Inhibition

Chapter 19

Glass flew everywhere, as the storm raged on, stronger now and sounding even louder after its absence. The wind blew the rain in, soaking those inside to the bone, but that didn’t matter anymore. A little water was nothing compared to what was outside.

A wall of dark gray was descending on them, screaming as it approached. As it got closer, Cat was able to see its composition. Wind. A wall of wind whipping in a frenzy across the campus, tearing apart buildings and trees in its wake. Cat could see the debris still floating in the column, and that’s when Cat realized what it was.

A massive tornado had touched down, and was heading straight for them. It had originated so close to the school that Cat couldn’t see the sides of clear space on either side, and hadn’t been able to recognize it up until this point.

There was a sound around her. Cat had to strain her ears to hear what it was, and wished she hadn’t after. People were screaming, screams of terror, of pain. Now that she knew what it was, the sounds reverberating through her head, pressuring her mind with thoughts that weren’t her own.

God!

Help me! Somebody help me!

Stop! Please don’t come any closer.

Please, God, save me!

Save us!

Make it stop!

We’re all going to die.

Cat clutched her head as the images and words overloaded her mind. She was drowning in them. The intrusion upon her mind was a physical pain, as the thought came in. Thoughts that weren’t hers and that she didn’t need.

But it was the last thought, We’re all going to die, that stuck in her mind, no matter how much she tried to dislodge it. She couldn’t pick out who was thinking it, or where, or even when they first thought it, but the words resonated in her mind. The person wasn’t screaming, wasn’t terrified or in pain. They were merely stating a fact, and they were accepting it.

That was the worst part. As the ginormous tornado started tearing away at the school where Cat was, as tree limbs were ripped off, and debris flew through the broken windows, someone, somewhere had given up. They weren’t thinking about surviving, or running, or hiding. They were done.

The screams increased as the people inside sought cover. They fought each other for their safety, and almost all of them were under a table, or desk, or against the far wall. Some had escaped outside the classroom, perhaps hoping that they would be safer the further away they were from the tornado.

But Cat stood. She faced the tornado, her hair whipping wildly and her legs straining as they fought against the wind threatening the topple her. She stood tall, shoulders back, chin up, and lips parted, as she walked out the window and into the wind.

Cat pushed her magic around her, forging a path through the winds. Her magic was an arrow, fastened of need, and crackling with energy. It formed from twirling, crackling, searching strands of power, made of the purple lightning of her being.

As she pushed forward, her shield stood strong, giving her a few feet on each side. She couldn’t cut away all of the wind, or the power behind it, so her hair and clothes whipped on her body, her wet hair slashing welts on her face with the force of the wind. Her exposed arms, chest, and face accumulated cut after cut from where her magic couldn’t truly dissolve the debris coming at her.

As her shield touched the dark wind, it crackled with purple lightning at the point of contact. Her shield spanned out like a pyramid behind her, encompassing the school where she had left out the window, with her as the pyramid’s apex.

Struggling against the force, she forged on, breathing deeply and muscles straining. Finally, when she thought she was could move no more, would be caught and thrown back into the storm, and ripped to pieces by the wind, she broke through.

The force of her magic ripped a hole through the tornado, all the way through to the other side, and that break in the circling of the wind was enough to disrupt the flow. The tornado fell apart around her, the winds careening off into different directions, and the wreckage falling to earth.

It was over.