Now, it's time for the ninth installment. I must warn those of you who have a weak constitution: this gets really ugly towards the end. With that said, please enjoy.
Oh, I was pissed now. Way beyond pissed. The little prick had actually thrown gunpowder into my eyes! Not only was I blind, but my powers had decided that they wanted to whip out and destroy things. Not that I could blame them; I wanted to do the same thing.
As I fought to control my rising temper, my powers crackled and sizzled around me, leaping about and shattering every light source above me and all the glass beakers in the room. I was told that part later, because I couldn’t see or hear anything over the screams of frightened children. ‘Fools,’ I thought.
But, since I was blind, I couldn’t just simply walk around school. I needed a guide and I knew someone more than willing to do so. ‘Ian,’ I sent to him. I felt his attention instantly spring to me. ‘I need you to be my guide for the day. I can’t see well enough yet.’
I didn’t hear his returning thought, but in an instant, he was in front of me. “Alex?” He asked; I knew he didn’t willingly call me that, but it still made me grind my teeth. “Are you alright? I’m so sorry; I should have known they’d do something that stupid. Can I do anything for you?” He placed his hand on my shoulder and, although it took everything I had, I shrugged it off in feigned disgust.
“Yeah, you can help me,” I replied with mockery coating my voice. “Since it was your friends who did this to me, it is up to you to be my eyes. All. Day. Long.”
He sighed in annoyance and said, “Fine, fine; but not until after we see the nurse.” And, thus, without even informing the teacher (he was too busy trying to regain order in his classroom), Ian dragged me to the nurse’s office, while I feigned frustration and tried very hard to melt at his touch. It was warm and comforting. …And I snapped out of my daze as we entered the office.
Turns out, I’m just temporarily blind (oh wow, big surprise) and she charged Ian with being my guide, not knowing he’d already sealed his fate in this case. I smirked inwardly at that thought as we left the office and stood outside.
“Well…what now?” Ian asked hesitantly.
‘We’re still being watched, so I’ll have to be rude for a little longer, sweetheart,’ I sent to him as I said aloud, “Well, it would be nice if you could take me to my fourth period class, bastard. What, you expect me to let you lead me around like some toy?”
I heard him sputter and the ground vanished momentarily out from under my feet as he began pulling me towards my next class. Luckily for him, it was his free period. Unluckily for me, it wasn’t mine and I had music class this period. Great; he’d get to hear my awful playing skills.
As we entered the music room, my ears were assaulted by all the kids tuning their instruments. Horrid noise, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing it.
“Ah, my star player; here at last.” I turned in the direction of the voice of my teacher, Ms. Malone. She was an excellent musician; she was also one of the few teachers at this school who truly understood me and my needs. “Oh; who are you?” I heard confusion in her voice as she had obviously just seen Ian.
“Name’s Ian McKinney. I’m an…acquaintance of Alex’s. Since I’m one of the causes that got his eyes damaged, temporarily of course, I was put in charge of helping him around school.”
“Oh my,” she said. I felt the air in front of my face stir and knew she was waving her hand in front of my face.
“I’m cool enough, thank you,” I told her. She chuckled and the wind stopped moving slightly.
“Well, you still have to play your piece for the class today, Lex,” she said and moved me to what was probably the piano seat. Yes, that’s right, I played the piano? Got a problem with that? No? Then bugger off!
Sighing, I placed my hands into position and began to play as soon as the bell finished ringing. As I played, I allowed the music to sweep through me, to become me. It swelled within me and flowed out, sounding through the air as I continued playing.
After a while, I thought I heard clapping, but I didn’t stop, flowing smoothly into the next song that resided within my memory. ‘The Magic Waltz’, I believe. I didn’t know; I didn’t care anymore. I just played and played until my hands and fingers had grown stiff and tired.
Finally, I pulled my hands away from the keys and glanced at the people behind me as they clapped and cheered.
“Bravo, Lex! Bravo!” Ms. Malone shouted. “It’s about time you did this!”
I heard Ian whistle and asked her, “He’s done this before?”
“Oh yes. Every now and then, he just sits there and begins playing for a long while, sometimes forgetting to go to his other classes. While I don’t usually like him doing that, sometimes I can understand why he does what he does.”
Ian just chuckled and I heard him walk up behind me. He leaned down and whispered, “Well done, my love. Why didn’t you tell me you were a prodigy?”
“Because I’m not. My skills are horrible and out of date. No one would bother to listen to a good classical piece nowadays.” I could feel myself sink into my usual after-music depression. I knew my skills were lacking; people just said those things about me being talented to make nice to the emo-kid.
“Well, I think you are and that’s that.” With that, Ian pulled me up out of my seat and pulled me out of the room. My eye-sight had begun to return, but not by much. Everything was still pale white and I could only see vague shadows as people passed by us.
“I’m going to go grab our lunch,” Ian told me. “Don’t wander off.” Sometimes, I hated it when he treated me like I’m no older than a five-year old. Other times, I loved him for always taking care of me. This time, though, it was in the hate category.
As I glared at where his voice had been, I heard his steps fade away. What didn’t fade away was the constant sounds of kids chattering, talking and having hysterical breakdowns. It all was really annoying after a while, so I decided to sit on a bench. That is…until someone roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me up and dragged me.
I knew it wasn’t Ian; he wouldn’t treat me this roughly. “Who are you and where the hell are you taking me?” I asked harshly, my voice dipping into subzero range. But I didn’t receive an answer and, after a few minutes had passed, was roughly shoved to the ground.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice said right above me. Nicole. Whoring, slutty bitch. “Look how the mighty have fallen. I think I like you on your knees in front of me.”
“Yes, well, don’t get used to it, slut. I don’t make a habit of bowing down to people.” My other rude comments were shut off as I was smacked in the back of the head. Idiot; I could sense what he was about to do, but I had to pretend my powers didn’t exist at school. Damn sense of practicality.
“Watch what you say to my sister, fag,” a rough, male voice said behind me.
“Ah! You must be David. A pleasure to meet you.” Sarcasm practically dripped from my tongue and I dodged another swipe.
“I heard about your accident today,” Nicole said with fake concern. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Not. Good job with the plan, bro.”
“Eh. The idiots owed me a favor; besides, they enjoyed it.”
“Well, I want this over and done with. He insulted me in front of my Ian and he has to pay. Where’s the gun?”
Cold dread froze my veins at her words, but I didn’t let it show in my voice as I asked, “I take it no one’s around, right?”
The bitch laughed. She sounded like a braying donkey. “Right in one. And who said you weren’t smart?” I heard the click of a gun being cocked and someone shouting, “NO!!!”
My head shot around and I shouted, “Ian?!” at the same time the gun was fired. Someone pushed me aside and I heard a loud yell of pain. A body collapsed on top of me and blood trickled against my skin.
Shaking in trepidation, I gently shook the body, instantly knowing that it was Ian. “Ian? Are you okay? Ian, speak to me.”
I heard the slut whisper, “He wasn’t supposed to get shot. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU LITTLE PUNK!!!”
As I used my powers to slow the flow of blood, I looked in the direction of her voice. “My…fault? How is this my fault?! I’m not the one with the goddamn gun! This is all your fault, you stupid slut! And I’m going to make you pay.” My firing temper turned cold as my powers spread throughout my body.
“What are you talking about, you fre-” David was stopped as he suddenly was picked up from the ground and slammed into the wall. My eye-sight came back and I could see them both, pinned to the wall, staring at me in fear. I could also see Ian’s pale body, lying on the ground in a pool of blood.
I had no idea at the time that the fear in their eyes was because my eyes had gone a pitch-black color and my hair and clothing were lifting as if in an invisible wind. At that moment, I no longer cared. They had hurt my heart and I would strike back.
“So,” I asked them in a cold, conversational tone. “What do you two fear? What is it that causes you to become a cripple in its face? Let’s find out, shall we?” I asked them and drilled into their minds. They screamed, but it didn’t do them any good; I had erected a shield around us to block out any sight or sound the minute we came to this spot.
“Let’s start with you, slut. What do you fear most?” I dug and searched and found my target. “You fear getting old? How pathetic. Let me show you what you really, truly look like.” I conjured a mirror to my hand and expanded it to the size of her body. I made her look into it and kept her eyes wide open as she started to scream.
What she saw, what everyone should have seen was a disgusting creature, whose only purpose in life was to become old and ugly and to be ignored. In the mirror, she saw herself: her hair flaxen and thinning; her eyes burned out holes that screamed of madness; her skin oozing pus and just as disgusting to the eyes as to the nose, for my mirage utilized all five senses.
I kept her staring at the mirror and turned to David. “Now, my boy, what do you fear?”
He glared at me in defiance and said, “I fear nothing, least of all you!”
I tsked at him. “Fool; we all fear something. We’d have to be emotionless stones to fear nothing.” I smirked and dove into his mind; deliberately making sure it caused him pain. As his screams filled my ears, his fear filled my mind.
“That’s what you fear?” I asked incredulously. “Something as tiny and miniscule as that is your greatest fear?” I laughed lowly and maniacally as I stared into his eyes; eyes that brimmed with suppressed fear.
I waved my hands and his greatest fear appeared before him: his sister, Nicole. I had her image throw curses and screams and everything else at him. It was pretty annoying and inane, so I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that they were slowly being driven mad, being forced to face their fears. It didn’t help that I was steadily increasing the pressure.
After about thirty minutes, I had grown bored and tired of listening to their screams. Not that I have a problem listening to screams, mind, but theirs were kind of shrill to the ears. So, I held out my hands, palms opened wide and slowly closed them. As I closed my fists, the two screamed in pain. Blood slowly began leaking out of every orifice on their body.
But it wasn’t an illusion this time. This was actually happening to their bodies; as soon as my hands were fists, I began to slowly turn them over, causing first their arms, then their legs to burst apart, spraying the wall with their blood.
When it was just their torsos and heads left, I decided to increase their pain and caused all their organs to implode, saving the heart for the moment of their death. I imploded their eyes and finally imploded their heads and the rest of their torsos.
As the blood dripped to the ground, I almost blacked out. If it wasn’t for my iron-will and determination to get Ian to a hospital, I would have. But I didn’t; I kneeled beside him and, placing my hand over his heart, teleported us to our home.
Flattery will get you everywhere else in this world, but it won't do a thing with me. But...keep it coming! 
Glad you like it so far. But, before we get any further, I would like to point out this little tid-bit: It gets way darker the farther the story progresses. Make sure you are prepared for insanity, death and mayhem. I only offer this warning once, so, if you ignore it and you don't like what you read, then may God have mercy on your souls because I won't.
