Chapter Ten: I saw it coming.

CHAPTER 10

I saw it coming

When I got back to the cabin then sun was just starting to come up. Patrick and Ethan were talking about the fight when I exploded through the door.

"Hey" I said trying to catch my breath

"Hey" Ethan said quiety while avoiding eye contact

"I told him you would explain what happened" Patrick said whilst nodding towards Ethan.

"I don't know what to tell him" I said as I turned around to avoid the situation

I heard a thud. Patrick always literally put his foot down when he was trying to make a point to me if he was serious.

"Yes you do." a shrill voice said from behind me

"Hey who is tha-"

BANG. BANG. BANG. Three cracks sounded off in the room so loud I could feel the vibrations in my chest. I turned around and saw Patrick facedown on the floor and Ethan sitting against the wall with blood oozing out of three holes in his torso. I was face to face with Dominic Ricci. In his right hand pointed directly in my gut was a black handgun still hot from the previous shots.

With a final BANG I woke up in my bunk soaked in either sweat or urine. Slightly embarassed and flustered I got dressed before anybody else woke up. Viktor walked through the door shortly after we had all woken up and led us all to the chow hall for breakfest. Each of us sat down at a table with Viktor with our food and began eating quietly

"So, other than the fight, you guys having a good time?" Viktor asked

Each of us nodded leaving the subject without a word. I continued to eat, quietly avoiding eye contact partly out of embarassment but mostly because I was still afraid. Since I had left the cabin I couldnt stop thinking that around every corner and behind every door Dominic Ricci would be waiting for me. I kept trying to convince myself that the fears were irrational but they weren't because when he showed up it was unnanounced and I had no control over anything once he was infront of me. I fealt Patrick nudge me

"You ok?" he whispered

"I'm fine" I lied

"Bullshit" he said with a smile

"Just had a pretty bad nightmare" I said

"Whenever you want to tell me what your really worried about, I'll be here" he whispered before asking Ethan if he wanted to swim later.

Ethan agreed so the three of us ran back to the cabin before everyone else got done with breakfast. By the time I got to the bunkhouse Ethan and Patrick were already undressing. I was about to take off my shirt when Patrick pulled me aside.

"I told him you would explain what happened." Patrick said as he took off his boxers and pulled his swimming trunks up.

"I don't know what to tell him" I said as I turned around to start undressing

I heard something crash to the floor and I assumed Ethan had pulled his bag off of his bunk and because of it's weight it fell to the floor. Wait. This happened before.

"Yes you do" a shril voice said from behind me.

"Hey, who is tha-"

Just like in my dream the previous night three cracks sounded off in the room leaving a ringing in my ears that I had never felt before. By the time I turned around Patrick was facedown on the floor unconsious and Ethan had a shocked look on his face as blood oozed from his chest. Dominic Ricci had a black pistol in his right hand jabbed directly into my gut and I could feel the heat from the previous shots.

"You can't say you didn't see this coming" he said with a wink.

With a final bang everything went silent. It felt like a bomb had gone off inside of my chest followed by a jackhammer like vibration. The impact of shot sent me reeling backwards three to five feet before I fell to the ground. Despite the intense burning in my gut I threw my hand out towards Dominic but to no avail. The bunks to the right of Dominic were thrown with a tremendous force against the back wall creating a sound almost as loud as the gunshot. I watched Dominic Ricci gingerly walk out the door before I blacked out.

Chapter Nine: I wouldn't be Caught Dead

CHAPTER 9

I WOULDN'T BE CAUGHT DEAD

I spent an hour thinking about what had happened. Every time I used my ability it seemed as if it got stronger. I was invincible. I could bring someone to their knees in pain, move things with my mind, talk to people without physically being there and as far as I was concerned, I hadn't even reached my full potential. I had learned not to be afraid of the consequences because there was nothing anybody could do to me when I had an ability so powerful. It was nearly morning when Viktor opened the door to the cabin and said

"Tim, get dressed and meet me at the counsoler's cabin. We need to talk."

The door closed with a soft click and I rolled out of bed.

"What's going on?" I heard whispered from Patrick's bunk

"I have to go see the counselors about the fight" I said as I slid out of bed and hit the floor with a thud.

"I'm coming with you" he said innocently as he struggled out from under his white sheets and climbed down off of his bunk.

He stood across from me in the strip of moonlight that shone through the door wearing tube socks and white boxers while trying to pull a red shirt over his body in the small amount of light.

"Pat, I don't know what's gonna' happen in there. I think it would be better if you stayed here until I figure out what's going on."

"I'm going" he said adamatly.

We got dressed silently in the dark, cool cabin not knowing what to expect.

The path to the counselor's cabin was dead. The normally whimsical green pines that enveloped the happy path had turned into black outlines of skeletal trees against a moon lit sky. A thick layer of fog eerily hung over the ground of the path making it impossible to see the bare earth underneath. It was hard to understand how anyone could think of this graveyard as a happy dirt path. We walked swiftly, solemnly and silently to our destination and had no intention of stopping. As we approached the counselor's cabin we could hear talking coming from the inside. I opened the door and stepped through. The inside of the counselor's cabin was setup the same way the campers cabins were. The female counselors were on the left side of the cabin, the male counselors were on the right. One of the female counselors had music playing but turned it off when she saw me walk in. Each of the counselors sat up in their beds and got quiet.

"Hi." I said softly

"Hey Tim" they said one by one

"Ok Tim, here's the deal" Viktor said as he stood up "your story checked out, and since you and Patrick didn't start the fight you aren't in any trouble. However we need to know this isn't going to happen again and we also want you to apologize to Adam.

"Alright, I will" I said

"And Patrick, no one can get Allen to even talk about what happened and he requested to go home. We want you to apologize aswell."

"Ok, how's Ethan holding up?" Patrick asked

"His nose got broke and he's pretty embarssed. He really needs you guys to be there as friends for a while." Viktor responded.

"Can I go see him?" Patrick insisted

"Yeah, he's in the nurse's office right next door. Why don't you go get him and you two can meet up with Tim back at the cabin."

Patrick left the cabin and Viktor walked me outside. Viktor bent over so his mouth was right next to my ear.

"There's no way you could have pushed Adam hard enough to break his arm as bad as it is. I don't care what happened in there but I'll tell you two things. For one, if you have something that you need to tell me about I won't call the police and I won't tell your parents but I need to know if there's something I can do. The other is you will NOT hurt anyone else in my cabin do I make myself clear?" he whispered intensely.

"Yes, I understand" I said

"Good. Goodnight Tim." he said loudly and went back in the cabin.

I walked off of the front porch of the cabin and made my way back into the darkness.

The only thing worse than walking along that dreary dirt path in the middle of the night was walking it alone. I started to psych myself out and turned every noise and every movement into a nightmarish creature trying to kill me. As I was walking I noticed something moving at my pace on my right side in the woods, but it's image was distorted by the fog. I stopped and turned to try and get a better look and saw nothing. Turned behind me, saw nothing and again to my left and saw nothing. I knew I was just being paranoid and took one step forward and bumped right into a tall pale man in a black pinstripe suit.

"Your that cop!" I screamed

"Cop?" he said

"Private Johnson" I said confidently

"Oh, Private Johnson... He was a good man" he said as he pulled the shiny metal nametag out of his jacket's inside pocket. "I wouldn't be caught dead in that uniform. However, Johnson was... He was caught dead in that uniform... I caught him... I caught him dead in that uniform... I killed him." He finally said smiling.

"You, you killed him?" I said shocked

"Your such a bright boy Timmothy." he said as he threw the nametag at me.

"What the fuck!" I yelled as I stepped back

"Such foul language for such a bright boy" he scolded "I expected more from you Timmothy" he said as he stepped forward

"Stay away from me you freak. I'll kill you!" I screamed

"No need for derogatory terms Timothy, I'm Dominic Ricci." he said with a bow

I lifted my right hand and pointed it at his knees, he fell forward with a soft thud.

"I'm Tim. Not "Timothy" not "boy" just Tim. Now what do you want." I said hand still oustretched toward him

"Nothing Timothy, not yet." he said as he got up and brushed himself off. "Auf wiedersehen!" he yelled and disapeered back into the fog.

I ran all the way back to the cabin, scared out of my mind and more confused than I had ever been. All I cared about was being away from Mr. Ricci.

Chapter Eight: Start Spreadin' the News

CHAPTER 8

START SPREADIN' THE NEWS

School was finally coming to a close for the year and I couldn't have been more excited. Every summer Patrick and I went to "Camp Northwood" and it was awesome to feel like we were on our own even if it was only a couple of months. On the last day of school I eagerly packed what I would need into Mrs. Fox's van and set my sights towards freedom. The ride to get to Camp Northwood was seven hours, so Patrick and I slept the entire time. When I woke up the van was stopped on a gravel path and Mrs. Fox was getting directions from a teenager in a bright orange vest to the dining hall. I shook Patrick a few times to get him up before he slapped my hands and told me he was awake. The procedure at Camp Northwood was the same every year, on the first morning all the parents and kids eat breakfest together, the counsellars sing a song about Camp Northwood, and then they send the kids to the cabins until lunchtime. Patrick and I really didn't even like camp all that much, but the opprotunity to be away from parents for such a long time didn't come around very often, so we jumped on it when it did. Our cabin was one big room with two sets of bunk beds on either side with a screen door for an entrance. The camp was designed to make kids want to go out and do activities instead of just lounging around the cabin all day and it seemed to work very well. Patrick and I were the first ones to step inside the cabin and meet our counsellar. Viktor was a tall, muscular teenager with brown curly hair that came down to his shoulders. He was sitting inside the cabin playing some music on his acoustic guitar when we walked in.

"Hey guys, what are your names?"

"I'm Tim and he's Patrick" I said pointing behind me

"Right on. Where you from?" he said, still strumming away at his guitar

"Ohio" Patrick mumbled while putting his sheets on one of the top bunk beds.

Viktor acklowleged Patrick's answer with a nod and pulled a pair of white earbuds from his pocket and shoved them in his ears. I got all of my things set up on the top bunk adjacent to Patrick's before a short, pale, red haired boy stepped through the open screen door of the cabin.

"Hi" he said softly as he set his green duffle bag on the bed beneath mine.

Viktor temporarily removed his earbuds to ask the boy the same questions he asked Patrick and I. He said his name was Ethan and that he was from Chicago. Patrick and I had never been to a big city like that before so we passed the time and made small talk about what life was like in Chicago. The answers Ethan gave us were allways short and to the point and he never dared ask a question in return, so it was difficult to pull any useful information out of the conversation. However we did find out that Ethan was 12 and his parents were both lawyers and were very busy all the time. After about an hour of talking to Ethan three identical boys came tramping in, pushing and shoving eachother all the way. They were the Smith triplets. One was Allen, he was the loud one, the next was Adam, he was the tough one, and the third was Alex, he was the mean one. They were from somewhere in Pennsylvania, but Patrick and I really didn't care to talk to any of them. Once we were all in the cabin and had our stuff set up Viktor stood up and cleared his throat before saying.

"Alright dudes, here's the deal. If your all cool to me, I'll be cool to you. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do but you atleast have to be near the rest of us when we go somewhere. If you have to go to the bathroom it's right out the door and to the left. At night you all need to be in your beds at 8:00, I don't care if you sleep or not, but atleast keep it quiet enough so other people can sleep. Those are the only "rules" I have so let's go get some lunch then we'll see what we want to do for the rest of the day."

The walk from the cabins to the cafeteria was quiet and relaxing. The ten cabins that housed the other campers were arranged in a circle around two brick bath houses that were constantly lit up and operational. North of the cabins was the main entrance to the camp, to the east was a large gravel parking lot, to the south were two large fields used for various activities and to the west was a long dirt path that led to the cafeteria and other buildings like the nurse's office and the counsellars cabins. The dirt path that led to the cafeteria was cannopied by the strong branches of tall green pines on either side. We silently walked along the path while Viktor followed behind so he could see all of us. The cannopied dirt path opened up to a small clearing just big enough to hold the "Chow Hall."

The cafeteria was a white, rectangular, metal building that stood out sorely among the green backround. The bulding's facade held a large circular wooden sign that had the words "Chow Hall" burned into it in uniform capital letters. Lunch at Camp Northwood consisted of three parts. First, the counsellars would get up in front of all of the campers and sing a song or tell a story. Then, the campers were dismissed table by table to go get their food and eat. Finally, the counsellars would get up again and explain what activities were available for the day before letting us leave. All throughout lunch the Smith triplets made it a point to make fun of Ethan.

Ethan was a very nervous looking boy whos eyes always seemed to dart around the room like a gazelle watching out for a lion. The experience was very awkward for Patrick and I because even though we fealt bad for Ethan, the bullying wasn't terrible enough to make either of us take action against the triplets. After lunch Patrick and I spent most of our day at the pool meeting people and playing pool tag with Ethan. As we got to know Ethan better he seemed to relax and started having fun. We talked about different T.V shows, video games, school, girls and it became clear that Ethan was really grateful to have a few people he could confide in. From that moment on Ethan, Patrick and I became inseperable. With damp towels draped over our shoulders we made our way back to the cabin while the sun disappeared behind a pink and orange horizon.

Ethan, Patick and I were the first people back to the bunkhouse. After we took off our swimming trunks and put on fresh clothes we laid our towels over the railing outside the front door and sat in a circle on the floor with a deck of cards. By the time the Smith triplets got back to the cabin the three of us were all laughing and having a good time playing a game of go fish. Alex walked by, stopped for a minute and then kicked the deck of cards sending them in all directions.

"What's your problem?" Ethan yelled.

"Shut up faggot." Alex said as he walked away.

"Asshole..." Ethan said under his breath as he turned around to pick up the cards.

"What did you say?" Alex screamed as he ran towards Ethan

When Ethan turned around and saw Alex was right there he swung his fist and hit Alex on the left side of his jaw. Ethan threw an awesome punch that sent Alex to the ground crying, but unfortunatly he was outnumbered. In no time Adam had jumped on Ethan's back and wrestled him to the ground. Ethan's arms were pinned under Adam's legs and Adam had punched Ethan in the face four or five times before Patrick tried to pry Adam off of Ethan. Allen, who had just been watching the fight, grabbed Patrick's left shoulder and pulled it so they were face to face. Allen reared back to punch Patrick when my hand instinctivly shot out. With fingers outstretched the feeling started and Allen dropped to the floor writhing in pain and screaming for his life before he could hit Patrick. I moved my arm in line with Adam who was still on top of Ethan and made a pushing motion that threw Adam off of Ethan and across the cabin where he made contact with the unforgiving wooden wall. Ethan was lying on his back, face covered in blood, Adam was sitting against the back wall cradling his arm trying to hold back tears, and Alex was trying to help Allen out of his pain induced dilerium when Viktor walked in.

"Fuck!" he said as he stammered through the entry way

Viktor pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and called the nurse to come get Ethan,

Adam and Allen. Alex couldn't stop staring at me in complete shock. His face kept the same expression despite the tears still trickeling down his cheeks. Allen was still screaming on the floor as if someone had cut his arm off. It was cruel to let him continue suffering so I went into the feeling, thought about making the pain stop and with a snap of my fingers it did. When the pain stopped Allen's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he immediatly blacked out from shock. Viktor helped load each of the boys on to the nurse's modified golf cart and we watched as she took them back to her office. Viktor had never before seemed intimidating or scary to me, but the way his expression had changed after he was done helping the nurse was terrifying. He slowly walked to the back of the cabin and got four folding chairs. Viktor set three of the chairs up in a row and the fourth directly across from the other three.

"All of you, sit." he said calmly, pointing at three chairs in a row.

We each took a seat quickly and quietly, each of us afraid of what Viktor was going to do.

"I've seen a lot of fights before; I've even been in a few myself and I have never seen someone in as much pain as Allen was tonight." he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and with shaky hands took one from of the pack and lit it. "I'm going to ask each of you what happened, don't lie to me and don't interrupt whoever's talking. Tim, you can start."

I said "Ethan hit Alex and then Alex fell. Allen pinned Ethan so Patrick hit him and Allen overeacted and started screaming. Adam tried to hit Patrick because Patrick hit Allen so I pushed Adam against the wall, I think I broke his arm. Sorry."

"Patrick, tell me what happened." Viktor said after taking a puff of his cigarette.

"Tim explained what happened." Patrick said softly

"Alex?" Viktor said

"Yeah, what Tim said." Alex whimpered.

"Alright guys" Viktor said cheerfully as he put the cigarette out on the jeans covering his knee. He got up and turned out the lights before leaving for the nurse's office.

"If you tell anyone what really happened, I'll make you wish you were Allen." I whispered to Alex

"I won't" he said.

After that the three of us climbed in our bunks and tried to fall asleep to the noises of counsellars talking about what had happened.

Chapter Seven: Flying Under the Radar

I woke up early the next morning in the same place I had fallen asleep on Patrick's basement floor. I lazily turned my head and saw Patrick. He had one hand behind his head, the other half in his pants, legs crossed and his mouth was wide open. I started to chuckle a bit at the sight and lied there for about five minutes just watching him snore. The smell of pancakes started lingering carelessly in the air, and patrick woke up like a dog, sniffing the air as if trying to find the source. "Morning sunshine" I said mockingly "Morning" he repeated as he rubbed his eyes. It seemed as if last night had never happened, Patrick didn't say a word about it and I was in no hurry to open up and talk about the army man. We hurried upstairs and sat at the table across from each other while Mrs. Fox made us breakfest. She stood completely silent after serving us. Unknowing and nieve, Patrick and I began eating without paying any attention to her. "Boys I need to talk to you both about something" "What" patrick said with his mouth full, spitting little bits of pancake on to the table "Do either of you know a boy named DeeJay Jenkins?" Patrick and I exchanged a cold glance at eachother. I knew I could trust him to not give me up, but at the same time I knew he hated to lie. Mrs. Fox would have known I was in detention with him at the time, and would be wondering why I hadn't told her about his hand. "Yeah I know him, didn't he hurt his hand yesterday?" I said before taking another fork full of food. "It's a little more serious than that Timmy. The doctors couldn't reatach three of the fingers on his right hand, and had to operate to remove pieces of wood from his chest. He's really lucky to be alive" she said sincerley. An awkward silence filled the room, I wasn't quite sure what she wanted me to say. We sat quietly before Mrs. Fox told us there would be guidence counselers at the school on monday if we needed to talk, but until then she would have a spare ear if we needed it. She kissed Patrick on the head and slowly walked out of the room. Patrick took a deep breath once she left and shot me a smile then we headed back down to our basement home. Since we weren't doing anything and didn't have plans for the day Patrick got us some paper and sprawled out on the floor with several pencils of different sizes and colors and started to draw. Patrick was a really amazing artist, atleast at the time I thought he was. He had the uncanny ability to draw things that had already happened with scary accuracy. He was no Picasso but he got the point across. I was no good at drawing so I decided to try my hand at oragami. I started to make one of those little paper frogs that jump when you press down on the top part when I noticed Patrick staring at me. "Hi there?" I questioned "What are you doing" he asked "Making a frog" I replied "Really Tim" he asked dissapointedly "I'm bored, what do you want me to do?" I asked "No, not like that. I don't care if you make a frog or whatever, but you're really using your hands?" he said He had a point, I needed practice and paper was the easiest thing I could practice on. The feeling started and I found it was disgustingly easy to move paper after having lifted the army man. I also noticed that I was able to start the feeling without having to meditate first, I only had to think about the feeling and it started. I began moving the paper with ease and found it was more dificult to fold an object than it was to simply move one. Not only was it difficult to fold an object but it was even harder to specify the point in which I wanted the object to fold. After the first three or four frogs turning out like crap I decided to give it a break for a while and sat back in the cool leather chair just staring at the wall in front of me. I turned my head to see Patrick pointing a video camera at me. "Can I help you?" I joked "Oh this is great, this is going right on the internet." Patrick remarked "Whatever" I said and reclined back as I put my arms behind my head. The rest of the time I spent at Patrick's house was great, we just sat around in our boxers and watched T.V or played video games or played with action figures. It was a classic elementary school sleepover and there would be many more like it. Unfortunatly school wouldn't wait for boys to play and was the cruel but nessecary part of my childhood. Boondock Elementary School was one of my least favorite places in the world, but in retrospect it was actually a really nice school. Looking back, all of my problems were with students and if I would have asked a teacher for help I probably would have really enjoyed it. The actual school was shaped like a giant upper-case letter "T" the horizontal part of the "T" was the gymnasium / auditorium, and the vertical part was one big hallway with classrooms on alternating sides in asscending order from kindergarten to fourth grade. Patrick and I were in fourth grade at the time and it seemed like we were complete outcasts. We weren't weird, we just each seemed to be content with having eachother as friends and didn't need anyone else. However, the crazy concept of people putting themselves through hell so they don't have to be alone is what drives the world as we know it. The lesson here is that people at any age want to be known and will naturally follow people who are popular. It isn't nessecarily a bad thing if you are the person following the popular one, but when your the popular one and you think people like you for who you are, it's horrible when the truth comes back in your face. Fotunately for me I wouldn't have to worry about that lesson for the time being because nobody followed me or would go through hell to be around me, but that was alright because I had Patrick and he had me. The following Monday when Patrick and I showed up for math class Mrs. Hal was nowhere to be seen. It was about noon when the principal walked in, he whispered something to our substitute teacher and then asked me to follow him to his office. Our principal was a gray haired, ex navy-seal who seemed out of place at an elementary school, but loved children dearly. At 6' 10" and 350 pounds of muscle he was looked on by the students as a gental giant becuase of his caring nature and soft voice. I followed him down the long hallway and into his office which was adjacent to the kindergarten classroom. He opened the door and behind his desk stood a tall, short haired, skinny man in a police uniform. His shiny metal nametag had the word "JOHNSON" etched in it. The uniform seemed like it had just been cleaned because the yellow chevron showing his ranking as a private in the police department stood out against the navy blue backround. His uniform even seemed out place, as if it was too large for the pale heap of flesh and bone it was obscuring. "Private Johnson is going to ask you a few questions Mr. Banks, I'll be right outside when you are finished" the principal said before closing the door. The police officer stood for a long time staring at the door smiling as if he was waiting to be interupted in complete silence. Finally he licked his lips and whispered "Good morning Timothy." "It's just Tim" I said "This is no time for lying" he said as he sat down at Mr. Palinski's desk. He opened each one of the drawers in front of him as if he was looking for something before leaning back in the leather desk chair. He started whistling a tune and twirling a pen over each one of his knuckels and seemed to have gotten lost in his own world before I got up enough nerve to ask "Is there something you want to ask me?" "Who me? No, no no, Timothy, you're free to go!" I got up slowly half-expecting the policeman to tell me to sit back down and then hurridly opened the door and had half of my body in the hallway before I heard him say "Timmothy, please close the door. It would be very rude not to." I closed the door and then rushed straight past Mr. Palinski, down the long, cold hallway and into the safety of the math classroom.