Never Really Gone

Chapter 19

When I wake up, I'm alone. 

Sitting up, my head pounds like someone's taken a hammer to my skull. I begin to recognise the familiar round shape of the Hub, seeing large portals all around me. 

I'm scared. Looking around, I can't see my friends at all, and worry begins to bubble inside of me. Did they make it? We're they caught? Did they leave me? No, they wouldn't have left me. The portal split us up, and I can only hope the other three are all together.

Standing up, my initial instinct is to find my mother. There's a bus stop nearby, and I know my way from here to her house. It should be an hour's bus ride, assuming she kept her promise and hasn't moved houses. I just have the issue of needing diamonds.

Seeing as you can only mine freely on servers, I'll have to rely on the kindness of strangers if I want to get anywhere. So, trying not to cry, I approach a fairly nice looking lady and who I assume is her granddaughter. She kindly gives me enough to pay for a bus, and I quickly thank her.

I find myself unable to trust anyone, not going near anybody at all and sitting by myself on the bus. I try to gather my thoughts, feeling tears begin to flow down my cheeks. It was a very fast decision to go to my mother, but the Hub would be one of the first places they'd check if they were to come looking for me and the others. It's too dangerous to stay there, even if I was the best place to start looking for my friends.

Thinking of my friends makes me start crying. I want more then anything to feel Ezra's comforting arms around me, or Nora's gentle voice soothing me-

Nora.

We left her behind. Without even saying goodbye. She'll be immediately blamed for our escape, and I can't even imagine what's gonna happen to her now.  For all I know, she's already dead. How had things gone so wrong? How had everything skyrocketed downwards like this? My memories of the last few hours are a blur, and it makes my head hurt.

I open my eyes, not knowing I fell asleep. Looking out the window, I see I'm only one stop away. I'm suddenly feeling worried. What if she's not there? What if she can't recognise me? What if she's forgotten me?!

I find myself getting off the bus once I'm at the stop, beginning to recognise my surroundings. The place is still the small neighbourhood I grew up in, but there's a terrible sadness lurking around the place. Streets once filled with happy children are empty, gardens full of flowers have wilted and died. I'm sure most have moved away from the crumbling estate by now, I'd be surprised to find anyone here, let alone my mother.

And then I'm here. Standing before the house where I grew up. The red door is faded and old, the rose bushes long dead. My old blue curtains still hang in the window of my bedroom, which looks abandoned from here. I highly doubt at this stage that anyone lives here. The whole estate looks like all it's residents disappeared, after only six years. It makes me sad to see my home so broken and abandoned. 

Knocking on the faded red paint of the door, my hands are sore from the cold of late December. I again wish my boyfriend was holding me tightly, telling me it would be ok. Then the door opens. 

A woman with blonde hair and grey-blue eyes stands in the doorway, looking older then she should be. I'm frozen in pure shock. It's her. She's still here. A spark of recognition lights up her eyes, which fill with tears.

"Grian?"

"Hi mom"