1996 | Y.Jw

| 2.2 |

The train station was a small little red building, in which there were benches standing across the one big room it held, besides a toilet. In one corner was another smaller room with a lady sitting behind a counter.

"When's the train to Toronto?" Emiko questioned the lady by the counter.

"The expected arrival is in about two minutes, please be aware that it might be belated by a bit," the woman shortly replied, "do you want a ticket?"

"No thanks, we're picking someone up," Emiko smiled brightly before pulling us out to the platform. The only one that really was.

We had barely even stepped out onto the platform before we watched a train roll towards us. A small smile spreading on Lin's face as she watched it.

"Alright so... we're gonna go unseen until the next station and then we can find a pair of seats to sit in for teh rest of the ride," Emiko murmured quietly, "Heeseung explained trains to me. If we get to the next station and say we stepped on in Maine they won't check our tickets, because they assume they've already been checked last time."

"Genius," Lin commented as the train zoomed past us and came to a loud and screeching halt.

"So... let's go," Emiko shrugged and grabbed our hands.

We watched as a few people got onto the train before stepping onto it ourselves, out of any possibility that we were going to be touching anyone. We sat down on the ground near the exit, but out of the way for anyone walking past us.

None of us sat anything as we felt the train start moving, the train conductor pass by, people walking past us to get to the toilet. Luckily there wasn't long to the next station we stopped at.

Immediately Emiko pulled Lin and I to our feet and dragged us through the train, this time people just merely glanced at us as if they didn't mind our explicitly white clothing at all.

"Here," Lin stopped us by a four man table and pulled us to sit down. Forcing Emiko and I to sit down by each other as she sat across from us, "enjoy the next twenty hours ladies."

It was quiet for a while, we were just looking out the windows in silence. Once the train conductor had asked to see our tickets Emiko had just casually waved it off with us getting on in Maine and already having gotten our tickets checked. To be fair teh conductor was quite naive to believe us so quickly.

"Emi..." Lin slowly trailed off, getting a small hum in return fro said girl, "you never told us what happened when they took you."

"I just went to the bathroom," Emiko shrugged casually, "once I got out of the booth miss Hopkins stood there and forced me to come with her. I don't know how we got out without Riki noticing. I couldn't fight back, no matter how hard I tried. It was quite... odd. As if my skills didn't exist by then."

"You were inactive for too long," I murmured quietly and she frowned at me, "I experienced the same the night they got Lin and I... I was struggling to even do anything, even though Jungwon couldn't see. It was as if I had to use too much energy to even do it. You were caught off guard and not ready to use your skills at all."

"It happened at the mall too," Lin nodded, "after I had asked Riki to leave and get to safety. I couldn't do what I had to do."

"Then... if we find the boys..." Emiko slowly trailed off, "you don't suppose they're unable to use their skills, do you?"

"We can't be sure Emi," Lin shook her head quietly, "nothing is sure... we don't even know if they're still in Meadow Ville... or if the lab ever got them as well."

"They didn't take Jungwon," I shook my head, "they only took me. They beat him up before taking me away."

"We know," Emiko nodded at me, getting a frown from Lin, "or well... I know."

"How?" Lin questioned in confusion, "I didn't know this."

"She's been screaming in her sleep," Emiko shrugged, "the walls in Maine was a lot thinner than they were in Meadow Ville... She kept screaming for Jungwon and for them to stop hitting him... about how they were hurting him. I thought your nightmares were back, but you never seemed to be fatigued the same way when you had all those nightmares. Instead it was suddenly Lin who had nightmares."

"Okay, but I haven't been talking in my sleep, so you wouldn't know that," Lin defended making Emiko and I glance at one another.

"The bags under your eyes have given it away," I clarified making Lin huff before leaning back in her seat.

"It's alright for you to get nightmares," Emiko excused, "I had them too until they got you girls too. I don't like being alone."

"But! Now we're together and in less than a week we'll be with the boys again," Lin happily reminded, "and hopefully... not too much have happened in the past seven months.

It was quiet between the three of us as we watched the daylight turn to the night through the window. The landscape getting harder to see through the darkness. Every once in a while we could see city light whenever we stopped at a station, but mainly all we could see was the moonlight reflecting in the waters we travelled past.

Slowly, one by one, we all fell asleep knowing that July, 1997, will be the month in which we return home to what we missed and to where we belonged.