Fate's Path

“Your rejection drove him to insanity. He tried to understand why the world was so cruel. He wanted to know why his family didn’t notice him, nor his twin. He wanted to know how he could love someone and she couldn’t love him back. He’s like us. A life with a mysterious past full of heartbreak and craziness,” Chris explained, and I looked at Max. A flicker of pain flashed in his eyes, and he stepped forward. The pain was gone before I could tell if it had been there in the first place.

“Chris. What you are saying is crazy. I’m seventeen. ‘Way back when’? That would imply a long time ago.” I watched as Max twitched and walked closer, and I suddenly noticed that his movements were strangely slow. Looking back, I saw our friends moving in slow motion as well, and realized this was one of Chris’ powers. Chronokinesis: the ability to manipulate time.

“Exactly, which means that someone fucked with our memories. And, I, personally, want to know who.” Chris snapped his fingers, and time returned to normal. Max was walking towards me at a quickened pace. I was still shocked by what I had just been told. Thankfully, Connor intervened. Max had started running, getting ready to attack. He blocked Max’s punch, throwing one of his own. Max barely managed to lean back enough, so Connor’s punch sailed past his face.

They continued like this, their movements so fast I could hardly register any of it. Then Connor and Max both stopped at the same time. They were panting and trying to catch their breath. I noticed Chris hadn’t watched any of this. He wasn’t helping Logan, either. He stood there, closing his eyes. I did the same, taking a deep breath. I could sense the tension building, and I stood between them. “Connor, stop. I’m going to fight him.”

Max seemed to recover rather quickly after I said that, and Connor moved. Remember training, I told myself as Max and I lowered into the same stance. We circled each other and I made the first move. He dodged, then shoved me past him but I simply rolled back up to my feet. The next punch I threw, hit him square in the jaw and he stumbled for a moment before catching himself and kneeing me in the gut. I flinched, then straightened myself and jumped on him. He stumbled with a confused expression and when we fell, I was on top of him…

A dagger pressed to his throat. “You made a mistake messing with me,” I moved the blade closer to his skin but he didn’t stop me. He simply looked at me as if he was seeing someone truly for the first time. “You made an even bigger mistake when you hurt my brother.” My heart raced as I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do it. During the very short fight I kept seeing flashes of Max and I as kids when I first met him. He knew Chris too but in this memory it was just Max and I. We were training, and smiling. I remember feeling happy because my friend was there and he was one of the few people that understood me. Thinking about it now, he must have wasted a lot of time making himself look my age to hang out with me.

Max smirked. “You can’t do it.” I cursed and threw the dagger to the side. Then I punched him. Again and again and again until someone yanked me off of him. “Piper!” It was Jamie. She had her arms around me and she tossed me to the side. Then she looked at me, “I understand wanting to kill him, but tormenting him like that isn’t the way to do it! And punching him won’t affect shit, so stop!” She clenched her fists and when Max stood she punched him so hard he went flying, and hit a tree. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious. I just sat where I had been tossed, I didn’t know how to react, I wasn’t thinking right.

Suddenly I stood and searched for all of my friends. I found several but noticed there were two not there. I knew Hex wasn’t going to be there because she was still watching over the chaos that was going on. However, Julian also wasn’t there. He was supposed to be. “Where’s Julian?” I asked and Kiera shrugged. She was still by Logan, along with most of my friends that had been here too. “He was just here!” When no one responded to me I hissed, “No one noticed a huge fluffy wolf suddenly disappear!” I shouted feeling bad when Kiera flinched and looked away.

“Piper, he said he was going for a walk.” Leo told me, but this only pissed me off more.

“AND YOU GUYS LET HIM!?” I glared, but a smell pulled my attention. Blood, but this blood was familiar. Three people I knew. “Mrs. Talina! Lucinda! Julian!” I was already exhausted from everything that had been going on. It seemed like I had done nothing but chill for the past week, that wasn’t all. Yet, when it came to people I care about, I no longer give a shit about myself. I heard the crumbling of a building and looked at the school… since it was the only building near here. I heard a whimper, both human and wolf. Then I was there. I don’t fully remember running. Simply feeling my instinct kick in and following it.

When I saw them, I freaked. “Help!” Lucinda was screaming, tears in her eyes. Her and Julian were trapped under a ton of rubble. She cried and Julian whimpered, though I don’t know if he was fully awake. As I had started to try and dig my way to them, Hex landed beside me. She spotted the two before I even had to say anything. My heart was racing, Lucinda... She was trapped. Julian was luckier because from where I stood, I saw a metal rod sticking through her chest.

Hex saw this too, and saw me start to panic. She grabbed onto my shoulders firmly, “Hey. You have made it this far. Your friends are trapped,” She smacked me in the head. “Get it together!” I know, best pep talk ever. And surprisingly… It worked. I took a deep breath, then nodded.

“Help me,” I said, starting to lift a huge slab of concrete off of them. Hex took a place on the other side of the slab and together, with much struggle, we managed to lift the concrete off of them and with another heave, toss it off to the side. The rest was simpler, smaller chunks of concrete that we easily threw away. Julian was knocked unconscious and worry rose in me. Then I saw Lucinda and had to stop myself from fainting.

“I can heal the guy but you are going to have to get her off of the bar.”

I looked at Hex, trying to keep the panic from my eyes, “How?”

“I was taught… okay… I’m gonna walk you through it.” I nodded. “Okay, first thing, we can’t remove the bar. If we do, she will start bleeding and die fast. Find something to cut through it from underneath.”

I searched before nodding and finding a metal cutter. We must be in the engineering sector of the building. The bar gave way and I caught Lucinda before she could fall and ram the bar in further. She tried to speak to me but her voice wasn’t working.

“Great, now, keep her level and carry her back out. You’re going to have to make sure nothing imbeds the bar in further. More than likely, the easiest thing to do would be to hold her until we can get her to a hospital.” Hex wasn’t even looking at me. She was looking down at Julian, risking her life by staying down here, so that she could heal him rather than hurt him more. The building creaked. They must have gone crazy on the school to cause it to collapse like this.

“Hex! Come on!” I yelled when I had gotten outside and I held Lucinda. She looked up at me for a moment before helping Julian to his feet. They were outside a moment later. At some point during this, Julian had changed back into a human, wearing the clothes he had on before the transformation. “Seymour!” The moment I said his name, my dog appeared. He barked worriedly. “Take us to the nearest hospital!”

Every event that followed went by slow. Hex ended up going to the hospital with Lucinda so that she could at least make sure no trace that they had ever been there would be found. I wanted to go with, but Leo reminded me that I had friends here that needed my help. I reluctantly stayed. After Max disappeared, most of his goons followed, which did anger me. I still had so much hatred built up in me, I walked right up to a tree and punched it so hard it fell. Then I returned to my friends, finding it easier to be relieved they were all still alive.

Leo walked up to me, wrapping and arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him, resting his chin against the top of my head. “So, what next? I know that we are all too deep into this to want to leave. What do you say we fight more evil?”

I smiled, sucking in a deep breath and looking at the wreckage of the school. “I say that’s a good idea. However, we should probably help this place back into shape. After all, Connor, Kiera, Chris, Lucinda, and I grew up here. It’s the least we can do for our old home.”

He nodded, releasing me and striding back over to the others. I looked up at the roof of the building, the part that had collapsed with Lucinda and Julian. I approached the rubble, grabbing a piece and making sure it would stay and not falter. When it did, I pulled myself up, coughing as dust was kicked up, but still climbing on. It took longer than it should have but soon my hand wrapped around the top of the building’s edge. I groaned, my head pounding as I pulled myself up and rolling myself over the edge. I laid there for a moment, staring up at the bright blue sky. It had seemed way less pretty down there, but up here I was above all the smoke and debris.

It probably wasn’t safe. The supports of the school were faulty from all the damage Max and his people did. I slowly rolled to my stomach and pushed myself up. I bit my lip as a burst of pain erupted in my shoulder. I hadn’t even noticed how much it hurt. Not just my shoulder either. I had several scratches covering my body, and it was now that I realized I hadn’t let anyone help me regarding my personal well-being. Not of my own freewill of course. The Vampire poison was a whole different story. I had no choice in that instance. I don’t even remember being taken back home and treated.

“It’s peaceful up here, isn’t it?” I heard a familiar voice and looked over to see Mrs. Talina.

“It is.” I scanned her up and down. She didn’t look too good. Her normally clear skin was matted with dirt and dry blood. Her hair was a disaster and her clothes were torn in various places. “What are you doing up here? You should be getting help.”

She chuckled, it amazed me how even after her school and the students she considered her own kids were attacked, she could still smile. “Yeah, I know… But I saw you climb up here. I wanted to talk to you. First, I wanted to say thank you. Connor and Chris told me how quickly you responded when you found out we were being attacked.”

“Of course. This school has been my home. It will always be my home, and a place I must protect,” I said, and it was true. I had to try hard not to panic when I found out.

“I’m not done. I also wanted to talk to you about everything that has happened. I wish I had gotten the chance to tell you the truth. I knew. I was meant to protect you, and clearly I failed at that. I’m a guardian. We aren’t supposed to get attached to the ones we were sent to protect, but I did. I viewed you as my daughter, and it made me weak. I loved you like a mother loves her young.”

I shook my head. “No, love doesn’t make you weak. It makes you strong. I would know. I know I only just met the majority of the people I now call my friends… but I already love them. I feel as though I have always known them. Like I have always loved them, and it has made me the strong person I am today.”

Mrs. Talina smiled at me. “What are their names?”

“Logan Greene, Hex Spell Caster, Jamie Genevieve, Marcus Fisher, Leo, Connor Demgel, Eric Booke, Kiera Zander, Responsum, and Chris Kuro. Not including my dog of course: Seymour.”

“Right… then you have everything you shall need. This doesn’t mean you should stop trusting anyone outside of the list of names you just stated. You shouldn’t close yourself off to new people. Trust, but not blindly. Trust with your eyes open. And remember something else, in order to be considered brave, you do have to fear things. I believe the more you fear things, the stronger and braver you are.” She gave my shoulder a squeeze, and without thinking, I hugged her. She hugged me back, patting my hair. Then she pulled away and looked down at me. “I hate to have to say this but… I can’t stay. I love the students I still have, but the council is calling me back. I’m just a knight on a larger game of chess.”

My lip trembled as I watched her skin start to glow a golden color, then flake and float away with the small breeze. I held her hand until that too was gone. Just then, I was joined by my friends. Marcus was helping a limping Logan up. I smiled. “Thank Gods you are okay. What happened?”

Logan chuckled, groaning as he stepped from Marcus and gave me a quick and brief hug. “Apparently, my body used a shield without my knowledge but since I’ve never attempted it, I lost control and my power turned against me.”

“I’m glad you are okay, maybe we should all take this training stuff more seriously. We are meant to save the world, but we can’t do that if our own powers choose to betray us.”

Eric jogged up to me. “You got that right.”

“Oh come on, you don’t even need training, Eric. I challenged you to a fight earlier and you kicked my ass. What training do you think you need, child?” Jamie mused, resting her elbow on top of his head.

Eric rolled his eyes, looking up at her. “I’m a great fighter, but my magic isn’t the most under-control thing. Hence the reason as to why I try not to use it often.”

“Tell me, Booke, what is your power?”

“Somethings are better left unsaid.” Eric smiled when Jamie frowned and stepped away.

“I feel like it’s dangerous.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

Jamie looked away nervously, and Eric and I laughed.

“Calm down, J, he’s harmless… mostly,” I commented, laughing when I hadn’t seemed to ease any tension.

Leo then walked over, joining in on all the fun, laughing at Jamie, her cheeks now a bright shade of red. “Shut up!” She protested, but this only goated them on more. We were truly already like a family. And for that we were lucky.

Soon everyone had joined us… everyone but Connor, who was standing across the rooftop, looking up at the sky. I slowly peeled myself from my friends and made my way to him. When I was behind him, he spoke. “I know it isn’t over, but at least we can take a moment to ourselves? I want to stand here on this spot. With you, and our friends. New and old.” I smiled, but before I could even be happy at this moment with him, Max suddenly appeared before me. I heard Connor yell my name as Max pulled me away. Max had his hand on my shoulder, and he pulled me into his blade. My screams were muffled by his free hand. He leaned forward, whispering into my ear.

His breath tickled my ear lobe. “I really did love you. And I can’t wait for the day you get what is coming to you for rejecting me.” Tears slipped down my cheeks. I was being punished for something I don’t remember.

“M-Max… N-No…” I coughed up blood, it splattered on his shirt, but he didn’t seem to care. Then he pulled the dagger out, stabbing me again, pulling out, stabbing for a last time, and then dropping me back with my friends. I was lying on the roof, my friends hovering over me, screaming my name. Blood spilled from the corners of my mouth, tears spilled down my cheeks. “H-Help…” I coughed up more blood. All my friends screamed, and cried, and screamed more. Yet I couldn’t process any of it. Better me than them.