Powerhouse

Chapter 10

I couldn't understand it. Who was this girl? And why was she showing the obvious evolution of telekinetic powers? She was human for heavens sake.

I pushed the slab of roof off of my leg and stood up, subconsciously walking towards the somehow familiar girl. By then she had dropped back down to the ground. She was on her knees, panting. Her hair framed her face in a mess of curly blond strands. As I approached her she looked up at me, blue eyes wide with fear.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"Su- Susa- Susanna," she breathed. She stood up shakily, and gazed at the wreckage around her. The students who weren't stuck were all running for the hills. "I-I- Did I do this?" she asked.

"Yes, you did."

Her blue eyes widened as she saw a boy struggling to escape the wreckage. A large slab of concrete had pinned his legs down. She ran over to him and tried to push the slab off of him.

"No! Get away from me, you- you- psycho!" the boy screamed.

The girl backed away, hands held out in surrender. A second before it happened, I realized it. "NO," I yelled, "DON'T-"

A pulse of telekinetic energy sent the slab flying in chunks across the schoolyard. The boy screeched, stood up, and ran off into the woods surrounding the neighborhood. Susanna clasped her hands over her mouth in horror at what she had just done.

"I- I didn't mean to-"

I ran over to her, grabbing her hands before she could slap them together and cause an earthquake. "Don't- You need to calm down. Take deep breaths- in four seconds, out four seconds."

She nodded and did as she was told. Around us people were shouting and sirens wailed in the distance. I had to get her out of there.

"You have to come with me," I told her.

"Who are you?" she asked, as if just realizing she didn't know me, and wrestled her hands out of my grip. "How come you're so okay with this? This is so not okay. I just-" She waved at the rubble in exasperation. "I just blew up my fricking SCHOOL!!"

A basketball hoop was blown backward and snapped into toothpicks against a brick wall.

"STOP!" I grabbed her hands again, firmly pulling them down. "I can help you. I know what's going on. But you have to come with me. Unless you want to explain all of this to the authorities." The sirens were getting closer. I had to get her out of there soon, or I'd risk losing this decade's telekinetic to Guantanamo Bay. Or worse.

Her chest heaved as she looked towards the sound of the sirens. She turned and stared at me, eyes full of fear. "Okay."

"Good." I pulled her away from the wreckage. Together we ran through the park, dodging trees and undergrowth until we made it into a clearing overlooking the bay. She grabbed my arm and pointed east. "Wait! My house is that way."

"You can't go back there." I said.

"Why not?"

"They'll be looking for you," I said. "You just blew up your school, remember? They'll ask students who it was floating in the air over the school, and of course they'll tell on you. I'm sure the police can easily find out where you live, right? You'll just get in trouble."

"But- my parents- they'll be looking for me-" she protested weakly.

"Whoever your parents are know nothing about who you really are. You'll be getting them in trouble too."

She considered this. Her eyes hardened with resolve. "Where are we going?"

I thought about this for a second. Where would we go? Somewhere temporary, at least. I thought back to all the crazy places I'd been nesting for the past four days. "There's an abandoned warehouse about a mile from here. We can stay there until-" Until what? Until the police found us? No... Surely the PBJs would find us first. They'd be furious when they heard that a telekinetic was on the loose blowing up buildings containing innocent people. They'd hunt us down, and then bind Susanna and cart her off to the Asylum, where she'd be kept until they were sure she was no longer a threat. 

My hands tightened into fists as I remembered who the last person was the PBJs carted off. Aurel, an amazing person who was now locked away simply because of a talent he didn't want.

"Don't worry," I told her as I led the way out of the clearing. "They won't find us."