Chapter 28: Prelude to Madness

Melissa watched in disgust as the woman, Cemmera, alternated between livid outrage and terrible sadness. Her expressions were changing back and forth so quickly that her face looked like it was going through a seizure.

To say she looked ridiculous would be an understatement. Dirt covered her face, and unbeknownst to her, she was wearing a flowering-pot as a hat. She walked over to the corpse of her fallen team-member. Despite Melissa’s desire to remain neutral, she felt a small amount of pity. No team-leader wanted to see their members die, not even Cemmera.

The man, who said his name was Neil, also wore a look of disgust. He watched his team-leader crouch down beside the lifeless corpse. Dust still enveloped him from when Alana had tossed him through a wall. Mrs. Harris was lying unconscious nearby.

“Y-you did this, Cemmera.” Neil looked to be on the verge of tears. He too wore the expressions of both anger and sadness, only, unlike Cemmera’s, his did not alternate. They blended together to form a cocktail of desperation and sickness.

Cemmera, remaining crouched, turned her head to face Neil. Her voice was a whisper, but at the same time it was intense, commanding, and filled with a growing bitterness.

“No, I didn’t! It was that woman, Alana Harris, she did this. I’ll kill her for this. I’ll kill all of them.” Cemmera turned to face Melissa, as if finally realizing she was there. “You,” she growled, meeting Melissa’s eyes. “You think you can harbor criminals and live? I’m invoking my power as a Captain of the Operations Division and sentencing you to death for your crimes.”

Melissa didn’t even blink. She stood her ground. “Me? Let me tell you something—there’s a reason we call you guys ‘Op. team animals.’ First of all, what makes you think that Jack Harris has any involvement in what’s been happening? Please, tell me.”

Cemmera stood up from her crouch and came to stare closely into Melissa’s face. “You don’t deserve for me to dignify that with a response, but being the better person I’ll answer you. If you bothered to take even the most rudimentary glance at the evidence, you’d see that there must be a third killer. The two must have recruited an accomplice. It can be no other than Jack Harris. It is for this reason that my Telepath had to die. Santos died doing what was right!”

Melissa cast her eyes down, sadness filling each word as she spoke. “I’m sure you’ve heard the saying about making assumptions, and yet time and time again it’s proven true. Cemmera, that is your name, right? There is an accomplice, but we already know who he is. His name is Andy Leonell, age sixteen, Manipulator.”

Neil twitched upon hearing Melissa’s words, pushing his way through the Kinetics and grabbing the front of Melissa’s shirt. He screamed at her, but rather than anger, only a deep sadness came through. “What do you mean, girl? Tell me!”

Melissa kept her cool. “The information should already be updated by now. It should’ve been posted a few minutes ago, actually. The boy, Andy, escaped along with the two suspects we were originally after. If you don’t believe me, then check for yourself.”

Neil reached into his pocket and retrieved his P.D.A with trembling fingers. Melissa could see in his eyes that he prayed for her to be wrong—he wanted her to be lying.

“No …” he said. “No!”

“I’m sorry,” Melissa whispered. “But your friend died for nothing. His death was in vain, for no purpose other than to satisfy your desire to kill. There’s more, though. The three that are your targets, well, they’re on their way here.”

Cemmera slapped her across the face, causing Melissa to once again calm her rising anger.

“She’s lying, Neil! It must be Jack Harris. It has to be Jack Harris. Santos did not die for nothing. He can’t be allowed to die for nothing!”

“Look,” Neil said, tears streaking down his coarse face. He showed Cemmera the P.D.A and she shrieked. It was a loud, disgusting sound.

“We have to leave,” he said. “We have to make this right. If we stop now, we might be allowed to keep our lives.”

Cemmera howled at him, ripping the device from his fingers and throwing it to the ground. In a blind fury, she stomped on it, over and over, until it was smashed. Eventually the screen fell off, and the circuitry inside got entangled her boot.

“Girl,” she said to Melissa. “Are you certain there are three more on the way? How can you know that?”

“Because,” Melissa said, “Jack Harris is not a Telekinetic like you’ve been led to believe. He’s an Unrestricted.”

Even the Kinetics, who had yet to make a sound since entering the home, shifted on their feet and moaned. “Cemmera, you were wrong about everything,” one said.

“Quiet, Joseph, you fool. Disrespect me again and so help me God I will punish you and your brother, I’ll bring you within an inch of your worthless lives!”

Melissa watched as Cemmera backed away and paced around the room, almost tripping over the unconscious form of Alana Harris while muttering nonsense to herself. After a few moments she paused, and a dangerous glint entered her eyes.

“Here’s what we’ll do. We know that our three targets are coming. We’ll kill them, and then we’ll kill this girl and the boy’s mother—and the boy too, of course—and then we’ll report that the three targets were responsible. Yes, yes, it all makes sense now. We showed up too late, we tried to save them, but we just didn’t make it in time. We got here, saw the three of them laughing over their murderous deeds, and we put a stop to them. We’ll cry, so that they know how terrible we feel. If only we’d arrived here in time to save them. It’s perfect!”

Melissa balled her hands into fists. “You,” she said to their Reinforcer, the man known as Neil. “If you go along with this, you’re just as bad as she is. Same goes for you two guys.” The Kinetics looked at her but said nothing.

“Do not listen to this child,” Cemmera growled. “You can either do what I say or spend your lives in one of those facilities. Neil, I already know you spent a few years there. Care to go back?”

Neil appeared to be deep in thought. Sweat trickled down his face, in what Melissa assumed was him considering his options.

“She’s right,” the Telekinetic, the one called Joseph, said. “This woman.” He kicked the unconscious form of Alana Harris. “She’s killed a member of our team. We need to kill every last one of them for this.”

Joseph’s brother nodded in agreement, and Cemmera smiled with pride at the Kinetic twins.

Melissa felt the tension in the room rise as they all shifted on their feet and faced her. She was furious at these people, these animals. Not only did they kick an unconscious woman, but now they were going to murder her and Jack, and for what? To cover up a stupid mistake that cost them the life of a friend? She knew what she said next was foolish, irresponsible even, but in her growing fury, she spoke out of impulse.

“You guys seem to value yourselves hunters, is that true?”

Cemmera grinned. “Of course, girl. There is none better.”

She pointed to Neil. “If you have even the smallest shred of honor, if you are not a complete coward, unworthy of the very air you breathe, then fight me alone, Neil. I don’t think I’ve ever been as pissed off as I am right now. Why don’t we step outside, and I’ll show you why you’re nothing but an Op. team animal, all brute and no brains.”

Neil howled at the derogatory term, smashing his fist through the fridge, breaking yet another part of the kitchen. It hurt Melissa to use the word on one of her own kind, but if she didn’t start punching something soon, she’d lose it. The Reinforcer didn’t look happy—made worse by the two Kinetics and Cemmera laughing in his face.

Melissa smiled. “You look angry, chump.” She pointed. “How about we step outside? Maybe I’ll dip my fist in paint and decorate your hideous face.”

Neil turned to Cemmera and a pleading, desperate look crossed his eyes. Cemmera nodded and said, “Go ahead, have at her.” Neil seemed so relieved that he actually whimpered.

At first, Melissa had no idea why she hated the man so much. She struggled to understand what it was about him that had her so filled with rage. It was only then as the man sighed with relief that she finally understood. Unlike the other three living members of Neil’s team, he alone was not an animal. Cemmera and the Kinetics might be bloodthirsty hounds, but this man—and this man alone—knew in his heart that what he was doing was wrong. Melissa could see it in his face. He knew their actions were immoral and reprehensible, yet he did them anyway. It was for this reason that Melissa despised him the most in the bunch. There was nothing in this world quite like a person who knew they were committing evil yet continued to do so.

For a long moment, a quiet settled upon the room while the reality of the situation finally dawned on Melissa. The only sounds were of the water shooting from the broken sink, the occasional crumbling from the broken wall, and the sound of a snack being munched on too loudly.

Wait, what?

“This is getting so awesome,” Jack said, sinking his teeth into another pretzel. “I liked the part where you said you were going to paint his face. I thought that was funny.”

“I did too, Darling,” said another voice, grabbing the bag of pretzels away from Jack.

“Hey, when did you get here?” Jack asked the girl, apparently oblivious to the three people standing to the side of him.

Melissa, Cemmera, the Kinetics, and even Neil—none of them spoke a word. Melissa tried to, she really did, but it felt like a concussion grenade had just been detonated in her skull as she watched Jack carry on a casual conversation with the three most dangerous people she had ever set eyes on.

“We’ve been here for a while, Darling, watching the fun same as you. Oh, Ruin, who do you think will win?” Requiem asked, munching on a pretzel.

“I don’t know, Dearest Sister,” Ruin said, “but I know who you’re rooting for.”

Requiem’s face seemed to darken at the words. “I do hope that large man rips the Pig-woman’s face off.”

Jack spun around. “Hey, Andy, I didn’t know you were coming over! Umm, I know you’re like, evil now and stuff, but I still want to show you this new comic book I got. Basically, in a nutshell, well, how do I say this without any spoilers? Alright, so you know how spider-man has—”

“Jack, Shut up!” Melissa shouted. She shook her head. There were no words to describe the stupidity of the situation. It was like she had left America and moved into loony-land.

Cemmera was the first to recover from her lapse of disbelief. “You three!” she screamed at them. “My name is Cemmera Wilson, team-leader of Op. team four-H. I have a signed kill—”

“Oh, Ruin, Darling,” Requiem interrupted her. “Why is that woman wearing a bucket on her head? Is today bucket-head day?”

Requiem casually walked through the broken kitchen and bent over to pick up a pan that had been knocked over during Alana’s fight. She positioned it on her head with a cheerful sigh, imitating Cemmera. “Is this the fashion, woman? Did I do it right?”

Cemmera raised her hands and felt around the top of her own head, discovering the flowering-pot resting on top of it. She hissed with anger, throwing it to the ground and shattering it.

“Talk ends now! Joseph, Daniel, you’re with me. We’ll take on the three targets. Neil, kill the Harris-boy and his mother when you finish up with the girl.”

“I understand, Cem—”

Melissa did not give him a chance to finish his sentence. With all the power she could draw, she charged into him, tackling him and sending them both soaring through the kitchen. With a tremendous crash, they broke through the side of the house. Neil landed on the grass, and Melissa fell on top of him. She still had the element of surprise. Before Neil could gather his surroundings, she slammed her fist into his face, over and over.

Once, twice, thrice, a fourth, she lifted her hand into the air, crashing it down on the man’s nose, blood covering her knuckles as she did as much damage as she could. With a wail, Neil grabbed her throat, picking her up and throwing her on the ground a few feet away.

Melissa hit the floor hard, and she felt the wind knocked out of her. She managed to jump out of the way just in time. The Reinforcer struck his fist where her head had been only moments ago, causing grass and dirt to scatter in the air.

“You’re a third my age and a third my power, you stupid, stupid, little girl. I’m going to enjoy killing you.”

Melissa laughed and spat at the man. “I think I’m glad that one of us is going to die. Because I know it’s not going to be me.”

Behind her, there were loud sounds of commotion. Melissa heard the banging of various objects crashing and colliding into others. She hoped Jack would be able to handle himself for the moment. Cemmera and her boys were only interested in the three targets for the time being, and Melissa was fairly certain that the three young Psychs wanted Jack alive, so right now he would be the last thing any of them cared about.

Melissa slammed her fists together and let her aggression run wild. She was going to win.