Chapter 31.

Zombie Squadron.

Damien Reyes.

Time/Area: July 29th-30th, 2013. NYC. [8 Days Later]

“Does he like fish? I could get him a fish..” Hiru suggested, looking through the card aisle.

Me, Selina, Melissa, and Hiru were at Bronze Goods looking for gifts that Jason would like. We had purposely shopped late so that he couldn’t guess his presents tomorrow.

We were all in the birthday section, lightly browsing cards for something to buy.

Melissa raised her hand triumphantly,

“I found the Boyfriend’s Birthday section!” She exclaimed, cracking open a card to look at. Suddenly, her face turned from happiness to disgust,

“Ewwww.” She said, “This one is too lovey dovey.”

She threw it on the floor.

Hiru sighed, bending over and picking it up.

I laughed as I turned towards Selina.

She was currently reading a card, and from the look on her face, she really enjoyed it.

“Imma get this one!” She announced, heading over to our cart and dropping the blue card inside.

I had found a star wars themed birthday card and had already placed it inside the cart.

I’d write something in it later.

Hiru was focused on a specific card in the Friends section.

I walked over to him, “See something?”

No response.

I coughed, “Y-you know,” I scratched my head, “You’ve only known him for like a week now, you don’t really have to get him something deep.”

He kept his gaze on the card, “This is a fish themed card..” he pointed out, nodding towards the piece of cardboard.

I slowly nodded, taking note of the aquatic-themed drawings,

“And..?” I quizzed.

“And I’ll only get this if I’m getting him a fish themed thing..” Hiru finished, his eyes squinting hard in concentration.

I coughed again, “What’s with you and fish, dude?”

“OKAY THIS ONE IS GOOD!”

We all turned around to shush Melissa, but she motioned all around the store,

“No one is here, dummies!” She said defensively, “This is the apocalypse, remember?”

Before I realized what it was, my spine started to burn. This had been happening a lot now over the past couple of days. Not the dangerous, blood boiling feeling, but a new, almost sub conscious warmth that shot through me. It occurred whenever the monster wanted to give his two cents, kind of like a social media indicator that blinked whenever one of your friends were online. I also hadn’t been to our ‘common area’ since the funeral, which kind of annoyed me since I still didn’t really know how to feed. When would we start feeling the effects of that? Were there any effects for me, or would I simply have to incur the monster’s wrath? What did his wrath even look like?

My brain went back to what Melissa said.

The apocalypse. The monster filled, parent killing, brain infecting apocalypse.

Be realistic Damien; how likely is it that all of you will survive this? To think you shop for birthday presents.

I barely acknowledged his voice that was piercing through my brain like a bullet. You’d be surprised how quickly humans can adapt to things. Although, it wasn’t like he was wrong. Ha…

“Yea..I guess it is.” I finally answered Melissa.

Everyone looked at me, causing me to grow in nervousness, “Uh. Guys?”

Selina shook her head, “Nothing… you just sound like something’s wrong. I-Is it your pare-?”

“No.” I interrupted her, “It’s just...nothing.”

“Yea…” Selina said, narrowing her eyes at me, “Right. Sure.”

I raised my eyebrow at her, trying to push down a sudden annoyance that definitely wasn’t mine.

Who did she think she was…looking at me like that-

“We all know you and Jason have been through a lot Dami,” Selina’s gaze shrunk into that of sympathy, “But you can talk to us.”

I shook my head, raising my hands in a dramatic surrender while faking a smile,

“I’m good guys,” I forced a laugh, “Nothing’s wrong.”

Melissa nodded, joining Selina in her glare, “Yea, I don’t believe him.”

I looked at Hiru, who looked concerned, “You alright dude?”

I blinked, not quite expecting this ambush. Humans.

I sighed, conceding as I decided to press a question, “Do you guys really have an idea of what this apocalypse is?”

Selina frowned, “No,” She admitted, “But from how you're talking, it sounds like you do…”

I looked down, “N-no,” I lied, “It’s just that...how likely is it that we’ll all..”

“Survive?” Selina finished, narrowing her eyes, “So… this is about the fire, then?”

I slowly nodded, “Y-yea.”

Everyone groaned.

Melissa shook her head, “You can’t think like that, idiot!” She said, “A-and we don’t even know if it was like… a monster that…caused…you know.”

Selina nodded in agreement, straightening her blue trench coat while fist bumping Melissa.

“What else could it have been.” I said dryly, more like a statement than a question. A twinge of guilt rippled through me for saying that, but I tried to push it aside. I was stuck with this monster, but I had decided that there would be no future where he was allowed to forget what he did.

Hiru sighed, “Damien, think happy thoughts… not depressing ones like those.”

And what are you; our mother? We’ve only known you for a week- Shut up.

I chuckled a bit, forcing myself to change my mood.

“Oh,” I whispered, “Sorry, my bad.”

Melissa smirked, “You should be!”

She punched me in my arm, but I barely felt it.

“Ow!” She yelled, shaking her hand, “Exactly how much milk have you been drinking?!”

I tilted my head. Now that I thought about it, would it really be so wrong to tell them? Why was I hiding this again?

Melissa smiled even brighter, “You could probably take out a platoon of monsters with those bones! Leave none alive!!!”

She yelled this dramatically, causing me to gulp.

Oh right.

‘Monsters’.

I was a part of them now. I couldn’t help but still feel separate from that idea, but that would change with time.

Selina caught my dull expression, her face full of concern when I didn’t smile at Melissa’s attempts to comfort me.

Before she could say anything though, my cell phone’s ringtone blasted through the air.

Everyone paused their movements and grew quiet, obviously waiting for me to answer. I sighed, pulling out the black device and swiping the Answer button.

It was Jason;

“Hey!” He yelled, causing me to wince, “I just woke up! Where are you!?”

“Ummm,” I looked around, “I’m...taking a walk?”

Selina facepalmed herself while Melissa and Hiru just shook their heads in disappointment.

“Uh..why?”

Good question. My back grew warm.

Does he need you to walk him to the bathroom or something? This is- I said shut up. The monster felt more composed when I was awake than when I slept. I didn’t know what that was about, but I almost didn’t want to understand him.

“It’s like..a nice day today..” I responded over the phone.

“Bro it’s like..40 degrees outside- there isn’t anything nice about it.”

Before I could respond, Jason suddenly gasped,

“Is cold resistance one of your monster powers?”

I choked, realizing that the volume was turned up altheway.

“Monster powers?!” Selina quizzed.

“Weren’t you guys talking about powers at the school or something?” Melissa recalled, “You know..before you were stabbed..”

“What the what?” Hiru joined in, “Is this about a video game?”

“Shut up!” I hissed into the phone.

“Wait why, you aren’t with anyone. Trust me, nobody knows about your talents. Though you should consider talking to Selina ab-”

“ANYWAYS did you need anything else?” I interrupted, ignoring the piercing gazes of my friends as I practically broke the volume control button on the side of the device,

“Um..it’s my birthday tomorrow?” He reminded me; it sounded like he was brushing his teeth, “Come back and log onto the V-box with me. Remember, I want the extreme birthday treatment.”

I groaned, “I’ll ask Hiru to come over.”

“Whatever; as long as I’m not forced to ask Auntie to play. By the way, does walking increase the range of your super-?”

I hung up on him.

I turned back to the trio, “Um-well… Hiru..you need to-”

“Don’t pretend like we didn’t hear, idiot!” Selina interrupted.

I coughed, “Uh..Hear what?”

Hiru sighed, “O-okay be honest,” He said, “This may sound like a weird accusation, but uh- are you on drugs?! I know you two have-”

I did a double take, wondering what exactly had been running through Hiru’s head, “What? No, of course not!”

Hiru raised his hands in surrender, “Okay, just checking.”

Melissa rubbed her non-existent beard, “SPILL THE BEANS DAMIEN-”

“Damien.” Selina interrupted, her look was one of worry and anger, “Is this about what happened with the puddle?”

I coughed, slowly nodding as a daring lie formed within my brain, “Uh…yea.”

That part wasn’t really a lie.

I just left out the rest of it.

That’s called a lie of Omission.

Her eyes widened, “Okay...then we can talk in private later.”

Her tone portrayed excitement, bewilderment, and a bit of disbelief.

Kind of like what me and Jason first thought… back when we still had parents. Back when I wasn’t a monster. Back when these powers were just speculation and not some freak mutation.

Melissa and Hiru groaned.

Selina slapped Hiru’s arm, “Go play with Jason dummy! He can’t know what’s up!”

Hiru suddenly sprang into action, darting towards the exit of the store.

“Melissa,” Selina started, looking at her, “Go find your boyfriend a present!”

Melissa froze, saluting Selina before taking off down a different aisle, “I don’t know if what you guys are saying is just some mass prank, but we’ll talk later!”

It was just me and Selina now.

“Okay, Damien,” She spoke cautiously, a helpless grin tugging at the sides of her face, “What’s up?”

How should I word this without letting her know I was technically infected? Come to think of it, nobody but me really knew how the infection worked.

Or at least, I was the only one who knew about the whole ‘emotions’ part. There would be no way I could tell my girlfriend that I was a monster. I mean, aside from the philosophical reasons like not wanting her to hate me, there were still the really obvious ones. For example, according to the monster, I quite literally eat people. It wasn’t exactly a topic one discussed over a date.

I cleared my throat, “A-after my parents died, I started to uh..change? P-probably because of that puddle.”

Selina slowly nodded, “You know you don’t have to make this all long and dramatic, right?”

I scratched my head, not expecting that, “What do you-?”

“Do you have powers Damien?” She asked, leaning towards me suddenly, “Or like…abilities of some sort? I’d rather skip the whole `prepare yourself’ speech… and there really doesn’t have to be another spiderman reboot…”

I coughed, “D-do you realize how crazy that sounds?”

“C’mon..” She pleaded, clearly annoyed, “We’re dating and you won’t even tell me something as simple as that?”

Whoaaa.

Whoaaa.

“Dating?” We thought, not being able to keep myself from smiling. It may have been obvious, but this was the first time she had acknowledged it.

She caught my smile and groaned some more, “Not the time Dami.” She ordered, slapping me out of my stasis, “Although It’s good to see you smiling again.”

I took a deep breath, “O-Okay yea,” I admitted, “I have these…uh..muscles, and I can hear pretty well.”

Not quite the vocabulary I would use.

Really, you’re talking to me about vocab?

Wow. Sometimes I think you just can’t hear me.

That’s because sometimes I think you’re annoying.

Selina blinked, taking a step back,

“Wait seriously?!” Her voice went to a whisper. I looked at Selina, trying to focus on her and not on him.

“You-You’re actually superman?!!” She sounded almost nervous, her grin now going in and out, “Cause I was totally kidding…a-and you better not be lying to me.”

I went red, “Why does everyone keep saying I’m Superman?”

She frowned, “Well, I guess superman would be able to keep his secret longer, but at least you tried. You’re more like Iron Man.”

I glared at her, “Seriously?”

She shrugged, “Show me some powers!”

I gritted my teeth, “I don’t know how to use them!”

She leaned back, as if offended, “What kind of half baked superhero are you? You are Iron Man.”

This time I groaned, “I’m not a superhero Selina…and Iron Man isn’t half baked.”

She motioned wildy at me, “Clearly, and Iron Man is like the dumbest character.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

She had taken it way better than I thought she would. I mean, I did only tell her less than half of it, but it was definitely a start. Honestly, I had no real reason to keep my powers a secret from any of my friends, but I could clearly see issues arise if I were to tell them that they came from the ‘Monster Infection’.

Selina smiled, shaking her head,

“Did you hide it because that’s what everyone did in the movies, or..?”

I blinked before laughing nervously, “O-Oh yea.”

I admit, I sucked at keeping my own secrets.

Selina squinted at me, but didn’t press any further, “Whatever,” She said, “I won’t ruin all your secrets.”

Her voice suddenly turned serious,

“But Damien,” She started, “Try…try not to keep too many, kay?”

I smiled, “Careful,” I warned, “You’re starting to sound dramatic.”

She laughed, smacking my shoulder with her hand lightly before speaking again,

“So what are you getting Jason?” She asked, “And what can you do, exactly?”

I took hold of the cart, both of us walking through the vacant aisles together,

“I’m getting him a News Journal, and I’ll show you later.”

“Psh!” Selina snorted, “That’s boring...to both responses.”

I rolled my eyes, “This is coming from the girl who keeps sticky notes in her pocket about architecture.”

Selina’s jaw dropped as we turned on a ‘School Supplies’ aisle,

“That is a perfectly normal thing!’ She yelled over my laugh.

I nodded sarcastically, “Yes yes of course.” I joked, “You’re completely normal.”

She groaned as I threw an expensive Journalism book into the cart. I didn’t even know why journals had to be expensive; they were literally just some paper.

“Says superboy.” Selina muttered, “And what did you mean by muscles?”

I elbowed her lightly, “You know you can’t be saying this around other people right? And I said I’d show you later.”

She laughed, “Hiru will probably figure it out before August, and Melissa basically already knows.”

I blushed, “I meant adults. I don’t want to be cut open or anything weird.”

Selina seemed to get this, “Yea, I guess that makes sense. I’m getting Jason a jacket.”

She pushed me from the driver’s position on the cart, steering towards the Boys clothes section as I was forced to trail from behind.

I trotted along with her, the emptiness of the store settling as the squeaky wheel of our cart almost invoked a sense of guilt on me for intruding on the silence.

‘Bronze Goods’ wasn’t too popular, as it was a local store, so I wasn’t expecting it to be full, but I also wasn’t expecting it to be deserted. People were really starting to take this seriously.

I wondered if the Cashiers were bored,

“What do you think?”

Selina pulled me from my thoughts, raising a black leather trench coat in front of me.

I blinked, “He’d like that..”

She began to jump, “Yes, I knew i-!”

“But it’d be better if it was green.” I finished, crossing my arms while sticking my tongue out. I mainly said this to annoy her.

She sighed, delving back into the masses of hangers to search for green.

“Any specific green?” Selina asked, her head burrowed into a set of leather.

I thought for a moment before giving up, “I don’t know…. A green kind of green.”

Selina became annoyed once more, still searching, “Aren’t you two best friends? Boys are so unobservant…”

I coughed, “Well believe it or not, we don’t talk about which shades of the same color are our favorite.” I paused, “That’s like a girl thing.”

Selina gasped, her head materializing out of a long blazer for just a moment, “Damien Reyes, did you just say something sexist?”

I copied her joking tone, “I’m sorry, that must’ve been pretty unobservant, huh?”

She laughed, going right back into the waves of cloth and fabrics, “Okay, good point.”

“ahHA!” Selina cheered, finally coming out of the army of hangars with her hair all tussled from static. Selina didn’t seem to care about her look though.

She had the exact same coat she suggested before in hand, but instead of black, it was cactus green.

I shivered, “Wow, maybe I should ask Jay his favorite kind of green.” I stifled a laugh, “Cause that just…hurts.”

She tossed it into my face, which I then put in the cart.

“GUYSSSS!”

We both turned to see Melissa sliding to a stop behind us,

“What about this?” She asked, revealing a small, black, cylindrical device in her palm.

I blinked, “The heck is that?”

Melissa shrugged, “It’s like this voice recognition thing. You can order pizza, search the web, and do all sorts of stuff just by speaking to it.”

I took it and added it to the basket,

“Nice.” I said, “Totally original.”

Selina looked at me, “Your present’s looking pretty sorry over there Dami.”

I frowned, “Hey, I’ll probably buy him a bunch of video games or a gift card or something.”

Selina shook her head, “Buying rich people gift cards?”

I nodded, remembering past birthdays, “It’s kind of a running joke between me and him,”

Melissa sighed, “Now Hiru needs to g-”

Suddenly, all of our phones buzzed.

It was a text from our new birthday group chat that Me, Melissa, Selina, and Hiru shared.

It was from Hiru.

We all groaned as we read it, pulling up our digital keyboards and entering the world of Text.

--

Yo, I bought a mini aquarium set. I need the fishy card Pronto. - [Hiru]

-

Hiru, how are you going to set up an aquarium in his room without him knowing? 🤣- [Selina]

-

Yea my guy, what were you thinking? - [Melissa]

-

Lol. Hiru R U next to Jason rn? - Me

-

Nah, I lied and told him I had to pee.- [Hiru]

-

Smooth. - [Selina]

-

Ikr. - [Hiru]

-

When will the Aquarium set get there? -Me

-

Like..-[Hiru]

-

???- [Melissa]

-

In an hour- [Hiru]

-

🤯- [Melissa]

-

Make him leave then!-Me

-

How tho.- [Hiru]

-

KNOCK HIM OUT!- [Melissa]

-

YOU HAVE MY CONSENT!- [Melissa]

------------------------

“Okay that’s it.” Selina groaned, “Damien, Call Hiru.”

I obeyed, still finding it crazy that these guys could just buy aquariums.

…

…

“Hi!” Hiru greeted.

“Hi!” I responded.

Suddenly, Selina took my phone,

“You're too slow,” She reasoned, bringing it to her ear.

“HIRU!” She yelled. We could still hear Hiru since my volume was still pretty high. I didn’t know why my phone couldn’t just follow directions-

“Hey Selina. What’s popping.”

“Hiru, have Jason meet Damien like...in one of his movie rooms or something..”

“Okay...then I set up the Aquarium?”

“Yea..” Selina said, evidently making this up as she went along, “M-Me and Melissa will help, while Damien keeps Jason distracted with a show or something!”

“Works for me! See you over here peoples.”

He hung up.

Selina and Melissa looked at me.

“Well?” Melissa waved towards the door, “Super-speed activate!”

I narrowed my eyes, “I-I don’t have super-speed?”

Melissa shook her head, “Shame, shame. Well I know something is up with you.”

Why were these people so inclined to believe that I had powers? Melissa didn’t even know about the puddle, which meant she was just going off of her pure craziness.

Selina laughed, nudging me away, “Just go keep Jason busy alright?”

I nodded, jogging towards the store exit, “See you guys!” I yelled over my shoulder, disappearing behind the aisle. As I exited the store, I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous by Selina’s behavior. It was almost like she took the whole ‘powers’ thing too well. I shook my head as I hit the sidewalk,

“It’s probably nothing.” I thought to myself, hurrying towards Draxon.

--Hour later--Perspective: Selina Morgan.

“A movie?” I heard Jason from around the stair corner.

I looked back towards our group, holding up a palm for them to freeze.

Damien’s voice came,

“Yea? You know...just us?” He asked.

A pause.

“Okay…” Jason agreed, “Suspicious…but okay. Hiru left like..ten minutes ago I think.”

I waited thirty seconds before giving the all clear to Hiru and Melissa.

They were carrying a huge box together up the stairs while Damien and Jason’s caretaker, Mrs.Mabel, was silently cheering for us at the bottom of the stairwell.

We managed to get inside Jason’s room fine, Melissa and Hiru quietly setting the box down on Jason’s bed as I shut the door.

The room smelled like a mix of Jason and Damien, with a hint of Hiru in the middle.

Melissa swiped her nose,

“The overwhelming power of deodorant.” She remarked, elbowing Hiru.

Hiru scratched his head, “Uh..sorry?”

I laughed, holding out my hands to size up Jason’s wall. I knew which sides of the room belonged to who based on the last time we came here; the funeral reception. That day had been really weird for me. It had been my first funeral since…well…since Mom. That was weird, along with the fact that only one person downstairs seemed to be affiliated with Damien well. It was kind of sad, but we had fun amidst everything else that day so I hoped he would forget about it.

“This should do just fine,” I said, pointing towards the right of Jason’s window, “Get to work.”

Melissa began to peel off the duct tape with her fingers.

Hiru groaned, looking at me, “Shouldn’t you help too?”

I sighed, “Calm down Hiru,”

I walked to Damien’s nightstand, “I’ll join you in a second.”

Not gonna lie, I was extremely suspicious of Damien. I mean first off, he says he has powers, which is already crazy, but then he still sounded like he was keeping a secret. And if he felt it was okay to reveal that he was superpowered, then how much bigger could another secret be? Or was this entire thing literally just a prank? No…Damien wouldn’t prank me now. Not after what happened to his family.

It got me nervous, and this was the best cover I could think of to get any information.

I was about to open the nightstand, when a trash can next to me suddenly caught my attention.

Only one thing was in it.

A slip of crumpled up paper.

“School is out..” I remembered, “Why would he need paper?”

“Well, I don’t know Selina,” My inner conscious told me, “Drawing, making a schedule, writing down some personal stuff. It…It’s paper.”

SHUT UP BRAIN!

Now, it was a possibility that I could be exaggerating the whole thing, but my suspicion got the better of me as I stuck my hand into the black bin.

I took the slip out, doing my best to uncrumple the page on the floor.

The title was called: Dream.

Once I read it, I reread it. I reread it after that and I did it again after that.

“What the WHAT?!”

This was indeed Damien’s handwriting, but why was he having these dreams?

Were they even related to the secret he was keeping?

Or was Damien… just weird?

Honestly, either one could be the truth. I sighed, crumpling the paper sheet and tossing it back in the trash. I stood up, walking towards Hiru and Melissa to help with the aquarium,

“Damien,” I thought, “I hope everything is alright with you..”

----Perspective Swap: Damien Reyes--

“Wait, pause!” Jason said, getting up from next to me, “I got to go to the room real quick.”

I coughed on some popcorn I made, pressing Pause on the remote before charging towards him.

I skidded to a stop in front of the door, blocking Jason from leaving,

“Uh..go to the bathroom across the hall?” I suggested.

Jason squinted, “Okay?”

I smiled, stepping aside to let him leave.

Jason glanced back at me as he disappeared down the hall, me awkwardly smiling at him as I backed up towards our room.

Once he was out of sight, I entered the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind me once I was inside.

“People, hurry it up!” I hissed, turning around to face them, “We need to wh-oah”

The aquarium was entirely made of glass with the exception of its metal joints. It wrapped around Jason’s window, so the view wasn’t affected, but other than that, it was completely wall sized.

It looked really cool, as the entire wall seemed to be made of water filled glass. The light seeping through the window reflected nicely off the blue liquid, casting wavy refractions of sunlight upon the rest of the room.

I didn’t even know if Jason was into fish, but regardless, It served as a nice addition to the room.

Hiru and Melissa stood proudly, Selina standing next to them with an unreadable expression written on her face as water dripped from their clothes.

She looked deeply concerned for some reason, and seemed to be greatly interested in her shoes.

“Whoa.. Is RIGHT, yes!” Melissa exclaimed, jumping up and down like she was three. “Do you know how hard it was to get all this water in here?”

Hiru shushed her, “He’s down the hall, not on Mars!”

Melissa quieted down a bit, “Oh right,” She whispered, “Sorry.”

I was still looking at Selina,

“Uh..Selina, you okay?” I asked, walking up to her.

She looked up, exiting whatever stasis she was in, “O-oh yea! But you need to keep Jason in a different room tonight..well..for the rest of the day actually.”

I slowly nodded, confused at her mood swing, “Right,” I agreed, “That way, he’ll wake up to the aquarium.”

Hiru nodded, “Wait, where's my fishy card?”

Melissa groaned, retrieving the folded card from her back pocket, restoring it before handing it over to him, “Your card sucks.” She muttered, evidently making Hiru sad.

I heard the bathroom door open from across the hall, signifying that Jason was now done.

“Oh,” I sighed, “Gotta go now, I’ll tell him that we’ll sleep somewhere else tonight.”

I stopped before leaving, turning to face the group, “And you guys should probably get out...seeing as Jason doesn’t even know you’re here.”

They all nodded, and Hiru gave me a thumbs up before I left.

I found Jason in the movie room,

“Hey D!” Jason yelled from the black cushions, “Where were you?”

I shrugged, “Nowhere,” I said, “Uh…we’re going to sleep here tonight...like a slumber party.”

I looked around, realizing that this was probably the best cover.

“Like..as an early birthday present?” He quizzed, “Since I was thinking we could do that like..everyday, seeing as School is out for who knows how long.”

I gave him another shrug, “We’ll need more popcorn either way.”

Jason nodded, respecting this point, “Well, what should we after we finish this mov-”

“Oh, and don’t go into our room..” I interrupted, taking a seat next to him on the couch, “Like...ever.”

Jason smirked mischievously, “Oooh.” He said plainly, “Wonder what’s in there.”

I coughed, “Dirt, probably.”

He snorted, “You’d better hope not..or I’ll fire you from my birthday.”

I let the movie play as I went back and forth between rooms, hand delivering each other’s bed sheets and clothes so that Jason wouldn’t see the fish tank. It felt ridiculous, and it probably would’ve been easier to just consider the tank as an early birthday present, but it made the whole ordeal more exciting so I didn’t protest.

My friends had already zipped off, which worried me, because I wanted to tell Selina to call me later.

But I guess it didn’t really matter, as I could just call her.

Jason let out a laugh as I brought the last of his stuff, the movie just finishing as I did.

“Okay,” He started, unfolding his blanket and laying it on the ground, “What do we do now that you’ve finished protecting my present?”

I thought for a moment.

It was only nine in the morning, and since school was a distant memory, we had nothing to do until tonight.

Jason saw my blank expression and sat up,

“We could walk around, we could go to Uncle Tony’s house, we could talk about the monster situation, play V-box, and-”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” I breathed, silencing Jason’s rant, “Let’s get out of here.”

-

We ended up doing everything on Jason’s list, which turned out to be a blast in retrospect.

Mr.Floyd took us to a private, professional bowling alley, which proved to be hilarious, as none of us could even bowl. The manager was pissed at us, as apparently only ‘competitive bowlers’ came there.

On our walk back home, me and Jason talked about all the recent news involving monsters; our school had named this a long term break, and said that it would be made up for by having some of summer break taken away as well.

This didn’t make anyone happy, but in all honesty, I didn’t even know what would still be around by Summer.

I told Jason that Selina knew about my powers, causing him to clap.

Although, when I informed him that I had not told her about the monster aspect of them, he grew disappointed. He even used my own words against me, saying that I shouldn’t

“Do that to myself.”

That conversation eventually led to my second encounter with the monster.

When I told Jason about what it had said, he was both humored, and greatly disturbed at the same time.

But he did recommend a name for it.

He wanted to name it Terry, because it sounded like Terror.

I was going to laugh at him, but nothing was quite wrong with the suggestion.

Instead, I told him that I would pitch the idea to the monster if I ever got the chance again. Jason was extremely proud about this. He also now knew about the whole…’emotions turn you into a monster’ thing now.

That was five pm.

Now, it was seven pm and me and Jason were playing V-box in the movie room. Mrs.M and Mr. Floyd had gone to take care of business things or something, so it was just us in the house.

I had no say in what to do, as any protesting I began would cause Jason to bust out the “It’s my birthday” card and force me to continue.

It honestly made me kind of happy, since this was the same thing that would happen before…everything. We would force each other to play one another’s favorite things for hours in celebration of our birthdays, not having a single care in the world.

Those were much simpler times.

“Okay okay..” Jason groaned, looking away from the projector screen and rubbing his eyes.

I sighed, placing my controller on the black carpet before looking around,

“What year is it exactly?” I asked, standing up to stretch my legs.

Jason laughed, “Oh c’mon..” He pointed at the screen, “Rematch? You barely won anyway..”

I glared at him, “I creamed you.”

We were playing Fight4Life and the score was 100000 points to 1500. Fight4Life was a cool but basic 1v1 game that revolved around this concept of magic fields existing around human beings. In order to win, you had to land hits on your opponent, which fills up your ‘Field Meter’. Then, once it’s full, any more hits you land will be counted as ‘Excess Magic’ that can be used for cool power moves like ‘Sonic Clap’ or something.

None of it made a lot of sense, but I was quite good at it.

Jason’s username was GunMaster15 while mine was DJDemon14.

Jason shook his head, throwing our last two pieces of popcorn at the projector,

“It’s rigged, I swear.” He muttered.

I laughed, “Just admit that I am the king of this game.”

He stood up with me, hurling the empty popcorn bag at my chest,

“You are not a king...not as I live anyway.”

My laugh grew, the bag failing to hit me and instead landing on the carpet, “How?” I quizzed, “ ‘Kings’ is, quite literally, my middle name.”

He groaned once more, falling down onto the carpet,

“You’ve said that a million times by now.” he said into the floor, “Like…since we were five.”

I walked over to Jason’s limp form, kicking his ribs with my foot jokingly,

“Well I can’t let you forget.” I shrugged, bending down and picking up the popcorn bag,

“Imma go fill this up now.” I announced, starting towards the door.

“Wait! Superman waiiiit!” Jason called after me.

I stopped and glared.

He smiled at my reaction, “Get me cookies.”

I rolled my eyes, “Get them yourself..” I muttered, pausing before turning out of the movie room as Jason cleared his throat loudly,

“It’s my birthday.”

I sighed, “Just don’t go into your room.”

Jason grinned, “I know I know!” He complained, “I mean, what are you going to do if I don’t… steal my presents?”

“No,” I answered, my voice completely serious,

“I’d just eat you.”

I heard him choke as I closed the door, “Th-that’s not funny!” He shouted over my laughs.

-

On my way back up, cookie basket in hand, my ears suddenly began to burn.

“Ugh, Not again,” I breathed, wincing from the noise in my ears as millions of sounds around me slowly became focused. I don’t know why my “super hearing” switched on and off like this, but it hurt like crap every time I used it. It was like everything within the city was amplified one hundred times and then shoved into my ear drums. If this was how superman felt, I now had a new respect for the character. And why did like…all of my powers have to be related to burning? It wasn’t exactly thrilling to go through.

I paused at the top of the stairwell, figuring that I might as well listen to what my brain was focusing on.

Oh, be careful Damien!

I nearly tripped when I heard my sister’s voice. She seemed younger, and it sounded like water was rushing around the scene.

He’ll be fine Sarah- go enjoy yourself with friends.

That was Jason’s mom?

Okay Mrs.Cole..B-but he’s still only eight. I don’t want him to get hurt.”

I leaned against the stairway wall, quivering a bit at the sounds I was hearing. I remembered this day. This was from the ‘Bronze Swimming Pool’ that had shut down a couple of years ago.

EEK DAMIEN, JASON QUIT IT!

I heard childish screeching as the sound of splashing water echoed through my brain. I smiled, despite a small lump that was in my throat. This was when me and Jason had poured water on Sarah’s face with a bucket.

Haha! You’ll have to catch me fir-ahck!

I winced a little at my own voice. I had just slipped and sprained my ankle on the edge of the pool.

Then came sounds of me crying, followed by Jason running up to me.

OH NO!

Little Jason yelled,

I mouthed the words Jason had spoken before I heard them,

I-Is he going to die?

We were both such...idiots back then.

I sighed, slowly feeling the burning sensation cease as I continued my approach towards the movie room.

I walked in the black space, not entirely surprised to see that the projector had switched back to the V-box screen.

Jason was rubbing his eyes, a fake grin on his face,

“O-Oh hey…so where’s the cookie-”

“Stop..’ I interrupted, not wanting him to lie, “Super hearing, remember?”

We both went silent for a bit.

Jason sat up, chuckling, “Sorry, guess I just..I don’t know. I uh..know what you’re gonna say but-”

I shook my head, “Nah..” I shrugged,“Erm..I wouldn’t mind if you kept playing it.”

Jason nodded, standing up and switching the screen back to the old phone recording. We both sat down on the couch, letting each of our minds drift off to a different time as we were absorbed into the memory.

It was almost too sad. Half of us were dead already. Was Sarah…Shut up.

-

After we finished watching the recording, we moved on to the Superman movies- which may have not been a good idea, as every minute Jason would pause the film and ask me if “I could do that” or “I bet you could top that”. We were halfway through Superman II when Jason paused again,

“Hey,” He said, rolling from his position on the carpet to face me,

“Are you sure you don’t have laser vision?”

I groaned, “Yes Jay, I am 100 percent sure I can’t shoot fire-from-my-eyes!”

Jason coughed, “It doesn’t even like...have to be lasers,” He continued, “Just like...an energy of some sort..”

I was halfway to the point of smacking him, “The only power I’m sure I have is super hearing.” I stated, speaking the words slowly so that he could understand,

“That, and living with you.”

Jason glared at me, “Look in the mirror lately?” He asked,

“I’m pretty sure random muscles don’t grow overnight.”

I just sighed, seeing no point in arguing since he obviously couldn’t be convinced.

“Just unpause it, will you?” I breathed, turning back towards the projector, “Not like I have super strength.”

Jason laughed, about to hit Play when he suddenly stopped,

“Wait, I have an idea!” he exclaimed, rushing over to his spot before bringing me a tray of cookies.

“Thanks,” I said, reaching out to grab one.

Jason slapped my hand down, sadness flooding my senses.

“How about we bet on how long we can stay up?” Jason suggested, “Like..on cookies. I’ve ran out of things to do, so…”

I smiled brightly, “That’s a great idea!” I agreed, “That way, I’ll get all the cookies!”

Jason laughed, “I’ll stay up till three.”

I rolled my eyes, “Four.”

“Five” Jason countered, shocking me.

I coughed, realizing that we were now treating this like some kind of auction,

“Five thirty.”

“Five forty five.”

“Six.”

“Deal.” Jason agreed, “Winner takes all.”

I didn’t know if we knew what we were saying.

Jason placed the tray on top of the projector before laying back down, hitting ‘play’ on the remote as he got back on the floor.

I was only half paying attention to the film though. In my mind there was only one wish, and that was for Sarah to still be out there. Still breathing. If life had denied me parents, sanity, and even my own body, I still…I didn’t know.

Would it be so wrong for me to be allowed to keep my sister?