𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 | 𝐙𝐢𝐜𝐤 [𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐙𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐲] ✔️

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒐

August 1978

I had missed my sister's funeral. According to the doctor I was too weak to attend, my wounds had not healed by then.

My mother, who stopped drinking and went back to work, told me it was beautiful, they dressed Cindy in a blue dress that brought out her eyes. They also braided her hair.

She said many people attended and showed their respect, including him... who my mother described as someone very kind, kind my ass, the damn traitor was a hypocrite, showing his "respect" when he didn't support my story and made my sister's sacrifice in vain.

I looked crazy and he looked like a hero. He didn't even show his face, of course he knew what he had done and that's why he didn't have the courage to come and confront me.

He asked about me, did he really care or was he just pretending? Of course he cared, you can't look at someone you don't care about like that, even if you are a good actor, but that didn't change the fact that he had betrayed me.

Other people from Sunnyvale went too, only those who had children in the camp. Not that they cared, of course they didn't but they had to keep showing themselves perfect.

I take a deep breath, today in the morning I had left the hospital for the first (and last) time since camp, and the first thing I did was go buy some flowers to visit my sister.

I kept thinking about her and how she had died in front of me.

"I won't let anything pull us apart again".

The memories of that night keep coming back, the killers, the fear, Nick....

"How would I ever get to know her when she keeps dodging my questions?"

I bend over the grave with my sister's name engraved on it and lay the flowers I bought.

During the time I am there I talk to her, like she can hear me. I tell her everything, I even tell her about Nick, I smile knowing she would have disagreed "Ziggy, he's a counselor and you're a camper".

On my way out, I see my mother who is waiting for me.

Someday everything is going to be fine, someday I'm going to heal, although at the moment I just feel broken.

April 1979

"The Goode's tore down Camp Nightwing to turn it into a Shadyside mall," the TV shows a picture of the camp, followed by Nick's family picture.

It's been nine months since camp and I haven't seen him again, he came looking for me once, but I told my mom to tell him I didn't want to talk to him anymore.

She looked at me confused, of course, the poor thing didn't know anything, but she didn't ask either.

Since that day he hasn't come back.

I can't say I never think about him, but I try not to, it's been almost a year and his betrayal still hurts.

His appearance hasn't changed much, according to what I've seen on the news.

"Ziggy!" my mother yells "The moving truck will be here any minute, put the TV in a box!"

"Okay!" I yell back.

Yes, we are moving, we decided it long ago, it was hard at first, leaving meant leaving Cindy behind but here we feel like we are drowning, this house brings back too many memories.

It took us a while to raise the money, we had to pay for the house, the moving truck and also rent a house in the town we were going to.

I had to work during the afternoons in order to stay in school and my mom had to work double shifts but we finally made it.

...

I open the car window and look out feeling the wind hit my face.

But soon my breath catches and everything seems to slow down.

Nick... He was there, in the camp next to a bunch of machines, then I remember the news, they're tearing it down.

How could I have forgotten about that?

He's half-sideways and he doesn't look back at any point, he doesn't even realize it's me in the car.

I don't know if it's because I haven't seen him in months, but even though his fractions are the same, I see something different in him.

He is more handsome, if that's even possible but his eyes look droopy, something is different.

Soon we leave the camp behind but all the emotions I thought were gone hit me in the face again, they were always there, just waiting for the opportunity to tell me they would never leave.