Beacon

Bluebird

"Vey!"

As Sargent Yiiji faded away, so did the rest of the world, everything twisted to black and Vanessa felt weightless.

Then a pressure, as if her brain was struggling to escape from its confines within her skull.

"Vey!"

Who is Vey?

Vanessa cleared her eyes. She was no longer in Brighton.
She was in a bed that was not her own, wearing a gown that fit her flawlessly but she did not recognise and the room was foreign to her. Her focus found a bluebird chirping merrily by the window, staring back at her with small black orbs.

A bluebird? In Europe?

She heard a doorknob twist and the door open, a unique sound she had only ever heard in old movies, she inhaled the delightful aroma of herbal tea, honey, and citrus. Vanessa tried to turn her head to glimpse who had entered but found the effort impossible, the bluebird fluttered away and out of sight, leaving her with the stranger next to her.

Glass clinked gently against a wooden nightstand, breaking the prolonged silence, "I'm sorry, V."

That voice...

She felt a warmth so familiar, a soft kiss on the side of her head. Her body rejected any move as she desperately strived to discover who was there. To know.

"Vey, please. Talk to me."

Vanessa finally began to turn her head as the realm around her disappeared and darkness consumed her vision.

"V, come on. Talk to me." Vanessa cringed as she came to, that voice.

Vanessa's eyes met with golden ones, filled with concern. "Yiiji?"

For an instant, his expression twisted to disappointment then promptly hid it behind laughter. "You had me worried, V."

"What... what happened to me?"

"Hard to say. Local authorities are calling it an Altered State Existence. It is only affecting humans, so far. Seems they are becoming static between dimensions or, in rare cases, points of time. Some are completely merged into other dimensions, they think. There are a lot of people unaccounted for. Thankfully, you remained here..." Vanessa started to sit up, Sarge offering her assistance, holding her carefully around the shoulders and providing support as she righted herself. That warmth.

Different points in time...

"Sarge..." Vanessa attempted to form some kind of question but didn't know where to begin. It was prohibited to ask your direct superior personal questions, but she felt she deserved one. "Have you ever been in love?" The cliché of the query from every foolish rom-com she had ever seen made her feel ashamed of herself.

Vanessa dared a glance at Sargent Yiiji to see him distraught from her shoddy inquiry, he opened his mouth to speak and snapped his jaw shut, his eyes cast down and he took a deep breath in. "Yes."

Touchy subject.

Vanessa had so many more questions but she knew better than to tempt another. "We need to get you to med, your band says you're fine, but it's worth a check. Did you go anywhere when you were out?"

"No," she lied, uncertain how she would depict what occurred, "what happened to the guy who hit me, and what did he hit me with?"

"He got away, we aren't sure what it was."

"Sarge. I saw him go down."

"He got away." His tone a low growl that compelled her to move back unconsciously. "Let's get you to med, ok?"