His body collapsed, sending ash into the air from underneath him. His hoodie was covered in blood and ash. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him as he sat there on ground in pain, blood flowing through his obvious wounds.
That’s when another figure came from the smoke, followed by two more. At first I didn’t recognize them. But it quickly came to me. It was Nick and the other kids from before.
They stood over the hooded man, looking down at him as he lay there in defeat. He still moaned, not even attempting to get up. He looked back up at them, staring in their eyes as they stared back. I almost wanted to jump in there and help, but that man was bad. He killed them in the other vision.
“You shouldn’t have done this,” the man said. “I was trying to protect the world from you.” Nick scoffed at the man.
“Protect it from what?” The man started to laugh. “If anybody needs to be stopped, it’s you.”
The girl stepped up and sighed as she knelt down, facing the man.
“Things didn’t have to be like this,” she said. “If you listened, you would understand.” Nick grabbed the girl by the back of her shirt collar and pulled her back up away from the man.
“Don’t talk to him like he’s a person,” he said. “He tried to kill us for no reason. If his excuse is that we’re different, than he needs a news flash. So is he.” The other boy nodded his head in agreement.
“He nearly killed us,” he said. The man’s muscles stiffened as he shot a look at Nick.
“Look around!” he yelled. “You did this! You nearly killed you and your friends! You’re a monster!” Nick kicked the man in the ribs, causing him to scream in pain.
“Shut up!”
The girl pushed Nick back and took his place. She gave the man a sympathetic look. She looked back at Nick and then at the other boy and shook her head.
“They just don’t understand,” she said. “I understand. I understand everything. After what happened to you, I understand why you looked for someone to blame.” The man’s muscles stiffened again. “But we didn’t cause it. There’s no one else to blame but you.” She put her hand out in front of her, facing it towards the man.
“But what has to be done, has to be done.” She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry, Joshua.”
What?
Her hand started to shake, and the man’s breath stopped. He stopped moving and laid there on the ground. The girl shivered and inhaled, trying to hold back a sob. Nick and the other boy patted her on the shoulder, and they turned, walking away.
The girl stayed there for a second, looking down at the body of the hooded man. She looked back, then back down at the body. Kneeling down, she grabbed the hood of the man and pulled it down. That’s when I saw his face. He seemed older, maybe around twenty to twenty-five. Then, I realized something. He was awfully familiar.
He was me.
My heart stopped as the girl vanished in the thick smoke. This can’t be true. The more I stared at the body on the ground, the more things I noticed that resembled me. The hair. The eyes. The nose. The mouth. Everything. Just… older.
My legs gave out from under me and I fell to the floor. I started to panic, crying and trying not to look at the body. Trying not to look at my dead body.
It all came to me. That hooded man wasn’t the evil one. He was trying to stop that bad vision I had about Nick and his friends killing everybody. That hooded man wasn’t the bad guy here. That hooded guy was me.
I shouldn’t be trying to find Nick for help. I need to find him and stop him. If I don’t, those things will happen. The world will perish because of freaks like Nick and his friends. But I will not let that happen. I will be that one freak that saves everybody. Nick isn’t here to help me. I’ve already realized what I need to do.
I need to kill Nick.
…..
Shadows in the Dark Page 18