Chapter 15

Slow and sluggish, and painful. Very painful. Everything hurt, so much I couldn't think. Backwards thought and sentences that had words but no meaning, no order. No order, order none, nonte nonte nonte. Nothing nothing nothing…

The world was dark and cold, but I was wet. I was too hot, but too cold. Painfully cold, but still too hot. I shivered, and it was painful. The darkness enclosed me, there was no peace.

Vesh, mon klien, komet le moch

Death, in cruelty, leaves this place.

Strange words that echoed up from places unknown. They had no meaning, but yet they continued to speak, and I continued to understand them.

Cumet! Cumet koch! Etchi verloet, etchi verloet.

Run! Run away! He will kill you, he will kill you.

Who will kill me?

Verket.

The sudden wave of clarity that washed over me was both painful and refreshing. Painful, because I felt as if I had gotten into a battle with something or someone. Refreshing, because I had won whatever battle I had been fighting.

My mind was clear. Clear enough for me to try and think rationally for at least a moment. Everything hurts, but one at a time, I check that I have all my limbs. Everything seems in tact, and I sigh when I don't have to keep moving. I relax into the bed more, but then I tense up.

Bed? Not a cot. Most Spargans sleep on cots or the floor. We don't have the luxury of plush beds. So why the hell am I sitting on one. I have yet to open my eyes, but now I simply afraid to. I know what I will find. I knew I wasn't in Spargus anymore. I knew that when I was still in the layers of the fever dream.

I open them slowly, feeling a pain of different kind well up in my chest as I take in my room on Earth. On Earth, Earth Earth. I had to repeat that a few times before it sank in and when it did, I sobbed. I couldn't help it. I tried to hold it back, tried to tell myself to calm down. But the horror of it was making me dizzy, my skin prickled, my mind reel. I didn't want to be here, I didn't belong here, so why was I here?

It wasn't fair. I should be back in Spargus. I wish I could have apologized to Jak. For what?

The thought spun around and slapped me in the face so hard it stopped all other thought processes. Why did I have to apologize to Jak?

Because you freaked out on him.

But why did I freak?

Because someone told you to. Someone was talking to you.

Yes, talking to myself like this helped me think. So the question became who was talking to me.

What had that girl said? The voice that spoke in the strange language. Ver… Ver… Ver-something. What had that meant? Verket? Yes, that was it. Verket. What did Verket mean? I knew everything else that she had spoken, so why not this word?

All other thought process was halted when I heard my door open. I tried to look at the intruder, but my eyes had fallen shut somewhere in the internal rant, and I seemed incapable on opening them again.

I heard the person shuffle in quietly, and instantly knew it was Haley.

"Haley," I growled, rasping at the effort it took to talk. I heard the girl start, and she sudden moved very quickly across the dark room to fling herself across me in an embrace made awkward by the bed beneath me. However this did not stop her from clinging to my shoulders as if I was her life line. "Haley?" I rasped again.

She sudden sprang up and away and I envied her for having that much energy. She then ran out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. I could tell only because the light from the hallway slanted across my closed eyes.

By the time she returned, carrying a glass fill with ice water, I had managed to open my eyes and sit up. She handed me the glass, and I took it gratefully, gulping down it's contents quickly.

I finished and set the glass down on the bedside table. It was then that Haley chose to speak up. "Where have you been?" It was both a stern question, but held a hint of gentleness, and hesitation; as if she knew she had the power to be superior over me, but wasn't sure if she should exert it.

"Places," I answered vaguely.

Haley scowled at me. "Where?" She seemed to be gaining in confidence.

I looked over at her, sighing. "It doesn't matter. How long have I been gone?"

"A week and a half."

I sat for a moment, thinking of the time displacement for a moment. I finally came to the conclusion that I had actually only missed two days of school before vacation started. I could help but think of how convenient that was. Supposedly, spring break ended at the end of this week, which meant that I had three days to get back before mom and dad began getting annoyed.

Speaking of my parents… "Where are mom and dad?"

"Mom's at work, as she always is," I flinched at how bitter her words were. "And Dad is drunk, as he always is."

I smiled. In other words, unless she blatantly told them right out, they probably thought I was at someone's house or something. "Do they know I have been gone?"

She shook her head. "You owe me." The way she said it made me know she wasn't serious. I smiled at her, and she smiled back. Sometimes, I had to admit to myself that my sister was kind of okay. Kind of!

"Where have you been?" She asked again, obviously worried for me. "You look like shit."

"Language!" I chided. She only rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Really now?"

"Yes."

"Tosca."

My name, my real name… It sent shivers down my spine, and not the good ones. It really set into my mind that I wasn't in Precursora anymore. I was back on Earth, I wasn't home. I looked down at my knees, noting briefly that I was wearing the same jeans I had been when I went through the portal, expect they looked worn, torn, burned, and… Was that blood? I almost examined them but had to remind myself I was not alone. I could feel the anxiety creeping into me, swallowing me. I felt myself starting to tremble, and clenched my fist in hopes to stop it. There was only one real though going through my mind at that moment. It chilled me how familiar this lost feeling was as it drilled holes in my chest, leaving emptiness. An emptiness I couldn't begin to explain, let alone fill.

How will I get home?

XXX

A/N: I had to redo this entire chapter because I lost the original copy in South Carolina. I miss California…

Broken Wolf/D.R.M.