Rainmaker

16

This is all my fault. The thought echoes through me like a drumbeat, loud and relentless.

"She's too dangerous," one of the villagers cries out. "We have to get rid of her!"

The witches step forward, their voices smooth and persuasive. "Let us take her. We can help. She can't stay here."

I can feel their eyes on me, cold and calculating, and something inside me snaps. No. They won't take me. I won't let them.

A surge of emotion—grief, guilt, anger—washes over me, too strong to hold back. The power inside me, the elements I've been trying so hard to control, rise with it. It's like a dam breaking, all the magic I've been suppressing rushing to the surface in a violent, uncontrollable wave.

The ground beneath me trembles, the earth rumbling as cracks form, spreading outward like the jagged lines of a broken mirror.

The villagers stumble back, their fear palpable as the earth shakes beneath their feet as the air thickens with magic. I can see the terror in their eyes, the realization that they've pushed me too far.

The witches, too, step back, but their eyes gleam with anticipation, and their expressions are full of hunger. "Yes," one of them whispers. Let it out. Show us what you can do."

But I don't want to show them anything. I want them all to go away. 

I raise my hands, and the earth responds with a shuddering, violent crack. The wind picks up, swirling around me in a frenzied cyclone, and lightning splits the sky, illuminating the terrified faces of the villagers. The storm surges, fed by my grief my anger, and I can feel it building, growing more powerful by the second.

"Emily!" Lucas shouts again, his voice cutting through the chaos. "You need to stop!"

But I can't. It's too much. The power is too strong, too wild. I've lost control again; this time, there's no pulling it back.

The earth beneath the witches splits open. I watch as the earth swallows them.

"Emily!" one of the villagers shouts, her voice shrill with panic. "Stop!"

I don't know how. I don't know if I can.

Lucas grabs me, forcing me to look at him. "Focus on me," he says, his voice low but firm. "We need to go," he says, "Now."

I nod, my heart still racing, my mind spinning. We have to leave. There's nothing left for me here.

Without another word, Lucas grabs my hand, and we turn, sprinting toward the outskirts of the village. The villagers don't try to stop us—they're too stunned, too afraid to move.

As we flee into the forest, the last thing I hear is the wind howling through the broken village and the haunting echo of my guilt chasing me into the darkness.