I felt like I was going to be sick. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I’d killed him. I’d killed Freddie. He had died because of me.

 I said nothing as Hank and Nay drove us back to the DAU. I was curled up into a ball as I stared out the window at the passing trees and buildings. I felt like I was in a dream, but I was really in a nightmare.

I still said nothing once we got back to the DAU, and Hank and Nay were silent as we made our way inside. I wanted nothing more than to just go to my room and sleep forever, but I knew I couldn’t. They were going to make me talk about it. They had to.

We entered the meeting room and I took a seat, wrapping my arms around my legs. I buried my face into my knees and bit down on my lip as I tried to stop myself from crying.

I felt like my head was spinning. How could this have happened? It just didn’t seem real. No one was supposed to die, and especially because of me… Members of the DAU weren’t supposed to ever kill anyone.

“Violet, tell us what happened,” Hank said, crouching down beside me. He placed his hand on my shoulder and I flinched. He immediately retracted and gave a concerned look to Nay.

It took me a moment, but I finally was able to shakily tell them what had happened with Freddie. They both clearly had no idea what they were supposed to do about what I had done.

“I killed him,” I whimpered, my hands on either side of my head. “I killed him, I killed him, I killed him…”

“Violet,” Nay frowned, her voice soft. “You didn’t kill him.”

“I did. I did.” I shook my head as my grip on it tightened. “I dropped him from the top of the stairs. I killed him.”

“No,” Nay continued, also shaking her head. “You said he tripped and you caught him before he could fall down the stairs, right?”

I shakily nodded.

Nay sighed. “Did you move him at all when he was in the air?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“Then he would have died anyway,” Hank interrupted before Nay could say it herself. “He would have fallen and died on his own. You just prolonged the time before his death.”

 I felt my lip quiver. “Huh?”

“You didn’t kill him,” Nay continued for my other mentor. “He would have fallen to his death whether you had been there or not. It had nothing to do with you.”

I didn’t know if I believed that. I still felt like it was my fault. Would he have really died if I hadn’t been there and he’d just fallen?

But I just kept thinking about what he was going to say before he fell. Something about my birthmark, something about me being… something. But what, I had no idea.

I found myself twiddling my thumbs as I tried to voice my thoughts. “He said…” I started, swallowing when my voice suddenly disappeared for a moment. I cleared my throat. “Well, he was going to say… that the birthmark on my shoulder… Apparently it means I am something?”

Nay’s eyes went wide and she looked at Hank, who seemed to have no idea what either of them were supposed to say to me. I felt my stomach immediately drop.

“What?” I demanded, shakily standing up from my seat, as if that would make them want to tell me whatever they were hiding even more. “I… I am something, aren’t I? Whatever he was going to say is true, isn’t it?”

“Violet, we don’t even know what Freddie was going to say─” Nay began, but I wasn’t about to fall for that. I saw how they looked at me.

“Yes, you do!” I interrupted, my hands shaking even more than they had been before, but this time I didn’t know if it was out of fear or anger. “You know what’s wrong with me; you know why I am the way I am. So tell me!”

Before they could say anything to me, the door slid open and three of my teammates made their way inside the room. I was still shaking as I tried to calm myself and sat back down. I didn’t want to make a scene in front of my friends.

“There you are.” Aiden’s arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows furrowed when he saw me. “Do you know how long we waited for you after school? We had to practically drag Dex into the car because he didn’t want to leave without you!”

“It was cute,” Kristie giggled, and Dex glared at her. “You were worried about her!”

“You were worried about her, too,” Dex practically pouted, and Aiden rolled his eyes. I bit down on the inside of my lip.

My two mentors looked around to see that one of my teammates was not there.

“Where’s Anthony?” Nay questioned my three other friends.

“We assumed he was with Violet,” Aiden shrugged once he looked around to see that the nerdy boy was not with us. “I guess he wasn’t.”

“But did you hear, Violet?” Kristie now asked. “Freddie Bauer fell down the stairs and he died! Isn’t that awful?”

I gulped, my entire mouth going dry. Everyone at school knew. Everyone knew that Freddie was dead, but no one knew that it was all my fault…

“It’s depressing,” Aiden sighed. “He was super weird, but it still sucks that he died.”

“I killed him,” I whispered, so quiet that I wouldn’t have been surprised if they didn’t hear it.

They didn’t say anything, so I assumed that they hadn’t heard me, but I wasn’t about to say it again. But then I looked up to see that their eyes were wide, and they seemed just as shocked as Hank and Nay had been.

“What do you mean, you killed him?” Dex questioned.

“She didn’t kill him,” Nay sighed before I could answer, and she then told them the whole story, making sure to tell them how he had fallen on his own and it hadn’t been my fault, even though I still felt like it was.

Aiden shook his head. “You didn’t kill him.”

“You know it’s true when Aiden’s on your side,” Dex couldn’t help but comment, and I knew that what he was saying was true. Aiden normally liked seeing things not go my way. So maybe it was true…

Just then, the door slid open, and my missing teammate angrily made his way inside the room. He would have slammed the door shut if he was able to, anyway to get his anger out.

He took a seat next to me and let out a huff of frustrated breath. I just blinked at him.

“What’s your problem?” Aiden finally asked the one question we were all wondering.

“I’m failing all of my classes,” Anthony answered without a moment of hesitation.

“What?” Kristie’s eyes went wide at the information we had just been told. “How is that even possible?”

Anthony shot her a flat look. “I’ll give you one guess.”

“Right now really isn’t the time,” Aiden interrupted before Kristie could even try to answer, cocking his head over in my direction.

Anthony turned toward me and his eyebrows furrowed. “What’s up with her?” he asked.

“Dude,” Aiden frowned.

“Since when are you compassionate?” Anthony sneered.

It was weird to see Aiden actually be the one on my side, because I never thought that would ever happen unless we were fighting Redrum. But it was nice to have him with me rather than against me, though I was sure this would be the only time that actually ever happened.

“Since your freaky friend died,” Aiden snapped without even hesitating.

Anthony said nothing at first, and the whole room went silent. I suddenly felt very uncomfortable once again. The silence only seemed to make it worse.

“What?” Anthony finally uttered.

“That freak you were friends with, Freddie or whatever,” Aiden explained, and it really bothered me that he was calling him a freak. “He died.”

Anthony’s eyes went wide. “He died?”

“Fell down the stairs and snapped his neck.” Dex shrugged as if what he was saying didn’t even bother him in the slightest. “I’m surprised you didn’t hear. Everyone was talking about it.”

Aiden then told him what Hank and Nay had told the rest of them, about how Freddie had seen me using my powers and I believed his death was my fault. Anthony seemed just as shocked as the rest of them when they had found out.

“But anyway, you shouldn’t feel guilty, Violet,” Aiden went on, and I doubted whatever he was going to say would make me feel any better. “He left a suicide note.”

“What?” I nearly squawked.

“He left a suicide note in his locker,” he repeated.

I felt my head spin as I tried to process what I had just been informed. “He… wanted to die?”

 “I don’t think he planned on offing himself that way, but yeah,” Aiden continued with a shrug. “They found a suicide note in his locker, so I’m assuming they’re going to say his death was a suicide instead of an accident.”

“Do you feel better now?” Dex crossed his arms over his chest in a very uncaring manner. “The kid wanted to die.”

I still felt sick to my stomach. Even if it hadn’t been my fault, witnessing someone lose their life was absolutely horrible. I never thought I would ever have to face that. I hoped I never would.

“It’s still awful,” I muttered, rubbing my hands over my face. I had finally stopped crying and now I was getting a headache. I was going to be emotionally exhausted and probably physically ill for a while after this.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what he had said to me before I dropped him. I had no idea what he was going to say, no idea what I really was. And clearly Hank and Nay were not going to tell me, so there was no point in asking them anymore.

“How are you failing all of your classes?” Kristie asked Anthony, clearly wanting the subject to be changed. I really wanted it to be changed as well, so I silently thanked her.

Anthony grew angry again at the mention of this. “Malicius somehow got all the teachers to believe that I’m cheating,” he answered. 

“What the hell are they up to?” Dex demanded, leaning against the wall as he tried to figure it out himself. “They’re doing these stupid, ridiculous things to all of us for no reason. I mean, I get they’re the bad guys and bad guys are supposed to do stuff like that, but it’s just… weird.”

Silence filled the room as we all tried to think. What they were doing really was strange. It just didn’t make any sense. They targeted each of us, but one at a time. And all with different things…

Wait.

“They’re using our weaknesses against us,” I blurted the second I realized it.

“What?” was what Anthony asked me.

“Our weaknesses,” I repeated. “They’re using our weaknesses to get to us.”

This only seemed to confuse my teammates and my mentors even more, and I didn’t understand how they didn’t see it. It was so clear. It was so obvious. 

“Aiden wants everyone to like him,” I began to explain. “It feeds his ego.”

The boy I was talking about scowled at me. “Hey.”

“But then he hit Malicius with his car,” I continued. “Malicius is everyone’s favorite teacher, though I have no clue how. But because of that, everyone started to hate Aiden.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” he muttered.

“And Kristie,” I continued, trying to quickly think of a way to word this without sounding too mean and hurting her feelings. “She’s ridiculously pretty; it’s one of her powers. But her hair being such a crazy color distracts people from that and guys don’t find her as desirable as they usually do.”

They seemed to be thinking about it now, and it seemed they were beginning to see how much sense it made. Because I was right; I had to be right. Nothing else could explain it.

“Dex, you want everyone to think you’re some kind of tough guy,” I reminded him, and he glared at me because he knew what I was about to remind him of, “but then Lynx humiliated you in front of everyone and now everyone thinks you’re a sissy.”

His glare only hardened at me, because he knew it was true. Girls no longer fawned over him like they used to, and guys would laugh and make snide comments toward him. I hadn’t even seen Vanessa hanging over him any longer, not that that was necessarily a bad thing.

“Anthony, you’re the smartest person in the school.” I began to wrap up. “Your grades are important to you and you want everyone to know you’re smart. But Malicius made it so everyone thinks you’re a cheater and now everything thinks you’re not smart.”

My teammates had nothing to say, and neither did my mentors.

“Don’t you see?” I nearly shouted. “They’re using our weaknesses against us!”

Hank blinked. “That… actually makes a lot of sense.”

It did. It did! That was clearly what they were doing, though I didn’t know why. They were supposed to be super villains, but all they were doing was acting like regular teenagers.

“Then what’s your weakness?” Aiden asked.

For the first time since my realization, I had nothing to say. “I… I don’t know.”

Dex shrugged. “Well, at least we know who’s next.”

“Thanks for putting it that way, Dex,” I thanked sarcastically as I shot him a flat look. “I’m really excited now.”

“What?” He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “At least you get to know in advance.”

Knowing in advance wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Now I had to keep my guard up at all times, even more than I already did.

I didn’t go to school for a couple of days. I just felt so exhausted that I could barely even stand. Hank and Nay understood, so they let me stay in bed.

When I finally came back to school, I needed to confront Malicius. He would be the easier one to talk to, and the last person I wanted to see was Lynx. Malicius wasn’t much better, but I would still rather talk to him than Lynx.

I waited until late after school, just to make sure that no one would be able to interrupt us. I had already had one human find out that I was a superhuman, and I didn’t need any others. Especially after what happened to Freddie after he had found out.

Malicius seemed surprised to see me enter his classroom when I wasn’t required to, but that didn’t stop him from smirking at me. He always had such a condescending look whenever he looked at me.

“Hello, Violet,” Malicius smiled at me, and it was the kind of smile that made my skin crawl. “What can I do for you today?”

I looked down at his left arm, which was in a sling and had been ever since he’d gotten hit by Aiden’s car. I knew for a fact that it was no longer broken, if it even had been in the first place, because he was supposed to heal faster than humans did.

“What are you doing to my friends?” I demanded.

Malicius’s grin only grew. “Excuse me?”

“I know what you and Lynx are up to,” I explained, and he didn’t seem confused by what I was saying at all. He just continued to smile. “I just want to know why you’re doing it. Other than the fact that you’re both annoying with nothing better to do.”

Malicius got up from his seat and slowly made his way around his desk. “Do you ever think you’re on the wrong side, Violet?” he asked.

He hadn’t answered my question, but I was too confused to get angry about it. My eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

“Like, what you did to Freddie,” he continued without explaining to me what he even meant in the first place. “Members of the DAU don’t normally murder innocent humans. That’s more something that the members of Redrum do.”

 My throat felt like it was closing up just at the thought of what had happened. How did he know I even had anything to do with Freddie’s death? How did he know I was even there when it happened?

“I didn’t murder Freddie,” I snapped. “He fell down the stairs.”

Malicius nodded as if he didn’t believe me. “Uh-huh, sure.”

I felt my eye twitch. I’m sure he knew the actual story, though I had no idea how, and he was just saying this to upset me. And I was stupid and letting it get to me.

“If you joined Redrum, you’d never be judged for committing crimes like that,” he coaxed, slowly making his way toward me. He reached out with his free hand and brushed my hair off my forehead. I slapped his hand away from me.

“I’m a member of the DAU,” I snapped, my hands balling into fists at my side. “I will never join Redrum.”

Malicius’s smirk only grew. “Oh, Violet,” he sighed. “You’re so naïve.”

I scowled at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I thought the same way you did,” Malicius grinned, and I wanted to slap his smile right off his face. He honestly had one of the creepiest smiles I’d ever seen. I had no idea how all of the kids at school thought he was so great.

“I will never join Redrum!” I shouted, and it was this reason that I waited so long after school to talk to him. I doubted anyone else was at school, and if they were, they shouldn’t have been near this classroom. At least, I hoped so.

I was growing angrier and angrier with every second that passed. Malicius was trying to push my buttons, and he was succeeding. He knew he was getting to me and he was going to push me until I cracked.

He started toward the door, leaving me to myself. I found it so hard to breathe all of a sudden. I didn’t know what to do.

“And over at Redrum, we don’t keep secrets from our members,” he informed as he looked over his shoulder at me. “If you were to join, we wouldn’t have any problems with telling you what you really are.”

“Shut up,” I growled, my fingers tangling through my hair. “Shut up!”

Malicius only continued to smile. “I’ll leave you alone for now,” he said, turning and making his way out of the room so I was now by myself.

My breath went jagged, and my head began to throb. Suddenly, I found it hard to even stand, and I crouched down into a ball on the floor with my hands in my hair. My head felt like it was about to split open, but it wasn’t like this was the first time I’d ever felt like this.

The lights around me began to flicker. My whole body began to shake. My vision went blurry. But when I opened my eyes, it was like I could see all around the room, as if I had eyes in the back of my head.

“Violet?” a new voice called out, and suddenly my four teammates came through the door, but I couldn’t even look at them. I didn’t even know which of them had said my name. All I could focus on was the agonizing pain I felt in my head.

“Oh, my gosh!” I heard Kristie gasp.

 Posters and papers on the walls began to tear off, circling around me in a tornado-like spiral along with papers and small objects littered around the room. Desks and chairs knocked over, the windows shattered. It was complete and total chaos.

“Violet!” Dex shouted, but he couldn’t get to me. None of them could. Objects were flying all around me, and every time one of them came near me, they would almost get hit.

“What’s going on?” Kristie cried, just as terrified as I was. “What’s wrong with Violet?”

That’s what I wanted to know. I wanted to know so badly, but Hank and Nay wouldn’t tell me. But Malicius would… if I joined Redrum.

The moment he saw an opening, he suddenly rolled so he was now next to me in the middle of all this madness while our friends were behind the wall of flying objects. But even with him beside me, he was still getting his with random flying things.

“Dex!” I sobbed. “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with me, Dex?”

“Violet, calm down!” he yelled, his hands on either side of my face as he forced me to look right at him. “You need to calm down, Violet! You need to calm down!”

He looked into my eyes, and that same scared look adorned his face, but this time it was even worse. I squeezed my eyes shut, tears burning them. I just wanted all of this to stop. Why was this happening to me?

“Violet,” he said again, but this time much calmer than before. He brushed my hair out of my face and weaved his fingers through my hair. “Calm down please.”

I opened my eyes again, slowly looking back up at him. And finally, everything finally began to calm down. The objects that had been flying around crashed to the ground, and everything grew quiet. The only thing I could hear were my short, jagged breaths.

I looked around the room to see it was completely destroyed. Everything was ripped from the walls and knocked over.

My face was wet with tears and sweat. I felt like I was going to faint. I felt sicker than I ever had before.

“Come on,” Dex sighed, gently brushing my hair out of my face. “Let’s go home.”

I said nothing and he picked me up bridal style. Our friends said nothing as well. I didn’t want them to.

I remembered what Freddie had said before I lost control and he fell. He was going to say that I was something, but I had no idea what. But the more I had these freak outs, the more I was starting to believe that there was something very wrong with me.

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So it's been forever. Sorry. But the story's going to start getting much better, I promise. It has to or else I'll never finish it lol.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN!