Read The Prisoner of Cell 25 for Free Online

sour.”
    “My mom must have made it. She makes it really tart.” Taylor took a sip. “Yep, Mom.”
    I set down my glass.
    “So,” she said, lacing her fingers together, “are you going to tell me what you did to those boys?”
    “You said you’d tell me your secret first.”
    Taylor smiled nervously. “I know I did, it’s just . . .” She looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes. “Please. I promise I’ll tell you. It’s just easier if you go first.”
    There was something about Taylor that made me feel like I could trust her. “Okay,” I said. “What did you see?”
    “I heard a loud zap. Then I saw Jack and his friends rolling on the ground like they had been tased.”
    I shook my head. “That’s pretty much what happened.”
    “How did you tase them?”
    As I thought over how much I wanted to share, Taylor said, “My dad has a Taser. He also has a stun gun. He showed me how they work.”
    I wasn’t sure how much to tell her. My mother had made me promise to never tell anyone about my electricity, but we had never talked about what to do if someone already knew. Or at least thought they did. “I don’t know if I should say,” I said.
    Taylor leaned closer and touched my arm. “Michael, I understand. I really do. I’ve never told anyone my secret. But I’m tired of keeping this to myself. Aren’t you?” Her eyes were wide with sincerity.
    I slowly nodded. Ostin was the only person I’d ever told and telling him had been an incredible relief—like a hundred pounds falling off my shoulders. I slowly breathed out. “You know when people rub their feet on the carpet and build up electricity, then touch someone to shock them?”
    “Static electricity.”
    “Right. When I was little I would touch people and it would shock them like that. Except I didn’t have to be on carpet. I could be on anything, and I didn’t have to rub my feet. Only the shock was much worse. Sometimes people screamed. It got so bad that my mom made me wear rubber gloves. As I got older, it got more powerful. What I did to those boys was nothing compared to what I could have done.”
    Taylor set down her lemonade. “So you can control it?”
    “Mostly. Sometimes it’s hard.”
    “What does it feel like when you shock?”
    “To me or them?”
    She grinned. “You. I can guess how it feels to them.”
    “It’s like a sneeze. It just kind of builds up, then blows.”
    “Can you do it more than once?”
    “Yes. But I can only do it so many times before I start to lose energy. It takes a few minutes to build it up again.”
    “Do you have to touch someone to shock them?”
    “Yes. Unless they’re touching metal, like Cody was today.”
    She nodded. “That was actually pretty cool. Do you ever shock yourself?”
    “No.”
    “How come?”
    “I don’t know. Electric eels don’t shock themselves.” I took another small sip of the lemonade and puckered.
    “You don’t have to drink it,” Taylor said. “I won’t be offended or anything.” 
    “It’s okay.” I set the glass down. “Your turn. What did you do to Poulsen?”
    A wide smile crossed her lips. “I rebooted him.”
    “You what?”
    “You know, like rebooting a computer. I reboot people. I think it’s an electric thing, too. The brain is just a bunch of electrical signals. I can somehow scramble them.”
    “That’s weird.”
    “You’re calling me weird?”
    “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not saying you’re weird.”
    “Well, I am. And so are you. I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world like us.”
    “Unless they’re hiding it like us. I mean, I sat next to you in class and I never knew.”
    “That’s true.”
    “When did you first notice that you were different?” I asked.
    “I think I was around seven. I was lying in bed one night under the covers when I noticed that there was a bluish-greenish glow coming from my body.”
    “You have a glow?” I asked.
    “Yeah. It’s just faint. You