David, what do I do? I can’t hold them off! There had to be something I could do! I racked my brain thinking through every lesson I ever had, trying to find an answer.
I’ll be there in 20 minutes. He thought to me.
It was at that moment I realized that some of the weaker ones were coming closer to me. My mom, still kneeling beside me, stiffened at their approach. She held her head high, though there was nothing she could do to defend herself. I lifted myself up to a kneeling position; I knew I couldn’t stand so I didn’t even try. I held Sam in my arms and grabbed for my mother’s hand. I wouldn’t be able to run. We couldn’t fight. I only was going to die with them in my arms. I don’t have 20 minutes. I thought sadly.
The youngest man, who was horrendously evil looking, walked right up to me and reached out his arm to hit me. I braced myself for the impact. But it didn’t come. I saw his arm swing through the air only to be stopped by my purple fire. His hand caught fire, and as he burned, he started screaming bloody murder. Shock crossed my face, as it did all the Rising members I could see.
The others who had walked up with him stopped and turned to look at Damien, waiting for instruction. Damien looked at the screaming man with distain. The fire didn’t spread from his hand, but it didn’t go out either, his hand just kept burning and burning as he continued thrashing around, wildly out of control.
In my head, David was talking again. Listen, you can do this, Allison. You will not let them past your shield. And while you have it up, you need to try to kill them.
He must be crazy! How, David? I can barely move. It’s taking all my strength just to kneel and not be smashed face first into the ground.
That is just your physical strength. Your power is stronger than your body. You can kill them through telepathy. Reach out to them with your mind. Not like you are trying to hear their thoughts, but like you are trying to throw your thoughts at them. Similar to what you did just now to get me to hear you. You have to reach into their minds and throw your power into them. You can do this, Allison! That last sentence was filled with such confidence that he once again gave me hope.
During our internal conversation, Damien had been debating whether to send the rest of his minions over to get burned as well. I didn’t wait for his decision. I started my attack. Considering how much power I was using to hold my shield intact, it was almost freeing to allow it to roam towards the Rising members around me. I had practiced so hard in the Compound to keep my power under control, but now I was allowing it to fly unconditionally. It felt like a dam on a lake that had broken and allowed the water to finally run free.
I closed my eyes and searched with my mind, hunting for the black holes I recognized to be their brains. I found all ten of them, including Damien. I wasn’t sure if I should attack them all at once or one at a time, but as I saw Damien nod the start of their assault, I had no choice but to attack as many as possible.
With all the black spots clearly pinpointed in my mind, I reached out with my power. Instantly I could hear what they were thinking, their loyalty to Damien, their hate for me and for the Order, and their fear of being unsuccessful and of the pain of my fire. With the channel open, I sent as much power as I could manage into those black holes, filling them up with a deep purple light that continued to brighten as time went on.
I saw them stop in their tracks, and as the light in their minds grew and the black faded, their screams grew louder. I could tell that only the weaker ones were screaming, the light in them almost full force now. But the stronger ones had only a small spark of purple that kept trying to grow, yet kept being put out. Damien’s black hole seemed completely unaffected by my light.
Soon the screams started to change into blood curdling growls, and then died off completely. I covered Sam’s eyes, as I saw them fall to the ground, blood dripping from their mouths and noses. With the weakest now gone, I sent more power into the remaining black holes.
I noticed them flinch slightly, and realized they had to use more effort to try and look unaffected. Their black holes started to lighten and I could feel them consciously trying to extinguish it. They were not successful, but neither was I. It was a standstill.
Damien’s black hole only had the tiniest pinprick of purple, but I could see his mind. He feared me. He truly believed I might be able to kill him and his thoughts gave me hope. I tried to push my light into him harder, but to no avail. He hated me; he was imagining all the things he would do to me and my family. I started to gag at the images in his head.
It was at that moment he realized the channel was open. He flooded my mind with his power and I fell to the ground, my face smashed in the grass, and covered my head with my hands in a feeble attempt to keep him out. My muscles tensed and my body shook.
The pain was unbearable. I could try to compare it to the only other unbearable pain I’ve felt, childbirth, but this was even worse. This was beyond my comprehension. It was beyond the natural laws of the universe. No one person should ever feel this pain, it was too much, it was killing me.
He laughed once, reveling in my pain. I tried to block him out and ignore him, but I couldn’t. He was everywhere, in my mind and body, he was torturing me from the inside out and from the outside in.
I held my own against his companions though. They were still fighting my purple light. My mom lifted me and held me to her, rocking me, comforting me, supporting me. Sam stood up and started to dance. I didn’t recognize the moves, but it was beautiful. She didn’t have any power yet, but she was showing me her support. She was trying to help.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. I closed my eyes, and started to give in.
Chapter 14
Return
My fiery shield stayed unbroken, but my mind was wavering. I could feel myself starting to black out. My body went lax and my mother supported me even more. Sam continued her dance, a determined look on her face. It was at that moment I heard David. Don’t give up! I’m close!
I believed him, but how could I not give up? If I could just remain conscious, keep the evil at bay, I figured this could go nowhere. I couldn’t physically attack him and they couldn’t touch us. My power could not beat them, and I would not let theirs beat me.
I tried to block out the visions Damien was sending to me, the visions of torture and death, blood and guts, ruin and chaos. Images of the world he wanted to create.
He showed me that he opened four Seals so far – we hadn’t even known he had released the fourth horse yet. He showed me his plans to cause Russia to shoot their nuclear bombs at the United States and for China to bomb Europe. He showed me the disease that had already slaughtered billions of livestock and obliterated trillions of crops. He showed me what was next, thousands of airborne illnesses causing mass hysteria and death to millions. He had started The End. He was proud of it. He was confident in his plan to massacre millions and eliminate the Order. He was sure the Heaven would lose.
I decided on a final stand, literally. I would not die bowing before him. I would not lose this battle while lying on my face. I would stand to show him he would not win. And then hopefully he would freak and run away, at least, that was the plan anyways. I saw in his mind that he feared me killing him. It was a small fear, his pride overshadowed most of his other thoughts, and we both knew that it would not happen today.
I took a deep breath and stood. It was exactly as difficult as I imagined it would be. My legs began to shake beneath my weight; I reached out to my mom to steady myself. Samantha stopped dancing and came to stand next to me. She grabbed my hand and looked at me. “You can do this, Mama!” My heart swelled, she never called me ‘Mama’ anymore.
I pushed him out of my head and closed off that channel. He felt it and glared at me. Thank God looks couldn’t really kill. The remaining Rising members looked at him as if he called their names, though his lips never moved. He didn’t speak out loud, but they all nodded in obedience then turned and left much faster than I could have imagined. When the weaker ones had walked up
to me before, they hadn’t come fast. They moved slowly, like snakes slithering through the air. But when they turned and left now, it was so fast, after only a second had passed I could no longer see them at all.
Damien walked forward. Now that the others were gone, some of my power returned to me. I still was fighting to hold him off, and his power was still clawing at mine, pushing me down. He stopped maybe five feet in front of me. At first I thought he was going to lunge at me and try to beat me bloody. But he hesitated. Maybe he didn’t want to know if my fire would hurt him. I didn’t want to test it either. Samantha started crying quietly and I held her hand tighter.
He said apathetically, “I see you have been training.” I didn’t answer him, I didn’t move at all. I feared that if I didn’t continue to focus, I would lose it all and he would win. So he continued, “I will see you again. And you will not live to walk away from that meeting.” He said it like a promise. Then he turned and left, just the same as the others.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t. What if it was a trick? What if he turned around and attacked full force as soon as I let my guard down? My mom let out a loud sigh, but I couldn’t. Samantha reached up to me, but I knew I wasn’t able to hold her now. I knelt down next to her and hugged her.
It didn’t appear that anyone had seen what just happened. There were no nosy onlookers that I could see. I couldn’t feel or sense any other Rising members anywhere around. But still I couldn’t let go of my power.
Not even a full minute had passed when I heard a car screech around the corner. David parked in front of the house, not even bothering to pull into the driveway and ran up to us, stopping short just in front of me.
“Look at me.” I did as I was told. “Are you ok? Does it hurt?” David asked me.
“Hurt?” I asked, confused.
“You are on fire!” he almost whispered the words.
I looked down. I had almost forgotten. “I don’t want it to stop until I am sure they are gone.” I looked down and whispered, “I’m scared!” Despite how much I wanted to pull the power back in and contain it, I just couldn’t risk it.
“They are gone. I don’t detect a Rising member for,” he paused, “I don’t detect one at all, and I reached out over 300 miles. Central Texas seems pretty safe right now.” He was confident in his assessment.
I trusted him completely and I desperately wanted to rest and stop holding my shield up, so I slowly reeled in my power. I put out the fire from Mom first, then Sam. Then I pulled it close around me, pulling it back in. My toes were extinguished first, then my legs, my head, my torso, and lastly my hands. I took a deep breath, held it, and then exhaled loudly.
David stepped forward and I didn’t wait for him to come closer, I leaned into him. My goal was to hug him tightly, but I ended up falling onto him, needing his support so I didn’t fall onto my face again. He held me up, supporting me when my legs wouldn’t. I looked up into his eyes, and he looked down at me. I noticed there was something burning in his eyes, something deep and strong, but my mind wasn’t working well enough to figure out what it was. I wanted to tell him about it all. Wanted to explain what it felt like. But even more, I wanted to explain the relief I felt when I saw him, the safety and security I was instantly filled with when he came near.
I wanted to tell him how I felt about him, now that I almost died and lost my entire family to a raving, evil lunatic. I wanted to tell him to kiss me and make it all better.
But I couldn’t seem to form any words. My thoughts zoomed through my mind at the speed of light, no longer coherent.
“Everything is ok. Rest now. I’ll keep them safe.” He assured me. And before I could even attempt to say anything back, everything went black around me.
***
I was in a bed, still half asleep when I heard them talking. “No, Rick, you should have seen her! It was amazing. She was freakin’ on fire! Literally!” I thought it was strange David was talking like that. I don’t think I ever had heard him say, ‘freakin’’ before. The way he said it made him sound in awe of me. If I had been fully conscious, I would have smiled. Even now, I’m pretty sure I was smiling subconsciously.
“I have never heard of that happening…” Rick answered honestly. He too sounded amazed. Though it was scary to remember what they were talking about, I felt a sense of pride surrounding me. I had kept my family safe. More specifically, my power had kept us all safe. He didn’t hurt them at all.
David was still talking, “I know, me neither. But I saw it with my own eyes. She had covered Sam and her mother in it as well. According to them, the fire didn’t hurt them at all; in fact, they could barely feel it. But when a Rising member tried to hit her, it lit his hand on fire.” I cringed at the memory. “And she called to me. I was at least 30 miles away, but she called to me. It was like… the opposite of telepathy. I could hear her without even trying.”
“Amazing!” Rick now had the same tone as David, the tone of admiration and respect. “It doesn’t surprise me they believe she is the one, she has so much power!”
David spoke, “But you know she can’t be.” I tried to listen harder. This was important to me. I wanted to know what they were saying, but I started drifting back out, the black creeping in again. I had the strangest feeling of déjà vu, and I chuckled to myself, not out loud, just in my head. Just a couple of months ago I was in a hospital eavesdropping on Rick and David talking about me after my first encounter with Damien. Funny how things repeated themselves. Then I blacked out again.
***
“Good morning!” David greeted me. I had just opened my eyes, and I saw him sitting next to my bed. We were still at my mother’s house, which I was excited about; I would have been upset if we had gone back to the compound before I even had the opportunity to spend any time with her.
As I looked at him, his eyes bore into mine. There was something different about him, something less reserved. The way he looked at me made my stomach flip and my skin flush. I remembered all the thoughts that had gone through my head the last time I looked into those eyes.
Thankfully, I didn’t start blushing; it would have been embarrassing to blush for no reason other than a man looking at me. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I looked back, memorizing his face again. He was so handsome, with his honey brown hair and hazel eyes, strong jaw and full pink lips. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in a while, normally his chin was smooth, but at the moment he had stubble all across it. He was perfect.
I finally managed to squeak out, “Good morning to you too, David.”
He smiled again and I smiled back. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
I thought about that. I felt loads better. Maybe a little stiff, but I must have been asleep for a while. I had firm control of my power, including my internal shield, and nothing threatened to slip. More than anything, I felt a little numb. “I’m ok. I feel weird though, pretty stiff. How long was I asleep?”
“You were out for three days!” He sounded just as surprised as I was. “If I didn’t know better, I would have thought you were in a coma. Of course I knew you weren’t, I knew your body was just fine. But you had to recuperate. You allowed so much power to flow for so long; it had to take its toll.” He paused and then offered, “I can take away the stiffness, if you want.”
“Yes, please.” I reached out my hand. He helped me sit, while enveloping me in his power and alleviating all my discomfort. “So, three days, huh? What have you been doing?” If I had been out for three days, that would mean that he was long past his time to return to the Compound.
“Samantha and your mom have been having a blast. She has shown your mother all the dances she learned, told her all about the Compound. They have just been talking constantly. I’m hanging around to make sure you are both ok. Rick stopped by for a day, but left this morning. You are going to stay until the end of the week.”
Exciting! “Thanks, David!”
“You deserve it; you need to spend some time with your mom,” h
e said, then looked down, “But, I don’t. I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning.” Wow, it was crazy how much that statement affected me. It’s not like I hadn’t been spending every day for the last couple of months with him or anything. Why should a couple of days apart be so hard to consider? I suppose it could have been the near death experience that had made me realize how very short life can be. If I had given in, for just a second, Damien could have killed my mother, and me, and killed Sam before she even had a chance to live.
“Why aren’t you staying?” I let my sadness seep into my words. I didn’t have any urge to hide my feelings from him anymore.
“There is no need. I have other responsibilities at the Compound. You are well now. You just needed rest. You can protect them just as well as I can, maybe better. And you need time with your family,” he said, matter-of-fact.
He stood to leave, and I asked, “You are leaving now?” I tried to keep the edge of hysteria out of my tone, but I think it might have shown through a little. “I just woke up. What if I’m not really ok? What if they came back?” I shivered as I asked, not because I was cold, but because that thought really did scare the hell out of me.
He came back to me, sat down on my bed very close to me, placed his hand on mine and looked into my eyes as he said, “If I thought you were in any danger, I would not leave you right now. I know you are ok physically, I healed you myself. You will be fine, and so will your family. Damien will not come back, not after what happened. Please don’t worry. Enjoy your time here with your mother and I will see you soon.”
I held his gaze, not wanting to look away, and not allowing him to either. I could feel his hand on mine; the warmth spreading up my arm and through me, igniting the fire deep within. It was not the same warmth my power offered, it was different, deeper.
The way he looked at me now was not so much causing the butterflies and the tingly feeling in my stomach, but a much deeper yearning. It was a need now, no longer a want. It was a desire so primitive I had no hope for escaping it. It was passion.
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