James

Chapter 18: Sarah

"James! Are you ok? Say something!" I screamed. 

It's been three days since he passed out in the parking lot of the restaurant that Dakota was supposedly hiding out in. He hadn't even made a squeak of sound since he passed out, and to be honest, I was flipping out. James is my rock and now that there's no one trying to kill us every five minutes, I have nothing to keep me from thinking about every possibility and almost none are positive. But just ten minutes ago he made a small whimper as if he was upset at something in his dreams, so I knew that he was returning, just slowly. James stirred on the bed and opened his eyes. 

"James! You're awake!" I squealed, glad that he was ok. 

"Yeah, I wasn't out that long was I?" he asked. 

"You've been asleep for three days." I responded. 

"Three days?!" James said, shocked. 

"Yeah, just think how I feel, I was scared that you wouldn't wake up." I said. 

"So, what's happened since I passed out?" James asked. 

"Nothing, really, just Dakota trying to convince the world to follow him and kill us, but he's failing, for now." I said. 

"Ok, so, where is he?" James asked. 

"To be honest, we don't know, the last we saw of him was him flying away on a golden dragon, oh, and by the way we aren't the only ones who have dragons anymore." I said. 

"We? Last I checked we are the only ones in here and I wasn't exactly awake when you would've saw him fly away." James said. 

"Oh, yeah, sorry, George found us and get this he's the one who fought you in Atlantis." I said. 

"What?!? How? he was here and he doesn't look anything like me, how would he be even close to being my father?" James asked. 

"Well, I can change how I look using magic, which you have obviously not learned, yet. You have been reading that book I sent you, right?" George asked, as he came into the room. 

"Well, as much as I can, you know I've been chased down by Leon and Dakota's men since I left my home town. It's been a little hard to do any reading." I said, judgmentally. 

"I guess that seems reasonable, but I can teach you how to learn the contents of whole books in three minutes. It is a basic spell that most beginner mages learn when they are starting out. It is taught to them that way they don't have to wait for the apprentice to study the book or look up spells during a training session." My dad said. 

"Well, then you probably should teach me that spell and by the way I don't think I will be able to call you 'dad' either even if James and I ever do get married, sorry." I said. 

"That's fine, I wasn't there to raise him and teach him what a father is supposed to teach his kids, so, I don't expect him to wish me to act like a dad, as of now I haven't even really earned the title of being his father, but I hope to correct my mistakes and become his dad eventually." George said. 

"Hey, guys, right here you know that, right?" James said.

"Now, to the more important matters, the spell you need to know is 'Ak mase jahn' and you must pronounce it exactly as I did to use the spell, now try it yourself." George said. 

"'Ak mase jahn'" I said, holding the spellbook that I was given years back. 

Suddenly my head was filled with a strange language and I learned what each word was, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't shake this new-found feeling of insecurity. When all of the knowledge settled, my vision returned, although I hadn't noticed it leaving, and what befell my eyes was a sight so horrible I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't a nightmare. Sadly, it wasn't, I saw the floors and walls covered in blood and sick men and women all around me. An older version of me rushed in and started caring for the sick, and as though she couldn't see me looked over and through me. I called out to her and she registered hearing my voice for her eyes filled with tears for what looked like, at least the third time that day. I turned around and saw two pictures hanging there, one was of James and I when we were happy and still in the high-school where we met and the other was of a headstone, the dates were illegible but the name was perfectly clear and so was the description of the man who was buried there. I turned from the room and sprinted as far as I could, not wanting to see those faces or those pictures. I looked around after I lost all of my energy and sat, feeling safe enough to do so. My surroundings weren't much better out here, the horizon bright with fires and falling cities, the earth beneath me dry and barren, and the forest to my left burning and dying. Odd looking humans were shambling across my vision every so often, but other than that there were no people in sight. A broad figure came out of the burning forest and was charging towards me, I got up and tried to run but my feet wouldn't listen, the charging man didn't care he continued on his path of destruction as he came after me. As he neared me, I could see that he was missing a big section of flesh on his right forearm and the rest of his skin was dark gray as if he had been decaying for years, and he didn't seem to notice me as he passed right through me and tackled a man on my right that I hadn't seen a moment ago. The broad man bit and ate at the smaller man until the smaller man began to convulse and then the lager man began to walk back to the forest. As he passed by me I could finally tell who it was, George had never deserved this kind of fate even if he had abandoned his wife and James, at least he wasn't evil. The world of fires and violence faded away, and I woke up to a room of friendly faces and warmth with no sick people. 

"Thank god! You're awake! After you passed out George and I became worried that you wouldn't wake up, you weren't supposed to pass out when you used the spell, we know this for sure because I used the spell and I didn't pass out, I blacked out, but I didn't pass out. Why did you?" James asked, more to himself than anyone else. 

"All I know is that when I passed out, I saw a world of fires and cannibalism." I said. 

"What?! Why did you see the same thing when you passed out as I did when I had passed out?" James asked. 

"She saw that, possibly because the two of you have visions of the future and that's probably what the two of you are experiencing." George informed us. 

"Well, I guess that would make sense but still, it's weird." I said. 

"Yeah, it generally tends to be that way until you get used to it which probably won't happen for a couple of years and by that point you will be able to see your visions without passing out for hours or even days, you will just see them as you are going throughout the day." George explained. 

"Well, whatever the case, we can't stay here any longer, we have to go find Dakota. See ya, George." James said. At that we headed to the door only to be blocked by George. 

"Wait, I have a gift for you two, here," George said, handing each of us a ring, "These will help you two be able to communicate through telepathy, a very useful tool when planning to attack Dakota. I guess I'll see you again, hopefully before we die. Goodbye, James and Sarah." George said, stepping to the side. 

We left his house, not expecting the sight we saw waiting for us outside.