Mom and I sat in the back seat of the car, Dad driving and singing off-key to some music.

It was time for my first lesson.

"There isn't really an introduction to this kind of thing," Mom began, "but just know that if something happens, you could be able to see how my life was before you were born. I made many mistakes, and you will see a lot of violence and suffering. None of it is in vain."

I took that with a grain of salt. I just wanted to just be able to control this damn monster before it controlled me.

"I just… I want to… be safe and sure of myself," I said.

"You will. In about a year's time."

"A year?"

"Just about. Why?"

"I just thought… where are we moving to anyway?"

"Oh, just an old place we lived in about 20 years ago," Dad piped up from the front seat.

"Oh yeah," I said, intrigued, "Where is this old place?"

"In Dead Man's Town in the middle of Butt-Freaking Nowhere."

Great. Isolation and a most likely disguised underground arsenal where it all went down back in the good ol' days.

I was indeed right. The lesson never happened, but we were in a place what Mom and Dad called the Ranch. A darn ironic name too. The place looked beat up, like a hurricane had just finished a day's work. We headed around the back to where what looked like a garage door was closed. Dad lifted it up with the flick of his hand, and we went inside and stared down at a white crescent moon painted on the concrete.

This stupid moon is just going to be everywhere isn't it?

Dad almost dropped everything in his excitement. "Oh my god! Lovely Rita, just where I left her."

That only confirmed my conclusion that this place was nothing like an actual ranch.

The hybrid motorcycle was still in good condition. There was also a tan SUV in the garage, but there probably wasn't any gas in it.

"The perfect place to start Haven back up," Mom said hopefully.

"Haven?" I asked.

"It was a community your Dad and I started back up about 2 years after we were freed. Then it burned while your Dad and I were… never mind."

"Oh. Cool."

With that I went down the tunnel at the end of the garage and tried to open it. Locked. However, the door was unlocked, and a hot-headed looking Vida opened it. She said her hellos, but kept her distance.

She knew what I was.

I walked into our new home and stormed to find a bedroom. The doors were already labeled with who stayed in what bedroom, finding a sign with my name on it across the hall from the door with Mom and Dad's names.

It was cozy. A full size bed already fitted with white sheets and fluffy pillows. I could work with this. I set my stuff on the bed and went to explore. A kitchen with a working stove and oven, restrooms and showers, and a gym was all I had the curiosity to find. I went into the gym and took a brief look at everything. A treadmill, a mat, and two stray pairs of sparring gloves sitting in the corner. I hopped onto the treadmill and turned it on, surprised it still even worked. I ran and ran, and ran some more until all of my thoughts were chased out of my head.

"Having fun?"

I whirled around to see Mom leaning on the door frame.

"It's time for dinner. There's also someone here I'd like you to meet."

"Oh, okay."

I turned off the treadmill and headed towards Mom. She led me through the hallways and into the kitchen, where it was just the six of us, plus one other person.

A woman with pale blonde hair stood up and reached out a hand for me to shake. Mom put a hand on her wrist and lowered her hand back down to her side. She got the hint.

"I'm Cate. I was the one who got Ruby… your Mom out of Thurmond. It's great to meet you."

"Same to you." I really didn't feel like talking right now, so I gobbled up some spaghetti and headed back to my room.

I pinned my sloth calendar to the wall and set my phone and hairbrush on the nightstand. I grabbed some pajamas headed to the showers.

I let the cold water beat my back as I looked around. They weren't the best quality of showers, but they felt relieving all the same. I got out and dried off, brushing my hair behind my shoulders.

I put on the white t-shirt and blue flannel pants and headed back to the bedroom, accidentally bumping into Zu on the way out. She looked at me, concerned, but I knew my expression didn't match hers. I was good at hiding things. I ran back to my room and crashed onto the bed, knocking off the backpack I had laid there earlier. I pulled the blankets over me and buried my face into the pillows, hoping I would wake up from this hell of a nightmare.

This isn't a nightmare. I won't wake up.

Because dreamers always wake up and leave their monsters behind.

—

I heard something, a conversation. Between Dad and Chubs.

"— saying it's too dangerous." Chubs. "We should consider getting rid of her."

They want to send me away. They didn't want some reckless teenager going into their minds anymore. They already had one person who did that.

"I don't want to talk about this right now." Dad sounded agitated.

"When are we going to talk about it then?" Chubs said. "Never? We're just going to pretend like it never happened?"

"Zu will be back soon—"

"Good!" Chubs shouted. "Good! This is her decision too— this is all of our decision, not just yours!"

"What the hell are we going to do, just dump her here?"

The memory changed. It was Mom, in Dad's mind, erasing herself? No. There's no way.

It changed again. This time to a note that wrote: Ruby can take your memories….

I woke up and sat up abruptly. Mom pulled her hand away. She was sitting on a stool, tears strewn across her face. I sobbed.

She cried, "Sorry. I'm so sorry. I was just imagining how you felt and just—"

"Mom, we have to leave. Just you and me, right now. They would—"

I must have been saying the memory out loud, or Mom was because Chubs suddenly yelled from the hallway.

"We were talking about Black Betty, not your orange ass."

Mom cried and giggled at that. She got up and pressed a kiss on my forehead. I saw the memory again, Mom in Dad's mind. It ripped away quickly, I rolled over onto my side, Mom walked out.

I felt a hand playing with my hair. I turned around to see it was Zu. She cupped the back of my neck, and I was in her mind.

"Stop reading my mind will you? There's only room for one telepath in this house."

Dad. How could he—

The dark stillness of my new room came back into vision.

"I'm going to tell you something I told, well more like wrote in my pink notebook and showed to her, your mother a long time ago." She whispered, sitting at the foot of my bed. "It's not a burden if people are willing to carry it."

Zu stayed at the edge of my bed, but I still went to sleep anyway, feeling less alone than I had felt since my fourteenth birthday.