• “Why? Why?” Natalie cried. “Why did I have to love him? Why did he have to turn out to be just another jerk?”
    Ugh. Feelings. Emotions.
    “I don’t know,” I sighed, wishing I was anyplace, but here, kneeled on the girl’s bathroom floor, trying to comfort Natalie Sands, who I had never even met before. “All guys are jerks, I guess.”
    Natalie turned towards me. “Who are you?” she spat, disgustedly turning her face the other way.
    I heard her heave silent sobs, but when I was tried to help, I was rejected. Walking out of the bathroom, I heard a shriek. It had come from inside the bathroom. Natalie? Probably.
    Turning around, I spotted a shadow. My temperature boiled. It was him. Why did he have to ruin every attempt of mine at a normal life? Why? Did he hate me? Wait, I know the answer to that. Duh, of course he hates me.
    When I walked back into the bathroom, it was pitch black. Now I definitely knew it was him. “Natalie?” I called, tentatively, out into the darkness. No reply. I dragged my fingertips along the wall, trying to feel my way back to where Natalie was.
    “Hey sis.”
    “Why are you doing this, Austin? You won, remember? I gave you my powers. I surrendered. You were supposed to leave me alone.”
    “Autumn. Autumn. Autumn. You’re my sister. I think I’m allowed to visit you every once in a while. How long has it been since the war now? 1000 years? Austin’s voice was like a breeze lightly blowing across my face. Just loud enough for you to hear, but couldn’t tell which direction it came from. “I just wanted to check up on you. Make sure you weren’t getting old, or anything.”
    “You could have done that from a distance,” I said putting an emphasis on the last three words, “ and without killing her.” I pointed in the general direction I thought Natalie’s body would be in.
    “She begged for it. She said, and I quote, ‘Oh, God. Oh, dear God, please kill me. Kill me now. End my suffering. Please God, do it now.’ So I did.”
    “No matter how much you think you are, you’re not God, nor are you a god,” I said through gritted teeth.
    “Let’s go back, shall we?” Austin asked, stepping out from the shadows, and placing one hand gently on either side of my face.
    “No!” I screamed, but it was too late.
    It was 1000 years earlier. I saw myself across the plain. Seeing all this just reminded me again. The pain of all of it. I shut my eyes tight. I still heard the swords clank together. All the war cries. All the shouts of triumph. Screams of death.
    “Do you miss it?” Austin whispered, his breath tickling my cheek. “Your power, do you miss it? Or do you not even remember what it was anymore? I guess it has been a while,” Austin’s voice trailed off, then faded away completely.
    I was focused on the battle. The war that had torn my family apart. Made me give my powers up. Supposedly making my brother a “god.”
    “Do you remember?” Austin shouted right next to my ear, making it ring uncomfortably.
    “Of course I remember,” I said.
    “Tell me what it was then,” Austin commanded.
    “I had the “gift,”” I made little quotations in the air with my hands, “of the Kiss of Death. Whoever I kissed, died.”
    “Do you miss it?” Austin asked, rubbing the back of his hand across my cheek. “Do you want it back?”
    “No and no.”
    “Oh, well I don’t want it anymore,” Austin shrugged and before I could run away, or scream, he grabbed my head with both of his hands.
    The power, my old power, surged though his hands, and filled my body. I felt a rush as my power transferred back to me. The power... it felt... good. Different. It felt like it belonged.
    I turned around to face my brother. To kick him, punch him, anything that would hurt him, but when I turned, eyes blazing, fists balled, he was gone.
    He had teleported. Left me here alone. To die.
    An idea popped into my head then. Maybe I could help. Fight the war, I mean. If my side won, the whole future would be different. Who knows what the outcome would be.
    Not thinking my plan through, I ran down the hill to where everyone was fighting.
    I ran to change the future. My future.