Family is Forever

Chapter 15

The room was a mess. The ceiling had collapsed and coated some of the room in the heavy roof material.

"Ari!" Ace called out in the completely dark room, "are you okay?!?!" He heard a cough, then a female voice weakly saying his name: "A-Ace?"

"Where are you?" Ace called out. He saw a pile of roof pieces move a little, realizing that his sister was trapped under there. He stepped over the other piles and went directly to the pile where it moved and started pushing the roof bits off the top, until he saw his sister's arms over her head. "Ari!" he said in excitement  as he pushed the other pieces away from the pile, revealing his sister, who looked ready to break.

She was wearing her dirty green shirt, which was now all covered in the debris and dust that the roof falling apart brought. Her jeans, also dirty, had rips and holes all throughout them. Her hair was tangled and awful, with a streak as gray as her eyes mixed with her tangled  black hair. Her facial expression was fearful, and her eyes looked like she was about to break down in tears; they were that pained. She coughed again, and she smiled weakly at him. "Can you get me out of here?" she asked quietly.

"Of course," her brother said. He was able to pull her out from under the debris, but she winced at his touch, her arms hurting still from holding the weight of the sky.

"Sorry," he said when he heard her wince.

"Not your fault," she said almost immediately, "are you okay?"

"Who cares about me being okay? Are you okay?" he replied almost immediately. She looked him in eye, and he could tell what she was trying to say; no, I'm not.

"I'll be fine," she answered quietly, "but can we please....go home?" Her voice was so broken, it made Ace's heart break.

"Of course," he replied. He put an arm around his sister's waist to support her. Ace supported all of her weight, bringing her limp body out of the room to the others. Alex had a huge smile on his face when he saw her, Sapphire and Katt went over to her and carefully hugged her shoulders, which she winced at. They pulled away and apologized, but she told them they didn't need to. Jasper looked at her in sadness, and Alyssa said "thank the gods you're okay" while Alexys, with her arm around her sister's waist again, lead them both over to the reunited Jacksons.

"How.....how will we get home?" Arina asked. Everyone looked at each other, realizing they never had a plan after they found Arina to get home. None of them had money, and they didn't  have a car to drive home in.  After a few minutes of silence, Alexys said, "I can shadow travel you guys as far I can, but then I'll pass out."

"Then I'll help," Alyssa said.

"I don't know -" Alexys started, but was cut off by her twin saying "I can do it, Alley, don't worry about me." She looked at her sword, which was wedged between the floor and a pipe. She moved her sister's arm and limped towards the sword, wincing every time she moved her bad leg. Alexys was right behind her in case Alyssa fell back, but she never did. She just was in a lot of pain until she got to the sword. She grabbed her sword handle and pulled it out from under the pipe.

"There," she grunted, "got it." She limped back to everyone, and once again they made a circle, but this time they made it so that way Arina was in it, too. The only difference this time was that instead of holding Arina's hand, Ace kept his arm around her waist. The di Angelos then shadow traveled them all away, and their adventure home began.

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They got as far as  Kentucky before the di Angelos had to stop to rest. They collapsed on the ground from the woods that they shadow traveled to the corn field where they were - "wasn't dad a shuck of corn?" Alexys asked before she passed out from exhaustion. Alyssa just fell asleep incredibly fast. Ace sat Arina down on ground gently, then sat next to her. Alex sat on her other side, until Katt pulled him away, saying "let them have a minute." He obeyed, and everyone sat a little distance away from the Jacksons.

"You okay, sis?" Ace asked her, carefully putting an arm around her. She looked up at him and her eyes told the truth her mouth didn't: "I'm fine, Ace." She put her head on his shoulder, then said "are you okay?"

"That's not important," he said. "I'm just glad you're safe. I was worried sick...the dreams didn't help."

"Dreams?" Arina asked. She looked up at him curiously.

"Yeah," he admitted. "Well, a dream, but you were mentioned in one."

"Ace?"

"Yeah, Ari?"

"Can you please....tell me about this later?" Ace looked at his sister and noticed the bags under her eyes. She looked like she was about to pass out.

"Yeah," he answered, "get some sleep. You need it." She smiled a little at him, then closed her eyes, falling asleep with her head on his shoulder. The rest of them came over then, looking at the sleeping Arina with the happiness that she was alive and not very much hurt

"Thank gods she's okay."

"Glad she's not too badly hurt."

"It could've gone so much worse."

"Shh!" Ace shushed them, gesturing towards his sleeping sister, then everyone got really quiet. The time difference had really thrown them off schedule, and it was about ten at night in Kentucky.  Alex and Sapphire fell asleep, with Katt and Jasper taking the night watch - neither of them wanted to sleep, so they decided to just take the shift together - while everyone else slept. But Ace was still awake.

"Ace," Katt said, "you should get some sleep." She wasn't charmspeaking him, it was the tiredness taking over. He looked at his sleeping sister, and he fell asleep. He woke up to a soft gasping in his ear at what was about two in the morning.

He looked at his sister, who was shaking a little. Her stormy gray eyes were wide open, looking around the darkness. "Arina," he whispered, "what's wrong?"

"Nightmare," she answered, "sorry for waking you."

"No, don't be," he said, hugging her. She hugged him back, squeezing her eyes shut. "Thank you for saving me."

"I'd be crazy if I didn't," he said, "I love ya, sis."

"Love you too, Ace. I never gave up hope that you would save me." She was really quiet then, and Ace thought she fell back asleep, until she said, "Ace?"

"Yes, Ari?" he answered.

"Please tell me..are you okay?" He chuckled a little, then said "I'm fine, Arina. Honestly, you held the weight of the world, got trapped in a little room, and had at least fifty pounds of debris dropped on you, but you worry if I'm okay." The last thing he heard was her chuckle, then she fell asleep again.  Ace looked at his sleeping friends, then looked at Katt, who was still awake for the night watch shift. 

"Get some sleep, Katt," Ace told her, "no arguing about this one. Just sleep." Katt looked at him for a second, then smiled a little and laid back, looking up at the stars.

"You don't get stars like this in the city," she said.

"Yeah," Ace agreed, "all the pollution ruins the sky. These stars are beautiful." Katt nodded, and then she was really quiet. He looked over at her, and saw she fell asleep.  He sighed.

"The stars are beautiful, yes," he said to himself, "but not as beautiful as you." He kept a lookout for monsters that never came, and then at dawn, everyone began to wake up: first Sapphire, then Alex and Arina woke up around the same time, Jasper, Katt, and then the di Angelos woke up at the same time.  When the di Angelos woke up, everyone once again made the circle, and the di Angelos finally shadow traveled them back to the suburban where the Jacksons, Graces, and Valdez's lived.  Sapphire and Jasper all said goodbye to everyone, then they made a tunnel and began crawling back to their home in it. Meanwhile, Alexys and Alyssa shadow traveled back to Leavenworth, leaving the four of the New Yorkers alone to explain themselves to their parents.

"We," Alex said, "are so grounded."