The Pure Ones

Chapter Seventeen

The raging wind swept across the crowd and the open air like a beast, people screamed as they were blown away by the powerful gust. Dust and debris danced in the air after the wind had settled, and the eerie silence was interrupted by objects that started to fall from the sky.

I stared in disbelief; "Did I just do that?" I asked myself. An indescribable joy tugged at my heart; even after so long, my connection with magic had not been severed. My cheeks heated with pride, and a soothing nostalgia washed over me. I looked forward to assess my damage, every trace of the grand celebrations that had taken place previously were all blown away; the music and dancing had stopped, and all the stalls had been destroyed. The mass of people that once stood in front of me now lay on the floor, several feet away from where they once stood. Their hair and clothes were disheveled and the bewilderment and horror were clear on their faces. The terrifying mob that pursued me was nowhere to be found, instead I found a group of frightened individuals lying on the ground. They all got up and started to run away and I sighed with relief, but I was alarmed once again as I saw Gappy pull Penelope out from where she was hiding.

She struggled against him but he easily overpowered her and held her in a headlock before he speedily grabbed his knife. His hands started to move across her neck and he glared at me with his hate filled eyes. I was not sure how I did it, but one second, I was where I stood and in a split second I was in front of Gappy. I thought the world had stopped but it had not; time just moved slowly. Everything around me moved unusually slow, but my mind and body moved quickly, very quick. I pushed Penelope out of the way and her body sluggishly started to fall to the ground, I summoned another wave of wind that propelled Gappy's body upwards and then with a great force, I brought him down to the ground.

Time moved normally again and Gappy's body met with the ground with a loud bang. Penelope fell gently, her head immediately whipped back and she looked around with confusion. Only a moment ago she was being held by Gappy and now she was a couple of feet away from his injured body. I wasted no time, I grabbed Gappy and held him by the neck; his chest heaved slowly as he coughed up blood. Despite being badly hurt he still scowled at me and tried to claw at my eyes, but he was too weak to do anything.

"RELEASE MY SON YOU MONSTER!" Missus Zheng demanded from a distance. While I was distracted, her husband hurled a ruby necklace at me that barely missed me but managed to scrape against my shoulder. As I hissed from the sudden sting, Gappy tried to escape my grip; my anger had started to climb once again, so I furiously pulled him back by his hair.

My lightning threatened to resurface, dark clouds started to appear in the sky and it took everything in me to keep it down. I had done nothing to these people, and yet they wanted me dead.

"Penelope was right" I thought to myself, it really was too good to be true, all the doubts I had earlier that night were confirmed. Though I was enraged, I had done enough damage, I did not want to hurt anyone else. I dug my nails into the palm of my free hand to control myself, and the wind that swirled around me came to a halt, as well as my lightning.

"If you want your son back, we need to talk"

...

The walk back to the tent was long and silent. Some ran away as I neared, but most stood their ground, still armed with their weapons; the only reason I had not been ambushed was because I had Gappy. He weakly kicked and struggled as I dragged him against the ground behind me while he went in and out of consciousness. Penelope bravely walked alongside me while Gappy continued to mutter curses at us.

We eventually reached the tent and the old couple had not removed their eyes from us from one second. My path was cleared as I made my way to the stage, the air was thick with tension but it did not faze me, I needed answers. The deafening silence was my cue to speak, so I boldly asked,