Chapter 9(speak)

Her voice is what I imagined it to be, soft, timid and pretty. But I am sure she is not pretty on the inside.

She glares daggers at me and it feels like she is going to snap the chains and decapitate me at any moment from now.

"Who are you?" I ask her boldly, "What do you want? Why did you attack me?"

She doesn't reply and I facepalm myself. She is pretending not to understand what I am saying.

"You just spoke in English now I know that you can hear me."

I stare at her and then a creepy smile makes her lips part and I back away a little.

What is she up to?

I stare at her and I notice that her XO is very weak, the blueish mist around her is small and weak.

I look at myself and the blueish mist around me is quite weak too.

"What you are seeing around her and yourself is XO, only people who possess XO can see it."

If only people who possess XO can see it then why couldn't I see it before all this craziness? Why can't everyone see it since everyone and every living thing possesses energy?

And what the heck doesn't possess energy? Everything--including non-living things possesses energy.

"Why couldn't I see XO before I had my power?" I ask my subconscious, I have not yet fully understood the concept of XO and I needed him to give me a detailed explanation of it.

"You couldn't see it, because you haven't yet unlocked it and not everyone can, some people there XO remains normal and they can never unlock it." It explains and I place my hands on my chin.

"How is XO unlocked?"

"XO is unlocked by training one's mind and body, then the large reserve of XO which reside in the heart will open pour out empowering the whole body." It makes sense that XO resides in the heart, the heart pumps blood throughout the body, and nutrients which give energy are circulated through the body thereby making it function and giving it energy.

The flow of energy in humans is constituted by the heart, so without the heart, there is no energy, and without energy there is no life.

Meanwhile, the flow of energy in non-living things is different, most of the time living things possess potential energy, and they only possess kinetic energy when a force acts upon them...it is just so impossible for something not to possess one form of energy.

"How did I unlock my XO?" I didn't do any vigorous training of my body and mind before I had powers. I just had strange dreams and saw a damn alien in my bathroom window and then I have powers!

Maybe I am special in some way.

"You are different." It uttered. I said it, I was special.

"Before you came to earth you suppressed your XO and made it normal so that no one would know that you are here, " it tells me and then it points its fingers at me. "You didn't need to unlock your XO, it was already unlocked right from time, but it was almost nonexistent that's why you couldn't use your powers. I helped you rekindle it and that's why you can use your powers."

That makes sense if I hadn't suppressed my large outflow of XO back then I would have been targeted by Hermedox, but because I suppressed them he couldn't know what planet I was. The main reason why this mysterious girl--probably one of the disciples of Hermedox--could know my exact location.

I have to learn how to suppress my XO making it almost non-existent but still have my powers if not Hermedox will keep on sending people after me, or he was going to come here by himself and that would be very problematic.

I need XO to use my powers, anytime I use my mind to alter reality, I feel a great amount of XO leaves me, so how will I do it? How will I make my XO to be there and still not be there?

What a pain.

Sigh.

"You made mention of things that don't possess energy, I doubt that there is something like that."

"There is, they are called 'Vessels.' They are lifeless things without XO and life..."

"But even nonliving things possess a form of energy, everything in this universe has energy." I interrupted, it is so impossible to believe this.

"The phenomenon of the Vessels is not understood by anyone, they are both alive and not alive, and no one knows what they really are."

"You are so useless," I sigh and I pinch my nose.

"I am not, I am smarter than you are." My subconscious says and lets out a huff.

"I made you." I narrow my eyes at it and it doesn't say anything again.

Sigh.

There are still a lot of things I need to know about, I haven't even scratched the surface of this whole situation, this still feels like a nightmare gotten on Wednesday night.

I look at the strange girl kneeling on the floor with metallic chains tied around her, I feel like she knows something that'll be of great help to me but how will I make her tell me?

"Hungry." She mutters and my eyes go wide. I come closer to her but I make sure I still keep some reasonable distance away from her, she is dangerous.

"You are hungry?" I ask her with a little concern in my voice and she nods. She stares at me but quickly turns away.

"Thirsty too." She tells me and I notice that her English is still undeveloped which means that she just learnt how to speak English.

I can see from the way she behaved that she is very tired, and her XO is dwindling as time passes by. But I am still careful, this can just be an act to throw me off guard, she might be suppressing her XO and then when I remove the chains around her she'll attack me.

Nice try...

I turn around and I am about to leave her here to see what lies outside this storeroom but I stop.

If she has enough strength to attack me if I free her then why didn't she use it to break the chain? So that means she isn't bluffing she is truly hungry and tired.

I look at her and her bright pretty eyes meet mine and suddenly I feel pity for her...

Shit, I shouldn't be feeling this way for her, she tried to kill me!

My hands betray me and begin to work on to work on their own. They stretch out and reach for the chains to free her.

'Stop you good-for-nothing hands.' I screamed in my mind. 'Do you want to die out of simping?'

I am about to break the chains but then I stop.

"Don't do anything rash and tell me everything I need to know unless I'll kill you," I threaten her and she stares at me blankly.

This is a very costly decision, the moment I break this chain she can do anything to me, and I am very exhausted so she'll easily beat me.

I finally break the chain and she stands up slowly.

Instinctively, I move back, I am the one who threatened her yet I am still behaving like a chicken.

"Food." She mutters and I stop walking backwards. I stand still for a minute to assess whether she is going to do anything rash or not but she doesn't. I can't sense any hostility coming from her.

"I'll get you something for you to eat, don't worry," I paused, "but you'll have to tell me everything I need to know."

She turns to where my subconscious is standing and she points at it.

"Food?" She refers to him as food and I chuckle lightly.

"What's funny?" It shot back at me.

"I wish she could eat you, it'll make things easier," I tell it and it frowns.

"Water," she mumbled and begin to walk around the storeroom...damn she is hot and I can't take my eyes off her.

"When will get out of here I will look for something you can eat and drink," I promise her, and I am still clueless about whether she can understand what I am saying, she is talking and acting like a four-year-old. If she is speaking like this, I don't think her understanding level of English will be that high too.

She comes to me and begins to sniff me and I move back a little but she holds me, stopping me from getting away from her.

It seems like I have gotten myself a new pet.

"What's your name?" I ask her and she stops touching me and stares at me.

She brings her face closer to mine and I shudder a little.

"Skylar. My name is Skylar."