Every Second is a Lifetime

Every Second is a Lifetime is the 20th chapter of Mind of Ezra. It also marks the appearance of a new villain.

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Ezra was still standing in front of the TV, not believing what he had just heard. His enemy was back, and with that his life had yet again taken the darker turn. The world around him was once again a dangerous place, and now he had even more than one enemy. A few moments after the news had been broadcasted, Ben called. Ezra had once again changed his ringtone, and this time it was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, a classical masterpiece he had always loved. Since he didn't want to be the center of attention or worse, being laughed at, he had decided to use a ringtone that was more classic and didn't stand out as much.

„Hi, Ezra!“ Ben said. „Have you seen the news?“

„Yes, I just did.“ Ezra said. „I can't believe Muhammad has broken out of prison!“

„He was aided by a very skilled assassin called Sarah Scarlet.“ Ben said. „We have been trying to get that girl behind the bars for years. It looks like we have enough evidence to do that now!“

Why are all the new students in my class assassins?, Ezra thought to himself.

„I just got some information that they are heading towards Sacramento.“ Ben continued. „With the speed they are going right now, they should be there in a about three days. They are already chased by some of our men and we are planning to go to Sacramento soon to arrest them. Since both of them have been your classmates and you know more about them, we could really use you! Would you like to come?“

Ezra thought for a moment. Going to Sacramento wouldn't really be a bad idea, especially with the way things had gone lately. He needed to get away from Seattle, at least for one day. And since Dane was once again annoyed with him, he couldn't really imagine a better company than Ben.

„Okay, I think I will come!“ Ezra responded.

„Great!“ said Ben, sounding really excited. „I will call you tomorrow and let you know when exactly we'll be going there."

„Okay, bye!“ Ezra said and ended the call.

When Ezra went to bed that night, he fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow. He was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and desperately needed some sleep. As he was asleep, he once again dreamed of Dane's mother being in an exploding car. The dream was very similar to the one he had seen the day before.

When he woke up, it was already 7:30 AM. Ezra quickly took a shower, got dressed, took his backpack, a sandwich from the kitchen table and rushed out of the house.

As he was walking to school and eating the sandwich, he felt worried about how he and Dane were going to interact. As the art class was the first lesson again, they had to paint and draw very close to each other, because the classroom was pretty tiny and there were a lot of students. And since Dane was his deskmate in all the other classes as well, it was impossible to ignore him without him noticing it. And it was especially impossible to do it this morning, since he once again had forgotten to bring the tools he needed for the class.

Great, he thought to himself. How can I possibly be a detective if I forget so often? In about twenty minutes he was at school, and arrived in the classroom about five minutes before the class started. He rushed next to Dane and sat down, not saying a word to his friend who was glaring at him. „I know what you're doing.“ Dane said, sounding a bit annoyed. „You are ignoring me.“ And as he saw that Ezra didn't put any tools on the table next to the easel, he added: "And I see you have once again forgotten to bring your colors. By the way, you have to ask me if you don't want to suffer the wrath of miss Tanen!" „I'm not ignoring you.“ Ezra said. „I just didn't know how I was supposed to communicate with you since the last time I talked to you! You should really win the prize for being the best friend in the whole wide world you know!“

„Well, don't blame me for not believing in the supernatural.“ Dane said, a bit annoyed. „And how exactly do you know that you've seen the future in your dreams? Did you see Asthon Butch being killed or Muhammad escaping from the prison?“ „No, I didn't. But I did see Muhammad putting the sports bag with the guns in his locker, and it was there in real life as well.“ „Well let us assume you really can see the future.“ Dane said. „What has that got to do with me?“ "I've dreamt of your mother being killed in a car explosion a couple of times." Ezra said, not looking at Dane because he was afraid of how he would react. "This is not funny!" Dane whispered angrily. But before he could say anything else, his phone rang, the ringtone being the song Better than Loce by his favorite band Hurts. Dane took his phone out of the pocket and rushed out the class.

While he was away, miss Tanen explained their new task: to paint anger. She allowed them to use red, crimson and brown, and once again make a painting with clear structures. As she was still talking, Dane rushed back to the class, his face much paler than it had been before. He quickly sat next to Ezra and whispered to him: „I think I believe you now.“

After the art class had ended, Dane and Ezra walked out of the schoolhouse together. Both of them were quiet, not saying a word to each other. Dane's expression showed that he was still in shock. „So tell me...“ Ezra said, trying to sound as calm as he possibly could. „What happened? When you came back to class, you looked like you had seen a ghost!“ „I got a call from a stranger.“ Dane answered quietly. „It was a man with the strangest voice I had ever heard, really high-pitched and soft. He said my mother was going to die, and that I had only two hours to save her!“ Ezra immediately remember the caller who had called him when Dane was kidnapped. „Where did he say it would happen?“ „In the city square.“ Dane answered. „Well, we better hurry up then.“ Ezra said. They ran as fast as they possibly could, and made it to the city square in about 40 minutes. Feeling a bit guilty about ditching the other classes, Ezra knew that he would have regretted it for the rest of his life if he hadn't done anything to save his best friend's mother.

As they arrived in the square, they noticed that near it were a lot of cars, both on the right and left side of the street. „I'll examine the left side of the square, and you'll take the right one. Agreed?“ „Agreed.“ Dane said. After that they ran in two different directions. As Ezra ran to the left side of the square, he held his phone in front of his eyes, looking at the clock every once in a while. They didn't have very much time left, and every second counted. While he was looking at the phone, he started to hate time for passing so quickly when it should've gone by much more slowly. A human life was at stake! Why couldn't it have flown by as slowly as it did when he was bored and when every second literally seemed as long as a lifetime?

After about ten minutes, Ezra had looked at all the cars on the left side of the square and found that Dane's mother wasn't in any of them. But before he could go to the right side where Dane was, he found his way being blocked by Adrien. „What are you doing here?“ Ezra asked, a surprised look on his face. „Waiting for you, actually.“ Adrien answered. „We weren't supposed to meet here!“ Ezra said with a puzzled expression on his face. „I know.” Adrien responded. “You are here to save Dane's mom.“ Adrien responded. „How did you know about that?“ Ezra asked. „I have my sources.“ Adrien responded. „I'm here to eliminate you. You, my friend, are really pissing off some people, you know. You were really supposed to die at the graveyard party. It was organised especially for you. But you, of course, managed to run away!“ He pointed a gun on Ezra's chest. „I'm going to enjoy this.“ Adrien said with a weird smirk on his face. „At the graveyard party, you were the third one who was supposed to die. And you won't escape this time!“

And as he had said those words, he pulled the trigger and shot. Ezra fell on the ground and lost consciousness. From his wound, blood started flowing to the pavement. Looking at what he had just done, Adrien laughed loudly and left, leaving Ezra to die. After a few minutes, he heard Dane screaming in the distance, and smiled.

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Dane Young
 * Margaret Tanen
 * Ben Walden
 * Adrien Walden
 * Muhammad Praveen (indirect)
 * Sarah Scarlet (indirect)
 * Ashton Butch (indirect)

Trivia

 * In this chapter, two references were made to the song Better Than Love by Hurts. The name of the chapter, Every Second is a Lifetime, is the first sentence of that song. It is also mentioned that Dane uses this song as his ringtone.


 * This is the chapter where Adriens true intentions are revealed. Adrien was a character brought over from another story where he was evil, and because of that, there was a big possibility that he would be a villain in this story as well.