Chapter 26: Time to Move

Those creatures, would their nightmarish faces ever fade from memory? Andy would give anything, if for only a few moments he could be at peace, away from those things with the human faces. Why? Why did they want him so badly? Why couldn’t they just stay dead?

Andy wondered if perhaps he himself was dead. Was this dark place hell? Was this eternity, a never ending remembrance of the people he killed, of the skeletal creatures that reeked of death and decay?

“I think he’s coming back.”

There was a voice. It sounded familiar to Andy, like someone he knew. Was it Jack? No, this was a darker voice, yet at the same time carefree and cheery.

“Darling, I think it’s working. Oh, Andy, can you hear us?”

So, I am alive, Andy thought.

His eyes shot open. His head was resting in Requiem’s lap in the back of a large van with a broken window. He tried to sit up, but he had trouble moving. With the little bit of strength he possessed, he inclined his head up to Requiem. Even through the deep pits of madness that were her torturous eyes, there was a note of relief. She smiled.

“Ah! Ruin, it worked. I have cured him.”

“Excellent, dearest sister, perhaps now we can finally get on with things.”

Andy wasn’t sure what was going on, but he had some idea. The last thing he remembered was running away with Jack. He was … he was betrayed, Andy remembered with a frown. Jack had attacked him with something, something that shouldn’t have existed in the real world. He shook as the memories returned to him in a flood.

The look of concern in both their eyes bothered him. Did they not know? Did they not know that he tried to betray them and run away?

“Why … why did you save me?” Andy’s voice was raspy. It was difficult for him to speak.

The two looked astounded by the question, as if it was the most ridiculous thing that anyone had ever asked them.

“What do you mean ‘why’, Darling? You’re our Brother. We would die a hundred times for you.”

Andy didn’t think that he could still feel surprise, not with everything that had happened to him. But at that moment, it came rushing into him. Were they being serious? There didn’t seem to be even the slightest hint of mockery in their expressions. They looked at him like he was a wounded loved one who had just been through a massive surgery, only to narrowly survive.

“I don’t understand. Do you two … actually care about me?”

For a moment it looked like Requiem was going to shed a tear. “Of course we do!” she shouted at him.

Now Andy felt a tremendous guilt. He was so frightened of these two, so terrified of the price of displeasing them that he never considered for a moment that they might actually care for him. He was so certain that if he stuck around long enough they would eventually grow bored and kill him. That was what he had thought of them, but yet, they had just risked their lives to save him. Sitting up, he could see the damage they had inflicted to retrieve him. Dead bodies littered the street just ahead of them, corpses that looked kind of like SWAT officers. Immediately Andy recognized them as having the same uniforms as the ones that had apprehended him.

He looked at his two saviors. “I never thought … I never thought there were people in this world that loved me. I was so sure that you two were going to kill me off someday that I betrayed you. I don’t deserve you both. I am so very sorry, but you have to know the truth. I went to Jack Harris and I asked him to help. I was going to escape. I was going to run far away and never look back. Do you see? I am not worthy of your care.”

Ruin took a seat next to Andy and pulled him into a hug, his sister joining in. “Andy, families make mistakes, don’t they? I told you once that when you became our brother, we would be the only family you needed. For feeling so alone, it was truly our fault. We should have been there for you more. We were too hard on you, and for that my Sister and I are very sorry. How about we forget all that has happened, and work on moving forward? What do you say, Andy?”

Andy, for the first time since the night he had murdered Richard, felt a great pain removed from his heart. “I’m so sorry for everything I did. I understand now that you two were just trying to help me all this time. I freaked out, I panicked, but at the last minute, I think I’d have made you two proud.”

Now Requiem’s eyes lit with an amused glint. “Oh? And why is that, Andy?”

“Because at the very end, when I was sure they were going to capture me, I finally understood your message. I killed one of them, you know? An officer just like the ones you guys killed outside. I screamed at them, all of them, that this was our right. I finally understood what you were trying to teach me. I acted upon my right! They should all burn for trying to take that away.”

Pride seeped through the expressions of both Ruin and Requiem. “Yes, Brother,” Ruin said. “Now you really do get it. Eventually the Harris-boy will too.”

At this, Andy flared in outrage. “Who, Jack? He can’t be part of this family, you guys! I want him dead. He betrayed me! I want you two to rip his damned heart out and feed it to him! I want to hear him cry out in pain and—”

Requiem slapped Andy, cutting him off. “Silence, fool! You do not speak that way of our brother. How would you like it if someone cut out your heart and made you cry out in pain? The nerve of some people!”

Andy shook his head. They were never going to convince Jack to join them. Even if Andy didn’t feel a seething hatred towards his former friend, his opinion would be the same—Jack would never join them. In his lonely and sad life, Andy had finally found other people that cared for him, and now they were going to get themselves killed or worse, and all for what? So they could chase after some dream?

“You have a better chance of winning the lottery, guys. You’ll never get Jack to go along with any of this.”

“You thought the same thing about yourself, did you not, Brother Andy? Now look at you. I can see it in your face. You finally understand the comfort of family and the things we’re going to accomplish together. I am sure that no matter how stubborn the Harris-boy is, he too will come to love us as his own. Of this, I am certain.”

Not if I kill him first, Andy thought, concealing a devilish grin.

“So, what do we do now?” Andy asked.

“Now that you’re up and about, Darling, we’re going to head over to the Harris-boy’s home. We’ve been putting this off for far too long. Tonight, I’ll finally have him. Oh, I want him so badly it hurts!”

Ruin gave Andy a pat on the shoulder before standing up and heading to the front of the vehicle. Andy hoped it was safe to drive something with a hole in the front window and glass sticking out. As if reading his thoughts, Ruin snapped his fingers, and the remaining glass broke away from the vehicle, leaving nothing but an open front.

“Don’t worry yourself, Andy,” Ruin said. “I’m sure that Jack Harris can be made to see our ways.”

*****

“Ya know, I’m really starting to think that Will Schuester is a Psych,” Jack said. He chomped down on the popcorn while he watched the TV from the living room couch.

“And what makes you say that?” Melissa snatched the bowl away from Jack before he could react, and started munching down on his popcorn.

“Well, did you notice that no matter where in the world a fight takes place, he seems to just show up out of nowhere before the first punch gets thrown? It’s like, how does he know that they’re going to fight, and always manage to make it on time? I’m telling you, Melissa, he’s a Telepath.”

She laughed and passed Alana the bowl. The three of them were sitting relaxed in the living room with the lights off, on Alana’s wide, black leather couch. Jack really wanted to watch Chuck, but Alana and Melissa vetoed him and decided to go for Glee instead.

Jack got up from the couch and snatched the popcorn out of his mom’s hands, and before she could react, he ran and jumped back down on the couch. “Make your own, Mom.”

“Sweetie,” she said with a grin. “Now that you know the truth about me, I’m not afraid to do this.”

The bowl flew out of Jack’s hands, soaring to the other end of the couch and back into Alana’s lap.

That’s so unfair, Jack thought. No one steals my popcorn!

Jack had made a promise to Michael that he would try and draw on his power at least twice a day. He’d said that within a few months the horrible feeling would decrease, and after a year or two, go away entirely.

Jack reached for that unique part of him, and with an audible groan, allowed himself the smallest trickle of power, before sealing himself off. It was the worst feeling. It made him want to roll around on the ground and scream.

It had been a while since Jack had attempted to do anything with his power, so he tried to remember how to grab at things. His mind felt like a room with a billion buttons, before shifting into strings, changing ever more into triggers. To make things worse, they moved, and shifted, changing constantly. He could always find the one that sent near things far away, the one that everyone called a “burst.” Once he had done it enough times, it became easier and easier to locate.

The one Jack tried to find was the one that let him grab things and freely move them around. He searched for it, struggling to sort through the endless maze of triggers that were his mind. It took a second for him to realize it, but now Melissa and his mom were paying more attention to him than they were the T.V.

“You can do it, sweetie,” she encouraged.

Jack felt a little frustrated, realizing that the only reason his Mom had nabbed the popcorn in the first place was to encourage him to sharpen his skills. Melissa had told his mother—even though he had begged her not to—that Jack was refusing to practice. Oh well, he had already gotten this far.

Jack reached for that familiar trigger, the one that he had only used twice before under the guidance of Michael—and he activated it …

He must have activated the wrong trigger, because pain exploded in his mind. He fell to the floor with his hands on his head, moaning. He rolled on the ground as pictures and images filled his mind.

“Jack!” both his mother and Melissa called to him, jumping off the couch and kneeling beside him on the carpet. They held him down, yelling his name, calling to him. Jack’s mind filled with more images, more pictures, until they blended together to make a concept, something he could understand. His eyes widened in alert.

Jack sat up in a hurry and reached into Melissa’s pocket. She gasped in surprise.

“Jack, what the hell are you—”

Jack took out the tiny device he and Michael had stolen.

“Michael!” he screamed, panic and desperation in his voice. “There are like, five Psychs outside, and three more coming from a few miles away. They want to kill Melissa and my mother and take me away, all of them!”

“Sweetie,” Alana said, rubbing his face. “You’re just having a bad reaction to ‘the draw’, and it’s making you delusional. It happens sometimes, just relax. No one is outside. You’re a Telekinetic, remember?”

“Are you serious, Jack? Are you one hundred percent sure?” Michael sounded worried, and he too seemed to have a note of panic in his voice.

“Yeah, Michael, I don’t know how I know, but I just know that I know!”

Alana tapped Melissa on the shoulder. “Melissa, why do you look so worried? Don’t let Jack alarm Paro over nothing. He’s just having a bad reaction to—”

“Your son is an Unrestricted,” Melissa interrupted. Tears streaked down her face as she told Alana what she had sworn to Paro she would keep secret. “I am so very sorry.”

Alana looked crushed, like a car had run her over and left her to die. Her face puckered, and her eyes grew moist with dread.

“So you’re saying that Jack just used Telepathy? And that there are people outside my home who want to kill us? Do you expect me to believe that?”

Melissa pulled her hair in frustration. “Yes, I know this is a huge shocker, and I know you need time to think about things, but if what Jack just said is true—and I promise you that it at least has the possibility of being so—then we need to do something right now.”

In an instant, Alana pulled herself together. “Michael!” she called out, loud enough to be received by the device in Jack’s hand. “Can you get in touch with Paro?”

“I’m going to try right now, Alana, let me see if I can find out where they are.”

Another voice chimed in, causing Jack to reel in surprise. “We’re right here.” It was Sarah’s voice, but how?

“Sarah, I don’t understand,” Michael said. It was Paro that answered next.

“Do you really think you’re smart enough to steal a piece of my equipment without me knowing? I let you guys get away with it because I had a feeling something like this might happen. It made my life a lot easier, to be honest. I knew there was no way I could convince Jack to voluntarily walk around with something like this. You two did my job for me.”

Jack didn’t care that he had yet again been outsmarted. All he wanted to do was to make sure they were safe. “Paro, what did I just do? I tried to grab a bowl of popcorn, but instead I just blacked out and saw a whole bunch of people.”

“What you did, Jack,” he responded. “Was save the lives of your mother and Melissa. Hang tight, and keep this device on you at all times. We’re only a few miles away. Jack, do you have any idea who these eight Psychs are?”

“No clue, Paro. I only know that the five outside my house are not with the three. But they seem to want the same thing. I have no idea how I know that, either.”

“The three must be the ones we’re after. This is just how we expected it to happen. Now’s our chance.”

As if by an invisible force, the device flew out of Jack’s hands and landed into Alana’s. A tremendous, dark fury covered her face.

“The three you’re after, Paro? Is there something you’re not telling me? God help you if I find out you put my son’s life in danger for a case.”

There was a hesitation on the other end, before the voice responded. “Alana, I’m sorry, but you may as well know the truth now. I planned to tell you soon anyway. Those murders, the ones you must have no doubt heard about on the news—two young Psychs with incredible power carried those out. We don’t know why, but they seem to want your son to join them. In fact they’re dead set on the notion, and I don’t think they’ll take no for an answer. The people responsible are believed to be eighteen years of age, with a recently acquired accomplice.”

“Andy!” Jack called out. “But how? I thought you guys had him.”

“I’m afraid to say that the prisoner transport was ambushed by our suspects, and they killed everyone on board. They now have him back in their possession, but for the first time we know exactly where they are, thanks to you, Jack. We’re heading over to your home now. And Alana, please forgive me, if you have any room left in your heart to forgive an animal like me.”

Alana growled at Paro. “You were never an animal, Paro, just a boy in need of a good whipping. And I promise you when this is over you’re getting another one.”

She turned to Jack, barely restrained tears moistening her soft eyes. “Jack, I’m so sorry. You’re an Unrestricted. Why did it have to be you born with such a curse? We’ll talk about this later, for now I need you two to go upstairs. Go to your room with Melissa, and don’t open the door for anything.”

Jack felt a rush of pride for his mother so powerful that it almost moved him to tears. After everything that had just happened, she was pulling herself together, fighting through the confusion and planning on how to take action.

“Mom, I won’t leave you by yourself. Those guys are gonna be here before my team is.”

“Your team?”

Ah, crap, I just can’t keep my mouth shut.

“That doesn’t matter right now, Mom. I won’t let them kill you.”

“Melissa,” Alana said.

“I know, Mrs. Harris, I know.” Before Jack could raise a questioning eyebrow, Melissa grabbed him by his neck and dragged him up the stairs.

“Melissa, no! What are you doing? You can’t leave my mom alone down there! Damn it, Melissa, what if she dies? Let me go!”

“I’m sorry, Jack. I can’t.”

Jack struggled, but to no avail.

Mom!