8. To go, or not to go

                                    

                                          
Luke's POV
It had been a few hours since I'd woken up from the nightmare, but I was still as petrified as when it had happened. I could see Zack out the corner of my eye, staring at me blankly. I looked at him.
"What?" I asked.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare at you. I was just deep in thought," Zack replied momentarily. "I've been thinking. Should we go back or should we stay here for a while longer?"
"You know what I want to do," I replied. "You know I don't want to be here; you know I want to leave."
"I know, but don't you think it'd be fun to see the future at least once?" Zack asked, trying to persuade me into doing something he knew I wasn't going to agree to for love or money.
"No," I replied. "You've had the nightmares; you know what could happen. I know what could happen, and I don't want it to happen."
"Oh, come on!" Zack begged. "Please, just this once."
"Zack, you have no idea how traumatising the experience was for me two years ago," I said, trying to explain. "I was attacked, I was nearly killed, and I was separated from my family and friends without any knowledge of why or how it happened."
"Luke, you're being overly dramatic. That was two freaking years ago. Time's changed." Zack replied.
I sighed deeply and shook my head. I didn't want Zack to get hurt or put in the danger I was put in, but it was hard to say no to the guy, especially when he had good reasoning.
"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. "But I want to check on the machine first."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just before we left to go exploring, I wrote Nick a note.
'Going for a walk; be back soon. - Luke & Zack' I wrote on a post-it note before attaching it to the fridge with a magnet.
I went to the door where I left my shoes. I grabbed them and sat on the sofa to put them on. I loved my shoes. They cost an absolute fortune, but it was well worth it. They were a pair of Converse All-Stars. I wore them all the time, no matter what the occasion. The only time I didn't wear them was at my dad's funeral yesterday.
I grabbed the spare key from the key bowl, and we decided to leave.
"You know this place better than I do; lead the way." Zack said, allowing me out the door first. When Zack came out, I closed and locked the door, then closed the screen door behind it. I decided to check the machine first, so I went out of the alleyway and down the street towards the quickest possible way out. We followed many streets until we came to the hill where the machine resided. It was only then that I realised where we were.
'Cliffside' The sign above the dirt road read: I looked at it for a moment, trying to remember at least a sliver of knowledge about the place. Then I remembered something. I'd never been to Cliffside, but I'd heard Nick and Judy talk plenty about it. According to them, it was a key point in the Night Howler case that helped them find where all the savage predators went.
"Memories already kicking in?" Zack asked, coming up behind me. I knew I was fast, but sometimes I swear some people were either slow because they were just being slow or they were being deliberately slow. In Zack's case, I knew he liked absorbing the views from some places, so I let him off for not keeping up with my pace of life.
"No, I never went here. Nick and Judy told me about it, though." I replied, beginning to walk up the hill. When we reached a midpoint, I decided to stop and take a water break. I took a bottle of water out of my hoodie pocket, which was starting to become quite crowded now, as it now had my phone and a pocket watch in it.
"You remember where the machine is?" Zack asked.
"Uhh," I pondered. I looked out on the city below, trying to remember the view when we got here. "She should be around here somewhere."
We kept walking for a few miles until I saw something. It was a clearing.
There it is, I thought.
As I came closer, confusion began to set in. The machine wasn't there.
How the hell did someone manage to use it without the lever? I questioned.
"Are we near it?" Zack asked, starting to get out of breath.
"Well," I began. "We were near it, but it's not here."
"Not here? What do you mean?" Zack asked.
"What I mean is that it's gone. Non-existent, disparu." I announced.
"Like, gone, gone?" Zack asked, standing next to me and putting his hands on his hips.
"Yep," I replied, looking at where the machine was.
"Well, I guess you won't be going home for a while." Zack said, patting me on the shoulder before sitting down on a bench.
"This is bad. This is very, very bad," I said, panic starting to set in. "What are we gonna do? We're in grave danger if we stay here."
"Don't sweat it; it can't be that bad." Zack said, completely unaware of the chaos that was to unfold within the next few days.
"It's bad. It's worse than bad. It's horrendous. It's-" I began. Zack put a finger on my lips.
"Chill out. I'm sure the machine will show up. Besides, why would you want to go back home anyway? I mean, you don't have parents to boss you around here." Zack replied.
"That's your life. Unlike you, I actually like home. I'd rather be around people who are like me and not animals." I replied, trying to get him to understand.
"I know you do, but instead of being stroppy, can't you just embrace it for once?" Zack asked, clearly not understanding that I nearly died here. That's when I snapped.
"You aren't listening to me," I snapped. "I almost died here. You know what that word means, dead? It means I am no longer alive. Killed, slaughtered, not living. I could have died here; I nearly did!"
"That was two years ago! You seem to think that nothing's changed!" Zack shouted.
"Fine! You know what? If you want to die, you do, buddy!" I shouted back. "I'm not going to stop you from being killed if that's what you really want, but don't come crying to me when you realise I was right!"
I turned around and stormed off. I didn't know where to go, but as long as I was far away from the clearly delusional Zack, I was happy. I went down the hill, my bottle of water clenched in my fist as I did so. I was so angry that when I got to the bottom, I looked at the bottle and hurtled it towards the 'Cliffside' sign, knocking the C off of it, which hit my head, making me even more angry.
I went down the street, barging past an otter as I did so. I decided it was a good idea to find a good place to cool off. But where? If I knew Zack well enough, which I did, he would go back to Nick's house, as he clearly felt comfort there. I decided it was a good idea to go to the park, so that's what I did. I walked down the many streets, trying to remember the way. I looked down an alleyway, and suddenly a memory flashed back in front of my eyes.
I remember it so vividly. I was running. Running away from Nick and Judy. I was terrified of them at that point; I didn't want to be arrested. That's why I was running. I remember I was on the roof of a building, running as fast as I could. Then I jumped. I jumped down to the spot that I was now standing right in front of. I remember almost breaking my leg doing it. Then, I looked up and saw one of the tiles missing on the edge of the roof.
That must've been where I jumped, I thought. It seems so long ago.
It felt like yesterday and like it was a decade ago, all at the same time. I turned around and continued walking. At least I knew where I was.