The Delusion

Chapter 6

{Aaliyah's POV}

Everything is dark and cold. There is nothing around me. But, then I feel something in my chest. It's like someone is pushing on it. I hear his voice, too. I look around and spot a light, and I run through it.

I open my eyes. He's above me and he's holding my face.

"Carter?" I ask hoarsely.

"Yeah. Yeah it's me." He sounds relieved.

My head hurts, and I can't keep my eyes open anymore. Everything's black.

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My eyes are heavy. I hear talking. I open my eyes slowly. Carter is crouching next to my bed.

"Hey." He says pushing some of my hair behind my ear. "How are you feeling?"

"I'll be fine." I say getting up.

"Geez, Ally. You almost died. You were dead! I had to restart your heart. You can take it easy." He says.

"How long was I out?" I ask.

"Three days." He says.

I shake my head. "I've been taking it easy for long enough." I say sitting upright.

My head spins, but I have to move around. I lean on the wall for support and make my way towards the door. I'm almost there when I get dizzy again and lose my balance. Carter's there and he catches my shoulder at the same time that I catch the wall.

"Here let me help." He offers his arm.

I nod. I put my arm around his waist and let him help me into the living room. Micah sees me and his smile is so wide it makes me laugh.

"Ally!" He screams.

He runs up and hugs my waist.

"Hey, Micah." I smile.

"So," I look at Carter. "Are you gonna tell me what happened? I don't really remember."

He nods and leads me to the couch. He tells me the whole story. How that Official hit my head and tried to drown me. Then, how he restarted my heart. I'm silent for a while until he speaks up.

"Okay, let's get started." He says.

"With what?" I ask.

"You need to practice and I'm going to help you."

We tell Micah to go in another room in fear of broken glass hitting him. He sets four glasses in a row and gives me simple instructions.

"I already know that you can move and break one glass." He starts. "So, as a bigger challenge. You need to move all four glasses into the air and break them."

"No problem, I can do that." I say.

"Don't get cocky." He jokes.

I laugh.

"Okay focus, Ally."

I focus as hard as I can on all four glasses. I put my hands out and try to levitate them. Nothing. I let out a breath and try again. I think about my power coming out of my hands and lifting the glasses with ease. Nothing happens. I try and try and try for a full hour. Nothing happened. My head is throbbing.

"I can't do it." I say giving up.

"Yeah you can. Now keep trying." He says.

"But Carter, I can't get this." I say. "I've never moved more than two objects at the same time."

"Just keep doing it." He says persistent.

"No." I say. "I'm not doing this anymore."

"Aaliyah, listen to me. You have to do this." He says.

"I don't have to do anything." I say walking away.

"Aaliyah, get back here!" He yells. "You are not quitting!"

"Who says I can't!" I yell spinning around "You don't get to control what I can and can't do, Carter! I'm not some child that you can boss around! If I wanna quit, I can!"

I turn and keep walking. I hear his frustrated groan. Then footsteps. His hand goes to my shoulder spinning me around. Then he's kissing me. His hands cup my face and I kiss back. He pulls back and looks at me with sad eyes.

"I can't lose you. I care about you, Aaliyah and if you die, I don't know what I'd do." He says.

I nod, speechless and walk back over to the couch but remain standing. I focus as hard as I can and hold out my arms. I picture my power flowing out of my hands. Nothing happens at first. Carter has his arms crossed across his chest and his eyes are hopeful.

Finally, all four glasses float up. My head is spinning but I don't stop. I close both of my hands into fists and the glasses shatter into tiny pieces.

"You did it!" Carter says grabbing my shoulders.

I smile slightly.

"Thank you." I say. "For not letting me quit. I get a little frustrated, and I'm sorry."

"It's alright. But, you have to realize that now, you have people that care about you and depend on you. You can't just quit every time something gets hard."

I nod.

"I promise. I won't."

"Good." He smiles.

He's right. I know that I can't quit anymore. Back then, it used to be so easy. No one has ever helped me practice with my powers before. Well, no one except Jaxon. When I got frustrated he laughed and let me quit. He didn't take me seriously. Thought, my powers were some sort of magic act that couldn't do any damage. Carter, didn't.

I didn't realize that Carter even had feelings for me. But, I guess I didn't think about my feelings for him. His kiss felt like a thousand fireworks. I know, it's cheesy. But, when characters in the books I've read have always said they felt a spark. That's what it felt like with Carter. Like there was this electrifying connection.

But, it's hard to focus on one thing for long when I realize that there are people out there that want me dead. There's only one thing that keeps running through my mind.

What if, the people that are after me, hurt the only two people that I care about, now? I can't let anything happen to Carter or Micah.

I won't.