The Moments I Recall

XYLIA REEVES

The wind blows mercilessly outside the library and the sun has disappeared. My nose starts flooding with the blue liquid and my head throbs violently. My surroundings become sharper, it's hard too focus on each stair before me as I make my way down them. Footsteps, not my own, loud and hard, echo through my head. I look up and spot Theo across the road with his bike. He drops his bike causing the metal to ring and makes his way across the road and the parking lot to get to me.

"Xylia, you're back." He says, but it sounds more like he's shouting into my ear. "I was just about to look for you at camp."

"Quietly." I whisper.

"Ly, your ears are bleeding....and you nose.... what happened to you?" He asks in a hushed voice.

"I learnt the truth. I think I've hit full usage." I whisper.

"What's it like? Actually, it looks pretty bad," he chuckles weakly, "are you ok?" He asks. I nod my head.

"The timelines," I say, "I know how to close them."

"Wait you can't, you do know what you are Xylia?" He says.

"What do you mean? What I am?" I ask back.

"The guidance counselor called me in yesterday. She told me some things to get me on her side and threatened to tell everyone I'm....."

"So what, you are going to side with her to protect yourself?" I shake my head and turn away from him for a second. I didn't mean that. My mind is processing ninety percent more a hundred percent faster than it should. "You can't stop me because you are afraid."

"No, it's not like that, you shouldn't do whatever your planning because...."

"Don't." I stop him, covering my ears. "Could you whisper please?" My brains kicks at my skull.

"I don't think you are ok Ly." He says cupping my face.

"I should get home." I tell him.

"Okay, just wait here." He tells me. My heart suddenly sinks. I feel as if I'm eight again and hearing that gate click to a close.

"Somethings wrong." I mutter. There's a deep rumbling in the distance, maybe not so distant. It's hard to hear with Theo's footsteps echoing through my mind. He's halfway across the parking lot. "I shouldn't let him stop." I tell myself. "Don't let him turn around. Xylia, he will not live. He will not survive it, don't let him stop." Theo gets onto the road. The rumbling becomes louder and the wind calls to me, it's calling to me, someone's calling to me.

"XYLIA." Theo says. He has stopped on the road and turned to face me. I realize I am on the ground kneeling, holding my chest, crying, and then I see it.

"THEO, THEO GET OFF THE...." the sound of colliding metal and bone drown my last word. I have to hold my ears. It's loud, too loud. The black van backs up and drives around his body fast. The smell of burning rubber, the broken glass, and tire marks are the only things left from the vehicle. I run try to run to him, but I can't see behind the blur of tears. I can't stop myself from stumbling as I try to get to him. Gravel has lodged Itself in my hands and knees.

"Theodore." I whisper. He stopped breathing a long time ago. Blue and scarlet red spills onto the road. His mouth open, and his eyes wide. Blue droplets fall onto his face as I hover over his body. I can't call for help. They will come for him soon.

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We all come back in the morning. The five of us that are left sit on the curb across the library. Our small town is quiet. There are enough white clouds in the sky to get lost and forget, but I let my grief hang over me. Time has moved past it like it never happened. Just like Coby Ray, Theodore Millar doesn't exist anymore in this segment of time, and the world has accounted for it all.

"I'm sick of this shit." Harper says. Her head still in her leaking hands.

"I'm sorry." I tell them. Since yesterday I haven't been the same, but not because Theo is gone. He will be okay I know this. It's me, I have gotten to the full usage of my brain. We stared at twenty percent as all humans should, then got to sixty by the end of camp. I was right, they are slowly dying. Theo was next either way if he hadn't been hit by the van, but I can't tell them this. If they knew they would speed up the process and only one can be at a hundred. I just hope he wasn't in any pain. I heard him gasped and choke on the blood that filled his lungs. I knew I couldn't save him, I couldn't get to him, I couldn't say goodbye.

"It's not your fault." Alixavier tells me putting his arm around me. Will has been really quiet since I told them what had happened. He paces back and forth on the pavement behind us.

"Will, it will be okay." I tell him. He stops and looks down at me with an expression that would be foreign to Willjay Jones, dark anguish prevalent in his eyes. His nose and cheeks are a wet, violent shade of red. He holds my gaze for a few more seconds, brows furrowed, tears dripping from his chin, then turns away and continues pacing. I look at Jessie who sits beside me. He stares at the ground, his fingers tugging on his dark hair. He's still okay, he'll always be okay.

"I should take Will home." Harper says standing up from the curb. Will resents her at first, but they leave together quietly. Alixavier is next to take off, then it's just me and Jessie.

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