Read Talent Chronicles 2 - Impulse Control for Free Online Page B

here.”
    “Anderson,” I said, “take the boys. I can get them out.”
    “How?”
    “Ethan, no,” Karen said, though the door, while in my mind she was chattering away about self control and all I’d worked for. Like any of that mattered.
    “Just take them and go. Hurry.”
    “Rand, I need to you to go with Anderson. Ethan’s going to get us out, but you have to go right now, do you hear me?” Karen called.
    “Karen, what’s happening?” I heard Elle ask.
    I had the ridiculous thought that I never wanted her to see me like this.
    Then don’t do it, Karen thought.
    I could hear Anderson barking at the two boys as their footfalls faded down the hallway and disappeared amid the sirens that continued to blare. I thought about sirens, opened myself up to the noise, the insanity-inducing noise of them. I thought about the guards Karen mentioned outside, and how they were coming with their guns and their boots, and about what they might do when they found Karen and Elle, how they would treat them. It made me angry. Sick and angry and terrified because I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t stop anything. Not really. I couldn’t stop this mess from happening. Couldn’t stop Karen and Elle from getting trapped behind this door. I couldn’t open it, couldn’t get to them.
    I let all that frustration and fear fill me, let it turn to anger, let it burn through my veins until it felt like fire under my skin, boiling me from inside. I felt my muscles pop and swell, felt like my skin was being peeled away. I heard myself screaming, felt the hot air tearing out of my throat in a mindless roar.

    Somewhere inside the conflagration of rage that had taken over my body, I was still there, a small, quiet presence in the middle of the storm that was watching, thinking, seeing, but didn’t have any control of the beast I’d unleashed. I could see my own limbs, now grotesquely muscled and disproportionate to my body. They tore through the steel door and stomped it down.
    Karen and Elle were huddled in a corner. Elle screamed when she looked up at me, and Karen wept. They were swept up in those huge arms, and then we were moving, faster than anything that big and ungainly should move, back down the corridor in the direction the boys had gone.
    There were stairs, and at the top an open door was letting in the smell of the outdoors. The girls were clinging to my misshapen body and bounced against me as I barreled up the steps and then we were out the door and onto the roof.
    Rand was there, alone, waiting for us. The beast didn’t pause to acknowledge him, but I’ll never forget the look of horror on his face when he saw what had his sister. And then we were flying over the edge. And then we were falling.

    * * *
    The rec yard was quieter than usual. The stress of NIAC’s investigation into what happened in the max security building weighed on everyone. Even those who had no idea what had happened or who was involved waited to find out if someone would be blamed, if we would all be blamed, or if NIAC would simply sweep the matter under the rug and pretend they had never lost control. I was leaning up against a tree, alone, thinking heavy thoughts and trying to enjoy a good brood.
    It had been three days, and if they hadn’t come for us by now, I figured that was good news. There were a number of Talents with the strength to cause the kind of damage I had.
    It had been so long since I’d let myself shift out of control like that, I was probably near the bottom of that list.

    “How are you feeling?” It was Elle’s voice. She had come up behind me. It was the first time any of them had spoken to me since right after it happened.
    “I’m okay.” I saw that I was unconsciously flexing muscles that were still sore and I stopped. I didn’t turn around. Maybe if I was rude, she would just go away.
    “I heard they moved Anderson into the Boy’s Dorm.”
    “Yeah. We’re roomies now. It’s