Kate loved being a leader, but the stares on her friends’ scared faces and waiting for her command to save the day made her regret leading.
The train began picking up speed. In a few minutes, they were going to dive into their doom with countless passengers along with them. Their screams pierced the frisson atmosphere, trapped and afraid. Fortunately, the wizards weren’t warlocks commanding the train, or everyone would be dead by now.
Now or never, she had to put her trust in her friends. Her heart plummeted down in her chest like a train going off the rails, like this one was about to. Turning to Timothy, she pointed at an even ground near the gushing wide river underneath them. “You are going to that piece of land and fix the bridge; these passengers have to be safe and get to their destination no matter what.”
Kate whirled at Nathan, and her breath caught in her throat. She was instructing her best friends to not only save lives but put themselves at stake.
Not having time to remorse if her plan was good or not, she said, “You are going to find whoever fucking blew the train track and kill them—I would have Sara do that for me, but she needs to be with me for something.”
The Nephilim nodded slightly, his eyes going bigger by the second as the train kept moving with no hope for it to stop.
“Sara,” Kate stammered, “I... I don’t think I can stop the train by myself. It’s so big and requires energy that probably will exceed my strength. I need your assistance with your powers.”
Even with the screams from the passengers and the train’s tires protesting under the pull of magic, all the noise seemed more like an echo, and the thought of using her powers was louder than anything else. A step back on the gray carpet, Sara shook her head and shuddered at her ability. “I can’t; what if I kill the people instead of saving them?”
There wasn’t time for this hesitation. Kate grinded her teeth at the frightened girl, unsure of herself. Squeezing her friend’s shoulders tightly, she muttered, “Look at me, Sara; we can’t afford to be second-guessing ourselves.”
Looking anywhere besides at her friend’s begging countenance, Sara’s face pinked at the expectation laid before her. “You can't do it.”
“No, I can’t do it by myself. This isn’t the time to tuck away into your comfort zone,” pressed Kate. “This isn’t about if you are going to accidentally hurt people, but if you are willing to try to save them instead.” She declared and pleaded earnestly for her friend to stop being indecisive.
The train kept getting closer to falling into the hands of death, and her hazel eyes watered with the precious seconds ticking by. She whispered, “Believe in yourself because I have faith you got this. I need you right now more than ever. Please.”
Sara’s teary coal eyes leveled back at her best friend. Not able to bear the thought of these innocent humans dying because she was being selfish in not using her powers, the assassin made up her mind.
They will die by the train or me—but at least…I tried to save everyone.
“To serve and protect humans, this is our Prowler’s memo, no matter what we face,” Sara replied weakly and swayed her head up and down to follow Kate’s orders.
There was no time to breathe out with thankfulness. Kate nodded for Timothy and Nathan to get to work. The boys disappeared to do their assigned tasks. Teleporting herself and Sara to the edge of the gaping hole in the tracks, she focused on what her powers could do.
Kate snarled, “Dumbass wizards think that killing us instead of dying a merciful death is their best move. Her pulse raced at the oncoming train at them, knowing hundreds of lives depended on her.
Putting a foot forward and raising her hands, ready to listen to her friend’s commands, Sara agreed, “Infernals with nothing to lose will do the stupidest actions." She gulped down any scarceness as the train roared towards them.
She already had been hit by a car today; how was a train going to be any different other than more mass weight colliding with her? “So, should we let the train hit us?” asked Sara with a wary stare.
Snapping a worried glance at the assassin, Kate shrilled, “No! Why did you think of that situation?”
The girl shrugged in her cloak and said, “Well, you hadn’t told me what the plans were yet.”
Kate couldn’t have anymore time to wonder if Sara had her sanity intact. Looking back at the train picking up more speed, and second, they would be splattered like bugs on cars. Unable to catch a breath, she said, “We will try to stop the train with our telekinesis.” She added, "Well, if that doesn’t work, we can do your plan and get hit by a train.”
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Elevating her hands up sparks electrified out of them. Kate muttered, “Sorry if I get this train on fire.”
“I’m sorry if I kill all these humans,” Sara stated. When she thrust her hands out, her powers coursed through her blood, bolting shock to her veins as she exercised powers she hadn’t used for a long time. Her eyes shone brightly golden, and her heart bounced everywhere inside her chest.
There was nothing more than proving to Harmonies and herself that she could manage her powers. Sara’s powers weren’t controlled by her hormonal emotions; she controlled them by will.
The two Prowlers’ magic blasted at the train, bulleting at them several feet away. Kate’s ability was invisible, confirming that her telekinesis was at work instead of blazing fire. Sara’s powers glowed golden in heavenly light from overexerting her magic without using them for a while.
Tires grinded against the rails, and more sparks hissed out. Elation danced inside Kate to have Sara aid her in preventing deaths because she couldn’t have done this by herself. Her energy had already drained from her. The train slowed down, but not fast enough. It was so heavy and large, and the railroad vibrated and shook unsteadily from the lost support in the explosion.
Sweat broke out on both girls. The train approached them without coming to a complete stop.
“It’s going to hit us!” Kate yelled, but her scream was drowned by the sound of The Express, dangerously almost on them. “When it does, put all your strength against it so it doesn’t go off the tracks!”
With little space between the Prowlers, Sara decided to get hit by the train sooner, so she didn’t fall off the edge. Dashing at it, her heart and mind wished to yank away from what she was going to do.
“Sara, wait!” called out Kate.
Not heeding her words, the assassin turned sideways as the train hit her, and her feet skidded on the rough tracks, breaking off her boot’s heels. She pushed her shoulder on the lower head of the train, giving all her strength.
SCREECH
Tires rolled to a stop as they rubbed against the metal. The Express finally came to a halt, Sara’s feet inches away from the gap. Kate’s back was on the train, and she gasped heavily, her chest rising and falling breathlessly.
They looked down where the river streamed violently below them and collapsed at the small space of the ledge and train. Sara and Kate sucked in their breaths, averting a devastating accident.
The oldest Prowler burst into hysterical giggles and celebrated with raised fists, “We did it!”
Sara groaned; her shoulder was hurting so much, and she wondered if she had pulled an important muscle. When Sara lifted herself by her arms, pain shot rigidly through her, and she fell back to the ground.
Brushing her cinnamon hair from the madness they went through, Kate turned to her friend and helped her to her feet. “I cannot believe you did that!” She laughed again and punched Sara in the shoulder where she stopped the train, the assassin winching from the impact.
“Ow!” Sara shrieked. “What was that for?”
“Your stupidity!” Then Kate hugged her friend tightly and healed whatever damage her muscles had. “This is for saving everyone from your recklessness.” Having a moment to catch her breath, Kate said, “Thank you.”
Nathan whooped out his excitement about where the forest was and kept running along the forest’s border, not having found the wizards yet. Timothy looked like he was holding his breath and about to pass out. Giving a thump up, he continued to repair the bridge.
Cheering and clapping were heard from the passengers. Sara hunched her shoulders at the attention and smiled a little, relaxing in Kate’s embrace at getting the job well done.
The four teenagers soaked up, for the first time, what it was like to be heroes, serving and protecting humans at any cost. They conquered the villains in their endless pursuit of destruction.
Kate jumped on the train’s roof while Sara was still shaking off being hit by a train, and she crawled up, but her friend grabbed her hands and holstered her up. Bumping her hip against Sara’s side, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “WE DID IT!”
After composing herself, she watched Timothy complete the broken bridge. However, Nathan scratched his head to find those criminals who put humans’ lives in danger. Kate wondered if the wizards had run away when their attempt had failed.
“Once we get the train moving, we can head home since the Infernals are being cowards like usual,” Kate said, assuming the wizards were long gone. For a second, she wondered if the Prowlers should try to track them down, but she decided that this was enough for one day. She scanned around the thick trees to spot any Galas counting and looking for them.
Wondering how many humans’ memories would have been erased by the Pulse of Deception, who would remember? Kate headed quickly to search the passengers’ phones to make sure no one recorded it. “Come on, Sara, help me out...” She glanced over at her friend, staring intensely in the distance with furrowed brows and a puzzled expression. “What’s wrong?”
Flicking her gaze at Kate briefly, Sara looked at the vast span of trees again. Her cloak blew in the wind, and her black hair blew behind her, tickling behind her neck. Everything had settled down, but the atmosphere didn’t settle well with the assassin.
“What’s wrong, Sara?” queried Kate again as she watched the girl’s slow movements scan around as if she had forgotten something.
Goosebumps skimmed on her pale skin, and her heart drummed unsteadily.
Danger Sara’s voice echoed in her fazed mind. Looking behind her shoulder, her ears picked up the softest click that she recognized so much—the click of a trigger. With wide eyes, a bullet zoomed in on the clear blue sky.
With a whirl in her combat boots and thinking fast on her feet but only the thought of protecting Kate as her best friend and bodyguard, she shoved her roughly sideways. Kate almost fell off the train, but she slammed back, and her body tumbled on the roof. The breath was knocked from her gut, and she rasped, “Sara, what the—”
The young assassin moved one foot to jump off the train when the bullet hit home.
Blood gushed from her head’s side and splattered on her friend’s face. Sara stumbled off the roof from the impact, and fell silently into the river below, her cloak and hair flapping above her.