Chapter 5 Riddle POV.

Another boring day. The lesson was terribly lame, Father Ricardo chewing out the same thing ten times over for these dumbasses. How can they be so stupid?

Annoyed, I twirled the stump of my pencil in my hand, finally putting it down on the desk so I wouldn't break it in a burst of anger. By now I could have learned the next topic! Ten topics!

Oh, yes! That's all I needed! Come on, tell me about God again!

Against my will, I feel goose bumps running down my spine. God... I thought about it a lot. Not all of the old priest's sermons manage to get past my ears. Often I wonder, what does my power mean? Am I God's son, too?

I shake my head, wiping those thoughts away. More likely it is from the devil. A faint grin is reflected on my face.

Anger at my classmates had to be restrained, especially since there was something that particularly interested me today. Weyber... Only a complete blind man could fail to put two and two together. However, that is everyone around me. Still... what was it?

I wondered, my mind drifted away from the topic of the lesson, and I realized that Father Ricardo was too absorbed in his new sermon to notice much.

No, it's too early to draw conclusions. I need to check, to make sure. It might well be an accident. But I want to believe I'm not the only one. It happened to me too! I mean, I've... I've been in a lot of trouble. But there were always consequences. Everyone who had done something bad to me had been punished. There were accidents: falling, slipping, being attacked by a dog, like that nasty girl who dared to laugh at me!

Yes, what fun it was to watch all the teachers run around and wail! "Ah, poor Judy, we must get her to the hospital quickly!" Ha ha ha.

I can hardly keep a smile down. She got hers. And she'll get some more if she opens her filthy mouth again. And Tolman? How did he fall down the stairs? Nobody pushed him! Too bad he didn't break anything, because he fell on Mr. Hunt, and he's a tough guy. Caught him and didn't get hurt himself.

I cautiously squint my eyes. Weyber is sitting there looking very casual, but if you look closely, you can see how bored he is. Does he know the subject, or is he just too dumb to know what it is about?

I look away. I don't know about that. I've never been interested in anyone.

I bite my finger, turning my attention back to the priest. New task? Hmm. Is it something interesting?

But even as I solve the problem, I can't help but think about something else. How I wish it were so... What if he is like me? How to communicate with him? Will we be friends?

The sharp tip of the pencil hurt my palm. I didn't even notice when I stuck it in. What is wrong with me today? I already have friends! Shaisa and the others. I'll look in on them today, after I've followed Weyber.

It'll be cold soon. I'll have to feed Shaisa, she'll probably talk me into taking her with me again. Crafty... snake. My lack of a roommate plays a good hand. Hee-hee, the last loser literally begged Mrs. Cole on his knees to move him somewhere else, any place, even the attic or even the street. But he never gave a reason why.

What else was there to say? He heard loud and clear that if a word reached the caretakers, nothing could save him. The little poisonous snake... It could easily get into any room of the orphanage, the gaps are too big. And afterwards... Oh, he wouldn't like that.

A grin creeps onto my face against my will. I liked frightening others. And it worked pretty well.

Being alone in an empty room, I could afford to keep a pet. Even the shelter staff stopped coming into my room.

Unexplainable fear. That's what I can sense from the feelings of these grown women. How did I manage it? It's a mystery. It's just regret that it only extends to the room. But I feel as if I'm transfusing part of my power to my place of residence and it's working.

My thoughts went back to my powers and Wolfgang Weyber. It would be great to make friends, though!

Unlike the other boys, he never called me names or hit me. We hadn't interacted at all before. He used to play and spend time with a different company, but lately he stopped. Now he regularly disappears from the orphanage in the afternoon and into the evening. What is he doing?

Rumors and bits of other people's thoughts didn't answer that question for me. Though the orphanage isn`t a place where secrets are kept for long, everything is in public view. If you keep your ears open, you can learn a lot. And I have no friends among people. So I listen.

My hands automatically write down the text at the teacher's dictation, my thoughts try to figure out the secret. And I love mysteries.

Classes are over, I have already decided that today, after lunch, I will try to follow this strange guy. But on the way, in the most embarrassing way almost miss him. I mean, it's... as if he'd read my mind and wasn't even going to lunch! I saw Weyber out of the corner of my eye as I entered the orphanage. It smelled like fish... to miss something like that, that's a rare thing!

Bastard Weyber, don't you dare be ordinary! Don't you dare! I'll curse you, and I'll sic Shaisa and all her friends on you!

My stomach churned.

Quickly I ran back out into the street, luckily Mrs. Petters hadn't noticed, and I chased after him.

And now... I look at a strange, obviously abandoned building. Weyber has climbed into the basement.

"Is it worth going down there?" The thought flashed past me as my hands were already removing the boards that blocked the entrance. I should try to remove them quietly, just to peek in, cautiously see what was going on down there...

I expected different things, but what I saw made me literally freeze on the spot. Emotions overflowed, there were no words, my head was empty. For the first time today, there were no extra thoughts. I stood with my head up to the ceiling, not even thinking about hiding anymore, and watched as glowing lights and objects flew around Wolfgang. I`m... not alone.

The End of Riddle's POV.