"Come on Trace! Your too slow!" My bike's engine roared as I took the next turn like a wild horse. Trace almost crashed into the pine tree by trying to catch up with me.

"Zed! We need to talk!" I sped up just when Trace had started catching up with me. I saw an unmarked road and decided this would be my best chance at losing him. The gravel jumped as my bike hopped over a fallen tree. At that moment I felt happy, having tried to conquer that trick for the last few weeks. After a few minutes, I realised Trace was no longer following me. My heart skipped a beat as my head told me that maybe Trace might have crashed into something. He wasn't as good on a bike as he used to be, not after he'd become a cop in Denver. I thought it weird, having not had a glimpse into the future of him falling but I'd been too involved in myself to let my mind free. I tried using telepathy to contact my brother. It was no use. He could be on the floor bleeding to death whilst I had been congratulating myself. Suddenly, I felt ashamed as I revved my motorbike into action.

This time, instead of making my bike leap over the fallen tree, I did what any normal person would do, I went around it crushing the flowers on the lawn. I arrived back at the cross road which led to three different roads : the unmarked one, the one that led back to our house and one that made you go round a quiet farm that led to a dead end.

I looked around but all I saw were the misty mountains covered by the evening clouds. When I looked more closely, I saw Trace's bike parked up behind a street lamp. I quickly glimpsed a scene in the future where three of my brothers jumped out and tackled me to the ground. Three seconds later, Will had shoved me off my bike and was wrestling me to the ground. I was half surprised to see Trace and Victor walk over to stand in front of me.

"I'm disappointed in you little brother." Victor said it with such sadness that I was immediately embarrassed by my actions. Trace must have seen my face because he told Will to get off me. Rubbing my hands on my jeans I looked Victor straight in the eyes and told him what I really thought.

"Why d'you bother feeling disappointed in me Vic? You're never around anyways. Probably found your Soulfinder for all I care." I regretted the words as soon as they had come out of my mouth. Soulfinders were a serious topic which shouldn't be used for joking. Soulfinders. That was the word for why three of my brothers had come back from their busy lives. Victor looked hurt by what I'd said. But for some reason I couldn't stop digging into the hole I was making.

"And why do you care Trace? Your the oldest, you were always getting into fight in bars, breaking every girls' heart as if they were a piece of trash." Before I knew it, a giant rock flew into my face and knocked me over. Blood started trickling down my face and onto my leather jacket.

"What the hell Trace? I know we were supposed to go hard on him if we had to but mom and dad didn't say we had to hurt him!" Victor had rounded on my brother like my parents would on one of us after a lemon fight.

"Zed!" Trace ran up to me and knelt by my side. He started examining me for serious injuries.

I'm so sorry.

I guess Trace was too embarrassed to say it out loud but I didn't mind. I would probably have done the same.

"What was that?" I turned round to look at Victor, then Will and finally Trace. The first person to answer me was Will. Victor was too stunned to say anything which was very unlike him and Trace seemed to be swearing at himself.

"Trace may have lost control of himself after what you said so instead of punching you or I don't know, he used telekinesis to flick a rock across the other side of the rode." Will looked unsure and started to scratch his neck nervously, which was never a good sign. I felt bad realising that I'd caused all of this. I decided to try and soften the mood.

"No offence Trace, but I think you completely missed. I don't think telekinesis is your superpower." To my surprise, Trace laughed at my joke and ruffled my hair. I let him, knowing he was just trying to be friendly, not trying to annoy me.

"You know, for the first time in a long time, I actually agree with you." Trace agreeing with me! That was definitely something rare. We all stood or sat in silence for a few minutes admiring the scenery. I knew the real reason why we were all stalling, none of us was anxious to get to the real reason why I had just been pummelled to the ground. Victor decided to break the silence first.

"Right, we all know the reason we're all here. Zed, I know you don't want to talk about it but you have to. We're not doing it for ourselves, we're doing it for you. Please, just hear us out." I decided not to argue, knowing I could only make it worse. After my brothers saw I wasn't going to say anything, Trace took his turn to speak.

"Listen bro. Everyone's worried about you, especially mom and dad. That's the real reason why we came back. Not because we wanted to see our old High School again. Because mom and dad our losing it. They're this close to arguing. And Soulfinders who've been together for ever so long don't argue."

They waited a few moments before continuing to let the news settle in. I was making mom and dad argue? Well almost argue. But still, I couldn't quite believe that my behaviour had gone so far.

"All of us realise that not knowing wether or not your gonna find your Soulfinder is one of the most frustrating things in life but you have to try and control yourself. For mom's sake. For dad's sake." Will's voice was low and quiet. I realised that this was hard for my brothers to talk about because they hadn't found theirs either. None of my brothers had. The worst thing was, I knew I'd started losing it. I knew that I was going to be one of those people who went mad if they never found their Soulfinder. But I didn't want to be one of them. I knew this was my cue to speak but I didn't know what to say so I told them the first thing that found its way into my messed up mind.

"Okay, I'm gonna go somewhere else where I can be left alone to think about it." My speech had sounded cold hearted. Not what I was aiming for but my brothers understood.

"It's fine, we were going to have to leave either way. We still have to go visit our old school to make our surprise stay look normal." Trace winked at me and led Victor and Will back to their bikes.

Once they'd sat down and exchanged a few silent words together, they sped off down the rode that led to our house.

I kicked my bike and sat down, head in my hands. What had I done? All the damage I'd done to my brothers and my parents. They didn't deserve that, they all deserved better then to be treated like a piece of dirt. I didn't want to hurt them, I just wished that I didn't have to worry about finding my Soulfinder since I probably only had a one percent chance of finding her. What if she already had a boyfriend that she loved dearly and wouldn't give up no matter what? What if she was dead? What if she was in jail, sentanced for life? The last thought was probably the one I preferred, knowing that Victor could probably bail her out for me. After about ten minutes of ugly thoughts about my Soulfinder, I heard a jogger come running by and decided I should go home. The jogger came to a halt besides me and started to talking in a low whisper, I'd recognise that voice anywhere.

"Listen, you don't have to say anything. I just came by to heal your nose. Trace, Vic and Will didn't tell me what happened. I just felt an echo of your pain." I looked up and saw Xav with his hand extended out. I'd realised that if he'd felt my pain from so far away it meant that Xav liked me more than I had ever given him credit for. I'd forgotten about my nose but the pain started to come back and trust me, it hurt.

"So, you gonna let me help you?" I grabbed Xav's extended hand and let him work his magic. The pain started to get smaller and I could feel my bones getting back into place. Right now, I regretted all the times I'd called Xav's power useless. After about twenty minutes of healing, Xav fell to the floor and gave out a huge sigh. He slowly started to rub his head. I'd remembered that he'd once told me that if he healed broken bones, he'd suffer a 24 hour headache.

"Your nose should be as good as new but if I were you, I'd avoid taking a shower today. I know that won't be a problem for you." I couldn't help but grin. Xav had always made me smile. He patted me on the back and told me he was going to go lie down which I knew was code for I'm-going-to-go-to-sleep-and-if-you-dare-wake-me-up-then-you're-gonna-need-more-than-one-healer. I told him I was going to stay here for a bit and try to cool down. He seemed relentless to leave me alone abut then realised there was no point arguing.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I realised that I was lucky to be living in Wrickenridge. The mountains looked as if they were guarding us from evil spirits, towering over any creature that tried to get past them. I lay down and felt the dampness of the grass, it felt good and it cooled of some of the anger I had bottled inside. I suddenly thought of Yves and tried to imagine how he would have dealt in this situation. I laughed silently at my stupidity. Of course I couldn't imagine it! Yves would never have gotten himself in this situation, I knew for a fact that if he never found his Soulfinder, he'd probably be one of the sensible people who just follow life though to the end and always look on the bright side. I started thinking of my brothers.

Trace. I'd always admired him. Maybe even more than my dad. He'd probably never given me a second thought. That's where I was wrong. My brothers and me, we had always been close. I was going to make it up to him.

Uriel. He would defend me in an argument against my older brothers. I wondered what would have happened today had he been here. Would I have been hit by a rock?

Victor. The spy. I did know what was going on in his life. I did know he hadn't found his Soulfinder. I did know that I also had to make it up to him.

Will. He wasn't the brother I was closest to but he was the one with the longest fuse. No wonder he hadn't rounded on Trace or made an object fly into my face. He probably thought my behaviour a big waste of time. I was wrong again. Had to make it up to him as well.

Xavier. He was the joker. The one who owned more clothing then the rest of us. He would always heal my wounds when I learned how to ride a bycicle. We were the two who would end up having an lemon fight. He loved to skii. I loved to snowboard. No wonder we got on so well.

Yves. The smart one. He was also the nicest. I felt closest to him since he was only a year older. He'd never had as much luck with girls as the rest of us. But he had had his fair share.

I suddenly thought of my parents. All the worries I was causing them. I decided that I had to make it up to all my brothers and my parents. The sun was going down as I hopped onto my motorbike. I started the engine and let the breeze follow me. Normally, I'd try to outrun the wind but that was a stupid game. I saw Tina walk by and wave, I returned the gesture and her face made me laugh. She was probably surprised that that what everyone called 'The Legendary Zed Benedict' had decided to stoop so low as to wave at a normal girl.

I continued down the road until I reached my home. It was quiet but the lights were on. I went straight into the kitchen to grab a piece of fruit when I saw a note on the table. It said :

Zed,

Your brothers told me what happened. I'm not proud at Trace's actions but I know he never meant to hurt you because he would never hurt his brothers. That's all I'm going to say about the matter. There's some leftover pizza in the fridge.

See you tomorrow!

Mom.

xxx

I grabbed the pizza and ate in silence, wondering what conversation I'd be having with my mom tomorrow.