12 4.3: Dead Things and Broken Legs (2/2)

I guess we're all somehow drawn to or problems. Or perhaps they're drawn to us. What I'm saying is, there's a definite attraction, and there's no way out. No running from what we're drawn to. Because our problems are little pieces of us, wanting to come back home.

”Maybe we should just go-” I say despondently, feeling light-headed.

”Wait-” Tobias announces while staring at the foot of the tree that Sierra is leaning against. ”Can't you see it? The blinking?”

I slowly look where he's pointing, and truly, I notice a red light blinking under a heap of dead leaves.

”This wasn't there before. It fell out of her bag-”

I stare more at he leaf heap in immense curiosity. I glance at Tobias who silently cocks his head toward the ground, urging me to check it out.

”I mustn't-”

Tobias looks puzzled at my response. ”What's wrong with you?” He narrows his eyes on me. ”Has she something against you? You've been acting nice ever since you saw her, and it's sincerely worrying me-”

”I don't want to take something hers, and then get her to freak out-” I say easily.

”She doesn't care about you-”

Getting infuriated by his insensitivity about it, I snap. ”I do!”

Tobias shakes his head. ”Don't you wanna know why she hates you? Why she's like this?”

I glance at Sierra who's back at scrolling through her phone. ”I do-” I sigh. ”Unfortunately-”

Tobias then lifts his hands, and brows triumphantly before approaching the tree's base, and kneeling right in front of it. Sierra is just an inch away from him- in fact, Sierra's shoe tip is going right through Tobias' shin.

Tobias uses both his hands to uncover what apparently is another phone. He picks it up and turns his head to me with a grin. I roll my eyes and wonder how Sierra will never find this phone unless we somehow leave it for her in this dimension. And I wonder if that's why sometimes when I was alive, things just got lost. They just disappear and reappear on their own accord.

Maybe, really, it isn't their own accord. Maybe, it's spirits (or whatever) like us who take our things to other dimensions, and then drop them off when they're bored with them.

It's haunting to think that I've once touched something another dead soul has touched.

Tobias gets up and gives me the phone in my hand.

”Now-” He smirks. ”-we can investigate-”

”There's probably nothing on that phone-”

”One way to find out-” He says. ”Oh, and now we may leave-”

I give Sierra who's still staring into her phone a final glance before Tobias holds my forearm, and drags me away from her, and back onto the walking aisle that leads to the church.

Being back again where I can hear people's chatter, and children's laughter over the sound of my non-existent heart, and the crunch of dead leaves under Sierra's shoes, seems much pleasanter. It feels like I've really connected myself back to reality, and that I'm really not stuck in a dimension where an only hateful Sierra exists.

”Check the phone!” Tobias urges when we're finally standing by the church's wide-open doors. People are just entering: some I've recognized, and others I haven't. Obviously, what will be to Sierra's thrill, I've just even seen Mason slip through while blowing his nose.

I look at the BlackBerry in my hands and press it open with a lot of anticipation, and fear of what could be hidden among it's many, many buttons. I blink at the black screen and wince when it flashes how it's low on battery, and immediately shuts down.

”Brilliant-” I whisper unpleasantly under my breath as Tobias tsks.

”We'll need to find a charger-” He comments.

”Well, the next time we'll head back to Sierra's place could be I don't know when-” I say bitterly.

”Well...there's another way-” Tobias says with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

I stare at him and arch a brow.

”We can steal one-”

I almost laugh at how ridiculous this sounds. ”You really want God to be mad at us-”

”Well, if God led us to this-” He points at the phone in my hand. ”There must be a reason. And to find this reason, we must charge the phone-”

I shake my head. ”No-”

”Look, we have this whole city to explore, and we haven't been sucked back to the Darkoom yet, so what's your excuse, huh?” He studies with his bright irises, and I suck in a breath.

”Yeah, fine, okay-” I say, throwing cautions in the air. ”Let's go shoplifting-”

Tobias grins widely at me, his eyes locking mine. It is almost a magical moment. A moment of freedom, and wide smiles.

”You're really growing on me-” He tells me breathlessly. ”Let's go break a leg!”