Dimension Travelers

Chapter 23

"Even if they were listening in, how would they know that I was coming here on purpose?" Chloe asks.

"Maybe they--I don't know, ok?" I say. I'm tired of talking about this. As if we haven't been through enough in the past two or so days.

"Is this bothering you? Talking about this I mean." Chloe says gently.

"Yes, it is." I say stiffly.

She hesitates. She looks at me with those big blue eyes. "Would...do you think that they'd do anything to our parents if they found us out?"

I sigh. "Maybe to get back at us or to warn us. But I'm not totally sure."

She stares at me for a long time. "You look older. What happened to you?"

I was taken back. "Um...what?"

"You look older..." She repeats.

"You make that sound like a bad thing."

She doesn't smile. "It's not. Not exactly."

Now I'm confused. "Huh? Where are you going with this?"

"I'm just saying. You look older."

"We've only been here for two days. How could I possibly age in that amount of time?"

"I don't know!"

We're silent.

"Sorry..." Chloe says.

"It's ok." I say. I can feel the awkwardness in the air.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." She knows me well enough to just ask me right off the bat.

She hesitates. "Have you ever wanted to just get away from it all? To, you know, run away? To defy the authority and escape?"

"Yes, I have." I say, "Why're you asking?"

"Because I want to run away forever."

"Where could you possibly go?"

"I don't know. I haven't thought most of it through."

"Most of what through?"

"My escape plan."

"Your what plan?"

"You heard me."

"Chloe, no! You can't just run off alone!"

"Who says that I was going alone?"

I'm glaring at her. "Why are you doing this to me? You know that I can't say no to you. You also know that I'd torture myself day and night about staying and knowing."

"Yeah, you're right."

"We've already had this discussion! Why do you keep bringing it up?"

"Because that's what I plan on doing once all this is over!"

I sigh and lean back against the wall of the cave. My head is pounding from all this arguing.

"I'm done arguing with you. I'm going outside." I say.

Before Chloe can say anything else, I get up and sit outside. The night wind is surprisingly cold. I look up at the starless sky. There's nothing in this living hell place that can ever replace home; not even the way the day flows: light then dark. I can't stay here much longer. For, if I do, I swear I'll go mad and lose myself altogether. I've been two different people lately. I can't seem to stay like one person, but am two different people here. I don't know what it is exactly, but I do know that the sooner this is all over, the better.