Beyond

Adam: Discontinued

"Adam!"  I felt someone's hand on my shoulder, their voice familiar.

    The only problem with that was that they had been moving or falling from a portal- which can give you more momentum than you'd think.  They barreled into me, leaving me breathless.

    My face was on the floor, my hands were the only things that cushioned my nose from possible breakage.

    "Sorry."  Kei's voice rung like a churchbell, filling the empty space with it's undeniable goodness.

    I got up.  "S'fine."  I mumbled.

    "Well, where do we go?"  Kei asked, looking around the gray light space that was dotted with 'stars'.

    Then another portal opened up right in front of us, and pulled us in, swirling with shades of gray and white.

    "Ugh."  Kei clutched his stomach, making a sick face.  That has been making me nauseous.

    "I can tell."

    Kei rolled his eyes at me and regained his footing.  I took a look around.  We were in a forest, and it was hot.  I could feel the heat evaporating water from everything but being so oppressive mist formed instead of the water rising into the sky.

    The sky was blue.

    My eyes almost popped out of my head.  Back by the Old Castle I'd never thought that the sky would be blue...  it looked so unnatural to me now.  It wasn't all weird, it seemed to fit, like the sky had been blue here ever since I'd known it to be gray.

    This forest also had a really healthy green to it, despite the heat.  I figured it might be because of the moisture, without you know drowning the plants and everything.

    Kei took a few steps on the mossy green forest floor, which muffled his footfalls.  Then I noticed that outside of our home world, Kei looked brighter.  I hadn't noticed before, but his brown eyes looked like they were lit up with a starry glow, and even through the mist his features were sharper, and he looked much more vibrant, like he'd been given some sort of magic supplement.  Or he'd just had lots of sugary cloud cakes.  Either one.

    "So where are we going?"  I asked, over the bell-like sound of the mist running into things.

    Kei turned around and smiled at me.  "I think I'd like to stay here..."  His voice trailed off into a bliss.

    I didn't see how Kei felt so at ease.

    To me, the sun and open sky made me feel exposed and fatigued, like I was surrounded by a massive energy sink.  I ducked under the shade of some of the trees, which helped a little, but not enough.  I still felt like the heat might make me faint or the weirdness of the sky might fall on top of me suddenly.

    Kei noticed that I seemed to be having a tough time.

    "Hey...  Adam."  Kei wheeled around on his heel and came back, his shininess blasting me in the face.

    "Yeah?"

    "You're looking pale.  Like, you're black and white and everything else is in color."

    That was when my legs stopped working.

    "Ugh."  I mumbled, and I slumped against a tree, sitting at the base.

    "Are you okay?"  He asked.

    "No.  I want to go home, I want..."  I couldn't tell whether or not I was sweating or if it was just the humidity clinging to me.  I felt the awful tiredness fall over me now that I was seated.  My mouth had sort of closed on its own.

    I had given it some thought.  I could end up stuck in any of the worlds that exist in the pit, and never see her again.

    Then I felt the ache.  I let myself hope, when it was impossible.  I pulled away, numbing myself so I couldn't feel it.  Kei was talking to me but I wasn't really listening, just saw the random shapes formed by his worried lips moving faster and faster, while all I heard was meaningless noise.

    As it turns out, forcing yourself to not feel anything is extremely exhausting, because shortly after that my eyes couldn't stay open.

    "Adam!"

I finally understood one word he said.