Jake
"Hey, midget," a voice said at my bedroom door. "Get up you lazy bum. You've slept the whole morning away."
I sat bolt upright. Tom was standing at my bedroom door.
"You're alive," I blurted.
Tom gave me a searching look and I hid my emotions quickly.
"No need to sound so pleased," he said, before stalking away.
I looked around me. I was in my bed in my bedroom. Not in the woods on a prickly ground with Cassie lying next to me. My brother was alive, not dead. I pinched myself. This had to be a dream. No way could this be real.
I jumped out of bed and quickly dressed up. I ran downstairs and found my parents, my clean, un-infested parent's downstairs eating lunch.
"Finally, you're up," my dad said. "I was going to come up to see if you were still alive."
I laughed. I felt so happy and each moment of happiness came this sinking feeling that I was actually dreaming. Then I did the most unexpected thing. I hugged them. When I broke apart they looked scared.
"Jake?" mum asked tentatively. "Are you alright?"
"Never been better," I laughed.
Just then the phone rang. My mum, still looking strangely at me, picked it up.
"Hello?" she said and then paused as a loud coherent voice spoke on the other end.
"Jake, it's Marco," she said handing me the phone.
"Jake, hey," Marco sounded a little weirded out. "The arcade is supposed to have this really cool game. It's supposed to have lots of animals in it. Will you be there?"
"Yeah, sounds like fun," I answered. I hung up and turned to my parents. "I'm going to the arcade with Marco."
"Alright," my dad said.
I hurried out the door and started heading towards Cassie's barn. Marco had used a cryptic code to tell me that there was a meeting held in Cassie's barn. It wasn't a very good code, but it worked.
I walked into the barn and the first thing that I saw was a bunch of blonde hair before I was smothered with it.
"Jake!" screamed Rachel. "Oh my God, you scared me!"
She pulled away from me and I could see silent tears rolling down her cheek. For a moment I thought what I thought was a dream was actually true.
"I thought you were dead," Rachel said, pulling me in for another hug.
I hugged her. "What? Who told you that?"
I looked around. Everyone was there. Cassie was silently crying, Marco was looking freaked out. Tobias, in his hawk form gave a piercing glare and Ax, in his human morph, remained expressionless.
"I thought I killed you," she said.
I let her go. "Wait a minute, you killed me?"
"I had this vision or something that showed me killing you. There was more to it."
I looked around at them. "Did you all have these visions?"
They all nodded.
"We all had visions, but all of them are different," Marco explained. "In mine you didn't die. It was mostly about my mum and dad."
"In mine I was a ruthless killer," Cassie said, wiping away tears. "And you lost it Jake. You were so angry at me and you couldn't lead anymore."
"I was left here," Ax spoke up. "He-ar. Ar. The Andalites came but left me behind. Hind. Be-hind."
((I saw a world where the Yeerks took over,)) Tobias said softly. ((And you all became controllers. I was forced to morph human and stay that way.))
I sighed. "Someone is messing with us," I said. "And one guess who that is."
"The Ellimist," Cassie breathed. "But why would he show us these visions?"
I thought about my vision. Everything in it made me seem so vulnerable. When I thought about it, everything I'd been fearing lately happened in the vision.
"Correct Jake," a deep echoing voice said.
I looked around, like in my vision; an old man had appeared before us.
"For a primitive race, you are not so ignorant," the Ellimist smiled.
I sighed. "You going to tell us what that was all about?" I demanded.
"But you already know."
My friends looked at me questioningly. I hadn't told them about my vision.
"It's our fears," I explained to them. "It's what we most fear out of everything."
"Exactly," the Ellimist smiled. "It's your greatest fears."
"Why did you show us them?" Marco demanded angrily. "What was the damn point?"
"Your fears are not necessarily your weaknesses," the Ellimist said. "You can learn from them. That's why I showed them to you." Then he looked at me. "Your friends acted how they would have acted if your situation was real."
I turned away from him. I didn't want to think about my vision, it was too humiliating.
"For some of you, your fears were great," he never stared away from me. "For others they were less," this time he turned to Rachel.
((How did you manage all this without breaking the rules?)) Tobias asked.
The Ellimist smiled. "It's not against the rules to help out good friends," and then he was gone.
"Yeah right," Marco snorted. "I'm not his good friend."
"That vision taught me nothing," Rachel said angrily. "All it told me was not to trust Crayak, but then I already knew that…"
She stopped and looked sideways at me.
"Don't worry Rachel," I said, wearily. "I already know about your deal with Crayak."
"What deal with Crayak?" Cassie asked, curiously.
"I didn't accept, it was just in my vision or whatever it was," she looked at me. "How did you know about the deal?"
"It was mentioned in my…uh, vision," I shrugged.
"What was in your vision anyway?" Marco asked, looking at me strangely. "We haven't heard from you yet."
I looked at each of them. My warriors. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Pros and cons. They could talk about their fears, their worries. It didn't show them as weak or vulnerable because they didn't have the weight of the world on their shoulders. It was different with me. I couldn't let them know what I was feeling. I was their leader. Their fearless leader. I couldn't show my weakness. They needed me to be strong. So instead of admitting to my fears, I put on a smile.
"I had this vision that I totally beat you at this new game you got," I said to Marco.
Marco looked at me shrewdly, as if calculating me, but smiled. "That was your fear?" he said. "More like your hope."
"It was quite depressing actually," I continued as if he hadn't spoken. "You were bawling your eyes out when I kicked your butt."
"That's it," Marco exclaimed. "No one says that and gets away with it. To the arcade!"
He flung up his arms dramatically and walked out of the barn.
((I've got to see this,)) Tobias laughed, flying out after him.
"Tobias!" Rachel screamed after him. "You're not serious."
"This will be interesting," Ax said, walking out. "Teresting. Ta-ing."
When Ax had left Cassie stood up and walked towards me. She put her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek.
"I thought my vision was real," she whispered. "You didn't even want to look at me."
"It was just a dream," I said, trying to reassure myself as much as I was reassuring her.
"Yeah," she said. "Just like yours. It was just a dream, Jake."
"I know," I said, pulling away from her.
"Sorry," she whispered. "You just seemed a bit freaked out by it."
"I'm fine," I lied.
"Alright," she let go of me and started walking out of the barn door. "Come on, I want to see Marco grind you into the ground."
I laughed. "Great, who have I got on my side now?"
She left and I was there standing with the animals. Was it just me or was my dream or vision or whatever it was, out of control? Did I really fear all that stuff? The others didn't seem to have such a bad time with their dreams.
"Hey, Jake you coming?" Rachel yelled.
"Yeah," I shouted back. "Coming."
The End
