The Bad and Me

Goodbye, Together

That dream explained why Jay had been so hesitant to continue our conversation, before we had both passed out.  He had accidently erased his mom’s memory, but it wasn’t his fault.  Is that the reason he manipulated people’s minds to choose the bad decision?  He probably blamed himself for all of what he’d done and hated himself for being so stupid.  Truthfully, he probably turned to achieving the more evil things because he was depressed from losing his mom, well not really losing her, but the event basically equaled the impact of death. 

            I glanced to my side and there was Jay, sleeping like a log. I felt a horrible lump in my throat, admitting Jay was right about me not knowing anything about him.  I could never comprehend the thought of losing one of my parents, whether their memory vanished or worse. 

            Jay moaned awake, and he tossed over to his side, sleepily opening his eyes, stung with red. 

            “What happened?” he growled.

            “This guy made you pass out, and did the same to me, but at least we’re together now,” I tried to console him.  He turned to me and batted his eyes, blinking the restless night away.

            “Oh, Lisa,” he croaked with a groggy voice.  But his eyes landed on my butt, not my eyes.  Smooth move Jay, I thought to myself, my eyes are up here not down there, you pervert.  But, I didn’t want to judge him before I even noticed what he was staring at.  I turned my head around as I observed my back pocket.  My pocket was glowing with long rays of light, and I remembered I’d left my memory journal in it.

            “Lisa, your book,” Jay hinted.

            “Yeah, I see it. Why is my memor– I mean book glowing?”  I cut myself off before I could reveal its true identity.  I slid it out of my back pocket and opened up the pages, not afraid of showing it to Jay, now that we were both victims.

            I flipped through the usually blank pages (except for the first few that showed the X’s and O’s) to discover a twinkling page, creating the only light (other then the lamp) in the room.  The light disappeared as I opened up the book to a poem titled “Oblivion to all Manipulation” written in cursive at the top.

            “Lisa, this is the same poem that I read before–”

            “Your mom died,” I finished off.

            “How did you–”

            I interrupted him again, “A dream I had, another dream from your past.  I’m so sorry Jay, I didn’t know.”  I grabbed him tightly into a long hug, and let go just as I figured out what to ask.  “Is this why you only performed bad manipulations?”  I could tell he was defeated and he obviously didn’t care if he told me any secrets or not.

            “That’s part of it,” he vouched.  “You see ever since I gained my powers at thirteen, my dad was convinced my mom’s memory loss was all my fault.  So, he cornered me when I was vulnerable and demanded I repay my debt, by making other people choose bad things.  Now at the time, I was sure by completing these tasks, it would make me feel better, because I watched other people suffer from making bad decisions.”

            “It didn’t work did it,” I prompted.

            “It actually made me feel worse,” he told me.  “But when I first met you, that part of me, the part always wanting to do awful things, vanished.  I had found a new feeling to feed off of and it made me happier than I’d ever been.”  He paused and brushed my cheek with his soft hand.  His next words were completely unexpected.  “Lisa, I love you.”

            My heart skipped a beat, as he said those three magical words.  I exploded inside; my stomach burned with joy and thankfulness.

            “I love you too,” I whispered, feeling a powerful sense of ecstasy.  However, our moment focused on each other was gone quicker than it had begun.  I knew we had to switch our focus to the poem.  Also, I knew what the poem was meant for the moment I read the title.  It was the last mission we had to complete, and this time we would do it together. 

        “Jay, I think this poem is made for two people, to read together,” I insisted.  “One good manipulator and one bad, no offense.”

        “What are you trying to say?” he asked.

        “Isn’t it obvious?  This poem was put in my book for a reason, it’s meant to get rid of all the powers.  The good and the evil powers.  There will be none of us left to compete with each other, and they all will be at peace and normal human beings.”

        “I think I see what you mean,” Jay murmured.

        “People will be able to make their own decisions, have freedom of choice, which means they can make and learn from their own mistakes.  We can live on worrying about ourselves and how we can make the fair decisions.”  I don’t know how I knew, but somehow the moment I found the memory journal, I felt I was chosen for this.  I was the one chosen to erase all the manipulation powers from this world, and now was the exact time to do it.  Jay squeezed my hand and gave me a nod that he understood.  This time it would be neither for the good nor the bad, I knew the poem was meant to eliminate it all.

            “Ok…. let’s read it, together Jay, always together,” I emphasized the word always to make him believe I was dead serious of the important act we were about to fulfill.  We both pulled our attention to the gleaming words on the pages, and began to recite the poem in sink;

“We shall become the last of this race,

hidden in the rubble of our minds.

They will not come back the same,

for the stars have become aligned.

You will see only what you want,

the good has now declined.

Say farewell to all those who stand,

their position has been resigned.

Think what thoughts you may,

but decisive and picky must unwind.”

This time the poem read “all those who stand” instead of “those who stand”, it wanted to take everybody in this version. We were carefully lifted, like Jay’s mother, into the air.  My sore body felt weightless, and I had no worries nor concerns.  I grasped Jay’s sweaty palm, as he slowly rose up besides me.  This was the better decision we made together.  It would change our futures’, towards a clean and ordinary life.  Then suddenly, with high hopes and two hearts now joined as one, we collapsed.