OverSimplified- DanPlan dystopian future au

8

"I heard the entire thing." He says.

"Well good for you," I say. "It's not my problem. And it's not your problem either."

"I still feel bad." Stephen moves a little. "I think Stephen is awake now."

I look over in time to see Stephen fall off of the other couch. He opens his eyes and quickly gets up. A confused look spread onto his face as his surroundings came into his view. Stephen looks at me and Hosuh, and we look back at him.

"Where the hell are we, Hosuh?" He asked. Stephen was clearly annoyed. "This isn't the car, and why is Jay passed out? How long have I been passed out for?"

"We got in a crash, the car was obliterated. You were dying. You know, a classic Tuesday for you." replied Hosuh. He was being sarcastic, weird for Hosuh. "If we didn't seek help, you and Jay would have died. And yes, we did consider that this goes against everything but I think that you will be happy that we did get help."

"How? We can't trust the healers." Stephen was angry now. He stepped closer to Hosuh, trying to scare him. "They can turn us in. We can lose our freedom and end up rotting in a jail cell until the air pollution kills us."

"Well, I think that your idea of going to help is damn stupid." Hosuh was looking up at Stephen for once. This was very strange and has never happened. Hosuh only argues, and never to Stephen or Jay. "You could have died and I carried you for at least six miles to get help. We all could have died if we stayed put trying to fix problems with useless materials."

"Well I think I should step in before one of you kill the other," I say. "Stephen, the leader here claims to be your friend. Her name is Ann."

Stephen turns over to me, breaking eye contact with Hosuh. "Did you say Ann? With pink hair?"

"Yeah, you know her?"

"Where is she? Ann?" he called out. And she appeared from the kitchen doorway. Her face lit up at the sight of Stephen.

Ann ran over to hug Stephen and knocks him onto the couch next to me. They start laughing and hugging while me and Hosuh look at each other. I get up and go over to Jay to try to wake him up. Jay is sleeping silently and still, his face stuck in a neutral expression. I shake him and his arms flinch. His head rises and looks over at Stephen and Ann, who are now sitting next to each other talking. He looks back at me and Hosuh. Hosuh is in the doorway, leaning against the frame and looking at Stephen and Ann. His expression made him look like he was going to kill Ann. And with what happened, I was pretty sure he was going to do it. My gaze falls back on Jay, who was getting up off of the couch. Jay strides over to the kitchen and disappears into the room. I sit down on the couch where Jay had just left, my head spinning and struggling to get a grasp of the situation. What was going on?

Jay P.O.V

I woke up in a strange place, and in an even stranger situation. Stephen was talking to a girl and had a genuine smile. Hosuh was looking all shady in the door frame and looked like he was going to go on a murdering spree. Daniel was standing in front of me, with a serious face. That was abnormal for Daniel to have a serious expression, but I just assumed that he was confused. I lift my head and think for a bit, studying Ann some more. On the other side of the room, I see an open door. Not knowing where it went and wanting to get away from weird Stephen and shady Hosuh, I got up and went into the room it leads to. I can feel Daniel's eyes on the back of my head, but I keep walking. The room, as it turns out, was a kitchen. There was a huge dent in the tile back splash and it had some traces of red on it. I get a little closer to the scene and see that the red was blood, and the dent looked new. Looking for more clues, I search the ground to see if there was any sign of struggle. Nothing. Deciding that this was good enough evidence to show that no one had hurt my friends, I moved on to the next room. This was a hallway that had three doors, all of them closed. I choose the closest door on the right and was greeted with a bedroom. It looked like a normal bedroom, a bed, a dresser, nothing special. There was a chest in the corner and I walk over. The chest unlocked, so I open it. There were pictures, stuffed animals, and books. Some may call them memories. I close the chest and walk over to the bed. Once I crawled to the middle of the bed, I sit there. My legs hugged up to my chest and head tucked into my knees, I started to think. I focus on the dresser in front of me, noticing every little detail. My peripheral vision has faded to white, the dresser was the only this that I saw. My hearing numbs too, the only thing with me was my thoughts. My mind was racing, sewing together clues in the impossible puzzle of life in the Tainting.

I know that life is an endless pieced puzzle that is no mere jigsaw, but that never stops me from at least trying to find the corner pieces. The corner pieces are the base of every puzzle, and the rest is a fill-in. I'm always trying to figure out where the corner pieces are and how I can fill in the puzzle. What I saw behind the dumpster a few days ago made my table flip over. All my pieces that were specially placed had been scattered onto the floor, like spilled blood. For the first time in eight years, I felt my eyes get hot. With much hesitation, I let a single tear slip past. Yet I was holding back an ocean of them, held up from the past years when I had to stay strong. I didn't notice my surroundings. I couldn't see the figure standing in the doorway as a silently grieved the past. The past that I had tried so hard to throw behind me had came running back up to me. Pouncing me and not letting go, even when I try to throw it off of me.

I finally see Hosuh, standing quietly in the doorway. His eyes studying me like I was a piece of art. He was silent and still, his hand grasping the door frame keeping him steady. All of my senses come flooding back in a sudden wave of reality. I look up and try to meet his eyes, but my mind won't let me. My guard had dropped for the first time in forever. He walks over and sits at the foot of the bed, and looks at me.

"Are you okay, Jay?" He asks, his pale blue eyes flooding with worry. "You disappeared three hours ago. I went looking for you and watched you for thirty minutes." I say nothing.

"You know, Daniel and Stephen are also worried. If that makes you feel any better." I sigh. "A noise is good enough for me. Do you want to talk about it?" Still quiet.

"Just, know that I'm here, okay?" he starts to get up but I grab his arm.

"Wait," My voice was weak, vulnerable. I hated it. "Can we talk?" He sits back down and looks at me.

I take in a shaky breath and begin to tell him everything that has been swarming my mind.

TBC