Only the Beginning

Hey Everyone! I know I promised this chapter to be out yesterday, but I'm kinda stuck. I know where I want to go but I'm a little lost on how to get there… Anyways, thanks for the awesome reviews!! There are now 13 people on my alerts list for this story which is awesome!! A special thanks to minimonkeyrox, LoveXdarling, SkateBlinder, baybegrl0703, and Hikari-Kayko for the reviews! You all rock and make me really love putting my creations out there… So read and review my faithful readers!!

We've been on the road now for 3 hours. No one has really said anything; it's like we don't know what to really do with ourselves. We left this morning before the sun even came up which is the normal routine. The van was given to us as the safest and biggest vehicle that would allow us so travel smoothly to the seclusion of the mountains and Flathead Lake in Polson Montana. The amount of time that the trip was estimated to take was about 20 hours, give or take.

I thought back to the screams of Jaime as he begged to come along with us. But this was something we all agreed on. Jaime was to stay back in the caves. He would be needed know, especially with the strongest men all leaving. Plus known of us knew were it was that we were actually going. We weren't even sure how things would turn out once we got there.

"Wanda?"

I looked up from the stain I was staring at on the floor. Ian was looking down at me. I could tell by the look on his face he was wondering how I was taking this whole situation. I just looked back down at the floor. The truth was that I wasn't quite sure about how I felt. I was numb.

I couldn't get my brain to think as I felt the smoothness of the pavement below us as we traveled down the highway. I count think of what the future might hold, not only for me but the people around me. I watched their faces and expressions as we made our way farther from the comforts and the safety of our home. I watched as Sunny and Kyle sat in the seat behind us. They hadn't said much since we left this morning; they just kept their hands together as they watched out the back windows. Mel and Jared shred their own private laughs and conversation in the front of the van. Ian sat beside me and went back and forth from looking out the window to looking at me. I felt guilty for not wanting to talk to him about my feelings just yet. For some reason I felt self conscious in front of the others. Like voicing my fears might in some way make them come true or falter the hopes of the people I loved. I needed to be strong, for them.

After Driving for another 6 hours, we decided to pull over and take a breather while stretching our sore muscles. Ian looked down at me as I leaned against the van and stared at my feet.

"That's it." He said and grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the group.

"Ian." I tried to pull away, but couldn't.

"Wanda, something's obviously wrong. Please tell me what it is. It's killing me not knowing what's going through your head."

"It's just…" I looked down at the ground again. I wasn't sure how to tell him what was going on in my head. "I just don't know right now. I don't know anything. I hate the fact that we had to leave and that it was all because of me. I hate the fact that people are dying, both humans and souls. I feel like everything's getting turned upside down and there's nothing I can do about it."

"That's normal." Ian gave me a half smile.

"No, it's not normal. I don't… I just… I don't know." I gave up.

"Wanda, first of all it's not your fault that we left. We left as a group decision. And as cruel and horrible as it may sound, death is normal and natural." He looked up the deserted dirt road when he said this. I could tell from the lack of eye contact that he didn't really believe this. He knew what I meant about dying. The fact that I was against peoples will and it was not natural.

"Okay. That's all I needed to hear." I began to walk to the edge of the road towards the river down the hill.

"Wanda," I heard his come after me. "Don't lie to me. I know that that's not what you wanted to hear. I just think that we should stop worrying about the world and worry about us right now. We have our own problems and we need to fix them. Then you can worry about the rest of the world. Deal?" He laughed when I looked up at him. I wasn't quite sure what look I was giving him. I stood there for a few seconds soaking in the worlds that just came out of his mouth and the fact that he thought I was basically overreacting.

"This is not funny! It's far from funny okay! Don't laugh at me because I finally told you how I felt. You keep trying to protect me and right now I don't really want to be protected. I don't even know what I'm being protected from!" I walked away. I didn't hear him follow me this time and in a way I was actually relieved. I walked further down the bank of the river until I was around the bend and could no longer see everyone.

I couldn't believe that I just yelled. I yelled at Ian because I was mad. Mad was not something that I was supposed to feel. Yes, it's a natural human emotion to have but as a soul we are supposed to block out this feeling and substitute it with understanding and acceptance. Well that was obviously not the case in that situation.

I finally stopped walking and sat down on a log that was close enough to the waters edge to throw stones into the water. So there I sat and reflected on my actions and felt ashamed. Tears burned my eyes as I fought to keep them back. But I lost the fight and the tears fell freely down my cheeks. I heard footsteps behind me and quickly wiped my face dry. I glanced over and watched as Mel sat next to me. She didn't say anything for a few minutes as we both just stared at the opposite side of the river.

"I head you yelling at Ian." She finally turned to me. I looked into the eyes that I had once shared with her. I longed to be in her again and share my feeling and knowledge with her. I missed having her input in every situation even if we didn't agree.

"I don't know what came over me. I couldn't help it. I didn't want to hurt him but at the same time I'm hurting everyone."

"Wanda, the only person you're hurting right now is you. You keep beating yourself up and you forget that we're all adults perfectly capable of making our own decisions." Mel wrapped her arms around me.

"I can't help it. It's like I can't control my mind or my emotions anymore. The more I try the harder it gets. It takes so much out of me. I feel drained all the time." I sniffled as fresh tears made there way down my cheeks to show my frustration.

"You keep working yourself to hard. You need to get some sleep and enjoy some of the time that you have right now. Enjoy it while you can. Life's short and what you have with Ian is a gift." She pulled me closer and I buried my head deeper into her shoulder. I knew she was right.

"Better?" She asked as she pulled away. I shook my head yes.

"Good, let's get back before they send a search party." Mel laughed as she grabbed my hand and we walked together almost like old times.

I continued to stare at the stain on the floor as the hours went by and the heat faded. Mountains began to form around us in lush green. The smell of the fresh air was welcoming. The day was quickly fading into night and by the time we pulled off the exit and made our way into the small town of Polson. All was quiet and the town almost seemed deserted. All around us there was cars with the doors left open. Lights left on…

"I think we should pull over." Kyle said from the backseat. I could feel the tension as Jared pulled over to the side of the road. It was around midnight and this was just not normal.

"Stay in the van." I said and reached for the handle of the door.

"Wanda. No." Ian grabbed my arm. I pulled away.

"I'll go check it out. Have Sunny get in the drivers' seat and the rest of you get in the back, just in case someone comes out." I opened the door and jumped to the ground and took a quick look around. I closed the door behind me and gave Ian a small smile before it closed completely. I turned and looked around and made my way over to the first house in front of us. I could feel the eyes of everyone in the van on me.

I knocked on the door and waited. There was nothing. I knocked again, still nothing. I turned the knob and wasn't surprised to find it unlocked.

"Hello?" I called through the doorway. There was no answer. I stepped through the door and walked farther into the living room that was brightly lit. I made my way into the kitchen/dining room. On the table there were plates filled with rotting food. As if the people had disappeared just before they ate. My mind was screaming at me to back away, to run back to the van and just go back to the caves. But I couldn't get my feet to listen. I walked forward, the door to the basement was open and the light was on. I stood at the top of the stair case and just listened. I made my feet continue forward on step at a time. I got about half way down the staircase and my nose filled with this almost sweet smell. I felt lightheaded and the walls around me began to swim. I looked down at the floor and there laid a family by the looks of it. A man and a woman, both with black hair were on the ground. A little boy was in between them. I could tell they were dead and that we had made a mistake. Whatever was happening in Arizona was happening here as well.

I turned away from the sunken in faces and crawled to the top of the stairs. I pulled myself up and took a step forward falling into the table causing the plates and glasses to fall to the ground smashing. I fell to my knees.

"Wanda!" I heard someone yell. They must have heard the crash of the table. My arms were shaking and I was barely able to hold myself up any longer when Ian, Kyle, and Jared came running into the room. Ian ran to my side.

"Are you okay?" he asked franticly, his hands on both side of my face.

"Air," I managed to gasp. My mind was beginning to drift. It was as if my head was floating and no matter what I did I couldn't ground myself. "In the basement," I managed to say before Ian pulled me effortlessly into his arms.

Both Kyle and Jared were looking at me and then as if realizing what I had said they took off down the stairs. Ian brought me outside. He laid me on the lawn and opened my eyes farther. Mel and Sunny were both at my side in seconds.

"Don't go in there." I said to Sunny. As if catching on to what I was saying, Sunny's eyes grew big and she backed away a little. At the same time Jared and Kyle came back outside.

"There are three of them in there, all dead." Jared filled in the others.

"How do you feel?" Kyle asked as he knelt by my head.

"Light headed." I coughed. "I was fine and then I got half way down the stairs and I smelt something sweet almost and next thing you know the walls are closing in on me and I couldn't breath."

"You smelt something sweet?" Jared looked confused. I nodded my head.

"All we could smell was rotting flesh and believe me, it's not sweet." Kyle added.

"What do we do?" Sunny squeaked from behind Mel. Everyone looked down at me. My eyes were getting heavy as the effects of whatever it was sunk deeper into my system.

"Come on. We have to keep going. The best thing we can do is get them away from here. We have to find Nate's and fast." Jared stood up. I felt Ian lift me off the ground as sleep overtook me…

Screams filled my ears from the drug induced fog that I had been drifting in. I stopped suddenly and dug my heels in trying to get my bearings.

There was an open door in front of me and there was a hand on my shoulder pushing me towards it. To my right I saw the seeker again. She looked down upon me with disgust.

"No please," I whispered. "I don't want to go in there."

"It's all right. You're not alone. I'm here with you." She said as if trying to comfort me.

"No." I tried to escape the hand on my shoulder. But the grip tightened.

"You only have to go down there for a couple minutes." She said coaxingly. "Just step inside and look around. Think about what you see."

"No."

"She doesn't look very calm." A voice said from behind me.

Damn right, I'm not calm. I opened my mouth and shrieked.

"Stop it." She grabbed me and shook. "Stop it. You're losing control."

Whatever, anything to keep from going down there, the basement was dark this time and the screams were only getting louder.

I screamed louder.

"Wanda!"

My eyes flew open and I was half sobbing. Ian was leaning over me. I could feel the perspiration getting cold over my body. My heart was racing. I looked around me trying to figure out where I was. I was in the van. They had laid me on the backseat. I looked out the window and noticed we weren't moving anymore.

"Hey," Ian said softly putting his hand on the side of my face gently rubbing his thumb back and forth. "It was just a dream."

"Where are we?" my voice cracked. My throat was dry and my eyes burned. It was hard to breath. Every time I sucked in a breath, it was like breathing in dry heat that burned my lungs. But I could feel the coolness in the air.

"We're at the stopping point. This is where we start walking." Ian answered and wiped my face with a cool washcloth. I sighed as the coolness brought both relief and pain. My body was shaking with the chills. I looked down and realized that I was covered in blanket that had been stored in the back to hide under. The blanket didn't help.

"I don't feel so good." I coughed.

"I know." Ian's eyes filled with pain. "You've been in and out of it since the house. You have a fever that isn't really going down. I just need you to take it easy for now. Get some rest." He bent down and kissed my forehead. I didn't need to be told twice as sleep overcame me again. This time I slept with no dreams at all.

Remember to Review!! i'll try to have another update asap... but finals are coming up and things are getting kinda crazy around here on campus. So let me know what you think and who knows, maybe the more reviews I get the sooner the update! ~mcena99