Jesse's POV

With a throbbing head, sore stomach, and overall aches and pains, I laid on the couch waiting for Lukas to come back to the apartment. I shivered as I curled up tighter even though I was sweaty. It seemed like I had always misjudged how long a school day was. I couldn't fall asleep, and even if all the outside noises stopped I hurt too much to relax. Tears welled up in my eyes as I rolled over.

Hours later, I heard the door slowly creak open. I rolled back and saw Lukas carefully closing the door trying not to wake me up.

"Hey, Jesse," he said softly once he noticed I was awake. His eyes and cheeks were red.

"Hi," I said. A whisper was all I could get out, though.

"Uh, how're you feeling?"

"Not good," I answered, then started coughing which just emphasized my point.

"It's okay, you don't have to talk," Lukas said, "I just... I need to tell you something. About Petra." He walked further into the room as if trying to delay the conversation.

"I visited the hospital today," he began, "and Laurie told me how the operation went." He cleared his throat. "It... wasn't successful."

"What?" I asked.

"She doesn't have that much t-time left."  His voice began to quiver but he cleared his throat again.

I was having a hard time wrapping my head around this. Our best friend, Petra, whom we had known forever, was dying. My heart sank at the thought of it. My throat grew a tight lump in it and I felt tears welling up in my eyes.

"She's... gonna be okay," I reassured myself, "We always get through these kinds of things. It's gonna be fine." 

We both knew, though, that I was lying.

"And... have you seen Maya and Aiden anywhere?" I asked, changing the subject. Lukas shook his head.

"I haven't seen them. Anywhere." He sighed. "It's just you and me now, Jesse. We have to figure this out." He looked at me. I wiped my eyes.

"This can't be happening... can it?" I said.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," he said sadly.

"No," I said, "She's still here. We know where she is, we know she's alive, she's f-fine."

Lukas shook his head as he looked down at the ground.

"Face it, Jesse," he said, "We're... falling apart. The doctors seem to have already given up on Petra. We're pushing our luck as it is; Petra would have died a long time ago if it weren't for that healing potion."

"Don't say that," I said. I couldn't help my voice from trebling.

"I'm sorry."

We both sat in silence together. I was feeling something that was worse than sadness.

"I should do my homework," Lukas said as he pulled out some papers. He handed a couple to me.

"It's what you missed. Y'know, if you feel up to it."

"Okay."

He got up and walked away to his bed. I curled back up on the couch, my head hurting worse than before. I put the homework down on the floor beside me and rolled over. My breathing was short and unbalanced as I let tears roll down my face. I tried to cry quietly so Lukas wouldn't be disturbed, but he most likely heard a couple sobs that I couldn't contain. How could the doctors just give up on Petra like that? That led me to wonder if Lukas and I would both be able to make it back home alive. We've lost Gill in the previous world, and Petra, Maya, and Aiden in this world. Brian could have been a potential team member, but he was gone too. Now, there were only two of us left, but only one in good health.

By the next day, I was feeling much better is a physical sense. I assumed sickness from something called a "dream element" doesn't last too long, it just hurt badly. The sun was not yet out, unless the air was so polluted that it blocked the sun. Either way, I didn't see Lukas in bed. I looked over and saw a little white slip of paper on his bed. I walked over and picked it up. In his messy cursive, it read: I'll be at school, then checking in on Petra at the hospital. Hope you're feeling better. 

It was nice to think that even after everything that has been happening, he still cared about how I was feeling. I dropped it back onto the cover of his bed and walked over to the couch. I surveyed the room. Everything around me looked dark and grey. I got up and walked to the window to take in the outdoors. It seemed like Laurie had led us to the apartment with an excellent view of the street that never calmed down and dumpsters on the side of a building. In case you didn't catch it, that was sarcasm.

Turning around, I noticed that there was an old television in front of the couch. I walked over and dusted it off before looking over the buttons.

"Hmm..." I murmured to myself, "Does it work?"

I pressed on a button that had the word "Power" written above it. The screen flashed on with static covering the images. I took a step back and observed it.

"Weird..." I said. I leaned back in and fiddled with the buttons a little more. The volume and images showed up much more clearly this time.

I smiled in satisfaction as I looked at what images were playing.

"Imagine the redstone inside this thing!" I said, "I bet Olivia would love to hear about this too!"

I messed around with it some more to see what kinds of things could play on it. I thought it would be good to take my mind off the situation at hand, just for a little bit at least.

I settled on a news channel that looked like the one I saw Lukas watching earlier. It was showing pictures of a place that looked highly familiar- the hospital. I was interested now. I sat back onto the couch to see if it would show anything related to Petra. Then I remembered that I was trying not to think about that, so I changed it right as it was showing an empty hospital bed. I couldn't help but be curious about what that was about, but I still decided not to watch.

The television wasn't all that interesting, really. There was a lot of drama, but nothing compared to our adventures, not to brag or anything. I couldn't help but notice how a lot of the commercials were saying things like, "Lose weight fast with this diet plan!" or, "This makeup will turn a face from tragic to magic!" Funny how the people in this dimension were so concerned with their appearance.

I eventually grew bored of the television and went back to the window. I left it on just for ambient noise in the background, though.

Outside, the cars sped by and police cars past by about every 15 seconds. Shady looking people wandered around the streets wielding cigarettes in their mouths. There were a few people on the sidewalk holding up cardboard signs and had scraps for clothes.

At least we aren't like them I thought. Alone on the street with nowhere to go, no one by your side. At the rate our group was going at, though, it seemed very likely that that will happen. I shook my head to clear the thought. We were going to make it home.

But were we?

Lukas's POV

"Missing?!" I exclaimed, "But that's not... that's impossible."

"Nothing is impossible, Lukas," Laurie said, "Petra was here last night, but she's been gone since this morning and we have no idea what happened!"

I nervously ran my fingers through my hair.

"This is bad," I said uneasily.

Nurse Laurie and I were standing in the waiting room of the hospital as she delivered the bad news.

"We looked through the security footage earlier," she explained, "She was sleeping fine until her body seemed to just... disappear."

"What?"

"Disappeared. Just like that." Laurie snapped her fingers. "Here, I'll show you. Follow me."

She led me behind the counter where there were some computer screens sitting on the desk. She opened one, clicked a few keys on a keyboard, and up popped video footage of last night.

"It happened around 11:30 last night, let me find it here..." Laurie said as she sped through the video of Petra sleeping. Petra didn't look peaceful at all in the bed; as the night progressed her face looked more and more pained.

"We heard a noise coming from her room last night and when we came in to check she was gone," Laurie explained, "Here's what happened."

Petra's eyes suddenly opened widely and she screamed, but it was quickly cut off when the video changed to static. I shuddered a little.

"Keep watching," Laurie said. I leaned closer to the screen.

When the screen returned to its normal clear state, Petra was missing.

"Oh, man," I whispered, "What happened?"

"We don't know," Laurie said as she continued clicking the keys on the keyboard, "We're led to believe that she had been kidnapped, but we didn't see anyone sneaking in before she screamed and no one could take her in that amount of time. The footage would have to have been cut off for a much longer time than that for her to be kidnapped."

She looked at me and noticed my expression.

"We're doing everything we can," she said, trying to comfort me.

"O-okay..." I said, "Was she okay before that happened?" 

Laurie sighed.

"Her heart rate was getting to be dangerously slow. We were worried she wouldn't be able to make it through the night."

"So... if the investigators do find her," I said, "it won't matter, will it?"

"I don't think so. I'm deeply sorry. There isn't much left we can do for her."

I lowered my head. The news was taking a little while to get through to me. I just couldn't believe it.

"I guess... I guess I'll be heading home now then," I said softly.

"Take care," said Laurie.

I nodded in response and walked out the hospital doors. My hands fumbled as I stuck them into my pockets.

The sun was beginning to set in the late afternoon sky, turning the clouds a shade of pink fading into purples and blues. I found it hard to enjoy, though; it's hard to enjoy things when someone tells you that one of your best friends is probably dead. I took short, deep breaths as I walked across the sidewalks.

I stopped at a bench to rest for a minute. The evening breeze brushed my cheeks and the sun was shining through the leaves of trees in the distance. There were a few people around taking walks, but things were mostly calm and quiet.

I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds. Behind my eyelids, I thought I saw someone's face. It was gone when I opened my eyes again. Confused, I closed my eyes again to see if it was still there or if I was just imagining things.

"Please help me, Lukas!" rang a voice in my head, "You'll see me tonight! Hurry!"

With that, the voice suddenly started wailing, but faded away eerily in terrible silence. I opened my eyes widely, unsure of what just happened. I thought that voice sounded a bit like Petra's. Whatever it was, it gave me the creeps. I nervously stood up and started walking again. Then I walked faster. That walk broke into a jog. The jog became a run, and soon enough, I was sprinting down the sidewalk as if I had something to run away from. My head felt dizzy and colors would flash here and there. I might have accidentally bumped into someone, but I didn't stop. Something was wrong. I could hear voices inside my head in faintly screaming every few seconds. I grunted as I pressed myself on, even though my body was growing weary.

Tears stung my eyes and sweat dripped from my hairline. My feet were slamming on the sidewalk. The noises and sounds were getting progressively worse. 

Was I crazy? Probably. I felt like I needed to get out of there right then. I needed to go home. 

My heart was racing at a 60 mile an hour pace. My head ached. The colors flashed by my eyes, and I caught glimpses of the same face I thought I saw earlier whenever I blinked. I wasn't just scared, I was terrified. And seemingly for no reason either.

I eventually reached the place that Jesse and I were staying at. I burst through the doors and ran up the stairs to our room.

When I reached the room. I ran in through the door, panting.

"Lukas!" Jesse exclaimed once she noticed me. I was gasping in and out for air.

"Jesse... I... I..." I began, but the world faded into darkness. The words couldn't come out anymore as I felt the ground rise to my face.

"Lukas!" I could faintly hear Jesse's voice before everything was completely gone.

---

Meet you new best friend. His name is cliffhanger, and he'll be staying here for a while.

I noticed how many followers that I have and realized the number it's at now is twice as many as the last time I checked, so I just wanted to say thank you to the people who have been voting on these chapters, following me, or adding this story to their reading lists. You're an awesome mass of living cells. Most people might say that having 45 followers isn't a lot, but that's WAY more than the amount of friends I have! Ha... (I'm an introverted private schooler, if anyone knows what that's like)