Shadows in the Dark (14 page)

Nick

As we walked through the trees and
out of the forest, we all looked around. Life seemed to have
continued on. Cars drove by. Businesses kept on running. Everything
seemed normal.

We could hear the sirens in the
distance as the fire department headed for the woods. The thick,
black smoke still rose from the trees and into the clouds. A
reminder of what I did.

“
So... where do we go now?” Luke
asked. I looked back at him and smiled.

“
I think,” I said, “it’s time we
part ways.” Luke closed his eyes, but knew it was coming. “As much
as it hurts, we need to put this all behind us. We need to restart
our lives.” Karen nodded her head at me. “In order to do that, we
need to leave each other. We need to pretend this never happened.
If we do that, it’s possible that we can be normal.”

“
Yeah,” Karen said. “I’ve been
thinking about it on the way here. I can get an apartment someplace
and get a job. Sure, it’s not the best. But we can get by.
Right?”

“
Well,” Luke said. “I can’t go back
home. After what happened at the school, I don’t think I can show
my face there again.” He sighed and exchanged looks at Karen and I.
“It’ll be tough to start over, but it won’t be
impossible.”

We stood there in silence for a
while, not wanting to say goodbye.

“
I don’t think we should just
completely forget about each other,” Karen said. “We should stay in
touch, just in case something ever happens to one of us.” Her voice
started to tremble and a tear dripped from her eye.

“
We have a bond like nothing else.
Though I wasn’t here for long, I feel like I’ve known you guys for
a long time.”

Luke looked at me and I could see
the sadness wallow up in his throat.

“
I think she’s right,” he said. “We
shouldn’t just forget about each other. Especially after that.” He
stuck his hand out, and I took it, pulling him in and hugging him.
Karen wrapped her arms around us, and we stayed like that for the
longest time.

“
Okay,” Karen said, sniffling and
wiping her eyes. “I guess this is... goodbye.” She hugged each of
us one more time, smiled a sad smile, then slowly turned and walked
the other direction. Luke and I watched her until she was
completely gone. It actually made me sad to see that.

Then, Luke and I
met eyes.
This
was going to be tough.

“
Well,” I said. “Take care of
yourself, you hear?” He smiled and hugged me tight. I patted his
back as he let go. “If you need anything, just give me a call. I’ll
be over there to burn the place up.” We both laughed.

“
Nick... I can’t thank you enough,”
he told me.

“
For what?”

“
For making me see that I wasn’t
alone in this world. You made me realize that I can be myself. You
were a true friend to me. I will never forget what we went through,
no matter how much you want me to.”

I grabbed his shoulder and felt
the sadness in my throat now.

“
You can’t even
imagine how relieved I was when I met you. When I saw that I wasn’t
the only one, every bit of sadness and loneliness
disappeared.
You
were the true friend. I can’t even begin to thank
you.”

We hugged again, and I felt the
tears drip down my face. When he let go, he looked at me and
smiled. Then he turned and walked away, crossing the street. When
he got to the other side, he looked back at me. We met eyes for the
last time, and he continued walking.

Let’s get one
thing straight. What we could do didn’t make us different. The way
we viewed life and the world is what made us who we are. The fact
that I could create fire, Luke could shoot lightning, and Karen
had
Telekinesis wasn’t important. We
weren’t dangerous, we weren’t evil, and we weren’t
freaks.

We were special.

…
..