AN: one more chapter left!!! please only leave constructive reviews :D

Her sight was hazy, blurred again. She could see nothing but shadows in the darkness when she could manage to open her eyes. She was so weak, physically and mentally, and it hurt. She knew this place, she'd been here before. The same place from her last dream. And she wasn't alone. She remembered the figure. The seated figure, who the idea of immediately brought her fear. Where was he now? She knew he had to be here.

And… and Remy. He was supposed to be here, too. He had been calling her before. She didn't bother with her eyes, she focused all her attention on trying to hear for him. To hear his call to her. But she heard nothing.

"Remy… Remy," she moaned lethargically. Those two faint utterances took more energy than she could expend, and she could say no more. She heard no response. He wasn't there anymore.

"This is the longest he's been at this… I don't know how much longer they'll last." It was a voice she didn't recognize.

"Yeah. He's getting weak. He's only bringing the others in and out at this point," Another unrecognized voice responded. Last what? The others? In and out? She had no clue to what they were referring. She listened for more information. But none came.

"Wanna go swimming?" John asked from where he lay on his back in the grass beside her. She guessed he'd finished telling his story about his most recent date. She hadn't been paying much attention. Instead she'd been watching some of the other students outside and letting her thoughts wander. Unfortunately, they only wandered toward the negative. She sighed.

"What do you think?" She didn't want to do anything, especially not put on some stupid body-suit-excuse-of-a-swim-suit.

"Right… So I've been meaning to ask… Was it me who was mad at you… or you who was mad at me? Because I can't tell," John asked. She turned her head where it rested on her arms so she was looking at him. He was watching her, his arms behind his head. She'd been hanging out with him since he approached her again after Remy left, but it hadn't been the same.

She wanted to yell at him, to tell him how much she just didn't care. But she couldn't. It wasn't his fault.

"I'll take that blink as an 'I love you, too'," John murmured before sighing and turning to look back at the sky.

She closed her eyes.

It was getting so hot now. Too hot for rain. The sun burned away any clouds that threatened it's reign. Along with her hope that things would ever return to normal. That she'd ever get him back. She didn't even talk about it with John. She'd never brought it up—regardless of the fact that Remy's second disappearance seemed to have messed with his memory—because what good would it do? She had no answers to offer him. No reasons to why all this was occurring. It had been going on so long, she wasn't sure how much she cared anymore.

She'd been dozing off, listening to the sound of the students for a while, when John asked, "You love him, don't you?"

She opened her eyes, lifted her head off her arms and looked incredulously at him. Was he talking about Remy? But he didn't remember him. No one did. Or at least it seemed so. She hadn't bothered to asked, but… "What?"

John was still on his back staring at her. "What did you just say?"

He smiled at her, and something about it scared her. It wasn't John's smile. Something was off about… his eyes. "John?... What did you just say!"

"I didn't say anything, Rogue," he responded calmly, a false frown replacing his previous smile. Like he knew everything. Everything that had happened, everything that was going on. Like he was playing with her. She pushed herself to her knees, stopping to look at him once more.

Then she slapped him. As hard as she could, her anger hastily overshadowing her confusion. And then she got up to run. But he was faster, despite his shock. He flung up off his back, reached out and grabbed her ankle with one hand, sending her falling straight back down to the ground.

Thunder was the last thing she heard before her head hit the ground.

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