Chapter Twenty-Eight - Dreams

I was running through the forest, a dense fog pressing in on all sides. The foliage was so thick I could hardly squeeze my way through it. I wasn't sure what I was running from, but I knew that I had to keep going. The fog seemed to get thicker and thicker as I ran until I could hardly see my hand even if I waved it two inches away from my nose. Panting heavily, I stopped in my tracks and cried out, "Help! Someone! Anyone! Help!"

But a booming ahead of me silenced my cries and I stood, rooted to the spot. Something was coming through the mist. And it was a large something. A huge, dark form walking slowly towards me. The thing stopped, then let out a long roar. It was a Tyrannosaurus. I let out a whimper and turned and began running. Though I couldn't really see it through the mist, I could tell I was running through thick foliage. The booming sound of the Tyrannosaurus' gait was following behind me.

I sat up straight and looked around the living room. Tina was sleeping next to me and I painfully remembered the long hours of crying that had been conducted earlier. Hannah was gone, and Tina had just found out.

A few feet away from me, Eric slept. He had gone in search of Brad when I reached the part of my story about our quarrels. He returned without our friend, but I knew that all Brad Kim needed was some time to be alone. If he wanted to talk, then he would come back to us and we could pursue it.

I lay back down on the hard, smooth bark and pulled the thin blanket up to my chin. The dream didn't scare me nearly as much since I had talked through it with Eric, but it still sent unpleasant and unwelcome shivers up and down my spine.

I wasn't sure when my thoughts turned to dreams, but the next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes to welcome a knew day; a new day with my best friend and potential crush. Wait a minute! Potential crush? Where on earth did that come from? I thought.

Candy Saunters sat in the waiting room and played with her curly red hair. Rap it around the finger, untwist. Rap it around the finger, untwist. It was an absent-minded habit of hers that she did when she was nervous, and right now she was extremely nervous. Just three more hours until they boarded the helicopter to fly over to Isla Sorna where they would circle the island and fly low over the area around the compound. Mr. Hammond had rented the craft for only one day, and they wouldn't be able to return to the island after their first trip. Candy was hoping that there would be many survivors, but if there were too many, they wouldn't be able to fit them all aboard, and leaving people behind was not a pleasant idea.

Thus, rap it around the finger, untwist. Rap it around the finger, untwist.

Mr. Hammond came hobbling out of the hotel manager's office and shut the door behind himself. Candy stood and rushed over to the old man.

"Well?" she asked. "What did he say?"

"He said that Mr. Polycarp and twenty-five students, plus a pilot and copilot by the names of Jeff Corner and Hutch Merson, boarded a plane over a month and a half ago to fly over to one of the neighboring islands," Mr. Hammond said. "Only by listening to Mr. Polycarp's announcement to the students did he know they were, indeed, headed to Isla Sorna. He tried to dissuade Mr. Polycarp, but the teacher would hear none of it. According to Mr. Johnson, the manager, two students, a boy and a girl, stood and tried to talk Mr. Polycarp out of the trip, but neither succeeded. I'm afraid that's all he knows."

"Has no one returned from the island since then?" Candy questioned hopefully.

"A cruise ship that passes near the island picked up a dead body that's neck had been broken. The girl was identified as Cassy Torch. Do you recognize the name?"

"Yes," Candy said, swallowing the knot in her throat. "She was a friend of Sally Grude and Kimmy Flort."

Mr. Hammond nodded. "I thought it might be one of ours. I'm going to go prepare the helicopter. You'd best go get ready yourself."

Candy nodded and turned to silently walk towards the elevators. 24 more children to look for, one family to pray for. How would these numbers change by the end of the day?

Brad still hadn't returned an hour later, so Eric went in search of him. I was hoping he hadn't gone and done anything stupid. He had much more to live for … so much potential! He couldn't let it all go to waste over the death of a girlfriend, even though she was pretty nice … when she wanted to be.

I sighed and raked through my hair, using my fingers as a makeshift comb. I pulled a strand of dark red hair towards my face, but saw that it looked much lighter than I thought it would. The sun had been lightening it, but it still looked like a nice color of natural red.

I tucked it behind my ears and stood up. My hair tie seemed to have disappeared a while ago.

Tina was sitting higher up in the tree Eric had told us to wait in earlier. She hadn't talked much this morning. The loss of Hannah was probably still with her. But she hadn't cried any more than she had the night before. I wished I could say something to her to make her feel better, but I couldn't think of anything, so I climbed up to sit beside her. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

Tina shook her head no, so I looked out at the trees around us. Everything looked so old, as though the island itself was decaying. We always had to be choosy about the trees to climb, because if we chose a weak one, the branches would collapse right under our feet.

I suddenly saw someone coming through the trees. Someone with a blue shirt and white slacks. Eric, I thought. I climbed down from my perch and carefully climbed into the neighboring tree whose branches intertwined with the original one I had been sitting in. Eric had sat down on a branch and was looking out at the trees. I weaved my way over to him and sat down by his side.

"No luck?" I questioned.

Eric shook his head. "No," He said. "Now all we can do is hope."

"And pray," I added.

"Yeah, that too," he agreed. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration and leaned against the trunk of the tree. A few seconds later he sat up and leaned over his knees, resting his head in his hands. But after only another few seconds in this position, he sat up and looked at me.

"Lane …" he said. But he shook his head and looked away, as though he didn't want to say what he was planning on saying.

"What?" I asked. He didn't reply, so I grabbed his hand and gave it a little squeeze. He looked down at our hands, at our interlocked fingers, then looked up at me.

"You can tell me anything, Eric," I said softly. Even though I was still a little angry with his past actions, I wanted to be his friend. If he couldn't trust me, especially on this island, we weren't going to get very far in a friendship.

He looked away and at first I thought he wasn't going to say anything, but then he started talking. "Lane … Do you want to know why I was such a jerk? I mean, the real reason?"

I sat up a little straighter and I felt a little anger boil within me, but I tried to keep my cool. "Sure."

"Well … I was scared. For you … for me … I was just scared. I was afraid … I was getting too attached to you and I knew that if I lost you then it would be too painful to bear. And if you returned my feelings, if you lost me, then it would be too painful for you. That day Hannah died? I almost kissed you; I swear I did. But I knew that you were in pain, so I held back. Then … I thought that if I was a jerk, I could make you hate me so that you wouldn't hurt if I died. But I also tried to pretty much talk my way out of liking you by accusing you of things and getting mad at you all the time.

"But you know … it never worked? I was concentrating so much on trying not to like you; I was making myself like you even more. But that day, when you said you hated me … I realized my plan had worked, but only half way. I liked you so much that seeing my plan unfold and hearing those word's I'd wanted to hear for a long time suddenly made me realize how much pain I had put you through and how much I didn't want you to hate me and how much … I … loved you."

I pulled my hand out of his and brought both of my hands up to my face.

"I didn't want to hurt you, Lane," Eric said. "I wanted to save you pain. But then I realized that instead of saving you from it, I placed you in it. And on purpose, too. I'm really sorry. I truly am."

I placed a hand on his shoulder and felt a couple tears run down my face. He had done all that … for me?

But he was still a jerk for doing it!

An incredibly sweet jerk.

Eric looked up at me and I saw that he was crying too. My heart broke at the sight of him. Eric couldn't cry. Eric never cried! He wasn't allowed to cry!

"Eric…" I started to say. But I was cut off when Eric leaned in and gave me a soft kiss on the lips.

When he pulled back, tears were running so freely down my face that I could hardly see him. I felt like laughing, I was so happy.

But I was so mad! How could he think that he was saving me any pain?

But he did say he was sorry. And he really sounded like he was.

I gave him a small smile. He smiled back, and leaned in to kiss me again. I kissed back freely.

Wait; this is all wrong! I thought. How can I be doing this? No, I can't do this. Not here; not now. No. Lane, stop it!

I pulled out of the kiss. "I … I …" I couldn't think of anything to say.

Eric looked at me questioningly. "Are you ok?" He asked. He reached for my hand, but I pulled back.

I stood up and climbed down the tree as quickly as I could. Eric called after me, but I hardly heard him. What had I done? This was such a horrible place to be developing a relationship. Something was bound to go wrong. I didn't believe in things being jinxed, but this sure had 'jinxed' written all over it.

Eric's reasons for being a jerk were somewhat reasonable. I still didn't think it was right, but it still seemed reasonable.

HOW could I be so STUPID! I thought, willing my mouth to move so that I could yell out loud. But it was still clamped shut and still a bit moist from the kiss. I quickly brought my hand up and wiped my lips. No, I wasn't going to think about it. It had been an incredibly stupid thing to do. There was no way I could get anything out of it. It was a mistake.

But he said he loves me! How could such a kiss be a mistake if he loves me? … Do I love him? I wasn't so sure of anything at the moment. I had just received my first kiss and I didn't think that I deserved it.

I heard Eric calling after me and I felt him grab my arm. I shook him off and began running. I needed to get away. I needed to be alone. I couldn't talk about this now. My head was spinning and my world felt upside-down. I ran blindly through a field. The long grasses reached up and slashed at my legs, trying to bring me down; but I was so numb I couldn't feel anything; I couldn't hear anything. All I could do was see. My thoughts weren't even making sense any more. Nor did I know where I was … or really how I had gotten there.

A sudden feeling of panic overtook me and I began blindly running through the forest, searching for a way out or something I recognized. The hot springs, the compound, the water truck, our tree … anything!

I don't remember that bush! I thought. My panic grew as I fled deeper into the forest, not knowing which way to turn.

Before I knew it, I was running through the forest, a dense fog pressing in on all sides. The foliage was so thick I could hardly squeeze my way through it. I wasn't sure what I was running from, but I knew that I had to keep going. The fog seemed to get thicker and thicker as I ran until I could hardly see my hand even if I waved it two inches away from my nose. Panting heavily, I stopped in my tracks and cried out, "Help! Someone! Anyone! Help!"

But a booming ahead of me silenced my cries and I stood, rooted to the spot. Something was coming through the mist. And it was a large something. A huge, dark form walking slowly towards me. The thing stopped, then let out a long roar. It was a Tyrannosaurus. I let out a whimper and turned and began running. Though I couldn't really see it through the mist, I could tell I was running through thick foliage. The booming sound of the Tyrannosaurus' gait was following behind me.

My dream had finally come true.

Captain Oblivious -sits down on a tree stump to watch the cat fight between C.O. and the Raptor- This would make a GREAT book! -whips out a laptop from no where and starts to type- MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Short and proud If you like sappy stuff so much, then you're going to LOVE this chapter … maybe … hopefully … WAAAAH! -sniffle- Ok, YOU have no idea where that came from, but I do. Special me. Hehe.

Niniane, Lady of the Lake -grabs her pointy-stick-detector- I will find your sticks if it's the last thing I do! -sets out on a quest to find Niniane's pointy sticks-

BonitaBella You are SO funny! Oh my word. Do you know what it's like to kill off your own characters that you've created and spent a LOT of time putting their personalities together? FUN! Just kidding. No, it's actually quite hard. But EVER so easy. My mind scares me sometimes. Honestly.

Beautyqueen321 Well, is this a fast enough update? I sure hope so. Is it a … CHOCOLATE cupcake? Hehe – YEY! -does a dance for the cupcake- Sugar is GOOOOOOOD … no?