Sentilia

Chapter 20

We had been standing there for a few minutes, when I noticed something orange on the ground, half hidden behind a tree a few feet away from us. As I took a step towards it, it disappeared. I heard a cracking sound and then I heard William groan. I didn't have time to turn around. I heard another cracking sound and it was my screech that I could hear echoing in the distance.

At first, I didn't feel that much pain. I was going into shock, and then I saw bright red blood on the ground. My arm started to throb, sending painful signals to my brain. Soon, the pain grew and began to overtake all my senses. The stabbing pain I had felt in my arm once, in my dream, was nothing compared to the unbearable agony I was enduring in that instant.

I fell to the ground, clenching at my arm. There was a thin metal pole lodge in it.

The orange object I had seen was part of a shoe.

There were 5 men now, grouping all around me and William, who seemed to be resisting the pain a lot better than I was.

They quickly grabbed the metal stick and pulled it out of my arm. By William's moan, I could tell they had taken out his, too. They covered our mouths and tied our arms, too, and it suddenly all felt too familiar.

I felt myself being lifted off the ground, and pushed forwards. I wasn't at liberty to turn around and see William, but I could hear numerous footsteps behind me. The people I remembered weren't this hostile. But I couldn't concentrate much further than that observation. My arm was oozing blood. And it was driving me mad not to be able to see William.

We walked for a few minutes. At first, they had tried to push me towards the right direction, making me walk without their arms supporting me, my sight was blurred and I couldn't see much.

But I eventually started picking up a faster pace, my arm was getting numb, and I led the way now, avoiding their rough tosses. I knew the way, and they quickly noticed.

I was following the path I knew would lead us back to the city.

We got to a fork in the road. The left side of the path went straight, and the right side went back at a 45-degree angle, but I remembered it just skirted around a huge boulder that was in the way and then looped back towards the city. So I took the turn without hesitation and heard mutters of surprised voices behind me, and then, nothing; no footsteps, not even a whisper. I turned around.

The men were all open-mouthed, their guns pointed towards me. "How long have you been here, spying on us?" One of the smallest of the bunch came forward, and ripped the piece of dirty cloth in my mouth.

I couldn't believe they were going to confront me here and now. The blood was racing through my veins and my arm started throbbing atrociously again. I threw a glance towards William, standing behind them, and I could feel his rage through the wild glint in his eyes. I had seen it before, in Elis's.

I hesitated; this was no longer a dream. I had to be careful about what I said. I couldn't lie even if the truth sounded ridiculous. It would be the best way to go. Maybe the people here knew what was happening to my mind.

"I know my way, only because I've been here before, in a dream...I know it sounds crazy, but I swear, I wasn't spying on you!"

The man hesitated for a moment, then his face changed: "Yeah, right...Okay get them to the city...I'm sure they'll get a kick out of her crazy talk." The short man came towards me, turned me around and pushed me in the back. I started walking again.

"She speaks the truth." The last voice came from behind all of us. I was too frightened to turn around to see whom the voice belonged to, because I recognized it at once. It couldn't be anyone else's.

"K! s...sorry, I don't want to contradict you, but—"

"Then don't. No offense, Greg, but the last time we listened to your opinion—"

"I...fine. Just tell me what to do with them."

"First of all, take care of their wounds, then, bring them over. Stop treating them like spies, and take off all those ties. They won't run away Greg, they came searching for us." How did he know we had come here searching for them? His tone of voice was firm and authoritative. I'd never heard him like this. But I wasn't surprised he was here. K was always there to save me. Also, William had mentioned him earlier, when he was talking about his sister leaving.

The man name Greg nodded, and I heard K walk away. I couldn't help myself from half turning to watch him leave, wanting to make sure it really was him. He was almost out of sight—I was the only one who could see him now—he turned his head towards me. His face was full of yearning, and a hint of helplessness. At first I didn't understand his face because I was so happy to see him in real life, but then he touched his arm and I looked down at mine. He was sorry because I was in pain. I could feel his bright eyes piercing all the way through my soul. Then, Greg tied a tight tourniquet around my arm. I couldn't see my face, but I reckoned it looked like a mixture of crippling pain and total confusion. Kleio stayed there and held my eyes for a moment, his face mirroring exactly what I felt, and disappeared into the forest.

As he vanished, my eyes fell back to William, and he was staring directly at me with almost hostile eyes while the men were taking care of his wound. I felt bad for a moment, because I hadn't told him about K, and it must have seem strange for me to be so happy to see him, and for him to know why we were here.

Wait. How did he know why we were here? And how come he had the same name? Had he also had the same dreams? Like William had? Had all of my dreams been some sort of premonition? It seemed to me that some things I dreamed about had been accurate, and some weren't. However, if K knew about me and why I came here, I'm positive he would have some of the answers I was after. He would definitely have some explaining to do sooner rather than later.

I turned back towards the other men. Half of them were catering to William, the other half started taking off all of our ties, and cleaning up my arm. It stung when they got to the lacerated wound, but I held myself straight and kept quiet, like William did.

The bandaged my arm, and stepped out of the way.

I glanced warily towards William. I spotted the dried blood on his arm first. Then I saw his bloodstained denims. One side had been almost completely cut off, and around his bare leg was a second tourniquet. I hadn't realized he'd been shot twice.

I ran towards him, and he caught me with one arm. He held me tightly against his body for a brief instant before I pushed myself away, not wanting to touch any of his wounds. He took my shoulders and held me at an arms distance, scrutinizing my face. "Are you okay?" His voice was rough. Then he pulled me closer again.

"We need to get you to a doctor." It was one of the men who had just spoken, clearly irritated by our short reunion.

"He's right, let's go." William's low voice in my ears, his breath on my neck, made me forget the pain for a moment; I could only feel chills running up and down my spine.

We followed the men out of the forest to my beloved city, which looked unchanged. The sight of it made me feel perfect bliss. The throbbing in my arm went numb again.

I looked at William and smiled. Upon seeing the city and the houses, his eyes widened and his mouth opened. We walked down, and he couldn't take his eyes off the city; he was stumbling on branches and rocks but kept looking straight.