Jayden

“Dude, where are you taking me?” Jayden yelled, trying to break himself out of Zac’s grasp.

“You can call me Zac if you want.”

“Yeah well Zac you should probably let me know what you’re going to do to me before you actually do it,” he muttered. Zac still had his hand gripped around Jayden’s wrist. He pushed the boy up a wall in a big meeting room. Zac’s face was millimeters away from Jayden’s. “Mr. Kolvan?” Jayden asked, his breathing slowing down. Zac suddenly rolled over, laying his back against the wall like Jayden.

“Jayden, I just want to tell you that they are not who you think they are. I’m not who you think I am,” Zac said, looking awfully tired. Jayden let out a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding.

“I just have a question for you,” Jayden said slowly. Zac nodded. The boy could see the bags under his eyes, the wrinkles on his forehead. “Why? Why are you here then? Why are you working for ULTRASONIC? Why are you helping me?”

“I think that’s more than one question, but I’ll answer them for you. I tried hard to get myself to where I am now. I was just like you, Jayden. Young, and if I would, shy and charming. I wanted to be a part of ULTRASONIC. I thought that what they were doing was right, giving Expectionals opportunities to live a normal life. I didn’t have a Mateo to guide me between what was right and wrong,” Kolvan smiled, his hands were brought up to his face, massaging his temples. Jayden could see his expressions closely, though he couldn’t read a telepath’s mind. “Then when I got here, I realized what they were doing. Ms. Mashima thinks that I’m trying to get into your mind to manipulate you, but here I am, telling you about my life,” Zac shrugged. Jayden smiled at his words, raking a hand through his hair. He was tall, though shy, like Zac had said about himself. Jayden stood at a little bit over 6 feet tall, his dimples and hair making his features soft. Mateo had helped him come out of his shell more, and the closet, since the guy rarely shut up about his ideals. Mateo cared about everyone, but he cared the most about himself. Jayden always felt like the sidekick in Mateo’s movie.

“And why me?”

“It’s silly. After I found out the unfair regulations here, I wanted to help everyone in the Sunken as much as I could. You guys don’t deserve this-”

“Tell me the plan for Mateo. Tell me what his plan was if he didn’t start protesting,” Jayden insisted, aching for information. Zac hesitated for a second before giving in with a tsk.

“We would have killed him anyway. After all this time we never found his ability. In case you’re wondering, your best friend Dylan would have been one of our scientists up here in the Overhead. And you, well since we don’t have much time I’ll just put it simply. You’d still be a Guarder. You’ll stay one.” Jayden opened his mouth to speak, but Kolvan covered his mouth before he got to.

“We don’t have much time. You need to know that the key thing is to listen. Listen carefully to what Holken says. He’s not quite as he seems. You might have heard this from your professor Vernon, right?”

“Yeah,” Jayden replied, listening carefully. Everything was going too fast. It was like his head was spinning.

“Well you need to know one more thing. Let Alto in,” Zac whispered slowly, not wanting Jayden to mishear him.

“Wait, tell me how you can read other telepath’s minds.”

“Later,” Zac rushed, patting him on the back and exiting the room. The door slammed as Jayden was left alone with his own thoughts. Again.