anyway. “Why would I?” she questions back with a finger to her lips.
I shrug, not willing to give her reasons if she hasn’t found any yet.
My fingers keep folding the square paper even with her interruption. I’ve made these enough times that I could do it with my eyes closed, and it’s become a comfort to keep my hands busy with this instead of using my gift.
But while they’re busy, my mind races.
“I have a question for you, little one.” She doesn’t get upset over the impromptu nickname, which compels me to continue. “Is it better to be feared and left alone, or noticed and used?”
Her nose scrunches as confusion paints her face. “Why are those the only two options? I don’t like either of them.”
My smile sharpens. “Then what are you doing here?”
“What?”
She doesn’t understand. None of them do. I was feared in my foster home. By my foster parents. By my foster siblings and classmates. It meant that I was ignored or talked about behind my back, but I came to accept that.
Until a few days ago when my foster parents sold me to this company.
Who knows what they want with me, but I’m sure it has something to do with the power I have that scared them. Better to give me up and make me someone else’s problem. Getting paid for it probably didn’t hurt them, either.
I’m betting everyone here is a pawn for the company that paid for me like some show horse. Are we just here for show or something more?
The girl tugs at my sleeve, bringing my attention back to her. She doesn’t look frightened when I look at her like others do. She smiles brightly when she has my full attention now.
“What are you making?” She points to the paper in my hands.
I finish the crane in a few more folds, then lift it in the palm of my hand and blow behind it. Once the air is there, I use my gift to guide the lightweight object to her cupped hands that formed as soon as she saw it take flight.
She gasps when she catches it, and I wait for her to say something about my gift.
