Consciousness

Chapter six - The mysterious man

Matt was grounded. I could have predicted that. I giggled at the image crossing my mind of Matt being yelled at by his angry mother, while his dad kicked everyone else out. "And don't come back!" he yelled out the door before he slammed it shut. Me and Micah walked home in silence. I was still to angry and confused to try and question his actions.

The next morning, I braided my hair in two long strips. I pulled on my overalls and threw my bag over my shoulder. It was hot outside, too hot to do anything really but I was determined to get back to the waterfall.

I walked along the road towards the thin path that led to the waterfall that started all this madness. At least I could stop stressing a little due to the fact that Matt was stuck cleaning his party drenched house all day. He was safe for now. I walked along the path for a while until the familiar waterfall came into view.

I frowned at it. This is the thing that has made my life a living hell the last few days. It was beautiful glistening in the sun with water falling from the top and crashing into the infinite blue that sat below. Still, I hated it. I marched into the cave stubborn and screamed at the walls.

Why?!

I sat down next to the pebble sized puddle now and place one finger into it. My mind went black. Once again I felt my mind leave my body and before I knew it I wasn't even in the cave anymore. I was drifting above it and floating across the town.

Where was I going?

Suddenly, the ice cream shop came into view. There was not a person in sight.

Where was everyone?

I had to remind myself it was just a vision. What I was seeing hasn't happened yet. Past the ice cream shop I landed gently onto the ground, but still saw no one. There were trees, flowers, and bushes all around me. I was in some sort of garden.

As I turned my head I saw a person walking towards me. As he got closer and his features became clearer,  I could make out exactly who it was. It was Micah.

It didn't appear that he could see me. Maybe because I was only a guest in this scene from the future. As Micah walked along the path ahead, I could see a shovel in his hand. He sat at a bundle of flowers in the center of the garden and began to dig. As the hole got deeper, objects started to appear at the bottom of it.

First I could see some clothes, blood soaked. Then, what looked like the remains of some sort of animal. His hamster? I felt like vomiting at the sight of his decomposing animal. He took something out of his pocket and placed it into the hole. I leaned over his shoulder to get a closer look and saw that it was a set of keys.

I squinted my eyes and images hanging from the keys came into view. They were paintings. It was  the same symbols that were painted on my bag...by Matt. They were Matt's keys. I knew it now. He began to throw dirt on top of the hole until the objects were no longer visible.

Suddenly I opened my eyes and I was back in the cave with my hand shaking on the cold ground. What did this mean? Why did Micah have Matt's keys? And why was he burying them? Unless... no it can't be.

I ran out of the cave and into the trees with my hands above my head. I could feel the sweat dripping down my back. It was impossible for Micah to have anything to do with my vision of Matt...right?

I couldn't jump to any conclusions now, not yet. There had to be an explanation.