Changing The Future

CHAPTER XVIII

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"Tell me. What secret?" Asher asks while walking toward the two sisters. "Uhm..." They are both embarrassed that Asher heard them. "You can tell him." Mr. Primson says walking into the room. "But-" A says, protesting. "He was bound to find out anyway." Asher is looking at the two girls standing with his arms crossed. "You're finally going to tell me?" "Follow us." A says. They all walk to Alice's room. "We know you already know about the wall or at least saw it." Mr. Primson moves his hand across the wall until he finds the button. He pushes his hand against the wall and the wall starts to open. They walk inside and the wall closes behind them. They walk through a tunnel that leads to a whole different room. Asher is amazed. They end up in a lair. "Wow..." "Welcome to our secret base." Alice says in a bored tone. Asher looks around. He would have never guessed that this would be here. "Why do you have this?" Asher asks, still looking around. "You know when I told you my father used to help the heroes?" "Yeah..." Asher answers scared to know where this conversation is going. "Well, I still help them without them wanting to." Mr. Primson says standing behind Asher. "Alice and I sometimes help our father." A says. "Here we have all the information about every villain stored up." She says gesturing to a very large screen with a lot of profiles of different kinds of people. "If you have that then why don't you just turn them all in." Mr. Primson walks over to Asher. "Let me ask you something. What is a hero without a villain?" Asher starts to think about it before answering. "Nothing?" "Correct. That's why we don't do anything unless they get out of hand. Then we...how do you say it...eliminate them." "Eliminate?" Asher asks, scared to know the answer. "We kill them." Alice says bluntly. Asher knew what he meant by eliminate, but he hoped he guessed wrong. "You too A?" A looks away. "Oh. Don't be surprised. She killed twice as many people as I have in my entire life." Alice says annoyed looking at A. Asher is confused. "But why kill them?" Mr. Primson puts his hand on Asher's shoulder. Asher flinches. "You haven't been exposed to the harsh truth of reality yet. But you will. And this is just the beginning. Heroes aren't allowed to kill. So, we kill for them." Asher runs out of the room. He wished he never knew their secret. Mr. Primson looks at him as he runs away and sighs.

"Why did you tell him I kill?!" A asks angrily, turning to face Alice. "It's the truth. If it was you, you would only tell him that I killed to keep your "miss perfect" image." Alice answers back, making air quotes. Mr. Primson walks away not wanting to deal with their bickering. Mr. Primson only stops them when they have company. Most of the time he just lets them fight it out because he doesn't know how to control them. "I still don't know why you are acting like this. Why do you care so much about Asher?! You never care about anything or anyone." A asks, getting wind up. "Because it's you. Because it's you he's dating. The question is. Why do you care about him? Do you even care about him?!" Alice yells back. A doesn't answer and Alice her eyes widen and looks at A in disgust. "I can't believe you!" Alice furiously storms off.

After a while they went to search for Asher scared that he might have ran away. They searched the whole mansion. "I can't find him." A says pacing around the room. "We promised his parents we would look after him." "You're making this worse father." Alice says. "Wait, did we check his room?" A asks. They all went silent. They run towards his room. The door is open. They see Asher standing in front of the window. It's already getting dark. A was just about to go in when Alice stopped her. "I'll go." Alice says while entering his room. A narrows her eyes at her. Alice walks over to Asher and stands next to him. "Just like the sky. Why must everything fall into darkness?" Asher asks while keeping his gaze on the view outside the window. "Stars can't shine without the dark." Alice answers. Asher looks at Alice. She gives him a sad smile. "It's sad but it's life." "Still isn't killing a little extreme?" Alice looks outside again. "Sometimes the world doesn't need a hero. But a villain." It's quiet. "Why did you slap your sister?" Alice didn't expect him to ask that. He knows she slapped her. "Because my sister will break your heart." "Why would you say that?!" Asher asks, making Alice face him. "I don't want you to get hurt!" She yells back. Asher doesn't want to believe that A will break his heart. He shakes his head. "You're just jealous!" "I'm not! I just want you to be happy." Alice turns away from Asher and stares at the ground. "I know you'll be happy with her. But when the time comes, you'll end up getting hurt in the end." Asher is getting irritated. "I don't know what you went through but not all relationships are like that." A runs over to Alice. She puts her hand on Alice's shoulder. "Alice..." But Alice brushes A's hand off her shoulder. "Don't. Touch. Me." Alice says through gritted teeth. "A, tell her it isn't true." Asher says desperately. "Of course, it's not true. Do you believe her? She's just jealous and dealing with some emotions right now." A says cupping Asher's face to make him look at her. She knows Alice is right, but she doesn't care. Alice runs away saying: "Don't come to me when you do end up hurt." A looks at Alice, who is running out of the room, with an amused expression. Did she see that right? Is she crying? She turns back to Asher looking sad. "Asher. How much I appreciate you defending me, you shouldn't be too hard on Alice. She has been through a lot. And I'm not saying you haven't. And she's right. Don't get too attached to me." A walks out of the room. Mr. Primson looks at Asher one last time before leaving Asher standing alone in his room wondering what just happened.

Asher, Alice, Amber, and Rose are sitting in a circle in Rose her room. They are having a sleepover. Amber called last minute that they were invited to a sleepover. She thought that they could maybe help lighten Rose's mood, but this atmosphere is just depressing. "Okay. I have enough of this!" Amber says while standing up. "I invited you so we could have fun and leave all of our worries and stress behind! When you're all in a better mood you can come and find me." Amber exits the room slamming the door behind her. It's quiet again. None of them are looking at each other or saying anything. Rose stands up and mutters: "I'm going to apologize to Amber." Rose exits the room. Rose looks around and spots Amber and runs after her. "Amber, wait!" Amber stops walking. "I'm sorry. I should have respected your answer." Amber doesn't say anything. "I mean I'm happy that you like me but you also like my brother. And I'm not happy about the thought of sharing you." Amber still doesn't say anything. "But if that makes you happy. I'm willing to try." Amber turns around facing Rose. "Look. I'm not mad at you and I knew you wouldn't want to share me with your brother. I expected you to think that I'm disgusting or weird. It's just that the last few days have been so depressing, and I can't take it anymore." Rose walks over to Amber. "I'm sorry. I know you can't do anything about being depressed. I'm also sad about your brother, but I just wish things would get-" Before Amber could finish her sentence Rose leans forward letting her lips connect with Amber's. Amber was surprised at first but then closes her eyes and she kisses Rose back. As sudden as it was as quickly it ended. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you. It wouldn't be fair towards my brother. I should stay strong for my brother." Rose says stepping back ready to walk away but Amber embraces her. "Please don't." Rose first hesitates but embraces Amber and puts her chin on Amber's head. They stay like that feeling content.

Rose left the room leaving Asher and Alice alone again. "I should apologize for earlier." Asher says. "You don't have to apologize. So much happened today and my feelings are everywhere. And I'm indeed jealous. I'm not jealous of my sister. I'm jealous of how happy you are around her. You chose my sister over me and that hurt me. Even my father likes my sister better than me. He always says I should smile more. Be happier. Try to live your life. I wish I could, but I can't pretend to be someone I'm not. I don't want to fake my emotions." 'Except the ones I have for you.' Alice thinks to herself. Asher goes to Alice and embraces her. Alice leans into him. "And I have been thinking about something." Asher says nervously. "I want to help you guys." "What?" Alice says confused. "With your job. And no, I don't want to kill." Alice moves away from Asher to look him in his eyes. "Do you even know what you are saying? You would go against the law. What about becoming a hero? The only reason I go to school is because A managed to convince my father to make me go so that I would learn more about the heroes." Asher starts to doubt himself. "But I won't kill so I would still be considered a hero. You can see this as paying you back for me living with you guys." Alice sighs. "I guess you could help us. I mean it's difficult with so few people. And you're right. We don't only kill. We'll find a use for you' Asher hopes he made the right decision. So does Alice. "We will have to train you more. And don't worry. We're not villains. We just do something heroes can't. Kill." "Even if you were villains. You guys aren't villains to me." Alice cringes at that. "Thank you." There is an awkward silence. "Soooooo." Asher says. "Did you guys find anything new about the antidote and Miss Birdie?" Alice lets out a small laugh. "Yes. We think the chemist has both." The bedroom door swings open. "You found the antidote?!" Rose asks, walking towards them with Amber following behind her. "Uhm..." Asher is not sure what he is supposed to say. "We heard everything so don't try to hide it." 'We should stop talking about this stuff when people can walk in on us.' Alice thinks to herself. "I want to help find the antidote." Rose says with determination in her eyes. "No." Alice doesn't fully trust them. "Please, it's my brother and our teacher." Amber puts her hand on Rose's shoulder. "Rose if they don't-" Rose goes on her knees. "Please. I'm begging you." Alice stares at Rose. Amber has never seen Rose on her knees nor beg. Amber kneels beside Rose. "Rose please stand up." Amber whispers to Rose. Rose doesn't listen and stays on the ground. "You can help us." Asher says. "Asher! This isn't your decision." Alice says, narrowing her eyes at Asher. Does he think that because she said yes, he can just do what he wants? "You said it yourself. You need more people." Alice looks at Asher and then at Rose. "Stand up. You can help." Alice says irritated. Rose stands up and runs towards Alice and embraces her. Alice stumbles backward. "I don't like it when people touch or embrace me." Alice says uncomfortably. "But you let Asher hug you." Amber reasons. "He's different." Asher also embraces Alice. "Okay, that's enough." Alice says. "Don't leave me out of it." Amber says while going to Alice and embracing her. In a blink of an eye, Alice is standing in front of the door and the others fall on each other. "I'm getting tired goodnight." Alice says while walking out the room with a faint blush that the others didn't notice.