11
GRACE * * *
“My name is Grace Evans,” I whispered to the camera, “And I’m so sorry.” A genuine tear rolled down my cheek. I wiped it away.
I hated it. Hated what I’d become. What I’d been reduced to. Hated what the world had turned me into.
“I hate it,” I said just as quietly.
The interviewer’s eyes lit up. “Tell us more.” There was a brief pause.
The camera lens rotated, zooming in on my face. And I began.
* * *
My parents weren’t harsh or cruel. I wasn’t sent away to Elitus against my will. In fact, I came from a well-off family, who just wanted to see the best for me.
However, they were clueless.
When I first won the state spelling bee, it was a great achievement, but nothing spectacular, really. When I won the national spelling bee and then repeated the feat in sixteen other countries in 9 different languages, then it became spectacular.
Immediately after winning the Finnish National Spelling Bee, in a particularly obscure dialect of Finnish, I received a letter in the mail, offering me a position to some preppy school named Elitus Academy.
My parents looked into it and when everything checked out – and we found out how prestigious the offer was - they sat me down and asked me if I wanted to go.
The fees were non-existent, supposedly because everybody who graduated from there became extremely rich and made some very big contributions, so money wasn’t a factor. Being apart from my family would be nerve-racking and I’d miss my younger sister, Alannah, too. But it didn’t take much thought to know that this would be the biggest opportunity of my life – and so I accepted.
I had been placed several year levels above my age – something not exactly uncommon at the Academy and in my first few weeks I settled in excellently, flying through all my classes and just generally loving life.
I’d call home every few days to see how things were going and for about a month or so, it was all great.
Then the “popular girls” came along.
Apparently it was hunting season for them and they chose me as their next prey. I wasn’t one to be bullied and I stood my ground every-time, it frustrated them when they failed to humiliate me. So then they got serious.
They started targeting my friends and bullied the weaker people around me. When people figured out that it was me who was causing all their problems, they shunned me. I was the new girl, the popular girls were almost a part of the furniture, and nobody stood up to them except for me.
After a couple of months of increasing loneliness, I snapped. In the dead of the night, I sneaked out past curfew, trashed their lockers, their dorm and while they were sleeping, substituted some corrosive chemicals from the science lab, with their hair, skin and nail products.
It seemed preppy and cliché and even dangerous but there was no other way to confront them. The moment when they arrived in the breakfast hall, hair coming out in clumps, skin flaking off and nails looking as if they’d been placed in a shredder, gave me the biggest sense of satisfaction I’d ever had.
In the following days, the school tried, without success, to identify the vandal.
If anybody suspected me, they didn’t dare say it. I then went to the girls and told them they looked hideous. I said that they looked nearly, not quite, but nearly, as poor as their self-esteem – and they broke down.
From that day forth they were scared of me. They befriended me, came and sat with me, looked to me for approval for the things they were about to or had done and subconsciously I became the queen of their twisted colony.
Still, at this point, I was pretty in touch with myself. I still called home once a week and was all about getting the girls into line – but then there was the boy.
Collin Harvey was a year older than me, in my year level at the Academy, in nearly all of my language classes and helped me with my “study”. He was the first serious crush I had ever had and the feelings between us were mutual. We spent more and more time together until eventually, we were hardly seen apart.
But the girls didn’t like that and so they took my phone before the Christmas break, texted him that I was dumping him because I’d found someone else, hired out some flash hotels in the nearest city and kept me in total isolation from him for four weeks.
When I realised my phone went missing, I asked to borrow one of the girls’ but they all had some excuse or another as to why they didn’t have theirs and by the time the Christmas break was over, Collin was dating Jessica Simmons…
Jessica had been one of my best friends in my first month at the Academy, had abandoned me out of fear for being bullied and had tried to hitch onto me during my rise to popularity. I had told her I liked Collin and now she was spiting me by going out with him.
I attempted to explain to Collin what had happened – he told me the sex was better with Jessica and that he’d told everybody else that too.
In that moment, all love and happiness left my being and I became a shell of apathy. I swore revenge – and got it too – but it left me feeling empty. A feeling I could only quench by manipulating the world around me.
I was never the same again.
Going into Simulator was something unexpected but not surprising. I was the most prominent person in our year level and the Academy submitted an application on my behalf without asking.
It was an advantage to have everyone be older than me in the game – they had no idea who I was, and I used it to my advantage by feigning total innocence.
In the hexagonal room, I chose the wand as my weapon. It was supposed to produce illusions of their user’s desire, it appealed to me.
When I went into the clearing, I thought taking out as many people as possible would be the best way to go. Frankly, I wanted them all dead. I hated everyone and everything about them. They represented the Academy and therefore, needed to be brought down.
Then I realised that I needed a strategy. Victor and I had been seeing each other for some time and he had told me all about why he didn’t like Stefanie. I liked Victor but realised he could never commit to a relationship. He was a threat too, and I needed him to think he was manipulating me in order to get him when his guard was down. That and he’d probably kiss me in attempt to convince me of his allegiance
– and I never said I didn’t think he was hot…
So I plotted with him to help dispose of Stefanie, knowing full well he had no intentions of doing so himself – and set out to kill Xander.
Xander confused me. He wasn’t easy to figure out and there was a constant edge of spontaneity to his actions. When I confronted him, I was intentionally cruel. I disliked him. Even so, as a person, I was now naturally cold.
I had secured us into that small area with the orange rope, I showed off my extreme-speed and wanted to make him scared before I killed him.
I had not expected him to be able to fight back. I remember when he used his mind power, I attempted to remain cool and collected but then he attacked me from a distance and held me in place.
When he faltered, I thought I had him and I picked up a rock off the ground. I intended on pushing it through his sternum, into his heart – but somehow he summoned that wave of power.
When it hit me I nearly died.
By the time I had recovered, I lost his trail. I was furious and decided I wasn’t going to be so “playful” again.
So I found Lily.
When I spotted her, I ran faster than I ever had before. I stood behind a tree, waiting to pounce and somehow she seemed to sense me - but it was too late.
It was then that something bizarre happened, however. Hearing footsteps behind me, I spun around and watched as… I collided into myself! There had been two of me!
I had no time to think about it though, Lily was right there and so I jumped on her, hands around her throat, hoping to at the very least knock her unconscious. She would pay for attacking me.
I felt her writhe beneath m
y grip, but she could do nothing to stop me. Finally, after what seemed like minutes, she went limp.
Her chest was still rising and falling, albeit shallowly, and I searched around for something I could kill her with without making too much of a mess.
“Bye bye Lily,” I said while I searched.
I contemplated the clone that had disappeared into me before. Simulator was a dangerous place and this thing was now inside of me. Like physically.
All I did was run. It couldn’t have been me who caused it. It was almost like a duplicate image of myself trying to catch up with me…
Oh. My. God.
I flashed back to me advanced physics class at the Academy. Neutrinos, tiny particles that reached speeds above that of light, often had “photon duplicates” that traced behind their true path in the air.
I had run faster than light – faster than time.
Checking that Lily was not waking up anytime soon, I bolted through the forest and back again and waited for my shadow-self to catch up… It did.
Grabbing the wand I had secured in my pocket, I created a simple illusion – one of an egg – and projecting it in front of me, I ran.
It seemed to be part of the time warp with me – because it hatched. I watched, still running, as the bird matured, flew around me and then seemed to wither with age and die. In minutes I had passed through years of time. But neither I nor the world around me had changed.
I contemplated what this meant and whether or not it was even useful.
I thought to try something risky. Jumping on the spot, as fast as I could, I projected an image of a prison cell. I wasn’t prepared to dispose of any of the contestants immediately, so I needed a place to contain them.
Channelling the vibration of my body that I felt whenever I moved this fast, I tried to focus my power externally. Sure, I could run fast, faster than light, but I wondered if I could make anything else move that fast, bring anything else through time.
Focussing on the jail cell, I shifted my mental focus. The image began to vibrate.
I leaped backward as a huge crash sounded through the forest. Hundreds of trees that had been standing where the illusion was, were crushed. The sound of bricks on metal and cold concrete cementing over grass joined the noise.
I felt a sudden loss of energy; what I had done was barely within my limits – but it had worked.
The theory behind it was flawed in reality, yes - but in Simulator, it wasn’t. I had focused on one of the many infinite possibilities of the future – alternate endings almost
– and dragged it to the present by bringing it through time.
The immensity of my power struck me and even though I realised that I had limits as far as energy was concerned, I could focus on any one thing happening in the future – and bring myself to it. Messing with time was dangerous but I didn’t care – I was going to master it.
The prison that stood before me was a simple brick building with metal door entrance. I already knew what was inside – a staircase that led underground and a concrete hallway that went on for about fifteen meters or so. Marking the hallway were entrances to cells. It was dank, dark, gloomy and depressing.
Calling on my power again – for an easier task – I drew on the future possibility of Lily ending up in there, and turned it into reality.
I watched her body disappear and knew that it had landed in the furthest cell from the entrance. I would deal with her later.
Exploring my new power – I conjured an image of Stefanie using my wand. It was a memory of her receiving some award back at school.
Rather than travel into the actual memory, however, I was going to attempt to bring myself to what the image represented – and that was Stefanie.
If I travelled into the illusion, I’d be transported to some fake place in Simulator that was a representation of Elitus, but not quite… Not only would I be helpless from the energy loss, Victor wouldn’t be there. Instead, I needed to be brought to Stefanie, as opposed to bringing her to me.
I focussed and felt the vibrations travel through me again and… with a tug I found myself standing amongst a patch of trees that were solid gold. This world was kind of incredible…
I could hear voices and confident that one of them belonged to Stefanie, I stalked forward.
“– something you’re not telling me. What’s wrong?” I heard Stefanie’s voice ask. To me it always sounded whiny.
Quickly deciding on what to do, I withdrew my wand and imagined a swirling mass of people surrounding them. I didn’t commit too much energy to the illusion, just enough to startle them.
“I-“ Victor stopped mid-sentence.
I began to push through the people. Finally, when I reached the centre, I smiled at the couple.
Victor shot me a love-pained look, one that I knew was entirely fake but I winked back at him. Stefanie had blanched, looking as lifeless as ever. Eugh, to think I’d be following in her footsteps.
I watched as Victor tried to teleport them away but as they began to fade, I gave Victor the illusion that his power wouldn’t work. As long as he thought it wouldn’t, it couldn’t
– or so I hoped.
I watched with glee as he failed to go anywhere. Good.
“Today,” I began, breaking the silence, “only one person can teleport out of here at a time. Too bad you need him,” I jerked my thumb in Victor’s direction, “to teleport.”
I saw Stefanie comprehend what I’d just said, and she looked as if she was going to cry.
I commanded the men to move forwards and disguised myself as one of them. I needed Victor and Stefanie to believe that the men weren’t just an illusion, but tangible, so they wouldn’t just walk through them. I darted forward and pulled Stefanie backwards.
Victor gave her one last look and vanished, able to do so without me stopping him.
Stefanie didn’t even attempt to fight back. Just like I’d done with Lily, I conjured the image of the prison cell – and sent Stefanie away. I grinned as I mentally felt her thud to the floor.
I now had Stefanie AND Lily locked up.
I laughed with joy.
This was going to be fun.
12
B3AST The power at my disposal made my eyes roll with pure ecstasy. I had always been so powerless and now, nobody would be able to even contemplate usurping my authority.
I remembered thinking all of this as I left Xander in his prison.
Now as I returned to make sure he was still there and continue to gloat, something stirred deep inside of me at the sight I was met with.
The prison was in ruins.
He had somehow broken out of a mountain. It wasn’t just by weakening the supports, or digging a small tunnel – he had smashed through it.
I wouldn’t let it happen again.
I obviously needed to find Xander as soon as possible and searching the elements – with my powers – for the clues of his disappearance, I realised that he was still –
“ARGH!”
I shattered the glass tree Xander had been standing in, exploding it outwards with enough force to kill him. I was a split second too late though and he landed on top of me, dropping us both to the floor.
My back slammed against the ground and I scrabbled to push Xander off me. He was physically stronger than me and so the only choice I had was to use my power.
Manipulating the air in between us, I blasted a jet of wind against his chest, sending him flying through the air.
Again I felt the breath knocked out of me, however, as the air forced me back into the ground as well.
Before Xander could recover, I began to turn the earth beneath him into quicksand, snaring him in place.
Surrounding him with another strong current of air to distract him, I reached out with my power to turn the quicksand to rock.
Before I could, however, I felt my mental consciousness brush Xander’s.
In the brief pause of confusion, we both stiffened at what had happened. Then t
he onslaught began.
Immediately he attacked me with his mind, attempting to overtake my own thoughts. It was an odd feeling, having another person’s mentality touch your own and I realised that aside from telekinesis, he must’ve also had telepathy. I felt his mind like a spear, charge into the deep recesses of my brain.
I attempted to close off my thoughts while at the same time, launching my own mental attack on him.
We stood there, locked in an invisible struggle, for what felt like minutes. It was too unreal to describe what exactly was going on. It was a cross between trying to break into the other’s mind and take control as well as trying to block everything else out so as to avoid getting distracted and losing focus.
Neither of us had ever done this before, however, and because of it, we were both hesitant to gain the upper hand, for fear of what might happen.
Xander then did something unexpected. With his mind, he launched a renewed attack on my consciousness, exploiting what felt like a flaw in my mental armour. Before I could knock him back, however, I felt myself rising in the air, locked in place by what I knew was Xander’s power.
I watched him as he gritted his teeth, clearly in discomfort. But he kept me high in the air, all the while attacking my mind and without warning, dropped me.
In the split second it took me to summon the cushion of air that would save my life, Xander broke the barrier of my mind and suddenly I could feel his whole being inside of me.
Flailing to get him out, I did the only thing I knew I could and watched as fire erupted around him.
He had used his telekinesis to deflect it – I had aimed to burn him from the inside out - and then he sent a blast of mental energy in my direction, knocking me senseless for a moment. He still had access to my mind and again I panicked.
I summoned a platform of rock out from beneath his feet, attempting to send him flying skyward.
It worked partially; with him failing to entirely dodge what he had heard in my mind was coming, but still managing to bend his knees. His legs jarred into his torso and taking advantage of the opportunity, I called on my full power to attempt to burn him again.
For some strange reason, the jet of flame became a line of water, which became a patter of rain and then fell to the ground harmlessly. I felt Xander manipulating my own power from within myself.
Gamer (Gamer Trilogy) Page 9
