The next days ended up being pretty good for Nick. He didn’t have any of those dreams for weeks and finally his big day came too. The boy had being talking about turning 16 probably as much as I had been talking about turning 18 and the occasion didn’t let him down, especially because he received his first gun that day. Kevin had been teaching him to shoot in the inner deck with the ATX and it seemed that it was that new Z300 what Kevin had sent Howie to buy the last day at K-Tawoor. He received a badge too and I saw him in a much better mood, he was even laughing with Dana, something that I had never seen him do before. The funniest part of the night though was watching Nick’s reaction to the “rules” about the use of his laser that Kevin listed. There were so many that the boy asked at some point if he was going to be allowed to really use it some day or he would have to keep it inside the box.

Sadly the good moment didn’t last. That same night he had another of those “dreams” and this time he not only woke up screaming but crying and with a fever.

“Nick. Are you okay?” Rok was the first one at his side again. He was trying to calm him down but the boy kept rocking himself back and forth. “He is burning hot, Kevin.” were Brian’s worried words to our brother who was just entering the room.

“Let me see,” Kevin said, sitting in front of Nick and grabbing him gently by the shoulders.

“Nick. Nickolas, look at me.” Nick was quiet now but not even Kevin could make him open his eyes.

“He is shaking Kevin.”

“Brian, he’s going to be okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, bro, but I need some space now.”

Brian left the bed and came to stand up next to me and Howie.

“Hey little one.” Kevin began taking the kid’s face lovingly on his hands. “I need you to open your eyes for me, okay. Come on buddy, you can do it.”

Nick finally looked at Kevin.

“You are going to be okay, baby. Now you are going to rest a little.”

“No.” The word was almost a whisper but he was shaking his head violently.

“Nick listen to me.”

I looked at Howie but he didn’t look back, his eyes were fixed on Nick and I noticed he was whispering “come on”. Brian on the other hand was biting his nails. I knew that he was trying too hard not to intervene and was probably thinking what I was thinking, that it would be too difficult for Kevin to calm him down; the kid wasn’t shaking his head anymore but he had closed his eyes again.

“Nickolas, I need you to listen to me.”

Come on Nick.

When I saw Nick opening his eyes again I released the breath that I didn’t know I was holding.

“Don’t worry Nick.” Kevin was talking very low but I heard him clearly. “You are not going back there. You are not having those dreams this time, I promise you. Do you trust me?”

Nick nodded.

“Just lay back.”

What followed was something that we all had seen a couple of times in the past; Kevin took one of Nick’s hands on his right hand while placing his left hand on the kid’s forehead. “Close your eyes Nick, and don’t worry, when you open them again we are going to be here.” An intense blue light came up from Kevin’s hand and enveloped Nick. The next minute Kevin was settling Nick’s pillow under his sleeping head.

“Did you see anything?” Howie’s question made me raise my eyebrows.

“You guys see things when you do that?”

“Sometimes,” Kevin replied leaving his place to Brian and looking at us. “The only thing I know is that whatever it was what he saw, it scared him so much that made him sick.”

“Is he okay now?” Brian asked feeling Nick’s forehead. “He doesn’t have a fever anymore.”

“Yes” Kevin sighed. “It wasn’t anything serious, but it’s not the fever what worries me. I can heal him but I don’t know what to do to help him to stay away from that place. He had told me that he doesn’t want to go back, it’s like someone is forcing him.”

“Is he going to sleep all night?”

“Probably, but I’ll stay here just in case. Brian, go back to your bed.”

“I’m staying here.”

“And that’s going to help Nick how? You are just making him uncomfortable Bri. Go back to your bed.”

“I have shared a bed with him before. We have done it sometimes recently too so Howie didn’t have to sleep on the floor. I will stay here and you can use my bed. AJ can share his bed with Howie.”

“Thanks for the offer Bri but this time I really think Nick needs more space.”

Brian sighed and after settling Nick’s covers went back to his bunk reluctantly.

“You can still sleep in my bed if you want Howie.”

“Thanks AJ but I’m okay here” he grinned going back to his sleeping bag and making some space for Kevin who had left the room to bring his.

When Kevin came back we were all quiet looking at Nick from our different places in the room. He didn’t say a single word, he took a seat at the kid’s bed and for a moment just stayed there looking at him. After some minutes he stood up and walked to his sleeping bag next to Howie’s.

Minutes passed and I was almost sure everyone had fallen asleep when I heard Brian’s voice.

“There has to be a way to make this stop.”

“Brian”

“No, Kevin, we have to do something, maybe if Howie…”

“Are you nuts? We already discussed this, there’s no way we are letting Howie do that.” WE already discussed this?

“Wait a minute, you already discussed what? Because I don’t remember having discussed anything.”

“Brian is right Kevin, maybe if I…”

“Forget it Howie!” We were all speaking at the same time, or more like whispering, and once again I was feeling ignored.

“Could someone explained me what’s going on?” I raised my voice just to hear someone reply with a “shhhh”. A hush fell over the room and it looks could kill I would have definitely been dead right there because three pair of eyes were looking at me and the way they were doing it sent a shiver through my spine.

“What’s wrong with you AJ?” Brian sat up on his bed. “Nick is sleeping there, can you be a little more considerate.” The words sounded low but firm.

“Okay that’s it.” Kevin commanded standing up “Everybody out. We need to talk.”

“We can’t leave Nick alone.”

“We are only going to be in the corridor Brian, and he is not going to wake up soon either way, no matter how loud we speak.”

“Then why are we going out and why you shushed me?”

“Because he needs a quiet environment and...” You could tell that Kev was already losing his patience. “Just go out okay.”

Once in the corridor Kevin began looking at me. “We didn’t hide anything from you this time AJ. It’s just a conversation that came up the other day between the three of us but I assumed we had made it clear that it wasn’t a good idea.”

“What wasn’t a good idea?”

“I was considering releasing my empathic power to try to understand what’s going on with Nick.”

“And I told you that was the stupidest idea you could come up with Howie.”

“Fuck you Kevin!”

“Whoa!” Did Sweet D just say that?

Kevin rolled his eyes.

“I don’t see you coming up with another idea.”

“And I can’t believe that you are even supporting this, Brian. Did you see what happened last time? Howie can’t control his power yet. Whatever it is that’s happening to Nick is causing him so much pain and fear that he is getting sick. Do you want the same happening to Howie?”

“Of course not” Brian yelled.

“Well, then what? Because there’s a big chance he won’t find out anything. Nick is trying to block every single feeling and you know it. That’s the way he is dealing with this.”

Brian wasn’t looking at Kevin no matter that he had been addressing directly to him. There was a long silence that only brought memories to my head. I found myself remembering what Howie had experienced some time ago due to his powers, and how scared I had been when he passed out. After a while I was the first one to speak again.”

“I’m with Kevin here. That idea is stupid D.”

Howie breathed a sigh of defeat and sat down. Brian copied his movements and took a seat at his side.

“So what do we do? Keep watching him suffer?”

“Yes.” Kev didn’t sound convincing enough this time. He was tired and I knew he wasn’t sure about what he was saying but he kept going. “As much as it hurts me the best thing we can do now is wait. We will talk to him tomorrow, maybe this time he will open up with one of us, probably with Brian.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“Something tells me that he will this time.”

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“I don’t know Brian, I don’t have all the answers but I’m not going to allow Howie to go through the same things Nick is going through right now.”

“You are not going to allow me? You don’t have to allow or not allow anything Kev, it is MY decision at the end.”

“Oh hell, you know what I meant Howie.” Kevin throw his hands on the air and then turned his back to us and leaned against the wall, for a moment I thought he was going to bang his head on it but he just took a deep breath and took a seat too, massaging his neck.

“D, come on.” I decided to intervene and took a seat at the other side of the corridor, in front of Howie “You know that Kevin is right this time. We need to wait, it’s the best thing to do.”

He looked down and shook his head. I felt like I was treating with a stubborn Nick or Kevin instead of Sweet D. I turned to Brian for support.

“Rok?”

“They are right Howie.” He put a hand on D’s shoulder. “It’s the best thing to do.”

“Okay. We will wait.” The way he was biting his bottom lip confirmed me that he wasn’t sure about agreeing with us. “I really hope you are right.”

“Lets pray for that.” Brian patted Howie’s leg. “Come on, lets try to rest a little.”

“I really don’t think I can sleep.” D stood up and was the first one to enter the room.

“Me neither.” Brian followed him.

I turned around and saw Kevin still sitting on the floor, his eyes were closed but his face didn’t look relaxed at all, I could almost notice a grimace of pain there.

“Kev”

He opened his eyes and looked at me confused, like he had just woken up from a dream. I pointed the room using my head and he nodded and stood up quickly. We both entered the room at the same time. Nick was still peacefully sleeping.

“I wish we could do something to protect him.” When Kevin turned to look at me I realized I had said that out loud.

“We can Jay.” He put his arm around me. “One way or another, we’ll do it. We will.”