"To Never Be" - Conscience

       “What do you mean?” Stephanie asked, looking more shocked than confused.

       “Kristi said, humans are not meant to see what is not shown. So how is it that you can see these things? And how can you share that sight with me?”

       “It’s like Nicene.” She said. “Some people are more closely linked to the world. I can just see things others can’t.”

       “Nicene can’t see them; she has been confused this entire time wondering what we have been talking about.”

       “We are different, we see different things.” Stephanie replied.

       “No.” I said more forcefully. “She made a point to look at you when she said it. She said humans are not meant to see.”

       Stephanie sat up, pulling her arm away from Nicene. She recoiled, bringing her arms and legs close to her body. She didn’t move, but instead just looked at me. And just as I was going to demand an answer, Nicene spoke.

       “Tobias?”

       “Nicene!” I exclaimed, surprised that she was calling out for me. “I’m right here Nicene.”

       “We need to get out of here Tobias.”

       “Get away from downtown? You want to go home?”

       “No, Tobias. We need to get out of this city. It isn’t safe here.” Nicene answered.

       “Why, what’s the matter?” I asked.

       “Tobias,” she said, pausing to catch her breath. “I saw this city in ruins. Hundreds of thousand of people here are going to die.”

       I was shocked. I gathered my thoughts for a moment and asked, “Nicene, what do you mean?”

       “I saw the concrete rolling down the street like tidal waves. The ground was opening up, swallowing buildings and cars. It was raining fire, and huge bolts of lightening were crashing all around.”

       “What?” Asked Stephanie in a scared, quiet tone.

       “I saw the graves the survivors would dig. Thousands of crude markers and crosses spread across the desert. We have to leave here now.”

       “Shouldn’t we warn somebody?” Stephanie asked.

       Quickly deciding to answer her question with a question of my own, I asked, “Who would listen to us?”

       No one answered me, and we remained sitting on the ground until Nicene said, “Tobias, can we go? Please!”

       “Okay, but where are we going?” I asked.

       “I don’t care, I just can’t be here any longer.” Nicene replied.

       “I don’t want to be around here either, but we can’t keep running away. We still haven’t decided what to do about earlier tonight.”

       “Oh no.” Nicene blurted out while bringing her hands up to cover her gapping mouth. “That man. What are we going to do about that man?”

       Stephanie stood up, looked down at both of us and said, “That wasn’t a man.”

       “What do you mean?” Nicene inquired.

       “I could clearly see it wasn’t him, just his body. There was darkness within him that had completely engulfed his light.”

       It clicked in my head at that moment. The first time I had seen the two of them, in front of the restaurant. “In the parking lot,” I said, “when he suddenly followed after you.”

       Interrupting before I could start my next sentence, Stephanie said, “Exactly what I thought when you told me about it in the car. There are many ways to let darkness into your life. If he had given up on himself that would be more than enough for such hatred to enter his heart.”

       “You mean he was possessed?” Nicene asked?

       “More or less.” Answered Stephanie.

       Nicene looked as if she was thinking Stephanie’s story over, when she suddenly said, “That doesn’t change the fact that our fingerprints are all over the weapons used to kill him.”

       “Don’t worry about that, I wiped off the pipe before I left the alley.” I said.

       “What about the knife?” Stephanie asked.

       “I decided to bring the knife with us, incase something happened again.” I answered, pulling the knife from my inner pocket.

       “What!” Shouted Stephanie, as she jumped back in fear. “You brought the knife with us?”

       “Yes, for our safety, and to not leave a murder weapon at the scene of a crime.”

       “May I have it?” Stephanie asked, slowly putting one hand forward.

       “I’ll hold on to it, just in case.” I answered.

       “No Tobias, give it to me!” She said, quickly making a grab at the weapon.

       Her sudden motion startled me, and I jerked the knife away, bringing the blade hard across the palm of her hand. She pulled back, tightly squeezing the wound with her other hand. She stood still, holding here arms out from her body as blood was gushing from the wound. As it poured onto the brick below, it began to take shape. Filling in the groves of cracks, the pools of blood slowly came together. What at first seemed random, soon began to take shape on the pathway below. Stephanie’s blood, now in pools on the ground before her, was clearly spelling out, “The End Is Here”.