Lucas walked past a storefront and stopped to look at the time on one of the clocks. It was 10:00 am on a Sunday.

He hadn’t gone back home the previous night, but he didn’t spent the night at the bunker either.

Instead, he had decided to test his powers as much as he could thoughout the night.

And he was carrying the fruits of his work on his backpack.

It hadn’t taken him long to realize that some doors in the monochrome fields, he recognized. One specific green door he knew belonged to a small candy shop downtown, so as soon as the day started to turn into night, he went into those bleached fields by walking through a door in the shopping center and then looked for the green door.

It had been there, just where he remembered having seen it.

Before opening it, he made sure to be wearing his hoodie so it covered his face and a pair of gloves. He entered back into the real world and found himself walking into a store submerged in the darkness of the night.

With this, he thought, he wouldn’t be needing much in the way of money for the foreseeable future.

He took some things from here and there and, once he was satisfied with his haul, he walked back through the closed door towards the fields and again through a door that took him back to the city he knew so well.

But that hadn’t been his last escapade that night.

He made it a point to enter as many places as he could before the night was over. “It’s just for training.” He told himself, but that didn’t stop his bag from growing ever heavier as the night went on.

And now it was 10 in the morning of the day after.

He stopped at a bench and sat down. Opening his backpack, he pulled out a bag of crisps and a bottle of cola.

He glanced at the Nintendo console looking at him from the bottom of his bag and closed his backpack. It wouldn’t be good if anyone saw what he was carrying.

He had begun throwing some chips into his mouth and downing them with sips of cola when he felt a familiar feeling in his right leg.

It took him a whole second to react to what he saw when he looked down. “Cano?” He asked the old dog that was resting its tired muzzle on his leg. “What are you doing here!”

“He followed me after I left your house, he sure seems to worry for you.” He heard a deep voice state as the tall, dark frame of David Garriga sat down besides him on the bench. “We’ve been looking for you all night.” He said. “Your mother is worried.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He stood up, startled by his sudden appearance, dropping his crisps on the floor and knocking Cano onto its side in the process. “Shit!” He said, hurrying to help his furry friend stand back on its four legs. “Sorry buddy!” He turned to the clearly tired man and talked. “And what the fuck are you doing here!” He said.

The teacher frowned.

“… Respectfully…” Finished Lucas.

David sighed. “I told you already… I…” He looked at the dog. “We have been looking for you since yesterday.” He smiled. “And even though I may not look that old, I’ve noticed I get tired easily these nights.” He patted the space next to him. “And your mother has been worried… really worried.”

Lucas stood there for a second before sitting next to his teacher. “Has she?” He said, sounding worried. “How is she?”

“She’s fine, but…” David rested his hand on his student’s shoulder and sighed. “She’s worried sick.” He said. “She called me a while after you left. She said she is worried about you since Friday, that you have been acting strange.”

“She said worried?” Asked Lucas, suddenly tense.

“Yes, she…”

“Well, she lied,” Interrupted Lucas, pushing the man’s hand away and standing up, anger swelling up inside him. “She wasn’t worried, she was scared.”

David spoke, his voice unwavering and strong. “Lucas, sit with me.”

“What will you do if I don’t?” He said. “Hit me like my mother did?”

David looked at him. “Lucas, I…”

“I don’t think I want to stay here anymore.” He said, taking his backpack and turning away to leave.

Something tugged at his sleeve, stopping him from moving further. “Let go.”

“Lucas, I’m not…”

“Let go!” He yelled, pulling his arm with all his strength and sending the old guard dog that had come to see him off the ground and against a garbage can.

The dog yelped and fell on its side. “You…” Started to say David, his eyes wide with something that Lucas was only able to interpret as disappointment.

Lucas could feel how the eyes of everyone in the vicinity were glued on him. Another crazy person to entertain them.

“I…” He said. “I didn’t mean to!”

He ran up to the dog and looked at him. It wasn’t hard to see that the dog was giving it its all to stand back up, but was failing to do so.

The can had a deep dent where Cano had struck it, yet the dog, as soon as Lucas knelt next to him, began licking his hand. “Buddy, buddy, I’m so sorry.” He said, hugging the dog’s head. “I’m so sorry, I thought…”

“You really need to go home, Lucas.” Said David behind him. “You are not like this, something wrong is happening and you need help.”

Lucas wasn’t listening. He was looking at the dog and only at the dog. The creature that so much love had given him was now laying on its side, blood slowly dripping out of his nose, dying the boy’s jeans in red.

Yet… he still licked Lucas’ hand. “It’s alright.” It seemed to be saying. “Everything’s going to be alright.”

But it wasn’t, Lucas was sure of it.

He could see how the dog’s breathing began to slow down.

At that time, he didn’t hesitate. He didn’t care if anyone saw him, he didn’t care if people learned of his abilities, he only cared for his friend.

Lucas stood up, carrying the weight of the large dog as if it weighed nothing, and began running. David tried to catch him, but he was too slow on the uptake.

He wasn’t fast enough to stop him, but he was fast enough to run after him and see him walk up to a closed door. “Lucas!” He called out, but the boy wasn’t listening to him.

Lucas grabbed the pommel and opened the steel door, quickly walking past the door frame.

David watched as the door began to close behind the boy, barely managing to grab it before it fully closed. He pushed it open only to see… nothing but an empty hallway.

The boy was gone, he wasn’t sure how, but he was gone.

And he had failed to stop him.

But there still was time. As long as something of the good person he knew remained within Lucas, there was still time.

He turned around and looked up, almost as if praying, and began walking out of the shopping center.

No one stopped him.