Garrett turned towards the Rottweilers again, but before he could determine which Rottweilers were real, the closest Rottweiler sank her teeth into his leg just above the ankle.
Garrett clenched his teeth, closed his eyes and moaned as he went down onto his knees.
Another Rottweiler was able to bite at his ankle before Garrett could retaliate by creating a strong explosion wave. When the explosion wave hit the five Rottweilers, the five Rottweilers were thrown back several feet. They landed unconscious on top of and around the junk cars.
Ellen and the others were also thrown off their feet when the explosion wave hit them. The metal from the junk cars ten feet from Garrett or closer had groaned from being bent. Any glass there was had shattered and was thrown as well. The cars that were ten to twenty feet from Garrett just shook.
The explosion wave was short and any glass or rough debris that was thrown had showered down without severe injuries to anyone.
Garrett was still on his knees when everyone went to get back on his or her feet. As Winona was getting back up, she noticed that Garrett’s knees were closer to the ground than they were before; however, Garrett was getting up as well and Winona wasn’t sure if she had seen right. To see if she was right, she uttered her command phrase that grabbed a nearby fist-size rock followed by her command phrase that threw that rock towards Garrett.
Garrett didn’t see or notice the rock until it had hit his invisible shell, three inches from his left shoulder. Garrett turned and watched the rock as it fell to the ground.
Winona thought for a moment, and as the rock was rolling across the ground, a thought occurred to her.
“Hey,” Winona whispered as she stepped up to Jessica. “We need him to set loose another powerful strike as he did on those dogs.”
“Why?” Jessica whispered back.
“That explosion wave he created had used up a lot of his power,” Winona informed. “His force-field is half to what it was before.”
Jessica thought for a moment before asking, “How do we do it?”
“I want you to do what Ellen had done, but instead of dogs, I want you to create bear illusions,” Winona instructed.
“Why bear?” Jessica asked.
“I learned today from Cory that I can shape-shift, and I practiced shape-shifting as a bear,” Winona explained.
“Bear?!” Jessica mouthed out. “Wow!”
“I need you to create the illusion of an army of bears attacking him,” Winona told her.
“Which bear?” Jessica asked.
“A brown bear mainly, but if you want to mix it up, that’s fine,” Winona replied.
Jessica nodded in an understanding manner.
When Jessica turned to look, Ellen had sent Garrett flying through the air again with the blow-back spell that was linked to one of her rings.
As Garrett was hitting the ground, Jessica uttered her command phrase that activated the illusion spell.
From eight directions, convincing images of bears began to merge on Garrett. Ellen immediately saw them and figured out quickly that the bears were only an illusion and she turned to look for the source.
Winona was removing her pants when she saw Ellen looking in her and Jessica’s direction. Before Ellen could utter a syllable, Winona hushed her with a finger gesture to her lips. When Winona saw that Ellen was going to comply, she went to remove her shirt.
Ellen turned towards Garrett—who was getting back on his feet—and after a short thought, she uttered her command phrase that gave her superhuman speed.
Ellen moved towards the opposite side of the yard from where Winona and Jessica were. When Ellen’s speed returned to normal, Ellen cringed and slightly groaned from the pain that the spell had caused.
Garrett jerked around towards Ellen and saw that she was in pain. A pleasant grin came across his face before saying, “Your Speedy Gonzales imitations are taking their toll.”
“I’ll still outlast the battery to your force-field,” Ellen said. Ellen glanced towards Winona—who was now standing completely in the nude—and then quickly turned away. “So why don’t you give up now?”
Garrett had seen Ellen’s quick glance and turned to see what Ellen was looking at. For the first time, Garrett noticed the eight bear images, and then caught sight of Winona in mid-transformation from human to the bear that she was attempting to become.
“The illusions of the dogs—since there are dogs in the yard—were more convincing,” Garrett uttered while turning towards Ellen again. “However, I have to admit that the shape-shifting human is a nice touch.”
Ellen looked in Cory’s direction—to Garrett’s right—before saying loudly, “Then perhaps I should bring back the dogs.”
“That ploy was a good move, but it won’t work twice,” Garrett informed as Ellen faced him again.
“How about if I mix it up with other types of dogs?” Ellen rhetorically questioned before saying the command phrase that activated the illusion spell.
To Garrett’s left side, convincing images of a German Sheppard, a Rottweiler and a Saint Bernard appeared within a few feet from each other.
Getting undressed in a rush was an art for Cory, and he was completely undressed within a minute. As he threw his clothes to the ground, he began to shape-shift into a dog.
Winona had shape-shifted into something that looked more like a short Bigfoot with bear-claws, and she moved swiftly towards Garrett.
Harris, Karla, Sadie, Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin—with confused expressions on their faces—went along with what was happening and uttered their command phrases that activated the illusion spell and created dogs, bears and Bigfoot images of their own.
“Playing that card twice is a bad move,” Garrett informed.
Ellen allowed the illusions that she was creating to drop before asking, “How can you be so sure that we don’t have two of those cards to play?”
“Because I can…” Garrett got out before swinging towards the Bigfoot looking creature that Winona had shape-shifted into.
Winona was swinging her right bear-claw hand towards Garrett’s lower leg when Garrett looked, and before he could respond, Winona had ripped open his lower legs with one swipe of her claws.
Cory—as the dog that he had shape-shifted into—was a couple of feet behind Winona, and before Cory could reach Garrett, Garrett created another explosion wave.
When the explosion wave hit Winona and Cory, they were thrown back several feet as the Rottweilers were.
Ellen and the others felt the explosion wave rushed past them, but it wasn’t as powerful as the time before, nor were Ellen and the others knocked off their feet. The junk cars ten feet from Garrett or closer only shook.
Ellen stared confusingly at Garrett for a moment before having a thought. She then recited the incantation again to draw in electricity. Harris and Jessica saw what Ellen was doing and did the same.
Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin each recited the spell for the fireball.
Winona and Cory—while still respectively shape-shifted into a Bigfoot likeness and a dog—were getting back on their feet as fast as they could. Once they were on their feet, they saw that the others were preparing to strike, and so the two hung back.
As Ellen was drawing in the electricity and the area light was dimming, a woman’s worried voice screamed out, “Ellen!”
The voice came from the double gates and Ellen was slightly distracted by it just before she released her bolt. The bolt flew past Garrett and the junk cars by inches and impacted the metal fence.
April—while wearing her doctor’s clothes and her name tag—was the woman who screamed out, and when she saw the electricity touching the metal fence, she jumped back off the double gates quickly. An electrical arc jumped and hit the electrical transformer that was setting on a pole a few feet on the outside of the fence, which caused the neighborhood streetlights and the lights to the surrounding buildings to flicker off and on. The alarm to the lamp wholesale store, one block
away, had begun to sound.
Harris and Jessica had shot their bolts simultaneously followed by Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin shooting their fireballs.
Galvin was the last one to fire, and after Garrett’s invisible shell had absorbed the first five strikes with diminishing effectiveness, Galvin’s strike made it through.
Galvin’s fireball hit Garrett in the right shoulder and Garrett acted quickly to put the fire out.
Just as Ellen’s group was realizing that Garrett’s invisible shell had been breached, Garrett set loose his strongest explosion wave yet.
The explosion wave threw everyone, who was out in the open, off his or her feet again. The metal from the junk cars twenty feet from Garrett or closer had groaned from being bent. The junk cars ten feet from Garrett or closer had moved away from Garrett by a few feet. Any glass that had survived the first explosion wave within twenty feet of Garrett had shattered and was thrown as well. The cars that were twenty to thirty feet from Garrett just shook. April had even felt the air as it blew past her.
Once the explosion wave came to an end and the glass or rough debris was showering down, Garrett uttered an incantation for the first time since being in the salvage yard.
The incantation was short, and once it was said in its entirety, a six-foot fissure from the ground up opened up. The fissure was created ten feet from him and he made a mad dash for it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Melanie was still in hiding and wasn’t thrown off her feet, and when she saw Garrett dashing for the fissure, she dashed for him at her top speed.
Garrett was inches from escaping when Melanie grabbed him by his throat and shoved him hard to the ground.
His breath was knocked out of him, and before he was able to catch it, Ellen and the others were back on their feet.
The fissure had quickly disappeared from sight before Garrett could even move onto his knees, and before Garrett could even attempt to stand up, Harris, Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin had surrounded him.
Jessica, Karla, Sadie, Wesley, Riley and Brad surrounded Garrett as well, but not as fast. Winona and Cory shape-shifted back into their human form before going to reclaim their clothes.
Ellen glanced towards the double gates before asking the others, “Hey? Um…?” Ellen again glanced towards the gates. “Is it safe for me to find out who had called my name?”
“This goose is cooked,” Riley uttered while staring down at Garrett—Garrett was still on his knees. He then asked Garrett, “Am I wrong?”
With an aggravated expression across his face, Garrett grunted out his annoyance and put up his hands in a surrendering manner.
“We have this, Ellen,” Devon told her. “Go find out who’s here.” Ellen nodded before turning towards the double gates and taking off at a slow run. Devon turned his attention to Garrett and hissed, “Stand up!”
“You’re going to kill me!” Garrett shot back without standing. “So do it already!”
“Get on your feet!” Devon ordered. “Now!”
Garrett just stared at Devon as if he had lost his mind. Garrett was then caught off guard when Riley (while on Garrett’s left) and Brad (while on Garrett’s right) yanked Garrett to his feet.
“Don’t turn loose of his arms,” Blaire instructed as she walked towards Garrett.
Riley and Brad nodded.
As Riley held Garrett’s left arm in place and Brad held Garrett’s right arm in place, Blaire stepped up and pulled open Garrett’s shirt while revealing his chest.
“Under different circumstances, I would enjoy this,” Garrett quipped.
Blaire ignored Garrett’s suggesting comment and glanced at his unmarked chest. “You don’t carry the mark of Merlin.” Garrett gave Blaire a confused look. “Who was the last in your family to have it?”
Winona and Cory—while fully clothed—joined the group. Garrett heard Winona’s and Cory’s footsteps and turned to look while saying in an indifferent tone, “I have no clue to what you’re referring to.”
“A moon shaped birthmark and three freckles,” Blaire informed. An acknowledging expression came across Garrett’s face as he turned back towards Blaire. “Who was the last one in your family to have it? And don’t tell me that you don’t know because I can see it in your eyes that you do.”
Garrett let out a disgusted sound before sharing, “That birthmark disappeared five… six generations back.”
“Who were the last two in your family to have been born twins?” Trevor asked.
Garrett shot him a confused look before supplying, “My dad and uncle were twins… before they were killed.”
“You killed them?” Sadie asked.
“The spirits killed them,” Garrett quickly corrected. “Neither one of them could figure out how to control the spirits. I figured it out though, after seeing their fatal mistakes.”
“Double sacrifices,” Trevor commented. Garrett shot him a disturbing look. “The first one to conjure up a spirit of a recently deceased—for insulation so to speak, and the second one to conjure up a powerful spirit—a spirit that will make you into a God for a short time.”
“How did you…?” Garrett was only able to get out.
“How I know isn’t important,” Trevor interrupted. “What is important is that you were never a God.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Garrett insisted smugly. “I was a God.”
Trevor ignored his comment and demanded to know, “How many people have you killed?!”
“What difference does it make?” Garrett questioned.
Trevor hesitated slightly before shaking his head and saying, “None, actually. Because it doesn’t matter if it was one or a thousand. And I suspect that the method of you killing them was the same each time. Am I wrong?”
“What difference does that make?” Garrett again questioned.
Trevor grinned before proposing to his group, “I suggest that his punishment is to relive every abduction, every psychological and physical abuse that he had put his victims through—even if it is just waiting for the inevitable of death—and every sacrifice that he has ever committed.”
Garrett gave Trevor a confused look while asking incredulously, “The punishment that you want me to undergo is to relive each abduction, any abuse I may have inflicted and each sacrifice?”
“As the victim,” Trevor clarified. “As the victim, you will relive your first victim’s abduction; your first victim’s abuse that he or she had to suffer at your hands and then your first victim’s torturous death. And then you will relive the abduction, the abuse and the torturous death of your second victim. And then your third victim, and so on until you reach your last victim. And then you will repeat the cycle from your first victim to your last victim. You will repeat this cycle, over and over and over and over and over, until you’re ready to end your life. But you won’t be able to, because you’ll be in an unexplained coma as you live out your personal hell on Earth from now to when you die as an old man.”
“A suitable punishment,” Blaire said. “I second it.”
“It’s unanimous,” Devon uttered.
“You’re bluffing,” Garrett challenged.
“Bluffing?” Blaire questioned. “When it comes to punishing menacing witches and wizards, the three leaders of the Tri-Star Confederation don’t bluff, Mr.… I’m sorry, what is your name?”
When he refused to answer, Wesley supplied, “It’s Garrett Wilson.”
Garrett shot Wesley an annoyed look as Blaire shared, “Mr. Wilson, there is currently a wizard in a psychiatric facility in London who is reliving his killings as the victim, and he’s been reliving his killings for the past three years. So we know the incantation. All we need are two crystal balls that are no less than three inches in diameter.”
“We have a few crystal balls in our van,” Winona told Blaire before backing away. “I’ll go get two of them.”
Blaire nodded in agreement, and as Winona was jogging away, Ellen and April were stepping up.<
br />
“April!” Harris uttered when he saw her face. “What are you doing here?”
“Nurse Delaney had let it slip… to me that Ellen was a sorceress, and then I ran into Mr. O’Brien—the suspected psychic, whom I told you about,” April shared while looking at Garrett, as he was being held in place by Riley and Brad. “Mr. O’Brien is definitely a psychic and he had confirmed what I was told about Ellen. He then told me that Ellen was here and that the atmosphere surrounding her was like the atmosphere of the O. K. Corral.” April then gestured towards Garrett. “So this wizard came to kill Ellen and everyone with her?”
“That was the plan,” Brad quickly replied.
“Since he’s no longer… empowered with God-like powers, what do we do with him?” Ellen asked.
“We’ll punish him,” Blaire began. “So it’s probably a good thing that you had showed up, April. He’s going to need long term medical care after tonight.”
“What are you going to do to him?” April quickly asked in a curious tone.
Trevor took the time to tell April what Garrett’s punishment will be.
Once April had been told, Wesley shared, “Garrett had framed someone for each of his victims…”
“He’s a mortician,” Ellen interrupted. “So why would he need to frame people for his murders when he could hide the murders another way?”
Wesley stared at Garrett for a moment before saying, “He’d just begun as a mortician. Oh, one of his latest victims—a police officer—was getting too close at uncovering the truth. That was when he decided to take classes and become a mortician. Anyway, the first person he had framed is doing time, and the others are either being investigated or being tried.”
“That sounds like a job for Willie,” Brad suggested.
“Who’s Willie?” Ellen asked.
“A private investigator who specializes in wrongful conviction and wrongful arrest cases,” Brad informed.
“Gotcha,” Ellen said while giving him the thumbs-up.
“So is everyone here either a wizard or a sorceress?” April asked.
Phoenix and the Dark Star Page 37
