Update time!! Gawsh, it's been so long. Been so busy. I was feeling pretty...Erm...jumpy happy when I wrote this. But I don't think it's that bad. But it IS a bit of a cliff hanger... Just sayin. Not too much. hope you like it. And if anyone asks where this is going...I don't know. I honestly have no idea. Actually, I do have an idea. Many of them just floating around in my head. I'm just not sure which one I want to use. and I don't plan. But for me...my disorganization works. so...here you go! UPDATE! "Well, that was fun," Zephy told Jake later. They were sitting in his bedroom window ledge, relaxed, leaning back against pillows. In opposite corners of the ledge, they looked at each other as they spoke. "Ya know, even though you didn't catch her," she pauses slightly and shot him a pointed look, "it was still fun." "Hey, it wasn't my fault!" he told her, defensively. "She's bigger than a soccer ball! I told you this!" "Whatever you say," Z told him breezily. "Fun it was it was. The best..." She froze. Her hands had been moving toward her hair, but they stopped suddenly, as if some unseen force had grabbed them. Jake watched as she shuddered and beads of sweat appeared on her face, rolling slowly down and over her cheeks in small rivulets. She then went limp, her hands falling to her sides. She slumped back in the corner, lifelessly. She made no move, never uttered a word. And then...she stopped sweating. Stopped breathing. Jake looked at her in horror, feeling that he was looking at the shell of her soul. An empty, unfeeling shell. Again. "Z?" he whispered to her, hoping. Hoping that she was still there, that she could hear him. "Z? Z! Zephy!" He stopped calling, waited for her to set up, smile at him. Tell him she was perfectly fine, that she was right in front of him. But she never did. "Zephy! ZEPHY! ZEPHORIA! Why won't you answer me?" Jake yelled at her, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her. She flopped around limply, unresponsively. "Come on, Z! This isn't funny!" He knew she wasn't playing a game, though. Knew she wasn't there. The only friend he had ever had was gone. "ZEPHY!" he called horsely. He saw something wet fall onto her hand, felt it on his cheeks. With a start, he realized he was crying. "Z!" he cried out once more, then leaned back against the window. He drew up his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. Rocking slowly back and forth, he cried quietly. He thought of Zephy. She was his only friend, the only person he'd talked to since he'd died. And she was gone. Taken away from him, and he didn't even know why! Why would someone do that to him? To her? Why..why...why... Thoughts of Zephy, his family, his old friends raced through his mind. He had abandoned them all. And Z had been taken from him. He was alone, he realized. Alone. And he loathed himself. For leaving everyone he knew behind. For letting something, he didn't know what, but something, happen to Zephy. He had hurt everyone. It was all his fault. If only... He pictured his family, his mother and father and sister. If only... He conjured up an image of his friends, the last time he had seen them. If only... Finally, he though of Zephy. Of her vitality. If only... And, suddenly, he couldn't take it anymore. He screamed. He yelled, cried our his mental agony. He yelled until he couldn't yell anymore. Until his throat was raw. Until...until he saw her. Her. Looking right at him. Not through him, out the window. Not around him, at his room. But directly at him. Incredulously, at that. Or, at least, as incredulous as a child can get. Then...she smiled. She whooped with joy, shouting his name. "JAKE!" Her short legs chugged as she sprinted to Jake and threw herself into his lap. She chanted "Jake Jake Jake Jake JAKE!!" as she ran, only stopping when she landed in his lap. "I misses you!" she told him, filled with the happiness and delight only a young child can feel. That guileless, airy feeling. "Where uz youuuu?" she questioned him, drawing out the last syllable. "I knews you wooldnt weave me!" She blabbered on, telling him everything that he had missed. She can see me? He thought. She can really see me? It was...amazing. How had she...what had made her...? He thought back to when she had seen him. He had been crying, anguished at the thought that he had alienated everyone in his death. The emotions he had felt were...indescribable. The pain, the inner torture. He thought of when Zephy had been seen. She had been ticked. Pissed. Heck, super pissed. He had been in inner purgatory, and she'd been pissed as hell. Maybe...the only reason they had been seen...the only thing they had in common in those moments...was their emotions. Granted, they were completely different emotions, but they had been feelings to the max. The most extreme feelings, feelings that couldn't be topped by much. Maybe that was the key to being seen. Emotions. He was elated at this grand realization, barely listening to his sister as she chattered on, happy as a pup in his lap. He was so happy But...where was...where was Z?
Didn't see what? The ending basically told why they had been able to be seen: only when they were feeling extreme emotions. Like, instead of just being angry, Zephy had been pissed as hell. Like, raging mad. An extreme version of being angry. Jake wasn't just feeling sad, he was anguished at what he had done and caused and what had happened to Zephy. Thats the only time they could be seen, when they were feeling strong emotions.
And I'm updating again! Getting back into the swing of things. Cool, I'll try to better explain things. No promises but I'll try. Thought I had it. Anyhoot I know this starts off almost exactly the same as the last update, but it was necessary to tell everything from Zephy's point of view. You needed to know it all for future updates. and the thing is...I love eyes. Describing them is fun(ish) and they're usually pretty. Lovely brown eyes and green eyes. And other colors but those are the colors I was looking at today... random information. Here ya go! Zephy, however, didn't experience nearly the same thing as Jake... "Well, that was fun," Zephy told Jake later. They were sitting in his bedroom window ledge, relaxed, leaning back against pillows. In opposite corners of the ledge, they looked at each other as they spoke. "Ya know, even though you didn't catch her," she paused slightly, and heard a voice calling to her. A voice? What? She waited for it to come again, but it didn't. She dismissed it and shot Jake a pointed look and continued, "it was still fun." "Hey, it wasn't my fault!" he told her, defensively. She heard him, but...the voice called to her again. She heard her name, whispered to her as if it were brought by the wind. 'Zephoria,' it called, barely able to be heard by the ear. A small curl of worry began to unfurl in her stomach. Jake continued talking, oblivious to Zephy's distraction. "She's bigger than a soccer ball! I told you this!" She didn't want to worry Jake...did she? He obviously didn't hear anything... "Whatever you say," Z told him breezily, deciding to completely ignore the voice. Unsuccessfully ignore it, but still. 'Zephoria,' the voice called to her, beaconing her. 'Zephoria, Zephoria...' The voice got louder as it continued to speak. 'Zephoria, come to me...' She spoke over the voice, wondering why she was hearing it. Why was it speaking to her? "Fun it was it was. The best..." part was your little speech afterwards, she wanted to tell him, but no sound came out. She couldn't move her tongue to form the words, her mouth to shape them. 'Zephoria, come to me now!' the voice commanded her. It was no longer a whisper in her mind, but was a booming force. Help, she tried to tell Jake, to signal to him with her eyes, to grab his arm as an anchor. But it wouldn't...she couldn't...couldn't move. It was as if her muscles were frozen. 'Zephoria, stop resisting. Come.' the voice told her, commanded her, again. She struggled, feeling sweat begin to roll down her face as she shuddered from exertion. No, no, no, she didn't want to... She felt a force, something trying to...to what? She was being pulled out of her life form, a sucking force drawing her soul from her newly given shell. NO! she wanted to scream. I DON'T WANT TO GO! But she had no choice. 'Zephoria, you will come to me NOW!' the voice said with finality, and it was over for her. She was being drawn away. She looked down as she was pulled up, up, up, down at Jake, who was calling her name worriedly. She wanted to reassure him, tell him she was fine...bur she couldn't. Couldn't do anything as an unseen force pulled her. She spiraled upwards. She had no sense of direction, but knew she was headed toward that voice. Then, she felt, saw, nothing. When she awoke, she was laying on something. Without moving, she felt around her, turning over. She lay on an ever soft object, something fuzzy feeling and soft as she imagines a cloud to be. A soft, warm...with a start, her eyes popped open as she felt herself being nudged by a cold nose. What...? She saw a huge, hulking figure standing beside her. It was furry, looking down at her with deep, soulful, familiar brown eyes. It was...it couldn't be... Standing on all fours, it nudged her side again, and she noticed its lustrous black coat, and a small scratch above its left eye. "Jasper, sit," she told it quietly, waiting for it to sit and prove her thoughts wrong. The dog rolled over with a small 'woof'. It couldn't be... "Jasper, speak." It looked at her and sniffed. As if I would do something like that, the beast told her. It couldn't be...but...but...it was. "JASPER!" Zephy yelled to him, then threw her arms around his neck. He gave her a companionable lick, then softly barked. She nuzzled her face into his soft coat as she held onto him. Her childhood friend, the one thing she had always been able to count on being there, her childhood pet, here. In this...place. But what was... Approaching her, she saw white, new looking sneakers, moving at a swift pace. Startled, she glanced up, higher, higher, work faded blue jeans and an old button down work shirt, until she looked into dazzling, sparkly green eyes that smiled at her. "Hello, Zephoria," the boy said to her, grinning. Her heart stopped for a moment, then began booming in her chest. She couldn't believe her eyes, and breathed his name. "...Zeeke?"