My first impression of the Shack was how completely paralleled it was to my normal living arrangement. It was small, disorganized and chaotic. The living room was barren, and there was no color scheme. There were a few beaten down couches, one a bland evergreen and the other a tasteless burgundy, pushed against the wall to leave room for a circle of training mats. Mother would have had an entire conniption, I mused, high off the pleasant rebellion swirling around my mind.

He gestured vaguely to the corner of the room, where two mats had been shoved to face each other. For the first time, I noticed the couple. "Those are Maya and Blaise."

I was almost surprised to note that they both looked fairly normal, if somewhat buffer than the average teen. Blaise had abandoned his shirt in favor of low-resting sweatpants and white bands tight around his fists. Maya looked completely at ease as she dodged each of her opponent's simple approaches. She had several purple streaks in her long, flowy ebony hair and light freckles dusting across her nose and cheeks.

"She looks a bit like a mermaid, doesn't she?" He asked with a hint of amusement. His voice tickled my ear in a low whisper. I resisted the innate urge to shudder, and when I moved to face him I noticed his smug smirk, most definitely in response to my no-doubt utterly awestricken expression. "She thought dying her hair would be funny. Fit the stereotype, you know?"

"All she's missing is the seaweed," I said.

"She even has the Prince Charming."

I shifted my gaze to Blaise. He was clearly fit, with muscles taunting in every which way and eyes the shade of... was that ginger? He had his hair spiked in the same shade of black as his counterpart, minus his tips of red. I wondered if he had gotten it dyed the same time as her, and I imagined both of them sharing nervous laughs and poking fun at the other's new appearances. Or maybe they had just stared at each other in eager anticipation, anxious to fit inside these identities manufactured for them. I struggled to find my words, "Less Charming, more-".

"Hot?" The brown-eyed boy offered teasingly.

"Psh, of course not," I said, completely convincingly. Then paused. "Well."

"Well," he mocked, a smile tugging at his lips, "you're not exactly wrong. The whole fire manipulation thing, and all."

Made for each other.

Maya jerked back just as Blaise had set off a wall of literal flames between the both of them. She wrinkled her nose is obvious distaste, and in an instant her whole body had materialized into a dark blue wave. I watched on in morbid incredulity as the two elements collided, simmering away and leaving behind a frighteningly mundane scene of two teens merely holding hands and sharing goofy grins.

"Made for each other," I voiced, trying to shake myself from my engrossed daze. I felt more than saw my not-so-kidnapping kidnapper nod beside me.

He laid his hand on my shoulder and silently steered me towards another dim lit room. The counters and table top lead me to believe it was the kitchen, although I wasn't able to confirm this since said kidnapper, and now my apparent tour guide, had marched me straight through and towards another door.

"Is everyone here straight from a modeling gig," I had eventually muttered, allowing him to guide my now sulking self through the next door. I faintly wondered when his hand had slid down to my middle back.

He gave me one lingering, considering look, eyes glowing in mirth. After a brief pause he said, low as if it were a confession, "I wouldn't be talking if I were you."

I flushed, cocking an eyebrow, to which he shrugged in response to. The sun was now glaring and I realized those crunching sounds were twigs below my shoes. The short walk was violently deceiving, for we were now standing on the end of a wobbly porch and staring at the other side of the impossibly green forest.

"Don't flatter yourself. We think it has something to do with the reformation of genes, or whatever, that gave us these... powers, or whatever," he explained lamely, absentmindedly gesturing towards the expanse that was now laid before us. "I mean, if you could reconstruct an entire person, wouldn't you at the very least give them the added bonus of being hot?"

"Seriously?" My eyes had widened considerably on their own accord. I found it hard to believe that I could have, in any possibly way, been genetically engineered as "hot". I mean, if that were the truth, couldn't they have added a bit of approachability into the mix? Or friendliness, at the very least?

"Obviously not," he smiled attractively, poking my side, "I'm fucking with you. It sounded smart though, didn't it?"

There. That made more sense. I rolled my eyes, making my oh-so-great delight as clear as possible. "So... I now know-ish Maya and Blaise. Care to introduce yourself, Bobby?"

He licked his lips subconsciously and gave me a soft smile. "My Bobby persona was very convincing, thank you very much. But you can call me Michael from now on."

He nudged me further, and I narrowed my eyes at him before finally paying mind to the new scenery. It had only taken me a few seconds to deem this area my new favorite. There were a few shaky looking lawn chairs and a rusty grill that looked far too old to even consider using. For what seemed like an eternity onwards, there was only a lively expansion of forest. Someone had even strung up multicolored Christmas lights between a few of the more prominent trees.

"This is where my darling little brother spends most of his time," Michael explained. I heard song birds in the distance. "Which is great for the rest of us. We're spared from the annoying." The way he had whispered his words gave me the impression that Lucas would have defended himself were he here.

And, as if discussing him brought him to existence, I began to feel Lucas' presence in my mind, far sooner than I would have seen him. His thoughts were loud and distracting with a hint of boyish bluntness. I was surprised for a minute to hear him pondering over my own thoughts and emotions, until I remembered Michael's words. This right here was a blatant demonstration of Lucas' power.

"Can you hear him?" Michael asked curiously.

"I guess," I said distractedly, straining to keep a grasp on his train of thought. Apparently, this sort of uncanny protection against my mind reading was now a genetic thing. Understands. Flutters. Listens. "What do you mean?" I asked aloud.

Michael had almost paused in his step to give me a strange look. I distantly noticed we had walked down the creaking steps of the porch and were currently wandering deeper into the woods.

I was so focused on the hazy lingering of thoughts coming from the new boy, that I hadn't noticed when we had finally reached our apparent destination. The sudden movement of a faraway jerk caught my attention. The boy in front of me had cocked his head to the side, and was analyzing me dauntlessly. He was leaning against the bark of a tree with a barely noticeable tug of the lips threatening to break his stern expression.

He had finally placed his weight back on his own two feet, and strode over with lazy steps. He finally gave in and quirked a grin at his older brother. "I told you I have more game," he bragged shamelessly, stepping close enough that I could evidently see the mole on his right temple and the way his hair stood up in certain places. Close enough that I could see how cute he was. Close enough that I could identify how similar he looked to Michael. "I don't see the girls getting lost in your thoughts. I'm Lucas, by the way, but you already knew that."

I shook his now outstretched hand. He had gripped it a little tighter than necessary, and his smile was beginning to look strained. He dropped my hand just as quickly, and spared a subtle glance at Michael. "Ella," I introduced.

"Is she like me?" Lucas demanded suddenly, his eyebrows furrowing and his smile growing tighter by the second.

"Sort of," Michael said vaguely, staring at the space between his brother and me.

"Alright, Ella," Lucas said, pausing to roll back his shoulders and give me one last calculating look. He looked devious the way his hair had now framed his face, like a falling angel ready for mischief. "Let's play."

He gestured for Michael to step out of a way, and inched unbearably closer. With each step he took, my chest tightened and my heart seized. I cocked an eyebrow at the look concentration playing over his features. "Is something supposed to be happening?"

"No need to be so impatient," he chastised, laughing- and God if that wasn't the nicest sound I've heard in a while. In forever, maybe. He was now close enough to take my hand, which he did, and I felt a brutal surge of lightheadedness. His next words came out husky and his eyes bore into my own in a manner I could only describe as evocatively. "You feel that, don't you?"

I moved my mouth to say- something, but no sound had formed. At this very moment, though, I felt as though I would never need words again. I could indistinctly hear some of Lucas' thoughts, but as soon as I tried making sense of them, they became more complicated and chaotic than I had ever remembered thoughts being.

He looked too composed for my taste. I wondered if I could make him feel this also. I felt him draw me closer, although he had not moved an inch. I felt as if being pulled by a tether. He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing and his mind a jumble of letters, and something had noticeably changed in his eyes. He began looking as stricken as I felt. He continued to speak, each word slow and deliberate, each syllable rolling off his tongue tantalizingly slow. "I can basically hear the butterflies down there." His hand slipped past my shirt and rested firmly on my stomach. "You probably can't even think by now. You're probably so consumed, so completely and exclusively focused on one thing."

My heart thudded in my ears. We gravitated impossibly closer, like planets orbiting around the sun in this eternal, teasing game of chase. Lucas was my sun, I was sure of it. "I feel it," I said honestly, my voice feeling raw and throaty. I sounded breathless, even to my own ears. "What is it?"

"Does it matter?" He ghosted his fingertips along my jaw, just present enough to catch the breath in my throat. He actually looked curious for my answer. "Can you even bring yourself to care?"

I shook my head, wondering why I would even ask such a stupid thing in the first place. Unable to fathom a world where I would need stupid, mundane questions when Lucas is standing right there in front of me being so completely unmundane.

He's even closer now, his hand tightening into a fist around my hair, his lips brushing against my ear when he speaks, "This is what I do to people, Ella. I make them feel things they've never felt before, never imagined feeling before. I make them love this unlovable man, and just when they think I can't be anything better... I do this."

He places two fingers on my chin and tilts back my head, leveling our eyes. I don't even bother wondering how he's drifted so alluringly, enticingly close. He takes a long, deep look in his eyes as if he's soaking up my desperation. He exhales once, then twice over my lips and his eyes dart down to the shape of my mouth.

"I step back," he says finally, sounding as confused and unsure as he looked. "I step back and leave them standing there. They usually, um, tell me everything I need then."

My eyebrows knit together, and this sudden need to push closer overcomes whatever semblance of control I might have had left. For a single, terrifying moment I needed Lucas.  I needed him like I needed the air I breathe. I needed his hair and his vibrant eyes and sharp jaw and his tempting lips and shaking hands.

I didn't need my ability to know he felt the same.

Especially, when he pushed me against the nearby bark of wood and finally, finally, eased the tension with his lips pressing hard against my own. It wasn't long before I was drowning under the crashing waves that was Lucas, sinking deeper with each brush of tongue and every trembling breath. It was just as his hand dipping to my hip and he began to lift my shirt when

I blinked. A wave of consciousness yanked me back above the surface. As if a switch had been hit, Michael was now the one in front of me. He had one hand on my shoulder and the other snapping a set of worried fingers before my eyes. His face was scrunched up with worry, and barely concealed anger. His thoughts, once impassive and difficult to comprehend, were now blaringly loud with a rare kind of passionate heat.

"You took it too far, Lucas," he chastised, turning around to hit him with the full force of his glare. He looked far much older than his actual age. "Way, way too far."

Lucas shook his head, and his eyes stayed trained on my face. "I didn't do it on purpose," he huffed indignantly. "I can usually pull back- hell, I always pull back, but..."

Both boys turned to study me, each wearing identical looks of equal curiosity and suspicion. I felt small underneath their gazes. I took a risky moment to properly look at them. They had the same nose, and their lips turned to a frown at the same point. Their hairs were a similar shade of brown, with Lucas having more of a blonde tint- maybe from spending all that time outdoors. They both stared at me with complete rapture, as if I were a riddle and it was within their sole being to solve me. It was incredibly unnerving.

Letting exhaustion win me over, I leaned my head against the tree and slid into a crouch, readjusting my shirt and smoothing down my hair. My face felt hot at the reminder of recent events and my legs felt unsteady. I tried to even my breath.

"Were you aware I was manipulating you?" Lucas asked at last, leaning forward to examine me even more thoroughly.

"No," I spoke firmly, forcing myself to meet his eyes despite any lingering mortification. I cleared my throat. "I definitely wasn't. Trust me, it would have been more than clear if I did."

Lucas turned to Michael considerably, shrugging one shoulder and running a hand through his hair in a manner I previously had made the mistake of associating with only his brother. His cheeks were still tinted a rosy pink and his hands still had a small tremor to them. "You can be aware, and still not in control. It would feel as if you're trapped within your own head. I don't think I've ever seen someone as affected by me like that before," then added, as if an afterthought, "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

I rolled my eyes, secretly relieved at the unexpected lack of awkwardness, and let out a dignified huff. "Something like that happened towards the beginning, I guess. It didn't feel as genuine. Then I just sort of just... lost it?"

"I don't think that's ever really happened to anyone I've influenced before," Lucas said, looking almost giddy at this new revelation. "I mean, it looks like that, sure, but it's never felt that way. At least, not for me."

Michael and Lucas shared glances at what must've been my confused expressed.

"It's a little hard to explain, but I can feel what the other person feels. It's just to a lesser degree, so I have enough sense to understand that they're artificial."

"But this time you didn't," I finished for him softly, giving my head time to keep up. "You lost your sense?"

"Cool, right?" He shot me a toothy grin.

Michael let out an exasperated sound, although the upturn of his lips exposed a crack in his previous anger. He seemed easier now that he understood the full story. He turned to me studiously. "Can it have something to do with your abilities? Have you even been able to manipulate someone like that?"

"I've never tried anything like that before," I reminded him. "Prior to today, I've never met anyone else remotely like me, like us. I'm as clueless to whatever I'm capable of as you are."

"I wonder if her powers respond like that with everyone else's," Lucas hums delightedly, balancing on the heels of his feet and shooting Michael a hopeful look.

"No."

"And why not?" Lucas whined, looking every bit like the little brother he was. He gripped Michael's arm. "This could be groundbreaking."

"I already made it clear that-"

"Okay, fine, whatever," he hissed petulantly, and turned away to mock his brother childishly. It was refreshing from my normal routine. Speaking of which,

"How is this going to work out, by the way?" I asked, mentally cursing myself for not questioning it sooner. "I mean, people are going to notice I'm missing, surely. My Mother, for instance," not that she would necessarily care, although I chose to keep that tidbit to myself, "my teachers."

"We took care of that already," Michael said curtly, waving around his hand dismissively.

I cocked an eyebrow, before filled the gaps. "You're- You didn't..."

"What?" His eyes widened, "Oh, shit, no! No, no, no. I didn't kill them or anything. What the fuck, Ella? That's crazy."

I relaxed again, sighing in relief.

"God, that's dark," Lucas snorted, rolling his eyes, "Chill. We only wiped their memory."

I choked. Michael whacked his brother upside the head.

"I mean- it's reversible, if that's what you really want, but we just assumed... Well, none of us really have the best relationships with our parents, is all. It helps with the whole developing powers thing."

I stared blankly.

"You know," he reasoned, "Well, I suppose you don't, but the whole tragic parents' backstory and constant self-loathing is extremely helpful for the entire developmental process."

Michael pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing long and deeply at his brother's expense.

"What?! It's not like I'm wrong. Jaz got her powers with-"

Michael shoved him. Hard. "I highly recommend you stop while you're ahead."

"Good point."

"So, you brainwashed everyone I knew," I recapped dumbly, "So I'm, like, what? Nonexistent in their heads or something?'

"Of course not," Michael said, clearly insulted, "That would be cruel. They think you're away at boarding school. Indefinitely."

I nodded slowly, absorbing this new information. I'm sure Mother was relieved to finally have me gone. I wondered if she even noticed. Michael could have probably done without the brainwashing and still go on without a hitch.

"How did you manage that?"

"It was Jaz," Lucas said, looking proud. Michael groaned out loud. "What? She's gonna figure everything out eventually, right? Might as well explain thing as we go along."

"What else is there to explain?" I asked, ignoring how overwhelming the whole situation felt. Was I in shock? No doubt, a normal person would be flipping tables by now. Then again, I'm not sure I've ever been normal. Especially now with these new revelations, compliments of Lucas.

"I'll show you," Lucas grinned, taking my arm to no doubt drag me off. I felt goosebumps crawl up my arm, exploding from where we had contact. He removed his hand, blushing deeply, and awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "You felt that?"

I nodded, worrying at my lip and willing the renewed heat all over my body away.

"That's alright," he said, sounding a bit too optimistic, "we'll just... not touch."

I nodded, still trying to regain homeostasis.

"Alright, then," he said brightly, shooing me back in the direction of the Shack. "Let's make you acquainted with the others."

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- eli