The Lost ( A Sequel To The Forgotten )

The Building In Nowhere

"What was that?" Allen asks angrily.
"What do you mean?" he asks back to himself.
"You know what I mean. You played with the boy. Played with him!"
"I nearly destroyed him." Allen argues.
"You could have done it!"
"No, he was too strong. And then the staff broke."
"Ha!" he snorts. "You do not need a staff to dispose of him! He was weak, and you needed only to touch him."
"Well... well..." Allen stammers.
"Your dedication is weak. I have toyed with you before, but I will not hesitate to completely take you."
"I understand."
"For your sake, I hope you do."

Breathing. I hear breathing. Wait, I hear it? I'm awake. I'm breathing. I lie on the grass and simply listen before realizing I can open my eyes. Light and color assault me, and I blink a few times. Why am I here, in a forest? Shouldn't I be at The Hideout? After a moment, it all comes back to me. The raid, the escape. Person, and my fight with Allen.
I slowly sit up. I'm lost, and although I feel none of the pain from Allen's evil red beam, I feel tired. Very tired. Tired and lost. Not a good combination. I rub my head and think. How do I get out of this mess? My ability is still recovering from its over-usage during the fight. I suppose I have food and water, although the water might be nasty. I glance up at the sun. It rises in the East, I think. I'm not sure. But... which way is it moving? And which way did I come from? The pool is North- er, maybe East... Oh, this is hopeless! So now I have two options: Either hope for the best and walk in a random direction, or stay put. I decide to stay put. I don't want to get even more lost!
Since I'm not going anywhere, I figure I might as well sleep. Feeling rested will be a nice thing to have later, if I need to go somewhere else. I settle down under a tree, using the trunk as a pillow. A rather hard pillow, of course. I can't seem to get comfortable, and the sun, even from the shade, seems extra bright, just to annoy me. After a few minutes of trying ( and failing ) to get comfortable, I give up and decide to just relax for a while. And of course, as soon as I stop trying to sleep, I promptly fall asleep.

* * *

"Wrive! Wrive, wake up! Guys, over here! He's here!" My eyes pop open, and I see Cassie standing next to me, yelling.
"Over here! He's-"
"Awake." I interrupt, making Cass jump.
"Oh, you're awake! Are you okay? We heard screaming, and I climbed a tree, and I saw lights and explosions, and-"
"I'll tell you everything later." I interrupt again. "But for now, can you take me back to everyone?"
"Okay." Cass agrees. "Yeah, of course! You're probably tired still, and-"
"Yes, I am." I decide that Cass won't get a single whole sentence out. "Can we please go?" Cass nods, and off we go. Cass leads, and within a few minutes, I start recognizing things. An oddly shaped rock. Two trees that form a V.
Cass doesn't ask about where I was, but I can tell she's dying to know. I don't feel like explaining it individually to every person, though, and I'm too tired to have a long conversation right now. Suddenly, I hear a rustling sound near us, and I hope that it's just a squirrel or something. Luckily, a head pops out of the bushes.
"Wrive!" Rolly exclaims. "You're okay! G-guys! Wrive's back!" He turns to get the others, but hesitates and looks back at me. I wave my hand, giving him permission to go. He rushes off, and at that moment, I feel dizzy. I start to fall, and Cassie catches me. The world starts to dim, turning a haze of orange. Trees start to spin around and around, and I sink to my knees.
"Wrive?" Cass calls, but her voice is slurred, at least to me. The world spins, and changes from light orange to dark orange. Things start fading, and I think the others might be running toward me, and maybe Cass is yelling, or whispering, or crying, or maybe not saying anything at all. I have the sensation of falling, and it doesn't stop until everything, sight and sound, fades away.

* * *

I open my eyes, and what I see isn't the usual green of the trees. No blue sky greets me, either. Instead, everything is white. I carefully get on my feet. No pain, or even stiffness. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. What is happening? Looking around, the sky isn't the only white thing. The ground is completely flat, and empty. It doesn't even seem white. More like an absence of color or detail. Turning around, I'm shocked to see Ray standing a few feet behind me. He's gazing into the nothing-sky, and I'm not sure if he's noticed me.
"Ray?" My voice echoes, even though there's nothing for it to echo off of. Ray turns a bit, although his eyes are still on the nothing-sky.
"Wrive." He doesn't sound surprised to see me, although apparently I'm more interesting than the nothing-sky, because he takes his eyes off of it.
"Ray, where are we? Where is everyone else? How-"
"Look." he whispers, interrupting me. He returns to staring into the nothingness. "Do you see it?" I look where he's looking, and all I see is the white nothingness.
"No, Ray. There's nothing there. Look, we've got to get back-"
"Look harder." I sigh in frustration. He's insane! We're stuck in nothing land, and he just wants to stare at the sky, or lack of it.
"Ray, focus! We've-"
"Look harder." Ray repeats. I sigh again, but follow his orders. I squint at the white, and there's still nothing there.
"Ray, there's nothing there!" I yell angrily. "There's nothing anywhere!" Ray ignores me.
"Look as hard as you can." I yell in frustration again, this time punching at Ray lightly. My fist dissolves into nothing when I'm about to make contact, and I scream in fear and pull my arm back. My arm reappears at my side. Ray completely ignores me.
"Look." he says again, and I'm too stunned to argue. The blank slate of sky looks exactly the same as always, and the empty ground doesn't change either.
"Good. Now close your eyes." Ray instructs. I begin to protest, but he just repeats himself. I close my eyes.
"Now open them." I continue to follow his pointless procedure. When I open my eyes, the empty ground and sky remain. But now there's a building on the ground. It's made up of rectangular stones. There's a dark wooden door, which is the entry to a cube-shaped part of the building. A wooden ceiling is on top of the cube, and a rectangle-shaped part comes out of the cube. I stare in amazement at the building.
"That's where we're off to." Ray informs me. I just stare. Then the world dims a tiny bit. Then a bit more. I look at Ray, still in shock and confusion. He smiles and waves good-bye. Then the world goes completely black.

* * *

Darkness parts, and I look up at the sky. Behind the green leaves is a blue sky, dotted with clouds. I try and sit up and am surprised to feel some stiffness. I still manage to sit up, though. Looking around, I see Cass, Tarna, Rolly and Person off in the distance. I don't let them know I'm awake, though. I have too many conflicting thoughts and emotions. Instead I lay back down to try and figure everything out. Like why do I feel like I need to go deep in the forest? Because it's not just a thought; I know that I need to go. Something is there. Before sleep takes me, a picture in my head shows a stone building with a dark wooden door. The ground around it slowly changes from white to brown and green, showing dirt and grass. The nothing-sky slowly changes into a blue one. And in my mind, the doors slowly open. And then sleep steals the image away.