Prepare yourselves for a nice, long chapter because I'm in the mood to write all of a sudden. :3
Lily saw something blurry sprint past her just before she blacked out.
"LILY!"
Travis gripped Lily's wrist harder and filled his mind with thoughts of what would happen if Lily were gone. He used all his strength to pull Lily out of the mud but the harder he pulled, the harder to mud kept Lily down. He went down on his knees, wrapped his other hand around Lily's shoulders and pulled harder. His energy was draining, but he'd give his family, his home, everything he ever lived for, he'd give his life if it saved Lily. Travis looked down at Lily's tears and soon, tears filled his own eyes.
"I won't let you down Lily..."
Travis re-grasped Lily and brought his foot under his knee. He thrust himself off the ground and pulled Lily with him, but as he flung backward, Lily did too. Travis breathed heavily, his eyes closed, regaining his energy. He heard a shriek and jumped up with a start.
"LILY!"
Travis jumped into the whirlpool after Lily, not caring about how weak he was and how easily the water could drown him.
"Travis...Travis, can you hear me? Travis, wake up. Please..." Travis' eyes fluttered open to be greeted by Lily's concerned expression.
"Lily? What..."
"I don't know what happened either. I just woke up. I found you lying on the ground with your arm in a small puddle of blood--" Lily picked up Travis' arm to show that it was caked in dry, brick red blood. "—I didn't really want to leave you, so I stayed here."
"So...you don't have any idea of what happened?"
"Not a clue."
"Well, the only thing I think we should do is try to look for anything that could help us realize what happened."
"Not a bad idea, but you know what I think? I think that if only the place looked different could we find anything."
Travis propped himself up on his elbow and took a look around at the station, coming to realize that it was identical to what he saw before he blacked out.
"You've got a good point there. C'mon, we should lock up before anything else happens."
Lily pulled Travis up off the couch and helped him clean up the tech booth before they left.
As he neared the house, Travis realized no one was home. Usually by this time of day a light was shining through the front window, but it was dark inside the house. Lily didn't find this odd at all; lights in her house weren't turned on until they could barely see inside. Annoyed, Travis made his way to the front door and searched for the key.
Struggling to unlock the door, Travis grew more frustrated with the damn lock. He had the right key, the door was indeed locked, and the key was in correctly. He finally pulled a bobby pin out of his pocket and bent down to pick the lock. Travis peered inside the lock when it felt like the pin was sinking into mud.
"Damn," he muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"In case you haven't noticed, the door won't unlock," Travis answered sarcastically. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Don't you have a spare?"
"Well that's the thing. I figure if this key here won't work then neither will mine. It's getting dark and my parents said they were busy and wouldn't be home until early tomorrow."
"Maybe my dad will let you stay at my house tonight. Though I must warn you, Ray's lucky my dad finally, just barely warmed up to him."
"Forget it, I'll just stay at the station."
Travis turned to leave but Lily held him back. Travis looked at her with a confused face. "Lily, it's fine, I stay there all the time."
"My knight in shining armor doesn't deserve to spend a whole night alone." Lily winked at Travis, who gave her a shocked look.
"Never mind, I'll explain it when we get to my house. Now c'mon, my dad needs to do a strip search before dark."
Lily and Travis shared a laugh and headed towards Lily's place.
"Dad, it's ok. He can sleep down here if it makes you feel better."
Travis looked at Lily like she was insane and she returned a reassuring smile.
"Lily..."
"Dad! C'mo-on...I told you he doesn't have any other place to sleep. Don't you care?" Lily gave her dad the classic puppy dog pout and he sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Fine. But one rule: all rooms you two are in together-the door stays open the entire time."
"Thanks dad!" Lily hugged her dad then ran up the stairs with Travis.
"And no covering the doorway with a sheet like you tried to do last time!"
"So you've been getting these dreams too?"
"At first I was totally confused. I knew someone was sending me the dreams and that they meant something, but I didn't truly understand anything until that one Saturday I spent with Ray. That one you tried to save me from," Lily added with a soft giggle.
"I remember that one. I woke up when I let go of you after trying to pull you out of the mud. When I woke up the next morning I swear I was half dead of fear. I was so scared that something bad had happened."
"Me too. In my dream that night, you were holding so tightly to my wrist I could have sworn you were cutting off the blood circulation. But when I looked into your eyes..." As Lily said this she looked up at Travis. His eyes had the same look as they did in her dream. He really loved her.
"When you looked at my eyes...what, Lily?" He coaxed softly.
Lily scooted toward Travis and kissed him softly. They both closed their eyes and he returned the kiss, deepening it subtly. They pulled away swiftly and acted casual when they heard footsteps climbing up the stairs.
"It's 9:30, Lily. I suggest you fix up a bed for your guest now, I want you two to get to bed on time."
"Yes dad. Um...where do you want him to sleep?"
"The couch bed downstairs is always free, if you don't mind, um..."
"Travis, sir."
"Yes." Phillip nodded and switched his gaze back to his waiting daughter. "Whatever you two deicide, you're not sleeping in here together. OK?"
"Yes dad."
"Or in any room together for that matter."
"Yes dad."
"Now come help me fix up the couch bed."
"Yes dad."
Lily awoke bright and early to the navy blue sky sometime between 4 and 5 am.
"H...hello?" A shadowy figure rested in the back of Lily's room, shaped in meditating position. The head jerked up as when Lily spoke.
"Lily!" Travis whispered. "I'm...so sorry, I...I knew I would wake you up." Travis ignored the light shuffling behind him as he made his way to the door yet stopped in his tracks when a hand grabbed his arm. He heard Lily's angelic voice follow soon after her laugh.
"Travis, it's ok. My dad doesn't wake up until 8, and I woke up on my own. I just want to know what you're doing up here."
"I...I woke up from...the...the dream."
Lily walked back toward her bed with Travis and they sat comfortingly close to each other.
"What happened this time?"
"It's horrible, Lily. You've got to be careful until one of us gets something different."
"What?"
"You..." Travis chocked on his words, and despite the darkness and the fact that he was speaking softly, Lily could sense that he was crying. A lump proceeded to form in Lily's throat and a knot tied in her stomach. She blinked back some tears and braced herself for Travis' news.
"I...what?"
Travis sniffled and Lily pulled him into a hug. "Trav...please tell me."
Travis gulped and forced the words to spill out of his mouth. "You fell into the whirlpool...and I jumped in after you...but when I pulled you out, you were..." Travis couldn't continue. He suddenly felt light headed and shut his eyes tightly. His sealed eyes pushed out the slightest bit of tears.
"Travis, it's ok. Calm down, it's ok." Lily curved around the side of Travis. She crept her head closer toward his face and planted a kiss on his quivering lips. She continued kissing him until she could sense a better emotion in his kiss back.
The next morning, Travis and Lily went over to his house so he could get ready for school and they could walk together.
"Mom? Dad? You two here?"
"Travis, there you are. Have a good place to sleep last night? I apologize for the lock, I forgot to warn you that I was having trouble with it the other day."
"It's cool dad. Slept at a friend's house the other night; just came by to get ready for school."
"Yes, of course."
During the walk to school, Lily slipped her hand into Travis' and laced her fingers between his.
"Thanks for telling me about your dream, if you hadn't found time to tell me I probably would have fallen into Ray's trap again. Those dreams never cease to amaze me, and I've still got no clue as to who's sending them."
"Well, I think it's a guardian angel. A damn good one."
"Yeah, and Ray will accept us being together. I don't believe in guardian angels."
"It fits together like a puzzle," Lily added to her previous comment. "As if the messenger didn't know who the savior was at first, I didn't start seeing you in my dreams until I got those where Ray slashed me and then you healed the cut. It was so unbelievable that I took pictures of the cuts before I went back to bed." Lily found herself embarrassed at her comment and blushed a moment later. Travis tilted her chin up and looked her in the eye, as if searching for something.
"If I'm not mistaken, this messenger was doing more than saving you...he-or she-saw us destined to be together. Frankly...I don't hate it."
Travis slid his hand and cupped Lily's neck. Lily closed her eyes as Travis' lips met hers and kissed him back.
I have so much written after this. I just keep uploading the entire file and delete all chapters but the one I'm working on. When I had it in the chapter edit, the scroll bar was just a little strip, and it was like one third of the way down the scroll. LOL. And sometime...someday I'll re-post every chapter starting here. It wont be much of a change, but some of the really stupid lines will be better. Long story shut up. o.o