Gifted

Chapter XXIX: Here And Now

I get a shiver down my spine. Jason still kneels beside me, holding my arms. He looks over to me, ducking down a bit.

-Are you ready?, he asks me while trying to calm me down.

-I hope so, I respond.

I then stand up from behind a boulder, half-grinning, although I'm scared out of my wits. As I'm walking around the rock, he says,:

-Ah, Ashlee-Mae, it's a pleasure seeing you again.

-Shut up, Collins, I've heard enough of you. If you want a war, you've got one. Just give my family back to me.

He looks at my with a puzzled, smug look.

-Oh, but you made a deal. You promised to put everybody in that room under my control, and that included your family. There's no going back now, is there?, he says, chuckling afterwards.

Suddenly, the ground starts shaking once again, but this time, Carter's army rises with the ground that he's made tower in front of us.

-Let the war begin, then, he says in the scarily quiet field.

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Days later, we are still at war. There are fires, many objects are flipped over and destroyed, and many are either dead or badly injured. I have a feeling that this battle won't be ending until everybody I know is gone.

-ASH, DUCK!, Jason yells, teleporting into a newly formed crater.

I go down, nearly getting hit by a fireball. If Carter doesn't give up, we might. I knock out the few people running towards me. Suddenly, everything stops. Nothing is happening.

-You see, I've got some pretty strong people on my side too. Not to mention more. Now, with this power, I can make time go progressively slower and slower for everybody but us. Shall we duel?, Carter says, gliding down on a disk of air he'd created.

Clear my mind. If I can get enough firepower to, I could knock him off his feet. Now that I've got a game plan (well, enough anyways), I can do this. I'm gonna win.

-No. We're not gonna fight anymore!, I yell, looking straight at him, with all that I could let out of my mind, making him nearly collapse to the ground, but he, of course, managed to stay up.

That's great.

I try to convince him to get the guy to unfreeze everything, and with many failed attempts, he says,:

-Whether you like it or not, you're NOT going to win! Do you understand that? Just like your father.

-Okay, that's it! You better shut your mouth, Collins! You do not talk about my father, or bad things will come of this.

Then, everything unfreezes. As many people are still trying to recover from what happened, Jason comes up to me.

-What's happening? Did you make another deal with him?

-No, I answer. I don't know why he unfroze everybody.. He couldn't of taken pity on me, I know that for a fact.. What had I done?