“Now, see here you kids, this is a graveyard, not a bedroom!” he growled.
He muttered something about no respect for the dead as the four boys groggily got up. They were indeed in a graveyard and Taylor looked down at the name of the grave that they had landed on top on when Tristan had obviously teleported during the night in horror.
“Ahh! No!” he freaked.
“What?” Isaac asked.
And as he read the name on the tombstone, the colour drained from his face. It was his own name, his death only a year ago. By now the old man was eying them suspiciously.
“You kids look familiar… remind me of…” he shook his head.
Zac swallowed, not taking his eyes off the tombstone, but Taylor had spotted the one next to it.
“Avery too,” he said, frowning at the date. “Say, that when we had that tornado last year. I guess… I guess we didn’t have powers then? At least, not Jess, because she was the one who healed her.”
Tristan coughed and elbowed Taylor as the old man stared at them.
“No,” he whispered. “It can’t be. You’re dead! You’re dead! You’re…”
The four boys stared at him. He swallowed as his eyes met Taylor’s.
“You’re me.”
“Isn’t there like some law of quantum physics or something that we’re breaking at the moment?” Isaac asked into the silence that followed.
Old Taylor stepped back, shaking his head.
“How is this possible?”
“Do you know anything about anomalies?” Tristan asked.
“What?”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“It was Amarita, wasn’t it?” Zac asked softly.
The eyes of Old Taylor and Zac met.
“Yes,” Old Taylor said. “Ike suicided after… after…”
“I did what now?” Isaac asked, stunned by the very idea.
“I hated her,” Old Taylor said bitterly. “She wouldn’t leave me alone. Always following me around. I changed my name so many times… she always found me again… everytime…”
Taylor swallowed, not liking one bit the feelings he get getting from, err, himself, and threw up his empathic block.
“I killed her, in the end, you know,” Old Taylor went on, with a faraway look in his eyes. “It was so easy… Seemed rather anti-climatic after everything she did to me.”
“One brother suicides, one brother goes insane, dare I ask what happens – happened to me?”
Old Taylor frowned at Zac’s summary, but no answer was given, for that would be the moment that Tristan had another spasm and took them away.