Power (Book 1)

Chapter 14

My eyes widened as Mckenzie's body crumpled to the ground. Behind her stood the girl with the glowing eyes, blurry as hell.

Oh, no. A speedster.

She walked over to me calmly, stepping over Mckenzie's body without a glance. "Hello, Jay," she said, cocking her head to the side.

"Wh- who are you?" My voice was shaky, uncertain. This girl had just killed a person in less than a second. I didn't even know Mckenzie, but my heart still clenched inside my chest when I looked at her on the ground, motionless.

"I am Sage," she told me in an ethereal voice.

"Sage?" I asked.

"Yes." She saw me looking at Mckenzie's body and waved her hand absentmindedly. "A minor inconvenience. She was not my friend," she said.

"Not your friend?" I said. "Do you kill everyone who isn't your friend?"

"No. She just...." Sage's face contorted in pain. "It doesn't matter. What matters is you."

"Who, me?"

"You. You awoke me. Why?" Her expressionless face reminded me of an android.

"I didn't wake you up. I wasn't anywhere near you!" I said, and then to myself, "If I had known that there was a killer here, I wouldn't have even come." I took a step back nervously, catching myself. "Uh...not that killing people is wrong or anything."

"No. Killing is absolutely wrong and is in no way okay." She grimaced. "But I still need to do it. It is...it is my mission. To kill you." Sage seemed to struggle internally with herself.

"Why me?" I said. "Why not anyone else?" I panicked, mentally hyperventilating. God, please no. I was going to die.

Sage said, "Because you are the only person who has the infinity matrix."

"What's the infinity matrix?" I asked.

"The infinity matrix is a...device, some would call it, that, let's say, augments your DNA, giving you abilities unlike a normal human."

"You mean like a meta?" I asked.

"No, a meta is a normal human. You are different- a freak of nature," she said disgustedly. "I cannot believe I am related to you."

"You're related to me!" I yelled. What the...what the...what the...this sick chick shared the same blood that I had running through her veins? I mean, that explained the glowing blue color of her eyes, and her face and skin color did look kind of like mine, but...holy shit, we were related!

"Enough of this!" Sage waved her hand in front of my face. "I need to execute you, quickly, before your friends arrive."

"Fat chance. You won't know where I am in the next five seconds." Then, I envisioned myself in the cornfields behind the old store. I heard the wet sucking sound, then I popped out of existence.

*****

I popped back in the corn fields. I smiled, glad that I was one of the few people in the world who had teleportation.

Then I popped right back in front of Sage, next to Jake's car. I gasped, turning around in confusion.

"Hm. Looks like I was wrong," Sage commented.

"What did you do to me?" I stumbled into the car, a wave of sickness washing over me.

"I did nothing," she said simply. "Apparently, I woke you, and the backload of energy somehow awakened my mind from its submerged state."