Free Gravity by M. Leighton Page A

dark beasts that prowled in the souls of everyone at the party.  The power of it, the thrill of it, the freedom of it—I just wanted to let go and let it take me.  More than anything, for that one instant, I wanted to give into it. 
    And I nearly did, until one small, soft whisper spoke in a nearly audible way.  I heard it in the back of my mind as clearly as if the words had been spoken aloud. 
    Fight it.
    So I did. 
    Considering all that I’d seen and experienced in the last twenty-four hours, all the truths I’d seen, all the mysteries I’d witnessed, I was genuinely afraid not to do exactly as that voice instructed.  So I fought.
    Pushing back with every ounce of willpower that I had, I focused on all that made me me, on retaining control of my body, of my soul, of my mind and I let the determination flow through me.  With all my might, I fought.
    Only it didn’t work.
    As though I was sinking, I could feel the pleasure and the thrill overcome me, the pain and the power overwhelm me.  As if a thousand fragrant rose blossoms of every size and color were opening up right before my eyes, I was completely transfixed.  Dazzled.  Distracted.   Delirious.  Consumed.  And I wanted to be.  Despite the knowledge that I should fight it, some part of me actually wanted to give in to what I was feeling, to take all that power for a spin, so for a moment, I reveled.
    I couldn’t make out exactly who was what, but I could feel and sense, almost hear dozens of different varieties of beings.  There were witches, grendels, other vampires and werewolves, wendigos, succubi, blurs, zombies, incubi, dragons, gorgons, and a slew of abilities like telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, pyro kinesis, healing, invisibility, and many more.  If I weren’t so overwhelmed by the emotional shock of it all, I might’ve found it fascinating as each power flowed through me, giving me a small taste of what it might feel like to own such abilities, to wield them.
    As I stood motionless, letting the tide flow over me, I realized that the time was at hand.  I knew without looking at the clock that midnight was fast approaching, as was the eclipse. I could feel both as if they were palpable beings in the room with me. 
    In the back of my mind came the knowledge that somehow all hell was going to break loose once my classmates learned of their abilities.  And that it was up to me to make sure that didn’t happen.  It was up to me to keep us all together to face the real monsters that wanted what was inside the protected walls of our community, walls none of us even knew existed.  It was the older generation that posed the real threat.  And we had to stick together to survive, to make sure humanity survived. 
    And it was up to me to make it all happen.  To save us all.  I just didn’t know how.
    There was a sudden surge in the strength of the channel through which I was experiencing a small taste of each individual’s power.  It seemed that what had been a babbling brook of a connection suddenly became a roaring river that threatened to pulverize my physical body. 
    It felt as though I was being pulled in dozens of directions at once, my muscle fibers and the fabric of my mind stretched to the point of breaking, bringing tears to my eyes and making me breathless.  A small taste of the darkness I could handle, but I knew the whole of it was too much to tolerate, too much for one person to accommodate.  Instinctively, I knew that what I was absorbing would literally pull me apart if I didn’t find a way to stop it.  It would shred me, destroy me from the inside and take over all of that which made me Peyton. 
    And I had no idea how to make it stop.  I was in the grips of the people surrounding me and there was nothing I could do about it.
    Lacey’s voice was a distant buzz in the back of my mind as the room started to grow fuzzy, swimming before my eyes like a mirage.  I knew that if I let unconsciousness take me, I