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thgiarts yrots ruo

Our Story Straight

"You guys ready?" Beta zipped up his bag and turned around, checking on the others. Hershey, who changed into a grey button-up shirt and black jeans, gave a quick thumbs-up before checking to see if he missed anything. He also wore a beanie just in case the headache became too much and his horns revealed themselves. It seemed like most people already thought that they wore contacts, so in a late-night chit chat they decided actual contacts wouldn't be necessary.

Beta and Hershey turned as the bathroom door opened. Matrix walked out in a tight green shirt, blue jeans, and black sunglasses. He took off his glasses dramatically. Matrix, growing up, never had this opportunity. He never got to pick what he wore, how he looked, it was always just forced onto him. Even after leaving the house, his budget was low and most people didn't want to see him in what he wanted to wear. Somehow being dead had been good for him. But the not-so effortless sex appeal washed away when Matrix saw what Beta was wearing: A grey oversized shirt and sweatpants. "Dude seriously."

Beta looked down at himself and shrugged. "What?"

"It's like 90 degrees outside," Hershey added.

"Well I guess it's good I'm wearing sweatpants." He smiled, something he had begun doing a lot more.

There was a quick silence before Matrix just rolled his eyes. He put his sunglasses back. "Okay, let's go."

They checked out of the hotel and caught a taxi to take them to the train station.

Beta and the others had figured out what tickets they needed beforehand, and not having a laptop or a phone to buy it online meant they had to wake up early and buy it up front.

When they were waiting in the rather short line for a ticket, Beta started to feel a tingle in the back of his head. He scratched at it, but it didn't seem to be going away anytime soon. Then, the ringing came, at first dull but then slowly louder to the point where he covered his ears even though he knew it was all in his head...it had to be.

"Ow," Beta uttered aloud and Hershey turned around to look at him, getting a slight buzz himself before it faded away. "Beta? Are you alright?" Hershey asked, triggering Matrix's slight concern.

Voices overlapped each other and he couldn't shake them. He started to panic as everything else was blocked out, including any outside noise.

He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them to find Elias right in front of his vision, everything else melting away like candle wax. It was saying something, but Beta couldn't make it out.

"I can't hear you," Beta said, unsure if he was talking out loud or in his head. He assumed it was out loud when he heard the murmur that was Matrix.

"I said 'are you okay?!'" he repeated, holding onto his shoulder.

But Beta ignored Matrix and focused on Elias. "Charlotte, North Carolina. I need you to do something for me," the voice rang out, now louder than he would have liked. Beta gave it a solid nod before his mom's face faded away.

Everything stopped and the outside world flushed back in. The newly developed crowd stared at the young boy, but no one moved to help him. Seeing as he was now on the ground, Beta got up by himself and pushed the two other guys out of the "line" and to the side.

"What happened back there?" Hershey questioned once they were away from the crowd. "Are you okay?"

"Define okay," Beta responded.

Matrix just asked, "Beta, what happened?"

"It was Elias. It said it needs us to deal with something in North Carolina."