The Real Ram

Chapter 66

 Trish would wipe her tears away, but there's no reason to. She used to hate crying in front of people, thinking it stood for weakness. But now she only sees it fitting. "Do you think she's in there?" Trish asks as the group surveys the damage of the Omega Compound.

"Does it really matter?" Jack answers. He's laying down beside Shawn's unconscious body. He doesn't want to look, it's too much for him. The entire compound collapsed, leaving a huge sink hole of dirt in the middle of the open field. The compound demolition signaled any chance of his life being saved. Any chance of Zoey being saved.

"Is she really dead?" Trish whispers, not knowing if she really wants an answer or not. This time she can brace herself though. When she heard about her parents, there was no time to prepare herself. There was no time to remember breathing techniques, or to understand death. It was just there, beside her. Now it's the same thing, only the death and destruction lay in front of her.

Jack answers anyways, "Well she didn't come out with us, and seeing that the entire compound collapsed—"

"She died a long time ago, it's just no one noticed," Jen says cutting him off.

"Easy for you to say," Trish says bitterly. Her husband and daughter just died and she isn't at all distraught?

"Zoey wasn't our Zoey in the end. She died not who we knew her as, but as the person she knew she was," Jen sounds both solemn and accepting. Her daughter was truly one of a kind. The pain is ripping her from the inside, but she will not cry. She will not shed anymore tears for her child.

"Why did she have to die?" Trish asks. Her tears increase and Jen moves to embrace her in a hug. This young girl will cry for both of them. Trish's tears stain Jen's pale red shirt.

Jack sits up and stares at the compound. Who would have thought, someone so insignificant could do something so impossible. Someone so small could be so loud, so important. So meaningful to him. "She wanted to die, she got her wish," he says. He doesn't mean it, he just doesn't want to end up like Trish.

Trish asks, "Did Flame make it out?"

Jen nods, "Yes, but he figured he wouldn't be wanted here."

"Good riddance," Jack says throwing a rock down the steep hill. He stands and moves over to Shawn's resting body. He sees Trish's worried look at her friend and he says, "He's still breathing. Zoe stopped Kian just in time to save Shawn. He'll be okay."

She only nods, letting go of the mother of her best friend.

Jen leads the small group away from the wreckage, "I have a safe house ready for us. Everyone who survived should be over there. It's time we make our way too." Everyone starts to walk, but Jen looks back once more. She wish she could say that it's all over, but she knows...deep in the back of her mind.

The storm has only begun.

Flame sits beside the limp body of his former student. He's messed up before, but never this bad. It never led to things like this. He looks over the place he grew up in. The place he made his first fire ball in. The home that held all his friends, his family. The place he met his first girlfriend. This sinkhole held so many memories of his life. Now it's just a burial ground for everyone he once cared about. Even Willow. She died here doing what she loved, and he knows he should have just left it at that. He loved her, so it's time to finally set her free.

He looks over to Beast and guilt overcomes him. He should have stopped Kian when he could. He knew Kian's entire plan, but Beast was never to killed. Zoe was never supposed to explode though too. Maybe he should have left Beast's body in there. That way the two lovers could have died in the same place. Maybe he should have left himself there too, that was Willow and him could live on together.

He closes his eyes and buries his head in his arms. He wishes he could hear the sounds of all the students he remembers. Their laughter, their speech. The sounds of them cheering each other on, or just them talking and making it through life together. Now all he hears in the silence is breathing.

Flame freezes.

That's not his breathing he hears. He looks over to Beast and sees a gentle rise and fall of his chest. Flame lets out a ragged, unbelieving breath and scrambles over to his student. "Beast, are you there?" He isn't mistaking the breathing. It's definitely Beast. "Let's get you out of here," he swings Beast's arm around his should and stands.

He takes one last look at the sinkhole of his former life and sighs. But something catches his eye. Within the far end of the wreckage, Flame focuses on one thing. Movement. He spots one small being stand. A single silhouette, a person of scarred loneliness surrounded by nothing but damage.

Her damage.

...

I remember when I first realized I was different. It was the first day of kindergarten and I remember the looks I got for my almost white hair, and my shy personality. I remember knowing I wasn't allowed to tell anyone I was different. I barely knew why I was even considered different. All I knew I was either special or a freak. I was always so conflicted on what I was, so I never really knew my identity.

But I look at myself now. Right now. I see something other that myself. The freak I identified myself as, and the person I became in that destroyed compound, and I don't see a relation yet I don't see a difference. It's like I'm surrounded in a crowd of noise. Noise telling me who I was, who I am, and who I'm supposed to be, but that's all it is. Noise. Noise I have never been able to ignore, and noise I've learned was wrong. I am the only one who can identify me.

I look into this motel mirror, with my freshly cut hair. The sink is stained with the black dye I just finished using on my head. I've done it. I've finally accepted it. No one can tell me who I am anymore.

I, Zoey, once was the young fourteen year old that just wanted to get away from what she thought was a bad life. I was completely insecure and unsure of anything I was doing. Moving away was my first choice in awhile.

I, Zoe, was the fifteen year old that changed everything. I was the girl that learned confidence and developed my ability. I learned what forgiveness felt like, and what true revenge looked like.

But this. This girl is now neither of those girls. She's stronger, better, more powerful than them. She understands her identity now, there's no question. She felt what forgiveness was like, and she chooses to reject it because now she knows that no one can be trusted. She saw what true revenge looked like, but now she knows what it feels like. She accepts herself and denies friendships. She accepts the pride she bestowed upon herself because she's the only one she can count on now. She will not be Zoey the scared girl, or Zoe the ignorant one.

She's me.