I Was Never Here

 

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It's Him.

I was sitting at a table in the far back corner of Starbucks with my half-empty venti salted caramel mocha when he walked in. His blue t-shirt clung to him like a toddler clinging to its mother, and his blue jeans hung low on his hips, teasing all the girls who happened to lay eyes on him. The emo styled hair worked for him; it was just long enough that he had to move it out of his eyes as he looked up at the menu of caffeinated and non-caffeinated drinks.

He ordered his drink and picked it up when it was ready, taking a sip of it once he had it. He moved to find a seat so he could enjoy his coffee and scroll through Facebook and twitter and all that social media nonsense on his iPhone.

Just before he sat down at a table, I spilled my half-empty venti salted caramel mocha.

The cup fell over, my coffee pouring out, running across the table and over the edge, staining my favorite pair of blue jeans and covering the floor. The searing hot pain of coffee soaking into my jeans made me yelp. I stood up and quickly grabbed napkins to clean up the mess.

“Let me help you with that.”

I looked up to see him set his coffee on my table with napkins. He bent and tried to help soak up the coffee I had spilled.

“Oh, no, really, you don’t have to.” I said, as he stood up to throw away the dripping napkins and grab some more.

“It’s fine. Really.” He replied draping some more napkins over the floor where there was still some of the brown liquid.

I threw away the sopping mess of napkins I held in my hand and grabbed new ones to clean up the edge of the table that still had coffee dripping off of it.

“Here, I’ll take them.” He said.

I looked up to find that he had finished cleaning my mess off the floor and was motioning to the napkins I held in my hand that I had used to clean the table.

“Oh. Thanks.” I said, handing over the soggy napkins.

“So what’s your name?” He asked as he made his way back over to me, picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

“Amber.” A pause. “And what’s your name?” I asked.

“Collin.”

“Oh. Nice to meet you.”

“And you as well.” He paused, his eyes burning holes in my soul. “I hope to see you in the future Amber.” With a smile and a wave he left.

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Everything Has Changed.

Things have changed since that day at Starbucks.

I never drank a salted caramel mocha again and I never wore those jeans again, but I did see Collin a lot more. And I mean, a lot more. And I never would’ve guessed he would be a very sarcastic son of a bitch.

“Good morning. I see the assassins have failed again.”

Looking over, I saw Collin lounging on the old, worn out blue couch that had been shoved into the entertainment room. He was wearing a plain, black t-shirt, blue skinny jeans, and black converse. Over the past few months Collin had contemplated dyeing his hair and finally did, dyeing it a bright green. He seemed out of place, but I suppose all of us Freaks are out of place.

Yes, I said Freaks.

There’s a war, and it’s not pretty.

“I was just wondering how you comb your hair so the horns don’t show.” I retorted, walking through the room into the cupboard of a kitchen.

Collin and I are both Freaks as some people would say. But then again, so are most of the people in the world, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about Freaks, as in having superpowers.

There’s a war between the Freaks and the Normals. About a year ago, about half of the world acquired these superpowers unexpectedly and we were all deemed Freaks. The “normal” people (hence the title Normals) have since hated us and think we should all die and go to hell. But the thing is, we as Freaks did not bring all this superpower business on ourselves – it just happened. To be quite honest, we all think the Normals are just jealous because they were not gifted with the strange ability to shape shift or create a machine gun with just a thought.

But let me tell you a secret.

A lot of us Freaks hate these abilities that we were gifted with. We do not use these abilities very often; we do not want to be Freaks. We want to be Human.

But the four of us living in this small house – Collin, Hayden, Natalie, and I – have embraced the freakiness of ourselves. We may be Freaks, but we’re not ashamed of being Freaks. We show it proudly, though some people think we just wanted to dye our hair and assume that we may be, in fact, Normal.

I mean, sure, we are all Human, but being a Freak with supernatural powers does not make us seem any less Human than we used to be.

I opened the top left cupboard and brought out a light blue bowl, and then opened the pantry and grabbed the Cheerios, pouring myself a bowl.

“You gonna get me some cereal, too?” I hear Collin yell from the other room.

“Get your own damn cereal.” I reply, opening the fridge and grabbing the half-empty milk jug.

I poured the milk into the bowl, drowning most of my cereal and put the jug back in the fridge. I opened the silverware drawer and grabbed a somewhat-clean spoon, dipping it into my bowl and bringing it back out with a spoonful of milk and cereal. I ate my cereal in silence, leaning against the kitchen counter, waiting for Collin to yell something else at me, but he never did.

When I was done, I put my empty bowl in the sink and walked into the entertainment room to find Collin asleep on the couch with ear buds in, listening to music. Typical.

Walking into the room shared by the guys, I find Hayden asleep on his bed, the covers twisted around his body. With the light off and the curtains drawn, I could still tell that he was not wearing a shirt, but he was wearing a pair of red sweatpants. I opened Hayden’s desk drawer and located the air horn he kept for when he needed to either shut Collin up or wake Collin up. Or if he were feeling really devious, he would wake Natalie and I up with the air horn. I went and sat on Collin’s bed and pointing the air horn towards Hayden, I pressed the button.

The noise from the air horn filled the room and Hayden woke up with a yell.

“What the--?”

“Good morning!” I yelled out, smiling.

Hayden finally noticed me sitting on the edge of Collin’s bed.

“What the hell was that for?” he asked, scratching his head.

“It was to wake you up. I mean, how else was I supposed to wake you up?”

“Well you could’ve been nicer about it.” Hayden grumbled, getting up and walking to the closet in search of a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

I gave him my best you have got to be kidding me” look. “I’m sorry. Maybe I should’ve held the air horn to your ear instead.” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Oh, you know what I mean.”

“You’re right. I do.” I said, walking over to Hayden and wrapping my arms around his waist

And we stood like that for a moment – my arms around his waist, his arms around me. It felt nice, especially with everything that was going on; the war, the decisions, always getting into arguments with each other. This moment right here, in this room, was perfect.

“You do know that in order for me to get dressed you have to let go of me, right?”

And the moment is gone.

I sighed. “Fine.” I let go of him and left the room, closing the door behind me.

Even in the middle of all this mess, I had managed to attain and keep a boyfriend. Hayden and I have been dating for about six months, though it feels like it’s been much longer. This stupid, endless war makes the days and nights stretch out. And so these days and nights seem much, much longer.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

Standing at the end of the hallway is Natalie, wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a black Paramore t-shirt with black combat boots (she obviously likes the color black). Natalie is my best friend who I’ve known since the start of the war when my ex-best friend turned out to be a Normal and tried to kill me. Natalie and I had both been lost and ran into each other when trying to get away from some Normals. Instantly we were friends and we’ve been there for each other ever since.

“Getting dressed. Why?” I ask.

“Well why don’t you open the door so we can get a peek at his abs?” she asks, walking over and pushing me away playfully, pretending to go for the doorknob.

“You don’t just open the door to a guy’s room to watch him change.” I say, smiling.

All of a sudden, the door opened and there stood Hayden in a black t-shirt, blue skinny jeans, and a pair of black converse.

“You know I can hear you two, right?” Hayden asks, smiling.

“I don’t believe you.” Natalie says, acting incredulous.

The three of us chuckled, Natalie and I backing up so Hayden could get out of the room and close the door behind him.

“Is it ‘Twin Day’ or something?” I ask, a smile playing at the edge of my lips.

“What do you mean?” Hayden asks.

“You and Collin are wearing pretty much the exact same outfit.” I say, smiling and walking to the entertainment room where Collin is still passed out on the couch with his ear buds in his ears.

Natalie and Hayden follow me, disbelieving.

“Well you’ve got to be kidding me.” Hayden says, seeing as he and Collin are wearing pretty much the exact same thing. “That’s it,” he says, shaking his head. “I’m changing my clothes.”

Not more than two minutes later, Hayden comes back wearing a green shirt, black skinny jeans, his black converse, and a green beanie.

“Are we trying to be only two colors today?” Natalie asks.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Hayden asks.

“Well, you are only wearing the colors black and green right now.” I say, looking him up and down. I suppose I was lucky to call this handsome, in shape teenage boy my boyfriend. And he always understood when I was joking, which was a plus.

“Oh, well I’m just trying to be fashionable like you two ladies.” He replies, smiling and putting his arms around our shoulders, leading us to the porch so we could sit on the porch swing and talk, waiting for Collin to wake up so we could go meet Charlie at his house.

Our house is nestled in a neighborhood full of Normals, but somehow they haven’t suspected a thing. We’ve lived in the house for about ten months and no one has questioned the way we live and what we’ve done to our bodies, whether it was dyeing our hair or getting a tattoo.

When we first moved into the house after the war had started, we had not realized we would be surrounded by Normals, but they were all friendly enough. They would come over and visit and a few of them did ask what our room arrangements were and we would explain that the guys had their own room and the girls had their own room; it was not guys sleeping with girls.

“Guys!”

Looking behind us we saw Shelley Parks frantically running towards us.

“Hey Shelley!” we yelled back to her, cautious and curious and a little bit scared.

 

************

 

Shelley was only fifteen when the war started, and one day she had heard us in our backyard and peeked over the fence and noticed we were Freaks. We had been joking about and Hayden had been teleporting around the backyard, picking us up at random and dropping us off in different areas of the yard.

“Hayden stop!” I shrieked, laughing and smiling.

All of a sudden, arms were around me and I wasn’t sitting at the edge of the porch, but I was sitting in the corner of the backyard with the grass beneath my feet. Hayden was suddenly standing next to Natalie and then she was standing knee deep in the pool. Hayden appeared beside Collin who backed up, but was grabbed by the wrist by Hayden and teleported to the side of the house which was still a part of the backyard. Hayden appeared, sitting beside me.

Suddenly there was a shriek and the gate connecting our backyard to our neighbor’s backyard opened and there stood Shelley, smiling just like always.

“You guys are Freaks!” Shelley exclaimed, jumping up and down like a little kid on Christmas morning.

“What?” Natalie asked, looking frightened.

“Yeah! I saw Hayden just appearing and disappearing everywhere!”

We all looked at Hayden who seemed to be the most scared of us all; his eyes were open wide and he was as white as a sheet.

“Look, I don’t know what you saw, but it wasn’t— ”

“I don’t care if you guys are Freaks!” Shelley said, cutting me off. “Personally, I think Freaks are cool, and I really hate this war and think it’s stupid. It doesn’t matter to me if you can teleport or fly or whatever. So can we still be friends?”

Hayden, Collin, Natalie and I looked at each other, incredulous. Shelley’s smile started to falter. All of a sudden, the four of us burst out laughing.

“What?” Shelley asked, frightened that she had done something wrong.

“We thought you were going to tell your parents that we were Freaks!” Hayden said, laughing.

“We thought you were gonna kill us, and then we’d be dead Freaks!” Collin exclaimed, rolling around on the ground, drowning in laughter.

“Of course we can still be friends!” I said, smiling. “But you have to promise you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone! Especially your parents!”

“But my parents love Freaks.” Shelley stated, cracking a smile, clearly happy that we could all still be friends.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Collin said, sitting up and smiling at Shelley. “Take us to your parents!”

“Okay!” Shelley said, skipping back into her backyard and up to the back porch, the four of us trailing in her wake. “Well come on!”

It’s not like we haven’t been in the Parks’ house before (we’ve been there plenty of times to hang out with Shelley), but this time was different; we were going to tell Mr. and Mrs. Parks that we were Freaks, and if what Shelley said was true, then we had nothing to worry about, but if she was wrong, then we had multiple reasons to worry.

“Mom! Dad! The neighbors are here!” Shelley yelled up the stairs.

“Which ones?” Mrs. Parks yelled from a room on the second story.

“The teenagers!” Shelley shouted back.

Emerging from the top of the stairs was Mrs. Parks wearing a blue v-neck, light blue skinny jeans, a pair of heels, and a bright red scarf tied around her neck – as fashionable as ever.

“Hey guys!” Mrs. Parks said, smiling as always.

“Hey Mrs. Parks.” We said in unison.

“Didn’t I tell you guys to call me Monica?” she asked, looking at each of us.

“Yes, but we feel that it’s better to call you ‘Mrs. Parks’ instead of ‘Monica’ because you’re the mother of one of our friends – not that you aren’t our friend because you totally are!” Collin explained.

“Well I guess it’ll have to do.” Mrs. Parks (a.k.a. Monica) said. “So what brings you four here?”

“Mom, you know how you always said that the Freaks are people just like us and that us Normals shouldn’t be chasing them down and hunting them and trying to kill them and whatnot?” Shelley asked. “Well it turns out that Amber, Collin, Hayden, and Natalie here are Freaks! Isn’t this exciting?”

“Oh my! Are you joking?” Mrs. Parks asked, eyeing each of us. “Well this is very exciting! Why didn’t you tell anyone – wait, what are you four doing here living in a Normal neighborhood?”

“Well you see, when we moved here we didn’t realize that it was a Normal neighborhood and assumed it was just some regular neighborhood. But hey! We’ve done a pretty good job blending in, haven’t we?” Collin clarified, bouncing on the balls of his feet, smiling just like the jokester he is.

“Ah, I see now. Well dyeing your hair doesn’t help you blend in, but you guys don’t act like the stereotypical Freaks, which is probably why no one has suspected that you four are Freaks.”

“Where’s Mr. Parks?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“At the store – I was planning to make snickerdoodle cookies to bring to you guys as a treat, but it seems that we don’t have all the ingredients, so I sent him to the store.” Mrs. Parks said, smiling.

The Parks were a very nice family and were very open-minded, which is why I wasn’t very surprised that they would accept our freakiness with open arms and open minds. Mrs. Parks loved cooking, and so none of us were surprised that she had been planning to bake us something, which Shelley seemed embarrassed about.

“That’s so nice of you to think about baking something for us.” I said, smiling.

“Well you guys might be living on your own, but I always want you to know that if you want a home cooked meal, you are always welcome to come over for dinner.”

This conversation has gone from telling Shelley’s parents that we’re Freaks to being a conversation about cooking. I thought. Maybe we should get back to talking about us being Freaks? Nah, I mean, it’s good to get things off the chest, but it’s still weird for a Normal to know that we’re Freaks.

“That’s very generous of you, but we’re fine; we can cook for ourselves.” I replied.

“I insist!” Mrs. Parks said. “We don’t need you four starving with what little money you guys have.”

“Actually,” Hayden said. “The four of us have good paying jobs. Kind of surprising for teenagers, isn’t it?”

Mrs. Parks sighed. “Well if you guys are so insistent that you’re fine, then I guess I’ll stop trying to pressure you four into coming over for dinner.”

We spent another half an hour at the Parks’ house, and we even got to talk to Mr. Parks after he got back from the grocery store. It was a very awkward half an hour we were there; possibly because the four of us weren’t very comfortable with having Normals know that we were Freaks. After we left the Parks’ house and went back into our own, we were more relaxed and felt better because we didn’t have to keep our powers a secret from everyone out there.

 

************

 

“What’s wrong?” Hayden asked, as Shelley ran up onto the porch.

“They’ve found out.” Shelley replied, trying to catch her breath. “About you guys. They found out you’re Freaks.”

“What?” Natalie exclaimed, jumping off the porch swing. “How’d they find out?”

“I’m not sure. I overheard Mr. Johnson talking with the Murrays.” Shelley stated frantically. “They said, ‘Those four must be trouble. They’ve been hiding out in our neighborhood for far too long.’ And so I assumed they were talking about you four. You guys should get out of here as soon as you can!”

“Whoa, whoa, Shelley! Everything’s going to be okay!” I said, trying to calm her down. “I would expect them to come at night with more people than just those two families, so we have a little bit of time. Let us go wake Collin up and we’ll pack up and leave town and try to get as far away from here as we can.”

Shelley looked behind her, worried.

“What is it Shelley?” Hayden asked.

“They said they would get rid of your four as soon as they could.” She looked down at her feet, her socks obviously not matching. “I assume they’re going to come before night. Probably before noon.” She looked up. “Please, just leave as fast as you can.”

“Okay Shelley, we’ll go get Collin and pack up as quickly as we can and leave.” Hayden said, getting up from the porch swing and ushering Natalie towards the door. I followed suit, walking through the door, motioning for Shelley to follow us inside.

“No.” Shelley said, staying on the porch. “I can’t. I’ve got to tell my parents. They don’t know yet.”

Understanding, I nodded to Shelley and she ran down the steps, off the porch and across the yard, rushing to let her parents know.

When I closed the door and turned around, I saw that Collin had been woken up already. His ear buds were hanging out of his pocket and he looked confused.

“What’s going on?” Collin asked, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

“We’ve got to go. Go pack your stuff.” I said, walking past him towards the room Natalie and I shared.

Upon entering the room, I saw that Natalie had thrown all of my clothes on my bed and had thrown hers on her bed, which she was presently stuffing into her purple suitcase. I walked into the closet and grabbed my black suitcase, throwing it on my bed. After I unzipped my suitcase and opened it up, I realized that not even half of my clothes would fit. Knowing not everything would fit, I threw pair after pair of jeans and t-shirts into my suitcase, stuffing my favorite Doctor Who and Harry Potter t-shirts in as soon as I found them.

When my suitcase was full, I zipped it up, stuffing my toiletries into whatever pockets they would fit in. I emptied my purple plaid backpack and put my laptop inside, throwing in various chargers and power supplies into it as well. I threw shoes and socks into the bag as well, knowing I wouldn’t be able to bring them with me any other way.

Looking up, I saw Natalie standing at her dresser, holding a picture of a dog, tears rolling down her face.

“Take it with you.” I said.

She looked at me, sniffling.

“Take the picture with you.” I said again, motioning towards the picture.

Natalie looked down at the frame and stuffed it into her purse, wiping away her tears. I knew how much she had loved that dog; she had such good stories about her time with him. I’m not exactly sure why she was hesitant to put it in her bag – perhaps she thought we shouldn’t take such silly things like a picture. But she loved that dog, and it’d break her heart to leave her last memory of him at a house we would never see again.

Just then, Shelley burst into the room.

“Come on you two! You guys have to go!” She exclaimed, frantic and still out of breath.

Natalie and I picked up our bags and stormed out of the room, heading for the front door where the boys were waiting with the car.

All of a sudden, everything seemed to slow down.

“Come on!” Shelley yelled.

We ran outside and were off the porch and to the car, just in time for the house to explode.

“No!” Natalie shouted, turning away from the explosion.

The wreckage from the house littered the yard and set the grass on fire, flames flickering and smoking and spreading across the yard.

Just then, the house next door exploded as Natalie clambered into the car, falling onto the backseat as the force knocked her over. I looked over at Shelley who seemed to be in shock as she watched the remains of her house fall from the sky.

We stayed like that for a minute. Shelley standing on the sidewalk, staring at the remains of the house she had called “home” for the past year; Hayden standing by the driver’s side door, hand on the handle ready to open the car and get inside; Collin standing by the open trunk where he had been putting luggage in; Natalie laying across the backseat, tears rolling down her face; and me standing beside Shelley, my mouth hanging open in shock as the house of Normals exploded, instantly killing Andrew and Monica Parks.

Shelley ran towards the burning wreckage of the house, screaming and crying for her parents. She knew they were dead and that she’d never see them again, just like Collin, Hayden, Natalie, and I knew if we ever saw our parents again, they’d be the ones trying to kill us. Being the faster runner, I ran after Shelley and tackled her to the ground before should could get within twenty feet of the wreckage.

Shelley managed to push me off of her, but before she could do anything, Hayden came and picked her up, dragging her to the car and putting her in the back seat next to Natalie. I scrambled to get in the car before Shelley could get out and slammed the door shut. Within a minute we were speeding off to an unknown destination where hopefully we’d have better luck finding a neighborhood that would be nicer to us.

 

************

 

By the time we stopped at a gas station, Shelley had stopped sobbing, Natalie’s tears had dried up, Collin was fiddling with a pencil he had found in the car, Hayden’s knuckles were white, and I was scared silent; the past was behind us, and though we were reluctant to let go, we proceeded to try and forget about what had happened three hours before.

Hayden pulled the red SUV beside a pump at a Racetrack, which seemed to be very popular this time of the day.

“All right,” Hayden started, unbuckling his seatbelt and opening the car door. “Everyone out.”

The rest of us followed suit, clambering out of the car, groaning and stretching.

“Go to the bathroom, get yourself something to eat, and meet back here in about five minutes.” Hayden said, handing us all some money.

We stood there like statues, staring down at the old, crumpled money we had been handed – what does money matter anymore? Somewhat reluctantly, we trudged into the Racetrack, went to the bathroom, and grabbed food and drinks as Hayden filled the car up.

All too soon, we were on the road, heading towards an unknown destination.

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The Long Drive.

“Natalie, your phone is ringing.” I say, shaking her.

At some point during the drive, Shelley and Natalie had switched seats in the car which made Natalie think it was okay to fall asleep on me. Collin and Hayden had switched seats after a few hours of driving so Hayden could get some rest.

“Natalie,” I groaned, shaking her a little harder. “Answer your phone.”

Natalie blinked awake, confused and disoriented at first, digging the phone out of her pocket.

“Hello?” Natalie asked, answering the phone. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I meant to call you!” A pause. “Yeah, uh, I mean, no, I just – I don’t know anymore.” Another pause. “I don’t know. We’ve been driving all day.” Silence. “Yeah, Shelley is with us.” At the mention of her name, Shelley picked up her head and looked over at Natalie. When she lost interest in Natalie’s conversation, Shelley proceeded to slump back against the door.

“Yeah, I’ll call you later. Okay. Bye.” Natalie said, ending the call and promptly putting her phone away, sighing.

“Was that Charlie?” Collin asked from the driver’s seat.

“Uhm, yeah, he was concerned when we didn’t show up this morning, and then he freaked out when he finally went over to the house to find it had been blown up.” Natalie answered, looking out the front windshield.

“I suppose we should tell him what direction we’re headed so he can follow.” Collin suggested.

“I suppose so.” Natalie said tentatively, pulling her phone back out and unlocking it, pulling up her text messages.

Charlie is a Freak, just like we are. (Excluding Shelley, that is.) He had also been a stupid Freak and moved into a Normal neighborhood. Charlie lived on the other side of town, and it was just a random happenstance that we found him. When we found out he was a Freak and he found out that we were Freaks, it was as if the five of us had always been the best of friends. And soon enough, Charlie and Natalie started going out and it became a normal thing to have Charlie over or to find Natalie missing – she was at Charlie’s house if we couldn’t find her.

“Any idea where we’re headed?” I ask Collin, leaning forward in my seat.

“Not sure,” Collin replies. “I just know that Hayden was driving this way, so that’s what I’m doing.”

“Fair enough.” I said, slumping back in my seat and staring out the window at the cars and buildings passing by. “What do you think the world would be like right now if all this Freak and Normal business hadn’t happened?” I ask no one in particular.

“It’d be the same as it used to be.” Collin responded. “We probably wouldn’t know each other, and we’d be back in our hometowns going to school and just being teenagers.”

“Yeah. But we’re kind of forced to be adults now.” I reply, watching as we pass a blue Ford Focus.

“Yeah, well we kinda have no choice.”

I look over at Natalie, slumped in the middle of the back seat, ear buds in, listening to music. I could faintly hear Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life” coming from Natalie’s ear buds, completely unaware of the short conversation Collin and I had just had.

As the trees and sky passed by outside the window, I started thinking of and wondering. Why did this all happen? How were we chosen? Why were we chosen for these supernatural powers? And why did the Normal humans freak out when it all happened? It’s not like we were going to kill them because we all suddenly had abilities that could be used to harm them did we choose to use them that way. But they obviously saw us all as threats and decided to attack. So what happened to all of us?

Soon enough, I fell asleep, my vision fading to black as I was pulled into unconsciousness.

 

************

 

“Amber. Hey! Amber!” Softly, a voice called my name. “Amber, it’s time to get up!” I felt someone shaking me, trying to force me out of unconsciousness.

I slowly opened my eyes to see Hayden standing outside the car with the door opened, trying to wake me up. Blinking a couple of times, I realized the sun was up in the sky. Was it morning already?

“What’s going on?” I asked, groggy and disoriented. Sitting up, I realized I still had my seatbelt buckled, so I unbuckled it, which allowed me to turn sideways on the seat. Looking behind Hayden I saw that we were stopped at a McDonalds, which meant we were stopping for food and another bathroom break.

“Come on.” Hayden said, kissing me and grabbing my hand. “We’re gonna get breakfast here and then we’ll be back on the road.” Looking at Hayden, I could tell his hair hadn’t been very well brushed – he might as well have combed his hair with his fingers – and he was still wearing the same clothes from the day before.

Walking into the building I saw that the breakfast menus were up and that it very clearly was time for breakfast.

“Good morning sleeping beauty.” Collin said jokingly as Hayden and I walked into the building.

“Oh, shut up.” I said, tugging at my hair with my fingers – trying to make it look like I wasn’t trying to comb through it with my fingers.

“Come here.” Natalie said, pulling me towards the bathroom.

Within the bathroom, Natalie dug through her purse and pulled out, would you believe it, a hairbrush, handing it to me.

“Oh, goodness. Thanks Natalie.” I said, smiling and pulling the brush through my hair.

We stood in silence for a moment, me brushing my hair, trying to make my appearance look at least a little bit nicer, and Natalie waiting for me to finish – after all, I was using her hairbrush.

Silence. Complete and utter awkward silence as I brushed my hair.

“Where do you think we’re going to end up?” Natalie asked me, looking down at her shoes.

“Well, it seems that Hayden is willing to take charge and be the leader of the group, so I suppose when Hayden thinks we’re far enough away we’ll stop and try to find somewhere to live and just whatever could make the situation better.” I said, pulling the brush through the last of the tangles and knots in my hair. I handed the brush back to Natalie and she looked at it, as though it would always be a reminder of what used to be.

“I’m not sure I can do this.” Natalie said before putting the hairbrush back into her purse.

“What do you mean?” I ask, concerned, knowing that she had had problems in the past.

“I just…” Natalie started, wiping away a tear that had escaped. “It’s just that we had a life back there. Sure we had to hide the fact that we were Freaks, are Freaks, but it was good. And I – ”

“This isn’t because of Charlie is it?” I ask.

“Well, yes, but no.” Natalie stated. “I just mean that we didn’t even think about Charlie and we just kind of left him there and didn’t tell him what was going on and so he called and then I had to explain, but this is also because that was – ”

All of a sudden, Natalie’s phone started ringing. Reaching into her pocket, Natalie pulled out her phone, and from her reaction, I could tell that it was Charlie.

“Hello?” Natalie answered, looking anywhere but at me. “Uhm, in a McDonald’s bathroom?” A pause. “No, I don’t know where.” Another pause. “Wait, what? Why?” Silence. “Okay, okay, give me a minute.”

Natalie walked out of the bathroom with me trailing behind. She handed the phone to Hayden and said, “It’s Charlie.”

Promptly, Hayden took the phone.

“Hey Charlie.” Hayden said into the phone, his eyebrows knitted together. “You’ve got to be kidding. Yeah. Yeah, of course. We’ll meet you there.” Hayden pressed “end call” on the phone and handed it back to Natalie, who stored it back in her pocket.

“What’d he say?” Natalie asked. “Where are we meeting him?”

Hayden sighed. “Apparently there’s a place where Freaks can live and be free and do whatever, which means they don’t have to pretend to be Normal. And the best thing about it is that the Normals don’t know about it and don’t know where it is. Charlie said that on the first and twentieth of every month there’s a group of Freaks that will meet Freaks at a certain spot that have never been to the hideout before and will escort them there and make sure they have a place to live and all that.” Looking around, Hayden saw the disbelieving in our eyes. “Apparently Charlie has come into contact with some Freaks that have been to the hideout and apparently they really like it.”

“And where is this hideout?” Collin asked.

“Well I’m not sure where the hideout is, but according to Charlie they meet up at the flag pole of the high school in Allen, Texas, which isn’t very far from here.” Hayden stated.

“Not sure how you know that, since we’ve lived in Oklahoma for the past year.” I said.

“Wait, isn’t today the nineteenth?” Collin asked.

“Yes, today is the nineteenth, and I know that because I’m actually from Allen.” Hayden said, avoiding our eyes.

“Then what brought you to Oklahoma?” I asked, curious and confused.

“Well when all this happened,” Hayden started, waving his arms around. “I had been visiting my uncle and his wife in Oklahoma. It was just a simple family gathering, and then I suddenly teleported from the living room to the dining room and my family freaked out. They forced me to leave, though I didn’t know what was going on or what had happened to me, but I ended up finding you three, thankfully.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.” I said, looking at the floor.

“It’s fine.” Hayden said, sighing. “Let’s get some breakfast and get out of here.”

Not too much longer later, we were on the road again with greasy breakfast sandwiches and sodas, ready for the drive to Texas.

 

************

 

Four hours later we entered the city that had once been called Allen. Hell, it’s probably still called Allen, though it looks like a ghost town now. We drove past an IHOP, where the windows were broken and the doors had been smashed inwards. Next to it was an On the Border, but that was messed up as well; there were bricks missing from the exterior that must’ve been used to break into the building, because now it looked odd. Many of the buildings around this area seemed to have been broken into, but the question is why?

Hundreds of cars passed through this city on the highway, but none got off. This wasn’t the kind of city you would want to stop in because it wasn’t very welcoming and seemed to be trouble.

We exited the highway and turned onto a street called “Bethany” where dozens of cars were piled up, almost like dozens of people had disappeared all in the same moment. Cautiously, we drove down the street, passing a Starbucks, and a Racetrack, and a Wienerschnitzel. At the intersection after the Wienerschnitzel, we made a left turn and headed down the street, not going any faster than twenty miles per hour.

It was obvious everyone had abandoned the city of Allen. Not much longer later, only a few intersections after we turned, we arrived at the high school, which was empty of vehicles and people, just like most of the places we had already passed.

At the main entrance of the school was a roundabout, which had the flag poles located conveniently in the center of it. Right where the American flag should’ve been was a flag that was black, blue, purple, pink, green, orange, and red, the word “Freaks” spelled out in white lettering. No one was in sight, but this was obviously where we were supposed to meet. I mean, why else would there be a flag with the word “Freaks” written across it?

We had another day until the group came to pick up the Freaks at the flag pole of Allen High School, so we got out of the car and walked towards the building.

Going through the main entrance of the school, we found a circular front desk area that looked like it had been chopped to pieces and used as possible weapons, going from the look of it. We walked past the broken front desk and found a mosaic on the floor of an eagle, but the mosaic was covered in dried blood.

It seems that high schoolers can be very violent and unmerciful, which really makes me wonder about the flag. Did the flag mean that the Freaks won the battle here at the high school, or does it just show the Freaks where they’re being picked up to go and live in neighborhood full of other Freaks?

Looking to the left, with the light filtering through the windows and skylights, I saw that the hallway stretched out a ways with other hallways branching out from it.

“This is the main hallway.” Hayden said; obviously he knew this place.

“Well there’s the cafeteria.” Collin said, pointing to the right where window after window made it possible to look into a very open space that was obviously a cafeteria. There were tables scattered around the room, just like there would be in any normal high school cafeteria, but there were dozens of tables. This school was much bigger than the one I had gone to.

Shelley and Natalie stayed silent; their faces were contorted in pain as if looking around the school hurt them and reminded them of what used to be.

“Come on.” Hayden said. “Let’s look down here.”

Hayden started off down the main hallway, passing by a stair case, heading towards the end of the hallway where everything looked newer and nicer.

Or so it seemed newer and nicer. When we got down to the end of the hallway, the carpet changed to tile and the space opened up, allowing people to walk around a mill about. But no one was here anymore, and a lot of the tiles were broken, as well as the TV screens located on columns around the area. The wall to our left wasn’t straight, like normal walls would be, but it was curvy and made for an interesting area.

We ventured around this area of the school for a while, locating the band hall and the drum room. All the instruments that had been in the drum room had been destroyed; some of the bars from the mallet instruments seemed to have been used as weapons and were scattered all over the floor. All the drum heads were broken, as if the Hulk had come through and smashed through them all. I felt the need to weep for the instruments, but I didn’t.

Eventually we found the orchestra and choir rooms, as well as a dance studio, dressing rooms, and the auditorium.

Walking across the stage of the auditorium, Hayden said, “This is the PAC. Also known as the Performing Arts Center. Or, well, this whole area is the Performing Arts Center, but this is where we would hold all the concerts and plays and musicals and other things.”

“Wait.” Natalie said. “Why are the lights on if this place has been abandoned for a while?”

We all stopped in our tracks. It had never occurred to us that the lights were on. We didn’t think anything of it.

“Maybe someone is here.” I said slowly.

“Yeah, and maybe they won’t kill us.” Collin said sarcastically.

“Hey! Maybe they’re like us and they’re just waiting for tomorrow so they can be led to the neighborhood of Freaks.” I said, looking around, wondering if the person was here.

We were silent for a moment, wondering if they were listening and hoping they would speak up and reassure us that they weren’t going to try and kill us.

“Well I suppose you’d be right.” A voice to our left said. We looked to the audience and saw no one. “Up here.” The voice said again. Looking up at the balcony, we saw a boy and a girl sitting there, watching us.

“So I’m guessing you’re both Freaks?” I said, a question in my tone.

“I am. She’s not.” The boy said, pointing to the girl next to him.

“Oh, shut up.” The girl said, slapping the boy’s hand away.

Looking at the girl, I said, “Well then, you and Shelley would probably get along since Shelley is Normal as well.”

The girl and the boy looked at each other, and then back at us, their eyes washing over the five of us.

“Well which one of you is Shelley?” The girl asked, looking between Shelley and Natalie.

Hayden, Collin, Natalie, and I looked at Shelley, who looked up at us, and eventually settled her eyes on the girl.

“I’m Shelley.” She said, raising her hand before dropping it back down to her side.

“Well it’s nice to meet you.” The girl said. “My name is Emily. Glad to know I won’t be the only Normal hanging out with the Freaks.”

“Woah, woah. Who said we were all Freaks?” Collin asked jokingly.

“Well I didn’t say you were a Normal, did I?” I answered.

“No, but what if I’m not as freaky as you guys?” Collin questioned.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I said, shaking my head. “Where did you end up the first time you used your power?”

With a sigh, Collin said, “1914.” A pause. “But I don’t think I’m as freaky as you guys are.”

“Yes you are.” Hayden, Natalie, and I said in unison.

“Wait!” A voice from the balcony said. We looked up and saw the boy standing up, bent over, his hands resting on the seat in front of him. “What’s your power?”

“I can time travel!” Collin exclaimed, a smile lighting up his face.

“Damn. That’s cooler than what I can do!” The boy said.

“Well what can you do?” Hayden asked.

“I can heal people. I can probably heal animals too, but I’ve never actually tried.” The boy said, looking at his hands. “Oh, and I’m Sebastian by the way. Sebastian Green. But my friends call me ‘Shadow’. Or, well, this friend does.” He says, gesturing towards Emily.

“Why are you called ‘Shadow’?” Natalie asked.

The boy looked surprised. “Well.” A pause. “Actually, I’m not really sure. Emily, why do you call me ‘Shadow’?”

“Because one day you completely disappeared into the shadows and I couldn’t figure out where you were. But I think you were wearing black that day, so it was easy for you to hide in the shadows of wherever we were.” Emily said, her eyebrows knitting together as she tried to think about the reason for the nickname “Shadow.”

“Okay then.” Natalie said, looking down at the stage in front of her.

“Alright, well nice to meet you both. My name is Hayden. You guys have already met Shelley. That idiot over there is Collin, that’s Natalie, and this one is Amber.” Hayden said, pointing to each one of us in turn.

“Hey! I take offense to that!” Collin exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you could hear me.” Hayden said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“Well you all certainly get along.” Shadow said, his eyebrows raised. “You know what? It’d be a hell of a lot easier to talk if we were down there with you guys. Give us just a minute.”

A minute later, Shadow and Emily were coming through the door to the left of the stage.

“Oh, wow.” Shadow said, looking over at Hayden. “You’re taller than I expected you to be.”

“Well I am six feet tall.” Hayden said, looking at Shadow.

“Dang. And I’m only five foot four.” Shadow looked over at Emily. “Well at least I’m not shorter than you are, because that’d be kind of awkward.”

“We probably wouldn’t be dating if you were shorter than me.” Emily said. “But you’re only two inches taller than me, so you’re not too much taller than I am.”

“Harsh!” Shadow said. “Maybe we should break up if being only two inches taller is a crime.”

“Oh, you know you wouldn’t do that.” Emily said, wrapping her arm around Shadow’s waist. “You love me too much.”

Shadow sighed. “You’re right. You’re too much of a pain in the ass and I think any guy would dump you right on the spot if they realized how much trouble you’d be, even though you’re not a Freak like me.”

“Oh, shut up.” Emily laughed, pushing Shadow away.

Shadow laughed as well, and then looked over at us who had been watching this little exchange between the two without much of any interest. “So what brings you five here?”

“Well,” Hayden began. “We were idiots.”

“How so?” Shadow asked, curiosity bright in his eyes.

“When this war had started, Collin, Natalie, Amber, and I had been lost until we found each other. The four of us decided to all move in together since houses weren’t costing anything anymore and you could just move into one whenever you wanted. First come, first served, right? Well the neighborhood we moved into was a Normal neighborhood and we didn’t realize it until we heard some of our neighbors talking about the Freaks and how much they hated them and wished they would all die. That’s when we realized we were in the wrong neighborhood, but we stayed because it’d seem suspicious if we moved.

“And how did you guys meet Shelley?” Emily asked.

“I was actually their next-door neighbor.” Shelley spoke up. “My parents and I saw no reason to hate the Freaks. I mean, it’s not like you guys asked to have these powers. We thought everyone was overreacting, but we didn’t say anything because we weren’t supposed to like the Freaks.”

“Oh. Well I guess I see how it is. But where are your parents?” Emily asked, an innocent question.

“They were killed.” Shelley said softly, tears rolling down her cheeks as the memory came back to her.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t – ” Emily started.

“It’s fine.” Shelley, said, wiping at the tears rolling down her cheeks. “You didn’t know.”

We were all silent for a moment as we stood on the empty stage where dust covered the floor and we left footprints where we walked.

“So have you guys figured out where you’re sleeping for the night?” Shadow asked, trying to get the mood back to normal.

“No.” Hayden said. “Did you guys find a place already?”

“Well we saw a couch in an office. I think it was the choir director’s office?” Shadow said.

“If it was in the choir room, then it was the choir office. We had three choir directors, and from what I heard, everyone loved them.” Hayden said, looking into the empty audience.

“So you weren’t a ‘La La Loser’?” Shadow asked, a smirk playing at the edge of his lips.

“No. It’s not my thing.” Hayden said, smiling just a little. “I was in band. On the drumline actually. I played snare.”

“I didn’t know you were on the drumline.” I said, looking at Hayden with a smirk.

“I thought I told you.” Hayden looked at me, his eyebrows knitting together.

“Nope. Just like I never told you I was on the drumline at my school.” I said, grinning. “I was on the cymbal line. You have no idea how interesting the cymbal line can be.”

“Oh, trust me. I know.” Hayden said, smiling. “The guys on the snareline may act like they’re all high and mighty and not caring about what the directors say or what anyone else said, but we did eavesdrop on some interesting conversations.”

“Wow, that sounds like the snareline from my school.” I say.

“Sounds like the snareline from my school.” Collin says, rolling his eyes. “Can we talk about something we all would know about?”

“Like what?” Natalie asks.

“Oh, uh, I wasn’t actually expecting someone to look to me for a conversation topic.” Collin said, struggling to come up with something everyone would know about and be interested in.

“Well how about how much of an idiot you are?” Hayden says. “I think everyone knows about that, even Shadow and Emily here. Isn’t that right guys?”

Shadow and Emily look at Hayden with a look of why are you dragging us into this? and mumbles agreements of how much of an idiot Collin is and how stupid he acts.

“Very convincing.” Collin says sarcastically, giving them two thumbs up. “You guys know me so well.”

“So are we actually going to figure out where we’re sleeping?” I ask, looking between Hayden and Collin.

“Well I guess we do need to figure that out.” Hayden says, looking at the ground a few feet in front of him.

“We don’t necessarily need to sleep in the building.” Collin says. “I mean, if we want to be more comfortable we could probably go sleep in the car. Just a suggestion.”

“Yes, but it’d be crowded in the backseat.” I point out. “And plus it might not be very comfortable for whoever is in the driver’s seat.”

“I call shotgun!” Collin shouts, running off the stage, laughing like a maniac.

We were all silent for a moment.

“He can go sleep in the car and we’ll sleep in the building.” Natalie says.

After about ten minutes of searching around for a comfortable spot to go to sleep in, Hayden, Natalie, Shelley, and I decide to sleep in the band hall when it’s dark enough outside and we’re tired enough. While we’re still awake, we walk around the school with Shadow and Emily who tell us that they’ve been there for about a day and a half. They tell us how scared they were the first night that they slept on the stage with the lights on because they were afraid that maybe there were other people in the building that would jump out to get them, but none came. So the next morning they decided to explore the school, and that’s when they came upon the couch in the choir directors’ office.

Walking down the main hallway, I look at all the pictures on the walls. Everyone seems so happy and carefree and I long for the days when we could live like that, but it’s not possible anymore; this random happenstance has corrupted the world and it’s not possible to be carefree anymore unless you’re as naïve as a child.

Towards the cafeteria, I spot a picture of a girl with a microphone taped to her forehead – it’s the kind an actor or actress would use in a play or musical. Her hair is in two braids and her dress reminds me or Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz”. Maybe the school musical was “The Wizard of Oz”. Next to this picture is one of a boy and a girl, hugging and smiling at the camera. The girl has straight, blonde hair and is wearing a tiara and a sash. The boy has curly brown hair and is wearing a crown and a sash. They must have been crowned prom king and queen, which would make sense.

This school must have really been something special.

“What are you looking at?” Hayden asks, stepping beside me where I’m standing, looking at the picture.

“Did you know these two?” I ask.

“No, but I did find out their names. The girl’s name is Veronica Mayberry and the guy’s name is Keith Williams. They were crowned prom king and queen.”

“Did you go to prom?” I ask, looking at Hayden.

“No, I was a junior at the time. If I had had a senior girlfriend, then I probably would’ve gone, but I wasn’t that lucky.” Hayden says, jokingly.

“Well now you have me.” I say, lacing my fingers with his.

“Oh, you two get a room!” a voice yells behind us.

Turning around we find Charlie Stewart standing by one of the brick pillars behind the circular front desk.

“Charlie!” Natalie shouts, running and throwing her arms around him.

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Author's Note

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