Thanx to RedJewel2662 for sticking to this story for such a long time.

Chapter 51 A hard choice and an old face

Maria slowly stretched her hand out and took the folder. She looked through the content and found the report from the shooting in the Crashdown. Immediately she regnorized the handwriting of her father. She read over what he had written about the incident with a shaking hands. Strangly not one word was standing in there about the obvious lie the two girls had dished up. But why else would he keep the blood soaked uniform from Liz then? She figured it out when she noticed that there was another page with a result about the stain on the cloth Sheriff Valenti sent in. In big fat letters stood there that it was human blood. " Why do you have all this? Do you snoop after me, or what?".

" No. But I want to protect my daughter from the wrong people", Jim tried another tactic. He didn´t wanna scare his daughter away. He just wanted her to trust in him, so that he could help her in any way, especially after the severe injury she sustained last night, which was something to worry over.

Maria pushed the folder away from her and stood up to face her father. Great, the last thing she needed was her family on her back at the moment. Like her life didn´t suck enough already. " And I want you to back off this. Believe me it´s better for you to not know anything. If you value our father-daughter relationship, stop asking me question I can´t answer you".

Jim noticed the slight fear in her eyes, but she wasn´t afraid for herself. Instantly realisation hit him and pretty hard. The accident with Lindsey was not just some guy trying to force himself on some innocent girl. There was more behind it than that. " If your life or the life of another member of this family is in danger, I have to know it. You know you always can count on me".

" I know that, Dad. But this time you just have to trust me. If I need your help I´ll ask", Maria was glad that her father stopped hassling her, but she knew that this discussion was far from over. She didn´t want something to stand between them and it was obvious that no matter what she told him he would accept it. However even if she wanted to tell her father the truth she didn´t want to put him in danger.

Jim wondered when his daughter started to grow up so fast. The last time he saw her she had been his little girl and now there was a maturity in her eyes that transcended her age. Like another person was staring at him. " Does it have anything to do with the fact that you´re different?".

Maria´s eyes widened for a second before she could catch herself again and mask her fear. Now the urge to run away was so big that she had to put every strength she possessed in keeping her cool and stay right on this seat. " Different? How do you mean?".

" Don´t play dumb with me. I´m maybe old, but I´m not blind. I know that you are not just some ordinary girl, that you have powers not from this earth".

Maria rubbed her face tiredly. She was so sick of fighting with people today. All she ever wanted was to be like anybody else and not be some kinda freak. Now she was punished because she wasn´t normal and she couldn´t even blame someone else for that. She had been the one activating this stupid plan in the first place. She had been a real genius in her past life. " Since when do you know about me?".

Jim finally took a seat across from his daughter. He knew that it had taken a lot from her to go this step towards her father, even if wondered why she hadn´t done it years ago. " Since you were a child", he smiled shortly at the memory. " Hard to miss when your little daughter destroys the good china vase from her mother with just a sneezer. Or when she burns her hand on the hotplate and within seconds the injuries are gone".

" Why didn´t you say anything? You could have spared me years of worrying about you finding out that I´m a freak", Maria felt like a huge weight was lifted off her. If she would do a drink she would do it right now. Something that almost burned a whole in your stomach.

Jim shook his head relieved. He finally found the access to his daughter again, something he thought he lost forever. But thankfully he said the right words at the right time for once. Amy would be really proud of him right now. " Firstly, you´re not a freak. You´re my daughter powers or not. And secondly. I wanted to wait until you were ready to tell it me personally, which you never did".

Maria was glad to hear that her father didn´t think differently about her and for the first time she felt the connection with him again, which had occasionally happened in the last years because of her secret. Now it was like old times, when she just sat down with him and talked about everything and nothing. " Does Mum know something?".

" Of course! She saw your pink elephant floating through the living room towards your outstretched hand and she almost fainted from the shock. I had to convince her that you weren´t possessed and we didn´t need to call an exorcist", Jim still remembered the expression on his wifes face, the panic and the fear. But after the first shock was gone, she accepted the gift her daughter had and used it sometimes for her benefit, such as lifting heavy things or healing small cuts and bruises.

Maria laughed openly. She could exactly picture her mother getting all hysterical and screaming around. It must have been priceless to witness. " Weren´t you ever afraid of me? I mean it´s not usual that a person can do such things like me".

Jim bent forward with his torso and put his hand on his daughters right cheek. The look in his eyes was speaking of love and pride. " Why should I be afraid of you? You´re my daughter, my child. No matter what should happen I will always be your father. After all you came out of my loins".

" Oh Dad, that´s really nasty. Now I will have nightmares for weeks", Maria grimaced like she had just eaten something disgusting. Great, her favourite image for the next days to come. Tonight she probably dreamed about it. Her father could be so icky sometimes.

Jim chuckled at his angel. He just wanted to lighten the mood a little, because now he would be shooting with the important bullets. But he knew that a direct approach would get him nowhere with his daughter. She could be stubborn like a mule, a trait she picked up from her mother. " So, what have you done today? I saw the jetta in front of the UFO-Center".

Maria was aware that her father didn´t just her this question without reason and he sucked at small talk or trying to bring up a topic without being to obvious. " Why are you not asking me what you really want to know?".

" I don´t know what you mean. I just want to know what you´ve done. We didn´t have exactly time to really talk with each other the last few days", Jim cursed himself for getting his cover blown. He was usually good in an interrogation. He could get his answers from criminals without them knowing how much they revealed to him. It was the first thing he learned in his time as Deputy. But now he either was getting old or his daughter finally figured him out.

Maria leaned back in her chair and stared at her father hard and long. She was deciding to either play along in his game or to checkmate him. One look at the clock over the door however was telling her that she should come straight to the point. " All right. How about we put all our cards on the table? You ask me your questions and I will answer them as good as I can".

Jim watched his daughter for a moment. He still saw her as his little daughter with her fairy costume and the small glitter wand. He didn´t know if he liked her new version that much. She seemed to lack the joy and the laughter she always had. It was like all the good things had been sucked out of her. " Okay", he rubbed his chin while he thought which question he wanted answered first. He was so full of them that he didn´t know where to start. " Are you in danger?".

" No. Not at the moment", Maria was glad that she could be honest in that matter, because she knew that there would be things coming she couldn´t possibly answer honestly.

Jim was glad to hear that, at least he could stop worrying in this regard, although the last part was not so good. But now that he knew about her, she would tell him if it would change and she was in trouble. " What are you? Phsychic or is it something completely different?".

Maria sighed inwardly. She already expected this question and she had feared it. How could she answer this without bringing her father in danger? Or would it be better if he was in the known about everything and could act if something should go down? " Let´s just say something in the middle". It wasn´t exactly a lie and pretty vague.

" Why are you evading this question? Why don´t you tell me direct what you are?", Jim was so sick to be lied to or get blank answers. Both of his children had lived a life beyond their parents backs. But after the accident in which his daughters got hurt, he wouldn´t longer look away and let them do what they wanted, as long as it wasn´t illegal or dangerous.

Maria stood up from her chair and started to pace. She should have known that her father wouldn´t just accept the anwers he got from her. Of course he had to make a lot of fuss about it. Sometimes she hated that he was the sheriff and tried his tactics with his own children. " And why can´t you just leave everything like it is. I don´t want you or Mum to get dragged into this, all right. I´m afraid to lose my family again. I saw everything going down once and I don´t want to see it happen again".

Jim jumped to his feet when he saw the glassy eyes of his daughter. Immediately he put himself in her path and grasped her shoulders to stop her from pacing. " What do you mean again? Did you see something?".

" Please Dad, just drop it. Maybe someday I´ll tell you anything you want to know. But until then you just have to trust me. I won´t let anything happen to you", Maria hadn´t enough strenght to fight with her father. She was so damn tired, emotionally and physically. The day finally took its toll on her and she just wanted to crash in her bed and snuggle a little with Michael.

Jim pulled his daugher closer and embraced her lovingly. He didn´t want to hurt her in any kind. But he feared that he would get a call someday that Maria was lying somewhere, dead. The x-rays were proof of this fear. He had been so damn close to lose her last night and it frightend him to not know what attacked her or how he could help. " All right. But promise me that you tell me if you should need my help".

Maria smiled through the few tears leaking from her eyes. The part of Marianna was in state of total bliss. She never had been having this tight bond with Khivar. But when she thought about everything, she had been having a special connection with Hewik, who had been her real father. He had been always around her, talked to her, calmed her down or just huged her when she was sad. Strange that she had never noticed it until now. " I promise. First sign of danger I´ll call you".

" I´ll take you at your word", Jim looked in his daughters face and saw the tear streakes. Carefully he wiped them away with his thumbs. " Now go to bed".

Maria kissed his cheek before she walked out of the kitchen. Her steps where a bit lighter this time, because she knew that she had the his back if anything should go wrong. On her way up the stairs she almost crashed into her mother, who seemed to be going to her father. Just with a quiet good night both women went in different directions.

Amy stepped into the kitchen and saw her husband leaning at the counter. After his appearance the talk with Maria hadn´t gone like he expected it. Or he got what he wanted and it wasn´t quite what he thought. " How was your father-daughter bonding?".

" It had been interesting. But she´s more guarded than me. Something makes her afraid for our safety, so much that she even fears telling me anything about it", Jim was torn between having faith in his teenage daughter and keep his nose out of her business or follow his intstincts and pursue his own investigations. It was hard, because he didn´t want to lose Marias trust in him, but he wanted to keep his daughter out of trouble, too.

Amy went to him and soothingly stroked his back. He had been worried since his children left the house to go to college. Now after the little visit to the hospital had boosted his fears of losing one of his children. Especially Maria. They both always had been having a tight connection with each other. It had been sometimes like they were in their own little world and nobody outside was allowed to go in. Just the two of them. " And how do you want to solve this?".

Jim turned to his wife and looked into her eyes. It was always so calming to do that. Besides it was nice to glance at someone and really know what the person was thinking or what they appeared to be was really what they were. " I can´t do nothing. If Maria is in trouble I want to be there for her. Maybe I will look into a few records and see what I can find about this Nicholas. Something tells me he had something to do with all this".

" If you do that, you can kiss your relationship with your daughter goodbye".

Jim drew his attention to the night sky outside. He was aware of this and as much as it would kill him, it was something he had to do. " I´d rather lose my relationship with her than lose my child".

Amy followed the sight of her husband and hoped that it wouldn´t come to that. She hoped it for the both of them.

Two days later

Everybody was back again at college and most of them were glad about that fact. Although the last day at home had been pretty quiet, which had been because they were too busy with packing their bags and collect their freshly washed clothes, they were happy to be in their dorms and have something stable to concentrate on. Maria had already informed the others about her talk with her father and they were all relieved to hear that they had help if they needed it and that the FBI didn´t get their hands on her oddly looking record. Kyle took this all in with a touch of happiness, because he didn´t need to lie to his father anymore and with a touch of confusion. Tess was just glad that she was back in college and could concentrate on something other than learning news things about her past life, while Michael was still a little thrown by all the information he got. He talked to Maria about everything and yet there were things he didn´t understand exactly, such as why the curse involved him when this goddess had been punished for her sins? Why just the five of them could save Antar? And how on earth they should do it when they couldn´t even fool the humans? Larek told them much about the base and their future assignment. But at some point he had been shutting his brain off and now he was clueless in a few things. But he already intented to talk to Nolak at their next training lesson. Isabel was joyful, because she had prove that she hadn´t been cursed and not at fault for the death of her family. Alex was still dreaming about the electronic equipment from Brody and his guys. He already had reserved a seat when they would come to the base permanently. Max and Liz seemed to be the only ones in the bunch not affected from it. That was probably because they were walking on clouds since they "cemented" their relationship. Besides everybody else was worrying, so why should they do it, too. Especially when they couldn´t do anything at the moment anyway. What was the point of concerning themself with a problem that was out of their grasp? It didn´t change anything and just made one crazy or paranoid. So that was the reason why Max and Liz were sitting across from each other at the huge library at their second day in class without a care in the world and learned for a small test in biology while they played footsie under the heavy brown woodtable. Besides them Alex and Isabel pretended to read books, although it was obvious that neither of them could answer the question if somebody should ask them what the books had been about. Kyle and Tess were farther in the back at the science section and tried to make out without getting caught in the process and without making too much noise. Thankfully the high bookcases were hiding them broth pretty much and they were at the aisle with the most dusted books, so there was a small chance for them at getting caught. Michael and Maria occupied the last two computer to do a little research in the internet. They were sitting opposite each other and neither of them seemed to know what the other was looking for. Obviously, because they were searching for the same thing. The city plan of Copper Summit, the location where Nicolai and his followers were.

Suddenly Kyle took a seat besides his sister and saw the strange thing on the monitor. " What are you looking at? Some porn?".

" Yeah. Do you see this stickman. He tries to ride this strickman", Maria pointed at lines crossing screen. Okay, not anybody could read a map, especially not her. But at least she could regnorize one when she saw it.

Kyle bent closer to it and finally registered what it was. " What? I don´t see that. I just see streetnames and buildings. Why are you looking at a city plan of Copper Summit anyway?".

Maria looked around to see if somebody heard him. She didn´t know who was listening. After the few days at home she thougt it was better to be careful. It wasn´t always safe for them, even if it appeared to be like that. Thankfully everybody was busy with doing their own things that they didn´t pay attention to them. But despite that she leant towards her brother and started to whisper. " You know why? Nicolai is there and we maybe need the location of the whole area. It´s better to be prepaid".

" Why are you whispering?", Kyle replied quietly and slightly confused. They were pretty much among themself here and the others had probably better things to do than listening to their conversation.

Maria knew that her brother didn´t grasp the concept of laying low and keeping up appearance. To his defence he never had to know about it or learn it out of necessarily like her. She had been drilled about being careful all the time and never let your guard down from childhood. " You never know if the enemy is near you or not. Therefore I would suggest we create codewords for a few things. Maybe you and Tess can think about some and tell us them tonight".

Kyle noticed that his sister wanted him away from her and do her thing alone. All right, he didn´t need to stay where he wasn´t welcome anymore. Just as he was in the process to stand up he saw that there was a message on the computer. " You´ve got a message", then he left.

Maria turned to her screen and glanced at the little envelope blinking down at the right side of the monitor. Curiously she double klicked on it with her mouse. Immediately a window opened over the whole screen and she read over it.

" Hey beautiful. I´m watching you right now and I had to write how incredible sexy you are. I´m already hard just by watching your tight body sitting on the chair. At the moment I imagine you naked and wrapped around me"

Maria put her hands on her heating cheeks and scanned the surrounding. She didn´t want anybody to read what she received. Oh crap, now Michael wanted to check a new game, here in the middle of the library with all of their friends around? Boy was she enjoying that. So she decided to play right along.

" Hey stud. I´m really flattered for stimulate your imagination that much and it´s making me really hot to think about the things you are doing to me in your mind. I´m also fantasizing about things I want you to do to me. Like throwing me against a wall and taking me without mercy. No foreplay, no talking and no boundaries, just straight to the point"

Giggling like a school girl who did something illegal, she hit the send button. Then she waited for a reply. This boy was surprising her everyday with things, she didn´t even think about. Maybe that was the reason for the eternal attraction between them, that even survived time and space. Just as the thought finished she saw the envelope blink again.

" Oh damn girl, you almost made me cum in my pants. You´re really naughty, you should be punished for your dirty little mind. Maybe I should spank your cute ass for a bit before soothing the heating flesh with my long and velvet tongue. Or I could tease you so long until you would beg for release"

Maria rubbed her neck at that. Holy shit, was it getting hot in here or was it just her? Slowly she took the pencil in her mouth to think about a good reply. She already knew he was watching and she wanted to give him some eye candy. Suddenly a perfect comeback popped into her head.

" I´m not the kind of girl who begs for something. Usually it is the other way around and because I´m a good person I grant them release. I ride them until their legs buckle and their eyes roll up. If I´m still in the mood I tease them so long that they pop like warm champagne under me. I´ve got muscle that you never thought existed and I can do things with it that most people just dream about"

Quickly she sent the message away. She was still afraid that somebody could notice anything and think she was pervert or strange. But after a quick look around, she saw that Kyle and Tess had already disappeared in their science section, probably trying to undress each other again or something, Max and Liz seemed to be learning while Alex and Isabel finally gave up to read the books and were talking to each other. Grinning she stretched her head to the side to see Michael´s face when he saw what she wrote to him. Strangly it was appearing like he was concentrating on something on the monitor. All right, if he could keep his cool, she would do it, too. Excited she looked at the screen and saw the she got message.

" If you don´t stop now I have to do something drastic, like jumping to my feet, walk over to you and take you right in this room with all this people around. I would rip your clothes from your body and ram my dick as far as it could go in your tight wet pussy. Shit, I have to stop this or I´ll really do it.

Maria wished he would really do it, because it sounded so fantastic at the moment. With everything happening the last few days they both hadn´t even time for themself, let alone time for having sex. She missed it. The way their bodies melted together, their scents joined and their hearts started beating as one. Damn it, she had to stop thinking about it or she would go crazy.

" We have to stop this conversation or I´m exploding. It has been too long already and I start to think you lost your interest in me. Damn you Michael for making me so hot and I can´t do anything against it at the moment".

She would slap him later for it, when she even could stand up from this chair without embarrassing herself in the process. Maybe she should wait until the puddle under her had dried up. Her nipples were painfully rubbing against her bra and she wondered if anybody would believe when she said that she was cold in a nice temperatured room. But soon her playful mood disappeared and was making place for fear. Just because of three little words shining at her.

" Who is Michael?"

Worriedly Maria thought for a moment that she had been talking to a stranger. But then she scraped this idea, because who would do such a disgusting thing to someone he didn´t know. It had to be Michael. He was just trying to shock her.

" Yeah, really funny. You should do a performance with your humour. Unfortunately I don´t like this kind of joke, so I want you to stop it, alright"

Then she waited what answer she would be getting this time. Hopefully Michael was taking her seriously and stopped with this shit. She didn´t want to think about what she should do if it really wasn´t him. That would be pretty embarressing. Nervously she saw the envelope blink and clicked on it.

" Hey, I´m not joking. Really. I really don´t know this Michael guy. But I´m sure that it´s not me. I´m sorry if you thought I had been someone else. It wasn´t my intention to make you uncomfortable. I just

wanted to make contact with you.

Maria shook her head. Great now she had a sex talk with someone not her boyfriend. Was it already cheating if she had exchanged sex fantasies with another guy? Actually she had been under the impression it had been Michael, so theoretically she hadn´t cheated on him. Besides it wasn´t like they both had really done it.

" It´s okay. But sadly I have to inform you that I´m already involved with someone and I don´t think he would be pleased about his girlfriend having computer sex with a guy not him. Sorry.

She had to smile at forwardness of this boy. Usually she would be pissed at someone trying to hit on her so cheap, but she had to give him credit for the way he had done it. What some men did to impress a woman. Suddenly the smile on her face died when she read the next words.

" Don´t worry about that my love. Soon you will be mine again, Marianna"

Scared and shocked she jumped to her feet and knocked her chair over in the process. People stared at her sudden movement and some even startled through the loud clang of the chair falling on the ground. Kyle, Tess, Isabel, Alex, Max, Liz and even Michael looked up from whatever they had been doing and glanced at their pale faced friend. She meanwhile scanned the room for the scumbag that knew about her past life and found a guy hastily escape through the large doors. Without taking notice of anything around her she stormed after him. She wouldn´t make the same mistake again and go let a possible threat for her or her friends, this time she would chase him as long as she had to. Then she would kill him and ask questions later or maybe if she was in a good mood she would do it the other way around. She almost crash into two large guys coming through the door when she tried to leave the library, but thankfully she was agile enough to prevent that from happening. With a neat little trick she passed them without any problem and ran after the moving person hiding under a black baseball cap. She knew that she couldn´t use her power to stop him, because as much as she wanted it she couldn´t bring more attention to them at the moment. They barely escaped the reaching clutches of the FBI, they didn´t need the added mess. Besides there were enough people around she could hit instead of the guy. Straining her legs to go faster she pushed herself forward and noticed finally that the distance between them was getting smaller. She never knew how fast she could run when she had to. For a moment she wondered how long she could hold this tempo before her body collapsed, but then she saw her opponent slowing down a bit. Using her chance and preparing herself for inflicting a tad bit pain on herself she jumped on her target and dragged him down on the ground with her on top of him. Slightly out of breath and with hurting legs she didn´t move for a couple of seconds, because her lungs were demanding air and her legs some rest. After that she slowly stood up from the big lump on the ground and kicked him in the belly really good.

" Turn around bastard. Show yourself to me".

In slow motion the body rolled around and the guy was taking the baseball cap from his head. " Hello my love".

Maria cringed back shocked and tears were prickling her eyes. That couldn´t be. He was dead, she was there when he died. How could this be possible? What was he doing here and why hadn´t Larek said anything to her? And how did they make it that he was looking like the last time she had seen him? The same black hairs, the brown eyes and the same arrogant smirk on his face. " Rath!".

Inside the library

Michael, Liz, Max, Isabel, Alex, Kyle and Tess were still staring at the door where Maria had stormed out. Nobody was believing what just happened and couldn´t understand why. Curiously they all stepped to the computer she had been sitting on and observed the words blinking back at them. Slowly realisation dawn on them and they finally knew why their friend made such an hasty retreat and why she had been so pale. Immediately Tess went to the nearest window to look if she could see her somehwere, while Kyle told the other occupants of the library that everything was over. Michael was just in the process to go after his girlfriend, when his sister stopped him.

" I see her. She just jumped on a guy and threw him down".

Instantly the others crowded at the small window and the smaller ones had to strain themself to get a peak at the show. Everybody watched as Maria kicked the guy on the ground with her foot really hard. Michael was pretty proud of his girl and silently cheered her on to give him a hell of a fight, although he was wondering who this chap was and on which side he was standing. Kyle was suffering with the poor boy, if anything his sister had a nice right kick and it was painful, he had experience in that area. Tess and Liz were holding their hands in front of their eyes to not have to witness what Maria would do next, while Isabel didn´t hold back her vocal encouragement. Suddenly a cell phone started ringing somewhere and broke the attention of them.

" Uggghh. Which moron doesn´t set his cellphone on mute in a library? Never heard of vibrating alert?", Liz thought it was close to one of the ten mortal sins to make noise in the holy halls of the books. She couldn´t understand that someone would even take it along. How stupid could some people be?

Michael sheepishly took the offending noise out from his jeans pocket and grinned apologetically at her before watching on his screen. Confused he saw it was a local number and immedaitely took the call. " Hello?".

" Michael...you´re in grave...get out...there´s a...in there...".

Michael pushed the others out of his way and tried to find a place where his reception was better and he actually could understand everything. He didn´t even know who was on the line from all this cracking and hissing in the line. " What? I couldn´t understand a damn thing. Who is there?".

" Get out of the library. There is a bomb hidden somwhere!"

Michael finally managed to understand everything and his even knew who was calling him. Unfortunately he had already found the reason for Nolak to call him so ruffled in the middle of the day. There was a green light blinking in regular intervals at the wall besides the computer tables. Quickly he turned around to the others. " Out now. There´s a bomb here"

Of course he screamed it that loud that everyone in the whole library had heard it and pretty damn quick the room was filled with cries and trampling feets. Everybody tried to get out of the building at the same time and nobody cared for the safety of the others. People fell and others walked in panic over them. Bookshelfs got thrown over, chairs knocked down and books were all over the floor. Max looked out of the window to see if it was possible to jump down without killing themself in the process or even hurt them. But there were in the second floor and under them was just solid pavement. Great, they didn´t have time to make it out the door with all the people crowded there and they couldn´t jump, because it was not safe enough.

" We´re not making it. The window is too dangerous and the door impossible to reach right now".

Michael didn´t care about that at the moment. He just wanted to find a way out to get his friends and his family out of harms way. Desperate he scanned the library for something they could use a ladder. But he came up empty. Fear was slowly climbing up his body and made his head kinda fuzzy. " We have to try to get to the damn door. We have no other option at the moment".

Max observed the panic driven teenager trying to squeeze themself through the mob of people blocking their path to safety. That way was out of the question, because before they would make it ouside they were already shredded to pieces. " That won´t work".

" Could you both stop with the bickering like an old couple. This thing will blow us up if we don´t do anything", Kyle thought it was something his sister would be saying and it brought a little comfort to him. He was almost pissing his pants with fear and he didn´t like the feeling. He took the hand of his girlfriend and made a dash for the emergency exit at the sidewall, which was also full of people trying to get out.

Alex watched after his childhood friend and made the same decision. He didn´t want to die that way and probably not now. Quickly he gripped the arms of Liz and Isabel and dragged them after Kyle. Max and Michael knew that they got outvoted and instantly followed their friends. Scared they pushed the people out of the way and were not even afraid to use their powers to throw a few of them out of their way.

Michael looked back at the bomb and noticed that the green light had stopped blinking. Oh shit, they were in deep trouble now. " Everybody down. The bomb will blow up!".

No sooner had the words died down a deafening bang was sounding through the library while girls and boys everywhere dropped on the ground. Wood and glass splinter as well as part of the furniture flew through the air and destroyed everything in sight. Bookshelfs got knocked over and fell on people lying on the floor. Pages were floating through the air and screams of pain and fear were piercing the chaos. Suddenly the ground seemed to move and dip under the weight of the many bodies. With more cries the building was quickly falling apart and falling at a dangerous pace towards the ground outside until it crashed against it with so much noise that the whole town had to hear it. At this point all the voices and cries stopped.

Outside

Maria was slowling coming out of her shock at seeing her former lover lying at her feet. She had so much questions she wanted to ask him and she would finally have the chance to say to him how sorry she was for causing him so much pain. But she got thrown out of her thoughts when a loud bang was sounding behind her. Startled she turned to the noise and saw the library losing part of the wall. Fire was shooting from a few places and the foundation was crumpling. Helpless she had to witness how the building collapsed in front of her eyes and dust covered her sight.

" Noooooooooooooooooooo", she tried to run to the ruins to get to her friends. But she was hindered form a strong arm keeping her prisoner. With tears in her eyes she struggled against the hold and even kicked out with her feets. But nothing was striking with her keeper. When the sound of the horn of the fire deparment pierced the air, she finally stopped fighting. Immediately the arm released her and she slumped on the ground. Crying softly she watched the mess where her friends and her brother had been. Oh god, her curse had found her again.

TBC