Butterflies

Chapter 20 - A Guest Appearance

Chapter 20 - A Guest Appearance

Olivia took a deep breath again. Ella stepped away, disappearing as she Travelled to her seat in the stadium. The door opened to reveal Rita. Olivia gasped at the ease that she moved with, almost as if she was the one who controlled what happened in here. She gulped as she realised how easy it had been against Cheryl. This, she reminded herself, she had no chance in surviving.

 >I<   >I<   >I<

The man walked back and forth outside the stadium. He knew he had no chance, but maybe he might be able to imitate one of the other people killing her. Or maybe a natural disaster could kill them both. An unexpected one. One that wasn’t really a ‘natural’ disaster but just a disaster all the same. He had thought his mistress would be angry and kill him personally and straight away. Maybe she hadn’t noticed – he doubted it. Maybe she thought it was deliberate – she wasn’t stupid. Maybe she didn’t care how the girl died, or when or why. Maybe she just wanted him to kill her somehow. Then he could move onto the stupid gullible one. That one he would use words for. He had been planning it for a while. Yes. He would reel her in, take her powers and leave her for dead. She would only have a little while to live. He relished the idea and walked round the corner. There she was. The fast girl. The one he relished imagining killing. And she was alone. He ran his tongue over his lips. Now would be the perfect opportunity to kill her but... No. He would talk to her. He would reel her in like he had imagined and then finish her off in a minute. He walked over to her.

“Excuse me,” he said in his smartest voice to match his smartest suit. “What would your name be? Melissa, perhaps?” He glanced around to play his part. The girl nodded. That was the key, he thought. You have to make it sound like someone sent you. Someone did send you, idiot, he thought but ignored his subconscious. If his subconscious was a person, who did everything that he did, it would be a head on a spike before he could say an apology. Or think about acting. Oh, he was so clever. “I’ve been sent by a friend of yours...” he said lowering his head and voice. He should be an actor like they had in the old days... The girl’s expression changed and she nodded again leaning closer to him to listen. “Meet me here in ten minutes...” he

muttered as someone walked round the corner. The girl turned back to look at him, but he was already gone.

 >I<   >I<   >I<

Rita stood with her feet shoulder width apart, almost casually. Olivia decided to go on the defensive side of this one so she created a bubble of slower time around her. That way she would be able to see the attacks coming. Rita had one hand behind her back and Olivia saw it start to slowly flick. It was almost as if Rita herself was slowly moving just so Olivia would be off balance. However, Olivia knew better. The ground under her feet started to move and she quietly walked to where Rita was standing. She stood a fair distance away – just out of arms reach – but too close for her to use any light. Rita caught up with her and realised she was behind her. She turned at what looked like normal speed – clearly Rita had earned a few skills whilst she had been training too. Rita gave up with being casual and just full on started to throw her hands up sending streams of light through the floor in different places. She got faster and faster until she was breathing hard and gave up.

“How...?” Olivia momentarily re-synced time with outside the bubble so she could hear what the girl was saying. Olivia stayed composed and didn’t say anything. She noticed the corner of Rita’s mouth move and quickly slowed time in the bubble again. The ground under her feet, as she had expected, started to move, and Olivia moved across the arena. She gasped as a searing pain ran up her arm. She looked down to see blood trickling in a steady stream onto the sand. Time stopped and at first Olivia wondered why she had stopped it. Then she realised she hadn’t. Rita had and was smiling evilly at her. Olivia fell to her knees. She could bleed to death here, and no one would be able to help her. She tried to shrink the bubble, but she was losing too much blood. She nearly collapsed to the ground but steeled herself. She would not let Rita and her gang win. Never. So when Rita walked over, she saved her strength. “You know, I knew you would be an easy target, one way or another. Did you actually think that I would just fire from the floor and not try to catch you out?” she laughed darkly. “No, you were just happy to have lived so long. You just thought you were better than me. Ha!” Rita shook her head. “Imagine that! A trained girl losing to a commoner! Never!” Olivia noticed that Rita was walking in circles. She glanced towards Ella but there were just shadows and darkness. She caught a glimpse of Ella moving slowly when she really concentrated but looked away to avoid Rita noticing. “So, I thought about this for a long time. When you give yourself a long time to think something over, you tend to make some rather elaborate plans. For example, I decided it was a good idea to bring a friend of yours here.” She gestured to the door. Something wasn’t right and Olivia’s stomach churned with uncertainty and dread. A guy with his hair in his eyes was pushed into the stadium. His tan shone in the sunlight, and he reminded Olivia of...

“Jarod!” she screeched. He looked up at her, but it only made her feel worse he had dirt all over his face and there was a deep cut under his right eye. He slumped into the sand next to Rita, but not intentionally. It was almost as if some invisible force was controlling him, but he had no strength to fight back. Olivia risked a glance in Ella’s direction and saw that the dark shadows hiding her had moved quickly down to the stadium as they moved towards her; they began to become sand coloured and almost invisible. Olivia strained her eyes to see the force holding Jarod. She could see it now, shimmering lightly. She forced it away with her mind but knew she wasn’t strong enough. She stared down at the deep gash on her arm. It was still pouring out blood and just making her weaker.

Just heal it!

Olivia had never tried healing before, but it couldn’t be all that hard could it? She thought. Well, there’s always a first... She hadn’t lifted her gaze from the cut yet and stared at it hard. She imagined it neatly knitting itself back together and closed her eyes. She reopened her eyes to see smooth, tanned skin back in its place. The blood dried up and flaked off and Olivia went back to destroying the force holding Jarod. Now that she was stronger, she saw how weak Rita was. Her life force was darting and unsure but also thin. She didn’t know why she could see it, but assumed it was probably a side effect of the healing. Olivia focused her power on the invisible or not so invisible force holding Jarod. It was so brittle, that Olivia barely even nudged it with her mind and it splintered into a thousand pieces. Rita gasped. She must have been talking and let the time bubble start to shrink. Olivia nodded to her brother and he Travelled before anyone saw him. Ella was back in her seat, and Rita was clutching at her stomach, cursing. The bubble smashed as Olivia flicked it with her hand.

Rita straightened up, even though she had flinched when the bubble had smashed. “You really think I didn’t set a trap for your brother?” she giggled clearly enjoying herself. Her life force seemed to have calmed down and repaired itself. It glowed a bright, blinding yellow and Olivia suddenly wished she couldn’t see it. Her eyes stung but she struggled to not show it. She didn’t want to give Rita the higher ground, not now and not any time soon. She muffled a quiet moan but Rita still heard it, and Olivia cursed herself – she needed to be more careful. Anything could be the difference between a win and death for her.  “That’s right! You heard! A trap for your brother! Who would have thought? I killed your brother! The mentalist got killed by a girl with mental games! Ha!” she twirled and span across the stadium singing and dancing as she chanted, “I killed your brother!”

Before Olivia could stop herself she had Rita pinned against the wall, her hand holding her throat keeping her just off the ground. Without noticing, she had used powers to hold Rita in place and stop her moving. “Stop! Stop! Thank you,” Olivia let Rita go and stepped away. “Olivia can be decided the winner from what we have seen. Olivia, wait for Melissa in the stadium, Rita leave through the side door.” Rita cast her one side long glance of hate mixed with a lot of fear, and then left the stadium rubbing her neck and limping slightly.  Olivia folded her arms and waited for Ella. What was the point in waiting for an attack when she would need all her strength to beat or survive Melissa...?