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Chapter 13

"Lukas?" I sigh, slowly releasing it as I choose to continue to wallow in this darkness.

"Come on buddy, I need my arm back." Jesse's arm starts to slide out of my grasp. At once, I tighten my grip and snap my head up. Eyes still a bit blurry around the edges.

"Huh?" I blink, before my back screams at me for being a horrible sleeper. I groan a bit and move my free hand to rub it. Just something else to add to the pile then.

"Lukas?" Shaking my head, unfortunately unable to remove any grogginess, and then look at Jesse. "Have you been there this entire time?"

I tilt my head, not awake enough to completely process what he said or the shocked tone he used. "I think so... I fell asleep like this, haven't woken up prior... yeah, I guess so."

"What happened to the early morning Lukas?" Jesse tries to tug his arm again, but I don't let go. I don't see any reason to let go. "You're never so out of it. Like, by now, you would have given me my arm back."

I look down at his arm, it's still attached to him. "You have control over your arm, I'm just holding it. I don't actually have it or own it or anything."

Jesse slowly blinks at me, before smiling and smacking his forehead with a chuckle. I rub the side of my face, confused why he's happy. I mean, I'm glad he is, but I don't see any obvious cause for it.

"And you all think I have problems, I can't believe you just said that Lukas. I thought you were the smart one out of all of us."

I shake my head, getting more confused. This is why I should still be asleep. "You're not making any sense Jesse, I didn't say anything not true."

"Oh gosh Lukas..." Jesse chuckles again. "Maybe you need to take it easy today, you're not off to a very good start."

"I don't get it." I wince and rub my sore back, maybe I should get up and straighten it. "I'm not sick or anything."

Jesse sits up, looking down at me with a smirk on his face. "Okay Lukas, what I mean is, can you please let go of my arm?"

I glance down at my hand before looking back up at Jesse. I have this impulse not to, but Jesse asked nicely. It would be rude to go exactly against his request. So, slightly begrudgingly, I let go of his arm.

And immediately hiss in pain as the tight muscles in my hand cramp up. I rub the sore joints, trying to unstiffen them. First my back, then my hand, and the dreadful feeling everything else is also going to be stiff and sore if I try to move it.

Maybe I should just go back to sleep then and not worry about any of this stupid pain again.

"Lukas? You okay?"

I open my mouth to say 'I'm fine' or something, when suddenly a whole lot of agonizing thoughts and memories bombard my head.

Sore aching muscles as I got out of bed the last time. Stiff groaning joints as I helped a lady in town. The memory of not being able to fall asleep and just wallowing in my fatigue, plagued by all sorts of different thoughts about the mess we're in now.

To recap: I'm in a world that was just freed from a super computer, that also enslaved Jesse, with me, Petra, and Ivor nearly dying to do that. We just learned, probably in the worst and craziest way possible, that Jesse is going through some massive problems that we don't even know the extent of yet. And we are super close to finally getting home but a vague strange woman isn't telling us how and we probably have to go through another super hard and super painful ordeal.

And all of this happen within the last four-ish days.

What is my life at this point?

"No, I just remembered everything. This time with the added note of feeling wowed at my own life. I really didn't think that was possible."