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It was a good thing I loved to cook. Trudy had been a little down lately and less perky and active. I wondered if her Leukemia was to blame or the heartbreak. Either way there was nothing to do for her but let her rest. The Leukemia was past the chemo stage and what could you do for a broken heart?

After Merrick filled up on three plates full of scrambled eggs, I cut him off. He wrapped his arms around my waist from behind while I stirred the eggs and whispered a joke in my ear about needing his strength for later. I giggled and we got the usual grinning glances but, nothing out of the ordinary. He left to go take a shower.

We pulled it off. We eloped and got away with it. Wow. I was married.

Jeff and Ryan finished a couple plates each and were suffering.

“Sherry, those were the best eggs I’ve ever had. I’ve only had eggs once before but I’m being serious, they were great,” Ryan told me, placing his plate in the sink, then returning to his chair.

“Thanks, Ryan. It was my moms eco friendly version.”

He raised his eyebrow in question and I just laughed.

“Well, whatever it was, they were awesome. Thank you.”

“Your welcome. I can’t believe we’ve been down here this long and I haven’t cooked scrambled eggs for everyone yet. Merrick is the only one I’ve ever cooked them for.”

“Well, Merrick gets a lot of special treatment around here.”

Ryan could barely finish before he was laughing which made Jeff laugh too.

“Hey!” I swatted him with the dish towel on his arm as I tried not to laugh. “Watch it.”

They both burst out laughing again as I finished up the last pan of eggs for myself and Trudy.

Celeste came into the kitchen.

“What’s all the commotion about!” she chimed, honestly hoping for some drama to be going on.

She was so bored lately.

“Nothing, just some Keepers being silly.”

I mock glared at them and they chuckled under their breath. Jeff’s eyes were laughing over the rim of his coffee cup.

“Dang. I need something to do up in here people! Something to talk about. I’m dying here! I’m even out of nail polish,” she whined.

I chuckled and turned so she wouldn’t see me laughing. She dramatically plopped down at the table with Ryan and Jeff, throwing her arms on the table and laying her head down on them. I could hear her continue to sulk in a muffle.

“Bored. Bored. Bored. Why does it have to be the end of the world, huh? I’m too young to be so depressed and sullen.”

“Well, you could learn to knit from Trudy. She’d probably love the distraction,” Ryan told her.

She even surprised me with her answer and following enthusiasm.

“Really! Wow. I’d never thought I’d ever be excited about something like
knitting
. I’m gonna go talk to her right now!”

Just like that she ran off to find Trudy. I wondered what Danny was doing for Celeste to be so bored. Come to think of it, Celeste seemed to be the only Special up and running around lately. Even Calvin seemed pretty mellow. Hmmm.

I ate my eggs quickly standing at the counter, putting a lid over the leftovers for Trudy and the rest of the lazy bones who weren’t up yet.

I wiped my hands on the towel hanging by the fridge and playfully pushed Jeff’s shoulder as I walked by. I heard them laughing as I walked out, making my way to the bathroom. I was just about to shut the door when Celeste held it open with her hand.

“Hold it. Let me grab my- Sherry! What’s that on your neck? Oh my-” She lunged for me, pulling back the strap of my tank top and swiping at my hair. “Sherry! Is that a hickey? Oh. My. Goodness.”

She just stood there staring at it so I pushed her fingers off and turned to look in the mirror. When I shifted the tank top strap and my hair around to the back there were quite a few hickeys and raspberries around my neck and collarbone, in fact.

I felt the blush coming but then I realized I was a married women and had no reason to be ashamed but...she didn’t know we went through with it yet, so I turned back and smiled sheepishly while shrugging.

“Ah! Bad!” she said winking and laughing like we were in some secret club together now.

I hoped we were not in the same club. I fervently blocked that thought as she walked out giggling loudly. I fixed my hair to hang around my shoulders to hide the marks and then take care of business. Then I decided to go see Danny.

In the commons room, Marissa and Jeff were on the couch with lots of space between them but they were turned toward each other. Marissa was laughing and they looked pretty cozy in their conversation. Hmm. I cocked my head. It would be nice to not be the minority on alien courtship around here.

I knocked on Danny’s door and peeked in a little when I didn’t hear him say anything. He was asleep still which was not unusual for him.

I sat next to him and shook his arm. He woke right up, even looking around alert. That wasn’t like Danny. Danny was the king of grump in the morning.

“Hey. You ok?” I asked startled by his actions.

“Yeah, why? Something happen?” he said, rubbing his palms into his eyes.

“No, I just wanted to check on you. You’ve been sleeping a lot. Is everything ok?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he muttered and slumped back down in his sleeping bag, turning away from me.

That sent a shiver down my spine. Danny always told me everything. Whatever was on his mind, it couldn’t be good.

“Yes, I would. What is it?”

“Sis. Something’s going on with me. Something’s not right.”

“Ok, Danny. Please, you’re scaring me. What are you talking about? I won’t laugh.”

“I don’t think you’ll laugh. I think you’ll think I’m crazy.”

“I won’t. Please,” I pleaded as he turned back over to look at me, hesitation on his face.

“I can...make other people think things or do things. I can control them with my mind.”

“What?” I tried to sound the least threatening as possible.

“I can make people think things, like Merrick, but instead of them hearing my thoughts they actually think what I want them to. They even say it out loud or do it.”

“Danny...I...”

Then I got what he meant.

The next thing out of my mouth was my voice but not my words. It was a strange feeling, like my mouth had a brain of its own. I felt it moving, but in my brain it was perfectly still.

“Danny is wonderful. Danny is the best brother ever. Danny is a skilled basketball player,” he made me say and I gasped and covered my mouth with my hand.

“See...What’s wrong with me, Sherry? What’s going on?”

I had no explanations to tell him. We’d seen some pretty weird things lately. As shocking as this was it should be believable against Markers and Lighters.

“Does Celeste know?” I asked, swallowing.

“No. I couldn’t tell her. She thinks I’m sick or something. It’s been doing this for a week. Well, that’s as long as I know of it. I tried to tell Celeste something and when she answered, she said what I wanted her to say instead. Then I did it again and I’ve been doing to people for days now. It seems they don’t even realize it, really.”

“Hold on. Stay right there,” I said, patting his arm and headed back out his door.

What?! Danny has some kinda power now?

For just a minute I buried my face in my hands in the hall outside his room and had a mini panic attack. Why Danny? Things couldn’t just be normal around here for any length of time! There was constantly some kind of drama.

Ok. Back to business.

I ran to the commons room yelling for Jeff and Merrick. Jeff ran in first in a flash, grabbing my arm to make sure I was ok.

“I’m ok, it’s not me. Where’s Merrick?”

He must be calling him in his mind. Merrick flashed down the stairs and ran to us with inhuman speed. I spoke before he could to stop him from freaking out.

“Danny. He’s... Come on. See for yourself.”

I took them to Danny’s room with Merrick looking extremely worried. When we went in, Danny was sitting there shirtless like before, wrapped in his sheet on the floor in the fetal position.

“Danny. Tell them,” I commanded. He looked at me like he couldn’t believe I brought them, like I betrayed him. “Danny! I had to. Something is happening to you and they need to know. Tell them!” I shouted because I could no longer take the suspense of knowing what was wrong with my only brother.

“I can...do something. I can make people think things, thoughts.”

He looked up at them from under his eyelashes.

“What do you mean?” Merrick bent down on his haunches to survey Danny. “Show me what you mean?”

Merrick looked straight ahead and began to speak the words to the song ‘Crazy Train.’

“Mental wounds still screaming, driving me insane, I’m going off the rails on a crazy train.” After Merrick spoke he shook his head and his eyes went wide with shock.

“See. What does that mean? What’s wrong with me?” Danny pleaded, looking back and forth from Merrick to Jeff.

They looked at each other and I could tell they were talking in their minds. I reached out and grabbed both of their forearms gently and spoke softly.

“Please tell us what you’re saying. We can handle it.”

“We don’t know. I mean, the only supernatural power I’ve ever seen on a human are the Muses and the Taker. I’ve never heard of other humans developing abilities. I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised with everything else so strange going on. I...we don’t know what to tell you,” Merrick said, looking flabbergasted and winded.

“Ok. Well, is that all you can do? Have you tried anything else?” Jeff asked.
“Isn’t that enough?” Danny said hastily then blew out a breath to calm himself. “No I haven’t tried anything else and from the way I see it, they only know I’ve done it to them when I tell them about it beforehand. Sherry and you knew but Celeste, Ryan, and Paul didn’t. They just acted like...nothing happened afterwards, like they didn’t even know they had spoken or done anything.”

I believed but at the same time I feel dismayed and unsettled. What was going on? What did this mean? Was Danny the only one and why did Merrick and Jeff not know about all this? Why did I feel like I wanted to punch something? Why couldn’t we get a break?

“Look, let’s keep this between us until we figure out what’s going on here, ok? The other Keepers shouldn’t find out either, as we are already staying out of each others head. That shouldn’t be too hard,” Jeff explained.

“Why are you staying out of each others heads?” Danny asked quizzically.

Crap. I hadn’t even realized Jeff’s slip up until Danny did.

“Uh. We are just...giving each other a break,” Jeff explained but Danny didn’t look convinced, given away by his squint.

“Sis? You can’t lie to me, what’s going on? Are there others? Someone else having problems like me? It’s bad isn’t it! Oh no. What’s going to...” Danny was beginning to freak so I spilled all the beans.

“We got married, Danny. Merrick and I got married yesterday. The Keepers are just giving us some privacy.”

He looked more shocked about that than he did about his new abilities. His jaw flew open and his eyebrows pulled together in a scowl.

“You got married without me!” Danny yelled, furious.

That definitely was not what I expected.

“Danny, we didn’t want to cause a scene or whatever. We just wanted to get married first then tell people eventually. You already knew about it, it’s not like we could make a big production about it, right? We went by ourselves. I was going to tell you-”

“Didn’t you think I would want to be there?” Danny looked so much like dad when he spoke like that.

Soft and interrupting me with his stern yet hurt voice. Like the time I ran away from home and dad caught me sneaking in after only being gone fifteen minutes.

“Yes, I did but, you couldn’t go, Danny. You’re a Special. Remember?” I reminded him softly but still felt like I was whipping a puppy.

“Well...I still wish you had told me. All the Keepers knew and I didn’t.”

“I’m sorry. I thought it would be better if-”

I didn’t even finish and Danny was reaching over to hug me.

“I can’t believe you’re married. My little sister is someone’s wife. I never thought I’d get the chance to be a brother-in-law, no offense.”

“None taken. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I understand, it just sucks is all. I mean, I could’ve walked you down the aisle since dad isn’t here. I would’ve loved that,” he whispered the last part, like it was a secret that he was letting me in on.

I just smiled and held him, trying not to cry. I understood. If he had eloped I would have wrung his neck but desperate times called for desperate measures.

A quick glance over at Merrick and Jeff and I saw two smiles.

“You two are so human, I hope you know that,” I told them through a comical tear strained voice and Jeff stifled a short laugh unsuccessfully.

“Danny, I’m sorry,” Merrick, still bent down, reached over to shake his hand as he spoke.

“It’s cool. I may not be thrilled but I understand why you had to do it that way. I would say you better be good to her but, I already know you will be,” Danny said with such a conviction, that too made me want to cry even more.

“Thanks. I appreciate that and I will.”

“Ok,” Danny breathes and rubbed his hand over his face. “So back to the fact that I’m a freak. What do we do other than keep quiet?”

“We’ll figure it all out. Do you feel ok physically?” Jeff asked bending back down to examine him more closely.

“Um. I guess. Just really tired lately. I gotta tell Celeste. She’s not going to buy the ‘I’m sick’ story forever, especially with her checking on me once an hour.”

“That’s ok, just tell her to keep quiet about it until we find out something. Merrick and I will discuss what we need to do and let you know.”

We all stood up, except Danny. He did look tired even though he had slept all night and then some. His eyes were pale and glazed like he was fighting an infection. That must have had something to do with this new ability. The Muses wrath drained my strength so it made sense to assume that all the supernatural stuff would follow the same rules.