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A soft rain had blown in. Thunder rumbled in the distance, as though calling us to action. We were all huddled together on the slope of the stormwater drain around the back of Limbus, having used it to sneak up to the building. Rivulets of water ran down the concrete under us and a small creek had formed in the channel below, dragging leaves and old drink cans along.
The suits we all wore seemed to be somewhat waterproof, but my face and hair were slick and cold from the rain. I blinked it out of my eyes as I narrowed them at the building before us. I wanted to get in there and get this over with. I was eager to claw out a victory and return to Dean and wake him up.
“Right, we all know the deal,” Bastian whispered, sounding jittery. We had gone over and over our strategy on the drive in. Before that, when we had explained our plan to Felix, he’d told us it was the kind of plan only teenagers with no sense of their own mortality could make, then wished us luck with such solemnity it made me tear up.
“Powers stay up until we find Terry. We’re aiming for as few encounters with cops as we can on the way. Once we have Terry in sight, Rayni does her thing and powers get nulled. We rely on training and numbers, and we do whatever we can to take Terry down while Livvy tries to drain him.”
Easy peasy. My mouth tasted of acid and I gulped it away. Everyone looked so confident in the plan that it scared me. They all seemed so confident in me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling I was using them just to get to Terry.
“Terry will still be a fight,” I said, almost hoping to scare the others off. “Even without his powers, assume he’s still dangerous. He’s been a police officer for years, and we can expect him to be armed.”
Bastian looked at me long and hard, and I shied away from what he might be reading in my future. But he nodded and said, “We’ve got some protection from our suits. But we should maybe grab weapons along the way, too.”
Weapons sounded good. I wanted to beat the ever-living snot out of Terry. Then, when he couldn’t even crawl, I would take his powers and everyone else’s that he’d stolen. There were probably far more than I even knew about, than I even knew whether I could contain or not. It was worth the risk to me though. I would do anything to beat him.
Sway put her hand on my shoulder. “How you holding up? You’re glowing hot as a jolly red poker.”
I nodded. “I’m fine. I’m ready.”
Bastian patted me on the back. “Then let’s go. We can do this. Let’s take Limbus back.”
“Hear, hear,” Rayni said. She looked a few years younger than normal, with her hair plastered down over her small face.
Everyone nodded and looked to me. Bastian, Emma, Sway, Rayni, Ada, Cam, and Max.
Call it off. Someone’s going to get hurt.
I clenched my teeth. Everyone’s going to be hurt if we don’t stop Terry.
I led the way, dashing over to the emergency exit door, and ducking behind a dumpster. Everyone followed close behind. The team was pumped. I could sense their hope, excitement, and fear.
I quietly tried the door. Unlocked. I doubted we were just lucky. Terry thought he was a god. What god needed to lock his own doors?
We snuck up through the concrete stairwell, staying quiet, and calm, and unnoticed. I extended my senses out, trying to track any presence around us, trying to find Terry’s location.
Sway found him first. “Uh, gross,” she said. “That’s him, total gangrenous guts.”
She took the lead, and we went up a few floors and out into a quiet corridor.
“Back, back!” she mouthed, gesturing wildly. I sensed it a moment after her—a couple of people headed our way. We ducked around a corner. Two officers, in ragged uniforms and looking out of sorts, patrolled past us. When they went the other way, we let out our held breaths so simultaneously, it was almost comical.
Sway crept forward down the hall, around a bend, and turned left at an intersection. We all followed.
There was blood on the floor here, a dropped gun there, but thankfully, no other horrors. Not yet.
I eyed the gun, but Bastian snatched it up first.
“In there,” Sway mouthed when we reached a hardwood door with a shiny brass nameplate. Dr. Crossman’s office. I could feel Terry now too. But I could also sense the presence of a half a dozen confounded and conflicted bodies between us and him, and more above and below us, throughout the building. If we could clear some out, it would mean less for Rayni to deal with.
“Ada, Cam, Max,” I whispered. “I want you guys to draw the cops away. Let them see you, then just run for it. Lead them in circles, buy us some time, then just get out of here and get back to the van once you’re sure you’ve lost them.”
They seemed unsure at first, as though catching onto the fact I wanted them gone too, but agreed silently. The rest of us hid in a supply closet across the hall while the three kids opened the office door. It only took a second for someone to notice them, and the chase was on. The three kids no doubt fed off my fear for their safety, using it to go faster, pursued by stomping, squeaking boots down the corridor.
I was worried Terry would chase them too, and was ready to burst out and get in the way if that happened. But I didn’t sense Terry move at all, and now, he was alone. We crept across the hall, quietly opening the door.
Terry sat with his back to us, typing away at the computer.
Rage flared through me, and I almost leaped across the room to smash his face in.
But then Rayni’s turn was up, and suddenly everything was calm. No fear, no anger—nothing came from within me or around me. My muscles practically drooped, and had I been capable, I would have been scared at the loss of my powers.
But even without my rage, my powers, I knew what I had to do.
“Go!” I hissed. Emma and Sway ran in first, and I tried to join them but Bastian had my arm grasped tight in his hand.
“No,” he said, with disturbing, calm clarity. “Something’s wrong.”
I ripped out of his hold and snatched a heavy award plaque off a shelf and went after the others ... just in time for Terry to rise to his feet and brush off the attacks Emma and Sway tried to land. I was inches from striking his face with the heavy plaque when his hand snapped up and he grabbed me mid-flight.
Sway and Emma tumbled into opposite corners of the office with striking cracks.
Terry held my wrist, squeezing it high in the air, wrenching my body with it. I gasped and cried out, dropping the award. It thudded beneath me. What’s happening? He still moved so fast. Was still so strong. While none of us had any powers available at all. How?
The drained civilians. Could they be acting like an emotion store inside of him? I didn’t know. I couldn’t be sure of anything except that he was infinitely stronger than us, and our plan was sure to fail.
Terry swept back his blond hair with one hand, keeping me held in the other. He was wearing a bulletproof vest over his captain’s uniform, and blood stained the cuffs of his shirt. He almost sounded disappointed. “I could sense you children approaching from a mile away. And now it’s come to this. I told you what would happen.”
His body pulsed with energy and it struck out, opening up and feeding, crawling inside me. I felt sick to my stomach, waves of power lashing and dragging at me. Terry was draining me, right there in the middle of the room.
Emma was back on her feet, wobbling as she picked up the office chair and swung it across Terry’s back. It bounced right off him. Rayni stood in the doorway, sweat dripping from her furrowed brow, trying futilely to push the emotions from Terry. Sway pummeled him with fists, completely ignored, less of a threat than a mere mosquito.
Bastian stared. Calm. Studying.
There was a pull in my chest that took my breath away and my consciousness was set adrift, floating out. I tried to hold onto it, hold onto myself, but the suctioning whirlpool of darkness before me was too strong. Terry was too strong.
Emma screamed something, but I couldn’t hear her. For a moment, I stared over at her through Terry’s eyes, then back into my own face, seeing it slacken and pale. Helpless. Sinking out of the world.
A clapping boom rang out, shocking me back into my own body. I blinked as Terry stumbled back a step, still crushing my wrist in his hand, but dropping me onto my feet.
Bastian yelled behind me, “Rayni, stop. They need their powers back, now!”
I turned and saw him aiming the handgun he’d taken at Terry. He squeezed the trigger again and the sound crashed through the small room, pounding in my ears.
Terry stumbled a second time and released his grip on me, clutching at where the bullet had struck. The bulletproof vest blocked each bullet; each shot barely winded him.
Sway ran forward, speeding fast, grabbing me and dragging me out of the office. My powers were coming back too, but my body was still processing what was happening, still swimming back to myself.
“Get out of here, all of you, now!” Bastian yelled, firing off another shot. It hit Terry in the hand where he had been brushing off the previous one and he howled, more in anger than in pain.
“Take Rayni!” Bastian barked at Emma when she hesitated beside him.
“But what about you?”
Terry gathered himself and began a slow march forward.
Bastian pulled the trigger again. “You have to go without me. Trust me and just go. Now. I’m almost out.”
Emma looked between him and Rayni, anguish twisting her features. She snatched Rayni up into her arms, rushing out of the office. Sway supported me into motion and we followed.
Behind us, shot after shot went off.
As we hit the fire-escape door, Bastian pulled the trigger one last time, the gun making nothing more than a clicking sound.
“Go!” he bellowed.
Terry roared. Bastian cried out.
Emma wept and sobbed as she ran down the stairs with Rayni. My head spun, thoughts spinning loose, fading in and out. I tripped, tumbling down one flight, then Sway lifted me entirely.
We were out in the rain again, back down the street to the van where the three kids waited.
Emma’s chest convulsed with sobs and the muscles that strained to keep them in check as she got into the driver’s seat and sped us away.
Empty-handed. No victory. No one saved.
Nothing but another dreadful loss.