“Okay…” he said to himself as he opened his newspaper. “Want Ads…page 24.” Michael flipped to page 24 where he had already circled a few jobs that interested him. He enjoyed working at the Crashdown. Well, he didn’t really but the pay was good. He quit for obvious reasons. He felt as though he had no choice. There was no way he could bring himself to go back there after the way things ended with Maria. He had to make a clean break; quit cold turkey. He also really had to stop thinking about her. That would take some time. Maria was so important to him. She changed him for the better. She made him feel human. Of course those are the things he hated about her all at the same time. The way she made him feel things. He swore to himself he wouldn’t ever get entangled or attached to anything or anyone, besides Max and Isabel of course. But Maria had a way of making him crack. Hell, Maria had a way of making him crumble. He involuntarily fell completely in love with her. And that was by no means easy for Michael to admit. But he had to leave her for many good, logical reasons. Not only was he scared to death of feeling such a big attachment to her, but he didn’t want to put her in danger. What he was involved in now was dangerous and he didn’t want her involved in any way. What he was involved in was dangerous, and he was dangerous.

He was a killer.

The image of Pierce being thrown back on account of Michael’s powers suddenly rushed through his mind. Next came the memory of the wave of nausea that swept over him when Valenti announced that he was dead. He tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. It was an accident he told himself, you didn’t mean to kill him. But you did, a voice told him, and I feel bad for whoever is next. “Nobody’s going to be next,” He thought out loud. He looked back at his paper and uncapped his pen, trying to get his mind back to finding a new job.

“So how are you holding up?” Tess asked Isabel as they entered her room. “I mean, not being with Alex anymore?”

“I’m okay. He’s really understanding about it. And I care for Alex so much, but it’s not like I have this intense love for him. Well, it’s not like I really got the opportunity to fall in love with him since I was only with him a short while.”

Tess nodded. Too bad it wasn’t that easy for Max and Michael. Tess wondered if she would ever get Max to feel anything for her.

“But I would definitely rather not talk about it,” Isabel said, getting her pajama’s from her dresser.

“I understand,” Tess said. She also understood that Isabel didn’t want to talk about her destiny or anything that happened in the past week. But she wished Isabel understood that she couldn’t escape it. “Isabel,” Tess said.

“Yeah.”

“Are you scared?” She knew Isabel didn’t want to talk about it, but Tess needed to.

Isabel stared at her for a moment. Then she nodded. “Yeah,” she said, quietly, “Are you?”

“Yeah.”

Isabel sighed. “Big responsibility.”

“You can say that. But we’ll get through it. Don’t ever doubt that.”

“I’ll try.”

“Hey. If you ever need anyone to talk to about it, about anything, you can always talk to me,” Tess said. And she meant it, too. She wanted Isabel to trust her, she wanted to be her friend.

“Thanks.”

Max approached Liz’s street. He decided to climb up the ladder to her balcony instead of knocking on their front door. It was the smartest thing to do. He didn’t want another incident like the other night. Liz’s parents probably already hated him. Besides, this way Liz was kind of forced to talk to him. Well, assuming she was even in her room…

He reached the ladder began to climb. As he reached the top he slowly raised his head to peer into Liz’s window. He felt like a stalker but that was beside the point. He needed to talk to her. Of course he didn’t know exactly what he was going to say to her. The shades were up, so it was easy to look into her room. It was dark with the exception of a dim lamp on her dresser. Max climbed the rest of the ladder and walked towards the window to get a closer look. There was nobody in her room, and her bathroom door was wide open and dark.

“She’s not here,” he said quietly to himself. So what should he do now? Just walk away? Well, there was no way he was waiting for her to return. That was on the brink of psychotic. He decided that he’d come back the next day. Maybe by then he would have figured out what to say.

Max climbed down the ladder and turned to walk away. He was startled to see a man standing in front of him. The man looked pretty homely, with an old wool trench coat and pieces of duck tape across his shoes.

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you not to sneak into girl’s bedrooms at night?” The man asked.

Max raised his eyebrows “What?”

“I don’t think the Jeff and Nancy would appreciate that.”

Max narrowed his eyes. “How do you---”

“I’ve lived here all my life.” The man smiled. It was a smile that sent a sudden chill down Max’s spine. “I know everybody,” he added.

Max nodded slowly. “I see.”

“You better get on home, now. It’s dangerous out here late at night all by yourself.” He smiled again.