Chapter 4

Dallas left school early during lunch. He felt like there was no point in staying, and the last thing he wanted at the moment was to be surrounded by people. He got on one of the city busses and headed home. He felt tense for the entire trip. The whole time he was waiting for Ara to contact him again, but he never did. It only made Dallas wonder exactly how important it was for Ara to speak with him. If it could wait, it probably wasn’t too important.

When Dallas finally arrived at home, the first thing he did was go up to his room and lie down on his bed. He just really wanted to forget everything that had happened to him today, starting from when he had made his phone levitate off the ground. He was still debating whether that had actually happened. He was always so tired in the morning. He could have very well have hallucinated the whole thing. But talking with Ara? No, that was definitely real. His voice was so clear in his head, there was no way he could have imagined all of that.

Dallas eventually decided to open up his laptop and continue his search for answers. He opened up his facebook and saw that Mitch had messaged him.

“Just thought I’d send you some videos from The Vault. Hope you’re feeling better.”

The Vault was Mitch’s playlist of mind numbingly stupid videos on Youtube. There were over two hundred videos in it, ranging from disturbing commercials to rapping seniors. Dallas was never sure how Mitch managed to find the videos, or why such videos even existed but they usually managed to put a smile on his face. Usually.

“Thanks Mitch, but I don’t know how a Turkish man meowing at an egg will help me right now,” Dallas sent. He opened up a new tab and tried googling “Is mind reading possible?”

The results were the exact same as they had been at school. He had hoped that maybe his school’s adblock system had maybe blocked something earlier, but nothing relevant showed up. He tried rewording the question several times, but nothing new ever showed up. Finally, with a groan of frustration, he shut off his laptop and lay back down on his bed.

***

Dallas’ mother came home from work a few hours later. Dallas didn’t even know she was home until she came up to his room and knocked on the door. She didn’t wait for him to answer. She never did. She always just walked right in, and this time was no different.

“Hi Mom,” Dallas said.

“Hi Sweetie,” She said. She came over and sat down next to him on his bed. “I got a call from the school today.”

Dallas sighed and shook his head. “Why?”

“Oh, I think you know why,” His mother said, “Skipping your last two periods? What were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry,” He said desperately, “I was just… stressed.”

“Yeah,” His mother said disapprovingly, “I heard. The school mentioned that you had some sort of mental breakdown in the library today. What happened?”

Dallas only shrugged in response. He didn’t want to talk about today. And if he couldn’t have that, he at least wanted to have the possibility of tricking himself that it had never happened. But he knew that people would want to talk about it. Tomorrow when he went back to school, people would have heard about what happened in the library. They would want to know about everything that had happened. They would want to hear every last detail.

“Dallas,” His mother said, “Are you sure this has nothing to do with your father and I?”

“I dunno,” Dallas said, “I mean, maybe… it does.” He wasn’t sure whether he believed the words.

“I’m thinking maybe you need to see someone about this,” His mother said, “I know you’re going through a rough time right now. If you want to talk about it with someone--”

“Mom,” He said, “That’s really the exact opposite of what I want.”

“Just please think about it, Dallas,” His mother said, “I know it’s not what you want, but do you really think that you don’t need help right now?”

“That’s… that’s exactly what I think,” He lied. He knew he needed help. He knew from the minute he found out that his parents were splitting up that he would be needing it at some point.

“Dallas,” His mother said, “You really haven’t been acting yourself since your father and I split up, and I’m a little concerned. I think maybe you should be getting help with this.”

“Mom, I’m fine,” He protested, “I swear.”

“I’m not letting you have a say in this,” His mother said, “I’m going to see to it that you start talking to someone about all this, ok?”

“Fine, whatever,” Dallas mumbled, “But I think I’ll be ok.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” His mother said, “I’m going to go get dinner ready.” She left his room, and Dallas lay back down on his bed.

I’m sorry to hear about everything you’re going through, came a now familiar voice.

Go away, Ara, Dallas said, You’re literally making everything worse. Just leave me alone. My mom is making see a therapist because of everything that’s been happening.

That might not be a bad thing, Ara said, Maybe you are under a lot of stress. A therapist might be able to help you with that. Just give it a chance.

Please just leave me alone, Dallas said.

I’m only trying to help, Ara said, I do after all, have most of the answers you want.

Am I going insane, Ara? Dallas asked desperately,

No, Ara said, There are more people like us. There are more people who can do the things that we can. There’s not many, but they’re still out there.

Can you prove to me that you’re a real person? Dallas said, I’m just saying that I’d feel a lot better if I knew for sure.

Look, I have to go now, Ara said, But I can pull a few strings to make that happen.

What the hell do you mean by that? Dallas asked. But he got no response. Ara was gone until he decided to come back.

Author's Note

Let me know what you think of the story and the characters so far. I wanna hear your thoughts! Also, if you were wondering, the video of the Turkish man meowing at an egg is real.