Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (35 page)

The men emptied their clips, refusing to take
their fingers off the trigger until every last bullet had left
their guns. They were just as shaken up as Carla was. Even with the
sound of gunfire she could still hear the empty shells clinging as
they hit the ground.

When the men had ceased firing, and yet the two
remained side-by-side completely unharmed, Carla struggled with
everything she was made of to resist the urge to flee.

Calm down, girl,
she told herself.
All this means is that one of them is a Kinetic. We don’t need
bullets to deal with them.

Carla took no chances. She drew every last bit
of power she was capable of grasping, and let it pour into herself.
She was a Manipulator, the deadliest of all Psych affinities. She
would melt their faces before they took another step.

Narrowing her eyes on the two, she threw
everything she had at them. Kinetics might be able to stop bullets,
but they couldn’t stop this.

Carla gasped, as small puffs of smoke
materialized a foot away from the man’s face. Her attacks were
being stopped by something.

Does that mean the other one is a
Path?

Carla doubled her efforts. Even if one of them
was a Telepath, if she overwhelmed their defenses and broke through
whatever it was they were doing, she would make it out of this
alive. She poured every last drop of power she had into her attack,
and the smoke came closer and closer to the young man’s face, now
only a few inches away. Once her attack connected, it would be
over. His facial tissue would melt and fall off his head, and he’d
drop to the floor as dead as the men he’d just killed.

“
Ruin, Darling, this one is trying
to push me back? Why are we toying with it?”

“
Because, sister, it is more fun if
they think they have a chance.”

Carla tried to ignore their banter. It was
nothing more than a distracting tactic. She pushed even harder,
sweating with the effort, as the smoke came closer, and closer, to
the man’s face. When it was within an inch, it stopped. It wouldn’t
budge even a drop farther. The young woman seemed to be panting
with the exertion of keeping up their defense. It gave Carla an
idea.

“
Men, reload! Open another round of
fire. They can’t stop the bullets and my Manipulation at the same
time!”

Understanding dawned on the faces of three
remaining recon officers. They attempted to reload. Before a single
one of them could finish, lampposts, sewer grates, and manhole
covers—all of these objects ripped free from whatever was holding
them in the surrounding area and soared at the recon
officers.

Carla and one other officer ducked, but the
other two were not so lucky. The officer standing to the left of
her had just enough time to cry in surprise as the soaring piece of
metal made contact with his skull, killing him, but at the very
least he died in an instant.

The other officer was not so lucky. The pointed
end of a lamppost skewered him. Carla tripled her efforts, trying
so hard to break through their defenses that she screamed with the
exertion. Her voice cried out in a loud bellow as she used all her
power in an attempt to push that final inch.

Eventually her knees gave out and she fell to
the floor. The Telepath was just too strong. She was exhausted and
worn. She lay on her back, looking up at the night sky, as she
half-listened to the screaming sounds of dying men around her.
Eventually her vision of the starry sky was blocked. The young
woman’s twisted face hovered over her.

“
Do you know what happens now,
Darling?”

Carla cried, “Please! I don’t know who you two
are, just go away!”

“
Come here, brother,” she called to
the young man. She put her hands over her brother’s eyes and he
smiled.

“
Ohh,” he said, “you have such a
lovely heart, ma’am. I can see it beating. I can see the valves
that are connected to it. Anatomy is so interesting, isn’t
it?”

Carla shrieked as the realization dawned on
her.
The Telepath! Kinetic’s can only move what they can see,
so that woman … she’s showing him my insides.

She shivered, her fear reaching a level of
intensity that crippled her.
“Please! Don’t
do this!
” she screamed. “
Somebody, anybody, help! Oh God, please, help! I don't want
this …”

The young woman licked her lips. “Oh, Ruin,
Darling, I do love it when they scream. If only it were the
pig-woman lying here and not this other cow.”

The man, Ruin, laughed. “Oh, dearest Requiem,
we’ll have our chance. Let’s just kill this creature and save our
Brother. Hmm, you’d think with all the times we’ve done this I’d
have an idea of how the human heart works. I still don’t, it’s
amazing. Like, what happens if I cut that little valve thing,
sister, do you see it? The one to the right of where you’re showing
me.”

“
I don’t know, Darling, but there’s
a way to find out, isn’t there?”

Before the pain, there was blood. Carla coughed
up a stream of dark red blood, slowing into a small trickle gliding
over her lips and splashing the floor, painting it the color of
death.

Then came the pain. It was the most unbearable,
intense, and overwhelming sensation of agony. It exploded in her,
so powerful and horrible that it blocked every other sense. Sight,
sound, smell, none of these things existed for her. There was just
the pain.

She couldn’t even form words anymore, but that
didn’t stop her from trying. Each whimper ended in vomiting more
blood. She wanted to die—she wanted nothing more than for it to be
over. Tears fell but no one seemed to care. Her whole existence was
one of torment. She looked pleadingly at the Kinetic who took great
pleasure at tearing her from the inside.

“
Mphm
,”

She tried to speak, but yet again, she only
caused another stream of blood to shoot out, landing on the man’s
shoe.

“
What happens if I cut this
one?”

Mom, Dad, I love you both so much,
she
thought as she turned her head to the sky.
Please, if you’re up
there, please take care of Justin. It hurts, Mom, it hurts so
badly. Please, Mom, please…

She felt it again—the sensation of something
inside her being sliced. This time all she could manage was a moan.
She wiggled back and forth on the ground and grabbed her chest,
trying to hold and comfort herself. It didn’t matter. There was no
longer anything that could be done. Somehow, the pain continued to
increase, making her wonder just how much a person could
feel.

How was her son going to brave the world
without her? Or her sister, who needed payments on her medical
bills? She tried to look to the sky again, but her head would no
longer move, it hung lifelessly to the side. She could still feel
all the pain, but now she was paralyzed, unable to move a single
muscle.

Eventually the pain dulled, and for that, she
was grateful. She was finally dying. She almost wanted to laugh at
how ridiculous it was to feel good about that.

As the light left her eyes, and the world
turned to darkness, she wondered what, if anything would come
next.

Tonight’s the night,
Jack thought with
delight as the warm water hit his back. Grabbing the shampoo behind
him, he squeezed a glob into his hand and lathered it into his
messy black hair. It was like he was being given a second chance.
Tonight, Melissa was not only here for dinner, but she was … it was
almost too much for Jack to even think it.

She was sleeping over!

Jack tried to remind himself that this was all
for the sake of catching the two remaining murderers and also for
his own safety. Melissa had told Alana that her parents were out of
town and that she didn’t want to be alone. Without even a moment’s
hesitation, Jack’s mom had set out to prepare the guest
room.

Speaking of my mom,
Jack thought.
I really need to put a stop to whatever it is that’s going on
with them.

Melissa and his mom were becoming way too much
like friends. He suspected it was because neither of them had many
their own age. The two acted like they were long-time friends
whenever they saw each other, and Jack was going to need to put a
cork in that right away.

When they’d gotten off the helicopter—the ride
was just as awesome as the first one—Alana picked them up at some
empty-field they’d landed in. Paro explained to Alana that Jack
needed to use certain equipment in H.Q to aid in his learning,
which was actually true. Before they left H.Q, Michael had made him
wear some kind of helmet-thing he said was meant for newer Psychs,
telling Jack that it helped diminish some of that sickening,
uncomfortable feeling of drawing power. Jack had been surprised
when it actually worked, but even then, it was still the worst
sensation in the world.

Alana made it clear to Paro that as long as
Jack didn’t get home too late, he could take Jack wherever he
wanted, and so once again Jack was forced to play along with yet
another in a series of lies to his mom. It really grated him. Jack
hated lying. Not only wasn’t he any good at lying, but even when he
was able to get away with one it made him feel dirty.

Jack ran his hands through his hair, scrubbing
out the day’s grime, shaking his head as he delighted in the warm
water. He went to reach for the soap—and stopped. For a brief
moment a thought came to his mind, a memory, only to leave in the
same quick flash in which it arrived.

Andy,
Jack thought.
Did I do
something terrible to you? Why do I feel like I
did?

Jack forced the thought from his mind, stepping
out of the shower and drying himself off. He dressed in a hurry—he
needed to be fast. At that very moment, Melissa was downstairs
chatting away with his mom, and he didn’t want them saying anything
embarrassing about him behind his back.

Even with his need to make haste, Jack knew
that he couldn’t just go charging downstairs. He needed tactical
support. He needed the one person in the entire world who could
finally help him get the girl of his dreams.

Despite the fact that he was in a windowless
bathroom, Jack still looked around the small room, making sure he
wasn’t being watched. He crouched down and opened a drawer under
his sink and retrieved a small device, placing it inside his
ear.

“
Sexy, this is Stud, do you
copy?”

“Stud, this is Sexy, loud and
clear, over.”

Jack grinned. He shouldn’t have stolen the
device, he knew it was wrong, but this was the only way he was
going to win Melissa over. He needed Intel and tactical support. He
didn’t like the ridiculous names, but he was forced to agree to
them or risk not receiving any aid.

”
Sexy, are you sure I should start
by asking how her day was? Because I was there for most of it, and
I don’t think it was all that good, over.”

“I reckon you might be right
about that, Stud. But ya gotta understand how the ladies think.
They want a guy that’s gonna show some interest in them, ya know?
Okay, I know, tell her how nice her nails look. She had them done a
few days ago, over.”

Jack’s eyes lit up. “Whoa! I never would have
thought of that! I never even noticed, over.”

“We guys never do,
over.”

The device was so tiny that neither of them
would see it in his ear. Technology really was amazing these days,
and Jack was glad for it. Operation Women-Hunt would succeed, Jack
would see to it. This was his chance. This was the moment he’d been
waiting for.

Jack crept at a careful and slow pace towards
the top of the stairs. He peered over it, out of sight of the two
women below him. His mother and Melissa were engaged in some fiery
debate about the best shop in the mall.

“
Sexy, they’re engaged in some form
of debate, do I interrupt? Over.”

“
Don’t speak the first word,
Stud. You need to walk in and ignore both of them. Pretend you
don’t even see them. Then, when they address you first, make
contact, over.”