Angel Of Clinia

24. A Familiar Face

"How?" I stutter. Dean and Ezra step back, able to tell that I'm shocked. They exchange concerned looks.

"Why hello there Mar." The girl smiles. Another girl walks in. "How are you two...here?"

I well up with tears.

"Remember me?" Stephanie laughs manically.

"Join us." Emara, who was the one sitting stands up.

"How are you here?" I repeat with more force in my voice.

"UFOs, duh." Stephanie looks at me with an annoyed expression.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused." Dean holds his hands up.

"That's Emara, a friend I lost at the beginning of all this," I point at her before shifting my finger towards Stephanie, "and that's Stephanie, a girl turned evil. Except they both are corrupted."

"We should probably go, Mar." Ezra worriedly says.

"Why?"

"This place is sinking!"

We all look around in panic and try to run out the door. "Not so fast, you want to save me don't you? I'm not a clone, I'm really me, but you have to join us, they have us find our true homes, our inner peace." Emara comes close to me. "That isn't true, you've been brainwashed." "That's isn't true, you know you'll give in eventually, Mar." She reaches her hand out as if for me to shake it.

"Come on!" Dean yells from outside. He and Ezra are already out of the building.

"Why make this hard for yourself?" Emara goes to grab my arm.

"No." I push her hand away. I leave the building feeling empowered yet guilty. If that really was Emara, she's dead now, along with Stephanie.

But the real question remains. How did they survive before we lifted it up and how did they know that we'd go there?

"Are you okay?" Ezra asks me, grabbing my arms and facing me towards him.

"Why wouldn't I be? Emara is gone, I killed someone innocent and evil, we've left Taylor and Sparrow even though she was right, and I'm stuck in the desert waiting for our inevitable abductions!" My voice grows loud and fills with blood red anger.

"Look at me. Most people wouldn't be able to go through what you've been through." He recalls the story I told him when we were on our way to the space station. I'm surprised he actually paid attention to my entire adventure. Taylor finds it childish and immature.

"Most people also aren't blinded by their entire past. I knew this was going to happen but not a single person listened to me," I sob, "my whole life. Nobody. Even when they did, it was always too late, and now look at where we are. That's also my problem. Nobody ever listened to me, so I never listen to anybody else. Like Taylor. She was right, okay? I'm childish. I shouldn't have come, I should've just told you guys about it and let what would happen...happen."

"Don't get sappy on me." Ezra looks deeply into my eyes. "You believed in me." Dean joins him. "Believe in yourself. Dean, as much as it pains me to say, is right."

As bad of a time it is, butterflies flap their wings in my stomach.

"Thank you." I say quietly.

I feel awkward now and cheesy. I've bothered them with my own problems when that isn't what they signed up for.

"If we hurry, we can catch up to Sparrow and Taylor, they couldn't have gotten far, it hasn't been that long." Dean suggests.

Ezra and I nod in agreement. He was right. We have to focus on the task at hand.

All three of us run in the distance. "Are you sure this is the way?" I ask Ezra. "Of course! Have some faith in me." He laughs.

I see footsteps. "I hope that's theirs."

After a good ten minutes of running, I see them in the distance.

"Taylor! Sparrow!" We all yell to them.

They turn around and stop.

We catch up and stop, bent over as we breathe heavily in exhaustion. Except Ezra, he's really thin and fit.

"Changed your minds?" Taylor asks. "You were right." I made sure not to mumble, I wanted her to know that I really felt the need to say it, and that the boys didn't convince me to do so.

"Did they tell you to say that or did you figure that out on your own?"

I guess I wasn't clear enough.

It took an experience. We saw Emara and Stephanie. They were inside.

I tell her what happened.

"Why would Stephanie give up that easily? Same with the Emara maybe clone maybe not a clone?" She asks quizzically.

"I don't know, but it gives me a bad feeling."

"I'm still confused." Dean straightens his mouth.

"It's okay, it doesn't matter all that much. Just keep focusing on getting to the space station. You can build a ship right?"

"Yeah, well I won't need to, maybe some light tweaking, but I won't have to manually build one, that would take a looooong time."

"That's a big help." I tell him.