CHAPTER ONE...

I feel as if the world could come crumbling down around me at any moment.

My breathing is quick and labored, and I try not to focus on Shaw's hand gripping my shoulder. If I do, I'll fall apart.

"Colonel Hendry." Shaw says to my right, holding me in place. I keep my gaze on my shoes, for if I look at the Colonel, I'll see his pain, and then I will really break.

"I was wondering..." Shaw said. "Who you told about our little arrangement." The sun blazes down on us, and my green plaid pants stick to my legs. Sweat drips down my back. My dark, curly hair is tied up with ribbon, a look that Emma has continually said I look good in. I hate her.

Shaw finally lets go of my shoulder to make drinks at the bar, and Emma, wearing a slinky white bathing suit, guides me over to one of the lounge chairs.

"If you try anything." she whispers into my ear. "You'll regret it." I nod, but she's threatened me so many times it is starting to lose its meaning. If Emma threatens me, I don't freeze with fear. Shaw's threats are different. He always means them.

"Beg pardon?" Colonel Hendry looks over to where we sit, with Riptide standing several feet away.

Shaw takes a swig of his cigar, and his eyes flit over to us, where Hendry is looking. "I'm wondering who you have told about our little arrangement."

"No one." Hendry replies.

Shaw looks over to Emma. She says. "He's telling the truth."

"Who are you?" Hendry asks, pointing to me. I wince, and don't meet anyone's eyes.

Shaw gives a laugh. "My daughter, Leena." At least he uses my real name this time. Other times it's a name that doesn't sound like me, such as Veronica or Stacey. But Shaw lies with such ease he can make anything sound believable.

"Well," Shaw claps his hands together. "I guess we're done here."

Colonel Hendry gulps, sweat beading his brow as he looks from me then to Shaw.

Shaw says. "Let's wrap things up, shall we?" Riptide heads over to where Hendry stands, but in an instant, the air changes, and Hendry now holds a grenade. My whole body tenses. Will he really pull it?

A part of me wants him to. A part of me wants to end this.

I want to be free.

"Oh, I knew better than to trust you." Hendry says, but his voice wavers. "Now you let me walk out of here with my money or I pull this pin and we all die." contemplating, he adds. "And I know that is not your daughter, Mr. Shaw, so whoever she is, she is also coming with me."

"Or what?" Shaw says calmly. "She dies if we don't comply?" I hate when he uses me and the fact that I'm still a child to get the people he deals with to comply. Who would want to harm a child? I can think of one person.

I want Colonel Hendry to pull the pin.

"Leena." Shaw's voice is like a thousand knives all stabbing me at once. Anger and hate boil up inside me. "Do you want to leave?"

For the first time, I look up, right into the eyes I've grown to despise. The eyes that haunt my dreams. They are my worst nightmare, and right now they are brimming with false worry for an imaginary daughter.

I almost want to laugh. The thought of Shaw caring for anyone is a joke, an impossibility. I can't hold his gaze, and look at a dripping glass of brandy sitting on the bar table. I watch as condensation forms on the side of the cup from the cold of the ice. It dribbles down, no doubt leaving a ring of water where the glass still sits.

Shaw sighs and goes back to talking with Hendry. "Go ahead. Pull it."

"I'll do it." Hendry says, but his voice is filled with hesitation. "I swear to God." he moves his hand to the pin, as if he is also trying to convince himself that he can do it.

Just pull the damn pin and get it over with. I grit my teeth. Perhaps this is my way out. It's been five years since Shaw first found me. Five years of torture, of being forced to use my abilities, of falling asleep at night with bruises blossoming along my neck and arms. Five years since he killed my parents.

I still remember the day, as fresh in my mind as if it occurred only days ago. It was raining, the kind of rain where it took you hours to dry. We had a little house in the suburbs of California. I went to school every day, then came home and helped make dinner with my mother, then we would play board games or watch the television.

I had just gotten home from school, drenched and ready to take a shower, when the front door crashed open and two men stepped into the house. My father immediately grabbed the shotgun from the wall. We had prepared for this ever since I had my first incident with my powers.

I had made a girl go into a panic induced coma simply by touching her, and the moment my skin connected with hers, they say both our eyes turned black. I didn't know, because I was too busy wondering why I could see all these horrible things. A broken arm, a bloody nose, a man lying dead in the street, his head oozing with blood.

There were more incidents like that, where I would trip fall unconscious if I walked by a man who we later found out to be a criminal, or I would cause a boy to start crying just from touching him. We were always prepared for someone to come asking questions, but it still shocked me when the men stepped into our living room.

The rest is a blur. One man, who I later came to realize was Shaw, asked if anything peculiar had ever occurred with me present. My father asked them to leave. Shaw asked if he could meet me, and my father cocked the gun. Shaw took a step toward me, his eyes full of malice, and my father shot. Only the bullet never reached Shaw. Instead it disappeared into  his raised hand, and Shaw stood up, turned to my father, and pressed it to my father's chest. My father was thrown across the room, cold and lifeless and bubbling from some invisible force. Dead.

That was when I lost it, my head so full of fear, torment, and other emotions I couldn't describe that when I screamed, the entire house erupted into darkness. Only the darkness wasn't like shadows, or the colour that covered clothes and objects. It was something real, something tangible, It was pure emotion, pulled from everyone around me and warped into a dark weapon. Dark energy. The outburst was so shocking that it took me a while to figure out where I was, as everything was now covered in these shadows.

Shaw led me away and out the door, where the emotions oozed out of the walls like blood or tar. I almost fainted when I saw the crumpled figure on the ground in the garden. Her eyes were glassy, and the swirling shadows covered her head. The life was gone from her eyes.

Even though I resisted, Shaw was too strong for me, and he shoved me into the car.

That was the last time I ever saw my parents. The last time I ever saw freedom.

"You're not going to pull that pin." Shaw's voice pulls me back to the present. They still stand apart, but Shaw has come around the bar, and waltzes over to where Hendry still holds the grenade.

"I will." Hendry says.

"No you won't." Shaw closes the difference between him and Hendry and takes the grenade out of his hands. I hold a breath. "But I will."

Hendry takes a step back as Shaw pulls the pin, letting the excess drop to the floor with a clatter. I know what will happen next.

An ear shattering boom shakes the whole boat, and I see a white hot ball of flame condense in Shaw's hands. He smiles while Hendry continues to gape. The ball of destruction fully vanishes in Shaw's hands. He gives a relieved sigh.

"You're one of them?" Hendry asks.

"Very astute of you, Colonel Hendry." Shaw says. "You want to guess what I can do?" Shaw continues to talk, laid back as ever. "I've got the power to absorb energy, keeps me young."

"But that's the boring part. The fun stuff is what I can do with it once I've got it." Shaw reaches up and lightly taps Colonel Hendry on the chest, from where his fingers touch, a blinding white light bubbles up and consumes Colonel Hendry's body. His screams make me want to puke.

Shaw laughs and turns to me. "The new age is almost upon us, Leena. And you just guaranteed yourself a front row seat." he walks over to me, waves Emma's hand away where it rests on my elbow. He bends down so that his face is only inches from mine. I want to run, I want to cry, I want him to leave me alone.

"You're going to pull yourself together," Shaw tells me. "Before I have Emma do it for you."

He knows I'm breaking, he knows I wake up screaming from nightmares every time I close my eyes, he knows I have flashes where I can't seem to control the dark thoughts that swarm around my clouded head. I nod, tears pricking my eyes.

"There's a good girl."

✶✶✶

A couple hours later, night has fallen over the yacht. I hang over the side of the railing, watching the dark water lap at the sides of the boat. Shaw, Emma, and Riptide sit on cushioned benches surrounding the fire. Emma has just said something funny, and Shaw laughs.

I hate his laugh, it's like something out of a horror novel, sickeningly sweet with a threatening undertone. Books are the only thing Shaw allows me to have in my barren rooms. He comes in on some nights and throws a pile on my bed, saying he wants me somewhat educated. For what, I don't know, because I doubt I will ever leave his side.

"Leena." Shaw's voice pierces my thoughts. His mutation isn't reading minds, like Emma's, but when he speaks it always seems like he knows exactly what's going on inside my head.

"Yes." my voice is small and timid, as if the volume has been turned all the way down.

"Are you grieving for our fallen Colonel?" Shaw asks. I shake my head. "Then why are you so sullen?"

"She's thinking about the way you speak." Emma says, and I can feel her poking her way through my head. I instantly place  darkness around the thoughts I don't want her to see, even if it feels like I'm drowning in ice. Emma gives a pained grunt, and reaches to rub her temple. Shaw gives a worried look.

"What did you do?" he asks me.

"She blocked me off." Emma says through gritted teeth. "Again."

I brace for a blow to the head. But instead of striking me, Shaw gives a laugh. I jump in surprise. "Leena, I thought you couldn't do that anymore?" It's true, ever since I lost control one year ago in a small town in Germany, I haven't been able to gain control of shadows in my head. But I've been practicing, late at night, when I can't sleep, and now I'm able to keep the shadows of my mind at bay. So far. 

"I can." I say.

Shaw walks over to me and places a hand on my shoulder, and even though I'm covered, my cardigan is thin and full of holes, and his fingers on my bare skin pulses with energy. My stomach churns with unease.

"How?" Shaw asks.

"Wha - What?" I say, trying not to fall as his fingers spread painful energy across my shoulder.

"Show me how you can block Emma's mind." It's not a question anymore, it's an order. 

"I don't - I don't know." I say. "I don't know how to show you." And I'm telling the truth. I'm not able to read minds, I can only feel emotions from thoughts, and most of the time only from intense feelings; Despair, fear, sadness. Shaw says one day I'll be able to conjure emotions out of thin air, becoming dark energy like the night my parents died, but I don't think I could handle one more outburst. 

"I don't know how." I whimper. 

"Yes you do." Shaw says, and his tone is impatient. He grabs my hand firmly and places it on the side of his head. "Show me." Shaw gives me another round of energy that makes me gasp. I don't know where he gets this energy,  it feels like a thousand bees are flying around my body. Adrenaline courses through me, churning up some unknown part of my ability.  I bite my lip to keep from screaming. But whatever Shaw wanted to do works, and I feel my painful memory leave my fingertips, seeping into his temple.

Together we watch as I close my mind by bringing the shadows together, like I'm creating a wall or veil to keep anyone out. The force of pain and anger  hits both of us. Now he knows what it feels like to use the shadows in my head. Then the cold rushes in, and I shudder as it consumes my body. Beside me -- or in front of me because I have lost all knowledge of my surroundings -- Shaw laughs in disbelief.

Someone pulls my fingers away from his head, and I stumble back to the edge of the boat. The angry darkness creeps into the corner of my vision, trying to break free. I grip my hands to my side, where an inch long scar burns ferociously. Shaw gave it to me when he was bent on harnessing the emotions and shadows I could control, and every time I use my ability, the scar threatens to open.

Shaw is still laughing. Silent tears fall down my cheeks.

"Incredible!" Shaw exclaims. I don't listen to what he says next, because I'm trying to gain my footing once more.

"Leena!" Shaw calls me once I finally stand up. Before I can answer, I retch over the side of the boat. The sick tastes vile in my mouth and burns my throat. I turn, wiping my mouth on my sleeve. Shaw has sat back down, his arm around Emma, who looks very unhappy that he's pleased with what I can do.

"Yes?" I say, but Shaw never answers, because another voice enters the room.

"Herr Doktor." I whip my head around. Standing before us is a young man in a wet suit. He is soaked. His brown hair sticks to his square face, and his eyes are so full of hatred that I want to run. The man is positioned like he is ready to pounce, and from where I stand I can see a knife strapped to his leg. Who is he?

Shaw, Emma, and Riptide all stand, and Emma narrows her eyes, trying to get into his head.

Shaw says in German. "Little Erik Lehnsherr." That name sounds familiar. Lehnsherr looks to where I am standing, with my hands clasped around my waist. Something flashes across his face, but I don't know what it means.

"He's here to kill you." Emma says. Those five words spark something inside my chest. He looks like he could kill Shaw. He must be a mutant, otherwise he wouldn't stand there with that smoldering confidence. If he's here to kill Shaw, he might actually succeed. 

Hope. I feel it spread inside me

I have to do something, I have to help him kill Shaw. After what Shaw has just done to me, the experiments, the beating, the days without food. The nights where everyone's emotions pound against my head, and he does nothing but clasp my hand and enhance my powers until the pain is almost unbearable. I don't know how much I can actually do to help Lehnsherr, but the hope blossoms in my chest like a baby bird unfurling its wings for the first time, sparking new found vitality. If what I can do with the shadows is interesting enough for Shaw not to strike me, I know that more experiments are coming. I can't stand another one of those. If it happens one more time, if he chains me to a table while I scream and plead for mercy, I will wish for death.

I move towards Shaw, but I turn to Erik and mouth two words; Help me. He doesn't say anything, but something in his face changes. Emma narrows her eyes, and Erik gasps, clasping his hands to his heads. I know she is showing him his worst memories, but it still makes me squirm. Someone grabs hold of my shoulders, and I struggle as Shaw holds me close. I know what he's thinking. If Erik goes to kill Shaw, he'll have to kill me first.

"What kind of a greeting is that?" Shaw asks. Erik's face is one of pure agony as his hands grip both sides of his face. The pain hits me in the stomach, and the shadows grip my hands and my eyes. I force myself not to look away. I need to help him.

"After all these years" Shaw continues. While he's talking, I see Erik's knife on the ground. A plan forms in my head. I close my eyes and reach out to Erik's mind. The emotions I feel are so familiar, yet they're not mine. They're Erik's. I grasp onto his dark memories. The cold seeps into my blood, freezing my heart.

When Shaw loosens his grip on me, I thrust my hand out to Erik's head, and energy as black as night flies from his temple into my palm.  When the last of it enters my body, Erik gasps and drops his hands. Quickly, using all my strength, I elbow Shaw in the stomach and leap towards Erik, even if his emotions are still boiling around me. Erik throws the knife at Shaw, aiming right for his head, and he pushes me behind him.

I let out a breath. I did it.But Shaw's not dead. Emma stands with her diamond arm out, the knife dangling from her hands. She smiles. 

 I feel like passing out. I don't know whether its the fact that Shaw is looking at me with disappointment, or because I've just controlled another's emotion for the first time in years. 

"Leena!" Shaw calls to me. "You know better than to run." I don't respond. I can't. 

"Come on!" Erik yells. He takes my hand, and together we leap over the side of the boat. Shaw is still calling my name. Something whizzes past my ear, and hot liquid beads down my face. I realize Emma threw the knife, and it's clipped me.

The water is freezing, numbing every bone in my body. It pulls and tugs at my clothes, and the cold seeps into my brain. I can't think, I can't even breath. But I'm free. I'm not with Shaw anymore. Even if I'm still close to him. Strong hands pull me up. We break the surface, and I gulp and gasp in the fresh air that fills my lungs. Erik is next to me, his eyes still full of rage.

"Hold on to me." he says, and I obey. I wrap my small hands around his waist. Somewhere in the distance, a horn blares, and I hear the words US Coast Guard. Someone has found us. Someone has found Shaw.