Into The Tainted Waters

Leaving So Soon?

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams starts playing from somewhere. "Oh fuck off" I say to the guy I see with a radio. "Hehe, sorry pal" he says, turning off his radio. I start to walk forwards again, arriving at the portal house. "How do I get out of this city" I think to myself, looking at the computer. Scrolling through the browse options, I see a location titled "departure course". "That must be it" I tell myself. I set it to that location and step into the portal, shifting into another area. "Now how the hell does this help" I think, looking at the long hall that stands before me. Every hall was labeled with a city. "Ah, maybe i can find one that might lead me somewhere" i think.

I walk down the hall, looking at everyone stepping through portals. "Seattle, Fairbanks, Medina, Cape Town, Beijing, how the hell are these organized?" I think. "Stavanger" I read off one, feeling something tugging me towards it. "I guess this one will work" I think, going to enter the portal. "So, where are you headed" I hear a familiar voice call out to me. "Go back Nate, this doesn't concern you" I tell him without turning around. "Doesn't concern me? You abandoning us doesn't concern me?" he says, clearly offended. "You think that running away from this is going to help? You're a fucking idiot if that's what you believe" He lashes out.

"This isn't what it looks like" I tell him, still not turned around. "Then what is it huh? You going out on some mission to kick ass and find a cure or some shit, cause I highly doubt it!?" he retorts. "Actually, that's what I'm doing" I say solemnly "I'm tired of sitting around, I need to do something helpful". "........Well, I'm coming too then" He says after a long pause. "No you're not, go back" I say to him. "I said, I'm coming too" He says walking towards me. "This is going to be incredibly dangerous, go back and forgot about this" I say while sighing. "You don't get a choice, I'm com-" he says as he grabs my arm. He is cut off by my sudden whipping around and pushing him across the room.

"No, go back, this is too much for you" I say with a stern tone. "What has gotten into you man, ever since this whole Sentinel thing you've been getting more and more distant!" he yells at me, bystanders beginning to watch. I clench my fists and look at him. "Go back Nate, this is way too much for you" I say calmly. "Too much? If you hadn't noticed, I don't really give a shit, you can't keep on leaving us out of these things!" He yells. "We are supposed to be friends, yet you can't even tell us that you're leaving to go on some vengeance mission!" He continues yelling. "You're being a self-centered selfish pri-!" He begins to yell.

"I feel guilty dammit!" I cut him off with a yell. "I feel guilty about the whole goddamned situation!" I bark out. "Bringing y'all into this, the insanity thing, and now these damn assassins" I scream "It my fucking fault and I can't do a goddamned thing to stop it!". "So i'm going to either succeed in fixing this shit or die trying, because I would not be able to live with myself if anything happened to you guys!" I finish screaming. "You guys are like my family, and I will risk everything to save y'all, even if it means i'll likely be killed on this trip" I say, getting more quiet. "And that's why you aren't coming, because I don't think I have good chances, and I am not getting you killed" I finish, turning back to the portal.

"Too bad" He says, appearing right next to me. "Like you said, we're a family" he says putting his hand on my back "And families don't give up on each other". "So i will fight, and die with you if it comes to that" he says, beginning to tear up. "I guess I have no choice then" I say also tearing up "I guess you're coming along". "You bet your ass I am, now come on, let's get going" he says. We both ready ourselves as we step into the portal, shifting back to Earth.

"Well, now that we're here, where we headed?" Nate asks. "I don't know, I didn't really think that far" I say embarrassingly. "Oh, great" He says sarcastically. "Well, what do we know so far?" he asks. "Well, the cult probably has some sort of base here, we just have to find it" I say. "How do you know that?" he asks. "I felt it" I answer. "You felt it?" he asks. "Yeah, like a tugging in my stomach" I say. "Amazing, well, we better start looking then" he says stretching. "Let's go man" I say as we begin to walk into the city of Stavanger, Norway.