Chapter Ten

 Mary and Frank were left alone the next morning to work on her other skills for the day. They had left in Diane’s van to drive to the other side of the property so she didn’t destroy anything they were living in.

After driving for around half an hour, Frank pulled onto a dirt track which took them to a salt lake. Mary couldn’t believe how huge it was; and right in the middle of the land her mother had created to live in.

“Why is this here?”

He pulled on the hand brake, “Well, if Diane needs salt, we can get it from here, and if she needs a place to try out something - a new spell - she can do it here too, without blowing up anything nice she’s created.” he got out of the van and began walking towards the huge expanse of white nothingness.

“Oh come on, that can’t be…” she quickly exited the vehicle and followed him, “Hey! Wait for me!” Mary caught up with the older man, “So, why are we here?”

“You have an immense amount of power and I’m hoping to teach you to control it,” he said, then chuckled, “, without getting myself blown up in the process.”

“I’m not that… oh I suppose I am.” she said, “So, control is all about balance?”

“You’ve been reading?”

“Well, no. But Thomas has been talking to me about control; and he’s got a lot of power as well, and he knows how to control it really well.” she sighed as they walked out onto the lake, the salt crunching under their shoes.

“Aaah, well, therein lays the difference between you and Thomas: he’s been working with his powers since he was a child; however you’ve only just discovered yours.” Frank waggled his finger at her smiling, “And Thomas has had practice over many years and a good family to help him work with his powers. He turned, stopping and looking over the huge lake, then back to Mary, “But your mother? Well, I’m really disgusted in her approach with you. She didn’t even hint you had powers?”

“No.”

“Okay. Tell me what you can do, besides blow up light bulbs and freak out people.” he waved his hands dismissively.

“That’s it. I’ve been blowing up light bulbs for a few years; and the scaring people is new. Then, I saw the gargoyles the other day - which was something mother told me I summoned.” she shrugged, “I don’t know how I did that… but I did it.”

Frank watched his niece as she oozed helplessness. He could feel it, and he couldn’t help wanting to get her through this. He hated being an empath; and this was the main reason why he avoided the public so much - there was so much pain in the world, “Okay, you can do some pretty powerful stuff. But Thomas said you almost summoned lightning - and that’s a good defence - which you need a good storm for first. Was there a storm around?”

“Yeah.” she pointed, “There was…”

He suddenly ducked, “Hey! Woah! No pointing at me! I still don’t know what you can do!”

Slowly, Mary put her hand down, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry. But there was a storm, it came out of nowhere. One minute there was sunshine, stinking hot heat, and then next thing we had a storm, thunder and lightning.”

“Where you anxious? Angry? Tired?”

“All of the above.” she said, “But I felt as though I couldn’t do it on my own, and the minute Thomas was next to me, it was like he took over the whole … storm.”

Frank smiled, “So, it wasn’t a naturally occurring storm. You created it - but then didn’t know what to do with it once it showed up; much like the gargoyles. You’ve got them here, but you have no idea what to do with them now they’re here.” he took her shoulders gently, “When you become anxious, big things happen, storms, lightning, and gargoyles show up out of nowhere.”

“I don’t mean them to.” tears welled in her eyes.

“I know, but the one thing you have to learn is to control the anxiety so these things don’t happen - even if your storms become short spurts of rain, that’ll be something.” he smiled, “Now, let’s conjure some lightning and see what you can do with it.”

“What?” she wriggled out of his grip, “Are you nuts? I might fry you alive!”

He smile widened, “Hey, kid, I’ve been around longer than you think! Come on, your mother will like it that I got you to throw your power around a little.”

 

Thomas sat out on the verandah of the house waiting for Mary and Frank to return when Diane handed him a large mug of tea and joined him in the glider next to him, “They’ll be gone all day.” she sipped the tea.

“Yeah, I know. But conjuring lightning?” he sipped the tea and then put it on the table in front of them, “Why?”

She looked out across the quiet, shady property, “I didn’t tell her about her powers, because I was hoping she didn’t have them.”

“But she did, and when you found out she did, you just simply vanished?” he looked over at Diane, “I still don’t understand how you could do that.”

“I wanted her to find me.” she regarded him, “You see, Thomas, I knew she was with you, and you would never let her come into any danger, but then when I found out you worked for Balthazar… well, my faith in you took a dive.” she shifted so she was facing him, “I knew you wanted to be a lawyer, but really.” she shook her head, “Did you have to work for him?”

He looked at his cup of tea, “Well, I went into the place blind. I needed to learn while on the job, and didn’t know who he was until my Dad told me, and by then, I had signed the contract.”

She gave him a tight, small smile, “So, it was too late.”

“Yeah, and Dad’s been getting threats since Mary and I have left Brisbane from him; and seeing how powerful Dad is, Balthazar isn’t getting far with him.” the young man looked over at Diane, “And besides, I’m not worried about my family. They know how to protect themselves.” he looked at his phone, “Besides, my boss has been trying to call… I can see the messages being blocked.”

 

“Okay.” Frank shook his wet hair, laughing, “Now you have have it raining, I want to see you conjure a storm - get a bolt of lightning going.”

“I need a target.” she said squeezing her hair out, knowing it wasn’t doing any good.

He quickly looked around and spotted a large boulder not far away, “That boulder over there.” he pointed, “Blow that up. What you do is visualise somebody you hate - but don’t bring them here - and…” as he spoke, he heard a grumble of thunder behind them, “You’re doing well.”

Taking a deep breath, Mary reached her right hand up to the darkening skies, as the bright blueness and the sun was blotted out by the purple-green storm clouds above. The rain became heavier as the wind picked up and the storm moved faster. Any birds which had been singing only moments before went silent and hid, as lightning stretched across the horizon with skeletal, jagged fingers, striking the ground here and here, and the thunder crashed and grumbled afterwards.

Then, as the winds picked up and lashed the salt lake, with Frank standing next to her, the lightning came closer - striking the ground with massive purple-white bolts, and deafening thunder crashing overhead. Frank tried not to react, but he found it hard to stand still, but watched Mary, as she focused on the large boulder by the edge of the lake, her hand reaching up to grab the lightning when it -

 

Then it happened!

Two massive forks landed on either side of them, reeking of ozone, making all their hair stand on end, making Frank break out in a cold sweat of not know whether to stay or to run.

He did not touch Mary as the third, middle, fork was grabbed by her, ran down her arm, and out her left hand as she thrust it out towards the boulder. The lightning burst from her to the huge stone exploding it into so many pieces as the thunder clap and boomed above them, making the ground shake.

Then, as quickly as the storm appeared, the lightning storm showed up, the boulder exploded… it all vanished. The sun was out, brilliant and blinding against the salt lake. Mary stood there breathing deeply, as she exhaled a few breaths of smoke before looking over at Frank, who stood next to her staring in shock.

“Uncle Frank, that was amazing!” she smiled, “Wow! I didn’t think that would happen the way it did! At first I could only make it rain, then, you told me to blow up that boulder over there, and then, it… well, it just happened! I’m stunned, and it was so much fun! I want to try again, but with something smaller, to practice my control. It’ll be good for… Uncle Frank? Are you okay?” she looked over at him and took a step toward him, but he backed away quickly, his hands up.

Frank didn’t know what to do as she just talked, acting as though nothing was wrong. She took a step towards her, but he backed up, “No! That was…” he turned and walked away, off the salt lake and back towards the vehicle.

Mary followed him, thinking he was going to leave her there, but he just sat on the bull bar of the van, “Uncle Frank, are you okay?”

He looked up at her as he leaned his hands on his knees, looking very pale. Then, he leaned further over and threw up, “Oh, this is what happens when I’m around too much power.”

She backed away, “Oh shit, I’m sorry. Did the lightning get you?”

He put a hand up, “No. I should have waited on the edge of the lake, not stand next to you. I should have brought Thomas with us - he would have helped with the leveling out of the powers you both have.”

She ran to the passenger side of the van and grabbed the handle of the door, only to have the van’s engine start. Jumping back, she shouted in shock, “Crap! What happened?”

He turned, “It’s okay, you’ve got enough lightning in you still to start electrical things like cars. I should have told you this.”

Bursting into tears, Mary shook her hands, “I want to get you some water, but I just started the car without keys… and if I touch anything else, I might hurt you or… why didn’t we bring Thomas?”

 

Diane and Thomas heard a huge explosion while they were talking, and looked out towards the road, then to each other. He got to his feet as she did and they both ran out to his van, and he started the Kombi, threw it into reverse and it bounced down the road.

“We have to drive faster!” she snapped.

He picked up the remote to camouflage unit, “Landcruiser.” and the whole vehicle revved loudly, and quickly changed into a late model Toyota Landcruiser, and he put the foot down and they really took off down the road.

“This is impressive you can do this with the camouflage unit.” she said, “Where did you get it?”

“A Delorian dropped through from another planet and now it can’t get back because its parts are from the next century… so a good - I can’t call him a friend - put this together for me.” Thomas said, “And he’s now moved his chop shop to another place.”

“Where?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Diane grumbled, “Or you won’t.”

“No I can’t tell you, because I don’t know where it is.” he said.

“Oh.”

After a fifteen minute drive, they came to Diane’s van with Mary freaking out next to it and Frank being sick. The van was running and Diane and Thomas wondered what the hell happened. He turned off the engine and they both got out and ran to help.

He pointed to Frank, “You help your brother. He looked at Mary as she shook her hands frantically, “Stop shaking your hands! You’ll go off again.” he tried not to touch her, “And come with me.” he ran towards the salt lake and she followed him, “Take your shoes off, and out in the middle with me.” They ran out as far as they could run, and he knelt down and began to dig a hole, where he put his feet in and pulled her into it, then buried them both ankle deep in the wet salt, “We can do this.”

“We? What do you mean, we?” she tried to pull away and get out, “I’m going to end up killing you… make you sick, like Uncle Frank.”

“He’s sick because he’s an Empath Warlock.” he looked at her, stroking her long red hair, “Mary, you have to trust me in this. We are alike, you and me. Without me, there’s not much of you, and without you, there’s not much of me. We’re ying and yang… I can help you if you let me.”

“Frank said that too.”

“Then let me.” he looked up as the storm clouds gathered again with the lightning spattering around the under-carriages of the darkening skies. As the large drops fell on and around them, he took her hand and raised it up as he looked into her eyes, “Please just let me… let me help you.”