Aerie's Fallen Immortal

Chapter 13

"What happened?" Aerie asked.

"The thing is, I don't know either." Cade said, "If they bothered to move you, you would be instantly be pulled back to your real body, 'awake'. But you are still here. So the people, whatever people, must saw you but did not do anything."

"Okay..?" Aerie said, "What am I supposed to do, then?"

"You would be up the next moment, alone." Cade said, "And if people surrounded you, try to get away. If you are alone, then leave directly. Understand?"

"Why would you not be there?" Aerie asked.

"Because they found you." Cade said, "I would be around, don't worry. Just bear in mind that whoever they are, they aren't coming for you. You will be fine. I promise you that."

"What about—"

"We don't have time for that now." Cade said, "I am sorry. But the longer you stay in here, the more dangerous it gets. You have to be back as soon as possible. If theres the chance, I'll being you here again, eh?"

"Okay." Aerie whispered. The sight of the market faded away as she closed her eyes. She allowed the screams and the lively chat fade and exit her ears. In another moment, she would be waking up in somewhere else, back inside the office. She would be alone.

She allowed the dark world embrace her. Between one moment and another, the world was being reduced to nothing.

And when the next moment came, she opened her eyes in the office that she 'left' two seconds ago.

The people weren't there. The door was still closed as usual. It seemed as if nothing had happened. When Aerie's hand reached for her neck, she could feel the cotton hanging on her neck, the scarf was still there, hanging on her neck for the whole time, still completely white and comfortable when she first touched it. It was real. Aerie thought.

And before Aerie knew, she was already reaching for the door knob. It was locked. Still locked, unlike what Cade guessed. As for Cade, he was not there.

When she was about to get out of the room, the door knob twisted, key was being inserted into the keyhole. Aerie backed off, and started at the shadow on the other side of the door.

Aerie screamed, withdrawing all of the air she had in her lungs until it ran out of contents.

"Its just me." Cade sighed, pushing the door open.

"What?" Aerie asked confused. Seeing to his back she instantly knew that her friends had long left, "Where- where is the situation?"

"Its worse than I expected." Cade replied. "They didn't break in, the security didn't report anything. They had the keys."

"Huh?" Aerie asked.

"Which means," Cade said, "Whoever found you, had keys to this office. And they are people who actually work here. Now if anyone are people with some degree of human decency, they won't break into the office for absolutely no reason, right? They must have also known what I—"

"Oh." Aerie said, "I'll just go then."

"Don't." Cade said, "It would be much more dangerous that way. They would get you as hostage. And don't try to question that fact that you got a brief blackout because someone found you. It had to be, I had tried that more times than what you could have ever imagined— only I would be throwing up really bad instead of freezing in the middle of nowhere."

"See that storage room there?" Cade asked, passing a chain of keys to her, "I'm sorry- but that seemed to be the best option for you- us at this moment. Wait for me there and don't leave until I tell you, okay?"