~(Y/n)'s POV~

I slowly opened my eyes, surrounded by nothing but blackness.

'Where...am I?'

I slowly stand up and start to walk around. After a few minutes, Rachel appears in front of me.

'Rachel?'

Next thing I know, a tentacle wraps around her waist and pulls her away.

'Rachel!'

I chase after her, seeming to never catch up to her. All of a sudden, a giant version of Rath's face appeared in front of me. Then, Rachel's lifeless body was thrown in front of me, a bloody streak on the ground from her sliding.

'RACHEL!' I looked up at Rath and I could feel my blood boiling. 'I'LL KILL YOU!'

Raht's giant face had a wide, evil smile strewn across it. He started to laugh, before his head started to spin around me. I covered my ears and fell to my knees.

'STOP IT!'

Then, I sat up quickly.

"Shit!" I put my hands on my rib cage, clutching it. "Not completely healed, huh?"

I look around, and immediately recognize the room I'm in.

"I'm in...my room?" I slowly got out of bed and walked over to the mirror I have on the wall. "It was only...a dream?"

I heard a knock on my door, and then it opened. It was my mom.

"Honey, when you're ready come downstairs for some breakfast."

"Okay. I'll be down in a bit."

She smiled and closed the door. I slowly take off my shirt, trying my best to not irritate my ribs, to see my entire torso wrapped in bandages.

'Great, I wonder how long I'll have to wear this for.' I thought 'It's a school day too. This isn't going to go well at all.'

I walked to the bathroom and started the shower. While waiting for it to heat up, I got my clothes for the day ready.

~Time Skip~

I walked down the stairs, and joined my parents at the table.

"So, I heard you fought Rath last night." My mom said, handing my a plate of bacon.

"Yeah...I did." Mr. Hunter and Chloe must've told them what happened last night when they brought me home.

"What were you thinking? You could've died! Do you know what that would do to us?!" My dad said. He sounded a lot more upset compared to my mom.

"It's not like I had a choice! He caught my friend! You know how he is, he would've killed her!"

"So your first choice is to bring another bystander into this?! Why would you tell anyone how to unlock a Shimmer?! What if one of them tells someone?!"

"What was I supposed to do?! If I didn't tell him, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now! There was no way I was going to defeat Rath on my own!"

"Both of you, stop fighting!" My mom yelled. We both looked at her, then at our plates. "Peter, he's right. If he didn't tell him, we might never have seen him again."

"...You're right, Jenny. I'm sorry." My dad said. "It's just...I can't imagine losing you, (Y/n). That would bring me too much pain. How would I be able to handle losing you?"

I sat their, quiet.

"Just...don't do anything reckless like that again. We almost had a heart attack when we saw you in the shape you were in."

"I won't, I promise." I said

"Good. Now that we can all have a civil discussion without yelling at each other, I'll tell you the severity of your injuries." My mom said.

"How bad was it?"

"You broke three ribs. Luckily, none of them punctured your lungs. We had Dr. Jack heal you up, so your ribs are back to normal, but they're going to be sore for a while." My mom explained. "As soon as we called him and told him what happened to you, he teleported here immediately and healed you up."

"Tell him I said thanks." I said, finishing off the last of my breakfast. "Alright, well, I gotta get to school. I'll see you guys when I get home."

~Time Skip~

While I was walking to the stairs in the school, I saw Cam and Val, but they weren't together. Instead, they were with different friend groups. I could see them glancing over their shoulders at each other every so often. I sighed and walked up to Cam and slapped him on the back.

"Go over there and talk to her." I said

"(Y-Y/n)?" He looked over at Val and back to me. "Right. But you owe us an explanation about why you started to push us away."

"Yeah, yeah. I will at lunch. Make sure to tell Val too." I pushed him towards Val. "But talk to her first. I'm tired of you guys always being so weird together. It's uncomfortable."

He takes a deep breath, and starts walking towards her. He tapped her on the shoulder, and they started talking. Val grew a bright smile on her face when she saw him.

~Time Skip~

It was the last class before lunch, Mr. Hunter's class. If I'm being honest, I was a little nervous for it. After what happened last night, is it really going to be possible for us to be normal in class?

"Hey (Y/n)!" It was Rachel. She definitely seemed a lot better after yesterday.

"Hey Rachel." I greeted her. She took her seat next to me, putting her bag on the ground.

"Listen...so I just wanted t-to thank you...f-for yesterday." She blushed a little, making sure not to make eye contact with me.

"Oh, don't worry about that."

"But...you always seem to make me feel better. Whenever I'm upset...somehow, it's always you who's there for me. It's always you who says whatever it takes to make me smile."

"R-Rachel?"

"(Y/n), I-"

"GUYS YOU WILL TOTALLY NOT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED TO ME!" When I turned around, the familiar voice turned out to belong to Chloe. My eyes widened.

"Huh? What are you talking about Chloe?" One of our classmates asked.

"Well, you see, I was, like, taking a walk last night. That's when I got mugged! But then a hero came and saved me."

"Mugged? Yeah, right." Another classmate said

"It's true, ask (Y/n)! He saw it h-" She stopped mid sentence, covering her mouth with her hands.

"W-What...?" I heard Rachel say. When I looked at her, she seemed broken.

She stood up, slowly walking towards the door.

"Rachel, wait!" I grabbed her hand, only for her to pull away.

"Don't touch me!" She turned around and faced me.

"I don't understand, why are you so upset?"

"Why...why would she say you saw what happened? If you saw what happened, that means you were there with her!"

"Rachel let me ex-"

"I really thought...that you were different. But you're just like every other guy!" Her eyes glazed over with tears, and she ran out the door.

I stood there, stunned. "But I...didn't even do anything." After a few seconds, I started chasing after her.

When I got out the door, I realized I don't which way she went. Then, Mr. Hunter rounded a corner.

"Mr. Hunter! Did you happen to see Rachel?!"

"Actually, yeah, I did. She just ran past me a minute ago on the first floor. She ran outside."

"Thank you!"

I ran by him and down the stairs before coming to a stop. I looked towards the cafeteria, then at the door. I ran to the cafeteria, where other students were already having lunch. I ran to the walk up taco stand, and ordered Rachel's favorite taco. I quickly paid, then ran to the doors. When I got outside, I saw that Rachel had slowed to a walking pace. I ran towards her and grabbed her hand. She turned around, her eyes wide, tears running down her cheeks.

"W-Why did you follow me? I don't want to see you!" She pulled her hand away, but I quickly grabbed it again.

"Please, let me explain!" I held up the bag of tacos. "I got your favorite. So please, can we talk while we eat?"

"...Fine. You have one minute."

"Can we go over to the bleachers?"

She hesitated, but nodded, and I led her over to the bleachers. I didn't let go of her hand once. When we sat on the bleachers, I took my taco out of the bag, and gave her the bag with hers.

"Alright, explain. Why were you with her?" Rachel questioned me.

"I was there...because I was the one who saved her."

"...Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Huh?"

"How would you be able to take on muggers by yourself? They carry some sort of weapon at all times. How would you and Chloe alone be able to fight off someone who could kill you?"

I don't have a choice.

"About that...she wasn't mugged. She was captured by an evil spirit."

I told her about Rath, the fight we had with him, and how I was blackmailed into going to Fall Cabin with Chloe.

"You see, I have something called a Shimmer. A Shimmer is a power that every human has inside of them. Luckily, Mr. Hunter was at Fall Cabin that night too. If he weren't there, I'd probably have died. I told him to unlock his Shimmer. When he unlocked it, he helped me rescue Chloe and we got out of there fast." I finished

"...So you really do think I'm stupid, don't you? Shimmers? Spirits? A giant octopus? How do you expect me to believe a-"

"I can prove it to you!" I interrupted her.

She looked at me, obviously still skeptical. "Fine. Show me."

"Okay, but don't freak out."

I stuck my hand out, palm up, and summoned a sword. I turned to Rachel, and her jaw was dropped. I slowly reached out, and gently pushed her jaw back up.

"B...b-b-b-b-b-b-but that's impossible!"

"I can also run slightly slower than the speed of sound."

She wore a shocked expression for a few seconds, before she smiled.

"That's...SO COOL!" She grabbed my arm, making me drop the sword on the ground. She started rubbing my arm, then brought my hand closer to her face. " A Shimmer, huh? How does it work?"

"Once you unlock the Shimmer, it's just like any other regular bodily function to activate it. Once you want it to activate, it will."

"Why doesn't everyone know about Shimmers?"

"This world isn't ready for it. It's way too corrupt for everyone to know about it. It's why people who do know about it have to keep it a secret."

She kept her smile for a little while, but then it became a frown.

"Wait...you said you would've...died?" She looked me in my eyes.

"If Mr. Hunter wasn't there, then yeah, I probably would have."

"So if you know you could die...then why fight? Wouldn't logic say to run to stay alive?"

"You make a good point. But I don't make decisions with my head."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked

"I make decisions based on what my heart says. I follow what my heart says, not what logic says."

"Your...heart?"

"That's right!" I yelled

"But...if you could die...why would you follow your heart?"

"I follow my heart...because of my brother."

"You have a brother?"

"Had. I had a brother."

~Flashback~

"WAAAAAAHHH!" I couldn't stop crying. It hurt so much.

I heard footsteps run up to me. "(Y/n), what's wrong?"

I look up, and it was my brother, Matt. "I f-fell on the pavement...a-and I scraped m-my knee really b-bad!"

"Yeah, that does look pretty bad." He ran inside, and got everything required to make my knee feel better. "This might sting a little." he held out his hand, and I took it, squeezing it when the stinging started. It quickly went away and it started to feel better.

I sniffed, still crying.

"Hey. I know it hurts, but you have to be strong, okay? When there's despair, you have to keep moving forwards. You have to protect your wife in the future. You have to be strong for her. So wipe your tears away. Men don't cry."

I looked at him, a giant smile spread across my face. "Right!"

~Flashback End~

"My brother was ten years older than me. I was six when that happened. However, he died only three months ago."

~Flashback~

"Alright, one more time!"

I was training in the backyard with Matt. We were out there for three hours already, training to fight Rath. This time, we were fighting to train.

"Fine, this is the last time. It looks like it's gonna start raining soon."

I lost. I always lost. He had much more experience than I did.

~Time Skip~

I woke up, thunder booming in the sky. It was pouring out.

"What time is it?" I sleepily asked myself. I checked my phone, and saw that it was only two in the morning. I looked at the other bed, but it was empty. "...Matt?"

I walked out of my room and to the bathroom. He wasn't there either. I looked everywhere in the house, but he was nowhere to be found. I looked through the window in my door, and saw that his car was still there. Then, I saw a silhouette of someone. They were walking towards the house. Not walking, it was more like...limping. I swung the door open, and ran towards the silhouette.

'Please don't be Matt. Please don't be Matt.'

It was Matt. He was clutching his right arm with his left. He had blood spilling out from his head, mouth, ears and eyes. He looked up at me, then collapsed.

"MATT!" I screamed.

I ran towards him, putting his head on my lap.

"What happened to you?!" Thunder boomed in the sky again.

"I...went to...fight Rath. To...try and kill him."

"Why would you do that alone?! You know how powerful he is!"

"It's because...even though I knew there was a high chance I'd be killed...I wanted to stop him from...tormenting you, mom and dad any further." He coughed, only for blood to come out.

"If you knew you were going to die...THEN WHY GO FIGHT HIM?!" This time, lighting struck in the distance.

"It's because...it's what my heart told me... it was the right thing to do." His breathing got heavier.

"Your heart?"

"I always follow...whatever my heart says to do. It thinks more about the people I love...while my brain thinks about the most...logical option." I could feel myself start crying. "Hey...men don't cry...remember?"

I laughed. "You idiot. You're crying too."

He smiled. "Yeah...I guess...I...am..." He laughed. "Some...kind of...man...I...am."

I started sobbing. I put my head in my hands, screaming.

~Flashback End~

"He died in my arms. Those were his last words." I said

Rachel didn't say anything. She just stared at me.

"My parents heard the commotion. They came outside, and saw him." I could feel myself tearing up. I wiped at my eyes. "Anyways. That's why I follow my heart. It's kind of like carrying on his memory in my own way."

I felt Rachel's arms slowly wrap around me.

"(Y/n). I'm so sorry...that you had to go through that."

I smiled down at her and started to rub her head.

"Thanks, Rachel."

"For what it's worth...your brother sounded amazing."

"Yeah. He was." I whispered. "So, want to unlock your Shimmer?"

Rachel pulled away. "A-Are you sure?"

"Sure. I can tell that you really want to."

She smiled and nodded. To be honest, I just wanted to change the gloomy mood that was in the air. I explained to her how to unlock her Shimmer. She wasted no time to start meditating. After waiting for twenty minutes, she finally opened her eyes.

"Did it...work?" Rachel asked

"Try it out and see."

She reached a hand out. Then, a green light shined around her hand. I reach my hand out, touching the green light.

"So your Shimmer is healing." I said

"Healing? How can you tell?"

"The green light that just came out of your hand. It was warm. Soothing." I said "Your presence is calming whenever I'm around you, so I kind of figured you would get a Shimmer that  can heal people."

"I can heal people?" She looked at her hands. Then another smile appeared on her face. "I really have powers!" She threw her hands in the air as a sort of celebration.

I started to laugh, which she soon joined in on. After a few seconds, we composed ourselves.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered. What were you about to say to me before Chloe ran into the classroom?" I asked

Her face suddenly became red. "O-Oh. W-Well, you see. You always make me feel better. Whenever you're around, I feel...happier. When you smile at me...my heart flutters. When you hug me, it feels so warm. W-Whenever I'm upset...you always make me feel better...e-even when it feels like there's n-nothing that could make me smile..you always seem...t-to find a way to make me smile. (Y/n)...I like you. I-I want to be with you. I want to keep being happy. I want you to always be there to give me a hug, e-even if there's no reason for it. S-So will you please..." She took a few breaths. "Will you please go out with me?"

She was staring at me, her hands clenched around my arm. I could feel her squeezing it, like she would her stress ball or her clay.

I smiled. "Yeah. I will."

She stared at me. She looked like she couldn't believe it. Then she smiled and hugged me. She dug her head into my chest and squeezed me tight. We just sat there for a few minutes, enjoying each others warmth.

~Time Skip~

We were walking back to class, side by side and hand in hand.

"Hey, (Y/n)? Why did you decide to chase me today?"

I looked at her and smiled. "I made a promise to you. I wasn't going to break it on the second day. I'll never leave you, remember?"

She looked shocked, but then smiled. "Yeah!"

A/n: Thank you for reading chapter four, I hope you guys enjoyed it. Tell me how you guys liked it and what you thought. I'll try to get the next chapter up soonish.