“I won’t let them hurt you, okay? They may act like they’re in charge but I can really call the shots around here.” Erica laughed softly, opening the cage and letting Summer out. She waited for her to emerge and looked over to the wolves, whispering at them so Summer wouldn’t hear. “Be nice.”
She crawled out on hands and knees, wishing desperately she could wash, or eat, or clean clothes, or /anything/ really to make her feel more confident. A hairbrush. /Something/. She brushed her hands down her clothes, swallowing hard, then looked up at Derek. He was the one she would have to convince, because Peter had clearly given up.
He was the one that frightened her. Peter used words; he manipulated and probed and slid into the mind. She understood that. But Derek — Derek seemed to operate on his own rules, his own honor, and she didn’t comprehend it. Just that she had somehow to prove she wasn’t the threat they thought she was.
“I’m an empath,” she began, and immediately felt foolish for repeating herself. “I can sense what you feel. It’s like hearing; I can’t really turn it off with just myself, only reduce the input, like covering your ears. I can disregard some input, the way you, um, you overlook familiar sounds. And, um, I can sense from a lot of different people around me.”
She breathed hard, and locked her hands together, trying not to tremble. “And, uh, I can impose emotions on people. I can make them feel what I want, or not feel something. Take it away. I, I — I could have make you feel friendly to me. But I didn’t! I didn’t do that. It’s not … right.”
Erica wanted to hug the girl and tell her that everything was going to be okay. She had no idea why but she felt like she needed to protect her. It wasn’t like Erica to be that nurturing but seeing her in the cage had sparked something inside of her. She looked over to Derek as Summer explained what being an empath meant but then turned back when she mentioned controlling emotions. Did that mean..?
She took a step back from her as Derek voiced the concern that she was just thinking “But if we decide to trust you, how do we know that you aren’t making us do so? How do we know that Erica isn’t being controlled by you right now because being friendly isn’t exactly in her nature.
Summer swallowed hard. Their fear reached out and tapped at all the aching places inside of her, familiar and hurtful; the same reaction that everyone had when they knew what she was. Staring at the floor, she closed her eyes and said, voice raw, “If you still feel the same way when I’m asleep it’s yours. Even if you don’t believe me now. I promise — I swear. I don’t do those things.”