Chapter 73: Chapter 73
The shattering sound of windows under the impact of bullets, the crash of machine guns pouring out their thousands of projectiles, the broken glass projected into the room, instinctively made me put my hands over my ears. I got up and took a few seconds to understand the horror of the scene unfolding before my eyes. One by one, the bodies collapsed on the ground, the blood already smearing the marble, while the shrill cries of the guests, trying to flee, echoed in this indescribable chaos. When I came to my senses, horrified, my blood had drained from my face. I took Carmichael’s hand, who stood still in shock. Then the space of a second passed, he looked at me and, without us even consulting each other, let go of me to rush into the middle of the room. As for me, I closed my eyes, gathered my energy and blocked every round and every piece of broken glass, which then remained suspended in the air, so that, everywhere in the room, a strange floating mass of debris surrounded the diners. A heavy silence settled, my gaze swept around me. Behind every bay window stood men armed to the teeth. They tried again to fire their weapons, but my telekinesis blocked their projectiles. I levitated and hovered over the table.
“Stand in a circle in the middle of the room!” I shouted.
Carmichael, by his very thought, was resettling all the bodies lying on the ground, to the place where all the guests had now gathered. A little to the side, I looked for Johnny and saw him, breathing a great sigh of relief. Alongside Eric and Thomas, he was covered in blood, but seeing him so frightened, agitated, and out of breath, I figured he couldn’t be hurt. However, I didn’t have time to think more about the question, and I felt the ground tremble under my feet. Dust was coming from the ceiling and a disturbing noise was coming from the walls. Before my startled eyes, the fresco broke in two, the marble of the vault cracked, and I understood that the intention of our assailants was to bring down the structure on our heads, now that the bullets no longer reached their ultimate goal: to kill us all.
“Carmichael, trust me.”
“What will you do?” he said, mentally alarmed.
“You remember my last training session?”
He understood immediately.
“Let all telekinetics surround the guests and erect a protective shield!” he shouted.
Henry, Sonia, Marion and a dozen others came forward and formed a circle around the castes.
“Don’t let go!” I commanded them, as I was already raising my arms.
Carmichael came to stand beside me. We shattered the structure of the building, the ceiling exploded into thousands of marble slabs. The pillars crumbled, but I held them off the ground. Carmichael held my hand, and we shattered each piece into tiny pebbles, sharp as razor blades. And after a final effort of concentration, we made them turn on themselves and spin in the same direction. Bullets, shards of glass and pebbles of marble mixed together to form a deadly gliding stream, whirling madly around the diners. I looked around again and saw the assailants retreating, their fear making them retreat. I widened the stream of debris that was spinning even faster, and threw it sharply outward. The deadly material burst like a hurricane on our adversaries, who had no time to flee, despite their speed. Caught, they were shredded in the air under the dumbfounded eyes of the castes, who barely understood the sequence of events. The debris came to wrap around them again, protecting them. The telekinetics, concentrated, made sure to block certain uncontrollable projections as the speed of the whirlwind increased. To the fragments of bullets, glass and marble had been added shredded limbs and gallons of blood, but the target was now elsewhere, for I felt that the forces which had ordered this massacre were not among the armed men. I levitated and shot like a bullet through the air. Positioned above the guests and the hurricane of debris, my visibility was clear, and it only took me a few seconds to make out three figures hidden between two buildings near the docks. The rest of the place was deserted, the debris storm had swept away everything in its path. Only the three silhouettes had come out alive. I hadn’t projected the debris far enough. It didn’t take long for me to decide to act, so I swooped down on them with mind-boggling speed. Arriving a few metres away, I was stopped brutally by an invisible barrier, and fell on the ground with all my weight. With scraped knees, my beautiful white dress completely ruined and the fury inhabiting me, I quickly stood up and observed my enemies. What was my surprise when I discovered three members of the Six staring at me like the last of the traitors.
“Everliegh, usurper,” cried one of the twins. “Come with us, and we promise to spare the lives of those you protect.”
“To protect my people against your threats I must abandon them? No!”
“You pretentious brat, we don’t want to hurt you!”
Carmichael stood beside me. The brother of the two redheads, whose name I still didn’t know, looked at him with contempt.
“You would be welcome too, come and leave these weaklings here.”
“Did my wife not make it clear?” Carmichael sneered. “No!”
And he threw himself at the man. A fight too quick to see took place. When he slowed, the enemy blocked his parry and sent Carmichael flying in the opposite direction. But he didn’t touch the ground and went back to levitating in his direction. As for me, I didn’t take my eyes off the twins and decided to test their resistance. I mentally called for the stream of debris, which with a dizzying crash left the circle of diners and shot in their direction, skirting around Carmichael and me. They braced themselves for the impact by placing their arms in front of their faces, and the hurricane swept over them, but was blocked by their combined powers. The brother freed himself and came to help by posting himself not far from them. I wanted to finish this quickly since Carmichael was no longer protecting the guests. I now had to rely on the telekineticists, in case other armed men were hiding and standing by ready to intervene. The hurricane swirled above my head and I hurled it at them again, armed with all the energy I could muster. Carmichael joined me and the debris rushed at our assailants at full speed. Again, they blocked the attack, but I felt one of the twins, bewildered, move away from the others for a moment. I suddenly rushed towards her. A breach had opened and I grabbed her by the neck with one hand. Her look of surprise made me smile, because I realised that this must be the first time for her that an enemy approached so close. Her sister let out a cry of horror, and her brother tried to free himself from the hurricane of debris.
“Elinor!” yelled her sister.
The woman whose neck I was clutching, who I now knew was Elinor, gave her twin sister a look of horror. She wanted to move, but I held her down. Carmichael kept his attention on the debris. Every inch of my skin felt the moment, my blood pumping with the endorphins that this burst of energy stirred up. So I turned my head towards the brother and sister, and gave them a scary grin. The next second I ripped Elinor’s head off, the blood spurting out, and before her brother and sister had even realised my deed, I pulverised her body.
The sister screamed. The brother, eyes filled with hate, grabbed her by the waist as she released her attention to rush at me. He flew away as she screamed again, swearing that she would kill me by a thousand torments.
I was going to pursue them, but a hand stopped me.
“They’re already too far away,” Carmichael said, “and we have to take care of the injured.”
I nodded. Then I saw my hands, and looked down at my dress. I was covered in blood, my hair sticky from the gore I felt smeared over my face. I got scared, realising what I had just done and how easily I had decided to kill. Carmichael hugged me.
“You did the right thing,” he said.
The tension in my muscles evaporated as the excitement of the fight was interrupted. I felt my legs melt away. The energy I had deployed had transcended my entire being. I was telekinesis, I was extremely powerful and I had killed.
“I didn’t know I was capable of such a thing!”
“We’re going to have to face worse,” Carmichael said.
“I’m aware of that. They’ll be back soon.”
“And you’re going to have to face Johnny, because you ruined his beautiful dress.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Carmichael definitely had the gift of being able to distract me in a chaotic context. He took me by the hand, and we walked to what was left of the reception area. The able-bodied were helping the wounded, but under some white tablecloths one could make out a number of inert bodies. About thirty corpses were strewn on the ground, and a tear came to my eyes when I realised that I could never save everyone. However, the able-bodied and those able to stand bent their knees when we arrived and gratified us with a more determined devotion than ever. We had definitely won them all over to our cause.