The Centerpoint Trilogy (4 page)

She had always wanted to be normal. Possessing the powers was a lasting scar from what had been done to her as a child. She had always just wanted to let go of that time and be normal. It was just, she supposed, too hard to accept. She was not normal, as much as she wanted to be and denial was more comfortable.

“I don’t want to be the girl with superpowers,” she told her mom. “I never did. They make no sense.”

Her mother nodded, appearing to understand what she was saying. She understood the denial, even though she had been too brave to ever really embrace it herself. She had always accepted Anna for who she was and accepted it bravely. “Little in our world does,” the woman agreed. “You’re special Anna. That I know.”

The wise woman’s words warmed her. Of course, the woman would never consider her a freak because of her abilities. No, her beloved mother said that she was special. It meant a lot, even if the situation was terrifying. Her mother’s opinion had always meant so much to her. Honestly, the woman was like the whole world to her. She really loved her more than she loved anything in the world.

Anna stayed with her mom for the night and the next day. They just hung out at her house, doing mundane things. It was nice for Anna and she knew that it was her mother’s attempt to slow her mind down. Sadly, it did not work that well. The whole time, her mind ran a mile a minute. She could not stop thinking about the powers, Ethan, the explosions. Could something really still have an effect twenty years after it had occurred? The idea terrified her. The nightmare was not over and she was not normal.

The two women watched tv together for some of the time. They both had always been into the same kind of things - tv shows, books, movies, things like that. She really was her mother’s daughter. She liked spending time with her. It was nice. She drifted off a little as her mind did slow down eventually. The wheels that had been turning started to skid as they slowed down, little by little. Soon, she was calm, an aura of calm washed over her. Her mother’s magic did work; it just took a little while to get to the state that was desired.

The scream ripped through her mind, just as she started to doze off. She was starting to fall asleep, drifting off on the couch when it broke through her thoughts. It was loud, intent and it was completely in her mind.

Help, Anna!

It was Ethan. There was no mistake of the voice that was in her head. It was his and it screamed loudly inside of her mind. Her eyes shot open. She sat up, jarring her mother. The woman sat upright and looked at her expectantly. She looked so concerned, her eyes wide and her forehead wrinkled with worry. She bit her lip and looked Anna up and down. Her eyes were just so wide. Anna knew how to read people pretty well, especially her mom.

“Anna?” she asked. She scooted over to the side of the sofa that Anna sat on and put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. She rubbed her arm lightly.

Anna focused on responding. She knew that Ethan could hear when thoughts were loud and directed to him. She put his face in her mind, focusing on the image of the man who meant so much to her. Why did he mean so much to her? She barely knew him.

Ethan, where are you?

A location flashed in her mind. It was some kind of apartment building. The inside was made out of a thick, dark wood. It was barely furnished, but there were chains. She saw a flash of chains. It reminded her of that place. The place where she and several other children had been held had been demolished and turned into a business strip years later, so it was not that place, but the vibe was there.

“Mom,” she gasped. “Ethan’s in trouble.”

“How do you…” her mother began but stopped. Instead, she asked, “Can you find him?”

She knew that she could find him. There was something about the connection between the pair and what they really were that made her know, without a doubt, that she could. She was more than capable of finding the man that she had suddenly and unexpectedly begun to care so much for. She could find him. “Yes,” she whispered.

Fear shot through her mother’s eyes, but her jaw was set and she looked grimly determined. She looked at her and then nodded a few times. She was shaky, but firm at the same time. It was a rare contrast. “Go to him,” the woman urged. “Get to him. Use whatever it is that you have and get to him. I will go to the police and see what I can figure out. I may be able to find out if there was anything suspicious at least..”

Fear was heavy in Anna’s heart as well, but she nodded and hugged her mother. She held the woman to her very tightly. She then nodded again. “I love you mom,” she said. She took off running out of the apartment and down to her car. She opened the door and jumped inside. She sped off, driving fast and trusting a basic kind of instinct. She knew that she had the power to get to him. She didn’t know where it came from, but the instinct was there and it was strong.

Ethan, I’m coming.

She swore that she heard the words please, no, in her mind, but they were so faint that she was uncertain. She kept on driving.

              Ethan groggily forced his eyes open. His head spun and he felt his eyes flutter, but he did not get all the way there. He struggled and saw flashes of light, but nothing solid, which led him to believe that someone had drugged him. The thought of that alone caused enough panic to course through his veins to lead to his eyes flashing open. He groaned out loud and found himself mentally begging Anna to come.  He kept begging her please, please, Anna, come. He did not know why his instinct was for Anna to come. He didn’t know, he didn’t know, but that did not change that his heart was screaming. As much as he begged, however, it seemed that something was blocking him off. That was a relief, for the moment, because he did not want to lead her into whatever mess he had ended up in. Someone had taken him. It had gone dark and now here he was.

              Where was here? Ethan looked around as best as he could manage. The room was pretty dark and he could not make his eyes focus correctly. As open as they were, they were blurred, unfocused. They moved back up into his head the moment that he stopped struggling to keep them wide and awake. He shook his head.  He struggled against whatever was holding him. He yanked his arms and legs and twisted his hips to try and get out of place. His muscles were lazy and unmoving, and as logic hit him, he found that he was bound pretty tightly. The ropes holding him were thick, heavy coils of cord that he could not break or bend. He could not make himself see and found himself praying for light.

              “Don’t hurt yourself, Ethan,” drawled a voice. It was low, but confident and crisp at the same time. It was the voice of a madman, the voice of someone confident in his abilities and his insanity. It was a voice that he knew.  It was the voice that had haunted his nightmares since he was a small, scared boy. It was the voice of the man who had kidnapped him when he was only six years old and oh so scared. He no longer prayed for light when the prayer was answered. A light was flipped on and he found himself looking anywhere but at the man. He could not see him again!

              He desperately scanned around the room. It was a dark building with wooden walls. It seemed to be an apartment of some kind. It had been an apartment building that the man had held them in the first time, but that one had been long ago demolished. He saw crumpled figures on the floor. He counted eight. They were covered with blankets, but they appeared to be human bodies.Were they? Oh my god. Were those dead bodies? Finally, he forced himself to look at the man.

              It was Him. It was the man who had haunted his darkest dreams since he was six years old. “I know what you’re thinking,” the man drawled. His entire presence was a smirk, a pleased expression. “Yes, there are a few dead in this room. They died. All that’s left of my greatest experiment are four. There are the fires…” He gestured to the opposite side of the room, where two young, bound individuals looked at him, terrified. He could not make out their faces in the blur. They both had dark skin and he saw that their mouths were open, but he could not get anything distinguishing. He could not comprehend anything that told them apart from others. He shrugged his shoulders. “There are also the minds. I think that you two are the ones. You have to be.”

“What do you want?” Ethan growled. His chest heaved as horror gripped his throat. It was as though something was gripping him by the throat, sinking it’s claws into the flesh there.  It was in the very core of his being, eating away at him. It was acidic, eroding at his insides before he could figure himself out.

The man laughed jovially. He was so happy, so excited to be doing what he was doing. The smile that lit up his face was huge. “I want what I always wanted,” he explained, although his words explained absolutely nothing. “I want to fulfill the goals of the Celestial Centerpoint by elevating humanity to the next stage. You are part of the next stage, Ethan.”

              “You’re crazy,” Ethan declared. “You’re absolutely crazy.”

              “Yet, because of me, you are extraordinary,” the man laughed. He smiled brightly at Ethan and then looked around the room. When his gaze returned to the bound young man, he spoke again. “You cannot doubt my abilities when you know what you are. You are what you are because of what I made you.”

Ethan had to admit to that, although he was still adamant that the man was a psychopath. He was just a psychopath with abilities. He had turned Ethan into something that logically should not exist. He had turned Ethan into something that even Ethan himself did not understand. “Why did you kidnap me?” he asked, unsure if he was referring to that moment, or when he was a child. It did not quite matter. It all meant the same.

              “It’s time,” the man declared, “for the world to explode.”

              Recalling his nightmares, Ethan struggled. He fought as hard as he could against the bonds that were holding him tightly. The tight bonds dug into his skin and still he twisted and writhed like a crazy person. He had to get free. He had to get free, no matter what it cost him.  What did this madman want from him? He was just some random kid that the man had yanked off of the street. Why was he part of the madness that was controlled by this maniac? He was just a normal guy. He was a teacher, for god’s sake. There was nothing more normal than that. He had struggled his whole life to be a normal man, in spite of the powers that made him extraordinary. He was just a regular man.

              The madman raised a hand. He held it in the air and he yelled out. “Lilly!” he called, leaning slightly on a door that Ethan had not noticed before. He cried out loudly, though, to someone who was behind it. The smile that crossed his face then was still utterly devious, but there was a peace to it that fascinated Ethan. He was intense, passionate, yet he was serene. The muscles in his face were slack and he reminded Ethan of someone who was in a rapturous state at church.  How could one be so completely at peace and still be so completely evil?

              It hit in an instant. The pain was like a fire inside of him. It ripped through him like an electric current and every muscle in his body went slack. The pain made him cry, nearly roar.  It seemed to spark through every single nerve ending, crackling. Writhing, Ethan cried out. It was electricity sent through his every muscle. It made everything spasm.  He let out a scream. He could not stop screaming. He could hear his own scream, but it seemed like the scream was outside of his body. It was loud and guttural and almost inhuman. “Please! Please stop!” he begged as loudly as he could possibly managed.

             
Stop
!

              “Lilly!”

The pain stopped then. The sparks that were going through his veins and into his blood stopped. He hung limp against the bindings. His body was still shivering against the restraints that were holding him tight. He pulled hard again, but found that he did not have the strength. His muscles were still tingling, twitching. He looked up, absolutely helplessly.

The man walked over to him and stroked his cheek. He stroked the back of his hand over the flesh of Ethan’s cheek. Ethan recoiled, but all he could manage to do was shudder.  “Ethan, call the other mind, or my Lilly will begin again.”

Ethan knew that he was referring to Anna. He opened his eyes and shook his head lightly. He did not want to hurt Anna. He did not want to bring Anna into this. He cared about her, although he hardly knew her. He shook his head lightly and hesitated. That was when the pain returned. It coursed through him stronger than it had before. He felt himself being ripped out of his own body by the sheer amount of agony. He could see himself underneath, writhing like a tortured animal.

Anna! Help! Please.

It came out of nowhere. He had screamed out in agony and the plea for help from Anna had literally been ripped from within him. It hurt to call her like that and he didn’t mean to do so. He didn’t want to lure her into a trap. He closed his eyes and tried to stop screaming. It hurt so much that his body closed up and went into shock. Everything that was thrumming with energy stopped moving. Somehow, the man knew what he had done, that he was called. That was when the agony completely stopped. He fell limp against the bindings that were holding him in place.

Ethan sagged, limp, sighing with relief. As the agony subsided on the outside of his body and his nerve endings no longer vibrated with pain, a new pain hit him from deep inside. It shook his core and made him feel absolutely helpless. He had called Anna. He had lured her to this. He was going to get her hurt or killed and he cared about her. Yes, he barely knew her but he cared about this Anna woman greatly.

The man laughed, delighted over what Ethan had done. A smile crossed his face and he smirked smugly, saying “Good boy. I’ll see you shortly.” At that moment, he left, walking to the door that he’d been leaning on and opening it. He soon disappeared into the abyss, leaving Ethan alone. That was when Ethan recognized again that he was alone, but he wasn’t. There were two other people in the room with him.

The two restrained people were silent, at first. One of them was a young woman with braided hair. She had brown skin and big eyes. She was short, and athletic, and her body looked strong. She was bound as tightly as he was and continued to look from one side to the other. The man next to her also had dark skin and was staring at him. His face was strong.  The girl spoke up first. “He killed them,” she said, looking to the hastily covered bodies on the floor. “It looked like he was doing some kind of ritual and then they died…”

“I called another person here,” Ethan said, swallowing down guilt with his whispered words. “I didn’t mean to, but when he hurt me...it came out. I can call people with my mind and I called this girl, Anna. I can’t seem to call again to tell her to stop.”

“There’s something keeping us from using our powers,” the man said, looking over at Ethan then back to James. “We’ve been trying our best to use them.”

“I broke through when she did that thing to me. The pain. I couldn’t stop.”

The girl nodded. “There has to be a ward against us using our powers or whatever,” she said, “but at the same time maybe you broke through.”

“Maybe.”

There was silence for a moment. The girl, however, broke through.

              “I’m Alicia,” the woman said, introducing herself somberly. “This is James. Our powers involve fire. I assume this chick does stuff with her head, yeah?” When he nodded, she went on. “It seems that the bastard paired us off when we were children.”

“Oh,” Ethan murmured. That made sense. It also opened up his eyes to why he was so drawn to Anna. Maybe he was supposed to be drawn to her. Maybe they had been engineered to be connected to each other by whatever experiment that this was. Maybe that was why he felt things for her that he’d never felt for anyone before, especially not for a total stranger. His relationship with this girl was a weird one.

              “Racist, huh?” the man whispered. “The dead couple in the corner is Asian.” His face was firm and utterly unmoving. Everyone dealt with fear differently, and that was obviously his way of dealing.

Ethan didn’t know what to think about that. He could not think about anything except for how fearful he was. He was so scared. He had led Anna right into this. He had led her to the slaughter. He didn’t know if the man’s stupid powers were why he was so drawn to her, but he didn’t care. He cared about her. She was important to him and he wanted to keep her from walking right into the slaughter that was intended..

“Please don’t,” he cried but like they’d slowly figured out, his abilities were muted, blocked. There was no way out.