Our Future

Gabriel suggested we look up the title of the book and figure out who Joey and Daniel really were and where the book tour was. Now the issue came up of how were we going to get to it if it was far away? We didn’t have money for plane tickets. ‘Why would we be shown it if we couldn’t get there?’ came up, too. It had to be possible or it’d be pointless.

We searched the book’s title and what popped up was an image of Joey’s face. His full name was Joey Ray Castle. He lived in Massachusetts, it was close to us so we’d be borrowing Gabriel’s parent’s car if we went or taking a few hundred bucks to get there by bus.

Boston was the city the book tour was in and we lived in Waltham. About half an hour away.

How were we supposed to explain to his parents why we needed the car? We couldn’t even drive because neither of us had our licenses.

I glanced at Gabriel to see if he had any ideas but he was still looking at the computer screen reading still.

He finally looks over at me.

“We’ll have to take the bus or train,” Gabriel hints.

We didn’t know how long we’d be gone for though. Where were we supposed to tell Gabriel’s mom we were going? We had no excuse to leave for a few days. Gabriel always disappeared but not for days, it was always hours and normally I was the one sent looking for him.

“We have to go, they don’t deserve to die or get injured, they haven’t done anything,” Gabriel whispers.

Like I said before, we’d met them and got to know them and kind of felt responsible, if we’d left them in the apocalyptic future they would have been fine but we would of died so I guess it kind of looked like a selfish act again.

Was this ever going to end? Or was it my life now?

“What’s our excuse going to be?” I ask looking at him, despite having a good sleep I feel drained.

He blinked and then looked back at the computer screen nervously.

“They could die. That should outweigh any consequences we’ll get,” he whispers.

“So we’re just going to take a road trip to Boston?” I question.

“What choice do we have?” he question.

It wasn’t a choice, if we didn’t go, Daniel would be paralyzed to say the least. And that was only what happened if I went if we didn’t go at all it could be different.

Again came the question of: Why? Why did I have to harbor this power and make choices every time I saw something? It was always a variation of ‘Why?’ and being the caring, sympathetic person I was I couldn’t ignore it. Gabriel wasn’t even the one having the visions and he couldn’t ignore them. It was like they had an effect on people.

“The visions are never ending,” I whisper.

“It’s your power. Do you think you could learn to turn it off like my mind-reading?” he questions.

“Even if I did I’d feel guilty for ignoring those in need,” I whisper.

“You can’t be responsible or save everybody. It’s impossible, “he whispers in return.

There was no answer. We had to go. No matter what. I had to try and save them at least. We were responsible for their fate now.

I felt Gabriel’s hands rest on my shoulders. At least I wasn’t alone anymore. I’d been alone for so long, sure I’d told Melody but I must have rewound to before I told her. I’d told her two or three days before the apocalypse began. And I’d suffered three years of bottling up everything to myself again afterwards. Now I at least had Gabriel. It was nice to have someone to share the burden with who understood. Gabriel had to deal with knowing what everybody was thinking. Especially before he learned to control it.

“When should we leave?” I ask quietly.

I feel him pause as he thinks. It makes me nervous. I think I hold my breath.

“It’s tomorrow so we have to leave today so we can figure out where it’s happening and warn them prior to the incident,” he replies.

“Let’s go than,” I whisper.

We were responsible we had to take responsibility for our actions. I thought going back would be better and for billions of people it was but for Joey and Daniel instead of being thrown into the apocalypse they were attacked and we had to save them.

We packed bags for a day trip and somehow Gabriel snuck food upstairs without his mother noticing.

We left silently out his bedroom window. We could worry about the consequences for doing this later. Gabriel took out some of his bank account earnings as did I so we could afford the bus tickets. By lunch we were on our way to Boston. By one we were stepping off the train. Gabriel’s phone was buzzing off the hook. I jumped at the sound.

Phones again, had been useless in the apocalypse so we had discarded them and I still hadn’t quite adjusted to having technology again. My started buzzing, too. It was Gabriel’s mom, wondering where we were, of course. By the length of the texts right now it wasn’t a big deal but by tonight they’d be paragraphs long and troublesome.

I answered, “We’re fine, don’t worry. We’ll be back sometime tomorrow.”

We silenced them after that.

After arriving in Boston finding the mall with the book store wasn’t hard. This was their hometown so signs were everywhere. Now we just had to wait and hope we weren’t too late. Hope we’d save them. Hope my vision was right. Hope that we’d make it...