Fantasy Vs Reality | The Tear

28: He Remembers

I watched silently as Coal thrashed in his sleep, like a looming shadow in a seemingly empty room aside from the bed he resided on. He moaned and clawed at his bandages around his arm. He was extremely twitchy and he grinded his teeth. I tried to stop him, but my body was once again... still sleeping in the chambers of my... Storm's room. It seemed that I was dreaming again.

"I... c-can't..." Coal said in his sleep as he tossed and turned. His teeth there bared back in a snarl, his face was twitching vigorously. "I'm s-so sorry..."

Jacob was sitting farther away, watching intently. He looked thoroughly exhausted. I wanted to offer to watch and comfort Coal for a while to let him sleep, but I couldn't find my voice, so I just continued to watch silently. It felt like I couldn't feel any emotions and I had this blank feeling inside me, like something had left me.

Storm was standing next to me, she was floating like last time, she would've startled me, had I not known I was dreaming. 

"Hava." She stated after a moment of watching Coal.

"Storm." I replied, suddenly finding my voice.

"It's time that the Tear has been looked in to and found. If you delay much longer, the doom quickly approaching will be inevitable." She said.

"But how? How can I even find this... this star when Coal doesn't even remember where it is?"

"Talk with the robot. It will tell you." Storm said, turning to face me. Her neon green eyes stared unblinking and glowing brightly. She looked stronger than before. She didn't look frail like the first time I had seen her.

"What does K9 have to do with Coal?" I asked, feeling stupid. My mind was all fuzzy in the dream, I couldn't think clearly.

"Talk to him. And you'll find out soon enough." Storm said, crossing her arms. "You better go now. We have to return to my body."

I nodded my non-existent head. "Alright. Thank's Storm." If I could've altered the tone of my voice, I would've packed it full of sarcasm. But she seemed to pick up on it nonetheless.

"I promise you will be able to return home soon Hava."

~~

My eyes darted open as I stared up at the familiar panels above my bed. I sat up, rubbing the sleepiness from my eyes. I felt fully awake within minutes. I looked up at my clock and it said "2:13am." I grabbed Storm's necklace and put it on, and quietly went to the door, opened it, and stepped through.

As I walked down the hallway, I looked for traces of K9 anywhere. I remembered Jacob saying something about K9 going down to the Research Station and helping Sil scan the flora, but it was more likely that Sil would be in bed at this hour. I decided to head down the elevator and begin looking around, taking advantage of being alone with the robot. I decided it would be best to follow the signs on the walls. I changed my path at the last minute.

"Okay..." I breathed. "Just gotta find K9 and... talk to him about Coal... remembering things?" This was sounding stupider and stupider every time I thought about it. "I sure hope you know what you're doing Storm."

I walked down one of the empty corridors, my soft pads barely echoing off the floor with every step I took. I turned corners and followed the signs as best as I could until I came to a section of the ship I hadn't come across before. I knew that the engine had to be huge, but I didn't know there were four rooms and... four engines.

I wasn't sure why I decided to go to the engine rooms instead, it almost felt like I wasn't the one controlling myself. I frowned.

Deciding that I would have to go inside one of them sooner or later, I chose the first engine room with the title "Engine 1A" and opened the latch on the door. I scanned my hand on the door and it buzzed red. I jumped backwards in alarm and glanced around, bracing for some sort of alarm, but nothing happened. After a moment the door suddenly opened.