The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,32

jacket up prominently for Landon to see.

“Sure,” Landon said, distracted.

His eyes were solely trained on the pants; he couldn’t figure out why he didn’t notice them earlier. He walked over, picked up the pair of worn jeans and pulled them toward him. A note fell to the floor. Riley quickly grabbed it and handed it back to Landon, who opened it up and read it.

Landon,

I hope you like your new space. I know you didn’t come with much, so I have taken the liberty to acquire all the necessary items to make your stay here as comfortable as possible.

You will notice that I have stocked your drawers and closet with an assortment of clothing and shoes that I hope you find to your liking. I used Dr. Marquez’s measurements to determine your size, so everything should fit. I found you some nice linens and put together a modest set of personal hygiene products. I also managed to get you a new laptop and a set of all the appropriate reading materials that you’ll need for your studies.

And if you’re reading this, it means you noticed I was able to rescue your old jeans from the incinerator. It was a perilous mission, but I returned victorious.

I told you I’d take care of everything.

Welcome to your new home,

- Sofia

“You okay?” Riley asked while Landon read over the note a second time.

“Ye . . . Yeah, everything’s fine,” Landon replied. “I can’t believe all this is happening.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. Give it a few days and it’ll feel just like home,” Riley said. “Anyways, I’ll leave you to get used to your new place. The community bathrooms with showers are down the hall to the right. And I’m heading to the Rec Center on the second floor for a while if you feel like joining, but if not, I guess I will see you tomorrow at breakfast? Eight o’clock, sound good? Afterwards, you can come with me to Telekinetics. I kind of feel responsible for making sure you don’t get lost on your first day of training.”

“Yeah,” Landon replied. “Eight o’clock. I’ll be there.”

Riley grabbed the door handle and closed the door on his way out, leaving Landon alone in his new residence.

Landon stood in the same spot for a while, taking in his new surroundings. Eventually, he put the jeans on the dresser and spent the next half hour making the bed and going through all of his new stuff, mentally cataloguing what he had and where it was. Everything seemed normal, except the laptop. There was no power cord or even an input for the charger cable. Landon turned it over in his hands multiple times, trying to figure out how it worked. How does this thing stay on? he wondered. What is it, solar powered or something? If it was, he’d have a problem . . . no windows.

Landon plopped down onto the bed, physically and mentally exhausted from the day. Is this really happening? How can a place like this even exist? he thought as he stared at the white ceiling. What wardrobe did I walk through, because this place is a whole other world? As Landon contemplated everything he’d gone through in the past two days, he slowly began to accept that the Gymnasium was his new home. All of a sudden, he felt himself choking up and his eyes getting watery as the reality of his mother’s death resurfaced in his mind. If they knew I was a psychokinetic, why didn’t they get me earlier? Why couldn’t they train me before everything happened?

CHAPTER SIX

GREAT

EXPECTATIONS

Landon woke at 7:15 in the morning, feeling completely unrested. He wasn’t sure exactly when he fell asleep, but he was certain it had been early. But throughout the night, images of Landon’s mother and his apocratusis flashed through his dreams, startling him awake over and over again. He had killed his parents, and he couldn’t shake that fact from his mind, no matter how much he wanted.

As Landon moved about the room and got his things together to take a shower down the hall, he realized he had yet to meet his roommate. Landon expected some shaky introduction and awkward tension to occur the night before when Brock came in, but he never did, and every time he woke up, he looked over to Brock’s bed, worried he might have woken him too, but Brock was never there. Landon found it strange that on his first night in this foreign place, his