Dear Marco here is Part Four

When they awoke, they were unsure if it was still night or if it had finally turned into morning. Nicholas slowly made his way out of the restroom, immediately seeing the light shine in from the huge airport windows. He stood up, no bots in sight to threaten them. “We’re in the clear,” he said happily, helping Claire to her feet.

She grunted, stiff from the awkward sleeping position she had forced herself in. “I can definitely say that sleeping in a restroom stall will not be on my bucket list in the future.” After stretching most of her kinks out, they began to explore the spacious airport. The escalators had been shut off completely, leaving them with the same purpose as the steps that resided in between them. They all raced upstairs, running through the airport practically carefree. When they came to the waiting room windows, they could still see one of the planes sitting outside of the gateway as if it was waiting to be boarded. The exchange of looks they gave each other confirmed what they were all thinking. In a mad dash, the four companions forgot the harsh previous night and made their way to the gateway to the plane.

“Where do you guys think the bots go when they aren’t active?” Emma asked in the midst of their run.

“I imagine that they have some sort of docking system away from this area of the airport,” Nicholas said, now wondering they exact same thing. After taking a few turns, they were on the plane at last, rushing to first class. “I’ve never been on a plane before.”

The rest agreed. “With the portal system set up, the only place you would really need to take a plane is out of the country,” Emma said, sitting down in one of the comfortable first class seats. “I wonder why they just left this plane sit here. What happened to everyone that works here?”

“They most likely evacuated when the bot attack happened. It’s not as if anyone lives here so they either fled last minute out of the country or were forced to take the portals home,” Dane spoke up, glancing over at Claire, his own question of whether she was still angry with him or not burning in his own head.

“Speaking of which, Claire, didn’t you say you loved airports? Why would you be visiting an airport? Do you fly out of the country a lot?” Emma questioned relentlessly.

         “I probably did say that. But I never actually traveled on a plane myself. My grandfather was always traveling though so we would always pick him up at the airport,” Claire explained, confused as to why such a thing was relevant.

         “I guess that makes sense,” Emma said, trailing off.

         “Thank you for choosing our airlines to fly with today,” a shrill, unknown female voice rang out, the speaker completely unseen by anyone else. “Please buckle your seatbelts because we are expecting a bit of turbulence,” it continued.

         Another voice accompanied it, one that was deeper and sounded like a male. “Please take notice to the emergency exits at the front and back of the plane. In case of emergency, be sure to put on your own mask before assisting other people.”

         The girl spoke again. “Have a great flight everyone!”

         Everyone stared at each other, their faces showing their bewilderment and utter confusion. “Who’s there?” Nicholas demanded, getting up from his first class seat and looking around.

         Two people—a guy and a girl just as expected—stepped out from behind the black curtains at the front of the plane dressed as if they were flight attendants. “Hello there,” the girl said with a wave. Her hair was a deep shade of purple, cascading down past her face and falling at her shoulders. Her eyes were a dull grey and she had a tiny stature. It was the weirdest color Claire had ever seen someone with. The boy bowed, his own hair being a perfect blonde shade and his eyes a bright, magnificent blue. His broad shoulders and white teethed smile sent chills down the girls’ spines. “We will be assisting you today. Like I said, please expect a bit of turbulence on the flight this evening.”

         “Who are you?” Dane asked cautiously, slowing standing up, looking from stranger to stranger.

         “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Violet Kings,” the girl spoke up first, bouncing over to Dane and holding out her hand for a handshake. “That’s my brother, Ulrich Kings. We’re the only people you’ll find in this entire airport area. I like to think of us as the caretakers here.” She smiled, taking Dane’s hand and shaking it furiously. “Who are you?” she asked curiously, her eyes gazing at him excitedly.

         Dane let her whip around his arm like a play toy as he tried to make sense of the words coming out of her mouth. The sudden change from being chased away from people to being welcomed warmly and with enthusiasm was a bigger change than he had expected. “I’m Dane Hansen. The girl over there is Claire Lovell,” he said, introducing them one by one. Claire stood up and waved when she heard her name.

         Nicholas cut him off before he could continue. “I’m Nicholas White and my friend over there is Emma Steen. It’s nice to meet you both as well,” he said, offering his own hand to Ulrich. Ulrich took it and shook his hand but said nothing in return. “May I ask what you two are doing here anyway? Surely this isn’t where you have been living.”

         Violet smiled, seemingly happy to answer any question they would throw at her. “Of course this is where we have been living. It’s rather nice, isn’t it? My father was one of the men transporting people out of the country at the last minute. He didn’t make it back in time to take us with, though,” she said, a bit of sadness seeping into her voice. In an attempt to hide it, she attempted to turn the conversation around. “What brings you all to our lovely home?” she questioned.

         Dane looked back to Emma, unsure of how to answer. “We were just travelling through the portals and this is where we ended up. Is that a problem?” Emma piped in, safely leaving out their true objectives in case it would end badly in the long run. Violet smiled, content with the answer she had been given.

         “In that case, allow us to give you the grand tour of the place. We hardly ever get visitors so it’s nice to have some new company every once in awhile,” she chimed. “Let me just get changed first. We were playing around with the uniforms that got left behind when you walked in.”

         “That’s fine. Are you saying that there are people that come through the portals here, though?” Emma asked as Violet and Ulrich stepped back behind the curtains to change.

         “There are more people traveling through the portals than you seem to know. You aren’t the only ones. There have already been people traveling by themselves, in pairs and even in threes but you’re the first group of four we’ve seen,” Violet answered from behind the curtain. In just over a minute, they were both back outside with normal clothes. “Now, follow us. We’ll come back to the plane at the end of the tour since this is where we sleep. This way,” she said, taking Dane’s arm and pulling him towards the exit of the plane. Emma followed after wearily and Nicholas and Claire stayed near the back of the herd with Ulrich.

         “Your sister seems to be very energetic,” Nicholas said, making his best attempt at conversation.

         Ulrich nodded. “She is sometimes too energetic for me to keep up with. She’s also a handful around boys. It must be a real drag having to spend all your time with your brother so when we get visitors, she likes to pounce.”

         Claire looked at Dane and Violet leading the group, feeling a small pang of jealousy. “Is that what she’s doing with Dane?” she asked.

         “Yeah, you two aren’t dating, are you? Because if you are, you can just say something to her and she’ll back off,” Ulrich said, detecting the nervousness and uneasy tone in her voice.

         “No, they’re not dating,” Nicholas added sharply, looking at Claire, unpleasantly surprised by her reaction to Violet’s harmless flirting. As they walked back to the airport, Claire avoided Dane’s numerous glances backwards to where they were. At one point, she sped up to walk with Emma to avoid Nicholas’s eye contact feeling as though she could almost hear him asking her why she cared about who Dane liked who or liked him.

         “Is it burning you from the inside out yet?” Emma asked with a smirk, referring to the happy pair when Claire caught up with her. “Don’t let it get to you too much. Jealously happens to the best of us.”

         “I don’t understand why I’m jealous though,” Claire muttered, trying to keep her voice down so the conversation could remain between the two of them. Emma looked at her curiously. “I don’t like Dane so why is it a big deal if someone else does?” she asked with a sigh.

         “Have you ever considered that maybe you do like him?” Emma asked.

         “I’ve thought about it, but the feelings just aren’t there.”

         “Are you sure? If you’re jealous, you’re obviously feeling something toward him. You aren’t becoming overly possessive, are you?”

         “I would hope not. I guess I’m just used to his constant attention,” Claire trailed off, staring at the floor at her feet intently as if it had all the answers to her life written in the carpet.

         “Dane seems like a great guy. It’s completely understandable if you like him,” Emma persisted, nosier than ever before.

         “I know he’s great, but so is Nick.”

         “You can’t have it both ways.”

         “You don’t think I already knew that?”

         Emma backed off a bit. “Just take a bit to think about it. This isn’t the best time to be worrying about guys, but if it’s going to distract you this much, you should get it figured out as soon as you can. Otherwise, you may get too caught up in your own head to see what’s going on in the outside world. We need you to be in the real world as much as you can,” she preached, giving Claire a reassuring pat on the back. “You could always forget the whole thing instead though.”

         “I’m pretty sure that forgetting is practically impossible. Thanks, Emma. You’re not all that bad after all.” Emma raised her eyebrow. “I’m joking. You’re much more helpful than I expected you to be though.”

         “Anytime, Claire. I need some girl time every once in awhile.”

         In the midst of their conversation, they hardly noticed that Violet had come to a complete stop in front of a closed door. When Ulrich and Nicholas caught up, she immediately began speaking as if she were an actual tour guide. “This is our first stop. I would not recommend lurking around here at night because this is where the bots come during the day to recharge their batteries and whatever else they do.” One by one, everyone walked up to the door to peer into the window to look at the bots that appeared sleeping. “Aren’t they adorable? Let’s move on,” Violet piped, bouncing off into another direction. By the end of the day, they had seen the entire airport from top to bottom. Violet had left no trashcan unmentioned as if everything was spectacular and magical. The sun was setting just as they had arrived back at the plane where they had begun. “And this concludes our tour. I hope you all had a wonderful time.” Everyone else collapsed onto the floor immediately, exhausted from the extensive walking tour. Violet was the last one standing, still smiling brightly as if she had just woke up from a good night’s sleep. “I apologize for that. I just get so excited around new people,” she laughed.

         Dane, who was sitting in one of the first class seats again, playfully punched Violet in the arm. “It’s almost impossible to keep up with you. How do you do it?”

         Violet plopped down into the chair next to his happily. “I’m not sure. I’ve always been like this. You can ask Ulrich about how much of a pain I was when I was even younger. My dad liked to say that no matter what I was always ready to go out on a five mile run and then some,” she explained, giving him her full attention.

         Claire watched, biting her lip entirely too hard in the process. As she watched them, her tooth cut into her lip, blood flowing. “Crap,” she murmured, covering her hand with her mouth, looking desperately for something to clean up the blood.

         “What’s wrong?” Dane asked, hurrying over to her side immediately.

         “I just bit my lip,” Claire said, avoiding eye contact with him who remained worried grabbing her hand to see the damage. With a small cringe, he rushed to one of their bags and grabbed a small rag that had been thrown in.

         He took her hand away from her mouth again, pressing the rag against her lip gently. “You should be more careful,” he said, wiping the blood off her hand when the bleeding slowed down and began to come to a complete stop.

         Claire grabbed the rag from him, holding it to her own lip. “Thanks…” she muttered, turning away from him.

         Dane’s face dropped, feeling as though he had just been shoved off the face of the earth. “Come on, we need to talk,” he said, grabbing her hand and yanking her up out of her seat. “We’ll be back in a little bit,” he announced to everyone else who was gathering together what they needed before they could go to sleep. Violet shook her head slowly, practically begging him to stay with only the use of her eyes. In one swift motion, Claire and Dane were out of first class and in the next section down. [“What’s wrong?” he asked in a demanding voice.

         “Nothing is wrong,” she growled.

         “Then why won’t you look at me?” he questioned.

         Claire forced herself to look at him, hating the way she made him feel for her own actions. He looked at her, sadness evident in his eyes and body language. “I’m sorry,” she said, feeling a few tears slip out of the corners of her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m being like this,” she said, wiping them away. Dane stared at her, his stomach flipping and twisting.

         “I don’t either. I could understand if you had feelings for me, but this would be the first time that it seemed like it,” he said, disappointment in his own voice. Time stopped for a bit, the sunset growing a more vibrant shade of red, glowing in from the small airplane windows. “Come here,” he said, sitting down by one of the windows, pulling her into his lap and hugging her for the longest of times. “I don’t want to be upset, but what am I supposed to do?” he asked.

         “I don’t know. I can’t help it if you like someone, though and it’s really not any of my business if you do. I just feel so stupid with how I’m acting. This shouldn’t be any concern of mine,” Claire answered, pulling away from the hug.

         “I do like someone, Claire,” Dane said softly, leaning forward and kissing her, the one thing he had longed to do for the past year. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Claire froze, unsure of what to do or how to react. Eventually, he pulled away, looking at her intently. “It’s you I like. And if you like me, just say so,” he said, leaning closer to her again.

         Claire’s head was fuzzy, as if she was stuck in a grey fog that prevented her from seeing even things five feet in front of her. At the same time, her world felt as though it were spinning madly out of control. While her feelings felt jumbled and confused, she knew one thing—the kiss had felt completely wrong. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of brown hair in the doorway. Turning her head completely to see what was watching them, she instantly regretted it. In the doorway stood a hurt Nicholas who was clenching his fists in utter disbelief. “Nick…” Claire said, stopped Dane from coming any closer. Dane turned his head too, a small smirk breaking out on his face.

         Nicholas turned away. “Don’t let me interrupt you,” he spat, storming back to first class. Claire whimpered, crumbling back into Dane’s harms, the tears flowing from her eyes like waterfalls.

         “I don’t want to be with you, Dane,” she managed to choke out in between hysterical sobs. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she choked in between her gasps for air. Dane hugged her, patting her on the back, holding back his own disappointment in her tears over Nicholas right after he had confessed his feelings and kissed her.

         After a few minutes, Dane pushed her up off his lap, sitting her down in the next seat over. “If you could just figure out your feelings, no one would have gotten hurt,” he said, walking back to first class without another word.

         Claire curled up in her seat, hiding her face in case someone would come back to scold her. Emma walked through, sitting down next her. “How are you holding up?” she asked, pulling her head so it could rest on her shoulder.

         After the sobbing stopped, she looked up at Emma. “I’m a horrible person.”

         “Why do you say that?” she asked.

         “Dane confessed that he liked me, we kissed, and Nicholas saw us and probably hates me now,” she sobbed.

         “I warned you about this,” Emma said, shaking her head. “Did you at least figure out what is going through your head?” she asked, having a notion that she had been right since the shells experience.

         “Yeah, I do. While I’m still jealous of Violet and Dane, I can’t help but only have feelings for Nick. When Dane and I kissed, it felt so wrong and unnatural—like I was kissing my cousin or something. But when Nick walked in on us, looking completely devastated, I couldn’t help but feel like the carpet under my feet was ripped away, sending me crashing to the floor. All I know is that I like Nick and I would do anything to make him like me again,” Claire explained, holding her head in agony as a headache pounded against her skull.

         “Maybe he doesn’t hate you. He’s probably just upset,” Emma said, consoling Claire to the best of her ability; however, she wasn’t used these situations. The only boy she had ever had strong feelings for was possibly all the way on the opposite side of the country. With the thoughts of Doni resurfacing, Emma felt her own pang of loneliness inside, wishing that she had jumped through the same portal he had even if it would have made him angry.

         “You said maybe which means there’s a chance he does hate me,” Claire muttered, the hope slowly disbanding from her. “I always seem to mess everything up. What should I do Emma?” she asked, looking up with Emma as if she held all the answers in her hands.

         Emma looked back, wishing she was a genie that could grant her three wishes to make everything come together perfectly again like a puzzle that has been solved. “You really want my advice? It’s not going to be anything ground breaking or full-proof,” she insisted. Claire nodded her head, still waiting expectantly. Emma sighed. “Give Nick some time to cool off. Tomorrow you can try talking to him about it. You must come to terms that this is your fault, though. If he blames you, don’t try to turn it around on him. I’ve seen people do that and it doesn’t help their argument at all. Got it?” Emma advised, unsure if that answer would suffice.

         “What will I do until then? Both of my friends can’t seem to stand me. Could you maybe talk to them for me?” she asked.

         “I’ll try to soften them up for you but no promises. Until then, you could try hanging out with that Ulrich guy. Get him to keep you distracted until this all calms down. Does that sound like a plan?” Claire nodded once more, still feeling a huge weight crushing her down into her seat. “Let’s go, then.” Emma dragged the unwilling Claire back to first class where she met pairs of unwelcoming eyes. Violet was back with Dane, comforting him as if she were his only hope. Nicholas was off by himself in a seat, staring out the window as if something outside was the most interesting thing to happen all day. Ulrich was on the opposite side, twiddling his thumbs in what appeared to be boredom. Emma pushed her towards him as she headed off into Nicholas’s direction.

         Claire looked back in an attempt to show Nicholas how sorry she was, but his cold shoulder and refusal to even give her a glance told her it wasn’t happening any time soon. “Hello, Ulrich,” Claire said, trying and failing to force a smile. “What are you up to?” she asked as if she was interested.

         “I’m just trying to find some way to entertain myself. Do you have something better in mind?” he asked.

         “No I don’t. You should let me know if you think of something, though.”

         “I will. Did your friends disown you or something?” he asked curiously, raising an eyebrow and taking notice to her for the first time since she had sat down beside him.

         “They kind of did. I guess I deserve it though,” Claire said sadly, her lip quivering with tears threatening to break loose.

         “I’m sure you didn’t do anything too terrible. You didn’t kill someone did you?” he asked. Claire was unable to tell if he was joking or not, though.

         “It was nothing like that but it was still pretty upsetting for all of us,” she explained vaguely.

         Ulrich’s eyes lit up. Claire looked up at him, half expecting a light bulb to suddenly appear above his head and light up with a yellow glow. “I heard girls like ice cream when they’re upset. How about we go get some?” he asked, a sly grin spreading across his face.

         “Ice cream? Where do you expect us to get ice cream at?” Claire asked.

         “There’s some stashed away in one of the shops here. If we can get to the shop without being seen, you can eat as much as you like. Do you want to go for it?” Claire looked down at the ground, unsure of what would be the right course of action. While she wanted to get her mind off of everything that had just taken place, she was torn up about leaving Nicholas in the state that he was in. Against her wishes, she looked back at him once more, finding him in a boiled conversation with Emma already. Claire sighed, seeing now the futility of her situation and the very few solutions that presented themselves. “Listen Claire, I’m not going to make you talk about why you’re upset or what happened a few minutes ago if you don’t want me to. However, I can’t stand to see a girl upset like this. Come on, a little bit of walking will get your mind off of things. It will clear your head. I swear it will,” he reassured her, giving her a big, white smile.

         Claire managed to force a small smile back at him. “Sure, let’s go,” she said, following Ulrich towards the exit of the plane as she took note to the darkness that awaited them outside.

         “We’ll be back in a bit. We’re going out for a walk. Don’t wait up,” Ulrich said, waving to Violet before walking down the terminal with Claire attached to his side.

         “Are you sure we aren’t going to get caught by one of the bots that are around here?” Claire asked the new sense of danger immediately setting in and taking place of the relief she had just been feeling.

         “We won’t get caught as long as we’re careful which means you should do exactly what I tell you to do. That sounds fair, right?”

         “That works,” Claire said, feeling her head cloud up more instead of clear like he had promised. “Hey Ulrich,” she said softly. “What would you do if you saw the girl you like kissing another guy?”

         Ulrich stopped for a moment, rubbing the back of his head as if it were a million dollar question that required a lot of careful thinking. “Well, I would probably be heartbroken, torn, and a little bit angry with everyone and everything. I assume that’s what’s bothering you right now?” he said, deflating Claire’s hope even further. “I’m not saying that it’s easy to get over something like that, but it’s not the end of the world. Eventually, he’ll come around and realize that he should have stepped up and kissed you before the other guy did. Then, he’ll just be mad at himself rather than at you.”

         Suddenly, Claire regretted asking for the advice in the first place. “Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?” she muttered more to herself than Ulrich.

         “It doesn’t make you feel any better because it’s the truth. Our minds work different than yours. Sometimes, you girls should just take a step back and calm down. Stop letting everything get to you,” he said, his voice toning down into a whisper indicating that the areas with the bots were approaching.

         Claire was relieved to have a reason to stop talking. She was neither happy with the advice nor pleased with the so called truth that Ulrich was explaining to her. Giving an answer would surely just lead to further disagreements on her part. They tiptoed through the airport, sticking close to walls and crawling along the desks as if they were in trenches during a war. Everyone once in awhile, Ulrich would stick his head up over a desk or around a corner to check to see if the coast was clear or not. A few times, he would bolt back into hid hiding place, indicating that a bot was too close for comfort, but soon the bot would fly away to its next destination not catching either of them. After the close calls that sent Claire into multiple frenzies where she was sure her heart was about to burst out of her chest, Ulrich gave her a smile, gesturing to the freezer that lay ahead of them. After checking their surroundings once more, Ulrich crept into the freezer with Claire following closely behind him.

         Ulrich shut the door so it was propped open only a crack. “We ate through most of the other flavors already, but there is a bit of chocolate left. How does that sound?” he asked, grabbing a small container from the top shelf. Claire nodded sadly. “So what’s the problem today? Is it boy troubles?” he asked, sitting down and pulling his jacket closer to him.

         Claire took the container and sat down beside him. “Yeah, I’ve been having a lot of that lately,” she said, opening the container to find a small scoop of ice cream left. “Is this really all you have?” she asked, her tone clearly showing her disappointment at their lack of variety.

         “That’s really all we have. With all the time we’ve been here, you have to understand how quickly people eat through these things,” Ulrich responded. “Tell me about your boy problems. Maybe I can help you out a bit.”

         “Why would you want to help me? We don’t even know each other,” Claire argued, feeling a bit guarded and untrusting all of a sudden. While his face remained free of any evil intentions, Claire was feeling rather sensitive; her wounds still fresh from the rejection from the two boys that were the closest people left to her.

         “You don’t have to tell me.”

         Claire sat in silence for a bit with the spoon Ulrich had just handed her. After a whole minute of pondering the idea in her head, she spilled her guts, unable to hold in her feelings and thoughts any longer. “Dane likes me, but I like Nick. I’m pretty sure that Nick hates me now though because he saw Dane kiss me. Dane probably hates me now too because we kissed and I told him I liked Nick. I just hurt both people I care about in a matter of five minutes. What do I do?” she asked desperately, hoping for some comforting advice that would fix everything for her.

         Ulrich wasted no time or thought throwing back an answer. “Stop over reacting about it. If you just give it time and talk to them, they’ll understand. And if they don’t understand, then learn to live with it.”

         Claire stopped eating, staring straight ahead for the longest time. “What?” she said, mostly to herself. “Just get over it?” she continued. She could see the scenes playing over in her head if that were to happen and they would disappear from her life for good. “That can’t happen,” she whispered. As her mind started to process the reality of what he had suggested, the scenes began whipping past even faster. She could see them walking away and putting up a wall, pushing her as far as they could just to avoid her. “That can’t happen!” she said, her voice getting gradually louder and louder as she became more hysterical.

         Ulrich, taking one look at the doorway, covered Claire’s mouth with her hand. She jumped in shock, dropping her ice cream onto the freezer floor. “Shh…” he whispered, trying to take a peek out of the crack in the opened door. When he determined no threat was within hearing distance, he let out a small, relieved sigh. “You can’t yell like that. It’s too dangerous. This is a large building and sounds echo,” he said, removing his hand from her mouth. Claire looked to the floor, scooping her ice cream back into the container and handing it to him. “I’m not going to apologize for being blunt. I think people sometimes forget that honesty should always be the first option. There are only certain circumstances where the truth should be fluffed up and made nicer with little white lies and those circumstances are very rare.” Ulrich preached while carefully observing Claire’s face for a reaction.

         Claire sighed. “Honesty is good, but it’s not really what I was hoping for right now. I don’t want to even think about the guys leaving me. I care about them so much. They have always been there for me, no matter what. If I lost them now, I wouldn’t be able to function properly.”

         “Stop worrying about it. If you spend all your time thinking about it, you’ll end up missing your chance to make it right. Now, let’s head back since you don’t seem to have much of an appetite anyway,” he said, putting the ice cream back where he had originally got it. “It’s getting really cold in here too. Ready to go?” he asked, checking to see if they were clear to move.

         Claire stood up behind him and nodded. “I’m ready,” she said, following Ulrich back the way they came. When they arrived back on the plane, everyone else was fast asleep. Ulrich took his place by Violet while Claire checked the floor for possible places she could sleep. She looked from Dane who was right by Violet to Nicholas who was beside Emma. With a sigh, she took her stuff and curled up in her own corner of the floor, away from everyone else for the night. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out and teleported into her dream world once again.

         A chess board lay in front of her. She was dressed in a white gown and standing on one of the middle back white squares as if she were the queen chess piece. She looked to her right, seeing a man with a white mask standing beside her. When he noticed her staring, he lifted his white gloved hand and caressed her cheek gently as if telling her not to fret. He spoke no words and when Claire tried to, nothing came out. She looked back at the man with her eyes wider than ever. He, however, had his eyes set on something completely different that stood in front of them. Turning her head, Claire discovered opposite of them on the other side of the board was a man and a woman, almost identical to them but dressed in black. They grinned, almost to the extent that it became creepy and unsettling. Before she knew it, their armies of black and white had appeared, clashing in the middle of the board. People fell, turning back into pawns and other pieces as they fell, defeated. All that lay at the end was a board full of shattered chess pieces.

         Claire tried to turn, to run away from the madness that was taken place; however, her feet wouldn’t allow her to move from her spot on the white square. The white king looked down at her as if he was waiting for her to make a move. When she remained frozen in fear, he squared his shoulders and moved forward, facing both the black queen and king alone. Claire looked all around from the broken pieces to the defenseless king, and to the wicked black rulers that stepped right to him, their grins still in place. Again, she tried to yell for help, but still no sound would come out. The white king turned around to face her, holding out his hand as if begging her to save him. Claire took a step forward, holding out her hand to him as well. Every step was another square closer. Their hands were nearly together when the expression on the white king’s faced changed from calmness to utter horror. A sword protruded out of his back while red blood dripped down slowly from the horrifying wound. He fell right to her feet, covering her shoes in his blood in the process. The black queen grabbed for the sword and began twisting it, rushing the blood outward faster than before. Claire tried to turn back, but her feet wouldn’t move. After they were content with the torture, the black king ripped the sword from his limp, dead body at last and held it so it the tip was only an inch away from her face. The last thing she saw was the glint of silver and then she was on the ground, only her body still stood in midair, headless and gushing blood from the neck. Wicked laughter rang out from the black king and queen as they swung the sword around playfully as if they had just won a game of chess rather than killing an actual person.

         Claire sat up abruptly, grabbing her head as if to reassure herself that her head was still attached. Even after it became apparent that the previous events were all a dream in her head, she still shook viciously of fear. She could see the sun peeking out from behind the horizon yet no one was awake. As the entire dream replayed in her head, she began to gag, her stomach feeling as though it would burst. She held her stomach and bolted out of first class and ran straight for the bathroom. Just as she arrived, she was puking her guts out into the toilet. At the same time, she began to sob uncontrollably, confused by why that dream had even happened and what it could possibly mean. “I don’t understand,” she sobbed, still leaning over the toilet in case she became sick again. The masks that covered the kings’ faces bothered her as she wished so much that she had reached up and revealed their true identities. Every breath she took seemed to burn her throat more, the tears in her eyes making her vision almost completely blurred. She could vaguely hear footsteps coming closer. Claire, being unable to identify the difference between her dream and reality, began to panic, wondering if the black royalty had come back to make sure she was dead and still headless. The bathroom door opened, but she still refused to look at who stood in the doorway.

         “Claire? Are you okay?” Dane asked, sitting down beside her on the floor with the little room they had. “Are you sick?” he persisted, his upset tone from last night seeming to disappear like smoke. Now he seemed only concerned and worried for her health. Reality sunk in, giving Claire the confidence to look at Dane.

         “I’m not,” she sobbed, closing the toilet lid and laying her head down on the top. “I’m so sorry, Dane,” she continued, covering her face with her arms as she sobbed more as she remembered the previous night. While she was relieved to find that dream murderers weren’t here to finish her off, she half wished that they had been just so she could hide away from Nicholas and Dane’s newly found disdain for her. She shook her head furiously, unable to look him in the eyes a second time.

         “What has you so freaked out?” Dane asked, rubbing her back gently.

         Claire sniffled, confused by his concern over her well being. “Why does it matter?” she asked coldly, shrugging off his gesture, believing it wasn’t real anyway.

         “Why does it matter? I care about you, Claire. Don’t try to tell me that you don’t matter to me,” he growled, trying to pry her arms away and bring her face up so he could look her in the eyes when he talked. “Talk to me,” he demanded again.

         “You’re upset with me. Why are you even trying to make me feel better?” she grumbled, lifting her head only slightly.

         “Yeah, I’m upset. I’m hurt that you rejected me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be your friend anymore,” he objected.

         Claire looked up at him, wiping the tears out of her eyes. “Are you sure you’re not upset with me anymore?” she asked.

         “I’m sure. Now what has you throwing up?” he asked again.

         “I had a nightmare,” she began. After explaining everything from the life-like chess board to the murder of herself and the white king, she sat back, feeling sick again at the memory of it. Dane shook his head.

         “It was only a dream. There is no black king and queen that are out to get you. You aren’t some white queen either. This is life, not chess,” he explained, his voice having softness to it.

         “Do you think it means something though?” she asked, feeling a bit of relief wash over her.

         “It might, but there’s no way we’re going to know even if it does. Come on; let’s go back to the others. Wash your face a bit first though,” Dane said, standing up, patting Claire on the head, and heading out of the bathroom. After Claire washed out her mouth with water from the sink, she headed back to first class with Dane. In their absence, everyone had already woken up and had gathered together everything they needed to take off through the portal.

         Violet greeted them both with a smile, grabbing Dane’s wrist and batting her eyelashes. “Dane, Ulrich and I have a request,” she began, looking back to Ulrich and everyone else who had supposedly already been informed of what she was about to ask. “It’s really lonely here, just the two of us. We want to come with you. Nicholas already told us all about your plan to find the Snake, but even if we don’t, it will still get us out of here. We can’t live off this food storage for much longer,” she added sadly. Dane looked back to Emma, utterly confused. “They wanted to make sure everyone else was okay with us tagging along before making a decision. So what do you two say?”

         Dane nodded. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to join us. The more the merrier, right?” he joked.

         Violet looked past him to Claire. “I don’t mind,” she added. Violet squealed in content. “Are we leaving already?” she asked.

         “It’s best if we travel by daylight,” Ulrich said.

         “Do you guys have the portal code?” Claire asked, mentally slapping herself for not even considering how vast their knowledge of the airport was. Violet nodded eagerly. After everything was agreed upon, they all began to shuffle their way out of the plane and back to the airport itself. Claire hung back to fall in step with Emma who secluded herself to the back of the group. “Did you talk to Nick?” Claire asked eager to know of his answer. Perhaps he wasn’t as upset with her either.

         Emma looked up at her and forced a smile. “I did talk to him. He’s still rather hurt over what happened. I tried telling him that you weren’t interested in Dane but…” she trailed off.

         “But what?” Claire persisted.

         “But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s still upset. Try to talk to him alone after we get through the next portal. Don’t get frustrated with him though. He’s probably going to give you a cold shoulder or something at first,” Emma suggested. “Did you already talk with Dane? What happened? Where were you two?” she asked, bombarding Claire with even more questions to answer.

         Claire took her time, trying to answer every one as best as she could. “I had a nightmare and so I ran to the bathroom because it made me sick to my stomach. Dane found me and listened to me talk about it. He said he’s not upset with me, just upset in general. I guess we can still be friends which is one problem solved,” she explained.

         Emma smiled. “That’s good. One down and one to go, right? How’s your Violet jealousy doing?” she asked, continuing on with her incessant questioning.

         “It’s better now. I’m sure I was just overreacting a bit. Dane’s my best friend and I guess I was afraid that I would lose him to her. I think it was more defensive than romantic,” she said.

         “That sounds like it makes more sense. Are you going to be okay with Violet flirting with Dane like this all the time?” she asked, looking at Claire curiously.

         Claire smiled back at her. “If I’m not, smack me or something because I need to learn not to be.”

         Emma laughed. “I’ll remember that. Don’t worry, I’ll keep your jealous tendencies in line. This is the start of a beautiful friendship, Claire."