Our Last Summer

Chapter 22: Nostalgia and Loneliness

"What do you think is going to happen now?" Madelyn asked, breaking this awkward silence between us. She got up from her seat and walked over to the fireplace, squatting so she was level with it.

"With what?" I asked. She looked at the logs in the fire and held out her palm, allowing a small flame to pop up.

"This." She said ever so vaguely as she held her hand over the logs. Instantly, the fire dropped down, setting all of the logs on fire.

"Well, Casper's going to find us eventually..." Tyler spoke up, making us look at him.

"But he can't come into this town." Danielle quickly corrected. I sat up straighter and tried to listen more closely.

"Oh, come on. Do you think he's not going to come here looking for us?" We know he's right. Casper is going to come looking for us whether we realize it or not and we have to be ready.

"No, I don't think he will. I think he knows his boundaries and if he tries to, he will be the one to lose." Danielle defended, placing her hands on her knees.

"Then you'll be the stupid one he takes." Danielle and I rolled our eyes, annoyed with Tyler's attitude. It's been hard on all of us, but most of us are keeping it together more than Tyler is.

"When he comes..." Madelyn said, standing up and walking over to Tyler. We drew our attention to her and she placed her hand on Tyler's shoulder.

"When?" Jason asked.

"Yes, when. I think Tyler is right. We shouldn't believe that he will follow the laws and stay on his side of the island. So when he comes, we will be ready." Madelyn said, making Tyler smile the slightest bit.

"Do you know how long it could take us to be ready, though? There has to be some intense training." Caroline added timidly.

"All of us were athletes. We know how hard we can push ourselves. We pick things up easily, we can do it." Ethan quickly stated. He sat up and wrapped his arm around Danielle's waist, assuring us that we would be okay.

"All we need to do is learn how to fight. From there, we'll have our athleticism and brains to guide us." I said. Everyone turned their heads to me and I looked up at them.

"Really? That's all we need?" Jason asked, not buying anything we were saying.

"We have to defeat Casper and Rebecca, who have whatever dark magic Kristine was talking about," Tyler added, making me quickly think. He pulled something out of his pocket, and he quickly interrupted my thoughts by lighting a cigarette.

"Come on, Tyler."
"Serious?"
"What the fuck, dude?" We all said at once. He looked around at us, confused.

"What?" He asked, the cigarette resting between his teeth.

"Don't be an ass." Danielle scolded, narrowing her eyes.

He rolled his eyes and continued to try and light it. Suddenly, the cigarette was pulled from his mouth and thrown into the lit fire, causing it to grow for a split second before slowly coming back down to a reasonable height. Confusion spread across his face and we all looked at Danielle.

"Danielle, don't use your powers." Ethan quickly scolded.

"Yeah, you were about to set this whole place on fire," Tyler muttered. She shrugged and looked back at me.

"Continue, Noah." She said, drawing the attention back toward me.

"Right... a-and we have Kristine, who was directly trained under Casper." I counteracted, making some of my friends nod in agreement.