The Thing Inside Me

Chapter 22

After eating we all divided heading our separate ways. I opened the infirmary door to see Sapphire sleeping unconscious. She looked peaceful except the slight downwards tilt of her eyebrows. What are you dreaming about? I wondered as I took a seat in the hard black chair next to the bed. There was a knock at the door, "Come in." I said as I turned my attention to the door. It opened revealing a tall dark figure, Bruce. I stood to acknowledge his presence, "Update." He said as he picked up the blank vital chart. "I have it recorded on my computer." I said bringing it up with a few taps on my wrist. He wrote them down as we went over them. "Hmm, she may be in a self induced coma." He said calmly. "Yah." I sighed, "I was hoping I was wrong." We both turned our attention to the girl. "Why do you need to talk to her so badly?" I asked looking up at him. "Unimportant." He said nonchalantly. "It obviously is if you came over here even though you have a meeting right now."

He glared at me intensely, I glared back. "She might know more information about that beast in Gotham. We can find a way to destroy it if we had more information." He said giving into my glare, but something told me that's not what he was thinking. "Why didn't you ask me to question her? Or are you hiding something else?" I questioned. He sighed, "She had great power and great potential, but that power is dangerous. I just want to keep her safe, make sure she learns to control it." He said as he approached the door. "You care for her." I said stating the obvious. "Not any more that you do." He said as he stepped out of the room and closing the door behind him. I looked back at her, her facial expression had changed a little. She looked more relaxed and tired. Do I really care for you? I pondered as I brushed her hair behind her ear. As the time went by I did lots of research on the monster and beings from space. But one question kept coming back to me, where did you come from?

There was a slight moment near the bed, I looked up from my watch. Sapphire? Her hand left hand twitched slightly. I reached for her hand without thinking, when our skin touched I found myself in a unfamiliar environment. Tall foreign buildings were lining busy streets filled with levitating vehicles. I watched in amazement as dinosaur-like creatures flew overhead. As I brought my gaze down from the sky my eyes fell upon a blonde girl. She was looking up at the sky with awe. She must have felt my gaze because she dropped her gaze and turned towards me. Her shining blue eyes met mine, Sapphire? She smiled at me. "Hey Grayson." She said as she approached me, her smile still beaming. "Sapphire, where are we?" I asked as I looked around again. "In my memories." She said calmly with a tone of sadness. "Your memories? Why do we have to be here?" I asked, "Do you not want to be?" She said concerned. "No, I do. I think... where are we again?" I said still trying to peace together everything.

"My memories of my home planet . This is where I came from." She said calmly, she let out a slow sigh as her gaze returned to the scenery. "How did you-" "When you touched my hand there were two things on your mind. Where I came from and if I am going to be alright. I wanted to answer your questions." She said before her expression turned sad. "However I was young when my planet was destroyed, I don't remember much. Not even it's name, or what my people were called." She sighed. "It's alright Sapphire, I don't really need all the answers right now." I said as I placed my hand on her arm. She turned towards me with a small smile. "Come on I'll show you around." She smiled as she took my hand and we raced down the buys street. "There are different species of us, the commoners, the nobles and the royals. Each look slightly different than the others and have slightly different powers." She pointed out as we walked by human like creatures, some had claws, some had tails, some looked like an ordinary humans. "How do you know what class they belong too?" I asked as we slowed our pace. "I don't, I don't even know what one I belong too." She shrugged. I gently squeezed her had to draw her attention from her own thoughts. She looked at me and smiled. "Come on, this way." She giggled as she tugged me along.

We came to a stop upon a large garden filled we exotic flowers of many different shapes and colors. "A garden? When you got excited to show me something I thought it would be bigger... more exciting." I said dumbfounded. She giggled beside me then her soft fingers lifted my chin. "Like that?" Before us was a massive metallic building, the sun reflecting off it nearly blinding me. "Come on lets go inside." Sapphire smiled as she ran down the paved path towards the great building. I ran after her with a smile across my face. She looked behind her when her eyes met mine it felt like my heart skipped a beat. We made it to the tall building coming to a stop when we noticed the guards blocking the door. "How do we get in?" I asked as I took a few more steps and coming to a stop nest to her. She turned to face me, then stared to walk backwards. "We are in my memories, they aren't real. None of it is." As she spoke her last words she disappeared through the closed door.

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and stepped through the large golden doors. I felt a cool sensation through out my body, it quickly vanished and I opened my eyes. Sapphire stood before me, a content smiled spread across her lips. "Welcome to the palace." She declared, speeding her arms wide. Her voice bounced off the walls with a quiet echo. "The palace?" I asked looking around. "Yup." She said joining my observation. "Pretty isn't it?" She said in a tone of awe. "Yah." I said gazing at her but quickly looked away before she could notice. She gave me a quick tour of the main level, it had a party room, a ballroom, kitchen, a large hall with pictures of previous monarchs and a banquet hall. After we left the palace Sapphire showed me some stores with exotic food and some of the wildlife. The day was coming to a end, the sun slowly setting with vibrant colors.

"There is one more thing I want to show you." She said with a duchenne smile. As the streets came more quiet I noticed there was something different about her, something that made my heart skip a beat. "We're a here." She said interrupting my thoughts. I looked up at the large spacious building. It was metallic with a glass domed roof. "Come on I want you too see this." She smiled, taking my hand in hers. We walked through the large doors that revealed objects of all sizes, shapes and colors. "This is the museum. If we are going to find out where I'm from, this is where we should start." She said letting go of my hand to look at the objects. "Why didn't we start here?" I asked confused. "If we did I don't think we would have as much fun as we did today." She said examining a skeleton of some sort of hybrid between a bear and a gorilla. "It's native to three planets in this solar system." She said acknowledging my gaze. "This... Preamaraperior is too." I said stumbling over my words a little. "That was pretty good." She said walking to the next object. "Thanks." I said starring at the panther-like raptor. "Is there a particular reason you have been acting different? I mean, you have been more... humanlike I guess." I mumbled. "I guess I just feel like I can be more like myself around you." She shrugged. "Me too." I responded without thinking, I slowly looked up to see her response.