Not of This World

Seven: Sya

An embrace . . . a sign of affection, love, or caring. That feeling of safety in another's arms, as all fears slowly slip away. As time slows, leaving you frozen in a tiny moment that as it ends makes you wish for more. Longing for the feeling of closeness, of intimacy. One can only pray they will ever be able to have that feeling again.

Wren . . . do you actually care? Do you actually care, about me? This boy, he doesn't even know me, yet he decided to show me this sign of affection. This isn't right, I'm not even like him. He shouldn't care. This is wrong!

I quickly shove him away, "Please don't do that."

He looks a little shocked and I start to feel bad. "Sorry . . . I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable."

"That's not it," I stand from the couch.

"Okay, then what is it?" He stands as well.

I open my mouth to answer, but immediately find myself at a loss of words. There's no way to explain it to him without exposing who, no what I am. If I tell him he'll probably turn me over to those people. I can't risk that. I can't lose the protection I have with him.

I shake my head slightly, "I need to use the bathroom."

He nods, "Okay."

I walk around him to the stairs and climb up them. Thoughts of my friends and family flood my mind. I'm not even sure if they know what happened. I'm not even sure what happened to the rest of the crew on the ship. The computer addressed me as Captian. The only reason I would rise to that rank is if all other more qualified personnel had died. I was at the bottom of the qualification list, a just-graduated personnel with no assigned rank yet. The only reason I would be addressed that way is if my entire crew was dead. So, maybe my friends and family think I'm dead.

I can't let them think that, I can't let them mourn me while I'm still alive, while I can still try to get home. I have to try to communicate with my planet. Then maybe I can go home and be with them again. Mom, Dad, Xavier, Amará, Laden, Adria, Nox, my friends, my parents, I will find my way back to you.

***

As I walk back down that stairs to Wren, I try to figure out what to tell him. I don't know if I can trust him, so I can't tell him the whole truth about me, but it is obvious that he cares to some extent about me. I'm not sure if that's good or bad yet, but I want to get home and maybe he can help me.

Wren looks up at me as I take a seat on the couch once again. He stares at me with an expression that I just can't make out.

"Want to play a game?" he asks.

"Sure..." I give him an odd look. I don't know why he thinks playing a game right now is a good idea. "What game?"

"A card game."

"Okay."

"But, if I win you have to answer any question I ask and if you win, I have to answer any question you ask, sound fair?"

I see now, this is way to learn more about me and why I'm here. The rules are fair, but I can't answer anything he asks. I may have to lie. I'll try not, given the fact he's giving me a fair chance to ask anything about him as well.

"Alright," I say. "Let's play."

He gets up from the couch and opens the cabinet below his television. He takes out a small rectangular box, then takes a seat on the floor between the couch and the cabinet. He looks at me.

"Card games are more fun on the floor than on a couch." He says.

I get up and take a seat across from him. He opens the top part of the box and slides out the deck of cards. He begins to shuffle them.

"What game are we playing?" I ask.

"Egyptian Rat Slap,"

"What's that?"

"It's like Slap Jack, but with some extra rules and you don't slap the jack."

"Slap Jack?"

He stops shuffling and looks at me. "Have you ever played Slap Jack?"

"No."

He laughs, "What? Have you never been to a camp before?"

I've never been to a camp where you would play games, but I'm assuming the kind of camp he's thinking of is much different from the one I am. Camps on Reyela and created in order to be trained for the military. Once someone is old enough to put under zero gravity and intense physical training they are sent to a training camp. And certainly not to play card games.

"Probably not the kind you're thinking of." I reply.

He gets an odd look on his face, then starts shuffling the cards again. Once he's done he explains the rules to me. It seems fairly easy, slap the deck if two of the same cards are on top of each other or they surround another card, which is a sandwich. If a face card is put down, you put down how many cards depending on the face card to try and get another face card. The goal is to end up with the entire deck.

"Ready?" he asks as I pick up the cards he had dealt in front of me. I nod.

He puts the first card down and our little game begins.

A/N
So sorry to anyone who is actually reading this, I know it's been a very long time since NoTw has been updated. Syre (Shemuel99) and I are trying to figure out a better upload schedule. We'll try to get more frequent updates out really soon.

Thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this and I hope you have a very nice day :)