Captive

Set in the year 2057 after an organization of humans with supernatural abilities are discovered, and the witchunt they endure.

The way the footsteps echoed off the walls made it sound like multiple people were down in the cellar with him. For all he knew, there were hundreds of men in strange suits on their way to torture him, but the ebony of the air made it nearly impossible to tell. Of course, he could just clear the darkness out of the prison cell, but that would only prove the suspicions of these cruel people; so much for society moving forward. The witch trials were supposed to have ended 400 years ago, yet here he was.

            Freedom of religion. Freedom of speech. Freedom for African Americans. Freedom of sexual orientation. 2057 years, and all of these things had been achieved, yet for some reason the government was slurred over freedom of witchcraft. Was witchcraft even the correct term for his people? They  hadn’t asked for any of this; they didn’t sacrifice blood for some ancient ritual to provoke a God, begging for supernatural abilities. They had no control over their gifts and were only victims of their own genetics. Was it genetics? They’d been born with the powers, but as far as he knew his parents never had them. Either way, the truth was they were just afraid of everything as the “humans” were.

            Despite all of this, they had all known the reality of the situation and kept hidden. Sure, there were secret organizations to practice this gift, but that was only for the safety of the other people. Even with their best efforts, they were discovered two years ago when Marcia Grimsby, a 14 year old girl, accidentally turned a car into a horse on public television. Through government interrogation she spilled everything and to this day they were being hunted.

            It was a game of Cry Wolf. Just like in the 1600’s everybody accused everybody in the high hopes of saving themselves. Everyone was a suspect and nobody was safe. The President declared them terrorists and they were all sentenced to death upon captivity. For a nation of freedom it didn’t take much to turn it all to Hell. One man, Terry Turrell, fled into hiding when he felt he was under suspicion. Unfortunately, the government saw this as a signal that it was true, and due to the lack of Terry they executed his two daughters. Since then it’s just been a game of blending in and praying for a miracle.

            The footsteps came to a stop, presumably outside of his door. “Levi March?” asked a voice of power. Levi nodded, knowing that whatever government official this was he must be wearing those special goggles that allowed him to view through the limits of lightless mystery. A clicking sound began rattling and the door slid open. A painful pinch grabbed at Levi’s right arm and a sense of lightheadedness invaded. He could imagine that if there was anything to see it would be slowly fading out. His last conscious thought was nothing more than realizing his body had gone numb.

            When Levi came to, he was surprised to see himself in an interrogation room, immobilized and chained to a desk. The surprise wasn’t so much the situation itself but more the fact that he could actually see. It had been three days since they threw him in that perpetual doom known as darkness, and the light now was a bit overwhelming.

            “I see your pupils are quite retracted,” said a voice. Up until now Levi hadn’t even been aware of the man sitting opposite him. He was in a black suit, had short brown hair, and had a baby face that lacked any facial hair. Levi immediately recognized him as Paul Lorello, the man who had come to town a few months before; the man known as The Witch Hunter (an obvious example of how much creativity this town lacked). Prior to this meeting, Paul had always been a genuine man to Levi, but business was clearly more important to the man in a suit.

            “First of all, your cooperation is vital, Mr. March, so I suggest you pay attention. Getting straight to the point, are you associated with the anti-government organization known as AHS?” Paul asked.

            “I was not aware Acett High School was anti-government; I’ll be sure to have my daughter transfer schools,” Levi said with a smirk. When Paul only continued to stare in disapproval, Levi added, “I’ll also end my donations.”

            “It’s nice to say 3 days in damnation with known light doesn’t remove a man’s annoying, sarcastic qualities. However, don’t get smart with me. One word from me and you’re a dead man, Mr. March. I suggest you stay on my good side.”

            “I will take that into consideration. So is your experiment done? Am I free to return to my lovely abode?” Levi asked.

            “Not quite. Let’s try this again: are you in any way associated with the anti-government organization known as Advanced Human Species?” Paul repeated.

            “No, I am not involved in this fictitious organization that you guys are dead-set on locating. Currently I’m hoping the government will hire a brain to tell them that it’s a wild goose chase. It’s about time you cops started attacking criminals again.”

            “Your witty remarks are getting you nowhere, Mr. March,” Paul said whilst tapping his pen on the edge of the wooden desk.

            “Witty? I’m just worried about my daughter being safe on her way to school!” Levi responded with an obvious sense of sarcasm and false concern. “Of course, if I have to transfer her to another school we’ll have to drive her; could you possibly increase the traffic patrol around here?”

            “Do you have a death wish?” Paul threatened.

            “I might as well go out in style.”

            “Let me reiterate how important your cooperation is, Mr. March. Lives are on the line right now.”

            “Cue the dramatic music,” Levi continued humorously.

            “Ah, well, on that note: you have a visitor.” Lorello snapped his fingers and the door on the back wall swung open. A short Mexican man with a dark mustache stood in the opening, but as he stepped aside a young girl appeared behind him. She had long brown hair and dark, green eyes. The expression she wore was that of deep concern.

            “Cassie?” Levi muttered, completely bewildered that his 15 year old daughter was so close to him again.

            “Dad!” She screamed, bolting forward. The Mexican man grabbed her arm and Lorello whipped out a gun.

            “Hey! Leave her alone!” Levi shouted. He slammed his fists on the desk, furious that he was chained to the wooden furniture as his daughter faced death. Cassie’s face sunk as she stared down the pistol, but her composure was held bravely.

            “Everybody needs to remain calm! Now, Levi, I’ll as you one more time. Are you associated with the AHS?” This was no longer a time of humorous answers; this was a situation that showed the desperate measures the government would go through to keep the upper hand. Levi couldn’t stop thinking of Terry Turrell as he looked into his daughter’s wide eyes with a gun pointing at her head.

            “No,” he stated very simply.

            “And are you equipped with anything paranormal?”

            “What?” He couldn’t think. This dire situation had just crossed a line that jumbled everything in his brain. The tension in the room was rubbing away and tugging at his heart.

            “Do you have supernatural powers?!” Lorrell bellowed.

            “No! I’m 100% human!”

            “Then explain to me how in one week’s time, without any medication, you managed to make your cancer completely disappear!” The federal man demanded.

            “Please, just let her go and we can talk!”

            “ANSWER THE QUESTION!”

            Levi remembered the night with his wife, over a month ago, when she begged him to save himself. Amy was the only one who knew of his advanced abilities; she was the only one he trusted. They had planned to tell Cassie when she was older, but their plans had been sped up a bit by the events that had made up the last week.

            Amy had begged Levi to save himself, all the way to countless tears. She claimed chemotherapy was a never-ending experiment that always failed and that cancer was just as unpredictable now as it had always been. So he listened to his wife and that night removed the cancer cells from his stomach. Both adults assumed it’d never have to be talked about again. The doctors were stumped, but Levi never imagined the assumption that would eventually come up with.

            “It went into remission. It was a miracle, or maybe they made a mistake and I never had it! The doctor’s couldn’t explain what happened, therefore I don’t know either! Please, just don’t hurt her!” He begged. The gates opened and tears unleashed from his eyes.

            “Cancer doesn’t just disappear, Mr. March. I don’t appreciate your lies.” Before Levi could say anything, Paul Lorrell pinned Cassie against the wall and pulled the trigger on his gun. It happened so fast that Levi didn’t even comprehend the situation. A flurry of aching imaged pulsated through his brain; the desk now had a doppelganger and the world went sideways.

            When things finally reset the police department was silent, and the scene before him was frozen. A bullet was about two inches from Cassie’s immobile, terrified face. The typical heartbeat that Levi knew was long gone in a place he couldn’t remember. The blood pumped through his veins so fast he couldn’t process a single thought; his breath so fast that it was impossible to have a sensible thought. The scene was literally incomprehensible.

            And then it all hit him. He looked down to the cuffs on his wrist and continued to do so until he felt his mind go warm and a soft click sounded, and the cuffs unlocked. They weren’t even completely off yet when he stood up and ran to his innocent daughter. He was so preoccupied with swatting away the bullet that he didn’t notice Lorrell’s right arm moving forward, millimeter by millimeter. The bullet was hot, but it was the least of his worries. Finally he turned to see Lorrell and the Mexican guard moving in a way similar to a slow motion film sequence.

            The gun had to be Levi’s first worry, because all it took was Lorell’s molecularly slowed fingers to pull the trigger and they would be catapulted back into real time; Levi’s face was would be annihilated. He robbed the gun from Lorrell’s handicapped hand and wound up, ready for a punch. It hit The Witch Hunter square in the nose, but due to the slow motion it didn’t have a satisfying effect. With all of his strength Levi gathered the warmth to his brain and pushed it out of his palms, resulting in the two officers flying out of the room. They landed with a crash on top of a filing cabinet, and without any warning the world sped up again.

            Cassie’s belated scream rattled through Levi’s eardrums as the door slammed shut. Two gun shots went off and the building beyond the door went into chaos. Focusing hard, Levi managed to lock the bullet-proof door and ran to his paralyzed daughter. “It’s okay; you’re okay,” he assured her between sobs. Two more shots hit the door, but failed to penetrate.

            “I need keys!” said Lorrell’s muffled voice from the other side. Levi hoped his magic would outweigh a key, but there was no guarantee of that. More sounds of scrambled people continued on the other side, yet the badly-lighted interrogation room felt strangely silent. Levi telekinetically flipped the desk over while holding his daughter tightly in his arms (which scared Cassie into a scream) and guided her behind it. The wood desk was the best he could do for a barricade.

            Once situated, Cassie looked up into her father’s eyes and he saw just how distraught she truly was. He tried his best not to cry as four more shots collided with the door, this time louder. They didn’t have much time. “Dad, why am I not dead? He pulled the trigger, I know it…” she blubbered.

            “Shh…I know, but you’re safe. I promise, you’re very much alive,” he comforted.

            “How’d you do it?” She asked. Levi shut his eyes, fearing his own answers. What would she think of him? “I came home from school the other day and you were just gone. Mom was crying and I didn’t understand; she wouldn’t tell me anything. I couldn’t believe you’d just up and leave like that so I came down here to report you missing, but they said you were here!” She didn’t finish because the whole room shook unexpectedly, but he knew the rest of the story. Assuming she’d get a reunion, they brought her back here, but instead pulled a gun on her. How humane.

            “Dad, are you a witch? Morgan told me yesterday that you were, and that’s why they took you. She said her cousin was executed for it.” Levi remembered that one. Morgan’s cousin, Darren, used to be an instructor to the youth at the local AHS, teaching them to control their gift. His death had been a major loss to the AHS.

            “Yeah…” was all he could manage to say. The room rattled again and some dust floated down from the ceiling.

            “Well, get us out of here! Just freeze them all again and we can run!” She said with a newfound confidence.

            “Cassie, I’m not God. Truth be told, I don’t know how I did that. My powers acted out of fear.”

            “Well aren’t you afraid now?”

            “Of course I am, but I’m not acting on an impulse right now,” but the truth was he was rattling his brain trying to find a solution. Even if he did find a way to break out, they’d have to live their life on the run, always in fear of being caught. That’d be no life for his daughter, or for Amy; deep down he knew his best solution. He situated his palms on Cassie’s pale cheeks and gave her a firm, fatherly kiss on the forehead.

            “I need you to do me a favor,” he said as the door was blasted. Levi waited for something to hit the desk, but he peaked up and the door was shockingly still on its hinges. They were almost in.

            “Yeah?”

            “There’s an SUV parked almost directly behind these walls,” he explained, pointing at the wall opposite the door. “It’s Lorrell’s red SUV; his parking spot is right behind this wall.”

            “Okay…” she said, waiting for more.

            “I’m going to blast a hole in that wall,” he explained through the shouts of people behind the door. “I need you to run as fast as you can and duck behind the other side of the vehicle.”

            “If I’m hiding from bullets, shouldn’t I get in the car?” She asked.

            “No, bullets can go through a car door. They can’t, however, penetrate the engine. Besides, it might be locked,” he informed.

            “Well why can’t I just run? Wait…what’re you going to do?” she continued questioning.

            “Cassie, if you run, you’re a fugitive and they’ll hunt you down. Once they have me, you’re safe. I have the powers, not you!”

            “Dad, no! You can’t turn yourself in, they’ll kill you! Run away with me and Mom!”

            “I can’t endanger you like that, Cassie. I’m your father and you have to listen to me. Just do me this one favor, please!” He begged.

            “They don’t have hearts and they’re relentless. They already shot at me once, what’s to say once they kill you they won’t turn the gun on me? Anything you would have done would be completely pointless and irreversible!” She cried desperately. Levi couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes.

            “They were only making a point. All they wanted was to get me to use my powers, and it worked. Now this is our only option and you have to do what I say!” More commanding shouts rang through the other end.

            “Don’t be such a hero, Dad!” She pleaded. Tears fell from their eyes as they faced this unpleasant notion of irreversible fate. Ignoring her request, Levi went to a deep place, deeper than anything else he’d ever done. A knot grabbed at his stomach and heat flowed through his arms. With his best force Levi released the energy and watched it defy the molecules of the room. The wall was no match for this expanding force of pure turmoil. Bricks toppled over and dust and stones rocketed everywhere. Once the dust cleared Levi grabbed Cassie by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

            “The world is incredibly screwed up. People like you are its only hope at a second chance. I have faith in you.” He kissed her on the forehead again, an action packed with so much raw emotion that the whole world could’ve crumbled, but instead the door behind them did so. He wanted to hang on to this moment forever, but it was rudely interrupted. “GO!” Levi screamed. With one finale exhale of sheer disgust, terror, and longing she stood up with a whimper and bolted out to the red SUV.

            Levi was shocked to see it was actually daytime, not night. This thought, too, was interrupted as two bullets hit the hood of the car right as Cassie swung around. She screamed, but it was too brief for her to have been hit. Apparently the engine theory wasn’t a myth.

            With a deep breath Levi thought his last goodbyes and stood to face his nemesis. Before the fought of an offensive strike managed to cross his mind, Levi felt the first bullet whip through his stomach. He didn’t fall; didn’t even scream. Like a stubborn, immortal beast from a horror film Levi looked up and started walking towards Lorrell. Another bullet glazed his shoulder, shot by the shaking Mexican guard. Lorrell lifted his gun again and shot Levi three more times. The third bullet through the chest did it, and Levi fell to the floor. In its entirety the whole situation didn’t seem very dire. In fact, it was entirely anticlimactic. Blood proliferated through his mouth and he shut his eyes and waited for it to come.

            No bright lights surfaced. No angels appeared to take his hand, and no summary of his worthwhile life flashed before him. The whole process was surprisingly peaceful. He listened closely for more gunshots, but none came. His Cassie was safe, just as he expected. That thought beat any light, angel, or life story, because Levi died knowing that the world wasn’t hopeless. Humanity still existed as long as his family survived him. The love he felt for both Cassie and Amy was a peaceful closure to his heroic existence, and an amicable ending as he finally emptied out of mortality.

Author's Note

Unedited and very early draft, looking for some constructive feedback. (: