“Please finish me!” the Hunter
pleaded.
“I thought I already did.” I walked
away knowing now I didn’t murder him, however, I wasn’t going to help him
either. So I guess I am a murderer.
I found the other Hunter who had
died. I couldn’t enter his mind, he naturally didn’t have a future, and I
couldn’t heal his body; he was definitely dead.
I walked back out of the forest
contemplating what I’d done. Those Hunters would have killed whomever in an
effort to get the diamond. Yet, I’m the only one in my party who can do anything
about it. My shoulders aren’t big enough to carry this load.
I took an hour to walk the distance
to the town. I needed every second of it to pull my emotions under control. I
came to the conclusion that these teammates were my family and I needed to
protect them. Like a parent would protect their loved ones from a burglar, I
would protect these friends also. I am the only one who can do it, therefore it
is my responsibility.
I made a correct assumption that
Chris would choose the motel on the perimeter of town based on the fact the sun
had gone down. They wouldn’t have wasted any time securing rooms. I was right. I
wandered the parking lot until I spotted Chris looking out the window. I went
to his door which he only opened a crack.
“You’re in #113,” he said, not
making eye contact with me.
“Alright,” I walked away incredibly
saddened and willed my tears to stay behind my eyes. I knocked on my door and
Justin moved the drapes to confirm it was actually me. He unlocked and opened
it for me. Once I got in, they bombarded me with questions.
“What does it feel like to kill
someone?” Beth was the first to question me.
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? You were puking
your guts out. It must have felt awfully gross!” Beth stated in awe.
“You think?! I only paralyzed him. The
Demons finished him off. The other was on death’s door anyway, I just opened it
for him.”
“Well, aren’t you just the goody
two-shoes,” Justin spat out.
“Yeah, that’s me. Saving
your
goody
two-shoes, you thunder-douche! You were the one with the diamond. They were
after you and you alone; the rest of us would have been safe. Maybe I shouldn’t
have stopped them.”
Justin stormed away from me. I
realized the room was crowded and one quick look into an available mind told me
there were only two rooms left in the motel that night. Nine of us would be
trying to sleep here.
Well, I would help that situation a
bit. I took a pillow and walked to the door as the phone was ringing.
“Where are you going?” Justin
asked.
“Out.”
“Why?”
“Because I can,” my voice cracked
but I didn’t care. I stormed out and slammed the door. I’d spotted a truck
parked in the lot on my way in and I intended on sleeping in the truck bed.
However, I had to walk past Chris’s
room to get to it. Damn.
I took my shoe off and threw it at
the light hanging outside his door. It crashed into the bulb sprinkling glass
on the ground. Chris wouldn’t dare open his door now that his light was off. But
that didn’t stop him from staring out the window as I passed by.
Well, stare all you want! Stare
at my back as I walk away.
I picked up my shoe and continued on. I climbed
into the bed of the truck and positioned my pillow. Then I glanced back at the
building only to realize Chris had a direct line of sight to me from his
window. And he hadn’t left it yet. I rolled over, putting my back to him, in an
effort to put this all behind me.
Yeah, right.
Chapter 10
I Don’t Want To Die
The morning came with the owner of
the truck waking me up, “Missy, if you needed a place to sleep, I had an extra
bed in my room.” His mind didn’t show any ill meaning behind the statement. I
gathered my pillow and apologized to him. As I jumped out of the truck, Chris
and the gang met up with me.
“Sleep well?” Beth’s smile spoke of
admiration.
“Yes, you?”
We ran for what seemed like forever
until we came over a hilltop. I stopped so fast a couple of kids ran into me
like a fifteen car pileup on the evening commute and caustic words went flying
about. I couldn’t believe what my eyes beheld.
Beth came up behind me, “What’s the
matter?”
“This is the clearing from my
vision. The place where the package exchange will happen, only…”
Justin overheard what I’d told Beth
and said, “So, if this is where the exchange will happen, where are the clans?”
His cantankerous tone irritated me.
“I don’t know. Everyone should block
their minds now, something’s not right here.” I walked around and smelled the
air, trying to pick up on scents, intentions, clans, but I came up with
nothing. I jogged down to the clearing with all my senses on high alert looking
for smashed grass or footprints, anything signifying someone had been here
already. Still nothing. I spotted an old logging road carving two deep ruts
along the edge of the trees and in the center of everything stood a mound of
stones forming the rude table where the exchange would happen; the place where
Chris would die.
I went over to the group, looking
for Chris. He was near the back of the crowd. Clearly he didn’t want to be
around me, and yet, he waited like the rest of them for my analysis of the
situation.
“Three of you need to work on your
mind-blocking abilities. I’m not going to pinpoint you to everyone else, but
you probably are aware I’m in your head. This is the clearing from my vision;
the delivery will take place here, but not yet. Chris, where are we headed?” I
figured if I brought him into the conversation he’d have to answer me.
He poured over his map for a couple
of seconds, “There’s a town not far from here to the west.”
“Alright, Justin, we’ll follow
you.”
“Me? Why me?”
“You are second in command, are you
not?”
“Well, yes, but you are the one
with all the powers,” he leaned in real close to my ear, “Even Chris has
stepped aside to let you lead. Why can’t I do the same?”
“You
want
to step away from
the lead?”
“Chris did.”
“You do everything Chris does?” In
the back of my mind I could hear my mother saying the same thing to me
involving my friends jumping off a bridge.
“No, I just follow the leader and
right now that leader is you,” he answered back in a casual way.
I leaned even closer to him, “But,
we all know it should be you.” He pulled away from me as if my breath was sharp
as a knife cutting into his flesh.
I took in all the faces in the
crowd, not seeing Chris’s, and realized they respected me as their leader, but
only because I had these powers. This very clearing where we presently stood
would be where everything ended. Ironic.
An idea popped into my head, what
if I presented the diamond alone? I know where the clearing is now and if Chris
wasn’t present he couldn’t be killed. In fact, why would anyone need to be here
at all? I could meet personally with the Death Clan and hand over the magical
stone. Wow! Why hadn’t I thought of that before? Now, I only had to peek into
Chris’s future to find out if this change would be good.
I caught a glimpse of him and that’s
all it took. I found this alteration was by far the worst to date. Handing the
stone over, alone, doesn’t destroy the Death Clan, instead they become
empowered, propelling forward their ambitions of ruling the world by killing
all other clans and humans who stand in their way. Not only would Chris die,
but
millions
of people would also.
When Harold Bates and Maetha said
all three of us must be present at the delivery they were absolutely right. Maybe
it was impossible to find a solution that would result in the Death Clan being
obliterated and everyone else unharmed, and perhaps these attempts of trying to
save Chris from imminent death were pointless. I felt as if nature was speaking
to me, informing me someone would have to die for the mission to be a success; a
sacrifice of sorts.
A heavy wave of despair settled
over me as I looked over my team. I didn’t want them to become alarmed with
what was going on in my head so I got the group moving, “Alright, let’s go.”
I took off running, leading the
clan in the direction Chris had pointed out. We couldn’t move as fast because
of the density of the forest undergrowth and the fallen trees. The deeper we
went into the trees the more nervous everyone became. I was stopped two
different times, and asked if Demons were in the shadows. I assured them the
shadows were just that, shadows.
As we neared the town I halted the
group to investigate. After clearing the area we secured motel rooms with two
sets of adjoining rooms. I let others make those arrangements and wasn’t
surprised at all to discover Chris made sure we didn’t end up together.
I didn’t understand him. But hey,
I’m only sixteen. Still, I’d witnessed so much in his mind in those moments
before he became incredibly disgusted with me.
***
Justin sat in the adjoining room
talking on the phone with Chris. He called for me and gave me the receiver.
“Yes?”
“Calli, I spoke with Mrs. Winter
and she informed me we need to stay here at the motel until she reaches us. I
told her … I told her about you and your abilities.”
“She’s coming here?”
“Yes, the whole clan is. In fact,
all the clans are on their way here. She recommended I continue to stay at a
distance from you with the diamond, considering the circumstances.”
“So, she thinks I’m a target as
much as the diamond is?” I tried to look into his mind but found it to be
impossible over the phone. Wouldn’t Mrs. Winter be surprised to find out I was
only a target because I carried the real Sanguine Diamond? What a farce! “Well,
sounds like you’ve done a fine job of protecting the diamond, haven’t you? Keeping
it from me was probably the best thing you could do, huh?”
“Calli—”
“No, don’t try to explain this
away. My powers are increasing, the others are scared of me and you can’t stand
to be near me.”
“Calli, it’s not like that.”
“Really? That’s what I see from
where I’m sitting. The moment I said ‘witch’ you high-tailed-it away from me,
and this is the first real conversation we’ve had since. We have about three
weeks of wait time here at this poe-dunk motel. I hope the clan’s credit card
will be able to support our bill.”
“No need; the meeting is taking
place in two days.”
“What?” my breath escaped my chest
with a whoosh.
“I told her about the clearing and
that you’d already seen it in a vision. She said the arrangements would be made
for the hand-off to take place at that location. She figured it would take
forty-eight hours for everyone to arrive.”
“But, it’s too soon, I think.” My
head was spinning around. Would I even be able to see the future for an event
happening so quickly?
“Calli, would you look for my
future?”
“You said that nature deemed you’d
take one for the team. Now, you want to know if you’re still going to die?”
“After nearly drowning, I’ve
changed my mind. If you saw me, could you do a reading?”
“Yes.”
“Would you only search for my
future? Not delve into my memories like last time?”
“What do you mean?”
“By the river, you broke through my
blocking defenses. So, can you please only look for my future and not go deeper?”
“Alright.”
I broke through his
walls?
That makes more sense. Plus his following actions began to make more
sense too.
“I’ll step out my door and you step
out yours. Don’t come toward me or I’ll go back in my room,” he threatened.
“Am I that dangerous to you?”
“Calli, you waltzed through
defenses set in place by a spell-caster. They were supposed to be unbreakable
and no other Mind Reader has ever broken through, but you blew me away with how
easily you did it.”
“You didn’t want me to know how you
felt about me, did you?”
“My feelings for you have nothing
to do with it. I can’t have you sifting through my mind and discovering—um, it
would place everyone in danger.”
“Alright. Step outside your door in
two minutes.” Well, that was the biggest temptation only ever; he might as well
of dangled a chocolate covered carrot in front of me.
I spent the next few minutes
contemplating my change to the future. I knew what needed to be altered and
that he wouldn’t approve, but I have come to realize this is the way the
delivery was meant to happen from the inception.
Ready to visualize, I stepped out
my door to find Chris standing down the way looking like a lost puppy, sad eyes
and all, and my heart clenched. I focused on his mind only, searching for his
future. Before it came, his outermost feelings of self repulsion and
disappointment flooded my being. He truly hated himself for hurting me, but
there was no other way to protect the team than to distance himself from me. Then
the vision of the future filled my head. The clearing, the tents, floodlights
everywhere, the stone table, the three of us meeting the Death Clan. Chris
presents the fake stone which is immediately detected as a counterfeit. Our
clan is sequestered in a tent until a decision can be made. I
refuse
to
surrender the diamond. They tie my hands together and I’m placed on the stone
table in sacrificial form with the diamond placed on my chest. Chris is with
the rest of the clan trying to comprehend what’s happening, but he’s alive. The
Death Clan begins the ritual and then an explosion rocks the forest. The Death
Clan dies; then I do. The vision was viewed through Chris’s eyes meaning he
would live through my death and the end of the Death Clan.