Chapter 6 – Brant

“Following you? What do you mean?” Callie questioned, “Are you sure?” Callie was obviously taken aback by this, her authority seemed to desert her for a second, leaving Cindy feeling awkward.

“I saw him at the market the other day and I remembered him from somewhere then. So he must have been watching me for quite a while for me to recognise him,” Cindy told everyone. She tucked some of her blonde hair behind her ears; she wasn’t sure how they would react to this.

“Okay then,” sighed Callie. Callie started staring out the window, concentrating on something, but Cindy wasn’t sure exactly what. Michelle and Amy didn’t seem to think it was odd, but Cindy thought she was crazy.

“He won’t be back for a while, but we better put someone on sentry duty incase he comes back tonight,” Callie told everyone, starting to rub her head.

“But how can you be sure?” Cindy asked, Callie seemed so sure of herself Cindy nearly regretted asking the question.

“Her power, Cindy,” Michelle explained. “We’ll tell you all about it in the morning. For now we’ll get some food into you then you can have a good rest, it looks like you need it,” she advised as she was walking over to Callie.

“Are you okay, Callie?” she’d obviously noticed that she was in pain.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Callie answered still rubbing her head, “My head’s starting to hurt every time I use my power, that’s all. It’s no big deal.”

“I’ll get you something for it,” Amy insisted, then walked down the hall into the bathroom.

“I’ll do some sentry duty,” Cindy offered, she felt like she needed to help out somehow. These girls had just taken her in and accepted her as family, where would she be without them? It would most likely be dead, or with the police, charged with murder. She owed these girls a lot, but she wasn’t sure what she was expected to do, or even why they’d taken her in.

“No Cindy, not tonight, maybe some other time. There’s some pasta in the fridge, you can heat it up in the microwave,” Callie said, retiring to the couch in front of the TV.

Cindy wasn’t really that hungry, and she only prodded at her pasta carbonara. It wasn’t very long before she announced that she was going to go to bed.

Before she went Amy came up to her and apologised, “I’m sorry I acted the way I did before, it was stupid of me, I was being so selfish.”

“No, no, it’s okay. I owe you, I owe all of you a lot, and I’m really grateful for everything,” Cindy responded. “Goodnight,” she uttered.

“Goodnight,” Amy replied, and embraced Cindy in a warm, friendly hug.

Cindy smiled and walked into the spare bedroom; acceptance was great. She hadn’t been accepted by people her own age for quite a long time, not even her fellow baseball teammates, and now she had some idea of why that was so. It was because she was different. She was special. She smiled contently.

She wasn’t bad looking; in fact she was quite attractive. She looked in the mirror at her curly blonde hair, green eyes, smooth skin, and a well-defined face. She smiled again; things were starting to go her way.

She slipped under the covers of an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room of an unfamiliar house. All Cindy had was herself, and the friendship of these three girls who she would grow closer and closer to during the coming events. “I wonder what powers I will get,” Cindy whispered to herself as she lay in the dark.

Cindy had a restless sleep, tossing and turning in bed. The past day’s happenings were too big for her to just forget and the noise of rain on the roof didn’t help either. But her night’s sleep wasn’t completely uneventful. She had an interesting dream she planned to discuss with the others. She walked into the living room and found Amy lying asleep by the window. Cindy shook her shoulder and Amy groaned, half opened her eyes then yawned. Suddenly she pretended to be alert, “I must have fallen asleep a few minutes ago,” she lied.

“You wouldn’t have fallen asleep on sentry duty would you now?” Cindy joked.

“Not me!” Amy played along with her. “Please don’t tell Callie,” Amy requested, on a more serious note.

“I won’t,” Cindy promised. “I had an interesting dream I wanna tell you about.”

“Interesting?”

“Yeah.”

Michelle walked into the room wearing a yellow jacket and well fitted grey jeans, “Where’s Callie? She wasn’t in her room when I woke up.”

“Oh, she probably went for a jog earlier this morning,” Amy suggested, standing up and stretching her arms and legs.

“And she hasn’t come back yet?” Michelle questioned.

“Well I sorta fell asleep,” Amy admitted regretfully.

“Amy! This is not good,” Michelle said frowning.

“Where could she be?” Cindy asked. Callie’s disappearance would obviously affect the group.

“Don’t worry about that, Amy and I will go look for her, she can’t be far. You stay here and get some breakfast,” Michelle instructed.

“Why can’t I come?” Cindy asked, feeling hurt.

“The police are looking for you, remember? You’re safer in the house,” Michelle reminded her.

“Alright, good luck then,” Cindy wished of them.

“Thanks Cindy, you can tell me about your dream when we get back. See ya,” Amy said cheerfully.

Michelle and Amy left the house in search of Callie, which meant Cindy was left on her own. That awful feeling of loneliness, how she hated it. She wondered what had happened to Callie. Had she been kidnapped? How would Michelle and Amy react to it if she had been?

She walked into her new bedroom and fished her mum’s brown wallet out of her backpack. Inside it there was a picture of Cindy and her mum at the beach when Cindy was about four. She took it out and held it close to her, it was all she had left, apart from her memories. She was about to put it back when she noticed there was another picture behind it. One of her dad? Yes it looked like him. Why hadn’t she seen this picture before?

Knock knock! All of a sudden there were two knocks at the door, and Cindy dropped the pictures on the floor. Who could it be? She walked out to the living room again and curiosity got the better of her because she peered out the window, slightly pulling back the curtain to see who it was. There was a man standing there, he looked like he was in his late thirties.

He called out, “Is anyone home?”

Cindy didn’t know what to do. He called out again, “Anyone? It’s Brant, open up.”

It was Brant! The man from Cindy’s vision! She walked over to the door and took a deep breath then opened it. “Hello Brant,” she greeted him.

He looked shocked, “Hey Cindy, err, nice to meet you. Can I come in?” He stuttered.