We’d been hunted all our lives. It was the fate of our kind to be considered freaks useful only for sport or clandestine entertainment. Most “normal “ people shunned us so we never settled long in any place. If it wasn’t for the occasional sympathetic individual we would have been wiped out long ago. Just for being different.

My sister, Efra, & I come from a long line of survivors. Each generation having to find better ways to evade capture and each new child being taught from an early age the vital importance of hiding their powers, for that was what made us different. Some could communicate with animals, others could read thoughts, while others could move objects using only their minds.

For some of our people these powers were weak, almost nonexistent, but the number of these reduced over the years as they often left the group, finding it easier to make a life with the “normals”. Others found their power limited, only able to use it for a short time without becoming exhausted.

Our parents had been distinct in that they were able to do much more, for a much longer time. Those that read thoughts could only read the surface level thoughts of others, those at the forefront of their minds. Our mother was capable of reading the deeper thoughts, the distant memories long forgotten. Our father moved larger, heavier objects and did so for longer without tiring.

When Efra & I reached the age where we understood what was happening we surpassed them both. And, unusual for our race, we had both of our parents’ powers.

As we grew up, we got stronger and with support and training from the others we went from strength to strength.

This was not something to be celebrated though, these powers were a curse and once word got out that some of us were stronger still, more hunters came.

With each passing day the number of attempts to catch us increased and the number of our people killed defending us also increased. Until our parents decided that, for the good of those that remained, our family needed to leave the group and go further into the wilderness in the hopes that we would find it easier to hide.

A month ago hunters killed our mother. She’d got to close to a gang when trying to listen in on their thoughts, we couldn’t even risk getting her body. Our father was devastated. He took greater and greater risks, in the end he used all his strength to push down the wall of a stone house we’d been sheltering in, on top of the hunting party that had tracked us since killing our mother. We threw everything we had at them but as they grabbed him he begged us to flee.

And now we come to today. We managed to evade capture for a few more weeks but found ourselves further and further out into the wilds. We are now lost and starving. The hunters get closer and we’re putting all our energy into running.

My sister looks ahead and flings me a look of despair. “It looks like we’ve reached the end of the world” she gasps.

“It’s just a cliff, we can scramble down it” I try to assure her but she doesn’t need to read my thoughts to see my desperation.

We reach the edge. It’s a sheer drop down seemingly thousands of feet. There’s no obvious handholds.

We can now here the shouts of the hunters behind us. They’re getting excited as they can see their prey and forget to be silent.

A mad idea comes into my head. “We can float” I murmur.

“Sorry?!” She looks at me quizzically.

The idea takes hold.

“Yes! That’s it, that’s what we’ll do. We can lift each other at the same time and cushion our fall”

“You’re quite mad you know” she retorts but I see the corners of her mouth twitch into a smile I don’t remember seeing for months.

“Do you trust me?” I say looking deep into her eyes.

The hunters are nearly upon us.

I grab my sister’s hand and pull her towards the cliff edge with me. She nods slowly in my direction. Then we jump.