When the Clouds Fell

Chapter 18: In Which Their Utopia Shatters ~Act 4~

"'Garret'?" Karen interjected.

The name rung a loud bell in Vince's head. Where had he heard it?

"Yeah." Colton's brows scrunched together, and his mouth twitched downward. "We'd just lost our parents, and suddenly had these little siblings to take care of. We never wanted it to end up this way. It's just...after a while I felt like I didn't deserve to see you again after what I did. And Garrett," he tucked his lip between his teeth, "he didn't make it much long after that. I—"

"Why are you saying all of this now?" Vince knew they had asked too many times. But he could not help but feel so enraged. "Do you know how it feels to miss someone so much, and not even remember them? Then see them right in front of your eyes and have them drop you like a dirty tissue?"

Before Colton could reply, a laugh made them jump.

"This is an awfully touching reunion. But I am afraid I must cut it short." Noah grinned from down the path. His hands were fully black, the colour stretching up into his sleeves. His eyes glowed golden in the night. "You heard Karl, I assume? So, you know what I am for?" He raised his hands and the shadows gathered around him, a swirling vortex of distortion. "If you do not: it is to get rid of you." He swung his arms.

Karen yanked Vince, and they both crashed to the dirt. A blade of darkness sliced the air where they had stood, cutting into the ground.

Every instinct in Vince told him to stay well away from that black substance. He could still vividly recall the sensation of suffocating that came with it. And how it originated from somewhere in Noah's own being.

"I don't remember him being this crazy." Karen righted herself. "Maybe a bit freaked out, but not downright psycho."

Another surge of shadows shot their way. They dodged in opposite directions, just managing to miss the weirdly solid substance. This time it smacked into the gravel and seeped in, leaving a black crater in its wake.

Vince bumped into Colton. He would have stumbled had it not been for the arm that came to support him.

He could not help but say, "What's wrong with him?"

"That's not really Noah," Colton said, eyeing the boy. "That's his—erm, alter ego, I guess. The not-so-right side of Noah in human form."

"How?"

He shrugged. "From what Karl told me," he cringed on the name, "Noah had too much sadness in his heart. So, his powers split a part of him to store that sadness into. Which is this thing you see in front of you."

Vince frowned. Can our powers do things like that? Do they have consciences?

"Why are you trying to get rid of us?" Karen's shout distracted him from the thoughts. "We never did anything wrong! We're just living!"

The weird Noah inclined his head. "Did you not? Is your very existence not a crime?" He laced his fingers together and scissored them. "You were never supposed to be born, so how could you assume that your life is justifiable?"

Maybe he has a point? Vince did not like where his mind was taking him. But he could not stop thinking about his parents. What little he remembered about them, anyway. How at some point something had started to become very, very wrong. How the cat would not stop hissing at them. How he stopped seeing them. How they just vanished from his life so abruptly.