She strikes me across the face, shocking both of us. For a moment, she pauses, staring at me with wide eyes. But then she collects herself and strikes me again. And again. And again. As pain builds inside me, so does this strange heat.
Sweltering.
I feel so hot.
I hear voices from somewhere. Mia screaming, I think. And then I hear nothing. Nothing but the soft chants of something that can only be described as madness.
* * *
When I regain consciousness, I'm lying face down on the cold basement fl
oor, my wrists are untied, and the air is quiet. But it's a maddening sort of silence. One good thing, though, is that the heat I felt in my body is gone. A chill is now glazing through my veins, but it feels soothing. Just like the quiet.
Then I hear a noise, mumbling from somewhere, and that soothing sensation shatters.
I gulp. Oh God, this is just like the incident with Mia.
But who’s mumbling? Tim? Probably. But I’m not about to stick around and find out.
I need to get out of here.
I jump to my feet, but instantly regret it as my head throbs and the room spins. I blink several times, struggling to keep my balance—
The lights click on and I stiffen.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Squinting against the light, I frantically peer around. Everything appears normal, except Tim isn’t anywhere. That mumbling, though, it has to be him. It sounds just like when I unleashed my powers on Mia.
“Where the hell is he?” I mumble as I take a cautious step forward—
“Oh my God, what have you done!” Tina cries out from behind me.
I spin around and find her looking beneath the stairway, her face pale as death, her eyes wide in horror.
Every part of me screams run!
I reel around toward the stairway, preparing to get the hell away from this house. I don’t care if I get called in as a runaway again. It’ll be better than living in this hellhole.
“Get over here right now!” Tina screams at me, grabbing the back of my shirt.
She jerks on me hard enough that I stumble back, and my gaze zeroes in underneath the stairway. I freeze as terror rips through me.
I hadn’t really gotten a good look at Mia after I had accidentally used my powers on her. Too many people had been there and had gotten in my way. Plus, Lea’s mom had shouted for me to get out of the house, so I had left. Only I didn’t know where to go, so I ended up sitting on the front porch until the cops showed up.
Part of me has always wondered what exactly happened to Mia, what she looked like as she chanted that language no one seemed to recognize. But if she looked at all like Tim, I’m glad I didn’t see it at the time, because the sight is absolutely horrifying.
He’s cowering underneath the stairway with his hands over his ears, the blood veins on his arms so prominent they look like they’re about to pop out from underneath his skin.
That heat in my body builds again, a voice filling my head.
Look at what you’ve done.
I shake my head. “I didn’t do this.” But really, I know I did.
Tina jabs a finger in my face. “Yes, you did! You did this to him! I know you did! You sick freak of nature! You sinner,” she hisses, leaning close to me. “I knew you were a bad seed from the moment I laid eyes on you. I should’ve sent you back! I should’ve listened to the rumors about you!”
“I didn’t do this to him,” I say in an uneven tone. “How could I… I mean, what even happened to him?”