Ash fell asleep in my arms as I held him. I am exhausted as well so, I give him to my husband, Enzo, then go to sleep.

I am 26 years old with two children, now that I have Ash. I have been married to my husband for five years. We had our first child, Rose, a little more than five years ago now. I had hoped Rose would not develop powers like Enzo and me because we did not want her to have all the problems we had to face. But, when Rose turned five, we realized she was a telepath, like me, because Rose started to hear things that were never spoken aloud. As Rose obtained the same power as me, I think if Ash does get powers, hopefully not, he will get the same power as his father, Mental Shield.

If Ash does awaken the Mental Shield power, I will be both relieved and terrified. Relieved because it's easier to hide and he would not have to deal with the constant voices in his head and terrified because the underground organizations value people with the Mental Shield even more than telepaths as its the only sure counter to all telepathic abilities.

I was 14, just starting high school, when I awakened to my powers. When they awakened it feel like hundreds of people talking inside my head, my head started hurting from all the noise. I fell to my knee in pain, then ran back home to my mother, May Aston. My mother had always been there for me, especially after my father died in the Vietnam War when I was two years old. She was a nurse, so I hoped she could fix whatever was happening.

Arriving home, I shouted for my mother amidst panicking from whatever was going on. My mother dashed to me, asking me what's wrong with a worried look on her face. I told her there were all kinds of voices speaking in her head and how my head hurt badly. My mother, seeing me terrified, grabs my hands and tells me to take deep breaths. While taking deep breaths, she tells me that it just her in the room and to focus on just her voice. I try doing that and it works all the voices fade away except hers. I look at my mother, hearing her talk about how afraid she was that she would lose me as well, but as I was about to tell her how she wouldn't lose me, I realize her mouth wasn't moving. I tell her about how I could still hear her talking about losing me even when her mouth is not moving. A shocked expression appeared on her face. We had discovered I could hear thoughts.

My mother called everywhere she knew to find out what was happening to me trying not to give away that who she was talking about was me. While she was doing that we also worked on tuning out all the voices and, after a week, I could keep the voices out most of the time, with tiny slipups only a few times a day. After that week, I finally went back to school. I found out as soon as I stepped foot on the bus that it was much harder to keep the voices out with more people.

Going back to school, I was happy because I had not seen my best friend, Mindy, in a week. I saw Mindy with her boyfriend, I walked over to them. About to say hello to Mindy, I lose control over my power and hear her boyfriend think about going on a date with a girl named Talya. I was disgusted that he would cheat on my best friend. I blurted out, "You're cheating on Mindy with Talya!?" Mindy looked at him shocked and sad as if she expected it.

After a week of finding out people's secrets: cheating on people, cheating on tests, stealing and the like and trying to right them. People started either avoiding her or bullying and the worst part was she could hear them berate her even when they didn't do it to her face. After that week, Mindy wanted to know how I was finding all of this out, so I told her out my power. We had good times for a week after that, but it didn't last after that everyone started to bully Mindy for being my friend. After a week, Mindy could not handle it anymore and stopped talking to me.

My mother tried to stop the bullying all year but, she could never stop it so, we chose to transfer me to a different school nearby.

Turning 15 years old, I was optimistic but cautious about the new school as I had gotten better at controlling her power on having an outburst once a month or so. I laid low trying not to attract attention. After a few months, I started trying to make friends again. I fell in love with a guy named Alex. After I dated him for several weeks, my powers had an outburst while talking to him at school. I heard him thinking about going on a date with a girl named Kendra after school and how she was an amazing kisser. Feeling hurt and angry, I completely lost control and sent a wave of psychic power out, causing everyone in the school to cry out in pain then fall unconscious. I looked around at what I had done and was terrified. I felt a wave of exhaustion come over me and fainted. Waking up and seeing everyone still on the ground, I ran home to my mother wanting to feel safe from myself.

One week later, men in black suits and ski masks assaulted our house, kidnapping my mother and me. They blindfolded us and took us to some facility. They took my mother away to blackmail me into complying.

They began testing my abilities. After a week of tests, they restarted my schooling but added combat training and telepathy training to it. The classes were like a normal school except there were fewer teachers and all the students had some form of power. I ascertained in a few days that they had not only captured my mother, but they also had taken a family member from nearly all of the students. If the student did not have a family to take hostage, they had shock collars so they would behave.

After a month of being in class, I started to like a boy named Enzo. He had an ability that made me unable to read his mind. During the month, I continuously tried to read the guard's minds to find out where my mother is, but they had training to counter telepathy. If I tried a little bit harder than usual, I could read their minds, but the guards did not know where my mother was. I tried to find out where they could be keeping her, but what I found they are blindfolded whenever they go to any facility.

After two months, I found out that Enzo was being heavily experimented upon as I saw needle marks on his arms and legs. I asked him about it and, he said that he had a very rare power that they wanted to find out more about it.

Turning 16 years old, I learn many ways to use my telepathic powers from all the training they put me through, and my powers evolved to be able to feel the emotions of others. My telepathy trainer said I was an Empath in addition to a Telepath.

A week after I turned 16 years old, the government raided the building where everyone was being kept. The government rescued all the students and the families that were held as hostages. They decided for everyone's safety everyone would be relocated. Fortunately, Enzo, since his parents were killed when he was five years old, he was allowed to relocate with us.

After we all relocated, I fast-tracked through the rest of high school in one year. I decided I wanted to go for a law degree partially because of my ability but mainly because I wanted to make sure people like my captors get what they deserve.

Enzo and I had been dating since we were relocated. He found out that his parents had left him a multi-million dollar inheritance and controlling shares in his father's company, but he could not access it until he was 18 years old. We had decided we would hold off any serious relationship commitments until after I get my law degree and he gets his business degree so he can take over his father's company. After Enzo and I finishing our schooling, we got married and conceived Rose.