𝓟𝐫𝗼𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝓢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐞

Chapter #39 - Amy

Chapter #39 - Amy

Faces surrounded Amy. Some of which she recognized. But without emotions to tie them to... she couldn't quite place why they mattered.

That is, until she felt a strange surge— an overwhelming wave.

Of fear. Of anger.

Of all the negative emotions she'd been taking for granted.

Before Amy knew it, she was hit with the far-too-familiar feeling of getting her feelings knocked back at her. She fell weakly to the ground. Though this time... something about it did seem different. And once she reoriented herself and looked around, Amy gasped. Around her, the bodies of her sister's friends— writhing around a bit, so thankfully not dead— were laid across the streets and sidewalks of the neighborhood.

Her old neighborhood, she realized, feeling her heart crack just a little.

Turning around, Amy realized she wasn't the only one who had her feelings back now. The other humans Gisela had "collected" were back too, their terrified expressions seeming even more confused than her.

But wait. Keefe was crumbled limply on the ground. So how had he un-numbed everyone just now?

Suddenly, what happened started to sink in.

The elves surrounding her had been inflicted on— by one of the humans in Gisela's control— and somehow, that had also caused Amy and the others to get their feelings back.

She thought back to what she knew about the ability. Inflicting overwhelms people with bad emotions— sort of like the opposite of the numbing. So maybe when whoever did it inflicted, it balanced out the effect of Keefe's freeze and set them back to normal.

Amy felt a tiny twinge of pride for figuring it out.

"What just happened?!" a distressed, curly-haired man asked, to no one in particular. He looked at everyone around him, anxiety flashing in his dark eyes.

This caused a domino effect of everybody asking questions. All mostly in a mash-up of languages, but there were a few in English.

"Where are we?"

"Who are you?"

"How am I— flickering out of sight like this?"

"Why was I just feeling so... so empty?"

They all panicked, scrambling around, trying to make sense of where they were and how they had these powers and what was happening.

Please, Amy thought, legs wobbling. Please wake up from the inflicting, Sophie. Everyone. Do your elf superhero thing.

***

Amy stared at her icy hands— with all the on-and-off numbing, she'd never really gotten a chance to take in her new Elsa-like power— wishing Keefe had triggered that ability Sophie had, a Polyglot, so she could actually talk to Alice and the other humans. To explain what was happening. Though it would probably take some convincing, considering that at the end of the day, she was twelve.

But she'd decided. Before all the elves recovered from the inflicting, she was going to get her and the other humans out of here, before Lady Gisela could force Keefe to numb them again.

Yet...

There were two problems.

First, how? And where would they go?

And second, well, this one was stupid. But... Amy didn't want to leave her sister.

She turned to Sophie's limp body. It was the first time she'd seen her in person since... since they got that awful memory back with Mr. Forkle, actually.

Any minute now, Sophie would probably come back to consciousness. But... Amy needed this. Just for a moment.

She curled up against her elvin sister and bawled.

It wasn't for long— though she did hear a few people give faint murmurs of confusion. She just cried harder, ignoring when the tears froze on her cheeks.

Once she was done, she allowed her green eyes to look up, eying all the fellow humans who'd gotten wrapped up in this. Thank goodness Keefe's mom hadn't gone to wherever Amy's parents were— at least, not yet— and taken them too. Just the thought of that was heartbreaking.

A faint spark ricocheted off Alice's hand. Amy let out a breath, a newfound idea forming in her head.

"When this woman," she pointed to Lady Gisela, "wakes up, try to overwhelm her as much as possible." Hopefully if she was too distracted, she wouldn't have time to make Keefe numb them again. "I know the crazy new abilities we have are, well, super hard to control, but just... do what you can."

Even though most of them couldn't possibly understand her, Amy knew everyone would sense the desperation in her tone.