Thank you to @shiningheart13 for the last name Merritt!

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"This devastating fire at South Churchill Academy has no survivors with dozens of students, teachers, and other staff killed. Officials say that the fire was one of the most powerful ones they have ever seen but were somehow able to easily contain it. Luckily, the fire seemed contained to the school grounds and all outlining forests were not touched. More coverage--"

            Alex turned off the television in our small hotel room, scowling to himself. "This is the most ridiculous story ever," he mumbled, kicking off his shoes. "How would anyone believe something like that?"

            Cole, who was leaning against the headboard of one of the beds looking relaxed as ever, shrugged. "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because they have no other choice than to believe? It's not like everyone's first assumption is to think that two people with magical fire powers started this to hide a school full of other kids with superpowers." He rolled his eyes at his best friend. "You have to remember that not everyone knows about Supernaturals."

            Alex considered this before glaring at his friend. "It still sounds stupid, though. No natural fire that strong would stay in one place."

            No one argued with him on that either because he was right or we were all too exhausted to do so. We have been driving all day to put a good amount of distance behind us and Supernatural Abilities. I know they said that they would be covering it, but I didn't realize just how quickly they would be able to make up an entire, elaborate story full of so-called witnesses, emergency phone calls, and more.

            The three of us slowly began preparing to sleep. Claire, our other friend and would also be sleeping in this room, was helping my instructor Sophia with the girl who had been hurt. She woke up on the trip over and turns out her name is Jessa Merritt, a Water Supernatural. There were over a dozen of us who survived the attack that Katherine created, but the government decided it would be best if they told all of our families that no one survived. I didn't blame them because who knows if we would even come out alive after this? There were no guarantees so while taking the initiative and announcing our deaths hurt knowing my loved ones thought I was dead, I knew that if I did die, they wouldn't have to hear about it later.

            The thirteen of us who did survive were separated into three rooms that correlated with the cars we had driven down here. We had a few more days left of driving until we reached Washington DC where we would be meeting the ones in charge of the oh-so top secret Supernatural branch. What would happen after that? I had no idea.

            "Taylor?" I perked up at the sound of my name, looking over at Cole who was raising an eyebrow at me. After months of cheesy nicknames hearing him use my proper name still surprised me. "You okay over there? You seemed to be in Brain land."

            I rolled my eyes at his slang term for Mind, my own personal ability. There were six: Mind, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and the rarest of all, Electric. With six abilities came six Supernaturals who are marked by Katherine as being the Big Six, the only ones capable of the strength it would take to kill her. Myself, Alex, and Cole were all part of that, each deeming our own Marks that branded us. The others, Mackenzie, Leona, and Will were all in their own rooms, most likely already taking advantage of the beds and sleeping.

            I was the closest with Cole, Alex, and Mackenzie, as the other two were not in my group of friends prior to the time we truly became the Big Six. With time, I'm sure my relationship will grow, as we all need to be able to know each other well enough to work together.

            I grabbed some clothes and quickly changed in the bathroom, coming out in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Cole immediately gave me a look up and down, winking at me in appreciation as headed over to the bed I would be sharing with him.

            We had an interesting relationship. Both of us obviously shared feelings for each other, but were both too stubborn to admit to it. It wasn't until the night of the attack that he kissed me, but we have yet to talk about what that step meant. Especially since the words of our now deceased leader, Patricia Galen, replayed in my head.

You have so much potential and growth waiting for you along the road. However, that won't happen if you have certain distractions holding you back.

And Cole? He was definitely a distraction now more than ever.

I mean, let's be real. The kiss said a lot of things.

"You going to bed?" He asked me and I shrugged.

"I'll try, but I can't see it happening." It's true. I had slept a lot of the way here and while I felt like I had run a marathon and could pass out at any moment, it was mental exhaustion. Seeing your entire world fall apart in a matter of hours does a lot on a person.

He hummed in response and leaned down, whispering in my ear. "Just in case you do, happy birthday again."

There was no need to advertise that and Cole knew I didn't want anyone else to know Thankfully, besides him mentioning it early this morning, he hadn't told anyone and no one else remembered. I didn't want to celebrate, obviously, and now this day would only bring back terrible memories of what had happened.

"Thanks," I mumbled as Alex peeked over at us, his eyes suspicious.

"When is Claire going to be back?" He complained, throwing a pillow over his face. "I can't stand being a third wheel!"

Claire and Alex have been dating for a while and constantly berated Cole and I about getting together. However, the only person who knew about the kiss was Claire. She overheard us talking about it last night but even if we didn't, she had a knack of reading our minds with her telepathy, a branch of her Mind abilities.

Sure enough, my old roommate arrived back to our room, looking tired and overworked, and immediately fell on the bed with a groan. It was late, just passing midnight, and we were all due to be on the road again at eight. Hopefully things would calm down once we arrived.

It didn't take long for the couple to get ready and easily fall asleep. Cole and I, on the other hand, were tossing and turning in our dark room. For me, thoughts and regrets from the last day replayed over and over in mind.

I should've realized Katherine was disguising herself sooner.

I should've told someone about my vision.

I should've trained harder.

"Blondie," he whispered from next to me, returning to his nicknames for me. "Please try to sleep."

"Right, like I'm not doing that now."

"You know I know you too well to know that you're all wound up in that head of yours. Relax... The fight's over and once we get to DC, we'll be safe."

It's not like I haven't heard that once or twice... or even a billion times. No matter where we went and how much we trained, we would never be safe until the Catchers and Katherine were gone. But honestly, out of everyone here Cole made me feel the safest. He was strong, impossibly so, both at his ability and mentally. Of course, he's also a pain in the butt but with great qualities also came the bad.

He was quiet for a moment before getting up. "Come with me," he told me, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet.

"Where are we going?" I asked while he quietly led me out the door and into the hallway of our hotel. Everything was quiet at this time of night as we continued down to the emergency exit. "Sophia told us to stay put--"

"I don't care what she said," he cut me off, now dragging me up the stairs.

"Really now? Because you sure did the night of the invasion."

The night of the invasion was a rough one. I had wanted to fight but Cole was following the orders of both Sophia and Galen by staying put in the cellar. While I know deep down that fighting would have only created bad consequences, having to hear and see everyone else struggling to stay alive while Catchers swarmed our home infuriated me. We owed it to them to protect everyone but instead we only hid out and waited.

He didn't reply to me as we continued walking upwards until there were no more stairs and a single door awaited us. He held it open for me, letting us out onto the roof of the hotel overlooking a very small town in the middle of nowhere.

"Why'd you take me out here?" I asked, pulling my shirt closer to my body as a light breeze swirled through the night.

Cole shrugged and sat us down, putting his arm around my shoulder and attempted to shield the wind from me. "Felt like you needed a breath of fresh air... literally."

I gave him a little smile and looked out. There wasn't much to see as it was late and most of the lights, which weren't many, were all turned off as people were sleeping. Besides streetlamps and a single, flashing stoplight, the night was dark. "You know, I'm not the only one struggling over here."

"I know, but you're the one I care about the most."

I was still angry at him for not letting me fight but didn't want to get into another argument about it. Instead, the two of us sat there listening to the sounds of the nightlife in silence. After a while, he finally broke it.

"I'm sorry..." he mumbled under his breath so softly that I almost didn't catch it.

"Why?"

He avoided my eyes and looked straight ahead. "I broke my promise to you. When I picked you up, I swore that I'd help you see your family again. I never expected all this to happen, let alone our families having to get a phone call telling them that we're dead. We can't go back, even if we do make it out of this. I'm so sorry, Taylor--"           

"It's not your fault," I cut him off. "Making that happen even before all this would've been difficult. I don't have anyone to go back to besides Ryan so everyone here is my family now. I'll make do with what I have left."

My mother was killed in a car accident and in order to get over her death, my father turned to an alcohol addiction. For years I've been alone, my best friend Ryan only filling the void while I focused on school in order to leave my broken family life. Little did I know, I would be leaving, but with Cole to Supernatural Abilities, a training refuge for people with powers. It wasn't the escape I was looking for but in order for everyone in my old life to remain safe from the Catchers, I needed to stay away.

However, I always planned to go back. Hopefully my dad would've righted himself and Ryan would have moved on, and I would be able to see them happy and full. Now I no longer have that chance. They're left with thinking that I was killed in a fire when in reality, my life's calling was worse.

I had held it together for the past 24 hours, listening to my friends weep and cry for all that was lost while I stuck it out. Now, in the comfort of darkness and Cole, I felt the tears I had held in finally escape with a sob. He pulled me closer, the warmth radiating off of him comforted me as he let me unleash all my emotions through tears that dampened his shirt.

"I knew that was coming..." he mumbled while he ran his fingers through my hair as he held me.

"I'm sorry," I blubbered. "This just isn't fair. None of this is! We shouldn't even be in this situation. We should be at home, our actual homes, normal and without these stupid abilities, not the ones leading this war!"

"I agree. But what has happened, happened. There's nothing we can do about it now besides train to win. Yet, I am happy about one thing that came out of this life."

I sniffled and looked up at him. "What?" I asked.

"I got to meet you," he answered, flicking my nose. Rolling my eyes, I returned to his chest, shaking my head with a little smile. He had a way with words, that boy, and always knew what would make me feel better since day one.

"Because you can't help me see Ryan and everyone again... can you promise me something else?"

"I'm not going to--"

"This isn't a joke!" I cut him off before he could say anything inappropriate. In response, he gave me a big, goofy half grin and I couldn't help but shake my head at him before turning serious again. "I can't take another person leaving me," I started, thinking about my past life, Galen, and everything at Supernatural Abilities. "Promise me you'll stick around no matter what."

His face softened before he squeezed me a little bit tighter.  "Oh, I definitely promise. I could never leave my little Blondie hanging."

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Yes, here's chapter one! I hope you enjoyed because even though it's not very action-packed in this chapter, it was the beginning and I had to do the whole explaining everything thing. As always, thank you so much for your support!

Next update will be on Friday as usual (unless I somehow have time and am able to write more than a chapter this week!)