Prophecy

Not an Alien

Wyatt

The room fills with an awkward silence. "So...anybody catch the game last night?" James asks to break the ice.

I wince, "James," I whisper, "this is a different world, they don't even have television here." I focus back on Quinn, she stares down at the book, chewing on her cheek. I try to read her expression, to find if the words were good enough, but her face is blank. "Quinn? You good?" Cautiously, I take a step towards her.

She looks up at me, blank, unreadable, "Yeah." She says flatly. I dare a glance at James, he's just as focused on Quinn as I am. My heart pounds, loud and slow, the only noise I can hear in the small apartment. "It's a journal." Quinn holds up the book. "I don't know if it's my moms, or just some random girl, but it's not about me. It's not an explanation."

I can almost see the moment her heart breaks, she swallows and blinks against tears. "Come on," I hold out my hand. "I'll take you home."

She doesn't move, her voice is cold and trembling when she speaks, "Home? What home?" She looks at me, silver shining in her eyes. "You mean that little bedroom attic? That's not my home, Wyatt. This was suppose to tell me where I belong, where my home is. But it's just a girl writing about her first royal ball." She sneers.

"It's just the first entry," James points out. "There's so much more in the book."

"Yeah, but I don't really care." She sets the book down on the counter and walks out, the door shutting too quietly behind her. I stand there, staring at the book, chewing on my lip, thinking. I think about how much that book meant to her. How many times she sat for hours just staring at it, how she would tell me about what she thought was inside.

Ice started to build in my veins; brick after brick it made a wall. I realized with cold numbness it was protectiveness. Me being protective of Quinn, of my best friend. Over all the years, as I watched her put the book back in it's hidden cove, I thought of how it would create something new inside of her. A hope and drive.

I never once thought of how it might break her.

"Wyatt," James' voice breaks through the ice, shattering it like glass. I look up at him as the pieces crumble and melt. Then I move into action.

I grab the book and stalk after Quinn in a heartbeat. James calls after me, but I ignore him, racing down the stairs and refusing to let Quinn go that easily.

I catch Quinn as she's walking down the street, arms folded in tight from the chill of the wind. "Quinn! Quinn, stop!" She turns around obviously annoyed, her shoulders and jaw tight. I stop a good distance away, "You can't just leave the book, it's all you have left. It's the only thing that was given to you."

"I don't want it. I was perfectly fine having not read it, I was perfectly fine not knowing what was inside." She shrugs, but the action is too tense to be casual.

"That's the thing Quinn, because you don't know, this book has control over you. It has always had control over you. So if you don't care, then just read the damn thing and decide if it's worth it," I hold up the book, silently begging her to take it. "It's your mom's, it's all that's left," I whisper, one final plea. She looks down at the soft leather, she gives me small nod and takes the book. I don't have time to feel relieved, a wave of dizziness crashes into me and I stumble, almost falling. Footsteps sound behind me and Quinn reaches out, grabbing my arm to steady me.

"Wyatt? What's wrong?" Panic floods her voice.

Darkness warps around me, I blindly reach out for Quinn. Feeling her thin arms under my fingertips I bring myself back and force my eyes to see what was in front of me. A heartbeat later, James is by my side, my eyes meet blue ones and I gasp as another wave sends me reeling.