Swallowing the lump in throat I told myself for the umpteenth time that I could do this. My thumb kept running over the USB drive in my hand as though it would disappear on its own if I don’t reassure myself that it’s there. Maybe that’s exactly what had happened, I had finally lost my mind and imagined Akram de Silver telling me that I had a destiny to save mankind, or POE-kind, whatever.

You know he is the perfect guy to talk to. I told myself this and pushed opened the door leading to the common room. Sure enough, he was sitting there with a book along with his minions. It really amused me how they sat through all his crazies without batting an eye. That Raven girl definitely had a crush on Gerald, and she still went through with the whole thing without seriously flipping out.

“Oh look who is here!” Liam exclaimed, his long hair still unruly as ever as he stared at me excitedly. Everybody immediately turned towards me and I had to resist the urge to hurl the table onto their faces.

“Gerald.” I force the words out through my gritted teeth. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

Nodding, the weirdo looked up and with a glance his minions began to file out. Raven gave me another scowl and Liam winked at me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and told myself to focus on the task at hand.

“Have a sit.” Gerald said, gesturing to the empty seat beside him and I settled down slowly. His face was still a mask of calm and his eyes cleared of any emotions. That was the creepiest thing I found about him. Despite the proposition he made me he had shown no sign of emotion whatsoever on the topic, as though he was merely making a business deal. I had a feeling that he must be born without emotional hardwire in his brain, but I had seen the way he treated others in the quarter and he was actually a nice, border-line compassionate person.

Shaking my head I reminded myself that I didn’t come here to make a psychological analysis of Gerald Fitz William’s mind. This was a topic better left t profressional.

“I need your help.” I started and immediately engaged his interest. “I need to find Katarina Falcon.”

Gerald looked at me for a second and although he wasn’t a telepath, he always had his guard up around his mind so there was no way to tell what he was thinking without ending in a tug of war with him. A part of me was screaming for me not to tell him anything, heck, I didn’t even know why I was doing it. But somehow, I knew that he was the only one who could help me whole-heartedly, without any hidden agenda.

“Watch this.” I took out a tablet that was given to me by Lynette for my lessons use and slotted the thumb drive into the connecting slot. My heart was in my throat the whole time as he watched the personal video that Akram de Silver had made for me. He had never specified for me not to show it to anyone and a part of me thought that somehow he must have known.

When the video had finally finished Gerald looked up at me, his eyes burning with an intensity that I had never seen before, not even when he thought our union could make the family greater. I felt like someone was constricting my windpipe as I continued to look into his eyes. There were a lot of emotions swirling in there, more than what I had seen so far and none of what I had expected someone in his situation would have felt like.

There were purpose, determination and most of all passion; it was as if he had found his life purpose through the video that was meant for me. For a second I was so consumed by his feelings that I was a little jealous how convicted he is about this whilst I was still lost about how I felt.

“You didn’t tell the elders.” He said, and it wasn’t a question either. I shrugged, knowing somehow that he would understand why I didn’t.

“You can find her, right?” I asked and he nodded. As he looked at me again with the expression that I had come to recognize I sighed internally.

“Yes.” He replied curtly, and then grabbed my hands. For once I looked back at him seriously and saw that there was nothing there that was meant to accompany a proposal such as this. “I was right all along.” He said, his voice earnest yet lacking passion in the right place. “If we…”

“I have a boyfriend.” I cut him off, tugging my hands free and wiping them against my jeans inconspicuously. He raised an eyebrow at me as though he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. This was the first time I brought Tom up; although we never quite labelled what we were, he was the most important person in my life so far and the constant that had kept me sane in all these craziness.

“The French boy?” he asked and it was my turn to raise my eyebrows. Dammit! John, Jenny or Wayne must have told everyone!

“It’s none of your business.” I warned him, it wasn’t a topic that I wanted to discuss with him and there was certainly nothing he could say that would change my feelings. “Even if he wasn’t here, I wouldn’t have considered your, erm, offer.”

Gerald shook his head at me as though he was addressing a particularly difficult toddler. “You will come around eventually.” He said, as though he knew something that I didn’t. “But I shall assist you in the task ahead of you. What you need to do now it’s to prepare and train.”

As if I needed to be told that. I fumed inside. Any conversation with this emotional white board always managed to rile me up.

Stomping back to my room and ignoring Liam’s attempt to make conversation when I brushed past him outside the common room, I pulled out Mr. Andrewson’s notebook and stormed my way towards the library. Lynette was supposed to arrange power training lessons for me but I doubt anyone had the level of research Mr. Andrewson reached.

Flipping to the part containing details on compulsion I settled in a secluded corner of the library not too far from where I found Akram’s box. People rarely come in here since most books are digitized and it’s easier to read them on the computer. The library was just something they did reminiscent of the Old Age; it was bittersweet in a way that we kept reaching out to a past where everything was better, whether it was out of longing or honoring its memories.

Compulsion is an advance mutation that usually occurs alongside telepathy, the power to control another’s mind and action is akin to hypnosis.

Tests have shown that those with a brain mutation are much more resistant to compulsion, especially when they are aware of the threat. Mutants with the power of compulsion often discover their powers when they accidentally compelled someone during an emotional confrontation.

Whilst compulsion is not the rarest of powers, it is one most exploited upon human. New POE with compulsion powers often commits acts out of desire and requires extensive cover up.

Compulsion is very similar to how telepath works, except in reverse. Instead of reading other’s brain wave you seek to assimilate it to your own thoughts. Whilst this sound easy in practice, without the mutation of the yet unidentified gene or genes it would be almost impossible.

They key to mastering manipulation is to practice; whilst it might be inhumane to suggest this but the best way to practice is to do so on un-mutated subjects. For a beginner any resistance from their object might cause serious brain injuries that had proven fatal in several cases. However, if the subject happened to possess the powers of telekinesis or telepathy then the chances are a compulsion to a similar level POE would be successful.

I flicked through the pages and read several cases that Mr. Andrewson had outlined in details. That man had a gift of explaining the most complex things in its simplest form.

For the next few days, I wondered around the headquarters trying to compel every non-POE that I came across. I didn’t make them do any outrageous things, which in itself made it all the more easier.

Walking through the dining room I saw Raven gave me a sting eye before returning to her conversation with Liam and I tried not to let my temper rise. That girl had never liked me from the beginning and whilst I understood her reasons, her hostility annoyed me. Grabbing a tray I filed in the queue for food and grabbed a plate of schnitzel. Before I knew what happened, however someone slammed into me on the side and nearly caused me to drop my tray.

Outraged I turned around and saw Raven, who had the nerve to smile unapologetically at me before grabbing an apple form the bowl to my right. Anger washed over me for a second as she proceeded to cut in front of me in the line and before I knew it, words began spilling out of my mouth.

“Why don’t you grow some manners and go back to your friends?” I said forcefully and glared at her. Raven’s face began to contort as though she was suddenly suffering from some kind of internal turmoil and dropped the apple she was holding and clutches her head. My anger morphed into concern as she began to take wobbly steps away from the line and I realized that I had managed to compel her. My heart sank and soared at the same times; I needed to keep my power in check.

Pretending that everything was normal I watched as Raven made her way back to her table, unsure of whether she was still under my compulsion or not. I wondered if she would realized what had happened, Gerald would as soon as she ran and moan to him.

However the confrontation between us that I expected never happened. I caught glimpses of Gerald every now and then, but he never made any direct contact with me; I assumed he was busy planning whatever was necessary to get me out of the headquarters and that he didn’t care about Raven enough to talk to me about it.

It wasn’t easy to just sit and wait, leaving your destiny in somebody else’s hands, let along someone you don’t wholly trust yet. Days passed, then weeks. I was getting more and more impatient with the lack of contact. I knew that my emotion was getting in the way of my training, but there was little I could do about it. Every passing second seemed more momentous than before.

Meanwhile, I tried to contact Lynette, hoping I could get some fresh information on my family, Tom, the Ganesh family guard and POE Academy. Needless to say, she was nowhere to be seen. I caught Heather for a moment outside the transport office but she merely agreed to pass on my message to Lynette, which pretty much translated as nothing will happen.

To say the level of frustration was building up inside me would be the understatement of the century. It must seemed like I was making a big deal out of everything, however I think I was most angry at myself, at the helplessness of which my destiny was carry out in front of me. Of how I was just waiting. Waiting, and waiting. And I had had enough.

“Gerald.” I said through my gritted teeth as I waved the tables and sofas out of the way, heading straight towards the man himself. Liam let out a yell of protest as the pastel chair missed him narrowly but I was beyond caring. He should have some decency to at least send me some word. Sensing a mind wall cloaking in front of me I shattered it with a wave of my hand, my anger giving me a surge of power. My eyes flickered briefly to the skinny guy, whose nose began to bleed as he stumbled backward from my retaliation but quickly turned back to Gerald.

“Yes Abigail.” Gerald answered, his voice rising at the end of my name questioningly. I stomped to a stop in front of me and crossed my arms over my chest. He knew perfectly well what I wanted.

 “I am sick of waiting.” I stated, staring at me challengingly. “Can you get me out, or not?”

“Patient is a virtue.” Gerald answered, waving his hand and restoring the furniture into their original position. “If a plan is to work, it needs time.”

I raised an eyebrow at him and decided that I really needed to up my game in order to make him see how agitated I was. “Get out.” I said without turning around, gritting my teeth on every word. Despite never using my power on so many people, but everyone began to file out. Swallowing down my surprise I acted unfazed as I continued to stare at Gerald.

“Impressive.” Gerald said, uncrossing his legs and gestured for me to sit down, which I declined. “My, friends have located the last known location of Katerina Falcon before she went off radar. Our next goal is to get you out.”

“How?” I asked, my shoulders relaxing a little from the good news. It might not be the exact location but it was a start. I wished I had asked Gerald to find out about POE Academy and Tom for me but I knew I shouldn’t anyway. Showing my vulnerable side to someone like that was not an option.

“Like this.” Gerald said with a smug smile, sliding a piece of paper across to me. My eyebrows shot up as I read through the sheet. It was brilliant and exactly what would get me out unsuspected.

-----------------

Sorry for the disappearance! My summer had been a good but hectic one, despite that fact that my phone got stolen when I was in Berlin!

And to let you all know - i contributed and designed the layout of a travel guide for the month I was in Berlin :) it is getting published, I am not sure when since it's all eing taken care of the organisation that I took the course with but I really enjoyed travel jornalism. If anyone is interested give me a message x

Anywho, I am back home now in HK, and feeling horrible about the huge gap i left between my last update. I am now at the cross road in the series - I could end this in the next chapter and leave everything for the next book, or I could dive deeper and go on, giving the story mre dive but also making it less action-packed (i know it's not THAT action pack to begin with right now anyway....). I am going to carry on writing for now and maybe the answer will come to me, but DO let me know what you guys want!

Remember to vote and comment ;)