Free The Vanished by Sarah Dalton

cruel.
    “That’s enough!” I yelled, stepping in between the two of them.
    “Get away from me, Freak!” The man pushed me away at the shoulder and I fell to the floor, jolting my knee. “First the Clone and now you want a piece of me.” He beat his chest. “I’m sick of this place, letting in scum like you. Genetically engineered scum .” He spat on the floor, the disgusting pile of phlegm landing so close to me I had to squirm away from it. My stomach turned.
    “That’s it.” Sebastian flew at the man, throwing a punch, but he was nowhere near as experienced as his opponent who ducked and landed a punch to Sebastian’s kidneys.
    “Let’s ‘ave it then.” The man stepped back, waggling his fingers to encourage the fight. He had wide eyes and a devilish grin. “Let’s see what yer made of. All you Clones are made fer violence, everyone knows that. Aggressive little shits. Let’s see if you can take a piece of me.”
    Sebastian straightened up, wincing at the pain in his side. His face was red with rage and frustration. He flew at the man, fists flailing, screaming a battle cry as he went. This time the grey haired man had no chance of ducking. Sebastian punched him straight in the face and blood spurted from the man’s nose. I’d had enough.
    “Stop it!” I shrieked. The heat of my own anger focused through my mind, and before I knew it, I’d pushed the two men away from each other, picking them up and tossing them. The crowd gasped and screamed.
    “What the hell?” the man pulled himself up from the ground. “You freak bitch! You did that! What the hell are you?”
    I ignored him and ran over to Sebastian, helping him to his feet. I turned back to the man. “You have no idea what I am or what I am capable of. You leave me and my friends alone.” I turned to the crowd. “That goes for you all. Leave us alone or you will find out just what I can do.”
    A man in a white coat jogged over to us. It was Dr Woods from the Council. “What happened here?”
    “A fight,” I replied. “That man started it.”
    The doctor tutted as he placed a medical kit to the ground. Sebastian had a cut lip and he held his side. “It doesn’t matter who started it. It matters that people got hurt.” He reached into his bag for a bottle of fluid and a cotton wool ball before dabbing Sebastian’s face with it. “And it might not be my place to say this, but do you really think it is wise using your superhuman powers or whatever they are in front of the people? We’re trying to keep the peace among these people and it doesn’t help when you stir up trouble––”
    “I told you––”
    “Yes, you said he started it. But you finished it.” He glared at me. “You are the one with the ability to scare the people here with your powers. Just keep that in mind.” He packed away the cotton wool and fluid whilst shaking his head. “That is no behaviour for a girl. Maybe you should go back inside your trailer and keep out of it. Now, I’m going to check on Tobias.” The doctor snapped his medical kit shut and walked away. The crowd had filtered out, with just a few stragglers turning to stare at us as they went back to their business.
    “Can you believe that guy? He blamed us,” I said.
    Sebastian sighed and pushed his hands into his knees. The blotchy red of his cheeks faded to a pasty grey. “He had a point, Mina. It’s going to be hard enough for me to fit in here without you tossing the locals around.”
    “A thank you would have been nice,” I snapped. “You weren’t doing much for your image either. What were you thinking throwing punches like that? You should just walk away.”
    “Thanks for the almighty power of hind-sight there.” He sighed again. “I don’t know what happened. I just lost it. I’ve never felt like that before. Except for…” he trailed off.
    “Except when?” I probed.
    “The time when you were being drowned in the river by the Enforcer.”
    The hairs stood up on