After the guy left, Penny decided to head out as well, just walking through the front door and hoping that the other people wouldn’t realize that she hadn’t come in through it. She needed to save her energy in case this boy went somewhere else that she didn’t want to be seen. She followed him at a distance, careful not to lose sight entirely of him but also not to be close enough for him to think she was following him. Her bright copper hair certainly didn’t help in this respect, but it wasn’t something she could change right now.
Penny stopped when the guy did, realizing that he probably lived here. Okay, this was officially getting creepy, as if it wasn’t before. She was done following around random people. She could go get food or something, with her limited funds which she had wasted on coffee to keep her awake. Not for the first time, she wished that she didn’t hate the cheaper black coffee. Whatever.
Penny turned, deciding to head back to her car or somewhere else lowkey when she noticed him. The man looked familiar in that odd way that most of the shadowy people did, because she’d seen him before. He didn’t appear to have seen her yet, though, thankfully. She quickly walked in the opposite direction, hoping to avoid him. All too soon she realized that was the direction of that guy Otis, who she had been keeping tabs on. Shit.
Otis’ hands had become rather restless after making the decision to push his schedule back by 10 minutes. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before, but that didn’t make it any less unbearable when he did. He began briskly jogging back towards the book shop, but not before he noticed the girl from earlier.
A strong gust of wind almost knocked him over, but he managed to keep his footing in case the girl happened to notice. “Keep your cool.” he told himself, taking a deep breath. “You don’t want to slip up.”
He noticed the grey clouds drawing nearer in the sky, his anxiety had started building up a lot quicker than he had wanted it to. One wrong move and the sky would cry.
Penny blinked. It hadn’t been windy before, had it? Maybe her suspicions were right, but now was no time to celebrate. She was probably imagining things. Or least that was what she told herself, until she glanced back and saw the man looking right at Otis. “I wouldn’t go that way, if I were you,” she said to him, loud enough for him to hear her easily but still fairly quiet.
Penny internally cursed. Why did she say that? Now he’d think she was crazy and run right into their hands. Or worse, what if he listened to her and she had been wrong about him? Maybe the man mistook him for someone else and this guy didn’t have any weird abilities.
At the girl’s words, Otis froze. The clouds grew darker, the breeze tussled his hair and jacket. “What do you mean?” Was someone watching them? Oh the peaceful life was only too good to be true, he knew someone was watching them at this point. The girl spoke as if she was genuinely warning him about something, and when he glanced from the corner of his eye at the figure not too far down the road, it clicked. Stay calm, Otis, or someone is going to notice the change in weather!
Penny glanced up at the clouds before looking back at Otis. "I'm assuming by the look on your face that you know exactly what I mean," she responded. "We need to get out of here. There's more than just him." She hoped that he could see the fear and sincerity in her eyes. He had trust her. Luckily she didn't say that, as it sounded more than a little cliche, though right now that was the least of their problems.
“I Uhm…” Keep it together, Otis. He took a deep breath once again, allowing his anxiety to take over for a second and a slight drizzle began to fall. He took a quick glance at the figure that seemed to be drawing closer, then looked back at the girl. “Would you like to come back to mine? It uhm.. it is raining after all.”
"It's not safe there," Penny responded, frantic and almost a bit derisive. "They'll find us. We have to throw them off the scent first, and then we can talk for a bit. Just follow me, okay? This way we can hopefully live past tomorrow." She glanced at him before darting into the nearest gap between houses, hoping he'd have the sense to follow.
When the girl started running away, adrenaline crept its way up inside Otis and formed a lump in his throat. She was serious about there being some sort of danger, wasn’t she? Today was not going to plan, at all, and it seemed to all pin down to when he had opened his mouth to that girl. What if she was the danger? Was he willing to take that risk?
He could see the fear in her eyes, so there was a hefty chance that she was sincere. Otis sighed, what more had he got to lose by following her. Clutching the bag of books close to his chest, he proceeded to follow her through the backstreet, and the rain fell a little heavier than before.
Penny smiled slightly when she saw him follow, though the look was bereft of any real joy. “Okay, this might sound weird, but I want you to take my hand,” Penny added, darting a glance to the end of the alley nervously. She was fairly certain which house was his, and it wasn’t too far, so it probably wouldn’t take much exertion. Being cautious, she also made she sure had enough energy left to get away in case this all an elaborate trap, though she didn’t think it was. However, Penny had learned the hard way that things weren’t always how they seemed.
Of course, she had only taken another person with her once or twice, so it might be a bit more effort than she had planned. She just hoped that it worked out, because she certainly couldn’t teleport two people more than once today.
Otis’ eyes narrowed slightly at her request, what effect was holding hands going to have? It certainly wouldn’t make them run quicker that’s for sure. This was all too much excitement for Otis to handle, and as the rain poured heavier he decided to just do as she said. He took her hand, hesitantly, and tried to stop the involuntary muscle movements of his fingers. “What’s going on? I really don’t understand…”
“Hold on,” Penny instructed, glancing at his loose grip. She gripped his hand tightly, concentrating. The anxiety in her stomach was almost as good as adrenaline, and after a feeling like they were about to pass out, they were in his house. Well, she wasn’t sure where in the house they were, but it had to be his house, right?
She studied the decor, figuring Otis would be a bit shaken up from the ride. She’d gotten really dizzy and light headed on her first few teleportations, but it was so long ago she barely remembered them.
When Otis’ form appeared in the room, he stumbled against the wall closest to him before sliding down to the floor. The feeling of wanting to vomit was overwhelming, but he kept his composure so as to not make the ground dirty. When his head cleared, he noticed he was surrounded by the familiar decor of his living room. “Impossible…” he murmured, eyes wide. How were they in his house? His keys were in his bag back at the book shop, and all other entrances and exits were locked. After a moment of sitting still, he pulled himself up and turned to the girl. “Did you do this? Get us inside the house I mean.”
Penny’s lips quirked into a smile. “Well it certainly wasn’t you,” she quipped, looking around. “Nice house, by the way. Based on the fact you’re not running off screaming, I’d bet you can do something too. Or you’re light headed. But still.” Penny paused a moment in her rambling to actually think. Now that she had revealed her hand, she didn’t mind talking a lot. She glanced back at Otis to see how he was faring.
“Thanks…” Otis sighed, the rain outside started to ease up as he laid the books he’d bought out on the coffee table. Two large navy sofas sat in an L shape around said table, and Otis offered for the girl to take a seat. “I’m assuming by “something” you mean.. not normal?” Of course she meant not normal, but he just needed the clarification.
Penny sat lightly, her body tense, as if she would get up and bolt any second. “Yes, that is I what I was referring to,” she responded, doing her best not to add “duh” after it. He was probably new to this crazy world, and being rude about it wouldn’t help anything.
So she hadn't noticed the weather? A soft "Huh." floated from his lips. He looked down at his hands, taking deep breaths to calm his adrenaline and fear, and as the feeling slowly started to fade away, the sun appeared once again in the sky. "What happened back there? You seemed genuinely scared."
“You saw that guy,” Penny responded, a bit annoyed that he didn’t answer her question. She wondered if it was something to do with the strange breeze earlier. “He and others like him have been following me for weeks. They managed to hunt me down and I don’t know who are or what they want me for, just that it’s bad. I think they experiment on people like us, and I don’t want to stick around one of them long enough to find out. He was looking at you, so I was thinking maybe they’re also after you.”
“But why would they have any suspicion of me?” Otis narrowed his eyes, his eyebrows knitted together. His life had been nothing short of perfect, or as much as he had tried to make it. After realising that the weather was somehow linked to his emotions he had tried sticking to a strict schedule in order to keep the natural balance of the weather. “I’m sorry, how rude, I haven’t even asked you your name.”
“Oh, I completely forgot to tell you my name!” Penny laughed, trying not to focus on the negative for a moment, though she knew they would have to have the discussion anyway. “It’s Penny. Nice to meet you! Officially. Anyway, I have no idea. I just got here today! I told you that I’ve been running from them for a while now, and if one of them was looking at you like that—well, it could be a coincidence but I don’t think it’s likely.”
“Penny, nice name,” Otis chuckles, running his fingers through his hair. He leaned back into the sofa, exhaling heavily. “So, Penny, you seem to know more about this situation than I do. Would you mind filling me in on what you actually know?”
"Not much, I'm afraid," she admitted, biting her lip. She still looked as if she would bolt any second, like a frightened animal. She bit at her nail, one of her bad habits. "This group of people broke into my home one night, and the only reason that I escaped was because of my ability. My sister woke me up, because I used to sleep like the dead, and we were both so scared. I managed to get her out with me, but no one else. I don't know what happened to them. My sister thought it would be safer for her to stay with her friends for a while, since they're hunting me. I agreed. Now these people have been hunting me. All I know about them is that they want people with strange abilities and they'll do anything to get them. Alive." After her little spiel, she looked up back at Otis, waiting for a reaction.
“This is too much excitement for me…” Otis breathed, closing his eyes, the frown still creasing his features. He had done everything he could to keep his abilities hidden, even convinced his parents to go on holiday for a bit while he learned to harness them, but now with Penny sat in his front room talking about a group of people who were hunting people like himself——all his trying appeared to be in vain. “How do you know they’re hunting you for something bad?”
"If they were hunting me for something good, do you think they would have broken in the middle of the night and tried to kidnap me?" Penny asked him sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. "If it was good, why couldn't they just approach me and ask me to help them? I'm fairly certain what they want is something bad, or the least very not good for us."
Otis sat up, rubbing his face in that ‘why am I a part of this?’ kind of way. “What’s the worst they could do? Drain us of our powers? At least for me that would be a hefty burden off my shoulders.” If that were the case, he couldn’t understand why Penny would be so opposed to the idea of going with them.
"If you want to go with them, fine, but I don't like the idea of joining people who tried to kidnap me, are currently hunting me down, and have guns that they are more than willing to shoot," Penny responded, blinking hard and trying not to cry as she thought of her parents. They could be anywhere right now, because Penny refused to believe that they were dead. "Just leave me out of it. I'd rather be on the run than in their clutches."
“Well I’m not likely to leave you on your own now, am I?” Though his words came out harsh, there was a slight smile on his face that would tell anyone that he wasn’t prepared to leave them if they were in danger. It just meant he was going to have to adjust his life… again. “Do you have belongings with you?”
Penny smiled wanly at this, but it was clear that she was a bit more hopeful. "A few, in my car," she responded. "But they probably know my license plate number or something by this point. Shit. I'm pretty new at this whole thing, if you couldn't tell."
“Oh I can tell..” The fact she hadn’t carried her belongings with her in case they decided to seize her car was a clear indicator that she wasn’t experienced at being on the run. “I don’t think it would be worth heading to your car, not with that guy being so close.” Otis slowly stood up, as if his body were a bit heavier than it had been this morning. “I’ve got a spare rucksack I don’t really use, and I’m sure some of my sister’s clothes will fit you if you need a change.” He started mumbling things to himself while searching around for some paper and a pen. “Looks like I’m not going to be home for a while.”
Penny's eyes widened. "You're seriously just going to come with me?" she asked, despite the fact that she knew that he was in danger. If she hadn't seen any of it with her own eyes, she might not have ever left her home and family behind. "I mean, of course I want you to, and it's not safe here anymore, but you barely know me. I just want you to make sure that you're sure and that you don't end up regretting coming along and hating me for it."
