Chapter 4:

Just goes to show you how much you can miss when

you're shopping for leather. Sam and I had been at the

other end of the mall when all of a sudden Cale comes

running around the corner at full speed. Next thing we

know we're being pulled toward the food court, people

are screaming, crap is flying all over the place. A

shoe nearly hit me! Naheem, as it turns out, got

whacked upside the head with a piece of the wall! I'm

sure to him it was something more dignified than that,

but from where I was standing it looked like her got

whacked upside the head with a piece of the wall.

At the moment, I was sitting in a hospital waiting

room with Sam and Brian. Mia and Cale were sitting

across from us, and Sage was leaning up against the

wall with his arms crossed, looking pensive. Sam and I

were thumb wrestling. We weren't really all that

worried. He was only unconscious for a minute or two.

Or seventeen, but he looked pretty comfortable to me.

I was just about to win the 20th round when we heard

a lot of cursing coming from Naheem's room. I raised

my eyebrow.

"Maybe the morphine wore off," Sam offered.

A nurse came running out of the room. "You can see

him now," she threw over her shoulder as she swiftly

passed us.

"Kay," I said.

As I got up, Brian was already halfway through the

door. Sam followed right after me while Sage, Mia and

Cale hovered near the door.

"You can come in you know," Naheem said from where he

sat on the end of his hospital bed. The three of them

looked a little unsure. I don't know why, it's not

like he was in one of those backless paper hospital

gowns or anything. I think they just didn't want to

crowd him.

"Sorry," Mia said. "We just didn't want to crowd

you."

Told you.

"Nah," he said. "I'm fine. Just a bump on the head."

"Are you sure it's not serious?" Brian asked.

"Excuse me?" a soft voice interrupted. We all turned

to the door to see the green-haired girl that Naheem

had been with when he got hit. She had a bandaged

ankle and a small scrape on her forehead, but

otherwise she looked okay.

"Hi," Naheem said, sliding off the bed and walking to

her at the door.

"Hi. Listen, I just wanted to thank you for… for what

you did today," she said. "It was… it was really nice

of you to… Thank you."

"No problem. I'm Naheem by the way."

She smiled. "Jade." She cleared her throat. "I should

get back to my friends. They're worried." With that

she scampered off like some kind of bunny. Okay, so

I'm not much with romantic imagery, but the point is

that Naheem was staring off into La-la Land. That is

of course, until he turned to face us, and his little

smile completely disappeared when he saw our BIG ones.

"Someone's got a crush," I sang.

"Naheem and Jade sitting in a tree F-U-C…" The rest of

whatever Sam was about to say (and I think we all have

a very good idea) was cut off as I slapped my hand

across her mouth.

"We'll have none of that so near the children's wing

my dear," I told her. "Where were we? Oh yeah." I

launched into my best impression of the green-haired,

soft-spoken girl. "I just wanted to… I wanted to…

thank… Thank you, oh tall dark and handsome stranger."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Naheem said.

Yeah," Brian joined in. "I mean just because he

couldn't stop staring into her eyes, just because he

was so completely oblivious to anything while she was

talking that flesh-eating ants could have devoured his

hand doesn't mean that he's in loooooooooove with

her."

"Shut up!"

"Naheem's in love with Jade! Naheem's in love with

Jade!" I sang, with Sam adding "whoos" in the

background to punctuate the song.

We sang it all the way back to Mia's house. In fact,

we were singing it as we walked through the door,

causing many an eyebrow to rise.

"Who's Jade?" Rowen asked.

"Uh," Sage said. "Naheem's girlfriend."

"She is not my girlfriend!"

"Okay," Rowen said, not really understanding what was

going on. "Well, we've been trying to figure out what

got you guys here and how to get you back."

That shut us up right there and then. We followed

Rowen into the dining room where Anubis, Dais, Sekhmet

and Kayura sat looking through dozens of dusty old

books.

"Did you find anything yet?" Brian asked.

Anubis stood up and led us back into the living room.

I threw a concerned look towards Sam, but she wasn't

looking at me. The red-haired man motioned for us to

sit down, and cleared his throat.

"We, the others and I, have been researching all day.

We've checked our sources in the Nether Realm, even

cast a few spells."

"Do you know how to get us home?" Naheem asked.

Anubis looked down for a moment, avoiding making eye

contact with any of us. Then, slowly, he looked up and

met Naheem's eyes.

"I don't think we can."