The beady, lifeless eyes of the snake-like creature locked on to her.
"Are you fucking kidding,". Cara looked around desperately and found the old flower shop to her left, its windows shattered.
The beast let out another cry before slithering toward her, and Cara waded toward the flower shop as fast as she could, holding her breath. She looked over her shoulder and saw the monstrous figure coming closer and closer.
"Oh God," she panted, exhausted and slightly annoyed that she found herself in this position, being chased by this morbid monster straight out of the depths of hell.
Its movement created waves that pushed Cara around as if she were stranded in the ocean in the middle of a violent storm.
In the instant she got through the door of the building, the creature rammed into the structure, causing a section of it to collapse. She couldn't hear herself screaming. She practically rolled to the back of the building, as far away from the monster as she could get. The flood trickled inside, and through a collapsed side of the building, the monster stuck its head in, letting out another deafening screech.
She grunted through gritted teeth. The blood that trickled down her face tasted like smooth iron.
"This is it. Death by water Manipulating sea serpent-millipede... or whatever the fuck it is," she said, exasperated - as if humor would make her demise more bearable. She curled up in a ball and covered her face, preparing for the end.
Suddenly, she heard a familiar, nasally voice.
"HEY! OVER HERE!"
Cara opened her eyes.
Mom?
"CARA!" the voice came again, high-pitched with panic.
The diversion worked. The monster ripped its head out of the building and turned its attention toward the disruption.
"No," Cara whispered. As her mind put the pieces together, she swiftly got up and forced herself through the debris and water.
She saw the creature slithering away toward her mother, who stood helplessly by the destroyed fountain. Without thinking, Cara screamed and threw her hands forward with amazing force, she felt a rush of energy coursing through her body starting from her feet and up toward her palms. It was exhilarating.
When she opened her eyes, the water that flooded the square had frozen, trapping the beast with it. It let out a cry of agony.
"Cara!" her mother called out.
She met her mother's eyes, and with horror, she realized she had accidentally trapped her mother in the ice as well.
"Shit!," Cara said while scrambling desperately, "I'm going to get you out, Mom!".
A couple dozen feet away from the beast, she now saw its full stature. It was enormous, and angry. Very angry. It squirmed vigorously, creating cracks in the ice that imprisoned it. She noticed the creature was beginning to grow larger... it was Manifesting water again, expanding more quickly than before!
"You need to get out of here," her mother screamed. "Leave!"
Cara's eyes began to well with tears. "I'm not leaving without you, Mom!". Stubborn as hell and true to her word, she maneuvered across the ice toward her mother.
"Get away!" her mother exclaimed, her eyes frantically going back and forth between Cara and the beast.
Putting her hands on the ice, Cara pushed for that same energy that she felt before.
Imagine the ice melting. Come on! you don't have time for this right now!
She took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. Her mother was freed, the ice that once trapped her melted away.
"I can't believe that worked!" Cara gasped, bursting with relief. "Now, let's go, follow me! Head toward the gates, Mom!"
Cara's mom got up, and they began sprinting toward the exit, but not even a couple of steps in, there was an ear-splitting crash. The creature had gotten out of the ice that imprisoned it, and the water it had Manifested sent what seemed like a tsunami their way.
"Mom!" Cara screamed, but before she could utter another word the water whooshed her away like a rag doll, sending her spinning toward the gates she entered in. She crashed into the iron bars and was sent into a daze.
Crumpled on the ground, she sluggishly brought her body up with one arm. She heard a voice behind her, a man. She couldn't make out what he was saying. The world was spinning. There was a ringing in her ears, and her vision was blurry. Salty water sloshed into her mouth, causing her to cough uncontrollably.
"Mom...". The word was barely audible to her own ears.
It took almost all of her energy just to turn her head. She saw a figure trapped in the corner of the square, their body partially submerged in water. The beast was moving toward it. Everything was moving in slow motion.
The man she heard lifted her up, roughly dragging her limp body out of the gates. Right before the beast ripped into the only family she had left in this world, Cara blacked out.
YOU ARE READING
Manipulators
Fantasy"The devastation left by man-kind's greed and anger was so tremendous that the amount of energy it took for Raza to restore what was broken while at the same time keeping us humans apart was too much for his physical form, leading him to implode upo...
