Understand Me

I know he's going to catch up soon but I won't risk looking back just to see how close he is to me. I made it outside the campus and jumped down the stairs. How did he get in? Is no one seeing me running away from some insanely huge guy? I thought of running back to Ven but I'll only bring danger to him so I ran towards the gate instead and tried to go to the nearest police station.

"Stop running!" Lieutenant Henry shouted not that far from me but knowing my hearing, he's probably meters away. I looked back to see how far he is, he's at least ten meters away. Not that far but good enough. The police station is just right in—someone suddenly grabbed my arm and pulled me in a different direction. I tried to remove the grip but the person is far too strong for me. We continued to run towards a road that I am familiar with. I cannot see the person's face clearly because of all the shaking effects from the running but from his build, I'm saying he's a guy about the same age as me if my intuition is correct.

After a little while of running, we stopped on an abandoned underground rail track. I tried catching my breath and leaned on the wall right after he lost grip of my wrist. How much running do I need to do today?

"Not much," the guy answered.

"You can read my mind too?" I breathed heavily. His voice is cooler than the huge guy a while ago but his tone is way too disrespectful.

"Hear. I could hear your mind. You don't have a barrier," he pointed his index finger on his head. I still couldn't see his face because of the leather mask he was wearing. Only his eyes were noticeable. I realized that he was wearing a glove too and an overall black outfit matched with a long leather overall coat. I tried stepping backward. Making some measures on how I would run away from him. I had too much bad luck already and it's not noon yet.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. That guy is still searching for you." He warned.

"How can you tell?" still taking a step backward but slower this time. Small little steps that he won't notice.

"That guy has some mind GPS on his head."

"A what? Like a tracker planted on him?"

"No, it's his talent." He was able to catch his breath faster than mine. I need to work on my cardio. I'm still trying my best to catch my breath.

"Talent…? I'm not catching up." That's a pretty useful talent for navigation.

His eyes squinted at me wondering why I didn't understand him. "Don't you have one? He'll be not after you if you don't." I am now standing at least three meters away from him. Quite close to the wide opening and ran away from him. "Stop it," he warned.

I paused. His sudden sound of authority scared me.

He sighed deeply, "I am not trying to scare you. I'm saving you."

"Stop reading or hearing my mind! Whatever that means!" I started walking away.

"I'm not. You're shouting your thoughts."

I stopped. "Am not!" I frustratingly shouted. I sat down hugging my knees and looking straight ahead examining the vandalized wall. What's happening? I grabbed a handful of my hair.

"What's your talent?" he asked.

It took me a while to answer. "Playing piano…?" I answered but I think I answered it wrong because he snorted at me and rolled his eyes.

"I can't believe this. You're too clueless. Commander didn't tell me this." He stood up in front of me where I could see his eyes properly. I realized they're a beautifully toned onyx black and his hair is a lighter shade of brown. "You do know I could still hear your thoughts, right?" he scratched the back of his nape embarrassed that I'm examining him.

I gulped not knowing what to do. "Stop, stop reading…me"

"Hear…you mean."

"Ugh." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, I am not really sure what you're trying to ask me. What do you mean by talent? Because if you asked me that while not knowing your terminology, I would definitely answer playing the piano…" I explained.

"You need a deep briefing." He placed both of his hands on his waist.

Suddenly, the phone in my pocket vibrated. Goodness, I thought I lost it from all the running. "Hello?" I didn't place the phone near my ear, instead, I held it in front of me since the decibels from the cracking sound hurt my ears sometimes. I could feel his eyes looking at me weirdly on the way I handled it.

"Sapphire, where are you? Where's the pizza?" Ven sounded annoyed.

"I'm sorry…I had some…" how do I explain this, "some bad luck going on again."

"Don't tell me, the line was so long, or worse, you dropped the pizza box," he groaned. I wish it was just like that.

"No, it's not that. Look, I'm…" I looked at the guy wearing a mask looking back at me with weirded-out eyes. I just realized why am I still here? He doesn't seem to have his guards up to attack me…If I run away from him now; I don't think he'd care.

He glared at me harder.

Never mind.

"hellllllloooo," Ven's really annoyed.

"Just buy your own this time. I'll pay you back next time. Could you bring my things back to my dorm? I don't think I'd be returning soon. Thanks. Bye." I turned off my phone, not letting Ven speak. I placed it back in my pocket and breathed deeply as I looked back at the guy standing. "I can't keep calling you 'the guy' do you rather have any names? Even a pseudo would do." I said.

"Aaron. That's not a pseudo. I'm working for a special intelligence that keeps all Artisans safe from the enemies. Right now, you're my mission."

"Enemies by means of that one…?" I pointed the thumb behind me as if pertaining to the thing that just happened at my university.

"He's one of them. Yes."

"How can I be sure if you're not just one of the bad guys?" I asked, still skeptical. Unlike earlier, my brain is not sending red signals that are alarming me to run away.

He removed his leather mask off his face to give me a better look at him. His unfixed-fixed hair framed his perfect face. Sharp jaw and perfect pinkish lips complemented his overall secret agent get up and look. The way he looks at me suggests that he's starting to get annoyed. More annoyed than he was already. I need to be serious.

"Now that you know how I actually look, can you trust me now?" he kept his mask inside his coat.

"Ah if you are some secret agent of an intelligence organization then showing me your face must be a very big deal then yes. I guess I'll trust you," I forced a smile. Still quite skeptical and also wondering why my brain is not sending alarm signals against this guy.

"Not going to run anymore?"

From a scary guy? "No, I don't think so."

"You really need to have a barrier on that nosy mind," he pointed at my head.

I forgot he could read minds or rather hear my mind. I covered my mouth then realizing that it's my head I placed my hands on my head instead. Ugh, what do I do to keep this person from reading or hearing my mind?

He breathed deeply, "Just think of a barrier. The strongest that you could think of. Something that could keep your thoughts from spilling. These kinds of things are more of a mind thing. Depends on how strong an Artisan's mind is."

"Just like how I try to make myself focus on a certain noise. I imagine making a wire directed to it…something like that." I tried to explain.

He positioned himself in front of me as if interested in what I was saying. "So, what is your talent?" he asked again.

"For me to understand that…what's yours first?"

He squatted in front of me to face me properly, giving me a better view of his beautiful face, "A talent in an artisan world is an enhanced ability of a person's mind. Some people could do telepathy, some could run fast like really really fast, some could do some x-ray vision, some, like the guy that chased you, has a GPS-like kind of mind. It could also be something more physical; where you can actually see things coming out of their hand or something."

"So, yours is?"

"Telekinesis." As soon as he said that, the can of trash on the opposite side suddenly lifted high up as if something was pulling it upwards then dropped to the ground.

"Whoa," I mumbled in my breath.

"Yours?" he raised a brow.

"Mine? I guess you meant asking what my curse is."

"Curse? That's not a good way to call your talent..."

"I can hear things that normal people shouldn't be able to hear from this distance. Right now, I could hear a car crash just happened some miles away from here. An ambulance will pass this area…you really can't hear its siren unless it's close enough for your hearing range but it's just at the corner now," I waited for the ambulance to pass before I spoke again. His eyes hinted that he was surprised. "It's a curse really. It makes me restless. When I wanted to sleep, I couldn't because I could hear the water dripping from the other room; I can't focus on playing the piano because even the faintest sound of the wind hitting the curtains is loud enough for me to be out of focus. Also, it makes me eavesdrop. I hate it."

"It's a talent then. So, you weren't able to control your talent. Wasn't able to practice and hone it."

I nodded. "Really, it's a curse." I can't believe how calm I am right now and how open I am to him as if there is a perfect connection between us right now or is it just me.

"You just need to control it. It shouldn't harm you." He stood up and offered a hand to me. "Would you come with me? The commander wants to see you."

I frowned. This is the second time he mentioned 'commander'. "When did he say it? Does he know me?" Suddenly, everyone wants me in their place. I'm not very keen on the idea.

"We could talk telepathically. He's probably just somewhere around. Since the telepathy is loud and clear. You're a mission. Of course, he knows you." His head searches the dark underground.

"How can you do that?"

"It's just like talking but with your mind. No, don't—"

"Ouch. Was that your barrier?" The word I was trying to say telepathically at him somehow thumps back in my head. "I was just trying to say hello," I grabbed his hand that he offered again to help me stand.

"Yes. I don't let anyone in my mind except my commander or people that I trust the most."

"Ah. Sorry. I just wanted to try it."

I fixed myself and just waited for his orders. But I want to know what telepathy feels like. This new world is intriguing. "Could you try it on me then? I want to know how it feels."

"For someone on the run. You're quite close and too open to me. We just met. In an artisan world, your request is dangerous."

"Please. You did say you're not a bad guy and as weird as it is, my mind seems to be not sending some red alert." I followed him as we walked outside the underground rail track.

He looked away from me and breathed deeply. "Fine."

/It's me./