Authors: B.L. Teschner
Jonah's desperate eyes
met mine. “Summer, go to the beach. Now.”
I listened immediately
to his words and turned around, forgetting my phone as I sprinted as
fast as I could down the dimly lit street toward the ocean. Between
my panting and heavy steps I could hear the sound of the two of them
wrestling around, throwing punches and growling with heated anger.
A loud noise buzzed
over my head and made me stop when I hit the corner. When I looked up
I could see that the power lines were moving along the poles above
me, seizing violently in the crisp night air. I turned around in an
attempt to spot Jonah and gasped at the sight of bright sparks
falling around the two of them from the lines above. A moment later
the power box exploded and sent the wild lines crashing to the
ground, landing right in-between the two of them and making the
entire street succumb to the darkness.
Fox didn't waste any
time. He turned and took off down the street toward me, running like
a mad man with a face filled with rage.
My body froze with fear
as I watched the situation unfold before me, the events moving around
in slow motion. Fox rushed toward me down the dark street, the only
source of light coming from the untamed sparks spewing from the
downed power lines behind him. Jonah moved quickly in the background,
jumping past the buzzing wires, unfazed by the powerful current that
they threatened him with.
I snapped back to
reality as Fox finally reached me and pushed me up against the wall
of a red brick building. “You belong to
me!
” he
screamed into my face with an enraged passion while his hand gripped
tightly around my neck.
My hands tore into his
prying fingers as they clutched around me, making it hard for me to
breathe. “Fox,” I gasped through the tightness, “please,
let go.”
“
No,” he
snarled. “Not until you agree to be with me.”
His angry eyes widened
at the sudden impact of Jonah's arm wrapping around his neck, putting
him into a quick headlock. “Let her go,” he commanded
while tightly flexing his bicep underneath his bloody chin. Fox
complied and released his grip.
My hands flew up to
feel the sore skin of my neck as I sucked in a breath of air,
refilling my deflated lungs.
With Fox still in a
headlock, Jonah pulled him back and strangled him in the crook of his
arm, making his face turn bright red from the intense pressure.
“You're a lunatic, Fox,” he growled next to his ear.
Fox brought his hands
up and dug them into Jonah's arm, making him howl in agony. Something
bad was happening.
“
What's wrong?”
I yelled in a panic.
He gritted his teeth
and strained hard to answer through the pain, “He's
electrocuting me . . .”
“
Oh my god, let
him go!”
Beads of sweat formed
across his forehead from the waves of electricity raging through his
veins; but, he still wasn't letting go.
“
Jonah, he's
going to kill you! Let go, now!”
He gave in and quickly
released his grip, sending Fox falling to the ground. Before I knew
it he grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him down the street in an
attempt to ditch our attacker. We ran together through the darkness
and made it around the corner, ducking into an alley way off the side
of the deserted road.
“
Are you okay?”
he asked in a panic. “He had a strong grip on you.”
I pressed my back
against the cold cemented wall of an unknown building and looked up
at his serious face. “Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay?”
“
Yeah,” he
panted deeply. “I can handle the electricity; I'm strong
enough.” He raised his hands and firmly grabbed onto my
shoulders, looking deeply into my eyes with a face that was riddled
with urgency. “Listen Summer, I don't know what's going to
happen tonight. All I
do
know is that I need to keep you safe.
Fox is a dangerous man and I think he's going to hurt you.”
My heavy breaths burned
as they ripped out from my lungs. “What should we do?”
“
You need to
teleport us away.”
“
What?” I
blurted. “I, I can't.”
“
Yes you can. We
need to do this. Now.”
Tears formed in the
corners of my eyes as I listened, their cloudiness making his face
appear blurry in front of me. “I'm so scared.”
A heavy sigh left his
lips as he pulled me into him and wrapped his arms tightly around me.
I rested my head under his chin and softly sobbed, feeling the
wetness of his sweat-dampened shirt against the smoothness of my
cheek.
“
I know you're
scared,” he breathed onto the top of my head, “but you
are the strongest person I know. We'll get away from him.” He
pressed a kiss onto my hair and squeezed me once more before dropping
his arms to meet my hands with his. “We don't have much time.”
“
But I don't know
where to go.”
“
Just think of
somewhere safe. Think of your house.”
My eyes darted around
his face while I digested his instructions. “Okay,” I
agreed hesitantly with a shaky sigh. I closed my eyes and
concentrated on my vision, choosing my bedroom to be our destination.
“I'll take us to my room.”
“
That's good. You
can do it.”
I squeezed his hands
and thought as hard as I could.
I have a Queen sized bed . . .
The sound of buzzing
caught my attention. I opened my eyes and looked at Jonah through the
darkness.
“
Don't worry,”
he hushed me. “Close your eyes and keep trying.”
I listened willingly
and went back to my thoughts.
I have a comforter, throw pillows, a
rug . . .
It was useless. All I
could think about was the buzzing that filled the night air around
us. I opened my eyes and whimpered, “I'm so sorry, I can't do
it.”
Jonah sighed and leaned
forward, planting a kiss on my forehead. “It's okay, you tried
your best.”
I wiped my face to
clear away my tears and looked up at him with hopelessness. “We
need help, but, I don't think we'll find anyone.”
“
Yeah, I know.”
“
Does your phone
work?”
“
Let me check.”
He pulled his cell out of his pocket and made an attempt to turn it
on. “Damn, it's not working. Fox must have done something to
it, drained its battery maybe . . .”
“
So if we can't
call the police for help, what are we going to do?”
His face was heavy in
thought as he looked out toward the dark street. “We're going
to get out of this alley and walk quietly to somewhere that has a
working phone.”
“
Okay,” I
agreed with a nod. “But, he's out there looking for us. He'll
find us.”
Jonah turned his
attention back to my face, looking at me with gentleness through the
glowing red sparkles in his eyes. “I love you, Summer,”
he whispered as the back of his hand wiped a stray tear away from my
face.
I smiled weakly up at
him through my worried stare. “I love you, too.”
“
Are you ready to
do this?”
“
As ready as I'll
ever be.”
He took my hand in his
and we stepped back out into the open street, going right, the
opposite direction from where we had been before.
When Fox blew up the
power box he wiped out blocks of electricity, making the streets
eerily black as we walked through the maze of tall buildings that
towered above us. No one was outside, the streets were empty. Not a
soul seemed to care about the sudden darkness that was looming
around.
“
We're not going
to find anyone to help,” I said with a shaky sigh. “This
is a business district, mostly. Everyone has gone home.”
“
Don't worry,
we'll find someone soon.”
Jonah was right. After
a minute or two of quietly trying to find another human being, we
finally spotted someone walking toward us in the dark. It was a young
man, about seventeen, and he was wearing baggy jeans and a black
sweatshirt with a hood that was pulled up over his head.
“
Excuse me,”
Jonah stopped him, “but do you have a phone we can use?”
The young man's eyes
widened in fear at seeing the blazing redness in Jonah's stare. “Oh
my god,” he sputtered out while raising his hands above him.
“Please don't hurt me!”
Jonah put his hands out
in a calming gesture. “Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you.
I just need to use your phone.”
His eyes shifted over
to me and then back at Jonah. “My phone's not working, man. I
swear.”
Jonah snarled at the
news. “Well that's just great."
“
Please don't
hurt me!”
“
He's not going
to hurt you,” I cut in, trying to calm him. “We're in
danger ourselves, that's why we need a phone.”
He seemed to relax a
little at my words and he lowered his arms back to his sides. “Well,
I would help you if I could, but like I said, my phone quit working.
I guess my battery died but I coulda swore that it wasn't outta juice
yet.”
I shook my head at
Jonah as we glanced over at each other. Apparently Fox was blocking
everyone from using their phones. We were screwed.
“
Okay,”
Jonah gave up with a heavy sigh. “Thanks, man. Sorry I scared
you.”
The hooded stranger
gave us an unsure nod and then ducked out of our way, hurrying down
the street away from us.
I glanced back at the
young man's body fading away into the darkness. “Your eyes
really scared him.”
“
Yeah, I know.”
We continued down the
oddly empty street in front of us in hopes of finding an area that
hadn't been knocked out by Fox's force.
Jonah shook his head
with frustration. “If I could have just remembered where I
parked the damn truck then we would have gotten away before Fox even
. . .”
The sound of bending
metal interrupted him, making us stop dead in our tracks.
My hands gripped onto
his arm. “What was that?”
“
I don't know.”
A light blasted on
behind us and made me jump with fear. We turned our bodies toward the
twinkling glow to see that it was coming from a single street lamp
that had somehow flashed back on.
“
Fox must be
here,” I whispered in a panic, clenching more tightly onto his
arm.
The eery sound
continued as we racked our brains for a plan, but it was useless;
Fox's magic was unfolding before our eyes. Suddenly the lamp post
screeched with the sound of bowing metal and fell through the air in
our direction, sparking vividly while taking a power line down with
it.
I let out a terrified
scream as Jonah wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against the
wall of the old abandoned building next to us, moving us out of the
way just as the enormous post crashed onto the cement. The street was
black once again.
Fox came around the
darkened corner with fingers that zapped with visible currents of
electricity. “Well, hello there,” he bellowed down the
street. “I bet you didn't think I could do
that
, huh?
Too bad it missed you guys . . .”
Jonah's eyes bled with
rage as he released his hold on me and took off toward him.
“
Oh, are you
ready to play now?” Fox taunted him with a chuckle.
Jonah cracked his
knuckles and let out a low grumble as he stopped next to a newer red
Mustang. He bent down and stuck his hands underneath its side,
lifting it off of the ground with ease and pushing it high above his
head, bringing the thick veins in his arms to the surface of his
skin. A deep, powerful roar raged past his gritted teeth as he tossed
the car forward through the air, sending it flying toward Fox's cocky
laugh.
I couldn't believe what
my eyes had just seen. Jonah was strong, but picking up a car and
throwing it through the air was just incredible. I assumed that what
I had just witnessed was most likely close to what he had done when
he pulled the car off of his dad to try and save him.