It was easy to smuggle Hairy into the back of the van, all I had to do was slide the back door open then step out of the way to make it look like I was letting my mother board the vehicle first. The oversized cow took a running leap, tumbling over the back seats before landing in the cargo area just before my mother stepped inside.

  It was a good thing he didn’t actually weigh anything because I’m sure all his flailing would have caused the van to rock wildly, and with all the scrutiny from being Empowered that would probably have led to people asking some fairly awkward questions that I really would rather avoid.

  My life was complicated enough right now, I didn’t know how I would explain to some random person that my power involved having imaginary friends. That would be an awkward conversation.

  Once we’d finally settled in, Agent Lawson turned onto a road that ran around the perimeter of the campus, and after a few minutes it became apparent that the Empowered Educational Institute was much larger than I originally thought. It wasn’t that it had a ton of students, but rather outside of the admin section of the campus the buildings were fairly spread out. It would probably take a couple minutes to walk between each building, and a lot of people appeared to use bikes or scooters to get around.

  It took us a few minutes to make our way to the south side of the campus, and the residential area.

  When I was told we’d be living in a residence I’d pictured a couple monolithic apartment buildings, filled with as many tiny dorm rooms as possible. What I found was something more akin to a large suburban neighbourhood. The buildings weren’t large, they’d probably be about the same size as our old apartment, but they were freestanding, and separated from their neighbors by a couple feet.

  As we drove past the rows of nearly identical houses I began to notice some strange design choices. Despite being small, they were built more like bunkers than regular houses. The exterior walls were concrete, covered in stucco, and they had thick metal doors.

  “How are people supposed to find their way around here, everything looks the exact same?” I grumbled.

  “There’s a logical format to the house numbers. One hundred are in the first row, two hundreds are in the second, and so on. We’re looking for three hundred and twelve, the twelfth house in the third row,” Pam explained.

  “I don’t get why they went to all this trouble of making a whole residential district, instead of just forcing everyone into a single dormitory,” I mumbled.

  “The EEI campus has been designed for both safety, and comfort of the students. The individual living spaces might take up more space, but it provides a little bit of privacy for the families that come to live here. It’s not much, but it’s something,” Lawson explained as she slowly pulled up behind a small moving truck and put the van into park. “Well, shall we take a look at your new home?”

  I wrenched open the sliding door and slid out onto the sidewalk. Tiberius and Angelica had worked their way out of the moving truck, and were hovering around nervously, so I waved at them subtly before heading over to check out our new house.

  I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed by our new place, 235 Henley Heights. It was just a forest green cube a couple feet off the sidewalk. The lawn area appeared to be well maintained, and there were a couple of small shrubs beside the front door, but otherwise there wasn’t much to the exterior.

  Fishing the keys out of my pocket I stepped up to the front door and cracked the place open. Light streamed into the small living room through a handful of small windows. It wasn’t large, there was only enough room for a couch and a TV stand, but it was more than we had before. Beyond the living room there was a tiny dining room nestled up against a countertop that ran parallel to the wall and separated the small kitchen area from the front of the room.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  There were two doors on each side of the main room, situated between the living room and the kitchen. I popped each one open and stuck my head inside to take a quick look. The left side had a small bedroom, and what appeared to be an office, while the right had a second bedroom and the bathroom. They weren’t large rooms by any means, but they were slightly larger than our rooms back in the apartment.

  I would have called the place cozy, if it wasn’t for the fact that every window had bars outside the window, and all the doors had heavy deadbolts. It gave the place a weird vibe.

  My mother finally pushed her way inside when I was checking the last of the side rooms. She glanced around cautiously, before finally making her way inside.

  “This seems… nice,” she tentatively said.

  “That’s one way to put it,” I muttered. “It’s certainly better maintained than our last place, so we won’t have to worry about paint chips falling into our food all the time, but I’m not sure I’m thrilled about the bars over all the windows.”

  “That’s for your own safety,” agent Mac declared as he pushed open the door, a moving box in his hands. “Since every Empowered person has a small chance of causing a Rupture, you need a place to take shelter in the case of an emergency. Rather than dedicating a single room in each residence, or several rooms across an apartment complex, they decided to make every residence able to easily withstand an attack from low level dimensional entities.”

  “Or keep the entities contained within a concrete box long enough for the Rupture to end, if the Empowered person that caused it can’t deal with the situation,” I observed.

  “I won’t deny it,” the big man. "Either way, it keeps the problem from spiraling out of control.”

  “How many Empowered people are there on this campus anyways?” I asked.

  “Approximately five hundred,” Pam declared as she pushed her way into the house. “The BEI decided that having more than that would pose a threat to the staff, and surrounding town.”

  “Honestly? I think five hundred is still too many. That’s five hundred different people that could accidentally cause reality to rip open allowing horrors from beyond our world to pour through,” I growled.

  “Sure, it might sound like a disaster waiting to happen, but keep in mind that the strength of a Rupture is directly proportional to the strength of the Empowered person that caused it. Pretty much every Empowered person here is newly manifested, so only the weakest creatures can break through. They’re so weak that the police, and campus security, can take care of them with regular firearms, if the students don’t take care of them first. It’s only after an Empowered person survives a few Rupture, and absorbs the particles that are emitted by dying invaders, that their powers grow and larger Rupture can form around them.”

  “That really doesn’t make me feel better,” I grumbled. “I’ve had the unfortunate luck of being caught in two different Ruptures during my lifetime, and I have absolutely no interest in getting caught in another.”

  “Then make sure you’re familiar with all the shelter locations on campus, and in town. There’s secure rooms in every building,” Mac said. “I know the situation might seem scary, but you should know that there hasn’t been a single casualty on the EEI campus over its fifteen years of operation.”

  “Just because there’s been a lack of casualties, doesn’t mean there haven’t been people severely injured, or who have died on the way to the hospital,” I countered.

  “That’s fair, but unfortunately for you, you’re going to have to live with those risks for the next year. Until we understand the extent of your power, or lack thereof, we can’t let you leave this protected area. It could have been worse, the BEI brass could have decided to drop you directly into the middle of an enclave. The population density in those areas is so thick they can’t go more than a couple days without a Rupture,” Lawson said sharply. “Be thankful they opted for the EEI.”

  I went pale at the thought, and my mother stepped closer so she could rub my back.

  “Come on, that wasn’t necessary. You’ve seen the kid’s file, she has a legitimate reason to be fearful of Rupture,” Mac hissed at his partner, before turning towards me. “Sorry, she can be a little blunt at times.”

  When all I did was shrug slightly, he just chuckled, fished a card out of his pocket and passed it to my mother. “The two of us still need to check in at the office back in town, so we’ll get out of your hair for now. If you need anything, or if you have any questions, feel free to call me at that number. It’s my cell.”

  My mother nodded, then reached out and shook both agent’s hands. “Thank you for all your help.”

  “It was no problem, see you around kid,” Pam called as she headed for the door.

  “Yeah, bye,” I mumbled as the agents stepped back outside.

  “Cheer up Tamera, it’s only a year, you can get through this,” my mother said supportively as she rubbed my back again.

  “I hope so, because the alternative is being eaten alive,” I muttered darkly, “and I’m not willing to go out that way.”

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