Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (54 page)

“
So you’re saying it’s
their
choice?”

“
Yes, Jack. It’s their choice, and
they’re intent on killing those two.”

Jack gently leaned away from Sarah and looked
at the four Psychs of the Op. team. They were smiling while they
prepared to slaughter their two captured victims.

“
Hey!” Jack called to them. “You,
Cemmera, answer me!”

Cemmera turned to Jack with a look of
annoyance. “What do you want now, Harris? I’m not sharing the kill
with you—you can forget it. If you want a piece of this you need to
join our Op. team. We’ve got a spot open for a Path, and seeing as
how you can technically be anything, I’d take ya. Hell, if you’d
sign a contract right now, I’d even give you the kill of your
choice. One’s still mine, though, hopefully the boy.”

It took Jack a moment to take in her words. He
wasn’t sure if she was being serious. Realizing that her words were
genuine, Jack filled with disgust.

“
These are people we’re talking
about, Cemmera. They’re not animals. Why are you going to kill
them? They can’t hurt anybody anymore, we’ve captured
them.”

Cemmera looked at him as if his question was
among the dumbest ever asked, which was almost funny to Jack,
because in his life he’d asked quite a few of those.

“
I’m sorry, what?” Cemmera asked. “I
don’t get the question. You’re saying why we
shouldn’t
kill
them, or why we
should
?”

Jack tried to hold his temper. “I’m asking you
why you’re going to kill them. I don’t understand it. They’ve
already been stopped.”

Cemmera scratched her head. “Well, because if I
don’t kill them, then I’m going to have to go yet another day
without a kill … Did you hit your head or something,
Harris?”

Only then did it dawn on Jack. Standing before
the four members of the Op. team, he came to understand the truth
of what these people were. “You … you enjoy this?”

Cemmera tilted her head to the sky and laughed.
“Of course! We live for the hunt. We would even die for the hunt.
Get with the program, kid. Now, my offer still stands—do you want
in on this or not?”

Jack’s only response was to raise an extended
palm and ready himself for yet another attack on Cemmera. Before he
could so much as lift his arm above his waist, Melissa was already
standing beside him with a firm grasp on his opened
hand.

“
Don’t even think about it,” she
hissed. “You’ll be sentenced to death for something like
that.”

“
You attacked them earlier,” Jack
argued. “All of a sudden they’re good guys now?”

“
That was different, Jack,” Sarah
said. “What happened back at your house will probably turn into an
unresolved dispute, one that will carry on into our higher courts
for years before being chalked up to error on both ends and
discarded. If you attack them here and now, while in the middle of
an operation in progress, with targets only inches from them, then
you’ll be in more trouble than we can get you out of.”

Jack moaned with the emotion building inside of
him. “So we have to just stand here and watch? We’re going to let
them just kill people for no damn reason!”

“
No one said it was going to be
easy,” Paro said. His eyes were downcast and he had a look of
defeat on his face, one that had nothing to do with the beating
he’d received from the roof-beams collapsing on him.

“
Alright, I can’t wait any longer.
You got em pinned, boys?” Cemmera beamed delight when the two
Telekinetics nodded.

The change happened in an instant. One moment,
Ruin and Requiem were gazing at Cemmera in defiance, their eyes
declaring a wordless challenge. An instant later, with almost no
transition, the reality of the situation finally dawned on them. In
the time it takes for a balloon to pop when pierced or the light to
fade after flicking a switch, their eyes changed from defiant to
terrified, knowing their lives were only moments from
ending.

“
Ruin, Darling, they are serious,
aren’t they?” Requiem asked.

Ruin did not answer. His maddened and twisted
expression faded in its entirety, leaving like it had never been
there. Jack had only ever seen two looks on the young Kinetic. He’d
seen his carefree and cheerful side, and more recently, he’d seen a
madness that rivaled his sister’s. Now, there was none of either.
There was only the face of a young man, likely only a year or two
older than Jack, coming to realize that his life was about to be
snuffed out of him.

Requiem struggled against the force of the two
Telekinetics holding her down, unable to so much as wiggle a
finger.

“
I see what she’s trying to do,”
Cemmera said. She laughed. “Jason, Daniel, let her, please. It will
make this so much more fun.”

The Kinetics grinned and Jack thought he could
see the way their Telekinesis shifted, allowing Requiem to move her
arm. Reaching out, she grasped her brother’s hand, holding it deep
into her own, gripping it tightly.

She looked past the four members of the Op.
team, past Paro, past Melissa, past Jack and Michael, to land her
eyes on Sarah’s. Her madness was not gone, but it did seem to fade
a little, making room for her own terror.

“
Darling,” she said with a shaking,
fear-ridden voice. She even seemed to be panting as she spoke, her
words coming out in small shivers. “D-Darling, didn’t you s-say
that we could surrender, yes? Please, I am s-sorry, th-that I did
not listen earlier. We can go now, yes? Please, yes? We can go,
Darling, yes? You will take us home, yes?”

Sarah shook and turned away from the girl,
grabbing Michael and weeping. “Don’t look, sweetie,” he said
holding her tight. “Don’t look.” It was almost the exact same words
Melissa had said to Jack earlier.

Jack did not move or speak. He was too shocked
to do either. The sounds of Requiem’s pleas grabbed at him, tugging
on his heart far more tightly than Melissa’s grip on his
hand.

Is this really happening?
Jack
thought.
Are we really allowing this?

“
Flip him,” Cemmera commanded. Ruin
was lifted into the air, spinning over, and coming to land on his
back.

“
Sister,” he whispered. “Sister!” he
yelled. “SISTER!” he screamed.

Cemmera sat on his chest and Jack realized that
at that moment she looked far more mad and twisted than the two
Psychs ever could. Her grin spread across her entire face,
enveloping her. Cemmera’s pleasure was evident in her moaning
sighs, while she removed a knife of her own from her pocket. “I’m
getting personal with this one.” She let out another
laugh.

Requiem cried as her face was kinetically
turned and she was forced to watch. The sound she made was
sickening. Jack felt, more than he heard her cries. It pierced his
heart, stabbed at his soul. “Ah! Ah!” Requiem cried, and Jack
assumed she was no longer able to form words. Tears began to fall
from her face.

“AH! AHH! No,
p-p-please!”
Requiem begged. “I’ll stop,
we’ll stop, I promise. Please, we’re sorry. Sarah!” she called.
“Sarah, we’re sorry!”

“
Aww,” Cemmera teased. “I wonder how
many people asked you the same thing. Stupid kids, thinking you’re
so powerful just cause you’re Psychs. Now look at ya, sucks don’t
it?”

With that, clutching the knife in both hands,
she brought it down on Ruin’s chest. Blood splattered out of his
open wound. The man—no, the boy—gurgled a cry. He kicked once, then
twice, and then stopped moving. Just like that, he was dead. There
were no last words—there was no last anything. In the blink of an
eye, his life was extinguished.

“
NO!” Requiem howled, “No, No, Oh
no!”

“
Let her go,” Cemmera said, still
straddling the lifeless Ruin. Requiem stood to her feet and jumped
on top of her brother as Cemmera got off him. “Good work, boys.”
Cemmera said, licking the blood off her knife. She sang and danced.
“We got him, we got him, oh yeah, yeah, we got him. Go
team!”

Requiem grabbed her brother by the shoulders.
She spoke fast, almost too fast to understand her frantic words.
“Oh, you’re just pretending, right, Darling?” She patted her
brother’s head. “Of course you are, stop sleeping, Darling. Open
your eyes now, okay? I’m here, that’s it, that’s it, that’s it, yes
now, yes, okay yes, okay, Darling, open your eyes. Ruin … My
brother! My friend! Oh, please, Ruin, please, open your eyes! Stop
sleeping now, Daddy’s going to be home and he won’t want to see us.
Please, Ruin, please just open your eyes one more time for me,
Darling. Oh, Ruin, oh please!”

There was a shriek, an inhuman wail of the
purest agony and pain, so loud that not even a bomb could overpower
its massive sound. She rolled over on her back, and for a moment
Jack thought the Kinetics were pinning her down again, but looking
into her eyes, Jack could see he was wrong. They were watching her
like she was some kind of circus animal, enjoying every
moment.

“
NO!” Requiem howled, “MY BROTHER!
YOU KILLED HIM!”

She trembled, rolling around, back and forth,
clutching at her heart, flailing her arms, and then grabbing at her
sides, “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! I LOVED HIM! GIVE ME BACK MY
BROTHER!”

Tears escaped from her eyes, so many and so
fast, that her shirt became soaked and her eyes grew red with
misery. She tried to stand, but she tripped over her own feet. She
began to crawl, screaming with such intensity that both of the
Kinetics had to cover their ears.

“
MY BROTHER! MY FRIEND!”

Cemmera stopped her dancing. “Will you shut up
already, tramp?” Cemmera placed a boot on her back, and Requiem was
pinned to the ground, water falling from her eyes like an
overturned glass.

She looked around the room until her gaze
settled on Jack. There was something off about them, something odd.
It was something that Jack should have seen sooner.

How could I not have known?
All
this time, and I didn’t see it.

“
Jaaaaaaaaaaackk,” Requiem cried.
“Please, don’t let them kill me! My brother! Jack, they killed
him!”

Those are my eyes,
Jack realized with
an almost heart-stopping epiphany.
At one time, her eyes were
the same as mine. At one time, she was just like me. What happened
to her? Why has she become what she is now?

“
Alright pin her down again, boys.
This one’s becoming an issue. It’s like fishing, ya know? Gutting
them is my favorite part.”

Melissa’s grip tightened on Jack’s hand. Now
she too began to cry. Jack, Paro, and Kazou, were the only in the
room dry-eyed, watching the scene with a horrified
fascination.

“
Melissa,” Jack whispered. “This is
… awful.”

“
Jaaaaaaaaackkk!” Requiem cried,
being flipped over. “Jaaaaaaaaackk!” She held out a hand, unable to
move, trying to reach for him.

He couldn’t take it anymore. This was the last
straw.
“Cemmera!”
Jack shouted. “Get your hands off of
her—now!”

Before Melissa could react, Jack pushed her off
him and charged at Requiem, diving to the ground and grabbing her
hand. The moment their fingers intertwined Jack’s mind exploded. It
felt like a million volts were shooting through his brain. The room
spun and shook, the terminal revolving around him.

Faster and faster it spun, until the dizziness
was too much to bear. Then came the darkness.

It took Jack a moment to realize he still
existed. He took in the scene. It was snowing, and all around were
the signs of a beautiful Christmas Eve. Houses lined the wide
street on both sides, with decorations and snowmen, Christmas
lights bloomed in the otherwise dark night. There was cheer in the
air, surrounding him, the very spirit of Christmas. It wove around
him, thick in the air, from one house to the next. Happiness filled
the world, everywhere except one place. In front of Jack there was
a home. It was different from the others. There was darkness around
it, an intensity that Jack could sense, separating it from all the
others.

Where are we?
It was a voice in Jack’s
mind. It was her voice. It was the voice of the one who once held
his eyes.