My Random Writing
Prologue
They felt the explosion through the rustling trees, covered in burning ash already like the combustion burped up chewed food. Fear dilated their eyes and worry buffeted their hearts. It was the hard wind of an upcoming storm nobody wanted to face. They all waited, the tiny spark of hope soon dying as seconds turned to minutes.
“We should go check it out…” Rocky’s voice trailed off, leading the way through the trees.
They soon came to the opening, where the once-was factory was just feet of metal, wood, and ash piled together. Night overlooked the whole scene, spotting Feradeth on his knees. He had one arm wrapped around his chest, coughing and wheezing vigorously. Clouds of ash came out of his mouth, and Gina ran over with a canteen, offering it to him. He took a long swig, and then laid back and sighed, eyes closed in relief.
“What happened to her?” Jeremy whispered, his voice shaking and cracking.
Feradeth’s eyes shot open and started to tear, the memory too painful to speak of. “She…and then they…and then I…and then…” Feradeth tried to explain, but he was still coughing too much for anyone to understand. A little fairy was on his shoulder.
It was Natalie’s fairy.
“What he’s trying to say is,” the fairy started off, “is that the explosion came quick. First, there was a small one, and her eyes turned pitch black. She took us both and threw us out of the door, locking it behind her so that we couldn’t get back in. She said that she had to get something. I don’t know what, though. She was somewhat scary. We banged on the door, but it was no use. We heard the second rumble, and started to run away, but the second explosion threw us instead. It was all too soon, I’m so sorry.”
The fairy started to weep. It sounded like a squeak-like hiccuping coming from her teeny mouth.
Jeremy suddenly ran over to the ash pile and started digging like a dog in a mound of fresh dirt. They all held their breath as they watched on, anticipation and hope filling them up.
Soon, a single human hand rose to the depleted surface. It was camouflaged by being covered in ash. A simultaneous gasp went around the group and a determined Jeremy now was digging like a mad man. He got Orlando, Rocky, Stitch, and Bobby to help him dig. They started pulling on the hand, and a girl, completely doused in ash, appeared. She had wings.
“Natalie!” everybody breathed, a sigh of relief almost shaking the trees. But, the fight wasn’t over yet.
Jeremy put his ear to her chest and hand to her wrist, listening and praying for a small ounce of hope: a pulse. He cursed under his breath, and started to breath into her mouth. Gina sprinted over with the canteen, pouring a large sum of water down her throat. Natalie started to cough and opened her eyes, but they quickly closed again.
“No! Please no, no. Natalie, wake up.” Jeremy was crying. He tried to shake her awake, pushing on her chest again.
“Mm.” Natalie groaned.
“Natalie, come on. Please, I can’t do this again.” Jeremy’s voice started to shake.
“Yes you can. Just five more minutes, I promise I’ll get up.” She mumbled, swatting away everything.
“No, you need to get up now.” Jeremy’s voice was still shaky.
Natalie’s eyes lifted open, and she looked up. “I’m awake, what do you want from me?”
“You need to get on my back. We need to take you to a doctor.” Jeremy told her. There was a trail on his cheek where a tear was.
“Hi, Jeremy.” She mumbled in a breathless tone, and then her body went limp, her eyes closed.
“No!” Jeremy said. His sad eyes flamed with anger, and he whirled around to face Feradeth.
Feradeth’s eyes widened with fear when Jeremy lunged at him. He grabbed his shoulders and pummeled him to the ground. “Why the hell did you listen to her? What is wrong with you?”
“I…I…I had no choice! She did not give me a choice to stay and help or to leave!”
“You have to fight back, use physical violence if you have to, to get her to go somewhere! You know she just wants to be a hero! She just doesn’t know how dangerous it is to be a hero!” Jeremy was screaming now. His face was red and his teeth were gritted so hard, they looked like they would break from any more force.
“I’m sorry, I did not know!”
“You promised me that you would keep her safe! Where’s your promise now?” Jeremy thrashed Feradeth back and forth.
“Hey!” Mika had to practically scream to get them to stop. It took both Issy and Mika to get Jeremy off of Feradeth, and it took the others to hold him back. Jeremy collapsed onto his knees again and buried his head in his hands. His shoulders shook with sobs.
“It’s not Feradeth’s fault, so just leave him alone! When Natalie gets wild, it’s nobody’s fault when she doesn’t listen. I think we all know that, so don’t take it out of Feradeth! He feels bad enough already for…for…” Mika started to choke up and suppressed a sob. She ran off into the forest surrounding the burning opening. Issy called after her, running in the same general direction.
Abruptly breaking all tense feelings on the island, there was a faint sound of helicopter wings slicing through the air and jet planes zooming passed us.
“Run!” Issy screamed, returning with Mika. They bolted in the direction of Eiabba. Obediently, the others followed in a fast pace.
“What about Natalie?” Jeremy yelled back, stopping straight in his tracks and making Rocky and Bobby bump into him.
Jess stopped right beside him. “Um, no offense dude, but it’s either your girlfriend or the rest of our lives.” Jess yelled back, swinging her index finger around in a circle, landing on Jeremy.
Jeremy thought for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head, breaking into a sprint.
A single tear brushed down Jeremy’s cheek and landed on the sand in the shape of a heart.
Chapter 1
The first thing that I heard when my ears started to focus was the quick, heavy footsteps on linoleum floor. First, they were faint, resonating softly through my sheet metal box. I don’t know how long I’ve been here or where I was, but I just knew that the cot I was to sleep on was cold, hard, and hollow. I tried to open my eyes, but the pain in the back of my head made me think otherwise. I just sat there and awaited anything that was coming to me.
Soon, the footsteps were almost deafening. They made the sound of a bull stampede trampling over my ears. Short-tempered and irritated beyond belief, my eyes broke open. The clapping of shoes against the ground numbed the pain. I couldn’t see anybody, but I could sense somebody looking at me.
Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, unfortunately followed by a second set of clumsier footfall.
“Dr. Sagel!” one of them said. It was a young, nasally voice, like a 15-year-old with a sinus infection. “Dr. Sa—“
“Shh!” A deeper, more fatherly voice hushed, noticeably aggravated. In a whisper, he said, “You’ll wake her.”
“Oh, okay.” The young man attempted to whisper. It just came out as a loud shout in a whispery tone, instead. I heard a shuffling of papers, and then the young man blurted out, “They say this one’s dangerous. You better not bother her, if you want to keep your life.”
“Awwh, look at her. She’s curled up on a cot like a little puppy dog.” Dr. Sagel cooed. There was the sound of a lock unlatching—actually, a couple of locks. I forced my eyes closed again.
“Uh, Dr. Sagel!” The young man nervously cautioned. “That’s not a good idea!”
“C’mon, Herman! What could she do to me? She’s under anesthetics! She won’t be able to do anything past sitting up!”
“She blew up one of our main branches!” Herman practically screamed.
I did? I thought.
“She did?” Dr. Sagel said, dumbfounded that I would do such a thing. “Look at her! She looks so innocent!”
I do?
“Alright,” Herman reluctantly gave in to the battle. “But can I come in?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Yes!” He exclaimed, and then added, “I’ve never been around a real girl before.”
Shocker . . . I smiled at this thought.
Another set of steps padded into my box, and then closed the door behind them. Not long after, I felt a stroke on my cheek and a lock of my hair was brushed out of my face. I reopened my eyes to see a man and a younger man hanging over me. The older man had graying brown hair buzzed into a crew cut. A goatee painted his copper face, growing up to his jaw hinges and down under his chin. His eyes were hazel, like a pine tree thrown into a shredder and set out in a circle. He had wrinkles all around his long face, from laugh lines to crow’s feet to stress lines and everything in between.
The kid was obviously a nerdy little crapper. He has those thickly rimmed glasses and messy, blond hair. His face was dotted with freckles. He had a nose that was long and wide and talked with his top lip curled upward. His teeth were behind huge braces, but still growing terribly. He was an all-in-all awkward kid in a lab coat and it scared me to even look at him. Even though that’s horribly mean, it’s the truth.
“How are you going to do it?” Herman asked.
“With love and comfort.” He said in an intelligent voice, like teaching a child how to feed a squirrel out of the palm of its hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a silver sliver of metal attached to a capsule. He wanted a sample of my blood.
Immediately, I stood up, though my head was throbbing with intensity. Both men backed up and smiled at me.
“What a work of art, this one is.” Dr. Sagel said to Herman. “Let’s see your wings, sweetie.”
Oh, I’ll show you my wings, all right. I thought to myself.
My back ached with tense muscles, and my wings longed to be free. I didn’t back. They snapped out and flapped a couple times, and it soothed the pain.
Black feathers floated down to the ground, and I smiled at the relief. When I figured out what they were doing, I had a devious plan involving pain infliction.
“Dr. Sagel, why are her eyes turning red?”
I looked at them, their smiles wipes off their faces.
“Um, I don’t know, Herman, but wouldn’t it be great to get out of here?” Dr. Sagel yelled, and ran toward the door. I leaped after him, landing perfectly two inches behind him. I spun him on his heels, gripping his shoulders tightly. I brought his torso down while my knee was brought upward. Both my knee and his ribcage connected. There were multiple cracks and he fell to the ground with a wheeze.
I jumped over to Herman, who was talking into a device that was far more advanced than a walkie-talkie. He squealed, not knowing I was there. He dropped the device and I swatted it away. It flew across the little chamber and broke into shards. I looked at him, ever so slowly walking toward him. He tried to run in the opposite direction, but I grabbed his arm and flung him across the room. He hit the wall and crumpled to the ground, groaning at the pain.
I looked at my cage, trying to find a way out. There were a couple walls, so I chose the one in the front. I repetitively bashed my fist against the sheet metal, the thin build breaking easily. Faintly, I heard the creek of a door.
Oh no, I thought to myself. I could’ve used the door? It was open the whole time? Well, so much for not making a scene.
I climbed through the big gash in the chamber, folding in my wings for safety. I then stood in a tall, white tower made of painted-over bricks. At the very top, try 20 feet over my five-foot-nine body, were gigantic windows that had light spilling over. I couldn’t believe that I was in a fluorescently bright room after being in a pitch-black cage for God knows how long.
Sirens suddenly blared, ringing in my ears, and red lights flashed, almost blinding me. Thickset men poured into the room by the hundreds, all carrying guns, arrows, or the occasional tranquilizer. I was surrounded, and every lethal mean was held up almost to my head.
That’s when I had a flashback that almost killed.
“What’s a pretty girl like you doing in an abandoned town like this?”
“I just . . . got lost.”
“This is a bad place to get lost, sweetie.”
“I need to get home.”
“You ain’t goin’ no where, little girl.”
“You can’t do this!”
“Oh, but we can. You won’t feel a thing. Just a, just a little pressure. Then, it’ll be like you’ve fallen asleep. And don’t struggle.”
“Jess! Issy! Mika! Help me!”
“Are those little friends that you think will help you?”
“ . . . No, they aren’t my friends.”
I heard a loud growl, like a cat of some kind, and the trigger was pulled. There was a thud on the ground and a moaning sound.
“He’s a freak!”
I opened my eyes to see Jeremy lying on the ground, clutching one arm. Blood was leaking out between each finger. “Don’t kill her!” He yelled, moaning on the ground. “Don’t shoot her! Shoot me instead!”
“No, kill me, I deserve to die.”
“Natalie! Natalie no!”
I screamed, suddenly feeling suffocated and tired. I looked around at all of the men. They looked at each other, confused, and then smiles formed on their overgrown faces. Satan poured out of their teeth and reached their eyes. There was no way out of this, nowhere to go except up.
Up.
I snapped out my wings, throwing men off their balance and shot upward. I bolted into the air like the bullets that were whizzing passed my ears. Suddenly, there was a large capsule-like bullet flying at me, and a needle suddenly popped up. I gasped, wondering what it was going to do. It dug its needle deep into my black and purple feathers, and my maroon-colored blood filling up the capsule. It then dropped when the weight of my vital fluid was too much to hold into the air. The needle was still implanted in my feathers and causing me an enormous amount of pain. I pulled out the needle and swooped down, grasping the descending capsule. I swooped back up, this time gaining enough speed to break the sound barrier, and a circular cloud followed behind me. I broke through the window at the top of the tower, shards of glass exploding everywhere.
I was on my way home, wherever it was. My instincts kicked in, and I turned to where I was pulled the most: North. I looked at the tube of blood in my hand, turned it in my palm, musing about what they were going to do with my blood.
They could’ve wanted to make a clone of me, I thought, and then quickly shook my head to diminish the thought. They obviously couldn’t have, because our Creator wouldn’t allow it. There could’ve been tens of hundreds of possibilities, but I had to focus on flying, so there wasn’t any time to think of possibilities. Actually, what I was mostly focused on was how I got to where I was.
Soon, like an augury, an explosion happened down below, and fiery colors of orange and yellow and black ash erupted high into the sky. I felt the heat from here, and I was blown off course a little.
Then a flashback buffeted my head.
I smelled burning gasoline, so I knew there was an explosion coming soon.
“My liege!” Feradeth yelled. He ran back in and stood by my side.
“What are you doing? Get out of here! You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“As long as I am protecting you, I will be okay.” He told me.
“Get out of here!” I repeated. I pushed him, but he pushed back. “It’s not your fate to die for the world! It’s mine! I need to die for the world! Go!” I punched one in the stomach as he sliced the head off of an Ion.
“I will not leave your side! I promised your beloved that I would protect you.” He cut the head off of another Ion.
“You don’t understand! I have the destiny to die for my planet!”
“Then I will die with you.”
I looked at him. “You’re just nonnegotiable today, are you?”
“Look, your beloved doesn’t want you to die, so I promised I would prevent it.”
There was an orange flash, a burst of hot fumes, and then everything went black.
I gasped at the cruel memory that flooded my thoughts, and shivered.
So, that’s how I wound up at that God forsaken place? But, wouldn’t my friends rescue me? I thought to myself. Maybe they left me there, or the explosion threw me into the water, and they couldn’t find me. Yeah, that’s probably it.
I wish I knew all of this, but that’s something that’ll have to be explained when I get home.
Home.
Do I still have a home? Or was it moved? It made me even more determined to get to where I used to live. But where was that again? I’ll just have to follow where I’m most drawn.
Chapter 2
It’s been two years since Natalie had been abandoned at that island. I never understood why we left her. She would never leave us, why would we leave her? Selfishness, that’s the answer. How could we be so selfish to one girl that has died for us twice?
For two painstaking years, we have been looking for her until our eyes were strained and bags implanted themselves under our eyes, dark and bruised. We fought off enemy after enemy, even went to the land of Eternal Death to find her, giving up our lives to look for her, the guilt of not saving her in the first place ate us until we couldn’t take it.
For her birthday every year that she was gone, we’d cry over her bed, hoping that she’d magically appear in our loving arms. But she never did. I just wished I could do something to save her, something to get her back, something to make the guilt fade away. But guilt never goes away unless that person is found, which it isn’t.
It was the middle of August when the truth finally surfaced on everybody. Before then, Isabel, Mika, Night, and I got everybody else up at the crack of stinking dawn out of routine to find our long lost friend. We’d search for her from that time until dusk, then falling asleep at midnight, or around that time.
But, anyway, it was one day that shattered my heart when I started to wake everyone up. I went into Jessica’s room and plopped down on her bed, whispering, “It’s that time again, Jessica.”
Instead of moaning and groaning, but reluctantly waking up, she sat up, looked me straight in the eyes, and mumbled, “Let’s give up. It’s hopeless; we’ve been looking for her since the week after we left her. I’m sick of her dying, coming back to life, and then dying again, and then when we’ve cried all we could cry, she magically comes back into our lives, and we cry even more and make her swear on her life that she won’t leave us again, but it’s all just promises she can’t keep!
“Not only is it hard for her, but it’s hard for us too, because our hearts are mended together by her just so she can rip them up again!” She continued. “And, it’s not that I don’t love the girl like my own sister, but, it’s like she’s doing this just to get us to pay attention to her! She’s always the headliner of our lives, the most important one, and I’m sick and tired of being in the shadow of a girl that can’t keep her life for more than three years!”
I shook my head and realized that I was crying to hear this. It couldn’t be happening, this was all just a scary nightmare. I was going to wake up and we were going to find Natalie that day.
“But which one is the real dream, Gina?” I heard behind me. Issy was standing in the door, and I remembered that she could read minds. “Is it the dream that everybody’s giving up, or is the real dream lying in the wishful thinking that Natalie is going to magically appear in our arms one day? Life only has so many miracles, Gina. Once we run out, it’s over. Maybe our Creator is telling us that our miracles have run dry.”
“We make the miracles happen, Isabella. We have the control on life.” I put edge in my voice to show my irritation.
“Do we, Gina?” Issy moved closer, and sat on Jess’ bed with her arms folded. She stood about as tall as I did, so it was hard to make myself more intimidating by standing up. “Just think about it. When we were born, our God gives us one, maybe two miracles in our lives. We also get one angel sent down from Heaven, and we call them best friends, lovers, even sisters. They were born as mortals for our lives, to help us get out of some of the hardest decision in our lives.
“Believe it or not, Gina, our God gives us some of the strongest people in the world. They don’t have to be wearing a crown to be recognized as the strongest people in the world. You just … know. If Natalie were as strong as we believe she is, she’ll make it out of this one, she wouldn’t need our help to get out of it. If she isn’t we’ll know our God has faked us out, and we have to find another person that is our hero.
“Just think about it, Gina. Let life be life, let death be death, and let people find destiny. It’s the way fate is.” Then she got up, yawned, and walked back into her room to sleep.
Jess looked at me for a minute, then took her hand and delicately raised my chin. “You’ve got to admit, she won that battle.” Then she took me in her arms and recited a song that Natalie loved and lived by.
I just got so tired, I passed out right in her bed, and I guess Jess didn’t mind, because I woke up that day at 10:00 at night.
I woke up crying, though. Tears were spilling out of my eyes and running down my cheeks onto a pillow. I wailed and moaned and sobbed, not being able to control myself.
And, the weirdest thing was, I felt like I was five years old again. I used my fist to wipe the tears and was curled up in a ball against the lavender-painted wall and all I wanted to do was cry. I wanted to pull my covers over my head, the way I did when I was little when I believed that there were monsters in the dark.
Mika came bucking up the stairs and bolted into the room. She wrapped her long arms around me and we both cried out of guilt, out of anguish, and out of mourning. I think we both realized how selfish we were being.
No, I think we realized how selfish everybody else was being.
“Mika?” I sniffled.
“Yeah?” She cried back, drawing in a shaky breath.
“Are we the ones that are being selfish? Or are they?”
“They are, definitely. I can’t take it! We have to find Natalie; we can’t just leave her out there! What if she’s not dead? What if she’s just trapped in some place where their idea of her is that she’s a creature? What if they’re only giving her stale bread and stale water?”
I giggled a little. “ Mika, water doesn’t go stale.”
She looked at me with a confused look. “Oh yeah.” She said. “But think about it. She could be alive, but she could be suffering right now. They may be torturing her! They may be chaining her to poles and…” she looked around, and then brought me real close. She whispered in a serious voice, “They could be making her eat Gorgonzola cheese.”
I giggled a little more. “Oh no, not Gorgonzola!” I exclaimed, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“You see? We can’t just sit here and let her suffer while we eat non-moldy cheese!”
“Huh, you’re right. Not that it’s the cheese’s fault.” I answered.
“Why do you have to take the cheese’s side of things?”
“I’m not, I’m being considerate of the cheese’s feelings!”
I guess it was something that was over-the-top stupid, even for Mika. She looked at me with eyebrows furrowed. “Cheese doesn’t have feelings. It’s just loyal to whom it is serving. Well, until it turns bad, than it’s evil.”
“Point taken.” I said.
“So, what are going to do?”
“Let’s get Issy up here.” I answered, and then sent a telepathic message to her.
Immediately, Issy came walking up the steps and into the room. “I heard everything you guys said to each other, and couldn’t help but laugh at the stupidity of it all. It made me look awkward down there while we were watching a sad scene of a romance movie.”
“Well, we got you out of that one, didn’t we?” I asked, looking up at her with my purple eyes.
“Yeah, you did. What’s up?”
“We still feel guilty over Natalie.”
“Yeah, I do too. It’s killing me, and I don’t know what to do.”
“How about we kick them out of the house?” Mika asked. At first, we were going to burst out laughing. But then, it started to make sense.
“That’s actually a great idea, Mika. Since they aren’t loyal to Natalie, then they don’t deserve to live in her house. The funny thing is, they cheated. They used her mom’s money to keep up the house, told them, with Natalie’s voice,” I emphasized. Since the two years had passed, Night learned how to duplicate voices. “That Natalie didn’t want them out to see her anymore, just so they can stay in the house themselves.” I said logically.
“When they don’t even want to help look for the owner of the house, they’re staying in the owner’s house. That’s just not fair!” Issy said, finally getting it.
And it clicked to all three of us. The opposing had to leave and the agreeing could stay. We weren’t going to give up on our best friend. Not now, not ever.
We walked down the stairs and into the living room, where everybody was gathered.
“We all need to talk.” I said, and pressed pause on the movie they were watching.
Jess was lying back on Bobby’s chest; Stitch, Orlando, and Rocky were on the ground, fighting over the popcorn bowl. Jeremy was surprisingly calm after giving up on looking for Natalie, and it put me on edge. Night was sitting in the recliner. Everybody immediately looked up at us.
“Okay, so we need to take a vote.” Issy said, and I felt a little better that she was talking, too. It made me feel like everybody knew that I wasn’t holding a gun to their heads if they didn’t say what I wanted them to say.
Everybody groaned, because they knew what was coming.
“Whoever wants to continue looking for Natalie, raise your hand?” I asked. I raised mine, and Mika and Issy raised theirs. And that was it. Everybody else just looked at us.
Including Jeremy. That was the second strike that put me so close to the edge that I was going to spill over.
“Whoever doesn’t want to continue searching for her, needs to—“
“Pack up their things and leave.” Jeremy cut in. He could tell the bad future, and he beat me to it.
That was the final thing that put me over the edge.
“Since when do you want to stop looking for Natalie, Jeremy? Isn’t she your girlfriend?” I asked. My words were sharp like knives flying at him.
“Well, Gina, look at it this way. It’s been two years since I’ve seen her, I’ve been lonely, so I kind of have … someone else …”
That was enough for me to hear. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and goose flesh ran up my arms. I gritted my teeth and had to count to myself, but it didn’t work. “You get your butt out of here,” I pointed to the fireplace, “before my lucky rabbit’s foot ends up kicking it, you back stabbing, unlovable, little piece of—“
“Gina!” Issy cut in. She wasn’t the one for inappropriate vocabulary.
“Sorry, Issy.” I said to her with sincerity. Then, I turned to Jeremy. “Get out of this house. If you aren’t going to help look for this girl, you don’t deserve a place to live.” I barely whispered, and he cringed at the edginess in my voice.
“It’s not his fault, Gina.” I heard behind me. It was Jess, and she stood up to look at me. “He got lonely, and if two years of not seeing one another doesn’t end a relationship, I don’t know what does.”
My muscles tensed, and I gritted my teeth. How dare she think that this is about the freaking relationship?
She decided to continue, which was a bad idea. “Look around, Gina.” She said, her hands gesturing the group of people standing up, all of which didn’t want to help look for Natalie. “You don’t see any Natalie here, do you? And if she isn’t here, she isn’t anywhere. Now I suggest that you just shut up and let us go on with our lives. Yeah, Jeremy found another girl that he loves. They’re girlfriend and boyfriend now, and there’s nothing that can stop that. Funny thing is, she’s my new best friend.”
“That’s it!” I screamed, and with one swift movement, I whipped around and used the heel of my hand on her nose. I heard a wet snap, and she was bleeding. I punched her in the jaw, and then came another crack. I kneed her in the stomach, and there was a whoosh of air. Then finally, I made a roundhouse kick to her back with my heel. She crumpled to the grounded, bruised, bleeding, and crying.
“Now I want all of you out of this house, because if those blows to your body don’t say that you’re unwelcome, I can let my friends show you how unwelcome you are.” I said through gritted teeth. Isabella and Mika clapped for me, and the rest got the hell out of my way.
When they were all packing, I went up to Night’s room, which she shared with Jess.
I sighed audibly as she and Jess turned around. Jess’ face was bruised and bloodied, and her puffy eyes grew wide and teary, backing against the wall. I smirked at her, stepping in her face and mock-growling, baring my pearly whites. Then, I walked over to Night, who turned back to her packing.
I loudly cleared my throat, and Night spun around, her friendship necklace flying off to the side and hung over her shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going,” I inched closer to her, tugging lightly on her necklace, and mumbling, “best friend?”
“I, uh…” She stammered.
“Do you seriously think that I’m going to let you storm off into the night with a best friend necklace? I’m sorry, I mean, our best friend necklace. Remember that day?” I said, taking my necklace and putting it together with her necklace. I had one half of the heart with the “best” on it. Night had the other half of the heart with the “friend” on it.
“I’m sorry, Gina, I just… don’t know what to say.”
“Oh, I know what to say.” I mumbled. “I gave up my whole life because you wanted an adventure. I was perfectly happy with my old life, old friends, old school, and everything else I had back in Florida. But you couldn’t stand being different and convinced me that we were only going to have each other if we stayed there. I left everything I had because I listened to my best friend.” I pointed to the necklace dangling from her neck. “And now, she’s just going to leave me?” I shook my head and walked away.
By that night, they all had their clothes in their backpacks and ran far away.
§
But what they didn’t know was that somebody was sitting on their roof in tears, watching and listening to the whole thing.
§
I woke up to the sound of footsteps on the roof. They were kind of like a scurrying, but it wasn’t a rodent of any kind. I went downstairs and grabbed a plastic baseball bat out of the closet. I walked outside to the front of the house and saw a shadow round the corner of the house. I followed it, plastic baseball bat in hand. There was someone as dark as a shadow standing at the fence, trying to get into the back patio.
“Hey! Show yourself or else I’ll use this!” I whispered menacingly.
“Calm down, Gina!” The person said. It sounded like Jess, so I raised my bat even more.
“Get out of here, Jess! This isn’t your house! I thought I said last night that you aren’t welcome in this house!”
“I said to calm down!” The person hissed. “And this is my house, thank you very much! Do you know the time? I’ve been flying for hours!”
My mouth was in a gape, and I felt like a fish out of water. “Natalie?”
“God, how long have I been gone?”
“Natalie!” I yelled in a whispery tone, dropping the baseball bat and hugging her tightly.
“It’s good to see you, too. Now, how long have I been gone?”
“Only about two years.”
“I’m 19 already?” She almost shrieked in a whisper. “But how?”
“Where were you?”
“Can we talk about this inside? I have a burned T-shirt and ripped up jeans from God knows what happened and I need to put on different clothes.”
So, I took her inside, put on a pot of coffee, and we sat down in the living room, waiting for the smell of a fresh brew to wake the slumber of a couple long-unseen friends of Natalie.
They felt the explosion through the rustling trees, covered in burning ash already like the combustion burped up chewed food. Fear dilated their eyes and worry buffeted their hearts. It was the hard wind of an upcoming storm nobody wanted to face. They all waited, the tiny spark of hope soon dying as seconds turned to minutes.
“We should go check it out…” Rocky’s voice trailed off, leading the way through the trees.
They soon came to the opening, where the once-was factory was just feet of metal, wood, and ash piled together. Night overlooked the whole scene, spotting Feradeth on his knees. He had one arm wrapped around his chest, coughing and wheezing vigorously. Clouds of ash came out of his mouth, and Gina ran over with a canteen, offering it to him. He took a long swig, and then laid back and sighed, eyes closed in relief.
“What happened to her?” Jeremy whispered, his voice shaking and cracking.
Feradeth’s eyes shot open and started to tear, the memory too painful to speak of. “She…and then they…and then I…and then…” Feradeth tried to explain, but he was still coughing too much for anyone to understand. A little fairy was on his shoulder.
It was Natalie’s fairy.
“What he’s trying to say is,” the fairy started off, “is that the explosion came quick. First, there was a small one, and her eyes turned pitch black. She took us both and threw us out of the door, locking it behind her so that we couldn’t get back in. She said that she had to get something. I don’t know what, though. She was somewhat scary. We banged on the door, but it was no use. We heard the second rumble, and started to run away, but the second explosion threw us instead. It was all too soon, I’m so sorry.”
The fairy started to weep. It sounded like a squeak-like hiccuping coming from her teeny mouth.
Jeremy suddenly ran over to the ash pile and started digging like a dog in a mound of fresh dirt. They all held their breath as they watched on, anticipation and hope filling them up.
Soon, a single human hand rose to the depleted surface. It was camouflaged by being covered in ash. A simultaneous gasp went around the group and a determined Jeremy now was digging like a mad man. He got Orlando, Rocky, Stitch, and Bobby to help him dig. They started pulling on the hand, and a girl, completely doused in ash, appeared. She had wings.
“Natalie!” everybody breathed, a sigh of relief almost shaking the trees. But, the fight wasn’t over yet.
Jeremy put his ear to her chest and hand to her wrist, listening and praying for a small ounce of hope: a pulse. He cursed under his breath, and started to breath into her mouth. Gina sprinted over with the canteen, pouring a large sum of water down her throat. Natalie started to cough and opened her eyes, but they quickly closed again.
“No! Please no, no. Natalie, wake up.” Jeremy was crying. He tried to shake her awake, pushing on her chest again.
“Mm.” Natalie groaned.
“Natalie, come on. Please, I can’t do this again.” Jeremy’s voice started to shake.
“Yes you can. Just five more minutes, I promise I’ll get up.” She mumbled, swatting away everything.
“No, you need to get up now.” Jeremy’s voice was still shaky.
Natalie’s eyes lifted open, and she looked up. “I’m awake, what do you want from me?”
“You need to get on my back. We need to take you to a doctor.” Jeremy told her. There was a trail on his cheek where a tear was.
“Hi, Jeremy.” She mumbled in a breathless tone, and then her body went limp, her eyes closed.
“No!” Jeremy said. His sad eyes flamed with anger, and he whirled around to face Feradeth.
Feradeth’s eyes widened with fear when Jeremy lunged at him. He grabbed his shoulders and pummeled him to the ground. “Why the hell did you listen to her? What is wrong with you?”
“I…I…I had no choice! She did not give me a choice to stay and help or to leave!”
“You have to fight back, use physical violence if you have to, to get her to go somewhere! You know she just wants to be a hero! She just doesn’t know how dangerous it is to be a hero!” Jeremy was screaming now. His face was red and his teeth were gritted so hard, they looked like they would break from any more force.
“I’m sorry, I did not know!”
“You promised me that you would keep her safe! Where’s your promise now?” Jeremy thrashed Feradeth back and forth.
“Hey!” Mika had to practically scream to get them to stop. It took both Issy and Mika to get Jeremy off of Feradeth, and it took the others to hold him back. Jeremy collapsed onto his knees again and buried his head in his hands. His shoulders shook with sobs.
“It’s not Feradeth’s fault, so just leave him alone! When Natalie gets wild, it’s nobody’s fault when she doesn’t listen. I think we all know that, so don’t take it out of Feradeth! He feels bad enough already for…for…” Mika started to choke up and suppressed a sob. She ran off into the forest surrounding the burning opening. Issy called after her, running in the same general direction.
Abruptly breaking all tense feelings on the island, there was a faint sound of helicopter wings slicing through the air and jet planes zooming passed us.
“Run!” Issy screamed, returning with Mika. They bolted in the direction of Eiabba. Obediently, the others followed in a fast pace.
“What about Natalie?” Jeremy yelled back, stopping straight in his tracks and making Rocky and Bobby bump into him.
Jess stopped right beside him. “Um, no offense dude, but it’s either your girlfriend or the rest of our lives.” Jess yelled back, swinging her index finger around in a circle, landing on Jeremy.
Jeremy thought for a moment, and then slowly nodded his head, breaking into a sprint.
A single tear brushed down Jeremy’s cheek and landed on the sand in the shape of a heart.
Chapter 1
The first thing that I heard when my ears started to focus was the quick, heavy footsteps on linoleum floor. First, they were faint, resonating softly through my sheet metal box. I don’t know how long I’ve been here or where I was, but I just knew that the cot I was to sleep on was cold, hard, and hollow. I tried to open my eyes, but the pain in the back of my head made me think otherwise. I just sat there and awaited anything that was coming to me.
Soon, the footsteps were almost deafening. They made the sound of a bull stampede trampling over my ears. Short-tempered and irritated beyond belief, my eyes broke open. The clapping of shoes against the ground numbed the pain. I couldn’t see anybody, but I could sense somebody looking at me.
Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, unfortunately followed by a second set of clumsier footfall.
“Dr. Sagel!” one of them said. It was a young, nasally voice, like a 15-year-old with a sinus infection. “Dr. Sa—“
“Shh!” A deeper, more fatherly voice hushed, noticeably aggravated. In a whisper, he said, “You’ll wake her.”
“Oh, okay.” The young man attempted to whisper. It just came out as a loud shout in a whispery tone, instead. I heard a shuffling of papers, and then the young man blurted out, “They say this one’s dangerous. You better not bother her, if you want to keep your life.”
“Awwh, look at her. She’s curled up on a cot like a little puppy dog.” Dr. Sagel cooed. There was the sound of a lock unlatching—actually, a couple of locks. I forced my eyes closed again.
“Uh, Dr. Sagel!” The young man nervously cautioned. “That’s not a good idea!”
“C’mon, Herman! What could she do to me? She’s under anesthetics! She won’t be able to do anything past sitting up!”
“She blew up one of our main branches!” Herman practically screamed.
I did? I thought.
“She did?” Dr. Sagel said, dumbfounded that I would do such a thing. “Look at her! She looks so innocent!”
I do?
“Alright,” Herman reluctantly gave in to the battle. “But can I come in?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Yes!” He exclaimed, and then added, “I’ve never been around a real girl before.”
Shocker . . . I smiled at this thought.
Another set of steps padded into my box, and then closed the door behind them. Not long after, I felt a stroke on my cheek and a lock of my hair was brushed out of my face. I reopened my eyes to see a man and a younger man hanging over me. The older man had graying brown hair buzzed into a crew cut. A goatee painted his copper face, growing up to his jaw hinges and down under his chin. His eyes were hazel, like a pine tree thrown into a shredder and set out in a circle. He had wrinkles all around his long face, from laugh lines to crow’s feet to stress lines and everything in between.
The kid was obviously a nerdy little crapper. He has those thickly rimmed glasses and messy, blond hair. His face was dotted with freckles. He had a nose that was long and wide and talked with his top lip curled upward. His teeth were behind huge braces, but still growing terribly. He was an all-in-all awkward kid in a lab coat and it scared me to even look at him. Even though that’s horribly mean, it’s the truth.
“How are you going to do it?” Herman asked.
“With love and comfort.” He said in an intelligent voice, like teaching a child how to feed a squirrel out of the palm of its hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a silver sliver of metal attached to a capsule. He wanted a sample of my blood.
Immediately, I stood up, though my head was throbbing with intensity. Both men backed up and smiled at me.
“What a work of art, this one is.” Dr. Sagel said to Herman. “Let’s see your wings, sweetie.”
Oh, I’ll show you my wings, all right. I thought to myself.
My back ached with tense muscles, and my wings longed to be free. I didn’t back. They snapped out and flapped a couple times, and it soothed the pain.
Black feathers floated down to the ground, and I smiled at the relief. When I figured out what they were doing, I had a devious plan involving pain infliction.
“Dr. Sagel, why are her eyes turning red?”
I looked at them, their smiles wipes off their faces.
“Um, I don’t know, Herman, but wouldn’t it be great to get out of here?” Dr. Sagel yelled, and ran toward the door. I leaped after him, landing perfectly two inches behind him. I spun him on his heels, gripping his shoulders tightly. I brought his torso down while my knee was brought upward. Both my knee and his ribcage connected. There were multiple cracks and he fell to the ground with a wheeze.
I jumped over to Herman, who was talking into a device that was far more advanced than a walkie-talkie. He squealed, not knowing I was there. He dropped the device and I swatted it away. It flew across the little chamber and broke into shards. I looked at him, ever so slowly walking toward him. He tried to run in the opposite direction, but I grabbed his arm and flung him across the room. He hit the wall and crumpled to the ground, groaning at the pain.
I looked at my cage, trying to find a way out. There were a couple walls, so I chose the one in the front. I repetitively bashed my fist against the sheet metal, the thin build breaking easily. Faintly, I heard the creek of a door.
Oh no, I thought to myself. I could’ve used the door? It was open the whole time? Well, so much for not making a scene.
I climbed through the big gash in the chamber, folding in my wings for safety. I then stood in a tall, white tower made of painted-over bricks. At the very top, try 20 feet over my five-foot-nine body, were gigantic windows that had light spilling over. I couldn’t believe that I was in a fluorescently bright room after being in a pitch-black cage for God knows how long.
Sirens suddenly blared, ringing in my ears, and red lights flashed, almost blinding me. Thickset men poured into the room by the hundreds, all carrying guns, arrows, or the occasional tranquilizer. I was surrounded, and every lethal mean was held up almost to my head.
That’s when I had a flashback that almost killed.
“What’s a pretty girl like you doing in an abandoned town like this?”
“I just . . . got lost.”
“This is a bad place to get lost, sweetie.”
“I need to get home.”
“You ain’t goin’ no where, little girl.”
“You can’t do this!”
“Oh, but we can. You won’t feel a thing. Just a, just a little pressure. Then, it’ll be like you’ve fallen asleep. And don’t struggle.”
“Jess! Issy! Mika! Help me!”
“Are those little friends that you think will help you?”
“ . . . No, they aren’t my friends.”
I heard a loud growl, like a cat of some kind, and the trigger was pulled. There was a thud on the ground and a moaning sound.
“He’s a freak!”
I opened my eyes to see Jeremy lying on the ground, clutching one arm. Blood was leaking out between each finger. “Don’t kill her!” He yelled, moaning on the ground. “Don’t shoot her! Shoot me instead!”
“No, kill me, I deserve to die.”
“Natalie! Natalie no!”
I screamed, suddenly feeling suffocated and tired. I looked around at all of the men. They looked at each other, confused, and then smiles formed on their overgrown faces. Satan poured out of their teeth and reached their eyes. There was no way out of this, nowhere to go except up.
Up.
I snapped out my wings, throwing men off their balance and shot upward. I bolted into the air like the bullets that were whizzing passed my ears. Suddenly, there was a large capsule-like bullet flying at me, and a needle suddenly popped up. I gasped, wondering what it was going to do. It dug its needle deep into my black and purple feathers, and my maroon-colored blood filling up the capsule. It then dropped when the weight of my vital fluid was too much to hold into the air. The needle was still implanted in my feathers and causing me an enormous amount of pain. I pulled out the needle and swooped down, grasping the descending capsule. I swooped back up, this time gaining enough speed to break the sound barrier, and a circular cloud followed behind me. I broke through the window at the top of the tower, shards of glass exploding everywhere.
I was on my way home, wherever it was. My instincts kicked in, and I turned to where I was pulled the most: North. I looked at the tube of blood in my hand, turned it in my palm, musing about what they were going to do with my blood.
They could’ve wanted to make a clone of me, I thought, and then quickly shook my head to diminish the thought. They obviously couldn’t have, because our Creator wouldn’t allow it. There could’ve been tens of hundreds of possibilities, but I had to focus on flying, so there wasn’t any time to think of possibilities. Actually, what I was mostly focused on was how I got to where I was.
Soon, like an augury, an explosion happened down below, and fiery colors of orange and yellow and black ash erupted high into the sky. I felt the heat from here, and I was blown off course a little.
Then a flashback buffeted my head.
I smelled burning gasoline, so I knew there was an explosion coming soon.
“My liege!” Feradeth yelled. He ran back in and stood by my side.
“What are you doing? Get out of here! You’re going to get yourself killed!”
“As long as I am protecting you, I will be okay.” He told me.
“Get out of here!” I repeated. I pushed him, but he pushed back. “It’s not your fate to die for the world! It’s mine! I need to die for the world! Go!” I punched one in the stomach as he sliced the head off of an Ion.
“I will not leave your side! I promised your beloved that I would protect you.” He cut the head off of another Ion.
“You don’t understand! I have the destiny to die for my planet!”
“Then I will die with you.”
I looked at him. “You’re just nonnegotiable today, are you?”
“Look, your beloved doesn’t want you to die, so I promised I would prevent it.”
There was an orange flash, a burst of hot fumes, and then everything went black.
I gasped at the cruel memory that flooded my thoughts, and shivered.
So, that’s how I wound up at that God forsaken place? But, wouldn’t my friends rescue me? I thought to myself. Maybe they left me there, or the explosion threw me into the water, and they couldn’t find me. Yeah, that’s probably it.
I wish I knew all of this, but that’s something that’ll have to be explained when I get home.
Home.
Do I still have a home? Or was it moved? It made me even more determined to get to where I used to live. But where was that again? I’ll just have to follow where I’m most drawn.
Chapter 2
It’s been two years since Natalie had been abandoned at that island. I never understood why we left her. She would never leave us, why would we leave her? Selfishness, that’s the answer. How could we be so selfish to one girl that has died for us twice?
For two painstaking years, we have been looking for her until our eyes were strained and bags implanted themselves under our eyes, dark and bruised. We fought off enemy after enemy, even went to the land of Eternal Death to find her, giving up our lives to look for her, the guilt of not saving her in the first place ate us until we couldn’t take it.
For her birthday every year that she was gone, we’d cry over her bed, hoping that she’d magically appear in our loving arms. But she never did. I just wished I could do something to save her, something to get her back, something to make the guilt fade away. But guilt never goes away unless that person is found, which it isn’t.
It was the middle of August when the truth finally surfaced on everybody. Before then, Isabel, Mika, Night, and I got everybody else up at the crack of stinking dawn out of routine to find our long lost friend. We’d search for her from that time until dusk, then falling asleep at midnight, or around that time.
But, anyway, it was one day that shattered my heart when I started to wake everyone up. I went into Jessica’s room and plopped down on her bed, whispering, “It’s that time again, Jessica.”
Instead of moaning and groaning, but reluctantly waking up, she sat up, looked me straight in the eyes, and mumbled, “Let’s give up. It’s hopeless; we’ve been looking for her since the week after we left her. I’m sick of her dying, coming back to life, and then dying again, and then when we’ve cried all we could cry, she magically comes back into our lives, and we cry even more and make her swear on her life that she won’t leave us again, but it’s all just promises she can’t keep!
“Not only is it hard for her, but it’s hard for us too, because our hearts are mended together by her just so she can rip them up again!” She continued. “And, it’s not that I don’t love the girl like my own sister, but, it’s like she’s doing this just to get us to pay attention to her! She’s always the headliner of our lives, the most important one, and I’m sick and tired of being in the shadow of a girl that can’t keep her life for more than three years!”
I shook my head and realized that I was crying to hear this. It couldn’t be happening, this was all just a scary nightmare. I was going to wake up and we were going to find Natalie that day.
“But which one is the real dream, Gina?” I heard behind me. Issy was standing in the door, and I remembered that she could read minds. “Is it the dream that everybody’s giving up, or is the real dream lying in the wishful thinking that Natalie is going to magically appear in our arms one day? Life only has so many miracles, Gina. Once we run out, it’s over. Maybe our Creator is telling us that our miracles have run dry.”
“We make the miracles happen, Isabella. We have the control on life.” I put edge in my voice to show my irritation.
“Do we, Gina?” Issy moved closer, and sat on Jess’ bed with her arms folded. She stood about as tall as I did, so it was hard to make myself more intimidating by standing up. “Just think about it. When we were born, our God gives us one, maybe two miracles in our lives. We also get one angel sent down from Heaven, and we call them best friends, lovers, even sisters. They were born as mortals for our lives, to help us get out of some of the hardest decision in our lives.
“Believe it or not, Gina, our God gives us some of the strongest people in the world. They don’t have to be wearing a crown to be recognized as the strongest people in the world. You just … know. If Natalie were as strong as we believe she is, she’ll make it out of this one, she wouldn’t need our help to get out of it. If she isn’t we’ll know our God has faked us out, and we have to find another person that is our hero.
“Just think about it, Gina. Let life be life, let death be death, and let people find destiny. It’s the way fate is.” Then she got up, yawned, and walked back into her room to sleep.
Jess looked at me for a minute, then took her hand and delicately raised my chin. “You’ve got to admit, she won that battle.” Then she took me in her arms and recited a song that Natalie loved and lived by.
I just got so tired, I passed out right in her bed, and I guess Jess didn’t mind, because I woke up that day at 10:00 at night.
I woke up crying, though. Tears were spilling out of my eyes and running down my cheeks onto a pillow. I wailed and moaned and sobbed, not being able to control myself.
And, the weirdest thing was, I felt like I was five years old again. I used my fist to wipe the tears and was curled up in a ball against the lavender-painted wall and all I wanted to do was cry. I wanted to pull my covers over my head, the way I did when I was little when I believed that there were monsters in the dark.
Mika came bucking up the stairs and bolted into the room. She wrapped her long arms around me and we both cried out of guilt, out of anguish, and out of mourning. I think we both realized how selfish we were being.
No, I think we realized how selfish everybody else was being.
“Mika?” I sniffled.
“Yeah?” She cried back, drawing in a shaky breath.
“Are we the ones that are being selfish? Or are they?”
“They are, definitely. I can’t take it! We have to find Natalie; we can’t just leave her out there! What if she’s not dead? What if she’s just trapped in some place where their idea of her is that she’s a creature? What if they’re only giving her stale bread and stale water?”
I giggled a little. “ Mika, water doesn’t go stale.”
She looked at me with a confused look. “Oh yeah.” She said. “But think about it. She could be alive, but she could be suffering right now. They may be torturing her! They may be chaining her to poles and…” she looked around, and then brought me real close. She whispered in a serious voice, “They could be making her eat Gorgonzola cheese.”
I giggled a little more. “Oh no, not Gorgonzola!” I exclaimed, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“You see? We can’t just sit here and let her suffer while we eat non-moldy cheese!”
“Huh, you’re right. Not that it’s the cheese’s fault.” I answered.
“Why do you have to take the cheese’s side of things?”
“I’m not, I’m being considerate of the cheese’s feelings!”
I guess it was something that was over-the-top stupid, even for Mika. She looked at me with eyebrows furrowed. “Cheese doesn’t have feelings. It’s just loyal to whom it is serving. Well, until it turns bad, than it’s evil.”
“Point taken.” I said.
“So, what are going to do?”
“Let’s get Issy up here.” I answered, and then sent a telepathic message to her.
Immediately, Issy came walking up the steps and into the room. “I heard everything you guys said to each other, and couldn’t help but laugh at the stupidity of it all. It made me look awkward down there while we were watching a sad scene of a romance movie.”
“Well, we got you out of that one, didn’t we?” I asked, looking up at her with my purple eyes.
“Yeah, you did. What’s up?”
“We still feel guilty over Natalie.”
“Yeah, I do too. It’s killing me, and I don’t know what to do.”
“How about we kick them out of the house?” Mika asked. At first, we were going to burst out laughing. But then, it started to make sense.
“That’s actually a great idea, Mika. Since they aren’t loyal to Natalie, then they don’t deserve to live in her house. The funny thing is, they cheated. They used her mom’s money to keep up the house, told them, with Natalie’s voice,” I emphasized. Since the two years had passed, Night learned how to duplicate voices. “That Natalie didn’t want them out to see her anymore, just so they can stay in the house themselves.” I said logically.
“When they don’t even want to help look for the owner of the house, they’re staying in the owner’s house. That’s just not fair!” Issy said, finally getting it.
And it clicked to all three of us. The opposing had to leave and the agreeing could stay. We weren’t going to give up on our best friend. Not now, not ever.
We walked down the stairs and into the living room, where everybody was gathered.
“We all need to talk.” I said, and pressed pause on the movie they were watching.
Jess was lying back on Bobby’s chest; Stitch, Orlando, and Rocky were on the ground, fighting over the popcorn bowl. Jeremy was surprisingly calm after giving up on looking for Natalie, and it put me on edge. Night was sitting in the recliner. Everybody immediately looked up at us.
“Okay, so we need to take a vote.” Issy said, and I felt a little better that she was talking, too. It made me feel like everybody knew that I wasn’t holding a gun to their heads if they didn’t say what I wanted them to say.
Everybody groaned, because they knew what was coming.
“Whoever wants to continue looking for Natalie, raise your hand?” I asked. I raised mine, and Mika and Issy raised theirs. And that was it. Everybody else just looked at us.
Including Jeremy. That was the second strike that put me so close to the edge that I was going to spill over.
“Whoever doesn’t want to continue searching for her, needs to—“
“Pack up their things and leave.” Jeremy cut in. He could tell the bad future, and he beat me to it.
That was the final thing that put me over the edge.
“Since when do you want to stop looking for Natalie, Jeremy? Isn’t she your girlfriend?” I asked. My words were sharp like knives flying at him.
“Well, Gina, look at it this way. It’s been two years since I’ve seen her, I’ve been lonely, so I kind of have … someone else …”
That was enough for me to hear. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and goose flesh ran up my arms. I gritted my teeth and had to count to myself, but it didn’t work. “You get your butt out of here,” I pointed to the fireplace, “before my lucky rabbit’s foot ends up kicking it, you back stabbing, unlovable, little piece of—“
“Gina!” Issy cut in. She wasn’t the one for inappropriate vocabulary.
“Sorry, Issy.” I said to her with sincerity. Then, I turned to Jeremy. “Get out of this house. If you aren’t going to help look for this girl, you don’t deserve a place to live.” I barely whispered, and he cringed at the edginess in my voice.
“It’s not his fault, Gina.” I heard behind me. It was Jess, and she stood up to look at me. “He got lonely, and if two years of not seeing one another doesn’t end a relationship, I don’t know what does.”
My muscles tensed, and I gritted my teeth. How dare she think that this is about the freaking relationship?
She decided to continue, which was a bad idea. “Look around, Gina.” She said, her hands gesturing the group of people standing up, all of which didn’t want to help look for Natalie. “You don’t see any Natalie here, do you? And if she isn’t here, she isn’t anywhere. Now I suggest that you just shut up and let us go on with our lives. Yeah, Jeremy found another girl that he loves. They’re girlfriend and boyfriend now, and there’s nothing that can stop that. Funny thing is, she’s my new best friend.”
“That’s it!” I screamed, and with one swift movement, I whipped around and used the heel of my hand on her nose. I heard a wet snap, and she was bleeding. I punched her in the jaw, and then came another crack. I kneed her in the stomach, and there was a whoosh of air. Then finally, I made a roundhouse kick to her back with my heel. She crumpled to the grounded, bruised, bleeding, and crying.
“Now I want all of you out of this house, because if those blows to your body don’t say that you’re unwelcome, I can let my friends show you how unwelcome you are.” I said through gritted teeth. Isabella and Mika clapped for me, and the rest got the hell out of my way.
When they were all packing, I went up to Night’s room, which she shared with Jess.
I sighed audibly as she and Jess turned around. Jess’ face was bruised and bloodied, and her puffy eyes grew wide and teary, backing against the wall. I smirked at her, stepping in her face and mock-growling, baring my pearly whites. Then, I walked over to Night, who turned back to her packing.
I loudly cleared my throat, and Night spun around, her friendship necklace flying off to the side and hung over her shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going,” I inched closer to her, tugging lightly on her necklace, and mumbling, “best friend?”
“I, uh…” She stammered.
“Do you seriously think that I’m going to let you storm off into the night with a best friend necklace? I’m sorry, I mean, our best friend necklace. Remember that day?” I said, taking my necklace and putting it together with her necklace. I had one half of the heart with the “best” on it. Night had the other half of the heart with the “friend” on it.
“I’m sorry, Gina, I just… don’t know what to say.”
“Oh, I know what to say.” I mumbled. “I gave up my whole life because you wanted an adventure. I was perfectly happy with my old life, old friends, old school, and everything else I had back in Florida. But you couldn’t stand being different and convinced me that we were only going to have each other if we stayed there. I left everything I had because I listened to my best friend.” I pointed to the necklace dangling from her neck. “And now, she’s just going to leave me?” I shook my head and walked away.
By that night, they all had their clothes in their backpacks and ran far away.
§
But what they didn’t know was that somebody was sitting on their roof in tears, watching and listening to the whole thing.
§
I woke up to the sound of footsteps on the roof. They were kind of like a scurrying, but it wasn’t a rodent of any kind. I went downstairs and grabbed a plastic baseball bat out of the closet. I walked outside to the front of the house and saw a shadow round the corner of the house. I followed it, plastic baseball bat in hand. There was someone as dark as a shadow standing at the fence, trying to get into the back patio.
“Hey! Show yourself or else I’ll use this!” I whispered menacingly.
“Calm down, Gina!” The person said. It sounded like Jess, so I raised my bat even more.
“Get out of here, Jess! This isn’t your house! I thought I said last night that you aren’t welcome in this house!”
“I said to calm down!” The person hissed. “And this is my house, thank you very much! Do you know the time? I’ve been flying for hours!”
My mouth was in a gape, and I felt like a fish out of water. “Natalie?”
“God, how long have I been gone?”
“Natalie!” I yelled in a whispery tone, dropping the baseball bat and hugging her tightly.
“It’s good to see you, too. Now, how long have I been gone?”
“Only about two years.”
“I’m 19 already?” She almost shrieked in a whisper. “But how?”
“Where were you?”
“Can we talk about this inside? I have a burned T-shirt and ripped up jeans from God knows what happened and I need to put on different clothes.”
So, I took her inside, put on a pot of coffee, and we sat down in the living room, waiting for the smell of a fresh brew to wake the slumber of a couple long-unseen friends of Natalie.
