LOGAN:

'My name is Logan.

I’m a fugitive.

I can create fire with my bare hands.

And I was just kidnapped and taken who knows where by who knows who because I was about to murder a cop.'

If the rest of my life had been like this up to this point, I must have been in for a wild ride.

I groaned, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I propped myself up against the wall. I had found myself in a small, dimly lit room with a flickering light bulb overhead. The plaster and paint of the wall I was leaning against was cracked and peeling, matching the rest of the room. The floor was filthy with dried up leaves people had dragged in on the bottoms of their shoes, dirt, and little stones. I clapped my hands together to rid the muck from them.

The back of my head throbbed and I hissed as I dragged my hand across the dried blood that was caked in my hair. The hem of my t-shirt was charred and pieces cracked off in my hands as I made an effort to brush the dirt from my clothes. If someone had asked me what colour my trainers were supposed to be, I wouldn’t have been able to tell them from the mud that cracked along every thread and crevice.

I clambered to my feet, leaning my weight against the wall as I got some kind of balance. I ambled across the room to an ancient-looking table with a chair sitting in front of it. There was a piece of paper and a pencil sitting on top of it, along with a glass of water that I gulped down eagerly.

Slumping down into the chair, I made a mental note of the security camera that swiveled on the wall until it pointed directly at me. I grinned, letting my hair fall in front of my face as I twirled the blunt pencil in my hand.

Someone was watching me, and I was going to be sure to give them a show.

ERICA:

“What’s that numb skull doing?”

Leaning a hand on the back of Brian’s chair, I leaned over his shoulder to get a better look at the security footage on the computer in front of us. The crackpot from yesterday looked straight into the camera before back down at the desk, his hair covering up his face as he fiddled around with the stationary.

Shit. He knew he wasn’t alone.

“Don’t call him a numb skull, he could pass yet. Besides, his name is Logan.”

I rolled my eyes, looking across at the other monitor. When he was out, we scanned the bar-code on ‘Logan’s’ wrist so that we could pull up the files on him. The facility was still connected to Castaneda’s lab so we had access to all of his information, whether the bastard realized it or not.

A boy much younger than the one on the opposite screen glared at the camera, a large bruise on his cheekbone pushing one of his eyes closed. He had the same dirty blond hair, although in the mugshot it was admittedly much shorter, and cleaner. He was still a tall kid, although his hazel eyes unsettled me the more he snarled at the screen.

“Anything else you managed to pick up about him?”

Brian sighed, clicking away at his keyboard and doing who knows what. “Well, Castaneda kept him much longer than any of the other kids. Logan has to be at least seventeen.”

“Any idea why?”

Brian clicked through a couple more files before shaking his head, turning to me. “Nothing is written up here, anyway. I was able to pull up his mugshot and some basic information like his height and weight, where he came from. That’s about it.”

“That stuff is useless, we could have found most of it out on our own.” I groaned.

“We have to work with what we’ve got. If Logan passes the test, he could come in more helpful than we think.”

I snorted. “It’ll be a miracle if he passes.”

I remember the day I had been found and brought to the Sanctuary when I sat down to do the test. I couldn’t have been more than ten. My feet dangled and swung from the chair, barely able to see over the top unless I was sitting up on my knees. When I finally woke up, I had been huddling in the corner for three days before I had even noticed the table.

And I hadn’t even been knocked out like this fucker was, I grinned. I admired this spunk, but I didn’t appreciate the litter care he had shown when he blazed half of the woods to the ground, almost exposing the Sanctuary to the world, just to get out of a little pair of handcuffs.

I stared at the security footage again for a minute before squinting in disbelief. “I’m gonna ask again; what the hell is that numb skull doing?”

Brian winced. “I guess that’s warranted at this point.”

I didn’t know what kind of pyromaniac we had captured, with the way he had just looked at the pencil and paper and thought burn baby burn, but this kid was nuts. Brian and I watched as he tore the paper up into little pieces and rolled them into balls, holding them in the palm of his hand as he lit them on fire. He threw each piece at the wall, watching as they were extinguished as they hit the plaster. The paper fragments left sooty marks on the wall as if someone had extinguished a cigarette against the spot instead.

“We’re lucky he hasn’t burned the room down.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him,” I argued. I had watched this kid nearly burn the forest to the ground, and almost murder who he thought was a cop. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he decided to break the table and chair next and set them alight once he was finished with his little science project. “Tell me again why we put him in a room full of objects that he could turn into kindling.”

Brian sighed, turning to face me. His glasses balanced precariously on his nose, making him look rather bug-eyed, as he pushed them up with one finger. “We don’t know him. We can’t treat him any differently from any kid who has come here. He needs to complete the test like everyone else.”

“Yeah, but most kids write down questions they have or what they remember. The entire test is kindling to him. We gave a kid with the ability to manipulate fire a lot of things that he could set alight. This isn’t the standard situation. He’s going to burn the Sanctuary to the ground.”

“Okay, so his ability is a little more…offensive than usual”. You don’t say. “But we can see clearly what his ability is now. Once he’s finished with-with the pencil.” We watched as Logan now broke the pencil up into little pieces, throwing the burning pieces between his hands like he was juggling. “Once he’s finished with the pencil, it will be safe enough to go in there.”

I shook my head. “He set the clearing on fire. That’s about as clear a vision of his abilities we’re going to get. You think he’ll stop at the pencil? He’s capable of more and he knows it. It’s too dangerous, you’re making a mistake.”

Brian opened his mouth like a fish, trying to find a response to rebut mine, but we both knew that I was right. He was placing too much trust in a stranger who had already shown that he was capable of a lot more than his little magic tricks. It was time to go in there.

“Stick your coat on, you need to look a lot more professional if you’re going to intimidate him.”

“What about you?”

I grinned, taking off my oversized hoodie to reveal the belt filled with knives that I had strapped around my waist. My muscles flexed as I dropped it over the back of his chair as Brian imitated a fish again with his speechlessness.

“Let’s go.”

LOGAN:

I tossed the last piece of the pencil into the air, watching as it crumbled to ash once it hit the table. As I was looking around the room for more things to burn, the door swung open. I jumped to my feet, preparing for an attack when a knife whistled past my ear, cluttering off of the wall behind me before it hit the floor.

Blood trickled down my face and neck as the knife had just grazed my cheek. I raised my hand, my fingers coming away bloody as I glared at the pair who now stood in the doorway.

I deduced the man was no threat at all to me as I scanned his figure. He was tall and wiry, huge glassed pushed up his nose that made his eyes look like the size of a watch face. His skin was dark, his hair curly and cut close to his scalp. The man shook as I scrutinized him as if he was more afraid of me than I was of him. I resisted the urge to scoff as he pulled his lab coat tighter around himself as if that would protect him from my glare.

The girl who stood beside him was much more my speed and imposing enough for the pair of them. I had a couple of inches on her in height, but she more than made up for it with her build. Her shoulders were broad and her muscular arms strained in her short-sleeved t-shirt. Her dark hair was braided away from her face and tucked out of the way behind her.

My eyes went to the knives clasped around her waist as I stood up taller.

So it had been her.

“Trying to kill me already?”

“Not the first time.” My hand went to the back of my head where a knot had formed, recognizing her voice instantly. “So you’re not as slow as you look.”

“Really? Well, that’s comforting to hear.” I smirked. “What am I doing here?”

“You’ve been arrested. What else would you be doing here?”