Reality Check

We're The Same

[A/N - hey guys so it took me a while to get this chapter out bc I just started college about a week ago and have been super busy! So I don't think I'll be as active anymore because of that, but I'll still try to keep writing.
Enjoy the chapter!!]

Looking For The Answers (by Cage the Elephant)

"You can drive all night, lookin' for the answers in the pourin' rain. You wanna find peace of mind . . ."

___

It was official: they were one-hundred percent lost.

Ever since they'd escaped from the cave, Bethany and her friends had been walking aimlessly through the woods. It wasn't the first time she'd been lost in a book, having no clue what direction to turn. That was how it felt sometimes when she jumped into Alice in Wonderland, since you could get easily lost and confused in there.

Although camping had never been Bethany's thing, it reminded her somewhat of the path her, Owen, and Kiel would take to get to the library, back on the real world. There was a shortcut through the woods, and the path was clear, making it rare when she tripped over anything. This wasn't the case here. With it starting to become dark, she found herself tripping more over sticks and rocks.

"Can you try again?" Owen asked.

Sighing, Bethany stood from the log she'd been sitting on. She then leaped into the air, willing her body to pass through the pages of the book. The only problem was: it didn't work. It hadn't been working, ever since they'd first left the cave.

"Why. Is. This. Happening?! It's still not working," she said, jumping again and again for good measure. "Just like it wasn't five minutes ago, just like it wasn't ten minutes ago, just like it wasn't—"

Owen watched from where he was standing, not being helpful at all. His face was scrunched with worry. He'd asked her to try jumping out of the book maybe every ten minutes, and every time she tried, it didn't work. She didn't know why he kept asking. It wasn't going to work anytime soon.

Panic rose inside her, but it was nothing compared to the fear what she'd felt earlier when this had first started happening. Looking for something to blame it on, she'd blamed it on her lack of energy. And she could've been completely right. Not that there was any proof that that was true.

"Hey, it's okay," Kiel said, hopping up from where he'd been sitting on the grass. He grabbed Bethany by the hands, forcing her to stop jumping. "It'll work later, Beth." He smiled. "Probably when you're less tired."

Groaning, Bethany tore her hands from his and turned away, not noticing the hurt look on his face. The pain was still fresh inside of her, and it had lingered since she'd gotten out of her fear sequence. She couldn't handle seeing Kiel look at her like that. Why did he have to be so nice and helpful? What was his problem? She didn't need his help!

And that included Owen and Gwen, who she'd pushed away when they'd tried comforting her. Bethany couldn't accept their help. They wouldn't be able to do anything to fix her powers. Only she could, and she didn't understand how to fix this or why her powers weren't working now.

The only other place they hadn't worked in was Jupiter City, when she and Owen had climbed through the portal in Murray Chase's basement. That hadn't turned out to be a good thing, because at the end, she couldn't jump out, leaving Nobody with the chance to separate her fictional and nonfictional halves. So you could imagine her discomfort now.

What Bethany had gone through today couldn't be changed. She had seen all of her friends leave her, and she'd seen her family leave her. But to see they were actually all okay? That they still loved her and cared about her? It was too much. She would've expected to be relieved — and she was, sort of — but most of all she just felt angry.