Nightmares Alive

Chapter 21: One By One

Rolling the lucky rock in my hand, I thought of Selena, when she tossed it to me. I looked around, seeing all my friends asleep on the couch, against the couch, and against the hospital beds. I was never tired. I waited, and fidgeted every two seconds, because I had an uncomfortable feeling about this place.

Cyrus barged into the room, scaring me half to death. He had bruises on his face, and he was limping.

"C-Cattthhyy... she... she... got me...." he said, weakly, and panting.

"Whoo?"

"Her, the LADY. She-she beat me u-uppp...."

"WHY?!"

"I don't... know," he said, looking up and feeling his head, "OUCH!"

"Well, didn't the nurses see you?"

"Not-not really."

I suddenly thought of the powers.

"CYRUS! Try reading your power!"

He said, lighting up, "YEAH!"

Handing him the torn up purple notebook, I pointed to his power.

"Able to move and control things from afar."

He glowed, and floated in mid-air... then he dropped to the ground.

"OWWWWW!" he shouted, landing on his hurt leg. I laughed, as everyone woke up by Cyrus' scream.

"Cyrus, are, are you okay?" Frannie asked.

"Uh, not really," he returned.

"WOAAAHHHH! CY!" Joe shouted, staring directly at his face.

"H-hey...." Cyrus weakly said.

"Did... Death get you?" Julia asked.

"I'm pretty sure she did," Joe agreed.

"Yeah." Frannie added.

"TRY CONTROLLING SOMETHING!" I shouted.

He looked at a teddy bear on Alex's bed, and his eyes glowed bright blue, he moved his right hand up, controlling the teddy bear, leaving it hovering in the air. Alex opened one eye, but fell asleep again. As the bear floated, I started to concentrate on the bear. Then I pointed to it, and it disappeared.

"Hey!" Cyrus complained.

"HAHAHA," I laughed my head off. Then he got serious, and so I looked around and found an empty table. I looked at it and pointed at the top of the table, I breathed out rays of sunlight at the table, at the time Alex woke up, leaving him screaming, "Aaaaahhhhh!"

He stared as a teddy bear appeared on the table next to him. He moved away from the table, and me.

"WHOOOO! I'M GETTING GOOOOOOD AT THIIIIS!" I said, punching the air. I laughed, as Cyrus felt his head and whispered, "Oww."

"That..." he paused and looked at the teddy bear, "was pretty scary," Cyrus added.

"T-talk about it..... Cathy, that was not very nice," Alex told me jokingly, waving his finger.

Anna woke up, stretched and yawned. Then she asked,

"Cy-Cyrus, WHATUP with your faaaacce?"

"I got beat up." he replied.

"Wh-whaaat? By-by, by whoo?!" Anna shouted.

Cyrus said, "The Lady."

The hospital room's phone rang. I quickly ran over to pick it up.

"Hello?" I asked.

"NEVER. USE. YOUR. POWERS. FOR FUUUNN." A voice told me.

"Ladyy! Is this you?!" I shouted.

"I shall be-" there was a long pause, "Unrevealed. Everyone in your class will be assigned a number."

"Well, what? Continue." I put it on speaker mode.

"You have to keep your number. You have a few strikes. Many."

"How many?"

"As the lives of your class decreases, so will your strikes."

"Does that mean the number of strikes is the number of alive students?" I asked.

"yessss," The voice shaked.

"The number of strikes you have is-"

The other line hung up.

I looked at my friends and shot them a worried look.

"Cathy...." Alex suddenly said.

"Don't worry. Something will come up-" the phone rang again. I hurriedly picked it up, pushing the speaker mode button.

"Hello?! WHATEVER YOU WANT, COME SAY IT TO MY FACE!I shouted.

"Umm, is there a problem? This is Mr. Pouch."

"Oh, I'm s-sorry."

"I just want to say that we have invited you kids to Daniel's funeral. And Richard's as well. Thanks." he hung up.

I waited for a minute. The phone rang. I knew it.

I picked up and gently answered, "Umm, hi, hello, who is this?"

"We are not here for hellos." I voice said.

"For every strike," it added, "You will be told. At different places, times, and to different people. Use your powers to save yourselves. If you lose all your strikes, yor history will never be the same. "

I replied, "Yes, yes, continue please."

"You have a month to survive the following horrors that will affect your futures so very much. We have not assigned your enemies, but one of you peers, are one."

"Yes." I looked at Frannie, then Julia, then Joe, then Alex, Cyrus, Anna.

"One by one, you will vanish. But no two have the same cause of death. You have to re-earn your strikes, by recreating lives for those who have lost theirs. But only your fellow peers. Only. Do you understand?"

"Yes." I replied, sweating.

"One of your friends is in danger. One will perish after the sunset. One will reappear and help you all. But one, one of you, not present now, but will be, they, has the power to everything. There is no point in asking that person, for they are your enemy. They shall not reveal. You have killed one person. And that person is related to your enemy. You will find more clues along the journey. Good luck."

Before I could add anything, they hung up. My heart started to beat faster and faster. When all of a sudden, the lights one by one, went out.