1.49 – You didn’t forget, right?

A few years ago, in the before

Nathan walked through the street, looking out for anything out of the ordinary. Emma followed suit just a few steps behind. She seemed so frail.

“Nathan, slow down, please!” She moaned, and despite the danger, Nathan listened. He didn’t like this part of New York. Something always felt off, as if danger was lurking at every corner. Judging by the news, it probably wasn’t that far from the truth.

“Okay, but just for a moment. We need to get going, I don’t like it here.” He looked at her and for a moment he softened. Poor Emma. Just 16. She was a year younger than him, but she seemed to be younger than their visage would suggest.

Nathan supposed it was his genes—they didn’t really share a relative, after all. She was their mother’s actual child, unlike him. Nathan never cared about true blood or anything of the sort though. She was his sister, the one he grew up with.

Their mom never let him feel a difference.

“I am never letting you talk to that fucker again. If he tries to even touch you-!”

“I’m fine Nathan, you came just at the right moment. And I don’t like to think about what would have happened, but-” she took a shaky breath. “I’m fine. Seriously. It’s just a lot to take in, but he didn’t hurt me.”

“I know. I’ll beat the fucker anyway. The fact you’re unhurt is the reason why he’ll get off easy.”

“You’re constantly fighting! Just drop it! I’ll carry a pepper spray from now on. If he tries to approach me again-”

“You better empty the whole fucking can!” He screamed, angry. Why were emotions always like this, so hard to keep in check?

Emma jumped back and Nathan took a steadying breath. “Okay. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have screamed. Let’s just go, okay? We can talk about this once we get home.”

“Tomorrow. Not today, please. I don’t wanna talk about it today anymore.” She sniffled.

“Tomorrow then, but not a day longer. Come now, mom is at work, but she would go sick with worry if she knew where we were. What came into you to go towards this place anyway? Have you not heard any of the news?”

“Nate, can you stop pestering me for a moment? I get it, I fucked up. It won’t happen again.” She sounded as if tears would start flowing any second now, and so Nathan shut up, just walking forward like an arrow with a goal.

He set a quick pace, and Emma followed to the best of her capabilities, her boots making rapid sounds as her short legs struggled to keep up the pace. The sound seemed to echo on the wet pavement as they walked. The warm summer rain didn’t seem to end, souring his mood even further.

“Hey, you two! Stop!” Suddenly a voice came from behind them. Nathan didn’t even try to find the source. It was already dark, and the street was only half lit. He grabbed Emma’s hand and started running.

“Nate! What if someone needed help? Nate, stop!”

He didn’t stop. He knew what it would mean if he stopped. Heard too many things about this part of the city. No cars drove around them, of course. It was as if luck decided to test them, right there and then.

An alley appeared in front of them, a narrow one with no light coming from therein. But to Nathan, it seemed like the best option. If an adult followed them on the main street, then Nathan was fairly sure he could outrun whoever was behind, but that didn’t apply for Emma.

He tucked her on and inside the small alley, and they both hid behind the stack of trash bags bundled on the floor. Time seemed to slow as he watched the street they came from. The shapes of the opposite building were a mere shadow.

Three men walked by, shouting one after another. He couldn’t hear them over the hammering in his ears. And suddenly one of them leaned backwards, walking back. “Oh, there you are. Now…. Give me your money. And leave the girl”

Nathan felt bile rise up in his throat and the memory. He didn’t think of the event for so long. Why now? It’s been years; he went to therapy; he did his damn best to forget. Locked the thought away. But now, when he saw the name and the face on the phone in front of him, it felt like ghosts came haunting him from the afterlife.

“No, it’s not that. It’s the fact that, as far as I remember… my sister was dead.”

Nathan turned. Yukiko seemed confused. Then he told the others he needed to make a quick call and went out of the training hall. Alicia gave him a strange look as he went out, but he shook his head. He didn’t want her to be with him when he made a call. This was a thing he wanted to do alone.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

With all that was going on, he focused on the game too much. How hadn’t he even considered the fact that more than just the video game aspects could have changed? This was a different world, a different reality. Why did he assume that every fact about his own life that he knew to be true would be the same here? He felt angry at himself, conflicted about the name that showed on his phone.

And hopeful that it wasn’t simply a trick.

The phone call ended, and so, once he made distance from the training hall, he had to dial up the number on his own. There was little change in his contact numbers. He still only had some organizations and his mom in his phone as contacts, his new friends from here and Emma, but he had her in his New York lifetime phone as well. He can never find the courage to remove the number despite the pain he felt whenever he saw it.

The phone rang once, then twice, and several more times. Nathan began thinking that this must have been a prank after all, but suddenly the phone clicked.

“Hey Nate, you there?” It was Emma. The voice was different than he remembered it, more mature, but fuck, it was her.

“Hey Nathan, is your mic turned off maybe?”

“Sorry, I’m just a bit dazed.” He answered, pushing his fingers into his head. She was alive. She was actually alive. That was probably the most shocking thing that has happened to him ever since he appeared here.

“Oh, well, okay. Superhero training not letting you rest even on a day off, huh? That’s fine, though. But well, you promised you would call me and tell me how school is treating you, and you never called! Not even once! Do you know how sick with worry mom is? She’s been walking around the home impatiently, like if she worried whether you died or something, and then guess what? I go and check Japanese news, and I discover that there was a huge fight with some gang members, and guess who was spotted on the scene?”

“Me?”