Far From Home

Vision

     Kendra hadn's slept in weeks. Not since Warren and Vanessa had returned with Seth's emergancy kit, with no clue about where he had gone. The days after finding the kit, they had tried tracking the footsteps of Seth's captors, but had only been lead to a dirt road with tire marks that then lead to a highway and they lost the tracks. Vanessa interperted the car's model to be a Ford Focus, but that didn't give much clue to who had taken Seth and where they might be now.

Instead of sleeping, she stayed up in the light of a candle and scribbled into her notebook. Wether it was writing or drawings, she didn't put her pen down. The notebook had become an escape of a kind in the last few weeks. She never put it down, and when she felt like writing or drawing, she did. At first everyone had thought it to be odd, but had further stopped questioning it.

A gentle cough burst Kendra's thought bubble and she turned her head around in the beackchair. Warren stood in the patio, his hands in his pockets. He looked slightly awkward as he walked forward to stand next to where she lay.

They didn't say anything to each other for a moment. They just stood in silence. From the corner of her eye, Kendra saw Warren bite his lip.

"I... um..." Warren gave her a side-long glance and sighed. "Ruth is making some lemonade inside. Would you want some?"

Kendra turned and smiled at him. "Thank you, Warren, I'd love some."

Her cousin smiled at her gently then gave her a gentle kiss on the top of her head, before walking back into the house. Kendra leaned back against the chair and closed her eyes.

"KENDRA!"

Kendra's eyes flew open as water splashed over her, soaking her completely.

"Seth!" she screamed murderously, taking off her sunglasses and wiping her face off. Seth floated in the pool, grinning like an idiot. "Seth, you jerk, why do you have to be such an idiot?"

Seth laughed and began a ridiculous victory dance, while Kendra grabbed one of her flip-flops and brought it over her head. As Seth spun around in his dance, she flung the shoe directly at him, hitting him square in the face. Dropping back into the water but coming up in mere moments, Seth was howling in laughter.

"Oh, man, Kendra, you just did the mom-shoe-throw! You're no supposed to know that before you're like fourty!"

Kendra shook her head, smiling and grabbed another shoe. Seth dove underneath the water just in time to avoid getting hit. He then retaliated by grabbing both flip-flops and flinging them back at his sister.

Kendra's eyes flew open and she bolted awake in her chair. Though the dream dan't been a nightmare, her brow was drenched in cold sweat and her arms were covered in goosebumps.

Wiping her eyes and brow, Kendra took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was at a loss. It was a miracle she hadn't collapsed from exhaustion before now for not sleeping for so long, but she was too afraid to go to sleep, becuase every time she accidentally dozed off, she would be transported back to a memory of her and Seth when they were still together, as she had a moment ago. When Seth was safe.

Kendra got up out of her chair and bent down near the edge of the pool and pushed her face in. The cold water helped bring her out of the drowziness, though only for a moment.

The patio door opened and Warren walked out with two lemonade glasses in his hands. Kendra gave him a small smile before submerging herself in the water again. All sounds disappeared and she felt her hair slowly drifting apart, flowing in the light waves the breeze caused in the water.

And suddenly, she was back in the memory again. Except she didn't rememeber it being like this.

She was in a dark pool swimming with Seth, who floating around, unmoving. Kendra opened her eyes and saw the hazy detalis of her brother's face and lurched back in horror. His face was sunken, his eyes dull. Blood was pouring out of wounds on his body, puss gathering along cuts and bruises. His clothes were in rags, barely staying together and his skin was as pale as the first fallen snow. Kendra swam towards him, screaming his name, bubbles rising from her mouth, but with every stroke she took, she sunk deeper and deeper, farther and farther.

She couldn't breathe and water was pouring into her lungs. She struggled agaisnt the water, pushed to the surface, but her efforts only made her sink deeper.

"Kendra," Seth's toneless voice filled her mind and suddenly he was there next to her, staring at her with his emotionless eyes. "Find me, Kendra. Find me."

She wanted to scream his name, tell him to kick towards the surface, but he disappeared once more.

"Kendra... Kendra... KENDRA!"
Water spurted from her lungs as she was wrenched up from the pool and laid onto the soft grass. Warren's blurred figure was crouched over her, holding her as she heaved, rubbing circles onto her back. Grandma's worried voice rang somewhere in the distance, and Kendra heard bits and pieces of Warren explaining to Grandma how she had fallen into the pool after losing consciousness due to exhaustion.

Seth's emotionless face was burned into her mind, his eyes staring through her. Her shoulders started shaking and tears began streaming down her face. Warren pulled her into his arms and held her as she sobbed. All the pressure and worry of the last few weeks exploded out of her, the horror of seeing her brother's bloody and beaten face making warm tears pour out of her eyes.

She had no doubt now. Something horrible had happened and was happening to her little brother at the very moment. Panic surged inside of her, and she grabbed Warren's collar and pulled him closer.

"We need to find him, Warren! He was there, he told me to find him! Warren he's hurt, someone's hurting him we need to save him . . ."

The words spurted out of her mouth so quickly that Warren could barely catch a word or two. He told her to calm down, but Kendra felt even more terrified. "Kens-"

"He's hurt, Warren! You didn't see him, he was dying! Do you hear me; he was dying! He is dying, right now, and he's scared! He looked so real, he was... he was..." Bursting into tears once more, Kendra laid her head against her cousin's chest and loosened her grip on his shirt. Warren held her tighter as she sobbed, giving a worried glance at Ruth. Whatever Kendra was talking about, it had scared her. It had scared her bad. And putting together whatever he had pieced from her words, he knew it was about Seth. And it didn't sound good.