When I wake up, Colton is still asleep. I can't tell how early it is, but I find myself stuck in a pattern of falling back to sleep and waking up a few minutes later. I don't know what else to do, I'm not comfortable going outside and risking coming in contact with the family that I hardly know, so I just stare at the ceiling waiting for him to wake up.
The problem with sitting in silence with my thoughts to keep me company is that I think about things that stress me out. I can't stop thinking about what Brooke is doing at this moment. If she's worried and stressed about me, then that would be horrible because I don't want her to suffer. If she was living her life in the Afterworld normally, it would be like I wasn't even important in the first place.
I wonder how training is going, how Tanner and Jack are doing with me being gone. I assume that the fact that I might never return to them is harder to deal with than being away from me. I worry about it too, being trapped in the Underworld like Nick. But as I get to know Colton, it eases my nerves. I trust that he would handle the Underworld pretty well.
I wonder if Nick even knows what was going on. Does he even know he's in the Underworld? Does he know about the Afterworld? Does he have any hope of getting out? Has he aged at all like people do in the Afterworld? I probably won't even recognize him ten or so years older, so that would make it much harder to find him. He would have to recognize me first because I look somewhat similar to when I was alive.
I also wonder what could possibly be so bad down there, in the Underworld. Maybe it isn't horrible and Colton was lying to me. That sounds like something he would do, make me nervous for absolutely no reason.
I know all of the pure souls are sent to the Afterworld, but where is the line drawn? What separates a pure soul from an impure one? I know serial killers and stuff are obviously sent down there, but how bad do you have to be to be sent to the Underworld? I mean Colton almost got kicked out of the Afterworld for covering up a scar.
"How long have you been awake?" Colton asks in a raspy voice.
"Not long." I reply flatly. I feel trapped in a negative mindset.
I hear him pull the covers off of him. "What were you thinking about?"
I'm surprised by the question. "When I was in the Afterworld I missed Earth so much. Now that I'm here, I hate it. I can't believe I miss the Afterworld. I guess it is as perfect as they say." I sit up and watch Colton get ready.
He laughs at my comment. "You are just in a bad part of Earth. The Afterworld, it's not perfect. It definitely isn't. You'll understand when you become a stage three."
My curiosity increases. "How so?"
"Even in the nicest places lurks corruption." He remarks, which sparks an interesting topic. "Earth is corrupt. The Underworld is corrupt. The Afterworld is corrupt. Corruption is inevitable anywhere you go. Some places have less than others." He explains while tying his shoes. I begin to put my shoes on, though I'm unsure of where he's planning on going.
"How is the Afterworld corrupt? How can you live in a corrupt place when you're dead?" I inquire. I brush my hand through my hair, my clean hair. It feels so soft, but I can't imagine how frizzy it is.
"If it weren't for the Underworld, the Afterworld would be a perfect utopia. But good is always paired with evil. That's all I'm telling you." He pushes his backpack under his bed and opens the door.
"Can you at least give me an example?" I inquire, just to make him mad.
He sighs. "They purposely try to get people kicked out."
I narrow my eyebrows. He's messing with me. "What?"
"Overpopulation. That's a problem in the Afterword, it can only fit so many people. That's why it is so easy to get kicked out unless you're perfect. They do it the most to stage ones." He explains.
"Really? Why?"
"Because they're not permanent in the Afterworld yet, so it would be easier. They use artificial clouds to make thunderstorms so that some of the dumb stage ones that are willing to go over there are struck and sent down. It looks like an accident but it happens for a reason."
My face goes bright red, I know it. So when I almost fell off of the side of stage one, it wasn't an accident? I could've been one of those people who were sent down.
If that happened, Nick wouldn't have anybody to save him.
"Wait, so they purposely design things that can get people sent to the Underworld?" My voice gets louder. Is that what is beyond those clouds?
"No." Colton shakes his head. "You get sent down here. Only on rare occasions would a voyager be sent down to find you and save you."
"Oh."
Colton gathers a few of his things and heads towards the door.
"What are we doing?" I prompt, hopping off of the bed.
"Breakfast. We've got a day of work ahead of us." He sighs, exiting the house. As soon as the fresh air hits my skin, I can smell the food coming from the table outside, which draws me towards it.
"What do you mean?" I whisper after catching up with him.
"We have to help Arslan with the farm. It's kind of like a way to repay them for letting us stay here." He whispers back.
This trip cannot get any longer.
The breakfast is pretty good, it isn't as big of a meal as last night, but definitely enough to satisfy my stomach for the next few hours.
After we finish, the kids run off with Emine to do chores and Colton and I follow Arslan and a few others to the field beyond the village. There are tons of plants and vegetation; no wonder they had so much food.
"Alright, you eight know what to do. Colton and Juliet, you two go water the cornfield. The buckets should be over there." Arslan states, then turns to Colton. "You can teach her how to do it, you know. I'll see you two at lunch." He walks off after he finishes speaking.
Colton immediately takes off to the left, slightly towards the lake. A few hundred feet from it is a decently sized field of corn stalks, they have to be at least seven feet tall.
"How long is this going to take?" I ask.
"Normally it would take about thirty minutes to water this whole thing." He answers. The stalks tower over both of us, and two metal buckets sit on the ground next to them.
I pick up one of the buckets after he picked up the other. "What do you mean normally?"
"I never liked doing fieldwork. It would take a normal person half an hour to water this whole field, but if I finished this task in thirty minutes, Arslan would make me do more work. So I take an hour and a half to do it. By the time I'm done, lunch is ready." He explains, then walks off with the bucket.
"So what do you just do, sit and stall?" I quiz.
"Sometimes. The corn stalks are tall enough so that nobody can see what we're doing. We can do whatever we want."
I raise an eyebrow and smirk. "Whatever?"
He looks over at me with his eyebrows narrow. "Shut up." He pushes my shoulder and I stumble a few steps to the side.
"I wasn't hinting at anything, you just have a dirty mind." I state with a defensive tone. He rolls his eyes and continues walking.
We reach the lake after a few minutes and fill our buckets with water. It grosses me out that they use this lake for everything. It isn't even a lake, it's more like a large pond.
I sigh, remembering that today is the last day we're here, the last day before we head off to the Underworld.
The walk back to the corn field is harder since I'm carrying a metal bucket full of water, and the thin handle digging into my skin doesn't exactly help.
"Ya need help?" Colton questions, watching me struggle with my bucket.
I shake my head. "No, I've got it. I'm just not as strong down here."
"Yep, you tend to gain strength in the Afterworld and you don't realize it until you come back to Earth." Colton explains. He's clearly used to it, or maybe he's just naturally strong. Either way, he's having no trouble carrying the bucket.
"Alright." Colton grunts as he sets the heavy bucket onto the ground. "Here's what we're gonna do. You have to soak the dirt around the root, you can't just put a few drops onto the soil. I like to use an unnecessary amount of water so that I can take as many trips to the lake as possible because it wastes time. Allow me to demonstrate." He tips the bucket slightly, letting the water pour out, darkening and wetting the dirt. It spreads several inches away from the stem. "Like that. Got it?"
I nod. "Shouldn't you put less water around the root so that the plant has air pockets to breathe?"
"I've heard it both ways." He replies.
"But the soil is too wet, the plant could die." I counter.
Doesn't affect me." He smirks and begins watering the other corn stalks.
I shake my head. "Inconsiderate."
"I'll take this side, you take the other." He glances towards the other side of the corn field, or in other words, the side that was farthest from the lake.
"Whatever." I mutter and grab my bucket. This isn't going to be a fun few hours.
My arms are burning as I take my last trip from the lake. Colton doesn't bother to wait for me and I don't blame him, I'm much slower. All of my energy is drained and my back aches from bending over for a long period of time.
I hold my breath as I approach the corn field and exhale once the bucket hits the ground. I hope this will be the last time I have to take the bucket to the lake.
When I left my friends and everything that I was becoming familiar with to save my brother, I never would have thought I was going to have to water corn stalks for an hour. I didn't even think I was going to end up in Turkey of all places in the world.
I wipe away a drop of sweat rolling down my face with the back of my hand. I'm so close to the center of the field, which is the end of my half of it. Colton looks like he's already done, but he continues, watering some of the corn stalks in my half of the field. He's working at a much quicker pace than me, and I start to feel embarrassed.
My face would be red with embarrassment, but the heat and humidity already does that for me. Colton's face is red, but not very much. He also looks much more tan now than he did when I first met him.
He waters the plant next to the one I'm at, which means we're done.
"Thank god." I sigh. A splash of water slaps my face and I freeze in shock.
I look up at a smiling Colton. "Oops."
"Jerk!" I shriek and throw what remained in my bucket towards him, but he's able to jump away in time. "Is this what you spend all that spare time doing? Throwing water on people?"
"I guess I just missed the plant." He holds his hands up and tosses his bucket onto the ground.
"I already watered that one! You have some nerve." I cross my arms. He doesn't care in the slightest. That's really funny.
"It's just water, blondie. Relax."
"I'm wet now. And this water is gross." I exhale sharply. "When are we having lunch?" I inquire, pushing myself onto my feet.
"We have about half an hour yet. You come up with something to talk about." He sits down in front of me with one leg bent up against his chest and the other extended in front of him. His muscular arms wrap around his knee and he leans against it with his head turned towards me.
I sit back down. "How about we talk about how exactly you died?" I smirk.
His smile left his face and he gets back up to his feet. "I see how it is. You like to play dirty. I can play that game." His tone begins to get more stern. "Tell me, miss 'I don't want to fall in love', how is your friend Tanner?"
I raise my eyebrows and my mouth drops open. "How do you..." my voice trails off. I'm in utter shock, too stunned to say anything. I honestly forgot about him on this trip, but I have had too many distractions to keep me occupied.
"I know his brother, smart one. I might be a liar but at least I keep my morals straight."
I didn't even know what to say, he was honestly right. "You can't get mad at me, I'm a stage one! I don't even know what love is, nor if it's even dangerous in the Afterworld."
He shakes his head. "Dangerous? Dangerous? Love isn't dangerous unless you're dumb enough to confuse it with lust."
I sigh. I never really thought anything of him until the night before I left. "Does it bother you?"
He shakes his head. "No, in fact it's beneficial knowing that because it's something I can use against you."
"Maybe when we go to the Underworld you can stay there. I think you're better suited there." He's cruel, no wonder Carter had to warn us before we met him.
I just can't help but wonder how Tanner's brother knows about me. Maybe he told him after he signed my form.
"You have no idea what it's like down there, if you can't handle me, there's no way you're going to even survive in a place like the Underworld. Good luck saving your brother or even surviving longer than ten minutes in there without me." Colton retorts without making eye contact.
"Well you have to, it's your job." I narrow my eyebrows.
"You know I could put minimal effort into this trip. I could scan the Underworld in twenty seconds and claim that finding your brother is hopeless. I could tell the board that we searched for hours. But I'm not going to do that because believe it or not I have an ounce of decency in me." He rants.
I don't know how to respond. "But that would be a waste, wouldn't it, to come all the way to the Underworld just to leave with nothing?"
Colton sighs. "You realize that is a good possibility, Juliet? The odds of finding your brother are not high. Chances are, he will have to stay there forever."
That is the last thing that was said before Ekram shouts "lunch!"
feisty.