SECRETS

Tom's POV

I watched, shell shocked, as Julian's body dissipated like mist on a sunny morning. Jenny was in hysterics, unable to believe what had just happened. He was gone. Everyone watched her from a distance in silence as she cried over the loss of him; I couldn't even think his name without a feeling of disgust. Despite everything, nothing could make me forgive him for what he had done, even though in the end he had paid for it. If it makes me a bad person for hating someone who sacrificed themselves for me, I really don't care; he'd tried to steal the one person who gives me reason to live. After a while Dee stepped forward and asked if Jenny was ok, but she wouldn't answer. Slowly I watched as she curled herself into a ball and cried tears of raw anguish.

Jenny's POV

I don't know how long I sat there; curled in a ball with tears rolling down my face, but eventually my friends got the picture and gave me some space. I didn't realise it would hurt this much, I didn't know I cared for Julian in that way, only when he was dying did the feelings I had been subconsciously suppressing flow out.

He was gone and now there was no sign, no trace of his existence on this world or the Shadow World. I guess that's what hurts the most, the only thing I can remember him by is the gold band, with the words I am my only master inscribed on the inside, his gift to me while he was dying. I kept telling myself if I stay here just one more minute, maybe, just maybe, there's a chance he'll come back. But even to me the words sound like a lie.

There's an explosion of colour and I turn to look out the window to see the impossibly bright blue, that's almost the exact unearthly shade of Julian's cat tilted eyes. I feel my heart swell as I take it in and then, almost too soon, it fades into the mundane colour of the sky. It's just like the world, I think, with Julian the world is impossibly bright, but without its lifeless. I slip the ring into my pocket and get up; it's time for me to join the world of the living.

Tom's POV

I stared out the window, without seeing anything. When I saw Jenny's reaction to Julian's death, the guilt swept up to drown me; I had always thought of how the world would be if I lost Jenny, but I'd never thought of who she wanted, me or Julian. It hadn't even occurred to me that she would rather spend the rest of her life with the wretched shadow man than with me. I hadn't thought it possible, but now I wasn't so sure, what if I'd created Jenny's personal hell?

What if I, so intent on not breaking my own heart, had smashed Jenny's into pieces? The shadow men had said there would be a price to pay for such a deal. I closed my eyes and tried to fight the growing nausea inside of me.

The Dream

In the dream I awoke to find Zach next to me, we were both in shackles. I recognised the circumstances almost immediately; the sign opposite me stated it in big bold letters: Treasure Island. The same place we had been in for the third game. I don't know where Julian was and I didn't want to find out. I thrashed around wildly but I couldn't move, I admit it, I was scared. When this proved useless I tried to wake Zach up, but he didn't stir, even after my throat was sore from yelling at him for half an hour straight. When I was too tired to move and my throat so sore it hurt to breathe, they came.

The Shadow Men appeared one by one and crowded around me. Eventually one with red crocodile eyes took up the position of leader and addressed me.

"You summoned us?" he hissed. His voice so reptilian it made my skin crawl.

I shook my head, not trusting my voice to sound courageous.

"You wish for us to do something, or else we wouldn't have come," another said, this one's spine jutted out of his back with sharp tooth-like bones that seemed as if they were about to protrude through the skin.

"What does your heart desire?"asked the one with crocodile eyes, so quietly that Tom barely heard him.

Tom looked around at the Shadow Men, looking at him with a demanding hunger. Suddenly he found his voice. "I want Julian to die," he whispered.

The Shadow Men looked at him and smiled. They moved away and started talking in hushed voices and after several moments they cackled, Tom watched as they drew closer.

"You have a deal," said the one with the bony spine, "Julian will die tonight –" he broke off to turn and cackle, when he faced Tom again there was a malicious sparkle to his eyes "- you will get your wish, but there will be a price."

With that they disappeared, leaving Tom a sense of dread as their words sank in. "What price?" he yelled to no one in particular.

There was a ghostly chuckle and then Tom saw letters appear in what seemed to be blood, on the sign that read 'Treasure Island'.

Y...O...U...W...I...L...L...K...N...O...W...W...H...E...N...W...E...H...A...V...E...C...O...M...E...T...O...C...O...L...L...E...C...T.

THE END ^^