Kai opened her eyes and expected to be in a hospital room, but instead, she looked up at the cloudy, gloomy sky of Wales.
She sat up quickly, taking in her surroundings. There was a cave to her right, and she lay on a patch of lush green grass. Dew drops coated her jacket and soaked through her pants.
A larger mass dropped next to her with a groan. Kai craned her head and saw Jake, confused and disoriented. She reached out and grabbed his wrist to assure him that she was there and she was ok. He smiled a small smile at her.They both turned their heads to the cave entrance and saw something that made their blood freeze.
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The children from the photograph. They stood there, silent and motionless, like ghosts. They all seemed to embrace one another; all touching somehow. Like they were protecting each other from some unseen force.
We're dead, Kai grumbled to herself. Great.
Jake stood up eventually; he stumbled because he couldn't take his eyes off of them. And they stared right back with an unreadable look.
Kai, still holding onto Jake's wrist, pulled herself up as well, though she had to lean on him for support. Dried blood covered her lips and she tried to remove it as best as she could.
Jake noticed that she struggled with balance and wrapped his arm around her waist, securing her balance.
"Y- you're Emma!" he said finally. His voice sounded strange, like his throat was closing.
Emma, the blonde girl with the light blue dress and awfully large metal shoes. She blinked and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She stayed silent, though.
"And- the twins. And Olive. And Bronwyn," Jake stammered. Olive smiled sweetly and Bronwyn gave a cute nod. Jake chuckled at the invisible boy. "And he's Millard."
The aforementioned seemed to have tipped his hat to Jake.
It wasn't a trick in the film... Kai thought to herself. Her eyes widened and she pressed herself closer to Jake, trying to feel some security.
"No, you're dead," he realized. "All of you, you're all dead. I mean- he's invisible, but he's still dead."
"None of us are dead," the invisible boy spoke. The children all turned to look at him for a moment before looking back at Jake and Kai.
Kai had no words. She thought at first, maybe, this was another hallucination. But none of them had ever spoken to her before. And Jake could see them, too, so no way they were fake.
"Are- are we dead?" Kai croaked. Her throat hurt.
"No," Emma responded shortly.
"You... You called me Abe," Jake realized. His breath became ragged again, "In the house. Why?"
