Gareth leads us out, passing other cells with kids in them on the way.

"I have a brother that lives near the school, he can get to guys some help." He hands Jay a folded paper. "Good luck."

Cold crisp air blows by me, rustling my already messy hair. Leaves of forest green fly past in a whirl of motion.

"Could we maybe have a jacket?" I ask, rubbing my arms to stay warm.

"I don't have any, sorry. You should get going soon, the next shift will come any minute now."

I sigh, following Jay and Lily into the forest. Black trunks against an almost black backdrop don't help for seeing, my imagination goes wild filling the void. I rely on the sound of footsteps to stay close to Jay and Lily.

The footsteps stop, my heart pounding in my chest. Softer, the footsteps go slower, then continue normally. I follow, until the ground beneath me disappears, plunging me down into a pit, pebbles, and rocks tearing at my skin. Hitting the bottom, a sickening crack fills the air. Sharp pain lances through my leg and colorful spots flash front of my eyes, every movement causing it to ache.

Not wanting to alert the guards changing shifts, I don't try to scream up to Lily and Jay, but silently pray they heard me.

I wait a minute, then two, but they don't come. The only way I'm getting out of this would be by myself.  Searing fiery bursts pulsated around my leg as I stand up shakily, intensifying with each dragging step.

I force myself to ignore the pain and to keep moving. Feeling my way to the walls of the pit, hopelessness sinks in. It's steep. Taking a calming breath, I place my hands on stable rocks and try to scramble up the side of the wall. I get up a few feet before slipping on the loose dirt and sliding down the pebbles and sticks.

Warm, thick liquid trickles down my bad leg, which it throbs with pain, begging me to give up.

Leaning against the dirt wall, I blink back tears. I'm not going to get any sleep with this pain.

——Jay——

As sunlight streams between the trees, Lily and I split up in search for long, straight sticks and strong stems or leaves. Once we have enough, we meet back up next to the pit.

"So, how are you going to do this?" Lily asks.

"Take two sticks, and wrap the leaves and stems around the break between them until they're connected. Then, take that long stick and another, and do the same thing."

"You sure it will be strong enough?"

"If it can hold me, it can hold him. I had to use one of these to swing across a river before," I say, wrapping some leaves around my stick.

In an hour, we have a rope long enough to reach the bottom of the pit. Lily wraps one end around a tree trunk and ties it tightly.

I look around for a certain plant, and spot one near the trunk. I start picking the leaves.

"What are you doing?"

"It's a steep climb, but he would've been able to make it out unless he was injured. These leaves have some type of liquid in them that can help heal wounds."

"Got it."

"I doubt it's minor enough for this to help though, that's a deep pit."

"I'd say he'd have a seventy-five percent chance of survival."

I decide I have enough leaves, and grab the rope, swinging over the side of the pit, and make my way down.

I get to the bottom, Jacob's state sinking in.

His hands and legs have minor cuts scattered about, but the main problem is his right leg. There's no doubt that he broke it, as the broken bone has punctured the skin surrounding it, blooding seeping out.

"Good going man. Did you not hear us warn you that there was a hole?"

He shakes his head, staring at the leaves in my hand.

I kneel next to him, studying his leg.

Knowing Jacob, it would be better to do this if he had a distraction.

I gently brush some dirt off it, making him flinch. "You know what these leaves are for?"

"No."

"Well, I had to tell Lily that these were good for minor wounds." I tear part of my sleeve off and clean some of the blood. "But they're not, these are for me."

He bites his lip, fighting to keep his leg still.

"Want to know why?" I stop cleaning for a moment. "I fell out of a tree."

A smile plays on his lips.

"And landed right on Lily, because life does that."

He laughs quietly, and I continue cleaning his leg.

"You'd be surprised by how many times I have fallen out of a tree, and acted completely normal at school. It's even better when the physics teacher asks if we've fallen out of trees to get her point about some law across."

I quickly push the broken bone back into its place, making Jacob gasp from the pain and instinctively push my hand away. Once he leans against the wall of the pit, I start wrapping the ripped off part of my sleeve around his leg.

"For some reason, the teacher decided to ask me specifically if this has happened before. A normal person would just say either yes or no and be done, but me? No, of course not, I don't people."

"You're people-ing right now."

"Shut up." He smiles a little. "Anyway, so of course, I had to answer because she's a teacher. I'm just like 'What? Me? No...Psh, me? Nooooo,' while in my head I'm saying 'Why are you such an idiot?'"

"Now there's a good question."

I stop wrapping, making his smile grow. "Are you saying I'm an idiot? I am the top of my class, thank you very much."

"Says who?"

I cross my arms over my chest. "I fix your broken leg, and this is what I get in return...Man, you're mean."

"Hey, you're the one who falls out of trees," He says, laughing quietly.

"I might just leave you down here."

"I was just kidding!"

"You sure about that? Because I think you meant it," I say, making him laugh more.

"Yup."

I shake my head and go back to wrapping. When I'm done, I keep my hands placed on his leg, and close my eyes, concentrating on my pendant.

The pendants energy flows up my body and through my arms, onto Jacob. I concentrate on it until the pendant starts to heat up, burning me. When it gets too hot, I pull it off and toss it to the ground.

I open my eyes and looks at Jacob. The minor cuts are mostly healed now, and the skin on his leg has mended.

"How...How did you do that?"

I pick the necklace up by the chain. "This is a portal, compacted into a pendant. The portal that exploded in my face."

He reaches out to touch it, but I pull it away.

"It's hot. If you use it for too long, it overheats. One time, I put it down on a piece of wood, and it fell right through it. It burned the hole."

"Is that why it's red?"

"It's only red when it overheats. It's normally blue. Like Ty."

"Why'd it glow that one day Ty came?"

"She was trying to send me a message."

"That's why you were talking to it..."

"Yup. Anyway, can you stand?"

He tries, wincing at the pain.

"That's a no," I say, lifting him into my arms.

He tries to fight against me. "No, I can stand! Put me down!"

"I wouldn't fight, or if I do put you do, you're going to fall into this pit again," I say grabbing the rope. "Lily, we're ready!"

As the rope gets pulls up, Jacob stops fighting and holds onto me for dear life instead.

"Staring at the bottom isn't helping yourself."

He ignores me, watching the bottom go farther away.

Soon, we get to the top, and I set him down. As soon as I do, I get tackled by Ty.

"Where's the pendant?"

"Calm down, I had to heal Jacob. It's overheated."

She gets off and paces around. "This is bad, this is really bad...I need that pendant!"

"Why? And how'd you get here?"

"She helped pull you up," Lily says.

"Gareth let you out a day early! I did something wrong, Jacob isn't supposed to have a broken leg, Lily is!"

I sit up.

"Jay, whatever you do, do not go in the portal. Please, it's not good," Ty says, her voice breaking.

"Calm down, when have I ever tried? It's ok."

"Jay...The future changed. I messed something up, and Gareth let you out a day early, which led to Jacob breaking his leg instead of Lily...Just promise you won't go in."

"I won't, jeez."

"Promise me."

Ok! Well, the time line is broken, yay! Wait a minute...*Gets idea* THAT'S IT! SORRY GUYS, I GOTTA GO WRITE THE NEXT PART! BE BACK SOME OTHER DAY TO CHAT! UH, LEAVE COMMENTS AND VOTES! BYE!

-MC OUT!