Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (40 page)

Melissa watched in disgust as the woman,
Cemmera, alternated between livid outrage and terrible sadness. Her
expressions were changing back and forth so quickly that her face
looked like it was going through a seizure.

To say she looked ridiculous would be an
understatement. Dirt covered her face, and unbeknownst to her, she
was wearing a flowering-pot as a hat. She walked over to the corpse
of her fallen team-member. Despite Melissa’s desire to remain
neutral, she felt a small amount of pity. No team-leader wanted to
see their members die, not even Cemmera.

The man, who said his name was Neil, also wore
a look of disgust. He watched his team-leader crouch down beside
the lifeless corpse. Dust still enveloped him from when Alana had
tossed him through a wall. Mrs. Harris was lying unconscious
nearby.

“
Y-you did this, Cemmera.” Neil
looked to be on the verge of tears. He too wore the expressions of
both anger and sadness, only, unlike Cemmera’s, his did not
alternate. They blended together to form a cocktail of desperation
and sickness.

Cemmera, remaining crouched, turned her head to
face Neil. Her voice was a whisper, but at the same time it was
intense, commanding, and filled with a growing
bitterness.

“
No, I didn’t! It was that woman,
Alana Harris,
she did this.
I’ll kill her for this. I’ll
kill all of them.” Cemmera turned to face Melissa, as if finally
realizing she was there. “
You,
” she growled, meeting
Melissa’s eyes. “You think you can harbor criminals and live? I’m
invoking my power as a Captain of the Operations Division and
sentencing you to death for your crimes.”

Melissa didn’t even blink. She stood her
ground. “Me? Let me tell you something—there’s a reason we call you
guys ‘Op. team animals.’ First of all, what makes you think that
Jack Harris has any involvement in what’s been happening? Please,
tell me.”

Cemmera stood up from her crouch and came to
stare closely into Melissa’s face. “You don’t deserve for me to
dignify that with a response, but being the better person I’ll
answer you. If you bothered to take even the most rudimentary
glance at the evidence, you’d see that there must be a third
killer. The two
must
have recruited an accomplice. It can
be no other than Jack Harris. It is for this reason that my
Telepath had to die. Santos died doing what was right!”

Melissa cast her eyes down, sadness filling
each word as she spoke. “I’m sure you’ve heard the saying about
making assumptions, and yet time and time again it’s proven true.
Cemmera, that is your name, right? There is an accomplice, but we
already know who he is. His name is Andy Leonell, age sixteen,
Manipulator.”

Neil twitched upon hearing Melissa’s words,
pushing his way through the Kinetics and grabbing the front of
Melissa’s shirt. He screamed at her, but rather than anger, only a
deep sadness came through. “What do you mean, girl? Tell
me!”

Melissa kept her cool. “The information should
already be updated by now. It should’ve been posted a few minutes
ago, actually. The boy, Andy, escaped along with the two suspects
we were originally after. If you don’t believe me, then check for
yourself.”

Neil reached into his pocket and retrieved his
P.D.A with trembling fingers. Melissa could see in his eyes that he
prayed for her to be wrong—he wanted her to be lying.

“
No …” he said. “No!”

“
I’m sorry,” Melissa whispered. “But
your friend died for nothing. His death was in vain, for no purpose
other than to satisfy your desire to kill. There’s more, though.
The three that
are
your targets, well, they’re on their
way here.”

Cemmera slapped her across the face, causing
Melissa to once again calm her rising anger.

“
She’s lying, Neil! It must be Jack
Harris. It
has
to be Jack Harris. Santos did not die for
nothing. He can’t be allowed to die for nothing!”

“
Look,” Neil said, tears streaking
down his coarse face. He showed Cemmera the P.D.A and she shrieked.
It was a loud, disgusting sound.

“
We have to leave,” he said. “We
have to make this right. If we stop now, we might be allowed to
keep our lives.”

Cemmera howled at him, ripping the device from
his fingers and throwing it to the ground. In a blind fury, she
stomped on it, over and over, until it was smashed. Eventually the
screen fell off, and the circuitry inside got entangled her
boot.

“
Girl,” she said to Melissa. “Are
you certain there are three more on the way? How can you know
that?”

“
Because,” Melissa said, “Jack
Harris is not a Telekinetic like you’ve been led to believe. He’s
an Unrestricted.”

Even the Kinetics, who had yet to make a sound
since entering the home, shifted on their feet and moaned.
“Cemmera, you were wrong about everything,” one said.

“
Quiet, Joseph, you fool. Disrespect
me again and so help me God I will punish you
and
your
brother, I’ll bring you within an inch of your worthless
lives!”

Melissa watched as Cemmera backed away and
paced around the room, almost tripping over the unconscious form of
Alana Harris while muttering nonsense to herself. After a few
moments she paused, and a dangerous glint entered her
eyes.

“
Here’s what we’ll do. We know that
our three targets are coming. We’ll kill them, and then we’ll kill
this girl and the boy’s mother—and the boy too, of course—and then
we’ll report that the three targets were responsible. Yes, yes, it
all makes sense now. We showed up too late, we tried to save them,
but we just didn’t make it in time. We got here, saw the three of
them laughing over their murderous deeds, and we put a stop to
them. We’ll cry, so that they know how terrible we feel. If only
we’d arrived here in time to save them. It’s perfect!”

Melissa balled her hands into fists. “You,” she
said to their Reinforcer, the man known as Neil. “If you go along
with this, you’re just as bad as she is. Same goes for you two
guys.” The Kinetics looked at her but said nothing.

“
Do not listen to this child,”
Cemmera growled. “You can either do what I say or spend your lives
in one of those facilities. Neil, I already know you spent a few
years there. Care to go back?”

Neil appeared to be deep in thought. Sweat
trickled down his face, in what Melissa assumed was him considering
his options.

“
She’s right,” the Telekinetic, the
one called Joseph, said. “This woman.” He kicked the unconscious
form of Alana Harris. “She’s killed a member of our team. We need
to kill every last one of them for this.”

Joseph’s brother nodded in agreement, and
Cemmera smiled with pride at the Kinetic twins.

Melissa felt the tension in the room rise as
they all shifted on their feet and faced her. She was furious at
these people, these
animals.
Not only did they kick an
unconscious woman, but now they were going to murder her and Jack,
and for what? To cover up a stupid mistake that cost them the life
of a friend? She knew what she said next was foolish, irresponsible
even, but in her growing fury, she spoke out of impulse.

“
You guys seem to value yourselves
hunters, is that true?”

Cemmera grinned. “Of course, girl. There is
none better.”

She pointed to Neil. “If you have even the
smallest shred of honor, if you are not a complete coward, unworthy
of the very air you breathe, then fight me alone, Neil. I don’t
think I’ve ever been as pissed off as I am right now. Why don’t we
step outside, and I’ll show you why you’re nothing but an Op. team
animal, all
brute
and no brains.”

Neil howled at the derogatory term, smashing
his fist through the fridge, breaking yet another part of the
kitchen. It hurt Melissa to use the word on one of her own kind,
but if she didn’t start punching something soon, she’d lose it. The
Reinforcer didn’t look happy—made worse by the two Kinetics and
Cemmera laughing in his face.

Melissa smiled. “You look angry, chump.” She
pointed. “How about we step outside? Maybe I’ll dip my fist in
paint and decorate your hideous face.”

Neil turned to Cemmera and a pleading,
desperate look crossed his eyes. Cemmera nodded and said, “Go
ahead, have at her.” Neil seemed so relieved that he actually
whimpered.

At first, Melissa had no idea why she hated the
man so much. She struggled to understand what it was about him that
had her so filled with rage. It was only then as the man
sighed with relief that she finally understood. Unlike the other
three living members of Neil’s team, he alone was not an animal.
Cemmera and the Kinetics might be bloodthirsty hounds, but this
man—and this man alone—knew in his heart that what he was doing was
wrong. Melissa could see it in his face. He knew their actions were
immoral and reprehensible, yet he did them anyway. It was for this
reason that Melissa despised him the most in the bunch. There was
nothing in this world quite like a person who knew they were
committing evil yet continued to do so.

For a long moment, a quiet settled upon the
room while the reality of the situation finally dawned on Melissa.
The only sounds were of the water shooting from the broken sink,
the occasional crumbling from the broken wall, and the sound of a
snack being munched on too loudly.

Wait, what?

“
This is getting so awesome,” Jack
said, sinking his teeth into another pretzel. “I liked the part
where you said you were going to paint his face. I thought that was
funny.”

“
I did too, Darling,” said another
voice, grabbing the bag of pretzels away from Jack.

“
Hey, when did you get here?” Jack
asked the girl, apparently oblivious to the three people standing
to the side of him.

Melissa, Cemmera, the Kinetics, and even
Neil—none of them spoke a word. Melissa tried to, she really did,
but it felt like a concussion grenade had just been detonated in
her skull as she watched Jack carry on a casual conversation with
the three most dangerous people she had ever set eyes
on.

“
We’ve been here for a while,
Darling, watching the fun same as you. Oh, Ruin, who do you think
will win?” Requiem asked, munching on a pretzel.

“
I don’t know, Dearest Sister,” Ruin
said, “but I know who you’re rooting for.”

Requiem’s face seemed to darken at the words.
“I do hope that large man rips the Pig-woman’s face
off.”

Jack spun around. “Hey, Andy, I didn’t know you
were coming over! Umm, I know you’re like, evil now and stuff, but
I still want to show you this new comic book I got. Basically, in a
nutshell, well, how do I say this without any spoilers? Alright, so
you know how spider-man has—”

“
Jack, Shut up!”
Melissa
shouted. She shook her head. There were no words to describe the
stupidity of the situation. It was like she had left America and
moved into loony-land.

Cemmera was the first to recover from her lapse
of disbelief. “You three!” she screamed at them. “My name is
Cemmera Wilson, team-leader of Op. team four-H. I have a signed
kill—”

“
Oh, Ruin, Darling,” Requiem
interrupted her. “Why is that woman wearing a bucket on her head?
Is today bucket-head day?”

Requiem casually walked through the broken
kitchen and bent over to pick up a pan that had been knocked over
during Alana’s fight. She positioned it on her head with a cheerful
sigh, imitating Cemmera. “Is this the fashion, woman? Did I do it
right?”

Cemmera raised her hands and felt around the
top of her own head, discovering the flowering-pot resting on top
of it. She hissed with anger, throwing it to the ground and
shattering it.

“
Talk ends now! Joseph, Daniel,
you’re with me. We’ll take on the three targets. Neil, kill the
Harris-boy and his mother when you finish up with the
girl.”

“
I understand, Cem—”

Melissa did not give him a chance to finish his
sentence. With all the power she could draw, she charged into him,
tackling him and sending them both soaring through the kitchen.
With a tremendous crash, they broke through the side of the house.
Neil landed on the grass, and Melissa fell on top of him. She still
had the element of surprise. Before Neil could gather his
surroundings, she repeatedly slammed her fist into his
face.