True or False.

Chapter 8

Scrapping of my knee and the hissing sound I made stopped my tumbling on the ground, and somehow woke me up enough to stop my fall. Well, my knee took the brunt of the fall. It is scrapped and it is bleeding. It does not seem to be a deep cut though, but my God it stings. Especially with the sweat which is apparently dripping down my legs. Why am I sweating? More importantly, where the hell am I?

Scary part is I feel like something swallowed me whole and then just spit me out. Like a creature. Wait the last thing I remember is a freaking tornado, a vortex, gulping me into it. Into the whirlwind of wind and things. But I held onto Cloe, clutching her hand.

Oh God Cloe!

Where is she?

I start to search for her frantically. All around me. It seems to be a barren land with only dug up ground. Some patches of grass and pebbles. Lots and lots of pebbles. What the hell is this place? Did it used to exist in my town? Am I still in my town? I mean... okay. Stop it, Alison. Do not trail off. First things first. Search for Cloe. I cannot lose her. Not again.

The search for her continues as I limp around this weird place without a fucking light. Blood mixing with sweat, mixing with dirt, great fucking combination. The pain that it accompanies makes me curse like I have never before. Then again, I didn't use to swear particularly. Also, wait a damn second. I feel tall. I feel different. What the hell?

I take out my cell phone, the screen has a crack, which is understandable. In fact, I am surprised it survived whatever the heck swallowed me and then my fall. It is apparently working, kudos to that. But the front camera has a distorted view but even in that distorted thing, I can see myself clear as a day. And I am no longer my fifteen-year-old self. But I still have my glasses. Only they are thicker and cracked. Oh, is that a blood drop?

I do feel, like I am as old as I used to in the first lifetime when I lost Cloe for the first time. Now my paranoia is catching up. And the bile that seems to be rising up to my throat is making my palms sweat like crazy. Cloe please be okay! That is the only thing going through my head right now. Because suddenly pieces from the first time this happened is entering my brain. Pieces I didn't know I observed that night. Things I didn't realize I even glanced at. But now that they are invading my mind, I cannot stop the barrage of images and information, flooding my mind. Making me lose my grip on this reality. Making them blend together. And not in a good way. Not at all.

The urgency of the situation is not lost on me. Nor is the irony. Because for me just moments ago Cloe was accusing me of trying to kill her. And now here I am frantically searching for her, who might as well kill me once she finds me. The torch light from my cell phone is useless and so is just running around wildly. Because I have no freaking clue as to where I am or what is even real anymore. I resort to shouting her name.

"CLOE."

"CLOE GARDENS."

"CLOE. I WILL WRITE YOUR NAME USING 'H'. Answer me dammit."

Soon, all efforts to find her seems to be fruitless. Nothing seems to work. And I am lost. In the dirt in a place where most of the ground is dug up. Why the hell is the ground dug up? Is it supposed to be a freaking grave site? Oh, please let me be wrong. Please God.

My prayers were answered quickly, and I find out it is not a grave site. At least not for humans as it seems to be. More like things. Material things seems to adorn the shallow graves all around. Okay. At least there is that. I can breathe normally for now.

Then there is the lingering fear, the doubt creeping up my neck. That this is not good. Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong. And I need to find Cloe as soon as possible. And with that renewed fear, my adrenaline spiked, and I resume my search for her. This time the same way as the first time. Just blindly looking for her all over the place. Not just calling her name. Because that did not surmount to anything.