Escape (Book 1 of the Gods' series)

Chapter 8

I turned to face Jess, she was laughing uncontrollably, her face red like a tomato, I growled inside my throat, I couldn’t help picturing a scene in my mind where I was a lion or a tiger, or another vicious animal, prowling around her, then striking my attack, killing her, I couldn’t think like that, I started to drift away from the scene, into a black hole, a little voice in the back of my mind spoke with a sickly sweet voice like lemon sherbet, “A little harm won’t hurt too bad will it? Just a claw or a nibble, just to draw some blood, go on, do it.” Another voice, this one deeper, yet, kinder, “Yes, she needs to learn her lesson, but hurting her will get you nowhere, you will just lose the trust that you had with Dylan and Aaron. Maybe intimidate her, turn into an animal, and scare her, don’t hurt her. Or better yet, don’t do anything, let her use her own choices, she will only hurt herself.”

The second idea sounded better than the first, though, I was sad that I couldn’t draw her blood. I decided that I would let her make her own choices; they would probably get her killed though. Oh well, free rights and all that stuff. I returned to the scene which was one of anger, my eyes were foggy, like they were covered in a film of mist.  Jess was laying on the floor in a ball, with a furious Dylan towering above her like a skyscraper, flanked by Aaron, just as angry, Jess was cradling her cheek in one hand and protectively holding her stomach with the other, her nose was bleeding and her lip was bust. I then realised I was laying in the floor too.

I tried to sit up, but a searing white-hot pain down the centre of my spine stopped me, I screamed. I lay there writhing and convulsing, with the agonising pain not soothing at all, I wanted to be sick, “Stay here with her,” Dylan told Aaron as he ran to kneel beside me, muttering something about Jess, it involved him swearing, lots. “D- Dylan, it hurts so much.” I screamed as the pain struck twice as hard as before, I balled my hands into fists in my hair, “I know, I know, turns out the hag can control more than just water, she can control any liquid, that on your back, is sulphuric acid, diluted only slightly by the looks of your burns.”

“Why did she-?” 

“Do that? Because she was talking and you were, like, on another planet or something, she complained that you were ignoring her, then she just got all angry and blamed everything in her suckish life on you, then ka boom, sulphuric acid all on your back, you collapsed, I stayed with you until you came around a bit then helped Aaron finish off his good work with Jess. Don’t worry, she is in way less pain than you, although she acted something like you did when I kicked her and busted her lip, Aaron also busted her nose, and slapped her. Seeing his almighty strength, he might have done a bit more than slapped her.” I smiled up at him; he smiled back at me, he then shot a glance at Aaron. He walked over to us and sat cross legged next to me, “I doubt Jess will be hurting you again any time soon. How are you feeling?”

“To be honest, like I’ve laid on loads of hot rocks.”

“Ouch.” they both said in unison. I gave a weak smile. “Let’s get back to work then, boys.” I pretended to perk up a bit, ignoring the pain like it wasn’t that bad (It really, really was!) They mustn’t have bought my (personally awesome) acting, because their reaction was; “No, you are not moving anywhere! That burn is way too bad, we will get another key, and we can boost each other up to that ledge or something, just stay. Here.” well, Dylan said that then ran off to a ledge, the one with the key on, Aaron whispered to me, “You can heal, don’t forget that, you saved Dylan, try to save yourself. See you later.” Before he ran to catch up with Dylan. At first I didn’t understand, probably because of the acid, I thought, but then it became clear. I had to heal myself, or I would have a big, ugly scar on my back. I closed my eyes. I placed my hand on my back where the burn was, I winced at the pain. I felt a wind from underneath me; I felt as though I was flying, there was nothing beneath me. I didn’t open my eyes; it seemed to help the pain.

The wind stopped and I felt rock underneath my body again. I opened my eyes, they weren’t foggy. The searing pain in my back was gone and I was able to move again. I moved my self into a crouching position then stood above Jess, who was still in a ball, wimp, I thought to myself, then smiled at my own private comment. I composed myself to frown down at Jess, I nudged her with my foot, she looked up at me; her nose and mouth had stopped bleeding but her eyes were red and puffy, her cheeks had dry water trails down them like train tracks. “What do you want?” She asked

“Nothing, I just came to warn you that if you ever play a trick like that again, you will have much more than a busted lip and a few bruises.” I started to walk away but then she shouted out, “Why? What are you going to do?” I turned back to her, now she really was crossing the line. She looked at me, waiting for me to say something, I wasn’t going to say though, I was going to show her what I would do. I morphed into a cheetah and bared my teeth at her I let out a fierce hiss, she jumped back a little but other wise did nothing else, I got a thought then ‘I wonder I can speak to humans.’ “So, are you going to try that again, or are you going to leave your powers to the bad guys?” My voice was strong and controlling, I guessed it changes to the personality of the animal, “U- um, leave them to the bad guys?”

“Smart girl. You don’t want to be hurt now do you?” She shook her head rapidly. “Well, I say this conversation is over, goodbye.” I was already retreating when I said that, jumping over rocks. Before I reached the boys I was going to morph back into myself, but then I thought No, I might play a little prank I walked over to them, Dylan was trying to climb up to the ledge, his legs on Aaron’s shoulders, Aaron was teetering left and right, trying to keep his balance. I cleared my throat, it sounded deeper when I was a cheetah. Dylan nearly fell off of Aaron’s shoulders as he spun around to face me, “Hey! Idiot! I’m still up here! Oh.” Dylan shouted down to Aaron then he looked at me, Aaron released his grasp on Dylan, who then jumped down to the ground and stared at me, I thought he was going to prod me, “It’s just Charlotte. You can tell because of her eyes. They’re blue.” Were they? I morphed human. I guess the game was up.