Lightning

Chapter 6

After about half an hour of us sitting in silence, I fell asleep, and I think Kit did too. But I remember Nyla staying awake, every time I would wake up she was looking out the window, or at nothing, but she stayed up.

We had decided to stay on the boat as long as we weren't found, nobody would start checking empty, locked (As we found out) cabins. Plus, Kit was too tired to teleport, we didn't want to put him under pressure and he didn't know that many safe places we could go. I just hoped there was a mop or something in there because sick does not smell nice. As you probably could have guessed.

The boat rocked side to side, waves slapping noisily against the side of the boat. I felt hungry, very, very hungry. "Nyla?" I whispered. "You don't have any food?" "What?! No!" She sounded mad. "I mean.. Sorry, no." I nodded slowly, not saying anything about her tone of voice. What was wrong with Nyla today? Kit slowly blinked his eyes open. I forgot how startlingly green they were.

"A-" He yawned "Are we there yet?" "Not yet Kit" I whispered. "Go back to bed" "Noooo I'm not sleepy any more" He sat up and stared at the tiny window. The boat rocked to-and-fro on the huge waves of the ocean. On the horizon I saw a strip of land, disappearing now and then as the waves got bigger.

I felt like we were in one of those bottles with the messages, tossed out to sea and forgotten.
All that was left to do but wait. There was an announcement outside, we couldn't hear properly but it was something about only a few hours left till we reached land. I couldn't wait, what was New Zealand like? Did they have nice food? I hoped they did.

It was probably all exotic. But.. I think I heard somewhere that south was warm and covered in deserts and north was snowy and mountainous. And green around the middle. Or the other way round I couldn't remember.

All that was left to do was wait. That boat ride went on for years, at least that's how it felt. So I'll skip to the part where we got close to land.

I looked out the window for the umpteenth time, where we there? Were we in New Zealand yet? Nyla stood up from the second bunk in the cabin. "Are we here?" Outside was a huge landscape, but it wasn't very green. It was a landscape of buildings and ports and skyscrapers, not far away.

I stared. "Where's all the grass?" Nyla smiled (I thought she looked a bit weary), "There's no grass in the cities of New Zealand, it's just like any other place" "Oh" I nodded, trying not to sound too disappointed. She looked over at Kit, crossing the small floor (Carefully so as not to step on.. Y'know the sick) over to his bunk. She nudged him gently.

"Kit, Kit, can you teleport?" She whispered to him. "N-n-now?" He asked sleepily. "No, not just yet, in a few minutes. You have to look out the window and teleport us somewhere close. The bad guys won't find us here while we get ready to go to a safe place" He nodded slowly, not looking too over the moon about having to teleport again. So it probably does take away his strength. Like me with the lightning though that was mainly because the hollow attacked me beforehand.

I hadn't thought about that in a long time, my powers. How people had looked.. Terrified. And they knew it was me. I had killed the people. What would they say now if they knew I had done it, if they knew I really was some freak with powers, Nyla and Kit had it easy, what bad stuff could come out of teleportation or seeing hollows? Seeing hollowgasts was a good thing.

I quickly snapped out of my nightmarish daydream because I realised Kit had taken both our hands and-

Darkness overwhelmed us again and that horrible feeling of being squeezed.. And then it all ended as quickly as it came, I felt myself fall and landed on hard... Oddly warm ground. The sun was shining. "Nyla!" I exclaimed in amazement, "Nyla, it's warm!" She grinned slightly, looking up at the blue sky. "Well this is a nice change"

Kit started pulling at her sleeve saying he was tired. She put him up on her shoulders. "This is only for a few minutes while we find somewhere to relax, you've only gotten a few hours sleep" She directed this at me and Kit. "I don't need sleep" I muttered quickly. "Even if you don't, this kid does, meanwhile I can tell you what I think I've planned out for us to do." The dark haired girl looked around at the people surrounding us edgily. I guessed we should disappear before they realised a bunch of children appearing on a street out of nowhere was not normal.

We ran (It probably looked like speed-waddling since I was tired and Nyla was carrying Kit) through a few streets, and stopped at an alley that seemed empty. I noticed a few posters lying around in muck, all trampled. I picked one up curiously, flipping it around a few times to check whether I was holding it right.

It had a blurry picture of a circus tent on the front and a smudged out 'A kl n '. I showed it to Nyla, who had put down Kit by now. "I think this says where we are" I handed it to her and the girl studied it distractedly. "A-..Kla.. That looks like a 'd' there?" She muttered to herself "Oh!!" She looked up "Auckland, that's where we are" She nodded to me, handing the poster back "Thanks.."

I threw it back down at the ground (It floated a few centimetres away from where I was standing, like paper always does). I then spread out my coat beside the cleanest-looking wall. Kit's small head nodded as he struggled to stay awake and Nyla gave him a jacket as a blanket. When he fell asleep again, (It took less than five minutes) she turned to me and started talking quietly.

"We'll stay here for as long as we can.. As long as hollows and wights don't attack us. We'll be dead before we hear them coming.

"You won't get to Ms. Dove or any loop. Kit's parents are dead anyway, I know enough of the wights to know that. We can't tell him that though. He should have some hope at least." I stared at Nyla incredulously. Being negative was nothing like her, I had spent months spending every day with her and she was one of the most cheerful people I knew.

The spark in her golden-brown eyes had gone.. Or at least been dampened. I shook my head, ignoring the second part of the announcement.

"And then?.."

"Then.." The girl hesitated.