Reality was a bitch.

No matter how much Vin wanted to avoid the truth and its token despair, it knocked, and he had no choice but to answer its pernicious summon.

After waking, he first perceived an ungodly chill throughout his entire body, like he'd been inside a freezer. At the same time, he felt an ache atop his skull and felt implausibly ill. Something evil was spreading through his entire being. He sensed that, like his comfortable dream, his life was gradually coming to an end.

Vin's perception returned, and he felt a warm, genial pressure on his body that opposed his coldness. He didn't remember much of what happened after almost drowning, so he worried about what awaited him.

Vin wiggled his partially numb fingers, then forced his hand upward to remove whatever was covering him. After removing the jacket, he soon discovered it was night, and Lynn was lying beside him in a deep slumber.

He recalled snippets of the past events of their arrival. None of the memories were good.

Vin breathed in, but an invisible force around his lungs stopped them from expanding. After all his intense training to increase his stamina, he was limited to half breaths.

Frustrating.

He wanted to see where they'd ended up but didn't want to swivel his head too much and wake Lynn. He peered at her, knowing she shouldn't have followed him, but as he looked at her almost affectionately, he couldn't thank her enough for what she must have endured.

Even from his position, he could tell a few things. One, the rain had stopped, and the land had seeped into pure silence. Two, it was the dead of night, which he couldn't fathom since there'd been some extent of light without the assistance of Earth's moon.

And last, they'd been above ground on a tree. With that knowledge, he wanted to use what time he had left to devise a way out of that mess.

He thought for a while, then concluded, 'Not many options except for waiting here or searching for another portal.'

Vin's eyes squeezed in awe at his own frailty. 'If my body even lasts that long...'

As he consulted his mind, unprovoked, he felt a sickly chill travel through his body, and he shivered and violently coughed. His head jerked, which woke Lynn and summoned the monster beneath them.

It had receptive hearing, so the creature had to know they were up there, yet it never tried to reach them in that tree. Perhaps it knew its limitations. Anyway, it was to their benefit.

Once clear, Lynn separated herself from him. She peeked at Vin, then jerked back in repulse. Her eyes zoomed in on his ghastly skin, and she noticed that the veins in his arms and neck had turned black, pumping tainted blood beneath his flesh.

Lynn's face contorted in distress, and then she bit her quivering lip. "Are you ok?" She mumbled.

Vin struggled a bit more to assume an upright position but looked at himself, then crossed his legs. His mouth moved, and he replied simply, "Mhm."

Lynn then frowned and returned her sight to the floor. "But, your arms…"

He'd previously downplayed injuries from skateboarding and fights, but he surmised it'd be difficult to convince her he was well. Especially since he was frightened himself.

"I'll be fine. And you?" Vin returned, quickly trying to get the attention off himself. It's what his father would do if he were in that predicament with his worrying mother.

"I'll be fine," she said in mimic, then became silent.

The distasteful platter of guilt that sat between them was difficult to ingest. Both felt remorseful for different reasons, but neither could clearly speak of their sorrows. Tension lingered, but Vin finally ventured to get something off his chest.

Sentimental interest wasn't his strong suit; instead, he came right out and asked her, "Why'd you come back for me?"

Lynn immediately tightened her brow, then threatened him with a gaze. Her lips parted to express her animosity with this inquiry; however, an implausible wave of composure fought her anger, and she quelled. Her face slowly relaxed, and she questioned, "Do you really have to ask?"

'Yes,' he thought; he wanted to know why the person he hurt would bother to save him. He couldn't form the words and exhaled in loss, but his gut wrenched as he collapsed forward and covered his mouth while choking on the air. Dark blood lay on his palm once he uncovered it, and It didn't take long before the slashing of waves signaled their mortal foe was returning.

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He had no idea what went on inside that head of hers or why she did what she did.

Maybe that was why he'd given her a hard time. He'd always been immensely interested in the girl. Yet, no matter how much he wanted to forge a connection, she was hard to approach, and he only dug himself a bigger hole by harassing her.

It took a near-death experience for them to converse like that. Like Vin, she loved skating, so he was curious about what motivated her. He wanted to know her upbringing, how it affected her sports, and why she liked clothing with ridiculous indomitable snowman graphics.

The more he thought about her, the more there were subtle flutters in his heart. He hated to admit it, but he wished they'd gotten to know each other sooner. The anger he'd felt when she ignored him had done nothing but throttle what could have been a bond.

He started to have different perceptions of Lynn. Unlike himself, she was a good person. He knew that if the earlier roles were reversed, and it'd been her under that water, he wouldn't have gone back. No way.

There was no way to change that; he was human. His only regret was that he didn't try to be more 'human' while healthy. If he'd known he'd be dead by 14, he would have seen more movies and tried harder to create meaningful relationships.

Vin settled, breathed in as much as his lungs let him, and whispered another question to her. Out of the many, there was one that he really wanted to know. She'd risked everything to save him, so he wondered, "Do you regret it?"

Lynn brought her knees up to her chest and hid her face.

Another unrequited query.

He let the matter go, as finding a way out of that situation was more important. Most of his memory after nearly drowning was obfuscated, so he began by asking her about the details of how they ended up in a tree.

She had no problem describing how she picked up one of the floating sticks from the water and stabbed the decaying slug in one of its eyes. After, she led them there, and they'd been trapped since.

Vin scanned the darkness of the night. He couldn't see. That was great. Wherever the decaying slug had been, the odds of it spotting Lynn were very slim, so its only option would be to hear her escaping.

'I'd love to send her a message for Mom, Dad, and Sis, but she'd only get suspicious.'

After a dense exhale, Vin began to explain his straightforward plan. "That Voice made it sound like there were already others living on this planet."

"You said the monster only had one eye; assuming it doesn't have night vision, you can sneak away and look for a village or something."

"What about you?" Lynn asked.

As if on cue, another one of Vin's regular cough attacks triggered. He wiped the blood he spat on his pants and continued, "Well, I thought about sneaking away with you, but it's better if I stay here and keep the monster distracted."

"If I have a coughing episode while escaping, it'll screw us both over, so you go first and find help."

Lynn took in all he'd said and quietly replied, "That man said they were aliens; how would I tell them anything? And what if no one lives in this swamp?"

Vin sighed and replied, "Don't think about it too much; I'm sure you'll figure something out."

She was right; there wasn't any guarantee she'd be able to find rescue for Vin, and he offered that plan knowingly.

"Let's just wait a bit longer…" Lynn returned.

Vin knew that forcing a deeper breath than his body permitted caused him to hack, so he purposefully did so. It gave away their location again, but he didn't see any other way to convince her. "I don't have time to wait."

It was hard to fight against sound logic, but Lynn still rebutted. They'd gotten into that mess together and would get out of it together, she communicated, though Vin knew that was her heart talking, not her head.

Since his earlier statement didn't get through to her, he had to clarify, nice and plain. "I can not leave here, and without a doctor, I am going to die."

Time was ticking, and though thick-skulled, Lynn had to acknowledge that. Her remorse showed on what little of her face he could see. She gave him the hoodie she'd previously used as a blanket, then confidently gazed into his eyes and swore, "I'll find someone; if not, I'll come right back."

"I, er-" She hesitated, then sheepishly continued, "Or, I'll try and help you myself... I come from a family of doctors, so I've read some books on diseases."

Vin heard this and raised a brow before a soft and surprisingly painful chuckle escaped his mouth. "Doctors, huh? That's unexpected."

Lynn glared at him, forcing his smile into hiding. He covered his mouth and added, "Sorry, it just caught me off guard."

"Can't imagine they're too thrilled about you spending so much time on a board instead of in the books."

"Not at all. Since my parents own a practice, they expect me to take over the business one day," Lynn explained.

"Sorry, can't be easy," Vin replied sympathetically, knowing their situations were opposite. His family had given him nothing but support with skating, while hers likely tried everything to stop her.

Lynn squeezed her feet together, nervous energy seeping through her words, "It's ok."

Lynn's shoulders slumped slightly as she seemed to recall her past struggles. Vin didn't think it was 'simply ok', but it wasn't his place to prod. He caught her eyes and softly added, "I hope your dreams come true, Lynn."

The girl held contact, twirled a loose strand of hair, and then mumbled, "Thanks, I hope so too."

The conversation came to a natural end. Vin was satisfied with that brief but illuminating chat, but it was time to go.