Project PK Run

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Erinn noticed his anxiety and sighed, handing the dress over. "I would be grateful if you could make something. Don't waste all of your food on me though." She walked down to the kitchen, trying to hide her hungry stomach. She wondered about if she could get some underclothes. She had not been able to get a pair earlier and when she tried, the store would kick her out for not having enough money.

She sat down at his table, wondering if this was normal for people to wait on things like her. She technically shouldn't have even existed. Another small growl emerged from her stomach, causing her to blush wildly and try to get it to stop.
 
Lee felt a bucket of shame and guilt wash over his head as he heard Erinn sigh and hand over the dress as though she didn't want to and he had forced her. But he took it and thought the first priority was getting food for her, not feeling bad for himself over a slightly displeased sigh. He started walking towards the kitchen, expecting her to follow, thinking of what would be the best thing to feed her.

He figured she wouldn't be picky, but that she needed food fast, so first he grabbed an apple from the fridge and handed it out to her. "Here, you can snack on this and I'll make you something more like a meal. Don't worry, I have plenty of food." He didn't want her to feel guilty about eating his food - if she felt guilty, he would feel guilty for making her guilty.

After giving her the apple he looked through his freezer for something else to make her, and felt stupid because most of his microwave meals had "lean" in the brand name and Erinn needed something high calorie and nourishing and not something designed for people on a diet or watching their weight. But he figured he had no choice as they were the fastest to make and any food would probably be good food at that point. He picked out the one that seemed the heartiest and put it in the microwave for the instructed time. He felt like apologizing for the fact that that was all he had for her, but he thought his apologies might start to get on her nerves if they came in such rapid succession, so he decided to save them for later, when he really screwed something up, which he feared he would.
 
Erinn quickly ate the apple, enjoying the sweet taste in her mouth. She ate it all the way to the core before looking around. She found a garbage can and put it in there. She felt bad that the seeds would never sprout, but at least she wasn't dirtying his floor. She felt her mouth water at the smell of the microwave food. This was better than what the others had given her. Most of it was slop and tasteless or tasted horrible.

"Thank you." She said, wondering if she was going to be able to thank him enough. "You're kind, almost too kind." She watched him as he baked the meal in the metal box.
 
When the meal was done, Lee took it out and blew on it, trying to cool it down, knowing that Erinn was so hungry she probably wouldn't be able to resist digging into it, even if it was still hot enough to burn her mouth. When he thought it was actually cool enough to consume, he put it on the table in front of her, hoping it would be enough to satisfy her surely aching stomach.

"You're absolutely welcome." Lee stated emphatically, glad to be worthy enough for a "thank you." It actually meant a lot to him. "Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't think there's such a thing as too kind." Lee wasn't really crazy, but perhaps naive to believe there was really a kindness as pure as the kindness he strived for. He wondered if one day he would ever just give up on being nice and just tell the world and everyone on it to go fuck themselves like other people he knew, people who seemed happy even though they got in way more trouble and had way more enemies than him. He couldn't see it happening, but he wondered.

It certainly wasn't going to happen that day, with Erinn depending on him, already crowning him with the paradoxical description of "too kind." He wished he could lend her a compliment in exchange, but he didn't really know that much about her. He bet she was brave though, considering what it seemed she had gone through.
 
Erinn ate the food hesitantly. She ate it for a minute before asking, "Is this drugged?" That was the catch, wasn't it! He was going to drug her then experiment on her! That had to be what was going on. She stopped eating the food, only having taken a small bite out of it. That was what they had done to her back when she was still in the lab. That was how they got their experiments on her in.

Well no more. She wouldn't get drugged anymore. She was fooled by how nice he was being. He was going to strap her to a table and rip open her insides. Or at least, that's what she thought he would do.
 
"N-no!" Lee snapped immediately. He didn't mean to snap, didn't mean to sound like he was yelling, but that's how it came out as he was so surprised by the accusation. "I didn't drug it. Why would I drug it?" He wasn't thinking thoroughly at that point, for if he was he would realize that this accusation was a clue to what had happened to Erinn, why she had showed up at his back door in the rain. Instead he was thinking emotionally, trying to rid himself of what he saw as a heinous accusation.

"Do you want me to eat some too, to prove it? I'll do it. It's not drugged." He felt discomforted, this time not just anxious but bursting with the need to prove himself not guilty. He had to stop himself from grabbing the food and eating it immediately to prove to her that he hadn't drugged it. He was only able to do so because he remembered how tiny and thin she was and how desperately she needed to eat as much as he had given her.
 
Erinn flinched as soon as he snapped. She lowered her head and took the food back. She knew when someone was angry it was best to stay silent. She started to eat again, knowing that whether he was lying or not, she at least wouldn't make him angrier. She started to shake despite herself. She felt like she was back at the lab.

Everyone always got mad at her in the lab. Everyone except for her 'doctor'. He was always quite happy with her. He seemed to think that every single result he got from her was perfect and that she was the greatest experiment ever to live. That was until she burned everything to death. Flashbacks started to hit her as she tried to eat, hoping not to anger the kind stranger anymore.
 
Lee waited for a response, but got none. Instead, Erinn began to eat again, putting forkful after forkful in her despite just having accused him of drugging it. And she wasn't just eating, she was shaking, physically shaking with enough intensity for him to see it rattle through her body - her spine, flesh and skin.

Suddenly he just felt like crying. It was then he knew that something really horrible had happened to her. She wasn't just dirty, and hungry, and homeless. She was traumatized.

And he had just made her relive some of the trauma again, when he snapped at her so swiftly, so desperate to defend himself, not thinking about her feelings. He watched her shaking but he didn't know what to do. He understood the signs of trauma from books and TV but didn't know what to do about it in real life. He just felt like crying with her eating the food she thought to be drugged and just not caring because drugged was better than someone yelling at her because someone had yelled at her before.

"I'm so sorry." he said, in a different voice than before. Not polite and hospitable, not desperate and anxious, not angry and defensive. Just torn. "I promise it's not drugged. I'm so sorry for yelling." He couldn't look at her and just stared at the door of his fridge, becoming aware of the soft buzz of electricity that was constantly in the air.
 
Erinn didn't respond, finishing her meal then pushing it away from her. A few sparks started to escape her fingertips. Her eyes, normally colorless, were now a soft yellow. The sparks kept coming from her fingertips, small streaks of electricity flowing from her hands. She didn't notice it as she shook. She felt alone as she sat across from the kind young man. Who would care for a freak like her? She always messed up. She always made them mad. Why would they even bother with her.

A few appliances in his kitchen started to turn on, the electricity coming from her fingers making them power up to the point that they were almost out of control. The girl kept her head down though. She was nothing. If he had a problem with her he could just yell at her again, much to her dismay.
 
As Lee stared at his refrigerator, mentally berating himself, he realized suddenly that the buzzing throughout the room had gotten louder. Much louder. He hadn't really been looking at the refrigerator, just staring in its direction, but now he looked and saw that the large, heavy appliance seemed to be shaking. Sparks came out from underneath it. Startled, Lee backed away from it, up against the counter.

That's when he realized the microwave was also sparking. As were the lights on the ceiling and the lamp and television in the nearby living space. Everything was shaking and sparking and causing Lee to start to panic. Including Erinn.

"Erinn! Erinn!" Lee found himself shouting, not knowing what to do, not knowing if she was hurt and if he should run out of the house without her or try to help her somehow. He had no idea what was happening to her. He had forgotten about trying to not shout at her again, this time completely overtaken with fear and confusion. But this shout was less angry and clearly more terrified. He just wanted to be safe and wanted Erinn to be safe too.
 
Erinn snapped out of her trance at his terrified yells. The sparking stopped. The appliances returned to normal, and Erinn's eyes returned to their clear state. She blinked, looking down at the last few sparks that escaped from her hands. She felt herself shake. She did it again. "I'm sorry..." She said softly. "I didn't mean to scare you..."
 
Finally, all the sparking and shaking stopped, and for a couple of moments Lee stayed completely silent trying to figure out what had just happened. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you..."

"Erinn..." Lee started in a stunned voice. "How... how did you do that?" Now he was shaking a little bit, completely confused and still quite scared. "I don't know what's going on." he added, mostly to himself. He could hardly believe what was happening. It was strange enough some random girl showing up at his house, but now things were really strange, so much so that Lee was completely lost.
 
"Did you hear about the lab that burned down?" Erinn asked. She didn't want to tell anything to him just yet. He might hate her and kick her out of his house. He was scared enough as it was. He didn't need anything else to scare him. She ran a hand through her hair, looking away from the kind boy.
 
Lee listened to Erinn, and thought hard about what she said. Lab, burned down... Lee racked his memory and finally remembered. "Yeah... I- I remember hearing about it... I don't know much about that... Wh-what does that have to do with anything?" He remembered hearing people talking about it while he was out getting something to eat, how this huge government science lab had been completely destroyed in a fire, how many had died. He knew it had been a big deal, but at the same time he didn't think it affected him at all, and didn't think much more about it after that.

He wondered what on earth Erinn could have to do with that, but he was slowly forming ideas. What if she had been there, what if... what if it had something to do with the sparks that had come out of her, out of everything electric in his house... What had been done to her? How was this all possible?
 
"That lab was a part of Project PK, psychokinesis." Erinn explained. "They grew experiments, people who had the right genetic codes to be able to do amazing things. Almost like superheroes." She paused for a moment. "Most of the children they raised died within 3 years. That was when they were using actual women to give birth to these children. So, they switched to test tube babies." Her voice faltered as she said 'test tube babies'. "Those children lived for fifteen years before losing control of their powers and killing themselves. Only one survived."
 
Lee stared at a spot on the floor, all kinds of fear and confusion rising in his chest and clogging his throat. He held onto the counter for support. This couldn't be real. This had to be a dream, or something. But of course he knew it wasn't. He knew the difference between when he was dreaming and when he was awake. This wasn't imaginary. This was real and he had to deal with it, but he had no idea how.

"I guess... you're the one who survived. Right?"

His voice was very weak sounding, hoarse as though he'd been screaming although he had only been screaming on the inside. How could this be? How could this crazy... superhuman end up with him, in his house, seeking his aid? Why did it have to be him?

He didn't like it. But at the same time, he wasn't thinking of abandoning Erinn at all. Only about how much harder it was going to be to help her now that he knew this.
 
Erinn nodded. "I was the one who caused the fire... I can't control my powers as well as I'd like. When I'm afraid or angry or any other strong emotion, my powers flare up." She looked up at him, biting her lip. He was going to throw her out and abandon her. She wouldn't blame him. A soft shiver ran through her body as she looked to the door. She leaned away from it, still staring.
 
Lee thought carefully about the situation, although it was hard not to respond emotionally with all the fear and confusion running through his mind and body. He felt afraid of Erinn - if she could burn down an entire science lab with her powers, what would she do to his little house? But she said it only happened when she was very emotional, so he knew he had to try to control himself and not do anything that would upset her in any way.

"O-okay. I... I know it must have been hard for you... to live like that. I'm so sorry you had to go through that." Although Lee genuinely felt that way, what was really at the forefront of his mind was his own safety in that moment. "I'm sorry I upset you, before. I want to do anything I can to help you... anything you need... I promise I'm not going to hurt you or yell at you again." He did feel like running away. Like running out of the house, getting in his car and driving off somewhere, maybe a hotel or to his parents' house.

But he knew he couldn't do that. Not only because it could upset Erinn and cause her to destroy his house, or even him, but also because he didn't know what Erinn would do without him. He didn't know if she would try to find someone else to help her, who would handle the situation much worse and cause more problems, or if she would end up on the streets again, maybe forever, maybe until she withered away or ended up killing herself like the other kids she had talked about.

He couldn't let that happen. He had to stay. He gripped the edge of the counter and waited to see if she would say or do anything else.
 
"You're afraid of me..." Erinn said quietly. She looked straight at him. "They're always afraid of me. I'm too powerful, too unstable. If you want, you can just kill me now." She kept his gaze. Her shoulders were held high. She was breathing calmly. "Otherwise I should leave. I would only burden you further." She looked back toward the door, shying away. She frowned at the storm that was raging outside.
 
"I-I'm sorry... I just... I've just never dealt with this kind of thing before. I had no idea there were any people with superpowers or government experiments going on. I'm not afraid of you Erinn I just... I'm just a little freaked out, okay?" Lee was being very careful not to raise his tone of voice to any level that could be interpreted as angry. He wasn't completely telling the truth though. He was afraid of Erinn. But really he was afraid of her powers, of the fact that she couldn't completely control them. He was afraid of being hurt because of that, but he trusted that Erinn was a good person and wouldn't hurt him if she could help it.

"I don't want to kill you or kick you out. I would never kill you..." Lee couldn't even imagine killing anyone. Even though he had brought the knife with him to the front door when he first found Erinn out there in the rain, he could only imagine using it in pure self defense, not to hurt anyone who wasn't actually assaulting him. "Please... there's a storm outside. You don't need to leave." He hoped he was making the right choice by telling her to stay, and that he was avoiding a disaster instead of inviting one.
 
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