A/N: Wow! I never thought I'd get such a good response on Fanfiction, especially since I'm such a terrible updater. :) Thank you for your encouragement and praise, guys! I'm going to try to start posting a new chapter every/every other Sunday (it's the only day during the week when I can write creatively, being that I'm pumping out books on the other days. CHeck out my website!). Again, thank you and I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Seven: Gimmicks
"Melissa, we need to teach them to make weapons," Jonathan announced the next morning. Melissa looked up from the breakfast she'd been picking mindlessly at.
"They know how to do it," she remarked.
"In theory, but not for real. It would be a good lesson for Alison. We haven't worked with a real metallurge before. Who knows what she can really do?"
She shrugged. "If you want to, go ahead. With the attack on James, it can't hurt. I'm just afraid the real threat to their lives isn't Darklings."
"That mindcaster?"
She nodded. "And this Jason boy Madison is causing trouble with."
"Jason? He sounds familiar."
"Maybe, but all I really care about that punk is what he's doing to our students. I don't like --"
She paused. There was something stirring nearby, something odd.
"What is it?" Jonathan asked.
She shushed him frustratedly and reached out with her mind. She couldn't sense anything new, but there was still something wrong.
She got up and ran to the door, stepping out into the front lawn. A boy waited for her, leaning against the fence. She stood in front of him, her arms crossed, probing his mind gently. His thoughts were well-guarded.
"Jason?"
"Melissa."
"You're bold, coming here. What do you want?"
"I want to talk to you about Madison's education," he answered. She probed harder, trying to find what he wanted, but his barriers didn't break.
"What about your own? Shouldn't you be in school?"
He chuckled. "I've been to school, Melissa. You of all people know how fast an education can be with our—unique skills."
She nearly stepped back as she felt his own probe, stronger and more precise than she'd thought it would be. She slapped it away with her mind. He smiled wider.
"Ah, and this is how you want to teach Madison? By messing with her mind?" Melissa questioned.
"I don't 'mess with her mind,' and I think you overestimate me. You overestimate yourself. I'm not skilled enough to educate her in the way she needs. I know the people who can."
She struck harder, glimpsing a bit into his thoughts. He was on a mission, and that thought was constantly on his mind.
"Ah, so you're the little messenger boy. Who sent you?"
He smiled. "You are fast. Let's slow down a bit. I want to see that Madison is properly educated, and I want the same for you."
Melissa let out a burst of laughter. "Me? Do you know who I am, little boy?"
"You're untrained, for one. I admire the skills you've developed on your own, but there's so much more available to you."
"I'm fine with what I know, thanks. I don't plan on getting a God-complex like all the other mindcasters out there."
"Be careful, Melissa. Your prejudice is showing."
"And your ignorance is leaving a foul taste in my mouth. You're being duped, Jason."
"And you're stuck, unable to even imagine what you're capable of."
She probed harder than ever, careful not to hurt him, and a face flashed into her mind. The old mindcaster from before.
Melissa walked closer to him, leaning over the fence until her face was barely a hair's breadth from his. "I don't want anything to do with you, the freaks who sent you, or anyone connected to your way of 'education.' Stay away from me, stay away from my student, and I'll stay away from you. You come back here, and I won't be so nice."
"You're making a mistake."
"Not as big a mistake you're going to be making if you don't turn around right now and never come back. Madison isn't going with you."
"We'll see what happens."
She struck him mentally, leaving a stinging blow against his shields and he took a step back. She looked at him curiously, an odd taste in her mouth again, and she laughed.
"You may have to see what happens yourself. Those aren't your shields in your mind, Jason. Who's been messing with your brain? Who are you, really?"
His face was unreadable, but she could tell that she had unnerved him a bit. The little charismatic boy had been out-witted.
"You're making a mistake, Melissa," he warned.
He glared sharply at her and strolled away, looking back over his shoulder every few steps. The instant he was out of view, her smug smile disappeared.
What was going on?
Melissa stood by the door again, holding her arms close to her chest. Something was coming. She could feel it like the electric calm before a thunder storm, the feel setting her hair on end.
"You've got to give it a name," Jonathan explained from the other side of the room.
He and Jessica had spent the last couple Midnights teaching their students how to make weapons. Allison was excelling at it. Melissa watched as she handled a steel steak knife and the metal seemed to glow. Her touch seemed to purify it, constantly making it new. She had even purified some of Jonathan's old weapons. They could have really used her skills in Bixby.
Madison continually glanced out the window, waiting for Jason, but Melissa knew he wouldn't be coming by. She'd scared him.
Melissa leaned forward a bit, something shifting just outside the door. She cautiously stepped outside.
"Hello?" she called. No one answered, but she could feel something nearby, and she wasn't sure it was human. She paused. She shouldn't be outside alone during the Blue Time, particularly when everything was so new, but all she could think of was Rex alone in Bixby, maybe already dead, and she couldn't find it in herself to care what might happen if she was caught alone by darklings.
"Melissa?"
She spun around as one of the twins padded strolled toward her. It was James. She could see the glint of his glasses in the moonlight.
"You should be inside," she announced. He held up an envelope opener.
"It's Christian's. He named it Cheeseburgers. I told him it was a stupid name, but he's always had a thing for burgers."
"What do you want?" she questioned.
"I just thought I'd check on you. Everyone's kinda worried, but they won't bring it up. You alright?"
"Fine," she huffed.
"Your hand feeling better?"
She clenched her fist, the bandaging on her cracked knuckles tightening around her hand. "It'll heal," she whispered.
He paused. "Well, alright then." He turned to leave but stopped and turned back around. "We're not, like, complete disappointments to you, are we?"
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You never seem particularly happy with us. I know you're used to your friends. Jonathan mentions Dess and Rex very now and then."
At the sound of Rex's name she cringed. She hadn't heard anything from Dess since she'd called and she couldn't help but wonder whether it was because he was fine or if Dess didn't know how to tell her that Rex was gone.
"Melissa, did you see that?" James called, knocking Melissa from her revere.
"What?" she questioned.
"There it is again," he remarked, pointing beyond the gate to the shadows of a nearby home.
She stared into the darkness and reached out to it with her mind. She shivered slightly.
"Melissa?" James questioned.
"Not now," she growled, taking a step toward the darkness.
"Melissa?"
She spun around. "I said --"
Her words cut off instantly as she saw him, frozen in place, a psychokitty standing before him, hissing menacingly.
"James, walk slowly back to the house," she whispered. He took a step away from her, keeping his eyes locked on the psychokitty, but the moment his foot moved, the Darkling looked to the sky and let out an ear-splitting yowl. Melissa looked to the sky and her eyes widened. Dozens of Slithers circled the house, and at the cry from their fellow, they dove toward the ground.
"James, move!" Melissa screamed, pushing him into the house, moaning in pain as the Psychokitty lunged, its claws grazing her side, scratching her skin.
She turned, trying to escape, when a beam of light speared the creature, running through the Darkling's chest and incinerating it from the inside.
"Thanks," Melissa muttered to Jessica as she pulled herself to her feet and Jonathan handed her a carving knife.
"It's called 'rejuvenations,'" he called.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Just go with it."
"Keep them away from the door," Melissa ordered, running to join Jessica on the front steps. The Slithers were pouring into the front yard, hissing shrieking as Jessica aimed her flashlight at each of them. Allison screamed as a nearby window shattered and a Darkling slithered inside. She threw her steak knife at it, the blade ripping through its flesh, the pure metallurge metal setting the creature aflame.
"There are too many of them," Jessica gasped as one of the Slithers charged her and Melissa stabbed it in its head.
Three more windows broke and Melissa could hear the battle raging in the home. Jessica looked worriedly over her shoulder and Melissa stabbed another Darkling.
"Pay attention!" she shouted and dove as a Slither sprang forward, its teeth bared. She hit the ground hard, the creature's wings fluttering across the back of her head. She tried to get to her feet but the Slither lunged down at her face and she stabbed upward. More charged in toward her, threatening to trample her, when they suddenly stopped. They froze, immovable as grotesque statues.
She disentangled herself and let out a deep breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Jessica cautiously turned her flashlight off and looked around. "Melissa, what's going on?"
"I have no idea," she muttered.
Jonathan ran out toward them, their students following. James cradled his arm, a long gash running from his wrist to his elbow, a black eyes already appearing beneath his disheveled glasses. He'd definitely taken the brunt of the attack.
Melissa spun around and looked to the gate, a soft clapping sound approaching. She instantly raised her knife, subconsciously leveling it at the interloper.
"Very good, all of you."
The old mindcaster chuckled as he stepped forward, clapping slowly.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed.
"I'm here for the girl. She needs to be educated."
"I already sent your little messenger boy away. I know what you're teaching them. I'm not letting her go."
"You don't know half of what I'm teaching my students, half of even your own potential."
Suddenly, Garrett appeared behind the mindcaster, shimmering back to invisibility and tried to grab the man from behind. Before he could even reach the mindcaster a Slither sprang to life and lunged at him, throwing him to the ground, snapping at his face.
"Garrett!" Allison shrieked, racing forward but Brett held her back.
The Slither went in toward Garrett's throat and froze once more. Garrett gasped, his eyes wide, and pulled himself from beneath the Darkling, shaking as he stood and ran back toward his friends. Allison threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.
"How are you doing that?" Melissa questioned nervously.
"You really want to know? It's one of the more powerful skills of a master mindcaster," he asked, and she felt him gently probing her mind, trying to reach her thoughts. She shoved it away, stepping back in disgust. "I didn't think so."
"I'm not giving you Madison."
"I think you might reconsider. You're trapped in a minefield of Darklings. You cause trouble, and I will have no problem unleashing all of them on you again. And believe me, there are many more where they come from. You won't make it until dawn."
Melissa gripped the handle of her knife even harder, wondering if it would just be easier to kill him and get it over with. The only thing that stopped her was the uncertainty that his death wouldn't just unleash the Darklings again. And if he could control them, it was very possible that once he died, the rest would be unleashed on the world as well.
"You're a friend of Jason's?" Madison questioned.
"No, Madison."
"Don't tell me what to do, Melissa," she growled.
"She can't tell you what to do if you don't want her to," the mindcaster announced. "This isn't her decision. You know what you need to grow. Do you really want to confine yourself because of her narrow-minded approach to her skills? She doesn't know what she's doing. She's just a child as well."
"And how much can you really know? You're not from Bixby. Midnight opened for you the same time it did for any of these children."
The midnighter laughed. "You have no idea what I've been through. I know Bixby. Better than you do." She sifted through his thoughts, trying to find some clue as to his identity and he smiled. "You don't have to be so intrusive. You just have to ask. You know Madeline."
Melissa's eyebrows rose at the mention of Madeline's name. She remembered the day Madeline was destroyed more clearly than she wanted to, guilt and disgust rising within her, but even more disturbing was the memory of what had nearly happened to Rex and what was happening to him now. "What about her?"
"You want to know a bit more about me, tell her that you met Robert. She'll know what you're talking about."
"That might be hard being that Madeline is little more than a vegetable at the moment."
Robert's eyes narrowed and his face instantly darkened. "You hurt her?"
"She brought it on herself."
"Do you hear what she's saying?" Robert shouted to Madison. "She crippled an old woman and she says the woman deserved it. Is that the kind of teacher you want in your mind?"
All her students stared at her in shock and Melissa growled. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."
"She destroyed another human being! And Madeline wasn't the first!"
"Shut up!" Melissa screamed. Jonathan and Jessica walked behind her, trying to comfort her, but she shoved them back, stepping forward through the frozen Slithers, coming face to face with Robert, her knife in her hand, every muscle taut with fury.
"You think you know everything about me but you're wrong. You stink of old midnight. I know you now. I had you in my head once, back when Madeline was damaged. Robert. Abomination? You're the abomination. You helped her, you and your friends. You gave that poor little seer girl to them, destroyed her! And you don't feel any guilt for it! I can sense it in you. Not a hint. You're just like the rest of our kind, deluded, manipulative mind-controllers who won't admit to themselves that anything they do is wrong. Well I'm not going to turn any of my students over to you for your indoctrination. I'll let them decide what's best for them, and I'll not have you shoving it into their heads for them! Now you get out of here and leave me alone or so help me I will rip your mind apart fiber by fiber until it's nothing more than a quivering mass of unresponsive gray matter, do you understand me?"
He stared back at her unflinchingly. "You don't have any idea what I'm trying to do, are you? I'm making a better world, Melissa. Even if you can't see it. And though your talents are exceptional, I can't have you or any of your little followers getting in my way." Melissa saw one of the wings on a nearby Slither twitch and Robert smiled even wider. "Goodbye."
The Slithers all burst back to life, lunging toward her. She swing her blade, going not for an attacking darkling, but the mindcaster. He sidestepped easily and turned his back on her, strolling away from the ambush like it was a warm Sunday afternoon. Melissa felt like screaming, her rage and adrenaline coursing within her like electricity and she stabbed a nearby darkling, whispering Rejuvenations name to it over and over again, feeling as if every strike truly was rejuvenating her.
She heard screams and growls from the house, her students and friends fighting desperately for their lives, and Melissa fought to get back to them. If she was going to risk her life to keep them sane, she certainly wasn't going to let them die.
"Stand back!" Christian's voice rang through the melee.
"What is that?" Jessica shouted in surprise.
"My gimmick," he remarked and a sharp click was followed by a blast of heat and flames. Melissa threw herself to the ground, remembering the fireworks that took her hair, and covered her head. The darklings screamed, the rancid scent of incinerating flesh pervading the air. Melissa gagged into the ground, trying not to completely puke. Within what seemed like moments the area cleared and the darklings that remained fled. Melissa looked up and saw Christian grinning wildly, flipping the off switch on what looked like some kind of flamethrower.
"Where the heck did you get that?" Nicole shrieked.
"Dad's a fireman. They use these to control wildfires. I lifted one from his station."
"You stole that?" Jessica gasped.
"You told me to get my own weapon," he announced with a shrug. "I didn't want to use it in the house, and when that creepy mindcaster guy showed up I figured you'd want to hear what he had to say.
Melissa glanced up at the moon. There was still at least twenty minutes of midnight left. "Everyone, spread out. Go back home. Jonathan, Carrie, speed them up. The Darklings might regroup, come back. I don't want us all in a nice little group waiting for them."
Everyone nodded and began to disperse. Melissa stepped back inside, grimacing at the shattered windows. First thing in the morning, she was going to have to call Dess. Things were getting more serious than she thought.