The Girl With Metal Claws

Saving

ELLIOTT

He woke up to a monotonous noise of drilling and hammering.

The abandoned construction site beside his apartment has been put to work once again.

Elliott shut his windows and closed the drapes but it did no good. The noise was as loud as ever.

He pulled out his phone to see several text messages. He stood up on his feet, his body felt frail. He looked at the mirror to find dark bags under his eyes and his arm's wound had turned blue.

Elliott looked away. He hated looking at him in that state.

"Turn on your TV." Jack's text said. A shiver ran up Elliott's spine.

The TV flickered on, indeed in a bad and disruptive condition. Even if the image kept getting distorted, the audio was quite clear.

"A shocking 47 dead bodies have been found slaughtered this morning. All the victims are concentrated in one specific place, Amberville. The victims include adults and even children. The other citizens of Amberville as well as nearby localities are terrorised and are demanding a safer place. This has led to -", the TV shut off.

Elliott didn't bother hitting the TV's head to get it to work. He was stunned. Silence seemed to envelop the house, even the drilling noises blurred away.

His heart was pounding in his chest. Last night, he had somehow managed to find his apartment and get back into his room. He remembered closing every door and window and shutting himself out completely. He was alive, was all Elliott could think about that night.

Deep down, Elliott felt betrayed that she didn't listen. Deep down, he blamed himself for infuriating her which made her kill 47 people. He clutched his head, shaking vigorously.

Her voice took over him.

But as he tried processing what he heard, he crouched down. He imagined the horror, people of Amberville faced the same night she spared Elliott.

He clutched his hair as his head started aching. He needed to stop this. He needed to stop her.

~

Elliott walked the last few steps to school. He knew he was late. But as he stood in front of the gate, he saw students bustling out of the gates. Everyone had a terrified expression on their faces.

Elliott held in his breath. He entered through the gate and ran inside the building, not even knowing the risk.

Everything inside was chaotic and crowded. Students ran, teachers tried keeping them in check but ending up running themselves. The school emergency alarm sounded loudly through all the corridor but people weren't being able to get out.

Elliott took to the corner and started running towards the opposite direction of the crowd.

The cafeteria door was wide open and a few people stood outside the door trying to peek inside. Elliott pushed through them and headed directly into the cafeteria.

People tried warning him but he didn't hold back.

As he walked inside, Elliott stopped short. At every corner of the cafeteria, someone was tied up to a chair. Their mouths were taped and hands and legs were tied with the chairs.

Elliott looked around, searching for whoever was behind it, but he couldn't see a thing.

At a distance, he could see Rose and Benjamin tied up to chairs. Harold was also there. Rose started shaking her head trying to signal something to Elliott and then -

Someone held both of his arms behind his back and started hurling him towards a chair. What shocked him was, he could still see no one around him.

That was not possible...

How can he feel the grip of someone's hands and hear footsteps when the person wasn't even there?

Just as he was pushed on a chair and the ropes looked like they were tying themselves, Elliott felt someone's skin and fingers on his hands and legs where the rope was being tied.

"N-Nish? Nish Wilson?" Elliott croaked out, his voice low.

He felt the tying slow down. He was right. Gabrielle, the potion, Harold, Benjamin and Rose who was directly related to Nish. It all made sense.

"Can you control this power or is it overpowering you?" Elliott asked, whispering. The ropes on his ankles loosened and he understood that she was listening to him.

"I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. My instincts are out of control." Nish's troubled voice sounded beside Elliott's ears.

Elliott did know that the potion had strange powers but he didn't know it was capable of making someone invisible.

"Let them go. I can help you." Elliott said.

"But my..", Nish started.

"Fight against it. Fast." Elliott replied, hurriedly. Then he raised his voice and yelled loudly at the whole room of about 30 captives. "As soon as you are untied, RUN."

Everyone nodded. Their faces looked like they had almost lost all hope of getting out of there alive.

Slowly and with much anticipation, the ropes were untied, one person at a time. Elliott could see the hesitation even if he couldn't see Nish. Her voice earlier sounded fearful, which was quite the obvious response.

Everyone started running away one by one, the moment they were set free. Once it came to Harold, it was taking a lot of extra time. Nish didn't want to let him go just like that but she did, eventually.

Finally, it was Elliott's turn.

"You are sure you can help me, right?" She asked, setting him free.

"I am." He said.

~

Elliott started walking to the commotion towards the library. Nish also followed him.

Even if he couldn't see Nish, he could hear her deep breaths and footsteps from behind. He kept his eyes focused ahead from where students were running out. He didn't know what was happening inside or whether he'd be able to control it singlehandedly.

Loud clatters and thuds of object echoed even outside the library. Elliott got alerted and quietly stepped into the room. He gasped at what he saw inside the room.

Numerous books were floating all around the room. The other books were on the ground, the shelves almost empty. Students and even the librarian hid under the tables to protect themselves while everything was floating and crashing with each other and breaking.

The shelves and racks had fallen, pushing over the other shelves in front of it. Papers were scattered everywhere, things spread all over and everyone's terrified faces. Elliott hadn't seen something that bad up close but he had a feeling this wasn't the last time.

He kneeled and started crawling into the room to find one of the rest of the two girls who were given the potion. He stuck to the corners as he moved forward.

Things were flying and crashing near him and he was barely dodging them. A book hit his arm hard right where he was injured. He stopped himself from grunting in pain.

He moved a little ahead when suddenly a hand yanked him by his arm right where he was hurt, again. He flinched and looked behind him to see no one but the grip was firm.

"I was signalling you for the past five minutes. Why weren't you looking at me?" Nish's whisper said.

"Oh, I almost just saw you. You were so visible." Elliott shot back.

Nish didn't speak for a few seconds which meant she realised how invisible she was. But then she started pulling Elliott with her.

"I've found something. I think all the things in this library are revolving and concentrated around one point. And I've found the point." Nish said, pulling Elliott with her as they went crawling to the opposite side of the room.

Elliott saw two huge shelves stood tilted towards each other forming a cave-like gap in between. Around it, a lot of other books and chairs flew and collided. The ground wasn't shaking neither the walls were cracking, it was just the things in the room.

The things. The potion. The touch.

Isis Blaire.

Elliott saw Isis Blaire crouched down on the floor, both of her hands stretched out. She was holding behind the two huge shelves from colliding and falling on her. Due to that power, she was manipulating everything else in the room unwillingly.

She looked like she was struggling with it. She was trying her best to stop the powers. Elliott rushed inside the gap towards her.

"Come on, let's go," Elliott said. Isis looked at him with an uncomfortable gaze and shook her head.

"I can't, it'll fall on us." She said, trying harder to push the bookshelves away.

"Let me help you," Elliott said as he stood up. He started trying to push those shelves apart. By the footsteps, he knew Nish was helping him too.

"Why are they not moving?" Elliott groaned as he pushed harder.

"It's... it might be because of my hands," Isis said, squinting. Elliott came back to her.

"What happens if you remove your hand?" Elliott said, touching the edges of the shelf.

"We die." She said, trying again.

Elliott remembered what Gabrielle had said to her once.

"You always have it in you but you have to be bold enough to control it."

Elliott took a deep breath and focused his eyes on Isis.

"I want you to concentrate and see if you can stop this. That's the only way to get you out of here." Elliott said.

"I don't understand.." Isis said and then she closed her eyes. She frowned a little trying to concentrate. Then her eyes snapped open.

Elliott gave her an encouraging look and slowly tried removing her hand from holding the shelf. The moment Isis's hands moved a centimetre, the whole shelf started falling further down, the books on the shelves started raining down on them.

Elliott held Isis's hand and both of them hurled themselves out of the gap while the tall shelves collapsed into each other, shattering on the ground with a loud thud.

Everyone in the room jumped up in the noise whereas, along with the shelves, everything else floating gave itself up and fell on the floor. In a minute, everything in the room was back to being still. Nothing was unnatural except the way the room looked.

Before anyone could come out to see who was behind all of that, Elliott took Isis out of the library along with Nish.