It's been a whole week now since my birthday and it feels like it's just yesterday because the memories still haunts me.
I called my friends up so we could go out for a drink and we all agreed to meet up at our favorite spot, it's a cafe just 7 blocks away from Charles' house. It was 11:39am and we were all gathered there making our orders. Aria ordered her usual which was latte with extra foam, a lot of foam. Jennie asked for an apple smoothie, Charles asked for a Strawberry milkshake and I ordered a Pina colada smoothie.
Soon or orders were ready and served to us at the table at the cafe extension. "So are you guys ready for graduation week?" asked Aria, "Uh.... yeah. I've been ready since forever" I said in a perky manner. "Get this...." Jennie said as she lowers her voice and continues "The soccer team are planning a big heist and it's called 'the walls of Jericho' and they intend on pulling it a day after graduation to avoid getting caught" "This has Jericho written all over it" I said, "Duh" Aria added. "And so guess what?" Jennie asked, "You want us to be part of it" Charles answered in an unsurprised manner, "That's right..." Jennie says as she points at Charles smiling. "What if we get caught?" I asked, Aria added "Trust me if there's Jericho, there's Dylan and when there's Dylan, there's trouble, big time trouble", "You guys worry a lot, can't we just have fun this once. I strongly believe that we've earned the right to do so, what'd you think Charles?". Charles turns and faces me and I gave him a glare that said "Don't you dare", he immediately got the message and turned to Jennie, "Tanya and Aria are right. This could be a bad idea which could backfire". "No fair... you're just siding with your girlfriend" Jennie replied in a babyish manner as she crosses her arms and turns her face away. We all laughed "What's funny?" she asked in the same manner, "You know why were laughing" I answered. "Everytime you get angry, you turn into a total baby" added Aria as we all laughed again, this time she started blushing and finally she joined us in laughing.
Just then, I saw a familiar face passing by and I called out "Austin" as I waved at him from across the street. He waved back as he crossed over to come meet us. "Where are you headed?" I asked him, "Oh... I came to see a friend around this neighbourhood". "Oh... alright then, take care" I said, "Uh... rude" said Jennie in a sassy manner, "You haven't introduced your friend" she added. "Oh... yeah" I said as I pointed at each of them saying "Aria, Jennie and Charles, meet Austin. He leaves in my neighbourhood". Aria, Jennie and Charles all waved and said "Hi" and Charles turns and pretends to focus on his drink in hand as he sips it with all seriousness. Aria, Jennie and I all caught this act and giggled, he looks up at us and back at his drink and continues sipping.
Austin smiles and waved at them saying "Hi" as he turns to me and says "Ok I gotta go, I'll see you around" as he waved at me, looks at Charles and turns around. We all watched as he crossed and waves his final goodbye as he walks straight and takes a turn to his right into an unknown corner.
With that out of the way, we all turned our attention to Charles AKA Mr. Jealous and Jennie, Aria and I burst into laughter. "And what seems to be the cause of your laughter?" he asks, trying hard to hide the jealousy in his eyes. I stood up, waked to his back and crossed my arms round him and whispered in his ear "You know that you're the only one I love" I added, in my normal time while roughening his hair, "Quit acting like Jennie". "Hey" Jennie said in her babyish manner, and we all, including Charles, burst into laughter.
I then remembered Austin and I asked Charles while pointing at the direction which Austin entered "Does anyone live in that area?", "Nope, I was actually surprised when your friend took that turn because the only place it leads to is an old abandoned house in the forest" he replied. I looked at the place and back at them, but I still had it in my mind.
After a while, it was 6:27pm. "Woah... it's already past six, time sure does fly fast" said Jennie. She added as she stood up, "I gotta go, my dad is gonna kill me if it gets to late and my mom is gonna worry as well". We all got up and headed into Jennie's car as she drives us all to our destination but I noticed that Austin never came out, so I knew that something was definitely wrong.
When I got home, I greeted my mom who was at the dining table reading up a case because she's a lawyer, and I heard straight for bed refusing to eat because we had some Muffins and Yoghurt before we left the cafe.
While I was in bed, I couldn't help but ask myself what Austin was looking for in an old abandoned house and because of it, I couldn't sleep. I decided to find out what was going on and I was a bit confident because I knew that I had my powers as backup even though I haven't mastered them yet. And so, I set out at midnight on my quest.
After 30 minutes of walking, I was finally at Charles' street. I walked past his house and straight to the place. I looked straight and couldn't see a thing and brought out a torch from my bag and pointed it in the direction of the house which was deep in the woods. I started feeling anxious as I progressed further.
Shortly, I arrived at the house and I grabbed the door handle, took a deep breath and entered. I pointed the torch around but I couldn't find anyone and I thought to myself that he had gone. Immediately, I had this tingly feeling and as I turned towards the direction of the door, it locked itself and the whole house started to burn out of the ordinary. I tried opening the door, but it wouldn't budge, I started pounding the door but to no avail. I decided it was time to find out more about my shadow side and I closed my eyes and I saw a vision of myself burn into a shadow and as I opened my eyes, it turned into the colour of flames. I walked straight to the door, placed my hands on it and it started burning and o could see something but it definitely was not the way I came in, it's almost as if the house changed it's location to an unknown place.
I came out of the house and looked around but I could only see trees and a cave. I wondered around a little, hoping to see a place which looked familiar, but I couldn't find any. I immediately had a vision of Charles burning into a shadow and all I could see in the background was a shadow with a curly hair just like Austin's. I ran the cave, looking for a way out, but all I could hear were voices and as I approached the insides further, the voices kept getting clearer and I could hear a name "Samira", I have never heard of anyone baring that name before. I started seeing shadows walking all around, and one turned to me, it took the shape of a lady and it said "Samira, come find me, I'll give you the answers you desire" and it vanished.
I ran out of the cave and back to the house and I noticed that the door came back, I was shocked but I knew what I had to do. I got in and slammed the door shut and almost immediately, the house caught on fire again and I looked straight at the door and my eyes started to glow it's usual colour of flames. I walked straight to the door and placed my hands on it and I watched my hand turn into a shadow and caught on fire. The door started burning down and I could see the place I came from initially. I ran out of the house and straight for Charles' house and I saw a flaming figure standing in his room.