The Kind

Chapter Seven

It felt as though the world had decided to stop spinning. Nothing up to now had caused this kind of feeling: not the unwinnable fights or the teleport from the hospital. This was like the opening and closing of a world all at once.
Sarah stood perfectly still. Not even her lungs dared move for the sake of drawing air. She was standing a few inches from Viktor, with her palms up and pressed firmly against a wall of nothing. No glass, no anything else. There was just energy, held in place by the man on the other side who had still yet to open his eyes.
Finally Sarah breathed, a low rasping sound that caused Viktor’s eyes to open. He stared at her for a moment, standing with her hands against the invisible barrier, and smiled. It was a wide encompassing smile that shouted everything would be alright. Without speaking he took a step towards her, waiting until the last moment to drop the wall so that she half-fell into his arms.
“What was that?” she asked, breathless.
“Energy, nothing more complicated than that. Something about the Kind allows us to manipulate the energy that surrounds us. Usually it is intangible and harmless, but we can focus it into something solid. It can be a shield, or a weapon.” To illustrate his point, he turned towards the already shattered window and pushed out his hands. The glass exploded, doubling the size of the damaged caused by the fallen lamp pole.
“It is how we teleport, too. We break down the energy that binds objects – even people – together, and move it with our minds.” Sarah didn’t like the idea of being broken down like that. She focused instead on the more combat-ready aspects of what she was hearing.
“Can you pick up things as well, like she did?”
“Yes. But something as heavy as a lamp pole would have been very difficult. The larger something is, the harder it is to lift. It’s no different that picking something up with your hands.” Viktor raised a hand to demonstrate, and a large weight from a nearby rack began to float in the air, and then gently rested down again.
Suddenly he paused, as a strange thought crossed his mind.
“Do you want to try it?” he asked.
Sarah hoped the crashing sound she heard wasn’t her rational mind shattering.
“Try what?” she managed.
“You’re not a Kind, so some things are impossible. But the Kind are just advanced humans, which means humans can do the same things they can, just on a more simple level.”
“I can move things with my mind?”
“Not likely. But you may be able to use energy to augment your attacks. I’ll show you how.”

The two of them took their places again on the mat, facing each other a few feet apart. There would be no invisible walls this time. The show-and-tell was over, this time it was real.
“Are you sure now? You may get hurt trying this.” Concern rang in his voice.
There was no turning back, and she knew it. “This was your idea,” she said. “Let’s go.”
Viktor had explained what he was going to do, but that didn’t mean she felt ready. She watched as he raised one arm and flexed his fingers. Again he closed his eyes.
“I want you to reach towards me. When you’re ready I’ll push out to you with my mind, and I want you to feel it.”
Sarah closed her eyes and felt out into the air with her fingertips. The seconds felt like minutes as she waited. All at once, she felt something brush against her skin. Something weightless and invisible had crossed the gap between them and was touching her hand. It vanished when she tried to wrap her fingers around it.
“Not like that.” Viktor still had his eyes closed, giving him the impression of talking in his sleep. “I want you to connect with you mind, not your body.”
Sarah wanted to tell him it was impossible, but the word had become somehow silly, like a children’s toy she wasn’t supposed to play with anymore. She just closed her eyes again instead.
For about half a minute she stood, silent, focusing on her breathing, and waited. Another ten seconds passed and she knew it was time. Without opening her eyes she reached up and stopped just before her fingers hit the invisible energy. She wanted so badly just to move those few inches more and take it, but she resisted. It was time for her mind to take over, to make the connection. Every fibre dedicated itself to crossing that infinitesimal bridge.
“Just think of it as an extension of your arm.” Viktor’s voice was calm and levelled. “You’re reaching out with muscles you’ve always had, but never used.”
The connection was like receiving an electric shock. It travelled through her fingers and up her arm, passing over her shoulder and up her neck in an instant. She yelled and tripped, landing hard on the mat. Viktor was over her before she could open her eyes. Naturally, she thought, sarcastically.
“Are you alright?!”
She thought for a moment. “I’m fine.” It was true. The strange energy may have knocked her on her ass, but she was ok. Better than ok. There was something in her now, something she wanted to use more than anything before.
Sarah was on her feet before he could protest. “Again!” she cried. Viktor stood for a few moments, jaw open. Sarah smiled. She had a plan: one she was going to keep secret, at least for the moment.
“Ready?” she called.
Concern pulled at Viktor’s face as he closed his eyes. “Ready,” he repeated.
Viktor pushed out once again. Unbeknownst to him, Sarah was pushing out too. With all her strength she summoned the energy she had begun to identity: first during the fight with Viralynn, then through Viktor’s teachings, and finally in her own mind. She saw the energy as an extension of her own body, something she could control, with the right focus. Carefully she willed it to move past her fingers and reach out towards him.

The impact was something akin to a bicycle colliding head-first with a freight train. 
When Sarah opened her eyes again, she was once again flat on her back, and she was laughing.
“Well?” she asked. “What do you think?”
“I think… you’re crazy!” Viktor was clearly beside himself.
“And I think you need to teach me to fight.”
Viktor met her eyes with a stunned look. After everything that had happened in the last few days, those were the last words he’d expected to hear.
“Alright,” he said finally. “Let’s get started then.”