Collection of Older Works

Faethfully Yours: Chapter Twelve

Sam's eyes widened. That's right Sam....be scared. I was the one doing it and even I was scared.... 

Underfoot the sand trembled with the same cold intensity that burned my veins. It rose with higher with each pounding of my heart, and fell with each breath....we were connected. Sam screamed at the other guard to attack. The guard hesitated.  

Wrong move.  

With the flick of my wrist, he froze. Trailing my fingers up through the air, the earth pledged its allegiance as the grains of sand crept up his skin, covering him slowly, inch by inch. Sam's face morphed into one of horror as he watched the man beside him disappear under a sheet of earth. In a last attempt to keep his life, the guard snapped from his fear and reached for his gun...Tsk Tsk.  

I shut my fingers closed.  

Done.  

The sand settled, and he was no more.  

The barn door exploded open with a deafening boom. The rest of the men that had gone into the house stormed inside. Suddenly a shot rang through the air and unwittingly I lifted my hand, sending a wall of sand between us.....oh my god. The earth wasn't just an ally....it was mine to control.... Mine.  

In a test of loyalty, I swirled my finger and my wall became a swirling barrier... My own personal tornado... 

I smiled. Kheelan yelled something but it sounded more like a distant echo...I was too far gone. The same pleasure I felt while draining Jaime began to sweep through me again...Only then it had been that other thing within me. But she was bound. This was all me... 

Exhaling, I closed my eyes but it was like I never closed them because in the darkness I could see everything. Each grain of sand served as my new eyes and all their vision together gave me a clear picture of all that lay outside my tornado... I could see where each person stood frozen in fear, what they looked like, what they held...how they trembled.  

Was I scared? Yeah I was scared. Did I want to stop?......hell no. I felt free. I didn't have that other power pushing me aside. I didn't have Ivan stopping me.... 

Shit. Ivan! 

Reigning myself back in, Kheelan's voice seeped into my head, "The circle Charlotte! It's keeping him from healing!" 

Obediently, I swiped my hand, a whip of sand brushed across Ivan, blowing that damn protective circle to hell. Instantly the mist rushed back into the body...but nothing happened. His chest didn't rise or fall, his color was still gone...the bleeding continued... Why wasn't he moving?  

Through the sand, I heard rushing, determined footsteps. Turning, the men had snapped from their terror and were rushing toward me, toward Ivan...No. He was mine.  

Sweeping my hand across the room as if directing a lethal symphony, excruciating burning engulfed my arm as the earth followed obediently, wrapping its roughness around the running men. One by one, I wrapped myself around them, bringing their deathly steps to a halt. Curling my fingers into a slow, determined fist, I squeezed....draining the air from their poisonous lungs. They screamed, but I heard nothing. The sand that imprisoned them were my new ears....and all I heard was the ghostly beating of their hearts, counting down the seconds until eternal stillness... 

Beat.... 

Beat.... 

Beat... 

Silence... 

Releasing my fist, my hands fell lifeless....as did the mounds of dirt that were now intertwined with ashen fabric. What had I just done? Gasping desperately, I released my control on the earth....I was a monster! I....I was no better than them. I killed....I killed fathers and sons.....