Beyond The Sea Blue Light

As The Rain Falls Like Shattered Pieces Of Glass From The Sky

It is as if he has suddenly become a child again. Andy's entire demeanor drops as he stares at his father. His head is bowed as if he is waiting to be chastised for something as simple as stealing candy. There's a mixture of shock and anger on his face, as if he's uncertain which to feel first.

In fact, it seems as if no one knows what to do. Everyone has gone still, barely breathing as they wait for someone to make the first move. Andy's face is red with anger, his cheeks flushed as he glares at his father, who is frozen in the doorway.

Mr. Styles' gaze flits over the dead bodies, the corpses strewn across the ground, then at the five of us standing there. "What did you do?" he repeats, his voice growing faint.

In a split second, Andy has lifted the gun, aiming it at his father. "What did I do?" he spits. "I could ask you the same thing."

"I thought you were dead," Mr. Styles says. He sounds dazed, far away. "You made me believe you were dead."

"Him!" Andy screams, his voice rising in volume. He swings the gun over, aiming it at Josh. "What the hell do you do to him?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Mr. Styles glances over at Josh, a realization coming across his face. "It's not what you think—" he begins.

"What I think?" Andy lets out a derisive laugh. "I've heard stories," he says. "You don't have to try to make excuses."

"It wasn't us."

"Wasn't you?" Andy laughs. "Right, then I didn't kill everyone. I know it was you."

"Let me explain," Mr. Styles pleads. "I'm telling the truth, it wasn't just us."

"But you admit you had a part in it." I glance over to Josh, who is watching the entire exchange, his face pale. Though if it's from blood loss or shock, I'm not certain.

"Mind powers are dangerous," Mr. Styles starts off slowly. "More dangerous than your average power, purely based on the fact that they tamper with something that we, science, doesn't fully understand yet. That's the reason why there are several of you with different spheres of influence."

"Get to the point," Andy snarls.

"People like M-63 here—" we all collectively flinch at the sound of the number and Mr. Styles notices, rushing on quickly. "Have the ability to tamper with the emotions and control functions of others, his through speech and how sound is interpreted in the mind. Unlike M...ah like Gerard, who can manipulate memories. While both of them have control over the frontal cortex, they can control and see different parts. Josh can control physical actions while Gerard can mess with the more abstract parts, such as thoughts, memories, and emotions."

"What happened though?" Oli asks from where he's kneeling beside Josh.

Mr. Styles winces at the question. "Everything is controlled by chemistry," he explains. "The right push, and an imbalance of your powers can occur. It works best with the mind powers, seeing that they stem from the brain. So—"

"You messed with Josh," Oli interjects, putting two and two together. "And his powers backfired and your brainwashing worked. He basically ended up controlling himself. As a puppet for you." He spits the last few words, a miseries glint in his eyes.

"But why do this in the first place?" Vic asks. "What was the whole point? Josh was so you could control others... control me. But what use is it?"

"To kill all of us," I interject, tensing as everyone's gazes swing toward me. "You told me that this was the plan to get rid of all of us. This is what you were going to do?"

"What's more dangerous than one of you is one of you losing control," Mr. Styles says slowly. "We were going to show the world how dangerous you were."

"Were?"

Mr. Styles looks back at me, his face unreadable, but he doesn't respond.

"Like this changes anything," Andy laughs, the sound echoing through the air.

Vic wraps his arm around me, pulling me a few steps farther back away from them.

"Don't move again!" Andy yells, aiming the gun at me instead. Vic pushes me behind him.

"He's not part of this," Vic says. "Let him go."

Andy shakes his head, letting out a derisive laugh. "Of course he's part of this. He's as much a part of this as we are. We're all part of this. Whether we like it or not." He aims the gun back at his father. "It's all your fault!"

"My fault?"

"I almost died because of you!" Andy screams. "Because of all of your stupid articles and your stupid talks at dinner. Oh, the people with powers are going to destroy the world. They're dangerous, all of them. They deserve to be locked up. That's why I left! I knew that you would hate me, from the moment you found out about me. I knew you would find out about me so I decided to make a move first. I never thought you would do this."

"I did it because I thought it was what you would want! You were dead, presumably dead, killed by people with powers. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Not lock up teenagers? Not torture and murder them?" Andy yells. "You know, when I first started fighting back, I didn't even know it was you. It wasn't until Kellin—" Vic tenses as he shifts the gun back toward me. "That I even realized it was you. You made me into the thing you hated most. And when I tried to run, I thought I was helping you from your obsession."

"They killed your mother."

"I didn't!" Andy screams. "It wasn't my fault or anyone else you locked up. So why did you blame us?"

"Andy—"

"You don't deserve to call me that!" Andy yells. "Cause you made my life a living hell for so long and I hate you for it, I always will. You told me every night how I wasn't good enough and still expected for me to love you? You didn't know, how could you? But I heard you say every single night how you thought that I deserved to die, and guess what? Maybe I agreed. I can't tell you how many nights I spent, lying awake, wanting to kill you. I wanted to drive the point of a knife through your heart or watch your brains splatter across the pillow. Now I'll finally have the chance."

"Don't." The word feels numb in my mouth as I say it. Andy looks at me, shock and confusion tearing across his face. I can see Mr. Styles smile slightly, but I don't dare to look, instead raising my arm, pointing to the camera seated directly in front of us.

"It's recording," Mr. Styles says softly. "I turned it on just before I came in. Andy, it's broadcasting to the world. If you do this, you'll only prove me right. You'll show the entire world that they are right, that I was right for locking you up."

"Maybe," Andy chokes out, his voice broken. "But I'm already a monster." A scream rises in my throat, but it's too late. Before anyone can stop him, he fires, directly into the center of his father's chest.