The Republic of Linae (Book 1)

Chapter 20: Cameron

The sound of squelching flesh fills my ears followed by complete and total silence. Fear floods through me while I pleadingly press the phone harder to my ear, as if I can somehow gain the super hearing I need to know what is going on.

"Allyson!" I quietly shout into the phone. There's no response on the other end. Just complete silence.

Mrs. Dylis said that Allyson couldn't hurt her. That doesn't mean that Allyson can't hurt herself.

Blickerman gives me a pleading look, wanting to be let in the loop. He has been pressing me to tell him what has been happening this whole time, as if I have any more of an understanding than him. "What?"

I force myself onto my feet. I need to find Allyson. I need to make sure that she is okay. That she didn't just do what I think she did.

Before this moment, I never realized how much I genuinely cared about my sister. Her being a Catipilis doesn't matter to me as much as it once had.

Yanking me back onto the ground, Eric gives me a bewildered look. "Are you crazy!?" He hisses.

"Allyson is in trouble," I say simply.

"So you're going to wander the halls without your powers until you either get shot or find her?"

We don't know how we all collectively lost our powers or how long we won't have them for. All that can be definitively said is that the Calamities are at fault.

Powers or no powers, though, I am going to make sure that my sister is okay.

"Eric—"

"Don't be stupid, Hansen. Your sister will find a way to manage on her own."

Gunshots echo through the hallway, causing any argument I had to fizzle out. Without my powers, I don't stand a chance against those guns. I wasn't trained for such situations. Allyson, however, has spent most of her life being powerless. She's learned how to live without her powers far before she has learned to live with them.

The door begins to splinter and shake, causing Mr. Ryne to stand up. He's expected to fight to protect us. To die first.

As the door to our classroom explodes, I hear several people shriek. Both guys and girls cower further into the corner while the perpetrator enters the classroom.

My sister walks in, setting her gaze on the helpless students hiding in the corner. Blood spatter covers her face and the top of her white dress. She doesn't appear to be hurt though. Not physically at least.

The empty look in her eyes has me immediately question her motives. If she is here under the control of Mrs. Dylis, then she is going to kill us. No one would be able to stop her, even if we were to have our powers.

"There isn't much time before they come back to this wing," she states in an urgent tone. "There's an unblocked exit, but we need to go. Now."

Everyone else in the room does not need to be told twice. They practically trip over one another as they make their way toward the exit.

Allyson patiently waits in the doorway, making direct eye contact with me and Blickerman. Tears line the bottom of her eyes as she nods her head for us to leave.

"What happened?" Eric asks in a quiet tone. We are currently trying to escape a building that is currently under siege by a terrorist group and he is worried about what happened between my sister and her teacher. Blickerman is a man of great timing.

Tension lines my sister's shoulders while she searches the hallway for any potential threat. "I couldn't let Mrs. Dylis control me," she states. "So, I had to kill her."