She thought about everyone at school. Chase Kolton, the boy she'd been infatuated with since freshman year. Was he still in the city? Probably not. From what she understood, his family had a cabin on a lake somewhere. They most likely skipped town. As did Sophie and Autumn Payton, most likely. Their parents had a lot of money.
For the first time ever, Lillia was glad she didn't have any friends. The only person she had left to fear losing was Hayden, and he was falling out of the sky, grappling an undead monster.
When they were level with the tree tops, Lillia reached out for Ted, gripped her hand into a fist, and swung it down towards the ground. Ted's body changed course in a violent jerk and slammed like a rock onto the head of the steps, right at Lillia's feet.
She took several steps back and used both hands to wring his neck. She could feel his telekinetic defenses trying to pry at her phantom fingertips. She squeezed as tight as she could, gritting her teeth, her shoulders raised to the sides of her head.
Hayden appeared beside her, his shirt ripped down the front and spattered with blood. "Hold him," he said. Then Ted began to drift out over the road.
"What are you doing?" Lillia asked.
"Just trust me."
Lillia walked forward with Hayden, holding her grip around Ted's neck as Hayden positioned Ted just over the yellow line.
A car came sliding around the corner, squealing tires and accelerating fast. It was Hayden's car, and whoever was driving was in quite a hurry.
She looked over at Hayden and realized the extent of his plan. He must have heard the car coming and thought that enough momentum, with the right timing . . .
When the car's brakes began to squeal, Hayden made a flipping motion with his hands, spinning Ted's body like a Roulette wheel. His head connected perfectly with the grill of the car and popped off his neck like a tee ball. The head spun in the air for a moment and then bounced into the grass across the street.
The driver fought to keep the car straight as he came to a screeching halt but wound up sideways with one tire up on the sidewalk.
"Who is that?" Lillia asked, but before Hayden could answer, Sherman jumped out of the doorless driver's side.
"Sherman!"
Lillia ran to him and threw her arms around his waist. She smelled the alcohol on him and began to cry. Sherman was already crying and mumbling apologies, his body stiff and trembling.
"It's my fault," he said.
Hayden appeared next to them. "Where's the head?" he asked.
Lillia pulled away from Sherman and pointed at the patch of grass where the head had landed.
It wasn't there.
"Roger!" Hayden called.
Lillia turned to see a group of people coming up the street: a man carrying several guns, the cop Meredith, and two young boys.
"Everybody okay?" Roger asked, looking at her.
"I think so," Lillia said, making eye contact with Hayden. She sniffled, tried to smile. Hayden stood at a distance. He returned the smile but stayed his position.
That was when all the city's tornado sirens went off at once, and everyone's eyes were drawn up to the sparkle of lights in the sky.
~ ~ ~ ~
The little creature began to glow, dimly at first but brightening fast. Ted's brain activity was diminishing, and the alien's tentacles began to loosen around his head, rippling.
The thing's head felt like a small water balloon in his hand. He pulled on it, but the tentacles clung to Ted's hair like two root systems grown together. He waited a moment, tried again using all the force he could muster. The tips of the creature's tentacles clung to Ted's skull as if magnetized.
When the sirens went off, he finished yanking the tiny squid thing from the severed and bashed head, then quickly fitted it to his own head like a toboggan.
It took hold of him instantly and he trembled as a surge of electricity, adrenaline . . . something raced through him, like a warm jolt of lightning, refreshing, revitalizing. He felt immortal.
Barry jumped to his feet and bounced off the ground as though it were a trampoline. He flew up into the air, arced, and landed on the roof of a building.
In the sky above him, creatures and blobs of light varying in color and size began to pour out of the object's deep black caverns, scattering into the morning sky, abandoning ship.
The tornado sirens blared all across the city. As Barry surveyed the cityscape, he began to laugh maniacally at the western horizon.
"Looks like you were right Derek!" he screamed. "Here comes annihilation!"
He reeled with excitement at the eyesight this thing had given him. Indeed, when he looked off to the west, where the sky was still dark and the Ohio River poured across the landscape like black ink, he could see the distant sparkle of a nuclear missile's rocket boosters.
It was headed straight for Louisville.
TO BE CONTINUED
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The Object: Book One (Object Series) Page 17