Unaltered #2_A Diamond in my Heart (24 page)

I screamed without even realizing I
was doing it. This couldn’t be happening. Chris was supposed to
live. He was in my vision.

Brand shouted my name. I looked at him
and found he had Freedom on the ground using him as a human shield.
Freedom yelled to the guards, “Don’t shoot!”

Brand said, “It’s the pocket watch,
Calli, it kills our powers when it’s open. I’m taking you back with
me this time; I can’t save everybody on my own. Look to see who is
shot first and see if there’s a way to take out a few guards or get
a hold of a gun.”

I watched as Brand snapped the pocket
watch shut. I immediately felt my powers return. The whole world
felt like it rotated one-hundred times in only two seconds and I
found myself in the same place I’d been just a few seconds prior
with the guard’s gun to my head and Freedom walking to Justin’s
body. He pulled the stone out of his chest and said, “I believe you
have something I need, Calli.” He turned away and gave the order,
“kill everyone else.”

I listened for the sound of guns
firing trying to determine which went off first. Brand rushed
Freedom and the three on my left were shot almost simultaneously.
The gun to my right fired into Chris and I looked over to find
Chris and Maetha falling down. Instinctively my hands reached
forward for Chris.

“Again!” Brand yelled and I heard the
pocket watch snap shut and everything spun wildly.

“Kill everyone else,” Freedom turned
away from me.

I immediately turned and fought with
my guard for his gun but the strap was over his head and I failed.
The five shots went off marking my friends’ final demise. I looked
back at Brand on the ground with Freedom and heard Freedom shout,
“Don’t shoot!” and felt the ground spin as we repeated back
again.

“Kill everyone else.” Freedom said and
I quickly spun around and grabbed the strap and yanked it over the
guards head. He fired his gun into the opposite wall while the
other guards shot their prisoners and then turned their guns on me.
Freedom’s yell to stop was evenly timed with the butt of the gun
ramming into my nose.

The ground spun wildly as I fell to
it, only I never hit. I found myself back in time looking at
Justin’s body with Freedom entering the room. I looked at Brand who
mouthed, “No guns this time.” I looked over at the three people to
my left marveling at how a moment ago they were dead, now they were
alive. We needed to figure out a way to keep it that way. I looked
at Chris and Maetha as Freedom said, “I believe you have something
I need, Calli.” He turned to the guards and said, “Kill everyone
else.”

Brand rushed Freedom in a slightly
different way this time, jumping up at a sideways angle and
planting his feet on Chris’s chest pushing off toward Maetha and
knocking Chris down. His hands pushed her shoulders back, knocking
her into her guard and then Brand cart-wheeled into Freedom taking
him down to the ground in the same fashion as before. I noted that
the surprised look on Freedom’s face never lessened with each time
Brand took him down; particularly with such a sudden display of
acrobatics.

I stood in shock as the three to my
left were already lying on the ground bleeding and Chris and Maetha
had been shot after they were knocked to the ground by Brand. I
heard Freedom shout to his guards, “Don’t shoot!”

Brand grunted, “Oh shut up already you
piece of—”

Freedom cut him off in a choked voice
due to the amazing disabling hold Brand had on him, “You’ll never
escape. Look outside.”

I looked out the windows and saw
multiple military vehicles screeching to a halt with the dust
clouds following. My jaw dropped open and I turned my head back to
Brand.

With a whoosh, we repeated
back again. Freedom walked in with the pocket watch extended in
front of him. Brand said to me, “Go for Maetha’s guard, follow my
lead.” I looked to my right at Chris who repeatedly ended up dead
with every scenario wondering if I should attack
his guard
instead of
Maetha’s. Next time. I faced forward and watched as Freedom bent
down to pull the diamond out of Justin’s chest. The gruesome image
had lessened in strength with the many replays of it, the same with
watching Chris, Maetha and the others getting gunned down; the
intensity was not as shocking. It was almost as if it wasn’t real
because all Brand would have to do is repeat and the injuries would
be gone just like when he stabbed his own leg at the amusement
park.

As Freedom began straightening himself
with the diamond in his hand, I saw Brand move toward him. I took
the cue to rush Maetha’s guard before the “kill everyone else,”
order could be issued. Maetha’s guard wasn’t even looking in my
direction when the brunt of my shoulder rammed into his gut. The
tip of his gun pointed upward and when he pulled the trigger the
bullets hit the ceiling making plaster crumble down.

Three distinct bullets were fired, I
heard the familiar snap of the pocket watch closing, and a split
second later Maetha commanded loudly, “Freeze!”

Everyone halted in their positions,
literally frozen in place. I saw that Charles, Curtis and Dominic
were already down, but alive. Chris was unharmed, as was I, and
Maetha appeared unharmed. Brand was under Freedom with his arms and
legs wrapped around him. He didn’t look to have been
shot.

Sirens wailed in the distance and
multiple military vehicles pulled up in front of the
building.

Freedom choked out, “Well hell,
Maetha, how long have you had it?”

“Awhile.”

“And yet you held off using it all
this time.”

I looked at him and her
confusedly.

“I will not allow you to do this,
Freedom. The diamond belongs to Calli.”

“Where did you find it
Maetha?”

“Two pieces of the twenty-one will not
double your powers.”

“But a piece of the Grecian Blue
Diamond will, like with you.”

Maetha’s voice sounded in
my head,
“Calli, I can’t hold everyone for
very much longer nor can I release individuals. I have to release
everyone at once but when I do, Freedom will be released as well.
Prepare to grab the diamond and run on my word.”

“What?” I couldn’t help myself from
speaking out loud. I looked around for the diamond and found it
lying on the floor a short distance away next to Justin’s body.
“But Freedom already touched it—”

Brand grunted and replied, “Just do
it, Calli. I can keep him pinned down long enough for you three to
escape.”

Had he heard Maetha’s telepathy too?
“What about you?” I asked Brand.

“If I let go, he will catch us all and
no one will get away. Now go!”

A helicopter sounded above and the
door was busted down opening the way for a dozen or more soldiers
to enter. A large older man entered after the soldiers.

Chris gasped out, “Dad?”

Freedom tried to yell, “Shut the
door,” but it only came out as a raspy whisper.

“Now!”

I felt my legs run on Maetha’s power,
my body bent forward instinctively and my hand snatched the diamond
off the floor. As I straightened myself, I noticed Maetha catching
a flying object; it was Freedom’s pocket watch that Brand had
tossed her. Chris was by my side and the room, its occupants and
intruders became a blur of colors as we ran as fast as lightning
out the opened door. My mind couldn’t help but worry about Brand.
He’d clearly tried to escape with us, he’d repeated at least once
without me to determine the dismal outcome of Freedom catching us,
so he sacrificed himself so we could get away.

What of the three injured companions?
Charles, Curtis and Dominic; I looked to the future and saw that I
couldn’t read their futures. I tried to view Brand's future but was
met with bombardment and frustration. I looked for Freedom’s future
but found nothing. I tried looking for what would happen next but
my mind was filled with Maetha’s voice.

“Calli, stop using your
powers! You’re holding Freedom’s property and we can’t risk any
connection to him.”

“But what about my
running?”

“I’m making you run. Take
Chris’s hand so we can go faster.”

I ran near him and grabbed his hand.
He tightened his grip on my hand and I felt Maetha increase our
speed. We ran over mountains, lakes, around cities, over farmlands
and through thunderstorms until we reached Maetha’s lakeside resort
in Indiana. Night had fallen along the way but the Shadow Demons
didn’t seem to be able to keep up with us and Maetha had assured me
through telepathy that Chris was safe as long as we kept
running.

We came to a halt under the bright
lights of the parking lot of the resort where Chris would be
safe.

“Where are we?” Chris
asked.

“Indiana.” Maetha answered calmly as
she led us to a side door. After typing in a key code, we entered
the well lit hallway and proceeded to her room. Hans Lindlbauer
came stumbling out of the bedroom and inquired to our
presence.

“Hans, you’ve met Calli, this is Chris
Harding. Chris, this is Hans Lindlbauer. Hans, please bring juices
from the refrigerator for these two.”

Maetha quickly went into the other
room and sat on the bed in the lotus position closing her eyes and
relaxing her body. Hans brought two juice bottles to Chris and me
and said, “Calli, your devices arrived.”

“Thank you, Hans.” I set my juice on
the table along with the blood encrusted diamond. The juxtaposition
of the white tabletop and the brownish-black covered diamond was a
stark reminder of the deaths that had occurred only a few hours
previous. My mind replayed the horrible sight of seeing Chris shot
over and over again, and the confusion of the next second seeing
him alive once more. I guess my mind didn’t realize I was seeing
potential outcomes until Maetha froze the process of
repeating.

“What is that?” Hans asked while
reaching out his finger to the stone. I quickly grabbed the diamond
and Chris launched his body into Hans to stop him from touching it.
The two of them fell to the floor in a loud commotion.

“What the hell was that all about?”
Hans asked as he sat up on the floor.

“You can’t touch it or you’ll die,”
Chris answered rather breathlessly. He looked up at me with a
mixture of emotions showing in his face. It was clear that he still
couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that I could hold the stone
and that I had a piece inside of me. His eyes held fear,
anxiousness, admiration and love; not at the same time, but a
cascading change of emotion.

I looked through the doorway at Maetha
only to find the scuffle hadn’t pulled her out of her
meditation.

I loosened the grip on the diamond and
held it out for Hans to see. The stone no longer looked like a
polished cut diamond; instead it looked like a huge cloudy crystal,
a diamond in the rough, with an obvious missing section.

“Where did you get it from?” Hans
asked.

Chris put his thoughts on
the edge of his mind.
“Where
did
it come from,
Calli?”

I spoke to both of them, “I don’t
know. Maetha gave it to me.”

“Calli, I know you know
more than that, but it’s alright, you don’t have to
say.”

I nodded back to him and walked over
to the kitchen sink and set the diamond down in the bottom of the
basin. I washed my hands taking extra time to clean under my nails.
As I watched the blood residue go down the drain I imagined a
deeper meaning to everything. I felt as though Justin’s journey had
been predestined to end tragically, that his purpose in life was to
further the process of nature. He was a tool used by Freedom to
round up the shards; he was used further because of his lust for
power to reunite the shards thus resulting in his death.

I realized that Brand and Chris were
the only ones now who knew I carried a shard in my heart and that
I’m an Unaltered. I could sense that Charles Rhondell and Curtis
Schultz and the Hunter named Dominic had died.

What had happened exactly? What was in
the pocket watch that rendered us powerless? How had Maetha
appeared in the middle of the room? Was she a Teleporter? If she
was, why did she look shocked as if her cover was blown? What had
Freedom meant with his questions? What was he talking about? What
would happen with the stone now?

The water that splashed on the diamond
had moistened the blood residue. I picked it up and rubbed the
remaining splatters off of it admiring the defined lines within the
stone signifying the separate sections, amazed at how it had merged
back together on its own. I imagined the last time the stone had
been bloodied; when my relative, Gustave, had willingly removed it
thus ending his life. Had it gone through the same transition prior
to entering his heart? Had there been a similar set of incidences
that resulted in a shard entering his heart and then later the
remaining stone entering and joining the first piece? I was curious
to find out.

I dried my hands and the
diamond and placed it on the table top once again. I sat down on
the sofa next to Chris who put his arm around me. He handed me my
juice from the table and we sipped the replenishing fluid and
relaxed. Maetha exited her room and I watched as she whispered
something to Hans concerning Chris. She turned to me and said with
her mind,
“It is time, Calli. Come with
me.”