Chapter4

At 4:30 in the morning, Felicity crawled out of her window in her polka dot pajamas, and leaped with grace over to Cedric's balcony. She gently tested the sliding door with her fingertips, praying it would be unlocked. Thankfully, it slid open with ease. 

She gazed at Cedric laying in his bed, slightly snoring, dreaming of whatever teenage boys dream about. She took in every detail, attempting to remember everything about him in case she ever lost him. A slow tear trickled down her face at the thought of never seeing his face again. 

Cedric opened his eyes, as though his subconscious knew he had a visitor and knew he needed to wake up, and when Cedric saw Felicity standing at the food of his bed, he smiled, scooted over to the edge, inviting her to lay down. Without a word, she walked over to his bed, crawled under the plush covers, and curled up in a ball next to him, shoulders slightly shaking. As she laid there thinking about nothing and everything at the same time, Cedric began humming her favorite oldie song, Blue Skies. Gradually, she fell back asleep in his arms.

When Felicity fell asleep, her recurring dream began. She had been having the same one every night for a week. 

In the dream, she stood in front of the Buckingham Palace. As she gazed at the magnificent building, her feet took her to a small opening in the gate surrounding the palance. As she entered the rusty hole, She wandered to a storm cellar door, leaned down, grabbed the old handle, and right as she had almost opened the door, her dream turned to darkness, and the rest of her sleep was without dreams. Every morning she became determined to see what was on the otherside of the doorway, but it never happened.

When Cedric's alarm clock jolted the two sleeping friends awake, they looked at each other, as if trying to read each others minds. 

"What are we going to do about all of this?" Felicity whispered, worry in her voice.

"We are going to figure something out together. We have four and a half months until... until our birthday. We will figure this out, I promise you Felicity."

"Well, what do we going to do today? Stay home? Go to school? Pretend like nothing has ever happened? Scream and cry a lot? I like that option."

"Your mom said we couldn't leave the house, so say we stay here, plan a way to leave this place, find a way to escape."

Felicity thought it over. Escape. It sounds so simple, and maybe it was. What bad could come from leaving the madness?

"Perfect, let's get out of here."

Felicity leaped back to her house, told her mom she was spending the day with Cedric, then headed back to Cedric's dwelling. 

After checking in with both of their parents, Felicity and Cedric went back to his room, sat down at his desk and started their research on his laptop.

"What is the first town in the world that pops into your head?" Cedric asked Felicity.

"London, England." She blurted without any hesitation.

"Huh, why London?"

"I don't know, it just popped into my head. My gut feeling is that it's the place to go to." Plus I have been having strange dreams about that peculiar town, Felicity thought.

"Okay, let's book the the earliest flight there." After a couple minutes of searching, Cedrics expression became baffled. "Well that's weird. That is extremely strange."

"What is it?" 

"I'm on the American Airlines website, booking a flight, but it says we already have one booked...I don't understand. I haven't scheduled anything, have you?"

"What? No I haven't. Scoot over let me see!"

Felicity pushed Cedric to one end of the chair so she could view the screen. Felicity took the mouse from Cedric's hand and clicked on the flight booking. 

Felicity Jones

One-way ticket to London, England

Flight number: 108

Departs: September 15, 2036 at 1:15 am

Gate: A5

First Class Seating: 1A

"September 15th? That's this Saturday. And a one-way ticket in first class? As suspicious as it is, I think we should take advantage of this. I would prefer not digging into my college savings to pay over a thousand dollars. Do you think we can be ready by Saturday? Today is Wednesday so that gives us about four days to get ready."

Cedric eyed his information on the screen, identical to Felicity's except for the seat he was supposed to sit in. He took a deep breath and slowly released it, releasing all of his worries and fears and holding in courage and bravery. "Let's do this."

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While Felicity worked on the task of packing their essentials without having their families realize anything was missing, Cedric was spending time with his little brother, trying to figure out if he should take Kyle with. As he watched Kyle zoned into the cartoons playing on the television, Cedric made up his mind. He would leave his little brother behind, as much as it pained him. Cedric did not know what lay ahead in his journey, or the dangers that he might face. If anything, anything at all happened to Kyle, Cedric would be completely devastated.

Felicity peered down the staircase, seeing what Cedric was up to. She smiled as she saw mini-Cedric, as she called him, talking away happily to Cedric, while the commercials were rolling on the TV screen. She snuck quietly back up the stairs to Cedric's room, making sure his door did not squeak as she opened it softly. As she disappeared behind the wooden door, she couldn't help but think, we may never ever set foot in this house again.