"Movie night here tomorrow? I buy us all dinner? Invite Chekof and Karlen?"
Lana smiled, "yes to all the above but I do need to get my area in the tree all set up."
Blaine nodded, "I'll help with that after breakfast."
"I'm so lucky to have a friend like you," Lana hugged him just as the alarm for curfew sounded startling both of them.
She chuckled, "see you in the morning."
"Sleep well," he said as he headed for the door.
"I'll try," she replied as she closed the door behind him. She and Kattie did their meditations and were soon asleep.
At breakfast the next morning, most agreed to movie night. Dobin wanted to study. He was trying to advance his ability as quickly as possible. He had also made his own decisions regarding his level advancement. He wanted to go as far as he could and hoped it would be all the way. He didn't want his MC to top out earlier like so many but he was determined to push himself as hard as he could.
Kattie also wanted to study but she decided to do so in the morning and afternoon and rest at night. Alto wanted to stay in his room all night studying as well. Blaine promised to send them dinner while Lana promised to provide lunch and snacks. Karlen also chose to pass.
Blaine had trouble keeping his eyes off Lana at breakfast. She was wearing an outfit he bought her and was stunned at how good she looked in it. When breakfast ended and everyone split ways, most to go study before movie night started, Blaine walked with pride at her side to the library.
They searched through foam chairs and a table that would grace the space she created. Lana was impressed that he had such a good eye in looking at such things. She would have just grabbed something cheap that fit but he was also looking for something that ensured the space kept its peaceful air.
They agreed on some cream-colored chairs, light tan throw pillows and a small table of the same colors. Blaine paid for them before she could say anything.
"Are you going to let me pay for anything?" she said sheepishly.
Blaine chuckled, "this was my idea. Why would I make you pay for my idea?"
Lana thought about it for a moment.
"Besides, I am, in a way, inviting myself into your space. Why should you pay for that? Also, if I get annoying or your need alone time in there, just tell me and I'll give it to you."
Lana nodded. "I don't know if I should say this or not, but I find your presence… calming."
Blaine's face brightened in a smile, "really?"
Lana laughed, "are you going to get a big head now?"
He laughed, "now, that would be Kyle. He's far stronger than me and he likes to tell me so."
Lana chuckled, "yeah, well he needs to talk to me, too. He's your brother. I want to know him, too."
"He wants to talk to you, he really does."
"Tell him I won't bite!" she chuckled.
Blaine had retrieved the furniture and, using telekinesis, they were on the way to her tree. Soon, he was elevating it to her room. He put his arms around her and lifted them both up rather than using the tree. She realized it wasn't Blaine in charge of the body, but Kyle.
"How did you do that with telekinesis?" she asked.
"Used it on my shoes," he smiled.
Lana didn't get a good look at him last time because he was behind her. But she could actually see physical differences between the two. Kyle's eyes are more innocent, his smile more boyish. He had a charm she found herself having trouble resisting. Just breathing this close to him was difficult.
While Lana grabbed the dagger Dobin made her from her chest region, Kyle pulled a book out of his pocket and flipped through for a second. He stopped, read something then put the book way. Soon the chairs were unwrapping themselves. They started to inflate themselves as air was sucked into them having been vacuum-sealed at the factory. He moved them in place with telekinesis again. Lana watched him wondering what ability he used to open the chairs up. She opened the box with the throw pillows. The last one was the table.
She cut the box open and put the knife away. She was going to open it when he told her to stand back. He used telekinesis to open the box and pull out the instructions.
"Wait, a man who reads the instructions?" Lana couldn't help but exclaim.
Kyle chuckled then twiddled his fingers. As he consulted the book, parts came out of the box and started putting themselves together.
"Is this an advanced form of telekinesis?" she asked.
"It's a combination of telekinesis and animate objects. I'm the only one in my family who can use two abilities at once." Kyle said as if it wasn't a big deal.
"Is there anything Blaine can do better than you?"
Kyle chuckled, "of course. He's a better teacher. His people skills are better than mine. I always had a couple friends where he had a lot. I have a better memory and I'm better in combat. He calls me temperamental but he's more likely to resort to violence. Often getting us in a situation where I need to step in. It's funny when you think about it. He's kind, gentle, and open but, if someone he cares about gets hurt, he goes crazy. All done!"
He moved the table between the two chairs, so they now had something to put drinks and snacks on while they talked in the future.
"Do you know how special you are?" Kyle asked as he looked around her room. He touched the bedding before choosing a chair to sit in. She sat in the other.
"I'm not that special. We all have something to offer this world."
"That would be a no. You don't know how special you are," he chuckled.
Lana smirked, "do you know how special you are?"
Kyle chuckled, "I was told that every day for a few years. Our family begins learning our ability on our 4th birthday. We have years of intense study both academics and learning how to use the abilities in the ability book. Blaine keeps this a secret but I know you can keep this to yourself. A few generations ago, someone invented a special book for our family. It holds all the abilities we store in it."
"For five generations, only the abilities the family head liked were stored. Our current head is a collector. She wants them all and as strong as possible. It's why we were permitted to come to school. She wants the book to have more options. Blaine touches everyone he can and stores what isn't in the book. There is only one book and she keeps it, which is how she maintains control over the rest of us. We are looking for a Duplicate Item ability so we can have our own book and bring the tyrant down."
Lana smiled, "I hope we can find it then."
"We?"
"Well, if I see it, I should tell you, right?"
Kyle smiled wide, "I would appreciate that."
"I have another question. Blaine said you acted like you were 8 but I doesn't seem like you do?"
Kyle nodded, "do you know how there are certain things that trigger your fears and you change? It's the same with me. I was wondering if I could ask you about your nightmares."
"What do you want to know?"
"What are they about?"
She shrugged, "some are the things that happened in the orphanage or my imagination trying to explain it the nightmarish things I saw. Others are things that happened in school. There are two separate school events that are related. A bully beat my brother unconscious. I wanted to kill him and almost did. A girl. Stacy. She moved him out of my way and prevented the killing blow."
"The next week, I found her crying in the bathroom. She had been attacked and was bleeding from… a sensitive area…because of what happened to her. I tried to help her but she refused. She removed herself from this world as a result of that. I think a part of me feels I didn't do enough to help her."
"I dream about both things, they plague my dreams, other events as well, but these two events specifically are why I started looking for ways to control my emotions better. Eventually, I found meditation which seems to help."
Kyle looked very understanding, "I'm sure Dobin helps, right?"
"He doesn't know everything. Like, I never told him about Stacy. He does know some of my nightmares. We were forced to share the same bed from our tenth birthday until we came here. Many nights he held me through my nightmares, even held his hand over my mouth until they'd pass until I devised a kind of gag to keep myself quiet. It's just… I protected him. It got to a point, early on, that he started to only care about me while I still cared about others. He didn't see the things I saw and he often didn't even hear the things I heard. He turned it all off and just watched me for the clues we needed to act."
"So, you still protect him by not telling him how bad things really were there," Kyle said.
She nodded, "he wouldn't care anyway. We tried warning them but we were ignored. At some point, I think he felt they deserved it for not heeding our warnings. Eventually, he quit giving warnings. They were never heeded anyway."
Kyle nodded, "are you ready to talk about the orphanage yet?"
Lana shook her head. "Are you ready to talk about what happened when you were 8?"
Kyle smiled sadly, "no."
A message came in on Lana's watch.
[Come to my room when you can.]
**********************************
Join me on discord at https://discord.gg/wuNsfeGP Or Patreon at patreon.com/MindyLeeCrouch
If you'd like to donate to me via PayPal, https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8PCLHZTXAPFPC
Constructive criticism is welcome as it helps me become a better writer.