The Arena - The Moon Trilogy - Book #2

Chapter five:

Her first impression had been incorrect, and it wasn't an angry shout. It was hardly a shout at all. In fact, whoever had made the noise sounded pretty overjoyed.

"Johnathan! You're back!" Clarity heard someone say from the room beyond the door. There was a scuffling noise. "We thought you got hurt or something. Did you find him?" the voice sounded vaguely familiar. She pushed through the door after Johnny.

"No, but I did find someone else," Johnny replied as she walked past him. The inside of the building was occupied by one, big room. On one side, there was a large hearth with a roaring fire. One wall was entirely covered with bookshelves, and the wall that was left had a row of couches and comfy-looking armchairs.

She was surprised to see that, seated on these were Rachel, Alex, and Sam. Clara was enthusiastically greeting Johnny.

Upon seeing Clarity, Rachel jumped to her feet. "Clarity! Where were you?" she almost shouted. She rushed over. "We were looking for you."

The whole thing had Clarity rather confused. "What's going on?" she asked. It was strange after so much normal to see Sam with his fur, Alex with his wings, and Rachel with her red eyes and fangs. Not to mention dragon-Johnny disappearing and reappearing with the ease of breathing.

"Oh, that's right. We'd better explain." Clara said, finishing a whispered conversation with Johnny. She pushed her glasses up her nose. "A few- well... A while ago, we all got letters telling us to come here. They were from August. When we came, he said that he had to tell us something really important, but before he could tell us, he went missing. Johnathan went out to look for him." Clara explained in a rush. The words blended together, and Clarity was almost unable to understand anything she said.

"Why didn't I get a letter?" Clarity asked.

"August said he didn't know where you were staying. He asked if any of us knew, but we didn't." Sam said. He was sitting in one of the armchairs.

"And you guys don't have any idea what he was going to say to you?" Clarity asked, trying to glean some information.

"Nope. Just that it was extremely important." Clara said. It seemed that they had just as much understanding of the situation as her.

"Are we going to keep looking for him?" Clarity asked yet another question.

"That's what we've been doing. Because of the circumstances, we think he was kidnapped. We've been basing the search off of that." Johnny said.

"Kidnapped? By who?" Clarity asked. "I thought we disabled the only place that would kidnap people like him?" with every new sentence uttered, she was thrust further and further back into the world of the weird.

"None of us know, but the person that chased us might have been working with them," Johnny replied.

"So, it's my turn to search?" Sam asked.

"I think so," Johnny said, rubbing the back of his neck. Clarity still had a few questions, but she let them go unanswered. She would ask again when things settled down a little bit.

For the first time, she realized that there were several sleeping bags strewn across the floor. They had apparently been sleeping there. As if responding to that thought, Johnny yawned.

Without further conversation, Sam got up and left. She could only assume they had a rotation for their searches. Sam's mention of a 'turn' was her only real evidence, but it made sense.

Everyone stayed silent as they moved over to the sleeping bags as if on a cue. Alex stayed on one of the couches.

"You can sleep on the other couch, Clarity," Alex said, laying down and rolling over so that his back was to her.

"Okay." Clarity mumbled, more for her own benefit than his. She took off her shoes before settling onto the couch. Even though she didn't think she would be that tired, she dozed off right away.

She had the same dream as the night before. August was trying desperately to tell her something. The silence of the last dream had been replaced. Now it sounded as if August was talking under water. She could hear his voice, but she couldn't hear what he was saying

The same snippet of words came at the end of his message. "-didn't die. You have to get out. Hide."

If possible, the message seemed even more urgent than before. Instead of ending immediately like before, however, August continued his urgent pleas.

Suddenly, as if her ears popped in an airplane, his words became clear.

"Clarity, listen to me. Get away. Tell the others. Don't stay in the same place. You have to hide."

The dream faded like a television that had suddenly been turned off. She had the impression of standing in a big, black room. She didn't really feel like she was sleeping, but she definitely wasn't awake. She got the distinct impression that she wasn't alone.

The scene faded into regular blackness. The blackness of sleep. The color of the undersides of her eyelids.

August's urgent demands stuck in her mind as she drifted off into actual sleep, all thoughts of the black room gone.