Emotionally Charged

by S. A. Fenech

  Jake shoved me away in disgust and yelled at the others. “Find him! He’s got to be close by.”

  Jamie moved in a flash. Dean mustn’t have gotten to him yet. He sprinted around the park, checking the perimeter, behind trees and fences, in high grass. My teeth bared in disgust knowing it was my fear he was using, stealing from me, to get that speed.

  Donny moved slower. He went to the play equipment and wooden fort. I tensed, and tried not to watch and make it obvious where Dean hid. As he climbed through it, Donny’s adult footsteps clunked heavily on the timber. I hoped for a plank to snap under his weight but no such luck. Still, they weren’t finding Dean.

  Emma watched Donny’s slow, normal movements for a moment with her mouth agape. Her voice held pure terror. “I can’t. I can’t lose my powers. I can’t go back.”

  “Snap out of it, Ems. Help us find the damned blocker!” Jake hissed.

  She looked at him only briefly. She met my eyes for a second too and I saw a strange moment of hesitation. Without my empath powers, I didn’t know what it meant. Then she fled. She moved so fast she was just a blur till she reached their car and took off in it on her own. So much for team loyalty.

  Jake growled and pulled a gun from the behind his back. He pointed it at me, and his hand shook. “I’m not losing this power, Livvy. You’re dying first.”

  I’d known Jake wouldn’t be shy about turning to guns once powers failed them. The bank job had taught me that much. Dean had figured as much too, and didn’t like my plan with him hiding and me in the firing line. So I’d come up with a back-up plan that comforted Dean’s concerns for me, but I wasn’t so sold on it actually working. I just had to do anything I could to keep Dean safe until Jake and his crew were all locked down.

  I threw the back-up plan out there and hoped it would fly. “If you shoot me, you’re done. I’ve given that phone you gave me to someone, and if I don’t show up safe by midnight, they have instructions to turn it in to the cops, along with all your numbers, that lovely happy snap of us, and notes on all of you and your activities.”

  Jake’s face became a feral mix of snarl and smile. “You think I care about that? I’ve still got plenty of cash to get away clear and can change my face if I have to. But I won’t have to. I will still have my powers, and with my powers I am the law. You hear that out there, blocker?” Jake called into the park where Donny and Jamie still hadn’t found Dean. He kept the gun held in front of my face. “The second you shut me down, this girl is dead. Crawl out of wherever you’re hiding and we can all just sort this out.”

  I flicked a glance at the wooden fortress, at the join between two sections of the construction that had been badly patched up when the original builder’s plans didn’t line up quite right. The planks shifted.

  “Dean, don’t!”

  The wall hinged open, revealing a standing-room-only space, and Dean stepped out and walked toward us, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

  Jake whipped his gun away from me and fired.

  No hesitation. No time to stop him. No time to talk him out of it. No time for anything.

  He shot Dean, just like that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The blast of the gun echoed like thunder around me.

  I ran to Dean, but it felt like a dream where everything was too slow.

  A look of shock hung on Dean’s face and he stopped still. He stared at his chest like he couldn’t believe the way the blood pooled and spread across the fabric of his shirt. Like he’d spilled ketchup on himself, and might just laugh with embarrassment and brush it off.

  Then his legs buckled.

  I ran. I was too slow.

  I skidded under Dean just before his head hit the ground, catching it in my lap. But I had been too slow to have stopped the bullet, to have pushed him out of the way, to have saved him.

  Dean’s skin was more blue than pale. He kept his teeth clenched, panting between them.

  “Help!” I screamed into the night uselessly. If the gunshot hadn’t brought anyone, my scream wouldn’t either.

  His chest bled so much.

  I tried to hold it in, pressing down. The blood oozed out between my fingers.

  I let out a wheezing cry.

  “Liv?” Dean grasped for one of my hands. “Listen. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?” Nothing made sense. He’d done nothing wrong. His apologizing lips were spotted with blood. This can’t be happening.

  “Sorry. For pushing you away. Being scared of you. Of feeling for you.”

  Jake yelled at me, a muffled hum, unimportant. Only Dean mattered. But Jake kept yelling. “Stand back up, Livvy. I want you facing me.”

  I didn’t want to hear him. I only wanted to hear Dean, to keep hearing him talk so I knew he was still okay.

  “Didn’t want to feel like that. To risk losing someone again. The feeling—” He coughed, winced. “Too intense. Shutting that down, that gave me control of these powers.”

  He held me trapped in the gaze of his gray eyes. “But I don’t want to anymore, don’t want to shut it away. Not if... I’m dying. I want you to know...”

  “You’re not going to die. Heroes don’t have to die,” I sobbed.

  My chest burned. The fierceness of what I felt for Dean, the pain and pure need, blazed through me. And not just my feelings. Emotions came from Dean as well, intense and raw, warming me throughout like a nearby fire.

  “Livvy, I—” Dean breathed.

  Arms, hard like steel, yanked me away from Dean and I screamed like I’d been torn apart. Jamie pinned me up against him, pulling me back. I kicked and wrenched my body around but his grip was charged by emotion. Emotion he stole from me. My pain. How dare he?

  “Let me go! Let me go back! Dean!”

  Jamie dragged me toward Jake. I struggled against him, useless—at first. But he felt weaker and weaker.

  No. I was stronger.

  Any ice inside me that had shut my powers away had melted. Power unfurled within me, wild and mighty. That warmth of emotion, shared between Dean and I, that feeling ... he’d used it to unlock my powers again.

  Along with my powers came hope. Now I could fight back, get help for Dean, save him. There was still time. Please, please let there be enough time.

  I tore one arm free of Jamie’s grip and turned so I could see Dean again.

  I had to let him know it had worked. That everything was going to be okay.

  His eyes were closed. His body gave a startling shudder then went still.

  I let out a sound between a scream and a roar.

  That feeling. That warmth. It was love.

  I’d fallen in love with him. Had he been trying to tell me he felt the same?

  I screamed again. I ripped into Jamie. I clawed his arms off me. Donny came to help him, unpowered, but still strong and twice my size. I sparred back, ducking their blows and kicking, scratching, jabbing between them with more strength than they could ever know. I drew the power from myself, from the fury of my own emotions, not stealing the scraps from others.

  Jake kept his gun aimed our way, but didn’t seem to want to take the risk of hitting one of his own. I was surprised he had even that much moral fiber. He stashed the gun and came to join in by hand.

  I knocked back Donny just in time to be grabbed by Jake. I pulled free from him just in time to take a hit to the ribs from Jamie. I held my ground between the three of them, outmatched but determined.

  I fought for my life and for Dean’s, if it was still there. Dean had taught me what it meant to be a hero, a real hero. He’d taught me kindness, and selflessness. He’d been right; heroes weren’t the fake fairytale dream I’d thought they were. But he had to be wrong about heroes dying.

  I couldn’t accept that.

  I loved him. I couldn’t lose him.

  I chanced a look at him again, hoping, wishing to see him pick himself up, to be okay.

  Dean still didn’t move. He looked dead.

  Jake caught me
with a blow to my jaw that slid me back along the ground. I didn’t even feel it. I launched myself at the men again, feral with grief. I didn’t hold back, unleashing all the overwhelming emotion surging through me. I broke ribs, snapped knees, pulled arms from their sockets.

  I set loose all of that emotionally charged energy against them but still the pain inside me grew.

  I knew despair like I never had, like I couldn’t begin to handle. A black, bottomless pool drew me in like quicksand, drowning me.

  Darkness overwhelmed me. The despair fed on everything I had inside, consuming any feelings of morality or mercy.

  And it remained ravenous.

  I turned it on Jake, Jamie and Donny, and I let it feed. I used that black energy to tear into their very beings, absorbing everything I could from them. All their power, all their energy—I stole every emotion from their bodies.

  They fell to the ground like human husks. Just pretty shells.

  My mind reeled, burned, darkened, then lit up like an exploding fireworks factory. My muscles were a flash fire of pain. My only thoughts were for Dean.

  I stumbled a few steps towards his body.

  Then I fell too.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Everything was too bright. Too loud.

  Machines beeped and whirred. Colors bled through my closed eyelids.

  Why was there so much pain?

  I remembered the night in the park. I remembered Dean being shot. I didn’t remember what had happened next.

  I stirred, and when I opened my eyes I found myself in a hospital bed, strung up with tubes attached to the back of my hand and wires stuck to my chest.

  I was alone in the room except for a petite, dark-skinned nurse who leaned over me to press the call button.

  She smiled at me as I blinked myself awake. Golden energy glowed off her. My head pounded and I winced.

  “There you are. Came back to us. Shh-ssh, don’t move. You’ve been out for a while. We’ll get a doctor in to look you over.”

  Her smile hit me like a solid wall of energy, the sheer strength of her happiness making me nauseous. Who was ever that cheery? All around me, emotions seeped through the walls from people celebrating, people grieving, people fighting enemies in their own bodies to stay alive. Every emotion invaded me, crawled into me like tiny spiders digging under my skin.

  I rolled over to the side of the bed.

  The nurse must have seen me turn green because she was ready with a pan to catch my vomit.

  She had helped me clean up and was taking my blood pressure when a doctor came in, bringing a billow of orange, blue, and purple emotions with him.

  Am I going crazy?

  I leaned back in the bed and took deep breaths, trying to slow the spinning inside. The doctor started checking me and my attached machines.

  “Good to see you’re awake. You have some nausea?”

  I nodded only slightly but my head hummed with pain. “What happened? Is Dean...?”

  The doctor took a seat next to my bed and pulled out a notepad. “We were hoping you could tell us what happened. No one else has been able to after how you were all found, with one boy shot and you and three others injured and unconscious.”

  I looked down at my hands, remembering the fight, the blows I’d taken. There wasn’t a mark on me.

  I remembered the blood spreading across Dean’s chest.

  One boy shot. “Is he...?” I couldn’t say the word aloud.

  “The cops are flustered too. They’ve identified the shooter from the bank robbery, and the two other men carrying guns are his associates. But they are very curious to know how you and the boy who was shot come into it.” The doctor glanced across to the door, where out in the hallway, a uniformed officer was pacing, looking back to the doctor for his cue to come in. “But you don’t have to talk to them yet if you don’t want to.”

  My mind raced over all the evidence of my involvement with Jake’s team. Photos, phone calls, texts, leaving home, my stuff at their place, the video from the bank. I had to tell the truth, as much as would be believed. That I didn’t realize who Jake and his companions were until it was too late. It was going to be a long story, and a long investigation, and I couldn’t handle it now. I could barely think.

  “Can’t now. Later.” I turned my head away.

  The doctor nodded and gave the side of my bed a sympathetic pat. “Of course. Whenever you’re ready.” He paused, tapping his pen on his notebook. “But, if you can give me some idea of what happened, I’d appreciate it. Anything to help understand what is causing the symptoms in the others. They aren’t unconscious anymore, not really. But they are completely catatonic, all three of them. We can’t get any response. Their brain activity is almost completely non-existent.”

  Just pretty shells.

  I could tell him what happened, now I realized what I’d done. I killed them.

  Or I might as well have. I ripped all their emotions right from their bodies, leaving them as vegetables.

  I bent over the side of the bed a second time, my eyes watering and my chest convulsing. The nurse held a pan out for me again and I retched, but nothing came up. My body rolled inside with pain and guilt and I wished I could vomit it all out, clear all these feelings from me.

  I had taken lives.

  And at the same time, I had somehow absorbed, stolen their powers. That was why everything was amplified. Why I felt everything so much more vividly.

  I deserved this torment, the screaming of every emotion around me drilling into my skull. It could send me insane, and I almost hoped it did.

  I only had to know one thing first.

  My voice was a harsh scratch, and I spoke to the floor, still bent over the side of the bed. “Did he die? Is Dean dead?”

  My heart grew small and painfully tight, waiting for the answer.

  The nurse replied, “He’s been in and out of consciousness since surgery. He almost—”

  I was already moving, throwing back the sheets, tearing drips and wires off me.

  The nurse tried to talk me down. The doctor stepped in front of me to urge me back to bed. I shoved him weakly, and he flew back against a wall, bringing a beeping machine down with him. I was much stronger than I realized.

  “Sorry!” I clenched my teeth as my body ran riot with overloaded emotional power.

  I bolted out and down the corridors, not giving a thought to the state of my hospital robe. I followed my nose, or rather, my heart.

  I felt him, felt his presence, before I saw him.

  I stumbled into the room Dean lay in, grabbed his hand, and dropped my head onto his shoulder.

  I found quiet there.

  Next to Dean, the pains and pleasures of others were muffled. I wept with relief.

  “Hey.” Dean’s voice was dry and husky.

  “You’re alive. You’re awake,” I whispered into his shoulder.

  “Yeah, you too.”

  I didn’t feel any coldness—just soothing warmth. He wasn’t holding back. He wasn’t keeping any of his emotions from me, but he still calmed me with the abilities he’d learned.

  The love I sensed from him made me weep more, but happily. I wished he could experience how I felt for him in return.

  I lifted my head from his shoulder and kissed his lips.

  The kiss was gentle, lingering, and I put everything into it that I couldn’t give justice to in words. It tasted of salt tears and summer days, heating us both with glowing joy and desire.

  He put a hand around my waist and pulled me onto the bed next to him. He let out a small grunt of pain when I pressed against him but still kissed me harder.

  I pulled my lips away just far enough to talk. “I’m sorry. You okay?”

  “Worth it.” He smiled like I’d never seen before, and his gray eyes sparkled as they stared into mine.

  I heard shuffling from the doorway but couldn’t turn my eyes away from Dean’s.

  “Livvy?” It was my mom.

  Her
voice, and the jolt of worry it contained was enough to pull me back from Dean to see her and Dad.

  “Mom!” Tears filled my eyes. They came in and hugged me. I tried not to break them when I squeezed them back.

  My nurse cleared her throat and stepped into the room as well.

  “We just arrived but you weren’t in your bed.” Dad frowned, and nodded to the nurse. “Tara said you’d just run off, and probably come here.”

  Tara looked from me to Dean to my parents, crossed her arms, and said, “Five minutes, then he needs to rest again.”

  She took a quick glance at Dean’s heart monitor then left us in peace, tapping her watch on the way out.

  I still clung to Dean’s hand, but my parents only had eyes for me, looking deep into my face as though they’d find written there what they needed to understand everything that had happened. A soft cyan halo surrounded them.

  “We came as quick as we could.” Dad smoothed my hair back with his hand. He explained how they’d been so worried when I’d disappeared, but then my ‘friend’ had shown up and explained I was fine and I’d be away with him for a while.

  “It seemed to make sense at first, but the longer you were gone, we couldn’t understand why we’d accepted some stranger’s explanation.” My mom’s voice was choked, as though she were the one apologizing to me, as though they had failed me. “When we found out you’d been brought into hospital—”

  “It’s not your fault.” There was so much I had to explain, to fix. I wanted to tell them everything, but I had no idea how. I tried to keep it simple. “I made mistakes and fell in with the wrong crowd. I’m sorry. But I’m still here. I’m okay.”

  My mom nodded, then looked past me, down at Dean, and our tightly joined hands.

  “And this boy, was he part of the wrong crowd?” Her tone wasn’t accusing. It was soft, tentative with care.

  “No. He’s the one who saved me. And I saved him.”

  Chapter Twenty

  I hadn’t slept very well since the whole final confrontation-with-evil-super-powered-villains thing happened.

  I had to keep using those words. Evil. Villains. I had to use them to stop myself feeling awful for what I'd done to them. It didn’t really work.