La Magie

Mage

My eyes burned, the pounding in my head wouldn't cease, and the fatigue that settled in my body wouldn't leave as I stared at the ceiling in the darkened bedroom. Jason laid curled up at our feet, Asher and Tommy to my left and Levi to my right as I lay awake another night. Desperately I pleaded into the darkness for a few hours of sleep but it didn't seem to be coming to me.

Seven weeks had passed since we had last seen Tae and seven weeks since we were able to even feel him over our bond. It was evident that we were still bonded, as we hadn't felt it break, but we couldn't connect to him nor could I even call him to me. Wherever he was he was cut off from us.

 The first week it was hard but the second week when we finally had to go back to school I was certain that I wouldn't survive. Levi was trying to stay strong for the both of us but I could tell that he was struggling too. Thankfully Asher, Tommy and Jason had allowed us to move into their suite to escape our old room that we shared with Tae.

It was painful seeing the clothes he had left behind hanging in our shared closet. Even the sheets still smelled like him, a tearful memento of what we had in the past and it was painful to stay in the room. We packed up all our things the first night we got back and moved in with the trio, without hesitation. 

No one knew and we planned to keep it that way but at this point I really couldn't care if any of the other students found out or not. Tae was gone and there was literally nothing we could do about it. Many people asked us where he was when our classes began back up. There was no answer to their questions and eventually they stopped asking. 

"Alistair?" Tommy's gravely voice startled me from my silent contemplation. He turned over, presumably to face me as he spoke.

"Hmm?" I hummed, my eyes still locked onto the ceiling, not daring to look his way for fear of him seeing the shell of a person I was slowly becoming.

"Are you not going to go to sleep tonight?" He questioned, worry clear in his tone. This wasn't the first time he's asked me that question but this was the first night that I had a clear answer for him.

"Sleep alludes me." I sighed knowing that there was no point in pretending that I was okay.

"This is the third night in a row. It is not healthy for you to stay awake this long." 

"I know that but I just can't find sleep. I'm trying, I honestly am." I huffed. Didn't they understand what happened? Tae was missing and he expected me to just fall asleep as if everything was alright.

"He's not going to come back because you don't sleep. You need to be strong yourself that once we figure out where he is you'll have enough strength to help him." He made a good point but that didn't mean it was going to be easy for me. 

"I know..."

"Asher, Alistair needs your help." Tommy grumbled as he shook Asher awake. Asher's eyes barely opened as he mumbled something in his sleep and slowly my eyes began to close on their own as I drifted off to a deep, dreamless slumber.

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Levi and I were back in school and Jason, Tommy and Asher were back to teaching and things were back to normal. Except they weren't. It was hard to focus on school work when my mind was on Tae alone. There was nothing that we could do, we couldn't find him, and it was almost like the world was closing in on us.

Cano and Merula had been out searching for him everywhere but it seemed that they couldn't locate him either, even with all their knowledge and magic. Merula had reverted back into herself and very rarely talked to any of us; not that the rest of us weren't the same.