I woke up the next day and went to the roof. It was still a little dark with the sun just coming up.  There was a slight chill in the air.  It felt relaxing as I sat on the edge of the roof and watched the sun rise. It looked better now that I didn't have to look over a giant wall to see when it was first coming up. An hour later I heard the trap door open then close.

“And I thought I got up early.” Sylas said walking up behind me and sitting down.

“You still do, it's just I get up really early.” I said.

“Yeah I guess.” Sylas said. I was a little distracted trying to decide whether or not I was going to tell him my little healing problem. After all he is my brother.

“So where have you been?” I asked changing the topic in my mind.

“Here and there.” He responded. “I would have stayed longer if I could of, but I really had no choice. If I stayed it would of out you all in danger. I didn't want that.”

“I understand. I had to leave because of something else. It was leave or be killed.” I said.

“That was the same for me. If I didn't leave they probably would have killed all of you.” Sylas explained.

“They did that anyways for the most part.” I said.

“So we only have each other now.” Sylas.

“Yeah.” I said. “And Tevan I guess. He's our cousin after all. And Kayla if she's still alive.”

“Yeah there's that little squirt I guess, but he's kind of a wimp. As for Kayla I have no clue if she's still alive. She took off as soon as we got outside the wall and haven't seen her since.” Sylas said.  Where could Kayla have gone? Why would she leave Sylas?

“I should probably be the one being careful.” I say looking at the street below us.

“Why?” Sylas asked looking at me.

“I'm not healing the way I should. I'm healing like I'm normal.” I explain.

“You're not normal. I can assure you that much, but I have no idea why you're not healing like that.” Sylas said reassuringly. “I have a hunch, but they would probably kill me if I told you.”

“I won't tell them.” I said. “Mark can't read my mind.”

“If he really needed to he probably could, and that's a risk I'm not going to take.” He says. “They'll probably kick me out if they found out I told you.”

“Oh.” I said understanding why he didn't want to tell me.

“It will be interesting if I'm right.” He said. There was a slight spark in his eyes which if I didn't know him it would look like he had an evil plan. “Just be careful. Don't push yourself too far.”

“I won't.” I said. “I guess I am healing better than a normal person. I don't have a bunch of scars on the bottom of my feet.”

“Why would you have a bunch of scars on the bottom of your feet?” He asked, so I told him the whole story of what happened in the past month.

“So Mark knows huh?” he asked once I finished.

“Yeah.” I replied.

“See Tevan opens his mouth too much. If he wanted to know he should have asked you to ask them.” He commented.  Yeah right.  Tevan would know better.  I wouldn’t ask about something like that, and he wanted answers.  He had a bad habit of doing stuff like this to try to find out what he wants to know, and one of these days it’s going to get him killed

“He knows I wouldn't have asked.” I said.

“Then he should have left it.” He said a little aggravated.

“Yeah I guess, but he doesn't just leave it when he's curious.” I said. “And that's probably going to be the death of him.”

“Yeah.” He said. 

“I get him being curious, but I don’t understand how he goes about getting the information.  It’s risky in its own way.” I said.

“How far can you jump?” He asked completely changing the topic.

“Why?” I asked.

“I was just curious.” He said standing up. “Then again I could just find out.”

“And how would you do that?” I asked.

“Like this.” He said before turning and running off. I got up and chased him. Soon I caught up to him.

“Dang you can run fast.” He said still running.  The cool air was blowing on our faces.  It made me feel free, like nothing could stop me.  I’ve never really ran like this before.  The cool wind on my face, nobody chasing after me.  It felt good.

“But I can't jump too far.” I said.

“Don't worry. I'll make sure you don't fall.” He said as we jumped to the next roof.  I trusted him.  I knew he wasn’t lieing.  If need be he would probably put himself under me to make sure I didn’t get hurt.

“You better. I don't really want to tell the others which means I can't go back with broken bones.” I said after we landed.

An hour later we started heading back to the hangout. We managed to make it half way across the city.

“Not bad for a beginner.” He said as I got up from the bench I was sitting on to retie my shoe.

“I guess not.” I said.

“You would have beat Mark for sure. Possibly got close to Alex.” He said.

“That's better than last time.” I said. “I just barely beat Mark yesterday.”

“Well you are a fast learner.” Sylas said.

“Yeah.” I said.

We talked all the way back to the hangout. When we got there Tevan shot up from the couch.

“Where have you been?” He asked sounding outraged I left without him knowing.  Typical Tevan.  Always so uptight about everything that doesn’t go according to the plan in his head.

“We couldn't have gone far now could we?” Sylas said leaning up against the wall.

“Can you not yell every time you don't know something?” Joey asked, annoyed that Tevan woke him up yet again. “Some of us don't like waking up early.”

“Yeah I don't like getting up this early either.” Fred said.

“I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon.” Sylas said in a half mumble.

“Hey!” Tevan said clearly offended.  It was the truth though.

“He's got a point Tev.” I said going over to the fridge and getting a water.

“Now you're on his side.” Tevan said. “You haven't seen him in seven years!”

“But he's my brother.” I said opening the water.

“She's got a point.” Mark said as I took a drink.

“Now can you please stop yelling so we can go back to sleep?” Fred asked.

“Yeah.” Joey said putting a couch pillow over his head.

“Maybe we should go get some air.” Alex suggested.

“Yeah good idea.” Mark said.

“Something tells me fresh air means roof jumping.” Tevan mumbled.

“Of course it does.” Alex said. “Now who's coming?”

“Not me.” Tevan said. “I don't have a death wish.”

“I'll stay.” John said. With that Alex, Mark, Sylas and I went down the hall and left.

Two hours later we were heading back to the hangout.

“I can't believe you almost caught up with me.” Alex said once we all got down onto the street.

“Yeah me either.” Mark said. “Yesterday you just barely beat me.”

“I also can't believe Sylas didn't beat me.” Alex said.

“Sounds like my brother is crazier than Alex.” I said.  We chuckled at that.

“Yeah well I didn't want her to fall.” Sylas said. “That's the only reason.”

“Dude she can take a fall. She's just like us.” Alex said. Sylas looked at me with a questioned look which meant was I going to tell Alex the truth.

“No I can't” I said deciding to tell him. Mark trusted him, and because he didn't tell anybody I trusted Mark. “If I break a bone it will not heal in a day, or a week.”

“So, you're like us, but at the same time you're not.” Alex summed up.

“Yeah.” I said. “Don't tell Fred and Joey.”

“Ok no problem.” Alex said.

The day went on as a normal day of hanging around at the hangout. When night fell things changed.

“Man I haven't been for a walk in the dark in a long time.” Alex said.

“Yeah same here.” Mark said.

“I have a crazy idea. Let's go for a walk right now.” Alex said. Tevan went to the bathroom so he didn't hear that.

“Crazy kids.” Fred mumbled.

“We could.” Mark said.

“I would want to go, but poor Jordan has to stay.” Sylas said in a joking manner. “Wouldn't want to upset Tevan, again.”

“Tevan's a wimp.” John said. “Even by normal person standers.”

“Yeah and he has a tendency to yell when he doesn't get his way.” Joey said with a hint a disapproval.

“At least this time he won't wake you up.” I said. “If you're going I'm going.”

“It's still annoying.” Joey grumbled.

“If he really doesn't like it he'll come after me. He knows I can't go far, nor will I.” I said turning to Joey.

“If you say so.” Joey said not believing me.

“So are we going?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Alex said getting up.

“You coming John?” I asked.

“Don't worry we aren't going roof jumping.” Mark said.

“Yeah I'll come.” John said.

“Let's go before Tevan stops us before we get out the door.” Sylas said headed for the door. We fallowed after him. Sylas and I had a quick stride that the others found a little hard to keep up with, but when we got out of the alley and turned the corner he slowed down so everybody else would not have to almost jog to keep up.

“I don't get why Tevan is so uptight about everything.” John said.

“You and me both.” I replied.

“Well let's hope he really doesn't like this idea or we are going to get our ears chewed off.” Sylas said.

“Yeah.” Mark said.

“Are you sure he's not too afraid of the dark?” Alex asked jokingly.

“Wouldn't surprise me.” Mark said.

“Must be why he hates me so much.” Sylas said.

“Wait up!” Tevan said rushing up behind us.

“Looks like he's not afraid of the dark that much.” Sylas mumbled.

We walked down the street for about fifteen minutes talking to each other.

“Well well well, look who we have here.” An all too familiar voice said from behind us. We stopped.

“Jared.” I whispered through gritted teeth.

“Man I have horrible timing.” Alex whispered.

“Ya think?” Sylas whispered back.

“What do we do?” John asked. I heard a noise I somehow knew it was a gun.

“Run!” I whispered loudly. We all took off. Alex and John running down a street to the left, Mark to the right, and Sylas and I straight ahead. I didn't take two steps before I heard the gun fire. Pain shot through my right leg. I fell down, but then quickly got up and started running as fast as I could. Sylas didn't stay behind to see what happened. I turned down the next street and quickly weaved through the streets and alleys as best I could, but I soon found out I didn't know this city well enough. Too late did I realize that I was in an alley that was headed straight for the river. I could turn right before the river, but that street was really long and I remembered most of the alleys ended up being dead ends. Jared was still chasing me somehow and there was a good chance he would shoot again if I turned. I was trapped. I looked straight ahead and sped up a little.  My leg was killing me, but I forced myself to push forward.  I couldn’t let Jared get a hold of me again.  Who knows what they’ll do to me this time.  I wasn’t interested in finding out.

“Jordan don't.” Alex said. Somehow he managed to get on the rooftops and was fallowing. Jared shot and missed, but Alex still moved away from the direction the shot was fired and fell off the roof.

“You can't be that stupid.” Jared said behind me. I could almost see him training the gun back on me as best he could while still running.  The river was getting closer and closer.  I was out of time, and options.

“Jordan no.” Tevan said somewhere off to my left, but it was too late. I was in the air before he finished his sentence. I hit the water and the first thing I felt was the shocking pain.  The river was freezing cold.  This was one of the few times I was bothered by the cold.  I felt like I was freezing inside and out. My head popped up for a second and I saw Jared getting tackled by Alex. Sylas showed up as my head got submerged under water again and the current pulled me down. Desperately I searched for something to hang on, but all I did was badly cut up my hands.  The frigid temperature of the water wasn’t making things any easier.  My foot hit something and I spun around quickly. Soon after that I hit my head and passed out.