No Peace for the Damned

looking at the walls.
    Outside, I took a steadying breath. Thirteen motioned me over to where he stood in the shadows around the streetlight. “I need you to walk up and down the sidewalk until you no longer feel the energy that you feel now.”
    I nodded and moved in exaggerated steps down the sidewalk. The misty energy tingled along my skin. After a few steps, I felt like an idiot walking so deliberately, so I just strolled normally.Just before reaching the first neighbor, the tingling lightened then pulled away. I took one more step forward then one more back just to be sure I felt the difference.
    “Right here. I don’t feel it anymore over here.”
    “That’s not real far,” Jon pointed out.
    “Try the other direction, Magnolia,” Thirteen said from his place in the shadows.
    This time I walked two houses down before the feeling started to fade. Instinctively, I moved toward the curb. The fogginess abruptly disappeared.
    “I think they got in a car, because it’s just suddenly gone here at the curb.”
    Thirteen nodded thoughtfully. “OK,” he said. “Come back and let’s get back to HQ.”
    We filed back into Thirteen’s car. Thirteen spoke quietly from the driver’s seat. “What use of power would be necessary from the sidewalk, all through the house, and back outside?”
    There was a long pause. Thirteen peered at me from the rearview mirror.
    “Oh!” Guess that wasn’t rhetorical. “Probably just a camouflage illusion. Unless, well, who called the police?”
    “I did,” Thirteen said. “I reported the break-in on our way over here.”
    “Then they definitely used a camouflage. You know, it’s like an illusion to cover themselves, make everything appear normal so none of the neighbors would see what was really happening.”
    “But would that mask the sound?” asked Shane. “I mean, that door was shattered, exploded. Surely someone heard that.”
    I nodded. “They probably did hear something, but if there was nothing to see to go with the sound, then…”
    “You can do that?” Jon asked. “Explode a door without anyone knowing you did it?”
    “Sure,” I said. “As long as they were there to hold the illusion. They could have even talked to the neighbors and no one would have known what happened. It’s just like what you guys have been training on. Of course, if it were me, I wouldn’t even need a camouflage illusion. I’d just turn invisible, unlock the door, and make any bodies I was hauling with me invisible too. Then there wouldn’t be any threat of discovery at all. The others can’t do that, though, so even if they were doing an illusion, which I can pretty much guarantee they were, it would be hard for them to cover a sound and a body at the same time. Especially one as big as Banks.”
    Silence filled the car. All eyes were on me; the men’s faces turned hard.
    OK, what did I do now?
    I quickly peeked in their minds.
Shit
. “I didn’t mean like a
body
body! Like I’d carry out a
dead
body,” I spoke in a rush. “Banks probably isn’t even dead yet. He had to be able to walk out on his own, right? Since they wouldn’t have been able to camouflage his appearance at the same time they were covering the door and themselves and who knows what else. So I didn’t mean he’s really a
body
body. Not like that.”
    “No,” growled Shane, “he’s not dead yet. He’s just being tortured at some unknown location. That’s all.”
    Everyone turned forward again. Great.

I sat alone on the front porch and watched the sun set. Training had been canceled again so everyone could have a catch-up day at the office. In order to keep my involvement secret from the rest of the Network, Thirteen had made everything about the task force confidential. Which was fine, except that confidentiality meant the folks on our team were now forced to do research and paperwork they would have otherwise pawned off to other staff members.
    I, for one, was glad for the day off. Things were so…strange right now. Banks was gone. They knew who had him, but with no physical proof their hands were tied. Everyone was on edge. Conversations were snarled rather than spoken. People were as quick to throw a punch as a sarcastic retort. Hell, the other day Charles had even asked to up the combat training just so everyone could work out some of the frustration.
    But that wasn’t all.
    I was changing. I didn’t know how or why, but at my very core, I was…evolving. I could feel it as