Best served cold
Hello Minds readers, Animeman73 here once more. And now it’s time for another Roll of the Dice challenge story.
This time the dice rolled up a nine which means Discord GOAT has rolled up. His genre of choice was Historical Fiction, and the word he chose was revenge. I can do this, so we’re returning to the world of the Kinetics. Get ready for Best served cold. Enjoy good readers.
The cold winds blew in Baltimore on the heels of the snowstorm that had hit. Nearby a two-story Victorian house burnt like a sacrificial altar in the night. Though there were no bodies strewn around.
A figure walked away from the house dressed in the woolen clothes of a woman of the 19th century. Abigail Winston strode through the snow with the look of a hunter. A look of controlled rage was writ on the young black woman’s face.
She was on the hunt for revenge. Sweet revenge against the one who had wronged her in a grave manner. When she spoke, her tone indicated the rage she controlled by a mere thread.
"Nathaniel Garvin, I know you're out there somewhere! You, Hans Mortimer and your friends murdered my family and friends In Natchitoches! Now you pay for what you did,” she snapped.
She closed her eyes and used her kinetic power. She could sense them nearby, Garvin and his lackeys they were afraid, they were very afraid.
They hadn’t expected to see her again or this level of power. “Harold please forgive me.” Abigail whispered to herself.
“I know you told me that as a Christian woman I should never use my kinetic power in such a fashion. But understand that I must do this for true justice. Because there will be no justice from the courts for one of my kind.”
The sound of a pistol firing brought Abigail back to herself. She threw up a field of mental energy that slowed the bullet to a stop. She raised her right hand and closed it into a fist.
The bullet cracked as she squeezed her fist tight. The bullet shattered as if Abigail had done it with her hands.
“That won’t work with me Garvin, I can sense the thoughts of you and those with you! Filthy Confederacy lovers! I’ll make you regret your decision to come here!”
More bullets fired and Abigail shrieked as she sent her power forth. The bullets shattered into little pieces before they even got near her. She walked towards the forest before her.
“You can fire as much as you want cowering pigs it won’t help you! You must pay for the crimes you’ve committed against my family and friends! You lynched my husband, children, and friends!”
Then Abigail felt the momentary surge of nausea. She leaned against a tree to steady herself. When she came to, she heard the sounds of footsteps crunching in the snow.
She turned to see men approaching her. “What’s the matter Negro, not feeling so strong now?” Mocked one man.
The man in question had a thin trimmed mustache and long sideburns. He wore leather boots, trousers, a long coat, vest, shirt, tie, and a top hat. Abigail Winston recognized Hans Mortimer one of Garvin’s sycophant men.
Also, Mortimer was one of Garvin's less intelligent men. A sick sneer crossed his face. “I’m going to enjoy making you…”
The foolish man never got a chance to finish as Abigail felt her strength and anger return anew. Invisible hands ripped Mortimer from the ground and slammed him into the trees. The man fell to the ground unconscious.
“Out of my way sniveling opportunistic lap dog!” She screamed.
“You can send as many of your men as you want Garvin, I’ll go through them all! Nothing will stop me from getting to you murderer!”
More men stepped out from various trees in the forest near the destroyed Victorian house. In the light of the fire a black-haired man with a Walrus-like mustache stepped forward. He wore much the same attire as Mortimer.
But the black-haired man looked terrified. “You are a witch filthy Negro,” he snarled as he pointed at her.
“And as a Christian man it is my duty to destroy…!”
“Spare me your self-aggrandizement sir! You cannot cloak your malevolent nature behind a veil of righteousness! I am no witch, I am a Kinetic, and God's justice come for you!”
The man looked around at his fellows. “Gentleman, kindly deal with this insolent creature for me if you will!”
One of the men snapped, “She can’t stop us all, take her…”
None of them got the chance to finish as Abigail unleashed the full extent of her prime kinetic power! She swept her arms outwards and the powerful kinetic energy reached out. Her power swatted all Garvin’s men aside as if they were flies.
The man leapt back as his open terror returned. He aimed his revolver at her and fired another shot. And again, Abigail crushed the bullet as if it were nothing.
The man fired every last remaining bullet in his gun, and all to the same result. The man put away his revolver and turned to flee.
Abigail let him run as she knew it would make the thrill of seeking final justice that much more satisfying. Now you know how I felt that night Garvin, she thought in grim satisfaction.
She knew where he was running to. His thoughts were not hard to trace. That was the advantage of being Kinetic.
Yet somewhere inside her she felt a sense of sadness. “Harold,” she whispered yet again.
“You’ve been so kind and treated me better than anyone besides my husband did. Forgive me my dear for deceiving you. But this is something that I must do.”
With that Abigail closed her eyes and felt her Kinetic ability lift her into the air. Like a living spirit of vengeance, she soared into the forest in search of the man who had wronged her over a year ago.
She saw his footsteps in the snow.
“How does it feel Garvin, how does it feel to be the helpless one? How does it feel getting hunted like the dog you are? As you did to my husband, my children, and my friends!”
She sensed his increasing desperation. She felt grim satisfaction knowing the man who'd taken all from her now felt the terror she had. She knew who he was, and this was her time for vengeance.
You took my family, children, and friends from me Garvin. All because you couldn't stand our skin color. Or the fact we had such valuable land.
She soon found the hateful man and he was with several others. She recognized them as more of Garvin’s sycophant friends and they were on horseback.
It was only thanks to Harold's library, and his connections that I was able to find Garvin. It was thanks to Harold I was able to find out about Garvin and his connections.
“You never told us we’d be going against one of those damn Kinetics Garvin!” One of the men shouted.
The terrified man snapped, “Willingham, Bakerton, what are you waiting for? Take your men and kill her! Stop her, make that Negro Witch suffer.”
But Abigail sensed their fear. “Are you out of your mind man?” Bakerton snapped.
“That’s one from Wilshire’s bunch. I know enough to recognize trifling with them is a death sentence! If you’ve incurred the wrath of a Kinetic, you’re on your own!”
“But you need to do this. remember you still owe me a debt for…” Garvin started to demand.
“No debt is worth getting torn limb from limb by one of those Kinetic people." Willingham snapped.
"We’d be going up against a servant of God himself! And I refuse to go against any servant of the Lord!”
The men turned and rode off. “No, come back!” Garvin called in desperation.
But the men didn’t look back. Garvin turned in terror towards the black woman approaching. Locks of her raven hair and her face were wet from the droplets of snow that had fallen on her.
But a look of cold anger had frozen itself on to her features.
At that moment Abigail felt another surge of nausea hit causing her to stumble backwards. She heard footsteps in the snow and saw the man approach her. He had drawn a knife from somewhere and was aiming for her.
She flung out a surge of power at him. The blow sent him hurtling backward some distance. The knife knocked from his grasp by the power of her kinetic attack.
The man stumbled to his feet stunned and afraid, very afraid. He fell on to his back side as he panted, his breath fogging in the cold air. Abigail approached him ready to strike.
“Did you think you would escape your punishment Garvin?” she snapped.
“Did you think that there wouldn’t be a price for what you did to my husband, children and friends? You and your thugs murdered them in cold blood. We did nothing to you, nothing!”
“Your kind are not in your proper place that was a problem! You belong on a plantation as is your proper place! And you had no business living on and farming that valuable land!"
“No,” she snapped in anger.
“My family and people we're done with slavery! This war is ending and the old world you and your inflexible greedy kind created is crumbling. And now you'll pay the price for killing those I loved!”
The man scrambled backwards as she approached him. And then she reached out with her kinetic power. He gasped as invisible hands grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air choking the life out of him.
“This is what you tried to do to me Garvin, now I’m repaying in kind!” she snarled.
But her actions got interrupted by a powerful presence that entered her mind. No Abigail for the love of God almighty don’t do this, stop!
Her grip on her prey loosened. The man dropped to the ground as she recognized the voice in her mind. The voice of someone she’d come to realize she had strong feelings for.
“Harold,” she whispered in a shaken tone.
On cue from beyond the tree line another figure flew into view and landed. Harold Wilshire dressed in his top hat and warm woolen clothing approached. “Don’t do it Abigail, don’t kill him!"
“But I must Harold,” she called.
“He won’t serve justice in the courts. His kind have too much power, he’ll go free and continue to…”
“And what good will killing him do, an eye for an eye? Don’t you remember Reverend Jones' sermon from last Sunday?”
Abigail thought for a long moment. “Peter 3:9, Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
“Don’t let revenge cloud your heart or dirty your spirit Abby. You need to think about what's inside you now!”
That caught Abigail by surprise. “What, what do you mean?” she gasped out.
“Use your kinetic abilities my love, concentrate on yourself.”
Abigail turned her power inward to her own person. And the truth struck her head on like a bolt of lightning from almighty God himself. A child, in me, she thought in stunned shock.
“You sense it Abigail, the child growing in you, not only a child but our child! By God’s good graces I will not let the mother of my child destroy herself for petty revenge!”
The attacks of nausea she had suffered of recent came into sharp focus. Now she understood what caused this. She remembered the night she’d shared herself with Harold of her own free will.
Now she collapsed into the snow as she sobbed in shame and worry. She had almost done the unthinkable. She had near robbed herself and the precious life in her of a future.
She heard a derisive laugh from nearby. “I knew you couldn’t kill me weakling negress!’ Garvin spat.
“Now you and Wilshire have that mongrel child within…”
“Best you be silent murderer!” Harold snapped in anger.
“My child is no mongrel, for nobility and savagery come in all skin colors! I know this because I have seen more of this world than an uneducated close-minded fool such as you could know!”
Harold stepped beside her and helped Abigail to her feet. her feet. “It’s all right my love, we’ll handle this together.”
That took Abigail by surprise. Link your mind with mine, Harold sent to her.
The black woman did so as Harold turned to Nathaniel Garvin.
“You and your Confederate ilk seek to maintain an old order that is not workable. The time of this Civil War is over, and you need to understand how you are very wrong about Black Americans!”
And then Abigail felt Harold reach into her mind. He drew out everything she had absorbed that terrible night. All the pain and suffering of all the innocent black people he and his men had murdered or done harm to.
And she felt Harold channel those thoughts towards Garvin.
“You have done many atrocities Nathaniel Garvin! Now know the suffering you have brought on others! Know the truth of the human beings you’ve wronged!”
And then came one powerful mental burst. The man who’d wronged Abigail over a year ago screamed in anguish. Her former tormentor got subjected to the pain and suffering he’d caused others.
Garvin collapsed into a fetal ball as the fury of his deeds got visited on him a thousand times over.
Abigail looked away from the man she loved. “Harold I’m so ashamed. How could I have let…”
But she felt a gentle finger on her chin. That finger turned her towards him. “Hush sweet raven. You are a woman and thus you are closer to your emotions. Such is the way that God made us."
“But what of our child, what kind of life will…” she began.
He put a finger to her lips. They walked away as he spoke.
“You have my word neither you nor the child will be lacking. But now let us go, the police are on their way. They’ll find Garvin and his men in short order.
“Let us go to my carriage and get someplace warm and dry sweet Raven. The fact that you and the child still live is all that matters.”
Heavenly Father what did I do to deserve this man, Abigail thought to herself.
She had almost done the unthinkable, and yet this man held no grievance towards her. But instead, he was seeing to her and the child she carried. Yet somehow Abigail Winston knew that Harold would make everything all right.
And there you have it folks, my story is complete. And it’s not too bad if I do say so myself. Well I hope you enjoyed this jot back into the world of the Kinetics.
And this world I can see has a great deal of potential. I’ll be keeping this one safe. I have all sorts of plans springing to life for this piece of Alternative History. I hope Discord GOAT likes what I wrote for him.
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Until next time I’m Animeman73, stay true to yourselves, stay classy, and God bless you all. And the Dice keep rolling.