Chapter Two

Sleep

On the drive to Kay's apartment, they listened to Roy Rogers songs and barely spoke. Ember kept looking out the window. Kay tapped his finger on the steering wheel, then glanced at her for a second. The yellow sundress and matching hard plastic headband made her look a little like she belonged in 1969.

"You hungry?" he asked.

She shook her head, now looking straight ahead. He realized she didn't want to look at him.

"Something wrong, Ace?"

"It's nothing," Ember lied.

Kay resumed tapping on steering wheel. He knew she was lying, but he didn't want to pry. Soon, they came to Kay's apartment. Ember followed him like a lost puppy. Her eyes were listless. She sat on Kay's couch, hugging her arms, staring at the floor.

"Coffee?" he asked.

"Sure."


They sat together and sipped on their coffee. Silence enveloped them, until Embed dropped her cup.

"Ember?"

She screamed and began to tremble.

"Ember?"

Her eyes widened. She started to mutter, "No, no..."

There was a vision before her eyes, of a man walking in the rain. He started to pull something out of his coat, but before she could see what it was, the scene changed. The older Agent Kay held a newspaper with a headline of, "GIRL JUMPS FROM BUILDING, NO BODY FOUND".

Suddenly, Ember snapped out of her vision. Kay was holding her head in his hands. His eyes were pleading with her. When he saw that she was alright, he immediately pulled his hands away.

"What happened?" Kay asked.

"Didn't I tell you, when I explained? I'm...I'm a seer. And, supposedly, the Key."

"The Men in Black have been searching for the Key for a very long time."

"They search for it in the future, too. But they probably think I'm dead."


Night crept it's way up on them. Kay told Ember goodnight, and she lay on the couch to sleep. She just couldn't do it. She was restless. Ember stared at the ceiling, listening to the noise from outside. For two weeks now, whenever she slept, she had nightmares of her past. Something just wasn't right. A rhythmic, gentle rain began outside, making Ember feel drowsy. She was almost asleep when Kay walked into the room. His hands were in his pockets, and he stared at the floor as he made way over to the couch. Ember sat up.

Agent Kay sat next to her. "You couldn't sleep either?"

She shook her head.

"Why not, Slick?"

"Accidentally going from the future to 1969 doesn't exactly help you sleep. And..." Ember stopped, then asked, "How am I supposed to save the world?"

"I don't know, but your vision scared me there," Kay replied.

She ignored this. "How could I ever destroy the world, either? How could I lose everything I'd ever cared about in a day? How could Camro, someone I trusted, just..."

Kay stared at her. He couldn't blame her for being like this. Virtually everyone in her family was dead, she was threatened with death daily, and now she had inexplicably traveled to the past.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Kay could tell she was trying to refrain from crying, but a small tear was making it's way down her cheek. He wiped it and held her.

Ember cried silently into his shoulder. They sat like that for an hour until Kay realized that she'd cried herself to sleep. He, too, gave into slumber.