Moonshifter High

Chapter 9: Fear

‘Shall we go in there?’ My mom asked, pointing at the cathedral. It was magnificent. After we all agreed, we started the climb up the building somewhere in Italy. At first the steps were an off-white marble, but as we moved up, it changed to a grey stone. My brothers were fastest, my mother last, and my stepfather helped me over a wooden plank. It was the only way to get up farther. When I looked down, all I saw were wooden planks and tools and material for construction. I swallowed and squeezed Sean’s hand for a second.
‘Come on, it’s okay, I got you.’ I looked back up at Sean as he helped me get over the last part before we got to the last floor, the ground a dull grey cement. Dust covered everything. I looked around to see partially done windows I hadn’t seen before, and inside there were more tools and planks. And machines. My brothers stood behind two machines.
‘Be careful.’ Sean warned. My brothers grinned at each other. Even though it was kind of warm, Joey still wore his lilac sweater and jeans. Mason a T-shirt and jeans, and Sean was in shorts. All pretty different.
Sean walked a little back to help my mom and Joey jumped to sit on a railing.
And that’s where it went wrong.
Joey’s eyes went big as he toppled backwards. A strangled ‘No!’ left Sean’s lips as he rushed forward. He missed Joey’s hand by a hair and my mom gasped as I covered my mouth with my hand. It felt like my heart stopped beating.
Sean grabbed the railing and I ran towards it too. I looked down. The distance seemed less than before, but there he was. Joey lay on a ground of grey stone, surrounded by dust, machines and everything we had up here too. Unmoving. His eyes were closed and I couldn’t see if he was breathing. I could feel tears rising. I turned and ran to the marble stairs I saw and ran down. Sean followed close behind me, and after a few seconds, my mom and Mason did too.

~

I blinked as I opened my eyes, tears threatening to rise. I could feel an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach as I turned on my side, shutting my eyes tightly and pulling my legs up to my chest.
It was just a dream.
But I could still see Joey’s frightened face when he slipped over the edge of the railing. I could still hear Sean’s cry.
I bit my lip as I breathed shakily. When I thought about it, the nightmare didn’t even make sense. The windows changed, people let us in a building while they were building in it, we walked over one plank –which was actually really dangerous–, distance decreased and marble stairs appeared out of nowhere.
But I couldn’t forget about it.
My room was still dark, so I knew it wasn’t morning yet so it was way too early to stand up. It was begin summer after all, so the sun rose early. After a few more minutes of trying not to think about the nightmare, I fell asleep again.

~

I recognized the feeling even before I opened my eyes. Because of that one happening months ago, I could already tell only by the cold feeling against my temple that there was a gun pressed against the right side of my head. I slowly opened my eyes to only see black. But as I looked around longer, the blackness started to fade and as I raised my hands to hold on to the arm wrapped around my neck –which I noticed just now– the room I was in became clearer. It was the room we had PE in that day. But our position wasn’t right. I frowned as I realized we were in the middle of the room instead of near the door.
I felt the gun press closer to my head and my grip on the arm tightened. I saw the sleeve of a brown trench coat. I could smell cigarettes and alcohol. And something else that I couldn’t recognize.
The room became even more clear and I saw my whole pack surround us. They were all looking at us. But they looked relaxed. Some even smiled.
I wanted to tell them to go, run, whatever, but no sound left my lips. I frowned when I saw amusement in the looks of some people.
What’s going on?
That was the only thing I thought as I looked around. Until the gun pushed my head back in place. I first locked eyes with Jules, then with Trace. They were standing side by side, hand in hand, smirking at me. Soon Momo joined them , followed by Eva and Chess. Then Robin, Kim, Adrien and Rose, and soon the whole pack moved to stand beside and behind Trace and Jules, all wearing that grin on their faces, like they were laughing at me. I wanted to scream, I wanted to ask them why they were just standing there, grinning, and what was so funny? Were they just going to let this guy shoot me?
‘Did you really think what you did was heroic?’ It was Trace’s voice, but his mouth didn’t move.
‘It was just convenient. If you survived, then okay. But if you died, it wouldn’t have mattered. I mean, we  were all still alive.’ Jules’s voice. But it sounded like a whisper, yet loud as if talking normal. And her mouth didn’t move either.
But her words stung. I closed my eyes. This is not true. Jules wouldn’t say that.
‘Did you really think we liked you?’ Naomi. Her voice echoed throughout the room. My eyes snapped open again.
‘We used you.’ Multiple voices were speaking now. But no one moved. They were all standing in the same position, the only ones different were Jules and Trace since they held each other’s hands. But no one’s mouth even moved when they talked.
‘You were never one of us.’ Other voices. Were those Adrien and Rose among them? I couldn’t see who spoke, I had to recognize voices.
‘Now,’ A voice whispered in my ear. A shiver ran down my back as the gun was lowered. The arm –which was now bare since he was wearing a T-shirt– was used to turn me around.
‘Jayden…’ I whispered in return. I was face to face with him, but his eyes were hollow. The man was replaced by him. Another weird thing was that Jayden was the only one that actually spoke, mouth moving and all.
Jayden raised the gun, aiming at my forehead, as he said: ‘Now leave us alone.’
He pulled the trigger.