I felt myself growing stronger withevery small molecule of electricity in my veins. I took energy from everythingaround me; borrowing from the trees, the ground, the stars, the moon, the verybreeze that remained soft despite our deathly battle. I sensed myself becomingan unstoppable force. Even my enemies couldn’t hold on to their own energy as Itook it from them and added it to my own.

My body was nearly bursting. I hadcreated such a force of energy, I could barely contain it. I looked aroundagain and saw all of my friends in imminent danger, unaware of the oncomingstorm I was about to rain down.

With controlled thoughts anddetermined power, I let loose my building tempest. Every cloaked being was sentflying through the air, all coming to rest in one final heap on the ground. Ifelt their energies dissipate quickly and their lifeless bodies move no more.

Four bodies, piled carelessly ontop of each other in the middle of our destruction were the evidence of what Iwas capable of. One of the attackers however was able to escape. He did notwait around to be certain of his friend’s fate, but fled through the woods; hisenergy growing fainter and fainter the farther away he ran.

Only one of them escaped throughthe forest, only one of the five. I could sense each of his feet hit the hardground and his body panic from the terrifying image I ingrained into his minduntil eventually he faded away completely.

There was no way I could catch himnow, my body had no more strength to move. I collapsed onto the ground, shakingin violent tremors. I lifted my head to see Kiran, Talbott and Lilly back inher human form, were all alive. I rejoiced silently, unable to even sayanything. They stared at me with the strangest mix of emotions on their face,all hesitating to move.

Chapter Sixteen

I might as well have been drainedof all life. The strength I expelled to put an end to the fighting was morethan I knew I was capable of; not to mention all of the other crazy stuff thatI didn’t know anyone was capable of. I lay on the hard ground, barely able tolift my head, let alone my limp limbs.

I was aware of what just happened;a small part of me accepted that the events that occurred were in fact real.But the fight I partook in only moments ago felt more like a distant memorythan reality: like a dream I just woke up from and could barely remember. Theexact details of everything were fading from my mind quickly and I wasn’t sureI cared.

“One got away,” my voice came outhoarse and shaky. I pointed in the direction I felt him run in before hedisappeared from the tracking device I knew was my mind.

“Talbott, go,” Kiran demanded, rushingover to my side and kneeling down. He leaned in close to my face, seeminglyexamining my pupils, although I had a hard time believing he really knew whathe was doing. He took my hand into his and held it tightly in his grasp.

“I can’t leave you. Damn it. Weshould have brought the entire Guard, damn it Kiran,” Talbott yelled. “I knewthis was a bad idea. Damn it,” he repeated over and over and started to walk incircles. “Kiran are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Kiran looked down at meconcerned. He inspected me again by lifting up my arms and head, looking for,well I didn’t really know what he was looking for, but he eventually seemedsatisfied. All the while, he never let go of my hand.

“Damn it Kiran, are you all right?”Talbott shouted at him louder. I watched Talbott continue to pace back andforth from my peripheral. I could tell that he wanted to pursue the attacker,chase him down. I could also tell by the way he glanced at Kiran every othersecond he was not going to leave his friend alone.

“Yes, I’m fine, I’m really fine,”Kiran spoke louder and with confidence. I saw Talbott relax his shoulders alittle, but continue to pace. “Lilly go back to camp and tell Mr. Lawly that wehave to leave now!” Kiran demanded of the human-again Lilly. She did not speaka word, but obediently took off running through the forest, her bright red hairdisappearing into the darkness.

The logical part of me objected toLilly trying to make it back to camp by herself. The attacker could still beout there, he could have easily circled around to our other side to finish thejob and I was too exhausted to pick him up with my new found powers. After whatjust happened, somebody should go with her, whether he was out there or not. Iwas too weak to contest. I tried to verbalize my concerns, but only a moan cameout.

“She will be fine,” Kiran lookedinto my eyes intensely and I saw his passion and concern. “Lilly can take careof herself it turns out. She will have no problem making it back to camp.”Kiran’s voice was soothing and calm; it felt like medicine to my fried nerves.

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

“She just saved our lives,” Kirangrowled.

“And look at what she did toeveryone 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 andout of consciousness, fighting to stay awake, but the fatigue was making itimpossible.

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

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

“I thought you said that she wasn’tone of your kind?” Kiran asked softly.

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

“No, that is the last thing we aregoing 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 werecapable 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 powerand quicker.

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

I saw men move things with theirminds. I saw them try to kill each other without ever touching the other. Theirstrength being one thousand times more dangerous without ever physically cominginto contact with one another than any other human being I had ever seen. Thepower these men wielded was beyond comprehension; but these were not juststrangers, Kiran and Talbott were capable of the same feats of extraordinary.Kiran and Talbott, only teenagers, were capable of murder, even if it wasself-defense.

And then I realized that it wasn’tjust them that did those things, it was me. I moved things with my mind. I hurtpeople. I killed people. I was capable of everything the others were, if notmore. And I finished it all.

A rock seemed to drop in my stomachand I was suddenly sick. I sat up quickly and emptied everything I had eatenthat day on the ground next to me. My body shook violently as it tried to ridmy 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 havekilled anyone? And not just one person, but four? I pulled my knees to my chestand began to cry, fully awake, but fully unaware of what was happening aroundme. I drowned out any sound nearby with my sobs. I wanted it so badly to be adream that I could wake up from, but there was the terrifying fact that I justlived through a real life nightmare I would never be able to forget.