Toss Up (Danny Rand)

The Truth

"Says the one who snores like a broken-down pick-up truck," Connor mutters.

"You guys were awake?"

"We have been for a while. Damn newbie . . ." Ax says rubbing the back of his neck.

"What he means is, we were worried about you Ari," Connor says as Ax jumps down from his bunk to sit next to me on the floor.

"Whatever."

Connor joins him, leaning his head on Ax's shoulder as Tracey hobbles over next to Simone. He hands a note to me and even though I have to strain my eyes to see it (this kid had better handwriting than me!) in the lack of light I can see that he wrote: "We're glad you're safe." With a little cartoon drawing of us all. I smile, reaching over to ruffle his messy brown hair.

"Thanks, Tracey," he flashes me a tiny smile before we all sit in silence for a moment.

"It feels like something big is about to happen . . ." Connor says wrapping his arms around himself.

"You too, huh?" Simone asks.

"Bet it has to do something with Newbie." Ax sighs, nudging my leg with his elbow. "I don't know if anyone else experienced it, but whenever this idiot comes back from being taken away for the umpteenth time I see a bunch of people in a big white house . . . I look a lot like them."

"You remember your family?" Connor asked incredulously with an excited grin. "That's great!" I can tell Ax blushed a little at the closeness of their faces as looks away. "I only remember a woman . . . she's short with long black hair in a braid. I think she's my mom . . ." he sniffles a bit, rubbing his eyes. "It's weird how I don't remember her, but I really, really miss her."

Tracey tugs at Simone's sleeve, and she holds the piece of paper up so that we can all see it. It's a portrait of a man with a thick mustache. His bespectacled eyes are closed in a warm smile and crinkled at the corners. Beside him is a rather pretty woman with her hair tied over her shoulder, but something about her seemed wispy like she wasn't really there.

"Is that your dad? He looks like a really nice guy." She says wrapping him up in a half hug. "I only remember a woman with hair like mine and a stern-looking face. She's a little blurry, but I don't think she's my mother."

"Maybe she's your aunt?" I say as she shrugs.

"Maybe . . . I guess Ari's remembering is contagious."

"So then where are the spiders? I'm itching for a fight." Ax says cracking his knuckles.

"They're usually here by now . . ." I say keeping, an eye on the door. A chill goes down my spine then as I realize what the woman I saw was saying to me when I was conscious. 

"'Hold your breath.'"

"What?"

"Everybody, focus really hard and take in the biggest breath you can," I say as the ground begins to shake. They all spring to their feet, holding on to our bunks to keep steady.

"O-okay!" Connor shouts as a flashing red light bleeds through our doors. "You guys better be okay after this!" he says taking in the biggest gulp of air he could.

The others follow suit as I nod and just like that with a blinding flash of red light, I wake up in the same liquid that I was in before.

I look around frantically, the mask I had on before detached from me. I bang on the glass, my movement slow and sluggish. My lungs begin to burn as I let out a gasp, closing my mouth again to keep what precious little air I had left. I lift my legs up, the movement sending a tingling sensation down my spine as I kick at the glass.