"I didn't know Mr. Hailkin was religious or anything." I told Liam, while taking a bite out of my sandwich. It was lunch break at school the next day, last night had been a blur, I remembered running home carrying Liam. He had woken up as I neared his house, which was helpful considering I wouldn't have to carry him through his window anymore.

Liam yawned, "yeah he went to church every Sunday with us, he took it pretty seriously."

I knew what he was thinking, that his parents would think of him the same way. Think he was a demon, and shun him. He was their son, but when it came to it, religion came first.

Of course I was afraid of the same thing, it's not that my parents were religious or anything- they weren't, but that they would think I was a mistake. That I wasn't their son anymore, it seemed sort of cliché but you never know. Although I was fairly sure they would still love me, it wasn't a risk I wasn't willing to take.

"At least we're getting to know the limits of your power, if you use to much you could knock yourself out." I tell him, trying to get his mind off of his parents.

"Yeah that's a good thing, when I use my magic, it takes effort. It's not like most people would think. I'm not waving my arms and it happens, it's almost like I'm doing it myself all at once. I can't really explain it, no doubt my explanation is inaccurate but to understand you need to do it yourself." He looked at me, trying to recall what happened last night. "When do you think you'll get your powers? I mean I know that you might not get them, but if you do, when? What are they going to be?"

I smiled in anticipation, I didn't want to get my hopes up, but who wouldn't want powers. Yeah it would complicate things, and I would need to hide them but the thought of being special was... was amazing. For the first time in my life I would be different from the rest of the crowd.

Of course that was just a dream. I mean, me? Special? Yeah right, the guy who thought that lawn mowers we're small cages full of animal who ate the grass. I had thought that until I was ten. "I don't know, we don't know anything really. I'm just deciding to roll with it. Whatever life throws at us, let's just catch it and throw it at someone we don't like and well be fine."

He snorted in laughter, "good idea, then Duncan would think twice about making fun of us."

"Yup." The bell rang signalling the end of lunch. "I'll see you after school, are we going to use the tools at the bunker today?"

"Yeah seems like a good idea, I have nothing much after school until sports come up again." I tell him, slinging my bag onto my shoulder, the rough edges of the straps digging into my shirt.

"Pretty much the same for me, anyways see ya."

He left down the hall to his class, leaving me to my thoughts. What was going on with us. I knew it wasn't right, nothing was right anymore. I felt like I was stuck in a pit there was no getting out of, that the secret would get out. Things could still go downhill, there was too much to lose.

What was the point in all this?

Were trying to survive, nurture our- Liam's talents before they grew unstable. Would they grow unstable? Hell if I knew, the only I knew is that if we didn't reveal ourselves and what we could do, someone else out there will.

Time was ticking, and there wasn't much left.

* * *

I followed Liam into the bunker, it was the early afternoon about half an hour after school and we were on our way to try and break our way into a pipe. We hadn't even bothered stopping by our houses, only to go by the forest to gather the tools we had dropped in the forest last night. I was worried that they had collected them afterwards, but apparently they had forgotten. Thank god they did, if they did everything last night would of been for nothing.

Basically we would have to break into an old guys shed for the second time.

I hefted the pickaxe over my should, its rough wood hurt my hand as I grabbed it. No doubt I would get splinters. I shuddered at the thought. I hated splinters. Tiny little daggers of pain shoved into your skin, small enough that you can't get it out but big enough so you can see the cause of your misfortune.

I think I'm going to give the pickaxe to Liam.

I set the pickaxe down and slung my backpack off my shoulder and onto the ground next to it, I sat down on the pillows we had brought down earlier and pulled out my phone as I waited for Liam to finish his snack.

He finished eating and reached for the shovel.

"I call using the shovel!" I said, "you can use the pickaxe."

His face was aghast. "But I'll get splinters."

"I know! That's why I want you to have it." I smiled at him cheerfully.

He grumbled and trudged over to where the pickaxe lay on the floor. It's long wooden shaft just begging to be grabbed by some poor fool. Liam grabbed it, regrettably. I grabbed the shovel and felt the smooth wood along the palm of my hand. I sort of felt bad for Liam.

Not really though.

I followed him towards where he had indicated the water would be. He motioned for me to step back as he hefted the pickaxe over his shoulder, bringing it down upon the concrete with a large crash. Bits of the floor flew in all direction, he had only chipped it, but he was making progress.

How Liam had known there was water there I didn't know, when I had asked him how, he had told me it was like an internal compass lead him to that spot. Like he was attracted to the water in some way or form.

Liam stopped hammering the ground like an angry child and turned to me, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "This," he said between large breaths, "is harder then it looks."

"Need help?" I said, not wanting to help whatsoever.

Liam waved me away, "Nah I got this, just needed a breather."

He was like that sometimes, he didn't accept help easily. Even with school work sometimes. It seemed to me that he never accepted help unless he asked for it, he hated to seem weak or un-capable.

"There we go, Finn, can i get hand over here?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah sure I guess." I said, walking over to where Liam had broken the concrete and revealed some wet soil.

I dug my shovel into the packed dirt and started heaving, shovelling it away from our little fort and into the corner of the lot. It wasn't long until my shovel hit metal.

"Looks like a busted pipe. I guess never removed the system below the house when they stopped working here." I said.

I scraped away the remaining dirt in the hole to reveal the leaking pipe. There was a slight crack in the pipe, and water was draining out, seeping into the soil around it.

"Good job Columbus you found us some water." I said to Liam, he grinned in reply. "So how do you want to do this? We could get buckets and make ourselves a little reservoir or you can just draw the water from there directly."

He shrugged, "I don't know, we can think about it later. Let's go to McDonalds I'm pretty hungry." He said, rubbing his stomach.

I stared at him blankly. "You just ate a whole bag of chips."

"But that was so long ago." He whined.

"That was like, fifteen minutes ago."

"Fifteen minutes is a long time."

"You had a hotdog in last period before we came as well."

He hesitated, then his belly rumbled. "See? Good job Finn, now you got me thinking of hotdogs and I'm even hungrier."

I sighed, "fine but lets go to the cafe down the road instead, McDonalds is way too unhealthy. Plus the amounts of Big Macs you eat per week already is nothing to be proud of."

His smile faltered, just a tiny bit. "But... but they're so good. How can I not eat them. The delicious meat..."

"You would be a terrible vegetarian."

"Never tried never will."

I pulled out my phone light and made my way up the stairs and outside the building, then started walking down the road towards the local cafe. Barney's it was called, the owner was a friendly man who knew most of the people who lived around here. You couldn't live in the area without visiting to buy a coffee or donut once in a while.

Luckily the abandoned construction site was only two blocks away from Barney's so five minutes later Liam and I were opening its doors. The smell of freshly baked goods met my nose and I greeted them pleasantly. We took our seats in the corner by a window, where we could both watch the tv set up behind counter.

I paid little attention to it, I watched people walk by outside the window. I wondered what they were thinking about, no doubt about what work they had ahead of them, or looking forward to something fun in their nearby future. I wish I could think of that right now, but at the moment my brain seemed to be occupied with worry. I should probably stop thinking at all, maybe that would make me a bit happier.

No wait that would be a horrible idea.

Liam ordered a donut a croissant, and started chatting with the waiter who he knew from hockey, Larry was his name? It might be Barry... Or was it Chris, hell if I knew.

"Hey did you guys hear about the disappearing guy?" He asked us, it caught my attention and I shook my head.

"Who now?" I said.

"It's all over the news, a kid in California was in a fight at school, and when he was losing he just vanished. Nobody would've believed the spectators if it hadn't been caught on video." He explained to us.

My throat started to feel dry, "Have they found him again?"

He shook his head, "nope. Poof, gone, vanished. People think he turned invisible, or teleported." He leaned in as if someone might overhear him. "If you ask me, I bet it's fake. We've all seen videos like these before, and if you ask me, not many other people are gonna buy it either."

That was reassuring, I pictured the kids already talking to a therapist about what they saw and how they thought it was real. Still, this could be fake as always. Who could say if it was a real thing- like Liam's powers - or the next viral video that would die down in a week or so.

I shrugged, "I don't think it's real either, I mean, magic? Really? Thats like saying they caught a video of the tooth fairy."

I glanced at Liam, he stayed silent as Larry went off to get want he had ordered.

"You ok Liam?" I asked, slightly concerned that he might be thinking the same thing I was.

He looked up, "yeah I'm fine, I was trying to think for a second there, and then remember that I'm bad at thinking in general so I gave up." He grinned, "do you think that video was real? Like, real real, you know..."

"To be honest, I'd got to say yeah, I think its real real. Last time I had the passing and was sent to the hospital over night, there was a fire being broadcasted on TV. While I was watching, I noticed a girl in one o the windows, and she wasn't in one of safe apartments, she was in the centre of billowing flames. Yet... she was unharmed, not to mention I swear I saw her hands glowed with fire. I think she started it, I think she's like us."

He took a second to consider the information. "I'd like to think about this while I eat my donut."

I sighed.

He graciously accepted his chocolate glazed donut and croissant and started to munch on them, he gave the impression that he was deep in thought, but I was fairly sure he was just watching the TV.

So it was starting to happen. I knew that if there was anyone else out there like us, that soon enough someone would show their powers. To be honest, the fact that it didn't happen already surprised me.

When would I get my powers? I had no clue either, of course we didn't know anything. The same questions seemed to be coming to mind every day, and every time I didn't know what to think. It was like trying to find an answer without a question.

Liam finished his food and we began heading back to the fort. "I was thinking we dig a bigger hole around it, kind of like you said, make our own reservoir."

I nodded, it was probably the best option. It would be difficult to try and scoop water from a pipe with a bucket, not to mention you wouldn't even have much water to practice with.

We walked down the two blocks and into the dusty construction site, and then followed the dark stairwell into the inky black darkness. We turned our phone lights on and I walked over to the lights and turned them on. Liam was turning on the spotlights around the sinkhole. I sat down on my mattress and started munching on a granola bar from the bag of food in the corner.

I grinned and grabbed the shovel.

Liam came walking over and saw my devious smile. He stood there for a second, as if wondering what I had done this time. He suddenly realized what I was holding and scowled.

"I hate you so much."