"Woah," I whisper in awe.

We finally arrived at the cabin, and now we stand before it.

The cabin sits in a clearing in the forest, but the surrounding trees' canopies cover it up, making the place all the more secretive. The windows are boarded up, and the porch looks broken and splintered, but the cabin itself is very nice looking overall. A two story, with a porch and a garden in the front - now filled with weeds. 

"Come on; it's already night time, and we you need rest," Kano says, helping me to the cabin.

We head inside, and I gasp lightly in awe. It looks so much more clean and nice than the outside does. Maybe a little dusty and the furniture is a little messed up, but it looks almost as if - 

"Shit!" Kano suddenly cusses, grabbing me roughly and hiding us behind the couch in the living room.

"What the heck?!" I whisper-yell at him, but he covers my mouth with his hand.

What's wrong with him now? What is it? Is it danger? 

Then I hear it. Footsteps. They descend down the staircase, then stop, before walking into the large kitchen. Someone starts to rummage around, shifting stuff around, before closing what sounds like a door. They start to whistle, and it sounds like a girl.

So that's why Kano was so worried and hid us here, but why is someone here? I thought this place was abandoned?

"Whoever you are, you can come out now; I already know you're here," the person speaks casually, sound close by.

Kano slowly lets go of my mouth, bringing us both up to face the stranger. A girl our age sits on the couch opposite of our hiding spot, holding a steaming cup of what looks like hot chocolate. Her face goes red when she see us come up hesitantly.

"Who are you?" she says, her voice soft yet firm.

"Who the hell are you? This place doesn't belong to anyone!" Kano demands.

"It belongs to me now. I live here; have been for a month now. Who are you, may I ask again?"

"R-Ryan," I stutter, then point to Kano and say, "and this is Kano."

"Interesting. Why exactly are you here?" She says, her brown eyes calculating.

She tilts her head to the side, as if analyzing us. She narrows her eyes, and I feel my skin crawl. What is she doing? Could she be a Special too?

Her eyes suddenly pop wide open, then a grin spreads across her innocent-like face. "You're like me! You're Specials, too!?" She exclaims, jumping up, almost spilling her hot drink.

"H-how'd you know?" Kano stutters, backing away from her with his arm still wrapped around me.

The air is filled with a tense pressure, almost suffocating me. One wrong move and everything could go horribly wrong. 

"My ability. I'm able to sense others around me, and sense whether someone's a Special or not," she explains, taking a tentative step closer to us.

"Really?" I ask, slightly in awe.

Pulling away from Kano's hold, I slowly walk around the couch we were previously ducked under, and walk closer to the girl. She tenses slightly, but her face is set with determination. I wonder who she is and where she came from. I know Kano is a run-away, and he just...is, but who's she? Is she like me? Did she come from a mental hospital as well? Did she run away from home?

She nods, before smiling softly, showing off a pair of dimples. "I'm Rosaline, but you can call me Ro. Nice to meet you, Ryan and Kano," she greets.

"Nice to meet you, too," I tell her grinning.

She holds out her hand, and I gladly shake it, before I feel Kano's presence from behind me now. The guy's like a ninja, I swear.

"Why don't you sit down and we can talk?" Rosaline offers, sitting down with her hot chocolate again.

"Sure."

We both sit down, Kano still on edge. His shoulders are tense, and his eyes dance with nervous energy. I know that if Rosaline makes one wrong move, Kano will go into offensive mode, and I have yet to see his ability, so I don't know what to expect from that. It seems like he does get fired up easily, and I honestly don't want to see him explode anytime soon.

"So, where are you two from?" Rosaline inquires, sipping her drink.

"I'm a free spirit, going wherever I want," Kano starts, then looks to me. "And, Ryan, he's an escapee from what I assume was Vadem Mental Hospital; I caught him a few hours away from the place."

"Oh my. An escapee? That's nearly impossible! How'd you do it!" She exclaims, leaning forward, her eyes wide and sparkling.

"Yeah, how did you escape from that place? I thought that the security in those kind of places are some of the top in the country?" Kano asks, now also curious.

I gulp, images of that horrible day flashing in my head. Asher, appears often, making me feel sick to my stomach. I told myself I would be strong, and yet here I am, about to cry over Asher yet again.

"I-I had some help, I guess. My h-helper, he g-g-got me angry, and I just, exploded," I start, before tears start to flow down my face again, followed by sobs. "I ended up h-*hic* hurting him, and he *hic* died, but my ability burned off the rest of the meds they gave me, since I never got that day's full dose, so it was far worse. After they took him away, I just, exploded again, and went on a k-killing spree. I killed *hic* so many p-people. I ended up saying goodbye to him when I *hic* found his room. Then I ran away from that place," I finish, wiping away my tears.

An arm wraps around shoulders, and I cry into Kano yet again. I'm pretty sure he's tired of me being such a fragile baby, but I've never had to deal with this kind of pain. I've been away from the real world for way too long, but I can't feel sorry for myself all the time. I need to be strong for myself, for Asher, for my family, and every Special who's suffering.

I pull away from Kano, sniffling still, and smile weakly at him. "Sorry, I lost it again. I won't do it again," I tell him.

"It's fine. I'm sure you're hurting," he replies, waving my apology away with his hand.

"Thanks."

"Well, I think it's late. Look, you can stay here for the night, then in the morning, we can decide what to do then," Rosaline tells us, before standing up, putting her cup in the sink.

She then walks upstairs, and Kano and I follow her a few minutes later. Kano claims his own bedroom, and I claim the one across from his. I brought my bag up with me, so I now drop it onto the bed, before collapsing onto the bed myself.

The room is dusty, but has obviously been cleaned recently enough; probably when Rosaline first moved in. My thoughts have become sluggish now, and for that, I'm glad. I'm so tired. After crying twice now, I feel stronger. I know I will never be able to forget Asher, nor will I completely forgive myself for killing all those people, but now, I won't cry over it anymore. I'll stay strong. I'll move on.

For Asher.

Okay, so I think I have a general speed, but I'm not too sure. I'm super worried that this won't come out as great as I want, but I have to have faith, right? And about the boyxboy (which I've now changed three times. Wow. I AM keeping it as a boyxboy) action, I'm taking it slow. Don't worry, I have a plan for that part of this, too, but right now, we need to focus on the whole action thing, while slowly building up the draaaammmaaaa!

Thanks for getting me up to #252 in Science Fiction! Wowee

-Mel