Too Late To Save Time

Up In The Treetops

I woke up with a start, and tasted salt on my lips. I felt my face and there were drips of something hot and wet near my eyes. I shook my head and wiped away the tears, looking down at the piles of sleeping bodies.

I saw Honey and Lucas and Miranda curled up near each other; Eli, Jezebel, Levi, and Zach were circling the clearing. Michael was probably somewhere under the heaps of kids.

"Okay, where is she?" Eli snapped. "The game has been over for a while." I moved to untie myself from the tree, but a bout of dizziness and seeing my shaky hands were enough to tell me that I would die if I did. So I groaned and banged my head against the trunk. I shouldn't have climbed so far up.

"Fog!" Zach called. I looked down at them in annoyance.

"Right here. Stuck in a tree. Like a helpless, stupid kitten." I said sarcastically.

"She's stuck in a tree guys. Idiot." Jezabel retorted. I threw my hands up in the air.

"I can hear you. I can hear the muffled snoring probably coming from the bottoms of the dog piles! And it's not my fault if I wanted to take a rest where no one could get to me. Although now that I think about it a tree is not the best place to hide in retrospect...." I yawned and shivered.

"Which tree?" Eli asked. I elbowed the trunk of the tree hard and wiggled around, trying to shake the branch.

"What is she doing? She'll fall off and kill herself." Jezebel sighed.

"I tied myself to the tree. I'm perfectly safe. Don't worry about me. I'll just sit up here and keep watch." I muttered, leaning back and closing my eyes. "I'm acting insane again. Thank you, Alex, for killing part of my sanity." I stated with sarcasm.

"Your welcome." Alex replied. My eyes flew open and I stared at him sitting in front of me on the branch. I gaped. "You'll let a fly in." He said. I closed my mouth and worked on untying my waist from the trunk, wrapping my legs around the branch. Alex tipped his head and narrowed his eyes at me. "Here, let me help." He said gently, reaching forward and leaning against the tree to untie me from it. When the tie slackened I ripped it away from my body and held it at arms length, glaring at the beastly thing.

"Why are you helping me?" I hissed, stuffing the tie into the pocket in my pajama shirt where I had retrieved it from.

"Because I'm a good friend. I snuck away and betrayed my fellow rebels. Don't let anyone know though." He shot me a sly smirk, but then it vanished. "I'm guessing that when you said I killed part of your sanity you meant when you went into that period of screaming, talking, and sticking your tongue out at the sky. Yeah...you really went crazy then. You're lucky Casey had your back the whole time. If he hadn't come up with excuses thenyou would've been locked up in a padded cell."

"Aww, complimenting your best friend?!" Casey crooned, grinning from behind Alex. I stared at them.

"I'm either still dreaming, or I really have gone insane. Both make perfect sense...." I trailed off, looking up at the sky. "Maybe Alex really is still dead and this whole place is a dream....the question is how much is actually real?" I looked at the ground very far away.

"You're not insane, this is reality, and I did not die." Alex said seriously, taking my face in his hands. Casey looked slightly concerned at my spacey-ness. I smiled.

"You guys are suckers." I commented, sitting up straighter against the tree.

"And you're oblivious." They said back in unison.

"We've been sitting the next branch over waiting fr you to wake up since manhunt was over." Casey informed. I arched my eyebrow.

"So, in other words: You've been watching me sleep since manhunt was over?" I offered with a smirk.

"I've watched you sleep before. I've slept in the same bed with you before. When we were little-" Alex started.

"Alex!" I hissed sharply.

"I swear guys I just lost her. She must have fallen asleep in the tree again, and I'm not getting her scent, and the leaves are too thick for me to see through in any of the trees." Jezebel said.

"You can talk normally. I put sort of a soundproofing spell around us. Time magic. It's so awesome." He said. Casey curled his lips in and grinned oddly at me.

"I'd rather you not talk about what we did when we were younger." I said.

"But your reactions are so priceless. Come on! Please? Then I can wipe his mind! It's Time or, surprisingly, Light." Alex whined.

"What's the point in telling him if you're just going to wipe his mind!?" I exclaimed.

"Uh, I'd rather not have a mind wipe thank you, even if it is Alex." Casey interrupted.

"When she slept over during the summer, she would complain that she was too hot under the covers and too cold above them, so eventually she just curled up under the covers in just her underwear. It was adorable." Alex said. I glared daggers at him. "You know you used to only blush and look down. I have a feeling my 'death' really killed off that sweetness." Alex said gently.

"I went to the forest. And screamed at you. After your 'death'. Then laid down and cried. My sanity was gone for six months. I grew up. You really think I'm the same sweet girl you kept ignorant of the world in fifth grade?" I asked. Casey nodded.

"After that six months I was the only one who would talk to her. She gained a lot of bullies because she was insane and too nice. And then one day she came in and...dealt with everyone who messed with her." He said. I smiled wickedly

"They didn't even know what hit them." I said sadly.

"I've been watching you since a week after my being gone. I know that you punched them in the gut then threatened to drown them if they ever got into the rec pool. Sixth grade changed you in a way I never thought possible. That was really bad timing on my part." Alex said, wincing. I nodded.

"No chiz, sherlock." I retorted. Casey snorted and I glared.

"Well excuse me for trying to keep my mouth clean! Unlike some bad-mouthed fifth graders." I snapped, giving Alex a look. He smiled sheepishly.

"Heat of the moment? Anyway, away from this perfectly awful topic, We've got to get back. I'm not really betraying my side, but I wanted to talk to you since I can't get into your head anymore due to the muffler. And Casey is my excuse for being here." Alex said, getting up and shaking the branch violently. I dug my nails into the bark and my eyes widened in fear.

"See you later, Fog." Casey said, following Alex through the treetops. I growled at him and tried to climb down, but it didn't work out well. So I tried a different type of getting down, hopping from tree to tree downwards until I was close enough to the ground to jump.

As soon as I did Eli punched me in the shoulder. "I was worried." He growled.

"Your lucky Casey came and took your place or else we couldn'tve finished the game fairly." Zach said.

"Just leave her be guys, she wanted to get some sleep where she was sure she was safe. Why don't you join a pile and get some more sleep." Jezebel said gently. I nodded a thanks to her and curled up next to Miranda, wishing for my dreams to be peaceful this time around.

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Again, it's fillerish, but forgive me. I needed to get through some stuff and have Fallon get back to the ground.

This story is up for the Watty Awards, so please vote! Another Actiony chapter up next! Till next time, I bid thee ado.