Chapter 5
Cassie
"Make a wish!" my best friend Rachel said. I took a deep breath, ready to attempt blowing out all sixteen candles—including one for good luck—when I had another of my flashes.
FLASH!
"Make a wish!" Rachel shouted. I grinned a huge fake grin, trying to just have a good time. It was getting harder and harder all the time, with the war just escalating and escalating. I had been through too many terrible things for a million lifetimes. Too many battles. Too many deaths. Too many close calls, for that matter. Normalcy was the one thing we all wanted, except for maybe Rachel. She loves it. Fighting somehow gives her the biggest thrill she could ask for. I worry about her a lot.
FLASH!
I was back in the real world, not a moment having passed since I slipped into my flash. Shaky, as I always was after an episode like that, I tried blowing out all my candles. I didn't succeed.
I was tempted to tell someone what had been happening to me for nearly the last two years, but I was scared they'd think I was losing it—going insane.
FLASH!
"Aw, man, this is so insane!" Marco complained. "Do we have to?"
FLASH!
"This is insane!" Marco shouted happily as we dodged outcroppings of rocks while in bat morph.
FLASH!
"I know, you're going to come up with some insane plan that's going to get us all killed, right?" Marco asked Jake.
"Yeah," Jake said with a tolerant smile. But I knew that deep inside, he was aging with every mission we did. Ageing with every order he gave.
I felt bad for him.
FLASH!
Oh no. They were getting worse. I'd never had flashes in a row before. It was time to tell Rachel. I knew she wouldn't judge me. Maybe she could make sense out of my living hell.