by Aaron Slade
Forming the words on my tongue was difficult, but I pushed myself to return the words that had changed my life. “I love you.” Hearing the words, her aura flowered to life. The cyan cloud surrounded both of us. My amber aura surrounded us as well, but our auras didn’t combine to make the pearl color for some reason.
Evee’s skin turned cold as she shook more violently, and she smiled, staring at something in the air. “I can see it.”
“See what?” I asked.
“Your– Your aura,” she managed. She stared at the air around my body and I knew she really was seeing it. “I– I can see it… It’s beautiful.” Her smile widened and she closed her eyes. The astonishing eyes that I had fallen for turned lifeless right in front of me. She raised her hand up as if to soak in the warmth of the golden light of my aura. Her icy hand found my cheek. “Thank… you… for showing me…” Her aura extinguished, and then returned with a brief flash. The cyan cloud evaporated into the air around me - gone.
Her body remained still and her breathing stopped.
I let out a horrendous howl that compensated for the trapped emotion behind my eyes. Everything went blurry, but I could see a light growing brighter. Reality tore away from me, and I couldn’t focus. My mind drifted in and out of consciousness. I heard the people surrounding me gasp, and blindness took me. I held onto Evee’s body, my fingers brushing her hand’s soft skin.
She was gone. And so was Adam.
LIFE AND DEATH
Casper:
My aura filled the area around me with its amber hues– the light was bright enough to wake me. My eyes weren’t prepared for the unfamiliar room. I began to panic when I didn’t know where I was, but then I saw the oversized poster of Jimi Hendrix and another of The Beatles. I was in Adam’s room– in Adam’s bed. I heard snoring from the top bunk. I sprang out of bed, standing up to see the top bunk, but I didn’t find my brother. Uncle Jesse slept in the bed. If Adam wasn’t here, that could only mean one thing.
I tried to remember why I was here. What had happened? I examined my hands and arms– the golden aura lingered around my skin as if it was fire. There was something different about it. The light of my aura cast shadows on the walls, something I had never noticed before. I didn’t understand how my aura could shine at all when I’d lost two of the most important people in my life.
I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapped my arms around them, and choked, struggling to breath. With each emotional breath, my aura brightened. Uncle Jesse stirred above me, and looked off the top bunk.
“You’re up,” he said. Uncle Jesse crawled down the ladder and leaned into my light. “We’ve been worried sick– you’ve been asleep for days now.”
At first I didn’t recognize his voice. It had been so long since I had heard it, but he looked and sounded just as I remembered him; as if nothing had ever happened. He smiled, but his eyes were afflicted with agony.
“Why are we in Adam’s room?” I asked.
He moved Adam’s desk chair closer to the bed and sat down. “How much do you remember?” He waited on the edge of his chair for my answer.
The steamy sensation burned behind my eyes. My arms trembled violently. “Evee and Adam died. Evee stopped the bullet.” Nausea set in my stomach. I was going to throw up, but there wasn’t any food in my stomach. I dry-heaved a few times. I ran my hand though my hair, half tempted to pull it out– anything to distract me from the emotional pain.
Uncle Jesse was silent. I imagined he didn’t know how to respond. What could he tell the boy that just lost his two best friends? There were no words he could offer that would comfort me, but I wanted him to try. I wanted to hear anything other than the silence that trapped me with my memories. Speak! Please speak!
“Casper,” he said. He steadied his tone trying to fight the emotion in his voice. “What they did for you was a very special type of love– they cared so much, that they sacrificed themselves for you.” Droplets came to his eyes as he spoke the words. He and I wouldn’t be talking if it weren’t for Evee and Adam. The thoughts in my head didn’t help him control his own emotions.
The scene returned to me with full detail. Zana shot Evee, thinking it was only her phantom body. I had held Evee as she died. Then there was the light I’d seen.
“What happened?” I asked him. “Where did that light come from?”
“We were hoping you could tell us,” he said.
All I could remember was holding Evee and passing out. Then I woke up here. “I don’t know what happened,” I confessed.
I didn’t care about the rest. My mind couldn’t see beyond Evee and Adam’s deaths. This is what it felt like to be separated from someone by death. I would never see her eyes again. He would never joke with me again.
“It’s important that you see what happened,” he said. He made the suggestion delicately.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to see it again.” The pain was still so near. I found it hard to grieve for Evee and Adam at the same time. Both of them were tied to me emotionally, but in different ways.
“You and Adam have been friends for so long… believe me, I understand why it’s difficult for you, but you owe it to him and Evee to see for yourself.”
The pain in my chest grew more intense. “Fine,” I said. I didn’t have the strength to fight him. I trusted that he wasn’t going to torture me with the images of their deaths. There must have been something he wanted me to see.
“I’ll show you what happened.” He walked over to where I was on the bed. His silver aura ignited as he got close. “I’m going to show you my memory.”
Uncle Jesse’s fingers reached towards my temples. It was the second time he had ever shown me one of his memories. I watched the memory as if it was my own.
Jesse:
The guards surrounded us all, closing in on us. One by one, they collapsed on the floor like fainting. The electric girl took out several of the armed guards by throwing raging electric currents.
James and Amanda remained close to me and a group of Casper’s friends lined up on the other side of them. Casper’s thoughts were the loudest in the giant, metal prison. It was like listening to a heart break. I felt horrible for listening, and I wished I could stop myself.
Amanda’s heart broke, too, but for her son. As a mother, she could feel her son’s pain, and she wished she could spare Casper from this ache. It’s not right, Amanda thought. She can’t die. They should have never come to get us. I would rather have rotted in this place than see Casper lose Evee.
Evee brushed Casper’s cheek. “I love you so much,” her voice trembled. “It was worth it.” Her raspy voice lacked all of her usual playfulness. She tried her hardest to smile, but it wasn’t real– the pain was too much. She tried to hide the hurt and dread from Casper.
Casper choked harder when he heard Evee’s words. He tried to speak, but his grief was too much for him. He did his best to fight the bundle of complex emotions brewing inside him. I’m thankful for the time we had together. He repeated the words in his head.
It was a battle in Casper’s mind. He tried to focus on only the positive things about him and Evee. I’m thankful for the time we had, he thought again. The struggle was apparent on his face. His eyes squeezed closed and he ground his teeth. When the conflict was over, his eyes gently opened. His body finally relaxed and his mind found peace.
“I love you,” Casper managed. There was a flash of light as if lightning had struck. I’d seen the light in Casper’s mind, but I wasn’t looking into his mind. His aura was plainly visible to everyone. His ability showed itself in a different way. The light was dim, but it was astonishing. The golden light blossomed in the air around him and Evee. James and Amanda gasped, having seen it only once before in my mind.
“Thank you… for showing me…” Evee said. Her mouth had stopped but her mind continued. Love, she finished. And then there was only silence.
Everyone in the room knew that Evee was gone. Their thoughts faded away in their
stunned states of mind. The silence would have been greatly appreciated by me if it hadn’t been under such miserable circumstances. Casper’s eyes closed, and he froze, silencing his thoughts.
The miraculous light around him grew more intense. The light contained itself in the small area around Casper, but the rays that reached my face felt warm. Casper held Evee’s hand as he was pulled into the air by some invisible force as if gravity no longer existed. His arms went limp, and Evee’s hand fell from his. Casper’s arms floated in front of his body, his eyes still closed, and the light radiated in the large room. Enchanting music played– the glorious sound of voices singing from a long distance away.
Casper’s aura exploded, engulfing everything in sight in the gleaming luminosity. At the same time, James, Amanda, and I shielded our eyes instinctively. The room was too bright for us to keep them open. I squinted, trying to see what was happening, but felt a warm wind blowing through my body. The gentle warmth of his aura increased, as did the volume of the harmonic melody of the music, echoing through the metal prison.
Sara buried her head in the big muscular guy on the other side of James. Tears formed in both their eyes. I recognized Seth standing next to Sara. He held his hands in front of his face trying to block the glow. He struggled to find Casper in the overbearing light, but none of us could see him.
A tingling sensation spread through my body. The pain in my shoulder faded. I unwrapped the cloth that had been tightly tied around the wound. The deep puncture was almost gone. I turned my head back to Casper, now floating higher. The magnificent aurora reached every space in the prison. It was like a crystal chandelier radiating waves of the healing light.
The wound on my shoulder vanished. Not only was the wound healed, but also the Knight drug was completely out of my system. My body functioned normally and my mind worked with clarity. The light and the music came to an abrupt stop. We looked around to see what was happening. Amanda cried for Casper. I could finally see his body again.
Casper sank slowly back to the ground. His body collapsed next to Evee’s. His golden aura radiated like a dim cloud, but then extinguished like a fire doused by water.
I looked at James and Amanda, who approached their son. “Casper,” Amanda called. There was no response. Casper’s body looked just as lifeless as Evee’s. Amanda grabbed James’ hand. James’ sobbing was worse than Amanda’s. James quit breathing, and his thoughts came rushing through my mind at an intense volume.
Not my son, James thought. Please, no…
A noise came from above us. We jerked our heads up to identify what caused the break of silence. The sound of metal scraping screeched in the prison over and over simultaneously. The doors to the cells opened. Men and women dressed in identical orange uniforms approached the balcony to each floor. Hundreds of people came into sight looking down at us on the first floor. The remaining guards ran for it once they saw the prisoners were awake. The voices erupted in my head. Everyone was asking the same questions at once.
Where am I? What happened? What was that light? How long have I been here? Who are those people? Am I free? How long have I been here?
The voices blended together, creating a buzz in my head as if I was surrounded by a swarm of bees. I fell to my knees, unable to focus on the events outside of my body. I focused, partially silencing all the voices. I managed to focus on Amanda and James, but the overbearing buzz continued.
I could hardly hear a thing when I saw new tears in Amanda’s eyes. She covered her mouth with her hand, shocked by whatever image she saw. I followed her eyes.
Evee sat up on the ground, sharply inhaling a lungful of air. There was a vacant look on her damp, pale face. She realized she shouldn’t be awake or moving. She searched for the wound on her blood stained stomach that had taken her life, but like my shoulder, it was healed.
Casper:
At first I didn’t realize that the memory was over. My consciousness was back in Adam’s room. I’d seen the memory, but I hadn’t yet processed it. The impact hit me as I stared at Uncle Jesse. Evee’s alive?
“Yes,” he said. “She’s alive. She’s sleeping in the next room, but I think everyone just woke up.” He focused on the thoughts of people outside the room.
I felt my smile vanish, but before I could think about Adam, the door opened, and several familiar faces stood in the hall. I found Evee’s breathtaking, cyan eyes. Mom and Dad stood behind her, looking down at me. I inhaled sharply. It was as if watching her die had only been a bad dream. She stood in front of me now with the precious cyan aura that confirmed it was actually Evee I was seeing. She moved closer to me on the bed. Mom and Dad followed. The closer they moved to me, the more I could sense the energy of their dazzling auras. The chills radiated through my body.
They all covered their eyes. I was confused, and my aura dimmed. They allowed their eyes to readjust to the light. I realized that my aura had somehow developed a physical manifestation. I wasn’t the only one who could see it.
“We’ll have to adjust to that,” Evee said. She brought her arms down, able to look at me through the softer light in the room.
“You can see it?” I asked. “You can all see my aura?” No one looked at me. They looked around me. They nodded their heads without looking in my eyes.
“Ever since what happened in the prison,” Mom said. Her face blushed. She couldn’t contain her happiness.
I got out of bed. Evee gently moved close and placed her arms around me. Our touch made the light turn the soft pearl. Mom and Dad surrounded Evee and me, and held both of us. Evee had taken a bullet for me– she had more than earned her place in our family. I wondered about her dad, but pushed those thoughts out of my mind. But there was someone more important that I couldn’t’ forget.
“Wait!” I said. “We have to find Adam…”
Everyone looked around apprehensively. Evee’s eyes watered and Mom turned her head into Dad’s shoulder. Uncle Jesse spoke.
“He never came back,” he informed me. “I don’t think he intended to come back after he left.” The wrinkles in his forehead smoothed. He tried not to think about the thoughts everyone in the room had about Adam.
I recalled what Adam had told Uncle Jesse to tell me. Uncle Jesse nodded as if confirming the message. “Then he’s really… gone?” I asked.
Dad placed his hand on my shoulder, the same as Adam had always done before we teleported. “Yes,” he whispered, containing his emotion.
I could see that Dad hurt as much as me. Adam had been a second son to him. The first friend I ever made was dead.
“He used what little life he had left to take Zana and Colonel Ford somewhere far away,” Dad said. “We don’t know where he took them, but they haven’t been back to Fallon. The Military Base is abandoned, and we’re the only ones left in town besides the Grindles, Sara, and Randy.”
“What about Matthew, Cricket, and Donnie?” I asked. “Are they gone?”
“They’ll be leaving in a few days,” Dad said. “And now that you’re awake… we’ll be leaving too.”
Leave Fallon, I thought. Even though it was my home, I’d be glad to leave. It felt empty suddenly. Everything was different. Life before everything that had happened was a distant shadow of a memory. I wondered where we would go, but Dad didn’t seem worried with explaining that. A part of me had always known I would never stay here. Now that the time had come to leave, I was afraid.
Everyone decided that it would be best if they let me finish resting. Mom pulled everyone out of the room so that I could sleep. A part of me wanted them all out of the room… except for Evee. She exited the room before Mom, but not before giving me a nonchalant wink. I understood its meaning well. Five minutes after everyone had left the room, I felt the presence of Evee’s phantom body. She curled up next to me on the bed. Her presence was the only comfort in Adam’s death.
Evee:
When Casper woke up the next morning, his golden aura shined inside Adam’s house like the sun over the
desert. Everyone marveled at the sight, especially me. I’d dreamt of what the light would look like since our first date– it was stunning, almost indescribable. No one could understand why all of a sudden we could see his aura, but we understood one thing: Casper’s ability was a total mystery. No one could explain how his extra-human trait worked, and even Casper confessed that it was out of his control.
As the day passed, Casper spoke little and his aura’s glow drastically dimmed as the night approached. He remained close to me all day, barely letting me out of his sight. After the sun had set, Casper’s wondrous hue had disappeared. It was obvious Adam’s death was the reason why. We’d all lost a friend, but Casper had lost a brother.
Uncle Jesse stayed close to Casper. I’d catch them alone, Uncle Jesse holding Casper as he cried for Adam. Casper didn’t want anyone to see him cry. Uncle Jesse told me that Casper just needed time to move past Adam’s death, but I still worried for him. For so long, Adam and Casper had been inseparable, and I got the impression no amount of time would ever heal this wound for Casper completely.
We all became restless. There was nothing left for us in Fallon, and we knew we couldn’t stay. As another day came to an end, the topic of conversation focused on one thing: Where should we go from here? Where could we go? The Military controlled all the survival cities, and I didn’t know how anyone could live outside of the Military’s provisions. We all sat around Adam’s kitchen table discussing the subject. Casper sat next to me with the same depressed look he’d had the first day we met. I kept wishing he would smile.
“We can’t stay here,” Randy said. “The Military could come back.” Randy directed his attention at Casper, who wasn’t paying attention to the conversation. “Where do you think we should go?”
“I don’t care where we go,” Casper said. His voice barely rose above a whisper. He’d been in a funk all day. I knew Casper couldn’t get Adam’s death off his mind. He had to process the loss of his best friend before he could move on to other subjects.