~amelie~

I'm sprinting as hard and fast as I can before my legs wobble and I halt, panting, unable to run any more, just outside the compound.

"No..." I whimper. I have to stop thinking about what my father says, but I can't do anything to block the thoughts. All I can do is replay that conversation over and over and over inside my mind.

"I caused the Explosion."

Shakily, I look down at the piece of paper gripped in my hand. I'm standing in the clearing where Thomas and I left Matthew and my mother, where her directions begin. Stark black ink scrawls across the white, her distinctive handwriting spidering across the page. A right arrow from where I am now, pointing to the letter E and the number 5. I frown, and my finger traces the path from the E upwards to an N, right to another E, and down to an S... and I realise how these directions work. It's late evening, and so when I squint and look up I can see the sun beginning to set, bathing the clearing in dusky gold. The light is coming from my right, and so I turn until it's behind me. Sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and so now I know what direction I'm facing - East. I take five steps, watching the map, and I turn again. The sun's to my left, and I'm facing North. I start walking, and when I reach twelve paces I stop again. It's just like a treasure map, though I feel as far as possible from a child having fun or a pirate searching for gold. Right now

It takes me ten minutes to work through the directions on my mother's map, and by the time I'm done I can't even catch a glimpse of the compound. But it's worth it to get here, to be able to ask her if she knew. About Dad. About Hunter. I look up, trying not to overthink what I'll say when I get there, when I spot a dark figure sitting on the ground. My eyes widen, and my pace quickens. It's her.

"Mum?" I ask quietly as I walk quickly towards her. Her head lifts, but she doesn't look round. "Mum?" I repeat, louder, just as I'm about to reach her.

I reach out and touch her shoulder with my hand, staring down at her. As I watch, she slowly gets up, but she still hasn't turned around. I frown, and walk in front of her to see if she's alright. But, instead of my mother, I see a girl about my age, with blonde hair just like her. Fear rises in me as I realise that this is not my mother, that this is someone else entirely. Our eyes lock, mine brown, hers a startling black - no irises, no whites. Just all-encompassing onyx. I stare in horror, and she smiles, and raises her hand.

And then darkness blooms in my vision, and then I'm gone.

~~~

My head hurts.

It's the first sensation that comes to me - the strange pressure in my skull. I can't describe it. The second feeling I get is the tightness around my wrists, and when I jerk them to try and make the uncomfortableness disappear, they scratch against something like rope.

Rope?

"...Hello?" I call out, but my voice comes out as a harsh croak. I cough, and there's a muffled laugh. My eyes widen, and I hold my breath, fear rising in me. There's blackness all around me, and I can't see a single thing - but I know someone's there, watching me.
"Who's there?" I ask, sounding like the victim in a horror movie.
As I stare into the darkness, squinting, someone speaks. "Who are you?"
Amelie Carmichael. "What?" I frown.
"We've got Carmichael's daughter," says the voice triumphantly, and my eyes widen. I didn't speak. So how...?
"Ask her about the base." This second voice is male, deeper than the first, and carries at the same time an air of natural authority and dark menace. I shiver.
There's a third voice then, this one obviously female. "Anything in particular?"
I'm powerless to do anything as there's a pause. But there isn't a response that follows, so the first voice says, "Let's get on with it. He's gone."

Suddenly, the a strange sensation on my head increases. Pressure, poking at my skull, touching my mind. I frown, and shake my head, trying to clear the feeling, but it just intensifies further, filling me with a weak sensation.

"Where is the rebel base?" the first voice asks.
Three miles out of the city, in the woods. "I won't... I won't tell you..." I say faintly, weakly, unable to understand what's happening.
"Be more specific," says the female.
I can't. "What?" I squint into the darkness, trying to see something, anything.
"Who is your leader?"
Dr Michael Elian. I stay silent this time, not even protesting - just confused. How are they satisfied when I'm not saying... anything? And then it hits me.

They're reading my mind.

My eyes widen, and I thrash in my chair, trying to break through my restraints with renewed energy.
"She's figured it out," says the first voice, and I hear laughter in his words. I grit my teeth in fear and fury, and lash out with a kick. Satisfaction fills me as I feel it connect, and there's a curse from the blackness.
"Stop." The girl only says one word, but I hear the anger in it all the same, and stiffen. But, instead of turning on me, she speaks to her companion. "She's not going to focus on her answers properly now she knows what's happening. We might get altered thoughts."
The boy makes a noncommittal sound. "Fine. Can you make her forget?"
"Yes," says the girl. "Go turn the lights on so she can see my eyes."

She must be the girl who knocked me out earlier, then. I'm still not sure how it happened, but I know I can't let her incapacitate me again. As the boy grunts again, presumably heading off to hit the aforementioned lights, the pressure on my mind lessens and disappears as his concentration splits. I feel my strength flooding back as soon as the feeling's gone, and suddenly I realise exactly what I can do.

I grit my teeth and ball my fists, knowing this will hurt, but simultaneously knowing I have to do it. I focus on my body, not growing a hand or an arm or altering my appearance, but changing my entire size. I squeeze my eyes shut as I begin to grow, and the rope around me starts to tighten. I grunt as it presses into me, almost unable to continue growing, but then I hear a strange crack. The rope is fraying.

"What are you doing?" says the girl crossly. The lights are still off, but I'm still focusing on growing, narrowing my eyes in concentration. "What was that noise?"
"I can't find the switch, just give me a minute..." the boy answers distractedly. Even when he's not trying to be intimidating, there's a mean undertone to his voice.
"I'm not talking about the light." Her tone becomes suspicious as she says, "Are you still... you are holding her, right?"

The rope around me frays and snaps and I let out a roar, clenching my fists, free from my restraints. I'm nearly double my original height now, and though sweat is streaming down my face trying to hold the change and I'm half-bent against the ceiling, I swing my fist in a tight ring around me. I hear a yelp as my hand collides with the girl and she's flung back at the same time as light suddenly flickers in my vision and the room around me is throw into stark illumination. I'm in what looks like a cabin, one fluorescent strip light above me and planks of wood under my feet. The mind reading boy turns and shrieks when he sees me, giant-size, standing above him. His eyes are wide and there's a terrified expression on his features as he frantically tries to stop me, the pressure grabbing at my mind, but I swing my fist again and he crumples against the wall. Pain stabs at my temple and a cold feeling washes over me - the sensation I get when morphing, but a hundred times stronger. A shiver passes through my body and I gasp, suddenly losing control and shrinking back to normal, panting. I feel drained and weary after holding my giant size for even a few moments, but I try to ignore the feeling, instead scanning the room for a door. I find it quickly, slightly camouflaged against the wall, painted the same way, but visible still. I go over, and naturally it's locked. I find myself wishing I had Hunter with me. He would be able to fix all of this, find a solution, save me. But nobody's coming for me, and so I have to make my own way out of this mess. I scan my surroundings for a key, and when I don't see one I bend down to search the boy's pockets. As one hand rifles through his belongings, I press my fingers to his neck. For a heart-wrenching moment I can't feel anything, but then there's a faint, fluttering beat under my fingertips, and I exhale in relief. I do the same for the girl, and on both I find nothing. I frown. Surely there's a way out? A key? But after searching for five minutes longer and coming up empty, I'm forced to accept that it's a possibility I'm stuck in this room with two unconscious enemies. Narrowing my eyes, I look around me for one final time. The boy, the girl, the door, the chair, fragments of rope. There's an empty crate in the corner which I've already searched, and nothing but a strip light and an air vent above me.

An air vent.

I scramble over underneath the vent and look up. I've seen this stunt so many times before in movies, but it seems utterly incomprehensible that I'm doing it for real now. Reaching up, my arm lengthens and my fingers hook around the grille covering the vent, pulling it down forcefully. I take a deep breath and pull myself up, clutching the edge with my fingers. and manage to manoeuvre myself into the right position to slide into the vent, which, luckily, just fits me. Metal is tight around me but I clench my fists, trying to dispel the pressing claustrophobia, and begin to crawl on my elbows and knees, gritting my teeth.

And then I hear voices.

A/N: I have just discovered that, overnight, Morph reached 8k reads! I am over the moon that so many of you have read this story, and I'd like to thank every one of you for your support and encouragement. :)