TO LIGHT MY FIRE

NINE

PARKER/MICKEY’S POV

The roads were getting slicker the more rapid we drove.

Clark did his best of holding on to the wheel as tight as he could so we wouldn’t end up smashed into a tree.

It was getting angry. I could feel its furious roars as the rain harshly pelted down on our windows. It seemed as if they were going to break.

‘Hold on!’

Clark swerved to the right to enter the trail that led into Ramkiki Forest. The mountainous trees shook violently from the tense air. I felt relieved that I wasn’t driving and Clark was.

He used his miraculous strength and sharp eyesight to lead us through these harsh conditions. I let out a breath feeling grateful for him being a Goblin.

Usually he would annoy me because he would be able to smell when I had bacon. His annoying ass would snatch it out of my hand before it reached my mouth.

‘You should’ve ate it faster,’ he voiced playfully and snickered.

‘Get out of my head!’

He heard the squeak in my voice as I demanded at him and snorted.

Yes, we both were the same age, but my puberty had been a bitch.

Crossing my arms, I leaned my head against the window attempting to get the slightest bit of sleep. Today was Sunday and of course we had three different kinds of services at church.

Dad being a pastor has no perks at all.

As I was closing my eyes, my breath was knocked out of me.

Clark reached over to keep me in my seat, but he was one second too late.

I dived through the window shield like it was a swimming pool. Time seemed to move easy as I took flight.

‘I was Superman,’ I thought to myself. The higher I went the more free my mind went.

I began to picture my perfect family.

Dad was showing me how to change a tyre, but Eve insisted that she learned too.

Mom having the brightest smile on her face as she watched me and Evie work together to pick up the 10kg tyre.

We were all happy. Mom wasn’t hollering at me about the most obvious thing that she hated about me. Dad didn’t have to worry about her tying me up in the basement to pour steaming, hot bleach water on me.

However, that’s not what he was worried about. Dad understood that I could heal myself and knew she would drench me with the poison again.

My joyride was coming to an end and the unsettling feeling in my stomach rose up like a weed. I landed head first into what looked like a Banyan Tree.

That’s weird, Banyan Trees didn’t grow in Peterland anymore.

I slowly lost consciousness as my thoughts racked around about this tree and the person that I had to save Eve.

Healing myself was difficult because I honestly didn’t know how I did it. My body just acted on instinct when it would feel the burning venom that helped people clean their houses.

Before my last fighting breath, I was able to see my best friend one last time.

‘Parker!’ He ran through the vines of the tree to where I was slumped at the base.

My smile vanished when I saw a bullet got straight through his shoulder blade. Another one went through his thigh; and the last one went straight into his throat.

Rapidly blinking, I was unsure if what I was seeing was real.

Clark wasn’t moving or making a joke about my experience of puberty. Eve wasn’t safe in her own home.

The bright blinking from Clark’s headlights counted down my seconds of life to death.

I am not ready to die.

CLARK’S POV

Someone hit us.

I didn’t see them coming behind us since they hit us so fast.

The result of him not putting on his seatbelt, Parker went through the windshield and into the arms of the Banyan Tree.

Those haven’t been around in forever.

I got out the car and ran to where he was, but before I could reach him shots rang and I was on the ground.

Footsteps were heard on the dry grass and I got a glimpse of my assassinator.

‘You should’ve driven faster,’ she sighed and wiped the gun with her shirt.

She bent down and squeezed my face while I winced.

‘You were a good friend, Clark.

However, you made him think that he could save her and you can’t even protect him.’ She ticked her tongue and tilted her head to the side.

Inching closer to my face, she placed the clean gun in my hand.

‘Pathetic.’

I had so many words that I wanted to spit at her, but the hole in my throat prohibited me from saying a word.

Shaking her head, she rose and hopped back into the car that Parker’s Dad would drop me home in.

As I laid paralyzed and she drove away, I glanced over to Parker and he wasn’t moving. I heard his faint heartbeat and his breathing was almost not there.

I tried blinking the tears away, but in the end the rolled down uncontrollably.

The stars seemed to twinkle through my watery eyes as they left my sight.

Minutes passed and I could feel the puncture in my thigh heal. In those few minutes that I felt my wounds close up, I had to think about the fate of my best friend.

I finally came to a decision and dragged my body over to his limp one.

Finding a sharp stone, I hovered over Parker and held it to my hand. I could still hear the slightest beat of his heart from his chest.

‘Sun be my defence, Moon be my guide,’

Flinching, I made a straight cut into my hand with the stone and did the same to Parker’s.

‘Our hearts are for the gods, we’re united even when we die,’

I joined our bloody hands and repeated those words for what felt like forever.

‘Parker!’ More tears were escaping from the corners of my eyes when he didn’t wake up.

I looked up to the stars and begged like my life depended on it. Parker’s did.

‘Please!’ They twinkled again.

On the brink of giving up, his heartbeat stopped and I could’ve sworn that mine did too.

‘No! You have to wake up! Wake up!’ I threw my fist down forcefully on his chest and air entered his lungs.

His eyes were wide when he opened them and they were a piercing, electric blue.

He started hyperventilating and I held his chest to help him calm down.

‘You’re okay,’ I squeezed his hand that I cut into. His eyes changed back to his original dark hazel ones.

‘Did I just die?’ Parker coughed and sat up against the tree.

I held in my laughter so I could tell him the situation.

‘Your Mom his us.’

There was silence between us for a while as he controlled his breathing.

‘She left when she saw that you were dead.’

He looked down at the cut in his hand that was closing up.

‘Clark, how am I still alive?’

I scratched my head and cautiously explained to him what I did.

‘A Changeling? Do I still have my powers?’

I bit the inside of my cheek and shook my head. He closed his eyes and held his head in his hands.

‘You know that you can’t be both.’

‘How am I supposed to save her,’ his voice came out muffled from his head being in his lap.

‘We’ll figure it out. We always do,’ I reassured him although he still looked like a wreck.

‘The house is not too far from here and I’m sure they’re waiting. I’m going hungry.’

Glass fell from Parker’s body as I picked him up and we began our journey to Hawthorn.

‘You can call me OZ.’