The Gift

Chapter 90

Wisty

I've never felt his power as strongly as I do right now.

After barely escaping flying shards of glass, Whit and I are gripping an old-fashioned radiator, holding ourselves down and out of the way of crashing furniture, cutlery, and appliances as a tornado of fury tears through the apartment.

Mrs. Highsmith, on the other hand, resolutely stands her ground in the middle of the swirling maelstrom. "He's mastered the air!" she shouts through the din. "Study his every move. Learn from this."

It's been hard enough ducking flying toasters and pots with the floor steady under our feet. But now it gets ten times harder as the ground turns into something like gelatin. It's a bona fide earthquake, courtesy of The One. The rattling and crashing and tipping furniture ratchets up the decibel level to deafening, earsplitting. My head is pounding.

"And he's mastered the earth!" Mrs. Highsmith continues, hollering her lesson over the madness. The One seems to oblige by precisely illustrating her next point. "And he's mastered the water!"

Now it's raining-inside the apartment. The room is filling with churning water, quickly making its way up to our quivering knees.

"There's only one thing he needs to completely secure his present and future domination, and to complete himself. His ego is huge. That's his strength and his weakness. Do you follow… MY DRIFT?"

Then Mrs. Highsmith levitates into the air, presumably to avoid having to swim in her own kitchen, but judging from the look of terror-flecked anger on her face, I realize she's not doing it under her own control. In a second, she's pretty much pinned up against the ceiling, her face twisted in profound agony. Then her eyes begin to bulge unnaturally.

She's being crushed to death, isn't she?

"Liar!" she screams inexplicably, and suddenly the room goes still. "Show yourself!"

And then, as if an invisible pair of forceps has reached inside the apartment, she's yanked out of a broken window and into the howling wind outside, screaming, "Show yourself!" the whole way.