Piece of Mind 6
Chapter 6: Mal Tiffany
"This war is a game of the mind," he tells me grabbing me and pulling me back a little bit away from the sisters, "It's like a game of chess. In order to win a game of chess. You have to make a move..."
Piece seems to be teaching me at this moment. Or maybe it's just more of his randomness. I don't know. For once I'm not completely focused on him. I am looking at Mal Tiffany and Tonnet Tiffany. The face off is beginning.
Mal raises her hand. Objects amass behind her. At first it's little things. Like a magnet she pulls things towards her. Rocks, chairs and soon even benches. The figures suspend in the air. And she points her finger at her sister.
Piece is pulling me further back and he whispers in my ear, "With chess you bait your pawns at first. You get them attacking one another."
Tonnet barely dodges the objects flying at her. She throws her body across the concrete. I see her bleeding as she springs to the floor. Objects are coming at her from all angles now. Mal Tiffany's power is stifling. She has a sense of pitch black darkness to her. There's an anger and an emotion that scares the shit out of me. And I'm worried about Tonnet.
Tonnet rolls on the ground. She raises her hands in defense and I can feel a force come out of her. The force knocks the remaining objects out of the sky before they can hit her. For some reason I exhale a sense of relief that she's able to do this.
"In chess the first move is to sacrifice the pawns in order to protect the king," Piece tells me.
"Piece people are watching...people are seeing," I tell him.
He doesn't seem to care. He's talking to me about chess as though he's teaching me how to play it right now. I want to get it. I want to understand if there's a deeper meaning behind his words but right now I can't play Piece's mind games. Right now I'm worried about Tonnet.
Cars are stopping in the middle of the street. A crowd is forming. People are noticing this strange things. I see people taking out their phones. They are recording what's happening. Their mouths are open. They can't believe it. They are in more shock than I am and that's saying a lot. Among them I even see Cedric. His eyes are wide in confusion. He doesn't understand. No one does. I wonder what they are thinking. Do they think it's the end of the world.
"What's she doing?" I ask Piece, "Look at Tonnet..."
"She's being a pawn," Piece explains.
Tonnet is rocking back and forward. She is on her knees. I don't know what the rocking back and forward is doing but it makes me nervous. She needs to get up. She needs to attack Mal Tiffany before Mal Tiffany kills her.
And then I realize that's exactly what she's doing. Mal Tiffany is thrust backward as though someone punches her in her stomach. She clutches onto her abdomen. Then she clutches onto her breasts and her inner groin. She tumbles backwards clearly getting attacked by some invisible force. Her sister is doing it. I have no doubt about that. A smile spreads across my face. Even though Tonnet didn't tell me she dated my uncle I still want her to win this. I still want her to beat Mal Tiffany.
There is a desperation in Mal Tiffany's face at that moment. She raises her hand and she does the unthinkable...
Bodies this time!
She is tossing people at her sister!
"Holy shit!" I'm screaming at the top of my lungs.
I notice Mal Tiffany's indifference when I see the first onlooker be lifted off his feet. His body is boomeranged across the park towards Tonnet barely missing her. Another onlooker and then another are tossed at Tonnet. The bodies land hard on the floor. I hear screams. I see blood. And soon people realize what's going on. There is chaos.
There is panic.
People are running away as fast as they can.
And even as they run Mal Tiffany lifts them in the air and uses them literally as objects. She doesn't see them as people. She's a monster. And I'm aware of that now. She is doing more harm to the people than she is doing to Tonnet. Tonnet is using her abilities to block the bodies being flung at her. As a result of this people are being tossed around as though stuck in the middle of a tornado. They are being thrown back and forth. Back and forth.
Mal Tiffany is weakening Tonnet. I can tell. With each body that Tonnet redirects away from her, she is shaking a little bit more. Tonnet's body looks like she is having a seizure. I notice the nose bleed from Tonnet as well. I also notice the nosebleed from Mal Tiffany though. I don't know what that means but I feel like it can't be good.
"We have to stop this," I tell Piece.
Piece looks at me, "Worry about yourself."
"What?"
I don't realize it until Piece warns me. I am being picked up. Mal Tiffany's madness has extended to me now. My body is being raised up off the floor. I can feel a pull. It's a magnetism. I'm the next obstacle that she wants to throw at Tonnet!
"You're stronger than that," Piece warns me...
I can't concentrate. I'm panicking. I saw how hard the other people were thrown across the fields at Tonnet. I saw their bodies smash across the hard concrete. There was no slowing down. They were stuck in this force.
Piece sighs.
He raises his hand and when he does I'm steadily lowered to the ground. He saves me...
It's at that point I realize that Piece is actually pretty powerful. He rejected Mal Tiffany's psychokinesis on me without much effort at all.
"You can stop this, can't you?" I ask him, "If you wanted to, you can stop this. You have the power don't you?"
"It's best to have them take themselves out," Piece states.
People are getting hurt. Innocent bystanders. Mal Tiffany has completely lost it. She is using anything close by to throw at Tonnet. Tonnet is barely holding on. Cars are being sucked in from the street. Street signs are being pulled straight out of the concrete. I hear people screaming all around me.
"Please Piece...stop this..."
I grab his hand. I'm begging him at this point. I don't know what else to do.
Piece shakes his head, "No."
"Fine. I'll stop it," I respond.
At that moment I'm running towards Mal Tiffany. I don't know what gets into me. I'm running towards her as fast as I can though. I'm charging her. I tackle her to the floor at that moment. It must have been some aggression left over from my football days. She doesn't expect it. She hits the ground hard. When she loses her focus tons of objects and people are falling from the sky.
I think about punching her and knocking her out at that moment but then I make the mistake of looking at her. She's just a girl...I can't hit a female.
And it's a huge mistake.
My body is lifted at that moment and I'm tossed back a few feet by Mal Tiffany.
"You shouldn't have picked sides," Mal Tiffany tells me, "You should have stayed neutral..."
She's walking towards me now. I can feel this heaviness on my chest. She's doing something to me. She's caving my fucking chest in somehow.
What have I done?
I've chosen sides.
I've made an enemy.
Just when she makes her next step I see Mal Tiffany fly back. She isn't just flying back a little bit though. She's lifted up into the sky and something is throwing her so far back into the city that I don't see her any longer.
I turn to see Piece. It's him.
"I told you to stay neutral," Piece tells me.
"You saved me."
"You shouldn't have fucking made me do that," Piece says.
"Wait...Piece!"
I try to grab him but he uses psychokinesis to push me back before I can get close.
"You know why pawns can't move backwards?" he asks me, "Because if they did, they might just attack the king that sent them out in the first place."
I'm back on the floor again before I notice it. Piece is upset. He's pissed at me for interfering and I feel like maybe I did just make a mistake...not just for me but for him as well.
I have to carry Tonnet back down into the sewers. She's so weak that she can barely move. She can barely talk either. She is gasping for breath. She has enough wind in her however to make sure that I can take her to the right place.
When we get into the underground headquarters of the sewer lineage they gather around at that moment. I notice my mother first. She comes at me. The look on her eyes is concern.
"What happened here?"
I don't even have the chance to answer before Tonnet's body is lifted out of my arms using psychokinesis. At first I think it comes from my mother but when Old Man Keeper runs near I'm not sure either. The other members of the sewer lineage are close by. The young boy Prall and Bombard are giving me strange looks when they see Tonnet looking the way she does.
"She got into a fight. Her nose won't stop bleeding..."
"It's the side effect from using too much psychokinesis," Antietam tells me, "Why was she fighting?"
"Guys...you guys should turn that TV up," the youngest Prall says.
I'm not sure what he's referring to at first. I didn't think they could get a signal down there. However I see Antietam raise her hand and use psychokinesis to turn up a old television sitting in the corner of the underground room. It's old beaten down just like the rest of this place. The picture is hardly clear but it works.
The reporters are reporting live from the park. Old Man Keeper tends to Tonnet while the rest of us gather around the television. The first thing we see are videos from the fight that happened. Tonnet and Mal are going at each other. It's clear they are the ones causing the strange floating objects. I wonder how clear it is to the reporter.
"We're reporting live where a strange series of events have happened in West Bank Park," the reporter is saying, "Objects and people were being lifted as if being moved by something. Witnesses are reporting some sort of supernatural pull on their bodies. Witnesses are also reporting that a girl was using telekinesis in order to protect herself from an attack of someone who witnesses say identically resembled her..."
I know what happened at the park. I stop paying attention to the television. I'm paying attention to the reactions of the people in the Sewer Lineage. They aren't expecting this. They are scared and upset. They are confused and bothered.
The television is thrown across the room. I'm not sure by who. It doesn't matter. They all have the same expression.
It's Bombard who turns to me. His expression seems to reflect what all of them are happening, "How could this have happened?"
"Tonnet and I were just talking and...her sister just...showed up and she wanted to fight."
"She just showed up?" Antietam asked.
"Bullshit," Bombard replies.
I don't want to talk about Piece. I don't want him to have anything to do with this. I know I'm protecting him. I've very clearly about it. It's very clear that he went out of his way to protect me earlier as well. I'm not about to sell him out. There's no way I'm about to do that.
I don't have to. I hear Tonnet say it, "It was the pest..."
Fuck.
They all look at me as though I have something to do with it. Tonnet is back unconscious at that moment. The young one Prall and even the Old man seem to be staying out of this. It's Bombard and Antietam that are really digging me with the questions. I don't know how to react.
Bombard starts quickly, "Why were you with Piece?"
Antietam follows up immediately, "Where is Piece now?"
"Was this planned?"
I stop them at that moment putting up my hand, "All I know is she followed him there."
"Piece planned this didn't he?" Antietam asks me.
She is asking me as though I should have loyalty to her. She's my mother. I know that, but I have way more loyalty to Piece than I would ever have to her. Even though I don't understand his motives and why he stirred up so much trouble, it doesn't matter to me. He saved me from Mal Tiffany when he didn't have to. He could have kept his neutrality. He could have just stepped aside and watched these two girls tear each other apart. But he didn't.
"Why you are hesitating to answer?" Bombard asks.
"I'm not hesitating."
"THEN FUCKING ANSWER!" he screams in my face.
I'm so annoyed with him that I can feel a vein on my forehead. I don't do anything though. I just take a few breaths. I can tell they are on edge.
"I'm not saying a fucking thing against Piece," I tell them.
It's as simple as that. I may be stupid for this boy. I may be. I don't care.
I see Bombard take a few steps towards me. He wants a fight. I can see it in his eyes. Ever since that day that I used psychokinesis against him, he has been itching for it. What he doesn't know is that I want one just as bad as he wants it though. Yet again he's held back. This time he's held back by Antietam though.
"We have no time for pettiness. Tonnet used a lot of her mental capacity. She needs ambrosia."
"Where the hell are we going to get ambrosia from?" Bombard asks her.
"You re going to have to break into the Corporation."
"They are going to be on high alert if they know that Tonnet and Mal fought," Bombard states.
"Then you'll have to be careful. Take Prall with you..."
Antietam is doing this on purpose. She's sending Bombard away probably to keep us from fighting. I feel like he knows it too. He grabs the little boy by the neck and they start to leave at that moment.
An hour passes. Tonnet isn't moving. The underground complex is bigger than I thought initially the longer I spend down there. There are sleeping quarters that they have. I take a look and realize it's not much of anything. I've seen the place that Piece stays. The place they called Olympus. This is nothing compared to that. There are no windows, natural lights or fresh air. It's depressing down here. It's even worse now with my mother walking back and forth. She's become muscular over the years. She's built like a brick house. She looks powerful and strong. She looks intimidating. She's nothing like the mother that I remembered growing up.
I try to focus my attention on Tonnet. I feel bad just leaving her. Not until I hear that she's going to be ok. The old man is treating her scratches and what not. Antietam comes up behind me and stands there for a few seconds.
"This is the worst case scenario," Antietam states.
Tonnet is getting weaker by the moment. I don't think it's the physical stuff. I heard the old man mention something about her brain being weak. I think it's how much mental stress she was under during her fight with Mal Tiffany.
"Can you die from using too much psychokinesis?" I ask.
"Yes...that's partially how your father died," Antietam explains, "That's why Ambrosia is so important. The more you drink the more your mind expands. The corporation has their scientists creating as much of the substance as possible."
"Will she be ok?" I ask.
Antietam sighs.
She shakes her head, "We have bigger concerns than Tonnet."
I turn to her.
"How can you say that?"
"Discretion is really important with our kind. The humans know about our powers. They are going to be looking for Tonnet. Moving forward, she might be a liability to all of us. Her and Mal Tiffany."
"Liability? Tonnet has been stalking me on your behalf forever now..." I tell my mother.
My mother could care less.
She shrugs.
"That doesn't make her any less of a liability. You want the humans to track her to the rest of us. Do you know what they'll do to us. Do you want to end up as a human guinea pig for the rest of your life?"
"So why send Bombard to get Ambrosia to save her?"
"We may need her to fight the Olympians...unless you decide to help us," my mother says.
She's serious. She's dead serious. My mother is looking me dead in my eyes and telling me that she doesn't give a fuck about Tonnet. It's at that moment things are beginning to click.
Everything is starting to make sense.
"Piece was telling me this war between you and Victoria is a game of chess," I say.
Antietam shakes her head.
"You are listening to that boy? He speaks in riddles."
"But he makes sense. He said that pawns were being used," I respond, "At first I had no idea what he was talking about but I'm starting to get it. We are the pawns to you. Aren't we? You don't give a damn about Tonnet. She can die as far as you're concerned. You don't care about me either. I'm just another number to you. Isn't that right? Another pawn?"
That's what Piece was referring to.
And he told me that if pawns could move backwards they'd kill the kings that sent them out in the first place.
Antietam smiles at me, "Piece told you that huh? You listen to Piece. What is your relationship with him?"
"You don't deserve to ask me that," I reply.
She's never been in my life. She doesn't just get to come out of no where and ask me about my private life.
Antietam nods, "Fair. That's fair. Let me just say this. Piece is an interesting boy. He's full of life and every word he says has a deeper meaning. Some things he's right about though. Everyone has a part to play in this. There are pawns. There are people who will be sacrificed."
I cross my arms.
I look to my right. Tonnet is up again. She's staring. She hears what Antietam is saying. The old man hears it as well. Neither of them react to it.
"So you admit it. You're using people for this war?"
Antietam nods, "They all know. They are all aware. Victoria thinks she's a God and she wants to bring in a new age. She's a crazy bitch. And all of us have our parts to stop her. They know they are pawns. They know their lives are at risk."
My heart is beating faster and faster.
"What if I don't want to be pawn?" I ask Antietam.
"You can leave. But your neighbors. Your friends. Your coworkers. Your Aunt Gloria. They will all pay the price of you abandoning them. It's up to you now. Will you fight for mankind or will you stand to the side with Piece. And watch?"
Antietam's stare is intense. I can see her looking at me. She is gazing deep into me. She is calling me out and I don't know how to react.
So I sit there for a second.
"If I agree to this," I tell her, "That doesn't mean you get to be back in my life as my mother."
Antietam nods, "I understand."
"You'll treat me like the others..."
"I understand."
"You'll teach me everything you know about my abilities."
Antietam nods at that moment, "All my knowledge will be yours. And we'll get rid of the Corporation together."
My thoughts go to Mal Tiffany. I remember how she used people to her advantage. She had no respect for humans. That battle scared the fuck out of me. Those were people's brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters and sons. Mal Tiffany could care less. She used them to hurt people. She was a member of this Corporation. She was a member of these Olympians that put themselves above people.
I had to stop them... no matter what.
I nod, "Fine. I'll do it. Not for you. Not for this Sewer Lineage. I'll help for the people who can't help themselves."
"Thank you."
"One more condition."
"What?"
"You guys never go after Piece," I say.
I hear Tonnet moan something. I can tell she is in disagreement. She's too weak to express herself though.
"Piece set Tonnet up. I'm sure he did," Antietam stated.
"I'll talk to him. I don't want him hurt though."
"Why do you want to protect him so bad?"
I don't know how to explain it. I'm drawn to him. I feel this need to protect him. I feel this need to be there for him. When he looks at me, he makes me feel like he needs me. And even with the crazy drama he starts I know that I want to be that shield for him. No matter what.
"I don't know..." I reply.
Antietam smiles, "When I met your father he was like that. He was so drawn to me. I didn't understand it. He was a scientist. He only cared about his work. I was just a volunteer that he wanted to test out his experiments on. I had the right genes for his experiment. He'd stay late. He'd make sure I was so comfortable."
"Why are you telling me about the two of you? I don't care..."
"Listen to my point, please," she says.
"Hurry up with it."
Antietam looks out into the distance, "The other Adam that was the CEO of the Corporation back then. He was a rich boy and your father was a poor one, but they were inseparable. Until I came into the picture. Love has a way of effecting your life and making you look at things differently. Sometimes it's for the better. Sometimes it's for the worse. The thing is. If your father never fell in love with me...he'd probably be here now."
"Are you trying to compare your relationship to my mine? What...I'll die for him or something?"
"You came to that conclusion. I didn't even know you were in a relationship with Piece..."
"You don't need to know anything about us. We're different. I'm not even in love with Piece."
Antietam stares at me.
It makes me uncomfortable how hard she's staring at me. She's staring at me as though she knew me. She's staring at me as though she didn't walk out of my life 10 years ago. I was a stranger to her but right now it was almost like she'd known me forever.
"Who are you trying to convince of that?" she asks me, "Me...or yourself?"
Before I get the chance to answer I hear someone running into the room. I turn at that moment. The person is bleeding. He's breathing heavy. He looks torn up.
"Help! HELP!"
I notice it's the little boy. Prall. He's back. I look to his side to see if Bombard is with him. He's not. No Bombard. No Ambrosia.
"Where's Bombard?" Antietam asks.
Prall is breathing heavy. The silent Old Man Keeper walks up to him and tries to help him brace himself. I can't help it but to walk over too. He looks scared. I don't understand how this little boy got involved in this shit to begin with. He's just a teenager. This has nothing to do with him.
"Victoria has him."
Fuck. I don't like Bombard. I know I don't...but for some reason I hate the fact that she has him. It's clear she's holding him.
"If she has him. He's already dead. And so is Tonnet," Antietam states.
I look over at Tonnet. Every moment she gets weaker. She needs that Ambrosia. It's clear that she does. The young Prall is breathing heavier and heavier.
Prall stops her, "She sent me back. She told me to tell you that she's willing to release Bombard and she'll give you Ambrosia for Tonnet."
Antietam looks suspicious. That doesn't sound like war to me. Why the fuck would Victoria do something like that?
"What's the catch?" Antietam asks.
Prall looks at me.
"What?" I ask.
"She wants to see Jamison...alone."
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