Lost in Paradise

Helpless- John Mayer

Shadow started to yell in pain. The crimson mist that shocked the air filled his lungs and eyes, burning him from the outside in. It felt like he was on fire. The pain was so blinding he could barely tell that he was in his mind's field. Where it was normally calm and quite everything was on fire and the sky was a blood red he had never seen before.

In the background, he could hear her laughing an evil laugh.

Through it all, he managed to create a spear which he threw in. Every time he missed he could hear her tauntings. After the fifth one, he found himself running out of energy. Something latched around his arms making him fall to one knee. Chains wrapped around his arms pulling him into the hair the metal branding him to the bone. He thought his arms would melt away but they only caused pain and suspended him in the air.

"Fury let go out me!" Shadow roared to the mist.

Hearing her name summoned the gem and she appeared in front of him from nowhere.

Angry ruby eyes bore into his. A crude toothy grin spread across her face. "I told you Shadow didn't I?" Fury floated around him. "I was going to create you into a monster the next time I had control. Did you think I was lying?" Fury's voice was husky and dark. If the Necronomicon needed a narrator Fury would be runner-up.

Shadow laughed at her. "Alright, Fury let's skip the kinky games and get down to brass tax." It felt like the chains were getting tighter which made thinking straight harder and harder. "Fury! Stevonnie is missing and we need to find them. I know you want to find them as much as we do." Fury floated around in front of him. Clawed fingers wrapped around his neck and she pulled him closer to her face.

Fury's voice grew harsher. "And why do you assume that? You are so pathetic, you can't save yourself or anyone else for that matter. So why even bother?"

He started to go light headed, this wasn't good. "You care about them…" Shadow could feel all his energy failing him. "If you won't work with us to find them then do it for yourself. Do it for the kids…" His eyes started to roll to the back of his head, then, she let go.

The chains around his wrist disappeared and he fell to the ground on his back. Fury's foot slammed on to his chest before he could get up. He didn't bother to move he knew what that would result in. Instead, he asked, "Why is it that you are so evil?"

Fury pulled her cloak closer to her face, it looked like she was blushing. It was hard to tell on her caramel colored skin. "You and Jasper fuse to become me. You're emotions, memories, hurt and pain formed into me. You're most enate desires-" Fury bent over to run a hand down his chest, "-both yours and hers." Shadow slapped her hand away before she got any funny ideas. The way Fury was looking at him made him naked.

"Are you going to help us or not?" Shadows patience was wearing thin now. When he said us he didn't even realize that Jasper was not around.

Fury grunted at him then turned around. With her are outstretched she summoned the right amount of energy to open up a rift. The crimson mist around them receded into the palm of her hand until everything that was left in the field was ashes. It made him sad to see but something inside him knew that it would heal itself.

A red swirl of energy formed into an ever-shifting sphere of energy he could only assume was the rift. It didn't look like much but a ball of blood or something. Fury really was an angsty creature. His teenage days finally caught up to him.

"This rift will lead you to them," she started, "or at least close enough to Stevonnie. I think your weak ass can handle finding a couple kids right? If not don't come crawling back to me cause I really will kill you."

"Fuck you, Fury," Shadow gave her the bird which got a snort out of the fusion. Back to the sphere Shadow was feeling skeptical about stepping through it. Literally, this thing looked like a portal to hell.

"You said this thing will get me close enough to Stevonnie? Why can't we be with them or you know…" Shadow turned back around with Fury standing right in front of him.

"Bye!" Fury kicked him in the chest sending him, or more specifically them, to where she was picking up their specific energy.

The rest was up to them if they were going to find Stevonnie.

Shadow opened his eyes, his face was stinging from a slap Jasper hit him with.

"Ummm owww!" Shadow sat up on his hands and held a hand to his cheek. It stung just as bad as a headache that was pounding in his head.

Jasper looked at him with focused eyes. "I don't know what happened or why we de-fused but we must be on the planet where they crashed. Look," she pointed to smoke in the distance past massive flowers like trees that spanned out miles and miles. He took a moment to gauge his surroundings. They were surrounded by dense vegetation upon a euphoria of odd flowers that sprouted to life when you got close.

Jasper swatted at one of them causing it to blossom. She scoffed when she realized Shadow was staring at her. "What are you looking at?"

Shadow shook his head, the slight grin on his face giving away his amusement. "Nothing just enjoying the view of you hating all this beauty." He himself was enjoying the change of scenery. The air smelled cleaner and salt-free, he was still trying to get used to beach cities ocean air. Maybe it was just being in the unknown that was exciting him.

Shadow was so distracted he didn't realize Jasper was standing next to him. He looked her up and down. Something about the way she looked today turned him on. She wore tights that were a little bit to tight. A tank top underneath an orange button up that showed more bust than needed. When he went to touch her she turned to him.

"What are you doing?" Jasper looked him up and down.

He tucked his hand behind his back before he could touch her. "Nothing nothing, just trying to sample the goodies."

The look on her face was less than amused. She knew what he wanted.

"Jasper," his voice cracked when he said her name. She arched a brow in confusion, his flashed flushed with embarrassment. Damn, he really wasn't making anything easy for himself. "Sorry. We need to get moving when that smoke disappears our only lead on where Stevonnie could be done as well. Those kids are smart and will keep moving. So we will as well.

"This was a gem controlled planet. Or at least the moon orbiting that planet," she pointed the planet in the sky. The planet was cracked into pieces exposing its dead core for them to see. Shadow just hated the way her voice sounded when she spoke. She continued, "They sucked that planet try."

Shadow raised his hand to touch hers. When he brushed his hands against her arm she pulled away, slowly, but enough to hurt him. He didn't deserve to be hurt though, he was the one doubting her. Shadow ignored it, he ignored what she said. "Let's go," his voice was rough, "we have some ground to cover and judging by the way those clouds look we ain't got a lot of time to look." Dark purplish clouds in the distance crackled with the lightning of equal color.

She didn't wait to hear anything else he had to say so she pressed on past him, without even a second glance. That stung. Her attitude towards him was really starting to hurt.

For twenty minutes they walked. Over hills, through thick trees and other vegetation that was foreign to someone raised on one planet. A couple of times little insect-like monsters would pop out of a bush and try to attack. Jasper would cut them down quickly but would grow back then scattered away. Little bugged eye things were weird.

Shadow started to chuckle at something he had remembered. "Fuckkkk," he groaned under his breath, another round of laughs disturbed the silence between him and Jasper.

The gem glanced back at him, a curious grin on her face. "What's got you laughing like a girl?" She asked, amusement in her voice.

Shadow stopped walking when they came out of the treeline they had been following for forever now. When they finally broke through they were faced with a large river bend. The water looked so clear you could see to the bottom, the sunlight reflecting off the water gave it a purplish hue that twinkled like millions of little diamonds. Two boulders on the shore looked like perfect enough seats than anything, it was time to take a break.

When he sat down Jasper followed in suit. Shadow looked out across the water, a deep breath of air calmed him down way better than it did when they were on the ship. Thinking about out he reacted to the situation made him feel ashamed. He had that he caused such looks on the renegade gems faces. He made a mental note to apologize to them later.

Jasper cut through his train of thought like a hot knife. "So are you going to tell me what you were laughing about?"

When she asked Shadow started to laugh again. This time to the point where tears came to his eyes and his stomach began to hurt.

"Shadow you're making me-"

Shadow put a hand up and with his other wiped away the tears. "I know I know, sorry, I'll tell you." Shadow cleared his throat to get out any other laughs before Jasper drowned him. "So, when I was a kid I was in the outback of Wasilla with my best friend at the time. Another boy the same age as myself." Thinking of his old friend put a frown on his face.

He sat down on the ground and leaned back against the rock before continuing. "We were having a camping trip and wanted to get away from the rest of the campers who swarmed the campgrounds. We played games like Indians and bears, pinecone wars, etc. We played and played so much that we finally realized that we were lost. I wasn't worried about anything, it was exciting to be in the backwoods of Alaska. The only thing we were really worried about was coming upon a grizzly bear or a moose. After a few minutes of trying to find our way back my friend started panicking."

Jasper gave him a sideways glance. "What do you mean panicking?"

Shadow sucked his teeth at her. "Let me finish and you'll find out girl!"

This time Jasper didn't interrupt but you could see the irritation on her face.

He continued. "You're the one who wanted to come out here! He screamed at me. I told you to let's turn back and go back to came, which he never said to me at all. After a while of him complaining and whining I had gone off on him." Shadow started to really frown. "I told him that he was one who wanted to get away cause his parents were so strict on him. I told him that he should be lucky to have a father in his life and that the only reason why he complained so much about them is that they give him whatever wanted because he was a spoiled brat that was being pushed away by his new baby sister."

"I don't think I'm finding this story very funny Shadow…" If anything Jasper was in a worse mood than she was before.

A smirk started to form on his face. "After I said all that he had punched me in the face, knocked my glasses clean off my face. If you wore glasses you would know how much rage forms when your glasses are knocked off. So what do I do? I kick him square in the nuts, he goes down crying and squealing like a pig."

Shadow started to crack up again. Jasper didn't understand why, if she knew anything about the male body she knew that being hit in the genitals was a big no-no. "His whole attitude changed. He blamed the reason why he got mad was that he had to poop. I couldn't even say anything before he got up and ran into a thick bush. A few moments later he comes out, sniffling and whining. He was whining because on the other side of the bush was the campsite. That wasn't the worst part though when he was done pooping he had wiped his butt with cow parsnip!" He once again exploded in laughter.

The joke was lost over Jasper, she didn't understand what was so funny, or what was cow parsnip. "I don't get this story at all. Why are you laughing about your friend wiping his butt with a plant, I assume."

Shadow looked up at the sky. The clouds that were so far away closer than they were before. They needed to move but he wanted to finish the moral of the story. "The one thing I have forgotten was that anger blinds you. We both got mad about being mad that we hurt someone, in this case, each other. Him wiping his butt with a plant that causes a horrible rash shows that actions done in anger cannot be undone." Shadow got to his feet and walked to Jasper. He laced his fingers between hers and squeezed her hand tightly as he had never done it before.

"I think when we go back we need to seriously give our relationship a think through."

Jasper flinched at that, he mouth parted then closed. "What do you mean?" Her voice was shaky.

Shadow gave her a confused look then facepalmed. "No no, I'm sorry, what I meant was that maybe… maybe when we get back we can look into-" a plop of rain fell down on his face. Shadow wiped it away, he looked past his hand to see the dark clouds that were far away right on top of them.

They didn't say anything they just took off running under the trees. The rain beat down on them harder than he thought it would. Jasper kept cursing when her hair would get in her face and she would stumble on a root.

"I'm getting sick of this, we need-" Jasper tripped on something again and this time she stumbled into Shadow so hard he was sent off his feet.

Shadow hugged her tight to ensure she didn't hurt, the fall shouldn't be that bad. Then he realized that he hadn't hit the ground yet. Shadow just barely noticed the river below the before gravity took effect and the two started to plummet. The same river they were looking at now a purple muddied snake that snapped and bit at the trees on the shore, the turbulent course winded faster than the eye could see. He couldn't feel Jaspers heart, she was a gem so she didn't have one but his, his heart was racing in his throat. There was nothing else to do but hold onto Jasper tighter, this wasn't going to be good no matter how hard he braced.

The first thing he felt before he hit the water was Jasper trying to pull from his grasp. Her yelling at him, something about him being an idiot. Then his body hitting the water. It felt like someone had taken a sack of spiky bricks and hit him across the back. The pain was so sudden and the cold water hit him so hard he couldn't help but open his mouth to yell when he did he took in a bunch of water. Panic mode began to kick in, his grip on Jasper loosened but he felt her hand grip his wrist harder than necessary.

Shadow could feel his body rise to the top. He tried to cough out more water but every time he did more would get into his mouth. Jasper held him in her arms, a tight embrace that wouldn't let up for fear of losing him to these turbulent waters.

"Shadow do something!" Jasper managed to yell before the water got into her own mouth.

The man was to busy trying not to go under more than anything else. Something slammed into them making him almost go under. Shadow reached desperately for something to keep him afloat. Again he felt Jasper reach for him. When he thought he had her hand he was pulled under by the water. His body tossed and turned in the water, he didn't know which way was up. Something hit his head then that was it. His leg slammed against a rock then his whole body crashed against a tree. After that everything went blank. Everything was dark again.