Renascent

THE FIRST TIME RUNNER WHO MADE IT TO THE BOWM

POUNDING. My heart never pounded this hard. It is as if a drum is being beaten inside me. A really huge drum. My mind is clattering with thoughts of the four of us: Me, Feet, Eris, and Simon being punched in the face by this guy with a coarse and dry voice. And we can't get out.

And then Nate punches all of us.

He clenches his fists and pushes me over the wall of the fourth building and punches me hard making a tooth from my mouth fall. Another punch and my skin turns purple and blue. Feet and Simon and Eris just stand there watching me being killed by this crazy kid. He punches me again hard in the stomach and I feel myself like throwing up. Blood. Sweat. And fear. I try to punch him too, but it's too late. As I sway my fist towards him he shields his free arm and throws another punch at me and I see Eris claps his hand over his mouth. I fall over the ground. And then black out.

I collect my thoughts of me being beaten by this guy. I stand there with Eris, Feet, and Simon.

I've just imagined being beaten by Nate.

That's just a thought.

But it seems very vivid and real.

I touch my face and feel if I have been bruised. But no, there isn't any bruise nor blood. I sigh. A very deep sigh of gratitude that what I have thought isn't real. That what I have thought is just a version of a reality I made up.

"Don't you even go there." Nate repeats calmly.

Then there is silence. A very long silence. An awkward silence, I suppose. A silence like no other.

"You bunch of idiots don't have any idea what happened there." Nate says again.

We all reply in silence. Feet, Eris, and Simon keep their head bowed. But their eyes all looking at Nate. I stand there. I just stand there and look at him. With my heart pounding and about to explode.

"You don't know Henry." He sighs.

Henry. The first time runner. What is with this guy. He is the first time runner who made it to the Bowm. Nothing special no more, I guess.

"You better choose who you befriend." He says.

I still look at him. But his eyes fixed to the three.

"Why? You don't tell us what to do or who we befriend." Feet says in a very afraid voice.

"And I wasn't talking to any of you three." He says calmly. "I'm talking to you, Luke." He still doesn't look at my way.

"What?" I ask. "What do you mean?" I look towards Eris, Simon, and Feet.

"They're gonna use you."

"Use me for what? Are you just provoking me or something?" I exclaim.

"What's wrong here? Anything or anyone, I guess, bothering you, Luke?" a voice from behind Nate comes. It's Bren.

"Trust no one." Nate continues. "Even Bren." He says as if Bren isn't there after all.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I say. Then I see Bren looking at Nate in an indistinctive look. I cannot translate the emotion of his face.

"You really are the boy who knows nothing." He says. "The boy who doesn't wanna run, knows nothing." And then he walks away from us and goes straight to the fourth building.

What is he trying to say?

"Never mind him." Bren says. And he walks away from the clearing inside the alley between buildings two and three. I fix my eyes towards the fourth building where Nate went.