Just the Five of Us

It was surreal.

The first thing that hit me was the boom. It rang in my skull making my teeth vibrate and my knees buckle at the sheer power of it. And then the brilliant color of the exploding building as material went flying in every direction assaulted my eyes rendering me nearly blind.

I was yanked down to the pavement and I felt someone heavy cover me. I was blasted by heat next and then showered with tiny pieces of flying concrete and cheeseburger despite the person on most of me.

And then it was silent, but only for a second as a familiar very alive and very excited voice rang through the now demolished McDonald’s plot.

“Missed me?”

I forced the person (it turned out to be Shean, for some crazy reason I wasn’t surprised) off of me to stare with wide eyes at Ray.

He stood like a god on a giant piece of wall. His wings arched high above him and they glinted in the fire light. His eyes glowed and a giant grin dominated his face. He launched off of the piece of concrete and flew at the monster that used to be the blond woman.

She was sprawled on the ground bleeding heavily from various wounds. Her friends were buried in rubble and she was completely alone. He crashed into her attacking viciously with multiple blows. She screeched, her claws attempting to tear at him but he seemed so much faster than I had ever seen him. His knee contacted her face for the fifth or sixth time and she literally exploded on the spot.

We all just watched with giant eyes as he whooped throwing his arms out. He spun on his heal then turned and gave a triumphant grin. There was a dead silence as he loped over to us and stopped in front of us.

“You ditched me in a tree,” he said letting his euphoric expression slide into irritation.

The rest of us had our mouths open and our eyes hanging off our faces as we stared up at him. Silence coated us and the only thing you could here was the fire crackling in the rubble of the McDonalds.

Adrian broke the silence.

“You’re dead.” He said with the awe of a five year old.

Ray frowned and looked at himself, “No I’m not, at least I don’t think I am…”

“RAY!” I screamed and jumped him. He stumbled backwards, but hugged me tightly as I started sobbing onto his shirt.

“Hey Kristin,” he murmured sadly before letting go and turning to the other three with a slight smile on his face.

Adrian assaulted him next with a powerful scream that could have been rage, but sounded more like happiness. Ray laughed as Adrian legs wound around his waist, and his arms locked around his neck.

“Ray…” Darren was there too and we all hugged him trying not to cry.

I pulled away as I noticed Shean approaching with a furious expression. Adrian and Darren also took steps back. Ray’s looked at the ground chewing his bottom lip as Shean stopped in front of him.

“You moron,” Shean snapped.

Ray looked up at him with huge eyes, “Shean, I had too…”

“You didn’t have to anything Ray,” Shean nearly screamed at him. He grabbed his shirt and ripped it down the middle to reveal an X were a bullet wound should have been. It was red and it glowed softly. Just looking at it made my skin crawl, the amount of evil that seemed to be pounding in it was intense and scary.

Ray stared down at it with sad eyes before he glared up at Shean.

“Oh, so you think it would have been better if you were the one with Hades signature on your chest?” he hissed up at Shean, “You are the Grim Reaper heir; you think that would go over well?”

Shean eyes glowed with fury, “You moron. You were dead. Do you hear me? D.E.A.D.” he spelled it out slowly for Ray who was looking seriously annoyed.

“Well, I’m not anymore now am I?” he snapped back.

Shean stood there looking ready to murder.

“Well, I thought you were gone for good! I didn’t know you would come back! How the hell did you do it anyway?” Shean shrieked.

“Shean,” Darren cut in, “Not now…”

Sirens suddenly sounded in the distance. My head whipped in the direction of the highway as I began to wonder exactly how much trouble we would be in if we were caught. Police and firefighters had probably gotten wind of this and were on their way here.

“Ditch the car,” Shean said and turned and sprinted away without even looking back at the rest of us.

“He’s just upset,” Darren sighed with an annoyance, “He’s terrible at showing his emotions the way he wants them to come out. He’s always been that way—”

“Darren” Adrian snapped, “No one cares!”

Darren scowled at him before scooping me up without even asking. I shrieked and Ray laughed softly at me. We took off after Shean. I had no idea where we were headed or how the boys knew that Shean had come this way, but we moved along without a glitch. The entire time I was grinning like a fool from the fact that Ray was back. Of course I planned on getting answers as to how he came back and exactly what that creepy X was but for now, that could wait.

Finally we caught up with Shean in a secluded area of woods. It amazed me how much forest there was in this area. It was very convenient seeing as we would soon become wanted car thieves. Mr. Arty couldn’t hide it forever, plus we had left the car on the scene of an explosion. Speaking of which…

“Ray,” I asked as Darren carefully set me down in the clearing that Shean had found. “Did you blow the building up?”

He gave me a cheeky smile, “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to do that—”
Shean was next to us then with an expressionless face. He gave Ray an irritated look,

“Explain. You were dead.”

Ray sighed, “I don’t think I was really dead.” He shrugged, “I think the bullet was treated with something strange that made me look dead.” He pulled his tattered shirt away to reveal the X, “It must have left that too. The mark of the dead. But I’m not a zombie because if I was…I wouldn’t have any of the emotions that I had before.”

“Like what?” I asked.

He looked up at me with clouded eyes. I got a strange feeling as I tried to read the emotion in them. It was a complicated twist, but by the way he was looking at me, I could tell I had something to do with it.

He smiled suddenly it looked a little forced and pained, “Oh you know, I still care about you guys, and I hate Damon’s guts. It’s still there.”

“People with that X are zombies?” I asked.

The boys gave each other uneasy glances before they all smiled at me, even Shean.

“Yeah, but it looks like Ray somehow wasn’t affected,” Darren laughed slightly.

I frowned. How dumb did they think I was? They had serious issues with telling me the whole truth. I didn’t press them because I had a feeling that I wouldn’t get anything even if I tried.

Ray turned to Shean, “Would you stop hating me if I apologized?” he asked softly with his head hanging slightly.

Shean gritted his teeth, “Even if you apologized it wouldn’t change the fact that I literally cried for you in a parking lot in front of so many people.”

“Shean, you’re asking him to apologize for jumping in front of a bullet for you?” Adrian asked with a raised eyebrow.

Shean scowled and then sighed, “Fine. Whatever, I guess. Ray, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been mad at you. I just…I care okay. I care a lot, about all of you. Even if I don’t show it.”

Ray gave him a forced half smile, “It’s okay.”

Shean nodded with a sigh, “I guess I should go steal another car. We need new cloths and maybe a proper bed to sleep in. I’ll be back.” he started walking away and I heard Ray mutter something that sounded a lot like:

“Even if you cried, Shean, I bet it wasn’t as much as I have.”

I gave him a weird look but he didn’t notice me. He just stared at the ground looking torn. I didn’t understand why, he had just come back from the dead!

“Ray?” Adrian asked touching Ray’s arm, “Are you tired?”

Ray nodded, and then grinned slightly, “Blowing up a building takes a lot out of a guy. Then taking down a desolate single handedly is also pretty tiring. I guess I should rest for a bit.”

“What’s a desolate?” I scrambled for some form of information.

Darren answered my question as Adrian went to annoy Ray as he searched for a place to sleep.

“Desolates are the bad spirits that couldn’t make it out of the skin between the world of the living and the world of the dead. They got concentrated together and took on a solid form. Once they take on a solid form, they can break through the skin and go rampaging stealing life energy from people. You can make deals with them to do your dirty work, but there is always a price.”

“What is—”

“Not now Kristin, I think we should all go to bed.” With that he turned and left me standing there fuming.

I never, ever, got the full story.

NEVER!