Before Katie could think out her thought, Katie felt herself take Natasha’s footsteps, lean down in front of John Dimes and kiss him.
This is sick. Katie thought. Her mother ignored her.
Katie’s eyes were closed. She felt her eyes open and saw her father’s face up close, smiling at her and holding her face in his hands.
“I love you,” John whispered to Natasha and kissed her again.
Katie heard the elevator door open. She and John exchanged curious glances and turned their heads to face the hallway.
“That can’t be Katie, it’s too early,” Natasha told her husband.
John got up and walked towards the hall that led to the elevator. Without fear, he said, “It’s probably—”
“Me.”
Sabrina pushed passed John and walked into the kitchen. She was wearing a black jumpsuit. Her long dark hair was tied in a ponytail.
“What do you want?” John asked in a deep, threatening voice.”
“Oh, you know, just a couple of small things,” Sabrina said as she shrugged and slowly walked around the kitchen, examining various glasses and cookware. “But of course, you already know what I want.”
Natasha and John exchanged glances.
“But, before we begin, I should tell you that Katie’s graduation has taken an unscheduled break, and the school is in flames as we speak,” Sabrina informed them. “Don’t worry, though, we’re sure Katie will make it out alive. After all, she isn’t a threat to us.”
Sabrina opened a few cupboards and knocked things down from them, each shattering on the floor.
“It’s time,” Sabrina said. “John Dimes, you are now our prisoner.”
As if on cue, five guards walked in and stood in front of the doorway. They too were in black jumpsuits, all armed with long, silver firearms hanging on their backs.
“Unfortunately, we can’t kill you yet, Queen’s orders,” Sabrina said.
“I’m sure,” John growled.
“But Natasha,” Sabrina took a step towards her. Katie wanted to run but Natasha didn’t. “You can die.”
Sabrina dropped a wine glass and it shattered to the floor. She lashed out and jumped on Natasha. Natasha hit the floor hard and Katie felt a sharp, pounding pain in her head. Natasha quickly got back onto her feet, though she was winded. She saw John throw bolts of electricity at the five guards whom he took on by himself. The bolts flashed a bright yellow and turned blue when it hit one of the guards. The guard was thrown off his feet and fell on the kitchen tile in fits of violent seizures.
The other guards kept running towards John. One grabbed his gun and fired at John. Even with John’s reflexes and shield of white electricity, a bullet hit his right arm.
John yelled out as his arm swelled up and turned a nasty purple color. These weren’t any ordinary rifles, and neither was their ammunition; the bullets held parasites that crawled into your body, weakening it by feeding off of your blood.
John knew what he was shot with. He wasn’t too worried, as the parasites died within an hour and haven’t been known to kill, though their effects were quickly wearing on him.
Katie felt the urge to scream, but Natasha never did. She turned around and saw Sabrina waiting for her.
“Ready?” Sabrina said, cocking her head a bit with a small, devilish smile. Sabrina spread her fingers out and her nails grew over a foot long. Katie felt Natasha raise her hands in front of her for defense.
“Let’s go,” Sabrina said tauntingly. She shot three long nails at Natasha. Katie saw the nails fly towards her in slow motion and wanted to summon water from the faucet to protect her, but she couldn’t. In her head, Katie screamed, though what Natasha did instead was solidify the air in front of her. The nails shattered on contact, leaving the solid, impenetrable wall of air rippling as the shards fell to the floor.
Katie then saw another bolt of electricity fly from her father’s hand, though this one glowed a dangerous red. The voltage shot through the air and hit one of the other guards. The guard was blasted into the air and burst into flames before crashing into the floor ten feet away. The fire quickly died, leaving the guard with a last look of pain in his eyes before the life left his body.
It surprised Katie to see how much power her father had, and how much anger he showed as if for the last seventeen years he had been hanging onto it, suppressing it deep in his emotions.
Sabrina made a swirling motion and snapped her fingers. Briefly, Katie noticed that her nails had already grown back. One of them flew over Natasha’s head but before she could react Katie could feel the pain spread through her body like vines as the sword-like nail sliced open the back of her head.
Natasha fell to her knees.
John Dimes shot another strike of electrical power, this one aimed at Sabrina. The current was pure white, almost transparent and was so fast it was near impossible to see. Katie watched through Natasha’s tear-blurred vision as everything seems to slow down for fractions of a second. Sabrina’s eyes filled with fear and she bent backward, limbo style, barely dodging the crackling bolt.
The full blast of it hit an unlucky guard across the room. That was when Katie understood how fast and how powerful John’s attack was, and why Sabrina was so scared of it. Though the guard didn’t scream, Katie could hear the fearful look and agonizing pain that went through the guard as his body turned black and shattered to ash when he hit the floor.
John looked genuinely surprised that Sabrina had avoided his attack. Natasha looked
