Yesterdays Gone: SEASON TWO (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (Yesterday's Gone)

across the board, removed a black knight from the other side, and settled his bishop in its place. There was silence in his head. The Black Pieces weren’t talking. They were probably mad because Luca had just taken the knight.
    The Black Pieces were like that sometimes, even when they weren’t playing chess with Luca. Sometimes they would start talking from nowhere, capturing his attention and demanding that he keep it. There were four of them, so far as he could tell. They all sounded similar, weird and kind of high pitched in voice, almost like he imagined elves would sound. They said they didn’t have individual names, and instead called themselves Black Pieces because that was how he’d first noticed and thought of them during a game of chess. Luca thought it weird that they didn’t have names before now. But that was the least of all the weirdness in his life these days, so he didn’t fight the idea.
    Most of the time the Black Pieces said the same sorts of things; things he mostly understood, though every once and a while they said something that sent a cold chill through Luca’s body.
      The Black Pieces came back and told Luca to move one of its pawns two spaces to make room for a rook. Luca moved the pawn, then returned to his thoughts while pondering his own next move.  
      The Black Pieces were nicer than most of the voices. Always calm and reasonable. And they always answered back. The other voices ignored his responses and questions. They were like TV or the radio since he could only hear the voices, and they only went one way. Luca could sometimes see them too, but only when he slept.  
    The Black Pieces were always around. That’s why they could play chess together.
    Luca moved one of his pawns forward, then waited for the Black Pieces.  
    Luca caught his reflection in the mirror on the far side of the room, then quickly looked away. He hated his reflection. It was worse than the worst scary movie he ever saw, which was probably this movie called Lovely Bones he saw last summer. Mom said he shouldn’t see it, but Dad insisted he was old enough. Mom was right because Lovely Bones had given him nightmares for a month.
      Luca hated how old he looked. It was weird. Paola had been looking at him like he was from another planet since they met. Now that he looked like the college kids who hung out at the Town Center in Las Orillas, she probably wouldn’t want to be around him at all. Paola laughed at his jokes and seemed to enjoy being around him, but Luca was sure that if the world was filled with more people, she wouldn’t care about him at all. They were probably just friends because Paola didn’t have a choice.
      He caught his reflection again, but this time he held it. Not because he was comfortable - the mirror still made him feel yucky - but because looking into the mirror gave him a view of a younger but still breathing version of his father, and he suddenly couldn’t bear to turn away.
    Luca moved for the Black Pieces, still transfixed.
    Even if Luca looked just like his father, he had still only been on Earth for eight years. It was making him feel weird; how the thoughts in his head were starting to feel so much older than his eight years. Luca didn’t think as old as he looked, but he also didn’t think nearly as young as he was.
    Luca took the final black knight and wondered again what Paola really thought of him. He loved playing with her. Mary and Desmond were like his new mom and dad, or at least the closest thing to parents that he had now. So that meant Paola was like his sister. But he didn’t feel about Paola like he did about his sister Anna. Not at all. Paola gave him a weird feeling, and reminded him of something his dad once said:  
    Young love softens the mind too much to control the body’s tingles.  
    Luca hadn't really known what it meant; still didn’t. But he was somehow sure it had something to do with how he was feeling now, sure it had to do with the weird feeling he never had before tingling in the place he wasn’t supposed to talk about.
    Luca moved for Black Pieces again, taking his own white knight, with the Black Pieces’ rook.
    He wished Jimmy were still alive. Jimmy probably would have had good advice on the subject. Luca didn’t have the courage to discuss his feelings with any of the grownups, though he did manage to ask Will if he thought Paola might ever like him as more than a friend. Will said, “Chicken pox and puppy love are