The End of Summer

Chapter 4

~Owen's POV~

Okay, okay, okay. She'll be fine. I know she will. Summer. Will. Be. Fine. Oh god, could I really convince myself of that? She's practically dead already, just because she isn't getting enough moonlight or Floris. It's all my fault. Summer will die soon and it's all because of me. I barely even register the tear forming in my eye until it bubbles over the lid.

She's already gone, I tell myself. She can make it. She's strong. But I know that isn't true. Her visions... From so long ago... God, I can't do this to myself. She's a perfectly happy, safe, normal teenaged girl. But I know that's not true. She is probably the least normal thing about my whole life, and I let her get away. Get away.

The words fill my mouth with the taste of bile. I try to prevent myself from stressing too hard, but I know she's weak and I also know I'm her guardian. Not by choice, but because I decided to love and protect her. Somehow, though, it all fits perfectly. It's as though I was made to help her.

Is that why it's so hard to let her get away?

I turn my mind from such negative thoughts, but several minutes have already passed since she left. I walked back to my house, just a little ways from the park, and sprawled across my bed. I can still sense the connection we have, but is that just in my mind? Am I doubting everything she's told me of herself? I'm horrible, but I have to help her. If I try to take her to talk out her problems, will she think I betrayed her?

Summer, who has only confided in me. Summer, who can do unspeakable things. Summer, Summer, Summer. Would it really be bad if she got help?

Of course it would. She's not like us, and I've seen that side of her. But how do I know I wasn't just imagining it, in some kind of love-drunken stupor? I regret ever thinking these thoughts, because seconds later my phone rings. After a bit of awkward introduction, I suggest that maybe her visions are too convenient. That was totally the best thing to have said. She doesn't respond too much after that, and it's obvious she dropped her phone. I say a few more things, but I think she's already gone.

But if there's one thing I do know, it's that she'll have run off toward the park. Not the well-trimmed, picture-perfect city park, either. I mean the Park, where all her kind comes and goes from our world to theirs. The Floris is abundant there, they've got natural moonlight receptacles, but most of all, they've got an escape.

And I can't let her get away. Not to go wither away in Refaria, where she'll be made fun of for ever being seen with a human.

The one thought crossing my mind as I drive down the street, the one bothering me since she first told me about the supernatural, though...

Is that really me though? Am I even human?