Before Zack got home from school, we got an alert that there had been an accident. Cas and her friend had decided to go watch a movie and meet up with their boyfriends after, but their car was hit by a drunk driver. Cas was able to use her super speed to get Angelica out of there with only minor injuries, but she was not fast enough to save herself.
When Zack arrived back home he did his usual routine of showering, grabbing a snack, then looking for Cas for their weekly Friday movie date. After a few minutes of looking for her and not getting a reply he was getting nervous. Just then I pulled into the driveway with Benjamin and Dan in the car. When we came inside Zack immediately could tell something was up, partially because we all looked up set, but the biggest giveaway was as soon as we walked in Dan hugged Zack then, without a word, went to his room.
"What is wrong with him? Actually what is up with all of you, you look so down?" Zachary asked
"Zack, you may want to sit down." Ben said
After Ben and I told Zack what happened, we were ready to embrace a crying brother but once he started crying we leaned forward to embrace him his eyes began to glow, he started to hover causing papers to begin flying across the room and pictures to fall from the walls. Before we could even attempt to calm him down Zack had flown at super speed out the open window into the night.
We waited about an hour then our parents got back home, we told them what had happened. While we were finishing telling our parents what had happened and getting ready to go look for Zack we heard a loud thud come from outside. We ran to see it was; it was Zack he had passed out on his way back home home, probably from using his all at once and so suddenly. We took him upstairs to his room, it was one of the smaller rooms of the house because he was the youngest, he had gotten last pick when we moved here, but it was still a fair sized room.
"I am worried about him. I knew he would be upset, but I did not him to react that way." Mom worried
"Don't worry mom he had always been a big reactor, he will most likely be fine by dinner." I said trying to comfort our worried parents.
Little did we know it would be weeks before he came out of his room or uttered another word to any of us. The last time we saw him out of his room was at Cas' funeral. We know he comes out of the room occasionally because we will feel a rush of wind as he speeds past, or snacks will go missing overnight. He has probably gotten very good with controlling his laser vision because we will hear popcorn popping in his room (he does not have a microwave in his room).
"MOOOOOM!"
We all go running up the stairs as fast as we could. That was the first thing we heard come from Zachary's room in weeks, except it was not Zachary we heard yelling, it was Daniel. He had gone to see if Zachary wanted to go out to eat with him, but when he opened the door before he could finish the question, he saw it. That was why he had yelled for mom. Once we all got up there all we could do was stand in shock for a solid minute while Zachary dressed in ripped black jeans and a dark T-shirt laid on his bed. Though his sudden change of clothes was disconcerting, that was not the reason for our initial shock, the reason we were in such shock was because his room was torn to shreds, the only things that were still recognizable were his bed and dresser, but there was only one thing in the room that was not torn or burned in any way that was the pair of jeans Cas had given him that morning. While we were taking all of this in Zachary was laying on his bed staring at the ceiling.
"Was there something you needed, or were you just trying to get me to leave my room again?" Zack asked breaking the silence
"Honey?" I had never heard mom sound so concerned
"Yes, mom?" Zack asked in a mock cheerful voice "You sound like there is something wrong?" he said never taking his gaze away from the ceiling
I turned to looking at the ceiling where he had been staring to make sure there was not a hole, but when I looked up I saw that he had used his laser vision to burn an image of Cas on his ceiling. My eyes immediately filled with tears.
"Alex? What is wr-" before Ben finished his question he looked where the image of Cas was. The rest of the family soon followed suit.
"Isaac" my mom was now in the embrace of my father.
"I know, my love, I know." was all he was able to get out before leading her out of the room leaving just the sons staring in amazement.
"Was there something you needed, or did you just come to stare?" Zack asked completely emotionless
"Zack, I had no idea you could do that." I said
"Maybe you would have if you had bothered to get to know me the way Cas did." Zack was still completely emotionless both in his voice and face
"We are so sorry Zack, we should have been better brothers to you." Ben apologized
"Hm" I had never seen Zack so emotionless. He used to always have a smile on his face, but now that I think about it, he almost only smile while Cas was around, but he had never been shy about showing his emotions even when it was just us boys.
"Zack?" Dan was finally letting his concern show again. He unlike Zack did not like showing emotions, I think he looks up to Ben more than he cares to admit.
"What?" Zack was starting to show emotion, but not in a good way. I hoped when we got an emotion out of him it would be sadness or grief, but that was not what we got.
"Do you want to go out? We were thinking of having a brother's day." Dan asked. Ben and I were shocked for a moment because we had been planning a brother's day, but we did not expect Dan to be the one inviting Zack.
"Oh! Suddenly now that Cas is gone you want to be my brothers! Where was this while she was still here? Do you know why Cas and I were so close?" Zack was now standing, and we could see his tear stained face and the tears in his eyes. "We bonded over being the outcasts, you made her feel like an outcast because she was smarter than all of you put together!!!"
"Zack, we had no idea either if you felt this way." Ben said
"Did you bother to ask?" Zack was back to no emotions on his face and in his voice, which made me nervous, I knew if we stayed on this topic much longer his emotions would blow again. I feared he would lose control of his powers again.
"Zack come walk with me." I said. He begrudgingly followed leaving Ben and Dan in the doorway of his room.