The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  No.

  “What are you doing here?! Get out before you get killed!” I found myself screaming.

  Nancy spoke, “We followed you here. Chelsan, there’s no way we’d let you face this alone. Even Jason agreed.”

  Jason didn’t look like he agreed, but a part of me was glad they were there. I just needed to keep them safe. Ha, ha.

  Harry stepped forward, even though he was surrounded, “Geoffrey hasn’t taken the serum. Kill him.”

  “I’m the one with the men, Harry,” Turner gloated.

  Dean suddenly appeared behind Turner and…

  SNAP!

  Turner’s neck broke like a twig.

  He collapsed to the floor.

  I couldn’t move.

  He was dead.

  My grandfather was dead.

  My knees started to shake.

  I never expected to feel anything if he died, but seeing him fall like that…

  I wanted to scream and vomit at the same time.

  Elisha giggled in glee. I’d never seen her so happy. It was like killing Gramps had made her millennium.

  I connected to every dead particle of dust in the room and performed the trick that never failed… I made the dust fly up Dean’s nose and down into his lungs. Dean’s eyes bugged out in shock, and he fell to his knees. I could hear Isabelle scream, but I didn’t care. I wanted him to suffer even though I knew Dean would be okay. I pulled out the dust as soon as he lost consciousness.

  Elisha was annoyed that I knocked Dean out. She or Eva could have stopped the dust like Eva had done before, but I had been quick enough that they didn’t have the chance.

  Harry furiously whirled on me, “That man had your mother killed and you exact revenge on his killer! What is wrong with you, girl?!”

  “He was still family,” I found myself saying and was surprised to hear the catch in my throat. “And Dean will be fine. He’s unconscious, not dead.”

  Turner and Roberta were the only family I had left in the world and Gramps was gone.

  Truly gone.

  I heard Ryan whisper, “The clone is fighting with the I.Q. kid, he loved Turner.”

  A part of me knew how the clone felt. I wouldn’t call it love, but working together had given me a different perspective on Turner. I actually cared about him, and now he was lost to me forever.

  I found that I was furious with Harry, “You were best friends! How could you do that to him?!”

  “He was a killer and a mass murderer!” Harry justified.

  “You’re siding with Elisha, hello!” I pointed to the holo-images of people dying by the hundreds.

  Harry stopped.

  It was like I’d caught him in a lie he couldn’t get out of. Even Isabelle turned to him, waiting for an answer.

  Harry practically screamed. “I was bored out of my mind and when Elisha promised me a war, I jumped in with two feet.” He turned to Isabelle, “I knew Geoffrey was trying to stop Elisha and that’s why I wanted you to kill him. We can have the old days back again. We can fight in the open like soldiers again. Not like now, in the shadows, like cowards.”

  So Harry wanted bloodshed all along. All that crap about trying to stop Turner from starting a war was just a way to convince his team to kill Gramps. Then Harry and Elisha would have no resistance to their war.

  I couldn’t believe that Gramps had been the last hope of saving humanity. After everything he had done, Geoffrey Turner was still the man that had kept the world together.

  Isabelle looked at Harry in disgust. “I’m glad Turner is dead, but I don’t want a war!”

  That’s when we all heard it.

  A groan and a SNAP!

  Turner had reached up and actually snapped his neck back into place.

  Gramps was alive!

  Relief flooded through me.

  As Turner dusted himself off and stood up, he turned to Harry. “You honestly thought I wouldn’t take the serum the first moment I had the chance?”

  Harry’s face had gone white, but it quickly turned red in anger. “You can’t stop it, Geoffrey. The war is here and I plan on fighting it.”

  Isabelle fumed. She was actually upset that Gramps was still alive. It was as if his very existence offended her. Out of spite, she twisted her hand and Turner fell to his knees, clutching his heart. “I may not be able to kill you, but I can hurt you!”

  “Isabelle stop!” I yelled harshly.

  “No!” Isabelle yelled back.

  It disgusted me to see her so vengeful. If anyone should be mad at Gramps it should be me, but I was happy he was still breathing. All he did to her was betray her trust. Welcome to the club and get over it!

  “You know I can make you!” I responded as coldly as I could.

  Isabelle released her grip on Turner’s heart and whirled on me. “Why do you keep defending him?!”

  “Because despite of what you think of him personally, he actually wants to stop that!” I pointed to the holo-images playing in front of us.

  Gramps caught his breath and slowly stood, looking at her with eyes full of anger and hurt. “What on earth did I do to deserve your wrath, Isabelle? All I ever did was protect you and take care of you.”

  Isabelle’s jaw dropped in disbelief and fury, “Harry showed me the holo-tape. He recorded your conversation. You remember, the one where you told Harry I was an experiment and that if he didn’t kill me, you would!” She was raging now. I thought a couple veins were going to burst on her forehead.

  I spoke up timidly, “Yeah, I saw it too.”

  Turner was genuinely floored. “What holo-tape?”

  And when I say floored, I mean his eyes showed zero recollection as to what Isabelle was talking about. Zero. He couldn’t fake that.

  Even Isabelle paused in doubt. Then she continued, “Harry recorded you.”

  “Oh he did, did he?” Turner looked straight at Harry.

  And Harry…

  …Looked guilty.

  Whoa.

  Drama central.

  I felt like I was watching one of Vianne’s soap operas.

  “Didn’t see that one coming,” Jill said what everyone was thinking.

  “I did it for your own good,” Harry’s voice was small.

  Isabelle closed her eyes. I thought she was going to cry. It was like the weight of the world had just slammed on her shoulders without warning. “You faked the tape.”

  Gramps walked over to Isabelle, a genuine sadness in him. “You thought I wanted to kill you so you faked your own death.”

  Isabelle nodded.

  Harry looked like he was going to implode. “It was only a matter of time, Izzy. Geoffrey wanted you dead, you were too powerful. I faked that tape to convince you, but that doesn’t make it a lie.”

  Turner punched Harry in the face hard enough to split his lip. “Yes, it does.”

  I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t let Gramps get off that easy, “But you did kill her parents and send her to Bruce and people like him.” Oh, if looks could kill. I suddenly felt extremely glad I was immortal at that moment.

  “Is that so?” Turner seethed. He grabbed Harry’s throat and started to choke him. “Tell them, Harry.”

  Harry clawed at Turner’s hands, but couldn’t break free. The man had a grip of steel. Harry spoke through choked breaths, “She never would have trusted me if she knew I had done those things.”

  Seriously?! That was Harry too?

  My whole world spun. Was Turner the way he was now because of what happened between him and Isabelle? Maybe he became the hard and sometimes evil man I knew because he trusted and loved Isabelle so thoroughly that when she left him… Wait a minute. The only way for him to know she betrayed him was if…

  “You knew she faked her death the whole time,” I blurted out.

  Gramps let go of Harry’s throat and kicked him so that he fell on his rump. “Yes, I knew. Harry was never any good at covering his tracks and the fire reeked of his handiwork. I let it go because I
didn’t need Harry or the team anymore to get what I wanted, but I never forgot.”

  As emotional as this all was for them, it still didn’t do anything to help our current situation. The holo-footage was still playing the horrendous killings all over the world.

  Elisha seemed quite amused by the little drama unfolding before her, especially the part where Gramps had suffered for years thinking he’d been betrayed.

  Eva was already starting to back away from Elisha, her eyes never left Max’s.

  Harry brushed himself off and stood up, facing Isabelle. “That man became exactly what I said he was going to become: a monster. I didn’t make that up. You’ve seen it for yourself over the years. He may not have wanted you dead, but eventually you would have become a liability to him. He wouldn’t have hesitated to take you out. He tried to kill his granddaughter for God’s sake!”

  “Okay, don’t bring me into this.” Even though I had asserted myself into the conversation earlier, didn’t mean I wanted to be a part of it.

  “Oh yes, please continue.” Elisha was simply reeling with joy. “While you all bicker about who backstabbed who, the world is ending.”

  The sad part was…

  …Gramps, Harry and Isabelle didn’t seem to care. Their current predicament apparently was way more important.

  Elisha clapped her hands to shut everyone up. “Okay, bored now.” Elisha was positively thrilled though she was still surrounded. “Chelsan was right.” She eyed my friends over. “I will kill you now.” She snapped her fingers. “Surprise!”

  Uh, oh.

  Even Isabelle looked startled.

  Whatever Elisha was about to show us was news to Isabelle, too.

  Suddenly, the sound of popping filled the air. From all the way down the hallway to all around the sanctuary’s walls.

  And after each pop a live soldier appeared with gun raised.

  We were completely surrounded by at least a hundred men, with even more pouring in from the downstairs. So yeah, Turner’s soldiers were easily disarmed.

  Elisha was back in control and beaming at Gramps. “I made a little tweak to your dimensional displacement device. Turns out you can make human beings displace as well. Cool, huh?”

  Gramps was angry to say the least, “Very,” he kind of grumbled.

  Elisha pointed at Bill. “Bill first, he’s Eva’s biggest distraction and Chelsan’s best friend. This will be fun.”

  Something snapped in Eva.

  That’s when I saw it.

  That girl loved Bill.

  “NO!” Eva cried, and shoved Elisha hard into the podium. So hard that a part of the wood stabbed Elisha in the chest. Elisha pulled herself off of the shard of wood and instantly healed. She didn’t even miss a beat. “I said KILL HIM!” she screamed.

  One of the soldiers pointed his gun to Bill’s head and pulled the trigger.

  The bullet froze in mid-air.

  It wasn’t me.

  I turned to Isabelle.

  Isabelle yelled, “I can’t hold it for long!”

  Nancy reached up and knocked the bullet down like it was fly. “Ouch!” she yelped from the heat, but Bill was safe for the moment.

  Bill looked like he was about to pee his pants.

  Elisha’s face kind of crinkled in shock, then excitement. “Never mind, grab that one,” Elisha pointed to Isabelle, “I want her power.”

  When the guards reached to grab her, Isabelle made them stop.

  She was definitely getting the hang of her powers.

  Then I heard her in my head, Time to do that dust trick. I can’t hold them for long.

  Oh yeah, the dust trick.

  But Elisha could stop me.

  I couldn’t think of anything else. I had to try.

  Here goes nothing.

  This old decrepit building was full of dead swirling dust. Time to take out an army.

  I connected to trillions of swirling holes and made them fly around the building like a swarm of killer bees.

  Only to be stopped right before I could make the dust fly into the guards.

  “You wish.” Elisha grinned.

  I could feel Elisha and Franklin keeping hold of the dust, just above each guards’ nose.

  It felt like not being able to thread a needle. My insides wanted to burst.

  “Kill them all!” Elisha ordered.

  I knew Isabelle didn’t have the strength to control the army.

  But I did.

  Through her.

  Isabelle, hang on.

  Do it! she screamed in my head.

  I jumped inside her and connected to the trails of light and made all the guards’ arms and fingers stop. When they tried to move forward I froze their legs as well.

  My body was vulnerable, being in Isabelle’s head, so I had to act fast.

  Isabelle, I’m going to try something and I’m not sure if it’s going to work.

  Whatever you need to do, just don’t let her kill Dean.

  I thought to Max, Can you make the dust move, just a little?

  I think so. What will that do? Max, always the inquisitive one.

  Elisha was more fascinated than angry at this point. She was walking around trying to see just how frozen the men actually were.

  If Max could take advantage of her momentary distraction…

  All the dust moved ever so slightly.

  And I could see trillions of trails of light.

  I almost blacked out Isabelle from the sheer power of it as I connected to every trail of light.

  It was more than surreal as I realized that I could move the dust with Isabelle’s power as well as mine.

  But Elisha couldn’t.

  I could hear her scream as I made the dust fly up through the noses of the guards and down into their lungs.

  Every soldier gasped, fighting for air, then dropped unconscious to the ground.

  I jumped out of Isabelle’s body and back into my own.

  “Oh, sorry, was that your army?” I couldn’t resist.

  Bill stepped forward like the romantic I knew he was, “Eva, please.” His eyes were pleading. Who could resist that?

  Not Eva.

  She came running to him and they embraced like a sappy romance movie.

  “Okay, gross, Bill,” Nancy scolded, but I could tell she was happy.

  Elisha, on the other hand, was beyond furious.

  It took about two seconds for Turner’s men to pick up their guns and aim them at her. She practically spit, “You can’t kill me, fools!”

  “I don’t need to kill you,” Turner replied coldly.

  “One more surprise,” Elisha cooed.

  Elisha pressed some kind of button before anyone could stop her.

  A green gas started to pour in from the vents.

  I knew that gas.

  It was the poison that killed my mother and everyone else in my trailer park.

  Elisha laughed.

  “RUN!” Turner screamed and they all ran out of the sanctuary as fast as they could. Isabelle grabbed Dean and carried him in her arms.

  I wanted to cry when I realized that by knocking out Elisha’s army, I had inadvertently killed them all. I watched in horror as black spinning hole, after black spinning hole, formed in front of my eyes. It was an eerie contrast with the green mist pouring into the sanctuary.

  But I stayed.

  And so did Elisha.

  I couldn’t die, and I certainly wasn’t going to let Elisha get away.

  It was an unnerving moment.

  Only Elisha and I were in the cavernous room. Green smoke billowed around us like evil fog.

  Elisha’s smile died.

  I must have been a sight to behold because she actually looked scared.

  And she should be.

  I knew what I had to do.

  I had been scared to do it for fear she was more powerful than me, but I needed to try. I needed to see if I could make the killing stop.

  I leapt inside her head.

&nb
sp; I found her swirling white light and tried to connect with it…

  …but I couldn’t.

  Shock thundered through my being.

  I couldn’t connect to Elisha’s light because she wasn’t connected to it.

  The implications of that were mind blowing.

  The swirling white lights in people were their life force.

  Their souls.

  It made total sense.

  Sociopaths had no feelings. Had no conscience…

  …because they weren’t connected to their souls.

  I could see where I could connect the light to Elisha’s mind.

  The only way I could potentially save all the people Elisha was having her soldiers kill was to control her.

  And the only way I could control Elisha was to make her whole.

  This was going to be bad.

  I concentrated as hard as I could.

  …And connected Elisha’s brain to her swirling white light.

  I was suddenly gasping for breath in my own body.

  What I had done was so forceful it had thrown me out of Elisha’s body like a canon ball.

  That’s when I heard the shrieking.

  I didn’t even recognize the sound as human until I saw Elisha on her knees, clawing at her chest like it was on fire. She was screeching so loudly I had to cover my ears.

  Green smoke wrapped around Elisha like a blanket of poison, though I knew she couldn’t die.

  But I saw in her eyes…she wanted to.

  It took me a moment to realize that Elisha was screaming a name over and over again.

  Beth.

  Her twin sister. She had tortured and killed her sister Beth.

  Of all the horrible things Elisha had done, that was the one that obviously hit her the hardest. Twins had a bond no one could explain. A reattached conscience meant Elisha had to face the horror that she had brutally murdered the person who loved her most in the world.

  Elisha had her soul back.

  I’d never seen someone in so much pain.

  And now she had to deal with everything that she had done over the years.

  I stood there watching Elisha scream in agony. The horrific holo-images of people being slaughtered still played around us like an absurdly grotesque play.

  I needed to do something.

  I thought about jumping into Elisha again and controlling her, but that thought now seemed so violating. From the way she was rocking herself in a ball and yelling her voice hoarse, the girl was broken.