Chapter 13

They were coming to kill me but I had no clue as to why.

Half a second after the television went off, I rolled to my right, across the bed, and dropped to the floor. It put the bed between me and the front door. My shield appeared. I covered as much of myself with it as I could. Finally, I held my breath to hear as clearly as possible.

For what seemed like forever, nothing happened. I heard the door creak open and I berated myself for not thinking to lock the additional locks. Sure, the doorknob automatically locked, but the other locks would have made it that much more difficult for them to get in.

Something hit the floor, and the door creaked again, but I didn’t believe they closed it all the way. A second later, a bright light filled the room with a loud bang!

While the light hadn’t hurt my vision, the bang kept me from hearing anything for several seconds. What I couldn’t mistake was the way the bed shook and bounced next to me. Someone was firing into it, thinking I was on it.

I closed my eyes and focused. I had to be ready. They wouldn’t stop after shooting the bed. They would want to make sure I was dead. That meant they were coming into the room. I fought down the urge to scream. If I started screaming, they would find me. They would kill me.

The gunfire stopped. They would come in to find me. I couldn’t let them.

Fueled by fear and the ignition of anger, I used my TK to throw the bed at the front doorway. It slapped the door against the way and I pushed at the bed until the frame bent, wedging the bed in the open doorway.

I heard voices from outside. My attempt to stop them was only a stalling tactic. If they couldn’t move the bed, they would come in somewhere else.

I scrambled to my feet and moved to the corner adjacent to the front wall with the windows and door. Then I heard something thud against the window.

I knelt in the corner with my shield between me and the windows.

Seconds later, a blast blew open the windows. It also launched the room’s table and chair across the room.

Two men jumped into the room through the new opening. They held their rifles at the ready and scanned the room. I didn’t realize that I had relaxed my hold on my powers because I could see their auras. The one closer to me had a pale olive-green aura, and his partner had a light bluish-purple aura that Ellen might call mauve.

Growing more upset with why these men were here, I stood and flung a hand at them. My telekinetic push hit both men, throwing them forward and into the far wall.

I turned to the blasted window frame to get away but found a third man, with an orangish-peach aura, raising his rifle to shoot at me. I had just enough time to raise my shield to cover my face.

I watched through my shield as Mr. Peach grimaced while unloading his entire clip. Bullets captured by my shield filled my field of view. I would have to wait until he ran out before attempting anything.

His rifle clicked empty and he grunted. “You killed them, you bastard!”

As he fumbled for another clip, he looked up and met my eyes.

Sometime around Halloween, I accidentally discovered that I had a psionic power referred to as Bio-Manipulation, or “The Evil Eye.” I won’t go into details as to how I learned this, but suffice it to say, I knew the power was temporary, no matter how terrifying. The name, however, I believed to be somewhat inaccurate. I didn’t manipulate a person’s tissue or muscles. I either triggered or disabled various nerves. I could cause various problems such as making a person itch uncontrollably, shut off their ability to speak, or – as with Mr. Peach – blind them.

I pushed for blindness and he squeezed his eyes shut as my power took hold.

Unfortunately, my previous efforts with the first two were short-lived. While I dealt with Mr. Peach, they had regained their feet and were facing me.

I turned my shield their way, expecting more shooting.

They shared a glance and then dropped their rifles.

Confused but not looking this gift horse in the mouth, I grabbed the rifles.

Before I could do anything with the rifles, a flash of movement came from Mr. Mauve. He still stood where he started, but now he held what looked like a huge, axe-like sword. The sword glowed in and of itself, but it appeared to be an extension of his aura.

The rifles I held in the air had been severed. The parts were there, but the rifles were useless. I tossed them to the side.

Mr. Green then flung his hand at me as if tossing a horseshoe my way. Bands of energy flew out from his aura. They didn’t move like projectiles, which gave me plenty of time to hold my shield at the ready.

His energy didn’t hit like a projectile. It didn’t even hit as if he had tossed horseshoes. As soon as the energy touched my shield, one layer wrapped around my shield, arms, and torso, binding me as if he had wrapped me up with rope. A second layer of his energy wrapped around my legs, tying them together too.

Unable to move my feet apart or use my arms for balance, I topped back against a wall. My shield remained on my arm in front of me, because that was how my arm was bound to my chest. I used my legs, though I couldn’t move otherwise, to keep myself upright against the wall. My shield covered everything critical unless they decided to cut off my legs first.

Mr. Mauve looked at his companion. “What is this?” I thought you said your bands would pass through that shield of his?”

“Relax,” said Mr. Green. “He’s tied up. He can’t escape now.”

Anger raged through me. My right hand began to burn.