I need to escape from here!

Allen is bent on killing me, but I don’t blame him. It’s his best option.

Sure, Dylan was trying to help me, but in the end he would have had to listen to Allen. If he didn’t then they both would’ve died for sure. As long as I live, their fates are sealed. Hell, it’s debatable if they’ll even survive with my gem!

Dylan really does get caught up in the heat of the moment. He follows his heart and doesn’t think for a moment about anything else. He’s doomed his whole group, but he probably doesn’t recognize it.

Normally you’d think that deciding to kill me instantly is a rash decision rather than waiting and letting me live. In this case, the person who is rash is the one who wanted to wait. Deciding to wait has turned out to be unwise and impatient.

Waiting was impatient.

Strange. He didn’t care to think of the consequences. In other words, he decided to wait spontaneously. Dylan wanted me to live illogically and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Now, if I had stabbed Allen first, I’m certain that I would’ve gotten destroyed by Dylan.

Cornered, I throw a punch at Allen. I have little fighting experience so I’m not sure what to do here.

Allen easily pushes my hand to the side and counters with his own punch.

He knocks the air right out of my lungs and I stumble back against the wall.

Allen stares at me with pity in his eyes. He walks towards me carefully and kicks the bloody knife away from us, under the table.

The pain subsides and I’m healed.

Again, I throw a punch only to be knocked into the wall.

I need a new plan.

I spot chalk and an eraser on the bottom of the nearby blackboard. I have an idea, but I need to get to it.

Despite my small stature, I tackle Allen with my whole body. I make sure that my gravity is off centered towards the black board.

Predictably, Allen grabs me and throws me towards my poorly balanced side, although that was on purpose. Allen has the fighting sense to know that he could throw me easier that way. It works out for me, though.

Standing back up, I grab chalk with my left hand and throw it at Allen’s face. He can’t dodge it but it doesn’t look like it hurt much. They bounce off of his forehead. But damage wasn’t my goal.

Allen flinches and closes his eyes for a brief moment as the chalk flies towards his head. During that moment, I grab the eraser with my right hand and hide it behind my back.

Allen opens his eyes and attempts to punch me again, however this time while his guard is down, I raise the eraser and clap it in between my hands leaving a large cloud of chalk.

I hold my breath and close my eyes but since he wasn’t prepared, he gets a breath full of chalk and is blinded momentarily. He flinches back and begins to cough heavily.

It won’t last long but this is my only chance!

I run around Allen and grab my knife while I dive under the table.

I can easily get away now, or I could kill him.

This is probably the only opportunity I have to kill Allen. No trick like this will work again. I don’t particularly want to kill, though. Actually, I’d prefer not to. If I’m left with no choice then I’ll do what needs to be done, but I already know the fear that goes along with death. It would leave me with a bad taste in my mouth if I taught someone else that fear.

While I needed to die for him to live, I don’t really need to kill him. He probably won’t catch up to me. So, I won’t stab Allen right now. If he pursues me though…

Crawling out from under the table and jumping over Dylan, I escape out the door.

A smile creeps onto my face.

I’m still alive.

***

Dammit!

Even though I know I need to kill Simon, I feel like I don’t have a choice. He’s practically invincible, and he’s crafty. If I chased after him now, I bet I could catch up but- I don’t know if I want to go through with this. It feels too cruel beating him up when he can’t die. No matter how evil I think he is, just the thought of fighting Simon makes me sick.

“Is Dylan alright?” I ask Sarah. She’s still sitting on the floor next to him.

“Yes… he just needs some rest. He won’t be able to fight for a while though.”

I guess taking him to the hospital isn’t an option. There would be too many questions for us.

How did we all get better after fighting Luke, again?

Oh.

Why did things have to turn out this way?

It’s all Rachel’s fault!

I guess it actually started with Luke.

No, it was Kyle. As soon as we became paranoid, it was over. Kyle gave us incentive to betray each other, even if it was on accident. Next time I see him I’m going to give him a piece of my mind.

We need a new plan to fight Rachel. She’s a shape shifter with 4 gems. From what Simon described, she can heal and make as strong of muscles as she wants. She’s practically invincible like Simon and she can fight. We’re doomed.

No matter how hard I think, I can’t possibly create a strategy to win. My best bet is to just fight. Fight until I die.

Hopeless, I turn to the one person that might know the answer, “Sarah… what do we do now?”

Silently, the only one I could count on shakes their head.

If the three of us can’t do anything, and Simon ran away, what else can we do?

Call Kyle again? It’s worth a shot. But that selfish jerk wouldn’t help us if it put him in danger. If he was answering texts willy-nilly then he’d be killed by Rachel immediately.

Is he already dead? I doubt it. He’s the one I’d bet would survive the longest. He’d outlast even Simon.

Then I guess I have to prepare to fight Rachel alone.

My ability seems to only activate when I need to protect someone. Does that mean my only chance to even fight Rachel is to put someone else in danger? If no one was in danger I wouldn’t even be able to use my Delusion at all.

Sarah speaks up, breaking the silence, “When Rachel attacked me, she didn’t kill me.”

“Yeah.”

Obviously.

“No, but why?”

…

That does seem strange, now that she says it. Rachel appears to be a ruthless killer and habitual liar with how she’s been acting, typical evil behavior. But why wouldn’t she finish off Sarah? If she had just killed her, there would be no witnesses. Kidnapping takes much more effort than murder.

Actually, if Sarah had died, we all would have been none the wiser of Rachel. She would probably meet us one at a time using Sarah’s body. We’d die without knowing a thing. She made such a careless mistake after designing such an intricate scheme with the phones? That’s weird.

“Are you saying that you have an idea?”

Sarah looks at me with a confident gleam in her eye, “I don’t have the slightest clue.”

“Come on! This is serious!”

“Sorry, sorry.”

As annoying as that joke was, we’re all feeling anxious right now. I’ll let it slide.

That is a good question though…

Sarah is deep in thought. Her joke calmed her nerves and she thinks as deep as always. She doesn’t pay attention to her surrounding and seems completely involved with the mystery at hand. Dylan has fallen asleep beside her, the bleeding stopped. Even though he’s still injured, it looks as though Sarah has forgotten it all. All that she wants now, is to solve the mystery. She looks almost mystical while she’s thinking like this.

In the mean time, I need to call my parents.

I tell them that I won’t be home for a few days. I use the excuse that me and some friends were going on a road trip. She’s very concerned because I’ll be skipping school, but she seems to understand by the tone of my voice that it may be a little more serious. My mom trusts me and tells me to be safe. Thanks, mom.

Actually, I heard something about phone calls somewhere. It’s not really your voice that comes out on the other side. Your voice needs turned into small data. It’s compressed and squished into a very different voice so that you can save data. So, you never know who might actually be on the other side of the phone. Their voice is fabricated.

***

I run, run and continue to run.

When I’m sure that I’m not being followed, I sit down on a bench and catch my breath.

When I ran from the school building, I didn’t head to the woods or anything fancy. I just followed the road and made it somewhere close by.

I guess I can never go home…

Wait… oh no.

If I go home, who knows where Rachel will be waiting? I surely can’t go there. But, what of my mother who I love so dearly? My dad who I joke with? My sister who I play with?

While I think of all the times in my life that are over, all of the things I can never get back, my mind shifts to that familiar face. She haunts me. Not Rachel. No, someone far more haunting.

I’m so, so sorry, Christina. I left you… but, what else could I have done?

Allen’s right. It’s all my fault. But, what else was there to do?

I shouldn’t have dodged those nails.

I should’ve just died.

But-

No, I need to live. I’ve thought the very same thing before, that maybe I should die. Right before my arm was cut off, I thought these same thoughts. But, the urge to live outweighs anything else that I’ve ever felt. It’s incredible.

Now that my life is no longer in danger, temporarily, my mind wanders freely.

As much as I know that there was nothing else I could do, I still feel awful. I think that maybe, I loved Christina. Maybe not romantically, but there’s no doubt that she was irreplaceable to me.

Somehow at the same time, my hands no longer shake. My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore.

It really was stress, wasn’t it? That’s the one problem Christina had, she always put her weight on others. She couldn’t carry it all herself. I guess that I couldn’t carry all of her weight either, not without feeling awful and stressed.

Despite feeling so depressed that Christina had died, the fact remained that my hands were steady. The stress she caused me had faded.

I hate the fact that I can even think such things of a friend who is so recently deceased.

Christina must have been aware of it too. She said as much, right before…

Anyway, she said that she knew how much of a burden she was. Maybe she realized it when Kyle told us his theory… no. If his theory is right, she’s always known. That must have been a large cause of stress for her too. The fact that her stress caused others stress, caused her stress.

What a vicious cycle. Despite how much I love her, she has the worst personality.

I hear the crunch of grass behind me. With the timing, I half expect to see Christina when I turn around.

“Hello, Simon.”

“Are you Rachel?” I ask deadpan.

“Heavens no. Do I look like Rachel to you?” Kyle asks.

“Sorry, that was a silly question, but shouldn’t you be cowering in fear or something?”

Rachel would have killed me already so this must really be him, but what could Kyle want?

“Now, now. Don’t look at me with those eyes, Simon.”

“I feel that I’ve started to understand you recently. It’s disgusting. What do you want from me?”

He puts on a genuinely shocked face, “Nothing! I just want to speak with you.”

He’s acting different than normal, even if he isn’t Rachel. Does he want something?

Without the energy to continue running, I sit still as he takes a seat beside me.

“Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

He’s right, I guess. I hadn’t been paying attention because of the whole dying thing, but it was nice and sunny, the sky was clear.

“Cut to the chase.”

“Fine, fine. No need to be so aggressive!” He takes a breath. “If you insist, have you considered helping Allen?”

So he does know about Rachel, “Helping with what?” I pretend to be clueless.

“You’re such a kidder. Help fight in the upcoming battle, of course.”

“I couldn’t help if I tried.”

“Sure you could. You’d be an excellent healer for their team. Dylan’s in pretty rough shape right now, he may need assistance.”

“Were you watching!?” I shout.

“I just happened to be around while you guys… talked.”

What a douche.

“No. I won’t help. I don’t want to die.”

“Ah! Now you’re honest! It’s been annoying me this whole time we’ve known each other. You went on about ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and you pretended to hate conflict for such dumb reasons. No matter, I believe that it’s in your best interest to fight right now. If you don’t, Rachel will kill you.”

Tch. He just wants me and Allen to defeat Rachel to save his sorry ass.

“No.”

“Are you that confident in your new immortality? I wouldn’t be.”

He knows everything. How long has he been around? How much does he know?

“Well, she can’t kill me. That’s all that matters.”

“True. You’re correct, about the most important thing. To you, all you need is to be alive. That’s where you find happiness. You’re quite adaptable, only needing that. There are plenty of others who would commit suicide because they didn’t have something they wanted. People who can’t find happiness in the things they have can sometimes prefer death. But you, as long as you live you’ll be satisfied. That’s beautiful, if I do say so myself. But, Rachel is one of those people who would rather die than live without their happiness. She may have even been considering it… until she had the opportunity for happiness right in her sight. All she had to do was stretchhhh~ out her arms,” Kyle made an exaggerated hand motion while lengthening the word stretch.

That’s probably no more than a coincidence, but her arms stretched a lot in the battle. If Kyle is right, then the subconscious has a big role in how powers manifest.

Rachel ‘stretched’ towards happiness?

Her arms stretched towards my neck.

“But,” He continues, “a fragment of that happiness ran away. It’s you, Simon. She’ll do whatever it takes to kill you. I know she has it in her, she’s quite scary. Do you know what’s an even more terrifying character trait than being scary?” He doesn’t give me a second to answer. “Someone being smarter than you. Someone who’s smarter than you will always be one step ahead. They’ll always get what they want and they’ll always take it from you. Do you see what I’m saying yet?”

“Get on with it!” Even I can lose my patience.

Kyle chuckles, “Well you see, if I can figure it out, I’m sure that she can. You aren’t as invincible as you think. You both have the same weakness, but with your healing ability, I doubt that your head could be destroyed instantly. With the speed you heal, no matter how strong the force, you’d probably out heal it. Even though you’re more invincible, you still aren’t invincible. Care to know your secret?”

This is bound to be interesting.

***

Waiting in the same classroom, Sarah remains lost in thought. I wonder what she’s onto? It seems emotional. Maybe she’s lost hope? Or maybe she’s just thinking about something sad.

“Bzzzzt…”

Well that’s unexpected. A text from Simon.

“I’ve decided to help you fight Rachel. You can’t beat her alone. I’ll tell you everything I know about her and we can fight together.”

This has to be a trick. Simon just ran from me after I threatened to kill him. How can he fight anyway? I just saw his skills, he’s garbage.

I text back, “Fine. We’re still at the school. I won’t attack you.”

I’m going to attack him.

It’s been an hour since he ran. I wonder what made him change his mind.

“Guys. Simon is coming back. He says he’ll fight with us. I’m still going to kill him if we can’t win the fight. I’ll do whatever it takes so we can all live.”

“Good,” Dylan says, “But, I’ll make sure you won’t kill Simon.”

Dylan has already woken up and despite the advice from Sarah, he refuses to sleep more. He has a wrap around his torso to stop the bleeding. He’s sitting up in a chair and we’ve been discussing battle plans. We basically have nothing.

Sarah remains in thought. Is she thinking about the same thing still?

“Hey, Sarah, what have you been thinking about?”

She doesn’t hear me the first time.

“Hey! Sarah? You there?” I wave my hand in front of her face.

“Yes, yes.” She says, “Sorry. What did you say?”

“What have you been thinking about?” I repeat. She must be very interested in it to be so lost in thought.

“…”

I give her time to think.

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking about Rachel.”

That was a simple answer for how long she thought of her words. Usually she speaks in essays about her thoughts.

“That’s all?”

“Yeah.”

Well, I guess her betrayal was unexpected. Sarah was closer to her than I was. It must have hit her even harder.

A few minutes later, Simon walks in.

His face is the same as it has been. That deranged face of evil. I can’t believe he’s so different now. He no longer looks like that small eighth grader I initially saw him as. His eyes and face are stern. He looks selfish and desperate.

“Hello.” He greets. “Are you ready to talk?”

“Of course.”

“Well then, I think that we can beat Rachel together,” He gets straight down to business. He acts more and more like Kyle by the second. “I did injure Dylan, but he’d be best for a sharp shooter. If he stands in the back and shoots laser beams at her head, she’ll be much weaker when you go close range.”

“How am I supposed to fight her? I guess you don’t know my ability yet. I get more physical strength when I need to protect someone. That means that I can’t fight her unless someone else is in danger. I’m not willing to sacrifice anyone like that. If I messed up, they’d die.”

“No, I knew your ability. That’s why it’s perfect. We can team up. See, my ability is to be invincible. If I act like a punching bag for Rachel, I won’t die and you’ll be able to use your Delusion. It’s the perfect combination of abilities if you ask me.”

I hate to admit it, but our abilities do synchronize well. That’s pretty ironic though. The ability that allows you to protect someone is strongest when used in combination with the ability that makes you need no protecting.

Sarah adds, “We figured that the best way to fight her would be an ambush. There’s no doubt that Rachel is on the offensive. She loves using fake texts so we predict that she’s going to text Allen from my number soon. All four of us will go to the location and then surprise Rachel with an all out assault. If we’re lucky, Dylan may even be able to get a head shot and kill her right off the bat.”

“Are you in?” I ask Simon.

“Of course. That’s a nice plan.”

Sarah looks down, embarrassed by the compliment.

Then, now we wait.

It was only about another half hour before the text came in exactly as Sarah predicted. A text from her fake number requesting that I meet her where Luke and Dylan’s fight took place. Of course, she chose an area that was well hidden and there wouldn’t be witnesses.

I reply to the message, “Alright, I’ll be there.” As a test, I added, “Weren’t you at the hospital for your grandma?”

She responded, “It seems that my grandma has passed… I need you now more than ever.”

Rachel’s slick. She knows my relationship with Sarah and is exploiting my emotions to lower my guard. Not that I really had a guard.

It’s time.

“Are you all ready?”

Everyone stood up and although in pain, Dylan looked excited.

He yelled, “Let’s get started!”