Chapter 25 – Exhausted
Tyana lifted her head, her eyes finding that all she could see was darkness. Black, empty, shadowed darkness. She clambered to her feet, her muscles aching and throbbing. Turning slowly she tried to let her eyes adjust while at the same time searching for a stream of light. A little way off she could see the bright glow of something reflecting the moonlight that she now realized was shining faintly through a window 10 ft up what must have been a wall. Curious, she headed towards the glinting object…
Tyana shot up in bed, her breathing ragged when she realised she had been sleepingly thinking a dream that was terribly familiar. And she knew it was familiar because she had had it before. She had had it not long ago when she had passed out after returning from a date with Jeff. She sighed. The girl of turquoise hair looked over at the other bed in the room finding Shadow tucked safely beneath the covers, her body rising and falling with her gentle breathing. She could see the sun tingeing the sky line through the thin curtains of their hotel room and although Tyana knew that must have meant she couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour she slipped out of bed and wondered into the bathroom anyway. After splashing handfuls of crisp cold water onto her face she patted her skin dry and stared at herself in the mirror.
Before long she was looking past her reflection at nothing in particular, just staring. Her vision blurred and her grasp on the sink eased as she stood although mesmerized. Suddenly her eyes clicked back into sharp focus and something unfolded before her.
She ducked the punch and fell into a roll, jumping to her feet a meter away. She pounced from the stance into mid air where she threw both legs out in a powerful kick, the soles of her feet connecting with flesh and sending a sickening crack of bones slicking through the air. Tyana landed in a crouch when she turned into a leg sweep, spinning and knocking both opponents to the floor with a heavy thud. Slightly out of breath she jumped to her feet, victorious.
And then she was rushed by 3 others.
Tyana snapped her head to the side to shake the vision off once it had dissipated before her eyes. A quick pounding in her head started up, thumping against her temples as she tried to calm herself. She replayed the vision before her eyes again and drank in every detail she could find. Even after doing this twice more she still couldn't find it inside her head to catch the men's faces. Instead the only thing she could establish was that she was in the same concrete room in which she had awoken in her dreams.
Without a second thought Tyana made for her communicator.
***
Jeff kicked his feet gently, watching the ripples they created as they swayed through the cooled morning waters of the pool. The waves shone with the red rising of the sun and he lifted his eyes to watch it, warming inside with content at the beautiful simplicity of the dawn. His feet continued to kick, the waters continued to undulate and the sun continued to wake just as his mind began to float away from him, settling happily on the memory of his 3am wake up call from Tyana. He could still feel her kisses now, passionate and hungry, something about them still soft and tender still. He had tried to go back to sleep after that, he'd crawled into bed and smothered himself with the covers, and he had even drifted off for a short while but really his mind had stayed fixed firmly on her random act of pleasure. He had been wondering about it for the past 2 hours. And he intended fully to ask her, happily, about it when he felt she might be awake. The sun inched higher in the sky.
But for now he would wait. After all it was early, she had gone to bed late; obviously she would be sleeping.
***
Tyana paced the length of her bedroom only semi-conscious as her mind played her vision over and over as if on a loop, destined to play forever inside her mind. Bret watched her with one eye, the other trained with focus on his computer screen while he took notes on what Tyana was telling him. She spoke softly, her face creased in concentration as she tried to recall everything she could about the dream. She paused finally and sighed, her body relaxing at her discovering.
"That's all I can remember; there's nothing more"
Bret nodded and entered the information into his database, saving it incase the vision became relevant later. While his computer buzzed softly with the task he turned his attention to his stressed Guided, wishing she would catch a break some when soon, if only a small one; she really didn't deserve to be so hounded on such a constant basis. Just looking at her, at her tired face and her slightly limp hair showed she was beginning to get exhausted with the continuous worry and action.
"Ok, I've got it all down. I'll run some tests on it if you want, see if it shows relevance to anything, but there's really nothing else I can do Ty. It's a vision and since you're the only one who gets them, we haven't developed a program to decipher their meaning yet."
Tyana, "No, I know. And I know it's hardly the simple facts and figures piece of information you can deal with. It's just that it sorta creeps me out that it's becoming reoccurring; I've got this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that somehow, it's not gonna be just a vision." She glanced over at Bret with doe like eyes, her true inner innocence displayed to full effect with the slender shimmering of worry glazing her violet orbs.
Bret nodded, "I know. But you can't worry about it, I'm gonna figure out someway to make sure you're safe 24/7. And I'll figure out who these assassins are; I just need a little time. But for the moment how about you get some rest? You look tired"
Tyana sighed at his suggestion and ran her hands through her hair, blowing her cheeks out as she did so. She glanced over at Shadow who sat up limply in bed, sedated by the early hour of the morning. She smiled wanly at the girl and nodded to ease Bret's concern for her. "Yeah, I am. I just don't think I can go to sleep." She crossed to the window and sat on the ledge with an exhausted breath escaping her lips. She fidgeted with the sleeve of her pajamas.
Bret said something to her at the exact point in time when she gazed out of the window and found her eyes settling on the familiar figure with their feet dipped in the pool. Whatever Bret had said washed over her and she smiled very briefly as she got to her feet. "I think I'm gonna go for a walk, just round the grounds of the hotel. Maybe it'll tire me out just enough to get me to sleep better" she gave Shadow a thoughtful smile. Shadow beamed back sleepily, her eyes shutting for a second longer than they would have had she been fully awake. Tyana found her smallest communicator and slipped it into her pajama pocket. "I'll be back later. Get some sleep" she found her trainers, slipped them on and then left the room just as Shadow fell back into the depths of slumber.
Tyana padded her way down the stairs at a leisurely pace, only half away that she was still dressed in her bed attire, and then strolled through the lobby to the pool doors. She slipped outside silently and waddled over to the known character, pausing beside them so they could acknowledge her presence before she took a seat beside them.
Jeff looked up, his face calm, warm with the glow of the pool, and his lips curved instantly when he found Tyana gazing down at him with a tired expression. He patted the tiled spot beside him. She sat.
"Can't sleep?" she asked him curiously, pulling off her trainers and setting them beside her.
He shook his head, "No. And you?"
She dipped her feet into the pool, her face creasing with the small shock of the cold water, then she relaxed next to him before she shook her head. "No, keep having this horrible dream; it made it really hard to stay unconscious" she stared down at her feet in the water, wading slowing through it, causing little undulations. Jeff kept his eyes glued to her face, tracing every contour to the sketchpad of his mind. After a moment of silence she raised her violet eyes and stared into his, something in them apologetic. "I'm sorry that I woke you this morning; it was really selfish of me."
Jeff looked into her big cute eyes, at the explanation that lingered there and then he cupped her cheek with his hand and drew her to him, kissing her softly, dismissing her apology because he had liked her waking him up just to touch him like that. She kissed back and scooched closer, wrapping an arm around him as she let her lips dance with his.
And right then, the danger her life was in was the farthest thing from her mind.
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*A/N* *dances like a butterfly* laaa laaa dee dee daaa! Thanks Shadow and Ashley for reviewing. Oh, and Hey Nina! *waves*
