The Jade City

Chapter 17: A Final Farewell

"It's just me," I said as I walked, not even knowing who I was speaking to.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" The person asked in a sweet, feminine voice. Ruby.

"I can't," I murmured, crouching down beside her. It was far enough from the shore so I wasn't going to almost die again. My hand scooped up some sand, then dumped it back down with a flick of my wrist.

She hesitated. "Won't you be sleepy?"

"Nope."

"So you're just gonna stay out here the whole night?"

"Well, yeah, I guess. Isn't that what you're doing?"

"I'm just thinking," she muttered, "About stuff." Ruby sounded almost irritated, but if I'd interrupted Uncle Wu in the middle of a meditative session, he would definitely tell me off for it.

She got up and headed back into the tents. I continued to sit there, staring out at the dark waters. How I had managed to stay awake for so long remained a mystery. I only knew that I was awake, staring, the entire night.

Nothing happened. I didn't expect anything to.

Harumi's POV

I felt the water pressing in on me in every direction. Part of me wanted to shout out, to tell someone where I was. But when you're somebody who was suddenly stupid and had the waters drag you down, you couldn't really go back up. Somehow I could breathe. The Shadow Knight must've told the inhabitants of my arrival. But why didn't they kill me?

I didn't, or couldn't, open my eyes. Chains bound me tight to a sort of stone. My head lolled back and forth. I must've looked as stupid as I felt.

Then came another one of those head pains. I scrunched up my face, but it did nothing to help. It was like something was pressing my brain inward, mashing up all the thoughts. This was excruciatingly painful. I screamed, though no one was there to hear me. I thrashed, but the most exciting thing that happened was that the chains cut into my body, ripping some of the fabric. I didn't care. Nobody could see the mess that was me.

Guess I had to wait for a knight in shining armor to come save me...

And suddenly I was falling. Falling, dropping, plummeting. I opened my eyes and saw a swirl of color. There were vague images of people and events around the hole I was falling in, but I couldn't make them out. Weightlessness. Queasiness. Lightheadedness.

Was I finally going to go to the Departed Realm and realize that all this was some plot device to torture me for my crimes?

Then I couldn't see anything anymore.

...

I found myself in a pile of rubble and cement. For some reason the landing wasn't the least bit painful.

Then I heard voices. Very, very familiar voices.

"Is nobody gonna clean that up? It's been two and a half weeks already." My heart leaped into my throat as I recognized it as Jay's.

"They say it's cursed," another voice joined in, and this time it was Kai's. I immediately had a flashback to the funeral and felt my chest tighten. Was I in... Ninjago? But that wouldn't make sense...

"I mean, Harumi died here," Nya said. She emphasized my name bitterly, and all the memories of how she didn't care for me then liked me then hated me came rushing back.

"Okay, can we leave already?" I held my breath, now that I could tell Lloyd was the one talking. "The event starts in an hour."

"Yeah, but we're not old grandpas, we can get there in fifteen minutes," Kai said, "But okay, I get why you wanna leave. And besides, we get ambushed by fans all too often." He let out a sigh that sounded as if he was trying to not sound sad.