chapter 4 of opposite ends

chapter 4

music slayed the savage beast.

He came at me fast knocking me straight off my feet in less than a second.

 “Come on Ember, I didn’t think you’d be this bad!” he laughed as I pulled myself to my feet groaning for –god knows how many! - the hundredth time in a row leaving my healing ribs screaming at me.

“Ryan your turn again,” he grinned. We’d been at it for about five hours by this point and Ryan’s attacks were the most brutal, probably because he could literally make you hit yourself without touching you or fry you like an egg with his hands. I flinched at the thought!

 “Ok Em, close your eyes and concentrate,” he scolded in his teacher voice.

I focused and focused, I tried clearing my mind and I tried focusing on an invisible energy around me, I tried focusing on my senses . . . heck I even tried picturing a calm, serene place full of mystical energy! But nothing was working and I was getting my arse kicked to the ground every time. After another hour, we were finally finished for the day.

“We’re going to have to keep practicing every day until we can get you back to your time,” Jamie spluttered through a mouthful of what I think was fox . . . oh, the English wildlife menu hardly inspired the taste buds! “I don’t understand; using your energy has always come so easy to you in battle. You’re the strongest of us all - hence you being our ‘rebel leader.’” The last two words were said mockingly. I scoffed at him whilst laying down an old stained mattress on the floor of a tent which was apparently my quarters. My eyes were so heavy I thought they had glued them together; my hair was a half-curled, half-dreadlocked mess of dirt and my face needed nose pore strips and face masks. I wasn’t used to this life style, I just wanted to wake up. “I’m obviously not going to get it, I’m fed up of this dream. I just want to wake up and go to work,” I muttered under my breath making Jamie choke on his...fox?

“You still think this is a dream?” He was shocked and sounded angry at the same time. “Well wake up! This is real, real people are dying and real people see you as a leader so get used to it because this is your life in one year’s time!” He was practically shouting, spitting bits of the unknown meat out of his teeth. This was not what I expected him to be like under his government agent persona.

 “OK, OK. I just want to keep my options open just in case, I need to think logically and this, to me, doesn’t even seem plausible!” I grabbed at my mess of hair and pulled my hands down my face to my lips and started biting my nails. Eight fingers, two thumbs.They were back!

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Two days later, two days of exhausting training, disgusting food and dreadful sleep, and we were still going.

“I think I saw a spark!” Jamie exclaimed like an excited school boy, “near her thumb, you see it Ryan? I think she might manage it today!” I rolled my eyes as he lunged forward with a punch aimed at my throat and I stepped out the way catching his leg with a kick to the side of the knee and flooring him.

“You said that the last three tries Jamie; physical combat I’ve got the hang of but this energy stuff just isn’t working.” I sipped at some disgusting muddy water and rested my feet. “Give me five minutes” I exclaimed out of breath.

I decided to check on how the new recruits were doing so I poked my head around the door, but quickly pulled back as a ball of black smoke came towards the opening at 70 mph. “Sorry!” I heard through the closed and slightly rotted door. The smoke decayed anything it touched; I thought that was an interesting ability but I’d seen better ones in my short time there.

“Ok I think that’s enough for today, it’s our turn to scope out the enemy tomorrow anyway so we are going to need our strength,” Ryan said. I was not expecting this.

“Wait! what? I’m not trained properly yet for something like this, I shouldn’t go with you!” I was freaking out like a kid before an exam; this was too much, too soon.

“Em, the last time we went on our route was the day you arrived in our time. We should have gone yesterday but we were too busy caring for you. Now stop acting like a child and get back to camp!” He stormed out of the room, dodging an electric bolt in the other room and jogging up the stairs. Damn gym teachers.

Jamie made sure we got back safely without Ryan. We ran into a small group of enemy soldiers trying to find our base. Jamie dealt with them swiftly but was furious at Ryan for leaving like that so his attacks were a little brutal.

When we returned to the base, Ryan stormed off into his tent and I could feel my fuse getting shorter by the second. When I heard him bark an order to a soldier to start fixing a new route for tomorrow, I’d had enough, no matter who he thought he was he had no right to snap like that at some poor innocent soldier who hadn’t done anything wrong. I stormed into the tent and pulled the sheet used as a door down. I could hear a murmur outside of Jamie getting people to go to their tents and away from Ryan’s.

“What the hell is your problem!? You’ve been off with me since I got here, you won’t even look at me. What have I done to upset you?” It spewed out of my mouth like poison, every word making him flinch as if I was spitting fire.

“You haven’t done anything that’s the problem,” he muttered, “not yet, not you.” I finally understood: the future me is the one he was upset with not me.

“We aren’t together anymore Ember, this you is just painful. You act more like you used to because this you is still in love with me. I never stopped loving you Em, but I can’t act on it with you because you’re not the Ember that’s supposed to be here.”

He loved me, but I didn’t love him? My heart sank. I sat down when my head started to spin. Ryan, obedient, sweet, loyal Ryan came straight to my side smiling sadly and looking at me with his big puppy dog eyes. I couldn’t resist, I kissed him and he kissed me back. A sweet passion-filled kiss full of love and longing, pressing deeper and deeper making our breath jagged. But it was so sad at the same time, full of heartache and goodbyes. I pulled away as tears started to form in my eyes.

“I promise you Ryan, I promise I won’t let that happen again. I know now so when I go back I can change it and we will be togeth...” he shook his head looking down at the floor making me speechless, did he not want to be together?

“Get some rest Em, you’re going to need it for tomorrow.” It was my cue to leave, obviously. I walked out of the tent and over to my own little slice of mould and mildew. Collapsing on the stained mattress, I could feel the tears running down my cheeks and my breath catching in my throat. I didn’t understand what he wanted, and men say women don’t know what they want? I was so confused.

I could feel my eyes growing heavier as I felt a hand on my back firmly held in one place yet offering so much comfort, I turn around to see Jamie smiling at me sadly.

“So he told you huh?” He pulled me into his arms and I sobbed like a child. My body felt weak as it convulsed from the tears running down my cheeks like a waterfall. “It’s not all bad here.”

His hands ran softly through my hair and with a gentle pull he pulled my head back and softly pressed his lips against mine for just a second, like he was testing the water. He pulled back and looked at me for approval, to see if I would deny him but I didn’t. I accepted his kiss, so comforting in that lonely, pain-filled place, so soft and gentle against my skin. His heavy breathing as the kiss deepened made me pick up the pace, longing for more than just his kiss, lusting for his touch. His breathing was like music to my ears. All my stress, my anger and frustration melted away, slain by his lustrous touch.

Chapter five now available http://oppositeend.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/chapter-5-opposite-ends.html