The Ever War: Chapter 1.2

For twenty minutes, Josh stared at his hand, pondering over the mysterious mark and the strange whisper. The Ever Road. It was just a myth, right? There really was no magical road that took you who-knows-where. Or was there?

None of the stories he had heard mentioned the mark, and yet...he could feel a connection between the mark and the whispers. A strange pulling in his gut made him look up. In the distance, the road shimmered. He stared down it, and as he did so, something awoke in him. A desire, a longing, to just start walking and never stop. There was...something. Something...he needed to find?

The shuffling of feet on asphalt snapped him back to reality. Sarah stood next to him, and she looked like she was going to cry. "Are...are you...ok?" she barely managed to whisper.

Josh put on his best smile and pulled her into his arms. "Of course I'm all right. I was just...so dang worried about that test." She looked into his eyes and frowned. Without a word, and before he could react, she reached down and twisted his right hand palm up. She let out a small gasp. She began tracing the mark absently as she looked him, her childhood friend and sweetheart, with renewed interest. After searching his eyes (and from her expression she had found something there), her gaze returned to his palm. "So much like mine..." she murmured. Before he could ask her what she meant, Franky and the twins came sprinting to them. Josh didn't fail to notice that Mary didn't have her earphones in, Mark was wide awake (very unusual as he was most active around midday and then crashed afterwords), and Franky was seriously silent.

"So what happened in History?" Franky asked, very much concerned. Mark and Mary waited anxiously for an answer.

Josh shrugged as Sarah entwined her left hand in his right, hiding the mark. "I guess I had a small panic attack. You know I'm not that great with History."

"Are you kidding?! People are all saying that you finished it in five minutes!!" Mary exclaimed.

"Ten." Sarah muttered. "It was ten minutes, maybe fifteen."

Josh briefly wondered about how she could possibly know that, but then she was always good with time. "It was just a lot easier than I thought it would be."

"Still, to have finished in that amount of time...impressive." Franky kept going on and on as they piled in. Sarah insisted on driving, just in case Josh had another "attack". Josh let her. He had long ago given up trying to change her mind when it was set. If she was set on something, then by golly, she would see it through.

After dropping off Franky and the twins, Sarah drove to her house like usual. Josh went in with her to study like usual, but today, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into her bedroom. She almost slammed the door shut (they were alone since her parents were at work and the bus hadn't dropped off her brother and sister yet). For a second, Josh stared at her, completely confused. She had never acted like this before. Never. Except...

She turned around so her back was to him, and to his utter surprise, she began lift her shirt up. He rushed forward to stop her, but she practically shouted a "NO!!" and then in a softer voice, "Lift my shirt up all the way. Please, Josh, just do it."

Reluctantly, he stepped up to her and grabbed the hem of her blouse. Her skin shivered at his touch, but he pulled it up. As he did so, his eyes widened. There, on her back (and he blushed at the lack of a bra strap) was a mark. But it was slightly different from his. He finished lifting her shirt all the way up to her neck, and she pulled her hair over her shoulder so it was out of the way. The wings spanned her entire back, the bottom tips intertwining around each other and around her waist. In between them, where his had a sword, her mark had a sun and moon. He lightly brushed his fingers over it, her skin shivering again, and he heard a small gasp from her. Without a word, he pulled her shirt back down and stepped back. She slowly turned, her cheeks flushed and her eyes slightly teary.

"It appeared a month ago. Around the time when I was so...out of it. You remember?" she asked.

"I remember." he answered softly. A smile tugged at his lips. "For a while, we all thought you had become emo or something. Sitting by yourself. Not talking to anyone other than to yell at them. Even when we were in the car, you would just stare blankly out the window. And now I know why."

"Do you?" she asked. "Do you really know what the marks mean?"

Josh's face hardened slightly. "Do you?"

She looked away. "No. No I don't, but I..." She turned and looked up at him questioningly.

"What?" he asked softly. "You what?"

She took a deep breath. "I think it has something to do with the Ever Road."

Josh turned away and looked out the window. He heard a faint sniffle, and feared she was about to cry. "I think you're right." he said, turning back to her.

Her head whipped and she looked at him through her tears. "What?"

He stepped closer to her. "I said I think you're right."

"How? How can you think that?" she asked, her words full of doubt.

"Because my father said to 'Follow the Ever Road.'" he answered, just as the front door opened downstairs.