Twenty minutes later, Rachel watched the police car pull away with Kaine in tow. Getting him in there had been quite an ordeal. He regained consciousness and actually lunged at the cop with murderous intent. Thankfully, all campus security carried power-dampening collars, which had been pretty much standard issue on super campuses nationwide.

“You think this is gonna hold me!” Kaine yelled. “The fix is gonna get you!”

The police seemed to buy her story for the most part. The two officers told her they got a lot of calls around Alpha Row, and from what her psychic scans revealed, Kaine was well-known among their circles. Apparently there were numerous complaints against him, ranging from drunk and disorderly to domestic battery, but anytime the cops dropped by, Kaine had a habit of popping out of existence.

Until now.

The police had plenty of questions for him, going back to cases dating back years. For now, it looked like Kaine wasn’t going anywhere, which was one less worry off everyone’s back. For his part, Kaine continued to glare at her even as he was loaded into the squad car.

“The fix is gonna get you,” he said repeatedly. “The fix is gonna get you.”

He was still muttering it in the backseat of the squad car, as the cop clamped the door shut with a metallic thud and drove off. Rachel watched him go and sighed. As she watched the car pull away, Rachel breathed a sigh of relief there was one less psychopathic frat boy threatening her life.

Before she could relax too much, however, Rachel’s phone buzzed. She glanced at the Caller ID.

Blake.

“Hello-” she answered, only to be greeted by a barrage of sobbing words she struggled to understand. “Blake, slow down, hon!”

“Perry is dead!” the voice on the other end cried, clearly in distress. She tried to comfort her. In situations like this, Rachel could count on her low-yield telepathy to pick out images and thoughts, giving her a commonality she could use to comfort her friends.

But wherever Blake was, she wasn’t right in front of her.

“Where are you?” she asked. Blake continued to sob. She eventually answered “Home.”

“I’ll be right there,” Rachel said.

Dammit. Rachel thought they’d triumphed over Kaine, but he had said their friends were dead. Turns out that he was half-right, but that last part was cold comfort. What had happened to Perry?

She kept moving in the direction of the Promenade, towards her dorm room. Rachel had been so sure Kaine was bluffing. After all, so much of his personality was rooted in lies. His military record, his resume, his image, all of it was a tale tale meant to intimidate or entertain his fraternity.

Beneath that, Kaine was just a pathetic wreck of a man.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

She should really watch where she was going.

Rachel nearly plowed into someone. Rachel cursed as she turned to see Zack in front of her. The spots around his eyes were moist. It was clear he had been crying.

“Zack,” she said. “Blake just called. Perry-”

He threw his arms around her. Rachel didn’t object. She just his strong arms sweep her into a comforting embrace.

“He’s gone,” Zack said, his voice choked with tears. “I haven’t said it aloud until now but…he’s really gone.”

Rachel had so many questions. What had happened to Perry? She couldn’t get a straight answer from either Zack or Blake.

She pulled away from the embrace, if only to look at Zack’s tear-streaked face.

In spite of what had happened, these past few hours had felt like old times. A week and a half ago, Rachel would have sworn the old Zack…the one she knew in high school…was long since dead, replaced by a gloomy and manipulative impostor who had taken a wrecking ball to her life.

But now…

Rachel had come to realize that Zack wasn’t dead and gone. He just buried, under what, Rachel still didn’t know. But the important thing was, he was still there.

He was still here, in front of her.

Rachel laid on her hand on the side of Zack’s face. His skin was smooth to touch, made wet by fresh tears. Zack raised his hand around hers, and the touch sent a jolt of warmth running into Rachel’s fingers. The touch lingered for a few brief seconds before Zack moved his head down closer to hers before Rachel leaned forward.

His lips pressed into Rachel’s in a deep kiss. As they touched, Rachel felt the walls of Zack’s minds begin to crumble and shatter. Images began to swirl through her mind in rapid succession.

Rachel saw poor Perry. His skin was as gray white as concrete, covered in white-blue ice. Her mind screamed in anguish as she watched this Perry shatter into a million pieces when a large structure fell upon his frozen form.

The image shifted. She saw another Zack, younger apparently, but not so different from the man before her now. This Zack walked into the kitchen of his old house. Rachel remembered the layout so well, right down to the crusty old couch off the side where they spent so much of their time making out.

This younger Zack entered the kitchen. He walked aimlessly at first, with his bored gait, until something caught his eyes. He then began to run with a renewed sense of urgency. Rachel struggled with what triggered Zack in this vision, until the dream shifted. Rachel saw Zane Kestler, his father, lying on the floor with a deep bloody wound carved into the Knightbrand armor.

He ran to him, and in his mind, Zack - and by extension Rachel - could hear the final words of Zane Kestler.

Tell. No. One.

Zack pulled away. The pain of reliving this memory was too much. The visions ceased as Zack ended the kiss, severing their connection. Rachel stared up to him, finally understanding.

That’s when Rachel saw they weren’t alone. Approaching them, Rachel saw Miss Shaw walking towards him. She was flanked by actual superheroes. One wore a green cape over a white bodysuit while the other a form-fitting high-tech leotard. Rachel didn’t recognize either of them, but their pose seemed extremely intimidating. Even in a school for superheroes, actual working heroes were a rare sight.

“I need you to come with me, Mr. Kestler,” Shaw said. Zack gave Rachel a sad look paired with a weak smile.”

“Good-bye, Rachel,” he said before walking towards Miss Shaw.

Rachel had no idea what was going on. She watched as one of the heroes clamped power-damping cuffs on Zack’s wrists before leading him away. In an instant, the group led Zack away, who silently moved alongside them without a word.

Rachel was left alone, watching all of this. Her brief moment of clarity and understanding was shattered by even more questions.

Even then, she could still feel the taste of his kiss on her lips.

Zack…