Page 3 of Jacob Michaels is Not Here

“Yes.”

“You remember everything?”

“Yes.”

“Are you entirely sure?”

I nodded. And I knew I should have panicked, remembering everything I had forgotten, all of the memories that had returned to my brain; but I wasn’t panicking. I just felt complete.

“Seems Point Worth is on fire.”

“Seems to be.”

“There were no firemen to call.”

“I know.”

“That’s your fault.”

“I know.”

“You don’t seem to care at all,” The hooded figure said.

“I do,” I responded, still looking through the tavern window, though the scene inside was slowly growing dark, casting teenage Lucas and me in deeper shadow. “I just don’t know what other choice I had.”

“Don’t you?”

I had no answer to that.

“Fortune may be smiling upon this worthless little town.” He added.

“It’s not worthless.”

The hooded figure chuckled, the sound like ice being rubbed along my spine as I watched the scene before me grow darker still.

“You have returned.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It was time.”

“Running away didn’t suit you?”

“No.”

“Are you ready, then?”

I turned to the hooded figure.

“Let me see your face,” I said. “Again.”

The figure continued to stare into the tavern.

“Please?”

“That is your choice, then?”