Blemished, The by Sarah Dalton Read Free Book Online

barrier between me and Daniel. “It’s usually something significant that happens in the near future. So yes, I guess you could say that Daniel can predict the future.”
    “I can’t believe it,” I said.
    “Really?” Angela raised an eyebrow. “After the way you just made the entire kitchen dance?”
    I looked at them, trying to decide whether I truly believed them or not. “This is all way too crazy to make up,” I mumbled half to myself. “I’ve just… I’ve never met anyone else who can… who has…” I gave up, realising I was lost for words.
    “There’s a reason why I keep seeing you.” Daniel spoke slowly and in a low, almost hypnotic , voice. He was handsome, in a rough way, with dishevelled hair and dark circles under his eyes. There was a striking contrast between his looks and Sebastian’s chiselled features. He smiled and his mouth moved crookedly. “You’ve been haunting my dreams for years. Always your face. We were meant to find each other.”
    “But why?”
    Daniel looked at me as though he couldn’t believe I was really there, his eyes trailing my face, searching every crevice. His gaze was magnetic, drawing my attention.
    “Mina, tell Daniel about your gift,” Angela said, interrupting the silence.
    “There’s nothing much else to tell. You’ve seen it.” I tried to smile at Angela but found myself pulled to Daniel. “When I get upset or emotional the things around me start to move.”
    “She flipped a tray and whacked Elena Darcey around the head with it yesterday,” Angela said with a large grin.
    Daniel laughed. “I bet she deserved it.”
    “She made me sniff mashed potato in front of the entire canteen,” I replied.
    Daniel and Angela both laughed and I joined them which felt good. My muscles relaxed and I stopped expecting kidnappers to run through the open door.
    “Did you have to move because of your gift?” Daniel asked.
    I nodded. “I find it hard to control sometimes. When I was a kid it wasn’t as bad because it was easier to miss school then, before they introduced the Operation and the new system.” I noted how Angela’s eyes flashed, she felt the same way about the schooling system that I did. “But as a teenager I had to go. I tried to keep to myself and not speak to anyone. I tried so hard not to get angry or feel any emotions but…” I trailed off, feeling the same tingle in my fingertips even as I relived the memories.
    “But you can’t stop being who you are,” Daniel finished for me.
    I looked up, surprised. “Yes, that’s exactly it.”
    “Do you think there are more of you?” Angela asked. “I mean more people with super-powers like you two.”
    “I hadn’t thought of that,” I said. “I thought I was the only person on the planet who could do anything weird like that. But then, there are two of us, so maybe.”
    “So what are we? Genetic freaks?” Daniel said. “Do you think the Ministry know about people like us?”
    “I really hadn’t thought of that,” I said. “My dad always tells me that he thinks it’s a higher stage in evolution. He thinks the GEM project is stopping us from evolving any further and that if they just left things alone we’d all be born with gifts like mine… ours.”
    “That’s nice,” said Daniel. “My mum just thought I was the devil.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t be. She was messed up from the Operation,” he said with a forced but breezy tone of voice. His facial expression clouded, showing his true feelings. “Whatever happened to us, I don’t think it’s natural.” He smiled thinly.
    “What do you think it is?” I said.
    “I think it’s the Ministry messing with us,” he said. “I think we’re just the same as them out there.” He meant the GEMs. “I think they did something to our genes.”
    “Then why aren’t we in some lab?” I said.
    “I dunno,” he said with a shrug. “Are you going to tell your dad about me?”
    “Not if you don’t want me