Chapter 7

Other shots were heard nearby so we started to run again. I tried to understand what happened and how we can find Elise.

"Elliot, how did you get here?" Allaya asked.

"I don't know. Three men were following and attacking us with grenades. I couldn't find Ria and Bill with all the smoke and blowouts. One of the followers caught me and we started to fight. He put me down and tried to stab me. I screamed and then I woke up running besides you."

Allaya and I were staring at each other and she had tears in her eyes. I swallowed my tears and focused on keeping them alive. If the twins had the power to teleport each in the place of the other, Elise was stabbed instead of Elliot. At least, this was the logic behind the facts. But he was too shocked to realize it.

Suddenly, one of the assassins was propelled into the air so hard that he flew above us and fell down in front of us, unconscious. Then another one. The rest of them were shot.

Three figures were headed toward us. A girl and two guys. The girl approached us with her hands raised in peace, followed by the other two. I was ready to attack.

"Mia Russell." The girl said. "We need to talk."

"Who are you?"

"Selena. I come in peace."

"Tell me how you know my name and maybe I'll give you one minute."

"It's…complicated."

"Huh! You convinced me." I said laughing. "Look, I'm not interested. I need to find my friends."

"Mia, maybe you should talk to them." Allaya said.

"Elliot, take us to Ria and Bill." I said firmly.

We passed them and Selena grabbed my arm. This was exactly what I was waiting for. I released a small amount of my power and smashed her into a tree. She screamed and her body was trembling. One of the guys punched me in my stomach so hard I couldn't breathe. Allaya stepped in front of me and put him down hard. I got up from the ground really angry. My focus was on Selena, picturing so many ways of torturing her.

"Mia…" Elliot said while looking to the sky.

I looked up. Black birds appeared from nowhere. They were flying above us and all of a sudden, they exploded like grenades. We started to run in all directions like flies, losing Allaya and Elliot from my sight. The explosions never stopped, destroying the forest and increasing the distance between me and my friends. I was so desperate and angry that I screamed until my lungs started to hurt.

I stopped and fell down on my knees to breathe, but the smoke chocked me. There was no air. I was dying. I laid on my back and my mother was smiling at me. I raised my hand to her and started to cry.

"Mom!"

She grabbed my arm and put me on something. A horse? We started to run and I was finally peaceful.

Someone was licking my face and I woke up. I couldn't see what's happening as my eyes were damaged from crying and smoke.

"Mia! Wake up. Can you hear me?"

"Mom?"

I blinked several times and Elise was caressing my hair.

"Elise?! Oh my God, Elise!" I hugged her and started to cry. "I thought we lost you!"

"I'm here Mia. Are you ok? Can you move?"

"Barely, but I'm ok. Thank God you're alive!"

A roar made me turn my head and I looked up. Really up. Ria was two times bigger and much more frightening. She was staring at me from above then turned her back on me.

"We need to find the others. Let's go." Elise said while riding Ria.

They were staring at me, expecting me to do the same, but I wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do. Ria roared at me and in a second, I was on her back, being supported by Elise. Dear God! I was riding a jaguar. What's next, a dragon with 3 heads?

We agreed on shouting their names in order to point them into our direction. Ria was leading us to the last point of contact she had with Bill.

The forest was unrecognizable with its burning trees and the smoke darkening it. It seemed like a battlefield. Elise explained to me what happened when Elliot teleported in her place. She was running next to us when suddenly she woke up on the ground, screaming, with a man holding a knife above her head. In that moment, Ria decapitated the attacker and saved Elise. Quite an image. With love, from Ria.

While looking for the others, we've heard Allaya screaming:

"Bill, watch out!"

Fight noises and shots made my stomach squeeze. We headed very fast in their direction, praying for Bill to be unharmed. He and Allaya were fighting the last two attackers. Bill was seriously injured, with a fractured skull and fighting one of the guys. Allaya was exhausted and her nose was bleeding. One of the stalkers followed her when she started to run far away from Bill.

"Allaya, no!" I screamed.

I got off the jaguar and I ran after them. I was literally measuring the distance between my steps in order to make them bigger and faster. I couldn't lose Allaya. If she dies, I would kill everyone. No remorse, no backing down.

When I passed by Bill, he cracked that guy's head and his face was covered in blood. I looked into Bill's eyes and he had no remorse either. How much had that day fucked us up? We became savages, fighting and killing for food, homes and power. And they smoothly encouraged that behavior for their own benefits.

How many lost kids with power were hunted by them? How many mothers lost their children, and how many children lost their parents? Who was taking care of them?

Savages. Beasts.

I will kill them all.

Allaya was 30 meters ahead me and she started to slow down. She suddenly turned around to her attacker and with the last drop of power, made his eyes explode, then she collapsed.

"Allaya!"

I almost reached her when a force from nowhere hit me and I stumbled for 3 meters. My left shoulder was in pain and I couldn't understand how this happened. Then another hit my stomach. I gasped.

For a second, I thought that an invisible man was attacking me, so I ran away from Bill and Allaya into the opposite direction. On my way to nowhere, another battle was being fought. A powerful one. It was so intense that a strong wave of power gave me goosebumps.

My legs were shaking and when I tried to change the direction, the invisible force attacked me again and again until I continued on the same road. That miserable someone wanted me to go there. But why?

The next hit made me run again. My body was already in so much pain I couldn't bear another punch. So basically, I had two options. To die beaten by an invisible force or crushed between two powerful forces. I chose the second one. Maybe they were so focused on killing each other that they might not even be aware of my presence. Or I was lying to myself, not being capable of handling the truth.

When I saw them, I hid behind a tree. Two men were fighting to the death, through all the black smoke and burning forest. The distance between us was almost 30 meters and I was wondering how I could sneak past them.

One of them was really strong. He was tall and thin with purple skin and black spiky hair. From his gestures and posture you could read the nonchalance and superiority he exuded. His opponent was seriously injured, but still on his feet. The left arm was hanging lifeless next to his body and with the right arm, he attacked the purple guy with a type of black-colored power. Huh?!

I was looking at the scene terrified with a strong desire to leave that place. Then I received another hit on my left shoulder and I cursed at the motherfucker who did this. I started to ran in parallel with those guys, keeping a considerable distance, hoping they couldn't see me through all the smoke and trees. I was shaking and my power went out of control, scattering lighting all around my body. I was looking like a fucking firework, not drawing the attention at all.

The purple guy easily avoided the attack, then with a nonhuman speed punched the dying guy in his stomach so hard that made him yelp and fell down on his back. Mr. Purple neared him and prepared the final blow when he suddenly turned on me. Oh shit! Oh FUCK! I lost all my senses and in a split second I released all the power within my body in his direction.

I was yelling from pain and fear. The place lighted up so much that nobody could look into it. My body collapsed face-down on the ground, keeping only my head up to see what happened. Smoke came out of his shaking body and the other guy cut his head with a sharp black and long object coming from his hand. What's with that guy?

After 5 minutes, I was breathing normally again and tried to stand up. After several attempts, I started heading to him with the speed of a snail.

His chest had several cuts and he was barely breathing. His face was sweaty, and the eyes were closed. My pulse accelerated while staring at him. Why did I become so anxious? I wasn't breathing anymore. I bent down to look more closely and touched his face with my fingers.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide awake and, in a heartbeat, he used the black object again while I was screaming from a pain I've never felt before. I fell over him along with something heavy falling over our feet.

"Mia!" He screamed.

He lifted up my face and I was falling asleep, lost in the blue of the sky. And the sky was looking at me.

"You!" I said.