From Chapter 10:
Then
later that week Annie and her nana went to the bank to help set up an account
for Annie’s mom, plus to get money for back-to-school shopping. Since it was
around 5:00 in the afternoon, the place was somewhat full. All of a sudden
Annie and her grandma heard a popping sound, when a man wearing a Halloween
mask came in with an automatic rifle. He ordered everyone to get down on the
floor or he would start shooting people. The tellers proceeded to give this
man the money he demanded. The police had been outside, but the man pointed
his rifle at Annie and threatened to shoot her if they tried to come in.
“I
almost peed my pants,” she explained as we both lay on our backs, watching
clouds drift overhead on the trampoline in my backyard. “But I felt this man
had a certain sadness about him. My nana pleaded with him to leave me alone.
Then, I told him the story of ‘The Ugly Duckling.’ Can you believe it? At
first, he tells me to shut up, but I kept telling him how nobody liked the Ugly
Duckling and treated him terribly. I get to the end of the story, you know, the
part where he’s a beautiful swan? And this man started crying under his mask.
He took off his mask to wipe his eyes. And then, I tell him in a calm, gentle,
pathetic voice, ‘Sounds kind of like you. Why don’t you put your gun down?’
And he did. His unshaven, scraggly face all wet with tears. Then I say, ‘Why
don’t you go turn yourself in and get your life back together?’ And the guy
goes out with his hands up and turns himself in! They closed the bank down,
and we just went out to the parking lot. Police cars and news people were all
outside and people were pointing at me. I guess I made other people cry. Over
the stupid Ugly Duckling!”
“Wow.
That’s incredible. Somehow you turned him into an emotional wreck.” I was
struck with awe over her ability to do such a thing.
All right. It was really a semi-automatic, so a bit inaccurate weapon description. This scene was to introduce Annie's new empathic powers and to illustrate how effective it is in subduing bad guys, as opposed to the use of force.
Also from Chapter 10:
“Jimmy
Miller?” Miss Clarkston asked to get my attention. “You look like you don’t
quite understand. You keep looking over at Annie. You’re going to have to work
on keeping your eyes on your own work. I’d like to see you work on that.
Okay?”
I’d
like to see you naked in the shower, Miss Clarkston. I nodded in agreement with Miss
Clarkston as I thought this. One year ago I would never have thought such a
thing, but ever since I snuck out of my room a few times and saw a few R-rated movies
with female nudity that my dad would watch at night sometimes, something
changed in me.
“Jimmy
Michael Miller!” I heard Annie snap at me, suddenly standing on her feet in
military-style attention. This time it was her actual voice echoing throughout
the classroom. “That’s not nice to say at all!”
The
class broke out in laughter at her. With great confusion, I shrugged my
shoulders at her outburst because I had said nothing. What was that girl
talking about? At that, Miss Clarkston replied, “Annie, maybe you should mind
your own business.”
“But,
I heard Jimmy say he’d like to see you naked in the shower.” Now the students
were laughing nearly uncontrollably.
Miss
Clarkston stood speechless. I guessed this scenario probably was never covered
in her teacher training. “Okay, okay. Can we just get back to our ice
breaker?When I was in fourth grade, I did not have a Miss Clarkston--that was the other fourth grade class. I remember one boy making this same naked-in-the-shower comment about that teacher, and it just always stayed in my head. Also, Annie is a bit out of character. She wouldn't ordinarily snitch on someone, but Jimmy and Annie just developed telepathy between each other.
From Chapter 12:
“What
you do to my baby!?” A voice boomed at the doorway to the classroom. A six
foot woman that was a larger copy of her daughter stood with steam practically coming
out of her ears. She hugged Mikayla. “It’s all right, baby.” Then she positioned
herself next to Annie as Mikayla did a moment ago, threatening her. “Let’s see
you do something to me!”
Miss
Clarkston endeavored to intervene, but Mrs. Jones towered over her. The
teacher was only 5 foot 4. “Mrs. Jones. You really should let me handle it.”
Mrs. Jones pushed Miss Clarkston with one hand against Joey’s desk. Luckily,
she caught herself before hitting her head on the floor. Kenneth sprang into
action with a comforting hug.
I
expected Annie to beat this woman senseless or shower her with acid, but she
did a very surprising move. “Let me tell you a story, Mrs. Jones.”
“What
kind of nonsense is this?”
Undaunted,
Annie continued with her story. “You see, there was this little girl named
Mary and she lived with two older sisters. Her family had very little money
and often had to live on just bread for dinner. Her mother and father worked
hard for very little pay to send her and her sisters to a really nice school,
the kind you had to wear a uniform at. At the school she and her sisters were
the only black students. Every day the other students made fun of her and
teased her. The teachers always told her they didn’t think she would amount to
much and didn’t know why in the world her parents would send her to such a
school.
“However,
whenever she was home, she tried to find a parent who would help her feel
better. Her mother worked the evening shift and was left at home with her
father, who frequently drank.”
“Girl,
you must be trippin’” Mrs. Jones said, but not as angry.
“But,
Mary had a secret. A big secret. A secret she has kept for all her
life. Her daddy did stuff to her. Touched her in ways she didn’t like. How dare
he do that to her? He took turns with Mary and her sisters. Mary could never
tell her mom because her daddy said it would break her heart and she didn’t
wanna break her mother’s heart.” Mikayla’s mom started to wipe tears from her
eyes. I was completely baffled by all this. “So, that is why Mary shuts out
the world. Made herself strong, so no one would ever hurt her again. Made her
children strong, too. But inside, Mary is a hurt little girl.”
Mikayla’s
mom collapsed to her knees while deeply sobbing. “I can’t believe he did that
to me! Why? Where was my mother?”
Now,
Mikayla came over, embracing her mom. “What’s wrong, Mama? What did Grandpa
J. do to you?”
Annie
placed her hand on Mrs. Jones’ back in a very comforting way. “It’s all right
to let it all out. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
“What
am I gonna do!? What am I gonna do!?” Mrs. Jones wailed.
“Go
home. Take Mikayla with you. Call a counselor and start taking your life
back. Don’t shut the world out anymore and treat everyone like they’re all out
to get you. And, maybe you should go to church or something.”
More illustration of Annie's empathic power. There are parents who do become bullies to kids in elementary schools. Grown people! Obviously, I'm implying Mrs. Jones is a survivor of child sexual abuse. Hey, it happens unfortunately, but I didn't say what her issue was outright. Although Annie had just cause to pound her into the ground, Annie instead offers a hand of compassion.
From Chapter 13:
“Jimmy!
Get out here!” I rushed into the backyard past the small birch tree, hesitating
while looking around for her. Mrs. Marshall had a small vegetable garden
behind the detached garage, but over to the left of the tree was a large
wildflower garden. I could hear a trickle of water where an electric pond invited
a small amount of peacefulness here in the backyard in the middle of the
garden. However, I saw no signs of Annie. “C’mon, Jimmy! Over here!” I
heard her voice in the wildflower garden, so I trotted my way there until I
could see the pond with a decorative water fountain with statues of Cupid
standing on top of each other. Water flowed out of the arrow tip of the Cupid
on top. A red brick path encircled the entire pond, cutting the garden right
in the middle. A flat, almost yellow wooden bench with a black metal frame was
over at the right of the pond. I found Annie on her knees, shaking her mom in
order to wake her, who lay slumped on the bench. An empty bottle of some kind
of alcoholic beverage rested on the grass beneath, along with several beer cans
scattered about.
“What
happened?” I asked.
“I
don’t know, but she had been drinking. She doesn’t look hurt or anything.” A
strong odor of alcohol flowed from her mom’s body, and she appeared almost
lifeless.
I
stood there flabbergasted, unsure of what to do about any of this. This was
the first time I’ve ever seen someone passed out drunk, although an all too
familiar scene for Annie, who witnessed this almost every day when she and
Colin lived at that drug house. Her mom’s breathing was so shallow that her
chest didn’t even rise. Terrified, I positioned myself, crouching down next to
her. Her legs dangled off the bench. I placed my hand on her left knee which
was stacked on the other one. Before long, I had a visual in my head of the
alcohol in her bloodstream, blocking out its ability to absorb oxygen.
Annie’s mom was literally suffocating from too much alcohol.
“Can
you help her?” Annie asked in near desperation.
“I
don’t know. I’ve never dealt with this kind of thing before. I’ve got an
idea, though.” I attempted to stimulate her lungs and heart, so that she could
take in more oxygen. Then I pushed the alcohol out of her red blood cells,
forcing oxygen into them. With her heart beating faster this newly
oxygen-enriched blood began circulating through her body. Meanwhile, the
alcohol began rushing to her liver, flowing into her kidneys. Eventually, the
alcohol began reaching her bladder, and since she was still very much passed
out, she ended up wetting herself. However, the alcohol was out of her,
finally.
Annie's mother is a recovering addict and alcoholic. She suffered a relapse after discovering Jimmy and her daughter have super powers. I wanted to highlight the struggles people face with substance abuse. When parents abuse, it affects their children. On the bright side, Annie's mom missed getting abducted by Etyouth.
From Chapter 16:
Then,
I overheard Annie moaning, very weakly, “No. Stop that.” I came to a spot
where the hallway made a sharp left. Three heavy concrete doors sealed by
several oversized deadbolts each confronted me, light switches attached just to
the right of them. Destroying the very first door, I exposed a bizarre empty
room with a make-shift bed consisting of stacks of newspaper and carpet
padding. A bucket that once held industrial floor cleaner sat with water in
it, and above it, a toilet seat with handles, the kind sometimes used by the
elderly. One darkened light fixture dangled from the ceiling like all the
others back in the hallway. Not finding anyone here I crashed through a wall
built with a series of cinderblocks into the middle room, knocking over bedding
similarly constructed as in the first area.
This
place conjured up images of dungeons in my mind. However, I pinpointed Annie to
the last space adjacent to this one. Punching through the door from this
compartment, passing back into the hallway, I forced my way into the third room.
I finally found her. She lay on one of those beds made out of newspaper and
carpet padding. On her head earphone-type pads pressed against her temples
connected to a machine, which hummed for ten seconds and then stopped briefly.
An average-sized man with scraggly long hair with a beard to match sat next to
her on the bed with one of those suit-ripping knives. Once he took a gander at
me, he reached for a long, slender weapon of some kind, but I caught his arm.
I twisted it until it snapped and popped, his little-girl screams beat
painfully in my head. Then, I shoved him to the floor, pinning him with my
foot. Extending my fist hammer-like, I destroyed the machine hooked up to
Annie with one sudden pounding.
This is the creepiest, most disturbing chapter, titled "The Underground Hotel".
More from Chapter 16:
I
picked him up off the floor by his neck, squashing his head against the
ceiling. He began coughing, gasping as I partially choked off his air supply.
“Tell me who you are! Now!” I demanded. The guy spit in my face, refusing to
answer. However, he did manage to swear at me.
Annie
in turn spit on his left thumb. “Ahhh! Why’d you do that!?” He shouted a
torrent of obscenities as his opposable digit liquefied into red, bubbly slime,
dripping its way to the floor. It was now nothing more than a bony sliver-like
protrusion.
“You
want me to do the other one!” Annie threatened. “Answer him. Who are you?”
“They…(ack)…told
me I could have her! She was supposed to be mine! They made a deal with me!”
“Who
made a deal? Etyouth?” I demanded. “And, you still haven’t told us who
you are.”
“Yes…(ack)…Etyouth.
I’m the main engineer they hired to find a way to get rid of you. They said
once they had you, I could have the girl. She’s mine…(gah).” He stared at
her. “The minute they showed me a picture of you, I just had to have you…Ahhh!”
he screamed as the disgusted Annie splattered his right thumb with a
dose of her special saliva, and it too dissolved away into a gelatinous mess.
More swearing burst forth from his mouth.
Continuing
with my inquisition, I probed, “What’s with all these dungeons down here? Are
you planning on bringing other people down here?”
“Just
kids,” he blubbered as he confessed. “Mr. McDonnell said I could in lieu of a
paycheck. He says he hates kids and didn’t care what I did with them as long
as I found a way to stop you.” He, then, abruptly cackled in a chilling
yet amusing mock-advertisement and announced, “This is my special…underground hotel!
Yes, kiddies! Where the fun never ends…right until you die!” It took every
ounce of my strength not to crush his trachea, killing him right then.
“This
is a dungeon! And you’re planning on abducting children and keeping
them here!” Then I inquired, “What was that machine you had Annie hooked up
to?Our heroes use their powers to outright torture this guy. Later on, they blow him up along with the entire Etyouth complex. So...this is perhaps the most chilling scene in the story.
From Chapter 17:
“Hey!
You better have a way to pay for that truck!”
Three
barked savagely, ready to counter any problems from the gun-toting neighbor.
Annie confronted him, “You can’t go around threatening people with a gun! You
better back off! We’ll help you with your truck as soon as we can! But, you
better not come closer otherwise our dog just might attack!”
Bam!
Bam! He fired
two shots—one hitting Three, only to bounce off. Another slammed Marcus right
in the chest. Marcus instantly fell backwards on the ground. “Marcus!” I
screamed. I instantly knelt down to begin healing him. He was barely alive,
but luckily not dead. The impact from the shotgun tore apart his heart along with
a large portion of his sternum.
Three,
feeling the need to protect us, launched himself at the man, and the dog
reached for his gun with his mouth, snapping it in half. With his cat-like
claw, Three deeply gouged his face along the right side. Instantly, he dropped
to his knees, braced his injured face with his hands, and supported them against
the pavement of the driveway. Blood pooled underneath him as he pathetically
whimpered over the searing pain he must have felt. I would heal him later, but
Marcus being both my friend and in critical condition required my immediate
attention.
As
soon as I touched him, his gaping wound began to mend. An entirely new heart
grew where the old one use to be along with new nerves, blood vessels and
muscle tissue. It went right to work, pumping fresh blood throughout his
circulatory system. I had to regrow a section of his left lung, and his
breathing returned. Finally, all the bone and skin tissue fused together, leaving
no evidence that he just suffered a traumatic injury. He looked like the same
old Marcus. The overweight boy opened his eyes and he seemed unaware of the
gunshot to his chest.
“Why
am I laying on the ground?” he wondered. “It was weird. I was just talking to
you guys and my chest started to hurt and the next thing, I saw this light. It
came closer to me and felt like a very happy place. Then I met…you won’t
believe it! I met Jesus and I saw my papa, you know my grandpa who died last
year. I wanted to go along with them. But, my papa said it wasn’t my time
yet, so I had to go back, but he’ll be waiting for me when it is my time. I
was really sad to have to go back, but then the light went away and
suddenly…I’m on the ground.”
Meanwhile,
Annie attempted to calm Three, who barked a savage warning of further bodily
harm; except, the wounded neighbor’s muffled pleas for mercy made us take pity
on him. The bloody mess of a man probably regretted he ever attempted such
violent actions—and who would ever get the notion to shoot at a bunch of kids?
If not for our powers, we’d all be dead now!
“Three!
Look! Marcus is okay now! Please, don’t kill that man!” Annie begged.
Marcus
asked me, “What does she mean, I’m okay? What happened?”
He
stood up. “Uh. Marcus, that guy shot you in the chest and I healed you. You
almost died. In fact, you might have been dead for a little bit. I had
to completely grow you a new heart, muscle, bone, and blood vessels.”
“Really?”
His fascination for his near-death experience left me flabbergasted. With a
satisfied grin on his face, he acted as if this was the coolest thing that ever
happened to him. “So, maybe I did almost go to heaven. That’s pretty cool!”
He examined his chest and twisted his head to see his back, which had some
dried blood.
This scene used to be more graphic, but is considerably tame from what it was.
Okay, these are what I believe are the more disturbing scenes. There is another scene in Chapter 18 where one of the antagonists splits in half and leaves a bloody mess on the Washington Monument. So, once again, I caution, parental discretion is advised.
I have reviews of some recent Kindle books I've read coming up. Be good to yourselves!
Holy cannoli! I think I just fried my eyeballs on that blue print. It's a super power all on its own, lol! But this is interesting, I've never seen a post on breaking down potential warning zone areas for kids before.
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