Psychic

A second later, the doors behind the messenger caved in with a crash and a shroud of smoke. Bryce waved his hand with another Latin incantation and the smoke disappeared, leaving the intimidating figure of Victoria in its place.

“Well, hello, Olivia,” she directed at me, “this is quite the situation you’ve gotten yourself into, isn’t it?”

I scoffed. “Please. Getting kidnapped twice in one night? I’ve done better.” The snide sarcasm came surprising to me, another hidden emotion brought about by all the craziness of the past hours.

She smiled, but it turned poisonous when she spotted Hawthorne and the others in the room. “Why, hello, boys.”

I could see Bella practically yearning to yell out in confusion, and to also remind the newcomer that she was not ‘one of the boys’.

“Victoria.” The Fake Bryce sneered. “Are you stupid as well as ignorant? You’re not getting out of here alive. You sentenced yourself to death as soon as you stepped foot in this complex.”

She laughed and ignored The Fake Bryce (who I now was calling TFB until his real name popped up) and instead faced Hawthorne. “What’s wrong, Michael? Are you afraid that I finally have power over you?”

“Please, I’d never be afraid of you.” Hawthorne sneered.

It took me a moment to realize that Hawthorne must’ve had a first name, and it must’ve been Michael. It was so common that I barely registered it at first. Someone like him couldn’t be normal.

Victoria fixed her gaze on TFB, whose face suddenly contorted in pain. Slowly, his hand lifted up and he muttered something under his breath, his eyes burning in rage. A fresh wave of air hit me and I realized the clear container I’d been in was gone. Victoria smile triumphantly and let TFB go. TFB fell to his knee, face now contorted in anger at Victoria.

“What’s the matter, Arnold?” she sneered. “All your training on keeping your emotions and thoughts hidden was for nothing, wasn’t it? You trained your whole life for this moment and you failed. I almost feel sorry for you.”

TFB, whose real name was Arnold of all things (like, that had to have been the worst name fit for his personality. He striked me as more of a Caine or Xander, something more sinister than Arnold), looked broken. His whole purpose died. After everything, he could still be controlled by Victoria, and he was helpless against her. His memories flashed against my brain and I knew it was because he had let his own walls down. There was no use in hiding his thoughts if Victoria could reach them anyways.

“Ooh, Arnold. Your memories are so tasty. No wonder you wanted to hide them all.” Victoria taunted. “There’s one about a girl. Skip. Your favorite toy? Skip. Secret meetings with Michael about your brother? Hmm, interesting.”

“That’s enough,” Hawthorne warned, “Stop this now, Vicky.”

Victoria flinched at the nickname. I got the feeling it was something he used to call her, before, you know, he framed her for murder.

She turned on him viciously. “You have no right to call me that name anymore!”

Arnold suddenly clutched his head in pain, the power I’d only ever used a couple times in my lifetime. I knew it was supposed to affect most everyone in a general area, except for Magnus and other psychics, so why was it not affecting Hawthorne?

Victoria had noticed too. Her solution, however, was to try harder. Arnold was screaming so loud now that even Bella looked pained.

“Stop!” I screamed.

Arnold laid on the floor, head still in his hands protectively. Hawthorne still looked perfectly fine though. I looked to Magnus, who was hiding his face guiltily.

“Magnus, why isn’t Hawthorne affected?” I accused.

He flinched at my tone, but didn’t answer. Hawthorne smirked at Victoria, which made the scar that I gave him turn an eerie shade of white. “You can’t get to me Victoria. Never again. After I locked you up, I knew the next psychic, should I ever find them, would be even more powerful, and probably not as keen to not read me, so I made sure they wouldn’t be able to. Ever.

“I got Magnus to give me a bit of his magic. A small percentage of his protection against psychics is now in my own potentia Source. It’s enough to block you from me. I’m invincible, Victoria, don’t you see? No one will ever be able to denounce me from power now or ever again. I am truly the most powerful being in existence. Not even some stupid age old prophecy about a little girl will be able to stop me now.”

Victoria now looked panicked something foreign on her pristine features. “That’s not possible. How?”

“Don’t you wish you had read me before all of this, Victoria? Don’t you wish you actually made an alibi for that night in Wallington? Don’t you wish you could’ve seen my plans and warned the royal family? Don’t you wish you would’ve done what your kind was born to do?”

I couldn’t stand to see Hawthorne break Victoria down anymore. She had helped me gain power and tried to warn me against Magnus. She was innocent, and she didn’t deserve to be beaten down by a man like him.

“Stop!” I yelled for the second time that night. “Who do you think you are? You are nobody. You are a Nobody who thinks they can use their power to take others away and to hurt them. You don’t deserve to be all powerful, and you aren’t.”

“Oh, yeah? And who are you to stop me?” he taunted.

“Your daughter.”

I directed everything I had at him. I wasn’t thinking about the fact that Victoria had already failed at reading him. I didn’t care that my efforts were pointless. I went for it anyways.

And then something happened. Memories were filling my head as a scream echoed in the distance. They went by so fast and so clear that I felt like I was watching a movie in fast forward.

A boy with greasy black hair and a red ring a bit too big for his fingers resting in his hand was sitting behind a red brick building. He was turning it over and over in his hand. He looked up to see three boys, taller than him, but about the same age, walking his way.

“So, Mikey finally got his own rock. Are you even magical enough to make it work?” The middle one taunted, flashing his own stone in a bracelet at Hawthorne.

“Yeah, of course I am!”

The boy on the left of the leader scoffed, “Please, if anything you probably stole that one from some poor sucker. We all know Mikey could never past the test.”

The three boys laughed as Hawthorne hurried to a standing position.

“One day I’ll be better than any of you!”

They only laughed harder at the statement. The middle one sneered at Hawthorne, “You’ll never be better than us, Mikey. You’ll always be a loser.”

The scene changed and Hawthorne was older now. He was staring across a street, where a pretty redhead was talking to who I recognized to be the leader bully from the previous memory, only now they must’ve been in their teens.

“Hey, Celeste. I heard that they’re letting us venture out into town tomorrow night. You want to go see a movie with me?” He said it was such swagger that I automatically disliked him. His posture and tone told me that he knew exactly what he wanted, and he always got what he wanted.

“Sorry, not today, Redding. My cousin and I are going to go shopping. This’ll be her first time out and about in the city.” Celeste rejected him slyly. I recognized her face now too, my mother.

Redding’s face twisted in obvious disdain, “Her? That little freak? They should keep her locked away in that house for good. She shouldn’t be around us warlocks; she’s dangerous.”

It seemed that Redding had said the wrong thing, because Celeste, my mom, got on the defensive. “Victoria is not dangerous! Just because she can do things . . .”

“Weird things.” Redding fixed. “Besides, you’d have a much better time with me than with her.”

“No, get away from me, Redding.”

But Redding didn’t want to get away. Hawthorne lifted his hand and Redding flew across the sidewalk, hitting a wall. Celeste looked at Hawthorne, her expression thankful and hopeful.

The scene shifted again and this time Hawthorne was even older, walking through a hallway with a different redhead at his heels. I recognized her immediately as Victoria.

“. . . and then sign the papers from the Joneses. I have some urgent business to attend to in Wallington with the royal family tomorrow and won’t have time. I’ll need you to be there as well. Just in case any dangerous characters emerge to threaten them. They get threats daily, you know?”

Victoria nodded, writing everything down and looking at Hawthorne with sparkling eyes. They reached an office marked ‘Counselor’ and both went in, Victoria closing the door behind her.

Hawthorne looked up and smiled at Victoria, something odd on his face. “I’ve been so stressed lately with all the preparations for the visit, can’t you tell?” he admitted with a small chuckle playing on his lips.

“Not really.” Victoria commented, looking down.

Hawthorne feigned surprised, something Victoria missed, “You haven’t read me?”

She blushed a deep shade of red and looked back up at Hawthorne. “I would never read you, Hawthorne. I don’t have reason to. Why would you keep secrets from me?”

Hawthorne smiled back at her and stepped closer, taking a piece of her red hair in his hands and playing with it gently. “You’re right, Vicky. I would never keep secrets from you.”

He leaned in right as the memory changed again. This time Hawthorne was standing in a huge marble room. Five bodies littered the floor, all dead.

Two armed guards were dragging Victoria to a door while she was screaming at Hawthorne, pleading.

“No, please! You have to believe me! I didn’t kill them! Please, Hawthorne! You know me!” Her sobs made no effect to Hawthorne’s iron face.

“No, I don’t know you at all, psychic.”

I gasped and was brought back to the present. Nothing seemed to have changed. About the room, but everyone was looking at me with shocked expressions.

Hawthorne was full of rage and bewilderment. “How did you do it? How?!”

He raced at me, but I held up my hand. He stopped halfway to me, eyeing my hand nervously. He was scared of what I could do now that I’d broken into his thoughts when he thought he was invincible.

I didn’t even know how I’d done it. I assumed it was because of the prophecy. Victoria said that it claimed me to be to the most powerful psychic ever. And include the fact that Hawthorne had only taken a sliver of Magnus’s power, maybe enough to block out Victoria, but not me, and it made sense. But, still. It scared me that I was now officially stronger than Victoria, stronger than any being in existence now. You could argue against it before, but now?

I looked at Hawthorne questioningly. He was truly afraid of me now, afraid of the power I held over him. I almost felt bad after seeing those memories of his, but then refrained myself. Everyone has their own demons, but it doesn’t mean that they have to succumb to them, like he did. His actions were his fault and his alone. He could not, would not blame his actions on anyone else anymore.

Hawthorne made to speak, but I spoke before he could.

“Silence.”

And the amazing thing? He stopped talking.

Victoria grinned at me. “You’ve done it. You actually did it.” If anything she sounded a bit dumbfounded, which I found insulting. Did she not think I was strong enough?

“And now it’s time for me to assume his role, sorry about this, Olivia, but I’m goanna have to ask you to hand your powers over to me now.”

“What?!”