Chapter 26: Carrie, Level Up and Unlock Your Full Potential
"Alright, this spot works." Edward stopped in a relatively open clearing.
He looked at Carrie. "Last time you said you could move a fire hydrant. Today, let's try something heavier. See that boulder?"
He pointed to a massive rock not far away, easily half the size of a person. The boulder sat there like a sleeping beast, probably weighing several hundred pounds at least.
Carrie's face went pale. "That... that's way too big."
"How will you know unless you try?" Edward encouraged her. "Forget about the weight and size. Feel it with your mind. It's just matter, like the ground under your feet and the trees around you. Your power can control all of it."
Carrie took a deep breath and, copying Edward, closed her eyes. She extended her hand, pointing it toward the rock from a distance.
The air around them seemed to go still. Her mental energy, like countless invisible threads, slowly reached out, trying to wrap around the cold stone.
One second, two seconds... The rock didn't budge.
Beads of sweat appeared on Carrie's forehead, and her face grew even paler from the mental strain.
"It's no use... It's too heavy. I feel like I'm trying to push a mountain." She opened her eyes, clearly discouraged.
"That's not the right approach." Edward shook his head and walked over to her. "You're rushing it, trying to muscle through it. Telekinesis isn't just about pushing and pulling—it's more like... a conversation. You need to make it want to move for you."
As he spoke, he extended his own hand.
The massive boulder made a grinding, scraping sound. Then, to Carrie's amazement, it slowly and steadily lifted off the ground, hovering in midair as if it weighed nothing at all.
"See? Just like that," Edward said matter-of-factly.
Carrie stared, jaw dropped. This completely blew her mind.
"Alright, time for some resistance training." Edward set the rock down and turned to Lily, who was poking at an anthill with a stick. "Lily, quit messing around. Time to work."
"Coming!" Lily tossed the stick aside, clapped her little hands, and ran over excitedly. "Big brother, what kind do you want? Scary? Gross? Or the pants-wetting variety?"
Carrie looked completely lost.
Edward ignored Lily's wild suggestions and told Carrie, "In a real fight, enemies won't give you time to slowly 'talk' to objects. You need to stay focused under pressure. Lily's going to create some 'problems' for you. What you need to do is hit that rock with telekinesis while dodging whatever she throws at you."
The moment he finished speaking, the scene in front of Carrie's eyes suddenly shifted.
The peaceful forest disappeared, replaced by the school hallway filled with mocking, hostile stares.
Chris and Tina, who'd bullied her at the dance, were approaching with a group of kids, their faces twisted with cruelty, spewing the most vicious insults.
"Ah!" Carrie instinctively stepped back, her deepest fear instantly triggered.
"It's just an illusion! Focus, Carrie!" Edward's voice cut through like a thunderclap.
Carrie bit her tongue hard, the pain snapping her halfway back to reality. She knew it was fake, but the bone-deep terror felt incredibly real.
She forced herself to stop looking at those twisted faces, concentrating all her mental energy on the boulder.
"BOOM!"
An uncontrolled burst of telekinesis exploded outward, missing the rock entirely and instead snapping a nearby sapling clean in half.
"Not bad—at least you got a reaction." Edward's voice carried approval. "Again!"
Lily waved her small hand, and the illusion changed. This time, countless slimy tentacles erupted from the ground, dripping with foul-smelling goo, writhing toward Carrie from every direction.
Carrie went white with terror, screaming and dodging frantically, her mental energy scattering in her panic.
She wildly threw nearby pebbles and broken branches at the illusions with her telekinesis, but it barely did anything.
"Control! Control your power! Don't waste it on that fake crap! You've got one target—focus on it!" Edward directed from the sidelines like a hardcore drill sergeant.
Through repeated scares and failures, Carrie gradually started to adapt.
She discovered that the more afraid she was, the more her power spiraled out of control. But when she forced herself to stay calm, shifting her attention away from the terrifying illusions and zeroing in on that single real target, her telekinesis became more focused and powerful than ever.
Finally, when Lily conjured a massive roaring spider illusion, Carrie didn't run.
She stood her ground, eyes locked on the distant boulder, channeling all her fear, anger, and frustration into pure energy.
"GET... OUT OF MY WAY!"
With a long-suppressed shout, a visible telekinetic shockwave erupted from her.
"BOOM—!"
With an earth-shaking crash, the boulder—half the size of a person and solid as hell—was violently blasted into countless fragments by her power.
The illusions vanished like smoke, and everything returned to the forest's original quiet.
Carrie gasped for breath, drenched in sweat, her legs shaking so badly she could barely stand. But her eyes shone with incredible brightness.
She'd done it.
"Hell yeah." Edward walked over and handed her a bottle of water.
Lily ran over too, looking up with a "tell me I did good" expression. "Big brother, how were my illusions? Pretty awesome, right?"
Edward surveyed the clearing, now trashed from Carrie's residual telekinetic force, and smiled helplessly, ruffling Lily's hair.
The night breeze blew through, carrying a hint of coolness and washing away the exhaustion of training.
Carrie looked at the figures beside her—one tall, one small—and the lingering fear in her heart quietly melted away, replaced by an unprecedented sense of safety and... excitement.
Maybe this summer was going to be pretty damn interesting.
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