It had been a week since Em joined the others. Throughout the week she would attend school and then walk home, but instead of staying home she would go back into the woods and to the cave. Ember talked with the three learning more about Samson and what happened with him. Each of them took turns helping her learn about her powers. They helped her learn the extent of what it could do and how she could control it.
After the fifth day, she could touch people without healing them. She could feel their pain and where they needed it but she could decide to heal them or not, almost like she could put a wall in front of her powers and block them off. Gus had helped her with that one. He had taught her that if she concentrated and let her powers flow through her and into the person she could heal them and if she decided she didn’t want to she could hold her powers back almost like there was a wall blocking them. Once she learned that she could touch people and then slowly she was able to see their pain.
Abel taught her how to use her power when she wasn’t touching anyone. She was able to concentrate and let her power travel to the person as long as they were pretty close to her. She had to be able to see then and they had to be within a certain distance. It wasn’t as strong of healing as it would be if she was touching them, however.
Abel often got angry because during their training Daxton would call and interrupt them and to make sure he didn’t suspect anything she would answer and make up something that she was doing. She told Rae a lot about him and how she felt about him, and the boys she just told them about him and what he was like but nothing more. Em told Rae that if anything happened to her at all during it to call him and let him know the truth and what happened.
It was the seventh day and she had just finished school and was almost home. Daxton had asked her a bunch of questions about the week and what she had been doing but she told him she was just doing more homework. She was still lying to him and didn’t know what she was going to stop.
She arrived at her house and walked inside. As soon as she stepped inside she realized something was wrong. It looked like someone had fought in the living room. The table was broken, the couches moved and there was a lot of glass on the ground.
“Father are you here?” Em called out hoping he would answer and maybe he was just drunk, but there was no answer.
She turned heading to her father's room when she noticed a piece of paper on the floor outside his door. She bent down to pick it up.
Dear Ember,
I told you, you would regret turning your back on me. You have rejected me and joined my enemies, this is your punishment. If you would like your father back you must come and meet me in the mission trail nature park, 3 miles in. Come and give me your powers or else.
Em didn’t waste any time. She ran out the backdoor and into the woods. She ran jumping over rocks and branches until she was standing outside of the cave. The others were waiting outside talking but stood up when they saw her running to them. Rae moved forward to Em.
“What happened?” she asked.
Em held out the note as she fell to the ground trying to catch her breath, tears falling out of her eyes. She was worried about her father.
“Samson,” Abel said as he held the note, Em could only nod.
“Don’t worry Em, we are gonna save him and take Samson down.” She looked up and at the boys, “you guys ready for this.”
Gus nodded and Abel smiled cracking his knuckles. Em took a few breaths before standing up she smiling back. She was terrified but she would do anything she needed to, to save her father.
She was not going to lose him too. “Let's do it.”
They went into the cave making a plan for what they were going to do, along with grabbing a few extra supplies, before they headed back out and the park. Em, lead them to her house where they found her father's car. Em climbed into the driver's seat and started the car up and drove to the park.
There were only a few cars left in the parking lot when they arrived. It was already seven o’clock so most of them were heading home but it didn’t matter, they had to find Samson.
They grabbed all their stuff out of the car and started down the path. In the letter, he had told her three miles into the trail so that is where they went, right up to the third-mile marker.
“What now?” Em asked turning around. The others weren’t there, however. They had disappeared. She looked back at the trail hoping they were just farther behind but she still couldn’t see them.
“Who are you looking for?” The familiar sound of Samson’s voice called through her ear. A shiver ran up her back as her hands started to shake. Em slowly turned around coming face to face with Samson.
“No...no one.” She gulped, clearing her throat, “I thought I saw someone.”
Samson frowned at her almost like he knew that she was lying, and he probably did. “Very well, follow me. We don’t want anyone to see what we are doing do we?”
Em shook her head as she followed Samson into the woods away from the path, until she could no longer see it. The sun had started to set casting shadows all around. Em’s heart was pounding in her chest as she wondered where the others went. Had they abandoned her even after she told them she would help them?
She didn’t notice when Samson had stopped and ended up running into the back of him. She said a quick sorry before backing up.
“Now shall we get started.” Em looked up at him confused. He held out his hand for her to hold his
“What are you doing?”
“You are going to give me your powers. Your father will be released when I have your powers, and only then.”
“Before we do this, where is he?” Samson’s glared at her anger written all over his face.
“He is about another mile down the path, knocked out, tied to a tree.” Em nodded. She was about to say something when he grabbed her hand tightly in his. With his other hand, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ribbon. It was a dark red and had some small black symbols drawn onto it. She couldn’t male out what it was before he placed it onto their hands.
“What is that-” he simply shushed her, before speaking into a different language.
The ribbon began to glow. She tried to pull her hand out of his, but his grip was too strong. She looked around panicking as she tried to find the others. When she couldn’t find them she felt tears falling. For years she had wanted her power gone. She wanted to be normal, but in the past few days as she learned to control her powers she realized that she didn’t want them gone. She liked them. She liked being able to help people. She didn’t want to be normal anymore.
“Please,” she whispered, not wanting to lose the only thing that made her, her.
She fell to the ground her feeling empty as she felt her power was slipping away. Samson started to laugh but was through off his feet by a gust of wind. Samson's hand let go of Em’s the ribbon falling to the ground. Em watched as Rae appeared over her as her eyes felt heavy.
“Where did you go? I thought you left me.” Em asked tears flowing down her face.
“Em, we’d never leave. We were hiding waiting for the right time to act. We didn't want him knowing we were there and hurt you because of it.”
Em seemed to understand but as the seconds went on her eyes slowly closed. “What if he took my powers?”
“We wouldn’t let him. He’d never get that far.” Em nodded, a small smile on her face as her eyes finally closed.
Em’s eyes flew open as she heard fighting around her. She slowly sat up looking around when she remembered what happened. He had tried to take her powers. She quickly looked around finding Rae had a deep scratch on her arm. Em held out her arm focusing on Rae as she tried to heal her. She felt her powers flowing through her once again as she let it move to Rae.
The cut on Rae closed itself up. Rae was surprised at first but when she noticed Em up and active she smiled before going back to the fight.
Gus and Abel were working together to fight Samson. Abel would use the wind to distract him while Gus attacked. Rae was fighting the Shadows that Samson sent at them. Em was still sitting on the ground using her powers to heal them when they got hurt.
It seemed to go on forever. Samson didn’t seem to be getting hurt or tiring where is Abel and Gus were tiring and their powers were faltering. Rae was tired but she could still cast spells. Em’s head was pounding but she was healing still. It was getting harder and harder, however.
Finally, what seemed like forever Samson was faltering. He couldn’t produce as many shadows now. He was forced to fight as himself. They all took the opportunity to attack.
He knocked down Gus, leaving a cut on his side, Rae cried out and tried to go to him before she realized she needed to finish the fight. It was bleeding a lot and Em realized she needed to be closer to him to heal him. She quickly stood up running over to him kneeling down on the ground next to him placing her hands on the cut. She forced the wound to close as she waited for him to wake.
She didn’t sit there for long though. She noticed one last shadow, holding what looked like a sword made out of shadows, creeping up behind Abel. He was too busy fighting to notice and there was no time to warn them. Em quickly stood up and ran in between Abel and the shadow.
Em, let out a choking sound as she felt the breath left her lungs. She looked down at her abdomen and at the sword had been stabbed into her. It felt like a cold flame burning inside her chest. The shadow disappeared, and the sword, as she fell to her knees. Her one white shirt now stained with red.
Her face was wet with tears and she pressed her hands to the wound. She tried to stop the bleeding, begging her powers to close the wound but nothing seemed to happen. It was almost like her powers had left her. She looked up at Rae and Abel as they knocked Samson down for good. Abel used the wind to keep him there as Rae cast a long spell that knocked him out. She looked over to Gus who had started to stir again his eyes blinking open.
The pain in Em’s abdomen began to fade along with her vision. Everything began to go black as she heard her name called.
The bell rang ending school for the day. The group of friends headed home. On the right were Rae and Gus holding hands. Then there was Abel standing in the middle of the ground smiling and laughing. And last was Daxton and Em, hands intertwined, and smiles on their faces.
After they had taken down Samson, the others found Em passed out on the ground. They quickly ripped some of their clothes wrapping her wound trying to stop the bleeding. Gus lifted her up as he and Rae, heading back to the cave.
Abel, who was carrying Samson, followed the path down another mile finding her father just like Samson had said. He woke Em’s father helping him find the way out before going to the cave as well tying Samson to a post in the cave.
Rae found a healing spell in her book, healing the wound and the damage it had done to her body. All Em was left to prove to battle was a scar on her abdomen and back from where the sword had stabbed her.
Rae told Abel to take Em’s phone and call Daxton and bring him here. At first, Abel disagreed but after a few minutes of arguing he finally did as he was told and pulled the phone out calling Daxton.
He left the cave standing in front waiting for Daxton to arrive. When he did, Abel led him inside and to Em. As soon as Daxton saw Em he pushed past everyone running over to her and grabbing hold of her hand. “Em wake up,” he pleaded, but nothing happened.
When he realized that she wasn’t going to wake he turned back to Abel and started to yell at him asking question after question.
Abel’s hands clenched into fists at his side as he finally couldn’t take it. He lifted his hand blowing Daxton off his feet and onto his butt. Daxton looked up at him for once his mouth hanging open with nothing left to say.
“Good, now that you are quiet, can I explain?”
Daxton gave a nod still at a lack of words as Abel explained what had happened for the past week. He then explained what the events of the night had been. “What does any of this have to do with me other than Em?” Daxton asked finally getting his voice back.
“We want to get rid of his powers but we need someone to give them too. You are the only person we know and from what Em has told us about you, you sound like the perfect person to give them too.”
For a moment Daxton didn’t know what to say. He just stared at Abel in awe. It was almost like he was trying to figure out if he had heard right. “You want to give me his powers?”
Abel nodded pulled out the red ribbon and holding it in front of him. “This is what Samson used to take others powers.”
Daxton stood up and looked at Abel his face straight. “This will help Em right.
“Yes, it will help all of us. Em won’t have to worry about her powers getting taken any longer though.”
”I’ll do it.”
Abel nodded and looked over at Rae asking if she was ready, she simply picked her spell-book up off the table and walked over to them. They all walked over to Samson where Rae placed one of her hands on the side of his face muttering a spell. He woke up but his eyes were dilated and he didn’t look like he was aware of anything. Rae looked to Abel nodding. He grabbed Samson’s hand and Daxton making them hold hands before placing the ribbon on top and looking to Rae.
“Give your powers up,” she said. Samson began to speak in the same language that she used for her spells. The ribbon began to glow as all Samson's powers drained out of him and into Daxton. Once it was over they let Samson go and helped Daxton learn his powers while they took care of Em.
Thankfully it was Friday so they had time to work with him without his parents worrying about where he was. By Sunday night Em woke up and was confused. They explained what had happened once the battle was over.
The first thing she did after hearing what happened was give Daxton a hug telling him how she felt. She hadn’t even thought about telling him with her powers but once they were under control she thought about it often.
They spent the rest of the school year going to school in the morning and once it was over going to the woods and practicing with their powers, and for once in Em’s life she felt like she belonged somewhere. She had all the friends she could ever hope for, and she felt like she had a purpose.
She was finally proud to have her powers.
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