"What have you done?"

"I just touched her, I swear!"

"Yeah, well now we don't know how to wake her up! Great job!"

My eyes slowly opened. My shoulder felt warm, so I looked over only to see Delilah with her hand there. Shock rippled through me as she looked at Parker worriedly. "I didn't mean to! Oh God, what if I killed her?"

"I'm alive, " I mumbled groggily, trying feebly to get my body away from her hand. She took it away quickly anyway.

"Oh. Good. You looked pathetic on the ground with barely a pulse."

"No thanks to you, " I muttered, getting to my feet as carefully as possible. It turned out there was no need to be careful. When I first woke up I was kind of out of it, but here I was not over a minute after and perfectly fine. "Odd," I said, testing my wings to find that they still worked fine. I still cringed every time I was able to move them. It wasn't that it didn't feel natural- it felt perfectly natural. That was why I cringed. Something that obviously shouldn't be there that I obviously shouldn't be able to move was sitting on my back, and yet here I was, moving them.

Oh, right. I had telekinesis. I stared around the room before my eyes landed on a rock. Perfect. Something in the back of my head stirred, and I imagined my mind as a hand, reaching out and lifting the water bottle into the air. I concentrated and concentrated and...

The rock exploded into millions of tiny pieces.

And a few of them hit Delilah.

Of course, she screamed bloody murder. "I'm dying! The pain! The absolute pain!" The female writhed along the ground, her eyes shut tight and nose scrunched up. After a few seconds, Delilah rolled too far and landed face first in the pool of water.

Spitting and choking, she stood up faster than I'd ever seen her move before, brushing herself off, perfectly fine and healthy (if not a little wet).

"Wow, look! You're not melting!" I acted intrigued and awed. "And- wow, this is amazing- you're perfectly fine! Not bleeding, nothing!"

"I hate you," she snarled, taking a single step forward.

"Likewise," I replied, giving her my warmest smile before turning my attention to my large wings, running my hand over one just to feel the sleek feathers.

"Show off," the teenager muttered, turning away.

"Hey, what was it like when you were lying on the ground? Were you unconscious, or..." Dakota made his way over to us, leaning against the cave wall and blowing his hair away from his eyes.

"Well, duh. Of course, I was unconscious. But it wasn't like some anesthesia-type stuff. One touch and I was out. I don't know the technical term, but it's almost like she had control over my consciousness." I turned to Delilah. "What were you thinking when you touched me and I passed out?"

"Basically that I hated you. Nothing new, of course."

I thought for a second, staring at the bare roof of the cave. "And what were you thinking when you were waiting for me to get up? Did you touch me at all?"

"The same thing, obviously." But the girl was a horrible liar. She made that expression as if I was stupid and turned away. "And, uh, yeah, I did touch you again. I was the one who felt for your pulse."

"Oh come on, Delilah. We both know that's not what you were thinking." Apparently, Dakota had also noticed her lie.

"Fine," she grumbled. "I wanted you to wake up." Speaking faster, she added, "Not because I care, because it would look really bad on me if I killed someone."

"Okay." I thought for a moment. "Well, it seems like you have some sort of control over others' consciousness."

"Wait." Delilah frowned. "What does that mean?"

"It means you can make people sleep and wake up again."

"Oh, okay. But, umm... How do I control it?"

"I don't know. I suppose it's by touch. We could always test it out."

"Ooh, " Delilah said, rubbing her hands together. "You can be my test subject."

"No thanks." I turned to the rest of the group. "Any other volunteers?"

"Sure." Dakota stood in front of Delilah. "What would you like me to do?"

"Just stand there." I pointed to Delilah. "Try just touching him with nothing malicious in mind."

"Okay." She reached out a hand, then paused. "What does malicious mean?"

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, groaning in frustration. "Evil! Mean! Rude!"

"Got it!" The female tapped Dakota on the shoulder lightly, and...

Nothing happened.

"Uhh, okay then. So I guess this means you have to actually want your opponent to pass out?"

"Only one way to find out," Delilah said, forcefully punching Dakota in the shoulder with a concentrating look on her face. He was out cold before her hand even touched him.

"Oh." I studied the pair. "Maybe you don't need physical contact. Try waking him up just by thinking it." He didn't move. "Try pointing, then." That worked. He woke up, temporarily disoriented and confused just as I was.

"Now that was weird."

"Do you think it works the same way for putting them to sleep?" I asked. She tried it and it worked.

"Well, I'm definitely not doing that anymore," Dakota grumbled after being awoken again.

"Yeah, let's stop for now." I was itching to get up and explore, and I could assume that Dakota was getting extremely disoriented after being put under and woken up repeatedly. "How about we go and see what's outside?"

"Sure." Parker stood up. He'd been quiet this whole time, and seemed lost in thought.

I took the lead. Walking around the pool of water, I felt the sudden need to fly. It was overtaking my body and causing me to ignore all caution. Racing ahead, my foot slipped but I still kept going. My wings snapped open once more and I leapt into the air. Tilting my body horizontally, I soared through the air and out of the dark cave.