The Rink of Time

Chapter Twenty

We often don't know what we have until it's gone.

ELIJAH STARLING

I wake up again from the same dream or nightmare that has been occupying my mind for the past three nights, but this time I'm confused... what's happening.

I push all the uncertainties to the back of my mind and make my way down the stairs for breakfast, it's the weekend so we have time to study and hit the market, for the ingredients.

We had already told Mrs. Bolvera yesterday, and she was fine with it. I really hope we would find solutions to this, it's dragging on too long.

Find solutions...Why are we looking for solutions?

What's dragging on too long?

Oh yeah, leaving this place, going home.

"But where's home?" I mutter to myself, walking down the stairs. Surely, it must be where our parents are, but how did we leave home? Something is missing.

I push the thoughts out of my head as it was beginning to give me a migraine and focus on making my way to the dining room.

Everyone is most probably still sleeping, I wake up really early everyday but that's mostly because I don't sleep much, I feel great after two or three hours of sleep at night and if I have time during the day then I take naps, I don't need to but, I often force myself to... but why?

Something is off, I shake the thoughts away again, noticing Mrs. Bolvera in the kitchen.

"Good morning" I greet Mrs. Bolvera, right next to her is a man who looks like he is in his mid-twenties standing next to her by the sink, they both turn around to face me.

He had short curly black hair and hazel eyes.

"You must be one of the kids Yesani told me about" with a smile, he motions for me to come over and I comply.

"Hello, you must be Mr. Bolvera" I smile.

"Yes, nice to meet you..." he trails off and I take that as my cue to introduce myself.

"Elijah"

"Yes, Elijah" he smiles stretching his hand out for me to shake "You have intriguing eyes young man"

"Thank you" I shake his hand and I see some sort of glint in his eyes.

"Where are you from?" he lifts a brow at me and I sputter. Where am I from?

"Uh-" Mrs. Bolvera cut me off saving my brain the pain of doing somersaults at 0.5 seconds per 1.

"Leave the boy alone" she uses a dishrag to swat her husband but he ignores her, looking at me intensely.

I decided to break the silence "It's really nice of you guys to let my friends and I stay here till we have everything resolved" I tell him appreciatively.

"It's no problem, I can't imagine how hard it must be for you without parents" he shook his head.

"We have parents" I scratch my hand nervously although my memory was not doing my words any justice.

Is my lack of sleep finally catching up to me?

"Who abandoned you? I mean who's to say they're even alive or in this world" he shook his head. "I can't imagine throwing my kids into the other world" Pity. His eyes washed over me in complete pity.

"Well, we don't know their reasons" I shrug trying my best to not let his words affect me, what did he mean by the other world though, I'm definitely forgetting something.

Sipping from his glass of wine he sighs "Poor kids"

"You must be hungry Elijah" Mrs. Bolvera interrupts.

"Leave the boy alone Darr" I hear her whisper to her husband.

And it happened again, everything faded then became clear again.

I was in a room with Mr. and Mrs. Bolvera and they were arguing.

I couldn't really make out much out of what they were saying, it was all kind of muffled but the only thing I could decipher from it was "They're smart kids Darr, .....leaving loopholes ..... fill"

And then just like that I was back to reality.

"Are you okay?" Mr. Bolvera asks me "You were a little out of it there"

"Yeah, I'm good" I smile choosing not to tell them what I saw. "Just a little migraine" I shrug convincingly but they didn't seem to buy it.

Something is definitely going on, and I'm going to find out what. "So what's for breakfast" I ignore their concerned looks.

"Garden oats" Mrs. Bolvera smiles.

I have no idea what that is but everything we've eaten so far has been nice so I'm sure it will be too.

I sat by the island and ate, I was wrong about garden oats, they taste like raw eggs mixed with dog food.

Don't ask me why I know how that tastes. That question should be directed to Skai and Dexter.

I have no idea how that crossed my mind, shit. What the hell is going on? It feels like I'm going insane.

Soon enough, everyone else started coming down for breakfast one by one, Skai was the last one down as expected.

After breakfast I went to the library. Emily and River followed shortly after.

"I'm pretty sure we can find a map somewhere in there" I tell them.

"I saw one yesterday, right by the G.O.L.O.L archives" River points out.

"My head hurts" Emily whines

"Maybe you didn't sleep well" I turn around to face my girlfriend holding her face in my hands.

Searching for any sign that she might be sick.

"I'm fine?" she looks at me tilting her head, something she does when she is confused.

Adorable.

I smile as I let go of her, we tail behind River into the library.

"You have the list of ingredients, right?" I ask River and he nods. We decided to create Revelaticus instead of Exposima because we discovered—after much research—that Revelaticus works better on invisible ink, Exposima is used more for objects, places and people.

River walked over to the archives, searching for a map. "Found it!" I hear him jubilate. "Oh there's another" he mutters.

"I found the map" he smiles sitting next to us. "but there's something else" he drops two rolled up sheets of paper on the table.

"What is it?" Emily asks, standing up to see as I opened one.

A world map.

"It's a world map" Emily voices out my thoughts.

"Well, we don't need it" I sigh looking over at the city map in River's hand.

"Actually" he pauses putting the map down "We might" he shrugs. "We should keep it, just in case"

River and Emily continue examining the two maps and I fall into thought. The vision I had this morning couldn't seem to leave my mind, I should tell them, but it's best I wait until Skai and Dexter get here, God knows where they are, too bad we don't have scrolltouches, we can't reach them without searching the house.

"I saw something today" I tell them and they seem intrigued.

"What did you see?"

"What?"

They both ask simultaneously and I whisper to them suddenly cautious about my surroundings "I'll tell you guys when we're with Dexter and Skai" I whisper.

Sighing, I pick at my fingernails "Something is terribly wrong, but I just can't put my finger on it"