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

“Elliot, how did you get here?” Allaya asked.

“I don’t know. Three men were following and hurling grenades at us. I couldn’t find either Ria or Bill, with all the smoke and explosions. One of those guys 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 my hunch was right and the twins had the power to teleport themselves, one in the place of the other, that meant it was Elise who was stabbed instead of Elliot. At least, that was what myself and Allaya were thinking. But he was too shocked to realize it. Perhaps it was better this way.

Suddenly, one of our pursuers was propelled up into the air so hard, that he flew above us and fell down in front of us, unconscious. Another followed him in the same way. 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 a minute.”

“It’s… complicated.”

“Huh. Convincing.” I said, failing not to laugh. “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 by them and Selena grabbed my arm. That was exactly the wrong move to make, for how I felt. 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 moved forward and punched me in my stomach so hard, that I couldn’t breathe. Allaya stepped in front of me and put him with nothing but a touch. I got up from the ground in anger. My focus was on Selena, picturing so many ways of torturing her. I was not in a good place.

“Mia…” Elliot said while, looking up to the sky.

I looked up. Black birds appeared from nowhere. They were flying above us and all of a sudden, they started exploding, like some kind of aviary grenades. We scattered, running in all directions like flies. I wound up losing Allaya and Elliot from my sight. The explosions weren’t stopping, taking out the forest and increasing the distance between me and my friends. I was so desperate and angry that found myself screaming, until my lungs started to hurt.

I stopped and fell down on my knees to breathe, but the smoke was choking me. There was no air. I was dying. I laid on my back and my mother was there, smiling at me. I raised my hand to touch 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 when I woke up. I couldn’t see what was happening, with my eyes damaged from the crying and the smoke.

“Mia! Wake up. Can you hear me?”

“Mom?”

I blinked several times and Elise was running her hand through my hair.

“Elise?! Oh my God, Elise!” I hugged her. “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 stared at me from above, before turning her back to me.

“We need to find the others. Let’s go.” Elise said while hoping on Ria’s back.

They were staring at me, clearly expecting me to do the same, but even in my condition I found the situation too amusing to consider seriously. Ria roared at me and in the following second I was on her back, being supported by Elise.

Dear God! I was riding a jaguar. What’s next, a three-headed dragon?

We agreed on shouting their names out, in order to point them into our direction. Ria was leading us to the last known 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 to her, 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. What an image.

With love, signed Ria.

While looking for the others, we’ve heard Allaya screaming.

“Bill, watch out!”

Sounds of fighting and shots being fired made my stomach squeeze. We headed in their direction, as fast as Ria was able to run, praying for Bill to be unharmed. He and Allaya were fighting the last two attackers. Bill was seriously injured, with what looked like a fractured skull and fighting one of them. 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 started running after them. I was literally measuring the distance between my steps in order to make them larger. To make myself faster. I couldn’t lose Allaya. If she dies, I will kill everyone. No remorse, no backing down.

When I passed by Bill, he cracked the guy’s head open and his face was covered in blood. I looked into Bill’s eyes and he had no remorse either. How much had this 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, cursed or blessed with powers, 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’ll kill them all.

Allaya was thirty meters ahead me when she started to slow down. She suddenly turned around to her attacker and with the last drop of strength reached out and made his eyes explode. He cried out while she collapsed.

“Allaya!”

I had almost reached her, when a force seemingly coming from nowhere hit me and made me stumble for three meters. My left shoulder was in pain and I couldn’t understand how it happened. Something hit my stomach. I gasped.

I thought then that an invisible man was attacking me, so I stumbled up and 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 the strong waves of power gave me goosebumps.

My legs were shaking and when I tried to change direction, the invisible force from before attacked me again and again, until I found my way back to the same road. That miserable someone wanted me to follow an exact path. But why?

The next hit had me running again. My body was already in so much pain I couldn’t bear another punch. As I saw it, I had two options. To die, beaten by an invisible attacker 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 capable of handling the truth.

When I saw them, I instantly dove and hid behind a tree. Two men were duking it out, through the black smoke and burning forest. The distance between me and them was around thirty meters, if I was any judge and I was wondering how I could sneak past them.

One of the two was really strong. He was tall and thin, with purple skin and black spiky hair. From his gestures and posture you could almost read the nonchalance and superiority he exuded. His opponent was seriously injured, but still on his feet. His 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.

I was watching the scene in terror, feeling nothing but a strong desire to leave that place. Yet to run now was also a risk. I received another hit on my left shoulder, which made my mind up for me and I cursed at the motherfucker who kept doing 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 looked like fucking fireworks.

Not drawing the attention at all, Mia. Not at all.

The purple guy easily avoided an attack, then punched the dying guy with inhuman speed. His blow landed on the guy’s stomach. It must have been painful as hell, since it made him yelp and fall down on his back. Mr. Purple neared him and looked to be preparing the final blow, when he suddenly turned around to stare at me.

Oh shit! Oh FUCK!

The fear made me loose every ounce of self-control I managed to gather up and in a split second I released all the power within my body in his direction.

I was yelling from pain and fear both. The place lighted up so much that I doubted anybody could look at it. My body collapsed face-down on the ground, keeping only my head tilted up to see what was happening. Smoke was coming out of his purple body, convulsing in a disgusting manner. The other guy just stepped up cut his head off, with a sharp, black and long object coming out from his hand.

What’s with that guy?

After about five minutes, I was breathing normally again and tried to stand up. Several attempts later, 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 his eyes were closed. I felt my pulse accelerating, while I stared 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.

Instantly, his eyes were wide open. A heartbeat later, I felt him using the black object again, while I was screaming from a pain I’ve never felt before.

I fell over him, hearing and feeling something heavy falling over our feet.

“Mia!” He screamed.

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

“…you.” I said.