SIXTY FIVE-- SAVING A PRESUMED ENEMY

I watched him go far into the house which looked like it could collapse with a flick of the fingers. He walked into a room very far into the building and shut the door. When I was sure he was gone, I came out of hiding and towards the two kissing doors of the basement. "How do I do this? He locked it" I breathed in and breathed out, looking back every minute. The sole of my feet were hurting badly because I had no shoes on. Robin must have made sure of that to ensure easy movement on the floor of the dilapidating building-- the hideout. I lifted up my sole and realized I had stepped on something sharp. It was bleeding. 'Oh my!' There was a piece of glass in my skin and It was hurting badly. I pulled it out carefully and dropped it in my pockets. I was not going to leave out any trace of me here All this time, I wasn't even holding the shawl that covered me, and it didn't fall or threatened to fall for once. 'What will I do? He'll see the blood and wonder who's in here' I thought of what to do. I stayed back in hiding, tore a piece of the shawl and tied the injury. It stopped the blood. I started to limp towards the basement again, this time carefully. Then it occured to me that I could lift the doors or force them open with my superpower. "Own your power. Be you. Don't hide who you are" I remembered Robin's words to me sometimes ago. 'Now is the time, Ariana!' I whispered to myself, bent down and started to lift the doors carefully. I was still lifting them off the floor when he suddenly appeared behind me. I let the doors down with a thud and faced him He had caught me. As soon as he saw me, he started to laugh. "You're the intruder? How old are you? Eleven?Twelve? Can't be more!" He said laughing wickedly. I'm sure he must have exclaimed with shock if I told him I was barely nine. He looked like he used the gym frequently, and with the corner of my eyes, I saw that he was clenching his fist. "What are you doing here? How did you get here?" He asked, shock written all over his face. He appeared very confident. "Don't come close" I later found my voice. He laughed again. "What are you? A magician huh? Lifting the doors like a superman or are my eyes playing tricks on me?" Another throaty laughter. It was a very annoying sound. The basement was as quiet as a graveyard "You look lovely by the way, one more girl to put in the family way!" he said, laughing throatily again. I knew what he meant and I was so mad that I moved closer to him and in split seconds grabbed him by his throat and slowly lifted him off the ground. He stopped laughing and started to threaten me instead, groaning and cussing and dangling in the air, suspended by my hands. Some noise erupted in the basement. I'm sure some of them must have been praying that whoever it was be a saviour for them. "You bitch! Who gave you this dark magic? You don't think I can't do better?" "Then save yourself" I retorted. He coughed and groaned and struggled. He must have been very shocked to see that he weighed nothing in my hands. Next were the doors of the basement. I pushed them aside with my other hand and walked in with the hideous abductor in my hands. There, I saw about eight or nine girls crumpled in a corner, shivering and staring blankly. They either looked extremely starved, shameful or hopeless. I couldn't see their figures clearly so I located the switch and flipped it. The lights came on. What I saw almost crippled me. These girls were mostly starved. And..wait...hold on! I know one of them. I unintentionally and forcefully dropped the abductor on the hard floor and he fell, coughing and struggling to catch his breath. I ran over to one of the girls. It was Miranda. Miranda Harley. "Mira! What are you doing here?" I whispered and then yelled, "Huh?" "The pool party...he...the ...when the party...when..." She stammered and began to cry. She looked terribly frightened. I ran to hug her but she inched away, terror and shock and unbelief painted clearly on her face. She'd never seen me use my superpower. All these moments of reunion made the abductor gain momentum. He soon got on his feet and hit my back with a club. I fell, shrieking. The strong hit made me cough up blood. I thought he was really going to kill me. But all of a sudden, the blood stopped and I regained my strength, charged at him the second time and suspended him in the air with my hands. "Go! Everyone! Run!" I shouted. Some of the girls hesitated. They were too scared I wanted to cry. "Run! I'll be fine" I told Miranda when I saw her hesitating. She was too afraid to say anything. "Go out there. Someone will take you home" I said and all the girls started to scream, running out of the basement. They looked emaciated. "Thank you for sending them straight into the arms of my personal assistant! You fool!" He laughed, coughing and groaning. It suddenly dawned on me that there could be more of them in this hideout and they could kill these kids on their way to rescuing themselves. So, I took him out, still grabbing his throat and followed the kids, then I fetched the keys of the gate from his pockets and so the children ran out of the building. I sincerely hoped Robin would rescue them and take them into town. Miranda kept looking back as she ran. As soon as they were out of reach, I thought of what to do with this man. I then smiled when I got an idea. "I'm gonna spin you until your insides churn, and you can barely see anything" I told him. "You bitch! I know your face! I'll teach you a lesson! I'm coming for you!" He threatened. "Okay" I said, and kicked his legs until I heard a crack, then I spun him around for close to ten minutes. I did that on purpose. He coughed and struggled but I did not stop. When I saw it must have shaken him enough, I dropped him on the ground with a thud and ran out of the building. At least, it'll take him twenty minutes to recover because I was sure he was going to cough blood and choke for a long time. And he wouldn't be able to walk properly because I broke a bone in his legs already. As soon as I got to the spot where I left Robin, I called him. Those girls were gone and I was far away from the abductor. A werewolf appeared suddenly in the bulrushes and walked towards me. Out of thoughts, I ran away thinking it'd pounce on me. "It's me, Ariana" I heard him say, and I turned back, sighing with so much relief. He let me watch him transform into a human form and walked with me, towards town. "Good job, Ariana" he whispered "Are they safe? Will they be safe-- the girls?" "Yes. I led them. They'll reach home safely, all of them" he said. I heaved a sigh of relief. It had made me really uptight. The whole situation. "Robin, why did you save them? You kill humans, don't you?" It suddenly dawned on me to ask. He killed humans. He didn't like humans, the regular humans, so why did he help me save these girls? "Because I wanted you to know how powerful your superpower is, and how much you can use it to save yourself and others" he said and I nodded. I had indeed saved eight girls and if I wanted to kill that abductor, I could have, but I didn't have the mind to kill. The police should do their job arresting him. "I need to teach you how to help yourself if I'm not there. You could help others too but not everyone. Help the ones your instincts push you to help. There, that's another thing, a superpower of yours-- your instincts. It will never lie. Maybe other people's instinct does lie, but yours will never" I listened to him with rapt attention. He sounded like he'd be leaving soon. I started to feel nostalgic, I wanted to cry non-stop even, but I held those tears at bay. "Besides, I have emotions, Ariana. I don't just kill" he said and I thought I saw a tear clouding his beautiful eyeballs. " Make use of your superpower only when it's needed, to avoid undue attention. Get some fulfilment from your being, you know I told you we are humans with a difference. That's why it's okay to say we are not humans, although we still are. Practise your hobbies everyday, make goodness out of life, be happy, achieve something. Help others smile. So, even when those memories come back to you, you'll be able to cope with them, without making rash decisions" I wanted to ask him, "What memories?" Because I didn't remember , but I kept quiet. I knew if I opened my mouth to talk, I'd burst into tears. I was sure he was going to take me back home and then disappear. Perhaps forever. Because he had said he was forbidden to return to me. His parents had said I was an enemy because I wasn't like them, even though I had some superpowers. My future with him looked very blur. Maybe he lied about what his parents said. Maybe he only wanted me to stay back in the natural world because he saw I had bonded with my family there, and because Joe had made him promise not to force me to live in the supernatural world permanently. Maybe werewolves indeed had emotions. Joe was gone. Robin was leaving me too. I was expected to leave Miranda too. What would become of me? My superpowers introduced me to some beings and also alienated me from them.