In Too Deep

Chapter 25

We transported ourselves to a clearing not far from Fair Lake Academy, deciding that walking the rest of the way was our best bet. No one spoke as we neared the gates. We had spent as much time training over the last few days as we could, we were prepared as were going to be.

Violet had a vision of every one that would be waiting for us. To tell the truth I’m a little worried, they have more than three times the amount of people we have, I know how powerful we are but there is still a chance we will lose this fight.

‘Don’t think like that, we can win this.’ Smithy told me telepathically.

‘What makes you think that was on my mind?’ I asked him.

‘I know you Freya, more than you think. We will be fine; we have enough power to beat them.’ He said to me.

‘But their numbers-’ I began.

’Will make things difficult yes.’ He said interrupting me.

‘But we won’t all get out alive.’ I worried.

‘But that won’t be your fault, they are here by choice, they all know the risks.’ I wanted to believe Smithy, but deep down I knew that once this was all over, and lives were lost, I wouldn’t be able to blame anyone but myself.

I led everyone through the gates of the Academy, with Violet and Lucas on either side of me, with their families behind them and Smithy held up the rear with Ryan and his men.

We stopped a few yards away from Mr Jackson and his army. Looking over the amount of people who were against us caused a wave of dread to wash over me.

I know we saw their numbers from Violet’s vision but seeing them now just made it all the more real. All of these people were here to kill me, they thought I was evil and most hadn’t even met me.

My eyes landed on Bastien and I realised that he was staring straight at me, I couldn’t decipher the look on his face and his eyes were doing well at hiding his feelings, as per usual. I didn’t know how to think or feel when I saw him, the last time we were together he had me chained up and drugged in a basement. His betrayal stung and made my stomach churn.

He wasn’t wearing an amulet but he had a strong mental shield preventing me from hearing his thoughts. I stopped concentrating on him and looked around, I couldn’t let him distract me. Both sides stood there sizing up the other.

“If any of you wish to change your minds and join our side instead then you are welcome, I know how easy it is to be manipulated.” Mr Jackson said to all the people stood behind me.

“Listen to him Julia, you can’t win with her. Remember what we’ve always known, she’s evil.” A female voice said from Mr Jackson’s side. I didn’t wear my coloured contacts today, I let them all see me as I am, no more hiding.

“You shouldn’t believe everything he’s told you Tiffany, he can’t prove that she’s evil, regardless of her bloodline.” Julia said in my defence. “She saved our lives when Mr Jackson had his men take us hostage.” She added and there were a few shocked gasps and muttering coming from the other side. Many people who were stood behind Mr Jackson shared looks with their partners, showing their indecision after learning this.

“She’s lying.” Mr Jackson said to everyone. ”I’m on your side; I just want our children to be safe.” He added.

“And yet for several years you have been training them to kill a girl that you hadn’t even met.” Smithy said. A few people, including Tiffany, stepped towards us.

“Where are you going?” Mr Jackson asked them.

“You said we can change sides if we wish to, and we do. You can’t seriously expect us to believe that the police force have gone rogue. I’m finding your lies a bit transparent recently.” Tiffany said. They walked further towards us and paused when they were about a meter away. “Child, we are sorry, we presumed he knew enough to come to the conclusions that he did.” She said directly to me.

“It’s fine, but just because you are no longer fighting for him it doesn’t mean that you have to fight for me, you may leave if you wish.” I said to her and the others that had stepped forward. They looked at their partners and seemed to be able to come to a decision without having to speak a single word.

“We wish to stay.” One man said and with that, they joined everyone who stood behind me. Mr Bentlen stepped towards us, Mr Jackson glared at him fiercely.

“You cannot be serious.” He seethed at him. Mr Bentlen shrugged.

“I think you’ve taken this too far.” Mr Bentlen said calmly. “Nothing I’ve seen from the girl supports your theories, if you had given her a chance, maybe you would’ve seen that too.” Mr Bentlen nodded to me as he joined my side. Many others began coming over to our side as well, Mr Jackson was losing support and fast.

“What are you all doing? That girl is evil! You can’t destroy all our hard work just because she looks innocent!” Mr Jackson said, full of anger. “Look at her eyes!”

“Give it a rest; this doesn’t need to end in a fight.” I said to him.

“It may not need to but it will! You will not beat me.” He said with determination clearly displayed on his face. By this point everyone seemed happy with what side they were fighting for, I couldn’t help but to look at Bastien, he wouldn’t make eye contact with me now; he just stared at the floor. His decision to fight against me hurt more than anything else. I looked amongst those who still stood with Mr Jackson, all the teachers who were still determined to believe him.

All at once everyone seemed to get ready to fight, Mr Jackson shouted at his side to attack, but I noticed that he hung back, he didn’t go straight in to battle, he obviously had a plan. I couldn’t worry about that at the moment, his army were heading at us at full speed.

We had already decided on our form of attack, Lucas and his parents were up first. They focused on the nearest rain puddles (I had been on weather control all day to make sure they would have some available water nearby) they raised the water and shot it at the first row of attackers, knocking them back in to the second row.

Then it was Smithy and I, using mind control, we sent telepathic messages to the next lot of attackers, confusing them and causing them to head in the wrong direction. Thankfully Mr Jackson hadn’t supplied them with medallions, which surprised me.

I could feel magic building in the air, but it wasn’t coming from our side. Fire appeared in the air and headed straight towards us. I concentrated on the air around the fir, smothering it, starving it of oxygen until the fire was extinguished.

Smithy’s men, led by Ryan, used guns and hand grenades to take out the next wave of people heading towards us. Lastly we went to hand to hand combat and I soon lost count of how many bodies fell to the ground.

In our training sessions, I had taught Violet and Lucas how to predict their attacker’s next move an instant before they made it, giving them the upper hand. Even with this, I still worried about them fighting, especially Violet, she wasn’t the violent type, and she was so small and innocent I worried about her fighting people. She did fine in the training sessions, so I just had to trust in her ability.

Off to my left I saw Simon struggling, a man had him pinned to the ground and was raising a sword above his head. I used telekinesis to lift his attacker up in to the air, and to snap his head to the side, breaking his neck. Simon nodded his thanks to me as he got up off of the ground, and carried on fighting.

As we took out a large amount of Mr Jackson’s army I got to thinking, these were all people that I had attended this Academy with, them and their parents tricked in to fighting us. As I slashed my sword along a man’s stomach, I really wish we didn’t have to kill them but I saw no other option at that moment.

As one, three men charged towards me, using all my strength I kicked the first one in the knee hard enough to break his leg and he fell to the ground in agony. I ducked just in time to miss the sword that the second man swung at me, I punched him in the gut and he doubled over, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it to the right, breaking it and causing his sword to drop to the ground. He punched out with his other hand but I grabbed it in my own and crushed it, breaking a few bones in his hand. After I landed an uppercut to his jaw, he fell to the ground unconscious.

The third launched at me, tackling me to the ground, he was quite a big guy, well-built and strong, in any normal situation, he would be able to use his height, weight and build to overpower me. Thankfully in my case, this was no normal situation.

I brought my knee up, planning on it landing in a very painful place for him, but he was fast, he managed to dodge it and in a flash he was straddling me, he grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head, I struggled against his hold but I found that he was stronger than I originally predicted. Even with my abilities giving me extra strength, it was still proving difficult to knock him off of me.

“There’s no point fighting me little one, even with your added strength you are no match for me.” He taunted. “It’s such a shame I have to kill you, I can think of so many other things we could do together.” He said with a smirk as his eyes travelled down my body.

“Drop dead.” I spat at him and his eyes darkened.

“How do you really expect to get out of this situation little one?” He asked me tauntingly. Where does Mr Jackson find these creeps?

“Don’t patronise me.” I said angrily as I planned my next attack. If using my physical strength wasn’t going to work, one of my other powers would.

“Awe, I’ve touched a nerve, maybe I’ll touch some more…” He said as his voice turned husky.

“Or maybe you could just get off of her.” A voice that I recognised came from behind my attacker. Before he could turn he was smacked across the head with a metal pipe. He fell to the ground unconscious, now released from his grip I wiggled out from under his unconscious body.

Bastien stood above me, metal pipe still in hand; he threw it to the side and stood there staring at me. After a moment he held out his hand in offering, I took it cautiously and he pulled me to my feet. After he helped me up he still didn’t let go of my hand.

“Thank you.” I said to him and he nodded. “But I had it covered.” I added.

“Clearly.” He stated.

“Why did you help me?” I asked.

“I didn’t like his suggestions.” He said but I could tell he was holding something back. He sighed. “And I didn’t want any harm to come to you.” I raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“But with everything that’s happened, you hypnotised me, kidnapped me, messed with my emotions, endangered my friends, and now you’re here to fight against me.” I said to him and he winced.

“In the beginning yes, I was instructed to distract you, to find out information about you. But I didn’t expect to-“

“Expect to what?” I asked when he paused.

“To fall in love with you.” He said and my heart skipped a beat. I mentally cursed myself for almost allowing myself to believe another of his tricks.

“This is just another trick to distract me.” I said the only thing I could think of, I needed to keep my heart better guarded so he wouldn’t hurt me again. I couldn’t let myself care about him.

“You say that and yet your heart says something different.” Bastien said in a soft voice.

“I made a promise to myself that I would listen to my head more.” I replied stubbornly.

There was a moment of silence between us. I was getting lost in his eyes once again, that’s why I didn’t notice someone coming up behind me. Bastien pulled me to him and the attacker missed me, he swung again but Bastien grabbed him by his throat and broke his neck.

I looked up in to his eyes again, his strong arms held me tight against his chest. This so wasn’t helping my whole listening to my head plan. Fighting continued around us, but there were more than a few people who noticed what was going on between Bastien and I, no longer knowing whose side he was on.

“It isn’t too late to change sides.” I said to him, pleading with my eyes.

“He’s got too much on me.” He replied, obviously meaning Mr Jackson.

“I can protect you.” I promised and he gave a sad smile and released me from his arms.

“But you shouldn’t have to.” Bastien whispered. “I was telling you the truth you know; when I said I love you.” He added.

“But you lied, the whole time we were together, you were lying to me.” He winced again, looking down at the ground. “I don’t know what the truth is and what’s a lie anymore, I don’t even know if my feelings for you are real, or if it was down to your manipulation.” He stayed silent.

I looked around for the first time in what felt like forever, bodies littered the floor, and the survivors were stood there watching us, waiting to see what would happen, we were after all, supposed to be on separate sides. Smithy stepped forward.

“Freya, you know I mean well, but are you sure it’s not a trick?” Smithy asked me, worry for me shining in his eyes.

I turned back to Bastien and I could see the love for me in his eyes. I was just about to reply when I felt his mental block come down, revealing all of his thoughts to me. I didn’t find a single lie in them and he left his mind so open that I could find out anything I wanted about him. I took the opportunity gratefully.

I could see which situations he had hypnotised me and which were real, I could feel his love towards me. It was real.

“You don’t have to do this.” I said to him.

“I know that, but I want to, and I need you to believe me.” He had a desperate look in his eyes, one full of sadness and regret. “I never used hypnosis to sway your feelings in any way towards me. I only altered your thoughts to agree to come with me to the cabin. If I didn’t then he would have killed you when you didn’t have any protection.” Bastien explained.

My head spun, I could see every thought in his mind, he hid nothing from me in this moment. But my head was a mess, I wasn’t sure if I could forgive him. I was sure of only one thing.

“It’s not a trick Smithy.” I said to him and he nodded, trusting my judgement.

“Freya. Do you sense that?” Violet asked me urgently, breaking the moment between Bastien and I. Concentrating for a moment I realised what Violet was referring to, a very strong energy was approaching us.

“What the hell is that?” Jimmy asked.

“I have no idea.” Sophia said.

We all took a few steps back so we could be prepared for whatever was coming, our previous battle almost forgotten about.

“Freya, can you sense any specifics?” Smithy asked me.

“I-I’m not sure, this is more power than I’ve ever felt before.” I told him.

“That’s not a comforting thought.” Smithy added. No, it really wasn’t.

The wind started to pick up, whistling around us, so strong many people in the crowd took several steps away. My hair whipped all around my face, often blocking my view of what was happening in front of me. Leaves and dirt flew around in a circle, the bodies on the ground were being pushed towards us, creating a space, and forcing us back further.

In a blink of an eye the wind completely died down, and stood in front of us were seven witches, dressed in long black robes, their red hair was identical among them, as were their red eyes, just like mine. I stared at them in shock, not knowing what to say or do. Each pair of eyes in the crowd flicked between me and the witches.