A couple days later at five in the morning, Alex found himself transformed on top of a high roof, eyes closed. He blocked out the sounds of the wind and distant cars and tried his best to concentrate.
The night had been long and stressful. He hadn't gotten a single wink of sleep the whole time, and therefore had spent hours lost in thought. The main topic was about the strange, apparent fight with Preciser on Friday.
Judging from the knowledge he did have, he'd had some kind of crazy adrenaline rush on the guardian level, which apparently had side effects of leaving him drained of energy and with partial memory loss. Despite that, he wanted to learn how to control it.
Now, he slowly opened his eyes. His vision seemed to have changed slightly; every movement around him appeared slow yet fast, blurred yet clear. More noticeably, all his senses felt supercharged, and he felt like he could run a hundred miles.
He summoned his blade and for a few minutes walked around practicing some fencing techniques. Then he dropped the weapon and blinked a couple times. Immediately, exhaustion replaced his energy, and his memory started to fade. He sank down to the floor and sat there, panting; a few minutes later he found himself sitting on top of a roof in the middle of Milan with no idea how he got there or why.
• • •
A few hours later, about ten minutes before his classes began, he was back in his civilian form and walking to his highschool. He still hadn't gotten any sleep since he'd arrived home from . . . wherever. Maybe he'd fallen asleep after all, had started sleepwalking, and gotten a little carried away? Although he wasn't sure he could transform in his sleep. The memory was there— he could tell— but he couldn't get a hold of it.
Back in the present, Alex picked up his pace a little; he was probably going to be late . . . again. As he passed an exceptionally large alley, he glanced casually inside and stopped as he saw an unexpected object in the back.
A car.
At first glance, he thought he was hallucinating. The typical lack of sleep made him often see things that weren't really there. But this time, he was able to walk up and touch the old vehicle, which was covered in rust. He ran his hand softly over the car's roof and frowned.
Somehow, it seemed familiar.
Cautiously he tried opening the front door, and felt a rush of surprise when it opened easily. The inside seats were dark gray and soft, and the dashboard was coated thickly with dust. Spotting a crumpled piece of paper near the pedals, Alex reached down and picked it up. At once he stiffened and his eyes widened, his mouth parted with shock.
It was a shopping list, written in Greek. And he'd recognize that handwriting anywhere.
No way . . .
Memories started to cloud his mind, briefly confusing him, and he shook his head to clear it. The car's color was definitely the same, other than being slightly tinted with rust. The inside was the same as well, and then the shopping list . . .
Then he thought of something that would confirm it: what he'd been staring at in the backseat on the way to the orphanage! He scrambled out of the driver's seat and yanked open the rear door. Even though he was almost positive it'd be there, what he saw still made his heart skip a beat.
Sitting neatly in the front seat's back pocket was a green book with a pink flower on the front.
Now that he was seeing it all in person for the first time in so long, things became too much. Suddenly he felt like a little kid again— confused, hurt, and desperate for answers. Phrased that way, however, not much had changed.
YOU ARE READING
Where Light Meets Dark
Teen Fiction[COMPLETED ~ TO BE PUBLISHED... eventually] Sunray was the light, lonely and shining. She was a beacon of hope to the public, but quiet in her own life. To everyone else, anyway. Night was her shadow, sworn to protect her just as much as his home. H...
