I’d never seen such shocked faces as the faces of almost every boy at school when they saw Kristie’s short, purple hair. Aiden seemed to be the only one who was happy about their reactions.

“You’re an awful human being,” Anthony informed Aiden as we trailed behind Kristie and Dex as we walked though the hallway.

Aiden rolled his eyes. “Kristie doesn’t need all these guys fawning over her.”

Anthony rolled his eyes as well. “But it’s okay for you to fawn over her?”

“Shut up!” Aiden snapped, punching Anthony in the arm. The nerdy boy winced. “I’m not thinking about indecent things when I think about her!”

“I doubt that,” Anthony muttered now. Aiden only glared and said nothing more on the subject. I was glad that they dropped it, because I didn’t want the conversation to continue.

It was weird to see all the boys not go nuts over Kristie like they usually did. Her face was still beautiful, but she was no longer perfect. Her hair was such a distraction that it didn’t even matter what her face looked like.

I hated teenage boys. All they cared about was how girls looked. I doubt any of them knew what Kristie’s personality was actually even like. Were they all like that, or just the ones at my school?

“So, are you going to ask Kristie to the dance now that all the competition has disappeared?” I couldn’t help but ask Aiden.

“What about the dance?” Dex suddenly butted in, something I really didn’t want him to do.

I hated talking to Dex about the dance. Actually, I hated talking to him about pretty much everything because every conversation we had seemed to turn into a fight.

“Violet was asking Aiden who he’s going to ask to the dance,” Anthony informed his strong teammate. “She wasn’t talking about Tom.”

Dex glared at Anthony, and I made a face. Tom had nothing to do with this conversation and yet he still managed to get mentioned. At least it wasn’t by Dex this time, though it was still pretty awful.

“Who are you going to ask to the dance, Aiden?” Kristie questioned, deciding to join the conversation now and not just listen in on it.

Aiden turned red. “I… I don’t know yet.”

Anthony and I rolled our eyes.

“What about you, Dex?” Kristie now asked, and I really wished she hadn’t. “I’m sure there have been a ton of girls that have asked you.”

Dex shrugged. “Yeah, but I’ve said no to them all.”

I blanched. I hadn’t even though about the fact that other girls might have wanted to go with him. All I thought about was Vanessa.

“Then who do you want to go with, then?” Kristie asked again. I really wished she’d just stop talking because I didn’t want to hear it.

“Her name starts with a V,” I sneered just as Vanessa came into view from across the hall.

Anthony gave me a look as if he wanted to hit me. Kristie looked at Vanessa and seemed to understand what I meant. Aiden, however, made a disgusted face, as if he was going to throw up.

“You want to take Vanessa?” he scowled. He actually looked like he was going to vomit, which was not something I was expecting from him. “She’s a total skank.”

It wasn’t like I was going to say anything to defend her, since I didn’t exactly disagree. It wasn’t like she was a very nice person either, so she definitely didn’t need me defending her.

Dex didn’t defend her either, which only made Aiden’s face contort even more with confusion. Then he suddenly came to a realization.

“I get it,” he grinned, and now Dex looked confused. “You like that Vanessa’s a skank.”

Dex’s eyes went wide. “What?”

Aiden looked so pleased with himself that he had figured Dex out. “Since she’s a skank,” he began to explain, “she’ll most likely put out and then she’ll have sex with you.”

My wrist suddenly flicked, and the long line of lockers to the right of us suddenly burst open, all the papers and other items inside flying out into the hall.

My friends turned toward me and I put my hands up in defense. This, however, only caused the lockers on the other side to burst open as well, all of their contents spewing out like the lockers before them.

The kids in the hall shouted, covering their heads so they wouldn’t get hit by flying objects. I slapped my hands down to my sides and held my breath.

“What was that?” was one thing I heard shouted throughout the messy hallway.”

“Is it a ghost?” was something someone else screamed.

“Some kind of earthquake?” someone else wondered.

I couldn’t breathe. Actually, it was more like I was holding my breath and my lungs wouldn’t let me breathe out no matter how hard I tried.

I looked down the chaotic hall to see Freddie staring right at me. All of my held breath whooshed right out of my lungs. The look he gave me told me that he knew something was up with me, and that worried me immensely.

Freddie already believed superhumans were real, and he’d just seen everything that had just went down, including my friends reactions to me. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he put two and two together.

I now looked over to see Lena making her way down the hall toward me. She didn’t look very happy at all, but I guess I should have expected as much from her.

“What did you do?” she demanded.

I frowned. “Why do you automatically assume it was me?”

Lena gave me a look and I bit down on my tongue. This had been my fault, but I hadn’t meant to make everything practically explode. I would never purposely do anything like this in front of so many humans.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” I nearly whispered, worried about what Freddie might have seen. I looked back over to where he had been standing to see that he was gone. He was already suspicious of me because of my E birthmark, who knew what he thought now?

Teachers had come out of their classrooms to direct students to go to their next class. I was too afraid to even move from my spot. Who knew what else could blow up?

“Dex!” a new voice suddenly shouted, and I scowled at the familiar voice. Vanessa now made her way up to us and placed her hand on Dex’s chest. I scowled. “I was just thinking, since we have the next class together, you could walk me.”

Dex glanced at her, then our friends, and then at me. I was clearly displeased with the current situation.

“Sure,” Dex agreed when he turned back to Vanessa. My jaw dropped. Anthony reached over and closed it for me. “Let’s go.”

She seemed surprised that he agreed to go with her so easily, but she soon smiled before turning toward me and sneering. She and Dex then turned and started off down the hall, her arm around his.

My eye twitched, and suddenly the heel of Vanessa’s right shoe suddenly snapped right off, causing her to stumble.

“Oh, my gosh!” Vanessa gasped as she bent down and picked up her broken heel. “I just bought these shoes last week! How could they already break?”

Dex looked over his shoulder and gave me a look. I tried to shrug, but then thought better of it. Who knew what else might happen if I moved?

What was going on with me? I’d barely even moved and something bad would happen. I’d thought I’d gotten better control over my powers, but had I really?

Dex and Vanessa continued on their way to class, even with Vanessa’s broken heel. She didn’t even let it stop her from continuing on her way with him, even though it looked like she was limping.

“You’re an awful person,” Anthony informed me.

My jaw dropped. “I didn’t mean to!”

Aiden rolled his eyes. “Sure you didn’t.”

I puffed out my cheeks and continued on my way to class. If they really thought I was stupid enough to use my powers in front of so many people, then I wasn’t going to even talk to them. If I had control, none of what had just happened would have happened.

I went through the rest of the school day without talking to Dex, mostly because he spent the entire day with Vanessa. I also didn’t want my powers to act up again, so I tried to ignore them as much as I possibly could.

The ride home with my teammates was awkwardly silent, but I wasn’t complaining. I liked the quiet.

Kristie was obviously upset with the way people had reacted to her hair, so she went straight to our room without saying anything to any of us once we got back to the DAU. Anthony decided to go work on his homework while Aiden chose to train in the exercise room. Being the only two left, Dex and I decided to go to the meeting room to see if Hank and Nay were there.

The door slid open to reveal a woman, Hank and Nay nowhere in sight. It took me a moment to recognize the woman as Dex’s aunt Jeanette.

“They need to do something about power-proofing the door or something,” Dex sighed once he saw his aunt. “You shouldn’t be able to get in so easily, even if you can phase through things.”

Jeanette did respond like I thought she would. She didn’t seem like she had the first time I had met her. Then, she’d been smiling and teasing. Now, she was frowning and seemed very serious. Something must have been wrong.

“It’s been a while since you last came around,” Dex informed his aunt, as if she didn’t know.

She nodded. “Yes, well, I wanted to make sure that what I’m about to tell you is true and not just speculation.”

Dex blinked in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

Jeanette looked at me. “Maybe we should talk in private.”

“No,” Dex turned down, and this surprised me greatly. “Whatever you can say to me, you can say to Violet.”

A slight smirk spread across Jeanette’s lips as she crossed her arms over her chest and cocked out her hip. “Is she your girlfriend or something?” she asked.

Dex didn’t seem to want to answer this question, so he decided to change the subject by saying, “Just tell me what you have to tell me.”

It took Jeanette a moment. Whatever she needed to say was difficult, and she clearly had no idea how she was going to tell him what she had to tell him. She didn’t seem like the type of woman who usually had difficulty speaking.

She let out a long breath before finally saying, “I believe your mother is still alive.”

Dex’s eyes went wider than I’d ever seen them before. “What?”

“I believe she’s still alive, Dex,” Jeanette repeated.

My strong teammate seemed to have no idea what he was supposed to say. I didn’t blame him. If someone had shown up and randomly told me my parents were alive, I didn’t even know how I’d react. It was unbelievable.

Dex swallowed and finally uttered, “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t think she died when you were a child,” Jeanette explained. “I think she faked her death.”

Dex swayed ever so slightly. I took a step toward him, as if I would be able to help in any way if he happened to actually fall over.

“Why…” He swallowed, his voice shaking. “Why would she do something like that?”

Jeanette crossed her arms over her stomach and let out a slow breath. “I believe she wanted to go on the run from Redrum,” she informed him.

“Why would they care about her?”

“Redrum was what killed your father, Dex.”

“Yeah, so what?” Dex seemed to be getting angrier with every word that was spoken. “There’s probably been a lot of people from the DAU killed by members of Redrum.”

Jeannette shook her head. “Your father wasn’t just killed by a member of Redrum,” she nearly whispered. “He was killed by the founder, the leader at the time.”

Dex’s eyes went wide. “What?”

“Yes,” Jeanette nodded. “But he didn’t just kill your father, Dex. He also killed two of his teammates, too.”

I nearly choked on air. “What?”

Jeanette turned to look at me, confused. “What?” she asked herself.

“My parents were killed by the founder of Redrum?” I demanded.

It had to have been them they were talking about, right? I knew that my parents had been on the same team as Dex’s father, and they were both dead.

Jeanette’s eyes went wide. “Mandy and Elliot were your parents?”

I nodded. All I really knew about my parents were their names. I had no idea what their powers had even been. I didn’t know what the name of their team was. I could barely even remember what they looked like.

Dex was so angry by this conversation that he was shaking. I reached out to touch him, but thought better of it and moved my hands back to my side. I didn’t know if he wanted to be touched or not.

“Why was I just left at some random orphanage if she was really alive?” he demanded. “Why didn’t she take me with her?”

“She was afraid they would come after her, so she left you at an orphanage so if they found her, they wouldn’t find you,” his aunt explained, and it made sense. “She wanted to keep you safe.”

“Safe?” Dex’s hands balled into fists at his sides, his jaw clenching. “I don’t think being hit and smacked around by my adoptive parents was something I’d call safe.”

Jeanette nodded, and it seemed to really upset her when Dex reminded her of the abusive home he once lived in. She swallowed and blinked back tears. I bit down on my lip.

Dex and I had both lived in abusive households, though they were very different. While he was physically abused, I was neglected. The adults that we had been living with before we came to the DAU were not meant to be parents.

Dex let out a long sigh. “Do you really think my mom is alive?”

“I do,” Jeanette answered.

“Well, come on.” Dex took a step toward the door. “We’ve got to go find her then.”

“No, Dex.” Jeanette stepped in front of Dex to stop him from moving any farther. He was a foot taller than her and definitely could have got by her if he really wanted to. “It’s not that easy.”

Dex gave his aunt a look as if she was insane. “You come here and tell me my mom’s alive and expect me to do nothing about it?”

“Well, right now, there isn’t anything you can do about it,” Jeanette told him, but this didn’t make Dex happy at all. “I don’t know where she is right now, but I’ll find out. And once I find out, I will tell you.”

Dex let out a breath. “You promise?”

Jeanette nodded. “I promise.”

She left after that, after a few private words between her and Dex in the hallway. I completely understood that I wasn’t needed in the conversation, and I didn’t even ask what she said once she had left and Dex had come back into the meeting room.

Later that night, I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was what Dex’s aunt had told him. I doubt he was able to sleep either. Learning that your mother was actually alive must have really shaken him up. Especially since he had no idea where she was.

As Kristie slept, I got up out of bed and made my way into the hallway. It wasn’t super late, but my teammates had gone to sleep because we had school the next day. I still couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t think I would be able to.

I decided to see if Hank and Nay were still awake, since there was nothing else I could do. I could have trained, but I’d already done that earlier and I didn’t feel like taking another shower in the middle of the night. If Hank and Nay weren’t up, I would just have to force myself into falling asleep.

When the door to the meeting room slid open, I only saw Nay inside. She turned away from her computer and toward me in surprise. “Violet, what are you doing up?” she asked.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I answered, slowly making my way inside the room. “I just wanted to see if you or Hank were awake.”

“Well, I was just about to go to bed,” she informed me, pushing herself up from her chair and moving toward the door. “You should really try to get some sleep, Violet. You have school in the morning.”

I frowned. “Yeah, I know.”

“Good night,” Nay said, smiling at me before turning toward the door and making her way out of the room, turning the light off in the process.

But it wasn’t pitch black inside the room. The only light was coming from the computer Nay had just been sitting at. I turned toward the computer to see she hadn’t locked it like she usually did. “Nay,” I started, but then bit down on my tongue and thought better of it.

I took a seat in the chair she had been sitting in and slowly reached for the mouse. This felt wrong, but Hank and Nay hadn’t ever said that it was a rule that we couldn’t touch the computers. So technically I wasn’t doing anything I wasn’t supposed to.

I clicked on the DAU database from the desktop, the window opening with thousand of names and pictures for me to choose from. I knew it would take too long if I searched through all of them for my parents, so I searched the screen for a search bar and let out a sigh of relief when I found one.

“What are you doing?” a new voice suddenly asked me.

I slapped my hand over my mouth, biting down on my tongue to stop myself from letting out a shout. I turned around in surprise to see Dex standing behind me, his arms crossed over his chest.

“You scared me,” I told him.

“Sorry,” he shrugged, though he didn’t seem very sorry at all. “So, what are you doing?”

“I was going to look up my parents,” I admitted, trying to be as quiet as I possibly could because I didn’t know if I was allowed to do this or not. “I was wondering if the database had their information, since they seemed to have all the information on us.”

“Huh,” was all Dex said at first. “Do you think they’d have information on my mom?”

I turned back toward the computer. “Maybe,” I said. “What’s your mother’s name?”

“Rebecca Young,” he answered, but then paused and thought for a moment. “I think.”

I nodded and then typed in the name he had given me, pressing search and waiting. Only one name popped up once it was finished, and I clicked on it and waited as a new window popped up with a picture of a beautiful woman with information underneath her.

“She was on Team ARZEL,” I read out loud.

Dex wasn’t even listening to me. His eyes were wide as he looked at the picture of his mother. It was clear that he hadn’t seen her in a very long time.

“Your mom’s really pretty,” I informed him honestly, looking from the picture of his mother to him. “You look so much like her.”

Dex shrugged. “I was told that a lot when I was younger,” he informed me. “I have her hair, her complexion, her smile. But I have my dad’s eyes.”

I wished that I could remember what my parents looked like. They had died when I was so young that I barely even remembered what they looked like. Dex frowned when he saw the large letters spelling DECEASED underneath her picture. I immediately looked for something else for him to focus on.

“Married to Andy Wolff,” I read off, clicking on the name of Dex’s father. A new window now opened to reveal a man with the same green eyes as Dex.

“And that’s my dad.” Dex grinned, and it was a kind of smile I’d never seen from him before. It was if he was living every memory he had of his father just from one picture of him. “I think I look more like him, to be honest.”

We’d been in a similar situation like this before, in this very room. I’d come to the realization that Dex and I were a lot alike, neither of us with parents. But now his mother was possibly alive; he could have gotten her back. I would have done anything to have that.

Dex’s father also had DECEASED underneath his picture in large letters. Dex clearly didn’t like seeing that either.

“Look,” I said, pointing out a tab in his profile. “It says he was part of Team MADEV.”

I clicked on the team name, and a new window popped up to reveal the members of the team. And there were my parents, their pictures right beside each other.

I didn’t even look at any of the other members as I clicked on my mother’s picture, and it immediately opened her profile for me to read. But all I could look at was her picture.

I looked so similar to her, except she had brown eyes and shorter, darker hair. She was beautiful. I hated that I couldn’t remember her.

Seeing the word DECEASED underneath her picture broke my heart, and I completely understood how Dex felt. I immediately looked away and clicked on my father’s name, who was listed under who she was married to.

“Hard to believe our parents were on the same team, huh?” Dex asked me as my father’s profile came up on screen. He was handsome, with the same blue eyes as me. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember ever seeing his face in person. The same with my mother’s.

I was four when they died. I should have been able to remember something. But I couldn’t.

I took one glance at the word DECEASED under his picture and quickly clicked on the team it said my father belonged to. I didn’t want to be continuously reminded that my parents were dead.

“Team MADEV,” Dex read over my shoulder as he looked at the pictures of the team’s members. “Mandy Parker, Andy Wolff, Elliot King, and Vincent Payne.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” I frowned, scrolling down to see if there was anything else that we had missed. There wasn’t. “There’re only four of them.”

It was strange to see that there were only four members of their team, though there were five letters in their name. Where was their fifth member, the one that started with a D? Was it even possible for a team to have less than five people?

I looked all around the screen until my eyes finally landed on a tab titled Previous Members.

Dex seemed just as confused as I was. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

I clicked it, and a new window opened to reveal the picture of only one person, a young man with messy brown hair and devilish brown eyes. I looked below his picture to see what his name was.

I frowned. “Damien Black?”

“Why is he a previous member?” Dex asked the question I had been wondering. “Can you even quit the DAU?”

You must have been able to, right? I didn’t see why you wouldn’t have. But putting him under previous members when there of the other members of his team were dead just seemed… odd. That meant all of them were previous members, didn’t it?

I clicked on the picture and his profile opened. I read through his information, nothing catching my eye. He seemed like any other regular member of the DAU, and I didn’t understand why he was a previous member of the team. But then I saw it.

My mouth went dry. “Founder of Redrum,” I read.

Dex’s face was hard. “He killed my father.”

There was a lump in my throat. “He killed my parents.”

Dex’s hands were balled into fists. “And he was their friend.”

Neither of us knew what to say. I felt sick to my stomach. What was this about? The founder of Redrum had been on the same team as my parents? The man that had killed them had been on the same team as them?

I looked underneath his picture and let out a sigh of relief when I saw the big letters spelling out DECEASED underneath his pictures. This man was dead.

“Violet, Dex, what are you doing?” a new voice suddenly ask.

Neither of us even jumped. We turned toward the source of the sound to see Nay, Hank right behind her. When they saw whose profile we were on, they froze and their eyes went wide.

“My parents were on the same team as the founder of Redrum?” I demanded.

Nay frowned and took a step forward. “Violet…”

I scooted my chair back away from her. “Why was I never informed of this?”

“It wasn’t just your parents,” Dex reminded me, and I nodded. “My dad and Aiden’s father were on the team as well.”

“Were you ever going to tell us?” I questioned, pushing myself up from my spot and standing next to Dex. “That’s pretty important information!”

“We know,” Nay nodded, wringing her hands uncomfortably. “We were going to tell you someday.”

“Someday?” I repeated, as if that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. “Why keep it from us at all?”

Hank ran a hand through his hair and tried to think of what he was supposed to say. Nay looked at a loss for words as well. Dex and I just stood there, waiting for them to say something to us.

“We didn’t want to upset you,” our male mentor finally informed us.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s a little too late for that, because we’re upset.”

“This affects Aiden and Anthony, too,” Dex reminded our mentors now, who avoided eye contact with both of us like the plague. “Aiden’s dad was the leader of MADEV and Anthony’s grandfather was one of their mentors. Even if they weren’t killed by him, they have the right to know who was on the team with them.”

I ran my hands over my face. “I can’t believe this.”

“Damien Black is dead,” Hank clarified.

This was information we already knew. “But Redrum is still going,” I scowled. “Who’s the leader now?”

Nay shook her head. “We don’t know.”

Dex’s eyes went wide. “You don’t know?”

“No one does.” Hank made his way toward the computer and shut it down. “I’m not even sure the members of Redrum know.”

“I think you two should go to bed,” Nay now suggested, but I knew there was no way I’d ever be able to get to sleep now. “And please, don’t tell your other teammates what you know. Not yet.”

I bit the inside of my lip. I had to keep what I learned a secret from Anthony, Aiden, and Kristie? But they had the right to know just as much as Dex and I did! It affected them just as much as it affected us.

“Promise?” Hank asked with a pointed eyebrow.

Did we? Were we really going to keep a secret from our teammates, our friends? This was a big deal and both Dex and i knew that. They would be angry if they found out we knew but didn't tell them. But Hank and Nay had asked us...

Dex and I looked at each other before looking back at them. “Promise,” we responded.

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That awkward moment when Damien Black is clearly in the trailer. Which has been out for over a year. And no one has said a single word about him. It's on the side, if you haven't seen it.

Hooray for updates after a super long time!

This book came out a year ago a couple days ago. I missed the actual anniversary because I wasn't paying attention and I'm kind of bummed. It's the first time I didn't update a story on its anniversary. Oh, well.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! :)