Chapter 35: Unable to Wake

Author's note: This chapter was most certainly not planned to turn out even close to this (as usual *grin*) but it worked out well. If you've come from Sara's blog, welcome. Scroll down for Chapter 34 first.

Thendat, Fraydon, and Celia followed Darren out of the chapel ruins and into the hallway. Lights flickered and popped as energy was re-routed from damaged areas into non-affected ones. Here and there a loose wire jumped back and forth as it sparked. Fraydon kept looking back uneasily, sensing people following but never catching a glimpse.

“I know they’re there.” Thendat glanced at Darren, who was carrying Sara in his arms. Darren’s hair still had the white streaks, but his eyes were no longer black. “There’s also a group ahead of us. They’ve been instructed to watch, but not interfere.” He turned his head as he walked, smiling. “They want to see what happens next.”

“Speaking of which,” Celia said, “where are we going?”

“To the doctor,” Darren replied.

Thendat sighed. “Then we’ll have to head back. The closest way to the stairs is behind us.”

Darren gave him a blank look. “Is it?”

Thendat nodded. “Yeah, it’s below us. In fact, we’re almost...directly...above...” He trailed off as Darren’s smile grew wider, realizing that Darren had known this all along. “Darren, you can’t be ser-“

The floor disintegrated beneath their feet. Darren floated gently to the ground while the others fell with shouts of surprise.

“What? What? Why am I being disturbed?” A short Laecan in a white lab coat opened a nearby door and bustled out, blinking as he took in the group, and then screamed girlishly when he saw Darren. Dashing back to the room, he shut the door and locked it with trembling hands.

Thendat looked at Darren, who was still smiling. “We’re going after him, aren’t we?”

Darren nodded and walked over to the door. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t. He has what we need.” Shifting Sara’s weight to his left arm, he reached out and touched the door where the lock was located. The clicking of the lock started, but not as fast as usual, as if someone were turning a key very slowly. Another faint scream could be heard.

The door slid open suddenly and Darren stepped through. The others followed, flinching as harsh white light surrounded them. Bottles of viscous liquid made strange noises as they slowly bubbled over heating tables. Three operating tables stood in the middle of the room, with a small bed hiding in the corner. They were clearly in a medical laboratory.

The doctor and a slightly taller man who Darren recognized as the aide huddled in the corner opposite the bed, waving scalpels before them in a pathetic attempt at defense. Darren laughed long and loud, offering very little comfort to the two until he began to speak. “You are certainly entertaining, if nothing else.” He walked over to the bed and set Sara down, pulling the blankets over her. Once finished, he set Fraydon to watch over her and turned to the men in white. “Now, to business. You have skills that I require for a period of time.”

The doctor pushed the aide forward. “Here! I’ve been training him for just such a moment! Can’t you take him and let me leave in the meantime?” The aide glared at his mentor even as Darren shook his head.

“No, I will need both of you for multiple reasons. If you help me attain my goals, I will let you both live, leave this place, and let you leave it yourself, if you so desire. If not...I don’t care what race you are; there are ways to make you wish you were never conceived.” The doctor’s assistant piped up, eager to help out Darren while getting back at his master. “Oh, it doesn’t matter. Humans and Laecans have the same anatomy, so all the different torturing methods work.”

Darren’s dark smile chilled the doctor, who reached over to strike his assistant and suddenly found his hand immobilized. He was lifted into the air by forces unseen, then moved over near the bed and set down. Darren walked over calmly gesturing from the doctor to Sara. “Check her. Find out what ails her. Heal her. When I am satisfied that she is well, I will let both of you leave. But be warned. If either of you leave, or if she dies, then I will hunt you and put you through pain you never imagined possible.”

The aide nodded quickly and gathered several foreign pieces of equipment for examination. The doctor grabbed a chair and sat close to the bed, saying nothing as he worked except for some tool name that the assistant quickly provided. At length, he stood and sighed. “I cannot do anything.” He immediately flew across the room, stopping just short of several large and rather sharp instruments that twisted to point his direction.

Darren joined him a moment later and gripped the man’s throat. “There are two ways we can do this. You can heal whatever afflicts her, or I can drain you of all your knowledge, do it myself, and leave you a mindless half-wit.”

“There’s nothing I can do for her, I swear it! But,” he choked out quickly, feeling Darren’s grip tighten, “I can only do so much with what I have.”

Darren released the doctor’s neck as they dropped to the ground. “What do you mean by that?”

“There’s a rare type of condensed matter. It can be found on a nearby planet called Vearid. This condensed matter contains specific types of energy. It takes the form of a large blue rock. Using pieces of it, we can procure an antidote for this malady. Unfortunately...her condition is rapidly worsening.” The doctor swallowed hard in anticipation of more violence.

Darren turned from the doctor to look at Sara. “What exactly is wrong with her?”

The doctor shrugged. “I’m not totally sure, but…it seems she’s in a nightmare, one that literally never ends.” Darren bowed his head to hide the pain as he sat on the edge of the bed. Two people trapped within their own minds...and neither can get out. His mind caught hold of something said to him and he looked up. “…at this rate, all functions will shut down…”

Darren cut him off with a quick “How long does she have?”

The aide glanced at her as he felt her hand. “She’s already cold...so not long. I give her half a week at most.”

Darren stood. “I’ll be back in three days.” He turned to the doctor. “If anyone dies, including the man and the three women, you, your aide, and everybody aboard this ship will too...eventually.” He let the word hang in the air, then left through the open door.

Thendat and Fraydon glanced at each other, and then ran after him. They caught up to him in the hallway as he headed for the back of the ship. He kept walking as he spoke. “What do you want?”

Thendat spoke for both of them. “We want to come with you. We want to do more than just sit around like eggs waiting to be broken.”

Darren smiled. “You want to do something? Guard Sara. Right now, that’s the most important thing you could do for me. Besides,” his words turned soft and gentle to avoid hurting feelings. “Right now, you would only slow me down. I need to travel where mortals cannot. But I thank you for trying. Please...protect her now, while I am unable to.”

Fraydon and Thendat nodded as they bowed low, then turned and walked back to the lab. The doctor jumped as they entered, then relaxed. “Find someplace to sit, and try not to make too much of a mess. We’re conducting scientific research here!” He and his aide turned their attention to one of the bubbling vials, talking in low voices.

Thendat shrugged and leaned against the wall near Sara’s bed while Fraydon lay at the foot of the bed and Celia sat in the chair. “We’ll take eight-hour shifts,” Thendat said as Fraydon relaxed. “I’ll take first watch, Celia has second, and Fraydon has third. We’ve just been trusted with the second-most important person on all of Shirn. Nothing will happen to her.”

An alarm sounded in the distance and the door to the lab slid shut and locked as air hissed outside. The doctor glanced up, irritated, then returned to his work. Celia looked around nervously. “What’s that for? That doesn’t sound good.”

The aide smiled. “Oh, it’s not. That’s the alarm for a vacuum breach. Most likely some structural fault in the ship became a problem and opened up into space. But the doors automatically seal themselves, so only the people in the faulty room will die. We’re perfectly safe.”

Fraydon frowned and lapsed into thought. Focusing her mental energy, she placed a hand against the wall and shuddered. “This was no structural fault. Something smashed through the side of the ship. From the soulcries...I’d say it was in a large room, probably with some sort of mechanism for seeing outside the ship.”

Celia looked to Thendat for an explanation. He gestured to Fraydon, who was still focusing with eyes closed. “She’s a Receptor. Every three hundred years, a female is born with the abilities to determine where an object came from, its properties, whether someone is lying, and much more. Included in her vast array of talents is the ability to hear soulcries. Whenever someone dies, their last thoughts and emotions are condensed into a single, heartfelt scream that emanates from their being into the Beyond. Think of soulcries as last wishes that can never be granted, but can be heard.”

“And think of Receptors as oracles, who can only determine what a thing is, rather than use it for either side.” Fraydon opened her eyes and exhaled. “That took a lot out of me. I’m going to sleep through both of your shifts.” Thendat nodded to her and she lay back.
~
When she woke, the lab lights were dimmed. Though it was dark, Fraydon could see the doctor and assistant were sleeping on the operating tables, which would have been quite funny if not for the situation at hand. She also noticed Celia was leaning over the bed. Resisting the urge to yell, Fraydon quietly stood and padded behind her. Thendat was sleeping soundly on the floor; an occasional soft snore made her quite sure of that fact. Fraydon watched as Celia spoke quietly to the comatose figure lying in the bed, unable to hear all of what was being said. After a while, Fraydon scuffed her foot against the floor softly and spoke soon after. “My shift?”

Celia started, then whispered “Geez, don’t do that to me! Yeah, I guess it’s your shift. There’s no real way to count hours here without a clock or something. Hey...mind if I stay up with you? I can’t seem to fall asleep.”

Fraydon shrugged. “As long as you’re awake during your shift, I don’t mind at all.”

“Thanks.” Celia slid to the floor cross-legged and let Fraydon sit in the chair. “So...what happens next?”

Fraydon glanced at her, startled. “What do you mean by that? It’s unknown to all of us. Either Darren makes it back in time to save Sara or he doesn’t. From there, thousands of possible choices affect what happens next.”

Celia smiled, but shook her head. “No...not that. I meant what happens to us next? You heard that guy Jared. We’re all a part of this imaginary world. And according to him, only him, some others, Sara and Darren are real. He probably knows that none of us are, so he didn’t mention us by name. So what do you think will happen to us if, say, Darren died? Would we live on? Sara said it was her world too. So will we live on as long as one of those two does?”

Fraydon blinked. “That’s...a tough question for even me to answer.” She thought for a minute or two, and then spoke. “I look at it this way. If what Jared was saying is true, then we really have no choice but to follow Darren, since he gave us life. Since Darren chose Sara, then by virtue of choice I follow Sara as well. Whatever happens to us, since this is Darren’s world, is up to Darren.” She smiled slightly. “But here are a few harder questions. Can Darren die here? Will his immortal self be reborn? Will he always come back from the brink? Or, if he dies here, will he return to the real world, and with or without Sara? What would happen to us then?”

Celia laughed softly. “You’d know better than I would.”

Fraydon grinned. “Yeah, but my point is that we just don’t know. Someone once said ‘the only sure thing is that there are no sure things.’ This applies to us more than anybody else.”

Thendat sat up suddenly. “Did you hear that? I heard it. Why didn’t you hear it?”

Celia glanced at him, startled. “Hear what? What did you hear?”

Thendat looked at her, but didn’t seem to see her. As he lay back down, he mumbled to himself, “I was sure I heard it...”

Fraydon and Celia glanced at each other and tried to contain their laughter. “In all your travels, you didn’t know he talked in his sleep?” choked out Celia.

Fraydon calmed herself and smiled, replying “Well, I didn’t sleep in the same tent, so no. I think he slept with Darren and Acerin.” The smile turned into a frown. “Hey...where is Acerin?”

Celia shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw him at one point during the fight, but I don’t know when he left.” She yawned unexpectedly and lay down. “Oof. Okay, I think I can get to sleep now. Thanks.”

Fraydon nodded. “Anytime.”
~
Celia felt herself being shaken awake. “No, I want to sleep. Let me be.” At least, that’s what she tried to say. It came out as “...ghnttoseep. Emmebee.” The shaking grew until she sat up rubbing her eyes. “Fine, fine, you got me awake. Is it my shift?”

Thendat shook his head. “No...we let you sleep through Fraydon’s shift, my shift, your shift, Fraydon’s shift again, my shift again, and now we have to wake you up for your third shift.”

Celia blinked and did some quick math. “I’ve been asleep forty hours?”

Fraydon nodded. “We thought you’d gone into a coma too. We had to keep Dr. Frankenstein over there from sticking you on the table and injecting you with something.”

“I tell you, it would’ve woken her up!” The doctor seemed outraged that his medical ethics were being called into question. “Besides...it is the third day and the young man is still not back. I may as well try to help the young lady in the bed as best I can, so if he does get back, I may be able to beg mercy for doing what I could.”

The door hissed open and Keith walked in flanked by soldiers. Fraydon and Thendat moved between him and the bed as Celia blocked the side. Keith looked around the room, apparently not finding what he was looking for. “Where are Sara and Darren?”

The door hissed closed as Celia pointed at the bed. “There’s Sara. Darren went looking for the cure.”

Keith groaned. “What happened to her?”

Thendat kept a hand on his weapon. “The man called Jared did something that put her into a constant nightmare.”

Keith tilted his head to one side. “We have no-one called Jared. And this ‘constant nightmare’ sounds far too evil for us to experiment with, so it is not of our doing. We request that you come with us and answer questions.”

Thendat’s grip tightened. “I’m afraid what you ask is impossible. We have been entrusted with her care. We have not left this room yet, and we shall not until Darren returns.”

The soldiers took a step forward as Keith sighed. “I’m afraid my hands are tied. I can personally assure that Sara will remain here, but you must come with us. I will keep watch in your stead.”

Fraydon reached for her weapons as well. “So we are at an impasse. You remain loyal to your leader, and we remain loyal to ours. What makes yours better?”

Keith halted the soldiers as he thought it over. “I do not claim to know one is better than the other, though perhaps they are. Though we have conflicting interests, we must follow our own paths. I must make you comply or-”

“That’s enough, all of you!” The door hissed again as Darren walked into the room. Every soldier turned and pointed his weapon at the intruder, who promptly melted the guns with a wave of his hands. “No violence will be done here. This is a place of science, of learning, and of healing.” He walked over to the doctor and retrieved a dark blue stone from some inner pocket in his cloak. “I’ve done my part. You do yours.”

The doctor scurried over to a table and began breaking the rock into smaller parts, calling the aide over in a hurried tone. Keith turned to Darren. “You’ve returned.”

Darren’s face was emotionless. “Only for her.”

Keith chuckled. “You’ve changed a lot.”

Darren didn’t move. “I had to.”

Keith sighed and stepped back. “We’re not going to be able to be roommates again after this, are we?”

Darren slowly shook his head, but smiled slightly. “No, but for different reasons than you’re thinking of, probably.”

Keith grinned. “You haven’t changed a bit, you lecherous man.” He waved the soldiers out. “I can’t really take you in, but I had to please the higher-ups. I have to ask, though...what do you plan to do now?”

“One minute until the elixir is done heating! Please, get the girl to sit up quickly!” The aide’s tone was, for once, rushed and hurried. Keith stepped back along with Fraydon, Thendat, and Celia as Darren retrieved the vial from the hot water bath and practically ran to Sara’s side. Propping her up gently with his right arm, he uncorked the tube. Thankfully, her reflexes still enabled her to swallow the liquid, so it was soon gone.

Darren glanced at the doctor. “This had better work.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than Sara’s eyes fluttered open. A harsh cough echoed from her throat. The liquid had still been hot, but to all present, that was minor. Darren turned to her and spoke gently. “Do you know who and where you are?”

Sara nodded, her voice raspy. “I’m Sara Kinsley, and last time I checked, I was on some alien ship fighting for my life and the life of someone very dear to me. Looks like I succeeded and survived.”

Darren chuckled even as it caught in his throat. “Yes...but barely. You almost didn’t make it. You had me worried...you had us all worried.” He reached out with his left hand and brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. “Try not to do that again, alright?”

Sara shrugged. “If I have to, I will.” Darren stared at her thoughtfully for a second, then picked her up effortlessly and walked to the door.

“Stay here. All of you.” The door opened and closed as he stepped through it.

The lock melted into the door even as Keith tried to open it. “Blast. What is he thinking? My soldiers will be out there, searching for both them!”

Thendat smiled. “You saw what Darren did to the guns and the lock. You really think soldiers can stop him?”

Keith glared at her. “I fear for the lives of my men, as all leaders do.”

Fraydon sighed and closed her eyes as she began to focus. “Nothing’s happened. I don’t think Darren plans on killing anyone right now, especially not with Sara by his side. He probably just didn’t want their emotions on display in front of us.”
~
Darren set Sara down in a relatively undamaged pew near the back of the chapel. She looked up and ran a hand through his hair. “It looks like his now.” Darren nodded, about to speak, but decided to say nothing. Sara smiled slightly. “Why did you bring me here? This doesn’t seem-“

“Quiet.” Darren turned around and stared at the unbroken stained glass curtain. “You shouldn’t have known. You would have lived your life happy, content...” He took a step towards the curtain. “I never told you about my past because I didn’t want you worrying about it. Well, now you know. I was an assassin, a thief, a murderer...countless people died because of me, my greed, and my anger.”

Sara leaned back and felt the cold wooden edge of the pew. “But those people were all imaginary. None of them existed, right? So all you did was destroy things in your mind, which all of us have done.”

Darren took another step towards the curtain. “In a sense. But this is more than just thinking. I’m inside this world now, with some measure of control. It may be imaginary, but this is what we get for now.”

Sara shrugged. “Alright. So...we’re on a different ship. Are we going to go back to Destiny and say that we made it off safely? Are we going to destroy this ship before we leave?”

Darren turned suddenly and walked back to her. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked what went on while you were in the coma.”

Sara stared past him quietly. You’re too obvious when you hide your emotions. “Are you going to tell me?”

Darren’s thoughtful look returned. She’s too obvious when she hides her emotions. “No. I’m going to show you.” He sat next to her and turned her head to face him. Gently placing his right palm against her forehead, he smiled slightly. “This will be a bit different from the previous time I showed you what happened.” The stone in his hand felt cold to the touch. “Just try to relax.”

Sara felt the familiar jolt of electricity run through her, but the room falling away was something different. Bright spots spun in a dizzying whirl of light. Faster and faster they spun until the darkness became gray, and then suddenly she was standing beside Darren as he walked out of the med lab. She opened her mouth to call out and suddenly saw herself lying in the bed. I’m experiencing his memories? This is new...

She was pulled from the room and floated above Darren, forced to follow him to watch what he did. The farther he walked from the room, the colder his demeanor became, and at the same time Sara noticed he burned with an inner fire she’d never seen before. So this was Darren under pressure of time. The world seemed to speed up, and Sara found that while she was unable to know exactly what was being said, she could understand the general direction of conversations.

Darren entered what Sara assumed was a command station. No less than two dozen men sat and stood at various stations, monitoring and controlling the direction of the ship. One noticed Darren and immediately raised the alarm. A raised platform with a ramp leading up to it was flanked by two guards. Darren turned to the highest ranking official present and demanded a ship to travel to a nearby planet. Judging by the way the official laughed, there was no chance of one.

Darren shrugged and immediately ran up the ramp towards a large clear section of the ship resembling a window. Sara blinked as she saw him gather speed and head directly for it. No way. It would be impossible to break something like that; the pressure on it is already tremendous from both sides. An outline of fire and light began to form as he hit the halfway point on the ramp. The look on his face turned euphoric as the outpouring of energy became a release for pent-up emotions.

The moment he hit the clear material, it exploded inward, and then every movable object in the room was sucked into the vacuum of space. Darren, however, kept moving through the starlit void, protected by the aura’s glow. Sara moved with him, watching as he moved silently towards Vearid. The planet’s yellow surface magnified and became a mass of cracked ground and mountains in mere seconds as Darren flew down through the atmosphere.

The surface exploded with the force of his impact and Sara momentarily shielded her eyes, forgetting for a moment that she was not a part of the memory, but only an observer. When the dust settled, Darren looked around the landscape briefly, then leaped from the ground and flew over the mountains, searching for the material he needed.

For a solid day he searched, tirelessly scouring the planet’s surface. Sara watched as the memory sped forward even faster. There was very little light to see by, even during the day, and clouds were nonexistent. “Night of the second day,” Darren’s voice resounded in her head. Sara saw him walk out of an underground cave, carrying the rock in his hands. He’d spent a lot of time in there, judging by his heavy breathing and half-closed eyes. The world slowed to normal.

A lightning bolt flashed out of nowhere and split the earth two feet from Darren. He jumped back and put a hand on the hilt of his sword. Clouds formed from thin air, and it began to rain. Jared Kinsley faced Darren Kinsley under a dark, moonless sky. Darren gritted his teeth and slipped the blue stone inside his cloak. For the first time, Sara heard words in the memory. “Hello, Jared. Oh, sorry, should I call you Father? Come to balance my world for me?”

Jared didn’t hesitate, but drew his sword. “In a sense. Give me the rock, let the woman die, and balance is restored.”

Darren drew his own blade slowly, eyeing the edge and balance. “Look at it. Isn’t it beautiful? Notice the fine detail in this elaborate illusion. I went to all this trouble to make my own perfect world, and here you come trying to destroy it.” The rain dripped from his hair onto the sword, running down the blade.

Jared smiled. “Killing again? For shame, Darren...you of all people.”

Darren smiled as well. “That doesn’t work on me anymore. With every evil memory you brought to the surface, I’ve a thousand better ones to counter with. I’ve come to terms with my past. It’s really too bad you haven’t done the same, Jared.” He flipped through the air and slashed at his enemy, metal screeching a harsh tune of death. The rage Darren felt was controlled by the icy realization that if he died, so would Sara.

Jared stepped back into a stance Darren hadn’t seen before. While defending, Jared was always watching for a weak point in Darren’s offense, and vice-versa. The two were closely matched, but Jared had been alive longer than Darren. A well-placed stroke shattered Darren’s sword into fragments and gashed Darren’s left arm.

Darren staggered back and passed a hand over the wound, closing it, but still felt the pain. Jared looked at him curiously. “You’re holding back. Why?”

Darren smiled. “Saving some energy for the return trip, of course.” Jared stared at him for a moment, unable to comprehend the idea. Then with a shrug, he ran Darren through the heart before Darren even knew what was happening.

Sara blinked. How can this happen? He’s showing me the memory right now! He can’t have died! She felt the link between them begin to sever as the memory slowed. No! The memory slowly began to reverse, unraveling before her eyes as she grasped at straws trying to piece it together. She watched Darren fly backwards through space, and the broken ship pieces began to fall into place.

As Darren ran backwards down the ramp, Sara took a deep breath. This can’t be happening...Darren walked backwards out of the room. If he got back to the med lab, the memory would be gone completely, and so would...No...if I unbalance this world...then I’ll balance it. She drew one of her daggers and aimed the point at her heart. For balance...and for Darren.

As she thrust the weapon towards herself, a hand appeared from nowhere and struck the flat of the blade, turning the blade around completely and harmlessly poking Sara with the hilt. Darren’s voice resounded in her mind again. “That won’t be necessary.” The blackness faded away into the chapel once more, as Darren’s palm left her forehead. “He took the pieces of the stone I had and left me for dead. On dawn of the third day, I just...got up. I don’t know how; I just know I lived again. I went back into the cave, gathered as much of the blue rock as I could, and barely made it back to the ship without losing control of my power. I hadn’t slept in days, after all.”

Sara looked at him dubiously. “Why did your sword shatter?”

Darren grimaced. “I used it to mine the rock, and it caused the weapon to weaken.”

Sara blinked. “So...what did you use to mine the rock the second time?” Darren instinctively drew his hands back, but not completely. Noticing the dirt near his wrists, Sara reached out and turned Darren’s hands over, staring at the blood-caked and broken fingernails. Silently she drew them to herself and let her tears fall over them, washing the pain away. When she could speak, she said “Why did the memory start to go in reverse, like it never happened?”

Darren sighed. “I guess that was one of Jared’s methods to get you to die. If he couldn’t kill you himself, he’d try to confuse you to the point where you’d kill yourself.”

Sara looked up to his face. “Why did you save me, Darren?”

He blinked. “Do you really need to ask? Sara...you are my Icklethe, my beloved. You are the only one I choose to live for.” She appeared to understand, but not completely, so he stood and pointed at the stained glass. It shattered, coming to swirl in pieces around his head. “Do you remember the rocks? Did I ever tell you why I did that?”

Sara shook her head as he continued. “Well, along with the power of the Feladána, I also inherit some less-than-desirable qualities...including a short fuse at times, and an urge to destroy or kill. Before I met you...I didn’t feel the need to stop myself. People were just something to be gotten rid of. But I just couldn’t continue like that after getting to know you. So I began smashing rocks instead.”

Sara took it all in quietly. Darren waved his left hand at the pieces and they formed the glass again at the far end of the chapel. “I want you to understand that the only reason this world exists is because I couldn’t handle living a normal life. I’m sorry I had to drag you into this...but my perfect world isn’t perfect anymore. However...it’s a whole lot better now that you know everything. It’s completely up to you whether to continue with this.”

Sara glanced at him. “You mean to continue...us?” Darren nodded. Sara leaned over and took his hands in hers. “Remember what I said earlier? ‘I hold my marriage vows in high regard, no matter where or how they were taken.’ That holds still.”

Darren smiled. “I remember that.” After a short pause, he leaned forward and enveloped her in an embrace. “If anything like that happens again...let me handle it, alright?”

Sara sighed. “If I have to save you again, then we’ll know who wears the pants here.”

When he was done laughing, Darren stood and took her by the hand. “Come. We have much to do.”

Sara smiled, content but slightly confused. “Much to do before what? Where are we going now?”

“There may be a way to go home.”
- posted by Nick @ 9/19/2004 11:09:00 PM