Chapter 14: I did not know what to do

I woke up to the sound of a short and loud scream outside, The scream put me into alert, and I activated my ability.

I didn't have any particular name for this ability, I have been able to use it for as long as I remember being alive, all the way back when me and my two brothers' were in the orphanage.

Over time, it has evolved as Ellaines' dad would say.

I notice the minute differences now and then when I try using it at nighttime when Dad has gone to sleep, I would have told him about it but whenever I was about to I'd feel this weird tingling in my stomach.

As I scanned the area where I thought the scream originated, I could see our neighbor from three doors down Mr. Evans, a school teacher lying dead in his bedroom with blood coming out of a long gash on his stomach.

The gash though long wasn't too wide, so it was made by a thin sharp weapon.

I looked inside the rest of Mr. Evans' house but couldn't find the murderer.

"Strange" I thought, as It had barely been 5 minutes since I woke up from the scream.

As I turned my head and looked outside the house to check the surrounding houses, I saw a dark glow coming from one part of the sidewalk.The dark glow was in the form of a human like figure and it looked like a 2D man running on the surface of the sidewalk but as I looked at the side walk under the glow, a dark circular shadow was all I could see as it moved very quickly move towards the center of town.

"I guess that was the killer", I thought, but still checked the inside of the house, Dad was wearing his coat and tying his shoelaces while anxiously looking towards my room.

I smiled a little and then looked into Ellaines' house, Her father was up and holding a sword that he kept by his bedside and was heading towards Ellaines' room; She was still sleeping soundly, with a smile on her face.

"Its just like her to not wake up even to a scream in the middle of the night." I thought as I slapped my head with my palm, We had had a few sleepovers and I would always wake up to her loud snoring and even if i fell out of bed while waking up, she wouldn't even roll over from the disturbance.

As I was about to turn my ability off, I noticed that one of the destiny lines that were connected to me was missing.

I was confused, this was not the first time that this had happened but it was the first time it had happened without any warning.

These blue lines that connected me with other people were what I liked to call destiny lines, they first started showing up when my dad adopted me I think, although I dont understand why there weren't any connected to my brothers.

They appear even before I meet someone and would appear when I came into a certain range of the person and would disappear when I left that range, I've tried measuring the range a lot of times by going to the edge of the city, but its different every time and the last time I tried it which was around 2 months ago, none of the destiny lines disappeared; I think it's because my ability is getting stronger.

Anyone a destiny line was connected to would end up becoming one of the people that I was close to although that's what I've noticed so far.

I checked the destiny lines still connected to me which weren't that many, just 6 and was quickly able to determine the one missing was the one for Grandpa Grover!

I tried looking towards Grandpa Grovers' house but it was just a bit out of the range of my seeing ability.

As I was thinking about why the line would suddenly disappear, My dad opened the door to my room and said:

"Barrett lock your door and stay here, I'm going to go check outside, dont open your door to anyone but me okay?"

"Okay dad" I said while giving a faint smile, I understood that dad was just trying to protect me.

AS he closed the door, I activated my ability again and watched him leave the house and head for Ellaines' house where I could see her dad opening her room and facepalming before he went up and rolled her off the bed.

As she got up and rubbed the side of her stomach, she said something along the lines of "Why did you do that Daddy?" although that was just me filling in the parts I could understand from reading her lips.

Before her father could response, my dad knocked on the door and Ellaines' dad walked down cautiously with sword in hand, but after hearing my dads voice he opened the door without much delay.

They had a short conversation which I couldn't grasp and Ellaines' dad ran up and brought Ellaine still in her pajamas' down; She was rubbing her right eye with her right hand while yawning.

Soon I heard a voice outside my door.

"Barrett its me, open the door"

And I opened my room door to my dad, Ellaines' dad and Ellaine who was still looking drowsy but had a slight redness on her face.

"I hope you can take care of Ellaine while we're going to go to check the other houses son"

Ellaines' dad said as he turned to Ellaine and said.

"Stay here with Barrett for now, I'll come get you when this whole fiasco is cleared up"

Ellaine nodded, now looking less drowsy as she walked into the room and sat on my bed for a second before lying down completely, rolling my blanket onto herself and turning to face the wall.

"That's my bed though" I thought as I watched her staring at the wall.

I quickly turned to my dad and Ellaines' dad who now looked a little embarrassed and said "Okay, I'll wait for you guys to come back, please be safe"

My dad rubbed my hair and said "Good, I'll see you in a bit son" before closing the door.

As I locked the room door, I heard two pairs of footsteps go down the stairs and heard the front door shut.

With my ability, I saw my father and Ellaines' leave our house and for the one next to it, with weapons in hand.

Luckily the black glow was nowhere in my view, so I felt relieved.

As I sat down on the desk in my room, I heard Ellaine shuffle on my bed and turn to face me with her face filled with air like a balloon, her eyes a little red.

I started laughing at this funny sight, and soon Ellaine deflated and started laughing too.

As the laughter died down, I saw tears at the corner of Ellaines' eyes,

As the laughter died down, I saw her smile fade away,

As the laughter died down, Ellaine began to cry... and I did not know what to do.