Heaven Gilded Zarcroft Hybrid

Twenty Six

Dorothy, Jamie, and Cynaline pummeled me to the ground in a gust of light. A wave of pain shot up my arm.

"Oh my gosh!" Dorothy fretted. "Sorry, Jackie."

Her legs trembled from shock as she stood up. Cynaline grabbed the bookbag lying next to her. Worry hit his eyes.

I was so distracted by the pain that I didn't feel the weight on my chest.

Jamie laid on top of me, motionless. I sat up, gently laying his head in my lap.

I looked up at the others. "He fainted."

"He did?" Dorothy gasped.

Cynaline swiftly held Jamie without struggle and laid him in one of the newly made beds. Dorothy sat down on the bed beside him, her head held low with heavy eyelids. She was either tired, stressed, or both.

Cynaline tensed up, crossing his arms as if to guard himself.

"Is it the teleporting?" I asked him.

His voice wavered. "Could be."

"He always falls asleep," Dorothy said. "He stays up too late. This isn't the first time."

She took off her shoes and socks and curled up on the bed.

Suddenly, four suitcases and two other bags flashed into existence in front of me.

Cynaline smirked. "Told him it'll work. Here's our stuff."

I immediately pulled out my favorite set of pajamas from my luggage: a yellow T-shirt and black gym pants. Cynaline took off his jacket and went to change in the bathroom.

⚝⚝⚝

I stood in front of the ceiling high mirror in the bathroom as I changed my clothes. Nothing echoed, so I felt more comfortable making noise. For a second, I forgot I wasn't on Earth anymore. It had only been two days since we woke up on Exo, and I had the whole summer to do what I wanted. Or at least after we found the Incarnates.

I walked back into the bedroom. The lights were off, and Cynaline sat awake on a bed across from the others, hunching over a bulky laptop. I sat on the bed beside his and set my old clothes at the foot of it, a habit I needed to kick.

"I expected you guys to use holographic tablets or something," I mused. "Why does everything here seem so... old? Like your phones."

"Old?" he questioned. "My phone is brand new. That's just how things look here. Besides, it didn't look old when it was new, did it?"

"Yeah..."

He continued typing on a bulky keyboard. The clunky tapping was pretty relaxing.

"Remember when I dropped those coins in the mall?" I asked. "You really didn't see the fountain?"

"No," he said. "I saw a globe. A giant, sapphire globe... and what coins?"

"The coins! They fell all over the floor when I pulled them out of the fountain water. I saw you pick them up!"

"I went to tie your shoe."

"Wait... so you saw none of that?"

He shook his head, and nodded to the laptop. "The Crystal Mall website hasn't been updated in two hundred years. They just have a map of the stores inside, and that's all. But I think that electric shock we felt when we walked inside had something to do with it. It messed with our heads to hide a secret entrance to the hotel. Why else would the MorteVista stop there?"

"All of the products were stuff we used to own," I said. "Like my baby shoes. Dorothy found an old book, but I could see it, because I used to read it too. But we couldn't see Jamie's skateboard or anything. But then I saw a spear in the fountain."

"A spear?"

I recounted the story to him. The coins, the spear, and the static shock I felt on my chest afterwards. His eyes widened once I finished.

"Geez..." he rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe it was a glitch with the 'illusion system' or whatever."

"Maybe one of the Incarnate users went there before, and the mall confused me with them," I suggested. "Is that how it works?"

"The last Incarnate user died a good while before that place was built. That's what Jupitas speculated. So probably not. It's just too random."

He yawned and closed his laptop.

"Welp! I'm exhausted." He sat the laptop on the other side of him, and pulled the covers over his legs.

"What about your wings?" I asked, restraining myself from sounding too questioning. "Does it hurt when you sleep on them?"

"Not at all." He smiled. "They don't have pain receptors. Actually, they don't have a lot of nerves at all. But I try not to cause they'll get numb and tingly after a while, like when your foot falls asleep."

"Do other people have wings here?"

"My parents. It's a long story. Well, it's not that long, but you wouldn't believe me, anyway."

As I laid down, I thought back to a few days ago. I wondered what my mom and sister were doing at home. My classmates, too. And Korey... what was he doing in New York? I rested my head on the pillow, and before I could take out my translator—

"Thanks for getting us out of the kitchen closet, by the way..." Cynaline whispered. He looked over at me. I noticed how vibrant his eyes were, like soft puddles of glimmering gold, even in the dark. They disappeared as he closed them. Then mine did the same. I nestled in the warm, fluffy covers.

Going from the stale, metallic air of our room at the Mind to fragrant rosewater was a welcome change. How could one day be so varied and colorful? I never appreciated how strangely short twenty-four hours could be. Yet, I wasn't angry. On Earth, that meant less time to do homework and chores. It means an entire day wasted on distractions and turbulent thinking. Here, the events of the day stir in my head like a savory, hot soup, warming me with the new memories I made, and the new feelings I felt.

But a thicket rose in my head. After minutes of deep breaths and tossing and turning, it spread—the dull aching of a giant hand gripping my brain. The visceral thoughts of me falling from the beanstalk to my death tugged harder. The lightning strikes, I fall, I close my eyes, and die. The more I replayed it, the more eager I was to believe that Exo was just Heaven. That if I fell asleep, I'd be a ghost on Earth, observing my family go about their day without me.

My headache pounded and pounded, until I cried.

All of that pain melted to tears, relieving my head and soaking my pillow. Okay, so Exo isn't Heaven. It's a real planet. A real place with a sky, grass, atmosphere, its own sun...

Quiet sniffling came from Dorothy's bed.

If she had the same dreadful headache I did, just hearing her cry brought me relief. She was free.

I closed my eyes to fall asleep so she could continue in peace.