Kidnapped

Visions

Jeremy is sitting in my bedroom again, staring at me, watching for something. I'm confused for a second before I catch his shadow at the foot of my bed. Glancing down, I notice the clothes I'm wearing. All black. Shirt, pants, shoes, and surprisingly gloves. Questions start up in my head, spilling out for Jeremy to hear, but I stop in time. I turn my attention to Jeremy instead. It's weird this time. I'm not totally confused. I know him.

"What is this?" I ask. My voice sounds rough and I clear my throat, trying to get back the normal pitch. Jeremy watches me silently, his eyebrows scrunched up. I give up after a few seconds of him staring at me.

Jeremy nods once and glances down for a moment, as if he is deciding something. "What? You're not gonna ask who I am? Why I am here?" I blink at him in answer and he continues. "Interesting."

"What's interesting?" I say, glancing down my attire. My bed sheets are black now too. Everything is different, actually. The stuffed animals that my mom had collected for me were gone. In their place sat shiny metal things. The room itself was dark, except for the pale moon that came in through the window. The wallpaper, that used to pink, was dark, I presume black. Everything girly that used to be in my room was gone. Even my desk. When I look back up Jeremy is still watching my face. "What is all this, Jeremy?"

"This is you." Jeremy spreads his hands, indicating the whole place.

Again, I blink at him. "Tell me, and stop with the riddles. What is interesting and what happened to my room?"

Jeremy blinks back at me, slowly. "It's interesting that you remember my name, and like I said, this room is you."

I frown at him. "Jeremy."

"What?"

"What is this?" I gestured at the suddenly emo-looking room and clothes. "Last I remembered, some of this was pink."

"You," his face scrunches up again. "I'm telling you that this is you."

"What's me? I don't--" Pain seizes me up, forcing me to arch my back away from it. It comes from my left side, but I don't see it. "I was in the middle of something important with--" Another surge of pain. Jeremy only watches as I arch my back again.

"You are in pain, aren't you?" His voice is so soft, that I almost have to turn my body to better hear him, but I stop in my tracks when another surge hits. "Where are you?" Jeremy stands up from the chair he was sitting on. "Who are you with? What--?"

Jeremy is unable to finish his question as a scream escapes from the depths of my very being. My arm is starting to become rigid, and with that comes the greatest pain ever. Behind my eyelids I'm in eternal darkness, and it is nowhere near peaceful. I'm being pulled backwards. I feel myself being pulled up into the air.

"Fight it!" The voice comes for a far place. "Fight it and keep yourself stable."

That doesn't make sense. Fight what?

"The pain. The void. Everything." Something else answers back. "Blake, fight the pain, you idiot." I know that voice from somewhere, but I am confused. It is an friend or a foe? The pain hijacks the right side of my body too. I wince, a little hiss escaping.

Please.

There are two voices at the same time, both coming from different directions. Left and Right. "Fight. The. Pain. Blake." There are two tones to my name. Blake. Blake. Different and completely strange. I try to pull away from it. I don't know it and I don't like it. "Don't do that. Stay still." This voice is the far away one.

The feeling of being pulled away is starting to fade away, but the pain intensifies. I wince away, but the pinch on my side starts to feel more like the sensation of my skin being tore apart. Some part of me is trying to pull myself into the serene void. The pain would be avoidable in there. Yet, every time I try to pull away, something take the pain and triples it.

"Blake!" The voice belongs to Jeremy. "Blake listen to me." I shake my head. "Open your eyes, look at me."

"I c-can't." I answer back, straining to pull away.

"Yes, you can." Jeremy is persistent. "Blake open your eyes, right now. Or you will die."

What?

I snap my eyes open. "What?" I look around, but I can't see anything. I can't see Jeremy. "Jeremy?"

"I'm here," he says, but his voice is starting to fade away. "I'm right here, but I need you to let it go. Fight against the pain, before it shuts you down."

"What do you mean?" There is nothing around me. Jeremy is not here. I'm all alone. "Jeremy?" There is a hiss and I look down. A tiny part of the place vibrates. A slight blue color emerges, before dipping away.

"You saw that, right?" Jeremy's voice rings around me. "Someone is trying to save you. I need you to fight away the pain, or this darkness will consume you."

I try, because this darkness is not my void. It didn't calm my nerves, but heightened them. I pull on my rigid arm, and something pulls back. What is that? "Trust that!" Jeremy answers. I let it go. The pain that pushes back is worst, but I ignore it. "Fight it!"

Yeah, I got it.

I breathe slowly, loosen the hold, and let it slide away. The pain surges throughout my body, and my breathing hitches, but I don't pull it back. I let it go and wait. A few minutes pass by in silence. Then I feel it. My body starts to lower. The darkness starts to ebb away. When I open my eyes, I'm in my room. Everything is starting go back to normal, the pink is returning to my sheets. The stuffed animals are back. Jeremy is back, standing over me this time.

He sighs. "Do you understand now?" He falls back and a chair appears behind him, catching him. "This room is you. It's your essence that affects this place."

It takes a moment to answer him, since I was staring at the chair that appeared out of nowhere. How does that even happen? But I nod at Jeremy. He leans closer. "Your pain affects everything around you, including your visions."

Visions? "Visions?" I stare at him. "I'm in a vision?"

One nod.

"But I can control this vision?"

Another nod.

"How come?"

Jeremy shrugs. "We try to figure that out."

"Who is 'we'?" I hold a hand up to stop him.

Jeremy stares back at me. I see the moment that he decides to clam up . His eyebrows draw close together and his mouth sets into a firm line. I realize that he looks like someone I have seen before, but the name pulls away when I try to draw it out. I give him a calculating look before I glance away, and that's when I see it. The blinding light is back in the corner of the room. Jeremy doesn't seem to notice it , but he sits up in the chair, almost like a robot.

"There's no 'we'. All that I'm saying is that you are a mystery. And maybe if you Tell me where you are, I can figure it out. I can figure out how much of power you have--"

The light is moving closer, but then it's suddenly behind Jeremy. It's scorching him, I can tell, but be ignores it. I'm sure now that he is aware of the light. Be even seems to know what it is exactly because he starts speaking faster and faster. Yet I can't hear him. There's white noise instead. The light is right next to his head, when he starts to fade. Jeremy jumps out of the chair and moves toward me. I wait to feel his hand on my arm, pulling me away, but there is nothing. His hand passes right through me. I see the panic in his eyes and feel it setting in my heart.

Then I'm gone. There is no pain, just exhaust.

I'm just gone.