I glanced over at her, standing over by the others. Julia leant down with Sam, Alex and Will were passing out, and Alannah just stared me down. The tears ran rampantly down her face, and she seemed so scared. So frightened. Not of Malek, not for the others, but… of me.
“Don’t do this!” she shrieked. “Please!”
I hesitated, but then she began to fade once more from my eyes, and I scowled, looking back to Malek.
“NO!” I snarled.
Alannah ran over, and put her hand on my chest. With her other, she tried to pull my right arm down by the shoulder. It must have hurt– it must have burned– but she still tried. When it wouldn’t work, she grabbed my face, and turned it toward her own.
“JASON RHODES, YOU LOOK AT ME!” she shouted.
As afraid as she seemed to be, Alannah stared me dead in the eyes, and slowly, my vision faded from the burning white hue back to normal. I saw her before me, and she kept on staring. She shook, she cried, and she probably had no clue what was about to happen, but she kept staring me down.
“This is not who you are…!” she pleaded, her voice barely escaping as a whisper.
She grabbed the back of my head, and pulled it down against her own. I shut my eyes, and released the energy from my hand. It dispersed into the air and down my now-scarred and burnt right arm, and I dropped it down to my side.
“I know who you are…” Alannah whispered. “Please, Jason… don’t forget who you are…!”
We stayed like that for only a moment longer. When I pulled away, Malek still held up by my left arm, I glanced around at what was left of the scattered crowd before me. They looked terrified. People fell to the ground, watching in pure shock and awe at every move I made, everything I’d become.
Malek wheezed and coughed up blood, regaining my attention. I glanced at Alannah one more time, and then, without a word, I floated up into the air with Malek in my grasp.
We soared high above the clouds, up until we were far into the atmosphere, practically in the exosphere, and then, when we were truly alone, I stopped.
I released Malek, and held him in place by my self-sustained gravity. His eyes struggled to stay open, but he still found it in him to scoff at me.
“You can’t even bring yourself to kill me in front of them,” he said. “Pathetic… You are m-more than them… Y-You, Jason, are–”
“No,” I said. “I’m not.”
The skies hardly touched us up here. It was cold, and the stars practically sat all around us. The moon hung high above us, and it seemed every one of the lights up above waited to see what happened next, twinkling in fascination, sitting perfectly still, just like us.
Fireworks went off far below us off in the distance. Life went on, unphased by the life-altering event everyone else just went through. Life trudged on, and the light show lit up the skies beneath us in all sorts of neon hues.
“Everything I am, I am because of them,” I said.
“Because of me…” Malek insisted. “I-I made…made you…!” I shook my head, and glanced down at the world below us. My world.
“They make me better than I could ever be on my own. They accept me for who I am, and show me how to be better. They make it worth being better.”
“Better than them.”
“No. Better than me.”
“Jason… you are alone. Y-You will never know t-true peace, I promise you… I wanted…I wanted to fix this, for both of us…!”
“Don’t call me Jason,” I said, holding my hand out toward Malek. “We’re not friends; we’re not equals. You can call me the Wanderer.”
“Jason–”
“And we’re finished here.”
I focused, not on anything that had happened tonight– not on anything that happened the last however many months– but simply on power. My power, and Malek’s. Everything it was, as best I understood it, and everything it was capable of.
Slowly, golden light began to escape my hand, and wrap itself around Malek’s tattered body like bandages. It surrounded him, and he gasped at the warmth that surrounded him, until it completely encased his body.
After a few moments, the light returned to me, and in Malek’s place, there was nothing.
Once it all slipped back into place, I shut my eyes, and breathed in deep. There wasn’t a whole lot of air up here anyway, but damn, was it hard to do.
I fell back toward the earth, and my vision once more slipped out of my grasp. This time though, I didn’t fight it; I just fell, letting the winds wrap themselves about my body as I cut through their skies, and at last, I crashed into the ground.
It sounded pretty intense, and a lot of people screamed, I think, but I couldn’t fight it any longer.
And so, I passed out.
15
Reunion
Let me tell you something. I am getting really tired of waking up in places that aren’t explicitly my bed. Especially after blacking out; I can only imagine this is a lot what being drunk is like, only the “hangover” as it were is about a hundred times worse.
I was in Alex’s room, laid down on top of his bed. Which was really surprising because, you know, it was Alex. Look, I loved the guy, but he could be real fickle sometimes, you know what I mean?
My chest was still chestplate-less, and it looked gross. Most of the wounds had healed, but there were a lot of scars running all across it. Not to mention– forget my chest, my right arm was screwed!
From wrist to elbow, the whole thing was covered in burn marks and kind of ruined skin. It healed as best it could, but I literally held a mini-sun in my hand I think, so this would probably be a permanent thing. Which kind of sucked.
Otherwise though, I was looking a lot better. I had no clue how long I’d been out for, but the Wanderer title came with pretty decent health insurance, so it looked like I was being taken care of. My head felt all healed up, the bones in my body had more or less mended, and breathing only kind of still hurt, so that was a pretty big improvement.
I was also in nothing but my underwear, which was… odd.
I looked around the room, and nearly jumped out my skin when I saw Alex sitting right next to me, half-asleep.
“Oh my God– Jesus Christ dude, what are you doing!?” I shouted. Alex woke right up, and fidgeted around in his seat a little himself.
“Ah, I’m awake!” he said. Then he saw me staring at him, and partially calmed down, and yet somehow also partially freaked out. “Jason!” he said. “You’re awake!”
“Yeah, we’re both awake!” I said. “What is going on, Alex?” Then everything kind of hit me when I noticed that he was in a cast. His head was wrapped up, and his right wrist must have been broken. “Alex… are you okay? W-What about the others!? Are-Are they all–!?”
“They’re fine, everybody’s fine,” he assured me, settling me back onto my back. “I just have a concussion and a broken wrist– I got off pretty easy, honestly. Will too; concussion and a broken leg. He should be off crutches in a couple months.”
“How did… what happened?” I asked. Alex leaned in a little, and looked at me curiously.
“What do you remember?”
“Well…” I said, reaching back. “I fought Malek, lost pretty badly at first, and then he broke Sam’s– wait, Sam! How is Sam!? W-Where is he!?”
“Slow down, slow down. One thing at a time,” Alex said. “He’s alive, but, keep going.”
“Okay…” I said, taking a breath. “I went cosmic–”
“That’s what you call that?”
“Not bad, right?”
“Eh, it’s not the worst.”
“Right, so I did that, and I…I won, right?” I said. Alex nodded. “We went up into the sky, and then… honestly, I don’t remember what happened after that.”
“After that,” Alex explained, “you shot back into the street like a meteor, made this humongous crater, and your body was practically on fire. I mean like, literally dude, it was steaming. Someone called the cops, I called my
mom, and she came back from the hospital with a few other nurses to take care of everyone else.” Right, his mom was a nurse; I always forgot that.
“Everyone else?”
“Alannah said we just needed to make you an ice bath or something, cool you down. So we did.”
“We, huh?” I said, smirking. “You telling me you were the one to dress me down, then? I’m flattered.”
“Yeah, no,” Alex shut down. “That was Alannah, actually.” That was a face-blusher, right there. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“A-Alright, well,” I tried to wave off. Unsuccessfully, mind you. “So your mom and the nurses took care of everyone else… they didn’t see me, did they?”
“Well, see, that’s where it gets kind of complicated,” Alex said. Awesome.
“Awesome…” I muttered.
“These two guys in suits, and a bunch of scientists, they all rolled up instead of the cops. They dealt with all the clean up, insisted to everyone at the party that they were incredibly mistaken about what they’d seen– some big, burly looking dude tried to scare the shit out of them about how he could make the whole grade disappear and no one would bat an eyelash.” Classic Bentley, my number one fan. “And then the other guy– kind of older, I guess– questioned me and the gang; well, Sam was out cold too, but he talked to the rest of us.”
“And he just let you go?” I asked. Alex nodded. “And he let you keep me?”
“He said he had faith you’d wake up, and he knew well enough not to ‘tear you away from us at this point’ or something.” Shoutout to Bell, my real number one fan. “He let us keep the chestplate thing, too. Not a back brace, apparently.”
“Uh… yeah, no,” I said. “Sorry about that.”
“Yeah… I’m over it,” Alex waved off, chuckling a little. I did the same, but quickly faded back into silence, thinking over the whole story.
“The nurses never stepped inside the room. I had to tell my mom, but I mean… I trust her, you know?” Alex said.
“Yeah, yeah that’s… don’t worry about it, it’s fine,” I agreed. “Alex… how is Sam?”
Alex stiffened up a little, and glanced out the window.
“Sam uh… he’s fine, really, but uh…” he stammered. “I don’t know how hard ‘Malek’ or whatever must have been gripping him, but his arm was ruined, dude, like totally gone. He… had to lose it.”
“What?” I asked, sitting upright again. “He lost his arm?” Alex nodded, and I fell back against my pillow clenching my eyes shut. “Jesus Christ… this is all my fault.”
“Hey!” Alex barked, grabbing my attention. “I’m only saying this once, so listen up, but this was not your fault, Jason. You saved like, fifty people, and beat some crazy alien dude on your own; you practically died for us, dude! We got hurt because we tried to do the same for you– not because we had to take your glory, but because we’re a family, Jason. We take care of each other, no matter what.”
I smiled a little, and tried to hold back the tears sliding to the corners of my eyes. I really didn’t deserve these people, I’m telling you.
“So, where is everyone, then?” I asked. “I mean, they all made it home alright, right?”
“Oh, no, they’re all here,” Alex said. Way to nonchalantly, by the way.
“They’re what?” I said, sitting upright again. I really needed to stop doing that, it was no good for my back. “What do you mean they’re all here?”
“They’ve been sitting around waiting for you. I mean we had to go to the hospital at first, so it was just you and Alannah for a few hours that night, but yeah, we’ve just been waiting around here in shifts pretty much every day.”
“Every day?” I repeated. “Wait, Alex, how long have I been out?”
“Oh, like four days.”
“Four– WHAT!?”
“Dude, I don’t know, you’re the one with the superpowers, you tell me.”
I leant back into the bed, and cupped my face in my hands. Jeez Louise, four days? That’s crazy! That’s like, more than half the week!
I took a deep, heavy breath, and stared up at the ceiling in awe. Alex just kind of chuckled, and I glanced over at him.
“What?” I asked. He shook his head, smiling.
“I just… all my life, you’ve been one of the weirdest people I’ve ever known,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. And now, with all this… You truly are a sight to behold, my friend.”
“Yeah, well…” I shrugged. “Normal’s overrated, right?”
“I’d say so,” Alex nodded. “Alright, you want to see the others? How do you want to do this? You wanna have them all rush in, you wanna go down and see them? One at a time? What’s up?”
“Send Alannah in, I uh… I need to talk to her,” I said. Alex nodded, and got up out of his seat. “Oh, but Alex!” I said, stopping him at the door. “Don’t tell her I’m awake. Just like, swap shifts or whatever.”
Alex nodded, and gave me a little thumbs up. With that, he walked out of the room, and down the stairs. I just shut my eyes, nestling back onto the bed, and taking in all the new information.
Sounds like it was quite the clean up for the U.S.B. and crew, but to no surprise they handled it pretty well. The rest of the school might be buzzing next year with all kinds of gossip that I’m a superhero, but I mean… whatever, right? Maybe a positive rumor about me for once could do some good.
Alannah walked in, and I kept perfectly still. I had a plan, you see.
She shut the door behind her, and sat down in the chair next to me. She already welled up with tears, and put her hand down on my arm.
“Jason…” she whispered. “Come on, please wake up. Please… We need– I need you to wake up.”
She slid her hand up to my head, and lightly stroked my hair across the side of my head. And as she breathes out shaky little breaths, I slowly slid one hand up to her wrist, and the other quickly over to her face.
Alannah shot her eyes open, and stared at me in shock.
“Jason!?” she said.
“Hey,” I replied.
And then, just like that, I leaned up and kissed her. She looked a little scared at first, which was not good, but then she fell into it, and closed her eyes. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about kissing, but the whole closed eyes deal is pretty world-renowned as good, right?
She pulled back, and smiled.
“Took you long enough, you idiot,” she said. Yep, it was good.
Then, she may or may not have hopped onto the bed with me, and we may or may not have continued kissing for… a while. Maybe. Who’s to say?
All I know is that like twenty minutes later we made our way downstairs. Oh, and I took a pair of Alex’s pants and a hoodie, since, you know, I was practically naked.
Now let me paint the scene for you in terms of how this house is laid out. So there’s the stairs from the first to the second floor– that’s where Alannah and I were– and they lead right to the front door. To the right of that is the living room, and the last like third of the staircase has no wall, right? So once I’d made it to said point on the stairs, everyone else saw me, and all hell broke loose.
“Jason!” Julia shouted.
“You son of a bitch, I knew he was awake!” Will said, hobbling over on his crutches.
I hardly made my way down the rest of the stairs before I was rampaged by these two. Julia wrapped her arms around me, and nestled her head into my chest.
“I’m so happy you’re okay,” she whispered. “Jason, I…I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Jules. I’m alright.” I assume she meant like, you know, “sorry your life was such a fustercluck for so long.” I mean after all, she did nothing wrong.
“So, all those talks about whether the Wanderer was a human or not, and you never step in to prove me right?” Will said, chuckling. I roped him into a hug as well, and just laughed a little.
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“Sorry buddy,” I said. “I’m all about it now, though.”
“Well, whole lot of good that’ll do me; the whole school knows now already!” he said.
“Hey, they were all drunk and high out of their minds, remember?” Alex said. “Electrical surge, everyone’s phones died that night? We’ve got no clue, stupid.”
I saw Sam standing in the center of the room, too nervous to walk over, and immediately I pushed through everyone else– sorry Will– to see him. They all saw me do it, and everyone grew quiet.
He had a bandage around the stub where his arm used to be. It literally was just a small bit of arm after his shoulder, and that was it. It broke my heart to see him like that, and I instantly started crying, as did he.
“I told you it’d be a better time if you came,” he said.
I just gave a half-hearted chuckle, and wrapped him in the biggest bear hug I was capable of giving. He wrapped his arm around me, and we just sat there, crying like a bunch of babies for a minute or so.
“I’m so…so sorry,” I muttered. “I just… Sam, you’re… I love you, man. You know that, right? I just…I… You’re my–”
“I know,” he said. “I… me too, for you.”
We hugged tight one more time, and then I stepped back, wiping my eyes.
“Cool, not like I wanted something like that, whatever,” Will said. I chuckled, and looked all around the room at my friends, my people. My family.
Also, my chestplate, apparently. It sat on the couch, no lights on or anything. The center button was totally turned off. It was just a big hunk of metal for all intents and purposes.
“You guys just sat with this for four days?” I asked, picking it up.
“What else were we gonna do, slap it on top of you?” Alex said. “I’m not touching that thing– it’s alien, dude!”
I shook my head, and held it firmly in my hand.
“Can you get it to work again, Jason?” Julia asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It was supposed to be with me until I died, but uh… hold on.”
The Wanderer (Book 1): The Wanderer Page 19