by Emmy Oakes
*
When they arrived back at Alexia’s house, they were bombarded by a crowd of reporters and cameramen. Alexia could see Ronda and Ava peering out a window through a crack in the curtain.
“What do you want?” Alexia yelled loudly.
A short, tubby woman ran over to her wearing a shirt skirt. She was the first to talk. “Is it true that you have something to do with the strange phenomena happening?”
“What is your involvement, Alexia Martin?” Another reported demanded.
“Do you claim to have powers?”
The questions wouldn’t stop. The reporters fired them at the girls like rounds from a machine gun.
“Are you girls twins?”
“Which one of you is Alexia?”
“Are you both magic?”
Alexia felt herself growing scared and angry. She had no idea why these people were here outside her house. Amosa looked overwhelmed by all the flashing cameras and noise. Before Alexia knew what was happening, Amosa had her hand on her shoulder and they both disappeared.
In less than five seconds they appeared in front of Ronda and Ava. They jumped and then settled down when they saw it was them.
“What's going on?” Alexia asked.
Ronda pointed to the television and said, “Look.”
Alexia turned to the television and gaped at it. Price Delany was sitting upright in his hospital bed, wearing his casual clothes. He looked like he was ready to leave. He was being interviewed be a red haired reporter. In the bottom right hand corner of the screen was a picture of Price before Alexia had healed him. It was a stark, frightening contrast and in the photo, Price looked unrecognizable.
“I can’t believe it, did Price tell them about me?”
Ronda shook her head. “No, Price refused to say anything really. That reporter mentioned you.”
Ava looked distraught and said, “Alexia, that’s Joey’s sister.”
“What?”
“Rebecca Myers.”
“He must have been at the hospital when I healed Price.”
Amosa raised a hand. “Wait a minute, you healed somebody?”
Alexia nodded. “Yes.”
“How?”
“I dunno, just thought about it and it worked.”
“That is impossible. Sians cannot heal people.”
“Obviously we can.”
Amosa shook her head. “No, we can’t.”
“Then how could I?”
“We’ll have to tell the Watchers about this.”
“What about the media? What will we do about them?”
“Just deny everything. They can’t prove anything.”
“They filmed us disappear outside.”
“They did?”
“I’d say so. There was enough cameras out there.”
“Hmm,” Amosa said, deep in thought. “It doesn’t matter,” she finally said, “we’ve had close calls like this on other planets. It always blows over.”
“Good, because I have other things to worry about.”
“Where’s Cynthia? I thought you guys went to get her back?” Ava said.
“We tried. She’s been taken to another planet,” Amosa said casually.
All of a sudden the ground shook. The force knocked Ronda to the ground. The others leaned against a wall to keep their balance. When the shaking stopped, Alexia helped Ronda up.
“What the hell was that?” Ronda said anxiously. Alexia looked out the window. The reporters had been knocked over. They were all standing up and straightening their clothing. A couple of cameras had been dropped and were missing parts.
“Ronda, Ava, go home,” Alexia said vacantly.
“What is it?” Ava asked.
“Just go.”
Outside the window, Alexia saw a giant creature that looked like a scaly rat approach her house. It had seething sharp teeth, four strong legs, sharp razors on its back, and a long tail that resembled a thick whip.
Ronda and Ava saw the creature and screamed. Amosa peered out the window and scowled. She had never seen anything like it before. Not even on far away planets.
Alexia shouted, “Go home, quickly!” Ronda and Ava ran out the back of the house, not looking back.
“What do we do?” Alexia said anxiously.
“We fight.”
“How? We don’t even know what it is!”
Before Alexia could protest, Amosa was already outside the house steadily approaching the creature. She held out her hands in front of her and shot bright purple beams from them. They hit the creature’s back but didn’t penetrate the rough skin.
Alexia ran outside to join her sister. “Are you crazy? We can’t fight that thing!”
Amosa ignored her and shot more breams from her hands. The creature suddenly realized something was hitting it. It turned from the house and looked at the girls.
It sniffed loudly, sending hot clouds of breath towards them. A putrid smell of old garbage overwhelmed them making Alexia gag. Amosa waved her hand in the air and gasped loudly.
“Maybe you were right,”
“I told you!”
“What are we going to do?” Alexia said, shivering.
“Let’s get out of here!” Amosa heavily placed a hand on Alexia’s shoulder and they disappeared.
The creature blinked lifelessly. He continued to sniff and turned to face Alexia’s house. He nudged his head through the living room window where they had all been standing earlier. Debris flew everywhere. Broken glass shattered onto the floor but didn’t harm the giant creature. He strode purposefully through the house, wrecking every room he trampled through.
Neighbors had come out of their houses to inspect the noise and had ran back inside their houses or to their cars when they had seen the monstrous creature. None of them had noticed the brown cow that was running down the street, away from the house.
He finally stopped his rampage and settled under the broken remains of Alexia’s bedroom. He dove his clawed hands into the ground, easily smashing through the concrete foundation.
He dug meters into the ground and stopped when a faint blue glow was visible. He carefully hooked the item with his hand and picked it up. It was a round amulet about the size of a glass coaster. It was heavy and made out of ancient rock. Pictures were etched into the stone of waterfalls, men, women, and a shark.
The creature seemed very happy with himself as he jumped up out of the hole he had created in one leap. He jumped toward the sky and disappeared, leaving only the catastrophic mess he had made, left behind.
