The Tale of Two Lukes

Chapter 8: School's out/ Miles' Sundown

    Parents start going to the school to pick up their kids, but the drum majors are almost mad about it. So many people are leaving, but rehearsal is long from being over. Hailey then gets a text from her mother telling her to come home. The message explains that someone recorded Clemens burning down, and that she doesn't feel safe with Hailey being at school.
    "We need to end rehearsal", Hailey tells the other drum majors with urgency. "Someone has burnt down Clemens, and Steele might be next. That's why so many kids are leaving as well. It was on the news."
      The other drum majors nod, and call off rehearsal. Everyone scrambles to get out of school and back home. Hailey meets up with the other people in her section.
     "You don't think 'He' did it, do you?" Hailey asks.
     "Who, Garfield?" Asks Matthew.
     "No," Hailey shakes her head. She whispers, "Short Luke."
     Joel sighs as Hailey says Short Luke's name. He puts his case away into his locker, and he looks at Hailey.
     "I'd rather not talk about him..." Joel says in a sad tone while looking down at his feet. Him and Short Luke used to be close, but now Short Luke wants him dead. He wonders what happened.
     "Oh, I'm sorry", says Hailey. "I'll drop the subject."
      Joel looks at her, "Thanks."

     Ben and Miles are waiting outside for their parents to pick them up. CJ comes out as well.
    "So, Miles and Ben, care to explain where the 200 dollars in my room went?" CJ asks the two.
     Ben gulps, "Uhhh." He gives a nervous laugh. "I have no clue what you're talking about?"
     "I didn't know you had that much", Miles says.
    CJ crosses their arms, "Uh huh... so it wasn't you two who I saw in my room uninvited and in the middle of the night a couple days ago then."
     "Nope, wasn't us. 'Got no clue what you're talking about", Ben replies.
     CJ glares at Miles. Miles says, "That wasn't us. You must be mistaken."
     "Weird, because I distinctly remember hearing your voice, Miles", CJ says as they get closer to him.
     "Oh, well..."
     Miles takes Ben and runs. CJ chases after them. They continue running until they get to Schlater Park. There, Ben finds a sword just in the middle of the park. He picks it up, and points it at CJ.
CJ backs up a bit. They looks down and then back at Ben and Miles, "I didn't want to have to resort to this, but it appears I must..."
CJ presses a button they had in their pocket. They transform into a mecha robot made out of all of Ben's possessions, including his family, three cats, and his dog. Ben and Miles gasp as their eyes climb up the sight. Ben prepares a fighting stance. A loud and slow creaking noise is heard as CJ slowly looks down at the two. They starts a laser beam coming from the eyes of the robot. Ben and Miles narrowly avoid it. The beams burn and create a black spot on the concrete. CJ continues the stream of red and Miles and Ben run in opposite directions. Ben runs up to the legs of the mecha and strikes one of them with the sword. A bright blue then bursts out from the sword. Ben closes his eyes as it glows as bright as the sun. The glowing calms down a bit, and Ben opens his eyes to a sword with blue fire around it. He resumes attacking, and the sword chips away it the leg. Pieces fly out all around, hitting Ben along with anything else within a 20 feet radius. The flames of the sword grow bigger, and does the chunks it cuts out along with the radius they go at. A huge chunk catches ignites a beautiful light blue fire, and it goes flying. It flies right to Miles where he gets hit. Miles falls over, gasping for air as blood starts rushing out. CJ sees this as an opportunity to finish him. He points his head towards Miles and fires. Just as CJ fires, Ben comes in with his sword and blocks the beams. He causes the lasers to reflect back to CJ's mecha, destroying it and causing CJ to fall down. Ben hurries over to Miles. He drops his sword, and props Miles up a bit.
"Miles, are you ok?" Ben asks with tears in his eyes.
"Ben..." Miles weakly says as he looks up at him. "I'm," He hacks and breathes in deeply. "I'm sorry." He sighs. "This wouldn't have happened if I didn't suggest"- Miles takes another pained breath in and coughs. "S-suggest that we stole back from CJ... I'm so sorry."
"No, no, Miles, it's not your fault", Ben assures him. "I would've done it either way."
"You know", Miles smiles at him as blood still continues to spill. "I had a lot of fun doing that. We should go on adventures more often."
Tears fall down from Ben's face as he smiles and nods, "Yeah." Ben sniffs. "I would like that."
The two fall silent. The only thing that's heard is quiet weeping, the wind, and CJ getting up to finish the job. He breaks Miles' and Ben's moment by attempting to grab Ben's sword. Ben grabs onto CJ's wrist, throwing them off guard. Ben swiftly stands up and grabs his sword at the same time. He stabs CJ, then pulls the sword out, causing CJ to fall over. Ben kneels down and grabs his hat. He turns around to see Miles laying there motionless. He takes his hat back off, and puts it on Miles.