Lost

Chapter 5

Ayana woke up in the morning, she didn't feel right. She was tired and everything hurt. She looked up, seeing Nick's sleeping face. A slight blush coming to her cheeks. She remembered how they had first met. One of Nick's acquaintances had owed him money, and he was making threats towards the man. She intervened, getting him to stop the assault against the man as scurried away. At the time, Nick wasn't so please about this, but it seemed overtime he had grown to enjoy her company. He seemed to always want to be nearby whenever he noticed that she was out. She wasn't sure what to do about it.

She got out of bed, her body aching as she moved. She wasn't sure why, but she felt as if something was terribly wrong. She looked around for her brother, not knowing where they were or how they had gotten there. Had she once again had to be carried? When had she fallen asleep? She wasn't too sure, but now, she was worried about Ethan. Fear building into her chest as she started to walk around to find him. It became harder to breath as she searched for him.

She rounded around a corner, her heart frozen at the sight before her. Her brother laid on the bed, his chest ripped open, the bed bloodied and cracked. Beside him, Rosaline slept peacefully on the bed. Her heart was pounding so loud, she was sure that Rosaline could hear it from across the room, she felt sick to her stomach as she saw her brother's heart was still beating. She tried to quietly draw closer, see if she could save her beloved brother. Rosaline's eyes flew open however, sending a piercing, paralyzing shock through Ayana that froze her in place.

She slowly crept up, no longer seeming human, but instead spider like, as her arms and legs bent backwards. Ayana didn't even realized she screamed as she ran out of the room, the quick tapping of footsteps and claws behind her. Sliding around a corner, I tripped and just barely saw Nick's arms swing out with an broken, old piece of plywood. There was an even more sickening crack as it made contact with the creature behind her, which had masqueraded as a friend. Ayana's body shook with shock and grief as she though about how Ethan was as he laid in the bed in the other room.

She slowly got up, Nick's arms wrapped around her, holding her close to his chest as she violently shook. Thoughts raced through her head as she tried to piece everything back together, nothing becoming coherent in her racing mind.

"It's alright, it's over now." Nick's soothing voice came from above her, but in her state his words were hard to believe. Her brother was dying from blood loss, and was in pain in the other room, chest ripped open and heart still beating. She felt vile in the back of her throat at the thought of it, wondering if she should or even could, turn back to help him.

"E..." she tried to tell him, but her adrenaline shocked body was now powering down, nothing but grief washed over her system as she stood there shaking. How could she ask Nick to go check on him? Her heart did nothing but pound in her chest.

"Did something happen to Ethan?" he seemed to read her mind in that moment, as she slowly nodded against his chest, listening to his calming heart rate. She had only just realize that he too, had a pounding heart that refused to calm from the sudden shock of the event.

Nick slowly helped her sit onto the bed, making sure she was alright as he watched her continue to shake before he left to go see the same sight that she did, keeping an eye on the dead beast that laid on the ground. He already knew it was the cause of what happened, the cause of why Ethan is possibly dead. Ayana's hands slowly went to her pocket, carefully and shakily taking the song from before out of her pocket as anxiety was starting to close on her again with the slight tapping from somewhere else in the building. She began to read it, her lips starting to move along with the lyrics, not daring taking her eyes off the paper.

"Past full of fear..." the tapping began to speed up, "Now you are here..." and faster. "Now forever lost..." it began to get closer, "Welcome to the forgotten realm, where we now call home..." her shaking had calmed and the tapping came to a halt before her. "Where we all are the same in a way." and as she looked up from the paper, nothing but a necklace which she had recognized laid on the ground, bringing tears to her eyes.