Chapter two- Unleashed powers

Tom was now a year older, eleven years old. Nothing much changes in a year, especially not if you are an orphan, spending every day in worthless activities, anything that might lighten up the otherwise dull days. But this last year had been different for Tom, he had been trying to understand and control these things he had been able to do by accident in the past. Inflict pain, control people, summon things these were some of the things he had started to be able to do consciously, to some extend by now. This gave his life a purpose; it was not anymore just a wait for his father. Although he was still sure he would come soon. But now it had become a valuable time to discover and gain control over his talents, gifts, skills, powers or whatever it was.


Every day he had again and again tried to perform the same actions he had been able to do before. Most days nothing happened and any normal kid would have given up. But that was the difference, Tom was not a kid, he was self acclaimed young adult and he knew persistence was the only way to push forward and that repetition was the mother of all skills, so again and again he tried to do one of his tricks. It had taken him almost two months mastering the summoning skill, but now he could easily move things around if he concentrated enough. He could not yet summon them with the speed and the accuracy he had done with the mouth organ, but he was sure that by continuous practicing he would get there.


Inflicting pain had been even more difficult, but after focusing on that for more than five months he could now send animals, such as cats or dogs, that occasionally strayed into the grounds around the orphanage, into spasms of pain. That brought Tom immense pleasure, but he had still not been able to produce the same pain in the other kids as he did with James, although occasionally he managed to inflict a short moment of pain during dinner times.


The mind control he had managed to exert over Ms. Cole was proving to be the most difficult skill to learn, after excruciating six months all he had been able to do was to make a single spider jump up and down. Even that had not been until after he had tortured it with his pain skill couple of times, making the spider very weak. But that moment of control lived in his memory, proof of his special talents.
”Just wait until I master this skill, you will all obey my will, you worthless fools.” He thought eagerly as he sat up in his bed. Too bad, that today, he could not follow his normal training schedule. Today there was a stupid beach trip. Tom did not see the difference in letting his brainless fellow orphans run around in their idiocy in the grounds around the orphanage or in the countryside, but this was a yearly event and for some reason all the kids were very excited about this.


He got dressed and for a second, loosened the fake bottom in his wardrobe, took a look at his tin box. That was just what he needed before a three hour bus ride with forty imbeciles. He could only too easily remember these intolerable bus rides, the worst thing was that due to the small size of the bus they took he normally had to sit next to someone speech retarded drooling moron that would always try to talk to him or play some pointless games.


It was therefore not with pleasure or excitement that Tom slowly got dressed and got himself down for breakfast.
”Great variety we have here.” Tom said mockingly as he got the over cooked, over salted scrambled egg tossed over his plate by Ms. McCollum.
”Well it is the same as we normally have.” Ms. McCollum answered obliviously.
“It is called sarcasm, you moron, but I guess your IQ does not comprehend such a concept.” Tom thought as he sat down at his normal place, away from everyone else.


The kids all ran out as Ms. Cole announced the arrival of the bus. For some reason the kids were all trying to get into the bus first. As if that would help them getting to their destination, any sooner. Tom was the last kid to enter the bus and to his great disappointment it was as he had feared, there were no seats except next to someone. Tom picked a seat next to a kid that was kneeling on the seat, facing backwards, talking to the kids in the row behind him. Tom knew his name was Eric, but not much more, and he liked to keep it that way for the duration of the trip.


As the bus took of, the kids started singing, not a single kid could hold a note which made it excruciating to listen to. To add to Tom’s fury over the sad fate of having to listen to those sounds the staff of the orphanage joined in clapping and shaking themselves to the apparent delight of the kids who sang even louder. Then after each song the bus roared in laughter, what they were laughing about he did not know. Why a song about a spider getting washed down by the rain was so hilariously funny he did not understand. Although he understood the enjoyment of seeing the spider suffer, but this hysterical laughter, he could not understand and yet he had to suffer through it for the next three hours.


What seemed like an eternity later the bus finally came to a halt and just like the kids had rushed in, now they all rushed out. Tom, which refused, not surprisingly, to take part in such a low level of interaction. Pushing and poking in order to gain two or three seconds outside was simply below his dignity. Slowly he stepped down from the bus, onto the grassy field that stretched for couple of hundred meters before the beach came to view. The beach stretched as far as he could see to the left, but on the right there came a hill and the beach turned into cliffs. He decided to walk over there in order to avoid having to listen to the lower level of communication going on between those organisms called kids at the beach.


The hill was neither steep nor long but yet surprisingly tiring to climb, and when he got to the edge he was surprised to see how high it was, there was almost a straight drop down to the sea that battered the weathered rocks of the cliff. The white lush kept crashing up into the air, with occasional drop reaching Tom’s face. He sat there for a while, enjoying the silence, throwing small stones into the incredible force of the water. But as he lay on his stomach looking straight down into the sea he noticed something else, a cave.


He started trying to climb down but soon saw that although climbable, his legs were just too short to reach the footings he needed to get down there. As he was half hanging over the edge trying to see into the cave, someone grabbed his arms starting pulling him upwards. He turned his head sharply, to his fury he saw the kid, Eric, and a girl, Amy to which the mouth organ had belonged, trying to pull him up.


Tom felt furious;
“How dared they breaking the peace and quite up here, how dare they trying to pull me up, distracting me from my observations!” His thoughts went racing through his head.
”I don’t need a help from imbeciles like the two of you I was simply looking at that.” He screamed at them as he pulled them to the edge giving them a look at the cave. But as he pulled them down, and he felt their fear rising, his excitement mixed with his fury created something spectacular, something bigger than he had ever done, suddenly they were not at the edge anymore; they were inside the cave.


Tom looked around, triumphant glare on the face. He started laughing, which happened very rarely. Amy and Eric on the other hand were terrified, they hugged each other and looked wildly between the raging sea that came surging into the cave and Tom that stood laughing with his hands in the air, unclear which they were more afraid of, the sea or him.
Amy cried freely but for Eric his fear came apparent as a wet spot became larger and larger on his pants.


Tom on the other hand felt a sensation he had not experienced before, a complete state of euphoria he turned to the kids and with his mind threw them aside as he walked to the edge of the water. With his hands still raised he focused all his energy on the water and like a string puppet the water rose in a whirling motion, forming a water tornado in the middle of the cave. He started laughing again, feeling thrilled beyond words.


But then a sudden thought struck him, which put him out of his mood, sending the water back down, the thought was, how were they to get back up? He grabbed the kids which simultaneously screamed as he grabbed them. He tried to think the same thoughts he had been thinking when it had happened before, but nothing happened. After numerous tries he gave up, dragged them outside and said in a non-chalant voice:
”We must climb up there.” Pointing to the edge where he had been hanging before.
The seriousness of the situation seemed to settle in with Amy as she stopped crying and Eric looked bewildered at Tom.
”How?” He asked miserably. “How are we supposed to climb up there?”
”Well you put one leg above the other and you climb, then you must just hope that you don’t fall down and kill yourself. Although I wouldn’t mind the least if you did.” Tom answered irritably.
“And don’t you even think about telling anyone what happened in the cave, or I will take you back down here and leave you in the water storm.” Tom threatened them, although that was probably not necessary. They started climbing; helping each other, giving each other pushes and pulls where needed. Together they made it to the top and when they got there Amy started crying again, Tom was not so sure if it was of joy, fear or some other reason. Frankly he did not care; he tried in vain to brush the wet dirt of his clothes and looked down to the other kids. There someone was pointing up to them and he saw Ms. Cole and Ms. McCollum starting running up the hill.
”I didn’t know they had such energy in them.” Tom thought, amused, at the same time looking worryingly at Amy and Eric, would they tell?


Although considerably older, Ms. Cole reached the top before Ms. McCollum. She grabbed the three of them with speed only acquired after working with children for years, pushed them close together, right in front of her and yelled between her heavy breaths.
“Where the hell have you been, we have been searching all over for you!”
Tom could not avoid smiling.
”What do you think is funny about this; I can tell you right here, right now that there is absolutely nothing funny about this situation, you had us all worried.” She glared at Tom, expecting an answer.
”You said hell, and you always say we can not swear, so is it in order for me to say fuck, hell or shit now?” Tom asked trying to put on his most innocent face, but failing miserably.
”Don’t swear boy! How dare you mocking this situation, you could had been injured, or god help, killed!”
“He somehow took us down to the cave and there he…”
Eric which had been on the verge of crying had begun answering. But as he starting speaking Tom felt a heat going through his chest. “The brat is going to talk.” He thought and focused intensely on Eric who at that moment fell straight onto his back jerking back and forth in spastic movement screaming in agony.
”What on earth is wrong child?” Ms. Cole asked grabbing Eric into her arms. The pain seemed to subdue, because Eric started again.
“He took us to the cave…” But before continuing looked nervously at Tom which stared with murderous eyes back at him. He seemed to loose any courage at that sight because he continued:
“But we got stuck and it took as long time getting back up.”
Ms. Cole which had seen the eye contact between the boys knew immediately that there was a lot missing from that account so she turned her face to Amy.
”Amy, dear Amy; tell me what happened in the cave- don’t be afraid.” She added as she saw Amy looking nervously at Tom. “Take Tom down to the bus.” She added to Ms. McCollum as if she had a second thought. Tom made one last eye contact with Amy, making sure she understood the consequences of speaking. Then he followed Ms. McCollum down the hill.


For several reasons the trip back home was a lot more subdued than in the morning. First of all five hours of outdoor activities seemed finally have made the little rascals tired. Second of all those who still had some energy quickly sobered up when they saw the state of Amy and Eric. The fury of Ms. Cole, the assertiveness of Ms. McCollum and last but not least the murderous eyes of Tom that sent sparks to anyone who dared to look in his direction. His look was so threatening that somehow he sat alone the whole way back, how that could happen since this was the same bus, with same number of kids, Tom did not know, but he liked it, he liked sensing the fear, the respect he got from all the kids.
“This should teach them not to mess with me.”