The Centerpoint Trilogy (17 page)

Where Anna lay prone, she focused her eyes and a beam of wood from the crate under Lilly cracked. It flew through the air and right into Wayne’s hands.

He swung. The woman raged and ducked out of his way. Anna seemed to have gained control of her powers. The elements raged all around them. The fire she’d started continued to burn, whipping around in columns and flumes. Lilly raised her hands too and the fire and wind and water just rolled around in a hysteric mimicry of life. It was a storm and they were all in the middle of it.

She tried to see her daughter. The girl was hanging to the edge of the lake, hand extended. “Gen!” she shrieked.

Gen was bobbing in the water. She wasn’t sure that the girl was going to survive another minute. Everytime she grabbed the wall, got a grasp, she was driving back under. One time, she was driven under and Alicia was sure she wouldn’t make it. That was when Rhiannon scaled down the wall.

“No Rhi!”

She saw the two girls grab hands.

              Then there was a hand near her.

              “Anna?”

              “I got you,” Anna whispered. She gave a huge yank, pulling Alicia up to the surface. Alicia wasn’t sure if the way she pulled her was natural, or another extension of her amazing power. She yanked Alicia up, and then they were both on dry land together. Alicia’s eyes were blurry. It took a long time for her to open them up again properly.

              “Where are the girls?” she screamed.

              They exchanged a look for a moment. It was the look of two women who loved one another to an extreme. Anna took a breath and then dove back down. Before Alicia could even say another word to her, her best friend plunged back into the lake that never should have been there. Her body disappeared underneath the icy blue water and was just gone.

              Her eyes went back to the struggle between Wayne and Lilly. They were fighting, grappling with each other. Even though he was far, she saw his eyes.

His eyes shimmered with something. Even as her vision kept blurring, even as everything else in the world blurred, Alicia could see the thing that was in his eyes. It was pain and desperation. It was years of searching and trying to bring down a group of maniacs. It was something so desperate and scared that it was almost uncontrolled. It was something that was so strong. Detective Elliot Wayne was strong and would continue to be strong, despite the place that he had grown up in. He would be strong and capable and would always rise above.

Elliot had the gun in his hand. She paused, not understanding how. It had been in Ethan’s hand earlier. How? Then she realized. Anna, of course. Anna could move things with that mind of hers and of course, Anna realized that Elliot needed to be the one to do this. Elliot needed to be the one to kill her.

Elliot raised his gun and a calmness came over his handsome features. He pointed it at Lilly as she stood controlling all of this chaos and with a deep breath he just pulled the trigger. The gunshot rang out and that was when the woman, Lilly, fell to the floor. Her body crumpled into a heap and her eyes closed. Even from a distance, Alicia could see that the bullet had hit her in the head. From the center of the back of her head was emitting a light - dull, but powerful. It was like a deep darkness was coming out from inside of her soul. It was leaving her. She was dead.

The body fell into the lake and Alicia could not help believe that it was karma. It was what she had deserved. She collapsed down onto her stomach. She needed to stop. She needed to pause for a moment.

“Mommy!”

Rhiannon’s wail and subsequent footsteps brought Alicia back to life. She raised herself to a seated position and saw the little eight year old running towards her. The little girl held out her arms and when she got to Alicia, she squeezed her so tight that it took her breath away. Alicia raised her arms and they enclosed around her daughter. She was finally in her arms again. “I got you baby,” she said as she started to rock her back and forth.

She assessed the position of all four of them as she held her daughter.

Gen and Anna were together. They had reached the surface and Gen was breathing raggedly, coughing in her mother’s arms. Anna stroked her hair lightly and sobbed as she called the police on the cell phone she’d left sitting on the surface. “We need an ambulance...immediately,” she said, her voice shaking but always strong, Anna was always strong.

Ethan was on his knees, shaking. The pain had done a lot of damage. The moment he saw Anna and Genesis, however, he got up and ran. The shaking didn’t stop. His run was a staggered run.

Elliot stood on the box for a long time. He had the smoking gun in his hand. He threw it into the lake. That was when the lake receded completely.

Sirens came in the distance as Elliot got off the box and walked across the lake, walked to her and Rhiannon.

EPILOGUE

Genesis watched quietly as the ambulance approached. Her stomach hurt and she was pretty sure that parts of her were filled up with water. She sat in her mother’s arms. She noticed particularly that her mother’s hold on her wasn’t as tight as it usually was. She was in pain and that hurt the five year old deeply. No child ever wanted her mommy in pain. Genesis wanted her mom safe and happy.  Gen leaned close and shut her eyes for a minute. The moment her mom and her strange new friend figured out that she was okay and breathing normally, her mother had held her and had not let go.

Across from her, the new man was staying close to Aunt Alicia. Alicia had burns on her and was half unconscious, but she kept Rhi in her arms, the same way that Gen’s own mommy kept her. She wanted to talk to Rhi, but Rhi was clinging to her mother as she could. Gen knew that her best friend was scared and that everything would be okay after they got their families safe and to a hospital. That was the most important thing.

Gen held tightly to her mother. She was tired and she was hurting everywhere, but she knew that she was okay. She knew that she and Rhiannon were safe with their families and if they were with their families then they were okay. She tucked her chin under her mommy’s shoulder and closed her eyes, trying to relax. It was all going to be alright now because of their families.

“Mommy, are Daddy, Rhi and Auntie Alicia all going to be okay?” she asked softly. She was really scared because she could see that they were all shaky and full of water and she saw the dark marks on Aunt Alicia’s face and hands.  She could not breathe when she thought about Auntie Alicia being hurt because she only hurt saving Rhiannon and Genesis from that awful, evil lady. “Aunt Alicia has burns.”

Her mom shook a little, as if she were still lost somewhere, like in a dream. It was like she had to shake herself awake. She met Gen’s eyes and nodded. “Of course my love,” she said softly. “We’re all going to be okay, especially Aunt ALicia. She’s going to be great. She’s Alicia, and that means that she’s the toughest lady I know. She’ll be perfect.”
Across from them, Rhi looked up. The eight-year-old girl had a very intense expression on her face that seemed so strong. She seemed even older than her eight years. “I’m gonna keep my mommy safe,” she whispered low, but Gen could hear her. She could hear her loud and clear. “I’m always gonna keep my mommy safe.”

The ambulance arrived, sirens wailing like hurt animals.

“It’s all going to be okay now,” Genesis heard her daddy say firmly, holding her mommy.

It was all a little bit of a blur as the ambulances took them to the hospital. Rhi stayed firmly planted to her mother’s side and Anna held Genesis close the whole time. They had to get there fast and when they did then everything was going to be okay again. That was all that mattered.

Hours later, they met again in a hospital room. The man that neither girl had ever seen before had arranged it so that Alicia, who was hurt, had a big room and everyone was able to be in there without anyone else bothering them.  Rhiannon, even though she was eight, felt that she was a good judge of character and she knew that the man was very good. She knew that he loved her mommy very much. He knew that her mommy had a place in his heart.

Rhiannon did not leave her mother’s side. They told her that her mommy needed rest to recover from the burns that she’d received, but would be more than fine. Despite this, Rhiannon refused to leave her mommy’s side. They said that she needed rest too because of the water that she got in her lungs when she was trying to save Genesis. She could rest with her mommy. That was all there was to it. She needed to make sure that the woman was safe.

Rhiannon took in everyone else in the room. Her mom was sleeping soundly, some kind of wires and tubes attached to her hand. Rhi was being very careful not to mess those up as she slept beside her. Across from them, on a cot, was Auntie Anna. Auntie Anna was holding Gen close. Gen was sleeping. The five year old had inhaled a lot of water but the doctors said that the tests and scans said that she would be okay. The doctors said that she was an exceptional child. Rhiannon wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but she knew that it was true. There was something amazing about her best friend.

Near the cot was Genesis’ daddy, Ethan. He looked tired. His whole face was pale and he was holding his arms around himself. He was standing guard, Rhiannon realized. He was trying to stand guard the same way that she was. He was trying to make sure that his family was safe. She understood that. The new man, who told her that his name was Elliot, looked on at her mom with love in his eyes. That was very comforting.

“You okay sweetie?” the man asked her, taking a step forward when he saw that her eyes were open.

She nodded. “Yes.”
“I promise I’m gonna watch after your mommy, kiddo, so you can totally go to sleep now.”

“I’ll try.”

Rhi closed her eyes, because she did feel extremely tired, but she was not sure that she could sleep. Instead of sleeping, she let her eyes close and took away the sense of sight, taking in everything else with her ears. The talking started the moment that the adults thought that the precious children were both asleep. Rhi had learned to expect that from adults over the years.

“Do you think that they...the cult...is truly done?” Ethan asked. “I mean, I know that she was probably a lone nutjob trying to revive the work, but...are we safe? Are our daughters safe?”

“I really think that Lilly was a lone nutjob,” Elliot responded, “But I am going to hunt down every last member if it kills me. I think that when Alicia’s doing better, the five of you should get out of town for a bit while I do this. Maybe you can take those beautiful little girls on vacation.”
There was a pause where nobody said anything.

“It’s going to be okay.” That was Auntie Anna. “As long as we keep our girls safe and loved, there is always hope.”
Rhi smiled at that. Auntie Anna was one of the wisest people that she knew. Hope was good. She could hold onto hope. She cuddled into her mommy as close as she possibly could.

The man, Elliot, breathed deeply.  “Those girls are really the future,” he said softly. “The Celestial Centerpoint intended to use children as a vessel for control, for domination, but they forgot something very important.”
Auntie Anna smiled. Rhiannon could not see it, but she could hear it. “Instead of being a vessel, children ended up being the future.”

“Indeed,” he said. She could hear a smile there too.

Rhi opened her eyes, just a little bit, the way that she used to when she pretended to be asleep but was really watching her mommy’s television. She saw the man walk over to her mom and lay a kiss on her mom's forehead. She was young and the concept of hope was a new, strange one, but it made her happy.
Breaking Point

(Part Three of the Point Trilogy)

Chapter One

              Genesis sat in the grass, eyeing the building in front of her. Her mood was admittedly somber. It wasn’t that she was sad, not really, but she’d definitely had a lot on her mind lately. She was at Evans University, waiting for Rhiannon to get out of class. Her best friend was in her third year at Evans, studying both History and Anthropology.

              Gen really, really wanted Rhi to get out of class now. Ugh. She knew that she was impatient, but she just hated waiting. She flopped onto her back, using her backpack as a head rest. She knew it wouldn’t be much longer, but that did not change her irritability. Her mom always told her to be patient, but patience was just not a virtue that she had.

              She definitely envied Rhiannon for being in college. At eighteen, and with it being mid-April, Gen was so done with high school. She was done with the needless restrictions, with the planning and preparation
for
college, and she was so beyond done with the mundane nature of things at Miller High School. She was planning on going to Evans herself in the following Fall and she was so excited. She could feel the campus vibrating with energy. Students moved to-and-from their classes, while others sat on the quad with her, studying, talking, and enjoying their lunches. This was what she wanted for herself and she wanted it to hurry up and happen already!

              She was also really eager to go to school with Rhi, who still had about two years left to go before she earned her degree. Rhi was Gen’s best friend in every sense of the word. They had been best friends since Gen was born, when Rhi was three years old. They were connected to each other in a world that was both intense and confusing, and their relationship meant a lot to them both.

              As she waited, boredom set in. Genesis was definitely starting to curse herself and her own impatience. She yawned and started moving the blades of grass near her head. All it took was a little mental concentration, and they ruffled, as if being blown by a strong wind. There was, of course, no wind to be seen. She also picked up a couple of rocks in the same manner and tossed them into the air above her head, catching them in her palm before anyone else could see that something was amiss. Gen knew that she had to be careful and that using her powers was something to be done both carefully and privately, but flexing that muscle was sometimes comforting to her. She’d been in a weird mood lately, therefore she deserved a little fun.

              Yes, Genesis was far from normal. She and Rhiannon, as well as their parents, had very special abilities. She was pretty sure that they had not even tapped into those abilities fully. If Rhiannon wanted to, she could blast a wave of fire through anything that stood in her way. On the other hand, Gen’s powers were those of the mind. She could hear and project loud thoughts, just like her father could. If someone was thinking something about her and accidentally directed it towards her, she could hear those thoughts. If she needed to speak to someone through her mind, she could “yell” thoughts at them. The gift she had received from her mother was the one she was currently abusing. She could move things with a little mental concentration. She was a very gifted girl.

              Thinking about her ability to project thoughts, she decided to abuse her other power, just a little. She closed her eyes and projected a thought Rhiannon’s way:
Will your class just hurry up and end already?

             
She quickly received a reply in her best friend’s deeply sarcastic voice:
God, I wish.

             
She then laughed and leaned back against the grass again, amusing herself with the way that she could make it ruffle around her and underneath her back. Being easily amused was an advantage she could use to combat the difficult time she had with waiting.

              Gen relaxed and waited, her mind wandering to something she really did not want to think about. It wandered to the dreams that she had been having lately. Now, Gen was no stranger to odd dreams; She often, throughout her entire life, dreamed of that night, back when she was five years old, when she and Rhiannon had nearly died at the hands of an insane cult member. She reflected on that night nearly constantly and several times in her youth had woken up screaming because of a dream where she was drowning.

              Now, she was still having similar dreams, but the dream landscape that was as familiar as her home was warping.  Genesis was dreaming about that night, like usual, when out of nowhere, the lake that she and her best friend had been drowning in dried up. The water receded into an invisible hole in the middle of the lake, all of the black water sucking up like murky ink. The lake became what it originally was - a pit in the ground. Instead of flailing as they struggled to stay above water, she and Rhiannon were able to stand up.

              Then she saw that woman again, the one with red hair and a tightly pulled, almost plastic face. That face had haunted Gen’s dreams for thirteen years, but it still never failed to scare her how catlike and fanatical it was. She was deranged and the worst part about her, Gen realized, as she got older, was that she was completely blissful when she tormented two children and their parents. She enjoyed their pain in a way that a child was never able to comprehend, but now, a teenage girl understood exactly.

              In the warped dreams she had, she could see the woman’s deranged blue eyes.

              “Surrender to me,” the woman cackled. “Surrender to the race of the Alturi, who have come to the aide of the Celestial Centerpoint yet again.”

              Gen woke up from these dreams afraid. Of course, they were nightmares and she was always afraid, but these were worse than the old nightmares. She woke up from these new dreams in a cold sweat, with her heart pounding so hard that she felt it would burst from within her chest. She woke up with the sense that something terrible was about to happen to her and those she loved. Then, as with most dreams, the feeling began to dissipate slowly, leaving Gen wondering if she was just going crazy.

              Of course, Gen could not help think about what her mother had once told her about dreams. She had looked scared when she spoke, but Gen knew, even at a young age, that she was being very, very serious. “I ignored the premonitions that I was having right before that… that woman took you and Rhi,” she told her daughter. Gen had been about thirteen or fourteen at the time and had told herself then that she’d never ignore a dream, or the instinct that came along with her powers. Still, now, as a near adult, it was hard to do anything but ignore them.  “Don’t ever ignore your dreams, especially not with the world that we live in. They may be gone, but we’re not, and we have these powerful intuitions. If you’re dreaming about something and it feels like something big, chances are that it’s something important.”

              Gen had taken those words to heart. She knew that these dreams were important. Still, she did not understand what they meant and she hated to alarm anyone over something as silly as a set of dreams. She did not want anyone to know about these dreams unless they were dangerous and her family
had
to know. Yes, her parents’ lives had been without mortal danger since Gen was five, but there was still the fact that they were people who had raised a daughter with superpowers. Her life had never been easy and she had never forgotten that danger could come to them and was properly lurking around the nearest corner.

              Life had never been easy for them. There had been events like the Grand Canyon incident, where she may have stunned a museum guard who was being rude to her by throwing a ceiling beam in his general direction, the dog incident, the art thief…. Yes, her life and the lives of her extended family had always been adventurous, even in the thirteen years that followed the kidnapping. Maybe she was growing up now, because she did not want to make life harder for her parents. She wanted things to be easy for them, after all they’d done for her. Scary, prophetic dreams from their only child was not anyone’s definition of easy.

              Gen shook her head and tried to banish her negative thoughts, just for a little while, at least. Luckily, something happened that made this a bit easier. Rhiannon came out from the other side of the quad, walking over to her with a rushed, quick-paced step. She took in the sight of her best friend for a moment. Rhiannon was really one of the prettiest girls that she had ever seen. She had soft brown skin that was very, very clear (lucky girl!), and wide, dark, chocolate brown eyes. She often wore her hair up, but today it was down, in natural, well-managed curls. She wore light, natural makeup and always dressed sporty, much like her mother, Gen’s beloved Aunt Alicia. Today, she was wearing a pair of long shorts and a jersey-style t-shirt with the number thirteen emblazoned on the front. It was starting to really heat up early this year.

              “Gen!” she called with a grin, before setting down her bag and dropping into a seated position next to her best friend.

              “How are you?” Genesis asked, sitting up and half hugging Rhi with one arm. She was feeling lazy and tired and didn’t want to rise entirely. Rhi didn’t seem to mind at all and just settled down at her left.

              “Exhausted,” Rhi said with a dramatic sigh, shooting gen a grin and shaking her head in a way that made her curls bounce. “You know, honey, I have one more class today. I really don’t mind if you go home. I can take the bus. I don’t need you to wait here for me. It’s gotta be boring.”
At that, she shook her head. Yeah, she was easily bored and trying to keep bad things off of her mind, but she really didn’t mind waiting for Rhi. “I have ways to keep myself occupied,” she said with a laugh, as she made a couple pebbles on the ground next to her fly over to where they hovered by Rhi’s head.

Rhi was a little more sensitive about people finding out about their powers than Gen was, so she naturally caught the pebbles in her hand, closing them in her palm. Still, her smile showed that she didn’t mind the little act of indiscretion. She was totally grinning.

“Hey,” she said with a laugh.

“See?” Gen said. “Entertained.”
“Be careful at least,” Rhi responded, shaking her head.

“I always am,” she assured.

“How was school?” Rhi asked her, sitting up a little taller, so that her back was stretched out, and crossing her legs.

“Same as always,” Gen replied, shaking her own head. “Utterly boring. I can’t wait until I’m out of high school.”

“As much as my workload is driving me insane this semester, I have to agree with you,” Rhi said. “High School sucks, but just a month and a half and you’ll be out. You gotta admit that’s pretty awesome.”

“True,” Gen said. “I’m just not connected to it anymore…”

“Senioritis,” Rhi laughed. “Typical.”

They talked for awhile, their conversations completely mundane. Gen did, however, notice that Rhi was watching her closely. Her eyes were narrowed and she was looking at Gen like something was wrong with her.  There was concern there, a deep concern. Genesis didn’t know exactly why she was bothering keeping things from Rhiannon. They would just get out anyway. The pair were sisters and shared literaly everything with one another. “What is it RhiRhi?” she asked, using a childish nickname that she used to use when they were little kids. “Are you okay?”

“You look tired,” Rhi told her honestly. “Are you okay?”

Gen was hesitant to admit the reason for her exhausted feeling, but she felt that she could not lie to her best friend all the same.  Yeah, it was going to come out now.

“I’m fine,” she said, because honestly she was, but there was more that she had to add to that. “It’s just that I’ve been having a lot of really weird dreams lately and they’ve been waking me up at night.”
Rhi looked freaked out for a minute and Gen only had a second to wonder why before the girl murmured “Me too.”

Chapter Two

              “Really?” Gen asked hesitantly. Fear gripped her in the throat and she did not want to ask Rhi what her dreams were about. This would be the thing that confirmed it to her that her dreams were not just run of the mill nightmares, even though she already knew the truth - there was no way that they could be. This would confirm that they both had something to be very, very worried about. Quietly, she asked the question that she did not want to ask. “What were they about for you, Rhi?”

              “That lake where we were almost killed when I was eight,” Rhi murmured, lying on her back on the grass. She looked up at the sky and Gen was almost sure that this was so that her best friend could think. “I saw that woman, or at least someone who looked a lot like her and a lot of light, a light that doesn’t seem like it could possibly come from earth.

              Gen sighed. “Me too.”

              For a long moment, both girls stared at each other. Gen knew that they were dumbfounded and trying to think about their next move, but they were both comfortable enough with each other to know exactly what the other was thinking.  Something was very, very wrong. “We probably need to tell our parents,” Rhi said, looking at Gen. The look on her face said that this was the last thing that she ever wanted to do. Gen knew that she must have also looked horrified at the idea, because Rhi added, “I know. I just...I don’t know what else to do. They always told us to come to them if anything strange happened, and we, well, we just need to do this.”