Chapter 4

A/N: I apologise for this bad chapter. I have vowed to finish all of my fanfictions, and, well, this is one of my fanfictions and I am going to finish it.

Sam stirs and abruptly sits up. Her thoughts immediately jump to the fact that Daniel is dead. She feels tears start to well up behind her eyes. She blinks them back angrily, not wanting to lose it. She suddenly realizes where she is: or where she isn't. The place is dark and eerie. Sam gets up. Feeling unsteady and confused in her new surroundings, she leans on what feels like a stone surface to get her balance.

As she makes her was across the corridor, holding onto the wall, she sees the smallest bit of light in the distance. Unknowing what to do, she walks toward it. Every step she takes, the light gets bigger. Brighter. More beautiful. It is right before her now. She extends her hand to touch it.

Sam stops just short of it, the slightest bit worried. A bright light at the end of a tunnel? It sounded like a near-death experience story.

Flash

Sam put on a hard face so that no one would bother her on the way to the surface. She could feel the tears that formed behind her eyes, threatening to fall. She angrily fought them back as she put on her helmet and mounted her motorbike. Why would no one understand? Her best friend had died, for God's sake! Could everyone just brush him off like a piece of dirt? She turned the engine on and kicked off. She had to get home. She would take her phone off the hook. She would turn off the lights. No one would know anybody was in there.

She took the entry onto the highway, her thoughts understandably elsewhere. She rode smoothly along the high-speed stretch, following a Daihatsu Handivan. It was a short distance ahead of her. Then, suddenly, it stopped. Sam slammed on her breaks, but it was too late. She careened into the car, which sent her flying. From then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The other lane of traffic was still moving, not yet aware of what had happened. She somersaulted in the air, her stomach turning over. Then, she saw it: the semi-trailer. All she remembered was the feeling of terror as her eyes widened and she took a sharp breath inwards – her last. After that, a slight impact on her shoulder and she was drowning. Drowning in a sea of her own memories. She saw her friends laughing at her as she struggled, trying to get to the surface.

"Stop laughing!" she yelled at them. "Stop it! I didn't want this to happen!" But the Colonel, Daniel, Teal'c, Janet and Hammond only laughed harder. She fought to the surface once more, only to be dragged back under. Something had caught hold of her ankle and was pulling her down, down, down…

Flash

Sam withdraws her hand very quickly with a gasp. She gulps as the memories come flooding back. Memories of floating into the air, as thin as a slip of paper, and looking down on her body: a bloody mess, with her hair that may as well have been red stuck to her face and bruises in amongst the remains of her helmet.

Then, as if someone had eased her into a bath of cool water, she felt calm. She was dead, but death didn't seem too bad. Her worries of what Teal'c and the Colonel would say when they found out what had happened floated away.

Anyway, she thinks sleepily as she extends her hand to touch the light once more, if they cared about me as much as they did Daniel, they'll get over it quickly.

Deep within, she knows that she's being unreasonable, but she no longer cares. The light is warm beneath her fingers. She feels a strange sensation of losing all control of her body, but she simply closes her eyes and lets whatever is happening, happen.

Miles and miles away, there is Tetrium. He has managed to find his way out faster than Jack or Sam. His objectives have changed. He has learnt very valuable things in the short time that he has been in this second life. In fact, he has learnt three extraordinary things. But not all of them will only benefit him. All of the second world inhabitants possess the knowledge that he possesses, but very few use what has been given to them. But Tetrium will not disadvantage himself. He will find Jack and Sam. He will find them, and when he does, he will throw them back into the mortal world. He smiles. All he must do is wait and stay out of their sight.

They probably haven't even made it out of the tunnel yet, Tetrium said to himself. He went into a nearby dwelling. It was deserted. It seems when there is a new arrival, a new dwelling appears for them. He enters and looks at the simple layout and furniture, disgusted.

Pitiful accommodation, he thinks andlies down on a bed. He closes his eyes. Sleeping might point out something in his plan that he may have missed. After all, a dream is a question we have not yet learned to ask.