We've reached the climax of the story. I don't have much to say, only that chapter 11 will be the final chapter in this story.
I'll use this space instead to mention that I'm now taking part of a collaboration fanfic with a great friend of mine. The story in question is "Archetypal" by TheSiegePerilous. Originally, it was a collab between Siege and LoudAutomata16, two of my best friends in the fandom. Auto has left the fandom though, and the three of us decided I would be a good candidate to take his place in the story. So far I've written chapters 29, 30, and 31, and I will continue to write the next couple of chapters until we finish the Luan arc we're working on. It's an incredibly funny fic that deconstructs many tropes of different genres. Oh, and Lincoln is literally a "Harem King", though you will need to read the story to figure out what that really means lol
As always, special thanks to the readers that leave their reviews for me to read:
STR2D3PO: True, but Elsa has ice powers just like Tabby lol And yeah, high school can be terrible, unfortunately.
Jeff: Thank you! Hope the climax lives up to the hype!
FanficFan920: It does kinda feel that way, right? We'll see what happens in this chapter…
Decade 2009: They're a great pair, for sure. We'll see if they ever get the chance to work together.
Deku: No, Deku, you're great!
Burtonfan422: It was definitely a teen drama lol We'll see what Luan's all about in this chapter.
Epic Gusher: The original plan was for chapters 6 and 7 to be one and the same. But that would have been a really long chapter, so I decided to divide it in two.
Chapter 10:
Breaking free.
The weekend passed almost without me noticing it. I shut myself out from the world in my home, practicing the songs of the musical with my keyboard, with repeated pauses in which my guitar seemed to call me, inviting me to take it and let another type of music manifest from within. Songs that I didn't consciously think of or choose, but that they rather played on their own accord, surprising even me. Slow, sentimental, sad, introspective songs. I didn't allow myself to pause to reflect on what was going on inside me, but I found catharsis in letting my body purify all those rambunctious emotions through music. Allowing the notes that vibrated in the strings to take away my doubts and concerns so that they could disappear in the air instead of continuing to eat me up inside.
Even within my relative isolation, I allowed myself some windows to interact with others. For starters, I spent more time with Tabby, often prompted by her approaching my room.
"I've nothing else to do," she would tell me, taking a seat on my bed with a big smile, "d'you mind if I hang around here while you practice?"
"Of course not, sis. You're always welcome."
And so, as I continued to rehearse my part in the musical, she stood by my side, watching me almost adoringly, clapping each time a song ended, and asking adorable questions.
"What chord was that? It sounded like a G, but it wasn't one, was it? And what's it called when you do those quick note changes? Did you write this part? Why is there a pause there? Why do you have the music sheets if you play half of the song with your eyes closed?"
Usually, I would have gotten tired at some point, perhaps sooner than I'm proud to admit. But with how little I was using my phone, her company was more than welcomed, and I gladly answered each of her questions. Even when, once the music-oriented questions were done with, she began to inquire more about my powers.
"How did you know that you could silence objects and people?" She asked me on Sunday afternoon as we both ate cookies on my bed.
I was sitting against the backrest, with her laying across the mattress with her head on my lap, looking up as she allowed me to play with her hair.
"I didn't. I just tried it and it ended up working," I responded.
"And what did you feel when it worked?"
"It felt… weird."
"Weird in a bad way or weird in a good way?"
"I think in a good way," I admitted, brushing her hair with my fingers. "Like I was discovering a part of me. But it was also a bit scary."
"Scary how?"
"Cause I realized that I didn't know myself as well as I thought. And that could lead to me losing control. There's nothing more dangerous than a metahuman that can't control themselves."
Tabby nodded, taking another bite at her cookie to cover her silence by chewing.
"You could practice your power of silence with dad's alarms," she suggested after a few seconds of intense thought. "I hate it when they wake me up on a Saturday morning."
I laughed out loud, flicking a finger at her forehead.
"You're crazy, sis," I said, shaking my head, though I didn't admit that it didn't seem like a bad idea.
My second window of escape during those few days was Mazzy, who was texting me regularly, checking on how I was doing, and making sure I didn't feel terribly depressed. Which, well, no, I wasn't. Not really. But it was safe to say that my mood wasn't at its highest.
Luckily, every time I seemed to be sinking into a hard-to-get-out pit, she would come up with a message or call to rescue me, distract me, remind me that not all of my best friends were ignoring me. She assured me that Sam just needed time, that everything would go back to normal.
How much I wanted to believe her.
Beyond that, I didn't speak to anyone else, keeping myself busy with my music. Before I knew it, the big day had arrived, and my nerves only began to attack me on the way to the auditorium. Dressed in black as Mr. Budden had requested, I went backstage, peering from behind the curtains as the seats began to fill up with students, family members, and teachers. I recognized a bunch of my classmates, as well as Chunk and Tabby, sitting next to Mazzy. Several rows back, looking at her almost wistfully, I saw Sully seemingly on his own, with no one to talk to or with whom to enjoy the musical.
I felt a little bad for him, but I had other more pressing concerns. I'd never suffered from stage fright, and neither did I then, but oh boy did I feel my breakfast churning in my stomach. Especially when I heard a voice behind me, and I saw that Carol had just arrived and was talking to Mr. Budden.
I hadn't spoken to Carol since those messages she'd sent me on Friday, but I had thought a lot about her. Who she really was. How different she was from what I pictured before meeting her, and how much I still had to discover about her. I felt that we owed each other a heart-to-heart talk. She'd give me the apology she felt she should give. And I… maybe I would stop pretending, tricking myself, and I'd ask her out.
Thinking about it made my heart race, but I shook my head to try to chase away those distractions. I was minutes away from playing in front of the entire school. I was just as nervous as everyone around me, with members of the band and the drama club running around, cheering each other on and looking for the odd trash can to throw up.
Yes, the last thing I needed was some new reason to stress.
"You're here."
And speaking of not stressing out, I turned around startled when I heard someone speaking to me almost in a whisper, like a ghost ambushing me from behind. I came across none other than Luan, dressed in her court jester costume. The simple design consisted of gray pants and a dress divided vertically in half, with the right side black and the left half yellow, similar to the blouse she used to wear. She was also wearing a pair of boots, one of each color, and her hair was tied in two ponytails. On her face, she wore a yellow mask with black diamonds enclosing the space of the eyes, and on the left side, a black tear was painted. The design was inspired by poker cards, specifically the Joker. It looked like something out of an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.
The only item that seemed out of place was a pink petal daisy in the middle of her chest. It appeared to be made of hard plastic, and while it wasn't clashing with the design, it didn't suit the poker aesthetic. I hadn't seen it at rehearsals, but I figured maybe the costume team had made a last-minute change.
"Hey," I said, smiling at her and pointing finger-guns at her. "Lookin' good, DiAngelo."
"I told you it was dangerous for you to come," she replied ruefully as if it hurt her that I had ignored her warnings.
I sighed, somewhat uncomfortable. I knew she was… difficult to deal with, to put it mildly. I wanted to be polite and supportive, to assure her that everything was going to be okay, that she had nothing to fear. However, I wasn't in the best state of mind, and the last thing I needed right then was to add to my long list of concerns the possibility that a metahuman with two powers that made them undetectable would decide to attack us right where my family was.
"Come on, don't think about those things," I said, both to her and to myself. "Everything's gonna be fine. Just relax. I'm sure you'll dazzle everyone with your performance."
Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating a bit, considering that her role in the play was reduced to a couple of quick interventions where she told short, terrible jokes. But come on, the girl looked like she needed a little pick-me-up. Her face was pale and her shoulders slumped, her hands opening and closing as if she were about to have a nervous breakdown.
My compliment didn't seem to help her. Instead, she closed her eyes and turned her head away, like she couldn't see my face, clearly stressed out by the play and scared by the possibility that something bad would happen to us. I couldn't blame her, really, but I didn't know what else to do to reassure her and make her feel better. Luan trusted me with all these things because she had no one else to listen to her, but I wasn't exactly the best person to advise and inspire others. Especially not at the time, with my mind so busy with so many other things.
In retrospect, I failed as a friend. I didn't listen to her the way she needed to be heard. I paid no attention to the signs. Maybe, if I had been more receptive, if I had been the support that she expected me to be, things would have happened differently. Another serious mistake to add to my long list.
As things turned out, I prioritized not being distracted or worrying too much, seeking to end that conversation as soon as possible.
"Come on, don't worry. Go practice your lines, do what you've been rehearsing for so long, and when the play is done, we'll go buy those ice creams I promised you. What d'you say?"
I raised a clenched fist. She watched it carefully as if I were offering a sacrificial dagger, but she finally gave me a smile that seemed far more honest than her eyes showed. I was honestly surprised; maybe Luan was better at hiding the truth than I gave her credit for.
"Sounds great," she replied, bumping her clenched fist into mine. "I'll go review my lines. Good luck, Luna."
"You too."
I watched her go, not without some regret. Despite not fully understanding her, it was clear that it wasn't her best day. Hopefully, once the play started, she would be distracted enough to stop being so worried and dismayed.
"Ah, there you are!"
Mr. Budden approached me with Carol by his side.
"The star that was missing from my musical constellation!" He said, looking back and forth between Carol and me. "Are you ready? All these weeks of practice pay off this afternoon when the world finally witnesses your talents!"
"I've already played in front of audiences," Carol mentioned, frowning, but our professor didn't seem to hear her.
"I don't need to motivate you 'cause I know you both have the talent and the mental toughness to overcome your nerves," he said, smiling at us. "So all I ask is that you have fun. Don't stress, just let your souls flow to the beat of the music. If you're authentic and you're having a good time, that'll definitely show in your music, and you'll make the audience feel your same joy."
I was surprised to hear those words of encouragement. It was almost as if he was describing my powers.
"We'll enter the orchestra pit in five minutes to tune the instruments. See you there. Best of luck!"
He waved goodbye at us with a huge smile on his face, leaving me alone with a Carol Pingrey who looked spectacular in her tight black dress, with a white sash above her hips.
If I was slightly nervous before, now I was almost sweating.
"Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be perfect," Carol said, noticing but misinterpreting my anxiety.
"Yeah, I know, it's just… Well, you know. There's always a little more pressure when you play in front of an audience you don't know."
"I get that. Wanna know how I deal with that?"
"You imagine them in their underwear?"
"No! Gross!" She said, laughing and giving me a gentle bump on the shoulder. "I close my eyes and pretend they're not there. I just focus on me and my cello, like I'm practicing in my room. That way, the only one I can disappoint if I mess up is myself. And that takes the pressure off me, 'cause it would be worse if I could let others down."
"I guess that works... though it sounds like you still have a heavyweight on your shoulders."
She shrugged.
"Everywhere we go we run the risk of disappointing someone. You have to learn to live with it. I'm used to it by now."
"So you're not nervous anymore?"
"So I'm always nervous," she corrected me with a small smile. "Also, today's a special day, different from the rest."
"And why is that?"
Her smile grew a few inches, and she tapped my shoulder again.
"Cause it's the first time I've ever played with a friend," she said softly. "I'm gonna go to the pit now. Wanna come?"
I only managed to nod. Right then, speaking required too much coordination for my overloaded brain.
Fifty minutes later, we were in the middle of the first act, and my mind had put all other distractions away. I only had eyes for my music sheet and ears for the instructions Mr. Budden whispered to us and the lines of the actors to guide me. I'd prepared my notes for the next song, and since I wasn't supposed to play until the end of the next two scenes, I allowed myself a few minutes to pay attention to the play.
"Victoria, how could you leave the castle and run away with that brute knight? You could have died! It's my job to keep you safe!" Yelled the King, whom I couldn't see from my disadvantageous position in the pit, but whose voice came to me loud and clear.
"I'm already fifteen years old, father! I'm not a little girl!"
"Well, you keep behaving like one! You are a princess, and he is a soldier! You're just confused! Whatever you're feeling is wrong!"
"How can something that feels so good be wrong?!" The princess cried, surprising me with how sincere her performance was. She'd improved a lot since the first rehearsals.
"So that's it, huh?" Said the king with a threatening tone. "How dare you turn a deaf ear to the words of your father, the king? I may need to take more drastic measures to protect you. Guards! Call for the knight to be executed at once!"
"Father, no!"
"Oh, my king, my king!" Said with great enthusiasm and joy a new voice that had just entered the scene.
I wasn't supposed to move from my spot, but I craned my neck as much as I could to get a glimpse of Luan, in her Joker costume, entering the scene with a big smile on her face. She moved in small leaps, making the occasional twirl in place to sell her character's eccentric and slightly unhinged personality. It was really impressive to see the contrast between the Luan that I knew and the one who was walking on the edge of the stage right then.
"Ah, my king, my liege! Please, don't stress out!" She said, kneeling in front of the king and staying out of my sight. "If you really want to send a message to the knight, I suggest using the chain mail. Hahaha! Get it?"
It was an awful joke, but the humorous tone and the strangely authentic laugh helped sell it to the audience, who laughed along.
"But I implore you to reconsider, my liege! The people want a benevolent King! Why kill the poor knight, when you can do something else? Maybe cast him out to the beaches! You can name him Sir Fer! Hahahaha! Get it?"
The actor who played the king made a calculated pause to let the audience laugh. I took advantage of those seconds to mentally applaud. Luan would return to the play later on to tell some more jokes, but for now, she had fulfilled her role to perfection in her first little scene.
"It is true, it's not proper for a king to act impulsively or violently. My daughter, I cannot change how your heart feels. If you are in love with the knight, then so be it. But as long as you live in my kingdom you will obey my orders, and I hereby forbid you to speak to him again! If you seek him or speak to him again, I swear on my crown that he will be executed!"
"No! You can't do that!"
"If you really love him, if you really care for his life, you will forget about him and let him find another love!"
"Father, no, please!"
"If you are not the responsible princess that your kingdom needs, then at least you will learn to pretend to be! I have spoken!"
The king and his guards marched away to the side of the stage, leaving the princess alone, crying her sorrows. I lowered my gaze to accommodate my scores, just out of habit…
"Oh, poor princess!"
... only to lift my head at hearing Luan's voice once more.
"Forced to hide her true feelings, her true self, and just for what?" She recited, approaching the edge of the stage. "Just to please the King."
An intelligible murmur came from behind the scenes, and quick, confused glances were exchanged between the members of the orchestra. Even though Mrs. Bernardo allowed and even encouraged improvisation, I was pretty sure that one of the unwritten rules of theater was to not improvise entire new scenes during opening day, when everyone was on top of their nerves.
"Can you imagine? Hiding the truth and living a lie just to please someone else? Just because it is what they 'expect' of us?" Luan continued, pointing her hands at the audience and speaking with a fluency that we had never seen before in her. "Of course you can. Aren't we all like the poor princess every day of our lives? Are not all of you constantly wearing masks to hide your truths? And for what? To fit in? To be accepted? To stick to the status quo?"
The buzz began to grow, with some actors chittering and whispering to try to get Luan's attention. The princess had stopped crying, looking at Luan confused, and the audience noticed. Soon there was that inexplicable but tangible change between a respectful silence and an expectant silence, where even all breathing seemed to have stopped.
"You all live a lie. A lie to hide who you really are. Sometimes for the sake of others, and sometimes because you're unable to face your truths. Doesn't that seem like a sad existence to you? Doesn't it sound like a pathetic excuse for a life? Well, worry not, my friends, for today I will make you face your most feared truths! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
With a deranged laugh, she reached a hand to the pink flower on her suit and pressed the yellow center. Right away, metal curtains fell, sealing the entrances to the auditorium, trapping all of us inside.
The silence was broken, and soon most of the audience had risen to their feet, speeding away just to see that the metal doors didn't yield to their knocking. Mr. Budden started screaming, trying to get Luan's attention. Everyone around me was panicking, and I felt my heart pounding desperately.
"Don't be afraid!" Luan shouted with great enthusiasm and a smile as sincere as it was terrifying. "I know that facing the truth can hurt, that it scares you! But isn't it worse to lead a life full of lies?! Today I give you the opportunity to face the truths that you have buried deep in your hearts! Face them, and maybe you'll find in the truth the same redemption that opened my eyes!"
It was at that point that several of the actors, including the guards and the king, approached Luan intending to apprehend her. She seemed to notice them out of the corner of her eye, but instead of trying to escape, she just smiled. She didn't move, not even when one of the boys tried to grab her by the shoulder…
And that was when we all saw, horrified, that the boy's arm went through Luan as if she was a hologram. There were some gasps and surprised yelling, and suddenly the brave guys that stepped up to her looked as scared as a child at midnight.
For my part, I felt like someone took a blindfold from my eyes, but in doing so they also stabbed me in the back. I stood up, wanting to say something, but in those moments I just had enough energy and mental clarity to stand there, gaping, trying to make sense of the bizarre situation.
"At last! The truth has revealed itself!" Luan said, stretching her arms and making an exaggerated bow towards the audience, crossing one leg behind the other. "I'm a metahuman! And I'm the one responsible for the attacks on the school! Nothing like a raw dose of the truth serum my parents developed to force the popular kids to spit out all their secrets! Their entire fake, perfect lives were destroyed by the overwhelming truth! And the same will happen to all of you! Hahahahahaha!"
The echo of the pounding on the metal doors grew even louder, barely overshadowed by the screams of terror from everyone in the auditorium, including my bandmates and teachers. Everyone was running away, trying to reach the exits, leaving me practically alone in the orchestra pit. Except for one other person.
"Luna, we have to go!" Carol desperately said, grabbing me by the shoulder and trying to drag me towards the exit.
I turned to look at her. She looked terrified, probably as scared and pale as I was. In any other situation, I would've tried to run away with her. But there was something inside me that was keeping me from leaving. A little thread that pulled me towards the stage, away from the easy way out, that wanted me to face Luan and try to do something to stop what could easily become a tragedy.
Giving Carol a quick apologetic glance, I slipped out of her grasp and ran in-between instruments toward the director's place, the highest position in the pit next to the stage.
"Luan!" I yelled, trying to make myself heard above the chaos. "Luan, you don't have to do this! Stop it before it's too late!"
The Joker looked down, meeting my eyes, and I could immediately see the guilt and sadness that flooded her.
"I asked you not to come, Luna," she told me, sounding honestly hurt. "I told you it was dangerous. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't want you to be here! I didn't want to have to hurt you!"
"You don't have to hurt anyone!"
"It's too late!" She wailed, a couple of tears falling from her eyes. "You're the only one that listened to me, the only person who cared about me no matter what that might do to their reputation! You're the only one who doesn't deserve what's happening! But it's too late. I have to do this. Everyone needs to face their most terrible truths, and I can't shut this down. Not even for you."
"Luan, you've seen what that drug does to people!" I implored, trying to reason with her. "If you do that with this many people you could get someone killed!"
Luan brought a hand to her chest, squeezing the suit as if her heart ached.
"Even now, you care about others..." She said, her face showing true regret. "But you're wrong. Before, I used a synthetic I made, a variant of my parent's original compound. Much more aggressive and powerful. This time I'll use all the reserves of the original formula that I managed to steal from Tetherby Industries. The only real danger will be the truths that everyone will be forced to face."
And without giving me time to react, she moved her hand back to the flower on her costume, pressing the button in the center.
A noise not unlike the hissing of a snake came from above the stage, and we all looked up to see in horror as the smoke machines began to release a visible gas that expanded through the ceiling before slithering down the air like radioactive fallout. I tried to cover my mouth and nose with my hands, but when the first drops began to hit my head and arms, I knew immediately that I was only delaying the inevitable.
"It's terrifying, at first," Luan told me, approaching the edge of the stage and looking at me with the pain of someone who sees a friend suffer. "I would know: I was the test subject. I know how scary it seems. I had to go through it, every day, over and over again, until my body became immune to the drug, until there was no truth left to be discovered."
My lungs were beginning to burn, desperate to release the air I was holding inside. My head felt lighter, and I didn't know if it was from holding my breath, or because the drug was already beginning to affect me from the contact with my skin and eyes. I stumbled backward, bumping against the music stands, and falling to my knees on the floor.
"I hope your truths aren't painful," she continued, standing up. "You really don't deserve to suffer like everyone else."
I wanted to yell at her, but my body couldn't take it anymore, and I was forced to breathe out and take a much-needed gulp of air. As soon as I did, my lungs filled with that gas, and the effect was instantaneous.
The first thing I experienced was an overexposure of stimuli in all my senses. The stage and auditorium lights glowed like supernovae, all the colors mixing in my eyes like explosions of fireworks until nothing made sense. My balance was completely disoriented, and for long moments I didn't know if I was standing, falling, or if it was the world around me that didn't stop spinning. The sounds of people coughing, screaming, and crying mixed in a senseless whirlwind. Everything was chaotic, inexplicable, surreal. The walls were melting, the sounds were getting sharper and sharper, the ground was falling apart below me, the shadows grew to consume my surroundings...
And suddenly, as if the car in which I was traveling stopped to a halt, I snapped back to reality. My heavy breathing was all I could hear, and only when I tried to open my eyes I realized they were already open, but I stood in the middle of nothingness itself, an infinite void.
"Luan?" I called, although I didn't know why I was doing it, or who was this Luan I was calling. "Hello? Anyone?"
My voice didn't seem to come out of my mouth but rather echoed as if heaven itself were speaking those words. An omnipresent storm that could be heard in every corner of that strange, empty reality.
Confused, I took a step forward.
The moment my foot made contact with a surface in that void, an explosion of colors blasted from it, like a wave expanding through the sea, with my footstep as the epicenter. Paint stains appeared and materialized in a corridor that gradually lost all variety of tones, ending on a green monochrome. I looked down the long corridor I was in, stretching to the infinite in both directions. On the sides, wooden doors with glass that would let you peek inside, and the rest of the walls covered with rows and rows of lockers...
I was in the hall of my high school. I suddenly remembered it, I went to school in Royal Woods! But why was I there? What was I doing? Was it normal for everything to be green?
"You're a coward."
I turned, startled, finding myself face to face with a figure as green as the rest of the scene. It appeared to be made of clay, with its eyes completely smooth and without any sign of pupils or irises. I took a step back, scared, but after the initial surprise, I managed to recognize the figure.
"Sully!" I said, taking a step towards him, but a new row of tiles appeared where I rested my foot, keeping the distance between us. "Sully, what's going on?"
"You're facing your truth, Luna," he said coldly. "The truth you're too afraid of admitting."
"What are you talking about?"
"Tell me something: do you hate me?"
I was confused, disoriented, but even in that state, I knew the clear answer to that question.
"Of course not! Sully, you're my friend!" I told him, hurt at the idea that he thought I could hate him.
"If we're friends, why do you leave me alone? Why won't you talk to me? Why are you doing your best to ignore me?"
"I ... Sully, I'm not ignoring you ... It's just that …"
"Don't lie!" He roared, and the entire hallway shook, green dust falling from the ceiling. "I know the truth! Just admit it! Why won't you forgive me?!"
"You did something awful!" I said, trying to stand up even with the whole ground shaking, "I have to support Mazzy! She didn't deserve what you did to her! She needed me more than you!"
"LIES!" He said, lifting his knee before stomping it down.
The floor cracked beneath him, and the cracks expanded like a spider web, covering everything from the walls to himself. Rays of light shot out from between the cracks as if the Sun itself was hiding on the other side, and from one moment to the next, the hallway exploded, sending shards of clay in all directions.
I covered my face with my arms, but nothing seemed to impact me. When the shaking stopped, I looked up. Green had given way to yellow, and the school hallway had become the cafeteria, deserted except for me, standing next to a table.
There was no trace of Sully anywhere.
"You pretend you're doing it for me," said a voice behind me, "but it's all a big lie."
Where there was no one, suddenly the figure of Mazzy was standing, looking at me with her hands in the pockets of her jacket. Everything about her, from her hair to her clothes, was as yellow as the rest of the scenery.
"Mazzy… What do you mean? Of course I'm doing it for you!"
The columns at the cafeteria fractured with deep cracks on their surface, but still held in place.
"What's going on? Why is everything breaking?"
"All lies are fragile," she answered, walking in circles around me. "Even the most elaborate ones, those that we repeat to ourselves until we believe them, succumb in the face of the devastating truth."
"I… I don't understand."
"Until you accept your truth, all the walls of falsehood you built will continue to fall. One after another. And if you're not careful, they'll crush you."
"What are you even talking about?! Stop playing games!" I told her, reaching out a hand to grab her by the shoulder, just to see how she was no longer in front of me, but by my side as if she had never been anywhere else.
"The real reason why you didn't forgive Sully yet. The real reason you don't dare tell me I shouldn't get back with him."
My head was beginning to ache, invaded by memories, memories, experiences. It felt as if I hadn't remembered anything about my life until a few seconds ago, but now that Mazzy mentioned it, it all made sense. Her relationship with Sully, the incident on the field, the confession, the fight, the reconciliation. Too much information invading my mind in a single instant.
"I… I've no problem with you forgiving him and going back with him," I replied. "It's your decision. Mazzy, I'll support you no matter what you choose to do. You're my friend!"
The roof of the cafeteria cracked, and large chunks of debris fell dangerously close to me. Everything around me began to shake once more.
"Why is everything breaking?" I said, dismayed, "I'm not lying! You're my friend!"
"Is Sully your friend?"
"Yes!"
"Have you forgiven him?"
"I… I have. Yes, I forgave him. I forgave him, okay?! Is that what you wanted me to say?!"
"And why haven't you spoken to him again? Why don't you help him if you see him depressed? What's stopping you?"
"Cause I don't want to hurt you if you don't forgive him first!"
"Aaaah, but you don't want me to forgive him," Mazzy said with a smile, walking around me once again. "You say it's my decision, and you forgave him yourself, but deep down you don't want me to forgive him. Isn't that right?"
More memories came to me. The talk at the hospital. The talk in the cafeteria. Mazzy wanted to forgive him, but… But I…
"I don't… I don't know if you should forgive him," I admitted.
The tremors seemed to reduce their intensity.
"And why can you forgive him but I can't?"
"I don't know …"
"Lies!" She exploded, and the columns snapped in half, falling heavily on the tables, smashing them. Cracks covered everything around me again.
"Mazzy, I really don't know! Please, stop this!"
"We both know the truth, Luna. The truth that you hide, the truth that you have internalized but can't bring yourself to admit. The one that you have covered with a cloak of lies that, little by little, ruined, ruins, and will ruin your every bond."
"I don't know what you mean!" I screamed, my eyes filling with tears from the helplessness of not understanding anything that was going on.
As soon as I finished speaking those words, Mazzy's figure and everything around me turned to dust, scattering when a strong wing surrounded us. The wind increased its speed, with me in the center of the hurricane, and I saw with open eyes how the dust turned from yellow to a light blue as the brightest of skies.
From one moment to the next, the destruction stopped, and as if by magic, the dust rearranged itself, taking in new shapes, walls, curtains, posters, guitars, and a bed. A bed that was familiar to me, and after taking a glance at the small room I was in, the memories came back to me.
"Tabby…" I whispered, remembering.
"Why do you do this to me?"
Sitting against the back of her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, was the light-blue figure of my little sister, crying opaque tears of clay that slid down her cheeks.
"Tabby! Tabby! What's wrong? Why are you crying?" I said, kneeling next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"'Cause you won't let me be who I want to be," she said, crying harder. "Why didn't you ever let me use my powers? Why do you want me to live without them?"
"Oh, Tabby," I said, feeling on the verge of tears myself. "I just want you to be happy."
A small part of me was satisfied when nothing seemed to break at that phrase.
"You're… you're the most important thing in my life," I continued, hugging her to my chest. "You're my sister! I don't want anything bad to ever happen to you. I don't want you to go through what I suffered."
"But why do you make me hate myself?" She asked me. "Why did you tell me for years that I should hide my powers? Why did you convince me that there was something wrong with me? That my powers were a bad thing?"
Years of conversations flashed before my eyes in a matter of seconds. I saw myself talking to Tabby over, and over, and over again about the same things. I saw her proudly showing me something new she'd learned to do with her powers, and then myself explaining to her that it was wrong, that she should never use them. That she should pretend she didn't have them.
"I… Tabby… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I said, pressing her tighter against me and closing my eyes to keep the tears from escaping. "I was trying to protect you. I didn't want... I didn't want you to be in danger."
I heard the sound of something splitting again, and to my horror, I noticed that Tabby herself seemed to be cracking under my grip.
"So what you've been through justifies making me hate myself?"
"No! No, of course not! I just wanted you to be happy!"
"You never did it for me," she said sadly, her face cracking without me being able to do anything to prevent it. "You just wanted to perpetuate the lie that powers are what cause pain."
"Tabby, wait!"
"You had to tell me that my powers were bad for your lie to make sense."
"TABBY!"
She and the room both fell apart, and even my scream of agony couldn't stop it. My tears finally ran free, falling heavily onto the temporarily empty floor where I was kneeling. I put a hand to my chest, trying to squeeze my heart to keep it from hurting, to stop the bleeding.
I could tell something was wrong, that nothing I was seeing was actually real, but it all felt too real, it tricked my senses into buying the illusion. The things my friends said, the emotions I felt inside of me. There was some reality in it all. Some truth to it.
"Are you going to keep ignoring me?"
I looked up. I was on my knees in the living room of my house. All the furniture, walls, and pictures were gray, without the slightest presence of color. And standing in front of me, my father, Chunk, looking at me with pain on his gray face.
"Chunk..."
"How many more years are you going to continue ignoring me?" He repeated. "Ignoring my love. Not being able to look me in the eye, not accepting that I keep loving you as I have since the day I adopted you."
"Chunk, I'm not ignoring you," I told him, trying to stand up but with tears still flowing. "Dad, I love you! I would never ignore you!"
The whole room shook.
"No! No, I'm not lying!" I said, spinning around, yelling at the walls. "Don't do this! I never wanted to ignore you!"
"There are different ways to ignore," he replied. "You never let me help you. You never let me hear you. You never allowed yourself to open your heart to me, no matter how many times I offered a shoulder for you to cry on. And you know why, but you don't dare to admit it."
"Dad, please... Please…"
"Admit it, Luna. Don't make me say it."
"I don't know what you mean!"
A gulf spread on the ground between us, separating us more and more.
"You never forgave me, Luna, " Chunk said, breaking apart with little pieces of his body falling into the void between us. "You could never accept that I forgave you. That I never blamed you. That I continue to love you instead of resenting you. That's your lie, Luna: the idea that you don't deserve to be loved."
An explosion of pink light escaped from the depths of the rift, like an eruption that engulfed the house, replacing the gray furniture with pink seats, a small stage, music stands, speakers, and statues of instruments. My breathing continued to get more and more violent.
"Chunk! Chunk, wait!" I screamed, turning to find him, but he was already gone. I was alone in the rehearsal room of my school, along with my tears, my heavy breathing...
And the beautiful melody of a cello.
"Is that why you fell in love with me?" Carol's rosy figure asked me as I watched her play her instrument with absolute perfection. "Were you looking for unrequited love? Someone you never thought would pay attention to you? A way to ensure that your feelings were never reciprocated?"
"Carol! Why? Why is everyone saying these awful things?" I complained, crying out loud.
"We say what you can't bring yourself to admit. What you've done, the lies you've told yourself, the truths you hid to try to feel better. I'm your empty crush, that ideal person you created in your mind. Justifying my mistakes, defending me from Sam and Mazzy just because you decided that falling in love with me was for the best. And all for what? To perpetuate your big lie."
"No! No, no!" I yelled, shaking my head and wrapping my fingers around my hair until it hurt. "That's not true! I don't believe that! I don't think I don't deserve to be loved!"
The next note was drowned out as the cello bow snapped in half. Carol finally raised her head to give me a sad look.
"And why did you look for an impossible love? Why did you go out of your way to fall in love with someone so different? Someone you never thought would even talk back to you?"
"I can't control my emotions!" I answered. "I never chose who to fall in love with."
"No. Not consciously, " she explained. "But the truth is stronger than your lies, Luna. You decided to ignore it for a long time, but all your lies crumble in the face of it."
"And what is it? What's this truth you're all talking about?" I asked, feeling exasperated, tired, exhausted. Too many emotions swirled inside me, and I couldn't find anything that made sense. The only concrete thing was my pain and how much all the words that my loved ones said hurt me.
Carol looked at me sympathetically.
"You know it. You always have. And it's up to you to own up to it."
In a flash of light, the rehearsal room was gone, and this time I was in my own room, sitting on my bed. It was all made out of this strange material, this time monochromatic in a bright, passionate shade of red. I ran my forearm over my eyes to try to wipe away the tears, and when I opened them again, two hands were holding my face by the cheeks.
In front of me, the red figure of Sam was looking at me with a sad smile.
"It's the truth that all your lies sprout from," she told me, caressing my face with her cold hands. "It's the truth that you so desperately seek to hide. The one that is so difficult for you to accept, and for which you have built so many lies. The one that leads you to blame yourself for everything. The one that makes you believe that there are things that can't be forgiven. The reason you don't accept that Mazzy can forgive Sully."
The entire room rumbled, like a beating heart.
"The truth that you try to hide by saying that all powers are a curse."
Another heartbeat.
"The truth that you bury convincing yourself that Chunk should hate you, getting angry when you understand that he doesn't resent you for anything."
"No…" I said, shaking my head, as I was beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel, the glimpse of that truth that everyone was talking about, and which I slowly understood. And the clearer it became, the louder and louder my room rumbled.
"The truth that you don't want to admit, the one you challenge by looking for unrequited love."
"Sam, no, please..."
The windows vibrated, seemingly about to break.
"The truth that hurts you, that you don't understand, that you can't accept..." Her hands caressed my cheek. "The one that you're so desperate to deny that you would go even as far as breaking up with me."
"No! No, Sam, no!" I screamed. "It wasn't like that! I never wanted to break up with you!"
The windows shattered. Chunks of red glass shot onto my bed and floor. A hurricane wind entered my room destroying books, furniture, clothes, all melting into a red tide of destruction.
"You left me because a part of you couldn't accept being happy, " she whispered, her soft voice and gentle but cold touch making me believe that she was the real Sam, the one I once loved, even if her red face and flat eyes were so inhuman and stripped of life. "A part of you refuses to be happy, to be loved, to be appreciated. All because you lied to yourself. You have believed the lie that you don't deserve to be happy, to be loved."
"It's not like that..." I complained, crying in front of my ex-girlfriend, trying to deny something that, in my heart, I was slowly understanding to be true. "Sam…"
At my refusal, Sam's face broke, with a horrible gash running through her head from her forehead to her chin. The room shook again, with books falling off the shelves and my guitar smashing into pieces.
Although a part of me understood that this vision wasn't true, seeing my best friend on the verge of breaking apart filled me with despair.
"No, Sam, no! Please don't go!" I implored, trying to hold her in one piece by sheer force of will.
"If you want to prevent your whole world from falling apart, you have to accept your truth," she told me. "You know it, don't you? Do you know what it is that you have not dared to admit for so long?"
"I…"
Thunder echoed from outside the room, and the winds turned louder.
"Say it, Luna. I know you know it. What have you denied for so long? What is it that you have been told but have never accepted? You know what it is. Say it and the wounds can begin to heal."
The chaos around me grew stronger, the walls were filled with cracks, the very bed we were on began to break, and my tears fell harder than ever.
I thought about everything they'd told me in the past ten minutes. In what, according to Chunk, was my lie: that I didn't deserve to be loved. And the truth was what that lie tried to hide. Something that I had denied for so long and that seemed to have affected all my bonds.
It didn't take too long to understand what Sam was talking about. The truth is that it had always been there, barely hidden, peeking over the surface, always present. I knew it because all my loved ones had told me over and over again, repeating it ad nauseam. And I'd never accepted it. I'd never entertained that possibility. I preferred to let guilt, sadness, and anger take over because those emotions were easier to deal with than the truth.
I closed my eyes, still crying, and my fingers closed on Sam so hard that I created new cracks in her body. I knew what I had to say, but I couldn't find the strength to do it.
"I can't ... Sam, I can't do it …"
"Sure you can, Luna. It's hard, but you've faced worse. You know you're brave enough to admit it, as much as it scares you."
"I…"
"Come on, Luna. Say it."
The ceiling of my room came off, revealing a stormy sky, with winds so strong that even if I yelled it Sam wouldn't be able to hear me. It shook me, threatening to lift me like a kite. The rest of my room continued to fall apart.
"I… No… It wasn't… It…"
Only when Sam's figure began to come undone I clenched my teeth and spoke my truth in a weak, shaky whisper.
"It wasn't my fault."
Sam's body glowed like a beacon, a flash of white light that grew until it covered everything, penetrating even my closed eyelids.
And an instant later, I was no longer in the ruins of my room or under a storm. I was in a totally different setting. It was no longer all monochrome. I was on a street, an urban landscape, and each little thing had its true color. The stage seemed to be slightly blurry, and everything was brighter than usual, but it felt much more real than the rest of my visions thus far.
Furthermore, I felt other things, other sensations that came to me from all directions. The sound of cars in the distance, the cold of the snow under my feet, the smell of cookies...
I knew that smell. I turned to my left and saw my reflection in the bakery window: a little girl, with long hair, a wool hat, and a warm jacket. An innocent girl, staring back at me with a confused, worried face.
"You did, Luna."
That voice. I knew that voice. I turned once more, and found the spitting image of my mother, just as I remembered her, kneeling beside me and giving me the warmest of smiles.
"I knew you could do it."
"Mom… Mom!" I screamed with a high-pitched voice, jumping into her open arms, losing myself in a nostalgic embrace that I missed more than anything in this world. And as soon as she laid her head on mine like she used to, I cried.
I cried like I hadn't cried for a long time, tearing my soul and feeling my heart threatening to bleed out. And she, as she always used to do, stroked my hair and massaged my back, waiting patiently for all the pent-up emotions to leave my interior.
"Everything's fine, Luna. The first step is always to accept it."
"M-Mum... Mum... Sorry," I managed to say, burying my face in her chest.
-You have nothing to apologize for.
"But… b-but... M-Mom, I…"
"What will you say, sweetheart? That you killed me?" She offered calmly.
I cried louder. Yes, that was precisely what I was going to say.
"We both know it's not true, Loony, " she whispered to me. "You've blamed yourself for too long, but you know in your heart of hearts it wasn't your fault."
"I-If I hadn't screamed... If I hadn't used my powers…"
"Luna, look at you, " she asked, pulling away from me.
My arms refused to let go of her, but with delicacy and perseverance, she managed to eventually make me take a step back and look at myself, not understanding what it was she wanted to say to me.
"You're just a kid. How can you feel responsible for a tragedy you never wanted? I never blamed you. Your dad never blamed you. But you decided to take responsibility for something you didn't have to. You're not the one to blame, Luna: you're the victim."
"No… No, I… I don't…"
Her hand cupped my chin, but unlike Sam's cold hands, this one was warm, pleasant, healing.
"It hurts to see you like this, " she admitted, tears forming in her beautiful eyes. "It hurts me to see how my death affected you. Luna, you and your sister have always been my greatest treasures. My beautiful daughters. And I would never have wanted a daughter of mine to grow up hating herself."
"But… my powers… my powers don't…"
"Your powers aren't a curse. They're a part of you, and they're what you make of them. If you accept them, if you use them again as you did when you were little, your powers can be something very special. They can be wonderful, but only if you allow yourself the opportunity to use them well."
"How? How?" I asked, desperate for answers. "Every time I use them… Every time I lose control… I always think about what happened that night, and I… I don't…"
"Emotions are double-edged swords. Trying to keep them in check is almost as dangerous as letting them loose. But ignoring them is never the solution because they're part of us. And your powers, Luna, are also a part of you. Remember when you used to sing so your baby sister would calm down and stop crying?"
I nodded, trying to catch my breath as my crying subsided.
"You always understood that you could use them to help others. Your soul was always that of a heroine. And right now, a lot of people need you."
A new torrent of memories came to mind. The auditorium, the musical, my friends, my family, Luan. It all started to make sense, but at the same time, it felt like a dream.
"But how can I help them?" I asked, and this time my voice was normal, and my body was once again that of a fifteen-year-old girl.
"Everyone is suffering, facing their own demons," she revealed. "Only you can help calm their emotions. Only you understand Luan, and you're the only one who can stop her. But for this, you have to control your own emotions and get out of this trance."
Tabby and Chunk were there. Mazzy and Sully were there. Innocent people were suffering at the time. I couldn't sit idly by. I had to do something. I had to talk to Luan and get this over with.
But for that…
"If I go," I began, looking at my mother with sorrow, "I won't be able to see you anymore."
She smiled at me, standing up and caressing my face with her hands.
"I'm always with you, Loony. In your heart. I'm that light of hope that always cried out for you to forgive yourself. I'll never leave you."
The crying came back once more, and even though I knew there was a world of people out there who needed me, I decided to be selfish for a minute and allow myself a long hug with my mother. Crying on her shoulder as she stroked my back. And even though my body was no longer that of a little girl, that's exactly how I felt.
She didn't rush me. She let me cry all my pain out, speaking only once my heart felt at peace, having let out all the anguish that it had carried for so many years.
"Are you ready?"
"No," I admitted, pulling away and rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. "But I have to do it.
I took a step back and closed my eyes, taking deep breaths to calm myself.
"How can I get out of here?" I asked.
"Your powers are the key. You have a control over your emotions that no one else has. You can break the trance. But you will only do it when you accept the truth."
"That it wasn't my fault? How do I do that?"
"Just answer me, and be honest: do you forgive yourself for what happened?"
For years, the answer would have been a resounding 'no'. I would never have allowed someone to convince me that my powers were nothing more than a burden. A curse, even. But now I had seen what that had led me to do, and how it affected everyone around me. How it affected the way I treated Sully and Mazzy, how I had hurt my family, how it had even affected my emotions regarding Sam and Carol.
I was no longer going to let my guilt control my life. From that moment on, my life would belong to me.
"Yes," I said confidently, feeling invisible chains breaking and my soul spreading its wings for the first time in a long time. "I forgive myself."
My mother smiled at me, and as she approached me, she began to sing a lullaby. Her velvety voice surrounded me like a pleasant spring breeze. The peace in her tone became palpable, and as I closed my eyes, I managed to direct it inward. I saw the colors of the music in my mind, I felt those positive emotions and I let them energize me, soothe the strong beating of my heart. In a matter of seconds, I felt refreshed and opened my eyes to give my mother one last smile.
An instant later, the world around me exploded in a warm white flash.
I opened my eyes and sat back, coughing and feeling a lot heavier all of a sudden. I was sitting in the middle of the orchestra pit, with chairs and instruments scattered around me. I swallowed hard, feeling my throat dry, and not without some difficulty, I stood up and took a look around me.
The good news was that, just as Luan had promised, no one seemed to be suffering from a fit of rage, with an overriding desire to hurt everyone around them. Everyone was standing or sitting in their place.
The bad news was that they were all muttering, their gazes lost, and you only had to see their faces to understand that they were going through traumatic experiences.
"... Luna..."
I turned when I heard my name, and found that Carol was lying a few feet from me.
"She's the only person who accepts me for who I am ... she has feelings for me ... but if I reject her ... I'll be alone once more ..."
I stared at her, gaping and feeling a stab of pain. After a few seconds, she said the same thing again, and any hope that I had misinterpreted what she said was gone.
My heart burned with pain, but I shook my head. I had to focus. It was neither the time nor place to be distracted.
"Luna?"
I turned back to the stage, from where Luan was watching me pale, as if she'd seen a ghost.
"But how…? How are you awake?"
"Luan... Luan, I know all the pain you've been through," I said, taking a step forward.
She took a step back.
"Carol told me about your parents."
"You don't know anything about them. Nobody knows what they did to me!" She burst out, looking scared.
She took another step back, bringing her hands to her arms, rubbing herself like she was very cold.
"My parents used me to experiment and get their research on metahumans. They poked me with needles all the time, they took so much blood from me... They threw all kinds of rays at me to understand my invisibility. They put me in frozen waters to test the limits of my ability to phase through objects. They used me as a guinea pig for years, Luna! Don't tell me you know what I went through!"
"I… Luan, you're right. I'm sorry… I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve what they did to you. That's horrible! Luan, I'm so sorry!"
"You... you have no idea... The worst part is... It's feeling…"
"Feeling that something is wrong with you?" I offered, and the look of sadness that Luan gave me told me that I had hit the nail on the head. "Feeling that everything you do is wrong? Hating yourself? Blaming yourself for everything that happened? Luan, I know what that feels like. That's how I felt for so, so long. But I had family and friends who supported me. You never had that. You didn't fail anyone, it's the world that failed you."
"Yes, and now they'll see it!" She shouted, spreading her arms to all the people around us. "The truth serum forces you to face the truths that you hide in your heart! I'm not hurting them, they've hurt themselves by ignoring their real problems! And now…! Now they'll know what it feels like to be ignored! To be despised and forgotten!"
"Luan, you didn't deserve what happened to you, but you can't do this. There are innocent people here."
"No one's innocent!"
"Maybe... Maybe not. We all do bad things. But everyone deserves a second chance. They deserve it… And you do too."
I held out a hand, offering it up for her to take.
"You can have your second chance. I care about you, Luan. I won't let you be alone again."
She looked at my hand. She seemed completely confused as if she had never expected this outcome. One of her hands timidly reached for the flower in the center of her suit, and I realized that was the key to end it all.
But right away she shook her head, beginning to cry.
"You're very kind, Luna... But it's too late for me. I don't want a second chance. And I don't want your forgiveness. I just want everyone to feel what I've been through."
"And how will that help?"
"It won't. But at least I won't be the only one."
"Luan, please! You have to stop this!"
"No. No, no, everyone had their chance, and they let it pass. This suffering is nothing more than what they created by lying to themselves."
I clenched my fists. Luan wasn't ready to cooperate with me, and I couldn't keep letting time go by. Everyone around me was in the same trance that I had found myself in, but unlike me, they had no powers to help them control their emotions and get out of it.
I had to help them as soon as possible.
I sighed, looking away from Luan, and instead turned to an electric guitar that had been left on the ground. I made sure it was plugged in before hanging it over my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" The Joker asked.
"Singing," I answered simply before taking a deep breath and starting to play a smooth arpeggio. I felt the notes vibrating around me, and concentrating on them, I began to expand them. I imagined myself as the epicenter from which all the waves expanded, sweeping through the entire room and carrying the emotions I wanted to convey with them.
Tranquility. Peace. Hope. Acceptance. Forgiveness.
And when I started singing, it was even easier to guide them to everyone around me, like a campfire expelling heat.
I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you…
The murmurs in the auditorium stopped, an unmistakable sign that my singing was taking effect. I continued playing, determined to calm the strong emotions of everyone present, although I didn't take into account a small detail...
"What is this? What are you doing?" Luan asked from the stage, staggering and staring at her own hands blankly. Her eyes returned to focus on me, and her mouth fell open in surprise. "You're the girl that found me! You made that other girl run faster!"
She blinked a few times, before covering her mouth with her hands.
"Sharp! She was the other girl! But what are you doing? Why do I feel…? Wait, this is how you got away!"
I could see in her eyes the exact moment when she understood what I was doing, and I decided that I needed to finish my mission as soon as possible. I sang louder, using my powers not only to conduct my emotions, but to increase the volume of my music.
And so I have to say before I go…
"No! No, Luna, you can't do this! That's not fair!"
She started running towards me with a look full of despair. I knew that with my hands busy with the guitar, I wasn't going to be able to do much to stop a metahuman with the power to become intangible.
There was only one solution left, and although I didn't feel particularly comfortable with it, I couldn't think of anything else.
The distance between us shortened, so I closed my eyes and focused. The next move would require a lot of precision not to do too much damage. I raised my strumming hand just as Luan lunged at me…
That I just want you to KNOOOOW!
...and by lowering it, I controlled the waves, increasing their intensity and directing them in a cone towards Luan, creating what Sam had defined as a sonic boom.
The chord rumbled until the walls vibrated, and the force of the impact hit Luan in the air when she least expected it, shooting her towards the center of the stage, where she rolled to the bottom, hitting the curtain.
I had gained precious seconds, so I repurposed all my energies in transmitting the emotions of peace and tranquility that the people around me needed.
I've found a reason for me
to change who I used to be.
A reason to start over new:
and the reason is you.
I finished the chorus and looked around. Carol was still lying down, but this time her eyes were closed, and a smile had drawn on her face. Wherever I looked, the scene seemed to repeat itself. Everyone was in what appeared to be a placid dream.
I sighed in relief. What I needed now was to find a way to open the doors and allow help to come, to make sure no one was hurt. But I knew Luan wasn't going to let me. She seemed to be willing to go to the extreme. I could try to appease her with my powers, but I didn't know how they would interact with her. They didn't seem to have been particularly effective in the few seconds that I had been able to influence her. I assumed it had to do with the alleged immunity she claimed to have developed to the truth serum.
What kind of monster would put her through so many experiments that her emotions were forever affected?
I had to find a way to stop her, but how? Her powers made her practically impossible to catch. My sonic boom had taken her by surprise, but if she became intangible it wouldn't affect her in the least. Sound requires an elastic medium to travel, and if she managed to phase through matter, my sonic booms would probably pass through her as well without affecting her. I had no way of stopping her. Except…
She'd mentioned it herself. The cold seemed to affect her ability to phase through matter. And if that was the case...
I searched with my gaze until I found her, still in her seat next to Chunk.
"Tabby, please wake up," I whispered, playing a fast, energetic, passionate guitar riff that I directed specifically toward her.
The notes moved through the air until they reached her body, and after continuing to play for a few seconds, I saw Tabby stand up, startled and wide-eyed.
"Luna! Luna!" She yelled, looking at me confused.
"Tabby, come quickly! I need you!" I yelled back.
She looked around her, noticing all the people who seemed to be sleeping, but immediately started running towards me, jumping over the seats and dodging all the people who crossed her path. She came to me and gave me a big hug on my legs.
"Luna! Oh, Luna, it was horrible!" She said, shaking like a scared child. Which, well, I suppose she was.
"I know, but Tabby, I don't have time to explain. I need you to listen to me, okay? Can you do what I tell you? I'll explain everything to you later."
"I…" She looked at me, clearly not understanding what was happening, but immediately nodded.
"Alright, cool. Tabby, I'm going to need you to use your powers."
"Wait, what? Seriously?"
"Yes."
"But ... But Luna ..."
"Listen... I know I've told you a lot of bullshit for so long, telling you to keep your powers at bay, asking you to not use them, like, ever. But I need you to forget everything I've ever told you. Your powers are yours, they're a part of you, and right now we need them to save everyone. You always wanted to be a hero, right? This is your moment."
It was too much to understand in such a short time, and I noticed in her eyes that it was difficult for her to assimilate what I was saying. Still, my sister was brave, much braver than me, and she was quick to assure me that she would do whatever I asked of her.
"Perfect. We're gonna have to work together to do this, so pay attention."
And in as few words as possible, I summarized my improvised plan.
"But Luna, I'm not that strong," she complained, looking at her own hands.
"Of course you are. And besides, you won't do this alone. I'm going to help you."
"Luna!"
We both turned to look at Luan, who had already recovered from the unexpected attack. A finger seemed to be picking her ear. I had been careful not to hurt her eardrums, but she would surely hear a high-pitched beep for a few minutes.
"I told you to step aside! I told you not to come to stay home today! I tried to keep you safe! And this is how you pay me?! Trying to ruin my revenge?!"
"You still have time to do things right, Luan!" I yelled at her. "Open the doors and let help come in! Don't act like a villain!"
"Villain?! Me?!" And with that, she burst into a mad and deranged laugh. "No, Luna! Everyone else is the villain! I'm just the crazy girl that will expose them! That exposes their lies and falsehoods!"
"You're hurting innocent people!"
"They hurt themselves with their lies!"
I shook my head, my hands closing over the neck of the guitar. "Luan, please don't make me do this."
"Do you think you can stop me?" She provoked me with a creepy smile. "I was playing fair, Luna! But if you're in my way, you leave me no choice!"
And so, raising a hand and snapping her fingers in front of her face, she became invisible.
"Alright, Tabby, it's your turn," I told her. "I'll try to buy you time."
I ran to the side of the stage as fast as I could, playing the guitar and using my powers to increase the volume as I began to sing.
The snow glows white on the mountain tonight, not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I'm the queen.
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried...
"Really? Are you trying to bore me to death?" Luan's sly voice said.
Anyone else wouldn't have been able to determine her location so easily, but my powers allowed me to find the source of the sound with the precision of a radar. And once I knew where she was, I increased the volume of my chords and my voice, creating mini sonic booms in her direction.
Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know!
The first outbursts seemed to take her by surprise, forcing her to jump to the side, but it soon became apparent that she couldn't just dodge them. It was then that her body became visible once more, but even though my sonic booms continued to go in her direction, she seemed hardly affected by them. She stood, glaring at me, and slowly advanced step by step in my direction.
I continued to play and sing, trying to get her attention and hopefully stop her, but I could merely slow her movements, wasting her time as she moved towards me.
"Do you really think you can stop me?" She said, as she got closer and closer, "You can't touch me, Luna! Your powers don't affect me! There's nothing you can do!"
Pretty soon she reached me, and with one swift movement, she managed to knock the guitar out of my grip, becoming tangible to grab me by the collar of my shirt.
"You already knew my powers, was this your plan? Try to play super loud until I gave up?"
"No, Luan, of course not," I replied, with a smirk. "I planned to play super loud to make Tabby stronger."
I pointed to the side with my gaze, and Luan turned her head. The anger in his eyes gave way to shock and terror.
Tabby, empowered by my music, was standing on one of the seats, twirling her arms in circles. All the humidity in the air — and there's a lot of humidity when four hundred people are inside a confined space — condensed around her, forming a huge sphere of ice at least six feet in diameter above her head, spinning like a planet.
"No! No, no, not ice!" Luan yelled, releasing me and backing away.
I met Tabby's gaze, and we both nodded at the same time. Without the guitar, but with the motivation ever so present in my voice, I continued singing to give Tabby the last ounces of energy she needed for her ultimate move.
Let it go! Let it go!
Can't hold it back anymore!
Let it go! Let it go!
Turn away and slam the door!
My music, invisible to normal eyes but clear as water to me, reached Tabby and immediately her posture and countenance shifted. She was moving faster, and her exhausted face seemed to relax as the ice sphere grew larger and larger.
Luan continued to back away, and then became invisible, with the sound of her footsteps rapidly moving away into the stage.
Tabby noticed it and quickly crossed her arms over her chest before spreading them out to her sides.
I don't care what they're going to say.
Let the storm rage on...
"Ice Nova!" She yelled.
The ice sphere exploded like a piñata, and small splinters of ice the size of golf balls shot out in all directions. I closed my eyes more out of habit than fear, and when I opened them a few seconds later, I saw that hundreds, maybe thousands of those spheres were floating in the air, separated from each other every twenty or thirty inches. Like a starry sky, the pieces of ice remained suspended, surrounding all sources of heat —that is, people like me — without damaging them.
Including invisible sources of heat, like the one that had stopped dead in the middle of the stage.
"Cryo Cage!" Tabby yelled, clapping her hands forward with her arms outstretched.
Every small chunk of ice in the vicinity of the stage flew at full speed towards the invisible Luan's position. Like tennis balls on velcro, the ice clung to her shape, blending into one another until, just seconds later, everything had merged into one large block of clear ice.
Luan came into view again, shivering from the cold. Her neck, head, and upper shoulders were all that was free, with the rest of her body trapped within the ice. She grunted as she tried to move, her arms and legs sliding a few inches within the ice, but her ability to pass through solid objects seemed to be severely impaired.
"No no no! No, Luna, no! No, this isn't what was supposed to happen!" She screamed, shaking her head as much as her ice prison allowed.
I sighed, dropping to my knees, and releasing within that breath all the tension that I'd accumulated in the past half hour.
From the front row of seats, Tabby lowered her hands as well, and the rest of the ice that hadn't been sent to capture Luan melted into crystals so tiny they became invisible to the eye.
Even with all the energies I'd given her through my music, the effort seemed to be too much for her, dropping to her knees on the floor. I dragged my feet towards her as fast as I could, kneeling next to her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"You okay, sis?"
"Yeah... sure..." she said, taking a deep breath between words, before looking up at me with a playful smile. "The cold never bothered me anyway."
Despite the terrible situation, despite how tired I was, and all the awful emotions I had experienced in such a short time, I allowed myself to laugh.
It was all over...
Or so I thought until I heard the police sirens.