I was officially fed up with Art Rubric. “Chuckie, if you don’t put me down right this second, I will embarrass you more than you can possibly imagine.”
“I have an excellent imagination, babe,” Chuckie said. “And I can’t possibly imagine anything you could do to embarrass me.”
“Don’t call me babe.”
“Look, babe.” Chuckie tightened his grip. “Be good so you don’t get hurt. I am very strong. And you are small and oh so much weaker—”
I slammed both elbows into Chuckie’s ribs, snapped my head backward into his face, and stomped on his shin. He gasped, then whimpered, then dropped me to the ground. I spun to the right and cracked my elbow into the side of his head, then spun to the left and blasted a spinning back kick into his jaw. Chuckie’s eyes rolled and he dropped like he’d been hit by a bus. “I told you not to call me babe.”
“Do him!” Rubric yelled. “Now!”
Mason suddenly looked so helpless, so defeated. He raised the bat over his head and took aim at Bobby. Bobby tried to lift his arms to cover his head, but Rubric held him tight. I was too far away to stop him without doing something drastic. So I did.
Chapter Nineteen
Mason's Memories
Sorrow, I thought as I drew my Amplifier. Mental fire flashed from my fingertips. I flicked my wrist and the psychic whip closed the distance between Mason and me, snapping around his arm. I jerked hard. The bat flew from his hand, and he fell to the ground, screaming.
I took my Amplifier in both hands and glared at him. He screamed and writhed in pain. I held tight as Mason struggled to pull free. This time, I would control the Lash. I would make Mason feel remorse. Suddenly, my mind filled with horrible memories that I knew weren’t my own.
Mommy glared down at me while she tied the dog’s leash around my neck. This time, she attached it to the tree. I trembled with fear. I had done it again, and Mommy was mad. Her eyes scared me. They looked dead. Mommy wasn’t the same anymore. She grimaced, lit a match, and tossed it in my hair. I whimpered and slapped it out, but it burned. She lit another one and flicked it. It stuck to my forehead, singeing a massive blister before I pulled it off. I screamed, “I’m sorry, Mommy, I’m sorry!” I wanted badly to stop wetting the bed, but she made me drink so much before I went to sleep. Another match! The pain on my scalp was agonizing. “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!” I shrieked and slapped at my head to stop the torture, but my hands blistered. The smell of burnt hair and skin filled my nostrils.
“You were always the stupid one, Mason,” she said. She lumbered over to the tall pine tree I was tied to. A can of gasoline and a shovel sat next to it. She picked up the can. “You should have died. Not your brother.” She unscrewed the cap slowly, a demented smile cracking her face, and poured gasoline in a circle around me, drenching my shoes and splashing my legs. “He was such a good boy. Why don’t you ever listen to me? Why can’t you just do what you’re told?” Then she lit another match.
I wailed. “Please, give me another chance!”
“You don’t deserve a second chance.”
Suddenly, I heard a metallic ring and Mommy was sitting on the ground, glaring up at me. Her poor head was covered in blood. A man stood behind her, holding the shovel. Rotting flesh hung in strips from his face, and white bone shone through. A bolt of fear shot through me.
He swung the shovel hard. It made a dull clang against Mommy’s head. He hit her again and again, and every time he hit her, his jawbones clacked together. Then he handed me the shovel and said, “I’ll come back for you.”
The front door burst open and Daddy ran out. “Mason, no!” He stared at me in horror, then his eyes shot to Mommy. “Why couldn’t she just leave you alone?” he whispered. “Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll take care of everything.”
Then I felt older. I looked down from the balcony of the high school auditorium. Munificent pointed up at us. He talked about a man who wore a skull mask. The familiar terror filled my chest. The cop was wrong. It wasn’t a mask. It was him. He had come back for me. Just like he said he would.
I was in the SSA with Angel. “Is it true what Bobby said?”
Angel smiled and caressed my cheek. “Bobby’s a dweeb. Why would you listen to him? Mason, I can get the stuff he’s talking about. Trust me. It’s harmless.”
I pushed her hand away from my cheek. Tammy Angel was beginning to annoy me. She had changed. “Give me some. I want to prove that Bobby is wrong.”
Angel smiled and reached into her purse.