All at once the calm atmosphere within the restaurant became as chaotic as the scene outside. Diners jumped out of their seats at the sound of the crash, spilling food and drinks as they ran either for the window or straight out the door. Many stopped to surround Evelyn and offer whatever help they could. Lenny, for his part, did his best to assure them Evelyn would be alright, trying to send them away before they drew even more unwanted attention.
Evelyn didn't see or hear any of it. The surrounding faces and concerned voices were nothing more than a dull backdrop to the agony she felt coursing throughout her body. Even when Becca quickly slid her necklace underneath her shirt to conceal the glow Evelyn felt nothing more than an insignificant tug on her neck. All she could feel was the pain, like a liquid fire, spreading throughout her leg as a wild terror gripped her mind.
Slowly, and with agonizing effort, Evelyn somehow tore her mind away from the animal's pain, bringing herself back into the restaurant. Forcing herself to take calm breaths, Evelyn somehow willed most of the pain away. It was difficult, as if she were attempting to pull shards of hot glass from her flesh with only her mind. Against Becca's protests Evelyn forced herself to her knees between long, forced breaths. Evelyn stared into Becca's concerned eyes and nodded sadly, wishing she could also will away the panic she felt within her foster mother.
"I'm OK..." she gasped. The gem was vibrating fiercely, sending a knowing warmth throughout her body, somehow helping Evelyn's efforts to dull the pain. "Help me outside," she whispered.
Becca's shock hit Evelyn like a wave. "Evelyn, no..." she gasped. Becca knew what Evelyn was thinking without a single word being spoken. "Look at all the people out there," Becca whispered, "you can't..."
"Please, Mom, I have to help him..." Evelyn groaned, grasping the table's edge as she pulled herself to her feet. Thankfully most of the bystanders had lost interest in Evelyn, turning their attention instead to the excitement outside. With Evelyn on her feet Lenny had little trouble sending the last few stragglers away, assuring them she would be alright. By the time he was able to turn his attention back to Evelyn she had already managed to push past Becca and had made her way halfway across the room.
Lenny gasped as he forced his way through the crowd to reach Evelyn, taking hold of her shoulder. She winced in pain as his grip. Light as it was, Lenny's touch still managed to tear into her already stressed nerves like a hot brand. Lenny pulled his hand back quickly, shocked by her reaction. Evelyn felt a pang of guilt at both the expression on Lenny's face and that she knew she was risking the secret they had worked so hard to hide for her. But she had a job to do.
"I'm OK, I promise," she assured him. By then Becca had made her way behind her husband, her expression silently pleading with Evelyn not to go.
"Lenny, tell her not to do this! Look at that crowd, she'll be seen!" Becca whispered harshly, gesturing at the chaos outside. Obviously torn between the two, Lenny could only look into Evelyn's pleading eyes before nodding with reluctant understanding.
"Let her go," he told Becca. "I trust her to be careful, but I'm going with her. Pay for the food if they'll let you, then meet us outside," Lenny said with forced confidence. Becca wiped tears from her eyes and nodded, reluctantly walking away while shooting nervous glances over her shoulder.
Evelyn mouthed a silent "thank you" before moving towards the door with renewed vigor, smiling despite the situation when she felt Lenny's hand on her shoulder. Evelyn's heart raced with adrenaline and pain, her blood pounding so loudly in her ears that it made the sounds of yelling people and the approaching sirens seem a dull roar in the distance. As Evelyn forced her way outside and into the chaotic crowd, the fear and excitement she felt coming from the people surrounding her was almost overwhelming. It pressed against her like electric lead, threatening to force her screaming back inside.
Yet still she forced herself onward, visualizing all the assaulting emotions as a physical ball of energy she could push to the back of her mind, forcing it all deep into the cave of her consciousness. Somehow it helped. The jagged assault of sensations tamed just enough to become tolerable. Evelyn found herself smiling yet again, never before had she been able to control a new experience so fast.
Across the street a crowd of people had gathered in a shouting mass of bodies, some crying, others trying to bark orders. Many had cell phones out either filming the scene or talking into them, having to yell over the noise. Evelyn could only hope that a keen eye wouldn't spot her and film her actions, but it was a risk she was willing to take. Somehow Evelyn knew she'd never be able to forgive herself if she didn't take some sort of action to at least try to help the wounded animal. Later on Evelyn would never be able to figure out why she felt the way she did, as if she were running off nothing but base instinct and this was something she was born to do.
Mercifully, people somehow moved out of her way without realizing it, forcing themselves to the side despite the steadily increasing number of people in the crowd. Despite her luck Evelyn cursed under her breath. It was as if the entire town had materialized at once in the square, making her job all the more difficult and discovery almost assured.
Evelyn pushed her fears aside and focused instead on the pain of the animal, driving all her will into finding the beast through the crowd like bullets from a gun. Slowly and steadily a path cleared, though whether by her unconscious influence or simple luck she couldn't know. Still, one seemed to notice Evelyn as she moved slowly forward through the masses. It helped more than Evelyn could say that throughout it all Lenny's hand remained on her shoulder, as well as the feeling of his desire to help her in whatever way he could.
As Evelyn approached the source of the pain the crowd broke away, leaving an open field between herself and the poor animal. Evelyn's heart broke at the sight of the beast. When the carriage had been torn away from the horse's harness it had thrown the animal into the air, but not before completely shattering both of the animal's hind legs. Yet somehow the horse had managed to crawl a good distance away from the accident despite its useless legs, a small mercy. Everyone's attention was still focused on the efforts of getting the passengers out of the wreckage as the twisted remains of the cart had trapped them inside.
Evelyn felt no guilt ignoring them, she knew they were alright. Although fear and shock came from within the car like a tingling cloud of electricity, Evelyn felt no pain from anyone inside. Instead the pain that assaulted her senses came solely from the terrified horse before her. Evelyn glanced over her shoulder, quickly looking to see if she could find any obvious eyes on her before sending up a silent prayer and approaching the horse, ignoring Lenny's protests as she pulled away from his touch.
The horse lay on its side kicking and shrieking with agony, both back legs bent at unnatural angles. Evelyn approached slowly, careful to approach from behind the horses back to avoid its flailing legs. She looked into one of its terrified eyes, feeling the creature's agony and fear flow through her body with renewed intensity. Grimacing with pain, Evelyn made her way along the animal's body and knelt behind its powerful neck, placing her hands gently against its hide. The moment Evelyn touched its neck the horse shrieked with terror and flailed against her touch, spraying her with foam and spit.
"Shhh," she whispered, stroking its mane and face. "I'm here to help you, sweetheart." As Evelyn spoke the gem on her necklace vibrated intensely against her skin, growing warmer with each passing moment while its green light became brighter and brighter. Evelyn forgot both the crowd and danger of the wounded horse, giving into instincts she never knew she had as she focused only on healing the horse's legs. Evelyn closed her eyes and visualized them mending, forming an image in her mind of energy flowing through her hands and into the broken limbs. While she worked Evelyn could sense the horse calming under her touch, could feel its heartrate slow and its muscles relaxed. Whatever she was doing, it was working.
"Hey, you!" Someone shouted, breaking her concentration, "get away from that horse!"
The moment her concentration broke the horse began to buck and shriek once more. Her necklace ceased its vibrating and the glow subsided, its spell broken as Evelyn whirled around to find the source of the voice. It was the carriage driver. He had made his way away from the accident and was running across the park, screaming at Evelyn in anger.
Evelyn's heart sank at the sight of him, she was so close! A few of people in the crowd noticed the sudden confrontation and had turned their attention to the screaming driver. Although Lenny wasn't far behind the man, Evelyn knew there was no way he would be able to catch him. Evelyn's heart raced faster as the pain returning to the animal began to flow into her own body once more. She had to do something to distract the crowd and stop the driver.
"I'm sorry," Evelyn whispered under her breath. As the man quickly closed the distance, Evelyn shut her eyes and refocused her energy into the oak tree. Her necklace once again began to hum against her skin as she sent tendrils of energy into the ground, saturating the roots of the tree with her own will. Relying solely on instinct, Evelyn had little hope her efforts would amount to much; yet somehow the tree reacted. The driver screamed in surprise as a root tore itself free of the ground and wrapped tightly around one of his ankles, sending him sprawling to the ground in a heap.
Praying the crowd's attention was on the fallen driver, Evelyn took her chance. Turning her back to the crowd, Evelyn quickly took hold of the horse's mane and drove energy from both herself and the oak tree. The gem on her necklace felt like it had burst into flame, vibrating fiercely as burned against her skin. Evelyn ignored the pain, forcing her will into the animal's broken limbs like air into a balloon. Energy flowed both out of and through her body like electricity, singeing the air with hot static.
All at once Evelyn felt the pain subside within the horse, the liquid fire in her own limbs seeping away like water from a dying stream. Evelyn opened her eyes, falling backward to avoid the horse a split second before it knocked her over as it jumped to its feet. Evelyn looked to find the horse looking down at her, its own form of gratitude filling her up like warm air in her lungs. The horse whinnied and dropped down onto its front legs, pressing its own head against Evelyn's gently. Evelyn smiled at its touch, reaching up to gently stroke its nose with an arm that felt more like lead than flesh. "You're welcome," she whispered.
The moment was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps and shouts from the driver. At the sound of his voice the horse's ears perked up. It jumped lightly to its feet and trotted off towards the man. Evelyn couldn't help but notice he ran with a distinct limp and felt a pang of guilt, she hadn't meant to have the root grip him that hard. When he had taken hold of the horse's reins he shot Evelyn a look. For a moment Evelyn worried that he would approach her, but the sight of Lenny stopped him. Instead he simply shook his head at her and led the animal away, his own sense of relief swelling up inside Evelyn.
But that's not all she felt, someone else was sending even stronger sensations towards her, sensations that made her skin tingle. Amazement? Fear? Evelyn was all at once too tired to be sure. She glanced at the crowd to find a boy her own age standing at the edge of the chaos, eyes locked solidly on her. Evelyn tried to focus on him, but all at once the world was spinning and she was having a hard time keeping herself up.
Thankfully the next thing Evelyn felt were Lenny's arms wrapping around her as he knelt beside her. Evelyn could feel exhaustion taking over as dark spots began to fill her vision. Allowing herself to be picked up, Evelyn leaned her head gratefully against Lenny's chest. "I'm sorry," she moaned, trying desperately to stay awake.
"It's ok," Lenny groaned as he struggled to get to his feet. "Let's just get you out of here." As he carried her back through the crowd Evelyn knew she would lose her battle to stay conscious. The toll her abilities had taken on her were simply too much to overcome. Before allowing herself to slip away Evelyn scanned the crowd, looking for the boy who had been sending such strong emotions towards her. It wasn't until her last waking moment that she found him. He was walking parallel to them in the crowd, ignoring everyone around him but her. Evelyn tried to reach out and feel his emotions, but the effort was too much and darkness quickly overtook her. Still she knew, even without having to feel a single emotion.
He had witnessed everything.