My Three Cousins

Chapter Thirty

Outside things had gotten much worse.  Instead of fighting or even actively fleeing from the electric man like she had previously been doing, Joan was cowering behind a tree while he shot lightning in her direction.  The tree didn't conduct electricity to shock Joan, but nothing was stopping it from catching on fire bit by bit.  I still didn't see Helen and I couldn't decide if Ruth and I should stop to make a plan or run to Joan before she got burnt alive.

We paused half of the yard away from Joan, standing in clear view, but banking on the fact that the electric man was too focused on Joan to notice us.  "Can you get there and make the tree stronger?"  I asked, already knowing that regardless of her power it would be difficult for Ruth to get to Joan.

"No," Ruth said shaking her head, "a natural property of wood is that it burns, I'd only make it worse."

I had to bite my tongue to stop from saying that we were screwed.  For a moment we both stood there watching the man attack Joan, frozen as if we were hoping a plan would just come to us.  I started to think we were just going to stand there and watch Joan die, but then Ruth jumped into action and began running toward her sister.  "What's the plan?"  I asked as I ran with her.

"There isn't one," she answered honestly.

We were only feet away from the electric man now and this was definitely not what I wanted to hear.  We fell silent because even without a plan we wanted to keep an element of surprise on our side.  Joan looked around the tree to see where her attacker was and spotted us.  She made eye contact with her sister and but kept her face neutral, so she didn't alert him of her presence.  Ruth bent down to begin picking up small stones off the ground.  I kneeled next to her and began searching too, passing each stone to her so she could enhance it.  "How's this going to help?"  I asked, glad to see my cousin had a plan because my brain function was still frozen by my fear.

"It won't help with the electricity but maybe it can distract him long enough to let Joan get away and get" her voice cut off and she audibly gasped, pointing to the pile of leaves in front of us.  I followed her finger and my eyes landed on what I had previously thought was a pile of leaves: a crumpled and collapsed version of my cousin Helen with her eyes frozen open.  

Just as I started to make sense of Helen's body lying in front of me, the electric man turned to find the source of Ruth's gasp.  As he started to come toward us, I got to my feet, hoping I could outrun him, but Ruth didn't move.  She seemed to be in shock over seeing her sister.  I shoved my hands under her arms and pulled her to her feet, but I wasn't strong enough to keep her there and she couldn't stand alone.  She acted as though she either wasn't aware or didn't care that we were about to be attacked.  "Come on, Ruth.  You have to get up."  I meant to yell the words to get through to her, but it came across more as a plea.  I could hear my own voice about to break and I did my best not to think about Helen, but emotion was swelling in.

I realized Ruth wasn't really even hearing me, so I stopped trying to talk to her or make her walk and started dragging her.  We weren't moving fast enough, and the man shot a lightning bolt that missed my hunched back by an inch.  "Joan help," I yelled, not really sure what she could do but knowing that without help Ruth and I would be fried.

Joan looked around the tree and saw the man wasn't focusing on her anymore, so she started to move quickly toward us.  This caused the man to pause, pivoting between his two targets, not entirely sure where to attack.  "Get up Ruth!" Joan yelled, seemingly confused why her sister wasn't moving.  "Get up!  I can't lose you too."  Joan's voice was hoarse from the smoke she had breathed in while hiding behind the tree and now that she was out of hiding, I could see burns running up her legs.

"Joan needs us, Ruth." I begged, but it was too late.  The electric man had heard Joan's cries and realized how vulnerable Ruth and I was compared to Joan, so he turned on us, leaving Joan entirely.