Empower

by Ashley Stambaugh

  “Melina,” Lee said as he gently touched her arm.

  “No,” she said as she shrugged him off and then pointed a finger at Dean. “I will not let you do this! I will not let you throw away your gift.”

  Dean shook his head again. “I’m sorry, but I… I just can’t.” He turned away from her and shut the door.

  “No!” she yelled again as she hit her hand on the door.

  “Melina, please,” Lee said as he grabbed her arm. “That’s not going to do any good right now.”

  She kept her eyes on the door as he pulled her back toward the parking lot. How could Dean do this? How could he let someone change his mind so drastically? She tried to think about what she would do if Lee asked her to forget about her powers. Would she ignore them in order to keep him? She shook her head. Even though she wouldn’t want to lose Lee, it would be almost impossible for her to ignore her powers. And not just because she wouldn’t want to, but because she wouldn’t be able to. Unless she wanted to become a hermit and never have any outside contact.

  When they had reached the parking lot, Melina turned to face Lee and looked him straight in the eyes. “You wouldn’t ever ask me to give up using my powers, would you? To ignore them, like I didn’t have them?”

  “Of course not,” he said.

  “Even if things got to be too much for you to handle?”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her. “Um… I think we’ve been there, done that, and I’m still here, right?”

  She gave him a small smile, but then her concern for Dean took over again. “I just can’t believe that Lynn is doing this to him, and that he’s letting her do this to him.” She shook her head. “He may have been a little overwhelmed by his powers, but he never said that he didn’t want them. He always seemed proud to have them.”

  Lee reached out and grabbed her hands. “Trust me. When a man is in love with a woman, he’ll do some pretty crazy things for her.”

  She smiled at him again. “I would never want you to do anything crazy for me. Or to drastically change yourself. I love you for who you are.”

  “Ditto,” he said and then leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

  Melina sighed as she closed her eyes and kissed him back. He always had a way of making her feel at ease.” You know,” she said as she pulled away. “I would love to keep this going, but I think we should get back.”

  His brow creased. “You’re just going to give up? That’s not like you.”

  “Oh I’m not giving up. There’s just not much more I can do right now. Come on,” she said as she grabbed his arm. “Let’s find a place to teleport out of here.” She started to lead him away from the building when suddenly she heard a door slamming shut behind her. She whirled around and saw a tall, slender woman with long brown hair walking toward them.

  “So… you’re Melina,” the woman said as she approached.

  Melina nodded. “I am.”

  “Lynn.” The woman stared at Melina as she extended her hand.

  Melina hesitated at first then slowly reached out and shook her hand.

  “Well,” Lynn said as she pulled her hand back and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let me reiterate something. You obviously either didn’t read my e-mail or you just didn’t get it, but Dean does not want to talk to you. Understand?”

  Melina furrowed her brow and gritted her teeth. “The only reason he doesn’t want to talk to me is because you’re telling him not to.”

  Lynn shrugged. “The reason why doesn’t matter. He doesn't want to talk to you anymore.”

  “But—”

  “Just leave him alone!” Lynn yelled in Melina’s face. “For the third time, he does not want to talk to you, so stop trying to contact him!” She stared Melina down for a few seconds then spun around and stormed off back to Dean’s apartment, letting the door slam shut behind her.

  Melina stared over at the door then turned to look at Lee.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I’m fine.” She hooked her arm through his and started walking away again. “Let’s go home.”

  When they arrived back in Lee’s apartment, Melina let out a sigh of relief. They had both made it back safely.

  Lee let go of Melina and shook out his hands. “I’ve only teleported a few times now, but it’s one of the strangest and most uncomfortable feelings. I guess I thought it might get better the more I did it.” He looked over at her as he rubbed his arms.

  She let out a short laugh. “It does. Trust me. I barely notice it now.”

  “That’s good to know,” he said and then gave her a conciliatory look. “I’m sorry things didn’t go well with Dean.”

  She shook her head. “I still can’t believe he’s letting her get to him like that.”

  Lee stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. “Like I said, love can make a person do crazy things.”

  She cupped his face in her hands and gave him a quick kiss. “Thank you for going with me. After seeing all that, I feel even luckier than I usually do that I have your support.”

  “You’ll always have my support. I’m not going anywhere.”

  She gave him another peck on his forehead. “I need to get back to the store. Can I call you later?”

  “Of course,” he said. “My buddy Greg is remodeling his kitchen, and I told him I would come over tonight to help him move a few things, but it shouldn’t take too long.”

  “Okay. I’ll understand if you don’t answer then, but I’ll still try. Talk to you later.” She gave him a small wave then closed her eyes and teleported back to her place.

  When she appeared back in her living room, she threw all of her things down onto the kitchen counter then made her way downstairs to the store. The first person she saw was Gwen.

  “Hi, Gwen,” she said as she approached the front counter.

  “Well hello,” Gwen said. “That was a quick trip.”

  “Yeah, it didn’t go so well.”

  Gwen raised her eyebrows.

  “I’ll explain later,” Melina said. “Where’s Tessa?” She glanced around the store, eager to see how her friend was acting now.

  “Oh, she’s on her lunch break. She should be back any minute, though.”

  Melina nodded. “So how was she?”

  “She was fine,” Gwen said. “Until a young couple came in, that is. She made a rude comment to the girl then stormed off and shut herself in your office.”

  Melina’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”

  Gwen held up her hand. “I apologized to the couple then went and talked to Tessa and tried to calm her down.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I said I tried to calm her down.” Gwen’s forehead wrinkled as she shook her head. “She was really upset. Almost too upset. I got Carl to cover the floor and sat and talked with her for a good twenty minutes or more, and even then she only calmed down a little before she got up and left for her lunch break.”

  Melina glanced up at the clock. “As soon as she gets back, I’ll talk to her some more.” She reached out and touched Gwen’s arm. “Thank you for trying to help her. She’s lucky that you care about her so much. We both are.”

  Gwen’s eyes started to water as she gave her a small nod. “You two are like the children I never had.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and then walked back out onto the floor.

  Melina cocked her head to the side. Gwen had made comments before about how she thought of Tessa and her as family, but she had never gotten emotional about it. Was something going on with Gwen? She had been so worried about Tessa, but maybe she needed to be paying attention to Gwen, too.

  She glanced up at the clock and decided to go and wait for Tessa in her office. There were some bills that needed to be paid, along with some other paperwork that needed her attention, so there was plenty to keep her worried mind occupied.

  After Melina was finished with all of her paperwork, she glanced up at the clock and s
aw that over an hour had passed, and Tessa still wasn’t back. Maybe she just hadn’t heard her come in.

  Melina stood up from her chair and walked out into the store to look for Tessa, but as she gazed around the room, she only saw Gwen and a few customers. Where could Tessa be? She started to head back into her office to grab her phone but then remembered she had left it in her apartment. She turned back around and made her way upstairs.

  When she walked into her living room, she went over to the counter and grabbed her phone out of her purse. She tried to call Tessa a couple of times but had no luck. It just rang and rang then went to voice mail. Her first instinct was to grab her keys and drive over to Tessa’s condo, but that was going to have to wait. She couldn’t keep running out on Gwen and her other employees. She needed to stay and help with the store. Maybe she could shut it down early, though. The store didn’t really have set closing hours, so people would understand if it was closed a little earlier.

  When five o’clock rolled around, though, there was a rush of customers. She had already sent Gwen and Carl home for the day, so Melina did her best to take care of all of them in a timely fashion. About half an hour later they were all gone, so Melina shut down the store, grabbed her coat and purse, and rushed out to her Jeep.

  She pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward Tessa’s. Hopefully her friend was home. Because if she wasn’t, Melina wasn’t quite sure where else to look.

  As she was driving through the downtown area, Melina noticed that there seemed to be a lot of people out and about. She was looking around, wondering if there was some sort of event going on nearby, when a man and woman stumbled out in front of her. She slammed on her brakes and looked up at the couple.

  They were screaming at each other, completely oblivious of their surroundings. Their hands were flying all over the place, and their eyes… Melina leaned forward in her seat, making sure she wasn’t imagining things. Their eyes were completely black.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Melina blinked her eyes a couple of times then looked back up at the couple. Their eyes didn’t change back to normal like the woman’s in the coffee shop had. They remained solid black. She continued to watch them when suddenly they both stopped yelling at each other and turned their attention to her.

  She held her breath and her body went rigid as they both glared at her. A few seconds passed, and then they both bared their teeth and hissed at Melina before taking off across the street. She watched them run away until she could no longer see them and then slowly turned her eyes back to the road and drove off.

  “What in the world was that all about?” As she replayed the incident in her mind, she couldn’t get over how strange their behavior had been. They had hissed at her. It was almost like they were… “No,” she said out loud to herself as she hastily shook her head. They couldn’t have been Noxin demons. Their eyes would’ve been red, not black. No, they were definitely humans. But what was wrong with them? The whole thing continued to plague her until she finally reached her destination.

  Tessa’s car was parked out front, but all of the lights inside her condo were off. Well, at least the ones in the front of the house were. She parked her Jeep along the side of the street and then made her way up to the condo. Tessa’s bedroom was in the back part of the house on the second floor, so she quietly made her way around the bushes along the side and peeked up at her window. The light was on. She was home.

  Melina started to head back to the front of the house to ring the doorbell when out of the corner of her eye she saw someone in a dark red coat dash behind the bushes in the back yard. She spun around, trying to see who it was, but there was nothing there. Nothing except a cloud of black smoke.

  Melina’s body froze. A dark red coat followed by black smoke. That only meant one thing to her. Maura.

  No, she thought to herself. Once again, you can’t let fear get the best of you. You have to stand up to her. You have to fight…

  And just then a huge surge of anger rushed through her, and her entire insides felt like they were on fire. Her eyes snapped shut as she desperately tried to push the feelings away. “Not now, not now!” she cried.

  She placed her hand on the side of the condo to steady herself and took in a couple of deep breaths. The anger in her was starting to weaken when all of a sudden she was ambushed from the side. Her attacker shoved her up against the house, the back of her head slamming into the siding. She winced at the sudden pain and opened her mouth to scream, but before anything had a chance to come out, her throat was surrounded by a strong, burning grip. Gasping for air, she opened her eyes and came face to face with a pale, slender woman with long black hair, dressed in a dark red coat. It was Maura.

  The anger in her fired back up as she gritted her teeth and started to grab at Maura’s hand. She desperately tried to pry it off of her throat, but it was no use. The demon was strong, even in her human form, but Melina wasn’t giving up. She tried twisting her body from side to side, and when that didn’t work she started kicking out her feet, trying to hit Maura. None of it worked. Maura had her pinned down too tight.

  Taking in strained breaths, Melina looked directly at the demon. “What do you want?”

  Maura gave her an evil grin and then let out a low, menacing laugh. “I’m just ensuring that everything is still going according to my plan.”

  “Why Tessa?” Melina asked as she continued to struggle.

  Maura cocked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Melina narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw. “If you don’t—”

  Maura jerked Melina away from the wall and then slammed her head back against it again.

  Melina groaned and closed her eyes again as pain shot up through her skull. She prayed she wouldn't pass out.

  “Now you listen to me,” Maura snarled. “You and your little angel friends need to give up on your quest to stop our plan.”

  “We’ll never give up, and we will stop it,” Melina said as she opened her eyes.

  “There is no stopping it!” Maura yelled. “It’s already started. And now that it’s started, the damage can’t be undone.”

  Melina stared hard back at Maura. The anger in her felt like it was about to boil over. “Then what are you waiting for? Kill me!”

  Maura’s grip on Melina tightened as her eyebrows raised in delight. “Ooh, feisty! I like it.”

  “Just get it over with!”

  Maura let out a low chuckle and slowly shook her head. “Oh no. Not yet. You have some pain you need to endure first.”

  Melina let out a loud, frustrated scream and just at that moment all the anger and burning inside of her seemed to explode, and she felt a rush of power. A soft glow that had the appearance of white flames started to emanate from her hands as she slowly started to pry Maura’s fingers back from around her neck. The demon’s eyes widened at Melina’s sudden strength.

  The fiery glow from Melina’s hands continued to intensify as the strength in her continued to build. When she had removed Maura’s hand from her neck, she could feel the burn marks left on her skin from Maura’s fingers starting to heal. Then suddenly Melina’s light shield, which now looked like white flickering flames surrounding her in a circle, burst out, causing Maura to shriek and fly back onto the ground. Melina stood up straight and glared down at the demon. Maura snarled at her and then vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

  Melina’s light shield diminished as she fell back against the side of the house and let out an exhale of relief. After taking a moment to catch her breath, her mind began to race. When the anger and fiery sensation had arisen in her before, she had always calmed herself down and made them go away. But when she hadn’t been able to do that, the result was something she hadn’t expected. The feeling and the strength she’d had was… empowering. But did that feeling come from a good place or a bad one?

  She was sure some of it had to do with her human emotions amplifying her powers, but it was her negative emotions that had
triggered it. And she had healed the burns on her neck, so that meant that her demon powers were active. Was that why the normal white glow of her powers and her light shield now looked like white flames?

  “No,” she said out loud as she shook her head. If the feeling she had experienced was the result of her demon powers, then she wanted nothing to do with it. No matter how strong it had made her feel.

  She knew she had reversed the demon powers to do good, but they had still come from an evil source. And since they had come from an evil source, she feared that by using them, the evil in her that she had fought so hard to overcome might rise up in her again. That’s why she always fought so hard to make any negative feelings go away. A small sigh escaped her as she leaned her head back. “I really need to talk to Walter.”

  So much had happened within the past few days. She was sure she had seen Adelia behind her store, she saw the people in the coffee shop and the couple in the street become extremely angry and have their eyes turn black, Dean was acting strange, and she had just had a very unpleasant encounter with Maura. But as much as she wanted to call out to Walter right then and there, she knew he was busy. She also needed to go and check on Tessa.

  She pushed off from the wall, made her way around to the front of the house, and knocked on the front door. A minute or so had passed and there was still no response. She knocked again, this time louder. Several seconds later she heard the latch unlock, and when the door opened there stood Tessa, a puzzled look on her face.

  Melina returned her expression. She had expected anger from her friend, not confusion. “Tessa? Are you all right?”

  “Um, I think so,” Tessa said as she raised her hand up and rubbed her head. “I’m not really sure.”

  “May I come in so we can talk?”

  “Yeah. Come on in.” Tessa turned around and started walking back into the house.