I'm in his arms when I come to. Nathan's arms are surprisingly comfortable despite his scrawny form. I look up and meet his eyes looking down at me, they generate a warm amber hue, I hold his gaze for a moment, studying his face up close for the first time.

"You're crazy," he starts, "I'm glad you're finally awake."

Umm, crazy? I just saved our lives, Nathan. I get up and tear myself from his arms, so much for taking him along. My torso was entirely lying on his chest which forces him to scoot back into a wall as I get up. We are sat on bare ground, feels like earth and not concrete despite being just as cold and solid.

"Where are we?" I ask, trying to make sense of my surroundings. I can make out huge cylindrical objects like pillars, protruding from the ground and disappearing into the darkness above. I notice they're all around us, as far as I could see in the poorly lit cavern or whatever this was.

I turn to face him just as he answers, "I'm not sure, we fell quite a long way after you took as through the nature dome's wall. All I know is that we're alone here."

Fell? But I feel fine. I lightly tap my legs and torso but register no injuries, I stretch my legs out and feel nothing, there's no way I fell. Nathan watches me warily as I inspect myself and I notice he seems a bit unsettled.

"Are you okay? Your hand slipped out of mine as we fell and all I could hear was the sound of you hitting the sides of these pillars as you fell, and a final thump when you hit the bottom."

I can't look away from his eyes as he speaks, their faint glow keeps my eyes glued onto his. He seems genuinely concerned for my well being.

"I'm fine," I start, before I perceive some alarming details on his face. He's covered in bruises and I can't help but reach out to lightly touch his face. He shuts his eyes and winces when I make contact but doesn't pull away. My eyes have fully adjusted to the pathetic lighting as I scrutinize his face even more. He definitely had a rough fall.

"Are you okay? You're bleeding and all busted up." I pull my hand away as he slowly opens his eyes, and smiles softly.

"I am, I'm just surprised you have hardly a scratch on you."

I look up into the darkness above us, there's no telling how big of a fall it was without seeing the top. Nathan follows my line of sight and chuckles.

"You can barely see anything, can you?" He asks with a cheeky grin.

"Of course I can't, it's super dark in here, I bet you can't see anything either." I huff.

"I actually can, everything is super visible for me."

I must have made a pretty incredulous expression because Nathan bursts into laughter. I frown, "Are you saying you can see in the dark? Like a cat or something?"

"I see better than any animal that can see in the dark, you're not the only one with fancy skills."

Well now most of what I've seen makes a lot of sense now. All the kids I've seen here must have abilities. That must be the one thing that we all have in common, but why bring us all here? I'm guessing having an ability must be a pretty rare phenomenon but what possible value could we have to entice a kidnapping? I am definitely not stealing for anyone else apart from Jack and myself.

"We need to start moving, they're still ways away but they are coming, I can hear a bunch of footsteps." Nathan says out of nowhere, rudely interrupting my thoughts.

I tilt my head to the side and listen, "I can't hear anything, what are you talking about?" It's as silent as a grave.

"You probably can't hear them, I have heightened senses and can hear, smell, see and feel things over super long distances. Plus I can perceive most things normal people can't, like inaudible frequencies."

"So your eyes glow because you can see in the dark?" I ask, my mouth agape, he's got an impressing ability. "Wait, can you see where these pillars end, all I can see is them disappearing into darkness.'

"Yeah I can, we are underground right now so I guess these pillars hold up the buildings up there."

Impressive, not just a scrawny boy.

I switch my attention to the pillar Nathan is leaning on, so huge one would think it was a wall. I stand up and try tracing my way around it, maintaining contact with the pillar to avoid losing my way in the dark. I hear Nathan noisily stand up and follow me.

"So, where do we go now?" He asks as he walks beside me.

I'm about to ask why he's asking me that when I remember I'm the one who pulled him along with me. I stop abruptly and realize that I have no idea of what we should do next.

"I actually don't know, find a way out of this place?" I turn to face him, my fascination with the pillar entirely gone. "Can you see a way out?"

"I tried walking around when you were passed out, but all I could see were pillars, almost lost my way coming back to you."

Of course, I sigh, I remember passing out the moment we made it through the dome's wall, I subconsciously rub my shoulders recalling how cold it was and realize we were currently in a pretty warm place.

"Are there any vents around here?" I hate how helpless I become when faced with cold.

"I haven't seen any, are you afraid of the cold mist from earlier? You were freezing after we fell, I had to hold you for a while to get you warmed up."

"Yeah, I think they figured out that my abilities don't work when I'm cold, that's how they caught me."

"That sucks, well now that we know that, all I have to do is keep you warm right?"

I giggle, "Yeah, warm is nice."

"They're getting closer, we need to leave." Nathan's tone is urgent as he takes my hand this time and pulls me forward.

I'm glad he's taking the lead because I can barely see a few paces ahead of me. I focus on maintaining my balance on the uneven ground as we walk, my eyes fixed on Nathan's back. I notice almost all the pillars look identical as we weave our way through them, so solid and gigantic, I wonder how they were built.

After taking a bunch of right turns, Nathan stops and sighs in frustration.

"I think we've been going around in a circle," he says as he turns to face me.

I can't stop the chuckle that rips through my lips, as my hands rush to cover my mouth. "Can you really see in the dark?" I ask after a few seconds of sneaky laughter.

Nathan's eyes are glowing brighter, he's probably angry. "Of course I can see, it's just that these pillars make it hard for me to maintain a straight and direct path forward.

"I'm sorry for laughing, but I can't see, so you're all we've got. How about we go through the pillars instead, will that be easier?"

His face lights up and I smile, "Yeah, that would be great." I take his hand once more and blink, I really love when my abilities work as intended. "You can now walk through them as you please."

With one wary look at me, Nathan hesitantly moves forward, one step at a time, I smile in amusement, he's definitely not used to my phasing ability yet. He doesn't stop moving either as we approach the first pillar, he glances down at me before placing his first foot into the pillar and gasps audibly when his foot disappears.

Once we're through the first pillar, he picks up his speed, no doubt more confident after the first time. We walk forward in what I assume is a straight line for a few minutes before Nathan stops in frustration once again and lets go of my hand as he turns.

"We are definitely making no progress, this place is a maze, phasing though the pillars definitely makes things easier but each time we phase I get super disoriented, sorry."

I had forgotten that extending my phasing ability to other people might give them unintended side effects. The first time I phased with Jack through our living room wall to the kitchen during training had ended in violent throw up. Jack had definitely not enjoyed the experience.

"No I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you about some side effects of phasing. I normally feel a tingling sensation but it can be worse for the people I'm with. He nods as he sighs heavily.

Nathan suddenly takes me into his arms and jumps to the ground, I'm about to say something as we fall but a rumbling within the ground stops me. I feel whatever is happening through the shaking ground before I can actually hear it, a violent blast behind us, we weren't alone anymore.

The sound from the blast hits my ears just as we hit the ground, leaving a loud ringing in my ear. I know I'm screaming but I can't hear myself, the loud ringing in my ear is so painful and disorienting that I can't help but just lie on the ground, what kind of blast was that?

Nathan visibly recovers faster than me and struggles to pull me up from the ground. My hands are desperately clutching at each ear, trying to block out the ringing sound although it feels as if the ringing is coming from within my head.

Nathan hoists me up, delicately holding my waist while frantically looking around us, as if suddenly seeing a number of enemies. I can see Nathan's lips move but I can't hear anything he says. He pulls me forward in a desperate need to escape the hell that has followed us here. The air is now diluted in floating dust, which when combined by the intense darkness of this accursed underground pillar maze reminds me of my helpless encounter with Jay.

The dust in the air, which must have risen from the ground due to the violent blast, was now choking me with murderous intent. Thankfully, the ringing in my ears gradually subsides as we weave our way through the pillars once again and I can clearly register noises around me that were definitely not there before the blast. The stomping of countless boots on the ground and military talk from tactical guards.

My eyes study Nathan as he pulls me with him, the emotions displayed on his face rob me of any hope I might have been holding on to. The fear and panic dull the glow in his eyes and reflect the terror and fright running rampant in my body.

I leave the navigating to Nathan and activate my phasing and invisibility to give as a chance at escape. As we run past an opening between the pillars my eyes widen at the sight of numerous flashlights in the distance, my ears, which were now working at normal capacity once again confirm what I see.

We are surrounded and we both know it. Nathan keeps moving and so do I. He notices we are invisible and can phase after we run straight into a bunch of black clad men but go through them. He gives me a thank you glance as we push forward.

I feel a sudden drop in temperature and my heart goes silent as I come to the sad realization that our luck just ran out. Jay is here.

Nathan feels the temperature drop too and looks at me in alarm. Stopping immediately, he clumsily takes off his collared white shirt and offers it to me. I flash him a sad smile as I wear the shirt, the flimsy piece of clothing won't help one bit.

I take his hand again, turning us both invisible but we don't move. He squeezes my tiny arm, urging me to move forward once again but I nod a no. I know it'll only take a few seconds before I loose control over my abilities, which will blow our cover.

"You need to run," I say, glancing sideways and noticing the dark cavern is now almost completely lit up with countless torches. He nods a no too, what a stupid boy.

I shiver visibly as white mist forms in the air as we breathe. A swarm of torches light us up, we're visible now.

Nathan lets go of my hand and smiles faintly before running head on towards the oncoming figures.

A gunshot rings clear before I have time to figure out what Nathan was trying to do. I take off in his direction, they wouldn't kill him would they? We must be needed alive, right?

A second shot erupts and my lungs squeeze out all available air inside as a scream. Who had the bright idea of involving him in the escape. I feel guilty as I see Nathan's form collapse before me.

None of the black clad guards stop my advance to Nathan's now crumpled form on the ground, I realize I'm still screaming as I stop beside him.

"Why??!" I shout and sob, "You didn't have to."

"Oh, but we had to,"

I'd recognize that icy voice anywhere.

"Unlike you, he isn't harmless when cold."

I turn wearily and meet Jay's icy blue eyes.

"We underestimated you Leah, that won't happen again."