The Time Hopper

Choices

He said no, and then we were both moving. I focused on the ground beneath his feet, trying to speed up the aging, make it rot away and dump him down into the dungeons to buy us enough time to escape. His hand, though, reached out to me. For a moment, I tensed. I expected to be dragged back into my headspace, have to fight him off breaking my soul open again, but that didn't happen. It turned out that his innate magic was far more subtle, and far more deadly, than the mere party trick he had used to destroy Kat. In fact, it was so small that for a moment I thought his powers simply didn't work on me, and I wasn't exactly wrong. 

And then my mother slammed into my back and sent me tumbling down the stairs. Immediately, my own magic stopped as I fell, bouncing over the hard wood and ending up in a pile on the stone floor of the foyer. My arm had broken on the way down, and my ribs were killing me as I peeled open my eyes and stared up at my parents. They had released Kat, who obediently went over and stood besides Obsivian, and they were advancing on me with dark eyes. Confused and scared, I hurried to stand up, wincing and backing away, trying not to get closer to Obsivian either. 

"Guys, what are you doing? Come on, stop it!" I begged them, tears brimming in my eyes as I saw the pure hatred in their gazes. Obsivian had one arm around Kat's shoulders, holding her close by as he watched with contempt. 

"You know, it's amazing how much hatred lives in the hearts of mortals. Even for their own child, there is a spark of resentment. For, after all, if you had just been normal, they would not have suffered for years untold." Obsivian narrated, a smug smile on his face as my own parents turned against me. I held my uninjured arm out in front of me, palm outstretched, but I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to hurt them- no, I couldn't hurt them. But- I had time, so if I reversed time just enough, maybe whatever was happening wouldn't be happening then and I would have more time to think! 

Golden magic swirled around my mother as I grasped onto her timestream, surprised at how jumbled and unruly it seemed. I tried to push her back down along it just a little bit, but as I watched her visibly get a few years younger, the darkness in her eyes remained just as strong. I had to start moving, then, rushing to the other edge of the hallway and only turning round in time to see my dad throw a vase at me, but not soon enough to duck out of the way. It hit against my shoulder and shattered, one of the pieces of china sticking through my clothes and into my flesh. I yelped and clutched at the wound, pulling it out before compressing it as I tried to figure out what to do. 

"Stop it, please, stop it!" I cried out, still trying to dodge around their attacks while keeping an eye on Kat and Obsivian, who appeared to be simply enjoying the show. 

"I can stop this at any time, simply sit down and give up." Obsivian told me with a small smile on his face. 

"Not you! Please, come on, it's me!" I begged them, hoping that I could break through to them. But from the look in their eyes, they recognised me well enough, and hated me anyway. My mind was scrambling. I had to snap them out of it but I didn't know how. I couldn't hurt them, but they could easily, and seemed eager to, hurt me. I could only evade for so long- Obsivian probably had reinforcements on the way- I had to get everyone out of here! But I couldn't even take Obsivian out anymore, because Kat was right next to him and would be taken down with him and my powers wouldn't directly affect him. 

My mother picked up a fireplace poker as my father came closer and lunged for me, trying to get his hands around my throat. I ducked out of the way and felt my broken ribs grind against each other, tears of fear and frustration and desperation beginning to course down my cheeks. Running past them again, I reached the front door and was shocked when it opened, onto a busy city street. Normal people were walking past, but none of them saw anything.