The Edge of Honour

Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

Morgan's POV:

I had a major day of coaching ahead of me. Even more importantly, I was at a critical juncture in my training and I knew that I would have to give it my all, if I was going to master my power for manipulating the weather.

Once I was dressed, I opened my door and was about to make my way down to reception to meet Jet when something stopped me dead in my tracks. I could hears voices, but they were not talking, they were crying out in pain, screaming for help, pleading for mercy.

It could have been a training exercise, an elaborate stunt so that the agents could practice what they had been learning in their exercises. Yet there was a feeling inside of me so strong that it took over my entire body which told me it was not. I could sense that it was something serious. Instantly, I turned away from the stairs and made my way back to the safety of my room. I didn't want to be involved in it, it seemed too dangerous for me. After all, I was only training to be an agent, I had no experience in dealing with the reality of situations.

The shouts continue to increase in volume even as I walked away. I knew that whatever was happening was serious and that I was in real mortal danger. If I had had some more training I might have been able to help those who were screaming downstairs. I was acutely aware that it I went down there, I would be likely to create more problems than I would solve. I was not skilled enough and despite the horrific images that my mind was generating as the noise they created intensified; I had to admit that I had no real idea of what was going on downstairs. Desperately, I tried to soothe myself by repeating that it was only a training exercise, but the sheer fear in the voices of those underneath me told me that it wasn't.

A familiar sound echoed through the building before reverberating around my room. I had heard it before, there was no mistaking its unique and deafening sound. My grandmother used to use it to frighten birds away when they had appeared to threaten to eat our crops and it had been a familiar sound to my ears when my grandfather and I went on our annual hunting trips. The sound would forever be etched in my memory, but none of those had been as terrifying as what I heard at that moment. It squealed out as it left its canister and I slowly began to cry. I hopelessly wished that I was anywhere else but the training facility. The people downstairs were suffering, a gun had been fired. It was not a hoax, somewhere down there, somebody was probably lying on the ground dead in a pool of their own blood.

At that time, I had had no idea of who the culprit was or what their motive was for doing something so terrible, all I knew was that I desperately wanted it to stop. I wanted somebody to pull me close and promise me that everything would be alright, but nobody would because it wasn't going to be. I could not stop thinking about how many people could have lost their lives downstairs, but what truly disgusted me was that all I could think about was how scared I felt. It was self-absorbed, but it was true.

There was a frantic knocking on my door, I furtively edged further away from it until I became almost moulded into the wall at the far side of the room. There was no way that I would open that door. They would must likely be able to get in and kill me anyway, but I was not going to make it any easier for them to do so.

I was sure that they were able to hear my heart as it thundered against my chest. My breathing was low and gasping despite how hard I tried to silence it.

“Morgan, open up. This is really serious,” Jet shouted. I ran towards the door as it heard his voice and opened it, thankful that it was somebody I trusted outside of it and not somebody who wanted to murder me. He looked frantically around him before closing the door behind him and shutting the bolt.

I tired to speak- to question him, but he silenced me. He moved any piece of furniture that he found and piled them up against the door. It was evident that he thought that I could be in danger and his actions were doing nothing to allay the anxiety which I had already felt before his arrival.

“Jet,” I snapped as he finally finished blocking the door with the various pieces of furniture in my apartment “What is happening?” I need to know.”

“He is after you,” Jet stuttered, unsure of how much he should tell me and what I needed to know. He took a deep breath as if he were trying to calm himself, before he continued, “Even though he had previously stated that he wanted nothing to do with you and did not want to speak with you; by law we still had to inform your father that you were with us.” I looked at him in horror, I was confused at what he could possibly mean by his words. My father had never cared about me, what right did he have to know my whereabouts. “We had to, we had no choice since your only legal guardian was deceased. It meant that we had to explain about your powers to him and he suddenly became much more interested in you when he learned about them.”

“So, he knows that I am here and about my powers?” I was angry at Jet for not telling me the information sooner. However, I had no idea why he would choose a time like this to finally tell me; unless, and then it finally hit me. “Are you saying that he is the one downstairs in reception?” Jet nodded sadly and wrapped his long arms around me and tried to comfort me as best as he could in a situation like that.

I immediately broke down- crying hysterically as the gun fired once more beneath our feet. I may have never met that man, but it was now clear that it was my fault that innocent people were being killed directly underneath us

“I should go down there, maybe I could stop him” I whimpered, trying to stand up, but my legs felt like jelly and I quickly crumpled back into a heap on top of the bed. "This is all my fault, if I hadn't come, none of this would have happened," I stuttered as tears streamed down my face.

“There is no way that I would leave you go down there Morgan,” Jet said, pulling me into a tighter embrace. “It will all be okay, I promise.”

“But it is my fault,” I repeated. Jet didn't respond, my words were the truth so there was nothing he could say to comfort me. Suddenly, there was another knock on my door. I jumped in fear as a voice spoke from outside of it.

“It is over now. Can I come in?” Jet stood up to open the door for the person at the other side. He quickly pulled back the furniture that had barricaded the door and scattered it around the room as he frantically tried to open the door that he had only recently jammed shut. Once everything had been moved, he unbolted the door and Olivia entered. She sat beside me on the edge of the bed.

“Is he dead?” I asked. I did not care about him, I simply wanted to make sure that everybody else was safe from him.

“No, we arrested him and he has been taken away. The last shot was fired by our security team to tranquilize him so that he could not resist. He can’t hurt you anymore Morgan,” she added in an vain effort to reassure me.

“What about everyone else? Are they all okay?” Olivia looked at Jet who looked back at her with a stunned expression as he realised what she was about to tell me; up until that point Jet hadn't none the extent of what had happened.

“No.” With that simple two lettered word, I felt my world shatter around me as Olivia began to tell me the worst news that I could ever possibly hear.

Worst of all, it had all happened because of me. If only I had been down there, I might have been able to stop him and none of it would have happened.

However, the stark truth of reality had just been laid out and presented to me.

He had done it- he had managed to finally break my heart apart without ever seeing me or speaking to me.