Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (13 page)

Paro tried to be a tolerant man, he really did.
But his glass wall of patience cracked, and he gritted his teeth.
Sarah wanted to do this diplomatically, but Paro—and Melissa, from
the looks of things—would rather knock him over the side of the
head and be done with it.

“
We’re trying to explain that to
you, hun,” Sarah said. “But every time we try, you take another
step back and ignore us.”

She was the closest to him, only a few feet
away. Sarah was the only person Jack didn’t retreat from, and it
didn’t surprise Paro. Sarah was among the kindest people he’d ever
met. She was empathetic, understanding, and patient with everyone.
Even the stress-inducing actions of the Harris-kid had little
effect on her. Paro knew he chose right when he picked her for his
Telepath.

If only it were possible for a Telepath to rip
data from a person’s mind without damaging them, Paro’s life not
only now, but for many years, would have been much easier.
Unfortunately, the use of telepathy to extract data from a suspect
ranked highly on the list of taboo practices. One minor misstep and
the suspect could end up comatose.

Paro cleared his throat. “Listen to me, Jack,
and listen to me well. After that little fire you started in class,
if I wanted to, I could haul you into a lockup where you wouldn’t
see the light of day for a half-dozen years. You’re lucky that all
I want is information about the murders.”

Paro was lying, of course. It was a first time
offense by an unregistered Psych. But still, he didn’t mind using
fear to get his way. Not with everything at stake.

Paro’s comment seemed to agitate Jack. The boy
bounced on his feet and frowned.

 
Good, let him be afraid.
Maybe he’ll finally cooperate.

“
Here we go with the fire again. I
am
so damn sick of hearing about that fire!
All day long,
everyone’s all like, ‘Hey, Jack, how did you do the fire?’ Or,
‘You’re under arrest for starting fires.’ Or, ‘I was so worried,
Jack! I heard there was a fire today.’”

Jack stomped the ground. “Leave me alone about
that stupid fire! I had nothing to do with it. Even if I wanted to
I couldn’t. I never once in my entire life brought matches to
school.”

Paro grunted. So, now he was going to try to
deny it?

“
As we have been trying to explain
to you all along, you’re like one of us. You have both the ability
and power to create a fire, perhaps even something much worse, the
extent of which I don’t even know. That’s what we’re trying to find
out. You can play innocent all you want, but even on the off chance
you didn’t do it on purpose, you’re still responsible.”

Jack seemed to be lost in thought for a moment,
because it was the first time he stood still since they had
arrived, and he was no longer jittering. He looked over to where
Sarah and Melissa were slowly approaching. In an instant, his eyes
widened in delight, and he grinned at Paro.

He pushed himself off from where he leaned
against the jungle gym and pointed a finger at Melissa. “Ah hah! I
got it! Wow, this all makes sense now.
She did it!
Yup, it
was definitely her. It was Melissa’s fault. Just look at her,
playing all innocent and stuff. She’s totally responsible and she
knows it. I bet she’s only blaming it on me so she won’t get into
trouble.”

Melissa snarled and looked ready to pop a blood
vessel. “Why you little—”

“
Calm down, Melissa.” Sarah grabbed
Melissa’s shoulders. Melissa was rolling up her sleeve with her
hands balled into fists and outrage covering her face.

“
Melissa couldn’t have done it,”
Paro said. “She’s neither a Telekinetic nor is she a Manipulator.
She wouldn’t have been able to set a room on fire.”

“
Oh yeah? Well, I don’t know what
that means, but what if she used a
scroll of enchanting
and that changed her ability?”

“
A scroll of what?” Paro looked
around at his team. “What’s he on about now? What’s this ‘scroll of
enchanting’ he’s ranting about? Anybody have a clue?” Michael and
Sarah looked at each other then shrugged.

Kazou cleared his throat. “I don’t know,” he
said. “But it sounds like some kind of spell-thing.”

Spell-thing? Don’t tell me he
…

“
Okay, hold up a minute now, hold
up. Jack,” Paro began, “do you mean to tell me you thought from
everything that happened today that … we were using
magic
?”

“
Well, I was actually gonna say
Sorcery, but why split hairs, right?”

Paro shook his head as a powerful sense of both
realization and surprise dawned on him.

I’m arguing with a complete imbecile. I
can’t believe it. Here I am, standing in the middle of a children’s
playground, arguing with an absolute moron. This is the most
demeaning thing I have ever done. Shame on me!

“
Okay, that’s it. You’re coming with
us right now. I’ve had enough of this. Get over here, you little
runt.” Paro took a step forward.

“
Like hell!” Jack attempted to dart
away, but before he could make it two yards, Melissa dashed from
behind him and tackled him to the ground.

“
Not again, Melissa!”

She pulled him to his feet and smiled at him.
From what Paro had gathered, Melissa had roughed Jack up a bit when
she suspected his involvement in the murders. This time, she didn’t
hurt him. In fact, she had something of a playful aspect to
her.

“
Come on, Jack. I’ve said this
before, and I’ll say it again. Stop being such a baby. Paro, what
do we do with him?”

Paro sighed. “The Heli won’t be here for
another few hours, but I know a good place we can chat in the
meantime. Let’s bring him to the van. Jack, are you going to walk,
or do I need to drag you?”

For the love of God, I hope he doesn’t
continue to make this difficult for us.

Jack had a sour look on his face. He crossed
his arms and turned his head away. “You might as well drag me. I’m
not listening to a word you sorcerers have to say.”

Paro opened his mouth to speak but stopped when
he noticed Michael. He had a devilish grin on his face. Michael
strutted over to where Melissa held Jack.

“
Actually, you’re gonna cooperate
with us in full, buddy. You’re gonna do every last thing we say,
and do you know why? Do you know why you’re gonna
cooperate?”

“
Why’s that?” Jack asked.

“
Because if you don’t, then you'll
never get to see Melissa in her tight gym uniform when she works
out back at H.Q.”

Melissa’s eyebrows rose to the top of her face.
She shot a deadly glare at Michael, who grinned like a madman. Her
eyes promised payback and revenge.

Jack tapped Paro on the shoulder. “Hey, you
said your name is Paro, right? I’ve been thinking about it, and I
think some seriously dangerous stuff might be going on here. I’ve
decided on second thought to come with you. I think I might be able
to help.”

Paro watched as Sarah turned away from everyone
so she could laugh silently into her arms. Kazou joined her,
pretending he had to sneeze.

Melissa tightened her grip on Jack’s shoulder,
causing him to grunt in pain. “Keep moving, buster, or I’ll throw
you back to the ground.”

It took the sound of his own voice for Paro to
realize that he too was laughing.

Damn that Harris kid.

The sporadic and uneven crackle of foot on
gravel was the only indication Andy needed to realize something was
wrong. It was a slow, dragging sound, instead of the usual one-two
of feet descending steps.

The door creaked open, and the sight of Ruin
limping and supported by his sister greeted Andy. Ruin’s nose was
broken, and his mouth had a trail of blood streaking over his lips.
Yet, despite the injury, he seemed amused.

“
Well now
that
was
unexpected,” he said.

Requiem, on the other hand, looked downright
furious. Her eyes were sharper than usual, shining with all the
madness and chaos of a black hole.

“
I will kill that Pig-faced brat. I
will show you her lungs, yes, and you shall rip them like paper.
But only enough to make it painful to breathe. I will take my time
with her. Oh, yes! That one will suffer an agonizing death. No
place on this earth will keep her safe from me. I will destroy
her!”

Andy had no idea what happened and found it
hard to care. He was still sitting in the corner of the room with
his knees tucked into his stomach. His eyes stung from the hours
he’d spent crying. He was physically exhausted, but sleep would not
come.

“
Are you still crying, Brother Andy?
Don’t tell me you’ve been bawling here all night. It’s morning
already, you know? What if your mother reports you missing? You
need to man up and go home before you arouse suspicion.”

Andy tried to turn away from Ruin, but his head
wouldn’t move. It was as if an invisible hand held it in
place.

That’s right. He’s a Telekinetic, and he’s
different from me.

“
You weren’t there. None of you
were! I just wanted Richard. I didn’t think anyone else was awake.
They saw what I did, and then they screamed and reached for their
phone. I didn’t know what to do, honestly, I didn’t. Will God ever
forgive me? I keep thinking to myself over and over how things
could’ve been different. Sometimes I even doze off, and in my
dreams, none of this ever happened. But it did. I massacred them. I
butchered them. I am disgusting!
I am the
worst
!”

Ruin and Requiem looked at each other for a
moment and then simultaneously burst into a laughing frenzy. Andy
felt destroyed, too exhausted to care what it was they found so
humorous.

“
Oh, Andy, Darling, lighten up. My
brother and I have been thinking of a new name for you. How about,
‘Andy, the Family-Slayer?’”

The hysterical, laughing fit
continued.

“
I actually preferred, ‘Andy, the
Ruthless’,” Ruin said, “but my sister’s was better.”

If the two weren’t so much more powerful than
he was, Andy would have killed them on the spot. He had vomited
twice since returning to the shelter, not bothering to clean it,
but neither of them paid it any mind.

Several times over the long night, Andy had
contemplated suicide. More so, he had even come close to attempting
it. But he was weak. Despite his desire, he couldn’t bring himself
to go through with it. All he wanted was to start over, to return
to his life and forget that any of this had ever
happened.

“
What happened to you two tonight?”
Andy asked.

Their laughing stopped instantly, and their
eyes took on a more sinister look.

“
There are others like us. More than
we expected. They intervened with our capture of the
Harris-boy.”

At this, for the first time in almost
twenty-four hours, Andy’s attention diverted to something other
than his crimes.

“
Intervened? What do you mean? That
doesn’t make any sense.”

Requiem licked her lips. “Apparently, Darling,
there’s others like us that can do what we can. Only, I suspect
they’re somehow affiliated with the government or police, because
they seemed to have it out for us.”

Ruin nodded. “We are not positive, but if this
is the case then they are our gravest enemies. It is our God-given
right to kill those who we please. Those with strength can make or
break laws, but they are
not
subject to them.” He scowled
as he spoke. It was the first time Andy had ever seen Ruin angry.
It was hard to believe.

 “
These fools,” Ruin continued,
“they dare try to use their powers to enforce … rules! On us! I’ll
personally see to the execution of each one of them. No one has the
right to take our freedom, not unless they are stronger than we
are. And I promise you they aren’t. Had you been there with us,
Andy, we would have devoured them completely. I need you to get out
of this pathetic state you’re in and join us in exterminating these
rodents.”