posts were the only sign that I wasn’t in the middle of
nowhere. Right in front of the car, was a pond with a bridge
running over it, the pond looked deserted also.
I waited patiently for ten o’clock to come
around. I wasn’t too excited about this; I wasn’t quite sure what
the point of all of this was. There was something that I needed to
know, I just wasn’t sure what that was yet. The only thing I could
know for sure—it had something to do with Skylar.
A set of headlights blinded me, and then the
car pulled up right next to mine. I waited to get out; I wanted to
make sure he was alone. I didn’t fully trust him, but he did save
my life, after all.
He was alone, and dressed quite nicely; I was
afraid he got the wrong impression. I opened the door and got out.
I looked him up and down; it was the first time I had the chance.
Besides the time in the woods, Skylar and I had only been face to
face once before—when he and “Grace” were trying to kidnap me. I
remembered when I first saw Dante disguised as Skylar, his brown
eyes tinted the green contacts, making them less than perfect. But
Skylar’s eyes held my gaze, and I could see now, that they were a
beautiful, mystical shade of green. I looked down to the ground. I couldn’t really be thinking these things, could I ?
We walked over to a bench, just beyond the
pond. A light hung right over our heads, casting an eerie, orange
haze around us.
“So, why did you call me?” he asked with a
giant grin on his face.
“To be honest, I don’t know. I’m not sure
what I was expecting to find. Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure,” he said.
“Have you been following me?” I asked.
“Please just tell me the truth.”
“I admit I was trying to find you in the
woods, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying I’ve been following you.”
“So you didn’t put something in my room?” I
asked.
“No, I’ve never even been to your house.”
“How did you find me in the woods?”
“A power or something I’ve been trying to
ignore. Something draws me to you, but I ignore it. That time in
the woods, this feeling came over me, like I knew—”
“That someone was after me.”
“Yes, I know what you think of me, and I can
see how easily my actions can be misconstrued as evil, but that was
never my intention.”
“You remember what happened—”
“Yes, anyone with powers can tell that
something has shifted,” he began. “I remember going after you with Grace that was a big mistake. I felt like I needed to get
you away from there, everyone knew that was where you were hiding
out. Then, Grace said she thought it would be better to just
kill you. I was going to take your powers and pretend to kill you.
I figured if I gave them to the Alliance they would leave you
alone.”
“Then why did you run away? You could have
warned us.”
“You guys were pretty sure that I was evil. I
stole Dante’s clothes, and I tried to capture you, there was no
explaining that, you guys already thought I was evil.”
“Alright, I guess all I can do is trust you.
Don’t make me regret it.”
“I won’t.”
“Alright, back to business,” I said as I
pulled the crumpled picture out of my bag. “Do you know anything
about this?”
“No,” he said as he looked closer. “Is that
me?”
“I don’t know, I guess. I just don’t
understand,” I sighed. “I should go.”
“Wait, why are you leaving so fast?”
“I needed to ask you about this, and I did,”
I said. “I might need to ask you something else some other time,
but for now, that’s it.”
“Oh, alright,” he looked down at the
grass.
“What’s wrong?” I wondered.
“I told you, I’m drawn to you, and no matter
where you are I feel like I need to be there. I don’t know why; I
wish I didn’t feel like this. For the first time, for a few
seconds—I felt whole.”
“If that’s the case, why weren’t you there
when we took down the Alliance? Why didn’t you help?”
“You and