Paladins: Dawn of a New Era

Chapter Six

Kat

        Darkness... That is all I see. Where am I? I look around to find out but there is nothing but darkness. "Hello?" And all I could hear is the echo of my own voice. "Anybody there?" Still nothing. I continue to walk forward and I see a ray of sunlight escaping from a door 15 feet away. I move closer to it but as the light reaches me, I see my hand dripping with blood and as I get closer to the door I see my own reflection from a puddle of blood and my entire body is covered with it. What have I done?

"Wake up!" I hear someone say and I slowly open my eyes. Was it all a dream or a vision? Before I can think clearly, the person who helped me stares at my face written with worry. "Are you okay?" He asks.

I try to speak but words don't come out. I look back at him and he helps me sit down. When his hands touched me, I feel something. He's like me and I'm sure of it because every time someone that was affected from what happened in June 17th comes in contact with me I get this tingling feeling on my neck and It's never been wrong once.

"Here, have a drink." He offers me a bottle of water he's holding, I gladly take it, drinking most of it, and I hand it back. "It's fine." He gives it back to me. I put the bottle aside and I take his hand to tell him that I am like him but before I could say anything I see something.

I'm back in the darkness and this time the door is gone but I see a man holding a torch. It gets closer and closer but before I can see his face, he speaks. "Be patient my dear Katherine, his time will come." And he disappears.

I snap back to reality sitting next to the person who helped me. "I wonder if he's talking about him."

"Him?"

I realize I said that aloud but I can't tell him that we're alike because of what I saw. All I've learned from this past few weeks is to trust in my ability and that is exactly what I'm going to do.

 

"It's just something I remembered before I passed out." I quickly lie and it seems like he bought it.

"Oh, okay." He replies and for whatever reason it suddenly starts getting warmer. I wonder if that's his ability. It would sure make sense after all his hair looks like fire, red and glistening when the sun touches it. "I'm Carter." He offers his hand but I'm guessing he noticed he's heating up so he quickly took it back.

"I'm Kat." I reply but he looks nervous, afraid I figured out he's not normal, which I have from the first few seconds we've met but I can't tell him.

Carter stands up from the bench and I don't have to touch him to know that he's nervous and wants to leave. "I'm all good now, thanks to you so if you have somewhere to be you don't have to worry about me."

"Are you sure?" I notice in the tone of his voice that he genuinely cares. I nod and he says goodbye and ran away. He must've have been going for a run when he found me. He is wearing a hoodie and track pants so he most likely was.

Carter's far enough now so I stand and walk over to the nearest bus stop. I just remembered, I'm supposed to meet Alex later this afternoon. He called because something happened but he didn't tell me claiming it's for my own good. Did he expose himself?

Bgshhh--- The bus stops and I wait for the doors to open. It opens and I notice I left my bag. "I'm sorry I left my bag at the bench a few blocks away. I will be right back."

"Be quick. We can't waste any time." The bus driver says.

I run back to the bench and I grab my bag. When I turn to go back to the stop, I see the same bus on the road. "Wait!" I try to chase after it but the bus doesn't stop. How am I supposed to get back in Manhattan in time? The next one is in an hour and I can't wait that long, I wouldn't be able to make it in time to meet Alex. He always says he's a busy man so I doubt he can reschedule and I don't want to let him down. I've already embarrassed myself and I said I'd help him.

Katherine, just think. You'll get there in time and Alex will be happy to see you. Wait? I don't care about that... or do I? Ring---Ring---Ring--- I look at my phone and I see Alex calling. "Just perfect timing." I say sarcastically to myself and I answer the call.

"Hey."

"Kat, anything wrong?"

"He knows something's up so calm down and remember not to embarrass yourself."

"Now why would you not want that?" Too late, I've embarrassed myself again.

"Why can't I just calm down, it's not like he's in front of me or anything. He's miles away so it's fine." I whisper to myself making sure he can't hear me on the phone.

"Are you sure about that?" I turn and I see him standing with his shirt tattered but he's covered it with a suit and he looks good in it. You shouldn't think about him like that so calm yourself down.

I take a deep breath and I speak. "What are you doing here? You're stalking me now?" I think that's a little too far.

"Ooh, I thought you'd like that." I knew it, he's just like any attractive guy. As if I'd—"I was just kidding. Don't take everything so seriously."

Oh, it's just a joke or is it? Honestly I don't know. Alex makes me feel so nervous whenever he's around. It's not like I've never seen his photos on magazines before or tv but his presence changes everything. Especially after I've embarrassed myself the first time we met. Now I'm just overthinking. I take another deep breath and I notice he's staring at me wondering what I'm thinking about and thank you to whoever gave us this abilities that he can't read minds.

"Are you good?"

"Yeah. I mean, why wouldn't I be?"

"Hmmm... I don't know." He walks closer to me and I get back far enough that a wall is behind me. He gets even closer and whispers to my ear. "By the way, I flew here."

Alex Garcia flew here? Wow. I didn't expect him to be that careless. After all he's the one who was so afraid someone would find out.

"That's it." He steps back and now were looking straight into each other's eyes.

"We should go." I change the subject and he steps back. "You have something important to tell me, right? I mean, you wouldn't do THAT if it weren't important."

"Yeah, you're right." There's a look in his face that I don't understand. Is he disappointed? Why would he be disappointed? Does it have to do with me? For the first time since I got this ability, I don't have the answers, not even a clue. It' true that that super powers or whatever this is, is not for personal gain. While I continue to think, he calls for a cab and I get in the backseat while he's next to the driver.