The mountains were a far sight to John as he passed by them on the train, the buildings usually covering the view up. He was going to meet his friends again, trying to get together after the destruction of their school. The train was white with a grey flooring and yellow seats in the interior, while having a striped exterior. It was going quite fast, although it would take about 10 minutes before it could arrive at the station John wanted to get on. It wasn't crowded either, seeing as there were only 4 other people in the train.
The sight of a building being built near the cleansed ruins of a school reminded him of Chaysin. He sighed a little, before the train started slowing down, letting him know that he was close to his station. He stood up, walked nearby the door and grasped a metal pole scaling the height of the train cart as he waited for the doors to open.
He walked out, only to find that none of his friends had arrived yet. The train left the station behind him, and he walked over to a nearby bench. It was the station they got to after visiting Mei at the hospital. The small trees surrounded them like a group of plants taking over an abandoned building within a month, growing around the place.
He felt Charles and Darren's presence getting closer, and he knew at once it was Timothy and Alfredo, both of them having Legend Powers. He laid his head back as the both of them appeared from the station's gate, coming to pick him up.
"Oh, hey John." Timothy said, seeing his blue jacket.
He stood up, and said, "Hey. Where are we gonna go today?"
"To a restaurant. Somehow, we rented an entire floor."
"Cool. You guys can drive or something?"
"Alfredo's 18 with a driving license. He'll take us there. Right, Mister Taxi?"
"For the last time, I am not Mister Taxi." Alfredo said in an annoyed tone.
"Alright. Let's go." John said, walking out from the station.
The trio walked to a black car parked in front of the station as Alfredo took out his car keys and unlocked it. "I call shotgun!" Timothy shouted as he jumped into the front seat, on the left of the driver's seat.
"You alright with sitting in the back?" Alfredo asked.
"Yeah. I've sat there every time I got in a car." John replied.
"Damn, you never sit in the front seat?"
"Not even in my past life, I've only been in one a few times."
"That explains it."
Alfredo got in the driver's seat while John got in the back seat. "Hey, just a small request before we get to the restaurant, can we go to the Chaysin Ruins?" he asked.
"Sure. The place isn't ready yet."
They drove on for about a couple minutes before stopping in front of a slanted surface that used to be a brick road. John got out, before a short slideshow of memories caused him to falter a little, clutching his right eye and his right forehead.
"Don't worry about me. I'm alright." he said, walking to where the glass doors were. What used to be a large school was now only pillars and broken walls. "Did they clear out everything here?" he asked.
"The objects that weren't destroyed were placed in a museum." Timothy said, after seeing Alfredo get on the phone.
"Did it include a bag that looked like it was stuffed to the brim with books?"
"They put that in a house nearby. I don't remember which one, but-"
"Follow me."
John walked away from the ruins in a certain direction, before taking a left turn, Timothy running to catch up. Upon taking a right turn and heading past a worn-out crosswalk, they came to a house untouched during the End of the World, unlike the other houses. It had a white wall, a brown, rusty gate, and it looked as old as time. John opened the gate, and said, "Just like normal."
They walked inside the house, only to find that dust had settled over literally everything. John created a ball of wind and gathered it all, before tossing it out the door. He cleaned the floor with a swipe of his hand, wiped the electronics with another swipe of his hand, and recharged the electricity with a snap of his fingers.
"Timothy," he said, turning into Keith, "welcome to my old house."
"Quite fitting for a single person, I'd say."
Before they could do a tour around the house, however, Alfredo pulled up in his car, saying, "It's time."
"Oh, okay. Come on, John." Timothy called, running to the car. Keith went back to being John, and got into the backseat, before they drove off to the place.
Once they got to the restaurant's parking lot, Timothy and Alfredo quickly jumped out of the car and sprinted towards the restaurant's front doors. John was confused for a moment, and opened the door of the backseat, closing it. "Hold on. Didn't Alfredo leave his keys in there?" he thought. He opened the backseat door again, this time to grab the car keys, then locked it. He walked to the restaurant, which looked like it had a blackout.
"Hold on. What's the date today?"
He checked his phone. May 7, Friday. He closed it and put it in his pocket, then sighed before walking into the restaurant.
The place was dark, only being lit up by the sunlight from the glass doors. He walked past the multitudes of tables, before he came to one with a piece of paper on top of it. It looked different from the others, having 3 square tables grouped together instead of 2, including an extra seat. The paper read, "sit here john" and nothing else.
He took a seat on the couch, moving himself to the middle. He looked around after putting himself in a good position, seeing the dark atmosphere. All of a sudden...
"Happy birthday-" everyone shouted whilst jumping up from every table except John's, flipping them over.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" John shouted as he instantly got into a fetal position and put up a shield around himself in surprise. After realizing who the people around him were, he lowered the shield, and said, "You guys... prepared this?"
"Yep. All planned from a few days ago." Timothy said.
"I... I... I don't know how to feel about this."
John started tearing up, and Charlene got beside him, asking, "You need a hug?" He responded by tightly hugging her, everyone shocked by the turn of events.
"I've never had a party this big." he said.
"What happened to your family?"
"Perished in my past life when I was 10. Foster parents *sniff* passed when I was 12, and after that damn killing, I only celebrated *sniff* with my brother."
"So this is why he's letting himself out. He's been lonely for years straight." Alfredo said. "Don't worry about it, John. We're here now."
"Really? Not out of fear, but out of care?" John asked, tears in his eyes.
"Yep. Y'know, we kinda expected you to be ruthlessly rude. Guess the new student chain broke with you being here."
"Hngh... I... can't... breathe..." Charlene said, her voice becoming very soft due to John hugging her too hard. He loosened his grip, and said, "This feels very different from what I usually have. Thanks."
Major Theresa was there, and she said, "You know, back when I was working for GOWA, I didn't know about their plans to kill you. As of right now, I wish for things like that to never happen again."
"Thank you, Theresa."
John decided to say nothing more, hanging his head low. "A-Anything wrong with him?" Mei called out from the corner of the room.
"It feels like there's something that's right within my grasp, only for it to be lost once I get close to it. Like I have this fleeting memory hidden within a corner of my head, like that 0.01% of bacteria that doesn't get killed by hand sanitizers."
"We'll help you uncover that later. For now, let's party, alright?"
As the cake was placed in front of him, he said, "Sure." He smiled again, before blowing out the candles.
YOU ARE READING
Hidden Soul
حركة (أكشن)7 years have passed since the establishment of a new government under Mu-Jin, introducing the concept of a Legend Power. John, a student at Brighton, has neither an ability nor a Legend Power, yet he hides a secret more powerful than the two of them...
