Standing in the Shadows

Chapter 7 - Keep on running

"Diary from Jayson Darkwood"
"Day 2 - I can't get into her head.
All night I was up thinking about her, imagining what she's going through, what had happened to her. So in the morning I went to her room, where she was asleep in the huge bed. I took her hand, which felt warm and soft, and I tried to let everything from her flow to me. But; nothing.
After five years not doing it, this was the first time I've tried it again, but someone's powers never go away, unless you erase the memory of having them. I tried to read her thoughts, feel what she feels, figure out everything about her, but all I saw was a field with all kinds of flowers, plants, birds and butterflies, flower pads falling from the sky, circling around me. No thoughts or feelings. Just the never-ending circle of flower pads around me. 
But I had to get to know her. So when she woke up I asked Serena all kind of things. About herself, her family, the things she loves and the things she hates, the things she cares about and what scares her, everything about her and yet, I didn't get the whole story. She just wouldn't talk about yesterday, about what had happened to her. Everytime I tried to bring up the subject, she broke down. So after a while I stopped trying, I just couldn't bare seeing her in pain.
The only thing she told me was that she had fled from home and couldn't go back, not after what had happened.
And although I knew Micheal wouldn't approve it - because he told me she could bring us in danger since whe don't know who she is or what she is up to, or what she can - I offered her our home. I told her that she could stay as long as she wants and treat it like her own house. She rejected at first, afraid of putting us in danger, but after letting her realize she has no other option, she agreed.

Something about her drives me crazy. I want to be around her all the time and I can't stop thinking about her, not at day or night. Every bone in my body is drawn to her. To her warmth, her beauty and all the love and kindness she possesses.

When we touch there's something odd, a warm and intense feeling.
I already felt it yesterday, when I wrapped the blanket around her and picked her up, but when I touched her hand this morning I felt it again. I wondered if she felt it too.
We were together talking, sitting on the bed, when our hands accidentally touched very briefly, and I had that feeling again, but I know she had too. I heard her gasp, although very quietly, but still. I felt her
warm breath over me when we locked eyes, hers confirming she had felt it too.
I had to know.
The words were racing through my head, figuring out how to ask it without hurting her too much.
"Serena..."
I saw her eyes sparkling, and she gave me a questioning look. "Y-yes?"
Now I had to ask it. "Serena, you can trust me, whatever has happened, I can help you, I want to help you. Please just tell me en let me help you."
Something told me she wanted to tell me, but didn't know how. I wanted her to trust me.
"Okay, c'mon, let me show you something," I took her hand, which I held tight this time, accepting the nice warm feeling, and guided her to the garden with me. All the flowers were in full colour and the insects were buzzing all over the place at the beautiful sunset. There's an old courtyard with a green arc that leads to it, with a bench in the middle, hundreds of roses and a view of the far- stretched country with fields and woods.
"This is absolutely beautiful..." she said like she hadn't seen something like it in a very long time. "Jayson, I really want to tell you what had happened, but I don't even know myself what it is -"
"It doesn't matter, just try to explain what you saw, heard or felt," I replied.
The words were stuck in her throat, but eventually she started talking. "A few days ago, I don't know how many, something weird happened. On my way home in the dark from visiting a friend, all the lanterns in the street started flickering, a strong wind and heavy, dark clouds suddenly appeared and it started raining very hard. A feeling inside me told me that something was wrong. Very wrong. I sprinted to my house, but when I arrived, my mother was laying unconscious on the floor by the open door, and I couldn't find my brother and father, only traces of a fight. Everything was destroyed, everything. After calling 911 for my mom, I saw a note next to the phone; "You are next."
I panicked, and like three seconds after I had read the note, my mom shut straight up, her eyes looking at me, filled with fear, "Serena they want your powers, don't let them. DON'T LET THEM! RUN!" Then she fell again to the ground and a little while later the ambulance came. They called the police, but my moms words were still rushing through my head. "RUN!"
I felt I couldn't trust anyone. Not even the police. So I ran. I ran away, out of the village, into the woods. I kept running, afraid of what might be after me. "You are next" "RUN!" was all that kept me going. I was so afraid. All the time it kept raining, and the branches of the trees were falling to the ground, only centimeters away from where I placed my feet. I kept running the whole night, and the day after, although it still looked like night because of the dark sky. Every bone in my body was tired, every part of my skin was scratched. My legs were burning and so was my throat, dry with no consumption of water or food for many hours. On the way, a few people walking in the woods tried to help me. But I was so afraid, I didn't know who they were. I don't know what happened, but everything before my eyes became a blur and all the branches of the trees started falling on those people, killing them instantly.
I killed them.
Oh my God. I killed them, Jayson! It's my fault! Oh my God I killed them!"

She started panicking, crying. My arms automatically wrapped around her. She buried her face in my chest, and I heard her sobbing as her hands grabbed my shirt. "Hey easy, easy, it's okay Serena, it's okay," I said as I still held her tightly.
"It wasn't your fault. It were your powers..." I felt her freezing in my arms.
"My- my what?"