What Lies Between ✔

Coming Together

31

It seemed like it took forever to reach the theatre lobby again. My senses were on high alert, my nerves jumpy. Every sound was a hissing wail, every shadow a disjointed creature.

Ben was limp between Justice and Adrian's hold. Too limp. The possibility that he would not heal from this kind of wound had panic awaiting its turn to strike at my heart that was already savagely battling the fear and confusion that so wished to consume it. Whatever was broken was internal, and I prayed that it could be fixed."Adrian, how are we going to heal him?" I limped up beside him, doing my best to keep up.

"I don't know right now, K. If it were external, Berit could do it, but it isn't. You are the only one I know to have the kind of power to heal within, past the skin."

"My energy won't work!" I breathed, frustration caving into my senses. If I reached out to find an energy source to pump into Ben, I would only end up sucking up the other's energy. To fill two bodies with energy would probably mean draining two bodies of energy, wouldn't it? Would I end up killing someone? It was too risky to try out. I looked from Adrian to Justice. "Justice, you can see past the skin, can you not heal what's beyond?"

"That's a different kind of seeing, girl." Justice's eyes were regretful.

I looked over my shoulder at the rest of them. Kanoa did not have such power, neither did Zuri, and Berit hadn't any power at all. I couldn't think of anything to help Ben, and every minute he seemed to grow paler. Time was ticking away all of my hope.

Finally, we reached the entrance to the theater, practically bursting out of the building. A couple jumped as we stumbled out, then walked faster along as they saw our state, clearly not wishing to get involved in whatever mess we had put ourselves in. I should have paid further attention to them, to that flicker around them, then I might have realized that we had been spotted by a Between, but my mind was far too scattered for that.

"Hurry now, to the Hummer," Adrian grunted, heaving Ben's weight further on his shoulder, "We don't want to be questioned right now."

We all rushed to the vehicle where Adrian immediately began giving us orders again, some direction through our inner chaos, "Berit, take Zuri's gun and stuff the equipment in the back. Kanoa, you just climb into the passenger side, Love." He patted her shoulder comfortingly as she felt her way to the car door, blinded by her tears and sniffling wildly. "Zuri and Kairos, get in the back. K, support his head, turn it to the side so he does not drown in his blood incase he's still bleeding inside." My breathing hitched at the thought. "Zuri, you and Justice take his legs. Keep him as still as possible you two."

We did as instructed, filing into the hummer. Justice and Adrian carefully slid Ben onto Zuri's and my lap. I cradled Ben with my arms, keeping his head facing toward me so he wouldn't choke as Adrian instructed. He was so pale, almost the shade of the Between. I held him tighter to me, as if my arms could be a barrier against death.

Once Justice slid in beside Zuri, we were off.

"How's his breathing?" Berit asked from the back.

"Shallow," I squeaked, and then all the emotion finally welled up, hot tears spilling down my cheeks.

What on earth would I do without Ben? He was the whole reason I was even on earth, the whole purpose of my escape from Purgatory. The only one I had.

I looked down at him, noticing how long his eyelashes were. A small mole on his cheek I had never been close enough to see before. Stubble along his jaw line and chin. A thin, white scar that ran through his eyebrow. How had he gotten that scar? He was the whole purpose of me being here, but I didn't really know anything about him yet. He almost looked peaceful like this, like when he slept, the only time I had seen him at ease. I wanted to know more about him. How did he get his scars?

"Don't cry, Love," Adrian soothed me, "everything will be okay, we'll get him to the hospital."

"We'll all be caught!" Kanoa said.

"What else can we do? This is beyond our abilities," Adrian sounded distraught.

A silence fell over the group.

I pulled my gaze from Ben, taking in the looks of fear around me. What would they go back to? Even though we were all supposed to be working together, I didn't know anything about these people either. They had let Ben and I into their world, maybe reluctantly, but they still came to our aid when we needed help, twice now. They were still saving us, looking to give up this comfortable world they had created around themselves. That Adrian created.

I looked to the rearview mirror, watching Adrian stare solemnly ahead. What was it like for Adrian to be all alone, perched up at the top of his hotel, watching everyone below walk together, laugh together, and be normal together while he was always stuck in between that dead-end choice? Either Demons or loneliness.

"There is another way," I spoke before my mind could catch up to what I was saying.

Everyone was pulled away from their inner demons, staring at me in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Kanoa asked, looking desperate. I remembered her and Zuri's exchange earlier that day, about Kanoa using the group as some form of family. What would Kanoa go back to? This was the thought that made up my mind, and I rallied my spirits.

"The energy I felt before. It was my friend Lidia's. She would be looking for me right now with her Level, the Fives." I tried to look as calm as possible while explaining, ignoring the confliction I was feeling about putting Lidia at even more risk, "On her team is a boy named Galen, who is gifted with the ability to heal any injury possible. I can find Lidia and get her away from her group, explain the situation, and get her to convince Galen to help Ben. He has to do what she orders, she's his Master."

"What if he doesn't listen anyway?" Zuri asked.

"Yeah, what if he runs off and tells the other Seeker guys that your friend is helping you. They'll catch you and she'll be in deep shit, right?" Justice asked.

"No, it won't be hard to convince him." I made eye contact with Adrian. I saw hurt flash in his eyes for an instant. "You know I would never ask you to use that ability if it were not an emergency." I spoke to him quietly, pleading with my eyes for him to understand.

He sighed. "This would indeed be an emergency. This Galen fellow is not human though, it might be harder to sway his will."

"You can do it, you persuaded me back in the house, remember? And I am not a human." I stated confidently. "And you even had Marian listening to you for a while."

"I must be getting better at it." Adrian gave a sad smile. I realized what I said was confirmation that Adrian's Demonic abilities were getting stronger, and this made him uneasy. I automatically felt bad for mentioning it, but he had to persuade Galen so that Ben could be healed – so that we could all stay together. "Then show me the way Kairos." He said

I wasted no time tuning out everyone else.

I thought of Lidia, of when she was a mere child, how the look of fire sparked in her eye even then. I thouight of her face, now matured, scrunched up in that way of hers between a frown and a smile at something odd that I had just said, her yelling over her shoulder to me in Purgatory that we were friends no matter what, and her sorrowfully watching me jump into the portal that last time I saw her. My best friend. The connection was instant.

"Make a right on the next street," I instructed.