Reckless Magic (17 page)

“
I don’t think you should be
so close to her,” Talbott stood over us, gruffly assessing our
position.

“
She just saved our lives,”
Kiran growled.

“
And look at what she did to
everyone else,” Talbott was calm, but I heard the tension back in
his voice. Kiran looked around and let go of my hand to stand up. I
began fading in and out of consciousness, fighting to stay awake,
but the fatigue was making it impossible.

“
Have you ever seen this
before?” Kiran asked Talbott, and I knew they were talking about
me. My eyes had closed and I was breathing evenly, I was not even
sure if I was conscious anymore.

“
No, never. I had no idea
she was capable of this. I had no idea anyone was capable of this.
Four immortals at once…… it doesn’t make sense,” Talbott
replied.

“
I thought you said that she
wasn’t one of your kind?” Kiran asked softly.

“
She’s not. She’s not….”
Talbott repeated. “We must tell your father immediately, she is
clearly a security threat. Kiran, she did not even realize she had
this kind of power. What else is she capable of?” Talbott sounded
almost scared, and I began to lose awareness completely.

“
No, that is the last thing
we are going to do. You will tell him nothing of her power. Do you
understand?” Kiran’s voice started to fade, “That is an order
Talbott.”

I knew they were talking about me, and
talking about what I did, but I didn’t understand what they were
saying. Clearly I wasn’t as much of a freak as I thought I was,
because they were capable of the same things. I was just lucky
enough to be overlooked at first. Surely any one of them would have
been able to do what I did with more power and quicker.

I began to regain lucidness as reality
set in. I tried to process what just happened, but I could not wrap
my mind around it. I saw human beings, real human beings, turn into
animals. I saw Lilly turn into an animal. And these were no
ordinary mammals; they turned into dangerous creatures thirsty for
blood. Human beings posed as animals trying to rip each other
apart.

I saw men move things with their
minds. I saw them try to kill each other without ever touching the
other. Their strength being one thousand times more dangerous
without ever physically coming into contact with one another than
any other human being I had ever seen. The power these men wielded
was beyond comprehension; but these were not just strangers, Kiran
and Talbott were capable of the same feats of extraordinary. Kiran
and Talbott only teenagers were capable of murder, even if it was
self-defense.

And then I realized that it wasn’t
just them that did those things, it was me. I moved things with my
mind. I hurt people. I killed people. I was capable of everything
the others were, if not more. And I finished it all.

A rock seemed to drop in my stomach
and I was suddenly sick. I sat up quickly and emptied everything I
had eaten that day on the ground next to me. My body shook
violently as it tried to rid my mind of the crimes I just
committed. The electricity in me was not only powerful, it was
evil.

What had I done? How could I have
killed anyone? And not just one person, but four? I pulled my knees
to my chest and began to cry, fully awake, but fully unaware of
what was happening around me. I drowned out any sound nearby with
my sobs. I wanted it so badly to be a dream that I could wake up
from, but there was the terrifying fact that I just lived through a
real life nightmare I would never be able to forget.

----

Somehow I made it back to camp, either
Kiran or Talbott carried me, I wasn’t sure who. Between sobbing and
blacking out I didn’t remember much. My body was so weak that I was
barely able to lift my hands, let alone walk or sit up. My voice
was horse and my throat on fire. When I was conscious I either
cried or puked. Unconsciousness was a sweet black hole of
nothingness my body and mind longed for.

Mr. Lawly already had the campsite
cleaned up before we arrived back at camp. All of the tents and
equipment had been packed up and the students organized to leave. I
heard people talking around me, but I couldn’t understand their
words. I was unable to comprehend anything; the only sounds I truly
understood were that of my own uncontrollable sobbing.

Someone carried me the entire way back
to the bus which was running and waiting for our arrival. A hike
that took over an hour just that morning seemed to take only
minutes on the way back. We were loaded onto the bus and I was
deposited in the very back, left alone to sob as silently as I
could.

If only the extreme force of the
energy I held were enough to cope with tonight it would have been
enough. But it wasn’t just that, my friends were attacked tonight,
attacked by people who had intended to kill us. I had to watch my
friends fight for their very survival.

I was physically weak and inundated.
But the realization of what I had done to other people, enemy or
not was the truly crushing reality. I took four lives tonight. No
one asked me to, and no one else could be held responsible. With
the suggestion of no other person I chose to destroy those people.
Despite the fact that I saved my friends lives in return for
theirs, the truth remains: I was a murderer.

They weren’t even ordinary men, they
were men like me. Whatever I was, they were. They possessed the
same energy, the same electricity; we were the same, and I killed
them. Their lives are over and for all I knew they were still lying
there, piled on top of each other, in the middle of the
wilderness.

I continued to sob until I was at last
too exhausted to even cry and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. I
could finally feel nothing and think no more. The sweet rest seemed
to last forever and consumed my whole consciousness. I was aware of
the bus arriving back at school, and I was aware of being taken to
my aunt’s car, but through it all I refused to open my eyes and
acknowledge reality.

Somehow, someone eventually placed me
in my bed. It was there, under my thick comforters and surrounded
by soft, feather pillows, that I let the sweet nothingness consume
me entirely. I would have been perfectly happy to never wake up
again. But of course, that was asking for far too much.

----

After what seemed like days of
sleeping I finally could not keep my eyes closed any longer.
Although if it had been up to me, I would never have opened them
again. But fighting against my selfishness was the conscious
knowledge that I had a moral responsibility to pay the consequences
of my actions. I sighed deeply and contemplated whether I wanted to
get out of bed or just call down for Aunt Syl.

The warm sunlight from my bedroom
windows enveloped me as I lay on my overly soft, overly large bed.
I was wrapped in warm blankets and surrounded by my favorite
pillows. I rubbed my eyes as they adjusted to the light they hadn’t
seen for what seemed like a very long time. I could feel how puffy
and swollen they were, a consequence of the large amounts of
sobbing I had accomplished lately.

I started to sit up, but still felt
drained of all energy. I laid my head back down and wished I could
stay there forever. I tried to swallow, but my throat was dry and
scratchy. I didn’t attempt to move, unquenchable thirst seemed the
least of my problems.

“
Aunt Syl,” I called out,
but my voice was nothing more than a harsh whisper.

“
Sshhh…” she responded,
entering my room with a glass of water in hand. Either she was a
mind-reader or just a very good person. I sat up a tiny bit, taking
the water from her. “I figured you would get up soon, and I thought
you would need this,” I took a small sip and my eyes filled with
tears; for being both grateful for the water and for having to face
her.

I realized that she had been sitting
just outside my door, waiting for me to get up. I wondered how long
I had been asleep and how long she had been sitting there. I
couldn’t hold back my tears as I thought about the pain I must be
causing her. How could I explain any of this to her?

I gratefully gulped the glass of water
down, spilling it all over my face and on my surrounding covers. I
tried to speak again, but this time no sound came out. Tears
continued to spill from my eyes and I hung my head in shame. Aunt
Syl soon started crying as well.

She took the water from my hands and
set it down on my night stand. Still crying she pulled me into her
arms and hugged me, rubbing my back with her hand. She had never
felt like much of a mother type before, but at that moment it was
exactly what I needed. I felt like a small child, unable to
comprehend anything that was going on outside of my own
feelings.

“
It’s alright Eden,
everything is going to be alright,” she cooed soothingly, pulling
my shoulders away from her and staring directly into my face. She
brushed the tears away from my eyes and then her own eyes as well.
She handed me a tissue from her pocket and I gratefully wiped my
face with it. “There is someone here who needs to speak with you,”
She tried to smile reassuringly, but I saw the trepidation in her
eyes.

Without being asked, a man entered my
room and cleared his throat. I looked up to see Principal Saint
standing in my doorway, looking very grim. All of the horrors of
the previous night rushed back to me and I was filled with dread. A
sense of foreboding gripped my nervous system, and the tingling
electricity filled my veins once again.

17.

“
Hello, Eden,” Principal
Saint said in his usual distinguished voice, then cleared his
throat. “I am glad that you are feeling better.”

He assumed I was feeling better
without even asking. I was not feeling better, I was feeling worse.
The cloaked figures passed through my mind again and I bit my lip
to hold back the tears. A wave of nausea crept over me and I
glanced around in search of a trash can.

“
First things first, those
men are not dead,” Principal Saint continued. He paused as if
waiting for his words to sink in. “They may have appeared that way
to you, but Talbott was able to revive them. They were simply
unconscious. You children were very lucky to have survived such a
brutal attack.” He cleared his throat again. Principal Saint was a
very tall man, and since he had not moved from my door way he
appeared overly large and intimidating in his double breasted,
brown, tweed suit.

“
They were dead, I know they
were dead,” I protested. “I killed them,” I looked down and covered
my face with my hands. I couldn’t hold back the choking
sobs.

“
Eden it’s alright, what Dr.
Saint says is true,” My aunt put her hand against my cheek and
spoke in a soothing manner. I looked up at her unbelieving. “There
are a lot of things that have happened to you that need to be
explained,” she continued, “Amory would like to talk with you, and
maybe shed some light on all that has been happening recently,” she
gave me an encouraging smile and stood to leave. I grabbed her hand
unwilling to be left alone with him.

“
I saw those men lying on
the ground. They were dead. I know they were dead,” I struggled to
speak through my tears, my voice was deep and course, but I refused
to believe them. I committed a horrible act, and I knew that I must
pay for my actions. They were not going to sugar coat it for me.
Surely the police would be here any minute anyways.

“
Eden, the police are not
coming,” Principal Saint seemed to read my mind and answer my very
thoughts. His voice was more constrained and I could see that he
was frustrated with me. “The police will never be involved. We have
our own way of dealing with issues such as these. Now trust me,
those men were not dead. They probably appeared that way to you,
maybe even felt that way; but as I said before, Talbott was able to
revive them and they are currently being held for
questioning.”

“
Why didn’t you call the
police? Those men are dangerous. They tried to hurt us, they tried
to kill us!” I was fully ready to face the consequences for
homicide; but I was also more than ready to plead self-defense. As
awful as I felt for taking another man’s life, I did realize that
it was necessary. The fact that these men were not even in police
custody made my actions meaningless.

“
Trust me, those men are in
custody. However, it is a different type of legal system than you
may be used to. I’m afraid they will face a judge and jury very
soon. A trial has been set for them and they will face their
accusers soon enough,” a look of sadness passed across Principal
Saint’s face and I was not sure if it was meant for me or for the
men who would stand trial.

“
So I will get to testify
against them?” I asked, unsure if I was even ready to face them
again.

“
No, absolutely not. That is
out of the question,” Principal Saint reacted quickly. I was
instantly confused, but before I could ask any more questions, he
continued, “What I mean to say is that Kiran Kendrick and Talbott
Angelo will act as both witness and prosecution. Their testimonies
will be more than enough to seal your attackers fate. Trust me,”
Principal Saint wore the same look of sadness he had a few moments
ago and I was positive this time it was meant for the
attackers.