Opening My Past

Chapter Eight~Five Shadows, One Harley

The clothes were comfy. Harley did an excellent job. Just a cute plain Star Wars tee, sweat jacket, workout pants, and a Stark Expo hat. I wonder where I've seen one of these.

The town was small, all on one long street with mini side streets. Harley was leading us (Me and Tony) to a place we needed to see. Where a 'bomb' accident happened.

"The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch, I was kinda hoping for something a little more than that," says Tony showing off his pink little girl's watch. Me and Harley laugh 

"She's six! Anyway, it's limited edition," says Harley.

"Well, doesn't that make things better, Tony?" I ask, smiling.

"When can we talk about New York?" asked Harley, interested, dang I feel my heart skip a beat and not in the right way.

"Maybe never, relax about it," says Tony.

"What about The Avengers, can you talk about them?"

"I don't know later." I start, Harley walks us over to a crater with candles and flowers around it and on the wall, five ash shadows. "Hey kid, give me a little space." says Tony, we stop and look at the remains of the local explosion site that we came to investigate "What's the official story here? What happened, Harley?" I ask.

The three of us sit down at the foot of the crater "I guess this guy named Chad Davis, used to live roundabouts, won a bunch of medals in the army. One day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up right here." he explains.

I look around at the shadows "Six people died, right?"

"Yeah."

"Including Chad Davis?" Tony jumps in.

"Yeah," says Harley nodding

"Yeah. That doesn't make sense." I say, looking to Tony. Harley looks at me confused, I smile and point to the shadows "Think about it. Six dead, only five shadows."

"Yeah, people said these shadows are like the mark of souls gone to Heaven. Except the bomb guy, he went to Hell on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five." explains Harley.

"Do you buy that?" asked Tony.

"That's what everyone says. You know what this crater reminds me of?"

"No idea. I'm not...I don't care." says Tony.

I was hoping Harley wasn't going to bring up New York "That giant wormhole, in um...in New York. Does it remind you?" he asked.

"That's manipulative. I don't want to talk about it." I say starting to get stressed

"Are they coming back? The aliens?"

"Maybe. Can you stop it? Remember when we told you that we have an anxiety issue?" starts Tony, the two of us start breathing heavily "Does this subject make you...make you edgy?"

"Yeah, a little bit. Can I catch my breath for a second?"

"Are there bad guys in Rose Hills? Do you...do you need a plastic bag to breathe into? Do you have medication?"

"Nope," we answer.

"Do you need to be on it?"

"Probably."

"Do you have PTSD?"

"I don't think so," I say.

"Are you...are you going completely mental? I can stop, do you want me to stop? Do you want me to stop?" asked Harley. My head hurt. Everything is going by faster then it should. I know the kid has good intentions, but.....my head!

"Remember when we said to stop doing that?" I ask.

"I swear to God, you're going to freak me out!" shouts Tony.

"What about Loki?" ask Harley curious, I stand holding my head "Ah man, you did it, didn't you? You happy now?" I begin to run over to the side of the building "SPIRIT!!!" shouts Tony running after me.

"What did I say?" asked Harley running after us. "Hey, wait up! Wait, wait." We stop running, and Harley catches up with us, "What the hell was that?" I hold my face in my hands for a moment, and Tony throws some snow at Harley.

"Your fault, you spazzed us out. Okay, back to business. Where were we? The guy who died...relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?" asked Tony trying to distract us

"Where she always is," says Harley pointing to the bar across the street. I look up at him. "See, now you're helpful."

Tony and I stand and begin walking towards the bar. I turn back to Harley, "I don't want you standing out here all night. Well, be back soon!"

Just then, I bump into a woman who drops her wallet, "Sorry." I say she keeps walking, not noticing the item lost. "Lady, this uh..." starts Tony as he gets her attention handing her back the wallet.

"Thank you," she says, now facing us, I can see burn scars on one side of her face. That's odd?

"Nice haircut, suits you." says Tony drawing attention away from the fact that we were staring "Nice watch." says the women talking to Tony.

"Yeah, limited edition," I say.

"Oh, I don't doubt it. Well, have a good evening," she says almost breathlessly and turns to walks off.

"Strange," I say.

"What?" asked Tony, "Think she's hiding something?"

"Maybe, not sure, either way, we should keep our guard up."