Haunting Visions

The feather light snow floated downwards in front of them, lightly dusting the earth with specks of white. Their breath blew out in short puffs of air, clearly visible in front of them. Another winter day...in Hell.

"You know, I always theorized that if I died and went to hell, at least it would be warm. But I was clearly mistaken." Lyric Mansfield muttered as she and Keely Tormont picked their way across the frozen high school parking lot.

"I can't continue to live in this." Keely shared her frustration as she chose each footstep with care.

The weather was always changing, quite often just over night. Comparable to that of a teenage with mood swings.

"Well," Lyric sighed and combined her books into one pile, holding them in the crook of one arm now. "Just think, ten months from now you'll never have to set foot back here again."

Keely took a moment to survey her surroundings as they continued walking. The school, nestled near a mini forest was also bordered by a football field and the road that lead directly into town.

Town consisted mostly of one main street lined with original and and new stores. On one end of the main street was the old town cemetary, though no ond had been buried there for years. At the other end of the street was the old town church. She knew this was because after someone's death, the horse and buggy carrying the coffin would parade through town, in a funeral procession of sorts from one end to the other. Church to cemetary. That way, at some point the entire town could pay their respects. And she knew all this because of Diesel. His abilities to see the past, present and future was a great source of the town's historic information.

"But, it's not the town itself," Keely protested. "It's the weather. I hate it."

Lyric nodded in agreement and shivered as they neared the front doors. She wrapped her bare hand around the steel doorhandle, pulling it open and letting Keely enter first.

The school was oddly shaped. It consisted of one long hallway with a few off buildings. Painted blue and purple and white, both sides of the hallway were lined with lockers from the entrance to the exit. Near the entrance through a single blue door on the right was the office and the library. In the middle of the hall, through the double doors on the left was the cafeteria. Across the hall from those doors were the washrooms. Near the end of the hall through the purple double doors on the right were the gymnasium and locker rooms, and out the exit doors lead directly to the football field. For a highschool of a mere three hundred, it wasn't a bad size.

"Yo, lookin' good, Tormont," A shorter, but well built boy with a shaved head reached around his buddies as they walked by. The second his palm connected with the back pocket of Keely's jeans, Diesel Englewood was there.

"Hey," Diesel growled, his blue eyes turnnig gray and narrowing, locking with the shaved headed boy's peepers in particular. "Kicking your ass would be a pleasure."

Like most guys did, the boy cowered and slunk back into his group of buddies.

"Damn Juniors," He growled again before returning his attention to the girls.

"Good morning, Diesel."

He glanced at Lyric and offered her a quick smile. His blue eyes returning to their sparkle. "Hey, Lyric," he acknowledged her out loud before wrapping his well muscled arms loosely around Keely's waist from behind.

Keely turned to the left slightly and stopped in front of her locker before turning back to Lyric. "We'll see you in the cafeteria for lunch?"

Lyric nodded. "Yeah, thanks for the ride." She smiled before carrying on down the hallway.

"I saw that jackass touch you this morning." Diesel muttered with distaste lightly near her ear before nipping at her dangly earrings. "I knew I had to get here before you, but my car didn't wanna start." He frowned and released her to stand up straight as she opened her locker and replaced her books onto the middle shelf before shrugging out of her jacket.

"Of all the things you could see, Diesel. You see something as piddly as that?" she asked with a laugh as she hung up her coat.

His deep chuckle told her he was in good spirits today. "What can I say? I choose my visions subjectively."

Keely grabbed onto her math text and binder then closed the door and turned around to face him. "Isn't it a requirement of your visions that you have to touch something of the persons?" she asked very quietly as he moved in front of her, blocking her vision of anyone else in the hallway but him.

He smiled again, his perfect white teeth showing slightly as his lips tugged up at the corners. "You left your sweater at my place last night."

Keely thought back. After watching a movie with his family she'd simply put her coat on to leave and had completely forgotten about her sweater.

Usually she wasn't so careless. With Diesel, she was always mindful of what he touched that belonged to her. She didn't need him seeing her family lineage, or what she planned on doing a minute from now, or a year from now.

She wanted to find ways to show him on her own, and for the most part, he was cooperative. But it was a big relationship disability. Not that her own abilities weren't hindering.

"What else did you see?" she asked him carefully as he slipped his hand into her own, tugging her towards him.

"A few things," he admitted, his thumb sliding gently back and forth over the top of her hand. "I'm really trying though, Kee."

She nodded in appreciation. She knew that even touching her as softly as he was now, he was fighting back images, good and bad, past and present, all flooding his brain. Something she imagined would be incredibly difficult even for how strong he is.

He shifted his weight slightly and released her hand. When she was deep in thought, he said the images became more clear and harder to resist.

"How was your night?" he asked casually, trying desperately for a subject change.

She had an urge to ask him what he saw, but she decided against it.

"It was alright," she answered truthfully. "Gage is excited to tell us something."

Diesel locked eyes with her and smiled. "Spying on the rockstar are we?"

Keely laughed. Her ability to hear people's thoughts was both a blessing and a curse. But thankfully, like Diesel's ability, her's too came with restricions. She only heard people's thoughts when she was sleeping, and even then, only the strongest ones came through clearly.

"I couldn't help it," she admitted with a sigh. "You know Gage. Once he's excited about something, it seems like that's all he can think about. And he was thinking bout it hard last night."

He nodded in response before directing her into the hallway traffic. "Yes. Well, if he was thinking about it all night. I'm sure we'll hear about it at lunch."

"I know we will."

He chuckled and attempted holding her hand again. "Well then lets go, the sooner we get to class, the sooner we get it over with."