“So where are we?” I asked, crossing my arms. I leaned against one of the many racks formed a neatly filed line just a few feet from one another. I must’ve regained the use of my power while I was unconscious, upon awakening my legs were healed. After Ryan busted through the door like a madman, I thought me and Zion were a goner. But after seeing his plain appearance I was overcome with joy and fainted on the spot. Though I’m able to stand now, I still have this throbbing feeling in my lower half of my body, it can’t just be simply soreness. My guess… my abilities must not have fully healed me. I couldn’t have been out for long. I should ask him about that as well.

  “Storage closet. We entered through another door over there,” Ryan pointed his finger behind me down the row of rusted metal shelves. A double sided door similar to where we first entered came out of hiding each time the light above it flickered. “There’s a few more, Robbie’s sitting over there in front of one, I wouldn’t disturb him right now though. He’s been through a lot since we all got split up. I placed Zion over there as well, I was gonna put you right there too but you woke up before I could grab you. Seeing your shadow rise behind me was like a nightmare.”

  “Oh yeah, sorry about that heh. I should’ve said something.” Glancing over at Robbie, he sat up against one of the racks near the door with his head down, whispering to himself. “-could’ve helped her… a track meet? I should’ve been there with her instead…” I walked over towards him. Zion’s laying on the ground next to him, still fast asleep.

  I’ve never met Rob’s mom personally. His mom has always been a touchy subject, I always just avoided it, not wanting to pry. We only ever spoke about her if he was the one to bring her up. Robbie preferred any conversation that didn’t include his mother coming into the topic of discussion. Just the mention of a “Will your parents be coming to your meet?” or a ‘Parent-teacher conference’ could make his face turn sour and yellow. They may seem trivial, but to the best of my knowledge Robbie now, has no family at all. I vaguely remember him mentioning that he’s not originally from the U.S., his mom emigrated from Europe when he was just a baby. “To find a better life…” that’s what he said… I think. There was an insanely long lecture going on in class that day now that I remember. More or less, his mom was all he had. His only parent to look up to. She was his dream, he worked so he could see her better self.

  My mom’s a doctor, working an average of 60-70 hours a week left almost no time for her to keep up her role in my adolescence. Sometimes she would get off early from work and make it home just in time for when my dad would read me a bedtime story. Her eyes would sparkle when she would peek into my room and see that I was still awake. She would drop everything she was holding, grab a book and sit next to me on the bed. I would ask “Why isn’t my daddy doing it?” Hearing that line from your own child probably ached her heart looking back on it. Truth be told I didn’t see her as my mother until the passing of my dad. In a way, I just saw her as a close friend of mine and my dad. It wasn’t her fault, I know it wasn’t.

  It all felt weird, when she came home that day and broke the news to me about him, I didn’t react at all. I just thought in my head, “dad is just gonna be away for a little while, like mom always would to her job.” I kept the same naive thought in my head, call it a child’s way of coping maybe. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into one long painful month. Ignorantly sitting in front of the window awaiting his knock on the door. Once the funeral came, family gathered, aunties smothering me with their hugs of sympathy and the ever so polite, ‘You’ll get through this, you're a young man now.’ All of it felt like nonsense and banter. I thought… If my dad truly died… why did he promise to come back as soon as he could? I learned what the concept of death meant earlier on, courtesy of my mother’s books from her countless studying in her college days. But… to me, my dad felt immortal, like he’d always be there by my side.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Walking up the aisle of the church, nothing could’ve ever prepared me for the moment of witnessing my father’s body lay lifeless and devoid of its essence. The cheerful, loud, caring, everyday person that I spent my first ten years with. My best friend, my dad…. That casket represented his end. What’s happening with Robbie right now, it’s only gonna get worse before it gets better, but if he has someone near, someone who understands the pain and dread inside his heart… It’ll make that process a lot less lonely.

  “Robbie…,” I kneeled, and placed my hand on his shoulder, “Rest, get some sleep. You’re okay.” I gave him a comforting smile that locked on to his dejected leer, he gave me a nod, and layed down across the floor. It wasn’t an ideal sleeping place, but I doubt that’s what they're concerned about. “We can talk more later… I love you man. We all do, you know that.”

  “He’s been like that since we got here,” Ryan said while investigating a shelf, “I tried talking to him, but well, he doesn’t know me, and I don’t really know what to say to him either… I never had to deal with a loss like this… I’m sorry…”

  “What? You don’t have to apologize.” I walked up to him, beginning to express my gratitude towards him. “Thank you really. My guess is that it wasn’t easy for you to make it to this place either." He looked awful, his clothes were torn, and I could see stains of blood that most definitely weren't his own. “Me seeing you both here right now means you must have protected him, am I right?”

  “Ugh y-yeah, it wasn’t easy though…” He started to scratch the back of his head.

  “Also…” It felt as if a knot had formed in my throat, my heart began to beat irregularly. Sucking up a gust of air, I calmed my disconcerted self. “I owe you an apology.” I lowered my head slightly, ashamed of what I had done to him. My gesture must have caught him off guard, he looked a little shocked. “I endangered your life… I put your life in the palm of my hands without a second of hesitation, …and I dropped it. Please forgive me… I’ll be better next time… I swear.”

  “Woah woah woah, it’s okay! I know you didn’t mean to.” He pleaded with me to lift my head. “You did everything you could. You could’ve left me behind or looked at me as unimportant compared to the rest of them. But you risked your life for me, a stranger. You grabbed my arm without a second thought, you have no idea how much that means to me.”

  Ryan… He’s a good guy. I still feel as though I have a great deal to him. I’m happy there’s no hard feelings. The same could have easily been said for him. He could’ve seen Robbie as unimportant and left him to better his odds of survival. But he brought Rob with him. He’s no longer a stranger to me. “We’re not strangers or some unknown person to each other anymore…” I extended my hand out towards him. “Will you shake my hand one more time…? This time it’s more genuine. We’re friends for real now.”

  “Friends.” He shook my hand with a smile. “Thank you Elijah.”

  “Heh, call me Eli. That’s what the three other stooges refer to me as anyway.”

  “Alright, Eli it is then.”

  With our new bond blossoming in its wake, a sense of comradery filled my spirit. If I could become close to a person in a hellish place such as this, then maybe our chances aren’t as slim as we once believed. I've found another light that’ll keep us moving. Ryan, you have my back, and I have yours.

  “Also…” A deep sigh filled the room as he retracted his hand from mine. “if I’m being honest, you had way better control over your ability then when I first awakened mine…” He looked away, slightly embarrassed.

  “Awakened?! You mean… you have powers too now?!” I said, caught off guard by the sudden reveal. Is it that hard to believe though?! Considering me, and Zion, but still, “What happened?” He placed his hand out back in front of me. A spark of light began crackling in the palm of his hand before shortly being followed with a ball of flame forming, floating just above it. Closing his hand extinguished the fire just as quickly as it came.

  "I learned a lot about this place.""

  “...Fire?”

  “That's not all, It's…” He took a seat on the floor and crossed his arms. I sat down across from him. Something tells me this is gonna be a long one. “Those two are gonna be out for a little while longer. I’ll start at the beginning-from when we crashed.”

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