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chemicals but was now bare.
    “This is perfect. Thanks,” I mumbled as I stretched out on the table, placing my messenger bag under my head as a pillow. Carey shut the door behind him and we were blanketed in darkness.
    “Are you sure you’ll be ok here? Do you want me to stay with you?”  He asked quietly. I could feel him standing next to the table and jerked involuntarily as he touched my arm with his warm hand, his little finger brushing the skin of my arm through the hole in the sleeve. He dropped his hand immediately, and out of curiosity I reopened the newly forged connection between our minds, allowing his thoughts to swarm my own.
    “What is her deal with touching? There’s something different about her, something strange, like me. I’ve got to get her to talk to me, need to figure it out…”
    With effort I broke the connection and returned to my own aching head. I heard Carey give an intake of breath and knew that he had felt me in his mind again. I really had to get away from this guy.
    “Did you just….um…”
    “Thanks for bringing me here. I’ll be fine now,” I said firmly, interrupting his confused stuttering. He was silent for a moment and I was suddenly super aware that we were alone together in the dark, that I was lying prone on the table and my fingers were itching to touch his soft, thick hair. My heart seemed to be beating absurdly loudly and every breath I took sounded deafening to my ears. Carey was a silent presence, radiating heat at my side.
    Finally he spoke and the moment shattered.
    “Ok.”
    He opened the door and there was a flash of light from the hall; then he was gone and I was alone in the dark. I breathed a sigh of relief and allowed myself to think about Carey and his strange history. When our minds had linked I learned his deepest, most guarded secret: he possessed abilities that would put him on par with Superman, though, thankfully, without the alien heritage.  
    From what I could tell, Carey possessed abnormal strength and speed, as well as keen vision and hearing. He didn’t know why he had these talents; both his parents were normal, his brother and sister were normal, and there was no apparent family history that could explain his condition. He had never been drenched in nuclear waste, never been around a meteor shower, been hit by lightning, been part of a government experiment, or any other plausible explanation. All he knew was that he was born with certain gifts, and over the years he had honed them and used them to help people in his community while keeping it under-wraps, fearing repercussions if he were found to be different.
     I could sympathize with that.
    I lay there thinking about Carey and what I had learned from him, the strangeness of Nurse Nora and my certainty that she had her own secrets, my anxiety at being noticed so much on my first day. The quiet, shadowy room was hypnotic and I could feel my thoughts slowing down, becoming less coherent and finally fading as I drifted into a heavy sleep.
     

Chapter 3
    “ Oh crap, c’mon, please wake up, please, please.. .”
    “ Liz? Liz! Wake up!”
    My eyes opened slowly and I blinked, squeezing my eyes shut and opening them again to clear my vision. For a moment I had no idea where I was, but instead of feeling panicky, I thought I must have woken up in a dream, a really good one. A beautiful face hovered over me, glowing slightly in the darkness, angelic features contorted in worry. After a moment my senses came back and I realized it was Carey’s anxious face above me and I could hear his thoughts and his voice, both of which were focused on my persistent unconsciousness.
    “Mmm,” I mumbled and tried to sit up, slipping back as my head swam nauseatingly. Carey gave a shaky laugh and slid his hand behind my back, lifting me gently to a sitting position. He kept his arm around me, steadying me, and for once I didn’t flinch or pull away. It felt good, natural, and I realized how long it had