Ill Hearted

This is a story written by me, Julian Lord, about a kid named Damien Scott who finds out he has psychic abilities.  Somehow, this ties to conspiracies involving Damien and an old, deceased friend of his named Simon...

You know I was always a normal kid.  I went out with out with my friends sometimes, did pretty well in school and was just basically normal.  Yep, just average little Damien Scott.  But all that changed on my 13th birthday and let me tell you; my life was never the same….

Chapter 1
____________________________________________________

It was just another day in my slightly boring life.  Ok, so it was my birthday but hey, it’s just a date isn’t it? Anyway, I was headed to a bank to deposit some cash I got for my birthday.  I didn’t really want to but my parents didn’t want me going on a shopping spree.  It wasn’t long until we got there.  My dad and me got out of the car and headed into the bank.  As I was filling out a deposit form something weird happened.  I saw a man walking into the bank and filling out a form, just like I was.  Then I saw a white flash and everything was back to normal.  I shook it off and went back to filling in the form.  Then I saw the guy taking the form up to the teller.  I saw a bulge coming out of the man’s shirt and the panicking teller.  Then there was that all too familiar flash.  I rubbed my forehead, wondering what was going on. 
“Are you all right Damien?” my Dad asked.
“Yeah I’m fine.” I answered.  I could tell my Dad was getting worried.  Then I had another ‘’vision’.  This time the man was pointing a gun at me.  He pulled the trigger and I saw the flash again just before the bullet hit.  What the hell is going on with me? I thought.  Then I looked outside.  My jaw dropped.  The same guy from my vision was walking into the bank.  I stared blankly as he went to a desk and filled out a form kinda quickly.  Then he went to a teller and gave her the note.  She panicked and ran to the vault.  It all started to sink in.  “Oh my God.” I said quietly.
“What’s going on?” my Dad asked.  I had no time to answer.  The man beat me to it. 
“Everyone on the ground!!” he boomed, revealing a gun.  “This is a hold up.  You try anything funny, you die!” Everyone in the building got on the ground.  The man walked over to me.  He smiled a funny half-smile and said, “That means you, kid.” He turned around.  “Come on, I don’t have all day here! Where’s my cash?!”
“Dad,” I whispered.  “When I say three roll to the right.”
“What?” he said pretty loudly.  The robber turned around.  At least I knew why I had a gun to my head in my vision now. 
“One,” I said.
“What the hell are you counting for kid?” the guy said.  I ignored that.  He aimed his gun.
“Two,” He put his finger on the trigger and started to squeeze……… “THREE!!” I caught a glimpse of my Dad rolling as I rolled but something was wrong.  My body was numb.  I couldn’t move but my body moved without my mind.  I somehow stood up and put my hands in an X position.  Then all of a sudden BOOM! I could barely see but it looked as if a fireball had come out of my hands.  I noticed I could control my body again.  I walked over to the charred body of the man and looked back at my dad who was staring at me in total disbelief.  As the police cars started to show up my Dad asked me, “What the hell just happened Damien?”
“That’s what I’d like to know.”


Chapter 2

The sirens of the police cars quickly approached the bank as the reality of everything had finally sunk in.  I had just killed a man.  Or had I? I wasn’t even in control of my body so how could I have killed him? The sirens of the police cars wailed as the police entered the bank, weapons drawn.  The officers started taking people out of the building.  I was one of the last people to get out.  My dad and I were taken to the local station, which just happened to be the local police HQ.  My dad and I were put in separate rooms and were told to wait there.  I was waiting for about 5 minutes when an officer walked into the room. 
“Damien Scott?” he asked me.  I nodded.  “I’m Constable James Blake, RCMP.  I’d like to ask you some question about today’s incident.”
“All right.”
“What happened inside the bank?” I told him everything, except for the fact that I hit the guy with a fireball.  Then Constable Blake asked me, “Do you know what killed the man who was lying on the ground, burnt to a crisp?”
“Umm….well…..No.” I never was good at lying.
“Are you sure? I’ve got some people saying you lit the guy up.”
“All right! I’ll tell you but I don’t think you’ll believe me.”
“Why’s that, Damien?”
“The guy got hit by a fireball that somehow came out of my hands.  Something took over my body.  I couldn’t control it.” A phone rang in the room.  Constable Blake answered it.
“I’ll talk to you another time.”  He left the room and my dad came in.
“Let’s go Damien.”  We headed home silently and found my mother at home, early.  She looked at me and started crying.  I guess the little incident at the bank was all over the news.  My parents kept staring at me kind of strangely though.  I couldn’t help wondering if my parents were keeping something from me though…..

I got a call from Constable Blake, who was now operating out of the local police HQ, asking me to come in for another interview.  My Dad dropped me off at the station and I met Constable Blake in an interrogation office.
“So where were we yesterday, Damien?” he asked. 
“I was saying that I killed the man.”
“Right, with a fireball or something.  Damien, that’s not a good alibi.  There’s no solid evidence that it was some sort of fireball.  We looked at the videotape from the security cameras but all the action was caught from a weird angle.  It looks as if you could have used a flare gun and gasoline to do that.  Hell, you could have got really creative and…” Constable Blake didn’t have time to finish his sentence.  A loud explosion cut him off.

“What was that?” I obviously knew the answer to that but I just wanted to check anyway.
“Stay here.  I’ll check it out.” Said Constable Blake as he took his gun out of its holster.  I looked out a window, trying to calm myself down but that did nothing.  There was no hiding it.  I was scared out of my mind.  “A death at a bank and now this?” I thought.  “When’s it gonna end?” Just then the door to the interrogation room burst open.  It was Constable Blake.
“Come on, we’re getting out of here!” he said.  I still had no idea what was going on.  Another explosion rocked the building. 
“What’s happening?”
“All I’ve heard is that some kamikaze is trying to take down the building.”
“Then why don’t the police take him down?” I asked Constable Blake rather bluntly.  He stared at me coldly and we kept on walking.  All of a sudden the door nearest to us came down and I was standing face to face with a cold-blooded killer.

Chapter 3

I managed to get a quick look into the lobby of the station as the door came down. There wasn’t a large amount of damage, but a good deal of damage was done. There were even a few people dead. Blake aimed his gun at the man’s head but the man acted first. He took down Blake with a single punch to the face and went for me. I knew this guy was armed and there was really no sense in running but I did anyway. The chase ended pretty quickly; he was faster than I was. He cut out in front of me and stopped me. Then, for the second time in a day, there was a gun pointed at my head.

"Think you’re all that, eh kid? You killed my buddy." He said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked him shakily.

"You know: the bank. The guy you took down in one shot. I guess it sucks for you that I have a vendetta with you and the boss wants you dead." I had no idea what this guy was talking about. Then he put his hands around my throat. "Time to die, kid." He lifted me up and choked me. I had to do something. I was not gonna die like this. So I did the only thing I could do: gave him a swift kick in the nuts. He dropped me quickly. I ran like hell, leaving the guy on his knees on the floor. I came into the lobby and saw the damage that had been done. The some of the walls were charred from explosives and the very few that were dead were being carried out. How could one person do something like this? I guess I was thinking for too long because my assailant was coming around the corner.

"I’m gonna get you for that, kid!" he screamed.

"Damien!" It was Blake at another door. "Look at the ground under you!" I looked down. There was a handgun. "Use it!" I’d never used a gun in my life. I picked it up and aimed at the man.

"You’d never do that, would you?" he said nervously.

"You don’t know me then." I said and squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit him square in the shoulder. He collapsed into a bloody pile. I walked up to him and wanted to ask him some questions but he was unconscious. Some people just can’t take the pain…

Later in the day I sat in on a meeting between some major people in the force. Constable Blake thought it was a good idea. I thought it would be boring as hell.

"Morning, everyone." The local police chief said as he walked into the room. "I’d like everyone to meet a couple people. First of all: Constable James Blake, RCMP. He’ll be staying with us for a couple of weeks while investigating the latest happenings. Then there’s Damien Scott sitting there in the corner. I trust you’ve all read the briefing on him." Everyone in that room stared at me. I felt very uneasy. "All right, let’s get down to business." Said the chief. "Everyone knows about the unknown assailant that attacked the building today, right? Well that unknown assailant isn’t so unknown anymore. His name was Michael Griffin." Just then a picture of the guy and some info on him came up onto a screen. Apparently, he didn’t have any criminal record whatsoever. There wasn’t even a single demerit point on his driver’s license. The meeting was over pretty soon after that and Constable Blake took me home. He and I decided not to tell my parents about the little incident at the station; they’d figure it out on their own. My parents asked me to sit down at the kitchen table. "Damien, do you remember your friend Simon?" my mom asked.

"Yeah, he lived on the same street as us a while ago then we moved. Why?"

"Umm… Simon’s dead, Damien." I was stunned.

"What?"

"He was found dead in an alleyway. His mom called. She wants us to go to the funeral. Do you want to go?"

"Yeah…I guess." Life’s a b*tch, eh?

The funeral was the next day. Simon McKenzie was a friend of mine when I lived in a small town in northern Ontario. Then I moved away and never really heard from him since then. It’s been 4 years since I last talked to him. The funeral was depressing but I guess all funerals are. It was an open casket event. But when I went up to see Simon I got a weird feeling. I got the feeling that I’d be talking to Simon again soon….

Chapter 4

The next morning I had sort of a rude awakening. I went in the kitchen to get some breakfast at around 7:30 and found my parents sitting at the kitchen table, something that never happened because my parents were always in a rush to get ready in the morning. "So why didn’t you tell us, Damien?" my mom asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked shakily.

"You know what she means." My Dad said. "Why didn’t you tell us about the police station?"

"Constable Blake thought we should keep it a secret for a while."

"Really? Didn’t you think we’d find out?" said my Mom.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well as long as you’re okay…" my Dad added.

Later that day I went for a walk through downtown Brampton (the city I lived in). I was trying to clear my mind from the previous day’s events. When you see two people die in one day you’re scarred for life. I couldn’t help thinking that it all wasn’t over yet; that I was still in danger. Then, almost as if it was on cue, I had another vision. This time it wasn’t from my eyes but from those of a sniper. He was sitting on a building near me, watching my every move. Then the vision was over as quickly as it started. I stopped walking to look up just to check. I can be a paranoid kid sometimes. But this time being paranoid helped; I was starring into the scope of a sniper rifle.

I sprinted into an alleyway just to the right of me. I tried to hide behind a Dumpster but looked up and saw the same thing. There were multiple snipers. I got up and ran down the street, trying to avoid all the people walking against me. But that was in vain. I knocked some man down. I got a strange feeling that the sniper was ready to shoot. I got up and ran away just as the bullet hit. "They’re trying to take me out in broad daylight? That’s crazy! Who the hell wants me dead?!" I thought. Suddenly, a strange force came over me. I ran to the alleyway I was in before. I was running faster and more carefully than before. I got into the alley and climbed up a fire escape. Somehow I knew it was there. I got up and the roof and immediately noticed a sniper sitting on the ledge about 5 meters away from me. He noticed me too. The sniper brought up his gun and attempted to shoot me but I dove out of the way first. I took advantage of the time it took to load his rifle and knocked the rifle out of his hands. I picked it up and proceeded to use it on him. But I didn’t shoot him. "Get your ass out of here while you still can." I said in a low, menacing voice. "And don’t even try to radio your buddies to take me down. If they even try it you’re dead." That seemed to work. I saw the other snipers coming down from their posts. A potentially hard battle was easily won. Somehow, I knew that this wasn’t the end of the war.