The Ultimate Rescue

Epilogue

HEATH

Music: Credits from Namco Museum Vol. 3

It's the day none of us have been waiting for.

The day Luke is scheduled to leave town.

Our entire group has gathered up outside of his house after school. There's a moving van in the driveway with a lot of Luke's stuff packed inside. His parents are making some last-minute notes with the moving guys, and his siblings are all in the backseat of his mother's car. Luke is on his front porch, which is where the rest of us are as well.

"Well... I guess this is goodbye," I say, fighting back the emotions starting to overtake me. I'm a tough guy, and it takes something really serious to bring me down. This is something really serious. I've known Luke my whole life, and now he's about to just leave me in the dust, and I might never see him again.

"Heath, it's never goodbye. It's not like I'm dying or anything," Luke snickers.

"I mean, it's basically like you're dying, because we're hardly ever gonna see you again!" Sam exclaims. I can tell he's half-joking when he says this. Luke chuckles and accepts hugs from Sam, then Elle, then me. When I let him go, he gets tapped on the shoulder, and he turns around to face none other than Avery.

When the two make eye contact, Avery takes a deep breath, grits her teeth, and says, "Luke... you've been nothing but a pain in the ass to me, and I-I'm glad you're finally leaving!" She doesn't do a very good job of hiding her true feelings; she starts crying in the second half of that sentence. Luke sees through her acting and smiles at her, and the two wrap each other in a tight embrace. It's actually kinda cute.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Avery," he replies, knowing what Avery truly meant.

The next person to give him their regards is Skylar, who grabs Luke's arm right after he and Avery release each other. "You've been good, buddy," she tells him, giving him a heartfelt smile.

"Thanks, Skylar," Luke responds.

Mackenzie approaches him and wraps him in a giant bear hug. "Luke, please take care of yourself," she says, barely able to speak above a whisper.

"You too," Luke replies. He turns to Mia next, who looks to be the least emotional out of anybody here. He extends his arms out to her and says, "C'mon, Mia. I know you want one too."

"Okay, fine. You caught me," Mia snickers, giving Luke a quick hug as well. Lastly, Sean and Shanna ambush him and embrace him at the same time, nearly toppling Luke over and knocking the wind right out of him.

"You've done so much for us, Luke," Shanna says, sniffling.

"I don't even think I could tell you guys how much you've done for me," is his response. His mom honks her car horn, getting Luke's attention and causing Sean and Shanna to let go of him.

"Well... it's time. Thanks for everything, guys, and goodbye," are his final words to us. He runs over to his mother's car and gets inside, and the nine of us gather at the front of the driveway to watch him go. The car starts driving away, and Luke waves out the back window to us as he moves further away from us. We all wave back until the car is fully out of sight, and the moving van follows in suit. Any crying among us has vanquished, but the emotions are still there.

Once Luke leaves, we remain on his empty driveway for a few more minutes. The first person to speak, funnily enough, is Sean, and his statement comes out of nowhere. "So... now that one person has left the group, do you think this will lead to each of us eventually going our own ways until our group is completely broken apart?"

He gets a lot of scrutinous looks from the rest of us. "Oh, stop it, Sean. You're spouting nonsense," Mia responds.

"Yeah, that'll never happen," Mackenzie says, though I hear a slight amount of uncertainty in her voice.

"Well... if we're gonna be real here, the prophecy only brought us together to stop the illuminati," Elle mentions. "And now that the prophecy has technically been fulfilled... there isn't much of a need for us to be together anymore." This makes Sam start fidgeting nervously.

"Elle, that kind of bullshit only happens in stupid TV shows, movies, or books," I tell her.

"I mean, come on. There's no way that would actually happen to us for real... right?" Avery asks, unsure.

"Well, y'know what they say," Skylar says, looking back out into the driveway. The rest of us meet her gaze as she makes her final point: "It always starts with one."

To be continued...