Nick swallows a large lump in his throat as he looks at the New York streets blanketed in snow. Thankfully the snow had stopped though and they somehow remained not snowed in like so many other places.
“Jesus, I need a heavier coat,” Nails says as he walks up beside him wrapping his thin coat around himself.
“You don’t have anything thicker?” AJ asks him trudging through the snow behind the two with Nate.
“Tacks isn’t coming?” Nick asks.
Nails shakes his head no, “He is gonna stay and talk to the other Browers’ with Eli,” he says to Nick before looking at AJ, “Excuse me for not suffering through the elements up in space. Plus I figured it hadn’t snowed in God knows how many year…figured I was safe.”
AJ smirks at him as he pulls a scarf out of his black coat’s jacket and wraps it around his neck.
“I see how it is,” Nails says to him as his blue eyes shine, “no trying to help out a friend in need.”
AJ smirks and offers him a pair of gloves, “Happy?”
“Thank you,” Nails says taking them and quickly putting them on.
“Will someone explain to me why we aren’t taking the cycles again,” Nate asks.
Nick sighs, “Something about it being so cold in the garage that the oil froze.”
Nate nods, “Oh yeah.”
“Well we better get walking then,” AJ says as he begins to walk through the snow again dragging his feet slightly.
Nate shakes his head at him and follows him jogging to catch up to him.
“So Nick tell me,” Nails says, “What got you stuck in a house full of mudbloods?”
Nick flinches slightly at the use of mudbloods.
“Don’t worry about my wording,” Nails says, “I know you mean well. I just figured…”
“Since I used it before,” Nick says looking at the snow he is crushing under his feet as they walk.
“Something along those lines,” Nails says.
Nick nods, “I’m sorry if I ever called you that.”
Nails smiles at him, “You never called me that…well at least not to my face. I would have beaten your ass if you did.”
Mudblood, a term used to refer to the Halfings. It meant mixed bloods. Bloods made up of both human and nonhuman. It was brought about when someone decided that the Halflings had dirtied blood. They weren’t pure enough for some people. As the expression goes, “blood is thicker then water,” and Halfling blood was not their own. Nick had used it a few times, unfortunately. The friends he had in high school used it more freely though. The likes of Griffin used it in normal conversations. Nick felt horrible when Nails mentioned the word. He had basically forgotten the term after all hell was unleashed on earth. He still wanted to forget it completely.
“Seriously Nick don’t worry about it,” Nails says as he sees how troubled Nick is.
“No..no it’s ok,” Nick says looking at him.
“If you don’t want to talk about it it’s ok with me…”
“No…it’s ok really. I went right to Griffin’s place after all this happened. Well almost right after, but, well, remember how you all called him like a new aged nazi?”
Nails nods.
“Well I never thought he was. I mean I knew he was a bigot, but…Jesus Nails he killed someone. He did it right in front of my face. He was just a kid too. They probably wouldn’t have even have found him if it wasn’t for me trying to help them. They just…bang, and he’s dead. He was just a kid. And I keep seeing it over and over again in my head. Just every time I close my eyes or try to go to sleep. I dream about it…like maybe one time I can stop them…” Nick says trailing off, “And it pisses me off because I thought they were my friends and I was like them. I was just like them…”
Nails looks at him and frowns, “You were never like them, Nick. I mean you were kind of a bigot, but not like Griffin. I mean don’t you remember high school. You were on the team with Hayden and I. You never cared if you were partnered up with one of us. You never had issues passing us the ball in games. Griffin…Griffin did. He didn’t want us there regardless of how good we were. You…Hayden and I never saw you as a threat. We just thought you were fucking ignorant some times…but never found you a danger…let alone capable of killing someone,” he says sighing and looking at AJ and Nate walking in front of them, “I mean…I don’t know how I can even explain how much Griffin hates our kind. I know because I’ve been on the receiving end of it…”
“Brian always saw through him,” Nick interjects, “And I never listened to him. He knew what Griffin was capable of. He knew.”
Nails looks at him and nods, “Kevin’s cousin?”
Nick nods.
“Don’t let it bother you, Nick. We know you won’t hurt us. We know you’re a good guy,” Nails says giving him a reassuring look.
“You said I, ‘caused more pain in people’s lives then you will ever realize’” Nick says looking at him.
Nails sighs, “Forget I said that. It came from the shock of seeing you.”
“Did I?” Nick asks.
“I wouldn’t haven’t of gone with you if I didn’t have some faith in you. Yet alone take my little brother with me. Let’s leave it at that, Nick,” Nails sighs, “My parents were executed during the Titan trials. Did you know that?”
“No,” Nick says looking at him honestly, “Both?”
Nails nods, “My mom harbored people, my father’s family. They killed my father because of what he was and then killed my mom because of what she did. Hayden and I grew up in an orphanage with so many other people like us. That’s how I know Eli and Pilar. Not just through school. They grew up there too. You know sometimes I would look up at the stars and wonder…just wonder maybe on Silmarillon we would be accepted. Then I realized to them we were the same thing...no matter where we went we were still mixed bloods. Outcasts…we would always be outcasts.”
Nick looks at him and shakes his head, “You’re not outcasts anymore. Not with the people you are with now.”
Nails nods, “Yeah…you’re right,” he says smiling slightly, “And who knows what will come from this, maybe if we start all over there will be no more boundaries.”
Nick nods, “Sounds like a good world to me.”
“Yeah,” Nails says looking up at the sky as the sunbeams down on them, “It does.”
One day later:
“It got fucking hot,” Cole says walking across the grass to where Stanton and Brian are standing by the cycles.
Stanton nods, “It’s gotta be close to ninety.”
“Did this happen over night?” Cole asks.
Brian nods, “Seems that way,” he says taking his right arm and wiping the sweat off his forehead.
“Where to?” Stanton asks Brian looking at him.
“I dunno,” Brian says before squinting and looking in the distance south and then north.
“Go back to New York?” Stanton asks obviously hoping for a yes answer.
Brian shakes his head no, “No…not yet. I dunno why, but we can’t go back yet. I…I just feel like we need to keep going for just a little bit more. I dunno it feels like someone is waiting for me. Like I need to find someone.”
“Any idea who?” Cole asks him, “Was it Evie?”
“No…no,” Brian says looking over at the girl, “Someone else. Someone important. Not that Evie isn’t, but someone really important.”
“Hmmm,” Stanton says, “I guess we should keep moving then huh?”
Brian nods, “Yeah. Yeah.”
“You know what I just thought of,” Cole says, “All this snow has to go somewhere. Well what was snow…”
Brian and Stanton stare at him.
“The snow melted right? Well it melted into water and well where is all the water going to go?” Cole asks.
“Evaporation is the next stage of water you do know that right?” Stanton says.
Cole makes and face at him and sighs, “Fine be that way.”
“Let’s get going then,” Stanton says calmly as he hops on his cycle, “I need a breeze to cool me off.”
“I hear ya,” Brian says putting on the two discs on his ears as they enclose his head into a helmet.
Cole hops on his cycle as Evie joins him and soon enough the two cycles are taking off down the highway again…towards what? They sure as hell didn’t have a clue.
Justin stares at Pilar intently as she sits in front of the fire and watches the flames lick the logs. She slowly eats a small granola bar as she sips a cup of water. He had tried to talk to her, but the words always came out wrong. They all rushed into one another cramming into one big sentence. He stammered most of the time while he tried to force a thought out of his head to her and he felt like the biggest ass in the world most of the time. Hell JC talked to her more now. Every time he would look at her though, he knew she knew he was doing it. She would look over at him and the two would lock eyes. It would send shivers up and down his spine and he would be the first to pull his gaze away. Her eyes though…he could see them even in the dark and they amazed him. They were just so green. He was so focused on watching her though that he hardly noticed anything else going on around him. He had almost burnt the cabin down a few times while he was trying to cook soup on the stove. He didn’t even notice if JC was talking to him. The whole world just blacked out and all he saw was her.
“What ya doin?” JC asks as Justin snaps back to reality and finds JC sitting next to him. JC smirks slightly at him and then looks at Pilar, “Have you even talked to her fully yet?”
“I’ve tried,” Justin says, “I mean…I don’t know I just can’t get the words out. I haven’t felt this way since grade school and it’s so belittling.”
JC nods, “She’s a very sweet girl. She trusts us. She’s so calm too, just so placid. Like I could talk to her and not even notice that it is hot as hell outside or that the world is falling apart. I can’t even explain it. It feels…it feels like how your mom used to reassure you that everything will be alright and you just knew that she was telling the truth,” he says looking at her, “I just get the feeling that she’s so weak though. Like she acts strong, but…she’s just so vulnerable.”
Justin nods.
“Justin,” JC says.
“Yeah.”
“I need you to be honest with me now. Why did she say you were supposed to kill her?”
Justin flinches slightly, “Because I was one of them.”
“Them?”
“One of the people in black cloaks. The people that are killing everyone. I was supposed to kill you,” Justin says looking at him with sad eyes, “I couldn’t do it though. I didn’t have enough courage too. You were just too nice to me. You didn’t care what I was before. You didn’t care who I was. You just trusted me. No one has ever trusted me like that. No one. That’s why I made you leave. My leader had come to New York to check up on me. They wanted it done that night and I couldn’t let them kill you. He knew I wouldn’t do it either. I could tell he knew. So I made you leave to save yourself and me and then we found her,” he says looking at Pilar, “And I knew her before. I saw her in my head JC. I saw her.”
“Why would you need to kill me?” JC asks.
“JC,” Justin smiles slightly, “That scroll you have…it tells about what is to come. How this will all play out. JC, you are the prophet that that scroll mentions and I’m…I’m the wanderer. I played right into this big plan and I knew that what it was saying was true. I needed to help you.”
JC stares at him, “That’s why you never told me where you came from?”
Justin nods.
“People are trying to me?”
Justin nods.
“People are trying to kill you?”
Justin nods.
“Because you changed sides to help me.”
Justin nods.
“And she is…” JC says looking at Pilar.
“The most powerful of all seers,” Justin says calmly.
“That’s how you knew where she was? You see things?”
“Yeah,” Justin nods.
“What’s going to happen next?”
“I don’t know. Only the scroll does. This has been prophesized, JC. We…we’re just players in a game.”
“The scroll,” JC says and stands up quickly running over to the counter and grabbing it, “It hasn’t said anything new yet right?”
Justin shakes his head no.
Pilar looks over at them and stands up and walks over to Justin’s side. She touches his arm lightly and he looks up at her strangely.
“Justin…Justin it’s writing something,” JC says as words begin to appear on the scroll.
Justin looks up at Pilar and touches her face lightly with his right hand. He moves a few loose strands of hair away from her face and sighs as she reaches up and holds his hand.
“Justin it’s still writing,” JC says.
“I know what you know,” Pilar says calmly to Justin.
Justin shakes his head no.
“I know it will happen.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I can stop it.”
“No…you can’t,” she calmly says as a loud boom is heard in the distance.
“No,” Justin says jumping out of bed, “No. No! NO!” he yells running over to JC and grabbing the scroll from him reading the words.
The prophet will learn the truth about his destiny and the wanderer will determine his allegiance as they find the most powerful of all seers.
The seer will see her future in the eyes of the wanderer and the two will learn what roles they play.
Their visions will become reality as the sun rises high into the sky and heat comes from the ground.
The snow will melt and a great wave will come from the land to the sea.
Behold the power of these words wanderer, for you will make of them what you will.
Justin looks up from the scroll and hands it to JC, “Keep it safe,” he says before running over to Pilar, “I won’t let him take you,” he says holding onto her shoulders and looking at her, “He won’t take you. I’ll die before I let him take you.”
“I know, Justin,” she says calmly as she smiles at him and softly touches his face.
“Justin what’s going on?” JC asks as the boom is heard again.
“It’s all coming true,” Justin makes out as a roar is heard and a wave of water rushes the house shattering and begins to leak in from all sides.
“The snow melted,” JC says.
Justin nods as he grabs onto Pilar’s hand and pulls her over to onto of the table, “JC get up here!”
JC looks at the water leaking in and panics rushing over to the table and climbing on top of it too.
“Oh God,” Justin says breathing heavily as the water rises, “Oh God.”
“How do we get out of here?” JC asks Justin as the water rises to his knees even on the table.
“I don’t know,” Justin cries, “I don’t know.”
“Please don’t let happen,” Justin cries, “Please. I know how this ends. Please,” he says looking upward as the water rises to his chest.
JC begins to swim in the water keeping himself afloat, “Justin she’s too short!”
Justin looks as the water begins to rise to Pilar’s chin then he saw it. He saw the fear.
“Don’t let me die,” Pilar looks at him, “Please don’t let him take me.”
Justin stares at her as the three of them begin to float in the water and get pushed up against the ceiling fighting to breathing room. He looks over at JC as he takes a final breath and goes under. He looks over at Pilar as she strains for her last breath of air before going under along with him. Justin opens his eyes under the water and quickly finds Pilar grabbing onto her and wrapping his arms around her. JC looks at him from under the water. He was beginning to panic.
Then Justin felt the coldness. He could feel it in his heart before it touched his body. He looks beyond Josh as a dark cloud forms in the water and begins to slowly makes its way through the water clouding it in inky darkness. Justin could feel his heart pounding in his ears as his lungs began to scream out for air. He could feel her heart through his chest though. He could feel it keep time with his own and her grip as she tightened it around his torso. JC turns around in the water to see what Justin is staring at and then begins to swim backwards as the darkness begins to surround the three of them.
‘No,’ Justin thinks, ‘No not this time Lance’.
Then he saw the pair of green eyes that matched Pilar’s. He could feel being tucked away from him slightly and then more forcefully. Then he could feel his own body being pulled toward the darkness and could see JC moving as well. He was going to take all of them now. All of them. He feels his body lurch as the water suddenly rushes into the darkness and the three of them are pulled along with it. He did the only thing he could do. He screamed as water filled his lungs. Then everything faded into darkness.
Justin looks around at the darkness that surrounds him, “COME OUT!” he yells, “Don’t play mind games with me Lance! Come out and face me! Wake me up so I can kick your ass face to ass! And if I find that you hurt either of them I’ll kill you! You hear me! KILL YOU!” Justin yells pacing around the darkness. He was too angry to be afraid.
“Justin,” a voice says.
Justin spins around on his heels and looks around.
“Justin,” a female voice says.
“Pilar?”
“Justin,” a male voice says.
“JC?” Justin asks looking around.
“Justin,” the first voice says again.
“Stop playing with my head!” he yells out falling to his knees and shutting his eyes tightly. He opens his eyes slowly as he finds himself in the cabin once again lying on his bed.
“Eat something,” JC says throwing him a granola bar.
“JC?” Justin asks staring at him.
“Yeahhh?” JC asks looking at him oddly.
“Nothing,” Justin says, “Nothing.”
He sees Pilar standing in front the fire and jumps out of bed running over to her, “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” she says looking at him, “I don’t know.”
“You remember the water?”
She nods.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
He looks at her and smiles softly, “How come I can only talk to you like this?”
She shrugs and smiles, “Would you prefer not too?”
“No.”
“You can do this though? You can get into my head?”
She nods.
“You know what I think?”
“Yes.”
“You know…”
“…that we’re supposed to be together,” she finishes the sentence for him, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is that JC?” he asks looking his shoulder at JC.
“I don’t know,” she says calmly, “I think you’re making this.”
He nods before leaning down and kissing her closing his eyes slowly, “I want to love you,” he says as he opens his eyes and finds himself standing in a New York apartment with her.
She smiles at him and kisses him lightly.
“You’re boyfriend…” Justin says before she kisses him again more forcefully.
“I want to love you,” she says quickly.
“Will I remember this?” he asks her.
“I dunno.”
“Will you?”
“Dunno.”
Justin stares in her eyes and smiles, “They better let me remember this,” as he slowly pulls off her shirt.
She smiles at him softly.
Justin kisses her softly and pulls off his own shirt, “I know I love you.”
She places a finger on his lips and hushes him, “No more talking,” she says and kisses him.
“Did you feel that?” AJ asks Kevin.
“Huh?” Kevin asks.
“That…I dunno that felling that your heart skipped a beat?”
Kevin looks at him and nods.
“What does that mean?” AJ asks.
Kevin sighs, “That we’re making progress.”
“With what?” AJ asks perplexed.
“With the powers falling in our favor.”
AJ nods, “What does that mean?”
Kevin stares at him and rolls his eyes, “Just trust me on this AJ. Good in happening.”
AJ nods again, “Ok. Will this involve finding cigarettes?”
“No AJ. No.” Kevin smiles
