All We Need
1717 Words
ISIS
"How do I not be seen? There's got to be another way." Nish complained after Gabrielle asked her to think about not being seen.
"There's none that I know of so come on and try," Gabrielle said, in an almost encouraging voice.
"We're heading out then. Don't create trouble, no one." George warned as he and Fred heading out of the basement to go somewhere. They were talking about a person named Garry.
Isis had seen Garry the last time she was in the basement. He was wearing a onesie, barefooted and was gasping hard. But that was all she understood about the situation.
Nish closed her eyes trying to figure out a way to disappear. Mentally preparing herself was probably the most important part. Because having powers like that was not normal.
"Look away, everyone," Nish said, her eyes still closed. Everyone else did as she said.
They waited for quite some time facing away from Nish. No one knew what she was trying to do.
As Isis sat facing the wall, a sense of warmth hovered over her left cheek. Suddenly, fingers touched her cheek out of nowhere. She instantly understood that Nish was able to control her powers. Nish held her face and squished her cheeks till she pouted. Isis heard her giggle lightly.
Then Nish left as her footsteps sounded but when Isis turned to look in the direction she left, she saw Nish was almost glitching.
Nish was stuck in a glitch where she was visible one moment and invisible the other. Which meant anyone would be able to determine where she was.
She was just messing with Elliott when Gabrielle stood up and walked directly towards Nish and grabbed her arm. Gabrielle shook her head in disapproval.
Nish sat back down in her original chair, disappointed. She was back to visible.
"I thought I was doing so well," Nish huffed.
"Then try harder. We can't have someone untrained to fight to save people's lives." Gabrielle said, pouring a cup of tea for herself.
"Then train me!" Nish shot back.
"She was invisible for almost a minute before t-that happened," Isis said, for some clarity.
"That's not enough," Gabrielle said even if she looked a little relieved, "Stand up and keep practising."
"Yes, here, our ragdoll will help you," Meraki got up and pushed Elliott towards Nish. He looked nervous but also like it wasn't a big deal.
Isis had noticed how quiet he was the whole time. He looked too caught up in his thoughts.
After a few minutes of rest, Nish started her practice with Elliott. She was trying to control the glitch and be completely invisible. Whereas Meraki's training was put on hold because of her inflammatory capabilities which could burn down the whole basement.
It was finally Isis's turn.
"Look at that book. Concentrate." Gabrielle said, pointing at the brown book placed on the table.
Isis knew what she had to do. At least she had an idea. She looked at the book and kept staring at it. Isis had tried practising her powers before at home but those weren't helping her at that time.
After concentrating for 5 minutes straight, her mind went blank. She could see the book in her mind and the rest was black.
Once she got hold of the image, she imagined moving the book from one place to another with her hand in her mind. As she imagined that, she saw the real brown book on the table slide across the table on its own.
Others looked relieved that it was working.
"Now look at the fourth book on the 3rd row of the shelf and hand it over to me," Gabrielle said.
Isis felt like that was too much to ask but she looked at the book anyways. She focused again, trying to capture the image of the book in her mind.
She saw the book in her mind and pictured picking it up with her hand. She was just about to take it out of the shelf in her mind when suddenly she saw a few other books fly out of the shelf in real life and approaching her fast. The books were just about to hit her face when a hand pushed the books to the side forcefully just before they hit Isis.
Jack had sprung in action at the right time.
"You okay?" He asked, leaning towards her. Isis nodded, a little shocked.
When Jack backed away, Isis couldn't help but feel embarrassed at how she messed up.
"Practice!" Gabrielle ordered and strode away, out of the basement.
Everyone practised on their own. Meraki was also told to try and light a paper on fire. Instead, she was rolling up the paper like a cigarette, lighting one of its ends and puffing on it. She was having a good time.
Elliott looked like he was questioning his life a lot more since his job was only to keep standing, get hit and tell Nish if he could see her.
Isis sat with several things, books, pens, stamps, papers, she laid it all out.
Looking at the red book to the scraped pencil to the empty post-it notes. She made an image of all of them in her mind.
Focus.
Focus.
Focus.
In her mind, she extended her hand and picked up the book, hoping it'd finally move. Suddenly, in real life, the book started rattling in its place. It was just about to lift up on its own but unexpectedly, everything else scattered and fell off the table. All except the book.
Isis got up to pick those things sprawled out. Someone also came up to her and started helping her out. She raised her gaze a little to catch the sight of Jack in front of her.
He had faint green eyes with pushed back golden brown hair and Isis suddenly noticed his lean features and went into appreciating him in her mind.
"That.. happens sometimes. Not that I've powers like you guys but I understand how it feels to not get hold of it," Jack said, his eyes pinned on the floor as he gathered the things up. Isis took a second to clear her mind up and reply.
"I just.. haven't practiced enough." Isis confessed as she stood back up and placed the things back on the table.
"I can help you with that," Jack said, looking at her, "I mean, only if you want to."
Isis stared back at him, squinting her eyes a little. She had never really had a conversation with someone she remotely felt attracted to. Things like that were way out of league for her as she thought so.
"H-how will you-?"
"I am kind of a detective myself and for that title, I had to go through quite a lot of training. You can trust me on that one." He said with a trustworthy grin.
"Okay," She said.
~
The book went crashed all the way to the opposite wall.
Then again.
Then again.
"I just- can't-",Disappointed, Isis let out a big sigh. She noticed Jack scanning her face. He has been sitting with her for the past hour but nothing had changed. They were struck in a loop of failure.
"I don't think there's a problem with you," Jack said, his words were very thought out. Isis shot him a glance as if telling him to continue.
"You're aiming for the target but using the wrong strategy to reach it." He said. His words sounded like he has been thinking about it for quite some time. "I'm not Gabrielle so I can't tell you what's going wrong. But you should think about it."
His words made more sense than Isis's thoughts. She stared at the book in front of her and captured it in her mind. Then she shifted her focus to her body while still keeping the image of the book in her mind.
Suddenly, she felt the touch of a finger on a point in the middle of her forehead.
"Channel all your concentration in this point and then try to capture it. It's inside you, it'll only be out when you want it to." Jack's words seeped into her senses, loud and clear. She could focus better.
She tried to feel something unfamiliar inside her body. If she was the vessel of this unknown power, it might've brought any changes to herself.
That's when she started getting aware of her body. She could feel her heartbeat, the blood flowing, the pulsating veins. But along with it, she could also feel something strange. It felt like an unknown sensation flowing inside her. Isis felt the maximum amount of those vibrations inside her brain and on her arms.
Her eyes snapped open.
"Did you figure it out?" Jack, who was watching her carefully, said with a worried look. Isis nodded.
Then she slowly raised her hands and stretched it out in front of her. Her hands were pointing towards the book and eyes was focused on it.
She tried channelling her brain for what she wanted to do and then moved her fingers slightly.
After 15 seconds of doing so, the book started rattling again but this time, faster. It started moving on its on and in another few seconds it was floating in the air higher than ever before, not too steadily but slowly.
But unexpectedly, the book suddenly got thrown away and it fell in a corner of the room.
"Almost..", Isis muttered but she was a little at ease.
That's when a hand reached over and patted her head lightly. She turned her face to see Jack smiling at her proudly.
"It worked." He said. Isis quickly shook her head, he looked more happy than her. "Ease off now."
"T-thanks," Isis replied, feeling a certain way as his green eyes bore deep into hers.
"I'd like to see you do better," he said, making Isis hesitate a little.
"Yes," she shook her head.
"Be good, kid," he smirked and walked away.
Isis sat for a moment, going through the conversation again. It was true that Jack was older than him but him calling her a kid didn't fit right with her.
Has he been looking at her as a junior damsel in distress?
- Writer
