2.
Two icy blue irises stared up at a grey metallic ceiling, the black pupils at their centre dilated wide in the dim light of the room. The boy sat up in his bed as a rushing sound filled his ears. He stuck his little finger into his left ear to try and alleviate the noise, wiggling it around vigorously. What a strange sensation, he thought. A shadow crossed the room, stretching from the square of light that shone through the window cut into the door to his room. The door opened and a tall thin man entered. He switched a light on, a smooth dome that bulged from the ceiling above like a bright white boil. He was very pale, his skin much lighter than the boy’s. Isn’t that odd, he thought. His hair too was pale, thinning on the top, the light above his head shining through it like a torch through mist.
“Are you hungry Adiona?” asked the man, walking over to a metal wall to his left and leaning against it. He wore an old blue suit, faded and frayed but fitting his thin frame well.
“Yes,” answered Adiona. “Very.
“Do you sense her?”
“I do. She’s hungry too.”
“Then you should eat up. We must leave soon, we have to find her quickly, before she finds someone else.”
“Does she sense my feelings too, like I sense hers?
“No, Adiona that’s your gift alone. You will always sense her. You will understand her as deeply as another human being can. But only her.”
“What can she do then?”
“She can sense everyone else.”
“Everyone else? How many more are there like us?”
“No. Not people like you. Just, everyone else.”
“What! How can she sense see so many?” Adiona said, shocked at the thought. “I don’t believe you.”
The man laughed at his disbelief, “It’s true, she can sense them all. But she doesn’t know who they are like you know her. She doesn’t know what they want, if they are there to help or if they mean her harm. Not yet at least… for now she just knows they are alive,” he paused and then extended his hand out to Adiona. “Come, let’s eat before it gets cold. They’ve made something I think you’ll like. They used to make it back in the old days, it’s called beans on toast.”
ns 15.158.61.42da2
