Starlight

by Adrienne Woods

  I turned around and walked back to my room.

  Annie, Isabel, Sammy and Becky entered my room and found me once again lying on my bed. It was quiet and then Becky broke the silence.

  “I don’t understand this, Elena.” Becky sighed. “Someone can’t just vanish like that from breaking an oath.”

  “I can’t reach him. I never could to be honest. It was as if his level of thinking was on a different level than mine. I understand now how all this is making him feel. It’s driving me insane.” I sounded tired and so defeated.

  “He went through worse during the four months you were missing.”

  “This is different.”

  “How?” she asked. “You vanished just like him, without a trace. None of us could find you. We didn’t know if you were okay, let alone alive. It was ten times worse than this.”

  “I can’t handle this.” My voice went a few octaves higher. The last thing I wanted to do was to fight with Becky. I didn’t want to think about that time. It was in the past, this was the present.

  They left it there, and I spent the entire night wondering what it must have been like for Blake after he woke up and found me missing. I saw the clips of him trying to find me. That alone was a wake-up call. Even if he’d told me what it was like, now that I was experiencing the same thing, I could relate.

  The minutes ticked by, then came the hours. It all lay heavy on my chest because nobody seemed to rest without knowing where Blake was.

  I skipped dinner and stayed in my room for the rest of the night.

  That night a scream came from a room down the hall. It sounded like Becky.

  I ran out of my room as others emerged from theirs and found her staring with horror at George hulking on the floor.

  George was crouched in a crawling position on the carpet. Constance and Isabel hunched over him as Sir Robert and Emanual ran in after me.

  Becky was frozen in one place, staring at him, visibly shocked by something she’d just experienced.

  Isabel got up and I saw steam evaporate from George’s body, as he seemed to be recovering. We all stared at the steam rolling off his body like he was a hot rock that had just been cooled down with ice cold water.

  I grabbed Becky and held her tight as I couldn’t stop staring at George’s body trembling as soft whimpering sounds left his mouth.

  Constance crouched next to him on the floor and she rested her hand slightly on his body as if he was a hot potato.

  “He’s ice cold.” Constance got up and pulled a blanket off the bed and wrapped it over him. She looked up at Becky. “What happened?”

  She still seemed to be in shock.

  “Becky?” I shook her slightly and her gaze broke from George and looked at me.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  She shook her head back and forth fast.

  “We need to know what happened. Was it something he saw?” I asked but it didn’t explain the steam emanating off his body.

  “Darkness,” George spoke and we all looked at him.

  “Darkness?” Isabel asked and then he started to cry. I’d never seen George cry. He shook his head and looked up at Becky. Then he moved quickly onto his knees and came to Becky, hugging her around her waist.

  Constance put the blanket around him again.

  “It felt as if I was dark again. It was suffocating me. But the lightning, the lightning was all around me and I knew if I went to it I would find you again.”

  He wasn’t making any sense.

  “Babe, you didn’t leave, you were here the whole time.” Becky hunched awkwardly over him and rubbed his body to get the warmth back into him.

  “No, I was there. I know I was, Becks.” He looked up at her sounding deranged. “It was so cold.” He broke down again. “So alone.”

  She held him tight and he shook in her arms. Her own tears flowed over her cheeks. Isabel and Constance stared at them. I did too.

  What had George seen?

  “George, are you okay?” Constance asked him and he lifted his head from Becky’s embrace. He looked at her and then he shook his head. He sure didn’t look okay.

  “Babe.” Becky stroked the side of his face and she fell on her knees too. “What was that?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’ve got this strange feeling…”

  We all stared at him, what feeling?

  “I was so powerful, Becks. And I couldn’t do anything. I think it’s connected to Blake.”

  I COULDN’T SLEEP that night, not after what George told us. If Blake was in a dark, cold place, then how was I ever going to sleep? How were we going to reach him?

  I threw up as nausea crept into my stomach, created by fear and worry. I had listened to Isabel’s crying the entire night, Sir Robert freaking out and Constance pleading, because not knowing anything was driving her semi-insane too. She was worried, we were all worried…to death. Where the hell are you, Blake?

  The morning light shone through my curtains and I got up to take a shower. The chaos from last night had died out, but the worry was still hovering over all of us.

  I couldn’t deal with Sammy today. I couldn’t deal with any of this today. I just wanted to go back to the other side and find Blake.

  And that was when my body started to act normal again, like it should.

  A plan of me escaping to the Creepers flashed through my mind. I’d been a good girl these past few days. I hadn’t tried to escape, and everyone was worried about what George had seen. It was going to work. I just knew it.

  I packed my backpack after I put on my jeans and a sweatshirt. Going out the front door would alert Emanual, so the only way out was through my balcony.

  I looked over the railing after I put the backpack over my shoulders and took a huge breath as the drop was a few stories high. There was a pipe, and I closed my eyes just thinking about it. Blake would’ve done it for me. He’d almost flown through the Creepers for me.

  I threw one leg over the railing then the other and shook the pipe to see if it was firmly attached to the wall, still holding on to the safety of the balcony. It seemed strong and solid.

  I placed one leg on one side of the pipe and then my other and clung to it with all my strength.

  It’d seemed so easy inside my head, it’d looked so easy on the big screen, but now actually doing it, it felt as if my heart was going to explode.

  I took a huge breath and let it out slowly.

  You can do this.

  I let my grip go slowly and started to slide down the pipe.

  When I finally reached the bottom, I smiled because I couldn’t believe I’d just done it.

  I peeked around the corner. It was clear and I started to make a run for the hill.

  Once I was over the hill, I didn’t think. I just ran toward the Creepers.

  They were getting nearer and nearer and I just knew that my plan had worked. I was going to find…

  I yelped as talons grabbed me and my feet suddenly left the ground.

  “Let me go!” I tried to get free from the talons but I couldn’t. The more I squirmed the tighter the grip became. I looked up and saw red scales.

  “Dammit, Emanual! Let me go! He needs my help!”

  “Elena, it is too dangerous,” he said using a deep scruffy voice. “I can’t believe you did this.”

  “He would’ve done the same for me, you know it! You were there, why can’t I…”

  “Because we need you, Paegeia and Etan need you to get through this war.”

  He descended close to a group of people and then he let me go.

  “Elena,” Isabel was the first to reach me.

  “Leave me alone!” I yelled, pissed off that I’d failed at sneaking out and trying to go back to Blake. I stormed into the lodge and up the stairs.

  “Elena, we need to speak about this.” Emanual’s voice was right behind me.

  “I said leave me alone. If you don’t want to help me find him, then I don’t need anything from you,
” I said and shut my bedroom door in his face.

  Failure and loneliness overwhelmed me as I slid down to the floor and just cried like I’d never cried before.

  I was never going to find Blake, and the worst part was that I had nobody to help me.

  The day moved by slowly. Connie entered a few times with plates of food, drinks and snacks. But I couldn’t eat. I needed to find Blake. Becky and Sammy tried to cheer me up too. Even Annie and Constance tried. They all came and went. Around five a soft knock came on the door.

  They didn’t let themselves in like the others and I got up.

  When I opened it, Sir Robert and Isabel stared down at me. When I saw Emanual’s face I wanted to slam the door in all three of their faces.

  “Elena, wait. We have a plan.” Sir Robert put his foot in front of my door just as I went to shut it.

  “A plan to go and find him?”

  He nodded and I stepped back from the threshold. The door closed behind Emanual as I went to sit at the edge of my bed.

  Sir Robert took one seat and Emanual just stood in front of my door.

  “Elena, just to get one thing clear. Blake vanished, which means he could be anywhere.”

  “What if you are wrong? What if he is in Etan right now and he can’t get back?”

  Isabel came to sit next to me, rubbing my shoulder.

  “Think about it.” Emanual sounded frustrated and crouched down in front of me. “If George had a connection with Blake, he is far from Etan, nobody can reach him, not even you. Only he can find his way back.”

  I was close to tears again. I felt so helpless.

  “So what you are saying is I just have to wait? Is that it?”

  Emanual sighed. “I don’t know. All I know is that the last time you ran, Elena, you were gone for four months. I do not want to tell him that you went looking for him if he comes back. I won’t relive that time again, so please, I’m begging you, just wait.”

  I looked at him for a short while, closed my eyes and shook my head. When I opened them I stared at Sir Robert.

  “He will come back, Elena. I know he will.”

  “What if it’s in Etan? What if he’s already there? He wouldn’t be able to come back.”

  Sir Robert stared at me. “We will go in once a day, just to make sure. If Goran has him, there will be rumors of it.” He shook his head. “It will be too late then, but we will do something to get him out of there. If not, we come straight back, Elena.”

  “We’re going in tonight?”

  Emanual closed his eyes. “Tomorrow, Elena. It’s day time that side. I’m not going to risk it.”

  I nodded.

  “I don’t like this, not one bit, but if it’s the only way to stop you from sneaking off where nobody can reach you, then okay, but we do this my way or you can forget going back.”

  “I promise.” I would say anything if it would allow me to go and find Blake.

  They all left after that and I struggled to fall asleep again. I was really anxious and excited about tomorrow. Blake just had to be there.

  When I finally dozed off, I dreamed about the Saadedine again. Blake was still the size of a crow. His black armor, wherever the hell he’d gotten it from, didn’t seem to protect him from the Saadedine’s wrath.

  I saw him crashing into a cave-like wall, and woke up to the sound of a thud.

  A cold finger traced a path up my spine as I realized it wasn’t the dream’s thud that had woken me; it was a real thud. I could smell a strong scent of sulfur and feel the presence of something dark in my room. Someone dark, someone that didn’t belong in this world was staring at me.

  I TURNED ON the light next to my bed.

  There on the floor in front of me was a figure lying flat on its stomach.

  The body was soaked in black ooze and then I saw the steam rolling off his body. I immediately put together the images of George from the other night in his room, and what I was seeing right in front of me.

  Life sparked through me, and I found my way to the figure’s side as fast as I could, realizing it was Blake lying limply on my carpet.

  My hand touched a pile of ooze that had coagulated on the carpet. It was cold, the burning kind of cold, and sticky.

  I started to cough as the strong smell burned my nose and lungs.

  I covered my nose with my sleeve, trying to catch my breath.

  Steam was rolling off his body in waves. It was ten times worse than the night George had experienced it.

  “Help!” my voice eventually yelled. I sounded deranged, like a crazy lunatic and coughed again at the strong smell of sulfur coming from him.

  “Help!” I yelled again and touched Blake’s back. He was ice cold.

  Blake gasped hard as if he’d only just now found his breath after a long time under water, and lifted up his torso from the ground, resting on his arms. He coughed like mad as he pulled in his legs and ducked his head down toward the carpet. He sounded so sick, like someone that had pneumonia, and then he threw up. Pools of black goo spattered onto the carpet as more came from his mouth.

  “Blake, where the hell…?” I couldn’t finish my sentence as my voice broke.

  Then he just grabbed me tightly and squeezed. I struggled to breathe but I held him just as tight. The goo was all over me. I started to shake with him, shivering from the cold emanating off his body.

  He still coughed, short coughs that sounded really bad as I held him.

  My door finally opened.

  “Son,” Sir Robert spoke as Blake trembled, his teeth chattering.

  “The blanket,” I ordered and Sir Robert yanked it off my bed with one pull and wrapped it over Blake.

  “Son, where the hell were you?”

  “Blake,” Isabel’s voice filled the room.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about George’s experience. How on earth had he seen where Blake was?

  I could feel him shaking his head in the nape of my neck. The sulfur smelled so strongly that it made everyone start to cough.

  Where the hell had he been?

  He started to sob and let go of me. Then he got up and ran out of my room.

  “Blake!” I yelled after him.

  “Stay with Elena. I’ll go,” Sir Robert spoke quickly.

  Isabel nodded.

  Her face looked like she’d just witnessed a horrible play.

  My body felt drained, cold, and the sticky black goo, which I knew was sulfur, clung onto my hands and face. Isabel wrapped her arms around me. “Shhh,” she said through a shaky voice. “He’s back. He will be okay, Elena.”

  BLAKE WAS DOWN for another five days. I stayed with him almost all of the time. Isabel also kept a vigil by his bedside. Sir Robert and the rest came regularly too, checking up on his status and bringing things to eat. He would speak in his sleep, gibberish that didn’t make any sense, just like George had that night, but he never woke up. The only thing I knew was that he was in a dark, dark place. It must have been darker than what he was used to.

  A knock on the door woke me from a slumber. My body felt stiff from sitting in the chair with only a blanket around me.

  Emanual came in and looked at me and then at Blake’s sleeping body.

  “Are you okay?” he asked and I nodded. Blake was here, safe.

  He pulled a chair closer to mine and sat down.

  “How is he doing?”

  “I don’t know, Emanual. He keeps talking about the darkness, cold and lightning, the same stuff that George did that night.” I wiped away a tear. “It doesn’t make any sense. Where was he?”

  “Elena, he is one of the strongest dragons I know. He will be fine, he’s the…”

  “Don’t say it. I don’t care if he is the Rubicon. You were not there that night he came back, Emanual. I’ve never seen him that scared before and he is one of the few dragons that almost never shows his fear.” I spoke softly but with a stern tone.

  “I heard. Sir Robert told me that he was dripping with sulfur.”

&
nbsp; “He wasn’t just dripping with it; it was in his entire body. He threw it up. Connie even replaced that spot on the carpet. Nothing could get it out. The smell. It’s still there.”

  Emanual just stared at Blake’s figure on the bed. He was out completely, hadn’t said one word in almost a day, even in his sleep.

  “He must have experienced some hell wherever he was.” Emanual finally opened his mouth.

  “I don’t think he experienced hell, I think he was in hell.”

  “You can’t say that.”

  “It’s the only thing that explains the sulfur, Emanual.”

  He shook his head. Of course he wouldn’t want that for Blake. I wouldn’t want that either. But there was no other way to explain how he’d ended up where he did when he disappeared.

  “You should get some rest Elena. I’ll stay with him.”

  “I struggle to sleep,” I whispered again.

  “Try. That is an order.” I looked at him and he smiled softly. “I’ll wake you if he wakes up, promise.”

  I nodded, got up, went over to Blake and kissed him on his cheek. Please, just wake up.

  I know he couldn’t hear my thoughts anymore, but it was a private moment and one I wasn’t going to share with Emanual in the room.

  “Good night,” I spoke softly.

  “Sleep tight, Princess.”

  I opened his door and the hall light streamed in. It blinded my sight for a few seconds and then I found my own room. I welcomed sleep but it wasn’t the release I needed. Nightmares seeped through and I know it was because of my dragon not keeping tabs on my dreams anymore.

  I felt so lost without him. It just made it so real again, what it would be like if he wasn’t in this world anymore.

  I would be changed forever, scarred for life. I wasn’t that strong, well, not anymore, and his words on the mountain entered my mind again.

  “You don’t have to be strong, I’m strong.”

  I cried. Cried because I had no idea what state Blake was going to wake up in. If he was going to fear everything, how the hell was I going to pull him out of this, like he’d pulled me out of my darkness? He was the strongest dragon that I knew.