Chapter 18: Descent

"I'm a joker... I'm a smoker... I'm a midnight toker..." I sang along cheerfully with the radio as I pulled into the driveway. I grabbed the pizzas and headed in.

Just before I reached the door I stopped. Something wasn't right. It was too quiet. I couldn't sense any emotions from the house. Dropping the boxes I rushed in.

"Melody! April!" I ran through the house. I found her in the kitchen.

The table was on its side. There were utensils scattered on the counter and floor. There was blood all over the floor. April lay amidst it.

As gently as I could I cradled her in my arms.

"Oh God, sweetie, what did they do to you?" I whispered in anguish. "MELODY!" I screamed knowing she wasn't here. Who could have done this? Where could Melody be?

I returned my attention to April. There was a spark of life. I heard a ragged exhale and pink froth speckled her lips. Her eyes were open but they weren't focused on anything. She was dying in my arms.

I sent my eye into her and found three ribs in her back had been broken and plunged into her left lung. The lung was collapsed. I tried to heal her but it didn't work.

I had never healed another person before. I remembered when I took over Danny's body. I had moved his ribs and mended his heart before entering. I could do this; I just had to do it like I did it with Danny.

I tried putting myself back in that frame of mind. I pushed the ribs out and tried mending the lung. It was working. I looked for other problems. There were many other broken bones but nothing life threatening. Her spleen had ruptured and a kidney was crushed, I worked on repairing those. Sever head injury, brain swelling could be an issue, she needed a hospital. I needed to find Melody.

Her lung was taking a long time. A lung isn't a balloon, it is a million tiny balloons and I had to fix all the broken ones.

As I concentrated on healing April I suddenly realized that I wasn't 'in' April anymore, I 'was' April.

She must have been so close to death. In healing her the same way I did Danny's body, my power thought I was committing to April's body. I was in her mind - I was her mind. I knew her hopes and dreams. I had all her thoughts and memories as though they were my own. I felt the love she had for Melody and I. I relived the fury with which she had fought off the men who attacked the house, and the fear she felt as she fell, knowing that there was no one left to protect Melody.

I couldn't be here. April was still here - she wasn't dead yet. I pulled back. It was too hard. I started getting dizzy. I was succumbing to the unconsciousness that currently bound April's body. I reached out for my own body and found it. Anchoring part of my mind there I pulled with all my might, it was like trying to pull myself through a large vat of molasses. I pulled harder, then harder... and then... Darkness.

I woke up looking at the kitchen ceiling. I looked around and found I was lying next to April. I don't know how long I had been there. I rolled to my knees. And checked her.

She was still breathing, but just barely, her heartbeat was faint. I picked up her as gently as I could. I carried her into the living room and lay her on the sofa. I prayed she would make it. I was still worried about her head but I had done all I could. I kissed her gently and stood. I had no idea how long I had been out. I had to find Melody.

I looked for the phone. I saw the clock; I had been out for hours.

Then I saw it. In my rush through the room earlier I hadn't noticed the item sitting on the TV. It was a video camera with cables connecting it to the set. I turned on the TV and pushed play.

I found the phone and called 911 while the video started and pleaded for an ambulance for April, I gave them the address. I wondered if she would still be alive when they arrived.

The TV had my attention.

Bob stood in front of the house looking at the camera and speaking in hushed tones. "Okay Boy Scout," Bob was saying, "you want to fuck with me? Lets see what that gets you."

He turned to the door, entered and stood aside. Drones poured past him. Melody started to come out of the kitchen, saw the men, screamed and ducked back in.

The drones went after her. Whoever was holding the camera was right behind them. As it entered the kitchen April was pulling a knife out of a drone's neck and swinging it at the next closest one. Melody was behind her. April slashed them with her knife keeping them at bay for several seconds. Finally one of the drones rushed her, taking the knife deep in his chest. As he died he grabbed her wrist preventing her from pulling the knife out just long enough for the rest to reach her.

She tried to keep fighting. She tried to stay between them and Melody. She was valiant and fierce. But there were too many and they were too big. It was over in a minute. Then they were on Melody. She was watching April fall and screaming. A drone had each arm. One stood behind her and clamped his hand over her mouth.

Bob entered the picture; he glanced back to make sure I could see Melody in the frame.

"That's a damned shame." He said looking down at April. "But we still have this one." He gestured towards Melody. "Now then, what should we do with her?" He signaled to someone off camera and a drone approached her, ripping open her shirt. "I know... its not Friday, but they have worked so hard tonight! Lets go boys!"

They dragged her out. Just before shutting off the camera, Bob came back into frame and said, "By the way... we are all out of KY Jelly." Then he laughed and the picture went black.

The trip to the office was a blur.

I tried calling Stuart but he wasn't in. Of course he wouldn't be at this time of night. I reached him on his cell.

"I don't know," he said after I told him what had happened. "Sounds like they were both with you out of their own free will. That doesn't mark them as your property. That just makes them dead heads up for grabs. So it looks like you stole Bob's property. Look, best advice I can give you is to just hole up for a few weeks. Stay out of sight. Bob will calm down and we can probably get him to accept a cash settlement for you busting up his club. If you start trying to throw your weight around now, we're gonna have to put you down."

"I want to talk to Tex."

"He is gonna say the same thing. Hell, boy, he may not even give you the option of laying low. He may just have you come right in so we can blow you away. No... you stay put and don't stick your head up for a few weeks. This will all blow over."

I threw the phone out the window.

Tires squealing I pulled up to the office.

I entered the elevator and pushed the button for the top floor. As it rose I sent out multiple eyes to try and find Melody. I searched the apartments, the offices and the conference rooms. It was too many eyes. My stomach flipped. On my hands and knees, retching uncontrollably I finally I found her in the main conference room.

By the time the elevator reached it's destination I had finished puking and was back on my feet. I strode through the hall rapidly; reaching the doors to the office I blasted them off their hinges.

Gary burst out of his office and I slammed him through the wall back into it; he lay limp and broken over his desk.

I headed towards the room Melody was in. A mental eye swept the offices to either side of me looking for any signs of the Telepaths.

I saw streaks of fire zipping across my path. I took out the machine gun out with a mental ram carrying all the strength I could muster.

The guns were hidden behind the wall. I had no idea where they were until they started firing. Those controlling the guns were watching cameras hidden about the complex, but not connected to the guns. The only chance I had was that the remote operators couldn't adjust the direction of their fire until they after they began throwing tracers. Assuming the gun wasn't pointing at me with its first burst I should have a few seconds to destroy it before rounds started hitting me.

As soon as one would fire I would hit it with my two thousand pound sledgehammer. Utterly destroying it. Most of them weren't pointed at me. I took a few slugs but I had already turned off my nerves and didn't care. I had to reach Melody.

Drones swarmed in upon me. Time slowed, making it easier to take out the guns but with the added distraction of the drones more bullets found their mark. Any of the drones able to avoid my telekinetic bolts caught a foot or fist and went to sleep.

It didn't matter how many I blew away with my mental blasts they kept coming. The machine guns mowed them down as they searched for me. The drones were fanatics of the worst kind. They had no choice, no other options; they had to stop me no matter what. I didn't have a choice either.

Don came around a corner and hit me with his fire. My shield deflected it. More rounds hit me as I sent a bolt of energy through his forehead.

No signs of Bob. No problem. Once I got Melody to safety I would deal with him.

There was door I was looking for. I threw a drone through it and saw her.

She was bound to the X-frame. He had shackled her wrists with chains just long enough for her to get her hands in front of her. Her waist was tightly bound to the frame and her feet were free. He did all that on purpose. He wanted her to resist. He wanted her to fight. The drones had gotten what they were told to get, and they hadn't been nice about it. Drones were still lined up and one was starting to fuck her. I snatched him with my mind and threw him against the wall.

She had been here for hours and wasn't resisting any more. An unspeakable amount of blood and cum had run down her legs and pooled at her feet. I could see bloody patches of raw skull through missing clumps of her golden hair. Blood from her flattened nose ran down her chin and streaked her once lovely chest. Her lips were swollen and adding their blood to that from her nose. Her jaw was slack and at an odd angle. I could see she had teeth missing. Her right arm was bent one too many times between her shoulder and the iron cuff holding her delicate wrist. Her battered body was mottled with red welts and angry purple bruises.

I saw all this as I rushed to her, Throwing bolts as fast as I could. Drone bodies broke and flew around the room. Snapping her bindings with my mind she fell into my arms.

Weakly, barely conscious, one eye focused on me, the other drifted off to the left, she managed through swollen lips and a broken jaw to say, "I... I knew... you... would..." but that was all. She never drew another breath with which to finish her sentence.

My beautiful, delicate flower was dead. Desperately I searched for a spark of life. I could try to save her like I had tried with April. But she was gone.

She had gamely held on. Knowing I would rescue her she refused to submit to the unconsciousness that would have spared her much suffering. She had endured it waiting for me and I hadn't come in time.

I wondered how many times the door had opened and she had looked, hoping to see me come charging through it, only to see another tormentor walk in.

My perfect memory betrayed me and I was assailed with a clear vision of me, sitting on a bed, my arm around Melody's quivering bare shoulder assuring her that no one would ever hurt her again.

It was my biggest lie to this sweet angel.

I hugged her to me, too late to protect her, too late to save her.

The drones poured through the door and I put my body between Melody and them. Fists, feet and various weapons rained down on me. I quit caring and the block on my nerves dropped. I screamed. Not in pain, in despair. I deserved the pain. My pain mattered not. The blows I absorbed mattered not. The blood pumping from a dozen bullet holes mattered not. Only Melody mattered and she was gone. Before long, so was I.

I floated above the fray. Even my spirit was numb. I looked, hoping that in my ethereal form I might see Melody in hers. I couldn't. Maybe she had been gone too long.