Kinetic

Chapter 3 (part 2)

It was past midnight when she finally arrived. No customers had visited since Oliver left [and other general observations about the shift].

A fuse had blown at about eleven, throwing the café into darkness, and I didn't have access to the fuse box which meant I was relying on the street lights and a couple of torches to be able to see.

"Are you okay?" she asked after we both sat down at a table and she had spread her work across it.

I scowled. "Yeah, why?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. She explained to me which task Dale had said was the most important. Then, as she wrote what I suggested, told me, "I'm not sure if you've noticed this, but you have this, like, static energy around you whenever something bad's about to happen to you."

"What?"

"Mm." she nodded decidedly.

At that point, a band of bright light briefly illuminated the café before disappearing around a corner to the sound of screeching tyres.

I stood and walked closer to the window. We were sitting by the door because there was a street light directly outside it, and the car had turned into a crescent which I knew just looped around to the end of the road facing the café.

"What do you mean?" I asked after a couple of minutes.

"It must be something to do with your powers," she said casually. "I bet if you put your hand near my head, my hair would stick to it like a balloon."

"Really?" I turned to look and her over my shoulder, grinning from ear to ear at the prospect of being able to do something which seemed so irritating.

She sighed, smiling, and pulled out her ponytail. "Go for it."

I took a couple of steps towards her, pointing my palm in her direction, and a few strands of her hair began to lift away from her head

My curiosity was short-lived. Alex squinted as the room was once again bathed in blinding light, and I returned to the doorway to have a look at the source.

I couldn't tell if it was the same car because the headlights were shining, full glare, directly at me. It was bizarre for anyone to be around this part of the city in the dead of night so I decided to have a look at what was happening. But, as I wrapped my fingers around the door handle, the car began to crawl forwards and I was shaken by an overwhelming sense of dread.

"Move," I said to Alex. A shock of pain snapped up both of my arms.

"What?"

The car was picking up speed at an alarming rate.

"Move now. Move!"

She scrambled out of her seat and we rushed to the back of the room. I pushed her onto the floor behind the counter, our screams made comical by fear.

Half a second later, the body of the car came screeching through the front wall of the building, scattering the tables, sending bits of broken glass and rubble flying in all direction, and triggering both its own alarm and the shop's intruder alarm.

It was a tense five minutes before either of us moved. We lay there with our chests heaving, tears trailing down the dust on Alex's face, and my hands shaking as heat from my palms popped and crackled against the floor.

Presently, I reached up above me and pressed the panic button underneath the till for good measure.

Alex gasped, still sobbing. "Oh my god," she said, eyes wide. A shard of glass fell out of her hair when she moved into a kneeling position. "Did you do that?"