He steps farther into the room, looking from Falon to Riley to my parents and then finally back to me again.

“Oh, Alyssa. You have no idea the plans I have for you.”

I feel Smith brimming with tension beside me, but it’s nothing compared to what I’m experiencing, nothing compared to the shock and dread coursing through my body.

“But first,” the man says, as he turns from me and steps toward my parents. He smirks at the two bursts of light from my mum and Riley that have paused mid-flight, like glowing orbs suspended in the air. I know my brother has the ability to erase memories and my mum has a powerful ability for suggestion, but it’s as if their Spoken commands have succumbed to my command to “stop,” freezing them in time as they wait to meet their target.

“Did you ever think it would come to this, old friend?” the security guard says, his dark eyes locked on my dad. “Actions have consequences. What you did to me—the price I paid was too high. Now you and yours will suffer as I have. As I am.” His voice breaks with a depth of emotion that’s so raw, so real, that it’s painful to listen to.

Whatever has happened to this man, he is feeling it deep.

Too deep.

Deep enough to be beyond reason.

And yet, even realizing that, I don’t expect what happens next.

I don’t expect him to pull a gun from his coat, to remove the safety …

… and to shoot my dad, right in the chest.

I’m vaguely aware that I’m screaming, that Smith is holding me back, keeping me from running forward as the blood spreads swiftly across my dad’s pristine white shirt.

“No! No!”

No one hears me. No one but Smith, who is trembling as much as I am as he wrestles to keep me in place.

“You took what I loved from me, Christopher,” the security guard says to my dad, his voice little more than a menacing whisper. “Now I’m going to do the same for you.”

Tears are pouring down my face—the real me, and also my younger self, even frozen as she is. My dad is still on his feet, still standing hand in hand with my mum, unable to move, unable to collapse, despite what can only be a fatal wound.

“I’m going to destroy your family, just as you did mine,” the man continues mercilessly. “I’m going to reclaim what you stole from me. And then I’m going to steal it from them. From all of them.”

This man—he’s deranged. I have no idea what he thinks my dad stole from him, no idea what reason he has for the revenge he seeks.