• Seven Years Before
    Tory

    I sat in the passenger seat of a black four-wheel drive. Jamie was in the driver seat. He wouldn’t let me drive; he said ‘he was more likely to die by my driving than NightDust’. I wasn’t that bad, I may have cut a corner or two and went a few kilometres over the speed limit but it wasn’t too bad. We hadn’t talked all night and it was rounding off to be two in the morning; our shift had started at seven.
    Jamie had threatened that I’d have to talk but he hadn’t tried to make me yet, which I was grateful for because I really didn’t feel like it.
    “So…” Jamie said. Maybe I had spoken too soon. “How are you?”
    I stared out the passenger window. “How do you think I am?” I said, my voice bordering hostile.
    “Not good, heartbroken and betrayed. Take your pick,” he said with a small laugh.
    I didn’t turn to acknowledge his comment; I glared out the window as I tried to focus all my anger.
    He sighed. “Come on, Tor, you can’t ignore this forever. What are you going to say to Noah when he asks what’s wrong?”
    “If I talk to him ever again, you mean.”
    “Tor, be serious.”
    I gritted my teeth. “I’m not going to ignore this and as for Noah, he can figure it out on his own.”
    “Tor… You just can’t ignore this,” he said.
    “I hate him,” I mumbled, even I couldn’t convince myself of that.
    “You don’t mean that. You love him,” Jamie said in a baby tone.
    I laughed aloud. “Ha! Love is for ******** idiots.”
    “Tor, there is no need for that kind of thinking,” he said.
    This time I turned toward him and shot him a glare that could kill. “Excuse me? I believe I have a right to think however I want!” I ranted. “Of course, I’m going to get angry, Jamie, he ******** broke my heart. For all I care, he can go get AIDS from some bimbo down the street.”
    He blinked. “Tor, you don’t really mean that. You don’t actually know if he meant it, Chuck was just stirring him up.”
    “Whose side are you on? You were there, you heard him,” I said back, raising my voice a little.
    “He can be very convincing when he wants to, you know that. Go talk to him when –” He didn’t get to finish.
    I had the car door open and was getting out so fast that he almost missed it; I didn’t want to hear any advice because I knew what it was going to be. I walked off in the direction of a park, not caring that it was totally black.
    “TOR!” Jamie yelled from behind. I didn’t turn, I just kept walking. “Tory, get back here,” he said from a closer range.
    Yeah, right, like I was going to go back to the car now. I kept walking further into the park, feeling like I’d get lost and everything would get lost too. It helped, being in the middle of nowhere with no one around me.
    “Tory! What are you doing?” Jamie said as he caught up to me. He pulled me to a stop, grabbing my arm so I wouldn’t walk away again.
    I stared up at him, he was at least a foot taller than me, and looked into his dark blue eyes. He was my best friend, my brother, and I wasn’t treating him like it. He was trying to help me get through this and I was throwing it back in his face. Tears started up again.
    “Oh, Tor, it’s okay,” he said, pulling me into the circle of his arms. I cried into his chest, he hushed me and patted my back.
    “Why?” I cried, “why, why, why, why!”
    “Shh, Tor, I’ve got you.” He hugged me close, with arms that were safe and warm.
    An hour later; we had ended up sitting on the ground in the park. I was sitting in his lap, with anyone else it would be awkward but not with him. He was always looking after me when no one else would, watching my back when I didn’t want him to. I loved him like he was my own family.
    “You alright now, Sissy?” he asked, his chin moved on top of my head. He used that annoying nickname that he had come up with when we were children, I hated it.
    “Yeah…” was all I could mumble, I would have nodded but my head was tucked under his chin.
    “Come on, get up. Our shift was up ages ago,” he said. He was right; it was coming up to four and our shift had finished at three.
    “Huh, okay,” I said, getting up. I put my hand out to help him up, but just as he took my hand, I spotted something behind us. I froze.
    “Tor, what’s u–” Jamie started to say before I pulled him into a crouch behind the bushes that were near.
    “Shh!” I said back, kneeling down. I was keeping an eye on the four NightDust people that were walking not far from us.
    NightDust were people just like us but they used experimental drugs to try to become more powerful, it usually didn’t work and the side effects included red irises or at least a red tint. And insanity. They would do anything to be stronger. The bad thing about them experimenting on themselves was when they ran out of NightDust agents, they started to take people from other agencies. Most of NightDust were Drake Agents that were seeking more power. The Drake family had lost one to them; Darren was Landen’s oldest son and was set to receive the title of Commander.
    I felt Jamie straighten next to me; he had finally spotted the group too. I didn’t know what he wanted to do but my training instantly kicked in and I went into defence mode. Juniors weren’t allowed to carry any weapons on their person, it was a rule. Jamie and I had one because our guardian gave it to us. I reached for where I usually hid it, in the holster around my waist. When my hand met empty space, my eyes widened, it wasn’t there.
    I must have left it in the car, along with my phone, I thought, oh, ********. We were in trouble. Maybe if we didn’t draw attention to ourselves, they wouldn’t spot us. A plan started to form in my head, I had to tell Jamie.
    “Jamie,” I mumbled without moving my mouth. I kept my head forward and my eyes trained on the enemy.
    “What?” he said back in the same way.
    “Don’t make any sudden movements.”
    “Why?”
    “Because we can’t fight them, I left my gun in the car,” I said, feeling stupid for making such a mistake.
    “God damn it, Tor. I told–”
    “Hey look, there’s a Drake car parked over there but no one’s in it. Maybe they’re around here,” one of the NightDust men yelled from our car was.
    “Oh, s**t,” we both mumbled.
    Now, I was starting to panic, I had never actually been this close to NightDust. Juniors were given areas that practically had no activity in them… I just guess we were unlucky. I started to hyperventilate. How were we going to get out of this?
    “Tor…Tor, calm down, don’t pass out on me,” Jamie mumbled as I felt him shift closer to me.
    “When have I ever passed out?” I mumbled, trying to calm my breathing down.
    “You know what, never mind. Let’s just focus on this.”
    I watched the NightDust people; how they moved, how well they worked in a group. I was looking for any faults in their defence and I spotted one. Even though they were more powerful than a couple of juniors, they didn’t seem very fast or able to work as a group. We could work with that.
    My special talent, strategies.
    Without taking my eyes off them, I felt around for a stone and found one. I picked it up and waited for the best moment to throw it. It arose when their friend came back. I threw the stone in the opposite direction from us.
    “Tory, what are you doing?!” Jamie hissed, pulling me closer to him.
    “Shh,” I hushed him. I didn’t bother to move because it would only make him worry more.
    The NightDust people turned to where I’d thrown the stone, one spoke and they all started towards the stone. My plan had worked but for some reason I had this feeling that something wasn’t right.
    “Come on, Jamie, let’s go,” I said, pulling away from him.
    “Wha–” he went to ask but stopped and nodded, I helped him to his feet.
    We started towards the other side of the forest; just beyond the forest was a Drake building that we could get help from. We sped walked through the park, we couldn’t run because they would hear us if we did. We hadn’t been caught yet, which I made me hopeful but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.
    “Come on, Tor, hurry up,” Jamie said when I started to lag behind.
    “It’s… not my… fault; you’re… like, four inches taller than me…” I said, breathless from trying to keep up with him.
    He snorted. “And? That means nothing.”
    “It… does so… it means your legs are longer… than mine…” I said. I was now running to keep up with him.
    “Excuses, excuses,” he said back.
    It wasn’t an excuse; he teetering just over six feet and I was only five’ seven. We both looked like a normal teenagers, I had wavy strawberry blonde hair which people mistook for red and pale blue eyes. Jamie was the typical surfy type, blonde hair with blue eyes.
    He was at least a couple of meters in front of me, so I had to do short bursts of running to keep up.
    “Stop running, Tor!” he hissed at me.
    “Stop walking so fast!” I hissed back.
    It was a mistake, Jamie turned to look at me and he wasn’t watching where he was going. But I saw it, there was a force field up ahead and Jamie was going to run into it. My eyes widened.
    “Oh, my God… Jamie, look out!” I yelled as I took off running towards him.
    But I was too late.

    -I knew something like this could happen, I always thought that my life was going to be a quiet, ordinary one. But that wasn’t how it was going to happen.