The Third Eye

by B R Coelho

  I gasp as I fall face first toward the ground. What the hell? It’s an illusion. I manage to steady my fall with my hands outstretched. Whipping around quickly to see the illusion beginning to laugh at me.

  “Boy, you’ve got a lot to learn about me, Selena.”, Brie’s illusion says.

  “Coward, where are you? Show yourself.”, I yelled back at her. I realized that Cathy and Lauren had gotten up, unfazed and begun to walk toward me.

  “Get her.”, Brie commanded. She almost sounded just as pompous, and as annoying as Octavia.

  Cathy and Lauren dove toward me. It was amazing, they were fighting like supremely skilled ninjas. I barely dodged out of the way as I felt a punch land on my left shoulder. As I tried to run a leg swept up under me and brought me hurtling to the ground. I felt someone land on me almost instantly. Their body weight pinned me to the ground and I couldn’t move, it was Lauren. Using my telekinesis, I lifted her body off me and threw her toward Cathy. The pair collapses in a heap behind me.

  I stand up to begin running. I run past Cathy and Lauren into the front yard and come face to face with a mass of people. The road in front of the house is swamped with them. I recognize most of them as students from Arlington High. I can even see some of the faculty. They’re just standing there, like zombies, silent, and unmoving.

  “Like my new army?”, Brie says, as she walks coming into view.

  “Did you mind control the whole school?”, I ask shaking as I realize how completely hopeless my predicament is.

  “Yeah, silly Mr. Toole, he let me in to his office, and I compelled him to give me access to the P.A. system on Friday. Then I used a post-hypnotic suggestion to make them come here at exactly…”, Brie looks at her phone.

  “And whadda y’know 8:05 pm almost on time.”, she continues.

  “If you’re so powerful at doing this …”, I say almost out of breath from the fighting and the running.

  “What do you need the eye for?”, I ask, looking behind me to see if Cathy and Lauren were trying to sneak up on me.

  “Haven’t you figured it out Selena? Okay! Let me spell it out for you. The eye is an amplifier. Once I get it, I’ll be able to do this”, Brie says, waving a hand at the crowd. “To everyone in the world.”, she finishes with a dry chuckle.

  “Its hopeless Selena, there’s no-where to run and no-one to help you. Join me Selena, don’t fight your destiny. We can rule like gods. This is stupid.”, Brie says, stretching out her palm. Is it another one of her doubles? I ask myself.

  Probably, but she’s right about one thing. I’m hopelessly outnumbered, and I don’t think I’ll be able to fight off wave after wave of her zombified mind slaves. Something in me is fighting the urge to give it to her. Wait a minute. Is she using it on me? Is she using her mind control on me too? I can’t fight the urge. I take the necklace from my neck and hand it to her.

  “Finally, it’s beginning to work. Your resistance is failing…hahahaaa”, Brie chuckles.

  What the hell is happening to me?

  “Can you feel it Selena, the exhaustion of using the eye. You can’t resist the mind-control.”, Brie continues.

  Must…fight….must…resist…giving her the…eye. But I’m so tired. I can’t stop…myself. I try to cover my ears, keep from listening to her voice. Her…nice soothing…no…no…I must fight.

  Brie snatches it away, before I have a second to react.

  “Finally. I now have the full spectrum. I am now the most powerful being on the planet.”, Brie screams. She begins to levitate into the air. I feel someone grab me from behind again. I turn to look, it’s Cathy and Lauren. They’re holding me prisoner again. I struggle against them, try to cover my ears. The whole time she had been using her voice to hypnotize me. I could resist before, because I wasn’t exhausted. But after the fight I couldn’t fight back, that was her plan all along.

  As Brie keeps talking, my eyesight begins to dim and I can feel my brain turning into mush. Then suddenly everything goes blank.

  “Selena.”, a voice out in the dark calls me.

  “Selena, wake up.”, I know that voice. It’s her. It’s Alaghom Naom. I wake up with a start. I don’t recognize the place I’m in. It looks like space. Or is it another dimension. It has weird abstract shapes and varying colors all around me. And in the centre of all of this, there she stands.

  “Alo”, I say as I drift toward her.

  “Why are you distressed my child?”, She asks me.

  “Brie…Brie is the servant of Xibalba. She has the eye now. She’s going to take over the world. We need to stop her. You need to stop her before it happens”, I say.

  “Only the chosen one can stop her. This is what has been decreed.”, Alo says, as she moves toward me.

  “I can’t. She’s too strong. And every minute that goes by as she wields the eye, she grows stronger.”, I blurt out, still exhausted. It feels like I had been lifting weights and going on a marathon run.

  “The third eye was only meant to be used as a conduit to control your power. To harness it. The power itself comes from you, my child. The real third eye exists within the chosen one, Selena.”, Alo says.

  The third eye exists within me? How? How is that possible?

  “Every person is born with a third eye. The indigo children have their eyes opened. That is how they are able to communicate with the gods, and utilize their gifts. The power of the mind has always existed within you, my child. That trinket was just that, an object to help you control it. To bring out your dormant powers.”, Alo says, she’s stands inches away from my face.

  “And now, it is time to fully open your third eye, Selena. So, that you might see.”, she says as she raises her hand toward my forehead. I can feel buzzing energy radiating from her hands as she touches it. It spreads through my brain and I can feel electricity rushing up from my spine to meet it.

  “Open your mind Selena. That’s it. Good!”, Alo says.

  I can feel a surge of energy flow through my body. I’ve never felt better in my life. It’s so overpowering. It feels like a flash of lightning is trickling through every cell, every muscle, every nerve. It feels as if I’m standing under a raging waterfall.

  “Your third eye is now…open!”, Alo shouts above the din.

  “Now go my child, and show that wench why you are the chosen one.”, She smiles as she pushes me back into the void and I’m falling, falling, until I suddenly wake up.

  I’m still in the clutches of Cynthia and Lauren. Brie is hovering in the air, her eyes glowing a dark red, so is the eye.

  “Wow! You snapped out of my trance? If I can’t use you, I might as well destroy you. Any last words, Selena?”, Brie says, staring at me condescendingly.

  “Yeah, go to hell.”

  I can feel the power coursing through my body. My eyes glow a bright violent tinge, as I use my telepathy to infiltrate Cathy and Lauren’s mind. Their minds are trapped in some kind of prison, some kind of barrier that Brie put there. The barriers are similar to Nana’s. With my renewed powers I knock the barriers over and set them free. Cathy and Lauren suddenly come to. They look dazed.

  “Wha…what is going on? Where am I?”, Lauren asks as she stumbles away from me.

  “Selena? What’s going on?”, Cathy asks, she looks delirious as she tries to recover from the trance.

  “That’s going on?”, I say, pointing at Brie floating in the sky. The people behind her are still under her spell and they’re starting to move toward us.

  “Brie…what the…she’s the one who did this?”, Lauren asks, she’s flabbergasted.

  “Yeah…it was her this whole time.”, I say to her, empathising with her shock.

  “That slimy, sneaky…”, Cathy begins to mutter.

  “What’re we going to do? We’re surrounded.”, Lauren cuts her off, noticing the slowly approaching mind zombies.

  “Why does everyone look so weird?”, Cathy asks, suddenly realizing the threat.

  “Brie…she’s got them in som
e kind of trance.”, I shout to them.

  “Get back into the house and lock the doors and windows.”, I say, as we begin our retreat.

  “What about you…what are you going to do?”, Cathy says as she tries to pull me inside.

  “I’m going to try to stop her. I’m the only one that can do it now.”, I say as I usher both of them into Ms. Stanger’s house.

  “Selena…”, Lauren says, as she stares at me through the window.

  “Yeah?”, I ask.

  “Good luck.”, Lauren says.

  “Thanks.”, I smile turning back to see Brie and her zombie army slowly approaching us.

  “How? How is it possible. How did you break out of my spell? No matter, it’s time for you to die, Selena.”, Brie says as a bolt of red lightning flashes from her hands.

  Woah! I jump out of its way as the bolt strikes the ground close to me. I can feel dirt hitting my face, as the smell of burnt toast hits my nose. The air around me crackles and I can feel my hairs standing on end, both from fear and from the static electricity.

  Brie, prepares to launch another bolt. Red sparks form in her hand and they extend in a flash all the way in my direction. I have a split second to react just before it hits. I cover my face. Uh Oh! This is it. This is the end. I hear the lighting hit something beneath me. Is it my legs?

  “Selena…”, I can hear Cathy scream from the house behind me.

  I’m alive. I’m not dead. And I’m floating. I’m literally floating in the air. The bolt missed me by a hair. I slowly begin my ascent to Brie’s level.

  “That’s impossible. Impossible!! How can you do that without the eye?”, Brie says, enraged. Her eyes look even more surreal with the red angry glow in them. She fires off another bolt of red lightning from her palm. I dodge out of the way. It’s easy to do it now. I see a car on the street and lift it off the ground effortlessly. I send it sailing toward Brie. She dodges the car as it continues to fly off into the distance.

  Brie lunges toward me screaming as she fires off another red bolt. I try to dodge it, but this one seems to have a homing system on it. It quickly corrects its trajectory and heads toward me. I try to dodge it again but it’s too late. The bolt slams into me. Searing pain shoots through my chest as it hits me. I’m forced back from the impact and I can feel myself hurtling across the sky. Before I can recover, I see another bolt coming my way. Oh no! If only there was a way, I could stop it. Dodging it again is going to be useless.

  As the bolt comes toward me, I shut my eyes tight anticipating the hit. I hear a loud clap, like thunder and my ears are ringing from the sound. But no pain. Strange, I think to myself. I open my eyes to see a violet shimmering bubble formed around me. Wow, a new power! A force-field bubble.

  “Damn you!”, Brie cries.

  She begins to hurl bolt after bolt of red lightning, multiple bolts all at once. She’s gritting her teeth and swinging her arms wildly. I stand there, barely moving a muscle as each bolt hits and dissipates into my bubble. I can see red electricity inter-mingling with the shimmering force-field. As if it had stored some sort of charge on it. I concentrate, really unsure of what’s going to happen next. All I’m thinking in my mind is I want to hit her back. I feel rather than see the electricity shoot from the force-field. It streaks across the sky with blazing speed and hits Brie right in the chest.

  “AAAAAH---“, Brie cries.

  She’s flies across the sky almost hitting a roof of one of the houses below. I can see her mind-zombies just standing there. Eerily still, as they watch us fight in the sky. I have to admit the view from here is breathtaking, and the wind seems stronger up here than it is on the ground. Before I can react, I see an object coming right toward me. Hoping that my new-found force field will take care of it I stand still. Until I realize too late, that it only works on other forms of energy, not physical objects. The object knocks me off balance, but I successfully move out of the way, dodging most of the impact.

  But that was a decoy, Brie is flying toward me and she slams into me. Her body is heavier than mine so I give way. And we fall. We fall and fall and fall. And we land on something. I can feel pain radiating throughout my body. It feels as if I just shattered every bone on my body. Brie is looking down at me, triumphantly.

  “Finally…I’m going to kill you…”, she says, pausing after each line to draw breath.

  “And then…your precious… human… friends.”, she finishes, as I see red lightning sparks begin to emanate from her fingers.

  “Goodbye Selena. It’s been nice.”, Brie barks sarcastically as her hand is now glowing a deep crimson red. I can smell the electricity, it smells like burning steel, and I can feel the heat. This is it. I can’t move. I’m in constant pain, and I don’t think I can focus enough to push her off me. Unless…no…no it’s not going to work. But I have to try. It’s now or never. Do or die, as my Dad always said. I use the same power that Granny used. I link up with her mind through the third eye in her hand. I’m able to do this while she’s distracted. Once inside her mind, I feel the power, it’s incredible. I open her mind like a receiver.

  “You wanted the power of a true telepath Brie…you can have it.”, I say. Then I magnify the signal spanning the whole state of New Mexico. All the dreams, thoughts, memories of every single person started to flood her mind all at once. I could hear it. Like a distant drizzle coming, and it grew louder and louder. Till it was nothing but a roaring waterfall.

  “What are you doing…get out…get out of my heee-AAAAAHH”, Brie screams as the power becomes too overwhelming for her to control. I break the link with her mind as I begin to feel it taking its toll on me.

  The electricity from her hand disappears and she’s grasping her head. She continues to scream in pain as she gets the full blast of thoughts, dreams, and memories of everyone in New Mexico.

  “Welcome to my world. Hurts doesn’t it?”, I yell back at Brie. But I’m pretty sure she can’t hear a word. She stumbles and falls over the roof and I hear a sickening thud as she lands on the ground below. Then all is quiet. Deep silence. The pain in my body is overwhelming but I manage to get up. I fly over to where Cathy and Lauren are still trapped in Ms. Stangers house. The mind-zombies are slowly beginning to snap out of the trance they were in. Everyone’s trying to figure what’s going on. Cathy and Lauren rush toward me.

  “Selena…oh my god!”, Cathy says as she rushes to my side. I’ve collapsed in a heap on the ground. Every muscle, and every bone aches.

  “Call 911 now!”, Cathy shouts at one of the groggy mind zombies still coming out of trance.

  “Are you alright?”, Lauren rushes to my side, her eyes wide in shock at the sight of me. I smile back at her and wave. I can’t even talk. The fight sapped every ounce of strength from me. And I’m fading…fading into the blackness. I can hear someone calling an ambulance. The last thing I hear is Cathy’s voice crying.

  Chapter Ten

  I crack my eyes open slightly, slowly drinking in the light. There’s a figure in front of me. It’s a blur. I wait for my eyes to adjust to the lighting. The first thing that hits me is the smell. It’s harsh antiseptic. And my nose is stinging with every breath I take. I try to move, pain shoots through my leg. Oww!

  “Selena…you’re awake.”, an unfamiliar voice breaks the silence.

  The shadowy figure is now consuming all the light. I see a face coming into view. It’s difficult to focus. Like staring at a grey mist. Then I feel fingers on my eye as she stretches it wide open. I know it’s a she because I can smell her shampoo. Smells like apples and cinnamon. Then out of no-where a bright light blinds me. I struggle for a second, shutting my eyes in pain.

  “Oh! So sorry, honey. Just wanted to check your vitals. Let’s have a look on this side…”, the strange voice apologizes.

  Boom! The same happens with my right eye. I blink rapidly as everything starts coming into focus. I feel groggy and light-headed. I try to get up. The stranger firmly places a hand on my chest.

  “N
o…no, don’t try to get up. You’ve hurt yourself pretty bad there.”, she croons.

  Daisy. That’s what her name tag spells out. She’s a nurse. The white, freshly starched uniform looks almost plastic on her. Her blue eyes flit over me with concern. It’s the first time I notice she’s holding a clipboard. She’s jotting something down. To my right is a table with a row of cards. Get well soon cards. And flowers. I can smell them now. Almost a sickeningly sweet smell intermingled with the antiseptic burn. It’s all starting to come back to me now. The fight. Brie. Everything. Nana!

  “Where are my parents…I need…to speak to them”, I croak. I can barely mouth the words, let alone speak. My voice comes out hoarse and unnatural.

  “Shhh! There, there dear. Your parents just left an hour ago. They’ll be back tomorrow.”, Daisy smiles at me.

  “What…about…my…”, I begin to say, I’m wondering about Nana.

  “Don’t worry, you’re going to be alright my dear.”, Daisy smiles even more squeezing my shoulder.

  “You’ve had a nasty fall, we did a couple of CT scans on you and noticed you broke your right leg, that’s why you can’t move it. We also noticed something off with your brain.”

  “Something off? What do you mean?”, I ask genuinely interested, hoping they haven’t discovered anything incriminating about my powers.

  “We noticed, your pituitary gland, it’s incredibly large. But nothing to be afraid of. You seem normal, motor functions normal, nerve response normal, everything checks out. We’ll keep you on here for a couple of days.”, Daisy says, as she ticks off boxes on her clipboard.

  I settle back onto the bed. I notice that my right leg’s been tightly bandaged in a cast. I can’t seem to move it either. The fall must have definitely broken it. Is Nana okay? Did the spell break?