Destroyer of Time: Pyrokinesis

Chapter Three: When Past catch up to the Present

When Nick and I were fifteen years old, he asked me if I wanted to go on a secret mission. Of course, he knew the answer was going to be yes. We'd always been pretty close, and we would do just about anything for each other. On our way to Mr. Rosbore's house, Nick explained the details to me. At the time, I thought it was the most spectacular idea, and my pace quickened until Nick was one-step behind mine as we zeroed in on our target.

We were on our way to grab the famous cane, the legendary staff, as all the kids in our neighborhood like to call it. Once we heisted it, we were going to show it to our class in a Show and Tell sort of classroom project. A long-held belief at school was that Mr. Rosbore's staff had magical powers. As kids with great imagination, we believed—or at least wanted to— those rumors.

There was one major problem in Nick's plan; he had failed to scope out Mr. Rosbore's home in advance. Mr. Rosbore's dog turned out to be fiendishly clever because he didn't even growl until we were over the fence and had our feet planted firmly on Mr. Rosbore's property before he made his presence known. A growling sound emerged from a thicket of bushes that laid shrouded entirely in darkness at that hour.

As the growling sound increased, so did mine and Nick's panic. We began running frantically in every direction. At one point, we collided with each other. It was lucky for us that Mr. Rosbore wasn't home. I didn't know which I was terrified of more: getting caught by Mr. Rosbore or being caught in the fangs of the hellhound snapping at my heels.

Once we finally made our escape and were safely out of danger, I turned to Nick and yelled, "That was one hell of a good plan you had there!"

I didn't get angry at Nick very often, but this was one of those few times that I was furious with him. Suddenly Nick burst out into this huge laugh. 

What the hell!, I thought, getting angrier. Then Nick pointed to something on the other side of the fence. It turns out that the hellhound on my trail was little more than a Chihuahua with a very gravelly voice. I began laughing along with Nick. We both ended up having a case of laughs that nearly dehydrated the both of us. We walked and howled with tears streaming down our faces. It had been years since that incident happened, but it was taking some time to come up with a new plan to steal that legendary staff. We weren't very good at giving up. 

I was thinking about all that when I approached Nick's front door and was about to knock. I must have looked a bit zoned out because before my knuckles reached the door, a loud voice boomed behind me. "Dude, what the hell are you doing?" Nick blurted out. I jumped at the sound of his voice and nearly tripped over my own feet. Nick started laughing. I almost got angry, but Nick had this weird sense of humor and jovial laugh that made me forgave him, even while I was blushing.

   "You know there's going to be payback, don't you?" I stated, grinning.

   "Oh, there's always payback," Nick grinned. "There had better be payback."

And that was how it was for Nick and me. We were friends for as long as we could remember, and we'd be friends forever. Knowing that made always made me feel better, no matter how far down I sometimes felt.

   "Come on in then. I'm just about to go to your house to ask you if you want to go to The Party tonight with me. You save me a lot of trouble," he said after we got inside the house. Nick's mom and dad were not always at home because they owned many companies around the world, so basically, Nick got left to the housekeeper, servants, and people around the house. He was an only child like me, and he didn't have any close relatives. They were incredibly wealthy, and I saw them once in the Forbes magazine: Top 100 wealthiest people in the world. Their house was like a mansion compared to mine and the others. But the only thing that Nick wanted was for his parents to notice him. Even though he didn't tell me that, I still knew. We had that in common too. 

Well, we had it until today. 

   "Hey, are you listening to me? Jeez, dude, what's happening to you?" he said, looking concerned with lines creasing his forehead.

   "Nothing's wrong with me. I'm just still thinking about my dad today," I said

   "What about your dad?" he asked. I saw the glint of interest in his eyes.

   "This morning, something bizarre happened. My dad cooked for the first time in his entire life. Then, he started babbling how sorry he is for not being there for me. Maybe he's into something, that's why he says things like that. Well, that's my guess so far," I told him.

   "Maybe your dad just wants to make up for his past mistakes, you know. Why don't you give him the chance to show it to you? Hell, I will give anything for my parents to change like that," he said sadly.

   "I guess you're right. After all, I got nothing to lose anymore." I sighed. I need to talk to him sooner or later anyway, I added mentally.

   "Change of subject. Are you going to The Party or not?" he asked, switching from sad to cheerful in a second. You could say that Nick and I both liked to party. Nick, with his sandy brown hair combined to his dark blue eyes, was around 6 feet high, and his perfect physique attracted many girls. We could be mistaken for siblings because of how similar we look, if not because I had dark green eyes and black hair. The most significant difference between the two of us was that Nick always wanted to play around with girls while I focused on my studies. Besides, I just barely have gotten out of my past relationship, and I wasn't looking for a new one. Nick, though, didn't mind switching girls every other week, and The Party was the perfect spot to look for the new candidate.

   "I'm going with you if you promise not to get drunk or get into a fight," I told him. I was not a wimp, but I was still not in the mood to get into a fight today. It was already crazy enough with my dad trying to reconcile with me. 

Hopefully, Nick could keep his cool tonight.