Joshua
For some odd reason, I wasn’t hungry. As I sat there, watching my family eat around me, I lost my appetite. Something on that day had happened. Something that I will never forget and will always haunt me.
“Joshua?” Mom asked as she set her fork down. “Why haven’t you touched your food?” I looked at her, then at Dad, who was giving me a sympathized look as well. Loren, my little sister, just kept eating, not even paying attention.
“Well... something happened today at school. And it’s really bothering me.” I tried to avoid eye contact with either of them. I don’t know if I could tell them. What would they think of me? Hell, would they even believe me?
“What happened?” Dad asked.
“Umm... well, there’s this bully at school. His name is Rick. He picks on a lot of people. But he mainly picks on Jacob. On the way to homeroom, I kind of had this... vision before I stepped into the room. I saw Jacob getting beat up by Rick in the boys bathroom. The clock in the background said it was three.
“So after homeroom, I ran up to Jacob and told him what I saw. I told him to avoid the bathroom after school at all cost. He didn’t believe me. He called me crazy. After school, I heard everyone talking about how Rick had ‘beat the crap’ out of Jacob in the bathroom. In the vision, I saw Jacob’s nose break and his left cheek bruised really badly. And when I saw him... that’s exactly what had happened. The bruise on his cheek was exactly how I saw it.
“So when he saw me, he blamed me for it. He said that I set the whole thing up and that I told him not to go to the bathroom as a joke. Now he won’t talk to me. But I swear I saw it all happen before it happened. I swear I... saw the future.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other and busted out laughing. I slumped down in my chair and stared at my plate.
“Joshua, that’s silly. No one can ‘see the future’,” Mom said. Dad wiped his hands with his napkin and stood up.
“Maybe you just heard Rick talking about it in the halls and forgot. Now eat your dinner. No food gets wasted in this house as long as I’m here.” Dad picked up his plate and walked into the kitchen to put it in the sink.
“You guys just don’t understand. You didn’t see it like I did. I knew you wouldn’t get it. Sorry I brought it up.” I sighed. I stood up and walked out of the dining room.
“Joshua...” Mom started. I didn’t let her finish. I just drowned her out and walked up stairs to my room. How could they just sit there and laugh at me? How could they laugh at their own son?
I fell onto my bed and let the softness take me away. I felt my eyes droop down and get heavier. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep. Oh, I wish I hadn’t.
The next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of a city. Looking around, I noticed the city was abandoned. The whole place was silent. I didn’t hear a single thing besides the wind blowing through the shattered windows of the buildings around me. Papers and trash flew with the wind, flapping wildly. A newspaper had landed at my feet. On the front page, the headline read, “War between Freaks and Citizens begun!” Freaks and Citizens? War?
I kicked the paper away from my feet and started to look around. I heard nothing. No bird flew in the sky. No person walked the streets. The only sign of life was the sun that beamed down on top of me. And that’s when I heard it.
The sudden sound of a machine rolling down the streets in the distance echoed all around me. It started far away, but got closer. All of a sudden, an army of men appeared down the street, walking in rows of 5 in front of a massive tank.
A leader walked in front of all of them, yelling out orders to the soldiers behind him. I almost fled away, but noticed that they couldn’t see me. So I just stood there, watching in awe.
The men marched in perfect order and rhythm. The stomps of their footsteps were drowned out by the tank that followed. They all kept on marching forward, not paying attention to their surroundings.
All of a sudden, the tank started to slowly rise from the ground. Every soldier stopped what they were doing and aimed their guns all over the place.
“Freaks! Look all around for ‘em!” one soldier yelled. They were all too busy looking around that they didn’t even notice the tank above them all. The massive machine dropped down, landing on more than half of them. I couldn’t hear the disturbing sound of all of them getting crushed. It was drowned out by the tank landing on the ground.
“Get to cover!” another soldier yelled. They all scrambled around and hid inside buildings. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t do anything. All I could do was watch. I wanted to wake up. I tried so hard to wake up. But I couldn’t.
Then, fire spread around the area, flying into every building that the soldiers were in. I could hear the screams of the soldiers as they were gulped in fire. Some came running out of the buildings, but they didn’t get far. From somewhere in the flames, a bolt of lightning would strike the fleeing soldier. Then they’d fall to the floor. And they’d stay there.
I started to panic, trying so hard to wake up. I didn’t want to stay there. But I couldn’t even move. I was terrified. But, at the same time, I was confused. What was going on?
The flames disappeared and all that was left was silence. A few bodies lay in the middle of the street, near the tank. After all of that, nothing dared to move. For a few minutes, it was dead silent. Then came the slightest sound. Footsteps.
Three figures appeared from the shadows. One was a girl, seemed she was maybe in high school. The other two were boys. One seemed older than the other, and the other seemed around the age of the girl.
The younger looking boy looked around and started to look at the bodies. He knelt down and examined one of them closely.
“Go and shock any body that you see. We can’t afford a survivor,” said the younger looking boy to the older boy.
“Yes, sir,” he replied. Then he was off. The girl stood next to the boy, watching him examine the bodies.
“That was some good work with the tank,” he said to her. She smirked and looked back at the tank.
“Good work with the tank? How about that firestorm? That was awesome!” A smile engraved onto her face, but the boy didn’t respond to her remark. He just kept looking at the body. What was so important about it?
“Go around and look at the bodies with him to speed up the process. We don’t have time to waste. We can’t stay here long. Odds are they heard that from a mile away.” The girl sighed and looked at the building the other boy was in.
“Okay. Have fun with that, Nick.” The girl walked off into the building and the boy stayed there for a while. He ran his fingers across the body’s chest and rubbed his fingers together. Then he looked up. Straight at me.
“I know you’re there, Joshua,” he said. My heart stopped. “I know you can see this now. You warned me about it before. But I didn’t listen.” I couldn’t answer. “I want you to know that you can’t keep this from happening. This... this is unstoppable. I know you’re confused, but we will meet soon. Don’t worry. It will all make sense eventually. But until then... wake up.”
I jolted up from my bed. I felt the sweat on my back sticking to my shirt. My heart was racing and I was breathing hard. What was that? Was that another vision? Was that... the future? A bunch of things were flying around in my head. But one thing stood out from it all. His name. I had to remember that name.
Nick.
…..
Shadows in the Dark Page 4
