Fiction Friday: Chapter 23

Mr. Li watched the security monitors and started getting the reports. He was becoming angrier and angrier. The muscles in his jaw were twitching, from the pressure of his teeth pushing together. Did this little, nothing, family now who they were dealing with? Did they think he cared about them, that if they showed their determination, he would let them go? No. He wasn't going to be swayed by that. If anything their value was going down by the second.

He watched on the hall monitors as the parents had surprised and then subdued one of his gunmen. She had been stupid, standing too close to the door, getting knocked off balance. Now the parents had her gun. It made it more dangerous, but he didn't need them anymore. He had the kids and more importantly he had the feather. He ran the iridescent blue plume across his hand as he thought about it. He picked up the two way radio.

"The parents have a gun in the hallway outside their room. Terminate them."

Almost as soon as he said it, he saw a new movement in the hallway he had locked the girls up in. The middle child seemed to flop from the ceiling and then open the door for the invisible girl. They talked for a moment, while Mr. Li watched. The middle girl pointed to floor, not she meant the floor below them, where his partner was getting to his feet. She then pointed to the safe, where lightning girl was. Interesting, she seemed to be able to see through his building. Last, she pointed meaning through the walls, to where her parents were. She told her sister what she saw, and they both did a little fist pump before falling back into serious conversation. Which way were they going to go? Mr. Li got on the radio again.

"wipe that blood off your face and head upstairs. Make plenty of noise, I want to flush them out. The two girls still up there and I'd like to catch them in the other stairwell."

Sierra understood, the man was coming and he had a gun. She knelt down, placing one hand on the floor. Shelby hopped on her back. Suddenly she wished her little sister hadn't grown so much, but this seemed to be the best way. She stood back up, took a deep breath and they both disappeared.

Mr. Li need to set an impression, something that made it was clear he was the man in charge. His pistol would not do. Something bigger, much bigger. He put the feather on the desk and wheeled around to the door that opened to his gun closet.

On the desk, the feather disappeared, this was precisely the moment Savannah had been waiting for. Now for step two.