27th February 2020
Gracie anxiously looked up at Allie, wondering why it seemed like her friend had no clue who she was. "Allie? It's me, Gracie. We went to school together. We shared a room, for crying out loud. You, me and Sam." The mention of Sam brought a lump to her throat, a reminder that the last time she'd seen her friend she had been trapped under a huge chandelier, passed out with only a faint pulse. She had no idea if she was even alive... No. She couldn't think about that now. This was about Allie.
"You're lying," Allie said in a steely, flat voice. It was like she was a robot, reciting lines that she had been programmed to say. She tilted her head to the side and hatefully glared at Gracie. "I didn't go to school. I don't know who you are. I have been with Alfred and The Illusionists my whole life and I am loyal to them."
"Okay I don't know who the hell Alfred is, but he's been telling you a load of bullshit," Gracie exclaimed. "Allie, just listen to me-"
"No. How dare you badmouth Alfred. Alfred is going to change the world and savants will finally get the recognition we deserve! We are the superior race." Allie suddenly grabbed hold of Gracie before throwing her into the wall roughly, following that up with a hard slap around the face.
"Allie!" Gracie gasped, pushing the girl off her and clambering back to her feet, stepping back just in time as her friend tried to hit her again. "Please, stop this-"
Allie crushed Gracie up against the wall and used telekinesis to bring a knife from one of the desks to her hand. She pressed the knife point up to Gracie's neck and smiled cruelly. "You made a mistake trying to come up against Alfred," she spoke calmly. "And now you're going to die for it. It's a shame- Alfred was going to let Killian keep you as some sort of... Pet. The boy will be devastated to know that you died because you couldn't control yourself."
As she pulled her arm back, getting ready to stab Gracie or slit her throat, Gracie closed her eyes so she didn't have to watch the knife coming towards her. I'm sorry, she thought in despair. I'm sorry we won't have a future together, Killian. I'm sorry we lost our relationship, dad. I'm sorry I won't get to meet my new sibling when he or she is born. I'm sorry I was such a disappointing daughter, a disappointing Benedict. Ever since she was reunited with her dad and his family at the age of nine, there had been pressure on her just because she bore the name Benedict. The Benedicts were legends in the savant world, practically famous, and there had always been pressure – pressure that others put on her but that she put on herself as well – to live up to the family's reputation, to prove she was just as strong as them and just as powerful. And now she was going to let them down, die as it was proven that she was weak and wasn't worthy of the family name. What a horrible, depressing way to go.
When the knife never touched her skin, she slowly opened one eye and then the other, wondering what horror she might see. What was Allie waiting for? Why hadn't she killed her yet?
But Allie didn't look like she wanted to kill her, not anymore. Her eyes were wide and she looked terrified, horrified at her own actions. The knife clattered as it hit the floor and Allie let go of her friend, taking a step backwards. "Gracie?"
"Allie?" Gracie hoped it was her friend she was talking to, not some stupid trick from the new, evil Allie.
"Is it really you?" She sounded like an innocent, lost little girl.
"Yes... And you?"
Allie shook her head. "The person you're seeing isn't me, Gracie. Alfred, the leader of The Illusionists, he has somebody working for him that can create illusions of other people. He's called Fernando. This," she gestured to the body that Gracie could see, "isn't real. For Fernando to create an illusion of me, I need to be unconscious. And I am, so are loads of other people. Almost everyone that works for The Illusionists is just an illusion of some person that's asleep. We're all downstairs in the basement. I've managed to take control of the illusion for a moment because Fernando isn't paying attention to my illusion, but it won't last long. Gracie, you have to save me. Please."
"Okay." There was no hesitation before her answer. Her friend was in trouble and needed saving and that had always been one of Gracie's goals. Despite her promise to her dad, she knew that she couldn't leave here straight away; she wasn't leaving this place without her friend. Even if she had no idea how she would go about that. Before she could hear her dad's or somebody else's voice arguing with her, she pulled the earpiece out and dropped it to the floor. She still had the tracker and the chip in her tooth that detected the sounds, but they couldn't contact her and she was glad of that.
"Okay," she repeated to her friend. "I'll help you, Allie. I'll get you out of here. But first, I need you to tell me which switch controls the outside shield of the house. The protective one? My dad and some others are trying to get in to help but they can't get through the shield. I need to turn the switch off so they can."
Allie turned around and slowly walked over to a red, unlabelled switch. "I think it might be this one," she said, sounding a little uncertain. "I mean, it's just that it's the only one not labelled and none of the others control the shield by the looks of it. I guess we'll find out..." Before Gracie could get her to think about it for a moment longer, Allie turned the switch off.
For a second, nothing happened. And then the alarm started, a loud and shrill sound that gave Gracie a headache almost straight away. The growing, aching bruise from when Allie hit her head against the wall certainly didn't help either.
"He knows you're coming for me," Allie gasped, tears in her eyes. "You have to hurry, Gracie! And be careful-" The illusion shimmered for a moment, her skin glittering, before the Allie Gracie was seeing disappeared into thin air.
Part of Gracie wanted to stay still and wonder how the hell that illusion was even possible and ponder how it suddenly made sense now – how all the people kidnapped over the years were being held against their will so this Alfred guy could make an army out of the illusions of them Fernando created – and part of her just wanted to run out of here screaming and let her dad and the others deal with everything... But Allie was her friend and she knew that if the roles were reversed, Allie wouldn't leave Gracie here, being controlled and kept unconscious.
So she rose to her feet, hoping that they had indeed turned the correct switch off (she probably should have kept the earpiece in long enough for the others to tell her but it was too late now), and pulled open a door at the back of the room. Opening it, she was glad that there was a set of stairs leading downwards, otherwise she would have had no idea how to get to the basement. The stairs were narrow and dark but she descended them, trying to ignore the claustrophobic feeling and instead thought of Allie down there waiting for her.
What she saw when she got down in the basement was enough to make her freeze. It was all open plan, one huge room, and it basically looked like some sort of hospital. Rows upon rows of hospital beds were down there, each having someone laid on them. There were no IV's, nothing to suggest how the person was being kept unconscious and Gracie could only guess that Fernando's power did that.
She moved to the first person she saw, a forty-something woman with greying brown hair. "Hello?" Gracie asked tentatively, shaking the woman.
"She won't wake up, girl." The smooth, Spanish accent came from behind Gracie. "Not unless I want her to or unless I die. Neither of which is going to happen."
Gracie turned around and faced the man, forcing herself to keep her head held high and not to look scared. Fernando was a tall, gangly teenager who looked only about Gracie's age but had a certain air to the way he held himself that suggested he was older, or had at least had to grow up quickly. His dark, side-swept hair had a streak of blonde in and his wide, brown eyes appraised Gracie with wonder. "So you're Fernando," she surmised.
He nodded his head. "And you're Gracie Benedict. I was told you would be on our side, I wasn't expecting you to fight back. What a shame- you would have made a great addition to our team."
Gracie scoffed. "Team? You mean a group of illusions created by your mind? Don't you think that's a bit too much power for one person to control?"
"Better me than Alfred, believe me. If he had my power... The whole world would be covered with illusions and there wouldn't be anything we could do to control them. So what now, Gracie Benedict? Are you going to kill me?"
"Or me?" Another Fernando appeared on her left.
"Or maybe you'll kill me?" A third one appeared on her right. "Which one of us is the real Fernando? Your intelligence and ability to kill me is the only way you'll be able to get your friend and all of these others out of here. What's it going to be, chiquita?"
A strained smile appeared on Gracie's face. "Now how is this fair? What's your deal anyway, Fernando? Why are you working for Alfred when you could easily be having a normal, happy life now with no danger involved?"
"What's the fun in that?" All three Fernando's spoke at once, laughing. "I like the danger, I like the challenge of keeping up so many illusions at once."
Gracie frowned at the original Fernando. Something about the way he said the words didn't feel real to Gracie, almost as if they were flat and monotone. Like he'd rehearsed these lines from a script a thousand times. "You're lying," the realization hit her suddenly. "You don't want to be here, you're being held against your will just like the rest of them, aren't you?"
"You don't know anything," he spat through clenched teeth. The second and third Fernando's disappeared and the first launched himself at Gracie, knocking them both to the floor. Gracie grunted as they rolled across the floor together, both trying to get a good hit to the other and win this fight.
She put her hand on his chest and summoned her power, using a strong gust of air to throw him across the room. His back hit the wall and he slid to the floor.
Gracie walked towards him, hand outstretched in front of her, ready to have to use her power again. But as she got closer, she realized his body was shaking. He looked up at her and she saw tears in his eyes. He looked frightened, finally looking his age, and Gracie felt a pang of pity for him as she watched him break down. She knelt down in front of him and gently said, "tell me the truth, Fernando. I don't want to hurt you, please don't make me."
"I could leave here if I wanted to," he admitted after a moment's pause. Apparently he'd decided to trust Gracie. "I was dragged into this by my mama. The man with the blurry face that does all of Alfred's dirty work? It's not actually a man, that's just what she wants people to think. She's my mama, she can make her own appearance an illusion to hide her identity. She's worked for Alfred for years now, I've been with them since I was six.
"At first I used my power for them because my mama told me it was the right thing to do." He met Gracie's eyes, a desperate look in his own. "You have to understand, chiquita. She was the only family I had, we'd left everyone else behind in Spain. But I wanted to leave, once I was old enough to realize they were killing people and had terrible plans. I was planning on running away but..."
"But?" Gracie pressed when Fernando fell silent. "You can tell me. Please, Fernando."
"My mama brought a new student in from that academy. Your friend, Allie. I managed to speak to her for a moment before I had to make her unconscious and I realized that she is my soulfinder. Oh, I was so happy but I didn't have the chance to tell her. My mama made me put her to sleep and then told me that if I ever left, she would kill Allie. How could I let that happen?"
"You stayed so you could protect Allie," Gracie quietly said, love rushing through her for this boy who stayed somewhere terrible just to look after her friend.
"Sí," he nodded his head. "Being asleep is better than being dead for her, yes? It is the only life I could give her."
"Fernando," Gracie said calmly but with a hint of desperation. "We need to get out of here otherwise we will all be killed. Let Allie go, let them all go. They'll be taken care of, returned to their families where they can get over this. You can come with us, change sides. I know it'll be hard to go up against your mum but you'll be with Allie. I'll help her understand that you were just trying to protect her, I promise. And I promise I'll help you not get punished by the net for your actions. The law works differently for savants, they might leave you alone. But you need to let everyone go."
"My mama will kill me and Allie both," he seemed so sad.
"The net won't let that happen. You'll both be protected. And maybe you could go to the academy, learn more about your power and have a chance at a normal life. Please, Fernando."
"Thank you, chiquita." He smiled at her and they both stood up. Fernando closed his eyes and a few seconds later, the people on the beds started to stir as they woke up. As they started mumbling questions about what was going on, he spoke above them in a controlled voice, a voice of a leader. "Let's get out of here everybody."
Trace was filled with a number of mixed emotions. Cramped into a van with numerous other people, he was listening to Gracie's sound feed and Killian's sound feed at the same time. He felt sorry for Killian to find out about his family's history, and he was distraught at hearing his daughter get beaten up by her friend. Admittedly, he was more focused on Gracie than Killian so when he heard her say that she'd find Allie before leaving, he was furious. One thing he'd asked her to do. One thing. Get out of the building so she would be safe. Why did she have to try and be a hero? Why was she making such a stupid mistake?
When they all felt the shield's power switch off, he was proud that Gracie had managed it. He reluctantly left the van, reluctant because he then wouldn't hear what happened to Gracie down in the basement. Will stayed in the van to listen though, ready to communicate with Trace either via telepathy or walkie-talkie to let him known if Gracie was in need of help.
Once the group got into the mansion, they split up and went separate ways. Trace was part of the group that included Killian's brothers and Victor, and he was filled with adrenaline as they headed upstairs to the top floor where they knew Killian was. Trace wanted to go down to the basement for Gracie but they had a plan and they had to stick to it. They were to go upstairs and arrest as many of The Illusionists they could, kill them if they had to, and get Killian out of there safely and unharmed. There were ten people in his group and although they'd be heavily outnumbered, Trace had faith in them and the guns they all carried.
When they finally burst into the room, the events didn't exactly go as planned. Of course, The Illusionists fought back, using combat and their savant powers. One shot a fireball at Trace and he ducked just in time, pulling the trigger of his gun as he aimed at the person. The bullet hit the guy straight in the stomach but instead of falling to the ground, his skin shimmered a little before he recovered and came straight back at Trace with another fireball.
Looking around, he realized that it was happening with all the others too: if The Illusionists got shot, they'd recover a second later and be just as strong; if they were arrested, the restraints slipped off them a second later and they were back to fighting. What the hell was going on?!
He ducked around Finbar fighting a guy with an arm that somehow shape-shifted into a sword and escaped from the guy flinging fireballs everywhere, making a beeline straight towards Killian. Kneeling down in front of the boy, he started to untie the restraints that were around his ankles and wrists.
"What's going on?" Killian blurted out. "Do you work for my brothers? Do you know where Gracie is? God, please tell me she's okay and she's safe."
Trace felt admiration for the boy, happy that his first thought was not 'get me out of here' but 'where's Gracie?'. It was proof to Trace that he should give the boy a chance to prove himself, to show that he was right for Trace's daughter. "I don't work for your brothers," he explained, trying to get a tight knot undone. "Actually, I'm your future father-in-law."
"You're Gracie's dad?" He sounded confused. "How are you here, with my brothers? Where's Gracie?"
"That's a long story," Trace scoffed. "And right now, Gracie's trying to be a hero and being utterly stupid. She's gone charging down to the basement in an attempt to save a bunch of lives, even though it could get her killed and I specifically told her to get outside straight away," the anger he felt was evident in his voice.
Killian let out a light laugh. "That sounds like Gracie. She's tough though, she can handle herself. She'll be fine."
Trace got the last knot undone and looked up at Killian with a faint smile on his face. "You may just survive her yet." Killian wasn't paying attention though: he was looking behind Trace with wide, confused eyes. "What's up?"
Trace stood up and turned around, only now noticing that the room had fallen deadly silent. And that the room was almost empty. All of The Illusionists had disappeared, leaving just him and his group. Four of them were on the floor, dead by the looks of it, but the rest seemed fine, just a little roughed up and breathing heavily.
Out of the shadows stepped two men, one red-headed and one with a blurry face. Trace guessed that the redhead was Alfred Ashe, the one in charge of this whole operation. He was slowly clapping his hands as the two walked forward a few steps before stopping. "Well done," he said with delight and humour in his voice. "That sure was one fight you put up against a bunch of illusions." The others had no idea what he was talking about but they kept silent. "Hey, Killian? Would you like to know what my power is? I have two. I can block people from using telepathy around me and-"
His words cut off as he and the other man disappeared. "Teleportation," they heard his voice. Spinning around, Trace saw Alfred stood behind Killian. One hand was clamped on the shoulder of the blurry man's face and he put the other on Killian's shoulder. "Goodbye, savants. I'll see you when the world as you know it ends," he laughed a second before he disappeared, taking the other man and Killian with him.
Author's note: Please don't forget to leave reviews. I didn't get that many on the last chapter and that kinda sucks when you work so hard on a chapter. I love hearing that you're all enjoying the story and knowing your thoughts. Do you think we can really trust Fernando? How do you think Gracie will react when she learns that her dad didn't save Killian like he'd promised? Please let me know! :)
A hint about the next chapter: We'll be fast-forwarding to a month later.