The chilling breeze that swept through carried their laughter through the air and spiralled it all around them. Ryan’s lungs ached wonderfully as he gasped for joyful breaths. He had never thought he would ever find himself in the situation he was in now, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything else. He slowly began to catch his breath.

“So, I never asked you,” Ryan began after his laughter subsided, lazily swinging his legs back on forth under the railing, “Why are all of you kids? I haven’t been able to figure that part out yet.”

The smile fell from Nadia’s face, and her expression hardened. She rolled her wheels backwards, moving her chair just slightly so she could gaze up at the stars in thought. The only sound that met their ears was the chirping of crickets in the forest below.

For a while Ryan thought that she wasn’t going to say anything, for silence continued to devour the biting evening air the had settled around the rooftop. He sighed internally and turned back to gaze at the expanses of trees that surrounded the facility.

“It’s because we’re not old enough to take care of ourselves,” she began softly, “and no one else wanted us.”
Ryan pulled his legs out from under the cold railing bars, swiveling around to face her as she spoke. She wasn’t looking at him, only gazing with a far away look up at the night sky.

“We were no one’s problem and everyone’s. Most of us were thrown out the second the opportunity presented itself or we bounced from place to place. Everyone who wound up stuck with us would just find someone else for us to be dumped on.” Bitterness seeped into her voice as she spoke, but her face remained emotionless. “After all, who would want to be stuck with a monster.”

It seemed all her emotion, all her anger was poured into the last word. Pebbles around her started to lift away from the rest of the gravel and began to dance around her in a ring above her head. His dad had warned him that their emotions were tied directly to their abilities, but this was the first time he had seen the effects in person.

“Nadia,” he breathed out the word, slowly pushing himself to his feet. He was shocked at how even her features still remained, but as he glanced at her hands her emotions were given away. She was clutching the arms of her wheelchair so tightly her knuckles were turning white. “You’re not a monster.”

“Yes, I am,” her voice broke now, overcome with emotion. “Why else do you think they’ve shut me and the rest of us up in this building? Don’t let what they say fool you. It’s not for our protection,” she turned to meet his eyes now, and he was shocked to see the tears that had were brimming from her haunting, pale eyes. “It’s for everyone else’s. We’ve been locked up because we were deemed unfit for your world, because we’re cursed.”
More and more pebbles were drifting up from the ground, and the ones that already surrounded her were spinning faster and faster around her, whizzing so quickly it was hard for Ryan to follow them with his eyes. She still seemed unaware to what was going on around her.

“How could you think this is a curse?” he breathed out as he watched the small rocks move around her. “The things you can do with your mind are breathtaking. Everytime I see you you are any of the rest of them use their abilities, I never fail to be set in awe. You may not see it because it's constantly surrounding you, but your adaptations are beyond words.”