Gone Again: World Hoppers {book two}

Reflections

The escape seemed to good to be true. It really was. They parked it somewhere up stream and had well, nothing. They now had fourteen people in their little group, and four of them were actual children.

"Hey don't touch me!" Bea and Natalie seemed to be a in a standoff every two seconds. Ryan arrived beside her, "Let's go Bea." She didn't acknowledge him, he moved between them instead. "Are you going to help me or not?" He asked, she nodded and the two walked off out of sight.

"Why didn't you just get York or someone else to do it?" She asked, quietly wrapping the bandages around his chest. "They don't need to see." Bea paused but nodded. "Why's you let me come with you?" Ryan didn't have to think about it, "Because I don't like you're a terrible person." She rolled back into a sit in front of him. "I heard about the plan." Ryan glanced back at the noise in the distance, "What plan?" She shrugged, "To escape out the window, I wanted you guys to get out-" "Michael- He would've killed you." Bea looked up at him with a smile, "Yeah. He would've."

Ryan didn't want to see anyone, but he also wanted to sit around with everyone. Most of them made it clear Bea was his problem. Natalie and her continued to borderline brawl every two minutes. Ryan just wanted to sleep.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Bea didn't look up, "Hey, seriously? What're you doing?" She asked again, moving around to her other side, Bea looked over groggily. "Sorry I- never mind. Ryan's bled through his bandages again," Natalie stared at Ryan. York came to her side.

"What's wrong with him?" Bea stared at her and after a moment shrugged before leaning back down to prod him awake. "Wait let him sleep he's probably-" Ryan was already awake, his hand shot out to his chest with a groan. "You're bleeding again," Ryan stared at York as he got up, "We'll be right back."

Ryan was in fact bleeding, Bea accounted it to probably stretching in his sleep. His chest ached. "Ryan? You alright?" Ryan squinted into the forest, "I'm fine, stay out there." He picked up some mumbling but didn't see her. "She's going to want to know. Or she's going to see the scar." She turned for more bandages. "I'll tell her soon,"

Bea looked up, "What?" Ryan was trying to keep his voice down but he was sure she would've heard him, it wasn't like there was much space between them. After a minute of silence she finally reached to touch her ear, "I can't hear on the right side." Ryan looked at her ear with a nod, "I-I think you can guess what happened." Ryan didn't ask anything else.

"Hey I just came back to check on you-" Ryan nearly fell off the stump, "Don't look!" It was too late. She raced to his side and scanned the letters. "That's- that's fresh Ryan. Who did that to you?" Ryan was mortified. "He said don't look," Bea said weakly, York looked at her, concern morphing into rage. "Was it her Ryan? Ryan! Was. It. Her?" He shook his head, instinctively putting an arm between Bea and York. "It was after the labyrinth." York shuddered, "Alright, okay then," She stood quietly, staring down at him. "You should've told me."

Morale was probably the lowest it'd ever been. They kept moving upstream, looking for any sign of civilization. They'd come across none in three days.

Things weren't going to well. Noan was trying to hold the group together by continuing to try and teach them fighting maneuvers. No one was too intent on paying attention. Honic was too busy with Aza, she had gotten very sick somewhere along the line. The trios molded back into their original form, excluding Ryan, who wove himself in and out of his group. Naomi didn't want to talk to Bea and York got uneasy because of her so he had to try and move himself between the girls. It wasn't the best arrangement.

"Natalie sit down," Natalie would not sit down. Cas got up, he had been paying attention to Noan's lessons. He grabbed her mid-step, pulled her feet out from under her and dropped her in a sitting position. She stared up at him in disbelief. "How'd you do that?" Cas raised an eyebrow. "Leave Bea alone, she's literally just trying to eat, look." Bea hadn't even looked up. He moved over to her slowly and apologized, she didn't seem to register. Ryan discreetly moved over to her left side, "Bea," she looked back and gave him a nod, "Okay," Ryan sighed Bea most definitely hadn't heard him.

"Where is he? Where is he?" Bea could hear Michael yelling from across the compound. Back then it'd been smaller. Two stories maybe, a few rooms at most. It wasn't easy to hide from him. He came storming up the staircase, he grabbed her, slammed her against the wall and started screaming all over again. "Did you help him escape? Do you know where he is? Answer me!" She couldn't speak, her legs nearly gave out as she shook. "I'll find him eventually, don't you worry." He growled as he dropped her. She thought it was over. She was wrong.

He grabbed her shirt and brought her to the edge of the staircase. "Anything to say, Beatrice?" The floor spun, if he dropped her from here she wouldn't come out in one piece. "I don't know sir- I don't know where he's gone too!" There was a pause and then it happened all at once, "You're lying." She fell onto the stairs below, lucky she didn't land on her head. Her feet shot out and caught the edge of a step, she tumbled down the final stairs and ended up in a heap on the ground. Everything got quiet before it exploded again. Her ears rung and from the way her arm was bending she was almost sure it was broken.

Michael showed up a final time at the top on the first staircase, "You're a disgrace." The words were loud enough that she could hear, she turned her head, still in shock. Her ear was bleeding, or maybe it was her head. She wasn't sure. She looked back at her arm and threw up almost immediately after as the world darted in and out of view before finally her head dropped against the wall. It was over.

Bea had these nightmares often. She got up, moved toward the river and washed her face quietly, the tears that streamed down her face mixed with the water. She looked at her arm, cradled it gently and sat on the bank for a long time.

Pieces of her told her to go back. To crash the boat. To call him as soon as they found a phone. That was the Michael in her. The obedient part. She hated the word. Always had. It's why she sometimes forgot to be gentle with Ryan when she changed out his bandages, the word made her sick to her stomach.

She watched the water bugs skid across the water. It wasn't too dark, she wasn't happy with it though. She couldn't see herself in the darkness. She couldn't see Michael either. Nausea washed over her, she reluctantly moved to the bushes and threw up. It was a side effect of the injections. She still didn't know what was in them.

She moved back to the bank. The water reflected the moon as she reflected on herself. She hadn't been outside in a long time. Maybe once or twice a year, that and windows allowed her a view of the vast expanse outside.

It was the first time she'd been away from Michael in almost two decades. She couldn't remember a time without him. She could remember a time without Ryan. Upon reflecting she realized home jealous she was of he and his friends. They got to be kids, or at least have connection. They weren't with him and that was all that mattered.

She definitely didn't like Noan. It wasn't too much of a problem until they started doing his lessons again, he yelled a lot during those. It wasn't an angry yell but it still caught her off-guard. He had asked her to join, she said she wasn't interested but it was mostly because she'd spent years fighting. Training in all sorts of combat, close, ranged, hand-to-hand, all of it. Acrobatics had helped her too, they were also the reason for the scars on her hands.

Overall Noan's yelling wasn't too much of a problem for her. They didn't talk, no one really did, at least not with her. She had Ryan now. She had already made plans to try and get away from them once they were in the city.

They didn't want her here. She wasn't confident had Ryan even liked her anymore. She had missed him for years, their reunion was not ideal. She was awful and he was an angel.

When he first disappeared she'd been so angry. Michael had punished her for his decisions and most of all he'd left her. They were supposed to be each other's home. He was gone and she was passed out in a stairwell. She shuddered, and pulled her knees close to her chest. Ryan had been so open with her as kids, now he rarely talked, even to his friends. He was an observer, that wasn't a new thing. She considered herself one too, she wasn't quite as good at reading people though. Ryan had an art for it, it's why he could carefully navigate Michael's moods, she wasn't so lucky.

She felt awful. She'd missed her bi-nightly injections and it seemed to take away the spite. Maybe it was her imagination. Maybe she was awful. She could've sworn that scarred boy called her corrupted. She didn't blame him. He still eyed her anyway.