A flash of anger crossed my face. "Why are you asking me? I couldn't care less about it, he got me good cause he sneaked behind me like a rat" I drove faster, the tires hissing on wet tar.
Joel shrugged. "I'm just saying, forget about that either way the whole situation that our group got into, isn't it really weird. You ever think about those people? The bodies? No plates on the car, no phones. Like they were from a different planet, and how we survive the crash and the freaking powers we have now"
I heard the curiosity, the worry and even a tone of covertness. But another question stabbed: the deep-voiced man who'd walked away at the crash. Why did he leave? I had needed eye contact back then; I couldn't have erased that man's memory. And yet the man had gone away like something called its name, all of a sudden. Something didn't add up.
"Maybe a coincidence," Joel offered. "Or maybe your power went supernova under pressure. You never know."
I let the idea hang between us. "Maybe," I said. "Or maybe he knew more than us."
I dropped Joel off. As I pulled away, Joel called after me: "Gut feeling, man. Things are about to get interesting."
An empty laugh bubbled from me that wasn't laughter at all. Interesting, I thought. That's one word for it.
I went home with one thought looping in my head: I had saved Thea from Ronnie. I needed to be closer to her now, to protect her. To prove that what I did was the right choice. To make everything right.
My thinking process went: Well now, that rat is finally out of the way, there is nothing between me and thea…. Ohhh how great would it feel to be loved by thea…. To hold her hands, to hug her, to sit beside her, to drive around town with her …. I cannot wait. Her eyes, they are like the moon itself, her skin glows like the star and her voice it's like the birds chirping soothing with a melodious tone …. Soon she will be mine and mine alone. She will probably be sad over that dead rat…. But well that's a good opportunity to become her emotional support and her source of happiness, she will be attached to me, we will be together like the birds of a feather, inseparable and enmeshed." As I smile and stare at the ceiling running scenarios in my head about the supposed romance that is about to happen with me and thea, I felt asleep feeling euphoric.
Morning came, it was a beautiful day with the sun shining bright, clear sky and the morning birds chirping. My mom made my favourite breakfast today, I was in a really good mood. My dad and I had a good convo after a long time, this was a rare moment, my mom watched and listened with a smile. I was ranting about my academic progress, about Thea, how she loves me and about my three idiotic friends and their foolish behaviours, which always brings us trouble.
I went back to my room after a good quality time with my family, I opened social media that morning out of habit, a small ritual. Suddenly it got cloudy and rain rattled at his window as my thumb scrolled. Then my body stopped. Screen bright. Eyes wider. Thea's face, I read a caption I could not believe.
She'd hanged herself the night before.
The notification blurred. My chest hollowed until sight tunneled. Grief hit like a fist; a sense of rage; I was consumed by the feeling of a cold numbness of someone who has stepped over a line and cannot go back. Images flooded me: Ronnie convulsing at the party; the hospital bed; Thea's grief audible in my memory. I remember the smile Thea always gave me back then, even if it was out of politeness or for a malicious intent, a pretty girl had never treated me that way before her, she made me feel seen, special. As her image flooded me, I fell to the floor, clutching my head and repeating the same question into my pillow until my voice dissolved: "Why… God… why?"
Days blurred. I stopped leaving the house. The world continued without me: funerals, messages, condolences in flat fonts, people performing grief for an hour and then going home. Vanzz, James, and Joel came to the house eventually, awkward and careful, like men entering a room with a sleeping animal.
"We should go out," Joel said, trying to peel us away from the quiet. "Like old days. Drive. Drink."
We did, more out of ritual than joy. The car smelled like stale beer and regret. Conversation died in predictable places.
"You could have done better," Joel said at one point, the pity in his voice a cut.
"What?" I snapped.
"Nothing," Joel shrugged, eyes narrow. "I'm just saying."
Vanzz's voice, from the back, was softer and more dangerous. "Don't let it consume you, Ducce. Don't let the grief eat you, and you Joel you stay quiet you are already crossing the line, and don't let the power consume you guys"
James laughed a nervous little laugh. "I hope none of you are using it right now."
Joel snorted. "Why would I? You lot are boring."
Tension tightened in the atmosphere, almost suffocating. The easy camaraderie had dissolved; the shared horror had left gaps in the friend group. I watched myself through the side view mirror and saw only shadows of myself and the life I had promised and lost.
At home, the questions multiplied. The crash, the vanished bodies, the magical container, the man with the deep voice, the granny's face and her last struggle, thea's stupid decision all of it tangled in my head. Thea's suicide became a knot i could not unknot. If this world is broken, maybe it can be fixed. If reality was malleable, if memories could be pried and rewritten, maybe something larger is going on. I remembered reading an interesting article a few months ago about a theory that proposes the idea that we could be living in a simulation.