Chapter 8, Two bad decisions

*~~Wilma~~*

They had been runnin’ around for quite some time now, the place seemed to not have a single exit. She panted heavily and thought she shouldn’t turn down Arbell’s offer so often. Arbell liked to run and often asked if Wilma wanted to come, but she always turned it down. She didn’t even use excuses anymore. The guy they had just met had said he knew the way out of the building, or whatever it could be called, but they hadn’t come out yet. Actully, he looked pretty frustrated. She didn’t trust him. She wasn’t the only one, she could tell, but Arbell, Natalie and Leader seemed to trust him, so why didn’t she? Well, she had a hard time trustin’ people. He didn’t seem evil, but you could never know. Take Natalie as an example, Wilma had thought she was evil and mean, but it turned out that she just had been scared. She had lost her chance to keep Wilma’s trust by doing what she did, and it seemed like Wilma wasn’t the only one who had formed less good feelings about her. Arbell didn’t seem to like her that much, which was a relief. She wasn’t the only one who had a hard time forgivin’. Natalie had also told them about her pshycic powers, that she hadn’t told them was as bad as runnin’ away like that. A promise should be kept, Leader seemed to think the same thing. Natalie trusted the guy and since she could feel people’s feelings, he couldn’t be bad then, could he?

They continued to run through what felt like endless corridors and sometimes through large halls. They didn’t see a single person. Except their footstpes they didn’t hear a single sound. It must’ve been true as the guy had said, everyone really was out in the war. Right now, though, she just wanted to rest.

“Hey!” she panted. “Can we stop for a little rest?” They stopped without a word and panted as much as she did (though some more than others), she probably said something everyone wanted to say. 

“I guess.” Leader said.

“Hey, Charlotte.” Arbell said. “Can you try to look ‘roud again?” Charlotte stood with her hand on her knees and didn’t look up when she answered.

“I told you already. It’s hard to look when I’m inside a building.”

“Right. You haven’t practiced enough, ‘cause you’re new. But we all are. And we need to get out of here, so it would be very nice if you could try again.”

“Well, I already did not too long ago, I couldn’t see that much then so why would I be able to now?” She and Arbell stared at each other. It was unsual for Arbell to be this  annoyed all the time, all the punches in the face, so to speak, must’ve gotten to her. Arbell looked like she was going to say something back.

“Just drop it.” Wilma said. Arbell gave her a look, but didn’t say anything.

“So. What’s your name?” Eleanor asked the guy as she sat on the floor beside him.

“Raenton.” He answered. It was a good name, made him more attractive to be honest…”What’s yours?”

And so they introduced themselves and their powers again. Raenton said that he could move things and communicate with his mind.

“Would you mind to tell us why you are here, again?” Miranda asked.

“Well, you see, down in the south-east Rurica’s and Amessia’s allies have turned against each other. It’s much worse down there, bloodbaths and executions. A living hell. The dragon of the East is capture. We traced it to Alene, a country that’s allied with Amessia. We had gotten a tip that Gredra Engon was somewhere in the Myly forrest, but before we found it we were attacked. And I was captured by Alene’s army. On the way to Amessia my new “friends” were attacked by a Rurican army. I guess they figured out who I was and put me here. Why did we need to find the dragon, you may wonder? First of all, it’s a dragon. One of this world’s important big four and secondly, he might help us to end the bloodbath and resto…”

“Hah!” Tegon snorted, on Natalie’s shoulder. “He won’t help you with that. That bastard never helps with anything. I’m surprised they found him, I must say.”

“Why?” Raenton asked with a hostile voice. “Dragons are good creatures that help people, right? Then why wou…”

“Because he doesn’t care.” Tegon interrupted with a loud voice.

“Why would they take him, then?  He’s a threat to what they want to achieve! He..”

“What is it that they want, do you think?” Tegon interrupted again. “They want power. A dragon has much power, if you kill it, take out the organs and eat them you will get power! If it’s one thing I don’t like, human, it’s naïve, peaceloving cretures like you.” Raenton was angry, it was easy to see, she guessed that was why Hannah suggested:

“Maybe we should explore the castle instead? Since we can’t get out?”

“And then we may find something!” Arbell added and now she smiled. She must really like Hannah.

“Let’s decide on the groups then.” Wilma said. “I’ll go with Hannah.” She wanted to learn more about her if Arbell liked her. Wilma had always had the expression that Hannah was weird, and since they were probably going to hang out together, it would be good to confirm if she actually was weird or not.

“I’ll go with Tegon.” Raenton said. Natalie would surley go where Tegon went. Wilma didn’t mind, she was still mad about the whole abandonin’ thing. Though ahe must admit that it was pretty cool when Natalie saved them. Even if she almost ran over Charlotte and her.

“I guess I’ll go with Charlotte.” Eleanor said and stood up. That left Miranda and Arbell. Wilma looked over at Arbell. She had her hands on her hips and her head a little bent down, glaring at Miranda. Miranda herself had her arms crossed over her chest, glaring back. Anyone could see they weren’t pleased. It was actually pretty funny.

“Well then, you two,” Leader said and pointed at Wilma and Hannah. “Can continue down this corridor and you two,” She pointed at Eleaor and Charlotte. “Can follow them and then go turn into another direction as soon as possible. And we’ll go back and then do the same as you. Does that sound good?”

No one complained, so they said good-bye and split up. Wilma wondered if it was actually goin’ to go well, especially with Leader and Arbell. Arbell wasn’t that annoyed and angry often, but she knew when to stop. When she didn’t go into her ‘stubborn-mood’.

~~* ~~

They had just said good-bye to Eleanor and Charlotte and was now walking down a narrow corridor. They could barely walk side by side. She liked Hannah, though, she wasn’t boring or stuck-up or all over the place. That was nice. She was fun, too. Wilma understood why Arbell liked her.

“Do you want to go left or right?” Hannah asked.

“Right, I’m not good at using my left hand.” Hannah laughed.

“What does that have to do with anything?” She was truly fun to be with. And not weird!

“Nothing, really.” Wilma answered and laughed, too. They continued to the right in a good mood. “And here I thought you were weird.” She said with a smile. Then it hit her, was that an appropriate question? Hannah didn’t seem to mind, though.

“And here I thought you were an unfriendly control-freak.” Ouch, she was surprised Hannah had seen her like that. She didn’t mind much, though. “What do you think this is?” She had found something on the wall. “It looks like a lightswitch.”

“I dunno, but you shouldn’t touch it.”

“Why not?”

“’Cause it might be dangerous!” Wilma didn’t like mysterious things. “What if we have to run away from a giant, rollin’ rock just like Indiana Jones?” Hannah smiled teasingly.

“Come on, this won’t be like Indiana Jones, this is reality.” And then she pressed it before Wilma could say another thing. Hannah was right, though. This wasn’t like in Indiana Jones, this was reality. And if you fall down into a deep hole in reality you will get more injuries than just a few broken legs.

*~~Charlotte~~*

They had just turned left and were on their own. She could hear Hannah and Wilma talking and laughing, but she and Eleanor were quiet. She didn’t know why Eleanor had wanted to go with her, they didn’t know each other, had they even talked? She was happy that someone had actually wanted to go with her, though.

“Which way do you want to go?” Eleanor asked.

“Left.” She answered simply, it wouldn’t really matter which way they went. They probably wouldn’t find anything of importance.

“So…do you think we’ll find anything?” Eleanor asked.

“No.”

“Oh. Well, I think we will.”

Silence. Charlotte wasn’t good at making small talk, talking at all actually, so she often found herself in awkward silences, like this one.

“Your power…” Eleanor began. “It’s very useful, too bad you can’t use it more yet.” Charlotte felt a hand grab her heart.

“Ah…Um…Sorry.” She said. She didn’t look at the girl beside her.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” She said. “I mean, no one can use their power much. And I can only change one of my arms!”

“Oh…” Was all she could think of to say.

“When we come back home we should go together and prac…” Someone screamed behind them. They were quiet and listened for more. Charlotte could feel herself getting scared, what if that was Hannah and Wilma getting attacked? They were probably hurt now, maybe even dying! 

“That was Hannah and Wilma.” Charlotte said. That would be the only logical option, they shouldn’t be far behind them.

“Don’t say that! Maybe we heard wrong.” Eleanor didn’t believe it and neither did Charlotte.  “But maybe we should go back?” Her voice was shaking.

If they did go back they might find Hannah and Wilma, but if they had been attacked and Charlotte and Eleanor went back, they might be attacked and captured again, too. Then they would be back to where they started, and probably with tougher security. But who would attack them? Shouldn’t everyone be out in the war?

“Do you think we should go back?” Eleanor asked again. “Maybe you can use those eyes of yours and look?” She sounded hopeful. Charlotte had already tried, before, but she had failed.

“It won’t work.” Couldn’t they understand that she was hopeless? She couldn’t.

“At least try! Just because it didn’t work before, doesn’t mean it won’t work now!” She felt encouraged by Eleanor, but she knew it wouldn’t work. She couldn’t become better in such a short period of time.

“…Okay.” She took of her glasses, closed her eyes and her mind left her. She went through the corridor and back to where they had parted from Hannah and Wilma, but she couldn’t go longer. It was as if she had rope attached to her and now the rope had reached its limit. She was forced to go back, everything blurred and then she opened her eyes and said:

“I didn’t see anything.”

“Okay, but I still think we should go back.” Eleanor was turned around and began to walk.

“No. We should continue.” Eleanor stopped  looked at her in disbelief.

“What?”

“We should continue.”

“How can you say that?! Something might have happened to them!”

Charlotte began to walk. She didn’t want to answer, Eleanor would surely think she was too paranoid and wouldn’t talk to her anymore.

“Why are you walking away? Fine, then I’ll go back!” Charlotte felt that hand grab her heart again. She wanted to cry, but she didn’t want to show weakness to someone she barely knew, and it would be better if Eleanor didn’t see her ry. Then she wouldn’t feel guilty. If only Eleanor could understand that if Hannah and Wilma were attacked, it would be better to continue and save them later. Otherwise the same thing could happen to them. But she didn’t say anything. It would probably sound stupid. Much of what she said was stupid.

“I’m only going with you because Miranda said so.” Eleanor said beside her. She didn’t look at Charlotte, and Charlotte hadn’t even noticed she had come back.

She was happy that Eleanor had come back, but she knew she had lost the chance to be friends with her. Maybe that was for the best. Besides, Eleanor would only feel worse and start to worry if Charlotte would tell her what she thought happened. She had seen how worried Eleanor had been in the beginning, especially when Tenso and Ingya had said that they could die, Charlotte didn’t want Eleanor to feel like that again. It was better this way…