Ten Years
Cezille07
Sorry to keep you waiting! I wanted to make sure what comes out here is the best for the plot! More romantic scenes coming! And a lot of action too! AND: What secret is Elena hiding? How has Zick taken Elena's departure and re-arrival? ANSWERS HERE! Enjoy reading!
CHAPTER 2: FEEL THE REALITY OF THE PRESENT
At precisely twelve midnight, three loud knocks were made on the front door.
Such a rude entrance, as always, Timothy thought as he got up and opened the door.
"Greetings, ex-Tutor!" said the eldest.
How degrading! You're only a fifth of my age. I hope you don't catch up, though, he added to himself. But he sighed. This was no time for stupid jokes.
"Ahem, yes. I believe your inspection must, once again, take place, yes." How he managed to hide his disdain was a skill well-learnt from ten years of near-rebellion. Ugh, ninety more years of this same treatment! I'll be more than happy to die any time soon if I weren't guarding Zick...
"That's 'Yes, Most-High Tutors' to you, ex-Tutor! And you're bringing such disrespect as to even show your true form to us! Treachery! You were banned long ago to keep morphing back!" replied the same Tutor with as much dislike. And he smiled at Timothy's sour expression. Followed by his two comrades, he passed the fuming Stellar Tutor, nose as high in the air as was possible.
On the way to the stairs, one of them, however, noticed the sleeping Elena.
"Who's this, who's this?" asked the tallest. "Wasn't she the one who brought on the Centennial Punishment to this Detention Oasis?"
The others were laughing. The eldest reached for her leg, and raised her upside-down by it. "Hey little girl, you're all grown up!"
"GET UP, fool, GET UP! UP!!!" bellowed the smallest of the three.
"Hey, what's the—"
"What are you doing here in the Barrymore Detention Oasis? Haven't you caused enough shame to this household and to your name by meddling with our world in the first place? Why aren't you answering any of my questions?!"
"But I—"
"You have an appointment with us at noon tomorrow at the Tutors' pod!"
He dropped her to the floor and proceeded to the stairs without looking back.
Timothy found himself avoiding her questioning glances at his direction, and followed the Tutors upstairs. There's more. You don't have to witness any of this, Elena.
"Wait! Timothy! What was that? Why on earth did they almost pull my legs off and blasted my ears haywire?!"
You're behaving like Zick more than ever. You're so inquisitive and restless...
"You're not talking to me! Hey! Timothy!"
I'm really sorry. This isn't something I, or anyone here, would have wanted you to know.
"Timothy?" she called, but with defeat in her voice. She made to follow him. "What's going on?"
How long must he resist her? "Come with me," he said. I should explain at least this. I know you won't stop anyway.
"The Most-High Tutors' behavior leave so much to be desired. Their predecessors left them a big responsibility too early. You caught a first glimpse of them back then. They were just newly elected. It was odd that they would retire and pass on the titles on those young Tutors. Really odd. I would have questioned the decision if I weren't an outlaw. I asked Jeremy, but he knew they would remove him from his duty once it's clear he's on our side. And right now we need all our protection, all because of a group of you Tutors! They are so irrational it irritates me!"
Elena thought over her answer. "Something feels wrong about that. And tell me, who wouldn't be annoyed? Getting picked up by the leg and dropped!"
"Wait now...be quiet!"
By this time they reached the top of the stairs. The Tutors were in view, peering into each room they came across with a sly maliciousness, ticking those who were present on their checklist.
He knew exactly what was going on inside the rooms too. Greta was standing guard on the door to Zick's room, contempt etched on her face. Zob was feigning sleep, if only not to see what they did to his family every night. The other monsters were hiding in the roof, or under the bed, or inside some drawer they could fit themselves into.
And he knew at last this truth, that their most enjoyable destination was indeed Zick's room.
They knocked with a mock genteel on his door, turned the knob very cautiously. Greta was impatiently tapping her foot. But it was all a show to them.
"Look, he's really asleep this time! Good eh? Some decent rest, hmm," the smallest said with a mixture of surprise and anger.
"Ten years of insomnia and finally this! How...suspicious," continued the tallest.
Greta finally brought herself into the room, leaning on the door with her arms crossed. Her face was tinted a bright red.
"My friends, have you ever imagined what it would be like if we Tutors had some degree of control over these damned Tamers? For example, we need only say, 'Get up', and he would oblige," said the eldest quite greedily.
"But we are diplomats. Leave that to the fools. Tamers are Tamers no matter what," added the tallest. "Let us do it the old-fashioned way. My dear friends, on the count of three."
They counted, and then a chorus of: "ZICK!"
Flushed, Greta could take no more. She took only two steps to them and pulled at the smallest one's clothes, yelling, "What is your problem? Screaming like this at this time of the night! Your idiotic rackets are worse than our Bursties' singing!"
"And so tell me, Greta, dear," the captive one said, waving her off. He looked down at her and said, "What is your point in defending your delinquent, Half-Tamer son? Hmm?! Tell us we have a reason to fear this 'great' Zick!" And he gave her a sinister grin. Greta shrunk in his presence, and pulled herself just out of the room with hushed sobs.
Only after this did Timothy have the strength to look at Elena again. You're not pale or scared. What are you? He bowed his head, wished to leave the room. Yet it's only partly over.
"Look at that, the best friend didn't come to defense!" burst the eldest, in a most sardonic voice. He looked at Elena, who remained motionless. "Come here, watch this."
Oh no! Come on! You have rotting meat for brains, don't you? Why won't you just leave us alone? He let Elena approach the monsters and stand next to them while they pulled out a small, palm-sized box of wood, wrapped in a layer of thick linen.
"Everyone behold...The Device!" called the second, who held it up for everyone to see. He removed the linen, and opened the box to reveal a compass-like object with a needle protruding from the center. Elena showed no reaction—or at least not outwardly. I wonder what she's thinking.
"Shall we, now?"
The others nodded. Grinning to the ears, he pulled the needle (it was connected to a long nylon tube) and—Greta's face disappeared behind a handkerchief—plugged it into Zick's arm. He reacted slightly, but didn't wake.
"Little girl, do you know what's going on here?" the smallest asked her in a falsely sweet voice. Again, she gave no reaction.
But I do. I hate it. Ten years of knowing how you're slowly killing the boy.
Within that Device was a large dose of lavender concentrate. Once it blends into Zick's bloodstream, his system will shut down slowly, starting from physical, to mental, and at last, to his powers. In six hours the effect will gradually lessen. But over time, through the long years of being drugged—
I can't even think about it anymore. Poor Greta...
A small amount of blood rose into the tube and into the Device. Lights flashed, smoke ensued, and some insignificant other process occurred. "Testing blood content," flashed a line on a tiny LCD screen. "Energy levels, zero. Power levels, zero. Overall-condition assessment, extremely low."
The Tutors smiled at each other and removed the Device.
Those zany youths!
"Job well done?"
Certainly not.
"Let's go then. We're done for the night. Ciao!"
They filed out of the room, noses as high in the air as was possible.
"The nerve of some...some..." Greta began. She didn't want to name them, didn't want to have to think of them again. Timothy knew this out of ten years of this same thing every night. And ten years was ample time to memorize a person. He watched her staring at the door the Tutors left open, holding back a groan or an outburst.
And now comes the hardest part...
Elena approached him carefully, looking very eager to bombard him with questions. He recognized that look from a long time ago, when she and Zick were first discovering the monster world on their own, hiding everything from him, naturally.
"Timothy," she said, cutting his reflections. "I want to know what that was."
He looked at her. Ten years, but she was still the same. "There is a time for explanations. But that time is not now. Go to sleep."
She gave an almost pleading, almost rebellious look, then decided against it. With pursed lips and knitted brows she headed for the sofa.
Perhaps by now you should know how important it is to follow the rules. However, this new batch of Tutors present a different case, and I myself would be glad to lead you to misconduct!
But for the meantime, while the household forces sleeps on a difficult matter, he would go elsewhere, to the upper city, to see a certain Snyakutz who must help him with his feline disguise.
The next morning was no less eventful.
Elena was actually surprised she had the guts to stay over until that morning, after everything...the encounter with Emily, and later the Tutors. To believe she caused those things made her feel queasy. She did that to Zick. Zick... His name never left her through the night, as she dreamt, and now as she make coffee in his kitchen, with an unusually silent Greta.
"Elena," Zob called from the living room, "why don't you tell us what happened to you so far these last ten years and we'll all catch up?"
She wanted to tell them everything. But she knew that the first person to hear it had to Zick. "Wait," she said hesitantly. "We can get there, but you have to tell me a few things." Yes, that's a good way to get off that topic, move onto more pressing matters. "For example, what were the Tutors doing to Zick? What was that Device thing? And why were they that cruel?"
Greta dropped her cup. She didn't pick the pieces up, and pretended to choke. Zob came into the kitchen looking worried.
"I say let's go on with the catching up instead," interrupted Timothy, who just came back from Bibbur-si.
"But come on! Don't I have the right to know?" Elena gulped. Just last night she was doubting herself and now this. But she couldn't stop talking, "It concerns him so it concerns ME."
"Oh, right," said Greta, facing Elena with a tough, gangly look. "And where were you when they actually laid out the Centennial punishment? Where were you when he started college, when he got his first failing mark in all his life (thanks to you)? Where were you when they started drugging him so he'd start losing his powers and his sanity? Where were you when he—"
"That's enough, Greta," warned Zob, restraining her.
Greta simply wriggled out of his grasp. "DON'T YOU DARE TRY AND STOP ME! Here's my chance to blame everything on the right person! To tell you the truth, Elena, I thought you were his best friend! You were supposed to know things even I don't, and you let him down. You let everyone down! You're a liar, you left us hanging when we were all depending on you for any sort of relief from the monotony of daily life! You were supposed to be HERE for him, you were supposed to have DONE something. You were his BEST FRIEND!"
"I..." was the only word Elena was able to form. Only because she's right. I can't reason with things like this! I can't say I was scared and angry and irrational so I ran off. I didn't know things would turn out this way.
"There you go! Feeling sorry, huh? Well it won't do you any good. I say, go on, keep it up! If that's not enough you have eternity to remorse for everything you've done to our family!"
"Stop it, Greta!"
"NO! No one stopped for us when we were going down the wrong drain, not even this self-proclaimed 'best friend' of Zick. That was ten years, Elena, TEN YEARS! Ten years of broken promises, ten years of hardship, ten years of lies—ten wasted years! And you have a face thick enough to come back here and expect us to welcome you with open arms!"
Well you've done a good job, Elena. A good job at making things even worse!
"Are you proud of what you've done? Can't you see that this, all this, was YOUR FAULT?!"
My fault...
Elena had zipped out of the house as fast as she could.
My fault...
She swore she was just packing her things and she was never coming back to Old Mill.
My fault...
"Elena, wait!" called Timothy, but Greta blocked his passage.
"Let that demon go!"
"This is madness, Greta! You don't have to be like this!"
"Neither did she."
He could do no more than stare out into the driveway after her shadow. "ELENA!"
Elena...Elena...
"Elena!"
Morning.
Zick sat bolt upright in bed, breathing fast and wondering. It had been very long since he last awoke with a mind this clear, to a day this bright. What was wrong? Or perhaps he wanted to phrase it better, what finally went right this time?
And he had such great reason to wonder. To wonder, for example, why he was up this early when he'd usually not have the energy to get up until the afternoon, even more on days he couldn't get a wink's sleep. But he should be thankful instead: Thankful that his mind was clear for the first time, his body didn't ache for the first time, and the dark cloud over his head was gone at last.
He got up and stretched his arms. It's real! I'm not dreaming this time! He could feel himself for the first time, alive and fully functional, without anything serious weighing on his mind. It's really real! He might not have been a bothered Tamer yesterday, in that past life seemingly so far away, seeing as today was so bright. Even the sunlight through his window proved it. Today was going to be a good day, for the first time.
For the first time—a lot of first times in ten years.
The first time he awoke with a smile—his first in ten years. The first time he felt really better. The first time he had a wonderful dream to remember, and not a nightmare for the first time. Because it was her he dreamt of, and because hers was the name that summoned him to consciousness, for the first time again.
"Elena..."
He was downstairs in another breath.
"Good morning, Zick." A flowery greeting from his mother. "Breakfast?"
"Where's Elena?"
And the sweetness was gone.
"I thought I heard her a while ago," he said uncertainly.
"Aren't you hungry? You're looking better today." Her face was shaded with red.
"You're not answering me." Here we go again.
She took three strides to where he was and gave him her heaviest slap. "You stop talking about her!"
Zob entered the room to watch them.
Utterly bewildered, Zick took a step backward and looked back into his mother's hysterical face. He felt his skin where she hit him, and threw her a look that said, "What is wrong with you?" And he managed to speak the words as well. "What's wrong?" he said, only suppressing the "with you" for respect, but his voice was rising uncontrollably. "I'm not a kid anymore, you can't hide things from me! All I'm asking is where's my best friend!"
"Suuuure," she replied.
But he was right. He was not ten years old anymore. Once only half her height, he towered a few inches over her, and his determined look broke her defenses.
"I-I'm sorry, honey...I'm just trying to be a good mother," she whispered, her head bowed.
"Good mother? You're trying to be a chain. Let me GO!"
"I'm trying to protect you from ever hurting again."
"I just need a simple answer about Elena and you start firing up! "
She held his arm and started to cry. "I don't ever want to see you the way she left you that time, ten years ago. I'm your mother, it breaks my heart twice when you hurt!"
Zob took his wife and steered her away from the room.
Gravity pressed down heavily, as the silence intensified. Several Bursties popped overhead.
I'm sorry Mom. It's not that I don't need your protection. Maybe you're right. But you're going too far this time...
Timothy approached Zick and with a less somber expression, instructed, "Take this. Elena was headed for the city."
It was Zob's car keys. With a hesitant look at the room where Greta now wailed loudly, he took the keys and sped off to Big Burg.
It's definitely no problem. Or rather, she tried to convince herself.
Why she had to run all the way to the city was unknown to her. Once more, her legs ached, but her heart was aching all the more.
It's okay. Yeah, I'll just tell them nothing happened, I didn't meet anyone, they must've moved somewhere else.
She stopped beside an old lamppost at the nearest intersection to catch her breath. Or maybe I won't tell them anything at all. Her face was hot, and tears began to form in her eyes. Come on, Elena. This is ridiculous. You knew you shouldn't have done this to yourself. You could've ignored Greta's invitation, better yet, ignored your whimsical desires to find Zick and tell him...the news. Now how was I supposed to know Greta's still mad at me? But I deserved it after all I've done. You're stupid, Elena! Stupid! Get going, won't you?
Half-surprised that she was arguing with herself, she went on her way. She was less hurried, and more composed. She held herself up—if only it was this easy to act in front of Zick and his family now. But now, and perhaps this time forever, she'll be flying off to head home.
Home? Wasn't this my home?
She spun around for a moment, perhaps the last time—how cruel the thought!—to look back at the road she just followed. In that distance, perhaps two or so kilometers away, stood a peaceful little village called Old Mill, where she and Zick first unraveled friendship for what it truly was, then exhausted it to its limits. There lay all her hopes and dreams, everything she was and wanted to be. There it lay, dormant, sleeping...to be forgotten.
It's only two more weeks. I can't go back to that life anymore. It's just two weeks, now. It's goodbye to those memories...and then it'll all be over for me...for us.
Before another bout of conscience-bothering mental debates, she started walking, turned left and went through the hotel's front doors. Two more weeks. I'll be leaving behind my childhood to live a normal, civilized, fully-human life.
At the nearest intersection was where he realized the gas was almost out.
Come on! You have to reach the city!he thought angrily, flooring the pedals in vain. It was one thing to be a failed driving student, and another to use up the last few ounces of gasoline at just the worst moment. The greatest moment of his youth, ruined by his careless ignorance to the fuel level! No gasoline! Great! This is just GREAT!
He hit the wheel in exasperation and parked on the sidewalk. She could be anywhere! And—oh no!—I picked the greatest time to forget protocol. The Tutors will find me now that I haven't changed into untracked clothes. This is just GREAT!
Oh forget it! I have to see Elena, I have to talk to her. All I need is this ONE LAST CHANCE...I've waited ten long years for it. Is it too much to ask for?!
He got out and found his bearings. He was just in the outskirts of Big Burg, with no sign of the Suspended city yet. He looked around him.
And then...a heartbeat out of place.
It was her. He felt her.
She's here? What's she doing here?
Better question, how did he know?
Since Emily's attempt to take her blood, he had acquired a 'seventh sense', the sixth, he added jokingly when asked to describe it, was reserved for his Taming abilities. Elena didn't notice anything after he revived her, but he did. He noticed everything, felt everything, every last emotion, every sensation, every heartbeat. He easily found her given at most a mile's distance. She came to realize this after some time, but never questioned him. She examined him for a full week, and after the research she told him it was called Emotional Empathy. It was supposed to link beings, not enable one to connect to another. But he was a Tamer, nothing was too different for him to undergo, she announced, and enjoyed all the attention—as much as he loved giving it to her. The last thing they needed was to share brainwaves; they might as well have been one person.
The last thing they needed was to share brainwaves; they might as well have been one person. Despite the heat of the noontime sun now, he smiled to himself. His second smile in ten years.
If he didn't find her, what would his life be for? If she only knew how desperate he was to see her again, to hear her voice, be in her presence. If she only knew that everything he'd gone through in the past ten years was for her, all his travails defined by one name: Elena.
And suddenly, he saw her emerge from behind a lamppost. She was just across the street when she stopped in her tracks, turned around to face Old Mill, with some nostalgic expression on her face for some minutes before heading left into another street and vanishing from his view.
Have you ever been this alone?
Yes, he answered in thought. He could feel her presence and her slow, restricted breathing stronger with every step. He followed her into the hotel, certain that, past the elevator somewhere on the third floor, she was there ready to leave Big Burg forever.
Have you ever thought that maybe everything about us was wrong?
A lot, Elena! he answered impatiently, but we never gave up, didn't we? We let them think 'destiny', and we just live our lives like this—what they thought never mattered anyway.
Oh Zick I'm just so sorry...that I have to leave again without even letting you know I'm here and why I'm back. I'm sorry I ran away after they gave you the Centennial punishment, taking up more or less your whole life now! I'm sorry I wasn't there those times I was supposed to be cheering you up or sharing your problems! I'm sorry your mom's angry at the world, angry at us. I'm sorry you're going through a dozen things you hate, and I'm elsewhere, enjoying a life served up to me without my consent.
So that's what you go through every day? This guilt? This anguished self-torture?
And then sobbing.
Wait, don't cry Elena! I'm here, I'm always here! I don't like the Centennial or the fact you're always so far away, but you're back now, and that's all that matters to me. You don't have to do this. I'm right here, we'll talk this over—
I'm so sorry...!
It's okay... He was exasperated now. She didn't hear him like he heard her. Over the years he sharpened this 'seventh sense' for her return, and now she's here it doesn't seem like enough. Why can't you hear me too?
But he couldn't open the only thing standing between them. For a long time he stared at the numbers above the peephole, listening to the sounds of clothes being packed into an already heavy suitcase. He couldn't imagine what she was like right then, a twenty-year old office worker visiting a long-lost friend. And then she closed a long zipper—she was almost done.
I wish I could tell you everything.
We have our chance now! he thought, still debating on what to do with the wooden hindrance. Before he could stop himself, though, the door was finally open.
There they stood, merely eying each other for the next awkward moments. Their first good look at each other in ten years.
Some things about Elena were always there: the lively brown eyes, those passionate hands, the button nose. But more striking were the radical changes she underwent. No more was the braided hair, no more the green ribbons, no more the pink shirt and khaki pants. Her orange hair fell untouched behind her shoulders, straighter and flatter than before. Her stance, more upright and ladylike. Her face, more feminine and refined. Everything about her was grown up. She was...more beautiful than he remembered.
And he too felt the same critical inspection. Something about the way her eyes swept over him made his heart beat twice as fast—but not as fast as hers did. He entered the room uncertainly. She backed away one step, her pulse rate increasing twofold.
"Elena," he said. What else could he say? Was this his happiest or saddest moment? He watched beads of sweat form on her face. Why are you so scared?
He looked away, and caught sight of her luggage. "You're leaving again," slipped from him. It wasn't the anger or frustration he half-expected during his wait; in truth he didn't know what that was, except for some sort of emptiness. All she needed was to close the zippers and she could disappear almost unnoticed. What about our ten years? What about us?
With a quick motion, her bags were sealed and posed for carriage to the airport.
"Elena, wait! I want to talk to you!"
There, he said it. And there, she walked past him.
"What are you doing?" he asked. No questions; he had to act. "I can't say you owe me anything, but...ten years, Elena, I waited ten years for you to come back!"
She was two feet past him when she halted. "You...waited?"
He was partly uncomfortable with the fact that she had become this anxious about him, and partly unnerved when he saw her really shaking all over. What's happened to you?
"Yes, I did," he said. Much of the tension in the air tensed him too.
She apparently felt the same, broke the stare and looked to the stairs. "But I can't stay, Zick. I can't stay because it's my fault that everything's gone this way," she said quietly.
"Whatever happened, I didn't blame it on you, okay?"
Just let me go, she thought, and wished she could tell him face to face.
He sighed. "You know, in Psychology, you have to face your problems for it to go away." What else can I say? He approached her slowly, drowning out his conscience—"This isn't right!"—with his instinct—"Just do it!"
So he embraced her. She squirmed at first, but, "Relax," he whispered. "We'll talk it over."
She didn't reply.
He smiled again. His third. "Can you imagine how it feels to wait ten years to see you again, and hold you like this, and..." He was on the verge of turning her face towards his and locking their lips together, but—Damn, I can't do it now, she might faint. Damn it! I swear this is the last time I'm holding this back!
By this time, Elena was motionless. But the phrase he caught from her totally made his day:
You know I can't really say 'No' to you. You know that.
"So you're in Psychology?"
It was five minutes later, back in her room, bags unpacked, its contents littering the floor quite atrociously. Elena had asked from the kitchen area while preparing some pasta.
"Yeah. Mom wanted me to take up some Botany course to help her with the plants and all, and Dad suggested entomology. But I decided on something I might use"—with you, he didn't continue. Close one.
"Cool. Where?"
"There's this university in the neighboring city called Doughe University. It's pretty old, a lot of history and, not to mention, ghosts."
Elena laughed at this. "What, you scared?"
"No, come on! Anyway, after graduation, I was invited to work at this medical society, I turned them down. I continued studying Psychology, focusing more on interpersonal behavior"—so I'd understand why on earth you left me, he stopped there again. He hit his head with his fist. Not this soon, give her some time... He stood up from the bed and went into the kitchen.
"Well, I think your Mom might be more proud of me. I took up Biology," Elena said. She took two plates and served the carbonara she just prepared. "I've gotten the strangest awards from the monster authorities for helpful contributions in many fields—but actually they were simply whims, which turned out into serious research."
"That deserves applause!" That phrase was accompanied by claps. They were laughing again. How lulling, this primordial capability.
"But seriously, it wasn't that great. The first one ever was the 'Eyeball Certificate' for this solution to help make vision clearer for those with eyes too many to be accommodated by glasses."
"Now that is funny! 'Eyeball' certificate?"
"No kidding! Then next came a glowing medal, much like a Nobel prize or something, because I showed them how a CFL bulb works. It conserves energy, right? And so I also received an 'Energy Trophy'. The name seems ambiguous enough to be proud of, but when I saw it, it was a length of Bombo's foot muscle!"
"Cool! I've never heard of those!"
"Cool?! You can imagine what Mom and Dad thought when I brought the awards home! Mom even fainted. Dad told me to throw the garbage away, also because Charlie and Violet might eat or do something with them."
"What would you have done?"
"I don't know, burn them? It would be a scandal for me if anyone else saw them!"
Zick was partly annoyed. Why be ashamed? But he hid it, and instead, he watched her consume her share of pasta.
You look so elegant that way. Well, it was the truth! And it was, so far, the only phrase that entered his head and wished to come out of his mouth. But he knew he couldn't—it would still be too sudden, won't it? It was as if they had met for the first time again.
"Hey," Elena said, breaking that thin, film-like peace called silence that enveloped them for a few moments. Her face was serious, but whatever it was, it can't be that bad. He was with her now. That's all that's important.
"What?" he gave.
She was silent again: she looked like she was bursting to spill something. You're not ready huh? But it was alright. They had gone this far, everything was falling right back where it needed to be. They've met, they're talking, what's left is to start another of those adventures. They were ten years old again. How could anything she would say be that bad? He was willing to wait past the Centennial punishment to know everything about her. Everything.
"I have to tell you something, and I have to say it now," she said, turning pink.
I'm ready, whatever it is. He stopped an awkward smile—it seemed out of place for her expression. "Okay."
"I know you won't forgive me—don't worry, I won't either, but I need you to know this, now!"
She killed him in three words.
I'M GETTING MARRIED.
Was it really true? So all this, all this waiting and hoping was only to wait for this moment? So he had prayed every night to hear her voice, but only to hear her say this? So every waking moment and every wishful dream was a silly fantasy, a wicked lie? To hide all this from him was certainly an impressive feat, given his powers...and the sense...and all their fond memories, their friendship...
How could you do this to me?!
He stood up and headed for the door.
"Wait, I didn't mean to be that...um, tactless…" she called.
What's the use? You came back to break my heart, and I waited for it like heaven's blessing... I was stupid enough to believe that we were still friends and that I could possibly love you after all this time! I was so stupid!
"Zick!"
He actually turned around. What was it that made him listen? She lied to him! Somewhere in his chest, emotions were raging, boiling, ready to explode. Then he said this, and only this. "It's okay."
Now she didn't even try to stop me. This was the most horrible day in his life, the darkest moment in history of humanity. Why do I even want to be with you in the first place? You left me here because I WAS RIGHT, and now you came back to make me WRONG, everything's so wrong...
Nothing she can say would stop him this time. Nothing anyone else would do, human or not, would stop him. It wasn't the first time he seriously thought of climbing the university's main building and simply jumping off to ease and, most preferably, end all his suffering.
"Zick, please!"
"I don't want to hear anything from you!"
But that was a lie. He was angry and disappointed and most of all let down by his only driving force in every day for ten years, and way before they were separated she was the greatest reason he learned to love life for what it really was. That was a lie. If she only knew that every thought that passed him was about her, every word he'd say alluded to her, his whole being was so dedicated to HER—and then SHE LET HIM DOWN. Maybe it would have all been different, if she had his powers, if she at least knew a thread of what he went through every single day.
"Just wait...I'm sorry," she said. Something in her voice kept him still. Why would he listen? But if the past ten years taught him anything, it was to wait...just a while longer. "I didn't want to say it right now, but I swear something made me, I don't know... The only thing I know is, that was a big mistake, and I shouldn't have told you, not yet, this way. I'm really sorry..."
You sound so worried, but what do you care? Or maybe his face was covered in tears already and he didn't know it. How could ordinary words describe the feeling of being betrayed—for that was the only reason he needed right then. It would have been fine.
Before he could say anything, she was already dashing outside to, his powers told him, a place familiar enough—the Tutor's Pod. He sighed, and wiped his face impatiently. Once more, he had to follow her around and make sure she wouldn't get hurt. Reminiscent of their days ten years ago. He'd pretend it was alright that he was always taking double risks, for himself and for her. Despite his sentimentality, he drifted down the elevator and, ignoring his father's gasless car, ran into the heart of Big Burg to find Ronnie Richie's Pies and Pancakes.
A/N: A lot of things here, I made up. The 'Seventh Sense' being the most obvious example, and the 'Doughe University'. Weird name, huh? I couldn't think of anything, until my sister suggested 'Doughnut'. Anyway, keep your extra eyes peeled for Chapter 3: "The Epic Battle Will Arise". Maybe in a few more weeks, okay? (Sorry it's long, but college is not the best time to be typing scenes for any story whenever I feel like it! We're having an exam soon too! Good luck to me...)