Once a little time had passed, her apathy over what she had done to Mr. Yates dissipated and her sense of guilt came rushing back to her like a tsunami hitting a wooden shack on a beach. She felt such a huge amount of remorse for the way she had handled her discovery and it weighed her down like a mountain was sitting on her shoulders. What right do I have to be judge, jury, and executioner? I should have tried to make him turn himself in or something. I basically killed him. Am I not a monster, myself?

She stared at the ceiling of her bedroom while deep in thought. The school had sent everyone from Mr. Yates' class home for the day after what had happened. Zoe's dad was called in to come get her early and she had to assure him that she was fine and that she hadn't been traumatized in any way by the event. The truth was that at the time, she wasn't sure how she felt. The internal struggle of whether what she had done was right or not continuously played out inside her head. It was now late afternoon, and she had skipped dinner. Her parents were concerned over this, but she just didn't feel like eating anything and shrugged them off. She told them that she just needed some time to be alone and think about things. They had respected her wishes with little argument and she had been in her room for hours now. 

Zoe closed her eyes, but couldn't get the images of the memories she had seen out of her head. That sick man had coerced and intimidated girls as young as thirteen into his bed and she felt ill whenever she thought about it. She rolled to the side and opened her eyes to look at the clock. Her One Piece clock with Luffy on the front of its face showed that it was a little after 9. She closed her eyes again and listened to the quiet ticking of the clock. I need to be more responsible with my gift, it isn't a toy. I'm not a god to decide what kind of punishment a person receives; even if the person is particularly deserving punishment it isn't my place to dole it out. Unless my life is in danger, I won't use it as a weapon again. It just isn't right to do what I did. He should have gone to jail and faced up to his punishment, but I simply destroyed him. I have to live with this fact for the rest of my life. Tears ran down her cheeks and onto her pillow as she drifted to sleep. 

The next morning when she arrived at school she was met with a surprise; for some reason there were three men in suits walking down the hallway with the principal. One of them glanced at her as they walked by and she averted her gaze. Something about them gave her the creeps. She shuddered slightly and rubbed her forearm which had somehow formed goosebumps. Pull it together. Even if they are the FBI or something, there's no proof that you did anything. It's not like there's any way for them to know what I can do. If others like me exist, I've sure as heck never heard of them.

She turned back and saw them going into Mr. Yates' classroom. Just act normal. They've got no reason to suspect you for anything. She saw Kim coming from the opposite direction with her boyfriend and she waved to her friend. Kim stopped next to her and told her boyfriend to go on ahead. "Are you all right? I tried texting you last night about what happened to Mr. Yates. You never answered." She put a hand on Zoe's shoulder.

"It was just weird seeing someone go out like that. The lights were on, but no one was home. Don't worry, though! I'm okay now. Really!"

Her friend could probably read the lie, but there was nothing to be done about it. She hadn't ever been very good at keeping secrets from Kim. Her friend nodded and gave her a warm hug. "Look. I have to get to class, but let's get together later, okay?" 

"Sure. I'll see you later, then." Zoe and Kim headed off in opposite directions to get to their first period classes. The school day went by in a blur and in what felt like no time at all it was time for her last and favorite class of the day: Pre-calculus. Most people would have called her insane for liking a subject that was so widely disdained by the student body, but she enjoyed it. Numbers had always made sense to her; Shakespeare on the other hand, was a whole different story. She got to her seat in the front of the class and took out her math binder, graphing calculator, and mechanical pencil. She flipped to an open piece of paper and waited for the class to begin. She had spent the entire day on autopilot, while her brain thought about Mr. Yates. She had been considering the intricacies of difficult to grasp concepts like life, death, and justice; she was now looking forward to being distracted by cold, hard numbers. The bell rang and Mr. Reed took attendance before diving into putting problems onto the whiteboard. She jotted down notes as he explained the process and she even managed to give him her full attention.

About fifteen minutes into the period, the door opened and one of the men she had seen that morning with the principal stepped inside the classroom. He interrupted the Mr. Reed who was in the middle of a problem. "We need to borrow Zoe Peterson for the rest of the period," he said.

"Sure," Mr. Reed replied before turning toward her. "Zoe, go ahead and grab your things. Tonight's homework is all of the odd problems on page 237."

Zoe's heart sank and for a moment she felt like she couldn't breathe. There's no way that they could know anything, right? Who are these people, anyway? Breathe, Zoe. Just breathe. He probably just wants to see how I'm doing. Maybe they're special counselors or something. She forced herself to start moving and began putting her things into her backpack. It felt like the whole class was watching her.

She put her head down as if to hide and followed the man into the hallway. "Why did you take me out of class? Who are you, anyway? I've never seen you at the school before today." She tried to hide her nervousness, but her voice shook a little while asking those questions.

"I just need you to come with me. It won't take long. We need to talk to you about what happened to your teacher yesterday," he replied.

"So what do I call y⁠—?"

"Kyle is fine," he cut off her question.

Enough of this mystery crap. I'm going to find out what the deal is with these guys right now. She made sure to stay close to Kyle so she would remain in range for her abilities and tried to read his thoughts by concentrating on him. Nothing happened. She tried harder and then she felt a wall of resistance, just as she always did when trying to hear a person's thoughts, only this time instead of easily being able to break through, it was like she smashed head first into an indestructible brick wall. Her head began to hurt from the strain of trying to overcome the man's mental defenses, so she gave up. 

She thought that she detected a slight smile come across the tall man's stiff face, but it was gone in an instant. This isn't good. I think he knows what I just tried to do to him. He silently escorted her to an empty classroom where his two colleagues were waiting. "Take a seat," he said.

She complied and sat down at a desk in the front row of the classroom. Kyle went back to the door and stood next to it as if to guard against any intruders, or possibly to stop her from running out of the room. A second man stood stood next to the whiteboard by the teacher's desk staring at a cellphone. The third man, who she assumed was in charge grabbed a chair and sat down in front of her. "We know what you are and what you can do, but I want to hear it from your own lips," he said to her.

Zoe felt as though she was literally going to pass out. She felt as though the room was getting hot and she immediately began to sweat. She hid her shaking hands in her lap, clasping them together. Despite her obvious body language, she tried to play dumb. "What do you mean?"

"Cut the crap, girl. We know what you did to that teacher. We did some research and found that he had some... problems in his past that he had worked very hard to bury before coming to teach at this school. Did he try to do something to you? Were you trying to get revenge on him? I'll ask you again. Tell us what you know."

Sweat trickled down the side of her face and she quickly wiped it away. Her mouth felt dry and she had no question as to what they knew at this point so she forced herself to answer his question. "I... can read minds," she whispered.

"Come now, we all know that you can do more than that," he replied and leaned forward looking her in the eyes.

She wilted under his piercing blue-eyed gaze and continued. "I can... um... alter memories." She tried to sink down into her seat and looked downward at the wood of the table. "What are you going to do to me?"

"Well, to be honest, we can't allow you to continue as you have been. For one, if word got out that there are really people with paranormal abilities in the world, there would be mass panic. There would also be witch hunts and let's just say that it would cause a lot of problems for everyone."

Zoe nodded meekly at his blunt response. "What does this mean for me?"

"You're going to have to come with us. We have a facility for people who exhibit certain abilities like yours. Your old life is over as of right now. Kyle will go with you to your home and explain to your parents that you've been offered a full ride to an exclusive boarding school. He can be very... convincing," he replied.

She tried to use her mind reading ability on the man in front of her and again nothing happened. "She's trying to use her power," Kyle said.

Damn! He can somehow block me from all the way over there? What am I going to do? Tears began to fall from her eyes. "Please... I won't ever use my powers again. Just don't take me away from my family I'm only 17. It was a mistake! I know better now, I won't do it again, I swear."

The man in front of her pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. "Look. We don't enjoy taking kids away from their families, but at the same time you have to understand that there is no other way. We can't just take your word for it. You're far too powerful and dangerous to leave alone. Erasers are extremely rare as far as these type of abilities go, and we've only ever had three documented cases in the last 75 years. Nathan felt your presence the moment got to the school, and that is very impressive," he explained.

They're going to lock me away in some facility and experiment on me! Either that or they're going to use me like a weapon. I'll never be free again! She tried to think of a way to escape, but there was no way that she could get away from these three men, especially without her powers. The man had given away that the man by the whiteboard could somehow sense her abilities, and that he had only noticed her when she got to the school. That gave her a good idea of his range. "How did you even know that someone was using powers in this town?" she asked while tears continued to stream down her face. If she was lucky, they would answer and give her more information she could use; if not, well... she had nothing more to lose.

"We have an algorithm that scans newspapers and hospital records for certain events that occur when someone manifests their power. This town had two hits that the agency felt were odd enough to send us out here to have a look. Around 99% of the time we don't find anything, but there's always that 1% that manages to pan out and be a legitimate lead; so here we are. In any case, that's enough for now. It's time to go." The man stood up and turned his attention to Kyle. "We have another case to check out a few hours from here. Keep her suppressed and we'll meet you tomorrow morning at the designated location for pick up. Take solace in the fact that we're going to let you have one more night with your family. Again, I apologize for this, but it must be done."

Nathan and the leader exited the room, leaving her and Kyle behind. "I'll give you a minute. It's a lot to handle, I know," Kyle said.

Zoe's floodgates of emotion opened and she lost the small amount of composure she had regained earlier. She began to sobbing uncontrollably. She put her head down on the table into her arms and cried for what felt like forever. The man just silently stood by the door looking at his phone.  My life is over. They'll never let me see my family again and I will probably be locked in a prison or something. He called it a facility. That sounds like jail to me. 

Long after the final bell had rung and she was still crying, Kyle came over to her. "All right, that's enough. It's time to go." Kyle walked over to her desk and picked up her backpack. He searched through it; removing her cellphone and shutting it off before placing it into his suit pocket. He reached down to grab her hand but she slapped it away defiantly. I will not be dragged out of here kicking and screaming. I will at least walk out of this building for the last time with my head held high.

He seemed to get the message and held his hands up. "Well, let's go then." 

"Fine," she replied as she stood up and wiped her tears away. Her sorrow was ebbing only to be replaced by cold hatred for these people who were going to take her away from her family and friends. She sullenly followed the man out of the building only to see that a storm had moved in and was dumping what felt like buckets of rain. They ran over to his black sedan with dark, tinted windows.

"Get in," he said.

She complied with his demand and got into the passenger seat. She had considered running away, but she didn't know where she could go. She had no money on her and he had her phone. Even if she went to Kim's house or something, he would just go to her house and extract information on where she might have run to from them. She didn't want to cause trouble for her family any more than she had to and so she sat quietly as they drove toward her home. I am going to have to escape once we get back to the house. It's going to cost me everything, but I don't have any other choice.