Free A Boy and His Corpse by Richard B. Knight

telling me?”
                  Herbert’s hands and eyes glowed dark green. He raised his hands and the ottoman rose up from the carpet. He threw his hand forward and the ottoman flew right at Alan.
                  “Defend yourself!” Herbert shouted.
                  Alan crossed his arms in front of his face, but the ottoman bowled him over. When he opened his eyes from the floor, he saw dots floating before him.
                  Herbert rushed over and grabbed Alan by the lapel. He lifted him off the ground with inhuman strength.
                  “You need to concentrate, dammit,” Herbert shouted. “You saw what Mr. Rovas did to me. I know you did. You need to strengthen up just in case—”, he let the sentence die there. “Flex your brain muscles like I taught you. Use your instincts.”
                  Mort ran over to Alan and stood before him.
                  The room felt hotter than ever. Sweat seeped from all his pores.
                  His father ran behind the couch, and his eyes went green again. He grunted, gritted his teeth, and when he lifted his hands, the bottom of the couch began to shake.
                  Alan’s eyes went wide. “No,” he said, backing up. Mort backed up in front of him. “Please, dad. No!”
                  “You have…to get...stronger!”
    The couch slowly levitated, and Alan watched in horror beyond Mort’s shoulder.
                  “ Mr. Chandler !” someone shouted from outside. It was followed by flat-palmed knocking. “ Mr. Chandler! Put the sofa down immediately or I’ll have to knock down the door !”
                  Was that… James? But it couldn’t be. How would he know what was going on inside?
                  The sofa continued to float, and a green flame emanated all around Herbert. As he held his hands out, green flames formed in his open-palms as well.
                  “Okay! That does it!” James said from outside. “You leave me no choice.”
    There was a slam at the other end of the door, probably by a shoulder, and then another. And another! He did this two more times before bursting through the door.
                  What happened next was too fast and bizarre for Alan to comprehend.
                  James sprinted into the room, rolled underneath the floating couch and grabbed Hebert by the throat. The couch dropped and the green flames extinguished as if they had never been there in the first place. Herbert’s pupils rolled down from behind his eyelids and focused in on the face of the boy who had him around the throat.
                  James let go of Herbert and pushed him to the floor.
                  “Dammit, Herbert, why’d you have to go all crazy like that?”
    Alan stared at his friend in disbelief.
    “Barricade the doors,” James told him. They’re coming.”
                  “Who’s coming?” Alan asked. “What the hell is going on?”
                  “Your agents,” James said, turning back to Herbert. “I swear to God, if I don’t get my family back because of you, it’s gonna be your head.”
                  Alan couldn’t take his eyes off of James, and Mort couldn’t, either.
                 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Alan
     
     
                  “Come on, hurry, hurry,” James whispered. He rushed to pick up the couch but had a hard time lifting it on his own.
                  “Seriously, what the hell is going on, man?” Alan asked him. “Tell me.”
                  James shook his head to Alan’s question and pointed toward Herbert’s chest, signifying that he was talking to him now.
    “I don’t think there are any more cameras in here,” James