*****
“What happened, Clarence?” Gibson was looking at me with concern.
My heart pounded. Breath hissed between my teeth.
“Something’s wrong, sir,” I babbled, “Something is happening.”
“Calm down,” he said gently, “Calm down. What is it? Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know, I don’t understand how but…” I looked at Linda’s bed across the hall. “Something to do with Linda. Something about that spell. It’s doing something, sir…”
“What the Crowd Surfing Spell? No, that’s impossible, Jet. You’re just confused. I know it looks strange with the bodies moving the way they are, but it’s a completely subconscious reaction to magical occurrences in the mind. Any magic would have a similar effect. And what we have here is simply a case of minuscule subterranean events having much larger effects on the surface then they have any right to.”
“But sir, I saw things in there that I’ve only seen one other place. The mind of Linda.”
“You entered the mind of Linda Hasting?” He frowned.
“Yes, sir. I was getting in extra practice with my mentor and…”
“Oh!” His eyes lit up. “How splendid. Did it go well?”
“Well, I guess so, sir. But the point is I saw something in the mind of Linda and then the exact same thing in the mind of Judy. Is it possible Linda implanted the image, or…?”
“No, no. Crowd surfing doesn’t work like that, my boy. The image was probably just a coincidence. I know it seems strange, but you’d be amazed at how many common images are found in completely unrelated minds.”
“But sir, I could’ve sworn…”
Beside me Judy lurched on the bed. We looked at her.
“Did you interact with the projections, Clarence?”
I diverted my gaze. “No, sir. Of course not.”
She lurched again, so violently her entire body left the bed. A gurgling emitted from her mouth like the incoherent mumblings of a restless sleeper.
“Assistance here,” Gibson called out.
As I watched the nurse hurry over, I realised the presence was once again pressing in, scraping at my skull and teasing my mind. It grew, expanded, seeming to gather weight. There was a voice in there somewhere…
“It’s getting to be like a regular disco in here,” Gibson chuckled.
The nurse readied a syringe but Judy lurched a third time and her arm lashed out, unintentionally slapping the syringe flying.
“Oh for goodness sake,” the nurse scoffed, “I’ll have to get another.”
She jogged off to a nearby table and Gibson planted a hand on either of Judy’s shoulders.
“Help me here, Clarence, if you would. Can’t have her go tumbling off the bed.”
I stepped forward and held Judy’s legs, just in time to have her body explode into a frenzy of spasms. Her head thrashed from side to side and more gurgles bubbled from lips.
“Goodness sakes,” Gibson muttered, “Hurry, nurse!”
Judy’s legs had begun kicking and drumming on the bed. And it was then I noticed a growing humming sound. But did not register its significance. The presence was growing stronger.
Even as the nurse came rushing back and blue sparks began to pop in the air, I still did not realise things were going wrong. It was only as I felt the tingling, and my warning buzz sounded, it began to occur to me. But by then it was too late.
‘Quickly, nurse!” Gibson yelled again.
I glanced up at him, wondering if I should be telling people to run. But I didn’t. And a second later the humming became a furious crackle.
“Mister Gibson…”
For a moment my eyes met his. He was terrified.
Mere seconds before the blast occurred I stepped back and melted into my Place of Calm. There was a blur of shimmering air and images distorted. Then the space around and above me was crowded with objects. Nurses, beds and limp bodies catapulted towards the ceiling and across the hall.
I braced and the wave washed over me, uniform fluttering and hair blasted flat on my head. Then the tingles of energy swirled into my body and joined my reserves. Sparks blossomed on my fingertips as the immense Spirit settled, but did not exceed my storage limitations.
Still the carnage around me played out. Hundreds of beds were flung violently to the hall’s extremities, riding the blast like an ocean tsunami. Among the shattering bed frames pale bodies tumbled and flew like rag dolls.
It was only then the deafening BOOM sounded. And as at last the shock wave neared the walls, I had believed it was over.
‘At least it won’t go beyond the hall,’ I thought stupidly, ‘it will be contained inside. They built these walls strong.’
The two walls nearest the blast exploded outwards, one giving way into an adjoining training hall and releasing screams of terror. The other opened out onto a flanking street where a car slammed on brakes to avoid debris. The other two walls held, but the door failed and allowed the wave to continue barrelling deeper into the Academy.
When it was over and dust began to gather, no more than four seconds had passed from the moment I had braced.
Before me the only bed remaining untouched was that of Judy Carlson. I stared at it, dumbstruck, and watched as the girl leapt from its covers. She had every similarity to a skeleton bestowed with the power of movement.
Her head twisted as she attempted to make sense of her surroundings, eyes wild, until her gaze locked on me. There was recognition. She stumbled forward.
“Help me!” she croaked with trembling lips, “Help me! Help me!”
The words were distant to my deafened ears. I stepped forward, mind a hurricane of disorientation, and she collapsed into my arms. I lowered her to the ground.
“Help me!” she repeated, leaking eyes staring and hands clinging to my blazer, “Oh God, help me!”
Shapes were moving through the dust towards us; two Enforcers. Each had an expression of disbelief pinned to his face. Their mouths moved as they approached and knelt beside us, but my ears heard only ringing. She reached out to them and they attempted to comfort her.
I watched the surreal moment. My mind kept urging me into action, insisting I should be doing something. But what; I had no idea. The girl went still and her swollen eyes moved to a space beyond my shoulder. There was a pause, then her mouth popped open and she shrieked.
I looked round and found myself face to face with the black horse. There was a moment of relief as I registered it was natural horse sized and not the King Kong monstrosity. But that gave way to stomach clenching horror as its white eyes locked on mine. There was intelligence in that gaze, as recognisable as in the eyes of any person. But it was not a person; that intelligence did not belong. My brain screamed.
The other two men’s heads swung to gape at the creature. For a second there was nothing but the high pitched screaming of the girl. Then I felt a growing tingle in my hands. My eyes turned back to her but already blue sparks were crackling in the air.
“Brace,” I roared, jumping back, “Brace! Brace!”
I crouched and the other men followed suit.
A second blast rocked the building, hammering my eardrums. And judging from the way tiles splintered up off the floor in an expanding circular pattern it was more powerful than the first. That the structure remained standing was testimony to solid architecture.
I absorbed the energy, but immediately felt a bizarre sensation of Spirit breaking internal seams and licking out from my chest, snapping at the air like ethereal bullwhips. This was accompanied by pressure like an expanding balloon around my heart. My ribs screamed and threatened to splinter. I was sure my body would explode, but the energy subsided and settled.
Beside me, however, after the ground shaking THUMP of the first man distributing the energy, the second began to scream. My flailing mind first told me some kind of creature was trying to escape from his chest, pushing its head out from under his ribcage. But as the b
ulge expanded and his blazer began to tear, I realised the poor fool’s reserves were not capable of storing the energy. A panic induced mistake.
He threw back his head and the scream reached a crescendo, then air was jolted from my lungs as I slammed into the debris littered ground. There was the sound of a second body hitting cement nearby. Then a fine mist settled on my face. The blood of an exploding man.
For a long time I lay still and watched as dust clouds settled. It seemed like an age. Upon raising my head, I barely registered the figure of Judy Carlson pass through a ruptured wall and disappear into the city streets.
Balance - Book 2 Page 26