I had always known I was different. It was as if it was engraved into my DNA. Some of my earliest memories are of knowing that I was different. Not of thinking I was different, of knowing I was different.

And as I got older this theory was proved correct. At first I thought it was just because I was smart. I mean, I’m not a genius or anything, but I’m definitely better than average. I remember things easily and I tend to understand concepts faster than most people. I’m especially good at math. Physically I guess I’m around average. I can run pretty fast, but I’m not very strong.

I tend to be kind of detached and aloof when it comes to my friends and school. It hadn’t really been noticeable up until a few months ago though. I had always been the girl in the school that everyone knew but no one really knew well. I was the girl that you asked when you wanted an answer for homework or talked to when there was no one else on-line. The girl no one really disliked or excluded but that no one really liked or included either. The girl you would talk to if she happened to be there, but you wouldn’t go out of your way to talk to. For the most part I liked it that way. I was a shadow, an extra, one of the invisibles. If I disappeared no one would notice, and equally when I chose to come into the light no one thought it odd or peculiar.

That wasn’t what made me different though. It was so much more than that.

I’m not sure when it actually started, or if it was always there. If I had acquired the skill somehow, or if I had been born with it. Whether it had started at a certain age or just became more prominent as I grew older.

At first, when I was younger, it was just little things, little – quite explainable – things. I knew when my bus was going to be called. I would finish peoples’ sentences for them and I seemed to know what people were thinking. I would always win at guessing games. I knew where the ball would be hit in softball. I was an awesome goalie in soccer because I knew where the players would kick the ball before they did. But there was always the one thing that could explain it all – luck.

It wasn’t until around sixth grade that things started to get really weird. The first time it happened was in gym. I was particularly mad that day. I can’t remember why, probably something stupid with my friends. We were doing pull-ups and I had jumped up to reach the bar. There was a weird screeching noise and I dropped back down. I looked up and saw a dent in the metal where I had grabbed it.

After that it got worse. It always happened when I was extremely angry, sad, happy, or in some other way out of control. It wasn’t always with pressure though. Once when we were camping I realized I could subtly control the fire. Not anything huge, just get it a little taller, a little brighter, that was it. Another time while swimming, the water moved in weird ways around me. And then there was the occasional time where I actually started to feel lighter, like I was floating.

I learned to recognize when the power started to rise and learn to push it down. It seemed to spread from my heart and bubble up inside me. For the most part I tried not to think about it. I guess I was kind of in denial of my own abilities. That all changed when they came.

It was only a few months ago. I was home alone with my sister Riley. It was just an average day. I was reading in my room. Riley was watching TV in the living room. My parents were supposed to be home in an hour or so. Everything was fine.

I suddenly heard a loud bang followed by more bangs coming from the living room. I had raced down the stairs in a complete panic. I heard Riley scream. Two men had grabbed her, another stood at the door. All three of them, the two men and Riley, locked eyes with me for one long second. I’ll never forget the look on Riley’s face right before they shoved a bag over her head and picked her up, her light brown hair flying, her eyes flashing orange, looking desperately at me. It didn’t register then, but later I would wonder about it later. I screamed something incomprehensibly and scrambled to get my phone out of my pocket. I ran towards them, but I was too late. The two men ran out the door with Riley while the third stayed in the doorway. He stepped outside and shut the door. I grabbed the knob but the door wouldn’t budge. The man wasn’t just holding the door shut, he was bending it so the door wouldn’t open. I stared into his eyes through the window, tears running down my face. He stared back, cold and unmoving. His eyes were pulsing black light.

Now I stared into the coal black eyes of this man. They pulsed rapidly with his heartbeat. He wasn’t one of the three men who took Riley, but his eyes shined black light, identical to the other man’s.

I had spent the last five months searching for anyone with the same eyes, the pulsing eyes. I lived in a small town in Massachusetts. When summer came I begged my parents for them to let me go to Boston and stay with my aunt and uncle. When they finally agreed I packed up my bags and left. My aunt and uncle ran a small store there. I needed a place where I could search new faces every day for the pulsing eyes. Boston wasn't ideal, but it was my only option.

When I saw the man, it was like a miracle. I was not going to let him go. I had felt the power rising again. A lifetime’s worth of energy that I'd been keeping in for so long. Now, for the first time in years, I let it consume me. I didn't push it down, instead I let it spill from my fingertips and through my feet and out of my forehead.

I stared into his eyes and gripped his jacket harder, turning my knuckles white. Part of my mind was aware that blue sparks were flying from my hands and that I was somehow taller than before. Rage and loathing engulfed me. I would find out where she was, even if I had to rip apart his mind to do it.

“Where is she,” I growled at him.

He glanced around nervously. He had dark skin and a panicky demeanor. Tall and broad shouldered, he looked like he could have grabbed me and throw me several yards away if he wanted to. Instead, he said in a hushed voice, “Calm down, calm down, please control yourself.” People were starting to stare at us.

I ignored him and focused my concentration on prying open his mind. I slammed energy into his awareness. He flinched and said quickly, “Who are you talking about? I can take you to the base, but you need to calm down.”

I didn’t want to calm down; I wanted to know where my sister was. I wanted this man to tell me where she was and bring her back to me. I fought down my anger and slowly sucked the energy back in. I released my grip on his jacket, but didn’t back up. My mind raced and my heart pounded in my chest. I didn’t know whether to trust him or not. My instincts told me that he was telling the truth though. When you live life like I do you learn that your instincts are usually right. I felt my feet thud back to earth and I took a steadying breath. “Where is she,” I repeated. A pang of grief and sadness shot through me. I swallowed hard and stared into his eyes demandingly. I had to know where she was; I had to get her back.

He glanced around again, “I have no idea who you are talking about. Come on, we need to go somewhere to talk.” He gestured towards a street and I followed him. A nagging voice in my head told me that following a stranger that could quite possibly be working with my sister’s kidnappers was probably not a good idea. I was not however, going to walk away from the only chance at getting her back though. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins and everything felt numb, like a dream.

We walked down a few streets before stopping in a restaurant. It was mostly deserted due to the timing and we were seated quickly. It was a little after three, too early for dinner, but after lunch hour. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding and I hid my hands under the table so he wouldn’t see them shaking.

He ordered a soda and a sandwich. “And what about you,” the waitress asked me politely.

“I’m not very hungry, could I just get a water,” I said. My stomach churned as I tried to quell my rising panic.

“Of course,” she said before walking off.

He drummed his fingers nervously on the table. “Well umm… I’m Bryan by the way.”

“Meaghan,” I said back.

“So umm… your sister…”

“She was taken, a few months ago, the man had eyes like yours, pulsing and completely black, not just the iris.”

He sucked in a breath. “How old was she.”

“Six.”

“Were her eyes a different color, pulsing I mean.”

“Yeah, when they came they were orange.”

“Fire.”

“What?”

“She’s fire then, people with orange, red and sometimes yellow eyes are fire.”

“What do you mean she’s fire.”

“She can control and create fire.”

I paused for a second. I mean it really shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. I could pretty much do the same thing… and more. But still, it was hard to imagine my little sister wielding fire around and shooting sparks like me.

“What’s blue than, my eyes are blue.”

“It’s not the actual color of your eyes it’s the color of your aura, your core, your soul whatever you want to call it. You can only see it through your eyes without cutting you open.”

“What’s my color than.”

“That’s just it, I think that’s blue too, the same shade as your eyes are normally.” His face took on a troubled look.

“How is all of this even possible?” I demanded.

“It’s a long story.”

“I got plenty of time.”

He sighed again, “Certain people have… abilities. They fall into six different categories, earth, air, water, fire, mind, and time. Only people with these abilities have the different colored eyes and only people with the abilities can see the pulsing light. Each element or err, ability has a different range of colors.”

The waitress delivered our orders. He took a sip of his drink before continuing. “Pretty much everyone who has these abilities only has one,” my heart rate increased. Except for me, I thought, “Although there is a few that are born with two, only one in the U.S., well at least we think she’s in the U.S. right now.”

He took a bite of his sandwich. I couldn’t believe I was finally learning the truth after so long. “But you…,” he shook his head in disbelief. “You were hovering, and shooting sparks, and attacking my conscious. You have three.”

I looked down quickly, biting my lip. That didn’t explain the other things I could do though. Should I tell him the truth? Did it even matter? I barely understood any of this anyways. Would it change things if I had more than that? I decided I would just have to risk it, “I can do more than that.”

“What do you mean,” he asked in confusion.

“Well, ummm it sounds like I can do water, and time too at least, and maybe earth,” I looked away. I didn’t want this to become about me. I didn’t want to be dragged into this. As much as my curiosity was bulging, it was crushed down by my sister’s disappearance.

“What, but that’s, that’s impossible, there’s no way…,” he stared in amazement at me. Looks like it’s going to become about me, I thought

“How is it possible though, is it magic?” I tried to ignore the look on his face.

“We’re not sure. There is definitely an unexplainable element to it, but whether it’s actually magic or just advanced science is still unknown. For example it still follows the rules of science. When you hover you’re emitting heat energy into the air under your feet. By doing this you are expanding the air molecules and changing the density. As the air under your feet becomes less dense than the air around you, so you begin to float. It’s the same basic principle with a hot air balloon.”

“So why do I have all six,” I asked. OK, so I had pretty much given up on the whole “not about me” thing.

His eyes clouded, they were brown now, not black. They looked completely normal. “I don’t know, we need to go back to the Base and meet with the council. I wonder… no it’s impossible.”

“What’s the Base?”

“The headquarters for the U6 in America.”

“What’s the U6”

“Union of the six elements, our base is in Nebraska. The U6 has been around for almost two hundred years, but it was only recently introduced to the U.S. in the early 70’s.”

“Why Nebraska?”

“The headquarters is underground and we needed it to be relatively in the middle of the country”

“Will my sister be there,” I demanded.

“Yes.” Any doubts I had about going instantly left. I was going to find her. I didn’t care what I had to do.

“When do we leave?” I stared at him with intensity. Swirls of emotions ran through me. I didn’t know what to think, everything had happened so fast. The past hour seemed like a blur. Anger, fear, panic, dread, excitement, disbelief – they all ran by me so fast that I couldn’t process it all, and mixed with just a tiny bit of hope.

The question seemed to catch him off guard, “Well, I suppose I could get a plane in by tomorrow morning.”

“Where do I meet you and what time?” Most of all, there was disbelief and shock. Definitely shock.

“Well, umm… how about at the subway, same one we were just at, umm… around eight.”

“OK.” He got up from the table.

“I hate to do this, but I’m really late now and I’ll have to be telling the office that I’ll be gone for a week or so…”

“Eight,” I repeated to him. I sucked in a breath and stood up.

“Yes, the council will explain everything.”




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I walked back to my aunt and uncle’s house. I could never decide whether I liked cities or suburbs better. I missed the wide open spaces and large yards of my hometown. On the other hand I had to be driven everywhere there and here, in the city, I could walk to most places. My aunt and uncle didn’t care what I did during the day as long as I was home for dinner and helped in their shop in the morning.
I knew if my parents were here they wouldn’t let me out of their sight, especially after what happened to Riley. They hadn’t wanted me to leave for the summer, and I felt kind of bad about it. They had already lost one child and now I was going to be gone until September too.
My attention turned to my very unexpected meeting with Bryan. My heart was still pounding and my mind still racing from the encounter. Raindrops fell down on me in an almost calming way. I let them drench my hair and line my face. This new development in the constantly changing knowledge of my – and apparently Riley’s – powers was unnerving. There were other people like me, and according to Bryan – quite a lot of them. It seemed almost cruel and sadistic that I found out I wasn’t the only one with these powers, only to establish I was the only one with all of them. I mean come on, why me? All I wanted was to get my sister and go right back to pretending these powers didn’t exist and living a perfectly normal life.

The prospect of a whole group of people having the same abilities as me was intriguing, but I was determined to get my sister and leave. I wouldn’t allow myself to get sucked into this, at least not yet. Maybe after I graduated from high school or went to college. You know, if the whole “pretending my powers don’t exist” thing didn’t work out, but not now. I could wait.
Now my thoughts turned to how I would explain my absence. It wasn’t like I could just leave. I wouldn’t do that to my parents again. I racked my brain for a plausible excuse. Come on think, I thought, you got this far. After an agonizing few minutes of incredibly stupid ideas, it hit me. So simple, yet effective. I took out my phone and called my friend Raina.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hey Raina I need a favor,” I said. I couldn’t help smiling. She knew that I was different and that I could sometimes do weird things. One thing I loved about her was that she never asked questions. I guessed that was why she was one of my only good friends. She just kind of got it that I wasn’t going to explain and that was OK with her.
“Ugghh, what now?” she asked.
“I need you to call my parents,” I said.
“Umm… OK, what do I say,” she said uncertainly. See, no what, no your crazy, no you better start talking, just what do I say.
I told her.
“You sure, Meg, I mean you’re not going to do something stupid are you?”
“Absolutely sure.”
“OK, but be careful and don’t rush off without thinking things through.”
“When was the last time I didn’t think things through, Raina.”
“Good point.”
“K, thanks bye.”
“Bye.”
I closed my phone shut and continued walking back, still trying to wrap my mind around what was going on.
That night my parents called on the home phone at my aunt’s and uncle’s house.
“Hello,” I picked up the phone.
“Hi Meg, how’s it going,” my mom’s voice came through.
“Fine,” I answered.
“Raina called, she wanted to know if you could come camping with her to New Hampshire, you know like you did last year. She said you weren’t picking up your cell and she needs to know today. I can’t understand why she always has to wait until the last possible moment.”
“Ohh,” I faked surprise, “Yeah, I had my phone off.”
“Do you want to go?”
“Ummm…”
“I’m sure Dylan and Catherine would understand if you did.” They were my aunt and uncle.
“Well, yeah, actually I would.”
“OK, do you want me to call her back?”
“No I will thanks, yeah she texted me saying she could pick me up tomorrow, I’m looking at my phone now.”
“OK can you give the phone to Catherine or Dylan and I’ll talk to them.”
“OK, but mom just letting you know they don’t get good cell phone reception up there so I probably won’t be able to reach you much.”
“I know, I know, just call when you can. You said they’re picking you up tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
I handed the phone to my aunt. Then I pulled out my cell phone and called Raina back.
“Hello,” she said.
“Hey, it’s me again.”
“What are you going to do if your parents try talking to mine about the camping trip?”
“I’m hoping they won’t call your house today or tomorrow morning and they don’t have your parent’s cells.”
“If they try and call I’ll get it and cover for you, but what about like in the fall or something.”
“If this works I doubt they’ll care.” I thought of the look on their faces if I brought Riley back.
“And if it doesn’t.”
“Then that’ll be the least of my problems.” My stomach did a flip at the prospect of this being a complete lie.
She laughed. “What I would give to know what goes on in your head, Meg.”
I smiled. “You have no idea.”

Bryan paced nervously in front of the subway entrance. He pulled a large suitcase in back of him. His mind whirled with the discovery of the girl with blue pulsing eyes. No one had blue eyes. Occasionally you would get someone in the water field with teal, or an air expander who had white eyes with just a hint of pale blue, but that was it.

This girl, Meaghan, not only had bright blue pulsing eyes, but could control all the elemental fields. He had heard of the other girl who could control the mind and had abilities in pressure- well who hadn’t heard of her? It was said that she had maroon eyes. If that was true, than why shouldn’t someone with all six powers have a blue aura?

Right then, he spotted her approaching. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and a dark blue backpack was slung over her shoulder. When she reached him they started to walk down the stairs into the subway.

“Where are we going,” she asked.

“Logan airport,” he answered.

“We’re taking a plane?” she asked.

He shook his head and smiled, “We’re taking a jet.”



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Two hours later they were seated in a small private jet that was designed specifically for speed. Well, at least more speed than the E.U.E., Bryan thought. The girl sat across from him. She was listening to an iPod and looking around calmly.

He sighed; well I was planning on taking a trip back to the Base soon anyways. He took out a book and started reading.

The flight lasted just under two hours. They landed in Fremont Nebraska. The Base was only an hour’s drive away. They of course had airplanes that went straight out of the Base, but they preferred to attract the least amount of attention possible.

Once they were out of the airport he walked towards a bench by the road and sat down.

“What do we do now?” the girl asked.

“Now we wait, the council will send a car for us,” he answered.

Bryan was beginning to regret wearing long pants. It might have been cool in Boston, but it was sweltering here. He pulled off his jacket and stuck it in his bag. Soon after, a black SUV pulled up in front of them.

The driver stepped out. He had longish black hair and tan skin. He walked casually over to them. Bryan didn’t recognize him, but he must be from the U6. He bent down, as if to pick something up, and his eyes flashed green. Bryan calmly let his own energy reach his foot and stomped down quickly, denting the pavement. His own eyes flashed black.

The driver nodded and gestured towards the back seat of the car. Bryan opened the side door and slid inside. He waited for the girl to do the same. She hesitated for just a moment before following him. The driver shut the door behind him.

“You told the council that you had urgent business?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the road.

“Yes, it’s extremely important; I need to see them as soon as possible.”

“And the girl,” he gestured towards her.

She clenched her teeth, but said nothing.

“It concerns her, it has to do with the E.U.E.”

His eyes flashed and he glanced back quickly, “The E.U.E., how does that have to do with her?”

He hesitated, “I think they might have…, I think she might be one of their experiments.” He leaned in and whispered the last part, but her eyes went wide and he thought she heard him.

The driver gasped, “Where did you say you found her.”

“Uhh,” his face went red, “Well, umm she kind of found me.”

The driver glanced back at her again, “Are you sure it’s not a trap, she could be working for them.”

That thought hadn’t occurred to him. He glanced sideways. She was glaring at him, daring him to accuse her. “I don’t think so, but I’m sure someone in mind connections on the council will look at her.”

A while later they stopped at a medium size house. It had two floors and a barn out back. Bryan knew better though than to think it was an average house. In the barn were a small jet, two helicopters, and another SUV. The house itself was anything but normal. The driver parked the car and stepped out. Bryan got out too and so did the girl. The driver walked up the path to the front door and took out a key. He unlocked the door and proceeded inside. Bryan followed with the girl behind him.

The first room looked completely normal. It was designed as a living room in case anyone ever came to the house who didn’t know about the U6. Two large couches were against two walls and a large television set covered the third. Picture’s hung on the walls and lamps sat on two end tables.

Then they stepped into the next room.

It was a complete transformation. A huge computer stood in the middle of the room. Bookcases lined the walls. They continued on to the next room. Here there were two elevators and a wide staircase that went up and down.

The driver walked over to the staircase. “The elevator only goes down,” he said to explain why they were taking the stairs.

They followed him up and when they reached the top, they went down a long hallway. At the end of the hallway the driver opened the door and they went inside. In the room was a huge table and all eighteen members of the council. Each elemental field had three representatives.

They looked up as they entered.

One woman sighed dramatically, “Well it’s about time, Bryan, I mean you tell us you’ve found a girl with all six abilities and you don’t even bother to show up until the next day.”