Overlap

Chapter 105 (Bonus Chapter): Superhero

<05/01/2013 - 13:01 | Levanaught Middle School (Outskirts), Marietta, GA, USA>

"Thanks." I carefully stepped out of the car after thanking my driver, slowly backing away a bit while waiting for the Uber to drive away. I worried at first that he might protest to the idea of letting me off to the side of the road, but I was still in visual sight of the structure anyway, and he didn't question me further.

As I turned around to meet a new fate I've chosen to embark, I saw the large middle school in my sights, overlooking the few slopes I would have to traverse in order to get down in there. This is the place; this is Levanaught Middle School. I double checked my phone, which I've already placed on silence, showing me it had just turned one in the afternoon... I'm a little late, but still about thirty minutes early enough to continue.

"Target location in sight. You there Lumina?"

"Yes, I'm here... I really wish you weren't there though. There's nothing I can do to talk you out of this, is there?" I could still feel her worry from within, a sense of danger Lumina wanted both of us to avoid.

If I could avoid what is about to happen today, I would without question. However, the situation is far from acceptable. Lives are at stake today, and because of what I know firsthand, it's my duty to try putting a stop to it. "There isn't. I want to help them Lumina. I know how you feel, trust me, but I am doing this, and I'll be okay. So, I need you here with me too. You ready to go through with the plan?"

"Just be careful, okay? You're not a solider, nor are you a superhero. But if you really think you can make a difference in there, I'll trust you for now."

I should probably take the few seconds I have to review the situation as it is right now. Days ago, despite being bothered by the powers of clairvoyance and clairsentience, I've resumed practice on these abilities, this time while trying to expand outward in range and random directions. This morning, my clairvoyance and clairsentience merged into the same invocation and revealed this middle school before me.

It wasn't Levanaught itself that was interesting, but rather a specific classroom of terrified students and their teacher, trapped inside the building. The same reason I left the Uber on the outskirts of the road to the school, is the same reason Levanaught is on full lockdown. Right now, right at this moment, there's an active school shooter in this building. The police already have the front and back parking lot blocked off, but they're not going into the school right now, nor will they for quite some time.

The vision of what I saw earlier today showed a bleak future within these walls, a broken maniac with a pistol and extra ammunition shooting up the place. I didn't get a great look at his face, but the shooter looked like he was freshly in high school. Be it a grudge against the staff or a full mental breakdown, I could care less about the motivations of this massacre. Clairsentience activated more strongly in that moment, allowing me to experience an amplified level of total fear from over twenty-four eight graders and their teacher. There are several classes and additional students randomly located inside, experiencing the same fear, but this specific class in Room 717 - is my primary evacuation target. They're the ones I need to save.

Lumina warned be before that I'm not a hero, and I agree. I can't protect or save everyone inside. I don't know the layout of the school interior, and for whatever reason, my powers only let me see in and around classroom 717 enough to know its relative location from the exterior to the interior. If I can't enter the front or back, I'll go into the side entrances instead. In lockdown situations, schools leave these doors unlocked, so that fleeing students can escape.

Ultimately, given what I witnessed ahead of time, I knew I had to do something. When I affirmed what I felt and saw, combining parts of my vision with the matching name of the school, I was certain I had to do something. I was home when I used my powers around 9 A.M., since my school was on its last break about to be over in the semester. I drew a second lucky straw with how cold it was today for a day in May. The operation isn't simple, but the objective is; infiltrate the school and evacuate class 717. When I looked further ahead into my vision... Well, I don't have to spell it out, do I? Too many innocent people are going to die today, more than I'll ever be comfortable with, but if I can save just some of them, that will be enough for me.