Journey in the Aftermath

Chapter 12: Antonio and the Grow Room

This chapter is told by the POV of Steven

What the hell? Who the hell was that? He looked so familiar. And why was he obsessed with destroying me? And why the hell couldn't I hear his thoughts when he snuck in or even when Jessica had him pinned?

"Jessica are you ok?" Beth asks helping her wipe off her eyes

"He is so fucking dead next time I see him!" she shouts pissed off worse than I've ever seen her before

"I get it, next time you SEE him, that funny.... Cuz... Cuz he's invisible.. No?" Levi says smiling at his own joke then notices nobody else is laughing so he gets pouty faced and crosses his arms "Maann, I miss Milton"

"What happened to Milton?" I ask confused

"Him, Bailey, and Kelly were taken by the asshole in the hockey mask" Antonio says sour faced "We found Oliver stuck in a tree"

"The asshole in the hockey mask? The one with the tiger?!" Olive exclaims

"Yeah, you know him?" Forest asks

"His little fucking pet tiger killed Courtney." Selena says hitting the wall next to her. I can't help but shiver at the thought of going up against a tiger. I'd rather fight Devin and Antonio to the death at the same time. Well, when he had his arms in tact

"Well, I'm killing hockey bitch, I'm killing tiger bitch, I'm killing both metal bitch one and metal bitch two, and you don't even want to know what I'm going to do to the invisible bitch. And then I'm gonna kill him too. Fuck that little bitch." Jessica says still pissed off about being spit in the eyes. I don't blame her though

"I have to get back to work, he's almost done" Tano Tano says heading back into the other room

"Hey wait!" Antonio yells and follows after him then they whisper back and forth and he comes back while Tano Tano goes to finish up on Devin's arms "Follow me, we have something to do" Antonio grabs my shoulder and half leads half drags me away from the group

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Beth yells after us

"Just to take a look around the building, I'll be right back" Antonio responds and we're gone. We go through a few rooms until we find the stairs leading to the basement. Once we reach the bottom of the stairs there is a door and Antonio turns towards me and puts both hands on my shoulders

"What?" I ask because the look on his face is starting to scare me, he looks desperate and worried and scared but mostly excited. But about what?

"Ok Steven my boy, you know what weed is?" he asks in my ear like he does whenever he used to have a plan to prank Devin or a teacher

"Yeah... Why..?" I ask and his smile grows bigger "No. No no no no no. You have got to be kidding me. That's why we're down here?"

"Yes, shut up. And feast your eyes!" he says and swings the door open revealing a small room with bright lights hanging from the ceiling and about four little plants in the center of the room sitting on a table

"This is what you were so excited about?" I ask severely dissapointed and I don't even smoke. Never have. Appearantly I'm not the only one. Antonio starts pacing back and forth infront of the table then finally stops and picks off a little fuzzy bulb looking thing and sniffs it

"At least it's good shit" he says then sets in back on the table and begins slumping back to me, then like a jack in the box he springs up and begins jumping up and down

"What the hell is your problem?" I ask then regret it immediately

"I completely forgot I had powers!" he yells then turns around, rushes over to the weed plant and touches it. The plants begin to grow and double then triple then finally quadruple in size. I stare in amazement as the plants keep growing even after breaking their pots and begin to fill the room. After about 30 seconds, the weed fills the entire room and me and Antonio are forced out of the door

"Don't you think this is a misuse of your powers?" I say sarcastically

"Bitch, I'm about to misuse my hand across your face" he says turning and grinning at me. I'm about to say another comeback when a loud bang shakes the building and we remember that we completely ignored the invisible guy's warning. Antonio grabs as many bulbs as he quickly can and shoves them into his pocket then runs with me upstairs

"Where were you guys?!" Madeline screams at us when we get back. I notice Jessica on the floor bloody and the huge hole in the wall where the window used to be

"Just looking around" Antonio says

"What happened?" I ask kneeling next to Jessica "You're not hurt are you?"

"Steven I'm fine. There was a huge blast and the wall blew in towards us, I was against the wall when it happened, I'm fine" she says then stands slowly

"Antonio, there's this as well" Levi says handing us a metal briefcase with a painted red V on it. I flip it open and all that's inside is a folded sheet of paper. I open it and read aloud what it says

"Welcome home you all. It's been over a year. Looks like Devin isn't feeling too well. And look at that, Antonio and Steven have powers too. I have surprises for the two of you and maybe even Devin if that Asian can fix his arms. Beth, it was hard thinking Devin died once. I wonder how hard it will be seeing him die before your very eyes. And after that happens, you can join me to control this city. Also, if you think you all can escape the city, go ahead. I only want Devin, Antonio, Steven, and Beth. Anybody else can leave. If those four don't show up at the school, I kill Milton, Kelly, and the other girl. You have three hours"

"We leave in 20 minutes" Devin says stretching his new finished mechanized arms