Lost and Found Is there anyone out there? Cherilyn sat up at the sounds and crawled to an open window. She could not see anything at all, but some sound meant that she was not entirely alone. She turned to glance at Tanya, the girl had not moved very much in the time she had been there. All she seemed to do was sit in the corner and stare into space. It was beginning to drive Cherilyn mad. She watched the scenery for a while in search of anything that would give her a sign that there was life out there. She was about to give up when she could briefly hear the faint sound of voices in the distance. Below she could see the others running towards the building. She leaned out the window and tried calling out to them. Just then Tanya got up and joined her at the window. She seemed to have noticed the sounds as well. She opened a different window and looked down. "HEY!!!" Tanya called out with so much excitement that tears rolled down her cheeks again. Cherilyn took a step backwards. Why was it that Tanya could hear them and not hear her. She backed up into the corner confused by what was going on. None of this made any sense to her at all. Tanya suddenly ran from the room to meet up with the other, unaware that she was leaving her friend alone. Tanya jumped down the stairs in bounds, "Kris! Jenn! Everyone!!!" She cried out, nearly tripping on a step and stumbling down the last of the stairs. Jessica was the first to enter the school and flopped down against a wall in a heap, panting and heaving. Kim rushed over to a fountain to get a drink and Kris and Natalie were the final ones to enter. Kris was carrying Jenn on her back, whom had grown back to her original age, while Natalie helped to keep the girl centred, all three of them collapsing in a heap. Tanya grabbed Jenn from Kris and helped her to the ground. "Tanya..." Kris panted, "We finally found you." She took a deep breath and let it out. "So that only leaves that other girl." Natalie stated glancing around, "and Alyson." Kim studied the stairs; "I thought I saw another person in the room with Tanya?" She said curiously. Tanya shook her head, "I've been there all alone this whole time. I thought I was going to be here forever." "What gave you the dumb idea of coming into the woods anyway?" Jessica demanded, bluntly as she approached the fountain that Kim had just left to wash her elbow. Tanya stared at the ground in shame, "Kris said she found Jenn here and now they are West Wingers so I thought..." She mumbled. "I should have never told you that." Kris hit the back of her head against the brick wall, "That was so stupid of me." "What is going on here?" Tanya asked glancing at Jenn's sleeping form, "What are you all doing here? What happened to Jenn?" "We came looking for you, princess." Natalie illustrated, "and we found a lot more then we bargained for. “Who was that man anyways?" Jessica inquired with a glance towards Kris. "How am I to know?" Kris said with a shrug. "You seemed to have known that 'Sister' back there." Natalie retorted. Kris let out a sigh, "That is because she is my sister." She explained. "You are a Death Angel?" Natalie exclaimed getting to her feet, "Well that explains a lot right there." "Leave her alone, Nat!" Jessica snapped protectively, "She isn't an angel anymore." "You've known all along?" Natalie turned on Jessica, "That is why you have been protecting her isn't it?" "Will you cut it out?" Jessica demanded, "We have no time for all this bickering. There is still that man and that monster out there." “If you want to know he is my cousin.” Natalie remarked in disgust. “You are related to that thing?” Kima inquired in astonishment. Natalie buried her face in her hands, “He is a monster. He killed my family and…” Her voice caught in her throat as she found herself unable to tell the rest of her story. Kima knelt next to the girl and hugged her, “It’s alright. He will not get you. We won’t let him have you.” The others nodded in agreement. “Thanks.” Natalie said with a shy smile then she noticed for the first time that someone was missing, "Where's Kim got to?" Everyone glanced around and found it was true, the redhead had vanished. ****** Gwen slammed through a fence and collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Akaime stood over the angel, there were more tear marks in his face, peeling away more flesh and exposing more of the mask, and some carved so deep they cut into the mask itself. He touched one of the gashes and winced in pain, then glared down at the girl and kicked her one final time, causing her to roll over onto her back. She didn't seem to respond to the assault. Satisfied, Akaime turned away from the girl and gazed up at the large school in the distance. His eye narrowed as he started to head towards the building. ****** Kim slowly climbed the stairs. She was certain that she had seen another face in the window along side Tanya, but didn't want to interfere with everyone else for fear that she was just being stupid and it was just a trick of the light. Carefully, she crept up one stair at a time until she got to the third floor landing. She took a deep breath and glanced down the hall, first left and then right. A couple doors down she could see one was wide open. Kim cautiously approached the door and as she got closer she could hear the faint sound of crying. "Kim!!" Natalie called out, startling the girl, causing her to spin around and see her friend came running down the hall, "Where do you think you are going?" She asked, unsettling by the girls disappearance, yet again, "You shouldn't wander off alone like that." "But..." Kim glanced from Natalie to the door and back again, "I thought I heard something." She said quietly. "Even more reason to not go alone." Natalie reiterated as she walked down the hall when an eerie chill ran through her body, "This place is creepy when it is empty." Her eyes nervously darted around the hall. "There was someone crying." Kim continued to say, "In there..." She pointed towards the open door; "I think that is the same room we saw Tanya standing in." "Hmmm..." Natalie cautiously step closer to the door, "You really believe you saw someone else with her?" She asked curiously. Kim nodded, "I thought it was Jenn's other friend, but I couldn't tell." "Wouldn't she have come down with Tanya?" Natalie added. Kim shrugged, "I don't know." Natalie glanced into the room, which appeared to be entirely empty, "There is nothing here." Natalie stated, entering the room a little more and then suddenly felt something move in the room. Her eyes swiftly moved around the room, in search of any sign of life. She stepped even further in the room, with Kim holding tightly onto her arm. She too searched the room to find it empty. "I know I heard something." Kim spun around, "I know I did." she searched in vain for where the noise could have come from when she heard it yet again, it was very faint but she was sure that it was the sound of a person, "There is someone here!" Kim exclaimed excitedly, "I can hear her!" Natalie peeked up her ears and strained to listen for what it was her friend was hearing, still she heard nothing. Kim however was now following the sounds. She crept softly one step at a time trying not to make any disturbance that could scare off the person, until she came to the window and stopped a few feet away. She tilted her head and squinted her eyes. Finally, she reached out and her hand touched upon something and looked again, she was certain there was nothing there and yet... Kim grabbed hold of the invisible object that felt warm and solid, then she felt the sensation of something clenching her hand. Kim wrapped her fingers tightly around the thing and a hand started to appear between her fingers. The hand was still transparent, but Kim could tell that it was definitely a girl's hand and it was gripping her hand firmly. Unsure, Kim pulled on the hand and Cherilyn began to form before her eyes. The girl wrapped her arms around Kim as she solidified and cried. "Thank you!!!" She sobbed on Kim's shoulders; "I was so scared you would leave me here... Thank you..." "Your welcome..." Kim said astonished by what had just occurred. She turned around to see Natalie walking towards them in awe. "How in hell?" Natalie glanced between the two girls, "What did you do, Kim?" "I don't know." Kim said with a shrug, "I just had this feeling." At that moment Tanya and Jessica entered the room and Tanya rushed over to Cherilyn's side, "Cherilyn!!! When did you get here?" She asked dismayed. Cherilyn moved from Kim to embraced Tanya tightly, "I've been here the whole time." She said through a veil of tears, "I could see you, but I couldn't touch you or talk to you or anything. I've been sitting by your side for such a long time. Then you left me here and... and..." She let out a painful wail, "I thought I was going to be left here all alone." **** Downstairs Jenn started to stir and Kris knelt by the girl's side, "Jenn?" She spoke softly, so as not to startle the girl, "Jenn, are you awake?" Jenn's eyes slowly opened and began to focus, "Unnn... Kris is that you?" She asked groggily, "Where are we?" "In school." Kris sat upon the floor next to Jenn, "The others went to find Kim." "Kim!" Jenn sat up straight only to be overcome by dizziness and flop back against Kris's shoulder. For the first time Jenn looked at her hands and saw that they were again bandaged and slightly older, "What is going on? I'm so confused..." She rubbed her eyes. "It is... and it isn't... a dream..." Kris stated without giving more of an explanation. Jenn turned around to gaze into the girl’s eyes, "What does that mean? Why don't you give me a straight answer?" She frustratedly glared at the girl. Kris let out a sigh and leaned into the wall, "Because I don't want to hurt you and no matter how hard I try not it... I always seem to hurt you anyway...." "Huh?" Jenn gave the girl a puzzled look, "You have been acting weird ever since we got to that academy. What is wrong with you?" "It is not me. It is you." Kris returned the girl's gaze, "You've forgotten everything. You didn't even remember me. Or the school or..." She stopped herself from saying too much, "anything..." She whispered averting her eyes from the girl's gaze. "Who are you really?" Jenn finally asked, "My memories are muddled but I now remember that we met over a year ago." "Yeah..." Kris ruffled her own hair, "We met after your mother's death. I was an angel of death back then and was tagging along with one of my sisters." "Death?" Jenn let out a chuckle then noticed the seriousness of the look on her friend's face and realized that she was not joking, "Your tattoos?" Kris nodded slowly, "They are a symbol of what I used to be..." She finally admitted. "Did... did you take my mother?" Jenn asked angrily. "No... no..." Kris shook her head violently, "That was one of my sister's jobs. I'm actually not a death angel any longer. My family banished me." There was a deep pain in Kris's eyes that Jenn had only seen once before. "Is it because of the girl you loved?" Jenn carefully asked, "The one who forg-" She stopped in mid sentence and her eyes widened, "Am I that the girl you loved?" She shakily asked. Kris did not reply, however the way that she turned away from Jenn told her everything she needed to know. "Why...?" Jenn tried to look the girl in the eyes only to have her turn away more, "Why didn’t you tell me before?" Jenn asked suddenly realizing that Kris's affections for her were not just some kind of cruel game. Everything started to make sense. She now understood that pain in her friend’s eyes, the pain that would always show when they got to close together. That pain was love and Jenn had been to catch up in her own life to notice it. She suddenly had so many questions to ask. So much she wanted to know and was about to voice them when Kim and the others came down the stairs. Jenn turned to look at the red head, which gave her a small smile and suddenly Jenn fully understood the reason behind Kris's sudden change in the ways she treated her. Jenn glanced from Kim to Kris and back again, trying hard to think of something to say. "Jenn, you are awake." Kim said, hopping down the last few steps, "I was so worried about you. Are you alright?" Jenn rubbed her head as the memory of their first kiss entered her mind yet again and she gazed at Kris who was trying hard to bury her face in her knees so the others would not see her pain, "I..." Jenn's head hurt, It felt as if many doors in her mind had opened at once and she was being bombarded with memories at every turn. Kim knelt next to the girl, "I remember now..." Kim whispered with a smile, "Our first kiss. Do you remember?" she asked shyly. Jenn spun around to face the redhead, "That really happened?" She shakily asked, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer. Kim simply nodded her head and blushed, "I always remembered. I just could not remember your face." Kris suddenly got to her feet and left the girls. "Kris?" Jenn glanced up at the girl with worry in her eyes. "I just need to go to the washroom." Kris stated then ran off down the hall. Jenn was almost certain that she saw a tear rolling down the girl's eye. She was about to get up and follow her when Jessica shook her head and went after the girl herself. Kris crashed into a washroom and rushed over to the sink. The moment she placed her hand upon the counter she burst into tears and let out a tired sob. Jessica slowly entered the room and approached the girl, "She knows..." Kris sobbed, "She knows everything now..." She said between the tears. Jessica placed her arm around the girl and Kris turned to welcome the embrace. She cried more then she ever had since losing Jenn. All her sadness and pain that she had balled up and locked away, so she could be there for Jenn, burst free of it's bounds and came out like a tidal wave of tears. Jessica only held the girl tight in her arms and stroked the back of her head. Allowing the girl to finally be let go of some of that pain. ****** "Hey everyone." Kima greeted the group with a grin as she entered the building, "You found Jenn's missing friends. Great!" "Actually that was Kim's doing." Natalie said still in amazement over what had just happened, "She just reached out and pulled the girl out from nowhere. It was unreal." "Good, then it looks like we are all together again." Alyson said with a reassuring smile, "I'm glad that mad man didn't harm any of you." "Gwen might be in trouble." Kim announced. "Who?" Alyson asked. "That angel." Kim replied, "She saved me when I got lost in a nightmare once. Shouldn't we do something to help her?" "She’s a death angel." Natalie affirmed, "She can handle herself." "And what do we do if she doesn't stop him?" Kima asked, wrapping her arms around her stomach as an unsettling feeling formed, "That zombie creature was hard enough to stop." "You killed it?" Natalie said, pleased to hear some good news. "Not sure." Alyson answered, "It is just part of a nightmare after all so it could be still lurking about." Kima sat on the stairs in deep thought, "It’s all part of each of our nightmares right?" Kima inquired. "Sort of." Alyson replied while leaning against a wall, "It is hard to explain, but it seems to be comprised of dreams or memories of sorts. "Well, we saw Jenn's nightmare." Kima stated with a shiver. "I met mine." Natalie not to happily added. "The same with me and Cherilyn." Tanya added hugging her friend close. "That would only leave Kris, Jessica, Alyson and us." Kima thought out loud. "I think Kris found her nightmare." Jessica said sadly as she returned to the group. "How is she doing?" Jenn requested getting to her feet. "She will be alright." Jessica said, "She just needs a moment to herself." Jenn lowered her head and sat back down. Natalie watched the redhead carefully, "What is on your mind, Kima?" Natalie inquired, curious where her friend was going with this. Kima glanced at Kim and almost as if something knowing passed between the girls Kim started to shake her head and step back, "N... no... no…" Kim stammered. "What is it?" Alyson asked impatiently. "Our nightmares." Kima said with a sly grin, "We have some real night terrors. Things that would scare a grown man... Maybe..." "What?" Natalie asked even more inquisitive then before. Kima only responded with an even broader grin and Kim backed against a wall with fear drawn upon her face. ***** To be Continued...
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