I met Jack three years ago after my family died in a car crash that left me unscathed. Being eleven at the time of the crash, there is little existing memory of the incident. I can only remember waking up to my mother's screams and blinding headlights before we ran head on into an oncoming tanker.

I came to a few minutes after the crash beside the road, confused and disoriented before I noticed the mangled wreck resembling our car and realized for a fact that what happened wasn't a dream.

Having nowhere to go I hovered close to the wreck with a numbness I haven't experienced since.

Emergency responders eventually handed me over to child services while declaring me a miracle survivor. I ended up in a group home which shone a light on what I really was.

Everything was terrible after that night but the eerie numbness held back any emotions until I had an episode a month later.

Some kids had taken a liking to teasing and making a fool out of me ever since I arrived at the group home. Being a tiny eleven year old girl, I was smaller than the other kids and my short hair plus freckles alienated me from the pretty girls with long hair.

Apparently spending my time in solitude made me stand out and attracted all the frustration of the bigger kids with mountains of insecurities.

That particular day I felt something as the meanest girl pushed me to the ground. I felt a rush throughout my body as an emotion I would later identify as anger bubbled within me.

There were audible gasps from the onlooking kids followed by shouts instigating a fight as I stood up and made a move to slap the girl's face.

I missed and the momentum from swinging my arm so hard brought me face first back to the ground.

I lay there, waiting for a blow to land on me, knowing I had definitely enraged the meanie. One...two.... three seconds pass and nothing.

The playroom fell silent and I turned to face the girl, who was now on her knees, blinking furiously. A few seconds later she was screaming the words "I cant see".

The caretaker of the group home had then rushed in and taken the girl away, accompanied by a social worker who had been present.

Two days later the girl, whose name was Mercy was pronounced permanently blind and moved to a group home for special kids.

Everyone, including me had been puzzled by what blinded Mercy, some kids speculated it was fate while others called me a witch.

The next episode followed shortly after that and was the one that gave me clarity on what I could do.

Mercy's friends confronted me a week after she left, asking what I had done to her. I was already weird and spent my time alone so the witch accusations really did not affect me.

However the girls confronting me that day made a jibe at my hair, mentioning my mum in the process.

A familiar sensation, a rush poured energy into my minute form and I launched myself at the funny girl spewing nonsense. She stumbled backwards as I surged forward, aiming for her throat while wishing she would never speak again.

I grabbed her throat as she stumbled and fell backward with me on top of her. Squeezing with both arms, I tried to choke her, only something much worse happened.

My fingers sunk into her throat, and my eyes went wide at the almost hot sensation at my finger tips.

I hastily pulled my arms back but my fingers did not come out as smoothly as they went in, the girl's throat was ripped open as I pulled away.

As I stared at my bloody fingers, I immediately knew that what had happened wasn't normal, so I ran. Kids with wide eyes and mouths open easily gave way as I made my way out of the playroom.

"Time to leave" I had thought, "I never fit in here anyways".

All the adults I encountered on my way out took one look at my bloody fingers and tried to stop me, only they couldn't grab hold me, their hands didn't seem to touch me at all.

Outside, the gate was locked but I instinctively went at it at full speed and grinned when I ran right through it.

The excitement of my new found ability was short lived as I didn't know where to go and just ran blindly instead, taking random turns and going down streets I never recognized. The harder I ran the harder the reality of what I had done hit me, had I just killed a girl?

I must have been running for close to an hour when I saw him, an impossibly huge figure watching me from across the street under the shadows created by two separated buildings.

The figure came out into the light and suddenly I was looking into these two pits of darkness that this guy had for eyes.

My eyes raked over his body, a muscular mass noticeable even from across the street, magnifying my already tiny form. His dark skin matched the dark eyes which I glanced at for a second time.

A feeling of terror and helplessness overwhelmed me once we locked eyes and I came to a full stop while suddenly unable to move anymore.

Ever since that day, I never dared to make eye contact with Jack again.

He calmly crossed the street and as he approached I noticed that beside the terrifying eyes, his face had warm features, his smile stood out most of all and had an ebbing effect on the terror riddling through me.

Once he got too close for comfort I realized that I still could not move. I started panicking as I realized this man had some sort of ability too.

His voice was like a thick blanket enveloping my ears. He spoke in a low tone yet completely audible, "Play along Leah."

I would have frozen in my tracks had I not already been unmoving. Instead I gulped as my heart beat loudly in my ears. By the time he spoke again he was beside me, an intimidating and towering presence.

"Let's get somewhere safe, I'll explain".

Human traffic flowed around us oblivious of the interaction this giant and me were having. He took my hand and my soul flinched since my body was unreliable.

As his palm softly held my tiny hand, fingers covered with dried up blood, a calming warmth soaked into my body and suddenly I wanted to follow this man to the ends of the earth.

We start moving and I realize that I have control over my body again, yet I did not want to run or escape. Looking up at Jack, he smiles down at me and I could not help but smile back. This made no sense.

We approach a shop with a closed sign on it, go up the steps and Jack pushes the door open. We enter the dusty looking shop and I hear a click as the door shuts behind us.

The terror and panic suddenly wash over me anew as I turn to face the door but freeze mid way. I notice Jack isn't holding my arm anymore but is instead a few steps away from me.

I couldn't help but be amused at how stupid I was.

"I've been looking for you Leah, since the crash."

What? THE crash? Tears flow freely, for the first time since the crash a month ago. I fondly recall the numbness that shielded me from the painful emotions as sobs riddle my body.

My breath grows heavy as I heave in and out. I look up at the stranger, how could he know about the accident. As if reading my mind he presses on,

"I'm Jack, your father Jul's best friend. He asked me to take care of you if anything were to happen to him and your mother Cherr."

I notice he is making a point of using my parent's shortened names- Julian and Cherry- only familiar to me and their close friends. If he intends to gain my trust then he's succeeded.

The terror and panic are slowly replaced by loneliness and grief. I instinctively make to head to a nearby sofa and realize I can move again.

A cloud of dust rises as I settle myself upon it, choking and sobbing at the same time, bringing unnecessary tears to the two streams already falling.

"So what did you do to me, earlier when we met and just a few minutes ago?"

I manage to ask after a couple of minutes of subsiding sobs. I also notice that this question is the first thing I've said to Jack.

"I have the ability to impose my will on people, as long as I look into their eyes. I can also manipulate emotions."

Jack pulls a stool to sit directly opposite me and I notice that he had been tensed up the entire time. His shoulders visibly droop as he settles himself on the stool.

"Your father and mother also had abilities and I'm thinking maybe you do too."

His eyes study me curiously and I notice they have become way lighter despite the dim light in the dusty and neglected store.

"How did you find me?"

I find it weird that this man just coincidentally saw me running down a street.

He sits up straight as he answers,

"I actually found you a week ago, it was hard getting details about you since I'm not family, but I did. After I discovered the group home you were sent to I posed as a parent hoping to adopt you and saw you briefly in the playroom."

"I don't remember seeing you." I say flatly as I find it hard to imagine that I could have seen this chunk of a man and forgotten him so soon.

"You didn't see me but I saw you, even looked into your eyes and that's how you found your way to me today. Why were you running?"

My arms find their to my mouth as a pit settles in my stomach. I had almost forgotten what had happened just over an hour ago. I unconsciously start looking around, panic rising once again before the feeling vanishes and I'm settled almost immediately.

"Did you just do that?" I ask, realizing my short lived emotions could be a consequence of his abilities.

"What happened?" He presses gently, pointedly ignoring my question. He is definitely toying with me.

"Something weird," I start hesitantly, "I think I may have killed someone."

Jack grazes those color changing eyes over me and I notice that its the first time he's seeing the blood stained fingers. I expect him to freak out but he just nods at me to continue.

"I was holding her throat when suddenly my arms were in her throat, I tried pulling them out but instead pulled out her throat."

I realize just how horrific what I had done was as I recount it out loud. Am I a murderer?... The calm look on Jack's face, absent of any judgement encourages me to push on.

"Then I ran out and ran clean through a closed gate, and ran some more till I met you."

Jack's eyebrows rise in a sort of conclusion.

"That sounds like phasing, that's where you can move your body through solid objects. That's a really cool ability Leah, have you ever done it before?"

I try to think back and realize that I may have actually caused Mercy's blindness by tampering with her optical nerve or something. I didn't think to mention this to Jack, no way he'd see two similar occurrences as accidents.

As I'm about to nod a no, the car crash comes to mind, I still have no idea how I made it out of the car the moment the accident happened.

"I haven't done it before," I decide to lie, "Did you know what abilities my parents had?" I ask instead. One of them must have definitely saved me right?

"Your dad could control molecules in objects, so he could change their shape and size at will while your mum had the special ability to communicate with living organisms including body cells and was great at increasing the rate of healing in patients."

Hearing such details about my parents made me miss them even more, but I'm glad I found someone to remind me about them.

"I can help you learn more about them, and also develop your ability if you stay with me."

"Here?" I blurt out, my hands rush to cover my mouth, too late to stop my reply.

Jack laughs "Of course not, I have a house with better lighting and with furniture in better condition."

"I would love that."

I realize that had I not met Jack today, I would probably still be running for my life, confused and alone.