Psi Another Day (Psi Fighter Academy) (15 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Attack in the Park

I walked home from school that afternoon, totally elated. Kathryn was overjoyed too, but she took the bus. Go figure. She lived closer to the school than I did. Each of us handles our bucket of bliss differently, I suppose. Strolling through the park made my life seem like a fairy tale. The flowers, the trees, the tombstones—well, maybe not the tombstones.

I was going to the Spring Fling! Everyone would talk. Tammy Angel would be outraged. Boot Milner would be jealous. And I would be oblivious to it all. I would only see Egon. I couldn’t believe it! Bobby said Egon had approached him and asked if I was going with anyone. He and Bobby knew we would be headed for language arts. It was a setup! A wonderful setup!

I imagined Egon and me sitting on the chairs lining the walls of the gym floor. Everyone else would be dancing, but we would be sitting. Sitting, staring, thinking… Then he would reach over and touch my hand. I would smile. A slow song would come on, and Egon would look into my eyes.
May I have this dance?
he would ask.
I’d love to
, I would say. Then he would lead me to the center of the dance floor, taking me in his arms. His arms would be strong, his embrace overwhelming. He wouldn’t notice my shaking, because he would be looking so deeply into my eyes. We wouldn’t talk. There would be no words to express what we felt…he would lean down, bring his lips close to mine…

“Get away!” a voice screamed. I was jerked from my fantasy like a bad act from
America’s Got Talent
. Directly ahead of me, Mason and Rubric had Bobby pinned against a tree. Mason leaned on a baseball bat. Rubric was empty-handed, but he swayed unsteadily, and had a dazed, angry look in his eyes. He was definitely high. This was so not good.

“Leave me alone,” Bobby snapped. Blood ran from his nose, but there was no fear in his voice.

“I wanted to be ladylike and give you another chance,” Mason said. “You were the best we ever had. Almost as good as me.”

“If I were only as good as you, I wouldn’t have figured out that your wonderful Class Project was part of a drug ring.” Bobby stepped toward Mason, fists clenched. “I guess you never talk to Angel.”

“
Au contraire, mon Frère
,” Mason said, wagging a finger, his speech almost imperceptibly slurred. “I asked her. She said you were a
dweeb
!” Mason suddenly became furious, like he’d lost his mind. “She gave me the stuff you’re all girly frightened of, and I tested it.
It’s nothing, Bobby! Nothing
!

Bobby jumped back. “I see that,” he snapped.

“Do him,” Rubric muttered. “He deserves it.”

“
D
on’t tell me what to do,” Mason growled. He shoved Rubric, staggered, then turned to Bobby and said softly, “You don’t trust me. You won’t give me a second chance. Everybody deserves a second chance, Bobby.”

“Earn it,” Bobby said. “Fight me without the bat, coward.”

“This is for the greater good, Bobby,” Rubric said. “He doesn’t want to fight you. He wants to make an example of you. He wants to show people how serious we are about the Class Project. Right, Mase?”

Mason turned to Rubric, the pain in his face unmistakable. “Shut up, Art. Just shut up.” He gripped the bat in both hands and stepped toward Bobby.

Suddenly, Andy’s words flashed through my mind.
Mason has killed before
. I had no idea what was wrong with Mason, but it was time to move. I sprinted toward him. My mind quickly calmed. I would take him out first. A few pressure points, and nighty, night, little Mason. Once he was down, Rubric would probably take off. If not, so much the better.

Just then, Mason noticed me. “Rinnie,” he whispered. He suddenly looked like he would cry. “Bobby was wrong. I tried it, Rinnie. Why won’t he believe me?”

Understanding slammed me in the gut. Mason was high on Psychedone 10.

“Howdy there, Peroxide.” Rubric grinned and blew me a kiss.

I scowled. “I’d rather kiss a rhino.”

Rubric made a grunting sound that I can only assume was meant to be a rhinoceros, but sounded like a heifer with four upset stomachs. He puckered his blubbery lips at me. “Come get some!”

“Don’t make me sick.”

“Why don’t you rush on home, now, Peroxide?” Rubric slurred. “Your mommy’s calling, and you might get hurt here. Oh, did I say ‘might’?”

“Yo, babe,” Chuckie’s voice boomed in my ear from behind. Suddenly, I was in his powerful grip, jerked off my feet.

Rubric grinned. “By the way, your bodyguard isn’t around to protect you, so you might want to watch your back.”

“Put me down,” I yelled, totally miffed that I’d let Chuckie take me by surprise. His cheek felt like a cactus against mine, and his breath was horrible. “Don’t you people use toothpaste?”

“I don’t like the taste,” Chuckie said.

Obviously.

“Chuckie!” Mason roared. “Don’t touch her!”

Chuckie inhaled sharply, and his grip loosened, which I totally took advantage of. I shifted so that my arms were partly free. Chuckie would soon be in for an unpleasant surprise.

“It’s okay, Mase,” Rubric said. “Remember, we have to set an example.”

Mason gritted his teeth. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”

Rubric staggered to Mason and put his hand on his shoulder. “For the greater good. She’s not the problem.”

“Leave him alone!” Bobby shoved Rubric. “Let him think for himself. Is this what that garbage does?

“Mase,” Rubric said, ignoring Bobby. “For the greater good.”

Mason glared fiercely at Rubric, then stepped into Bobby’s path. “Why did you lie to me?” Mason poked Bobby hard in the chest. “Why won’t you give me another chance?”

Bobby’s fist moved like lightning. He punched Mason square in the teeth with a sharp crack. Mason’s head snapped backward, and he stumbled, blood trickling down his chin.

“I told you not to touch me!” Bobby yelled. His fists clenched, his knees bent, he looked like a small tiger ready to spring. “And I told you the truth. You just didn’t want to hear it.”

“Do him,” Rubric said.

Mason raised his bat.

“Do him,” Rubric repeated.

Mason wiped the blood from his lips and lowered the bat. “No.”

Bobby held his fists ready to strike again, so tiny next to Mason, like a mouse defending itself against a lion. Just then, Rubric stumbled forward. I screamed, but it was too late. He punched Bobby right between the shoulder blades. Bobby’s knees buckled, and Rubric grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms against his sides.

“Do him, Mason.” Rubric’s voice was low, intimidating. “For the greater good. Do him. He lied to you.”

“Don’t talk to me, Art.” Mason stood holding the bat in both hands, trembling. “Just shut up.”

I was officially fed up with Art Rubric. “Chuckie, if you don’t put me down right this second, I will embarrass you more than you can possibly imagine.”

“I have an excellent imagination, babe,” Chuckie said. “And I can’t possibly imagine anything you could do to embarrass me.”

“Don’t call me babe.”

“Look, babe.” Chuckie tightened his grip. “Be good so you don’t get hurt. I am
very
strong. And you are small and
oh
so much weaker—”

I slammed both elbows into Chuckie’s ribs, snapped my head backward into his face, and stomped on his shin. He gasped, then whimpered, then dropped me to the ground. I spun to the right and cracked my elbow into the side of his head, then spun to the left and blasted a spinning back kick into his jaw. Chuckie’s eyes rolled and he dropped like he’d been hit by a bus. “I told you not to call me babe.”

“Do him!”
Rubric yelled.
“Now!”

Mason suddenly looked so helpless, so defeated. He raised the bat over his head and took aim at Bobby. Bobby tried to lift his arms to cover his head, but Rubric held him tight. I was too far away to stop him without doing something drastic. So I did.

Chapter Nineteen

Mason's Memories

Sorrow
, I thought as I drew my Amplifier. Mental fire flashed from my fingertips. I flicked my wrist and the psychic whip closed the distance between Mason and me, snapping around his arm. I jerked hard. The bat flew from his hand, and he fell to the ground, screaming.

I took my Amplifier in both hands and glared at him. He screamed and writhed in pain. I held tight as Mason struggled to pull free. This time, I would control the Lash. I would
make
Mason feel remorse. Suddenly, my mind filled with horrible memories that I knew weren’t my own.

Mommy glared down at me while she tied the dog’s leash around my neck. This time, she attached it to the tree. I trembled with fear. I had done it again, and Mommy was mad. Her eyes scared me. They looked dead. Mommy wasn’t the same anymore. She grimaced, lit a match, and tossed it in my hair. I whimpered and slapped it out, but it burned. She lit another one and flicked it. It stuck to my forehead, singeing a massive blister before I pulled it off. I screamed, “I’m sorry, Mommy, I’m sorry!” I wanted badly to stop wetting the bed, but she made me drink so much before I went to sleep. Another match! The pain on my scalp was agonizing. “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!” I shrieked and slapped at my head to stop the torture, but my hands blistered. The smell of burnt hair and skin filled my nostrils.

“You were always the stupid one, Mason,” she said. She lumbered over to the tall pine tree I was tied to. A can of gasoline and a shovel sat next to it. She picked up the can. “You should have died. Not your brother.” She unscrewed the cap slowly, a demented smile cracking her face, and poured gasoline in a circle around me, drenching my shoes and splashing my legs. “He was such a good boy. Why don’t you ever listen to me? Why can’t you just do what you’re told?” Then she lit another match.

I wailed. “Please, give me another chance!”

“You don’t deserve a second chance.”

Suddenly, I heard a metallic ring and Mommy was sitting on the ground, glaring up at me. Her poor head was covered in blood. A man stood behind her, holding the shovel. Rotting flesh hung in strips from his face, and white bone shone through. A bolt of fear shot through me.

He swung the shovel hard. It made a dull clang against Mommy’s head. He hit her again and again, and every time he hit her, his jawbones clacked together. Then he handed me the shovel and said, “I’ll come back for you.”

The front door burst open and Daddy ran out. “Mason, no!” He stared at me in horror, then his eyes shot to Mommy. “Why couldn’t she just leave you alone?” he whispered. “Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll take care of everything.”

Then I felt older. I looked down from the balcony of the high school auditorium. Munificent pointed up at us. He talked about a man who wore a skull mask. The familiar terror filled my chest. The cop was wrong. It wasn’t a mask. It was him. He had come back for me. Just like he said he would.

I was in the SSA with Angel. “Is it true what Bobby said?”

Angel smiled and caressed my cheek. “Bobby’s a dweeb. Why would you listen to him? Mason, I can get the stuff he’s talking about. Trust me. It’s harmless.”

I pushed her hand away from my cheek. Tammy Angel was beginning to annoy me. She had changed. “Give me some. I want to prove that Bobby is wrong.”

Angel smiled and reached into her purse.

Mason moaned loudly. I screamed and released him from the Memory Lash. My knees gave way and I fell, shaking violently, tears streaming down my face. My scalp burned from the memory of the matches, and the smell of gasoline was everywhere. Mason’s memories still surged in my mind. They boiled, forcing themselves to the surface, but I pushed them back.

I shook my head, my mind cleared, and I stayed in control. I had finally mastered the Lash. Then my eyes focused, and my moment of triumph dissolved. Mason was on the ground curled up in a ball, whimpering like a savagely beaten animal, sobbing and hiccuping, and I realized that the Lash still sucked.

“What’d you do, you freak!” Rubric had dropped Bobby. He pointed at me, terror in his eyes. “You killed him! You killed him!” He turned, slammed into a tree, and fell on his butt. Then he picked himself up to stagger off through the park, disappearing into the woods.

Bobby limped toward me and helped me to my feet. I leaned on him. He felt surprisingly strong for someone so small. “Are you okay, Rinnie?”

“Yeah,” I said with no confidence.

“Was that the Memory Lash?”

I lurched, and must have given poor Bobby a pretty nasty look, because his eyes got huge and his jaw dropped.

“K-Kitty told me,” he stammered.

What
? The one person I trusted! Kathryn’s hopes of ever being a Whisperer had totally crashed and burned. I would deal with her later. I pulled away from Bobby. “Come on, we have to get out of here.”

“I don’t think it’ll work on him.”

I looked down at Mason. He was babbling, sobbing softly, and every so often he mumbled, “Mommy, Mommy, I’m so sorry,” then started whimpering again.

Bobby was wrong. I had never seen the Lash have that effect on anyone. Not even Mason Draudimon deserved the agony of that nasty weapon. I knew too well what it felt like. And I finally understood Mason. He looked up at me with huge, soft eyes, and for a moment, seemed to know what I was thinking.

“He’ll be all right,” Bobby said. “Kathryn told me it wears off quickly. Especially when you aren’t capable of remorse. And I can’t imagine anyone less capable. Let’s go.”

“We can’t just leave him here like this,” I objected. A low moan made me spin around.

Chuckie was regaining consciousness. He pushed upright slowly, his face distorted with confusion, an enormous bruise already showing on his cheek. He shook his head, then his eyes grew wide like he had just realized why he was facedown in the dirt. “Whoa, babe, you are a major butt-kicker!” He struggled to his feet and tottered toward me. “I’m impressed.”

Before he knew what had happened, I grabbed his thumb, twisting his hand into a wrist lock. Chuckie yelped. “Babe, like, I meant what I said. I’m on your side, now, ’cause I don’t want nobody to know a girl kicked my butt. You won’t tell, will ya?”

“I told you not to call me babe,” I said softly.

“Hey, that’s cool…Rinnie.”

I released Chuckie from the wrist lock. “Take Mason home.”

“The Shadow Passage isn’t open yet.”

“Were you born this stupid, or did you take supplements?” I looked down at Mason and shuddered. “Take him to his dad’s house.”