The Caverly Effect

Twenty Three. Aero

Breathe. I had to tell myself. Just breathe. And I did. I inhaled, and exhaled. With every breath, came pain. That's all I could focus on. Well, and maybe my overpowering exhaustion. Yeah, that too. I heard rushed voices, not that I could tell whose. Almost like, they were submerged underwater. But I wasn't wet, nor was anyone under water.

Then, I suddenly felt warmth, and happy, and all around good.

Exactly the way I shouldn't have been feeling, considering my past few days.

But I was too distracted to question it.

The voices became clearer, almost like slowly pulling off noise cancelling headphones.

My head no longer throbbed, and I could no longer feel the constant soreness. Actually, I felt better than I had ever been before.

I opened my eyes.

Both eyes, completely open. My left eye was no longer swollen shut. I sat up, and felt ready to run a marathon. I noticed we were back in my old bedroom, which filled my thoughts with memories.

Then, something that completely caught me off guard. Sam was laying on my bed, with Auora and John leaning over him and whisper-yelling at each other. I slowly got up, and saw him. His left eye, was swollen shut, his eye was bruised. His wrists were rubbed raw and red, and he had unsteady breathing. I quickly joined John and Auora by his side.

Sam smiled when he saw me, but I frowned. I looked over to my reflection in my window, and I looked, normal.

He took my injuries.

"Sam," I softly whispered in disbelief. "What did you do?" He shook his head

"You're a liar," he said to me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Wha-"

"This, this is not fine." He replied. Auora shook her head.

"You're right Sam, this isn't fine," she sat down on my bed next to him, and pulled the blanket that was crumpled at the foot of my bed over him. "It sucks, now go to sleep." He looked at her reluctantly, and she looked back, bent down, and kissed his forehead. She got up, and turned to John and I. She motioned with her head for us to follow her, and we all walked out of my room. Being the last one out, I shut the door. They were both facing me, but I didn't acknowledge them. I started walking forward into the hallway with several room attached to it. My walk turned into a run, and I swung open my little sister's bedroom door.

"Amber?!" I yell, waiting for her to tell back "Aerie?!" And come and hug me, like she always does. Always did. Her room was vacant, her bed untucked, and empty. I looked out her window, and it was nearly dark out. I walked back out of her room, and burst into Austin's room. I almost tripped over some random stuff laying on the floor. Books, clothes, trash, he never really had the willpower to clean. I looked at his clock on the wall, the one he always loved, and it read 7:27 pm. I walked out of his room, and in to the hall.

"Where is everybody? " I asked, in a scarce whisper.

John took a few steps towards me. "Is this your house?" I simply nodded, my mind racing. Where are they all? Were they separated? Then more thoughts entered my mind unwillingly. Were they captured? Were they questioned about me? Why did Sam take my pain? And worst of all,

Were they hurt?

Auora surprised me when she touched my shoulder. "It will be okay, but we need to figure out some things, okay?" I only nodded.

After a few more minutes, we decided to all get to bed.

I tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Looking at the clock on the wall that read midnight, I decided to get up and get a drink of water to help me sleep. I got up and almost tripped over several things I couldn't see because of the lack of light. I closed the door as quietly as I could, in attempt to not wake anyone else up, and I heard muffled crying as I was about to turn and make my way down the stairs. I listened more intently, and I realized it was coming from my room, it was Sam. Quickly, I silently sprinted all the way to the kitchen poured not only a glass of water for me, but also one for Sam, and looked in the pantry hoping to find some cookies. After a minute or two of searching, I compromised on a granola bar, and made my way back to Sam.

Struggling with the two half-full glasses and granola bar, I slowly opened the door.

"Hey," I said in a soft voice. Sam looked up from where he sat. He sniffled, and wiped away any remaining tears. "Hey," he whispered in reply. 

"I got you this granola bar and water," he smiled.

"Thanks." I walked over and sat next to him.  He took the glass of water and drank half of with and ate the granola bar.

"I heard you crying," I awkwardly say, not sure how to navigate through the conversation. "I'm sorry that you hurt, you didn't have to do that," Sam shook his head.

"No, I didn't have to, but I wanted to." I didn't know what to say next, it didn't make sense to me.

"Why would you want to?" Sam only sighed.

"I really like running." He stated. I raised an eyebrow, but before I could ask, he continued. "I know most little boys like running, and jumping and playing, just like I do. And when you were brought into the cell with us, you didn't move, or jump, or play, or even talk. That made me sad, because you look like a kid who runs and plays, and now you can do whatever you want, and that makes me happy." I looked at him, admiring his selflessness.

"I'm still sorry, I wish I could do something," I replied. Sam shrugged, and then something behind me caught his eye.

"Who's that?" Sam asked. I turned around, and saw a selfie Fawn and I took last year, that Fawn dared me to pin on my wall above my desk because she told me to make the weirdest face I could, and she said she would too but then she just laughed, then I snapped the picture.

"That's Fawn," I felt myself smile as I said it. "She's my best friend." Then I felt my smile slip away. "And I don't know where she is, I lost her when I was captured. I don't know if she's okay or not." Sam looked at me.

"I'm sorry Aero, that sucks." I nodded in agreement.

"She's my only friend, I don't know what to do without her." As I said it, I felt detached.

"Well I'll be your friend," Sam said. I turned away from the picture, and to Sam. "You'll be my friend?" He nodded, and laughed.

"I was hoping you would be," he said with a smile.

With that I asked him about his life before everything, and he asked about mine. I listened and listened until his head hurt too much and we decided to go to sleep, but he wanted me to stay in there with him so he wouldn't get scared, so on the floor I slept, making sure he slept food too.

My sleep wasn't restless, I didn't toss or turn.

I fell asleep smiling, because I had made a great new friend.

Author's Note
Gosh, how long has it been since I updated?! Don't answer that, the answer is too long😂
The deal is, I showed this to a couple people and caught some interest. I was given some great advice, and I decided to try and start rewriting this all over again, but not for Wattpad, I was going to try and write this to make a novel. Although, I decided to try and use this as a less detailed outline, just so in the end I don't forget everything I had planned out, (plus I'm gonna pretend I changed the things I was given advice on)(but I am changing this chapter because I have to for this to make sense)
Thank you for all your support, and if you find and loopholes, errors, or just something you find wrong please tell me, either via comment or private message.

QPTC: How's your year going?

Thanks!

~Ema