A rush of emotions. That's all I can explain it as. I had looked death in the face and punched it, my friend was struggling to stand and he's thought to be dead. "That was my mom, she called asking me to come home... They say your missing Jaime." Jaime was resting up against a tree no longer wearing the light blue uniform. His regular clothes were surprisingly intact underneath as if the multiple shots of electricity seemed to have minimal effect on him and what he was wearing. Jaime was disorientated and sore but he didn't seem to need any sort of hospital treatment. I was relatively fine I didn't get hit and my multi-colored uniform was gone now as well. "Makes sense," He said getting up shakily, "I took a back door out. They never saw me leave the burning building. They must've realized that at the headcount once everyone was out of the building. How do I come back to the boy's home now? What am I going to do?" "What do you mean?" Brianna interrupted "Just go back to the home tell them you got separated from the group by the fire! Why are you confused?" Brianna sounded hysterical; I think she was just worried for us though. "It's because it's easier this way" Jaime broke the silence. "If I'm dead the Reaper can't track me back to that place anymore. He told us he can't see our lights now that we've gotten our abilities. But he found me in the boys home, if it gets rebuilt he can just trace me back there and people would be in the path of danger again. He doesn't know where Brianna or you live since we met here in the park. He doesn't know any of our names so if he got the school's records, he can't find our homes plus the school is probably not going to be up and running soon. The only one in trouble is-" "Is being dead!" I had to say something "Your crazy Jaime, you can't just pretend to be dead!" "Jack listen to me, those kids at the boys' home don't have a real place to call home and the only semblance of that they had just got burnt down. I cannot and will not put their lives in danger any more than I already have." Jaime was serious. In his mind, he put his school, his boys home, Brianna and I in danger. "Say if you did do this," Brianna broke the silence "what are you gonna do there's not really a way to isolate yourself and drop off the face of the earth. Where are you gonna live? How are you gonna live? " Brianna was always like this. Trying to make sense out of an illogical situation. "There is one way, Brianna" Jaime looked up at us with weary eyes "I'll just run around the world and find the other lights before the Reaper does."
"What?! Jaime you can't be serious! You can't be!" Brianna was livid and rightfully so. How could he think we'd be ok with him doing that our friend faking his death to go and secure his death for sure fighting the reaper. "Jaime you can't you, can't you just go to the boys home! There's no way you can go around the world you'll be in danger constantly if you're going where the Reaper is. We just need to time to think-" "But that's the thing" Jaime interjected as he cut me off, "We don't have time, have you guys forgotten the Reaper said he was making an army there are 12 people left in the world they are all in danger too if he treats them like he did us. And who knows they may just join him. And what are we gonna do then with an army of that size against just you and me?" He was right and I think Brianna and I finally understood. Even though he would be dead to the world he didn't have to be dead to us. "What are you going to do for now? You don't have a place to sleep tonight and it's getting dark." "There's not much park security I'll find a place to sleep in here. If one of you at any point can bring a blanket or pillow for me, I'd be so thankful." "We'll get to you as soon as possible; be careful ok we'll check up on you in the morning" Brianna was thrown into all of this with no gem of her own but was still trying to protect us. We made our way back home with a heavy heart waved goodbye to Jaime and left him in the park. I tried my best to not act like I knew what was going on when I got home but I didn't have to try that hard. Jaime wasn't safe there was no guarantee I'd see him again. When I put my head on the shoulder of my mother and she said it was ok to cry, I did. The world was forever changed and I'm not sure if it would ever be normal again.
