Page 35 of Daddy's Little Sunshine

The room grew brighter and she tilted her head again, squinting at the bright light shining from the high ceiling. It was far brighter than any light she’d ever seen. Almost as bright as the sun.

“It’s a simulation, dear,” the voice informed her, as if it could hear her thoughts. “The atmosphere in this room will react just as if you were standing outside. Continue.”

Tearing her eyes away from the fake sun, she blinked rapidly to clear the dots from her vision and looked back at her parents. Still smiling, still holding their arms open, waiting for an embrace.It’s just a simulation.With that realization, the fake sky above her clouded and a soft rain began to fall. The image of her parents blinked away, and they were replaced by a smirking Donovan.

“Hey, sunshine.”

Her heart nearly shattered. She was never going to see him again. Not the real him. She would never feel his arms aroundher again, or his lips on hers. Even knowing she’d never feel his heavy hand blistering her bottom again made her ache for him.

The clouds in the fake sky turned black. Wind whipped around her, spinning the clouds above her into a funnel. Remembering her lessons with Daddy, she focused every bit of rage and heartache into the tornado. It spun around her, faster and faster, until she heard the spiderweb tinkling of glass splintering.

The alarms began to sound, and the room filled with panicked shouts. The winds lifted her until she was eye to eye with the white-coated people on the observation deck. Most of them ran for cover, but a few stood in place, writing furiously on their clipboards even as the winds pulled at their coats.

Without warning, the winds died, and she fell to the floor of the white room again. There was a sickeningcrunchand pain radiated through her right leg. The bracelet on her wrist flashed red.

“You’re even more impressive than we’d imagined!” the cheerful voice sounded nearly giddy. “Let’s get you to the hospital wing and get that leg looked at, shall we?”

The wall to her left slid open again, and two burly guards walked in. Just because they’d switched off their fake sky didn’t mean she couldn’t fight. She reached for the lightning, but she couldn’t feel it any longer.

“What did you do to me?” she screamed as the guards hauled her up.

“Naughty girl,” the cheerful voice said with a softtsk.“Did you think we wouldn’t take precautions against your powers, my dear? Take her to the hospital wing, gentlemen. We need to get that leg looked at.”

At his instruction, one of the guards scooped her up and carried her from the room.

“Let me go!” Lainey screamed and smacked her fists against the guard’s chest. It was like punching a brick wall. “Please! Somebody! Help me!”

“Nobody can hear you down here, girl. So just save your strength.” The guards shared a knowing, chill-inducing look between them. “You’re going to need it.”

Donovan

Donovan pushed the speed limit as much as he dared, praying the entire way to any god who might be listening that he reached her in time. Ms. Edith had been unusually quiet the entire ride, save for when she was giving him directions.

“Take a left at the next road. Slow down or you’ll miss it.”

Grinding his teeth against an irrational wave of anger, Donovan did as he was told and slowed the car. At the next road, he turned the wheel left.

More goddamned farmland. “Ms. Edith, are you sure this is right? All I see is a bunch of nothing.”

She snorted softly. “It’s not called ‘The Farm’ for nothing, Donny. It’s literally a farm.”

Of course, it was. “How the hell do you know all this, anyway?”

“This is where the church sends the people whose powers put them in trouble with the law or cost them their families. I come out here once a month to talk to them and help put them at ease about the rehabilitation program. That’s what I always thought, anyway.”

It made sense, in a way. The church was practicing what he’d always known: The best way to keep anyone from guessing your secrets, was to pretend like you didn’t have any. The regular members would get suspicious if all these people just disappeared to The Farm and were never seen again. By bringing select people out here to mentor or what-the-fuck-ever they wanted to call it, word of the good works being done at The Farm would spread like wildfire through the church. Which had an added bonus of encouraging the rank and file to try and bring people into the fold, like Ms. Edith had tried to do with Lainey.

“How did you get involved with the church?” It probably didn’t matter at this point, but there was no such thing as too much information in a situation like this.

“I saw a flier for their weekly meetings and figured it couldn’t hurt. Everyone was so nice. And it was nice to be around people who weren’t afraid to show off their powers. It gets old, living in fear,” she finished quietly.

He couldn’t hold that against her. Hell, if it hadn’t been for the information Rico had given him, he might have let Lainey go to one of those meetings at some point. Though he’d have been happy being a bit of a loner, he understood how others might need to connect.

“What’s your power, if you don’t mind me asking?”

With a small, satisfied smile, Ms. Edith tapped her temple. “I know things.”

Donovan glanced over and raised an eyebrow. “You can read minds?”

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