by R. A. Rock
“Oh yeah. I can’t wait,” he said, his face showing that he was clearly imagining everything he wanted to do to Zoe.
“So, do we have a deal?” I said, doing some mental gymnastics that made my head hurt. I split my mind so that I could keep talking and at the same time go into my public mind and find Brett’s brick. I had never done this while trying to carry on a conversation at the same time and it was excruciatingly difficult.
Brett seemed to be considering.
“Why don’t you put down the gun and we’ll get that brat out of your hair.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “Why don’t I just kick her over? It’d be easier.”
Nessa had tears in her eyes and she looked like she was going to kill Brett.
“Are you kidding?” I said, with a big smile. “And miss the chance to torture them for a lifetime? No way. You don’t want to do that.”
He thought about it and then he scowled. As if he had figured out he was being manipulated.
“You know what? Maybe I won’t take advice from red headed strangers. You people are all the devil’s spawn anyway.”
And with that, he dropped the gun and pulled back his foot to give the chair a mighty kick.
In that instant, everything dropped into slow motion. I closed my eyes and pulled out Brett’s brick, pushing his mind suddenly into a deep sleep.
“Now!” I sent to Gracie at the same time.
My eyes flew open and I saw Brett, eyes closed and clearly sleeping, get pushed back by an unseen hand. Unfortunately, though his feet were three inches away, they slid as he fell and knocked the chair off the edge.
Nessa screamed and dove forward but there was no way that she was going to make it there in time. I wished desperately, not for the first time, that I was a Kinetic. Or at least that Gracie had her powers. The child was going to die and none of us could do anything about it.
Then something weird happened.
Nessa was suddenly under the chair, arm’s outstretched, and the chair slowed down and fell softly until she caught it and set her daughter safely on the ground.
“Gracie,” Shiv said. “Your powers are back.”
Gracie was staring in open-mouthed awe.
“No, Shiv. They’re not. That wasn’t me.”
My exhausted mind tried to figure out what was going on but the earlier mental acrobatics had taken their toll and a moment later, I was out cold.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAD
A scream of agony brought me back to consciousness. I opened my eyes to see that the candles and lamp were out and only the dim light of the stars illuminated the scene in the cabin.
And holy shit had things gone to hell in the few minutes I had been out. I got to my feet. Ernest was lying not far from me, bleeding. He had obviously been shot. Grace and Shiv were no where to be seen and Yumi was dangling from Hadley’s shoulder being carried out the door. He had obviously hurt her arm again because her face was white and her eyes were dazed with suffering.
“Chad,” Yumi’s mental voice was full of pain. I got up and started out the door, grabbing Brett’s shotgun off the floor as I went. I listened to her mental voice as I followed the giant who was carrying her towards the commotion at the beach. “Brett’s gone with Zoe. Grace and Shiv are after him but they’re going to need your help. We might have to make a Circle. We need to be near each other, keep that in mind.”
“We’ll do whatever we have to. That man has got to be stopped,” I said, breaking into a run and passing Yumi and her captor. “I’ll be back for you as soon as I find a weapon.”
“Sure, sure,” I heard her amused and sarcastic mental voice in my mind. “I’ll just wait here for you to come and save me.”
I smiled at that.
Yumi was the last person on Earth who needed to be saved.
When I got to the beach, Brett was holding Zoe’s head under water just long enough to make her want to gasp for air, then letting her up to take a breath and pushing her back under again.
Shiv and Gracie were fighting with some of the guards that had woken up. As I arrived, they each disposed of the person they were fighting and turned to me.
“Shiv, can you manifest air in Zoe’s lungs?” I said, in a burst of inspiration. He grinned and closed his eyes. “Protect him while he’s working, Grace.”
At that moment, Hadley walked up with a struggling Yumi in his arms and made his way slowly towards Brett because she was kicking and hitting him with her good arm so that it made it hard for him to walk.
“Brett,” I yelled. “Stop. This is over.”
“It’s not over till she’s dead,” he said, keeping her under this time for a long minute. I felt sick to my stomach but I knew when she stopped resisting, it wasn’t because she was dead, it was because she finally had enough oxygen. At least, I hoped that was what was happening.
“No!” I yelled out loud, then sent, “Shiv, can you get her and take her out of sight?”
“On it, Boss,” he sent.
“Damn you, Brett,” Shiv said, maybe being overly melodramatic in my opinion. Then he ran over and picked up Zoe’s body, carrying her away with his head bowed. Grace followed him.
Good, now to free Yumi and we were out of here.
“Tell him to let her go,” I said to Brett. “It’s over, man. Give it up.”
I levelled the shotgun at him and waited.
He just laughed.
“Oh, is that my shotgun you have there?” he said. “The one I emptied into the bastard who took Zoe away from me?”
He had emptied his shotgun into Ernest? Oh no. Did that mean he was…? And did that also mean that…
“Yeah, Chad. There’s no more rounds in that gun. What are you going to do now against my giant?”
“Brett…” I started.
“Nah, I’ve had enough of listening to you talk. Hadley, bring the girl here.”
“I’m not a girl,” Yumi said. “I’m a woman that’s going to kick your sorry ass.”
“You know what?” Brett said to me, ignoring Yumi’s taunts. “I’m in the mood for another drowning. Terrible way to go, don’t you think? Holding your breath for so long until you can’t anymore and as soon as you breathe in… you’re dead.”
Yumi’s eyes got round.
“Hadley, hold this woman under water until she doesn’t move anymore, okay?”
The huge man nodded.
“No,” I said, too quickly I realized when he smiled.
“Oh? Do you care about this girl? That’s going to be awful to watch. Such torment. I don’t envy you that. But watching you watch her die is going to make up for you spoiling all of my plans.”
Yumi was struggling harder against the giant and cursing as he lowered her to the water.
“Uh, Chad. I could use some help here,” came Yumi’s scared mental voice. “I won’t be insulted if you save me.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
What could I do?
I ran through my options.
Shiv was gone and there was no way with his bad aim and low power issues with his manifestation that he could get air into Yumi’s lungs the way we had done with Zoe. Grace had no kinetic powers. Yumi couldn’t scream to melt that guys brains because he had the thickest mental shield I had ever seen. And if she melted Brett’s brain, then the giant would keep going until he died because he wouldn’t stop until Brett told him to.
I sent to Grace, asking for help in case she was within my much shortened telepathic range.
No answer.
Looked like she wasn’t.
God, this was a mess.
“Chad?”
The giant was bringing her close to the water and I saw her taking a big breath in before her head went under.
Oh God. What could I do?
I started to panic and all thoughts went out of my head.
Yumi was going to die and I couldn’t save her this time.
My heart rate sped up and I began to hyperventilate. Bla
ck spots danced in front of my eyes. I couldn’t believe I was losing it at a time like this. I was always the cool, calm one.
“Yeah, that’s awesome,” Brett said. “Watching you watch her die was my best idea tonight.”
His nasty voice cut through the panic and I jumped into action, knowing what I needed to do. I had never done it before but I would do it now. I would do anything to save Yumi. I ran to the big man.
“Don’t bother trying to stop him,” Brett said, in a bored tone of voice. “Nothing will stop him, short of death. And you don’t have any ammo in the gun.”
But I didn’t attack Hadley. I grabbed for Yumi’s hand.
“Make a Circle with me, tough girl,” I sent. “I need as much power as I can get.”
“I’m losing consciousness, Red.”
“Come on, Yumi, hold on another minute. I just need to break through this guy’s shield.”
There was no response from Yumi.
Damn it. She was already unconscious? Had she already breathed in?
But I couldn’t think that way. This was her only chance. And I was just going to have to do this myself. I wasn’t sure if I could. But I had to. I couldn’t let Yumi die.
I popped into my public mind, quickly putting Brett to sleep again so he couldn’t interfere and then finding Hadley’s brick. I located it and then a sledgehammer appeared in my hand. I went crazy, pounding at the brick but the damn thing seemed indestructible.
A moment later, I felt the indescribable feeling of Yumi’s mind joining with mine and there she was, standing beside me.
“Jeez, Red,” she said, looking at the sledgehammer and shaking her head. “You want a job done right…”
And suddenly we were both holding a large bomb. I glanced at her and without having to say anything, we moved forward and attached it to the enormous man’s brick.
Yumi pressed a button and the thing started counting down from three.
She shrugged.
“I don’t have a lot of time,” she explained.
“Shit, Yumi, we need to get out of here.”
I grabbed her hand and headed for my private mind when suddenly the bomb went off, blowing up Hadley’s brick and his mind with it, no doubt putting him in a coma.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one affected by the explosion.
And as I once again found myself going unconscious, I only hoped that my last ditch plan had worked.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
YUMI
Was I dead?
Maybe I had left all the misery of life behind and I was hanging out in some super cool heaven?
Hm. Heaven?
Probably not after some of things I had done in my life.
Besides, if this was heaven, it sucked.
I was cold and wet and my arm felt like someone had replaced my bone with a red hot poker.
Someone chuckled beside me.
And if that was God, he had a sadistic sense of humour.
There was another chuckle that I realized was mental and sounded like Chad’s mind.
I opened my eyes and looked up at more stars than I had ever seen on Earth.
Now, on a starship, I had probably seen more. But on Earth in my time, there was still too much light and atmospheric pollution to get a view like this. Right now, there were no lights on Earth except for campfires and those didn’t tend to obscure the heavens the way a city full of lights does.
“You listening in on my thoughts, Dvorski?” I sent, deliberately this time.
“This isn’t heaven but you can call me God, if you really want to.”
“Ha. Ha. Are you actually here?”
“Right beside you, tough girl.”
“Well, can you help me sit up then? My body seems to have gone on strike.”
Chad’s beat up face came into view, his curls askew, but with a smile that lit up the night. His arms lifted me up and he dragged me back on to the sand and out of the freezing water. I managed to sit upright without falling over, though I wasn’t sure how long I could hold myself up. He sat down beside me, his arms wrapped around his knees.
“Do you know what happened to everyone else?”
He nodded in the direction of a lump on the sand.
“Brett’s asleep over there.”
“Your doing, I assume?”
“Yup. And I’m afraid the giant is dead. Apparently blowing up someone’s mind immediately kills their body.” His words were tinged with guilt and a little sorrow.
“It was self-defence, Red. You had to or he would have killed me and then you next, no doubt. You didn’t have a choice.” I put my hand on his knee and he stared down at the ground, his face troubled.
“You’re right. But I still feel like shit. He was just a pawn.”
“That’s true, but what’s done it done. We can’t bring him back. You just have to put it behind you and keep going. There’s nothing else to do, Chad.”
“I know,” he said, and I watched in surprise as he got his game face on. “But I can’t put it behind me until I take care of him, too.”
He indicated Brett’s unconscious form.
“What?” I said, shock and anxiety coursing suddenly through my body. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, Chad. You can’t do that.”
“What do you mean,” he said, insulted. “You don’t think I can do it?”
“Oh no, I know you can. I meant you don’t want to.”
“Oh, I want to,” he said, and a dark cloud came over his face, like I had never seen. “All the trouble he’s caused? All the pain he’s put these people through? That little girl is probably going to be traumatized forever, Yumi. It’s not right.”
“But it’s not for you to kill him, Chad. Believe me.”
“You’re telling me not to kill him? You don’t think he should die?” His expression was incredulous.
“No, I do think he should definitely get what’s coming to him. But it’s not for us to decide whether he lives or dies.”
“Are you kidding me? After what happened on Lood? What a hypocrite,” he turned his back to me and faced down the beach. “And that guy hadn’t done half the things Brett has.”
“It’s not that he doesn’t deserve it. It’s that you don’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Red, please. Listen to me.” I said, feeling desperate. “I’m not saying that you can’t do it. Of course you can. You’re the strongest person I know. And I’m not saying that I’m not being a hypocrite after what I did to the bounty hunter.”
“Then what are you saying, Yumi?” His voice was bitter and maybe a little hurt.
“What I’m saying is that you don’t want to do it because it will change you. It’ll change you in ways that you can never come back from. Isn’t that you told me? There’s no coming back from murder?”
“I told you that and you ignored me,” he pointed out.
“Maybe I did. I’m stupid. But that doesn’t make you any less right.
Chad sighed.
“I don’t want him to hurt any more little girls, Yumi,” he said, his voice low. “I thought you of all people would understand that.”
“I understand,” I said, almost crying. “But I just don’t want you to…”
“To what?” he snapped. “To what, Yumi?”
I cradled my broken arm and stared out over the water.
“Become like me,” I said, looking up to meet his eyes. “I don’t want you to become like me, Red.”
He stared into my eyes for an endless moment and then surprised me by jumping to his feet.
“Fuck!” he said, glancing at Brett’s sleeping form before he stomped off in the direction of the cabin.
“I’ll find someone to help me carry you back,” he called over his shoulder.
I let out a shaky breath.
Who would have thought that me of all people would have to be Chad’s conscience?
I lay back on the sand before I passed out and again and stared up at the st
ars, feeling content, despite my injuries.
Chad didn’t need to be going around murdering people in cold blood.
He was a good man.
And killing Brett tonight would have changed him irrevocably.
But I had stopped him.
I had saved him from himself.
And that felt right.
Maybe someday I could atone for my sins.
Maybe someday I could make up for all the things I had done wrong in my life.
Maybe someday I might be worthy of being Chad’s friend.
Maybe someday I would.
And at the moment I really felt as though it was possible.
Because tonight had seemed like a pretty damn good start.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAD
We had all returned from the rescue, battered and bruised with a few more scars than we had left with — whether physical or psychological — but we had returned alive, and that was all that mattered.
Everyone was bustling around the open kitchen and dining room, while I sat still at the table peeling potatoes from the garden. Each person was helping with the feast that we were preparing to celebrate everyone coming home safe and mostly unharmed from the fight with Brett’s group.
I still thought that Brett should die.
But once I had thought about it without all the anger and adrenaline in my system, I had known that Yumi was right.
I smiled. How ironic that Yumi should be the one telling me not to kill someone and convincing me with my own words, nonetheless. It made me happy that she had done it. Because it meant that she had changed for the better since Lood. If she had been the Yumi she was then, Brett would have been dead before I had even finished stating that I wanted to kill him.
But she was right.
Certain things change us in ways that you can never change back from.
Like what had happened to Yumi and I. Losing her.
It had changes us in ways that we were still struggling to understand. But what I knew now was that I would eventually get over it. It hadn’t felt like it at the beginning. But someday I was going to heal. And move on. And so would Yumi.