~26~ Dead and Gone

“Can I ask you something?” I asked Luke. It had now been a day and we had migrated to a new room. Well…Brian and I. But we were still locked to a pole and in view of the others in the main room, as Devin was making the drug for Luke.

Zac was still on their side.

“What, princess?” Luke asked.

“What’s it gonna be to you? No matter what you control, you can’t do anything,” I reasoned. He squatted down to my height and I started to flinch into Brian, who was still blindfolded for some reason.

“Your little boyfriend in there can control any water in the world. My brother, here, can control every plant in the world and more,” he hissed. “And Zac? He’s even more powerful.”

“So I’ve noticed,” I rolled my eyes.

“You can take the drug without having any effects,” Brian stated.

“Is that right? That’s exactly why you mutants are tied up,” Luke said, getting mad and pushing Brian’s face back. I scoffed at his actions.

“I’m not even a mutant!” I yelled.

“But you’re important to everyone here and that’s all I need,” he smiled and then kissed my cheek. I rolled my eyes. He stood and then left. I leaned into Brian and laid on his lap.

“I hate your brother,” I told him.

“Oh, you too?” he asked, but then his face dropped.

“Why can’t you do anything?” I asked. Like get us out of here!

“My powers are controlled visually,” he explained. “And as of this circumstance, I can’t see anything.”

I bit my lip, wanting to just unbind him, but my hands were tied. I looked out to the main room and saw flickers of fire and Joey’s cry of pain. I choked back tears and Brian shifted in position.

“He’s gonna be okay,” he whispered.

“You don’t know that,” I said, having a single tear run down my face. “He needs water.”

“He needs you,” Brian said. “Adoration triggers his powers, so they’re pissing him off. Although Zac and I didn’t want you two together, it’s actually the one thing that—”

“You didn’t want us together?” I caught.

“He’s not good enough for you, Angel,” Brian said. “He didn’t even tell his mom about you.”

He was right, but one thing was wrong.

“Why was Zac involved in all of this?” I asked.

“I’ll let him tell you,” he decided. Great.

“Angel!” Luke yelled. He showed up at the doorway and rose an eyebrow. “You’re wanted.”

What the h3ll is that supposed to mean?

(Joey’s POV)

“Do it,” I dared. I knew Zac wouldn’t do it. No matter what he did and said to piss me off, he wouldn’t cross the boundary of using Angel. But of course Luke pushed her right into him. “Using her, will just hurt you.”

“It wouldn’t mean anything to me,” Zac insisted. I looked to Luke.

“His guilt about hurting her isn’t gonna get you anywhere,” I told him.  

“It’ll keep you from doing anything,” Luke told me. He started throwing profanities and insults and death threats, but didn’t realize that Zac’s arms stayed locked around Angel’s waist and she pleaded for him not to do anything.

I never wanted to see her cry.

I knew that neither did Zac, but something was compelling him to act this way. Maybe he wasn’t acting though.

“Zac, don’t do it,” I said, finally cracking.

“Lose the love of your life to the guy you hate? Bring it,” Luke cheered. I didn’t know much about Luke, but I knew that he was an idiotic and evil person. That’s all I needed.

“Did you ever think about Zac!” I yelled at him. “He’s your best friend, and he and Angel are—”

“I know what he has with Angel!” Luke roared. “You don’t think that I hate it? Why do you think I told him to stay away from her!? Because I convinced him years ago that she was bad news! You know why—because she’d ruin everything that he is now with her goody two shoes personality. And then when you and Devin come along, she’s all he thinks about!”

“So then why are you gonna make him do this!?” I yelled, angered. Although I hated Zac for being interested in Angel, it may be the one thing that could stall this mess.

“He chose to!”

“No I didn’t!” Zac yelled and then the fire from the fire place had turned into a flaming dragon. It snaked around to each person and kept them in its circle of fire. Zac let go of Angel and stomped over to Luke.

“The only reason I stayed away from her was because you said you wanted to respect Brian for once for him to get a girl, so I obeyed. Over the years of you basically forcing me to despise Brian, I hated Angel—because of you!” Zac yelled. “So don’t make it my fault for not going after the one girl that I actually want to keep in this world as my own for good!”

Luke’s friends came out from the other room and threw water over Zac, but he burned it off, making the fires even hotter. Zac grabbed Luke’s collar and all guns were pointed at him. One guy grabbed Angel and held a gun to her head. I feared for her life. Zac’s fists lit on fire, but didn’t travel to Luke’s clothes.

“Do it! I dare you to shoot,” Zac hissed, but mainly towards everyone else. There was a silence for a few moments—except from the bubbling of chemicals from Devin making the drug. Suddenly, someone’s gun fired along with Angel’s cry and then the water pipes burst, drenching everyone in the room but Angel’s part of the room. My strength kicked in to where I broke out of my handcuffs and I went immediately to Angel. She shook on the floor and I noticed that the gun’s bullet was floating in the air, an inch away from her head. What?

“Move,” Devin hissed and then Angel rolled out of the way of the bullet. I heard someone loose all their breath and then the bullet dropped to the floor. I looked to Devin. Was he…controlling that?

Another shot fired and then Zac dropped to the floor, clutching his abdomen. Suddenly, with a crack of the floors and walls, strong vines coiled around each of the guys and pulled them down into the wall or floor out of reach from their gun.

“Is everyone okay?” Brian asked at the doorway, with his blindfold around his neck instead. No one answered him—unless you counted the groans from the now captive captors. Angel immediately dropped down to Zac as he tore his shirt off and pulled the bullet out of his bleeding abs.

“Zac, are you—”

“Get away from me!” he yelled. She jumped back at his outburst and I grabbed her.

Then, I didn’t need Devin, or Brian, or Zac to tell me what to do next. I was surviving on instinct and instinct was telling me to get Angel out of here. Wherever here was. I grabbed her hand and hauled her out the door. There was a giant Master Lock padded on the seal, but I didn’t care. I got the water from the pipe to cover the lock and then I focused really hard on freezing the water enough to where one pull sent it broken on the ground. The brightness of the nearest street light hit our faces and I looked around, not knowing where to go. I had been downtown before, but not on this side. Either way, I hauled Angel along with me until we found the local area.

“Joey, this way,” Angel said in a quiet voice. “The police station.”

“We can’t go to the police station,” I said immediately. We walked along the closed-down warehouses and I peeled the gauzes from my burns from my arm. It revealed perfectly healed skin and I nodded to myself.

Angel grabbed my elbow and turned me around.

“They almost killed us—they killed and hurt people in the hospital—”

“What about us!?” I yelled. “All of us back there will be turned into lab rats if anyone finds out about it. We’ll tell them about it anonymously, but we’re not going into that police station.”

I didn’t like raising my voice at her, but at this point, it’s all I could manage. She shut her mouth though. I tightened my grip on her hand and continued to haul her off.

(Zac’s POV)

“UGH!” I groaned at the pain tearing up at my side. I wanted to kill whoever shot me. Although it came unexpectedly, I didn’t care. Someone shot me close distance and it was painful. I wanted them to suffer as me, only engulfed in flames, but I couldn’t hurt the people I actually had grown to care for. “Where’s Angel?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Devin said immediately as he stripped himself of his thin jacket and tied it around my abdomen. To his side, I saw a tiny plant grow. He plucked off the leaves and shoved it in my mouth. As soon as it hit my tongue, I spat it out. It was disgusting.

“Chew it—it’ll help,” Devin demanded. I rolled my eyes and he put more leaves in my mouth. Nothing happened, but I writhed on the ground in pain.

“I am this close to setting this place on fire—”

“Don’t,” Devin spoke. “We’ll die, they’ll die, and maybe even you’ll die.”

I scoffed.

“Then get me to a d4mn hospital!” I yelled. Both of them helped me up, but to my surprise Devin took over and carried me completely by himself. It was surprising because he may have been the weakest person I’d known…so I thought.

Ever few steps my abs would hurt and I felt the blood trickle down my body.

“Take. Me. To. The. Fu**ing. Hospital. Or. Fire. Station,” I said between sharp breaths. I felt my lungs tightening with every breath and word I took. The only that could heal me was fire right now. No better place than the station.

“We can’t do that without them knowing—”

“They already know it!” I yelled. I felt the pressure of the jacket tighten around me and the pain started to numb itself. “Got anymore of that plant crap?”

Brian scoffed.

“You’ve had enough as it is,” he reasoned.

“Obviously not if I can still feel…” my consciousness wavered and I stopped talking and closed my eyes.