A Howl In The Night by Lorelei Sutton (life books to read .txt) 📕

Jake raises an eyebrow at me, unable to hide a broad grin as he catches my words. I realize, all too late, that my statement probably just made things worse.

"Checking her temperature," Xavier replies nonchalantly, adapting quickly to the shock of his sudden presence. I marvel at the way he can change his attitude so quickly.

"No, I don't mean now... I mean the last several hours you guys have been out here together." He winks and leans on a nearby tree, in a perfect display of reticence that only makes me more nervous.

"Nothing, Jake... drop it." Xavier says, standing up slowly and then extending his hand towards mine. I look at Jake and then take Xavier's hand, letting him pull me up. I don't even care about the impression we are probably giving off right now.

"Well, I'm glad that you guys had an entertaining evening," Jake says so flippantly that I wonder at its authenticity. "But we need to talk. As a group. It's been almost two days and we haven't decided on anything yet, which wouldn't be a problem except we left almost all of our food on the coast."

As I stand up, I mull over his words. He's right in that we need to make a decision quickly. When Xavier first disappeared from the group about two hours after the attack ended, I went after him with the intention bringing him back to camp. We had set up about a mile from the ocean, afraid to go any closer and risk another ambush. I was healed by then, but Griffin and Wes were more severely injured and still needed some extra care. After they finally recovered, we were planning on voting on what our new strategy or game plan should be. If you can even call it that.

Another bout of pain causes me to unintentionally lose all strength in my legs, Xavier rushing towards me to support my body in an immediate response. Jake stares at me, wide-eyed, as I grimace at the pins and needles stabbing at my consciousness.

"What's wrong with her?" He asks worriedly, taking a step forward to place his hand on my head. Xavier brushes his hand away so quickly that it almost looks like a blur, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"I already did that," he grunted, to which Jake smiles and laughs mischievously.

"Okay, Tarzan. Don't be so on guard." I laugh in spite of myself at the comparison, and Xavier's face turns a light shade of red, which is a pretty rare expression for him. I find myself enjoying it.

"Let's not start the Disney references," he mutters, and his face eventually regains his normal coloring as we start walking. The forest is as silent as we are, which only makes it more difficult for me to start a conversation.

"Sorry about making you come look for us," I finally apologize, and Jake nods in acknowledgment.

"It's okay. To be honest, no one was really bothered about your no-show. I was just curious about what could possibly be more interesting to occupy your attention than us on a beautiful night like this."

I roll my eyes at him, and then tilt my head upwards to see the same, plain gray horizon that greeted me last time I bothered to look. "You wish," I say absent-mindedly, watching the clouds swirl together and move endlessly.

"Who knows what that means?" Jake replies, shooting me another Cheshire Cat grin. I almost mention that to him, but then remember that it's a Disney reference. Sort of.

We keep walking in silence, my hand burning as Xavier continues to lock mine within his own. At first I didn't even notice, but now I couldn't ignore it if I tried. At the same time, I don't even want to ignore it. I want to immerse myself in the feeling of his warmth in any way that I can.

Even the thought feels like a new, chewy candy. Although unfamiliar and strangely flavored, I can't stop myself from eating it.

It isn't too long before we reach the camp, but honestly, between my throbbing headache and Xavier's overt gesture of possessiveness, it felt like an eternity. Xavier's vulnerability seems to have completely dissipated, leaving his insufferable confidence that I can't bring myself to hate.

"Xavier," I whisper in his ear, "you can let go now." Standing right behind our makeshift shelter, I hurriedly attempt to shake away his arm.

"You wish." His grip tightens, leaving me more embarrassed and nervous. In any minute they are going to see us, and assume things that don't need to be assumed.

I embarrassedly look away, trying to mentally prepare myself for their reaction. Surprisingly, I feel Xavier's hand leave my own after a few seconds, and I glance up at him in confusion.

"I was kidding, Mona." He smiles widely, with a hint of sadness entering his features. This one glance reminds me of the past several hours, and catches me by surprise. "Don't be so serious." He starts walking towards Wes, the new space beside me sending a chill throughout my body.

As he leaves, the warmth leaves with him, and goosebumps erupt on my left arm.

"So you're back," Danae says, coming towards me with another one of those stupidly suggestive smiles that I have grown to hate. I've seen way too many of them in a short time period.

"Yeah I am, and ready to roll-" I grip my head suddenly as the same pain is amplified. "Well... actually, maybe not."

"What's going on?" She asks, reaching for my forehead. This time I am the one to back away, tired of people trying to get my temperature. I think I can safely say by now that doing so will lead to no good.

"I'm fine. I think it might be a migraine." I turn and sit on a broken log. "It's just the first one I've had in a while so it just caught me off guard."

"What in the world could have caused your migraine?" Danae asks, to which I just shake my head. There is no way of knowing something like that as a definite.

"I did have a strange dream earlier," I say softly, thinking deeply. When I focus, I can almost hear it in my head... the muffled cries, and the painful words that were so scattered and unrecognizable that I couldn't distinguish anything from it. Maybe it's just my gut, but something tells me that this dream was important, maybe more so than anything else I had experienced so far.

"A vision?" Danae asks casually, and my head snaps up immediately. Her glance is inquisitive, but satisfying her curiosity is the least of my worries. What I have experienced today could be an indicator of another life in this barren world, or even what I can't dare to hope for...

"Guys." I stand up immediately on the tree trunk, calling everyone's attention. The headache retreats slowly as I make up my mind, and hopefully begin to change everyone else's. They come towards me, Griffin and Wes dragging their feet and the others yawning with boredom. "We need to talk," I say firmly, my voice stronger than I expected it to be.

"Finally," Jake says exasperatedly, "I've been waiting for this."

I ignore him, waiting for the others to get closer. Xavier and I make eye contact more than once, and he grins broadly in an awkward manner that makes it seem like he's trying to encourage a little child. 

"Do you remember when I said I was having visions... that I've seen this place before?" I begin, to which several of them nodded vigorously. Jake and Wes, on the other hand, are staring at me blankly.

"You know where we are?" Wes asks, his eyes narrowed. "I think it's time to fill us in."

"We'll have time for that later," I dismiss his question easily, still too focused on my current train of thought to be distracted. "I'm sure we will both have several stories to tell. But here is the basic gist—things are different here, as I'm sure you have figured out. We aren't exactly living in a physical world."

"What the..." Jake says in protest, "how can you say that this isn't a physical world?!"

Without responding, I concentrate on producing a single dagger. I can feel his gaze on me as it materializes and measuredly throw it into the ground beside my feet. It leaves an indent, and no further explanation is necessary.

"Either my power has changed, or the world has changed. Which seems more likely to you?" I ask him, stepping down from the broken log to touch the dagger. It is fading gradually, but still feels real and dangerous in my hand.

There is silence for the next few seconds as Jake and Wes absorb the new information. I feel a bit bad for them since they have to adjust so quickly, but there isn't too much I can do to make it any easier.

"Well, anyways, I don't remember much of my recent dream, but I still can remember a crying person that seemed to be at the center of it. I don't know who the voice belonged to, but it stands to reason given the context of my other visions that it relates to something within this world, and could have big implications. If this truly was a connection to another life within this world, I think we need to pursue it. Especially since we have nothing else to do."

"But how do you know that what you heard was a person?" Griffin asks, obviously confused by my statement, "and how do you suggest we go about doing that?"

"I don't, to be honest, although it sounded a lot like one. You're just going to have to trust me on this, especially since we don't have many options. And as for plans, I think we should do exactly the same as what we were doing beforehand."

The others stare at me, incredulous, and I almost laugh out loud. Something about their mouths hanging wide open is just so amusing and unsettling at the same time.

"I mean, like what we were originally doing, which was heading towards the castle. It feels like the source of everything that is going on is located over there, and it could be our ticket out of here."

Everyone looks up in the direction of the castle, its first spiraling tower barely peeking over the tops of the trees. In our journey to the coast, we forgot how close we were getting to the main source of our curiosity, but now it looms before us as a deathly reminder that we don't have the answers.

Wes's hand clenches tightly as he turns back to meet my gaze. "I don't want to go back there," he states firmly, "Jake and I already traveled to the gate yesterday."

I look at him in surprise, but keep quiet as Wes unsteadily continues. His eyes start to dart back and forth as his countenance crumbles at the mentioning of the castle. "I originally woke up in this world near the castle to begin with, although not close enough to be in any danger. Every time I tried to go to sleep or rest, I would continue to hear whispers that were seemingly talking to me, as if unseen creatures were trying to hold a conversation. The murmurs scared me, and eventually I had to leave to go find some food. I moved towards the coast, and bumped into Jake, who had been resting out in the open sand by those weird fruit plants. We stayed together for a while, but then decided to look for you guys. I thought maybe the whispers might have been an indicator of where you guys were, so I suggested that we go explore that area again. That... was a mistake."

He stops, and for such a long period of time that I feel compelled to try and probe him to continue. However,