Waging War | The Amber Duology #1

22 | Prison Breaks

"Nya!" Skylor screamed, her whole body shooting upwards as she woke up. She was panting, cold sweat covered her neck as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Her hands shot up to grasp the strands of her fiery red hair, combing her fingers to calm her head.

It's just a dream. She reminded herself. A nightmare. She corrected, none of her dreams ever felt that way. 

Her anxiety seemed to fade the more she drew in heavy breaths, the more her eyes adjusted in the dark, but the remnants of the dream lingered. And the look on Nya's face as the Oni dragged her away from under the water was clear in her mind.

"What are you doing?" Princess Vania asked, bent over her duffle bag as she frantically packed up all her clothes. "Don't tell me you just woke up."

Skylor rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and let out a yawn. "What's going on?" She asked lazily, still too sleepy to even process what was happening.

Pixal approached her bed and dropped Skylor's bag onto the mattress. Her hair was in a thick braid behind her, silver ropes entwined in a tight knot. But she wasn't in her pajamas and Skylor could barely comprehend her reasons when she said, "Pack up."

"What's going on?" She asked once more, hoping someone would answer. The chaos within the girl's tents was now vivid and the more she grew conscious, the more she could hear the panic in everyone's voices.

Her question hung in the air but Skylor waited while she packed. She waited for someone to answer, to give her an explanation for the sudden panic. That was until she heard the sirens. The same annoying and wailing sound of the alarms that she had only heard once in her life, now it was twice.

The Oni. She gasped at the realization and stopped her packing. Through the crowds of girls that ran around the tent, she only wanted to find one. She searched under the beds, checking each and every one for the familiar bag of her best friend.

"Gotcha!" She exclaimed after giving the straps a good tug. "Nya!" But the girl wasn't in her bed. She wasn't anywhere. The more Skylor searched, the more her fear grew that whatever she had dreamt of, was real.

"We have to go!" Pixal grabbed her arm, carrying her own bag around her shoulder. "Sky, let's go."

The girl refused to move, her eyes trained on the empty bed where her friend was supposed to be. Where is she? Skylor only feared the worst. She forced herself to move but she couldn't, she wanted to get away but she couldn't. Not when Nya's fate was undetermined.

A pair of arms pulled her up and Skylor found her eyes clouded with a pool of hot tears. She swore to protect the girl, she promised to never leave her side. But where was she now? Where was Nya?

Skylor didn't know. But that didn't stop her from running out the tents to find her. 

Maybe she's already on the trucks. Maybe she's with her brother. Maybe she's dead. Both positive and negative thoughts filled her head, like the same war between good and evil that was happening in the real world. They fought, each wanting to overthrow the other and Skylor was caught in a crossfire.

She didn't care for the sounds of the ships that took off from the dock. She didn't care about the soldiers who yelled and fought for their lives just a few feet away. She didn't care that Captain Seliel had instructed her to turn back, Skylor ran and ran and ran. She wouldn't stop until she found her best friend.

I can't let her die. I can't let her die.

There was a giant figure that blocked her path and Skylor ran into it head first. A new kind of pain entered her system but it wasn't as much as how her heart felt. She quickly dismissed the headache, not even bothering to find out what or who she just bumped into, and scrambled to her feet to continue running.