Salem tilts his head as his heels feel the heat of the flame around him, his body calms by the feeling of them.
Salem: "And how do you expect me to end up with more confidence?"
Wonder, looks off into the great abyss of fire, tilting it's flaming beak and creaking its flaming feathered neck, then it points it's beak back to Salem.
Wonder: "You'll have to move to save them."
Salem tilts his head and eyes Wonder. Giving the bird a look of confusion.
Salem: "Save who?"
Wonder turns off into the distance once again.
Wonder: "Them."
Once Salem looks, it's horrifying familiarity kicks in. He's back in the field of that same day.
Salem turns to try and ask Wonder where he's at, but The giant bird is gone. As if his existence was never a thing.
Salem does a full three-sixty, before his eye fall onto the same sight that cause him to have a panic attack at the entrance of the school.
Stone, his big body moving step after step closer to the white wiggly thing that made Stone kill himself. Salem wants to move to stop him this time, but he's to scared. His feet don't even move, not a single hair on his body moves.
Salem looks down at his feet, as if his brain isn't controlling his body. Salem tries again to move his foot. It feels like it's physically stick in the ground.
Salem feels like he's trying his hardest to move his body to save him, but deep down. He knows he's not.
Salem isn't looking down questioning why his legs aren't moving. He's looking down because he doesn't want to admit to himself that it's his fault that he truly let him die.
Salem looks down because he can't bare to let himself believe he was the problem. Salem looks up and as he looks up, Stone is already in a full sprint toward the street.
The same truck is loud and closing in on their area. Salem doesn't move though, still not wanting to believe where he's at. Salem looks forward at the same place that the white wiggly thing disappeared from.
As he stands to afraid to move this time, and with no help from Wonder to force him, Salem hears the horn blare once, then deafening CRUNCH!
Salem feels to afraid to even turn his back. He shivers, not slightly. A lot. Salem doesn't want to believe that he heard the death this time.
Salem turns around again, slowly. His body shaking with every vein in his body. Salem closes his eyes, as he makes a full turn toward the street. The darkness giving him a blanket to hide him from the nonexistent monsters in his closet.
With a deep breath he opens his eyes and sees.
The white wiggly thing...? Stone...? And the same field...?
Stone's body not mangled, The street not in his line of sight, with a giant truck.
Stone continues taking his steps toward the white wiggly thing. Salem looks at him.
Wonder: 'You have to save him Salem.'
Salem looks around for him, as if looking for his mother. A scared child wanting something to cling to.
Salem: "Wonder.... Please stop this... I... I don't want to see what I did. I don't want to be the reason he died again..."
Salem drops to a crouch, burying his head in his knees as he brings to have tears flow from his face, slowly.
Wonder doesn't reply.
Salem, continues to have his head inside his head, as his tears fall out. He doesn't want to move his head, to afraid to move his legs. He doesn't want to see the truth, that he got Stone killed and he didn't do anything about it.
Wonder: 'What if that was your mother?'
Wonder tells Salem, as if he's a distant voice in Salem's mind.
Salem still has his head tucked into his knees. As loud footsteps pass by him quickly, then the same blaring sound of the truck, then the CRACK!
Salem: "I'd want to save her..."
He tries to muster his strength and pull himself into a stand as he takes a deep breath. Salem closes his eyes and turns around again.
Salem: "I just need to stop him from getting to close..."
Salem takes one more deep breath, then he let's it out.
He opens his eyes and sees Stone doing his now normal walk, right to the white wiggly thing. Salem pulls his feet free from the roots of the ground and takes a step, without the sound of Wonder being needed in his ear.
Salem then takes a step, but Salem is still scared, ever step truly takes strength to pull the next one forward, but he does it. Salem puts a hand on Stone's shoulder.
Stone turns to look at Salem. Salem give Stone a smile, and then he looks in over Stone's shoulder, to find that the white wiggly thing isn;t there, then Salem looks at Stone once more, before Stone pushes Salem to the ground and makes into a full sprint toward the street.
Salem gets up as quickly as he can, and immediately puts one foot infront of the other. His foot gets stuck on some tangled grass and Salem, falls forward, face first, getting a mouthful of dirt and grass.
As the same outcome happens, Blaring horn, Stones increasingly distant footsteps, then the CRUNCH!
Salem turns his head up just to find himself in the same exact position as before, on the ground as he looks at Stone taking step after step toward the white wiggly thing.
Salem this time feels a slight determination, even though his body shakes, he doesn't want Stone to die again. Salem forces himself up and his feet feel too light. Step after step used to feel like pulling up earth weight, but now... It felt easy.
Salem took these steps with a sense of pride as he walked ever so closer to Stone, moving faster than before. Salem was now right next to Stone and this time the white wiggly thing was still in front of them.
Salem puts his hand on Stone shoulder and turns him. Stone smiles as he fully turns toward Salem.
Stone: "Good job Salem... You were scared but you felt the need to save me..."
Stone begins to burn away, literally, not only him too. The white wiggly thing and the entire field.
It was slowly being replaced with the flaming field that Salem was way more used to compared to before. As Salem turned around, the giant bird was there, to congratulate Salem.
As Pseudo fireworks go off with the flames that Wonder sparks out from behind it's giant bird figure.
Salem smiles, happy with himself, then it fades.
Salem: "He's still dead though...? Isn't he?"
The bird stops the sparking fireworks. With it's beak pointed to Salem, with both of it's front facing eye looking at Salem.
Wonder: "Yes. I'm a bird of Wonder. The Phoenix. Sadly that means I don't have the ability to bring others back from death, nor can I go back in time to stop that said death."
Salem looks down, sad because if only he grew some balls last time and took his first step to stop him.
Salem: "I want to continue, Wonder. I want to gain the confidence needed to make myself able to save anyone I need to."
Wonder tilts it's bird beak and then nods. The flames following as it's head goes up and down.
Wonder: "I'm happy you feel that way Salem."
Salem nods, blinks then he finds himself at the pool area. His body in front of Charlie and the rest of the posse standing around Amelia.
Amelia: "Careful. He'll beat you up."
Amelia gets kicked in the stomach as she says that, by the same girl Cherie.
Charlie: "Salem...? Like the small black boy Salem?"
Salem slaps him across the face. Charlie gets sent flying into the water.
Salem: "Yeah."
Wonder fully appears from seemingly no where cutting though the people in front of Salem like they are just ash.
The place begins to change again.
Wonder: "I wasn't expecting you to finish this one that fast."
Wonder gives the most perplexed look a Phoenix could possibly give.
Salem: "I was more of embarrassed about trying to stand up for Amelia when she was right in front of me..."
Salem feels his heart skip a beat.
Wonder: "Your heart stopped for a second."
Salem: "I didn't need a reminder."
Wonder pauses for a second and so does Salem.
They both look between each other.
Wonder: "Okay... Let's try something else. This cold very well help you better."
Salem: "Ohh.. Okay."
Marissa: "VIKTOR NO! NOT MY BOY!"
Marissa sounds younger.
Salem heart fully stops beating as his blood runs cold. He turns so slowly. He doesn't even feel the flames, he doesn't feel anything. Not even his heart feel real.
A black man, bald and holding a belt, with metal holes throughout the whole thing. His face is red and ferocious as he looks at Salem.
Salem doesn't feel six foot any more. He feels small. Like his small, three foot, nine self. When his body was weak and he was scared every moment his father was home.
When his nose could only try to stand the smell of beer and when his ears could only be closed by his hands when he heard his mothers cries.
Viktor: "Shut the f*ck up Marissa!"
Salem physically feels his younger body again.
Salem: "No..."