Guardian

chapter eleven

"Hello...?" muttered Kellin uncertainly. "I really don't know what I'm doing so if you could not make me look like an idiot... Is anyone there?"

A million thoughts were racing through my head. Should I let him know that I was here? How would he react? But... I had scared him half to death on more than one occasion. I guess it was only fair that he knew the truth instead of believing that he was insane.

Not without great caution, I reached forward and moved the planchette to point at the 'yes' on the ouija board. Kellin's eyes widened until I thought they might fall out. Maybe he would have preferred to think he had just imagined it all... Regardless, it

was too late now. Both Kellin and Austin had seen the planchette move- there was no going back now.

"A-are you following me?" Um... I twirled the planchette around the 'yes' again. I suppose I was following him, as creepy as that sounds.

"W-who are you?" Crap... I didn't plan on him asking that. Would he think I was just following him around to watch him undress if he knew the truth? It had been a well known fact that I was gay. Kellin looked around expectantly. Oh, fuck it, the truth seemed to be working so far.

"V... I... C... wait, you don't mean... no that's impossible... Vic? Vic Fuentes from school?" I sighed. Oh good... he knew of me.

After placing the triangular piece of wood by the 'yes', I looked up to see Kellin with a positively traumatized expression on his face. His breathing had began to hitch. Oh no... I'd given him a panic attack. I fought the urge to rush over to him and hold him in my arms- I'd done enough damage for one day.

"See? Air is good." Austin was telling Kellin reassuringly while I drowned in a pit of self hatred.

"Why are you following me Vic?" asked Kellin, a bit more angrily now. Seriously? This was going to take forever if I had to spell it out letter by letter. "Seriously man, why are you following me?"

One sec, one sec, I thought, since I couldn't exactly say it to Kellin. I picked up a pencil off the desk behind the two and scribbled down a few quick words.

I saw you walking down the same path I did. I don't want you to hurt yourself.

That's when Kellin really lost it- all the fear I had caused him over the past couple days came rushing to the surface.

"I don't want you to follow me!" he yelled. "Please! Just... leave me alone." I swear I could feel my heart breaking inside my chest. I just wanted to help but I had only caused him pain. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was. That I would never have interfered if I thought I would scare him this much. I just wanted him to know that he wasn't alone in his battles and that even though it was hard and it hurt, he had what it took to stay strong. The tears pooling in my eyes thought otherwise. I'm sorry, I wrote (probably illegibly) and disappeared.

For the first time in a long time, when I showed up at the lake, there was an abundance of people there. From the bonfires and scent of beer mixed with marijuana, I assumed a beach party was taking place. Wait... was that Mike? Since when does he party? Quickly, I wiped away my forgotten tears and walked towards my baby brother. He was too young to be going to one of these things. What if mom and dad found out? What if the police came?

As I got closer I could see Mike handing a tattooed boy I didn't recognize a wad of cash. What the boy pulled out of his pocket next looked a lot heavier than weed. I'd be damned if Mike was going to throw his life away on that crap. Maybe I was dead but that wasn't going to stop me from protecting my little brother. In a fit of pure rage, I toppled a beer keg over into one of the bonfires. I watched emotionlessly as the faces of the teens turned to terror while I tossed more tables and chairs to the side until they started running. It didn't matter if anyone saw. Nothing mattered anymore.