I woke up in my bed.

Now, that in itself doesn't sound so bad, and in fact I didn't think much of it while I still had my eyes closed and still hazy from sleep.

Until my memories caught up with me. I don't know if that prompted the soreness in my body and the headache but it sure seemed like that.

The soreness I could deal with, my legs felt heavy and stiff but I could will myself to move them, same as my arms. It was my head that gave me more of a problem. As I got out of the bed I was immediately assaulted by a wave of pulses and disorientation, making me lose my balance for a moment. I managed to catch myself by holding onto the wall, but the discomfort was enough to make me shut my eyes, only opening them once I was sure the headache was gone.

It didn't feel real. Right here, right now, I was standing in my room as if nothing had happened. It made me shiver once I realized that meant those people had been in my house, seen my room, carried me here. So much information in their turf and so little on mine.

I forced myself to stop that line of thought. There were other things I needed to worry about.

I made my way to Belisaria’s room, knocking on the door out of reflex.

“Yeah?” I heard on the other side.

I opened the door. Belisaria was sitting on the edge of the bed, her gaze fixated on the door of the closet.

When I tried to talk, the words came out like a horrible mess. Jumbled, rushed, too high pitched. It would have been embarrassing if my audience had reacted to it. Belisaria didn't even move.

It took a few more attempts, but I managed to put together a sentence, “Can I sit?”. It was barely above a whisper, but at least it got a slight nod out of her.

I walked to the side of the bed, slowly sitting next to her.

“How-how are you feeling?” I asked. Yeah, stupid question, I know.

“Bit sore, you?” Belisaria replied, her voice distant, it didn't help that she still wasn't looking at me.

“Same, but I also had a headache earlier. Did you also-.”

“No.” Her response was final.

“Okay. Good. Okay.”

We didn't say anything for a moment. The way this was going, I didn't think I would get any answers longer than three words from Belisaria.

“I'm sorry.”

I immediately looked up. “For what?”

Belisaria lowered her gaze, looking down at her hands. “I don't know what time it is now, I've been sitting for a while. I think it was around six, maybe, that I woke up.”

I glanced at the alarm clock. 9:30. She had been like that for over three hours.

Belisaria continued, “I thought ‘I should check on her’ because I didn't see you after we did the tests, but then.”

She turned around to face me, her eyes on the verge of tears.

“But then I saw myself in the mirror.” She said as she pointed to it. “And I saw the patch, and I don't know why but I just, I just-”

She cried, and I began to cry too.

“I remembered…where I was, how far away from home…I was.” Her voice was broken, barely managing to push the words out in between sobs.

“What if… what if I had died?”

I pulled her tightly into a hug. Both of us let everything out.

By the time we were done we looked absolutely terrible, our eyes were red and there was snot all over our noses.

“I should be the one saying sorry.” I muttered, feeling myself calming down a little. “For what I did to you.”

She brought one hand to her left cheek, where the patch was. “Not your fault.”

That was the easy way out. If my aim had been slightly better, if she hadn't reacted when she did, maybe we wouldn't even be having this conversation at all.

“Doesn't matter. It's still there isn't it?” I said.

She opened her mouth slightly, looking ready to counter, only to stop halfway, looking to the side in resignation.

“Did they tell you about the… deal?” She said eventually.

I nodded, “The person I talked to said they would contact us first. Did you hear anything else?”

“That they are pretty much a secret society.” She looked at me, “Do you know how they got us back here?”

I honestly had no idea. The last thing I remembered was Sharon stirring her cup before I woke up here.

“No. She pulled some trick on me, I don't know if it was hypnosis or what, but I was in that room one moment and the next one I'm in my bed.”

“That's the same that happened to me.” Belisaria replied.

Figures. Some shit.

“We should, I don't even know.” I said, rubbing my eyes. Like that would give me some clarity of mind.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“How's a bath for a start?” Belisaria said. “We both look like shit.”

I snorted, “Can't argue with that. You go first.”

She shot me a look as if saying ‘you sure?’.

“I have to talk to my mom. Just, for my own sanity.”

Her expression softened, “Okay.”

I followed Belisaria to the bathroom, washing my face in the sink. I didn't want to give my mom any opportunities to suspect something was up.

Before I exited, I grabbed Belisaria by the shoulder, there was something else I needed to tell her.

“I don't know if I said this yesterday, but there is a phone downstairs if you want to call your family.”

She only gave me a nod, before closing the door.

Okay.

I breathed in, and out.

I didn't knock, opting instead to simply open the door to mom's room.

She was still asleep, her black hair spread over her face in a manner that made me remember a Japanese horror movie I had watched at the film club. I couldn't help the grin that came afterwards, the comparison was too appropriate.

I nudged mom a little, stirring her up.

“Mary? What time is it?” She asked, half-asleep.

“Around ten.” I said. “Belisaria is taking a shower, I'll go after her but I thought it would be good to let you know.”

That woke her up. “Oh. Oh! That's right!, I'm sorry sweetie, I've been all over the place. I thought I could introduce myself yesterday if I came in early enough, but we didn't get the all clear until later in the night, and by the time I was here you were both already asleep.”

She was already getting up by the time I replied, “No, no worries, I figured. She was spent after the flight so we called it a day after we went to eat dinner.”

“Oh I can imagine, I didn't even eat. I went straight to bed after I checked on you two and took off my makeup. Went out cold.”

I tuned mom out for a bit. I was glad that whoever those people were had kept their word. Mom didn't suspect anything. It was for the better, as much as I hated to admit it. We had come out relatively unscathed from yesterday's events, if we were to tell her what had happened, well, for starters I doubted she would believe us, and in the off chance she did, I feared that would drag her to the same situation we were in. There was no need for that to happen.

“Do you know what you want to eat for breakfast?” Mom asked.

I gave the first thing I could think of, “Pancakes.”

“Alright.” She said as she put her slippers on. “If you want to, you can use my shower, I don't think I'm gonna leave the house for today so I'm taking it easy.”

“Work from home?”

“Yeah, it's my turn now, since I was in the late night crew yesterday.” There was a pause, and Mom looked at me sadly, “Sorry kiddo, I think our night out will have to wait until next weekend.”

There was my opening. I closed the distance between us, giving my mom a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “That's okay mom.”

“Okay” She said, dragging the ‘o’. “That's a lot of affection right there, what did you do?”

I chuckled. “Nothing. I just… had a conversation with Belisaria. She said she was homesick.” Technically not a lie.

“I guess I got infected with it.”

Mom hugged me back, planting a kiss on my forehead before she let me go.

“Well, I sure wouldn't mind more of that.”

She walked off, not before asking me if we could tag-team, me doing her bed while she did breakfast. I told her that sounded fair to me. It didn't take me longer than a few minutes to get the bed done.

The shower was quick, helped by the fact that I was eager to put something in my stomach as soon as possible. I wrapped a towel around me and walked straight to my room.

I opened the closet, looking for fresh clothes when my heart skipped a beat. My phone and wallet were right there on the second shelf, staring at me.

I took them quickly, checking the contents in my wallet to see if anything was missing. Once I double checked everything was in there I moved on to my phone, repeating the process.

There was a wave of relief as it became evident nothing had been tampered with, but I was also mad at myself for not realizing before that I was missing these.

“Mary?” I heard my mom yell from downstairs.

“Yeah?” I yelled back.

“Your pancakes are gonna get cold, you done yet?”

“I'm coming!” I said.

I dried my hair as best as I could, throwing some deodorant and putting on jeans, a flannel shirt and sneakers. The phone and wallet were now secure in my pocket. I felt them again, just to be sure.

I hadn't even fully come down the stairs when I smelled the pancakes. They could have been the absolute worst, most artificial meal ever I created and I wouldn't have cared, I needed to eat.

I sat on one of the chairs at the table, where everything had already been set up. Belisaria was already eating, and by the looks of it she was on her second serving.

Mom put a plate of pancakes in front of me soon after I sat, they smelled delicious.

“So Mary”, Mom began as I took a bite from one of the pancakes, “It was a bit late but I introduced myself to Belisaria before you came down.”

I looked at Belisaria. She looked at me, then at my mom.

“She is the most lovely lady I've ever met. I almost had to fight her so she could sit down. She wanted to help me do everything, but we settled on just setting the table.”

I looked at Belisaria once more. She looked at me, then at my mom again.

“She is pretty great.” I said.

It was Belisaria’s turn to speak now, “Your mom's very nice, she was telling me about school and what to expect.”

“Yeah, it's not that bad. I kinda don't want to graduate now.”

“Really? Why?” Mom asked.

“It's what I've known my whole life: school. After that there's college, but it's different, and after college there's real life.”

Mom looked at me, her expression wasn't disappointment nor frustration. It was more like confusion. This hadn't been the first time we discussed something along the lines of what happened after high school, with me not really knowing what I wanted to do. Mom and Dad had both gone to college, so they had expected me to do so as well. I wasn't opposed per se, I just wanted to be more sure of where I was headed in life, maybe go to community college first and dip my toes before going further.

There was a vibration in my pocket. I almost didn't reach for it for the sake of politeness, until I saw Belisaria getting her phone out. So it wasn't just me that had her stuff back.

We looked at each other. What were the odds of both of us receiving a text at the same time?

I excused myself to the bathroom, opening my phone once I made sure the door was closed.

The text was minimalistic, standing out on the tiny white background.

Today. 2 PM. Westfield HS.