Running From Fate [Part Eight]

Dreams came scarcely, if they ever did come at all. Nightmares were a more common occurrence. The piercing screams and screeching tires have forever plagued Justin Blacks deepest, darkest nightmares. He couldnt remember a time he had not wakened in the dark of the night in a cold sweat, panting and wishing he could just forget. That was his only wish, to forget the worst day of his life-the day that he last saw life in his father's eyes.
This morning was different. He had slept from the first moment his head hit his pillow until the latest rock song began to stream out of Justin's alarm clock. He had awoken to a smile on his face and a memory of a dream- a dream that held her face. He knew it was a dream, yet he couldnt help but think it really was her, smiling back at him.
The morning was all too unfamiliar that it took on a surreal feeling. Justin found himself softly singing 'Pretty Girl'? over and over again to himself as he waiting for the bread to toast. His siblings, Luke and Lilly, looked at him with rising confusion.
"Uh, Justin, what are you doing?" Luke asked, grabbing a bowl from the cabinet for his cereal. You could barely see the young, teenage boys blue eyes behind the bangs of his long blonde hair.
"Hmm?," Justin slowly brought himself back to reality and stared at his brother and sister, "Oh, yeah, uh, nothing."
Lilly lifted her tiny, child frame into a high stool behind the island in the kitchen, "Okay..."
"What's with you, lately?," Luke asked, "Your, like, overly happy. Its really weird. Stop smiling!"
"I'm not smiling."
"Yes, you are! Stop it!"
"Wait, what's wrong with smiling!" Lilly squeaked from behind the counter.
Luke shook his head and sighed, "Nothing. I just dont see why Justin's doing it so much. Seriously, stop!"
"I am not smiling," Justin insisted, but quickly lifted his hand to touch his lips as Luke turned his back. He could feel the ever present curve in his lips that formed a happily content smile. Justin forced it from his face, with little success.
Justin quickly finished his breakfast, avoiding any further questions from Lilly and especially Luke. He noticed he was just right on time so he was five minutes late for school.
He couldnt even force himself to rush into the school as he got out of his jeep. He walked at a normal pace to his locker and dumped his books to the bottom shelf. He swung his bookbag over his shoulder and made his way to the rest of his day.
He couldnt even find the dread in taking his usual pop quizzes or a five page calculus test. He only smiled as he received the paper. He didnt exactly know what caused this day to start so well. He couldnt even tell himself why a smile seemed to be plastered on his face throughout the entire day, but he didnt really care to ask.
His smile only seemed to grow as Max made her appearance in History class, fifteen minutes late. She gave a quick smile to Mrs. Hammond, who sighed and shook her head while Max sauntered down her isle until she settled into the last seat, right next to Justin.
Max turned to him and grinned, unaware of the stares that she was attracting to herself. Justin suddenly felt mesmerized by her features, causing him much trouble to turn away from her face. He forced himself to stare at the black board full of notes, but continually shifted his eyes towards Max, who seemed lost in thought.
The look of thought that covered her face made her look serious and stern. The light had gone from her eyes and replaced with darkness.
"Test Friday! Study, guys! I want to see test scores much higher than last weeks," Mrs. Hammond yelled over the ringing bell that sounded next period.
Max noticeably flinched at the unexpected noise and slowly rose to her feet.
"Are you...okay?" Justin asked, slowly since she still looked lost in thought.
Max shook her head and tried to cause her smile to open up the sparkle in her eyes. She failed, "Im fine, just really tired from last weekend." Her next attempt came close to making a sparkle.
Justin nodded, though he knew there was something else.
Max shifted her bag on her shoulder, causing a newspaper to fall from it. She scrambled to reach for the paper, but it fell on Justins side of the desk. He grabbed it before Max had a chance to get to it.
Justin's hands held the latest copy of the towns newspaper. That didnt surprise him that much, since he didnt exactly think Max to be the type to read the newspaper with her morning coffee. The thing that surprised him was the section it was opened to. He stared intently at the title labeled 'Obituaries'.
He could see a red circle around the face of one of the dead and markings, scribbled in red, underneath the caption.
Max grabbed for the paper, quickly stuffing it away in her bag as her face flushed with color. Justin had never seen Max look more flustered and was unsure how to respond.
"What are you doing with that...?" Justin asked, unsure he wanted to know the answer. He couldn't help but wonder why the perfect impersonation of an angel would read that part of a newspaper.
"Nothing," Max snapped, quickly, "It's none of your business, anyways. This is mine-not yours. Why are you looking at my things?"
"It fell right on my desk..."
"So? That doesn't mean you have to look at it! I never gave you permission to look at my things!" Max's cheeks began to burn with a deep red as her fists clenched tightly.
"Whoa, whoa, Max," Justin tried to soothe her, "I'm sorry. I didn't think you would mind. I won't do that again...just calm down."
Max took a deep breath, trying to regain her calm state. She tried to relax, but she still held herself with a rough posture, uncomfortable in her surroundings.
"Max...what's wrong?"
"I have to go...I'm going to be late for class," Max looked around the room, anywhere but Justin.
Before Justin could stop her she was out of the door, rushing to flee the scene.
Justin stood in confusion to what took place. His day was perfect. He was finally what he might consider 'happy' and then...
They day finished without any other sort of problems. Justin spoke quickly with Gabe about last weekend's events. Gabe seemed utterly pleased in Justin's change of heart. Justin's friend barely seemed to notice is recently short attention span as his mind kept on wandering back to History class.
Justin's jeep reluctantly came to a stop in front of his house. He slammed his door shut with much force, unable to contain his emotions any longer.
He didn't understand and that made him beyond furious. He was livid. He wanted so badly to understand something that Max seemed to only want to hide.
Was it him? Did she just not want to tell him? Was she only angry with him?
He didn't know the answers, driving him even farther up the wall.
Justin walked down the hallway of his house, nearing the stairs, before he hear his mother's voice.
"Justin? Are you home?" She called from the living room, probably dusting.
"Yeah"
"Well, come in here. I want to talk to you."
Justin sighed a heavy sigh, before he made his way into the living room. He could see his mother, sitting comfortably in a reclining chair, a book neatly placed in her lap.
Justin looked at her posture and could tell that she didn't just was to have quick Q and A section. She wanted to actually have a talk.
He sighed an even heavier sigh, not seeing how his day turned into this. He plopped down on the couch, facing where his mother sat and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table.
"Justin! Feet down!" She hissed.
He groaned and placed his feet back down on the carpet, not seeing any point in arguing.
She folded her hands professionally over her books cover, "Justin, have you heard about the...well have you read the newspaper lately?"
Justin's face hardened, feeling a surge a frustration rush through him, "Not really, why?"
"Well...there has apparently been some kind of...trouble in Rosling, you know that town up to the north?"
Justin nodded, not sure at what she was getting at.
"Yes, well, there have been a few...deaths in Rosling and the papers have been going a little crazy about them. The town was always so safe, so protected. Now there are three unexplainable deaths right in the center of all the 'safety'"
"Oh, okay," Justin could still feel the frustration running through his veins, "Mom, why are you telling me this?"
"Because I dont want you going anywhere near there. Do you here me? I cant have that happen to you. Do you here me, Justin? You can't go to Rosling!"
"Okay, okay. No Rosling. I got it." Justin answered quickly, wanting to end his mother's fretting.
"You have to promise me that you will go no where near there."
"Okay, I promise. I will go nowhere near Rosling."
She nodded slowly, going back to her normal composure. She gently pushed the frames of her glasses farther up the bridge of her nose and pulled a strand of hair behind her ear.
"I just can't have that happen to you, too. Not to your brother or your sister, either. I can't"
Justin sighed, "Mom, can you stop talking like that. I'm not going to die anytime soon, and either is Luke and Lily. Stop worrying."
His mother smiled a sweet and caring smile, a smile that could comfort even the most weary. She nodded again, before Justin rose from his seat and began to leave the living room.
"Wait! Come over here for a second."
Justin slowly turned back to his mother and moved closer to her until her was standing in front of where she was sitting.
"More promises?"
She smiled her sweet smile again, "No. Just thank you. Thank you for helping me with-everything, with you brother and sister, just everything." She touched his arm affectionately.
"No problem," He muttered before he turned and headed up to his room, not wanting to deal with any more of that topic.
He still hated to talk about his father. He didn't want to bring it up since he had done such a good job to push it away. He dealt with it better on his own, something his mother would never understand. She needed to express her feelings to control them, while Justin's got out of control out in the open. He needed to keep them hidden to keep sane.
He had been lying on his bed, starring at his ceiling for far too long for him to remember. He memorized the imperfections of the paint, every line and every curve so that he could tell where the brush began and ended its movements along the ceiling.
He had his eye stuck on one long curve raised in the paint as he heard his cell phone ringing from the night stand on the side of his bed. He looked at it, disgusted by the sound. He wished for it to stop as soon as the second ring drowned out.
For some reason he could not explain he rolled over and exaimed the cover of the phone. He looked at an unknown number and grew curious to the caller.
He groaned and caved as he raised the phone to his ear. He could hear someone softly muttering 'this is so stupid' over and over again.
"Hello?"
The voice stopped abruptly and hesitated, almost seeming to wish Justin didnt pick up.
"Who is this?"
The voice breathed in a short breath, "You wanted to know why, right?"
"What?" Justin couldnt recognize the voice enough for it to match anyone familiar. It was muffled by static, but he couldn't help but be curious to find out who was calling him, before he could hang up, "Who is this?"
"About this morning, I'm guessing you want to know why I went crazy." More muffled noises rushed through the line.
Understanding washed through Justin's system, "Oh...yeah, actually. It's been driving me a little bit crazy to since I don't know how I made you so mad at me."
Max sighed, "It wasn't you," A new wave of static, "I don't have that much time. This has to be quick."
"Okay, then just tell me."
"No...I can't really just tell you. This is something that you will have to see for yourself..."
Justin couldn't comprehend exactly what Max meant, "What do you mean?"
"You really want to know, right? Like, if you dont want to know just say so, because...just say if you don't want to."
"No, I want to know," Justin answered, probably too quickly.
"Are you sure?" She asked
"I want to know."
Max breathed out a gust of air and muttered irritably under her breath, "Right, of course he wants to know...What am I doing? This is so stupid!"
"Max...?"
"Do you know where the clearing just before the line of trees in the outskirts of Rosling is?
"Yeah..." Justin tried to make a quick connection between Rosling, the deaths, and Max, but failed.
"If you really have to know, meet me there at nightfall and I can explain,"
Justin felt his grip on his phone tighten, unsure of what to do.

The morning of pure bliss felt like miles away.

Adam knew the fruit was forbidden , but he reached out to grab it for his own...
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