Differential

Differential: Division Eight

Differential: Division Eight

My heart throbbed painfully. My blood felt thicker than it should be and adrenaline was trying to make its way through my system.

My eyes flickered open and instantly snapped shut again as a painfully bright light glared back.

I squinted trying to make out the figure in front of me. He looked like....

"Crazy guy?" I muttered fully opening my eyes. Yep, it was him.

"Ah Shannon. Little Bird, I should have guessed you'd need my help. But them again I did, didn't I? Or I wouldn't be here now. Of course it's completely up to you wether-"

I snapped my fingers in front of Crazy's eyes, getting his attention.

"Dude. Stop speaking in riddles. Why am I here again?"

The man giggled, yes giggled, and shook his head.

"You're always here. Never leaving never breathing. This will be the only time I offer my services. So don't go getting into it with the beast again. But now you must go." The man began humming the strange tune again, and it sounded so familiar it almost hurt.

I fell into the black abyss again.

------------------------------------

I became conscious again, but this time I wasn't in Seth's arms. I was on a couch. In a room.

In a house.

I shot to my feet, ignoring the wave of nausea that flowed through me.

"Seth!"

He was beside me in an instant, startlingly me in my half-unconscious state.

"It's ok, calm down. We're safe."

He put a hand on my shoulder pushing me gently back onto the single bed. The only thing in the room besides a small black dresser in the corner.

"I circled back around trying to find you. I saw the Aduroum. The one fighting with Them."

He spit the last word like it hurt him to say it.

"I yelled when I saw you go out, and then he was gone. Just poof, gone. I double back to check their car and just like I thought, it was gone. Just an indent in the corn."

No way that just happened. Something was going on. We just had to find out what.

"Where are we?"

"Fayetteville. I got us to the safe house."

I let out a breath of relief, then asked Seth where he had gotten a safe house.

"It was a gift. From the colony."

I raised my eyebrows, "the colony?"

This time it was his turn to look confused.

"You've never heard of the colony?"

When I shook my head Seth launched into an explanation. "The Colony is a group of Auroum and some half-breeds who live together to stay safe. The Bræum know they are there but won't risk an attack with the numbers we have."

I nodded for him to continue, and he sat down on the bed with me, leaning against the wall.

"That's where I grew up. Where you should have too. They would have kept you safe."

I wondered why my mother hadn't sent me to the Colony. It sounded like it was safer than where we were.

"Where is it? And why'd you leave?" I asked.