Psychic

When we got outside the room, I found myself outside. It looks like they had locked me inside an old warehouse of sorts. I recognized the place as the farm house on Old McFarlan’s property. The kids in the town all claimed it was haunted because of the screams sometimes heard from within its doors.

Now I knew why they heard the screams. It was the so called “monsters” the hunters had been killing up here for privacy. It sickened me that they must’ve killed many an innocent creature just because they weren’t human, but I couldn’t deal with that as of now.

Because right now I had way bigger problems to deal with.

Like the full on hunter on warlock war that seemed to have broken out.

The hunters, noticeable by their shotguns and machetes, not to mention an abundance of flannel, were crouching behind trucks and vans, trying to shoot the warlocks, but to no avail. It seemed every shot missed, which I figured had something to do with a spell or two.

The warlocks had the advantage of upper ground. The warehouse was at the bottom of a hill, and the warlocks were advancing from the top of it. More forces were sitting on the top of it, watching the scene unfold without doing a thing. Since the other hunters completely ignored them, as well as some of the warlocks, I assumed they were under an invisible bubble charm, like Magnus had done so many weeks ago. I remembered how I was able to see through it when I shouldn’t have. It was what I was doing now.

I ran to the nearest hunter, the woman who was in the warehouse with me. “Can you see their extra forces at the top of the hill?”

She gave me a strange look, “You’re seeing things, and there ain’t nothing up there.”

I shook my head

“One of my powers. I can see through their forms of magic.” Her eyes lit up in curiosity and I continued. “About twenty more warlocks and two cloaked men on top of cars are up there, hidden under a charm. Gather your excess sources and surround them. Once they let the charm fall, you can attack. You might be able to achieve more with surprise on your hand.” I ordered.

“Why should I trust that you’re telling me the truth, creature?” she sneered, even though her thoughts towards me were a bit less cruel now.

I sighed. “I would rather not be captured by Hawthorne. It is in my best interests for you all to win right now.”

She nodded, surprisingly, at my request. Soon she was running off to go find some other excess hunters, who were gathering extra ammunition and hiding behind cars, to go surround the top of the hill.

I looked back at the fight to see some of the hunters gain some ground. It looked like a stray bullet had actually hit a warlock. It seemed to stun them enough for them to start taking the hunters seriously, which meant that they backed up a couple feet and started muttering more complex Latin for longer periods of time, more complex spells I expected.

I went and ran back to the entrance to the warehouse, where Bella was huddling behind a wooden crate. I dodged a stray green light from a warlock who was aiming at someone else, and finally reached her.

“C’mon, Bella,” I said, “we’ve got to go.”

She shook her head, “No, my whole family is here, Liv. I can’t leave them. Those people – the warlocks – they’ll kill them without a second thought. I’ve heard what they’re capable of . . .”

“Bella!” I screamed, shaking her out of her stupor. “Your family is very good at defending themselves, especially since I’ve given them some help. Besides, not all those warlocks are bad. They’re just acting on the orders of a very delusional man. Even Magnus wasn’t really bad until I told him I’d been consorting with Victoria.”

She looked like she’d been slapped in the face at my words.

“You’ve been in contact with that other one? The one they said murdered a lot of the magical creatures all those years ago? Liv! She’s a murderer!” Bella scolded.

I shook my head, “That’s where you’re wrong. Hawthorne put the blame on her because it was easy. Then she told him about some ancient prophecy that I’m involved in and he kind of got psycho in his search for me. It was the reason my mom ran away with me in the first place.”

“Your mom? Like, your real mom?” Bella asked, confused.

I sighed and gave her everything. I told her about every little detail that she had missed about me, well, at least the short version. It was enough to catch her up, and suddenly the betrayed look in her eyes lessened.

“So Hawthorne is your dad?” She asked, bewildered.

I nodded. “I just got great genetics, didn’t I?”

“But if you can control minds now, why can’t you just tell the opposite side to back down? Why can’t you end this?”

“It’s more complicated than that. I can’t make them do something they wouldn’t normally do, and I’m pretty sure all these warlocks are all devoted to Hawthorne wholeheartedly. And I still wouldn’t have the power to turn them all against him.”

An uproar from behind me caused me to turn around. It seemed that the reinforcements for the warlocks had appeared, but they were being stopped by a small group of hunters that had jumped them, grasping wildly for their potentia Source’s in an attempt to disarm them, a smart move.

I smiled and turned around, but Bella had gone running out into the crowd, straight for her mother, who was fighting one of the cloaked figures on the hilltop.

I ran after her. I knew she was untrained, so she would be thrown down before she even got close. At least I had a chance with my freaky mind abilities, but I knew she didn’t.

I got close before a certain familiar warlock blocked my path.

“Magnus.” I said, my voice steady and unnerving. “Let me go. Bella is about to be slaughtered by those people you call allies.”

He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Olivia, but I have orders to collect you and bring you to Hawthorne. If you come with me, everything will stop. We’re only here for you. You can stop those hunters from being cut down if you just do the right thing.”

“Do the right thing? Like get murdered by my own father for doing something I haven’t even done yet?” I asked wildly.

“Olivia, if you don’t go, I’ll just have to use force on you.”

I scoffed, “You wouldn’t dare, Magnus.”

He shrugged and muttered something before he shot a streak of what looked like white lightning at me. I managed to diva away at the las minute, but I was still in shock.

Magnus was now the enemy.

I got back up on my feet and quickly kicked him in the chest. Magnus fell back and I was allowed full view of the scene behind him, where I witnessed something horrible.

The man in the cloak sent a jet of red light at Bella’s mom, and she suddenly fell to the floor, motionless. Bella had reached her and was crying hysterically. I didn’t think. I just ran.

I screamed at charged at the cloaked figure, when they suddenly took off their hood.

Hawthorne.

I was speechless. My father had just murdered my best friend’s mom out of spite and he was smiling. Bella was on the ground, balling her eyes out. And then there was me, standing stupidly in the middle of chaos, clear as day to anyone who wanted to attack.

I yelled out with more than my voice in outrage. Every Warlock within thirty feet, except for Magnus, suddenly clutched their heads in pain. I kept yelling out, and I even seemed to knock out a couple hunters. I was only stopped when Magnus came up behind me and shook me out of my stupor. I wanted to kick and scream at him, but my energy was drained from the effort it took to incapacitate all the warlocks.

Hawthorne recover first, staring at me hungrily. “So you’re the Psychic.”

I was quite scared at the animalistic look in his eye. He seemed to be waiting for the right moment to attack if anything.

I also realized that this was the first time I had really seen him in something other than a memory or a dream. He looked to have aged in the last couple of weeks, and the wrinkles under his eyes were more defined in person. The creepy color of his dark eyes were unsettling and the scar that ran down one eye (curtesy of when he tried to originally capture me when I was five) was raw and harsh when seen under this more detail.

“And you’re the monster.” I sneered back.

He laughed – he actually laughed in my face!

“I’m a bit upset Magnus over here didn’t hand you in immediately, his own brother guessed at what you were a bit over a month ago and brought Magnus in to confirm. I could only guess his – ahh – affections for you are what caused him to wait so long. But there’s no denying it now.” He noted in a tone that reminded me of Mufasa from the Lion King.

“Just stop this.” I ordered, hoping my voice sounded more confident than how I was feeling. “Stop attacking the hunters and I’ll go away. I’ll never overthrow you or your regime, no matter what some stupid prophecy might say. I just want to live a normal life, can’t you let me do that?” I finished, my voice gradually sounding as tired from this whole ordeal as I was feeling.

“You’re even supporting the hunters, a sure sign of someone against all magical creatures. Plus, how can I, a humble warlock trust you, a filthy psychic? How do I not know you’re using your powers for the bad of all warlock-kind? You’re all the same. You’re just like your predecessor.” He sneered.

“Sure, because all psychics are bad, right? Just because Victoria was blamed for something you did, you turned everyone against my kind. You don’t even care that I’m your own flesh and blood, do you? You murdered my mom – your own wife – because of your silly ambitions. You are a greedy, selfish, and horrid-“

He cut me off with a flash of red light directed at my face. I instinctively raced my hands up in defense, which should’ve done nothing, but it did. The red light stopped in front of my face and just floated there. Everyone that had surrounded us, to witness the altercation, was in shock, as well as both Hawthorne and I. It seemed that I had stopped his magic somehow, without even being a warlock myself.

I dropped my hands and backed away. The light immediately fell to the ground and dissipated, harmless.

“She was right. You are more powerful than any psychic before you.” Hawthorne said, partly in disbelief and partly in anger.

“Get her!” he screamed.

The all the warlocks attacked at once.

I was able to intrude some of their heads, directing them against each other, but soon their sheer number, and my waning power, caused me to be overrun. I collapsed to the ground at my last ditch effort to control some of their minds, getting them to go away, but it was no use as more kept coming.

My vision was getting blurry and I knew I would pass out eventually if I kept trying to hold onto my power. I finally let go and fell into a heap on the ground, closing my eyes in exhaustion.

The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Hawthorne’s sly smile staring down at me from above.