Chapter Four

Katelyn gasped and her eyes flew open. Her skin was prickling with goosebumps. Her heart pounding, she looked around her bedroom but there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. Katelyn rubbed her arms in an effort to warm them. What had awakened her? Once more, she glanced around uneasily. She thought about turning on the light but something told her not to. For some strange reason, Katelyn felt that she was safer in the dark. And she was right.

"Don't turn on the light," came a low silky voice out of the darkness. "If you do, you'll be wishing you hadn't."

Katelyn fought to dispel the rising terror in her. She tried to see if it was one of the neighborhood bullies that was trying to give her a scare but she could not recognize the voice. The only thing that she could figure out about her intruder that he was a man that sounded like he was in his mid-twenties. "Look, if you're here to rape me, it won't work. I've taken self-defense classes. I can handle myself." Katelyn took a deep breath, hoping that it would stop her voice from trembling. "Now get out before I call the cops!"

The intruder chuckled. "Now, Katelyn, why would I want to rape you?"

Remembering that she had a baseball bat from when she used to play softball as a little girl near her bed, Katelyn began to cautiously feel for it, hoping that her attempt at escape would go unnoticed. "Then who are you? What are you doing here?"

He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "I am here to offer you a chance. A chance to be part of something great, something powerful." The voice paused. "And I'd stop looking for that baseball bat, by the way. I could tear you apart before you even move an inch."

Katelyn froze.

The intruder sighed. "Now Katelyn, that shows me that you don't trust me. And that hurts my feelings."

"Trust you?" Katelyn snapped. "You show up in my room in the middle of the night, threatening me, and offering me 'a chance to be part of something great', which personally sounds like pure bullshit to me, but you want me to trust you? Go to hell!"

Laughter erupted from the man. "Wow, they weren't kidding, were they? You really do have spirit. You know, Katelyn, I like you."

"Get out," Katelyn snarled.

"Sure. But you'll be coming with me." At that, the man grabbed Katelyn, who was cursing and trying to fight him as hard as she possibly could, and threw her out the window.

Katelyn hurtled sixteen stories down, screaming. Dear God, Katelyn frantically thought. I am going to die. When she saw the ground rushing up beneath her, she closed her eyes and tried to brace her body for the deadly impact.

But she didn't hit the concrete. To Katelyn's shock, she landed in a pair of strong, muscled arms and to her amazement, seemed to be alive.

"Uhh!" The man who caught her grunted. "Damn, this one's heavy."

Katelyn, feeling insulted, immediately began to fight. "Let me go!"

Then she heard a woman's voice, laughing softly. "I think you hurt her feelings, Sammy."

"Oh please," Sammy rolled his eyes. "You'd think she'd be grateful that I saved her life."

"You'd think," the woman said with amusement.

Katelyn, finding her voice again, demanded, "What's going on?"

The woman looked at her, her hazel eyes appearing almost black in the darkness. She cocked her head to the side. "I apologize for the fall. There was no other way to get you out of the building this quickly. But didn't James tell you everything?"

"No!" Katelyn scowled. Looking up at Sammy, "Do you mind? I'd like to get down."

Sammy eyed her. "You're not going to try to run, are you?"

"No, see I'm pretty curious as to why I just got thrown out of a window."

The woman laughed. "Let her go, Sammy."

Sammy set her down on the ground.

Katelyn turned around with her hands on her hips and her eyes flashing. "Somebody better tell me what the hell is going on, or I swear I will kick both of your asses."

A familiar voice suddenly came out of the darkness. "Wow, that self-defense class must have really been something, huh?"

Katelyn spun around.

It was the man who had thrown her out of a window.

"You!" Katelyn was so angry she couldn't even speak in complete sentences. "You-why-how could you-I'm gonna!" Katelyn took a deep breath, fuming.

The woman sighed. "James, why didn't you explain anything to her?"

James shrugged. "Charlie, I tried. She wouldn't stop arguing or shut up long enough to listen to me."

"I believe that," Sammy muttered.

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Men. Can't rely on them to do anything."

Katelyn closed her eyes. The shock of this was finally getting to her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping to ward off the headache she could feel coming.

Charlie turned to her. "Katelyn," she said gently. "You're here because we want your help. Have you ever heard of mutants?"

Katelyn nodded.

Charlie's eyes became even darker than it already was. "Good. Well, you just met three of them."

Katelyn shook her head. "No."

"Yes," Charlie said firmly. "Deal with it because we need you to help us take out someone very powerful and evil and doesn't deserve to live."

"You're kidding," she laughed weakly. "Right?"

Three grim faces looked back at her, clearly informing Katelyn that this was no joke.

"Oh," Katelyn said. "Damn."