"This isn't real. This can't be. How is this possible?" I whisper to myself as I slowly fall a single tear falling to my cheek, my cold hands over my mouth. My eyes go back and forth between the two men of the past.
"Kenna, is that you?" one of the men asked.
"I told you she looked different," the other man says looking at him and then back at me. "You killed us both," he says. I stand up and wipe the tear off my face.
"I didn't mean to, it's an accident that lives on with me, please forgive my mistake." I pleaded at him. "Please Cole." I whisper walking up to him and putting my hands on his face. He grabs my hands firmly.
"Was Al an accident, that sounds on purpose to me, don't you think Al?" he looks over at Al.
"I can't hate her Riggins, she was doing what she had to to survive, we would have done the same thing in her position." Al says.
"She killed us," Cole yells and pushes away my hand harshly. "And she refuses to admit it, she won't take blame for her mistakes."
"That's what you want. Fine. Yes Cole. I killed you both." I say, my voice trembling with sadness and shock.
"That isn't my name," He yells. "My name is and has always been Riggins, and you will address me as Riggins."
"Okay Riggins, what do you want from me? What do you want me to do? What can I do to show you how sorry I am that I killed you both?" I ask franticly.
"You can die." He says walking toward me. I step backwards, stumble, and fall back. I skooch backward until my back hit the wall. He gets to me, leans over and puts his mouth by my ear. "But not yet." he whispers and then walks out of the room and leaves the building.
I sit there hugging my knees trying to control my breathing. As soon as Al realized that Cole couldn't hear him anymore he ran over to me. He sits next to me and puts his arm around me. I look into his piercing blue grey eyes.
"Breathe with me okay." He starts to take deep breaths in and out and repeat with him. I start to calm down after about two minutes. "You did great, now we need sleep, I'm guessing it's going to be a long day tomorrow." I lay down on his lap, listen to the rain falling on the roof, and drift off to sleep.
We slept on the floor for hours until we felt the building tilt to the side. We got up and bolted down the stairs and out the door. Then the building fell. We sat in the wet mud, getting rained on trying to catch our breath. Then we see Riggins walking away from the rubble of which was the building we were sleeping in.
"Cole is so mad at you he tried to drop a building on us? I didn't realise how deep his hatred of you ran." he yells over the loud rain.
"That isn't Cole anymore, that's Riggins. Cole's dead, and I killed him." I said. I stand up out of the mud and hold out my hand to help Al up. "Come on, I know a place we can stay for now." he takes my hand and gets up. We walked to the tree house I was staying in and we got in. "Well this is it, home sweet home." I say with a smirk on my face which fades as I turn away from him. He walks up to me and grabs my arm.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asks as I turn to him. His eyes showed concern for me and my wellbeing. I look straight into his eyes, then I hug him. My head tucked into his shoulder.
"I'm fine." I say. I stop hugging him and fix my ponytail. I turned away and fixed the bed so we could sleep.
"You know you can talk to me about anything right?" he says as he goes and sits on the bed. I turn and grab the pillows from the cabinet I put them in when I left. "Kenna, I've known you my whole life, I know when you're trying to keep yourself busy. Talk to me." he says. I stop and lean on a wall. I fidget with my sweatshirt sleeves and look down at my feet.
"Did he tell you what happened? How I killed him?" ask him. I feel the sting of tears in my eyes, but I try to hold it back.
"No, he didn't. He said he didn't know what happened. That all he remembered was a gunshot sound and you leaning over him." Al says looking at me with a confused expression on his face.
"We had just found out that Cole and Darmin were related, Cole was his grandson. We were fighting about him taking the family name. I asked a question, and Darmin pulled out a gun and pointed it at me. He told me to kill Cole or he would. Darmin took his shot at me, I used my power to redirect it, and it hit Cole. I held him in my arms as he died." I tell him the story with my voice breaking in and out. Al got off the bed and walked over to me. Used his finger to lift my head up to show him my red eyes and tear stricken face.
"Come here." He hugs me tightly and comfortingly.
The hug lasted a few minutes. I pull away, I feel his hands lightly on my shoulders, looking up into his eyes. The silence spread through the room like a wave. I have felt like this before, but only with Cole. Then the silence breaks along with the intense eye contact with a strong passionate kiss. Things lead on that night, and not for a second did we question what we were doing. I have always loved Al, but it wasn't till that night that I realised how much.