[Name]

Away from Home, Part 17

Monday morning.  Like most Monday mornings, this one was unwanted.  However, the events of yesterday made this one completely unbearable.  Sighing as you got up, you figured the best course of action was to just pretend like nothing ever happened.

"Today's going to be a rough one."  

 "Hey [Name], are you alright?  Ya seem a little out of it."  You snap out of you reverie and put on a convincing smile.

"I'm fine, Reno.  I'm just a little tired."  Actually, you had spent the first periods of the day talking as little as possible to your friends.  Once again avoiding the issue at hand, you decided that minimal interaction with your friends was for the best.  After all, you didn't want to be reminded of that dream.

"I hope no one else noticed I was acting weird." 

Looking around, it seemed like no one else did.  Kudos to Reno for being observant.  For the rest of lunch you occupied yourself by watching Yuffie.  Even though the girl's loud, she's pretty entertaining.  She also kept your mind of off a certain someone.

"Out vile jelly!"  She cried as she struggled to remove the cap from a mason jar.  

"Yep, this is what I call entertainment." 

Much like the beginning of the day, you spent the later half interacting with others as little as possible.  But this time, you couldn't help but think about your current problem.

"Please don't tell me I'm attracted to one of my friends.  This is too weird.  I have no idea how to handle this.  Oh man, I wasn't supposed to get attached, I was just supposed to stay here long enough to plan my escape.  What am I going to do now?" 

 Well, you could always look to Yuffie to temporarily take your mind off the issue.  Right now she was trying to wipe away all the jelly she spilled on herself at lunch.

"Out damned spot!"

Something had been bothering you since the beginning of training period.  Even during your walk back to the dorms it was on your mind.  You were forgetting something.  Something important.  Oh man, what was it?  You felt like it had something to do with your escape.  Maybe it was something you had seen or heard or maybe even written down-

"I REMEMBER!" 

Fortunately you and Namine had just reached the dorm building.  You desperately wanted to rush ahead of her to your room, but you restrained yourself.  Once both you and her were inside the room, you searched your room.  Hopefully the paper would still be in the pocket of your pants that you wore that day.

"Yes! Here it is!" 

You pulled the slightly crumpled piece of paper out of your jeans pocket.  Good thing you forgot to do your laundry this week or else the paper would have been destroyed.  As inconspicuously as possible, you locked yourself in the bathroom with the note.  You didn't want Namine to get involved with this.  After all, you weren't entirely sure what was on the paper.  You perched yourself on the edge of the counter and opened the paper.

The white door opened almost immediately after you knocked.  It wasn't hard finding the path to Rufus' house, it forked off from that path in the forest that you took a few days ago.  Walking into the house, you saw Rufus standing in the middle of the entry hall.  Behind him was a grand staircase that led to a second story.  Everything from the furniture to the tiles on the floor were an off-white color that gave off an eerie feeling.  A grin was on Rufus' face.

"To what can I owe the pleasure of this visit, [Name]?"  With a shaking hand, you lifted up the piece of paper.

"Do you know what this says?"  A look of annoyance flitted across his face.

"[Name], I'm about 15 feet away from you.  There is no way I can read that from here-"

"It says," you continue. "That the training programs taught in our school is the same program taught to highly specialized military personnel."  He shook his head and chuckled darkly.

"[Name], does anyone know exactly where you are right now?"  You were thrown off by his question.  It also left a feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach.

"No..."  You answered slowly.  You had told Namine that you left something at the school and went back to pick it up.

"And what did you think you would accomplish from this little visit?"

"I don't like where this is going.  I'm mean, sure I acted a little impulsively, but I thought I could trust this guy." 

"You know," Rufus continued as he began to slowly pace back and forth.  "I'm surprised it took you this long.  Almost two weeks here on this island and your just beginning to scratch the surface."

"What do you mean?  What's going on?"  You slowly backed up.  Before you could make it out of the doorway, your back came into contact with a firm chest.  Whirling around, you saw Zack.  Replacing his usually happy expression was a face lacking expression.  As you turned back to face Rufus, you saw the rest of your friends descend the staircase.  Tifa, Vanitas, Roxas, Namine...  They all were expressionless.  You couldn't help but feel someone was missing, though.  Zack roughly grabbed your arm, forcing you to stay in place while you internally panicked.

"It really is unfortunate that it had to end up like this, [Name]."  Rufus said with faux sympathy.  He motioned to your friends.

"Get her."