Chapter 6 - Secrets, Wondering, and Worrying

Konso sighed. “Why couldn't Tom have been the young one and the other the older one?” he said.

Joe was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“There would have been one more here with us,” Shimaki explained. “But she was too young. We would have waited another year so she would b the age Kristie is now, but we couldn't wait any longer.”

Joe thought for a little bit. Then, suddenly, what they were saying made sense. “My sister!” he exclaimed.

Shimaki smiled and nodded to let him know he was right.

“What about your sister?” Amy asked.

“I didn’t realize it before,” Joe said. “How stupid am I?! Only certain people can talk to and see the creatures, like us. And my sister tried to calm Shimaki down today when he got. . . wound up. That means she was able to see and hear him. I didn’t notice. She is seven years old, and if she was a year older, she would be here too. But, I have to wonder, would there be another creature that would have been her own?”

“No, Joe,” Pensa said. “You and Sarah would both have Shimaki. There is no one else willing to do what we are trying to do. Besides, we didn't want to drag more people than necessary into this mess.”

“But,” Joe said, “that means that there would only be four creatures to help five people.”

“We know that,” Sakra said. “But Shimaki is very strong. That is why we sent him to you. We know everything about each of you. And, yes, that means we also know about what happens to you at home, whether it is good or bad.”

Kristie, Joe, and Amy looked sad at this.

“Nothing bad happens to me at home,” Tom said. “Don’t you even say that anything does.”

“You would be surprised at the things that are right in front of you, Tom,” Shimaki said. “You may not be able to see something that involves you until someone reminds you of what has happened. But enough of that. You all need to get some sleep. Don’t worry about a thing. Just in case, the four of us will guard you to make sure nothing bad happens to you.”

This would all be really easy for them, since creatures don’t need sleep unless they are one of the creatures that are part human.

Amy didn’t want anyone to get hurt, that was true. Her kind nature doesn’t allow her to want anyone or anything to get hurt. She is even a vegetarian and doesn’t like things that pollute the environment. But, since she wasn't sure what she had to do yet and she was concerned it would involve violence, she wasn’t sure if she could hurt anything in order to keep a whole race from becoming extinct.

Sure, they hadn’t said anything about her hurting any creature. But what if the only way to get that creature back to normal was to hurt them? How could she do that? She didn’t know what, how, or why, but something always stops her before she can do anything that involves harming anything else. Well, at least things that aren’t absolutely necessary.

What am I going to do now? Amy asked herself. It’s too late to turn back, so I need to go on. But I don't know if I will be able to help in the long run...

She lied down on her side so that nobody could see her face and started to cry.

I just don't know if I can do this.

She went to sleep with a very heavy mind and only got about half an hour of sleep until she woke up from a dream.

In her dream, she had met a version of what her mind had thought might be the creature they have to save, and it turned out that they have to fight them. At first, she hesitated and wasn’t going to fight them at all. But, once she hit them, she couldn’t stop. It was almost like she went mad. She kept hitting them and hitting them until they died. And she went around killing everyone in sight. She couldn’t help it. She killed Kristie, Sakra, Tom (which she didn’t really mind because she didn’t particularly like his actions, but it still bothered her at least some), and even Joe.

She was really happy she woke up from her dream, but she wasn’t able to get back to sleep afterwards. And there was at least six more hours before dawn. What was she supposed to do until then? If she couldn’t get back to sleep before dawn, she would be slowing everyone down and she wouldn’t be able to keep her eyes open.

So she tried very hard to get back to sleep, but she couldn’t. If only her stupid mind would stop thinking about that nightmare, she would actually be able to sleep. Her mind is always doing that. It is always makes nightmares for her she isn’t able to forget for about a day or two. Once, it created a nightmare she couldn’t forget for weeks.

Then, she found something else to think about. But that didn’t even let her fall asleep. It kept her awake for a long time, wondering. When Sakra had said about them knowing everything about the four humans, she wasn’t the only one that looked sad. She saw that Joe and Kristie did too. So that meant that they had something wrong at home, just like her.

And Tom obviously had something wrong at home too, because of what Shimaki had said after Tom said that there was nothing wrong at his home. There must be something wrong if Shimaki lectured him about not noticing things that are right in front of you directly to him.

So something is wrong either with each of them, or something that concerns or involves them. That would just make the four creatures worry even more.

It must be really hard having four partners who have something wrong at home while helping them with a mission like this, Amy thought. I wish I could help. . .

She was trying to think of two things: one was what might be wrong with everyone else, which she couldn’t think of any solutions. and the other was to find a way to help the creatures from worrying about the four of them. But she couldn’t think of any solutions to that, either.

She spent about one hour trying to figure out solutions and the rest of the time trying to go to sleep. After about five hours of trying, Sakra nudged her.

“Come on, Amy,” Sakra said. “Time for us to go.”

Amy got up with her eyelids drooping down, trying to cover her eyes.

“Did you sleep well,” Sakra asked.

“Um, yeah,” Amy said. “I slept fine.”

Okay, so she only had half an hour to sleep. But she didn’t want to worry them even more. She just had to try to not be slow and keep her eyes open. That would work. That would keep them from worrying either way. She just hoped she’d be able to pull it off. If she wouldn’t, everyone would have to stop and wait for her to try to get to sleep and that would just slow them down.

Amy stood up and waited for everyone else to wake up. It took about ten minutes. She would have never guessed it would take so long to wake a fifteen-year-old up. She stopped herself after that thought so she wouldn’t go on to tease Tom. He didn’t seem to be a very nice kid or a kid anyone would get along with, but maybe he would change over time.

“Okay, everybody,” Pensa said. “Let’s go. Konso, please travel by the sky.”

Konso nodded and flew up into the sky.

Amy looked at Pensa and was amazed when she saw her leap into the water and turn into a dolphin.

Oh, yeah. She's a shape-shifter... Amy reminded herself

Sakra climbed up into a tree and explained that she would travel by jumping from tree to tree.

Very smart, Amy thought. One creature travels by sky, one by water, one inside thick trees and bushes, and one by normal land. That way, there would be the least amount of chance of anything sneaking up on them from anywhere, as long as somebody watches behind the whole group. And that somebody was Shimaki.

Amy didn’t drag behind too far, but she was behind everybody else except for Shimaki so that there was less chance of anyone seeing her tired.

After a few minutes of walking, Joe started to walk a little slower until he ended up walking right beside Amy.

“You didn’t get much sleep last night,” he whispered. “You lied.” He wasn’t talking in a mean way. Actually, the way he was talking was kind of . . . sweet.

“Oh,” Amy said. “Um, I’m sorry. It’s not my fault. I had a lot on my mind.”

“I was able to sleep,” Joe said, “but I didn’t get very much. I was worried about everything, too. I was wondering what goes on at the three of your houses. Because of the way you guys responded and what Shimaki said to Tom I could tell that something is wrong at each of your homes. Don’t worry. It’s the same way for me.”

“I could tell. But that wasn’t the only thing on my mind,” Amy said. “I was wondering how I am going to do this whole thing. I was also worried about a nightmare I had in the half-hour-sleep I got last night. I was so. . . I don’t know. It was weird. I am nice, but in my dream, I was a monster that killed everyone that was in sight... It just. . . scared me.”

“You don’t think you’re going to attack everyone you see in real life, do you? I know you won’t. You are one of those people who won’t do that. You might change a little, though. You might be able to handle certain things better, but I know that you will not go on a killing spree because of that.” Joe smiled at Amy reassuringly.

Amy blushed. Nobody had ever been this nice to her before. At least, not a human. Only Sakra had been this nice to her, but now she knew she had a friend of her own species. But she didn’t know why she was blushing. Maybe she was just surprised. Yeah, that had to be it.

“I got a few hours of sleep,” Joe said. “I didn’t think you got such less sleep. I mean, when I was awake, so were you, but I thought that you had to get some sleep while I was sleeping. Maybe you should tell them.”

“No,” Amy said. “I don’t want them worrying. Why do you think I’m back here? I won’t tell them, and I won’t let them find out. Either way, they will worry, and I don’t want them worrying anymore than they have to.”

“If you don’t tell them, they will worry even more than if you do. So what if we’ll be held back a few hours so you can get some sleep? We can handle that.”

“It would take a few days before I’d be able to fall asleep. That’s why.”

“Oh, well, if you tell them what’s going on, I’m sure they can understand. Everybody needs sleep.”

“I’m sorry. I won’t.”

“Okay. I won’t make you. But if something happens to you, I am going to tell them. How long has it been since you have slept at all?”

“That half hour last night added to the past week makes four hours within the past week.”

“You really need some sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, something can happen to you. And whatever it is won’t exactly be good. Not to mention, you do look a little pale and feverish.”

Joe felt Amy’s forehead.

“Yep, you definitely have a fever. I am going to tell them.”

“No, please don’t. I promise I’ll be fine.”

Joe looked at her face and couldn’t help but listen to her. He just couldn’t go against her wishes. She was worried about them worrying about her, which kind of makes no sense, but he just felt like he had to listen to her.

“Fine, I won’t,” Joe said. “But just know that even if they aren’t worrying about you, I am.”

Amy looked up at Joe’s serious face. She couldn’t make him worry about her like that. He was serious, so she just couldn’t.

“Okay. I don’t want you worrying about me so much,” Amy said, “and by the look on your face, you are telling me that something bad might happen to me soon, so, you can--”

She was late in agreeing to Joe telling them. She had fainted.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment