Chapter 6: Troubled Dreams

Nightmares are haunting young Silver, promising dark times ahead.

The maze was big. And creepy. So were the people chasing me. They all wore WG uniforms and had yellow eyes. If you've picked up anything at all yet, you know very well that I hate yellow eyes.

I heard Remora screaming when I reached a intersection, and followed her voice. I wasn't prepared for what I saw next. She was standing in a white room with a slight rise in the middle. She was hooked up to a bunch of wires, and as I watched, she seemed to start to melt, body sinking into the ground, flowing out around her, screams turning into gurgles.

It sickened me to watch this, and I turned around and puked. Unfortunately on shoes of the creepy people with yellow eyes. The closest one pulled back his arm, ready to hit me. I tense up and squeeze my eyes shut, and get a big face full of carpet.

I pulled my self off the floor, secretly thinking about how to get back at Magma for his rude awakenings. I looked him in the eye and growled, “What, just WHAT, was THAT for?”

Magma just looked me up and down and said, “Yikes. You look horrible. You feeling okay?”

“No, I just woke up from a nightmare to find myself on the floor. I feel terrific.” I retort, putting as much sarcasm into my voice as possible.

“Great, that means you can train today!” said Magma, being annoyingly cheerful. Have you ever had one of those moments where you feel like pulling your hair out? That matches perfectly to the way I felt right then.

I moaned and followed him out the door to the Main Room, where they were serving cereal(blegh) for breakfast. I ate the tasteless, soggy cereal, just to have more than an ounce of energy. I dragged myself back to my room, changed into my uniform, and hastily slipped on my necklace.

I slowly walked to my training room, sure that I'm going to be extremely late. I was shocked to find that I actually was the first one there! I'd say about five minutes later, Blaze walks in. He didn't even bother to push his hair out of one of his eyes on to the other eye. Magma is the last, and he shuts the door after he gets in the room.

“Isn't Lark coming today?” I question curiously. He shakes his head.

“She doesn't feel up to it. It's not easy, what she's going through.”

Blaze exploded. “We don't feel up to it either! Look at us! Remora was our friend too! I had nightmares about what might be happening to her!” I was surprised. Blaze had nightmares, too? Strange. Magma's eyes suddenly turned very cold.

“She is Lark's Link! The pain is much worse for her! So STOP COMPLAINING, because you don't have any idea what she's going through!” he shouts, then mumbles something to quiet for me to catch, even with my sharp cat ears, but I know it wasn't good. He was acting strange and unfocused for the rest of the training period.

The day passes long and stressfully. I can't take my mind off Lark and Remora. I felt really scared for Remora, and felt really sorry for Lark. By the time training is over, I feel like I can barely put one foot in front of the other.

I stumbled and staggered down to the Main Room for dinner. They were serving fish sticks. I take a few, then sit down next to one of my friends.

“So, I thought you weren't getting up today.” I said half-heartedly to Lark.

“I didn't think I was either. I guess hunger got the best of me.” she mumbled. Lark was a mess. Her hair was knotted; her eyes were bloodshot. I gave a dry, humorless chuckle. I took a bite of one of the fish sticks, and spit it back out.

“That, my friend, was the worst fish stick I have EVER eaten!” I gasped. Lark laughed at this. Maybe she wasn't in such bad shape after all.

All at once, the staff door flew open and Remora was pushed out. The door slammed abruptly behind her. Lark instantly leaped from her chair and ran to her friend. “OhmygoshIthoughtI'dneverseeyouagain!” Lark spouted as she welcomed Remora back. A huge grin spread across her face. I watched cheerily from a distance.

“What happened?” I called out to her. Her eyes rested on me, then her smile got wider(I didn't know that was possible).

“Nothing much. I went in, they gave me a shot, and I rested there overnight. I don't even remember why I went in there.” The smiles immediately vanished from our faces.

“W-what do you mean 'I don't even remember'?” questioned Lark, worry gleaming in her sky blue eyes.

“I don't. Is that a bad thing?” Remora replied starting to tremble. Lark and I backed away. “Uh... Silver? Can you go tell Blaze about this?” Lark requested, backing away. I nodded and hurried out of the room.

I strained to recall where Blaze's room was. With some difficulty, I finally found it. I banged loudly on the door. He opened the door hesitantly.

“What is it?” he asked groggily. I assumed he had been sleeping.

“Remora's back, but something is wrong with her!” I replied.

“What?!” all traces of sleep were gone from his voice now.

“Yeah! Come to the Main Room! She's there with Lark!” Blaze and I ran as fast as we could to where I left Lark and Remora, but when I reached the Main Room, they were gone! “Maybe their in their rooms, Silver.” suggested Blaze. He was good at keeping his cool(despite his name), most of the time at least. We checked both Remora's and Lark's rooms, but to no avail. We even checked Magma's room. Magma was glad to hear that Remora was back, but just shrugged and shut the door when we asked where the other two were. With no where else to turn, we checked our training room, only to be disappointed again. We had to face the truth: Remora and Lark were gone.

Author's Note

I'm not entirely sure why, but this has to be my least favorite chapter, aside from chapter 2.