Destined: 2 Be Continued

8. Breakfast

Alex woke with a slow blink. He didn't realize that he had switched between planes of reality until he actually had his eyes fully open. As he rose, he wished that his cabin didn't look so much like the sky that was in his dream. He got dressed in jeans, a blue t-shirt, and a gray hoodie. He opened the door that was to his right, which he knew led to the engine. Perhaps he could talk to August, the Spanish dude. As he opened the door, he nearly gasped in fear. 

"What the nelly?" he asked, looking around. The room was decorated like a black forest at midnight, somehow emulating moonlight coming from the wall on Alex's left. There were bookshelves on the wall closest to Alex and the wall farthest, and a bed with someone sleeping in it on the wall with the moonlight. However, the weirdest thing was the man-shaped shadow on the wall farthest from Alex. Alex gulped, then slowly stepped in, closing the door behind them. He heard the person in the bed stir awake.

"Hoozat?" the person ask. It was Jeremiah--of course! "Uh...It's Alex," Alex answered. "Can you tell me where I can get something to eat?" Jeremiah rose, wearing his long-sleeve shirt in bed for some reason. "Yeah, follow me." Jeremiah quickly put on dark green cargo pants, then led Alex the way he had come from. They stepped through Alex's room, Jeremiah cringing at the light, and found themselves in a room with a buffet table to the right and a large dinner table right in front of them.

"Help yourself," Jeremiah mumbled lazily, grabbing a cinnamon roll and a bowl of Cap'n Crunch(tm) from the buffet table. Alex grabbed himself a banana and some basic cereal and sat down next to the master of shadow. "How long does it take for everyone else to wake up?" Alex asked, taking a bite of banana. 

"Usually, I'm the last to wake up." He checked his wrist, which didn't have a watch. "Even at this time, everyone should be awake." He grunted then, as he wasn't supposed to be awake before his teammates. With that, Alex heard the door behind him open. He turned to see Heather standing there, her golden hair hanging in front of her face. 

"Hey, Jeremiah. Alex," Heather greeted, grabbing herself a cinnamon roll and sitting down at the table, next to Jeremiah. "The rest of us are sure up late today." That was strange to Alex--even Heather thought something was up! But it couldn't be that important, could it? It was just a usual tradition that Jeremiah woke up late.

"I have a few questions," Alex asked. Heather and Jeremiah turned to him. "Shoot," Heather granted.

"How do you tell the time without watches and why did you both have cinnamon rolls?" The two young adults looked at each other for a moment, trying to decide on the answer. They came up with, after fifteen seconds, "We don't know." They said it in unison, too.

Alex tried to accept that they could and would do such things as that, but his limit on suspension of disbelief was when he talked to a pegasus made out of wind. Alex heard both doors open, and the rest of the team came into the room: August from the side Alex could see, and Belle(who was wearing her katanas) and Penny from behind him. Belle and August also grabbed cinnamon rolls. Alex shook his head in disbelief.

"Well, sure is peaceful this time of year," Jeremiah mentioned the second before a loud thud was heard on the roof. The old Destined didn't even flinch, but Alex and Penny jumped in surprise. "What is that?" Penny asked.

"Probably a Grasshopper," Belle said cryptically, standing up and leaping up to the ceiling in a single try. She grabbed on to a hatch, then opened it. She stepped onto the roof, and a second later, Alex saw giant bug legs fall through the window in the eating cabin, one that stretched from one wall to the other. Belle hopped back down, sheathed her katanas, and sat down on the table. She resumed eating without further word.

After everyone had finished their cinnamon rolls, Alex slammed his hands on the table. The old Destined calmly looked over at him. "I can't take this anymore," he almost shouted. "This is too weird, too freaky, and way too unbelievable." He walked over to a door, which he knew had a crack where he could leap out the window. He turned, hoping to see the old Destined pleading for him back, but they didn't budge. They simply kept looking at him.

They know I can fly, Alex remembered, then walked away from the door. "I have one more question," he said. "What is a Grasshopper?"

"They're minions of Locust, speedy little buggers. They're a nuisance, and a few have given us a run for our money," Belle answered. Alex logged that information into his head, disregarding the pun. "I have a few questions," Penny said. "Where are we? Where are we going? Why are we even going with you?"

August answered this time. "You're in Loraine, a magic train. I know that rhymes. We're going to Kansas, where Locust told us he would be in a dream. Trust me, it works. You're going with us because the entirety of the world needs these 'villains' to be destroyed, and it works best with six people." Alex logged that last answer into his head, just in case these Destined didn't want to go his way. He didn't like these people--didn't trust them one bit.

"Alex, will you come with me, please?" Jeremiah asked. Alex got a full rush of sudden nervousness. He couldn't read minds, too, could he? That was the first thing he asked when Jeremiah brought him to his room. 

Jeremiah chuckled lightly. "Heck no," he answered. "I only do shadows, and the strange things within. Tell me, Alex, do you trust us?" Alex didn't even consider before saying no.

"Of course not. Listen, just two years ago, I was sent to a strange place with five people I didn't know. However, the problem we had, the evil villain Castle, brought us all together. We got along, learned a thing or two about each other. Just a few weeks later, all of them were killed, and they were forced to trust me to bring them back and beat Castle. And you know what happened?"

"You lost, failing everyone miserably and dying?"

Jeremiah laughed again. "Nope! I died, but I was able to defeat Castle and reverse the destruction he had caused. I had even freed the young man that had been inside him. I wonder where he is. Anyway, I just saw that you don't trust four random adults with powers to help you and keep you safe."

"Well, you guys did die, and two of you turned evil."

"That's a whole other story altogether. I'm just saying, you can trust us. We know what to do. Now, let's go find something to do. It's going to be a while before we reach Kansas at this speed."