Brian paces around the small truck stop and rubs his temples. He was getting a migraine.
“Here,” Stanton says tossing him a small box.
“I’m sorry Stanton, but its not really that time,” he says looking at the box of Midol.
Stanton looks at him, “Listen it was all I could find. I mean it has the same ingredient as Advil, ibuprofen. It’s gotta be better then nothing.”
Brian sighs and looks at the box, “I’ll think about it. Does this stuff go bad anyway?”
Stanton nods, “Not for a while though. Those are still good,” he says pulling out a role of Bottle Caps.
Brain stares, “Don’t those go bad? I mean it’s been a good amount of time now.”
“But they’re Bottle Caps,” Stanton says popping one into his mouth and making a face, “Yeah defiantly gone bad,” he says spitting it onto the floor and coughing.
Brian smirks and shakes his head, “How are they doing?”
Stanton shrugs, “Still knocked out. These are times I wish I was as smart as Xander. He knows what to do during these things,” he says as the two start walking around again.
“I think they’ll be ok,” Brian says calmly as they walk towards the opening near the entrance. He looks at Cole who is bent over a small girl sleeping lightly and taking her pulse.
Cole looks up as the two get closer and stands up slowly, “Her pulse is still way too slow.”
Brian nods and looks at the young brunette, “Is it getting worse?”
“I don’t know,” Cole sighs, “I don’t even understand what’s doing it,” he sighs, “It’s not because of the water. It has to be something else. Only that one really had water in his lungs,” he says looking in the direction of a taller stretched out young male whose eyes are darting back and forth under his closed eyelids.
Stanton nods, “And the third one?”
Cole shrugs, “He seems the best out of all of them,” he says looking at a lanky brunette male stretched out on the floor as well, “You know who that girl is right?”
Brian nods, “Pilar. I don’t know what she’s doing up here though.”
“And without Jackson or Eli at that,” Stanton adds, “Those three never separated. I didn’t see her with these other two when we saw them on the road before,” he says looking at Justin and JC calmly.
Brian nods, “She wasn’t with them.”
“How did you know they were in there?” Cole asks looking at Pilar still.
Brian shrugs, “I don’t know.”
“For someone who didn’t know you sure broke down that back door fast,” Stanton says.
Brian nods, “I dunno…call it a feeling.”
Cole and Stanton look at each other briefly before looking at Brian.
“There was a lot of water building up in that cabin…that was all I knew and I just knew I had to get that door open and let most of it out.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get swept away by that wave,” Cole says sighing, “After that door opened the amount running around the house built up with what was running through it.”
“Why was most of it going in it though,” Stanton asks.
Brian shrugs, “Water doesn’t do that naturally.”
“And who were the two who interrupted me when I was talking about melting snow…oh yeah that’s right you two,” Cole says sarcastically.
“Ok we get it we were wrong,” Stanton says.
Cole nods, “That’s right.”
Justin coughs loudly and all three turn to look at him as his body begins to toss and turn in his sleep. He mumbles softly to himself and reach out for something that isn’t there.
“You think we should wake him up?” Cole asks.
“No,” Stanton shakes his head, “let him rest. He needs it. They all do.”
Justin shudders in the darkness and pulls his knees up to his chest hugging them from where he sits. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Before he could get out of the darkness. Come and go as he pleased. Create his own perfect world in his mind or lock minds with Pilar and just sit and hold her. Now though. Now whenever he tried to get out he was stuck. There was something wrong.
“I told you I would get you,” a deep voice says.
Justin looks around the darkness and lets go of his knees softly, “Leave,” he hisses, “Leave.”
A pair of green eyes stare at him from the darkness as Lance’s body slowly takes form, “Can’t do that.”
Justin stands up quickly and walks towards him, “LEAVE!”
“I can’t do that, Justin, see…” he says putting his hands to his lips holding them in a praying manor, “I need to keep you here,” he says lowering his hands again, “because if I don’t I can’t get to her.”
“Stay away…”
“I know, I know, stay away form her,” Lance smirks, “You’re lucky you have Kevin on your side. He has been trying to keep me away from her and out of her mind for months. He is very good at it usually, but see there is always a weakness to everything. I can’t just get to her, but I can work my way in bit by bit.”
“What are you doing to her?” Justin asks walking closer to him.
Lance smirks, “If only you knew.”
“Why are you hurting her? You want JC. You want me. Take me,” he says calmly.
“You really are such a stupid…fuck,” he says bluntly to him, “Why do we want you? We want you dead that’s all. You’re nothing but a thorn in our sides now. You’ve done your part. It’s too late for us to stop you. JC…too much a waste of my energy now. I’ll get him next. He is still a threat…but her. She…she needs to go now. I can’t let her slip through the cracks again,” he says pacing around the darkness around Justin, “You see…” Lance says still pacing as Justin turns around to look at him as he moves, “she has the ability to make something you can’t. I’ll give you one guess at what that is.”
Justin stares at him coldly and looks at the floor slowly as his eyes grow wide.
“Bing,” Lance smirks, “That’s right Justin. You see her mind is amazing, but her strength is nothing. She seems hard, but she is beyond vulnerable. They put too much ability in her mind and not enough in her body especially for a Halfling. She’s amazingly weak. That’s why she was with Jackson before. He was strong remember? You met him a few times. But you…you were always the best in camp. The strongest, fastest, quickest…that’s why we sent you for JC. Of course that got fucked to hell and back. That’s why it dawned on me. That’s why you came across her,” he says locking eyes with Justin, “You balance her out perfectly. You’re strength and her mind. The combination would be devastating to us.”
“You stay away from her,” Justin snaps.
“Too late Justin. Her mind is weak already. The baby doesn’t stand a chance. Nothing will stop us from getting her,” he says as Justin looks down at the floor slowly breathing heavily, “Don’t worry Justin. You will never know what you’re missing,” he says calmly as Justin stares at him and lunges at him.
Lance quickly vanishes back into the darkness as Justin falls through he air and slams onto the floor. He punches the floor with both his hands and screams out into the darkness as anger quickly overtakes his sadness. As he stand up quickly and paces around the darkness steadily.
“Wake up,” he says to himself softly, “Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!” he yells to himself, “WAKE UP!” he yells hitting himself in the head hard and closing his eyes from the blow trying to regain his senses. He closes his eyes tightly and grabs onto his head with both hands trying to stop his head from spinning.
“He’s getting up,” a voice says.
“You sure he’s not just tossing again?” a second asks.
“Yeah,” the first says again as Justin lets out a low groan from the pain.
“Hey…hey are you ok?” a third voice asks.
Justin opens his eyes slowly as a mix of blurred colors and images floods them. He stares at the three young men before him, “Where the fuck am I,” he slurs out.
Nick looks at the blank TV screen before him and sighs. God he wished he could just watch one TV show. He’d even take a tlak show or a soap opera now, anything to take his mind away from he real world. He looks over from his seat on the couch over at AJ as he bends over a book at the table. His head bounces along to a beat in his head as Nick sees his mouth move sporadically singing along to silent words. Jordan and his brothers were bent over a board game that looked like Scrabble where you can build on top of the existing letters. Xander calmly takes the rest of his letters and changes Nate’s poll into polyunsaturated.
“That’s not a word,” Jordan says.
“It means having many double or triple bonds,” Xander smirks, “So that’s fifteen letters…”
“I quit,” Owen says calmly standing up from his seat, “No one is ever gonna beat him.
Jordan shakes his head looking at the word, “Who the hell has that kind of word floating around in his head?”
“Xander,” the others say.
Xander smiles calmly and totals up his points silently.
Nick wished he wasn’t an only child sometimes.
Tacks was passed out draped over an easy chair. His eyelids had been closing on him for the past hour and he just finally gave way. Nails was sitting down on the floor leaning against the back of the chair reading a book. Kevin and Eli were in the corner talking to each other quietly and eating a pack of marshmallows that they had found in a cabinet in the kitchen. Nick sighs to himself and walks over to the table where AJ is sitting at. He grabs a pencil off the counter and a piece of plane paper before sitting down across from AJ. AJ looks up and smiles slightly at him.
“Hey man,” AJ says, “Bored as hell?”
Nick nods, “Tell me about it. I’m half tempted to join the Scrabble game just to see how badly Xander beats me.”
“I hear ya,” AJ sighs, “but you figure it’s gotta be better in here then out there.”
Nick nods as he calmly raises his pencil and brings it down on the paper sketching out a picture.
“You draw?” AJ asks.
Nick nods, “I took lessons when I was younger and then again when I was in school. I got a few things noticed here and there.”
AJ nods showing his approval, “I suck at drawing. I never had that skill. Except for like doodles. That I can do.”
Nick nods, “Yeah, after a while it just became tedious to me. I just kinda fell out of it. My parents were mad about it. They said I had more future in art then basketball.”
AJ nods as Nick looks back down at his paper concentrating. He calmly begins sketching lines on the paper as he begins to do it absentmindedly. He didn’t even notice when Eli came over and sat down beside AJ at the table. His hand was thinking on his own now. Piece by piece the rough sketch began coming together. A line here a curve there. A hand there, a neck, a head, eyes, a road in the distance, a large arch, lines, wires, beams, a bridge…
“Is that the bridge around here?” AJ asks Nick as he watches him draw quickly, “Nick,” he says as Nick doesn’t reply.
“Nick,” Eli says.
“Nick,” AJ says again louder as Nick keeps bent over the paper not responding.
Kevin looks over at them from the corner and walks over looking at Nick intently, “Nick?”
“He’s not responding,” Eli says looking up at Kevin from his seat.
AJ stares at Nick and then down at the picture, “That’s the bridge.”
“Who is that?” Eli asks as he looks at the picture coming together. Nick’s strokes were putting together a person standing on the bridge now.
“It’s not Pilar,” Kevin says as he looks at it hard.
Eli nods silently in agreement as Nick begins drawing strands to the long hair the girl in the picture had and then two wide orbs for eyes.
“That’s the Brooklyn Bridge,” Jordan says walking up behind AJ and looking at the table.
AJ nods waving a hand in front of Nick, “He’s freaking me out, Kevin.”
Kevin sighs and stares at the picture, “Nick. Nick, c’mon snap out of it.”
“Nick,” AJ says, “Ni…” he says as Nick snaps his head up and stares at AJ. His blue eyes lock on AJ’s red as AJ sucks in a deep breath.
“I shall come for you,” he says deeply as his head snaps from AJ’s face to locking on Kevin’s and beginning to ramble off in a language.
Kevin stares at him somewhat in shock and wonder.
“Latin,” AJ says softly, “Latin! Its Latin get me a pencil and paper!” he yells behind him as Jordan runs off into the kitchen, “Just write everything down I’m saying!” he says as he looks at Nick who is still staring at Kevin coldly, “Be forewarned. I shall not rest. I have no need for it. I see the tides turn. I see the chosen. I see the ones lead astray. I know your power. I know your weakness. I…I don’t remember that word,” AJ says shaking his hands in the arm trying to remember, “I see your mind. I see her sleep. I see her weakness. She grows weaker every hour. I see your strength. I see him cower behind the possibility of loss. I see your prophet. I see his denial. I see your followers. I see them lead to their deaths. I see your power. I see it weaken. I see your enemy. I see my prophet. Be forewarned dear King, there is no winning now. There is no happiness only grief, pain, sorrow. You lead for now, but you know your timing is coming to an end. Your chosen is not ready. He will not be able to save you all now. I see your future. I see it slowly becoming the past. I see it…I…See…All,” AJ calmly says as Nick hisses the last words at Kevin.
Kevin stares at Nick coolly as the glaze in Nick’s eyes start to fade replaced by the normally soft look that he had come accustomed to seeing in Nick.
Nick shakes his head and rubs his temples with his hands before dragging them across his face to his eyes, “God I have such a migraine. Do you guys have any Advil?” he asks removing his hands and looking at their stunned faces, “What? What happened?”
Kevin stares at him before looking down at the table and walking into the back rooms slowly.
The Brower brothers turn to watch him leave before turning to face Nick again.
“What?” Nick asks again, “Did I do something?”
AJ sighs loudly before looking over at Jordan, “Did you get all that?”
Jordan shrugs, “I think so. It’s all in short hand though in pretty sloppy. Let me rewrite it.”
AJ nods, “Ok.”
Jordan nods back to him before walking over to the couch and throwing himself down.
Nails looks over at them all from his seat on the floor and then down the hall where Kevin vanished.
Nick looks at them all before looking down at the picture before him, “Who is this girl?”
AJ looks at Eli and then at Nick, “You tell us you drew her.”
Nick looks at him oddly before looking at the picture again, “I did?”
“Don’t worry about it,” AJ says calmly standing from his chair and walking down the hall following Kevin’s path, “Kev. Kevin,” he says walking into a room where Kevin is sitting on the bed hands clasped.
Kevin looks up as he comes in and sighs, “Shut the door.”
AJ nods and shuts the door behind him, “Will you please explain to me what that was about?”
Kevin nods, “I’m losing it. I can’t keep this up anymore.”
“Keep what up?”
“AJ, I’ve held a leadership role for a long time now. I’m here because this…this thing needed leadership. Justin needed to know to go when he came here. Brian needed to know everything was going to be ok if he left. Pieces are falling together now and the need for me is shrinking. Something much bigger then myself is out there looking for me now. That…that thing that took over Nick. It wasn’t a rebel leader. It was the leader of the rebel leader. Lance isn’t the highest up. He is just a spokesman. I thought maybe I could keep Nick blocked. I thought I could keep her blocked. Now everything is just becoming too much. I can only do so much. It sees the weaknesses in our people. It sees the fears and prays on them. And sooner or later…it is going to come here,” Kevin sighs.
AJ stares blankly at him, “I don’t understand are you giving up?”
“No. No, God no,” Kevin says, “They’ll have to kill me before I give up, but other people are. I worry that I need to let my predecessor stand up and take my place now, but I don’t want him too.”
“Justin?”
“No,” Kevin smirks, “No…Justin is part of our future.”
“Who?” AJ asks.
“The pieces will all come together in due time,” Kevin sighs, “All in due time.”
Justin stares at Pilar’s sleeping face from where he lays on the cold titles and carefully traces the outline of her face with his finger. He stays stretched out on his stomach, as she remains lays stretched out on her back. Her breathing was shallow and her heart was still beating slowly. He sighs loudly and pulls back his hand moving foreword and touching his forehead to hers before slowly closing his eyes.
JC stares at him from his seat at a table in the truck stop a few feet away. He shakes his head and turns to look at Brian across the table, “I don’t know what to do about him.”
Brian nods, “It’s too risky to try and move them now, but she needs a doctor.”
JC nods, “Any idea what’s wrong with her?”
Brian shakes his head no.
Cole walks over and tosses a bottle of water at JC and then one at Brian, “What happened in that cabin anyway?” he asks sitting down.
JC shakes his head and sighs.
Brian looks at him and nods, “If you don’t want to talk about it it’s ok.”
“No,” JC says, “It’s not that…it’s just that I really don’t know what happened. One second everything was fine then the next he was freaking out,” he says looking over at Justin quickly, “There was this huge boom and then the water came. In a matter of seconds we were swimming in it, drowning, then we went under. He was holding onto her for dear life though. And then this coldness came. It was horrible. Like ice touching your veins. You feel it in your heart first and then your body. The darkness came next, just this inky darkness leaking and spreading through the water from the back of the cabin. It surrounded us and felt like it was almost pulling us into it. I don’t know if it actually was or if it was the pull from the water rushing out. All I know is I just blacked out. I came too and I was here.”
Brian nods, “Weird things.”
JC nods, “Very.”
Stanton walks up carrying a blanket over his shoulder and heading towards Justin on the floor, “Here,” he says holding it out on his right hand offering it to the young man on the tiles.
Justin stares up at him for a second before reaching up and taking the blanket, “Thanks,” he says opening it and draping it over Pilar and himself.
Stanton nods and turns walking towards the others.
“I’m sorry about him,” JC says to Stanton, “I mean he’s having a lot of things running through his head now.”
“You don’t need to apologize for his manners,” Stanton says, “I come from a large family remember? We don’t have manners there.”
Cole smirks and nods in agreement, “Where’s Evie?”
“Off doing girl stuff I guess,” Stanton shrugs, “I’m not her watcher. She never talks to me anyway.”
Cole rolls his eyes before looking at JC again, “You going back North then?”
JC nods, “I guess so. Nowhere else to go really.”
Stanton nods slowly before looking over at Justin as he closes his eyes again pressing his forehead to Pilar’s, “What’s he doing?”
“Trying to connect,” Brian says calmly looking at him, “He’s just trying to find her in her own mind.”
“We need you,” Justin’s voice echoes in the darkness.
“No you don’t,” a soft female voice replies.
“They need you.”
“No…”
“I need you.”
The voice remains silent as a sob is heard in the distance, “If I don’t come out then it will never happen. It will all just stop.”
“What will?” Justin’s voice asks.
“Everything.”
“You can’t stop it. I tried to stop it too.”
“You don’t understand,” it sobs.
“Pilar, I understand so much now. Please…come out,” he says.
He gets silence in reply.
“If you stay in here your body will waste away.”
“I know.”
“Show me.”
“What?”
“Show me what scares you so much. If you show me and I understand you can come out. We can do it together.”
“No…no we can’t.”
“Show me.”
“No.”
“Show me.”
“NO!”
“Pilar! Show ME!”
A soft sob is heard again as a pair of green eyes glow from the darkness and Pilar takes form, “You’ll hate it.”
“Please show me,” Justin says appearing slowly and walking up to her.
“Ok,” she sighs, “Ok.”
Justin looks around the darkness by himself as a picture surrounds him taking him in. He feels the heat radiating off the black top and the sound of voices coming closer in the distance. A group of young adults run by him quickly as another group follows them close behind. The second group dressed in cloaks and carrying guns by their sides. They take aim and fire at the others knocking them one by one to the ground before taking aim at Justin. He stares at them before trying to yell out, no. He closes his eyes as he prepares for the pain that never comes.
Justin stares down from the rooftop of a building as the earth begins to shake. People scatter on the street as the earth trembles in New York City. The tremble turns into a rumble though as the buildings begin to shake and change their shapes. Pieces of high-rises fall to the ground piece by piece as chunks of earth begin to shift up and down. He falls to his knees as the building he is on begins to give way and the foundation falls in. He closes his eyes again and waits.
He opens his eyes again staring into a city from the ground. He takes a deep breath before the smell hits his nostrils. He makes a face to himself before turning around and staring behind himself. He backs up quickly and falls over landing on the ground hard. His gag impulse kicks in as he covers his mouth trying to hold back the vomit. A pile a bodies lines the bridge now. Faces stare up at the sky or at him unblinking.
“Oh God,” he makes out before shutting his eyes again.
He opens his eyes and looks out over a harbor as the water begins to churn violently. He turns around and stares at Lance looking at him. He smirks calmly as Justin is knocked down by someone tackling him from the side. Justin quickly regains composer as he begins to fight of the person on top of him. He sees the reflection of light off a steel blade being raised in the air and kicks the person off scrambling to his feet. He stares as Jackson looks at him with pure hatred in his eyes before lunging at him again and knocking him over the edge into the water. He could feel his head being held under now as he struggles for breath. He screams out as water fills his lungs and closes his eyes.
Justin opens his eyes to find himself standing in the middle of a street as the rain pours down on him. He looks around quickly as he sees Pilar standing in the downpour holding her arms around herself. He begins to run over to her as she turns suddenly to her right and stares as two men stagger into their view. One man’s eyes glow a bright purple as another’s glows bright green. Kevin. Lance. The two fall to the ground and begin to topple one over the other. Lance takes out a knife raising it above Kevin’s back as he pins him to the ground and plunges it in. Kevin stumbles off Lance in pain as Lance stares at him from the ground. Kevin stumbles back and forth before finally falling back to the ground with a loud splash in a puddle. Justin looks at Lance terrified as Lance looks up at Pilar. He begins to stand up slowly staring at her smirking as Pilar lets out a high-pitched scream. Then he stopped. The scream bounces off the building walls full of pain and hopelessness. A shadow appears behind Lance slowly as a tall blond human male hits him in the back of the head with a large piece of pipe. Justin closes his eyes trying to block out the sound of the scream echoing in his head.
“It’s all because of me,” the soft voice says again.
“No,” Justin says, “No, they’ll win because of you.”
“No,” she says, “I won’t win it for them. He will.”
“Huh?” Justin asks as he emerges from the darkness.
“I won’t win it for them,” she says appearing before him looking at the ground.
“What do you mean?”
“He will,” she says again, “He will win it for them.”
“Who?” Justin asks.
“Nick,” she says looking up and locking eyes with him, “Nick will.”
