Hello everyone! I decided to rewrite my fan fiction (and actually finish it this time) because I didn't really like the first one. Hopefully you all like this one better! Happy reading!
Rats were chasing him, gaining on him through long, dark, seemingly endless tunnels. Suddenly, the tunnel floor dropped off. He was falling. "Ares!" He called. No one answered, no one came. His body smashed against the rocks.
"No," Gregor panted as he woke up from his nightmare in a cold sweat. He looked at the clock; it read three in the morning. "Oh great," Gregor thought. "Another four hours of this!" He rolled over and tried to think of good, happy, non nightmare material things, but few came to mind. He lied awake for a while, listening to the sounds of New York City. Slowly, he fell back to sleep, but woke up again every half hour from another nightmare ending in his death.
For four months Gregor had been suffering through the nights getting little sleep. During those four months, he had gone through all the cycles of grief, sadness, anger, guilt, but it wasn't until recently that the acceptance portion had started lasting for more than just a few hours. Gregor still regularly morned the death of his bond, Ares, and dealt with the heart ache of missing friends, especially Luxa. The Underland had changed him completely, his whole family completely, and they all knew that things would never go back to the way they were.
Events in the Overland had taken their toll on Gregor as well. His grandmother had died only three days ago. He never did get to speak to her again, just sit next to her in the hospital and hold her hand. His parents had gone to visit her the day after they returned from the Underland. They told Gregor that he could visit when she got stronger, but she never did. Later that day she had a stroke, damaging her brain so that she was unresponsive.
His grandmother was one of the only things keeping Gregor and his family from moving to Virginia. Now that she was gone, the question rose to the surface again. Would they move or stay? There was money to think of, they were tight. Really tight. Gregor's parents could only manage a work from home job as a customer service agents. Even with both of them working it did not make very much money at all, and they were running low on the money that the Underland had given them. They didn't have a car or any other way to get to Virginia, let alone bring their belongings with them. It felt weird being so close to the Underland, but then again Gregor didn't like the idea of being so far.
Gregor hadn't received or sent a message to the Underland since he left four months ago. He desperately missed everyone and wanted to know what was going on. He hoped to one day be able to go back down and visit everyone, but he knew that he would never be able to stay forever, and that leaving a second time would be terrible.
Every night Gregor snuck down to the laundry room to see if there was a message hidden in the grate for him. He knew his mom would kill him if she knew that he was going anywhere near the laundry room, but he just had to know. Every night he was disappointed, but not surprised.
"No, no no NO!" Gregor cried as he awoke from another nightmare. He looked at the clock again. 3:32. "Ugh," He thought. He hoped he hadn't waken his family up. They had grown accustomed to his nightmares and didn't come running to his room anymore. "Now seems as good a time as any," Gregor thought. He hadn't checked the grate yet that night. He quietly got up, stuffed some pillows under his blanket to make it appear like he was in bed if someone glanced in his room to check on him, and checked in all the bedrooms to make sure everyone was asleep. As he was about to slip out the door when he had an idea. He grabbed a piece of blank sheet of paper out of his room, then quietly went out of his apartment into the hallway.
As Gregor walked down the hallways and stairs to get to the laundry room he folded the piece of paper until it was a small square. Once he was in the laundry room he stuck it in the grate. If the Underland was sending scouts to check for letters, they would take the piece of paper. If not, then it would still be there the next night. Gregor was mostly just curious to see that if after four months, the Underland was still wondering about him. Once back in bed, he fell asleep with something to look forwards to, seeing if his paper was missing the next night.
When the morning finally arrived, Gregor helped his dad make breakfast, then he started school. His mom had decided to homeschool Gregor and Lizzie since sending them back to school, between Gregors scars and Lizzie's panic attacks, did not seem like a good idea. But because they didn't have enough money to buy a bunch of books, they had to get creative. Their dad taught them science, in between working as a customer service agent, using the old books he used to teach from when he was a public school science teacher. Their mom read them history from articles online, and used free youtube videos for their math lessons. Lizzie enjoyed this because she was finally free to move at her own pace. Soon, Lizzie had excelled past Gregor in math and was doing Geometry.
As far as missing the Underland went, Lizzie was having a hard a time as Gregor. She missed Ripred. She stayed as strong as she could but Gregor often caught her wiping tears from her eyes when she thought no one was looking. Boots asked regularly "Where's Temp?" She hadn't stopped speaking in cockroach yet, but she did so less frequently. Anytime she found a tiny, overland cockroach in the apartment she would run up to it excitedly and click to it.
After once Gregor and Lizzie finished school, Boots asked to go to the park. "Okay, I'll take you," Gregor said. "Lizzie, do you want to come to?"
"Sure, I'll come. Let me get my coat," Lizzie replied. It was February so it was starting to warm up a little, but it still snowed occasionally. "Which park are we going to?" Lizzie asked once they had stepped outside the apartment building.
"It's up to you!" Gregor said.
"I wish we could go to central park," Lizzie said. Their mother had strictly forbidden them to go to central park because there is an entrance to the Underland there.
"Yeah, is it pretty," Gregor said.
"I wish we could go to the Underland," Lizzie said.
"I know Liz, I know," Gregor said. But the truth was that he didn't know. Of course he wanted to see his friends, but did he want to go to the Underland? He knew he didn't want to live in New York or Virginia. He felt as though he didn't belong anywhere. "I guess if I had to pick somewhere," he thought, "I'd pick the Underland." But he knew his mom would never move to the Underland. She wouldn't even set foot in the laundry room.
"Gregor, I found a cockroach!" Boots said as they were walking aimlessly along the side walk. Gregor looked down at the tiny little thing as Boots picked it up and started clicking to it as she walked along. She got a few strange looks, but Gregor didn't even care anymore. The tiny bugs where either to small for Boots to hear or didn't click back to her. After a few minutes of clicking, Boots said the cockroach down and clicked goodbye.
"So, which park are we going to?" Gregor asked.
"Lets just go home," Lizzie said, whipping a tear from her eye. Gregor knew that Lizzie no longer wanted to go. The grief came in random, unpredictable waves that regularly struck the whole family, but they hit Gregor and Lizzie the most. He recalled the image in his mind of the last time he had seen Luxa. It had grown slightly faint over four months despite his best efforts to keep it clear.
"I mean, it's pretty cold and going to get dark soon, and I bet that mom will have dinner ready before to long," Lizzie said interrupting Gregor's memory.
"Ok Liz, yeah, we'll just go home," Gregor said. Once they got home, his mom looked relieved to see them. It had taken her a while to let them to go anywhere on their own, and every time that they went she couldn't help but wonder if they would come back.
"That was quick," she said.
"Yeah, it got a little cold," Gregor said covering for Lizzie. They quietly ate their small rations of dinner. None of them were starving, but just never quite full. "Thanks for dinner Mom," Gregor said after dinner.
"Of course. Gregor will you wash the dishes tonight?" His mom asked.
"Ok," Gregor said. He did't particularly like washing the dishes but the didn't know what he would do other wise. His dad went into the bedroom to start his evening shift as a customer service agent while his mom threw away the empty mac 'n' cheese box and brought the pot to Gregor to wash.
It was a slow night. Gregor showered early, practiced using echolocation with Lizzie, then went to bed. Lizzie had become pretty good at echolocation. She wasn't as good as Gregor yet, but she was getting a lot better. When Gregor fell asleep, he had one of his rare, not bad dreams. He saw Luxa sitting at the edge of a cliff, so he walked up and sat down next to her. She leaned into him, but slowly evaporated. Gregor was left sitting alone.
After this he only had nightmares. At two in the morning he decided to check the grate. He quietly made his way down to the laundry room. He crept over to the grate and looked. There was nothing inside. Gregor stepped back, an overwhelming mix of emotions washed over him. He whispered, "Hello?" But no one replied, he and couldn't echolocate anyone in the grate. He didn't know what else to do besides go back to his apartment. He had just crawled back into bed when the fire alarms went off.