"I don't know if I can believe you. I don't know if I can hope again." I was so confused, thoughts and ideas swirling around my head too fast, to the point where I couldn't even catch a glimpse of them. He has to be lying. Super powers don't exist. Zooming by, another took its place. But he looks so sincere. And he's the first person to properly look at me in years. I wanted it all to stop. No, needed all the thoughts to halt in their quick passing.

It was making me dizzy, having to choose whether to trust what he was saying or not. I hadn't trusted in so long. So dizzy, in fact, that by the time I noticed the tears that had accumulated in my eyes it was too late to hide them from him.

My mind was waging an inner battle, one that was driving me insane. And all I could do was stare at the most gorgeous person I'd ever met, close to crying. My heart was begging me to just let him hold me, whilst my mind was telling me to get away from the person who was trying to make me believe magic was real. As if such a preposterous idea even existed.

"Hey, how about I show you something cool?"

"Does this have to do with the magic?" We were both whispering for no reason, our voices not even passing us, just being there for the other person to hear. It was peaceful, a nice change of pace to what I was used to around others. Our hushed voices allowed me to hear every rustle and movement of the animals in the forest around us. I felt completely content. Or at least my heart did.

"If I say yes, will you still let me show you?" I wanted to say no, that there was no way I would let him string on this ploy. But my heart had seemingly taken over, me being in nature urging it on.

"Yes." The only part of him that moved were his eyes, which shifted from my face to the air in front of us. The forest stilled in anticipation of what was going to happen next and, suddenly, heat overtook my vision. A small ball of molten fire swirled in front of me, so close that I could reach out and grasp it. Very slowly it deformed, turning and twisting in on itself until it formed a beautiful flower, glowing bright red.

It contrasted with the forest: hot, red, furious compared to green moss, white frost and gentle rustling. It was spitting in front of us, flames escaping its contained form and drifting in the wind, waiting for their demise. I should've extinguished it, fire belonged in a forest even less than humans did, but I was bewitched by it, unable to look away.

My hands seemed to lift of their own accord, my skin glowing red in the light provided by the fire. They closed around it, without a fear that it might hurt me to do so. I could feel it, shrinking down so that it didn't touch the cage that my hands were forming. Soon, it had all just vanished, as if it had never been there at all. Despite the fact that the beautiful display had ended, my eyes stayed wide open, alight with wonder.

"That was…" I couldn't even find it in me to finish my sentence. There were no words to describe the magnificence of what I'd just seen.

"I think the word you're looking for is magical." I turned faster than I thought I was capable of, staring at Gray in disbelief.

"That was you?"

"Yeah. We can all do telekinesis and telepathy but each savant gets their own special gift. Mine's fire." He said it so nonchalantly as if he was used to saying that. As if he'd been saying that his whole life. Unbeknownst to me, in the instant I made a choice. Clutching my hands to my chest, I took a deep breath, sure I'd regret this for the rest of my life. This wasn't right, this wasn't natural, but it was the only semblance of hope I'd gotten in far too long. It was amazing, this ability of his, and maybe if his was, mine could be too. Maybe I'd be able to climb out of my old shell, stop being a disgrace and worthless, to become something more.

"And… And mine?" He was shocked at my words, unable to answer for a couple of seconds. After he seemed to catch on with me believing him, he spoke up.

"I think yours is nature. I have no idea what you're capable of but with what I've seen so far, you seem pretty damn great." He was trying to raise my spirits even further, I could see that in his eyes, but it successfully did the exact opposite. If my power was nature then that meant I'd brought in those birds from before. They weren't just being nice to me by letting me escape. They… They were obeying me. I wasn't meant to rule others around, nor to make messes like the one I'd created in a matter of seconds.

I wasn't important enough. It wasn't just that though, I hadn't only ordered birds around, I'd also made a massive problem that they had to try to fix because of me.

There was no guarantee that I'd caused it but I could feel it in my chest, pressing down and forcing tears into my eyes once again. I'd hurt them, probably even destroyed their living room in the process. I'd let my emotions take over and look what I'd become – exactly what I'd been fighting against my whole life. A monster. Because monsters hurt others, caused them pain.

"Those birds from before…?" I needed to know, needed to make sure that it had been me before jumping to any conclusions.

"Yeah, isn't that amazing?"

"No. I swarmed birds into your living room. I… I hurt you." He couldn't deny it, he had a small gash on his cheek from where he'd been hit by one of the birds. The truth was staring me straight in the eye. He was practically pleading me with his gaze to not freak out again. But how could I not, when I'd become the thing from my nightmares? I had to fix this. I had to fix this now. Focusing all of my conscious, I did what I always did in nature.

I listened.

Birds chirping furiously came to forefront of my mind, their loud rustling being too loud to ignore. I tried shifting them slowly, not trying to impose or force them to do anything. They were part of nature, I didn't belong with them. Humans never did. But for just that split second, I somehow did. Every emotion, every feeling of theirs became mine too.

I didn't know how I was supposed to use that in my favour, simply letting my instincts take over and lead me in what to do. My palms faced upwards, almost in a pleading gesture, as I sent a thought out to every individual creature that had come to protect me from harm. I saw it now – they weren't obeying me, they were here completely of their own free will. They'd sensed how distressed I was and had come to lend a helping hand.

Thank you. Thank you so much. But I need you to leave, please. Your help has been much appreciated. Slowly, all of their attention turned to me. Without even doubting what I'd said, they rushed out of the window, swirling around me once or twice before leaving. It was beautiful, the most majestic action I'd ever seen in my life. It made me want to go down on my knees, thank them again profusely for following my pleas without a question.

It washed away all the negative feelings that had almost taken me over from before. All that was left behind was the peaceful feeling that always came from becoming part of nature, and a calm silence that had settled over both Gray and I.

"I'm really sorry. But I fixed it."

"You didn't just fix it, you… You're absolutely incredible Maisee."

Hi :)

Happy new year everyone :) Let's hope that 2016 is a great year full of savants and soulfinders XD

The response to the last chapter was amazing and I love you guys so much ^.^ Your reviews are better than hot chocolate (and that's really saying something cause I love chocolate). Oh, and to anon, sorry 'bout that, cheesy is my specialty (and the only thing I'm capable of doing) XD

Next Thursday updating will go back to normal (even though I'll be hitting my head against a wall thanks to school -.- )

Bye bye :)