It took about three months before I felt comfortable at Greenhouse, but I constantly felt homesick. I also was having trouble sleeping, I frequently had nightmares about Gaben attacking me to which I would nearly always wake up to arching with electricity.

  During those first few months I grew close to Elijah, and Jae-yoon. I didn't realize then, but it must have been frustrating for Elijah to be my roommate. If so he never let me feel bad for how explosive I could be.

  Ms. Erica though, without fail could calm me, or make it so that I wasn't upset whenever I talked to her. Sometimes the effect was jarring because of just how quickly I could feel her affect. Other times it was subtle, I couldn't figure out what made her so calming, but I was happy most of the time whenever she was able to help me calm down. Other times I would get even more upset, because I wasn't getting my chance to express my emotions.

  While I already knew about the unveiled and had seen them from time to time walking about with their purple bands, she taught me more about what exactly they were. About who I was. She insisted that because we all were special, it made us family. Erica always stressed how we needed to be there for each other, since the rest of the world was so against us.

  I didn't appreciate that for myself until the first time Erica took us into town. Franklin is a small town in West Virginia. It's the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else — and as is the case with most small towns, people have the tendency to pry into the business of their neighbors.

  Greenhouse was about 15 minutes away from Franklin. Despite the relatively short ride, the three of us together could make any amount of time seem as though it lasted for hours. We rode in, at the time, a brand new 2010 Kia Sedona. It was released towards the end of August of 2009. I remember being excited to see Ian drop it off at Greenhouse on the first of September.

  Although Erica Usually cooked for us, on this particular morning she took us to the diner for breakfast. The diner being one of the few restaurants in the town was rather busy as is standard for a Saturday morning. After we piled out of the car the four of us walked into the restaurant. I was caught a bit off guard as the sounds of the restaurant buzzed in my ears uncomfortably.

  The diner had a long bar with a chrome like finish, bright LEDs lit the majority of the diner and caused the chrome to reflect with subtle shine. Red neon lights however, illuminated just about everything else. Chrome wasn't just on the bar though, it was just about everywhere. and where there wasn't chrome there was white. Red was used as the accent color and was tastefully used, usually to separate the white and the chrome.

  As a kid, I was fascinated by the diner, which appropriately was named, “The Future Diner" Our waitress saw us standing at the door and came with a big smile. She was a lithe woman likely in her early thirties, she had dark blond hair with grayish blue eyes. Her outfit was the uniform of the Future Diner a white traditional Sever dress and once again red was used as an accent in the form of an apron.

  "Good morning, y'all? Aren't you a cute little thing?” She greets us and then compliments Jae-yoon. Jae-yoon lowers her eyes and quietly says thank you and tries to hide herself behind Erica.

  “She can be shy sometimes." Erica says to excuse Jae-yoon. "And yes please it will be us four, thank you." She responds graciously and our waitress walks us over to a table handing Erica a menu and the rest of us kids menus. I happily opened mine up and started coloring before actually looking for what I wanted to eat.

  “My name is Erica I'm going to be your server today, what can I get you to drink to get started.” Our waitress said and we collectively looked up at her, surprised to hear her name.

  " Her name is Erica too!” Jae-yoon turned and whispered to me as she and I were sitting on the same side of the table facing towards the door. Although she didn't really whisper so much as she yelled quietly. Erica, the waitress, heard her and chuckled.

  " Well it's nice to meet you Erica.” She says to Jae-yoon, mistaking her surprise for being our Erica. The whole situation was confusing and I started laughing. “Her name isn't Erica, her name is Jae-yoon." I tried to explain through my laughter.

  "I’m Erica.” Ms. Erica finally speaks up laughing as well trying to explain. After we got all of the giggles out of the way, we were able to place our orders. After Elijah ordered orange juice, I found myself suddenly craving orange juice, and then Jae-yoon followed up wanting the same thing. Elijah noticed how we copied him then tried to ask for milk, when I asked for milk, of course Jae-yoon asked for milk and then… well you get the idea. We all ended up getting orange juice and Elijah drank it grumpily.

  Apart from that we were enjoying our morning until a man and woman walked into the diner. The man was tall, about 6 foot 3. He had short black hair, a full beard and sunglasses covering his eyes. He wore a black coat and blue jeans; his boots could easily be heard clacking on the checkered linoleum floors. The woman was about 5 '11. She had dark brown hair and also wore shades. she wore a brown coat and jeans, she at least took the sunglasses off revealing her dark brown eyes. I internally guessed them to be about fifty as they stood in the entrance.

  “How are y'all doing today..." She greeted them, though her voice dropped from cheerful to quiet before she let out a soft groan.

  The couple seemed happy to hear a greeting at first " We're doing good thank you, We've heard great things about this place.” The woman says Erica's face is now impassive, unamused by whatever suggestions that they may have received.

  “How nice…” She says with a sardonic tone “Is it just the two of you?" She asks dismissively, the shift in her attitude made her seem as though she were a different person from just moments before.

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  “Oh… uh, yeah it's just us two." The man replies with a slight stammer seemingly thrown off by Erica’s shift in demeanor. Wordlessly she walks them over to a table and slams down a set of menus before returning to our table with some straws.

  “Is everything okay?" Ms. Erica asks, wondering why she seemed so upset all of the sudden.

  Our waitress leans in closer to our table and whispers, “Those two that just came? They're Purps." she whispered like it was obvious. “See their nullifiers.” She flicked her head over to the table gesturing at the couple. I had to lean forward a bit to see around her, but could see the light glinting off of the metallic purple bracelets they wore around their wrists, which glowed with a subtle Violet light down the middle.

  The woman looked up and saw us staring and attempted to cover her wrist with her jacket as she looked back down, now embarrassed at her menu. Her husband then reached over and held her hand and offered her a gentle and yet comforting smile which she quickly returned to him. Her eyes stretched at the corners with a tinge of sadness.

  “The VRC has no idea what they're doing.” Our Waitress groans as she pours Ms. Erica a new cup of coffee. “Letting freaks eat with us." The words she spewed came out hotter than the coffee she poured and it made the three of us shudder with discomfort.

  Ms. Erica on the other hand seemed unphased as she lifted her coffee, it was black, just as she made it at the greenhouse. She held it in her hands so as to enjoy its warmth. Her demeanor was surprisingly calm, thinking back she probably was holding back her anger for our sakes.

  Elijah however was not one to hide how he felt about something. "You sound like a jerk.” He said flatly, glaring at our waitress. The words didn't come at as some childish taunt but with the weight of someone who hated to be seen as different, or a monster just for being born.

  " I… well I was just saying…” Our waitress stammered as she looked to Ms. Erica for help, assuming that she would take her side. Ms. Erica Just stared back quietly from behind her coffee cup, her eyes unforgiving and Unyielding. She lifted the brim to her lips and took an obnoxiously loud sip to indicate her resigned silence on the matter. With a scoff our waitress jerked her head back and walked away towards the kitchen. Likely shocked that no one would take her side.

  "Come on kids, I don't trust that woman not to spit in our food after that.” Ms. Erica instructed, so we all climbed out of our seats and headed towards the door. I looked back to see her counting out a few dollars and dropped them on the table before she came and ushered Elijah and I out the door.

  "Why did she act like that?” Was a question I would have expected Jae-yoon to have asked. Instead it was Elijah who asked as soon as we got back in the van. Tears welled at the corners of his eyes, likely as he thought about what had just happened.

  “Some people are just afraid of what we can do sweetie." Ms. Erica said gently, looking back at the rear view mirror as she drove.

  “But they didn't hurt anyone." Jae-yoon said softly while she fidgeted with her fingers. "They can't even do anything with those bracelets anyways.” Now that we were on our own Jae-yoon seemed more comfortable speaking up about what we just saw.

  "You don't have to hurt anyone for them to be scared of you. They know you are different and that's enough for them. Too many people are scared of what they don't understand." Ms. Erica took a long pause and we rode in silence for a moment before she added. "Especially when they know you're better than them. We're better than the veiled in every way. That's why they try to take our power with those stupid bracelets."

  For just a moment I could hear the same level of hate in Ms. Erica's voice as I had heard in our waitress's voice. The same hate, the same name. On the outside they looked different, but on the inside they were the same person.

  I, on the other hand, didn't know at first how I felt. I knew what I saw made me uncomfortable, it reminded me of how Gaben used to look at me. How Gaben used to treat me, how he used to chastise me for every little thing. Of how he used to berate me, and make me feel so small. As I thought about Gaben I could once again feel his hands wrapping around my neck. My throat began to close up and the voices of everyone in the car became drowned out as I hyperventilated struggling desperately to breathe.

  “Kaiden!” I could barely hear Erica yell back. My eyes locking onto hers in the rearview mirror. My eyes wide with fear as I clawed at my throat trying to remove the invisible hands as Erica pulled over. My vision darkened, my hands, my face, my body began to tingle as I choked on my fear and trauma. Jae-yoon beside me was crying as she screamed my name, and Elijah shook me. The last thing I remember seeing was the van door opening and Erica trying to unbuckle my seatbelt before I felt my eyes shut and the world around me fade into nothing.

  When I opened my eyes I found myself to be nowhere. Nowhere that existed, nowhere that ever could. A deep wide expanse of nothing but this ghastly white which continued onwards for all eternity.

  I tried to hold my hand up to look at myself, but rather than seeing the skin and flesh that made up my body, I saw light which seemed to take its place. Enshrouding me. It was the same for my arms, for my torso, for my legs, for my whole being was covered in this light which glowed with a gentle blue hue. It pulsated amidst each passing second much like a heartbeat.

  Around me too floated amidst a vast amount of orbs which pulsated to their rhythmic beating out of sync with my own. In between the orbs a spark would arch from one to the other. Some of these sparks would shoot out with great speeds resembling a bolt of lightning as it furiously stretched out to reach its target. Others moved with more resignation as It moved slowly, wistfully, floating much like a dandelion seed blown by the wind. Upon touching these floating orbs, the static would dissolve into the pulsating mass, seemingly causing it to slow or speed up the rhythm.

  The things that moved in-between the orbs I decided to call them flashes since most of them seemed to be like flashes of light as they moved from one or to the next. It took a while for me to realize that I was also sending out and receiving Flashes. Although it seemed like more flashes were leaving from me than those that came in. After they left they would find an orb and then disappear into it the same as the others.

  This one orb got my attention as I noticed most of the flashes I emitted went to it. The orb pulsed slowly but it was large in size. Apprehensively I reached out to the orb with my ethereal-like hand and touched it. In an instant there was a large spark as the orb exploded in a brilliant blue explosion followed by a current which ran through me.

  I quickly saw up breathing heavily as I blinked my eyes demanding that they focused. Finally awake, Mrs. Erica ran her hand through my hair and gave me a kiss on the forehead. “I'm glad you are okay sweetie, she said softly, her voice as gentle as her touch.”

  I didn’t yet understand any of what I saw, But whatever it was, it had me burning through energy. I was so tired I couldn't move my arms, or anything else as my body still flickered with a pulsating energy throughout my veins.

  “You truly are magnificent." Erica whispered to me as I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep.