I began to tell a story, I had no need or desire to lie. The entire restaurant was silent, I knew they would listen, but I had not the care to hide anything. I began speaking my words reverberating through the silent fast food restaurant.


    ‘I was in 6th grade, I had just gotten adjusted into the new school. At this point I had already lost faith in people for various reasons. However unlike the present I just sat away in a corner by myself. I did not have any friends or talked to anybody. That earned me a bad reputation, along with my appearance, people spread rumors of me being an evil demon. However I did nothing, I had no trust and no expectations in other people.’


    The people in the restaurant were still listening, but now they frowned a little bit.


    ‘One day, I was approached by a girl. She didn’t try to make fun of me for my looks. She talked and listened to me, and she invited me to play with others.’


    I was still naive back then.


    ‘I had slowly grown closer to her. I built trust in her, enough trust that I wouldn’t doubt her. She helped me stop the rumors in class. I was still uncomfortable with other students, but the communication was slowly getting better.’


    The audience in the restaurant were slowly getting confused. Kaede and Abby had expressions that were curious but also worried. After all they probably knew that this story did not have a happy ending.


    ‘Near the middle of the school year the class was fortunate enough to be able to go on a field trip. We were going to go on a boat and sail around and I was excited. I had fun on the boat with my friend. However, all good things come to an end. I accidentally overheard my friend talking.’


    At this point my throat started to squeeze and my heart felt unruly. I felt a chill across my body. The faces of the people in the restaurant also started to show more concern. Their concern was not for me but from the disruption of their normally perceived lives.


    ‘She had been playing around with me all along. She had been the one to start spreading the rumors about me and she had kept the rumors out of my sight. She never intended to be friends with me and she considered me a dog. At the time hearing this shocked me and they found out I was listening. Then the entire class gathered, turns out all of them looked down on me and were just hiding it. They started to threaten and bully me as they cornered me, and then… ‘


    At this point everyone in the restaurant was waiting for my very breath. Many wore faces of concern, some looked like they were wronged. Abby and Kaede only looked shocked.


    ‘I fell off the boat.’


    I ended the story there not wishing to continue anymore. The entire restaurant was silent enough to hear the hot oil in the kitchen and the air conditioner spurt air. Nobody dared to move, obviously there was more to the story. But nobody had the guts to act.


    I stood, already finished with my meal, Walked over to Haven and said, “I hope you learn that you have to put your heart forward yourself to move on. No matter the method.”


    Haven slowly nodded.


    I walked to the door, turned back and offered my final words to the restaurant, “I don’t want or deserve your dirty pity.”


    I walked out the door.


    We had managed to find one of the victims. However I will not take the easy route from here. Things need to speed up, I guess I could reduce the punishment of the rabbit killers a bit. My rage still burns against them, but that would be the fastest way. Mr. Rabbit is already dead, but these girls can still be revived.


    I had been walking aimlessly, enough to become lost, when I found myself in an alley with some bad memories.


    “You don’t usually see the victim returning to the scene of the crime.” A voice called from the other end of the alley.


    I slowly walked closer, I expected it to be the stubby police officer from the choice of words. However, instead it was a child. The child had pure white hair and dazzling blue eyes that had an arrogant tendency.


    “Of course, that''s only because you consider yourself the victim.” The child said playfully, then laughed and giggled much like a child. However, something about the kid was off. From just appearance and voice it was hard to define a gender, but that isn’t uncommon in children. The eyes were playful and the mouth was smiling. Something about the sight made the child look empty.


    “Who are you?” I asked cautiously. A normal child would not be in such an alley, additionally they knew something about me.


    “I am God, or at least something close to it. For your convenience you can call me Godfrey, and use masculine pronouns.” Words that would not usually come from a child spoken in a childish tone felt weird.


    “God?  I don’t think so, prove it.” I worded cautiously.


    “Azure is this how you treat your benefactor especially when I gave you such power?”  The boy continued. The fact that he knew about my power was a good piece of evidence. However complete trust in his identity was far.


    “You, gave me this power?” I asked.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    “Yes, didn’t you ask for it?” he remarked.


    “If you really are God, then you should know what questions I have right?” I imposed a test, with the key being more information.


    “You are such a schemer, not only do you want me to use my power to find your questions, but you also want me to answer them.” The boy responded, he saw right through me. I fell silent not knowing how to continue.


    “Well, I will be kind since I intended to answer your questions.” The boy said with his smile turning closer to a grin.


    “First, the question of why I am answering your questions. You see, answering these questions will do something.” Godfrey giggled.


    “How could you call that an answer?” I replied in slight anger.


    “I''m not lying am I, and what is considered an answer is subjective isn’t it.” I got the feeling Godfrey is starting to play with me.


    “Fine I don’t care as much about the question.” I replied, trying to move forward.


    “More like you already have the answer, right?” Godfrey’s lips curved upward unnaturally. A face no longer human was staring up at me.


    “So what if I already have the answer, isn’t it within your expectations?” I answered while calming my mind.


    “Second, why does your power not work on the Drakes? your power does work on the Drakes.” Godfrey replied as soon as I finished my words.


    “Then they have no sins?” I asked seriously.


    “Bingo.” Godfrey was giggling again, it became unsettling considering the context.


    “Then they have never committed anything evil?” I asked.


    “Third, why does your power not work on yourself?” He obviously did not intend to answer the previous question.


    “Your power does not work on yourself because… well, telling you won’t help. Let me give you an analogy; you can not see anything but the ground you stand on, you have walked to the end of a cliff and do not jump because you can not see.” His words were put together simply but I understood them partly, but how could that be related to my powers failing?


    “You really have given me little help.” I said. I turned around to leave, all my questions answered.


    “Fourth.” He said. I turned around not expecting another answer.


    “Kaede''s three sizes are-” He started and then broke into giggling. I got mad, however, how could one get revenge on God especially when he looked like a little boy.


    “I answered your questions so let me ask one.” Godfrey said.


    “Fair.” I answered annoyed.


    “Who are you?” The words he spoke were very common. However I did not have an answer for them.


    “Answer me next time.” Godfrey said after seeing the confusion on my face. Godfrey then got showered in a glow of multi-color light. A small noise escaped.


    “I’ll show up as a girl next time, just for you.” The words angered me, but the anger felt useless and was discarded quickly. The multi-color light turned into a single strand of bright light and blasted to the sky.


    Today was not that enjoyable of a day, however what was gained could not be discarded for anything. Even though today I met an annoying god, I got important information from him. Even If I had to recount a past that traumatized me, I had met an important person. What does the unfortunate part of my day matter when what is good is on the horizon.


    I was walking down the road, when I expected another encounter. After all, my day could not get busier than it already was. However nothing happened which wasn’t surprising either.


    When I got back to my fathers house I was already expecting a hard night. Having a broken arm didn’t help, but the biggest difficulty would be in my mind.


    As I lay trying to fall asleep, memories flashed through my head. Few were warm, but there were a few. The few memories that felt warm made me feel even more disrupted. I then felt the cold, it was the same as the two nights in my memory. The terror of the cold heightened my mind, however it wasn’t a good thing. My heightened mind feared everything, feeling the darkness from all my memories gave me a certain feeling.


    Fear filled my body. Terror filled my mind. Darkness filled my vision. My skin tightened. I then felt a chill too cold to describe. I started to sink. I turned myself upward gasping for air. All I could see was a small light surrounded by the darkness above. My ears did not work. My skin is numb beyond feeling. My eyes were slowly forced closed. Right before everything diminished into nothing a jolt ran through my body and I felt one thought in my head that was invincible.


    Live.


    The next morning, I opened my eyes, the ceiling was bright. I slept for a long time. As I stared at the familiar ceiling I recounted the previous day''s events which were many. When I got to the part before my sleep I shivered and let out a sigh. Today was Sunday, I did not have many goals. But I had one important one. I slowly forced myself out of bed and made myself food. I was forced to only cook simple things due to my injury. Luckily my ribs were mostly healed by now. I decided to make the call sooner than later.


    “Hello, Haven.” I said speaking through my phone.


    “This is?” A feminine voice sounded through my phone.


    “Azure, we met yesterday.”


    “Oh I guess you want to discuss ‘that’.” Her voice changed after she heard my name. It was now less formal, but still tense.


    “Yes, first I will make my intentions clear. I want you to testify against Kurt.” My words were completely honest. However a silence on the phone likely represented worry.


    “I would have to testify in person right?” She asked meekly.


    “Yes.” I answered immediately.


    “I don’t want to do it then.”  She spoke with no emotion. This might make it harder. Words flashed through my head, ‘not your justice to serve’. However they made little sense to me right now.


    “I understand why you might not want to. But please let me talk to you in person.” I spoke earnestly.


    “Okay.” a voice small enough to be washed away by birds chirps sounded on the phone.


    “Do you want me to bring Abby, One of the two girls with me yesterday?” She might not be comfortable alone with a male.


    “Thank you.” Were her only words. After we set up a time to meet she hung up.


    Progress does not come easy.


    I went back to Mrs. Drake''s words. Not my justice to serve. I don’t think any of the girls would not want to serve justice. The things stopping them were probably social, and physiological. It might be that Kurt had some support. However my blood boiled and I would tear down anything in the way.


    I could ignore anything else in the way, even myself. The future became bleak and all that mattered was those six girls. Who knows how they have lived their lives since the incident. I thought that maybe it would be okay for them to get over it. However I knew that no matter what I would not be able to tell them to their face to just suck it up and get over it. They might have been abandoned, or scorned even by their own family or friends. I felt sympathy for them, going through such things myself. They had it even worse, all that happened to me was my own fault. What terror they faced was of no fault of their own. They stood above me but behind me. Such a weird phrase came to mind.