Akail had been trying to see Kyira again all day since classes were let out several hours ago. The people in the small reception area ignored her, the nurses just patted her head and walked off, and the doctor and anyone else was always 'too busy' to be seen.

After continuing to wait for almost two hours, it was nearing six, dinner time; Akail had lost her patience with these people. She then started looking for a way she could sneak into Kyira's room, if only just for a moment.

As the girl waited for her chance to slip into the back, she thought, Why do I care so much? I mean, we barely just met, but…

Akail knew though that a sense of closeness had formed quickly between them. At breakfast, before Kyira had run off, the two had been talking so much the entirety of what they had said could have filled novels. Perhaps that's a bit over exaggerating… Akail corrected herself.

While she was thinking, however, she almost missed her chance. At the last moment the receptionist was still busy on the phone and the room was clear of nurses for the moment, Akail slipped quietly past the doors towards the few rooms they kept in the back.

No. No. No. Ah-ha! Akail silently celebrated as she once again located Kyira's room.

Noiselessly slinking into the room she took a seat on the chair next to the bed. Her forest brown eyes softly watched Kyira's still form, sleeping on peacefully, so unaware of anything it seemed.

"Oh Kyira, why won't you wake up?" Akail sighed, leaning forward in the chair to 'talk' to her friend. The brown haired girl sat silent for a time, remembering how back home most of the kids her age wanted nothing to do with her.

"I don't want to be alone again…" Akail murmured, head hanging towards the floor, brown bangs falling across her face. A tinge of desperation had slipped into her voice, her mind filled sorrowful wishing, needing. "Please come back."

"You're Akail, aren't you?" a voice from behind asked calmly. A shadow fell across the floor as the figure appeared in the doorway.

"What-? Who-?" Akail stuttered, spinning around to face the doorway.

"If you want her back, then listen carefully," he stated. His voice didn't sound threatening, but very remotely caring.

Akail continued staring at him, wide-eyed in confusion.

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Her eyes could cry no more. The pools had already been emptied before, but the horrors lying in front of her and in the future were too much to bear. Now, however, was the very end of their endurance. She could only sob with drying cheeks, her frame shuddering with each jerk to her heart.

Oh Kyira, why won't you wake up? It was that voice in her head again.

"I am awake…" Kyira whimpered, though she did wish this was a horrible dream. After that there was silence in the small room once again.

I don't want to be alone again…Please come back. the voice murmured again, though it only further puzzled Kyira. Where had she even gone in the first place? Where was this place in which she was trapped? Shouldn't she be the one feeling alone? If that voice really was Akail, then she was probably still on the Island with many other people. How was that 'alone'?

A hush settled over the room as Kyira thought, distracted from her sobbing for the moment. The brunette ran her fingers through her hair, trying to figure out what to do next. Nothing was easy any more.

Then the voice came again, only this time it sounded more hesitant. Kyira, if you can hear me you have to listen. You've got to get out of that building-place-whatever-it-is right now! You're freedom has been won; you just have to get out of there. Get as far away from there as you can. Hurry! Run!

Kyira sat frozen, listening to the strange phenomenon of having someone else's voice ring through your mind. Why did Akail want her to get out of there so badly? How had her 'freedom' been won anyway? And-

Kyira, I know that if you can hear this it probably doesn't make much sense, but you just have to trust me! Get out of there! Get-

The voice stopped.

Chills started to run through Kyira's spine. She started to stand, casting a last glance at…him.

"I'm sorry. So sorry…" she choked out the words. Tears would have been covering her face again if she'd had even one left. "I can't do anything for you. At least you don't have to worry any more." Kyira sighed, and took her leave, not daring to look back again.

Now she faced a new problem she realized. She didn't know the way out. The only way to go was back the way she came, and that would risk being caught, and the consequences of that she didn't want to consider.

There was that window… Kyira thought, but reason then took hold and reminded her that she was too big to fit through it, and it was too high.

So she resigned herself to the only option available; go back the way she came.

The lonely walk down the stone passageway was depressing. It gave Kyira time to think, which was something she could do without at the moment. Did he have to face the end alone? What happened to cause such an end? and one of the most disturbing questions to Kyira at the moment What will happen if I get caught? Will the same thing happen to me?

It was only the continuous sound of her footfalls that helped her tune out her thoughts. Her mind was focused solely on that repetitive sound.

Soon she reached the halfway point, and kept walking right on past it, not pausing a moment, her anxiety of being caught growing.

The slight shadows cast upon the walls mulled together, leaving the hall devoid of detail. It was an unbroken pattern spread out into the distance.

Her footsteps echoing consistently helped the scene become more of a dull blur in Kyira's memory. It was all the same; always the same; monotonously reoccurring nothingness…

It was that way minute after minute, and it was for that reason that Kyira didn't notice the end of the hallway in front of her until her foot collided painfully with the stone wall. She cringed and sucked in her breath, but didn't squeak, for fear of being heard.

There she stood; facing what appeared to be a dead end. She felt the smooth surface of the even stone. Finding nothing she sighed and turned to her right, about to head back, when she noticed something she had missed before. The passage continued for a few feet to her right, and then came up to something that looked like a door.

With tentative steps she approached it, reaching slowly towards it with her right hand, fingers extended slightly.

The door did not have a knob, but when her hand came into contact with its surface it creaked open just slightly. Kyira cringed at the sound it made, which sounded like a gun shot ringing around the hall to her ears so accustomed to near silence. However, nothing more happened, and she continued to push the wooden rectangle forward.

A small amount of joy leapt in her heart when she saw that this indeed was a way out. However, it was short lived, knowing nothing more about what to do. …You just have to get out of there! The words of Akail echoed through her memory.

So Kyira took her first steps into the outside, and started on her lonely way. A wind had picked up, blowing small clouds of dust across the desolate landscape.

Away…away… the words repeated themselves in her mind as she plodded forward over the barren ground. The only movement was that of the dust, her self, and the dark silhouette of her frame cast onto the ground by the small, pale moon that tried to shine through the deep black-purple-ness of the sky.

I don't know where to go. I don't. Kyira's mind tried to reason, but the logic of 'get away, far away' continued to prevail. As she continued, slowly but steadily, the mountainous fortress behind her shrunk away, and on the horizon, there appeared to be a forest, but, what if it was just a mirage? Either way, it was "somewhere", and when you're traveling alone in a dark, cold land without any sort of comfort whatsoever, going "somewhere" is a lot more reassuring than going "nowhere".