Chapter Text
she felt sick as she watched the couple sitting in front of her sign the last of the paperwork. she didn’t want to have to do this. was she really doing this? of all the people who had to adopt her babies it had to be the mayor and his wife. she’d have to watch them in the public eye their whole life. watch the people she created and who they became. without her.
this was the hardest thing she’d had to do in her entire 20 years of life. but she had no choice. she knew she wasn’t mentally stable enough to take care of them on her own and she didn’t want to end up hurting them. she’d only really wanted to put david up for adoption because the dream she had about him had unsettled her so much, but she knew in the long run sam would end up suffering from it too and she didn’t want to spend his whole life having to lie to him. at least this way they were together.
she hoped the mayor and his wife would take good care of them. because there was no going back now. they were samuel abel and caine david soren now.
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one minute the teacher had been scratching words on the blackboard. and the next the chalk was falling to the floor.
there.
gone.
no “poof”. no flash of light. no explosion.
sam soren was sitting in third period, staring blankly, bored, not paying attention. he didn’t care much for this class. the sound of the chalk snapping followed by silence was what jogged him back to reality. he thought he’d missed something as he turned to a kid he didn’t know by name sitting to his left. “where’d the teacher go?” he had whispered. the kid had simply shrugged.
no one said anything for a long while. no one really knew what to say. the kids who hadn’t been paying attention, like sam, just assumed she’d walked out while the ones who had been were simply confused. one kid even stood up to check the floor in case she’d fallen behind her desk. nothing.
there was soft giggling sifting through the room, like it was all funny. like it was all one big prank. but sam knew better. and he wasn’t laughing.
there was a terrifying moment when everyone in the room turned to sam, expecting him to do something. he’d been the only one to speak so far so they assumed he’d know what to do.
but sam wasn’t his brother. sam didn’t plan things out methodically the same way he does. he didn’t have a solution for every problem.
wait. his brother.
yes! he’d know what was going on. he’d know what to do.
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the hallways were chaos. there were kids everywhere, yelling and laughing and running in every direction. sam assumed that all the teachers had disappeared and it wasn’t just his, otherwise they’d all be told to go back to class. but no scolding ever came. there was no one to give it.
it was almost too loud for him. it was disorienting. he had no idea what direction to go, no idea where his brother would be. class probably, but he didn’t know what class he was in. he felt the panic start to set in as he realised in the chaos he’d forgotten where all his friends were.
and then he heard booming, maniacal laughter.
he craned his neck over the sea of kids running around unchecked trying to find the source of the noise. he knew who that laughter belonged to.
sure enough, he managed to locate the owner of the laughing in the form of a blonde mop of hair. from this distance sam couldn’t be sure what he was doing. if his instincts and the sound of clashing metal were anything to go by, he'd bargain he was kicking some poor kid into a locker.
he fought his way through the crowd, seemingly going in the opposite direction to everyone else. as he got closer to the boy he saw him notice someone coming towards him, getting ready to strike them too, not realising it was sam. he didn’t give him the chance.
without warning he grabbed drake’s arm and started pulling him in a random direction, hoping it’d lead him to his brother eventually. he felt drake trying to pull out of his grip but not totally trying, almost like he was content to be dragged along.
“hey hey hey, where are we going? i was having fun!” sam wasn’t looking at him but could tell he was smiling that shark grin of his, could hear it in his voice. “we’re going to find my brother. you’re lucky it was me who found you and not him. is now really the time?” he got his answer when drake’s grin grew wider. why did he even ask.
as if on cue, he heard the intercom click to life before someone started speaking.
“hello everyone. i’m sure you’ve all noticed by now that the teachers have disappeared. i would humbly ask you to all remain calm, and make your way towards the cafeteria in a timely fashion, if you’d be so kind. i will make an announcement when enough people are there. we’ll figure out what’s happening together.”
caine.
sam should have known he’d go to the headmistress, their aunt’s, office first. he always planned for things like this. it was like he had a fallout plan for every possible scenario. sam usually didn’t question it. he thought it was a little weird but that was just caine. he had assumed it was just caine’s paranoia. and besides, having a plan for every crisis imaginable wasn’t a bad thing in sam’s opinion.
there was only one instance where caine hadn’t stepped up first. and it was because sam had before he’d gotten the chance.
sam kept a lower profile most of the time, trying his hardest to fly under the radar. it was important to do so at a school like coates, although it was quite difficult when his brother and his friends were at the top of the food chain, dragging him with them. besides being caine’s brother, most kids at coates knew sam as school bus sam.
he’d earned the nickname when he was in seventh grade. the class had been on their way to a field trip when the bus driver suffered a heart attack. caine had been talking beside him at the time, so he hadn’t noticed. if he had he’d probably have done what sam did.
he had pulled the man out of his seat, steered the bus to the shoulder of the road and brought it safely to a stop while caine had reached forward and grabbed the driver’s phone to calmly dial 911.
if he had hesitated for even a second, the bus would have plunged off a cliff and into the ocean.
before that, he and caine had just been known as the mayor's twin sons, but after that they were known for saving a bus full of kids.
he dragged drake into the cafeteria with him beside numerous other students. they’d already been pretty close to the cafeteria so it had only taken maybe two minutes, and it looked like they’d beaten caine here.
they stood in a sea of red clothed confusion for a few minutes before he heard a silence fall over the crowd of troubled kids and he knew by instinct that caine had walked in. he looked around looking for him and saw he was being flanked by three other kids. two boys and a girl.
he knew who all of them were before he saw them properly. the girl was diana ladris, his best friend. the girl caine was head over heels for. sam tried not to let it bother him that diana was yet another thing he and caine were forced to share, but sometimes he just wanted her to be his friend.
the two boys were bug and computer jack. bug was a freaky little kid with brown hair and freckles, and jack was a lost looking kid with glasses too big for his face and blonde bed hair. sam noticed he was holding a laptop. sam knew he was obsessed with technology but he couldn’t think what he’d need it for right now. in case he hadn’t noticed, they kind of had a situation.
sam’s inner monologue was cut short when he saw caine climb up on a table in front of the crowd. ever the drama queen, sam thought bitterly. he always needed to be the centre of attention, and sam wasn’t about to fight him for it. they had a system that worked. caine would do all the talking while sam would hide behind him, waiting to be given instructions. they both liked it that way. he didn’t like being in charge. and clearly, caine did.
he saw caine skimming the crowd for a moment, wondering what he was waiting for. is he catalouging how many people are here? no, he realised as he and caine locked eyes before caine cleared his throat. he’s looking for me.
caine sighed before launching into the speech sam was convinced he’d rehearsed somehow. “hi everyone. i’m sure you all know who i am, and i’m sure we’ve all noticed that all the adults have disappeared. i’ve also been informed that there is some kind of wall off in the distance.”
kids started muttering at that. a wall? what kind of wall? why was it there? sam found himself sharing their sentiment.
“what do you mean wall, man?” a random kid shouted over the mumbling. caine shook his head. “i’m not sure. no ones been out to properly look at it but from what i can see from here, it seems almost shimmery. i don’t know how it got there or what it means.”
“do you know what happened?” a young girls voice called. caine shook his head again. “i don’t know any more than you do. i know it’s scary and confusing, but going wild isn’t going to help anyone. i think our best course of action would be to remain calm as if it were a normal day. perhaps return to your dorms for the rest of the day while we figure out what to do next.” there were scoffs that waved through the crowd. everyone knew this wasn't a normal day.
with that, caine climbed off the table and walked back over to the other three as they started moving back towards the door. at the same time, almost as if they were in sync, sam and drake wrestled their way through the crowd towards them. by the time they got out of the thick of it caine was already on his way back to aunt grace’s office, so they figured they’d just meet him there.
they speed walked through the halls, not speaking to each other. kids billowed around them in the direction of the dorms. huh, they were actually following caine’s orders. he was more persuasive than sam thought. they got odd looks for walking in the opposite direction but they paid them no mind. everyone knew not to mess with sam, and everyone tried not to mess with drake.
they arrived at the headmistresses office, hearing voices inside as they entered wordlessly. they were met with caine standing behind their aunts desk, diana looking bored and jack in the corner crouched over his computer. sam made note of the fact bug was missing.
“ah! sam, drake. how nice of you to join us,” caine said almost sardonically, like it was their fault they hadn’t been there the second everything happened. he probably believed that too.
“yeah, whatever. what the hell’s going on, caine?” drake asked bluntly. he did that a lot, he didn’t have much of a filter. this seemed to tick caine off because he threw his hands in the air and fell back in the large chair with enough force for it to spin. “i don’t know! that wasn’t an act out there, i truly don’t know what’s happening. i’ve sent bug down to town to see if they’re dealing with the same problem and to check out this mysterious wall.”
ah, so that explains his absence.
diana chose that moment to speak up. “i talked to a few kids on the way back here. apparently all the older kids are gone too. the oldest i can find is our age, 14. also, a couple people tried to use the phones to call someone, and they all seem to be dead. the tv’s in the teachers lounge are out too apparently.”
caine’s eyebrows scrunched together at that. “hm, i thought that assembly seemed kind of small. i figured some kids just didn’t listen to me…” he trailed off, thinking, biting his thumb nail. sam thoughtlessly walked over and pulled it out of his mouth. he wasn’t supposed to do that. sometimes he bit so low he made himself bleed. caine looked up at sam without a word.
“so, what do we do now? just… chill ‘til they come back?” sam turned towards drake to gouge his expression. if sam didn’t know any better, he’d say drake almost sounded nervous. but unfortunately, he did know better.
he saw caine nod slightly in sam’s direction and thought he was trying to get his attention so he turned back to him, only to find him looking at diana. when he looked over at her she was already walking towards him and taking his hands. “oh, hi,” he said softly. he wasn’t sure what was happening but he wasn’t about to turn comfort from his best friend away. she smiled at him a little. “hi.”
they stood there silent for a moment, seemingly only confusing sam. it seemed everyone else in the room knew what was going on. he wondered what he was missing.
after a moment he saw diana’s eyes widen as she inhaled sharply, only loud enough for him to hear. he had no idea why she’d done that so he cocked his head slightly. she pulled away suddenly and moved back to her seat, the blank expression back in place on her face. “zero.”
zero? what did that mean? was that bad?
“okay, good. i had to be sure. sam, i think you might want to sit down. i have something i think you should know.” caine was really starting to confuse sam now. they all were. why did everyone seem to know more than he did? he ignored his anxiety and sat slowly anyway.
“what’s up…?” he hadn’t meant it to come out sounding confused but it was all he was right now. the others weren’t even paying attention anymore. jack was still hunched over the laptop, a frustrated expression on his face while drake lounged bored in the seat next to him. he wasn’t even sitting properly, he was upside down with his boots hanging off the back of the chair and his head close to the floor, his hair falling off his forehead. sam suppressed the urge to smile. instead, he turned his attention back to caine.
“so, do you remember that argument we had a few months ago? about our parents?” caine was sitting against the desk now, his hands clasped together under his chin.
sam gritted his teeth. he wasn’t a fan of this topic. everytime they talked about it, it only ended in a fight. he hated fighting. “i mean… yeah? why is that relevant right now?”
a grin spread across caine’s face. not the attractive grin he flashed to charm people. a malevolent grin. a grin that scared sam.
“it’s relevant because it helped me discover something incredible about myself. you see, when i returned to my dorm i was still angry and my hands were flailing around. when i moved to run my hands through my hair, a book suddenly flew across the room and hit me in the head. and you wanna know what, sam? i’m the one that made it move.”
sam’s blood ran cold.
“you… you what?”
caine nodded, a tight lipped smile on his face and a manic look in his eyes. he didn’t say anything else, he just held his hand up facing the bookshelf behind sam, as if to demonstrate. before his very eyes, a book flew into caine’s hand. sam’s heart skipped several beats. the others were paying attention now.
“telekinesis. there’s others, too. we have almost a little club. diana over here can read people, it’s why i had her hold your hand. she describes it as being like a phone signal. when she touches someone she sees a set of bars; one, two, three. so far i’m the only four. it means i’m the most powerful. i was hoping you’d have a power too, but no matter. we’ll figure something out.”
what caine didn’t know was he was wrong. sam did have a power.
one night, months ago when they were at home, there had been a thunderstorm. the power had gone out and sam, being scared of the dark, had thought he’d seen something. he’d held his hand up almost to protect himself when suddenly there was light. just a ball of floating light. it fit snugly into his palm. it hadn’t hurt. he’d ushered it into his closet when he heard caine stomping his way down the hallway. he’d claimed he didn’t want to be alone in the dark. they’d slept in the same bed that night. he’d never told caine about the ball of light.
but diana had just sensed it. that’s why she had reacted the way she did.
and she had lied straight to caine’s face about it.