Today was an unlucky day.
Working at a cafe was probably one of the worst choices Diana had ever made. It was not the worst choice but definitely not the best. She had made far worse choices in her life. Encouraging Caine with his powers had definitely turned around and bit her in the ass when he got his courage to try and make plans of his own. Making enemies with Drake was probably not very smart either considering what he became. Of course eating Panda in order to survive haunted her to this very day, and then sleeping with Caine without protection, therefore making Gaia was the worst of the worst. But the cafe was a close enough one purely because it was a really terrible place to visit. She didn't hate cafe's in general, she just hated the one where she worked.
The cafe Diana worked out was called Coco Mix. It was on a run down street where people hardly left their houses let alone visited a small cafe for a drink or sandwich. The walls were dark green, the carpet a sickly green and even the ceiling had been painted a lime green that looked ridiculous, especially with all the extra added stains from the food and drinks sold there. The furnitures were all stiff brown chairs and matching moldy tables, the counter was very much the same and behind it all the drinks seemed to taste the same and all the food felt the same. And then there were the people that actually worked there, particularly Diana's boss. Matt Landy was the owner of Coco Mix and clearly did not care what happened to the place. He was lanky, skeleton thin, greasy black hair, a rough beard and dark brown eyes. He had dark skin and always wore a vest and some kind of tracksuit bottoms that didn't fit right. Landy treated Diana like a dog, working her for hours and paying her hardly anything but she had chosen this cafe to work because hardly anyone entered and it meant she could hide away if someone happened to pass and didn't have to keep answering questions about the FAYZ.
That afternoon Diana finished her shift and hurried into the staff room. It was basically a closet with a single chair that Landy could be found on most days. Diana grabbed her bag off of the side shelf and pulled it on over her shoulder. She brushed down her black skirt and hurried from the room, making her way to the front of the shop where the front doors stood waiting for her to step outside to freedom.
"You better be on time tomorrow." Landy snarled from behind the bar of the empty cafe. It was overly stuffy and hot in the room, none of the windows opened and Diana couldn't wait to get outside. Yet another reason why the place was empty.
Diana had been, literally, ten seconds late. Not even that because she had arrived on time but had to change, and normally Landy wouldn't pay any attention but he hated all employees, especially those like Diana who refused to sleep with him on the first day. So he paid attention just to attack her for it. Just another reason why she hated it here. She might have quit but the location and lack of people worked for her, as well as the fact that Landy didn't pay much attention to the FAYZ and didn't actually know Diana was from it. And then, there was the fact that she wasn't sure she could afford to quit and go job hunting again.
She resisted the urge to say something and instead stepped outside. The cool wind and fresh air almost made her collapse in relief just like all the other times when she came out, but she held strong, smiled and walked down the street. Diana didn't stop anywhere on her way, she liked to just get home and rest, especially after working at Coco Mix.
Because Diana liked to avoid as many people as possible when walking home it did mean she had to take a long way where she ducked in and out of dark alleyways. It wasn't very late at all and the sun still shined down on them but because of the high buildings it rarely actually hit a good part of the ground, particularly those in between larger buildings and shops along the pathway home. Diana spent most of her time wandering down the streets at a quick pace, sliding in and out of the alleys and keeping her head down as if that made a difference. It helped that she dressed to hide. She kept her long dark hair done up in a point tail on the back of her head and wore no makeup, she wore a green top with thin straps over her shoulders and a loose unbuttoned light blue shirt over the top (it had to be done up when she was working). She had on her black skirt but underneath were dark green shorts (an added measure to keep Landy from flipping up a look at her underwear) and white trainers but she also wore a white and red baseball cap that mostly hid the top of her face. Because of this she was able to blend in and hide at the same time.
Normally she managed to get back with no more disruptions because she kept to her personal routine back home, but today was an extremely unlucky day. And instead of a peaceful walk home she ran into a group of boys.
They weren't a gang of boys in hoodies that were going to jump and beat her up and steal from her or try anything else horrible. In fact they were probably younger than she was, barely out of school or possibly ditching their classes for the afternoon. The problem was that there were three of them, that they were all trying to look hard and Diana hated having to talk to people in general. Ever since they moved here Diana had been very secluded, keeping to herself and almost avoiding people in general. That was partly because of the FAYZ and the way that she was spoken to and treated since but it was also due to her never wanting to get close to anyone else after what happened to Caine. He had been the only person to truly understand her and she had loved him, but he had sacrificed himself and left her alone. She couldn't trust anybody else ever again.
"Hey, sweetheart!" One of the boys shouted. "You're looking hot under all that clothing."
They all hooted liked owls and laughed like hyenas. Diana rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to say something cutting like she normally would. These guys were all just idiots trying to be hard and look tough in front of their friends. They were idiots and didn't know anything about the real world yet.
Diana wondered about taking the short cut but a quick glance showed the streets were steadily getting busier. And she wasn't the kind of girl to just back down.
"Move." Diana said as she stepped up. They all spread out in front of her and smirked like they knew something she didn't. "I said move."
"We heard ya, but we like standing here. Don't we boys!" The first boy grinned.
They all cheered and chimed in. These boys were complete idiots.
Diana went to push passed but the smallest boy got in her way. He looked her up and down with an animal like grin. Now that she was up close she could easily see that every one of them was no more than fifteen year old, her age while she had been in the FAYZ, and they were all basically nerds from what she could see. They were freckled, pale, thick rimmed glasses, braces and were each carrying backpacks as big as her head. But yet they were ditching. Either they were the most un-stereotypical bad boys Diana had ever met or they were nerds trying desperately to be tough. Either way... It was extremely pathetic.
"Hey, sweetie," the younger one grinned. "Wanna hang out with us?"
"You have..." Diana pretended to think. "I'd say about ten seconds to move before I cut you."
They all frowned at her, confused. One of the after effects from the FAYZ was that no kid from the FAYZ was ever unprepared. Even back in the real world they all had worries or no superstitions about it being a good place and they had some kind of a weapon. It was either a piece of wood, a kitchen knife or anything else they could get a hold of. Diana had seen one person a few weeks back carrying around a fork under his top.
Personally, Diana carried a knife. It was a switch blade like knife that she quickly pulled from the inside of her bra strap and flicked it open, waving it in front of her, incredibly close to the boy in front. Immediately he jumped back, screaming in shock as Diana spun and turned the knife on each of them for just a moment so they would all back away. She wanted to make sure they got the message.
"Now, back off!" Diana snapped.
"Okay, okay, we get it!" A boy snapped. "We're going!"
They all hurried together and ran as far away from her as they could. Diana watched them go, still crouched slightly as she held the knife out in front of her, ready to pounce if any of them tried to come running back. But they were all long gone. And they would not be coming back. Cowards.
As if thinking it wasn't enough Diana spat it out loud. "Cowards!"
She tucked the switch blade back away in her bra strap and turned to continue the walk calmly back again. Now she was even more hot and bothered and slightly pissed.
Diana, like most members of the FAYZ, got pissed easily when she saw children and people her age acting so irresponsibly. She actually heard that a couple of children had broken down crying when they had seen two other children just carelessly throw away their McDonalds. Elsewhere when children were seen laughing and picking on one another because they looked different a teenager who had become a man after the FAYZ ended was actually arrested for attacking them in anger. It turned out he was a member of Zil's old Human Crew and actually felt guilty for what he did and now was pissed to see people arguing over brown eyes rather than blue considering what he had argued over. That and more repeatedly made others angry or sad and the worst part was that the kids of the FAYZ were then blamed for not controlling themselves better with the same lines being said over and over again. Diana herself had been told this very line when she had shouted at a couple of kids complaining about their parents for not letting them out later. "You're not in the anomaly anymore, so stop acting like it."
Maybe Diana might be able to put up with this if it wasn't told to her, Astrid and Sam more than others almost once a day. The problem for them was named Ripley Harper. Ripley was a police officer, particularly one that dealt in the FAYZ after the walls had come down, but after that had been sorted he had offered to take up street rounds and no one knew why. At least until they discovered he chose this purposely to keep an eye on Sam, Astrid and Diana since all their names came up most of all and they were all living together in one area. It was quickly noticed he was picking up on every little thing they did wrong. He fined Sam because he dropped a gum wrapper and he had spent ten minutes lecturing Diana after she had shouted a swear word at a little kid who had nearly run over her toes on his bike. It seemed never ending and even though he didn't live anywhere near them, he passed their house at least twice a day.
If Ripley caught Diana with a knife (or Sam or Astrid with their knives) he'd probably arrest them on the spot. He was looking for a good reason to arrest them too. And not just for a few days, a few weeks or even a few months. Ripley wanted all three of them to go away for years, the rest of their lives if he could manage it. But at the same time he was not stupid. He wasn't going to nag at them and give them any reason to get him in trouble or even someone else watching their street with him, he was patiently waiting his time but Diana had a bad feeling he might be waiting to set them up.
Of course Astrid had a different thought on the matter. She had the view that since he was an officer he wasn't going to set them up, like all officers were saints. Diana (and even Sam) had pointed out all the rogue or bad officers that had been on the television and had happened in real life but she refused to believe it. Diana was sure part of it was just because she wanted to believe in some kind of normal authority that could help them rather than she actually did believe. It was partly sad and partly admirable that she could so easily click right back into the normal while Diana still had a hard time so much as trusting her roommates, let alone strangers who clearly hated them.
Diana stalled when she realised she was home already. Normally it took longer but she was so lost in her own thoughts that it passed in no time. For that she was grateful. What she wasn't grateful for was that her thoughts still wouldn't shut up.
Moving on from a normal boyfriend was probably incredibly hard, Diana wouldn't know for sure because she hadn't actually had a real steady boyfriend before. At least not a normal kind. Caine was definitely not normal but he was the closest thing she ever had to a boyfriend and so a normal break up would be hard but the way they had parted just seemed to make it all wore. Her chest felt heavy and hard whenever she remembered his last moments. The way he had died and the way it had all looked. It was impossible to forget the way his skin melted and the way his body burned under Gaia's powers. He had saved them all but part of her couldn't help but wonder what would have happened, what would life be like, if he had remained the same old selfish Caine. What about if they had just stayed on the Island? What if they had hidden away and never returned? What would life have been like? What would Diana be like? What would her daughter be like?
Diana paused at the top of the stairs. Her breath was coming hard after the climb but also after thinking so much about Caine. She knew she was probably pink in the face and Diana liked to sort herself out before she went inside and had to face Astrid. The two girls had slowly began to get on much better than in the old days but that didn't actually make them friends. They were just two very different people who liked very different things and hated different things too. And the worst part was how badly Astrid tried to be friends. One of the many things she tried was when she always asked how Diana was feeling and always let her know she was there if she wanted to talk about anything, including Caine.
She didn't want to talk about Caine. She didn't want to think about him. But he just kept coming back, again and again. It was like he was haunting her.
Of course this was thought just as she opened the doors and stepped inside their apartment. Diana didn't love or hate the place. She just lived in it. Diana threw down her bag on the floor by the door and moved over to throw herself down on the sofa where she always did after work to relax because Astrid was either in her room or out. She barely looked before she landed hard on someone's lap and bounced right back up in shock.
"Astrid!" Diana guessed. "Sorry I-"
As she turned around she froze in place and stared down at the person now staring up at her.
Caine rubbed the rest of the sleep from his eyes and smirked. "Good morning, nice view."
Diana stared at him and felt a scream building in the back of her throat. She opened her mouth to raise all hell but instead her eyes rolled and she crumbled to the ground in a heap.
G*O*N*E
"How else did you expect her to react?" Anna snapped, handing Diana a glass of water while Astrid held an ice bag on her head where a bump was slowly growing.
"I never said I expected sex on the doorstep." Caine scowled. "But you can't blame me for feeling just a little insulted."
"Both of you shut up!" Astrid snapped. She turned to Diana. "Are you okay?"
Diana responded by staring up at Caine in silence. She swallowed hard and looked down at the floor. When she had woken, assuming it had been a dream, it had been Caine leaning over her, helping her onto a chair and asking her if she was okay. Anna and Astrid had come running from where they had been talking privately in the bedroom and had immediately hurried to help her but all the while Diana could not take her eyes off of Caine.
He felt real. He looked real. He even smelt real. Diana took a deep breath in her nose before she realised what she was doing and blushed looking back up at Caine again with almost accusing eyes. No matter how real he felt, looked and smelt, it could not possibly be the real him. The real him died. But no one had to even tell her that this was the real him for her to know it. No one knew Caine better than Diana and just by staring at him she knew that this was definitely the real him. Only... Younger somehow.
Suddenly it was too much and Diana jumped to her feet. She pushed everyone's hands away from her, dropping her glass so it smashed on the floor and ran for the bedroom.
"Diana! Wait!" Astrid called but she ignored her.
As soon as the door slammed Anna turned on Caine once more and scowled at him.
"What did you do before we got here? Apart from clearly terrify her." Anna snapped.
Caine pointedly stared at her. "Ignoring you." Then he turned to look at Astrid before nodding at her. "And ignoring you."
Both girls looked offended as Caine turned and walked to the door Diana had just slammed shut behind of her. He saw the recognition in her eyes but that didn't mean too much when she could know who he was and still not believe it was him. Pretending that the girls were not there, Caine gently knocked on the door and leaned his forehead against the wooden frame, trying to hear movement but it was silent and still.
Finally he turned and scowled at the girls. "You two wanna give us some privacy?"
"Excuse me?!" Anna snapped.
"Fine." Astrid sighed, earning an outraged look from Anna. She reached over and took Anna by the back of her shirt, dragging her arguing from the room and shutting the door behind of them. They didn't have anywhere else to go, they would be forced to just wait outside of the apartment until Caine had spoken to Diana.
As soon as they were gone Caine gently knocked on the door once more and waited but there was still no sound from inside the room.
Inside, Diana was crouched down on the floor, her face in her arms, curled up into a ball and trying to ignore Caine outside. Never before had she been at such a loss. She really didn't know what to think this time. Part of her was overjoyed. Another part terrified. If this was Caine, and she believed it was, then did this mean the FAYZ was coming back again? Was this the start of some new torture? Like most kids, Diana was still haunted by memories and she didn't want anymore to be joining them. But then Caine was back! He was back! She had been missing him for so long and now he was back. What did this mean? What did any of this mean?
"Diana?" Caine asked through the door. "I know you're confused. I am too. But... But I'm alive! I mean how great is that! Let me in and we can talk."
Diana hesitated before lifting her head and speaking. Her voice was stronger than she thought it would be. "How are you back, Caine?"
"How should I know?" Caine laughed. "And honestly I don't care. I'm back! That is all that matters!"
No. It was not all that mattered. If Caine was back from the dead then that meant that bad things were continuing to happen and that meant maybe they were not as free from the FAYZ as they all thought. If Caine could come back then who else could come back with him? Could Drake come back? Oh God, what about Gaia? What if they all came back. What if the wall came back? What if...
"Diana I was really looking forward to seeing you again. Even if you're not, can't I just look at you?" Caine asked through the door.
Diana hesitated. She heard him gently thump his head against the door and ask her politely. Slowly she climbed to her feet and turned back to face the door in a similar way that she was sure Caine was doing too. Then she reached for the door handle and slowly opened it. She only opened it a jar before she turned and walked to sit down on the edge of her bed and wait for him to come in. When he did, he still stood in the doorway.
"It's okay for me to actually come in, right?" Caine checked.
"I didn't open the door for nothing." Diana said. She flicked her head and blushed at the sudden deja vu sensation. She hadn't spoken like that or moved her head like that since... Well since the last time that her and Caine had been together back in the FAYZ.
Caine stepped inside and walked over to stand in front of her. "I can guess this is hard for you... Those two idiots kept babbling about how hard it must be for me but honestly all I see this as is another opportunity. I see this as a second chance. And I want to share this second chance with you, when you're ready. But honestly I've been waiting all day for you to come home so can you hurry up with being ready? Yeah? Okay."
Diana found herself smirking. Then she was angry. Standing, she stepped forward and shoved him. She was taller now, not much but still enough to make an impression.
"You jerk! After what you did! You killed yourself! You gave up and just went and killed yourself and you weren't even going to let me be there with you! You made me jump and swim in the cold water just to be by your side and you didn't even have the decency to... to..." Diana fell silent. She was unable to say anything more because she didn't know what she wanted to say. All she knew was that now she was face to face with him, she didn't want to hug him or laugh or be happy. She wanted to be angry.
"I'm sorry but I did save your life." Caine said, looking more amused than anything else.
"You think I care about any of that?!" Diana snapped. "You just decide to kill yourself and then walk back into my life and think everything will be okay? I bet you did expect me to drop my knickers for you the moment I first saw you, huh, didn't you? You probably expected me to jump in the bed and beg you to take me!"
"No, that isn't it at all." Caine said, the humour vanishing from his eyes.
"Yeah right! You're just as pathetic, awkward and a loser as you were..." Diana fell silent when she heard Astrid.
"Sam! Wait!" Astrid called. "I have to tell you something!"
"One minute." Sam said, rushing inside. "I need to grab something. Quinn met me after work and he's mum's driving and she's gonna take us down to the beach for some waves and you know how long I have been... waiting... for... waves..." Sam slowed as he stared at Caine and Diana facing one another through the doorway of her room.
"Sam, do you mind? I am trying to have an argument with my dead ex boyfriend." Diana snapped. She walked over and slammed the door in his face.
Sam stood there. All thoughts of waves and his best friend waiting for him vanished from his mind before he even finished his sentence. He stared at the door before turning where Astrid and some girl he vaguely recognised stood, both looking awkward. He turned to the door, then back at the girls. Door... Girls... Door... Girls... Door...
Finally Sam turned, walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He drained half of the glass as he slowly made his way over to Astrid. It was only when he had settled down in a chair, facing the girls that he set the glass down and asked as calmly as he could; "So... You had something you wanted to tell me?"
Astrid swallowed and smiled. "I found your dead twin brother naked in the park."
10) How do you think Sam will react next?
11) How did you feel about the way Michael Grant rounded off the ending?
