Before reading: This is a scene I was writing for a different book but I’ll just hope it makes enough sense...

“You time is up. Better run!” a voice yelled from behind the bushes. Why had I been so careless, especially with Gabriella and Alice with me? At this moment I hate myself and that it is me that is the reason they are after us.

“Run,” I yell to the girls. This is exactly what I knew would happen since the older kids wouldn’t let us come on the mission but now was not the time to place blame.

As we ran the fallen leaves crunched under our feet. I heard their guns click as I dragged the kids along with me. Pulling them behind a larger rock and trying to focus, I said “get down now and stay quiet.” I tried to pick up their thoughts and take control of them, but in the heat of the chaos nothing worked.

Their footsteps slowed and I knew they had to be approaching. They would kill Gabriella and Alice, taking me back to the labs where I would wish I could join their fate because death would be better than going back there... but I couldn’t let that happen.

I stood up a narrowed my thoughts to there’s. One fumbled in his pocket for an object but just as soon as I had been able to make him stop, the other grabbed the small item and clicked it on.

I fell to my knees, screaming. A pain shot through the back of my skull as if someone was stabbing me repeatedly in the head. I grasped at my neck, pinching where the base of my skull and neck meet, but the pain doesn’t reside. “Run,” I tried to choke out at the girls, but it was too late. They were already being thrown into the back of the van, putting up little fight.

They had used this on me before but before now I had never seen the source of it. They knew there was nothing they could truly do to stop me, but cause pain they could do.

One guard stepped forward about to grab me but the other grabbed his arm. “Our orders are to wait for backup when we get her. We don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“Do you hear that, you freak, there is no escape this time.” The guard taunted me as if we were back in the labs. With my last ounce of energy I grasped his conscious with my abilities and made him point the gun towards his own arm, pulling the trigger. He screamed in agony and I joined him as the other guard yet again pushed the button on small device.

“You fool! I warned you, you idiot!” The guard shouted. Their voices faded as reality retreated and the pain grew.