The Best of Both Lives, a story written by
Tarana and me. :D
You can find the
first chapter of our story, here.
And the second chapter of our story, here.
The Best of both Lives
Chapter 3: Who are you?
Once they arrived back at their apartments, they felt exhausted. John
however didn’t feel the same. He in fact felt more energetic and felt like he
could do anything. His main concern was the device and how it worked. He wanted
to test things out but knew there were other things to take care of first. One
of which was telling the guys about his experience on that strange new world.
“I wish we could go on
vacations like that all the time,” Greg said as he collapsed on one of their
comfy sofa smiling to himself.
“Tell me about it,”
Liam agreed, while stretching out his legs on the other sofa. “I feel a little
weird though,” Liam said feeling a little concerned, “I don’t know what it is
but I’m getting this tingling feeling in the pit of my stomach like something
is about to burst.” He said stroking his belly softly. “It must’ve been what I
ate,” Liam said nonchalantly. “To top it off I have a throbbing headache, it
feels like it’s piercing through my head,” Liam groaned while massaging his
temples. “Didn’t you say you had a headache as well, Greg?”
Greg looked at him, nodding his head in agreement, and Liam couldn’t
help but notice that he was also massaging his own temples. “Not to mention the
nauseous feeling I began feeling not long ago.” Greg added. He then looked at
John, waiting for his reaction and also to try and figure out if John was
feeling the same weirdness as they both were.
John, however, knew there was more to this feeling, and if you would
look at his face, you could tell there was something more there; he looked like
he had just found out something.
“I think I might know
what it is you guys are feeling,” both his teammates looked at him in
anticipation, “I think our little trip, to that strange new world, made us a
little different and feeling things we didn’t before. It wasn’t a dream, Liam,
it really did happen.”
“No way,” Greg said
laughing. “That can’t be possible, can it? True, that place was something
beyond anything we have ever seen before, it was definitely so illuminating to
me. Almost unreal, so it can’t have been real, right?” Greg looked at Liam for
approval. “Okay, let’s say that it was really real, how different could it have
made us? I mean there can’t have been any side effects from it, right? I mean
we were barely there!”
“Well…to be honest
there might be,” Liam said thoughtfully.
“Think about it, you guys,” John said reminiscing to that time,
“whenever we go on vacation and come back we’re a bit tired yes, but both of
you feeling weird in your stomach, isn’t normal, right? Our dream, or whatever
that was, happened as soon as I touched the device. How can it be that all
three of us had the same dream of the same place? It just doesn’t make any
sense to me.” John said looking at Liam. Liam started to nod in agreement while
John continued with his hypothesis, “What I think actually happened is that in
fact we traveled to another place. I just know it, and I’m sure it’s because of
the device.”
“You know I think
you’re right, it just seems a little too strange for it to be all just a dream,
we all felt the same way when we were there, wherever there might be, and saw
the same things so it wouldn’t make sense if it weren’t true,” Greg said
smiling at the possibility that this may in fact be something beyond their
wildest dreams.
“What about you?” Liam
asked John, “What happened to you?” There were two meanings to that sentence
John realized, one being right now what he felt and the other being what had
happened to him at the time of their little adventure.
“Well…” John trailed off. There was so much he needed to tell them, and now was
the time to say it all. John looked up at his two teammates who were eagerly
waiting for his tale. “I don’t know where to begin. I mean as soon as we
entered this new world-“John was suddenly interrupted by a phone call. Greg and
John turned to look at Liam.
“What a timing, it’s
Jessica again. It must be urgent.” He answered the call. In the meantime, both
John and Greg decided to leave the conversation as so and continued tidying
things up around the place.
On the following
morning, the three of them left quite early for the university. One of the
reasons it made them do that was, of course, the device; they wanted to begin
studying it as soon as possible and no doubt that their labs, back at the
university, would prove to be the best place to do exactly that. The other
reason was also for them to finally find out, what exactly was going on at the
university and why was Jessica so eager to have them back there. It didn’t take
them long to find out, since Jessica was already waiting for them in the lobby
of the university’s main building.
“Good morning, docs.” Jessica greeted.
“Good morning,
Jessica.” Liam replied; the other guys nodded at her.
“You will not believe
the discovery we made!” Jessica said, gesturing for them to follow her.
A few moments later,
they were all standing around a table, studying various documents spread out in
front of them.
“Watch this.” Jessica said,
while she was turning on a UV lamp.
“Wow!” Greg exclaimed.
Jessica was now
hovering over the UV lamp that was beaming on top of the documents, and once
she did that, some sort of writing could now be seen embedded within the
documents’ text.
“Yeah, we found this by
accident.” Jessica said sounding excited.
“And do we know the
meaning of it?” John asked, taking a closer look at the embedded writing.
Somehow, the more he looked at the documents, the more prominent the embedded
text became, almost camouflaging the main text that in a way seemed to only be
there to hide the embedded text.
“Somehow, this writing seems familiar…”
“What do you mean,
John?” Jessica said. “We have tried to figure out its meaning, but so far we
found nothing similar to it. It seems like some sort of new alphabet or
something.”
“The thing is…” John
trailed off.
“John… so that you
know, you didn’t finish that sentence out loud…” Liam said.
“Oh sorry… yes… as I
was saying, I think I have seen something similar to this writing before.”
“For real?” Greg asked
feeling surprised.
John nodded. “Yes. Now,
if only I could remember where…?
The four of them stood
still, just looking at the various documents spread out in front of them
***
“Taylor!” One of the
technicians called out, gesturing to the dot on the screen that had started
blinking.
Taylor approached the
console, circling it once as she took in the blinking lights on the screen.
“They began broadcasting the signal.”
“It seems they made
it.” The technician said.
“Yes, they did.” Taylor
said. “They managed to locate Elizabeth.”
***
Lizzie and James were
gawping at Elizabeth as she was analyzing a document in front of her. Elizabeth
took one glance at the two and gave out a soft laugh.
“If you stare any
harder at me you might just shoot me with your laser,” they both laughed at the
comment still fascinated by her every action and speech. “Come to think of it,”
Elizabeth said, thinking back at the encounter with them, “you almost did laser
me.”
“I am sorry for that.”
James blurted, Lizzie gave James a jam in the stomach. “We weren’t sure what
you would do to us, so in a way we had to be on alert. I mean you attacked us
with your magnetic wave balls. Sorry about that.” Elizabeth laughed softly
again.
“Yeah I guess it was my fault,” she said nodding to the situation and
continued with her analysis, “but if you had told me that the governor sent you
two as my assistance then it wouldn’t have been a problem. I don’t understand
why I didn’t receive an alerted message though, that’s strange.” Elizabeth said
thinking if everything was ok. Lizzie panicked at the thought that Elizabeth
just might try to make a communication connection to make sure everything was
ok.
“Oh, no you don’t have to worry. The governor said that he would have
sent you the message but he didn’t want any other prying eyes to find out.”
Lizzie lied quickly just to assure her.
“Yeah that does sound
like him,” she laughed again and continued with her work.
***
“I can’t believe this!”
John said, his teammates looked up at him from their documents,
“What’s up?” Greg asked.
“I knew I had seen it
somewhere!” John said smiling to himself.
“What are you talking
about?” Liam asked curiously,
“The writing under the
UV lamp we saw, I knew I saw it somewhere,”
“Where?” Greg asked,
moving closer towards where John was; Liam did the same.
“Here!” John took out
the device from his bag.
“Wait a minute!” Liam
whispered urgently, he tiptoed over to where the door was opened and closed it.
“The whole reason why we’re in your lab room, John, is so that no one else
listens in our conversations, especially when we are talking about that.”
“I know but look at
this,” John said eagerly, “the writing is the same on the device.” Greg looked
at the device and then at the writing on the documents.
“You’re right, they do
look the same,” he said in agreement, “Let’s look at the rest of the documents
and check what exactly is the writing trying to tell us.”
“I have a better idea,” Liam said, “Let’s take it back home with us. We
don’t really need to be here for this. I think it’s safer this way. Plus, we already have the okay from the University to use the
documents since we’re the best team in what concerns solving this sort
of thing.” He smiled. John and Greg nodded and started to clean up, eagerly to
get started with the decoding.
“And John can finally
tell us about what happened to him back at the ‘place’, too.” Greg said
lowering his voice. John felt relieved to know that he would finally be able to
tell them what had happened to him during their short “trip” to that strange
world.
“Yeah, I really want to know it, too. It’s been
bugging me since we came back.” Liam said in agreement and they left the lab,
heading straight home.
***
“I don’t know how much longer
I will be able to trick her.” Lizzie admitted.
“We have to find a way
to get out of here for ourselves. We can’t wait any longer.” James said,
standing up.
Lizzie was pressing her
hands on Elizabeth’s temples; she had managed to finally break her firewall and
was now connected to her. The conversation they were both having was only
happening in their minds, it wasn’t exactly real. Both Lizzie and James hoped
that by maintaining Elizabeth on this illusionary state they would be able to
gain time in order to find a way to get out from that planet on their own,
since waiting for them to be rescued would be almost impossible now. They were
in a sort of advantage now, and they couldn’t waste this opportunity.
***
“Okay.” John said
settling down on the couch with a drink in his hand. Greg and Liam were seated
opposite to him, eagerly waiting for John’s explanation.
“Once I got to that
strange place, I actually thought that I belonged there. Don’t ask me why, but
it just felt right, felt good. But at the same time I panicked and was feeling
lost. It was a storm of feelings all happening at the same time.”
“Okay, but why was
that?” Greg asked.
“I don’t know… I really
don’t know.” John said. “Once I started looking at the surroundings of that
strange place, they looked quite familiar to me, but at the same time, I could
tell I had never been there. But the more I think about it, the more I wonder
whether I actually had been there before or not.”
“Okay…” Liam drawled. “But how could you have been there, I mean, we were
only able to get there because of the device we found.”
“Yeah, I know… that’s
why I really don’t know how to explain what I felt. It was all so weird.”
“It sure is.” Liam said.
The doorbell rang.
“Pizza is here!” Greg
said all excited.
***
John opened his eyes
slowly; the sun entering through the window was almost blinding him of how
strong it was. John blinked a few times and then turned his head to look at his
surroundings. A delicious smell reached his nose. A few moments later, John was
levitating downstairs.
“Good morning, sleepy
head!” She greeted him with a wide smile on her face.
“Breakfast will be ready in a minute.” John
approached her and encircled his arms around her waist, and then he lost
himself on her scent.
“Smells good.” John
said nuzzling her neck.
“Well, thank you.” She
teased, knowing perfectly well he wasn’t referring to breakfast.
She turned around and
placed her arms around his neck, placing a light kiss on his lips.
“Now, you sit down,
while I will call the kids in.” She said.
John turned and walked
towards the table. “Where are they?”
“Guess?” She winked.
John just shook his
head. Then a shadow passed by the window and giggles were heard from outside.
“Kids, breakfast is
ready.” She was now calling at the door.
“James, careful. I am
almost falling!” Lizzie chastised.
“Hold on tightly,
Lizzie.” James said.
The two kids were both
on the backs of their new pet. A small green dragon with huge grey eyes, that
seemed almost as happy as they were and was now hovering near their home. The
kids giggled once again.
“Let’s go, Sparky. Mom
is calling.” James said.
Sparky, the dragon,
obeyed his command and soon after they were all on the ground.
“Mom!” Lizzie ran to
her mother’s arms.
***
“John… don’t make
things any harder than what they already are, please.” John’s wife said.
“I still think there
must be something else we could do…” John said.
“There’s not, John. And
you know that.” His wife told him.
“Now, John. It’s time
for you to go.” His wife said, making a huge effort not to cry.
“The pod is ready.”
Taylor said.
John’s wife nodded and
so did John. “I guess this is it.” John said.
“Now John, when the
time for you to return comes.” Taylor began to explain. “This device will find
its way to you.”
“But I will not
remember anything!” John said.
“Don’t worry, you
will.” His wife said.
Taylor decided to leave
them alone. “Safe journey.” Taylor said before exiting the chamber.
“Go, John.” His wife
told him. “We will be together in our dreams.” She tried to smile.
“Yes…” John was feeling
his chest tightening. “I love you, Elizabeth.”
“I love you too, John.”
Elizabeth said and then gave him one last kiss.
***
“John! Wake up!” Greg
yelled.
John groaned from the
noise that Greg was making.
“Give me a minute.”
John mumbled.
“John, get up now!”
Greg said again a little more urgently. John opened his eyes straight away.
“What’s wrong?” He
asked sitting up abruptly and looking a lot more alert.
“You are.” Greg said
concerned.
“What do you mean?”
John asked; Greg pointed at the clock.
“Oh my God! How did it
get so late?” John panicked.
“You slept for half the
day and both me and Liam have been trying to wake you up but you wouldn’t
budge. This isn’t like you, John. What happened?”
John started to gather
up his thoughts, thinking what he did. He tracked back his actions; he
remembered talking to the guys of his experience and then the pizza came and
then they fell asleep...sleep...his dream!
“Greg, you would never believe what I dreamt!” John said excitedly.
“Where’s Liam?”
“Whoa, calm down, John.
Liam is in the other room going through the writings and the documents.”
John jumped off his bed
heading towards the study room to find Liam intently looking at one of the
documents.
“Wait for me!” Greg
said from the bedroom heading towards them.
“You guys wouldn’t
believe what I dreamt of.” John said excitedly.
“Just a minute, let me
just recheck this part again.” John walked over to what Liam was doing he
looked at the writing again.
“That’s strange,” He
said with a bewildered look on his face.
“What?” Greg asked.
“These markings are
sort of a code.”
“What do you mean?”
Liam asked looking up from his work.
“This is really
strange...” John said trailing off.
“No, it’s not. It’s genius! It must be a passcode or something.” Liam
said getting excited.
“Yeah, you’re right.
Maybe it’s the way to unlock the device or something.” Greg said eagerly, as he
joined Liam.
“No. That’s not the
strange part.” John said looking at the code.
“What is it then?” Liam
asked.
“The strange part is
that I think I understand it.” John said.
***
"Here, John. This
is how we're going do things." Elizabeth began to explain.
"You really think
this is the right thing to do?" John asked her, still full of doubts.
"Yes, John. If we want to prevent the Thwrai from stealing our
knowledge and technology, we must do this. No matter how painful it will be for
us..."
John just hugged her
and placed a kiss on the top of her head.
***
"Lizzie, you need
to focus, if you ever want to learn how to do it." Elizabeth said.
"I know, mom, but
no matter what I do, I will never be as good as you." Lizzie said feeling
a little bit frustrated.
"You don't have to
be like me. Each one of us ends up developing a new ability. I'm just trying to
help you find yours, that's all, sweetie." Elizabeth smiled to her
daughter. "Now, just try to connect with me, and tell me what you
see."
"This is easy,
dad!" James said all excited.
"Yep, now let's
try something harder." John told his son.
"I'm worried about
Lizzie." Elizabeth told her husband after another day of training.
"She's still not
able to focus, is that it?" John guessed.
Elizabeth nodded.
"In order for the plan to work, she needs to be able to connect with me
and bypass my firewall."
"Don't worry, she
will be ready." John reassured her. "She kind of reminds me of
someone, in the beginning."
Elizabeth looked at
John and smiled. "I wasn't that bad."
"Neither is
Lizzie. Once she manages to focus, she will be able to do it in a
heartbeat." John said.
"I'm sure you're
right." Elizabeth agreed. "And James?"
"He's doing great.
He's a natural, almost just like me. So I'm allowing him to work on his own on
the device." John explained.
"You think that's
wise?" Elizabeth asked.
"I am supervising
it, of course. But we need them to be able to work on their own. We will be
away from them for a long time...” John trailed off.
"I know..." Elizabeth
said and placed her head against her husband's chest. "I just hope we're
doing the right thing..."
***
Elizabeth walked away
from the new comers' cell. She couldn't exactly explain what happened, because
she herself was feeling confused. "What's happening to me?" She asked
herself.
***
"Now, we just have
to wait for night to come. And hope that dad, will be here in time." James
tried to reassure Lizzie.
"Yeah, I
guess." Lizzie said. "If he's not here at the rendezvous point, we
might not be able to escape."
"He will be here.
I know he will!" James said full of conviction.
***
"Guys, I have a
feeling that I need to do something." John said standing up from where he
was seated looking at the documents.
"Sure, you need to
end up deciphering the meaning of that code." Greg said exchanging a
sarcastic look with Liam, who shrugged.
"I'm serious! I
don't know how to explain it, but I have to. And sooner rather than
later." John said.
"Wow, calm down,
Bro." Greg said now with a more serious look on his face.
"I can't calm
down. I don't know what it is, but I feel that someone is depending on
me." John said feeling all alarmed.
"Who?" Liam
asked.
"I don't
know..." John replied.
That night, Liam and Greg went into the kitchen to make a midnight
snack,
“I’ll have a small sandwich,”
Liam said as he passed Greg the bread, meat and condiments. Greg nodded and
proceeded with their sandwich.
“You know I’ve been
thinking,” Greg said while he added a nice thin sliced turkey to his bread,
“don’t you think John has been acting rather strangely?”
“You know; I was just
thinking the same thing!”
“Right?”
“He’s been like that
since our little trip back when we were in our holiday.”
“I just don’t
understand him, and what does he mean by this ‘I need to be helping someone’ attitude?
I mean it doesn’t seem like him at all.” Greg said feeling a little upset with
John.
“I think he might have
been a little effected by the teleportation incident. He was so quiet and he was
sleeping way more than usual too. He’s been acting strange I don’t understand
why.” Liam sighed.
“You know what’s the
strangest part, is when he said that he was able to understand the writing, and
his dream too. What’s that about?” Greg said feeling a little puzzled.
Liam knew there was
something really off with John, he wasn’t being himself. He seemed to be sleeping,
acting suspiciously quiet. Liam wanted to know what it is that is changing one
of his closest friend. Has he always been like this and just hasn’t realized
it? I mean all three of them grew up together and had the same aspirations as
each other, so why does it seem like John is not the way he is? Liam was
determined to find out what was bothering his friend,
“We should look into
finding out what’s happening with him. He must need our help.” Liam said to
Greg. Greg nodded in agreement whilst taking a bite in his sandwich,
“He’s our closest
friend we’ve got to help him out.” Greg said with enthusiasm.
“You read my mind,”
Liam said as they both went into the living room where John was closely looking
at the writing on the device.
“Hey John you need any
help there?” Greg asked as he came over stuffing his face with his sandwich.
John continued to work but did not say a word, both Greg and Liam looked at
each other and then at John again.
“John?” Liam said
placing his sandwich on the table and looking at his friend, “did you hear us?”
“...Yeah...I did...”
John mumbled barely audible. It was as though the vibe he was giving was of
anger ready to surface any moment.
“John what’s up?” Greg
said, “Why are you acting so weird all of a sudden?” John stopped what he was
doing and looked up at the two.
“Is that how you see me
as? Weird?” He asked Greg with a serious look on his face. Greg laughed,
“What are you talking
abo- “
“YOU DIDN’T ANSWER THE
QUESTION!” John yelled, the sudden rise from the voice made both Liam and Greg
startle.
“What’s the matter with
you?” Liam said feeling a little nervous.
“What’s the matter with
me?” John repeated as though he was insulted. “I’ll tell you what’s the matter.
My two so called best friend, think that I’m crazy! They don’t seem to trust me
at all in what I say and also think there’s actually something wrong with me!”
Both Greg and Liam froze on the spot. He heard them. “Yeah that’s right, I
heard you two alright. I can’t believe you guys!” John said as though reading
their minds. He looked hurt and upset with the two. He needed to get out of
here. Get some space.
Just as he was about to
leave Liam grabbed his arm trying to stop him. “Wait a minute John,”
“Let go of me!” John growled
whilst trying to shake off of Liam’s grasp.
“John we were talking
about you like that because we wanted to know how we can help you,”
“You mean some sort of
mental help!” John said feeling more offended
“No! We wanted to know
why you were acting so strangely we were going to confront you. Plus, you knew
you were, you were telling us about it. Remember?” John went quiet. It was true
he was acting strangely and he was going to tell them about it too.
“That’s true.” Liam let
go and John stayed put.
“What’s wrong?” Greg
asked, coming with his sandwich. “You aren’t the type to get angry like that.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this mad before.”
“I don’t know,” John
said while massaging his temples. “I feel like I’m going through some wave of
emotions. It’s crazy.”
“Hang on a minute,”
Greg said thinking, “how did you hear what we were talking about? The living
room door was shut, and we were whispering.”
“No you weren’t, I could
hear you guys loud and clear,” John said. Greg and Liam both looked at each
other with concern and then at John.
“John I think-“ Liam
started but was interrupted by John yelling.
“Oh my God! Greg you’re
going to choke!” John said.
“What?” Greg said
confused, “I’m not going to-“ Just when he was about to finish off his sentence,
with his mouth full, he ended up choking. Liam ran toward Greg and gave him the
Heimlich maneuver. Greg spat out a small piece of his sandwich onto the floor
and breathed heavily.
“You ok Greg?” Liam
asked, Greg nodded and then looked up at John
“How did...How did you
know?” He asked. Liam also was curious to know what was going on and found it
really strange as well as terrifying too.
“I..I...I really don’t
know,” John said scratching his head and feeling slightly frightened by what
just happened. “What’s happening to me?”
***
“Hey, you better not put that in your mouth!” John warned her.
Elizabeth was about to
try one of the delicacies set on the huge table that was set at the banquet
room. She stopped taking it to her mouth, just a few millimeters away and then
she glanced at the person who was daring to address her.
“I think I can handle
it.” Elizabeth said and was about to place the delicacy once again in her
mouth, when suddenly it literally flew away from her hand.
“Hey!” Elizabeth wasn’t
pleased.
“Trust me, you wouldn’t
have liked it.” John told her.
“And who are you to
tell me what I would like and what I would not…” Elizabeth paused for a second
and then continued. “Unless…I know you, you’re the son of the chancellor from
Sittlan, and as a Sittlanean you can predict the future within a short limited
period of time.”
John nodded. “Yes,
you’re correct. My name is John.”
“Elizabeth and I’m…”
“You’re the daughter of
the governor of Sarusa.” John interrupted her.
“Hmm… have you been
spying on me?” Elizabeth teased.
“No, that wasn’t my
intention. And I am sorry…” John sounded all alarmed.
“Relax… John. I was
just teasing you.” Elizabeth laughed.
John stayed for a
moment looking at her and then started laughing as well.
***
“But, father. I know
John, and I know neither he nor his family would resort to such course of
action. I have spent some time with them, and I can assure you...” Elizabeth
tried to explain.
“Silence!” Elizabeth’s
father ordered. “Maybe that’s the problem, you’ve been spending too much time
with them, and you’re losing sight of what’s important to your own people!”
“That’s not true,
father!” Elizabeth defended herself. “And you know that perfectly well, you
know I would never do anything to harm our own people!”
“But you’re willing to
ally yourself with our enemy!” Elizabeth’s father was furious.
“No, father, I am not.
And for a single reason, they’re not our enemy. Don’t you see that? Father,
what happened between our two peoples, happened millennia ago, things have
changed; I believe both our peoples have the means to try and live peacefully
with one another.”
“Elizabeth, I’m warning
you…” Elizabeth’s father said adamantly.
“No, father. Please
listen to me!” Elizabeth pleaded. “I know both our people had differences in the
past over our technologies. But isn’t there a way for us to coexist peacefully,
I mean, if we look carefully at the circumstances, it would only be proven
helpful and more advantageous if both our people would work together instead of
against each other.”
“They have stolen our
technology, Elizabeth. I am just trying to get back what’s rightfully ours,
nothing more, nothing less.”
“But father, that
happened millennia ago, the people who inhabit Sittlan now, aren’t the ones who
stole our ancestor’s technology, and okay, although what they did at the time
was very wrong, the fact is they ended up improving our technology and they
also learned how to work with it much efficiently. And what’s more, they didn’t
use it against us, whatsoever!”
“Silence! That’s
enough, Elizabeth. I don’t want to hear anything else about it, anymore!”
Elizabeth’s father was furious. “But I’ll tell you this, my child. If you
continue to insist on visiting… them, I will arrest you for crimes committed
against our people, do you understand?” Elizabeth’s father threatened.
“You wouldn’t dare to
do that to your own daughter! Besides I’m not doing anything wrong!” Elizabeth
was surprised at her father’s reaction, she had never seen him treating her
like that before, and she had given him plenty of reasons to do so, many times
before.
“I said that’s enough.
Guards, please escort my daughter to her quarters!”
“No, father, please listen to me!” Elizabeth still tried while two
guards started holding her by her arms and walking her away from her father’s
sight.
End of Chapter 3.
