Hollows In Time (✔️) | 'Hollows' Book Ⅱ

Chapter Fourteen

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He pulled out his key. A key to a world I just didn't want to see. We were armed with nurses, doctors and several Guardians too. This was big, apparently.

He twisted the key and the door unlocked. I held my breath. What would it look like now? It's the same room. According to Jameson's pointless small talk on the way down here, he never changed rooms, but he was also always on field duties, out exploring a world that I didn't even know existed anymore. And I thought I was selfish. So according to a not so trustworthy source, Jameson hasn't stepped through this doorway in just over three months—but it's been cleaned, apparently.

He pushed the door open. We all stood there. I think Jameson was just testing the waters, wanting to see my response. Our cavalry was stuck behind me.

From the hallway, I could only see my king-sized bed, a window next to said bed, and a pile of clothes sat at the foot at it. I could only assume they were dirty, or something, because I didn't leave the room like this.

Jameson quickly entered the room, as if noticing the clothes at the same time as me, and briskly scooped up the clothes into his hands and placed them into a laundry basket by the door. I stepped closer and managed to view more of my room. My window seat, my vanity, the door to my suite. I couldn't take it. I thought I could. I just wanted to curl up in my bed and wake up with no problems at all, like this had all been just a nightmare. A horrible, horrible nightmare.

"Sky." He said my name. And when I looked up at him, I couldn't hate him. Standing in front of the window, glowing with the pink light of dawn. I couldn't hate him, even when I do hate him. He walked closer to me, flicking the light on and looking down at my hands. Would he take one? Lead me into the room? But he didn't.

I moved into the room, through the doorway. Maybe I felt like as soon as I stepped through the doorway, I'd be fifteen and fearless again. Unbroken. Undamaged. For one, I wasn't fifteen. I was sixteen. Then I paused. How long had I been gone?

"What month is it?" I asked in a small voice. "And year." I added in after.

"September, of 2017." Jameson told me. My heart stopped. It couldn't be. How could it be?

"I'm seventeen." I whispered, collapsing on my bed, but not taking note of the relief it brought to my legs as I pondered on what I had just found out. I missed my seventeenth birthday. I'm seventeen.

"Could you excuse us for a few minutes? Just wait in my room." Jameson guided our visitors over to his room, whilst the Guardians resided outside our room, standing in the dorm hallway. When everyone was out of earshot, Jameson knelt down in front of me.

"Sky," he began. I stared on ahead, ignoring his gaze. He inhaled, whilst I still couldn't breathe. "What happened?" He began and I froze. "How did you not know that you were seventeen?" He shot at me.

I flared up. I shot him a pointed look that burned with anger. "Did you?"

Jameson looked lost for words for a few moments. "What?" He replied first. "Of course I knew that you turned seventeen." He was telling the truth. I could see it in his eyes. I turned away.

"Pick some pyjamas out." Jameson straightened up again. "You should nap before you run back into Academy life." Funny thing is, I don't know if I even have the strength to run.

I stood up and walked over to my cupboard. As my bony hands reached out to clasp onto the handle, I realised something. I have been malnourished for at least a few months.