Psycher Chronicles

Chapter 26

The Fall

Often it is hard to tell when you are the highest, an apex, the zenith. Most people only realize that they met their zenith when the moment has passed. When the inevitable descent is rushing full force towards you.

That descent can be caused by almost anything, a random encounter causing you to be in a bad mood at the wrong time, which then causes you to blow a seemingly chance encounter. To slightly more impactful and less subtle exchanges, like walking in a cheating partner or spouse.

Then there are the catastrophic events that are not only impactful to the people who were part of the event, but as is often the case, catastrophic events often have a ripple effect on them. That effect has wide-sweeping changes. Like a meteorite crashing into the ocean, where a wave of force is generated, causing a tsunami to lash out at distant areas.

Sometimes, it is minor acts that start off as a moderately impactful event that spiral out of control, causing a moderate event to become a catastrophic event.

While the starting point for catastrophic events is often unknown, the one thing everyone can attest to about catastrophic events is that they will forever change and leave scars for not just one life, but multiple lives once their devastation is fully known.

***

(Jerome Jacobs)

Wind.

The windows of the van were down as Jerome sped down the deserted backroads. These were the open roads that sent chills down Jerome and his pack member’s spines as the air always smelt the purest out here.

While there was the unmistakable smell of asphalt, there was also the faint musty smell of life, of wind, and of freedom.

“AWOOO!!” Rodger, the newest recruit for the pack howled out, screaming wildly into the air and all but daring the world to challenge him to a fight.

Young blood, that was all Jerome thought of the guy who was officially going to be made a member of their pack tonight.

“You ready for this?” Jerome asked, nearly screaming to have his voice heard over the roaring winds that flew through the open vehicle filling the van with new scents and the slight sting of cold autumn air.

“Yeah.” Rodger said, though he huddled in on himself a bit. Despite wearing the school’s jacket, it was clear that he didn’t find the jacket to be as much protection from the elements as Jerome and the others did. Though that would all change after tonight.

“Well then, let’s not delay this any further.” Jerome replied. Then stomping his foot onto the accelerator he let the V-8 engine of his vehicle rip open as he let the intoxication of speed, smells, and being near his pack take over.

VRRRROOOOMMM!!

The van roared to life, as its wheels clung to the twisting back roads. Despite having superior reflexes, Jerome, being in a vehicle, still had a few things that he was subject to. Namely, despite being innately stronger, faster, and more resilient to most people, he was still bound by physics. He still could only act and react to the stimuli he was given as quickly as his brain could recognize change.

Most importantly, even if he could react to a change, like the sudden appearance of a van on the road, he could only do so much with his skills and talents.

Flying down the road, Jerome inherently found himself riding in the center of the two-lane road. While this road was often empty, tonight there was a slight problem. Whipping through some of the turns, he only had seconds to see the lights of a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.

Even then he had just enough time to swerve right, trying to get back into his lane.

Unfortunately, while his mind and reflexes were more than adequate to try to adjust to the oncoming threat, his vehicle was not.

“Oh shit!” A voice cried out.

Jerome didn’t know who it was, though he felt it was the new kid, Rodger, as everyone else just stayed quiet and let their pack leader do his thing.

However, this in case, the best Jerome could do was narrowly miss striking the vehicle head long, as he swerved right, where he grazed the front left bumper of the oncoming vehicle. This caused the vehicle to fishtail and spin out. Realizing that the vehicle he just crashed into was close to being pulled and grinding along the side of his van, Jerome did the only thing he thought he could do at the moment, he sped up.

This caused the two vehicles that had for a brief moment in time been stuck together get separated.

With force and momentum on his side, Jerome managed to shoot his vehicle forward, only receiving a slight scrape across the side of his van from where the front grill of the vehicle he crashed into scraped across and tore a deep gash into his side.

FWA-BAM!

There was the unmistakable sound of a crash from behind, but for now Jerome had his own problems as his wheels skid wildly on the ground as he attempted to wrestle control over his vehicle.

ERRRKKK!!

With the worst part over, Jerome found himself slamming on the brakes as his vehicle screeched to a sudden halt at the center of the road.

“Oh shit, of fuck, oh shit.” Rodger just started cursing.

“What the heck, J?” Tricksy from the back called out.

Spinning.

The world spun for a second, until finally Jerome’s superior abilities and healing took over.

“Oh shit, I think you killed her.” Dontrell said as he stuck his head out the window to stare at the crashed vehicle that had clearly spun out across the road and was now impaled sideways, facing the exact opposite way from where she had been traveling.

“No, I didn’t.” Jerome said, then pausing for a moment, he paused and turned to Rodger. “You still ready to become a member of the pack?”

“What? I mean, yeah, I guess, but shouldn’t we go to help her?”

“No, today, you will become an old school member of the pack. Tonight you will get your first blood.” Jerome began.

***

(Phil Tulley)

“So, is that yours?” Phil asked, the boy who was staring wide eyed at the drone that had fallen from the sky.

Even after having witnessed the event personally, Phil still had a hard time understanding how his little granddaughter had managed to do such a thing from over a hundred yards away. And yes, even though she was now an inch taller than him, she would always be his little granddaughter, as he remembered that seven-year-old child that came in and immediately told him how he had messed up with his repair job. Then then brat had ambushed him, after he went out to correct his mistake away from prying eyes, or so he thought.

She’s just too smart for her own good, Phil thought to himself as he now saw the way that same little girl could use that powerful mind of hers to create fires and disable drones from the sky.

Now he has this random boy coming, and in order to keep him from coming back, he worked out a thing where he would scare the boy just a bit.

“What? HAAA!” The boy screamed wildly, as he darted towards the middle of the open circle, but rather than heading towards the drone as Phil had expected, the boy entered and then quickly left the open field to reenter the tall grass.

Swish, swoosh.

After that, the unmistakable sound of a large creature making their way quickly through the overgrown foliage could be heard. Realizing this, Phil just chuckled to himself.

Misha who had been standing at the far end just waiting, as Phil had instructed eventually walked out from her own cover and picked up the drone.

“Hahaha. Oh man, that is too much fun.” Phil said.

Then with a complete surprise to his face, he saw the little drone that had been dead, completely dead not moments ago spark to life at Misha’s touch.

Whirr.

Then within seconds the drone’s blades began to spin about violently and angrily. The sound like that of angry bees waiting to be unleashed on a target.

For a moment the device looked like it was broken, but then Misha just stared at it, before giving a slight nod to herself. After that, it was a quick flick of her wrist upwards and the drone was thrown up into the air.

The drone wobbled and shook for just a second, before it managed to stabilize its flight. Then it rotated slightly, turning roughly ninety degrees, before focusing out and away from the house and garage. Then quick as whip, it lurched forward, streaking across the night sky, over the last remaining unchanged fields and likely off from which it came.

“You sent it home?” Phil asked, looking from the drone back to Misha.

“Yes.” Misha said staring at Phil. There was clearly a look on her face, as she still seemed to be holding back. Despite all they had managed to do this afternoon, despite all he had worked with her on, it was clear that his granddaughter was still holding back.

Nodding.

Phil nodded, trying to use the familiar gesture to help his mind focus on what was happening, and what to do next. Finally, after a few minutes, Phil finally pressed on.

“You ready to continue?”

“Won’t Ohma be coming back here soon?” Misha asked.

With that Phil paused, wondering just how late it had gotten. While he knew they were far enough away to be protected from the prying eyes of most people. Well aside from those annoying teenagers who wanted to spy on his granddaughter with their drones, he felt safe. But realizing that the boy might still be out and about, despite the scare, Phil realized that they had done enough for one night.

“Yeah, probably for the best that we head back in.” Phil replied.

Then looking at the time, he wondered exactly where Julie was exactly, as she should be home by now. Then he realized that she likely went out to get groceries.

“Besides, she might need us to help unload her car once she gets back.” Phil said, officially ending their first true training session together. As they went back in, Phil began musing to himself about different ways he could help improve Misha’s power and potential.

While he now felt better knowing that Misha could protect herself from most any danger she found herself in, she was still his little girl and would therefore be someone that he always worried about. Now as a proud grandfather of a child who could produce flames with her minds, he like most boys his age thought about the most important steps to take from here. Namely, he wondered what to burn next, and how big of a fire she could create and for how long.

Honestly, he would have been proud of her for any powers, but to produce flames on command that was awesome.

However, despite his elation at finding out about this new secret that he and his granddaughter had, he couldn’t help but feel that something was off. As he made his way back to the house, Phil couldn’t help but have the niggling thought that something was not quite right.

While he tried to dismiss this thought, it still came back to him.

For a moment he thought about using his phone to call Julie, to see how she was doing, but then stopped himself. If she was just running late then calling her would only infuriate her further as the call would likely just be more of a waste of time.

“Everything okay?” Misha asked, seeing that Phil was just standing there staring at the blank phone in his hand.

Phil, suddenly realizing how odd his glance looked, looked down at the phone and paused.

“Yeah, just getting old and forgetful.” Phil said, as he tried to hide the fact that he desperately wanted to hear from Julie again at that time.

Little did he know exactly how important that call might have been.