Authors: Christopher George
Sarah raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“I ran into him on the train on Friday night,” I explained. “That’s incidentally what the police wanted with me today during the assembly, apparently he hurt some security guards after I escaped from him.”
“You escaped him? Whoa, dude, back up, what happened?” Tony stopped me. “You never told me any of this.”
“He confronted me on the train back home. We were between stations. I couldn’t get away.”
“What did you do?” Sarah asked.
“Smashed the door and jumped out.”
“While the train was moving?” Tony prompted.
“Yeah.”
“That’s really cool, dude,” Tony replied, grinning and patting me on the shoulder.
“You smashed a train door open?” Sarah asked incredulously.
“Ripped it right off its hinges actually,” I replied smugly.
I was strangely proud of the achievement. I hadn’t considered how this must have sounded to Sarah.
“Wait a minute,” Sarah demanded. “Throwing balls into the air and lifting notebooks is one thing. But ripping train doors off their hinges isn’t even in the same league! Just how powerful are you? Just what could you do if you had to?”
“I don’t know actually. I’ve never really tried to test myself,” I replied, a little taken aback at her attitude.
“I could probably tear these basketball poles from the ground and hurl them across the court or maybe even throw a car,” I added, a little intrigued by the possibility.
I’d never really tested the limits of my lifting power – certainly everything I’d tried to lift I’d been able to lift without great difficulty.
“And you think this is a good thing?” Sarah asked defiantly.
“Of course it’s a good thing!” I replied, irked by her attitude. She was my friend, she should be happy for me. “How can this be anything but good for me?”
“What you’re talking about is absolute power with no restraint,” Sarah continued. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
“Don’t quote your rhetoric at me,” I snapped angrily.
“You’re not stupid, Devon! You must see what’s happening to you!” Sarah urged. “This must be having an effect on you. I knew you weren’t acting like yourself recently!”
“Hey! I didn’t get a say here!” I argued. “I didn’t ask for this to happen to me. And I certainly don’t need you criticising me for a decision I didn’t make!” I finished angrily.
“You might not be making the decisions, but you’re certainly not thinking about the repercussions either!” Sarah snapped. She hugged me.
“Damn it, Devon, I’m scared for you!” She pushed me back. “You come here and blatantly tell us that you’re in possession of superhuman power and that some deranged maniac is trying to kill you and you don’t see that this could be a problem?”
“Well, this is something I’ve been dealing with by myself for a long while now,” I protested.
“Well, it’s fucking scary,” Sarah continued. “You’re sounding more and more like a deranged maniac yourself.”
“Believe me, I know. This is crazy, but I just don’t know what to do,” I sighed. “I mean, who do I talk to about this kind of stuff? Renee treats it like it’s second nature and like it’s nothing special. You’ve got to admit that this isn’t the sort of thing I could talk to Tony about.”
“I had no idea it was this bad, dude,” Tony interjected. “I would have listened.”
“You could have talked to me,” Sarah demanded.
“What? And have you look at me exactly the way you’re looking at me now?”
“And how am I looking at you?”
“Like I’m a freak and that you’re scared of me.”
“I am scared,” Sarah replied. “But I’m scared for you, not
of
you.”
Sarah pulled me into a second hug and whispered in my ear. “I’m your friend, always your friend, never forget that.”
“I didn’t want to burden you with all this,” I whispered back.
“You’re never a burden,” she replied. “Never.”
“Thank you,” I said brokenly as we broke the hug.
“So what are you going to do about this deranged guy then?” Tony asked.
“Well, that’s the last thing,” I sighed.
This was harder to broach with my best friends but they had a right to know. Unfortunately, I had no idea even where to start to tell them. How do I tell my best friends in the whole world that I was running away and leaving them?
“You’re running away with Renee,” Sarah interjected. “You’re going somewhere where he can’t find you.”
“How did you know that?”
“You told us about the passport this afternoon and I knew it sounded strange,” Sarah continued.
“How long will you be gone for?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“Maybe forever?” Tony prompted.
“Maybe.” I nodded in agreement.
Tony remained silent for a few seconds. “Is this all set in stone?”
“Kind of.”
“Can’t Renee just go?”
“It’s not that simple, buddy,” I sighed wistfully. “If I remained behind he’d simply try to figure out where she went through me. I doubt I’d survive that experience.”
“I understand.” Tony replied. “Though I think it sucks.”
“I do too.” I agreed. “I do too buddy.”
“Couldn’t you just convince him to leave you alone?” Sarah interjected. “He can’t be totally without reason.”
“Renee doesn’t believe that’s possible. She thinks he’d force a fight. I believe her.”
“You couldn’t take him together?” Tony asked.
“Tony! That’s not an option!” Sarah snapped irritably. “Fighting with this guy can’t end well.”
“Well, to be honest, I wanted to,” I replied to Tony. “I was all ready to throw down, but Renee decided it wasn’t a good idea. She wasn’t sure we’d win. So she convinced me not to.”
“Or she was concerned that you’d get hurt?” Sarah suggested.
“Or that, yeah.”.
“That’s the first intelligent thing I’ve heard you say about that woman,” Sarah muttered darkly.
“Hey, cut her some slack,” I retorted. “She’s as much a victim in all this as I am.”
“If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t be in any of this.”
“If it weren’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here at all,” I snapped angrily.
“What?” both Tony and Sarah exclaimed almost in unison.
“There was a point where I was coming to terms with all this that I was in danger – serious danger.”
“Danger? From who?”
“Well, no-one really. There’s a coping mechanism that the body goes through when this all happens. It’s something about the way that the body adjusts to the mana.”
“Right… and?” Tony prompted.
“Well, it’s apparently a very dangerous time for our kind.”
“Our kind?” Sarah interjected. ”Christ, you make it sound like you’re no longer human anymore.”
“Anyway,” I replied, ignoring Sarah’s comment, “it can be fatal. The body burns itself out or something, and Renee helped me through it.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, apparently I wasn’t doing so well. It’s entirely possible that without Renee’s intervention I would have died.”
“Really? When was this?” Sarah asked tentatively.
“Earlier this year,” I replied frankly.
“What? When you were getting all those headaches? And couldn’t sleep and such?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, all I know is it wasn’t pleasant and I’d never want to go through it again.”
“Yeah, you looked pretty wrecked for a while there dude,” Tony muttered.
“Is it likely to come back?” Sarah asked.
“No, I don’t think so, at least from what Renee told me it won’t.”
“Kind of like puberty for wizards then, eh?” Tony snickered. “Told you you’d hit puberty eventually.”
“I guess.” I nodded, not really wanting to entertain Tony’s jibe. “The important thing is that now you know, I need you to keep this a secret.”
“You don’t even have to ask,” Sarah replied immediately.
“Thank you,” I replied.
It felt so much better to get all that off my chest. I hadn’t realised how long I’d been holding on to all of that. It was hard keeping it all to myself without talking to anyone about it. I had a tendency to brood if left alone and didn’t really deal with my problems that well.
“Now let’s go home,” Tony declared as he threw an arm around my shoulder and pushed me towards the school gates.
“Don’t you have to return the basketball?”
“Eh, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Tony chuckled.
It wasn’t until halfway home that I remembered Renee’s instructions. Do not use the mana for any reason. A chill went down my spine. I may have just given everything away. In my callousness and my foolishness I could very well have given Vin the clue he needed to track us down.
Even today I’m still not sure if it was my actions on the basketball court that led to Vin finding us. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I still blame myself for what came next. I’d been warned and it had been very clearly explained to me the consequences of my actions. However, when the chips were down, I took the opportunity to show off for my friends and ignore my responsibility.
* * * *
Renee called to check on me later that day. I neglected to tell her that I’d used throughout the day. She had actually called to tell me that she’d booked a motel room for a few weeks. The motel wasn’t far from the school and she’d quit her job. All we were waiting on was for my exams and then we’d be out of here.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to break the news to Dad. I’d called him the night before to ask him if it would be okay if I didn’t come into the city for the next few weekends as I wanted to cram for the exams. He said he understood, but I could tell he was a little hurt by the request.
I hadn’t said anything to Mum. I had no idea how I was going to cross that particular issue. Again Renee was no help as she herself admitted she didn’t exactly play happy families. She and her grandfather pretty much went their own ways and tried to stay out of each other’s way. In the end, I determined to deal with it the same way I deal with all issues that I didn’t want to deal with. I ignored it.
Renee had agreed to come to the Final Year Formal Dance. It was a school tradition that on the weekend before the exams the Year 12s would attend a formal dance to celebrate the end of the school year.
I’d done some checking, and whilst it was unusual it wasn’t against the rules for students to bring dates from outside the school. I couldn’t think of anyone I wanted to take more. A week had passed and we’d fallen into a routine. We hadn’t seen anything of Vin throughout the time and so it was looking good that we’d eluded him – at least for now.
Neither Renee nor I had used mana since my small slip up on the basketball courts and it was beginning to show. I was starting to get those headaches again and becoming short tempered. Fortunately Sarah and Tony now knew what I was going through and cut me some slack. Renee seemed to handle the withdrawal better than me, but you could tell there was a tension behind her eyes. It showed especially when she looked at me, but she certainly didn’t appear to be developing headaches or snapping at me anymore than usual.
The school formal was the weekend after next, followed immediately by exams. It was frightening how quickly time was running out. I still had no idea how I was going to say goodbye to my friends and family. Although Tony and Sarah knew I was going, we all were treating it like it was only for a few weeks. The reality of the situation hadn’t hit home. Renee and I had talked about where we might go, but Renee had claimed that her grandfather was preparing a place for us. She just wouldn’t tell me where it was. I could tell she was a little nervous about introducing me to him and to be perfectly honest, I was terrified of the prospect.
I’d come to the conclusion that I was the one who was responsible for Vin finding Renee. After she had inadvertently let slip that Vin was tracking us via our mana use I thought back about everything we’d done and remembered with startling clarity the mana burst I’d sent out across the Melbourne skyline.
That display must have been a beacon from many miles away – there was no way any of our kind could have missed that. The fact that Vin had shown up only a few weeks after that seemed to support my theory.
I wasn’t looking forward to standing before Renee’s grandfather being the responsible party for Vin finally locating her. Renee had told me he didn’t cope with fools well, and at the moment I felt very foolish.
* * * *
It was the week before the school formal. Next week would be exams. I wasn’t really freaking out about the exams, however, as all my terror was reserved for the decision I’d already made. I was leaving.
It wasn’t that I had begun to second guess myself. It was more a case that I wasn’t sure that I could pay the price of my decision. Everything I knew, everyone I knew was here – I’d be giving it all up.
“Wow, you’re really out of it.” Garry grinned, punching me on the shoulder. We were sitting in the food court of the shopping centre after school. We used to come here quite regularly after school until they’d instituted a no school uniform policy. Considering it was this close to the end of the school year we figured that they didn’t care anymore. We never really worried about the rule anyway, but it would be nice not to have to worry about keeping an eye open for a teacher doing a random check.
“Yeah, sorry mate,” I grumbled.
“Actually, you’ve been out of it for a while now,” Garry continued. “You nervous about exams?”
I could see Tony and Sarah exchange glances. I could see them wondering how best to derail Garry’s line of conversation. They’d obviously realised what I was brooding about and that I couldn’t just come out and discuss it openly now.
“Yeah,” I said, “and starting to wonder if I’ve made the right decision.”
“What? About not going to university?” Tina piped up.
She and I had had vastly different views on that topic, so it wasn’t surprising that she’d go there. This turn of topic would do nicely.
“Yeah,” I said, playing along.
“I didn’t think you had a choice,” Sarah replied.
“No, I don’t really,” I replied dully.
“Of course you do!” Tina jumped in, flashing an angry glance at Sarah. “There’s always a choice, you’ve just got to fight for the things you want.”